I've written up a few lower-powered lists here in the past month, so for this week I'd like to push an unlikely hero into the spotlight and aim for a higher-powered build. This deck certainly won't push into cEDH, and may in high powered EDH, but that doesn't mean we can't build something spicy around this puzzle of a commander.

Clement, the Worrywort is a 3/3 for 3 in Simic colors. This Frog Druid has vigilance and a perplexing party trick. Whenever he or another creature I control enters, I'll return up to one creature I control with lesser mana value to its owner's hand. He'll also let my frogs tap for a Green or Blue mana, but I can only use that mana to cast creature spells.

In casual EDH there's often a focus on developing and maintaining a boardstate of creatures. You always want blockers and it's expected that some if not all of the players in the game will be looking to win through combat damage. Clement might like having a lot of frogs around so they can be tapped for mana, but if I'm bouncing them to my hand and having to re-cast them, they'll need to wait a turn to use that ability.

If I had to constantly bounce my own creatures to hand when playing out creatures, that would be a serious issue for this Frog Druid, but "up to one" means that bounce is optional. I'd still like to use what Clement brings to the game as much as possible, so I ended up thinking of three possible approaches to Clement's biggest drawback - avoiding the bounce, negating the bounce, and leaning into the bounce.

Avoiding the bounce is easy, but what if you wanted to almost never have the option to bounce a creature to your hand? I spent some time looking at a possible build that would run Keruga, the Macrosage either in the 99 or as the deck's companion. Including Keruga as the deck's companion would require that my list contain only cards with mana value 3 or greater and land cards. I could then run almost exclusively creatures with a mana value of 3. If I almost never have a creature with a lower mana value than a creature I'm playing, I won't be bouncing anything to my hand. I might run a higher mana card like Craterhoof Behemoth to finish off games, but in general this build would try to keep its creatures almost exclusively at 3 mana.

By "negating the bounce" what I really mean is negating the mana disadvantage of having to recast a bounced creature. That can be done by making sure you have zero mana value creatures to bounce to your hand so you can replay them at no cost. Memnite, Ornithopter, Phyrexian Walker, and Shield Sphere are all zero mana artifact creatures. With an artifact cost reducer I could also cast one mana artifact creatures for free. I'd be able to get extra triggers off of cards like Beast Whisperer and Guardian Project, but I'd also be incentivized to move towards a more artifact focused build.

Leaning into the bounce was what I ended up deciding to do today, as I think that makes for a better and more interesting deck. I did consider just building around the Frog creature type, but that might have ended up being a lower powered build. What I'm going to try to do here is build a list that can bounce creatures that I actively want to play again. That means there needs to be an ample number of very low mana creatures that give me a benefit of some sort when they enter or leave play.

Low-Mana Creatures

I decided to pass on including zero mana creatures, as they really bring nothing to the table but a zero casting cost. That would work nicely with the right support cards, but I won't always have those available. In comparison, casting a 2 or 3-drop and bouncing a 1 mana Network Disruptor to my hand will set me up to pay a blue to recast it and reuse its ETB to tap target permanent. I only ended up with a single 1 mana creature but I have a decent number of 2 and 3 mana creatures to play with.

Card draw is king in EDH, so it's no surprise that I've made draw a major focus for these 2 mana creatures. Fblthp, the Lost, Elvish Visionary, Ice-Fang Coatl, Pond Prophet, Wall of Blossoms, and Bellowing Crier can all do that for me, though that last entry will then have me discard a card as well. Card draw can give me lands to play, but Sylvan Ranger and Gatecreeper Vine will let me tutor one to my hand. The former gets me a basic and the latter can get me a basic or a Gate.

I'm running a few two mana creatures that can tap an opponent's creature down on entry. Fogwalker will tap it so hard, it won't untap during its opponent's next untap step. Merfolk Trickster will tap target creature and cause it to lose all abilities until end of turn.

My goal is to have enough 2 mana creatures that I can play a three-drop, bounce one of these creatures to my hand, and then replay it the same turn if that's the correct play for what's going on. Card draw is almost always the right play, but there will be times where I'll want to play something else.

My three drops will also see me draw cards, but some will put lands onto the battlefield, or do other basic things that every deck wants to do.

These cards are format staples, but they are more important than you might think because of how this deck will attempt to win games. Playing a Wood Elves once is nice enough, but if I'm able to play it multiple times over the course of a game, I'm hoping it will give me enough mana to do big things in the late game.

How We Win

This deck would just be a low powered, creature-heavy casual list if all I hoped to do was play out creatures, bounce smaller creatures, and gain incremental advantage over the course of the game. I have no issue with decks like that, but this week I'm aiming higher.

The real question is going to be how high powered a deck you want. I'm not loading up on tutors, but if you want to push up in power and consistency you might want to throw a few in because this wincon takes a few pieces to assemble before you can go to work.

Aluren is an enchantment that lets any player play a creature card with mana value 3 or less at instant speed and without paying its mana cost. I'm betting that this deck will be positioned better than any other deck at the table to take advantage of that.

Adding in Temur Sabertooth will let me bounce a creature to my hand for one and a green. That's a great way to make the most of low mana creatures with great ETB triggers. I'll do that if that's what my deck is giving me, but I also really want my creatures to have haste or at least be able to activate tap abilities on the turn they enter play. Concordant Crossroads can give haste and Thousand-Year Elixir will let me activate those precious tab abilities. Lightning Greaves is also in the list to let me use mana dorks on the turn they enter play.

The tap abilities I'm hoping to get online are ones that make three or more mana. That should be relatively easy for any of the mana dorks shown above, and this combination of permanents should let me make a huge amount of mana. Hopefully at that point I'll have a card draw ETB creature if I haven't already been drawing cards thanks to other permanents like The Great Henge.

If I'm able to draw my deck I should be able to get that Concordant Crossroads into play and then use Craterhoof Behemoth to win the game with counterspell backup in case someone tries to stop me.

If that complicated plan doesn't look like it's going to work, my backup is a classic ETB combo that still sees play in high powered EDH. You probably won't see it in cEDH but it's been raising eyebrows for over a decade.

Deadeye Navigator can soulbond to another creature and then for two mana I can flicker either creature. When I do this repeatedly with Peregrine Drake, Palinchron or Great Whale I can generate huge amounts of mana, as they'll untap more than two lands each time I do it. I just have to tap those lands prior to each activation, and I'll want to use lands that generate both blue and green so I'm free to cast anything in my deck.

Deadeye combo works perfectly with this deck because as soon as I go off, I'm very likely to have creatures in play that I can flicker for huge effect. I might draw cards, I might tap down every creature my opponents control, or I might just put every forest in my deck onto the battlefield. If I were to flicker Craterhoof a zillion times I'd probably be in a position to swing for the win even if I don't have a huge army.

My Darling Clement

When I first started working on this list I was under the misapprehension that Clement's ability bouncing a creature to hand was "one" rather than "up to one" target creature you control. The difference is enormous, but I think I might have been working on the deck while feverish and in the worst days of my recent bout with COVID. I'm fully capable of getting a card wrong without the brain fog of being sick, but this time I'm going to write my initial mistake off as a side-effect of being under the weather. I'm better now, thank you, and I caught my error before I finished up this column (thank goodness).

One interesting angle on Clement I thought of was to play creatures with the channel ability. Channel lets you discard the card for a cost to get an effect. This keyword came back into the spotlight with a land cycle in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. While Clement can't bounce a land to hand, there are a few creatures with Channel that were intriguing. As an example, the 2-drop Bamboo Grove Archer can destroy target creature with flying for four and a green when discarded for its channel ability. Creatures on the field that have a channel ability would never represent an instant-speed answer to a problem so I didn't explore the idea more, but I thought it was worth a mention.

Clement EDH | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Clement, the Worrywort

• Creatures (39)
• 1 Beast Whisperer
• 1 Bellowing Crier
• 1 Circle of Dreams Druid
• 1 Circuit Mender
• 1 Cloudkin Seer
• 1 Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1 Deadeye Navigator
• 1 Elvish Visionary
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Farhaven Elf
• 1 Fblthp, the Lost
• 1 Fogwalker
• 1 Gatecreeper Vine
• 1 Great Whale
• 1 Ice-Fang Coatl
• 1 Karametra's Acolyte
• 1 Llanowar Visionary
• 1 Merfolk Trickster
• 1 Network Disruptor
• 1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
• 1 Palinchron
• 1 Peregrine Drake
• 1 Pilgrim's Eye
• 1 Pond Prophet
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 1 Regal Force
• 1 Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
• 1 Serum Visionary
• 1 Skittering Surveyor
• 1 Skyscanner
• 1 Springbloom Druid
• 1 Sylvan Ranger
• 1 Temur Sabertooth
• 1 Tome Raider
• 1 Topiary Stomper
• 1 Voice of Many
• 1 Wall of Blossoms
• 1 Wistful Selkie
• 1 Wood Elves

• Spells (9)
• 1 Arcane Denial
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Heroic Intervention
• 1 Rapid Hybridization
• 1 Return to Nature
• 1 Swan Song
• 1 Turn to Frog
• 1 Croaking Counterpart

• Enchantments (6)
• 1 Aluren
• 1 Beastmaster Ascension
• 1 Concordant Crossroads
• 1 Guardian Project
• 1 Rhystic Study
• 1 Zendikar Resurgent

• Artifacts (8)
• 1 Amulet of Vigor
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Maskwood Nexus
• 1 Simic Signet
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 The Great Henge
• 1 Thousand-Year Elixir

• Lands (37)
• 13 Forest
• 13 Island
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Fabled Passage
• 1 Hidden Cataract
• 1 Hidden Nursery
• 1 Hinterland Harbor
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Simic Growth Chamber
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse

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I was tempted to lean heavily into Frogs for this list, even running cards like Polymorphist's Jest and basically any Frog themed card I could get my hands on. If I wanted to build a lower powered Clement list I might go this route. Just dropping out your combo lines would be enough to drop this list firmly into low powered territory.

To push Clement up in power I think you might run faster mana and tutors, but you'd still be aiming for a combo finish. You might consider running some draw-your-deck wincons. It's going to draw cards, to be sure, but for a Laboratory Maniac win you really need to be removing your library or drawing an insane amount to make it work. Hitting one of your combos might do that, and Lab Man is a fine wincon in high power if you enjoy that kind of thing. I suspect if you're pushing up in power you might just find yourself turning to commanders like Tatyova, Benthic Druid, Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Straits, or any of a host of other stronger Simic commanders.

Final Thoughts

I've been writing about a lot of decks recently that I ended up building in paper. Clement, the Worrywort is one where I was starting to put aside cards and then decided to do this first draft just looking online at cards with no concern for whether or not I owned a copy. I'm probably going to build this in paper, and I may well lean into Frogs because I play in a few spaces where lower powered decks are the norm.

The one warning I would have about this deck is that it might well turn out to be the kind that takes some very long turns. If you get Aluren out, you'll be playing cheap creatures, bouncing creatures, playing them again, hopefully drawing cards along the way, and all of that nonsense is going to take time. It may be fun for you, but if the deck does well you may have some bored tablemates as you bounce your way through a huge turn and eventually hop over the finish line.

If you find that you are seeing cards that shut down enter-the-battlefield effects, you'll want to adjust your list so that you have the kinds of removal you need to clear the way for your deck to do its thing. A single Hushwing Gryff that goes unanswered can be a real problem for Clement, especially when the card draw you're hoping will bring you some removal is often tied to an ETB trigger.

All of my lists are meant to be starting points, so you should take this deck and update it to better match your playstyle and the power level you enjoy playing at.

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!