As many cEDH players are painfully aware, Partner is one of the most powerful mechanics in Commander. Giving players a second legend to use in the Command Zone often offers a flexibility that one Commander alone can’t compare to.
That said, while many Partner Commanders require one another to function, the absolute best are just value generators in themselves. Despite this being the case, some incredibly powerful Partner Commanders, like Eligeth, Crossroads Augur, still go overlooked.
Picking a Partner
While it’s on the expensive side, Eligeth, Crossroads Augur offers a simple replacement effect that makes its cost more than worth it. Turning your Scries into draws supercharges all kinds of common draw effects. like Preordain or Serum Visions, for example, turn into outright Ancestral Recalls. While synergies like these allow Eligeth to stand strong on its own, there’s no reason not to use a Partner with it.
Of all the available Partners, Eligeth is most commonly used with Siani, Eye of the Storm. When in play together, Siani will offer a lot of card draw with Eligeth and a board of fliers, creating explosive turns. That said, while the payoff can be big, Siani is really poor when you don’t have a board established. Throw in the mono-blue color restriction, and Siani feels like an overrated Partner pairing with Eligeth.
With color identities in mind, the obvious direction for Eligeth becomes Simic. All of Magic’s best Scry support, like Arwen Undomiel, is in the color combo, giving a lot of extra value to Eligeth decks. If that weren’t enough, there are two decent Partners in Simic for Eligeth in Thrasios, Trition Hero and Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix.
While either Partner could be a strong choice, they essentially offer opposite perks. Thrasios offers Eligeth decks a strong mana outlet, while Kydele can ramp into Eligeth while generating tons of mana afterwards. Since Eligeth draws tons of cards itself, using Kydele to get those cards in play seems more valuable. With that in mind, we’ll be using Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix as our Partner to Eligeth.
MTG Eligeth, Crossroads Augur in Simic
Since Eligeth, Crossroads Augur turns Scrying into card draw, repetitive Scry effects essentially draw extra cards each turn. This makes cards like Crystal Ball, Lifecrafter’s Bestiary, and Palantir of Orthanc extremely powerful, keeping your hand filled turn after turn. While not as strong, one-time Scry effects like Witching Well and Elven Farsight can also provide a burst of draw.
With so much card draw available, playing threats that can capitalize on card draw can snowball your advantage. While drawing two payoffs like Alandra, Sky Dreamer do the trick, stickier threats like Chasm Skulker can give your board a bit more resilience. Once your hand size is massive, Jolrael, Mwonvoli Recluse can double as a win condition and a growing threat.
Since you’ll be drawing so many cards, Kydele will easily be able to generate ludicrous amounts of mana. This allows Eligeth to play some X-spells on its top end like Mathemagics and Braingeyser, drawing cards for you or decking opponents. You can also use cards like Kruphix, God of Horizons to hold Kydele’s extra mana turn after turn, and Chromatic Orrery to make Kydele’s mana colored.
Sadly, due to Eligeth’s high mana value, it becomes a prime target for your opponent’s removal. Because of this, adding some Scry payoffs like Matoya, Archon Elder can keep your game plan going if your Commander gets too expensive. Notably, however, with Eligeth in play, cards that care about Scrying won’t trigger, so using payoffs that also Scry themselves like Galadriel of Lothlorien will boost your consistency.
Drawing Your Deck
While Eligeth and Kydele can easily set up some long storm-esque turns, you can also just go infinite with Eligeth and a few different cards. Curator of Mysteries is one of the offending cards with Eligeth, turning any discard effect into a draw engine. This allows cards like Mind Over Matter, Prognostic Sphinx, and Ghostly Pilferer to Rummage through your whole deck, setting up a Thassa’s Oracle win.
Mind Over Matter, infamous in its own right, can also branch off into a few other infinite combos with Eligeth. Because of its ability to untap permanents, cards that tap to Scry, like Sigiled Starfish and Crystal Ball, can also go infinite with Eligeth. If you have a land that taps for two mana, like Temple of the False God, you can even create near-infinite mana with this.
If you decide to Partner Eligeth with a black Commander like Tymna, the Weaver, there’s a few additional infinite combos available in Dimir. The Watcher in the Water can go infinite with Eligeth and a sacrifice outlet like Viscera Seer, for example, drawing your whole deck and creating infinite enters and dies triggers. You’ll also get a ton of extra discard outlets for Curator of Mysteries, like Psychic Frog and Putrid Imp.
With infinite combos and tons of draw potential, it’s easy to create an extremely powerful Eligeth, Crossroads Augur deck. With this Partner combination only helming a measly 627 decks according to EDHREC, you’re likely to catch your opponents off guard, too. Add in a $0.32 price tag for Eligeth, and a $2.36 one for Kydele, and there’s nothing stopping you from giving this Commander a try.
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