Since its inception, Jumpstart has been a veritable haven for fantastic Commander designs. Since these sets aren’t Standard legal, they can give us some incredible cards like Emiel, the Blessed. Offering a repeatable blink engine that oozes value and enables combos, this unicorn is remarkably underplayed as a Commander.
Emiel The Blessed MTG
The big draw of Emiel the Blessed is, naturally, that activated ability, which acts as a pricier repeatable Ephemerate. This is ideal for getting extra use out of your utility creatures, like Reclamation Sage and Wood Elves, in the mid-game. Later on, it can let you double down on huge bombs like Karmic Guide or protect value-over-time creatures like Sun Titan.
However you choose to build around Emiel, you’ll want to run Heartstone to make activating it cheaper, and Illusionist’s Bracers to get two blinks for the price of one. To get even more mileage, you can include cards like Panharmonicon to double down on enters abilities.
Once you’ve got your engine going, you can capitalize on the constant flow of creatures with payoffs like Guardian Project and Cathars’ Crusade. If you’re feeling particularly nasty, you can even bring in Aura Shards to keep opposing engines off the board entirely. Add in untappers like Seedborn Muse and Wilderness Reclamation, and you can keep stacking up value on your opponents’ turns, too.
While it’s far less exciting, it’s worth keeping Emiel’s +1/+1 counter ability in mind as well. This lets you get immediate value out of creatures like Evolution Witness and Dusk Legion Duelist, even post-blink. It also lets you run a bit of a +1/+1 counter sub-theme if you’d like, leveraging cards like Hardened Scales to build a threatening board that can win even if Emiel goes offline.
Blink, And You’re Dead
Emiel the Blessed is capable of winning a fair game of MTG, but if you’re aiming for the higher brackets it has a ton of combo potential, too. Pair it with Brood Monitor, for example, and you can generate infinite enters and dies triggers. Simply blink Monitor with Emiel, and you’ll generate three Eldrazi Scions, which you can immediately sacrifice to pay for Emiel’s ability again and repeat the loop.
If you’d rather swarm the board with infinite tokens instead, Emiel can do that too alongside Hornet Queen and Ashnod’s Altar. Blink Hornet Queen with Emiel to get four tokens, two of which you can sacrifice to pay for another blink. This will give you enough 1/1 Fliers to win through combat or Altar of the Brood, as well as infinite mana to sink into Walking Ballista and friends.
Emiel even lets you draw your entire deck, with Chromatic Orrery and Felidar Guardian. If you blink Guardian with Emiel, you can then use its blink effect on Orrery, effectively untapping it so you can tap it for five. Repeat this for infinite mana, which you can then sink into Orrery for infinite draw. From here, you can close out the game in literally any way you see fit.
A Horse For All Seasons
Despite its power and flexibility, Emiel the Blessed actually doesn’t see much play as an MTG Commander. According to EDHREC data, in fact, a paltry 2,000 decks run this mighty steed in the command zone. While it definitely fares better in the 99, showing up in around 54,400 decks, the majority of players running Emiel aren’t getting the full experience.
Frankly, Emiel could be doing a lot more as a Commander, as even when limited to Selesnya colors it enables a broad sweep of shenanigans. While you’ll pay $12 for a near-mint copy on the low end, it’s well worth the price of admission. With widespread applications in the command zone and the 99, Emiel is about as safe an MTG investment as you can make.
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