White Elephant, Black Magic

Greeting and salutations from where King Clovis was born! I'm Arnaud, and I’m thrilled to take you on a journey of uncanny brews, budget cards, and strategic usage of EDHREC’s card filtering features.

Once again, you fantastic people did not disappoint. A few weeks ago, before The Lords of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth frenzy hit the Magic planet, I set the stage for three new challengers to compete for a spot in this episode, and man, were the results close. Orthion, Hero of Lavabrink racked up 102 votes, while Rakdos, Lord of Riots came a bit closer with 105. In the end, though, the bright and happy Lulu, Loyal Hollyphant finished in the lead, with 112 votes to its name.

Can we give a round of applause to our valiant contestants? Thank you, thank you, you're too kind!

Now, let's fly away on the wings of this week's winner.

I'll be honest. I was rooting for this jolly pachyderm when I first published the poll. I mean, look at its smiling face. What's not to love?

Jokes aside, it does offer a significant challenge on several counts. While the total number of available decks (including all possible Backgrounds variations) gets close to the 1,000 mark, the highest pairing doesn't rise above 141.

Then there's the conditions needed for its ability to trigger: get a permanent you control off the field to add +1/+1 counters to all of your... tapped creatures. And then untap them, sure. But, let's be real, those are A LOT of hoops to jump through for what feels a bit like diminishing returns.

From there, where do we go? For a moment, I considered the Voltron route. After all, Lulu has evasion and would pair fairly well with Raised by Giants, but that feels really clunky. If you want to tread down that path, I would recommend instead going with Wilson, but that's another debate. Far Traveler felt just a bit like a nonbo, since Lulu will not trigger off of that Background alone. Candlekeep Sage looked like it had some potential but seemed a bit too mana-intensive for such meagre card advantage.

In the end, I chose the easiest way (you can call me a lazybutt all you want, I don't care, I'm French) and decided in favor of Master Chef. Since Lulu is already throwing +1/+1 counters around, we might as well stay the course.

And since I was sort of worried we'd encounter a Belbe Problem with too few cards to comfortably work with, I mashed in both the "normal" and "cheap" cards altogether.

242 cards, life is looking good.

First Trim: The Cardboard Chainsaw Massacre

Same old, same old. Let's get all those pesky expensive cards out of the way, shall we? There are a few juicy goodies that we have to leave out yet again: Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines, The Ozolith, Cryptolith Rite, Hardened Scales... painful cuts, alright.

As we're all used to by now, let's have a look at some possible cheap upgrades worth considering.

Ancient Imperiosaur: A big bullish dino that'll tap our critters for added benefits with Lulu while potentially growing into a force to be reckoned with.

Evolution Sage: Proliferation with +1/+1 counters? Who would have thought?

Ephemerate: Double blink? Double yes. This acts both as a protection spell for our commander or a threat while taking care of the "leave the battlefield" issue for two turns.

Return of the Wildspeaker: Fantastic outlet, providing cards or a way to close the game. Come on, WotC! Reprint that card to oblivion some more, I want to play it!

Silkguard: Protect your board, tap your dorks for Lulu, boost your team. Triple benefits, I say.

And... that's it. Yep, the list of sexy cards standing below the $2 range is quite slim this week.

With that out of the way, we're down to 160 cards. On to the veggies.

Second Trim: Cardward Scissorhands

Let's take a quick look and assess the situation. We're more than set in ramp, with 26 cards. Draw looks good, with 15 spells, not much to dabble there. Removal is also quite full, with no less than 14 ways to accommodate our opponents. And we have two great board wipes, which should be sufficient.

Let's cut down some vines, shall we?

Entering the fray, we valiantly push forward with only 36 more cards to cut. So far, this is a walk in the park.

Third Trim: Cutting Off the Rough Edges

Let's move on to my favorite part: digging into the theme.

There's something I've noticed while skimming through the original full list that bothered me ever so slightly, and one of the reasons I resorted to adding the contents of the "cheap" section as well. It seems like people did not want to brew around Lulu solely for its ability, but also because... well, it's an Elephant. Thankfully, there are quite a few pachyderms lying around which, while on theme, feel quite underwhelming in my book.

Also, we've got a hefty 27 cards that deal near or far with +1/+1 counters. That's simply massive, and a great target for lowering our count.

Onwards, my trunk-loving friends!

Some of these cuts were surprisingly difficult. But I suppose we're getting somewhere. Down to 109 cards, the hardest part has yet to come. Still with me, Tuskguards?

Final Trim: Heart-Wrenching Choices and Juicy Additions

This is it, the final countdown, the last stretch, the ultimate obstacle.

As usual, I'd like to point out that, at this level, none of these cards are bad, per se, yet cuts have to be made, so let's get the job done, shall we?

Aggressive Mammoth: That's a heartbreak. I love the card. It reeks power. But triple green is probably a smidge too high for what we have in mind.

Tuskguard Captain: Three mana to give our team trample. A bit high. I already cut Pridemalkin, and so the Captain follows the kitty into oblivion.

Abzan Battle Priest: I love me a good lifelinker at times to make sure we can survive an impending demise, but four mana is too much for the effect. Out.

Plains: As the average mana value of the deck slowly dips towards the three-mana mark, I feel like we can safely dismiss a land. Oh, and the dorks help too.

Basri's Solidarity: Although I like its elegant simplicity, I'm not sure that's enough impact to warrant it a final slot.

Your Temple Is Under Attack: Yes, I'm giving up on card draw and a protection spell, but I'm not a huge fan of giving cards to my opponents when I can avoid it.

Snakeskin Veil: Cute, but the lack of indestructibility bothers me.

Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter: Many of our creatures already tap for mana, and the additional +1/+1 feels anecdotal.

Far Traveler: I wasn't a fan before, and the lack of enter-the-battlefield effects makes me want to forego it entirely.

And here we are, +1/+1 counters in all their magnificence.

I'll be honest with you, of all the brews I've subjected to your judgement, this one feels like the clunkiest by far. This is why I'll be particularly interested in hearing from you this week. Would you have gone with another Background? Are there cards you consider essential gems missing from this list? Would you consider playing this at all?

Also, I'd like to conduct a little experiment. I'm wondering if you guys would be insane enough to want me to build around this janky commander one more time in two weeks, using the same process but with a different Background.

For this reason, I'll leave Lulu in the poll alongside three other choices. I'm really curious to see how this plays out. See you in two weeks!

Arnaud Gompertz

Arnaud Gompertz has been playing Magic since 4th Edition, back in 1995. He's been an assiduous EDH enthusiast since 2012, with a soft spot for unusual and casual Commanders. He'll always favour spectacular plays against a boring path to victory. Aside from mistreating cardboard, he's a dedicated board games player, loves a challenging video game and occasionally tries to sing with his choir.