While cEDH does offer a lot of different competitive options, many of the decks end up looking quite similar. Between the same strong creatures and combo endgames, sometimes cEDH feels like the same collection of cards dressed up with different Commanders. Occasionally, however, Commanders with truly unique strategies, like Jaheira, Friend of the Forest, will break the mold and crush the competition.
Jaheira in cEDH
Using six different artifact token creation effects like April O’Neil, Human Element and Mona Lisa, Ever Adaptable, this deck’s goal is to generate absurd amounts of mana using Jaheira’s ability. Once you have a ton of mana at your disposal, you can sink your mana into a series of cards, like Finale of Devastation, or Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy‘s ability to win the game.
A massive shift away from most cEDH decks, this deck uses a lot of replacement effects like Nuka-Cola Vending Machine that don’t do anything on their own. When played alongside your core cards, however, these replacement effects easily overwhelm the board. To help find your core token generators, ten different tutor effects like Green Sun’s Zenith can make your gameplan surprisingly consistent.
Fixing the common issue with ramp decks, the Partnered Clan Crafter turns excess tokens into card draw when needed. Supplemented by Mister Fantastic, Reed Richards and your Clue generators like The Mechanist, Aerial Artisan, you can draw a surprising number of cards once your engine is online. Combine this with unique interactions like Sudden Substitution, and Jaheira excels at playing the grindy game.
Of course, as is common for cEDH, Jaheira runs tons of counterspell-based interaction, like Flusterstorm and Fierce Guardianship, to both protect your own wins while stopping opposing ones. Thanks to all the card draw throughout this deck, Jaheira has the opportunity to run a larger suite of free interaction than normal, like Commandeer and Misdirection.
Going Infinite
If you don’t go over the top with mana, this deck also offers a wide range of different combos. Grinding Station, Academy Manufactor, and Nuka-Cola Vending Machine, for example, will mill all of your opponents out. So long as you have a Food in play, you can sacrifice it to Grinding Station, triggering Nuka-Cola Vending Machine. This will create a tapped Food with Academy Manufactor, allowing you to repeat the process.
Chrome Dome, another infinite combo generator, can create infinite tokens with enough replacement effects online. With Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy, Jaheira, Friend of the Forest, and Academy Manufactor in play, for example, you can copy a Food with Chrome Dome to create six mana’s worth of tokens, netting infinite green mana. From there, if Clan Crafter is in play, you can draw infinitely until you find Grinding Station.
While these particular combinations can go infinite, the biggest strength of this deck is its ability to go infinite with a wide range of different combinations. Assembling Worldwaker’s Helm, Peregrin Took, and Donatello, the Brains, for example, can replace Academy Manufactor with infinite mana loops. With a lack of permanent removal in cEDH, it’s surprisingly easy to put together a massive board and go off.
Dodge the Fast Matchups
Between a strong interactive suite and a fantastic exponential gameplan, this Jaheira, Friend of the Forest cEDH brew can absolutely dominate the long game. Combine this with lots of cheap countermagic, and Jaheira looks great against any non-turbo decks on paper.
Sadly, turbo decks that can generate multiple win attempts quickly, like Lumra, Bellow of the Woods, can really make Jaheira struggle. You can generally stop a win attempt or two, but your own slower plan gives them too much time to rebuild. Worse yet, if they stick a protective piece like Defense Grid, Vexing Bauble, or Hexing Squelcher, your interaction will largely be rendered useless.
With this in mind, Jaheira, Friend of the Forest seems like more of a metagame-centric choice than anything. In a room with other midrange decks, this deck has an opportunity to excel.
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