Learning how to speculate better has made Magic finance a lot more profitable for me even as a I transition out of the sexy realm of speculation and into the boring-but-more-lucrative realm of buying collections and selling the cards for more than I paid for them at retail. Sometimes it’s fun to bet $50 or $100 that The Gitrog Monster can make Squandered Resources hit $5 (It could) or that Conqueror's Flail was underpriced at $3 (It was). Flexing those muscles is fun every once in a while and, accordingly, I’m going to make the kind of bold prediction that can pay off if you bet money on it and you’re correct.

I think Commander 2017 will be 4, 5-color decks.

Even if I’m wrong, I’m not betting any money on the outcome and, more importantly, if we don’t get one of the decks that I’m predicting we’ll get in Commander 2017, I still made a 75% deck that you can all build and since it won’t be in a precon if I’m wrong, you can build your own way. Obviously getting the decks we want in Commander 2017 will be good because we will get new cards that go in those decks but honestly, there is a tribe that I have spent too much time ignoring anyway and it’s time to take a look at how to build it 75% and have it not be underwhelming. The tribe I’m talking about was already spoiled by the title of the article, the blurb you read about it, etc so it’s not like I’m burying the lede here. Just play along with me and we’ll pretend we’re doing a big reveal. Drumroll please. The tribe I’m building around today is . . .  You know what? No. This isn’t working. You happy? It’s Elementals. I’m making an Elementals deck. Awesome. Great reveal, everyone.

Our mana base is also going to be much better than the Commander 2017 deck’s would likely be, but if Commander 2016 is any indication, they do a pretty good job of making a convincing mana base without every card being rare. I’m going to avoid making the mana base ridiculous myself and I’m going to try and remember to include a healthy amount of fixing even though that probably involves a ton of super clunky three-mana rocks. Three-mana rocks are good, unless you’re stuck at two lands and you’d give anything for even a Nature's Lore. Also, having Temple of the False God and teo lands is the same as being stuck at two lands; stop running that card in your deck.

I want to abuse the ETB triggers on my elementals as much as I can and there are two ways I plan to do that. First, good, old-fashioned bouncing them. I can bounce them with my old go-to, Cloudstone Curio and other handy artifact so I can replay them for their triggers, but even cheaper than that, I can champion a Nova Chaser or Changeling Berserker and then bounce that creature so I can save mana by playing and bouncing the 4 drop so I can get more triggers in a turn. That seems worth doing, so let’s do that. I’m going to maximize my ETB stuff and that’s the thrust of the deck. No tutors, no mass card draw (I mean, we’ll see what nastiness we get up to with Mulldrifter) just a deck where every card is good enough and we get to cast Avenger of Zendikar a lot. Let’s see where we end up, shall we?

The Surprise of Elementals ? Commander | Jason Alt

• Commander (1)
• 1 Horde of Notions

• Creatures (34)
• 1 Animar, Soul of Elements
• 1 Avenger of Zendikar
• 1 Baleful Force
• 1 Bane of Progress
• 1 Brighthearth Banneret
• 1 Changeling Berserker
• 1 Changeling Hero
• 1 Dread
• 1 Fertilid
• 1 Flamekin Harbinger
• 1 Flickerwisp
• 1 Forgotten Ancient
• 1 Grave Sifter
• 1 Greenwarden of Murasa
• 1 Incandescent Soulstoke
• 1 Ingot Chewer
• 1 Maelstrom Wanderer
• 1 Malignus
• 1 Mulldrifter
• 1 Nova Chaser
• 1 Omnath, Locus of Rage
• 1 Reveillark
• 1 Roil Elemental
• 1 Rubblehulk
• 1 Shriekmaw
• 1 Slithermuse
• 1 Smokebraider
• 1 Soul of the Harvest
• 1 Thicket Elemental
• 1 Torrent Elemental
• 1 Tyrant of Discord
• 1 Vigor
• 1 Wispmare
• 1 Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder

• Instants (4)
• 1 Crib Swap
• 1 Putrefy
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Sylvan Reclamation

• Sorceries (8)
• 1 Bring to Light
• 1 Conflux
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Explosive Vegetation
• 1 Farseek
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Selvala's Stampede
• 1 Urban Evolution

• Enchantments (4)
• 1 Cryptolith Rite
• 1 Maelstrom Nexus
• 1 Mirari's Wake
• 1 Prismatic Omen

• Artifacts (11)
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Cloudstone Curio
• 1 Coalition Relic
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Crystal Shard
• 1 Darksteel Ingot
• 1 Door of Destinies
• 1 Erratic Portal
• 1 Panharmonicon
• 1 Prismatic Geoscope
• 1 Sol Ring

• Lands (38)
• 2 Island
• 2 Swamp
• 3 Mountain
• 3 Plains
• 5 Forest
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Cascading Cataracts
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Crumbling Necropolis
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Frontier Bivouac
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Jungle Shrine
• 1 Mystic Monastery
• 1 Opulent Palace
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Primal Beyond
• 1 Sandsteppe Citadel
• 1 Savage Lands
• 1 Scattered Groves
• 1 Seaside Citadel
• 1 Sheltered Thicket
• 1 Steam Vents
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Watery Grave

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The early game we want to develop our mana as much as possible and play helpful creatures like Smokebraider and Brighthearth Banneret. We’ll start casting some elementals and getting those ETB triggers for value, evoking when necessary knowing that ultimately we can use our commander to get them back again. Once we get that online, we can begin doing our Cloudstone Curio / Panharmonicon shenanigans.

One thing I didn’t find a ton of room for that I expected was tribal boosters. I wanted to run stuff like Patriarch's Bidding and ended up running stuff like Bring to Light instead. I think that speaks to the synergy present in the deck already. While we can convoke a bunch of stuff and cast a big Bidding, I think tribal will be pretty popular soon and the synergy in this build allows us to eschew more symmetrical effects. Door of Destinies made the cut but cards like Belbe's Portal and Metallic Mimic did not. We’re all about getting ETB triggers with this build and it shows.

What do you think? Did I make something much worse than the stock build? Does this look way more fun? Did I count cards wrong? Let me know in the comments section and I’ll try to respond and by that I mean “I will be at GP Vegas and I’ll look at it when I get back.” Until next time!