Elda, Conjurer of SpectacleElda, Conjurer of Spectacle | Art by Raluca Marinescu

Elda, Conjurer of SpectacleElda, Conjurer of Spectacle isn't the first commander to give spells demonstrate, but The Twelfth DoctorThe Twelfth Doctor made it pretty complicated and he was in different colors, so we've got a lot of new ground to explore here. With Elda, our opponents can (be forced to) copy any spell we play, so we get to interact with some cards in ways they've never experienced before. Lucy MacLean, Positively ArmedLucy MacLean, Positively Armed floods the board, Slivers get massive, and Silverquill LecturerSilverquill Lecturer will turn the game table into a classroom. There are so many cards that become extremely overpowered or just strange with Elda, and I'm determined to find all of them. Let's check 'em out!

The Jankiest Way to Use Elda, Conjurer of Spectacle

Elda's a card that seems super unusual at first, but after staring at her for a while, she closely resembles a donate commander, like Zedruu the GreatheartedZedruu the Greathearted. The only difference is that we have to keep a copy of the cards we give away. Still, players are building her in a similar manner, trying to negate the downside of demonstrate by playing symmetrical cards like Heartwood StorytellerHeartwood Storyteller, or cards that only benefit Elda, like Exalted SunbornExalted Sunborn.

But while those picks are clever, I personally think the donate theme is a lot more fun when we're just giving away massive threats. We get two copies anyway, so why should we worry about our opponent's one? Let that GigantosaurusGigantosaurus run wild! Embrace the chaos, because if Elda's flavor text is any indication, she would encourage it.

The Most Evil Way to Use Elda, Conjurer of Spectacle

Oh hoh, there are a lot of evil things we can do with Elda, enough that I'm gonna have to go down a list. Let's just start by demonstrating some truly terrible spells. Grid MonitorGrid Monitor, for instance, will simply lock us and one opponent out of casting creature spells. That's terrible, but not evil so much as it is masochistic.

So let's try casting some spells that only affect our opponents. I think Akroan HorseAkroan Horse is an awesome one, giving us and our opponent the option to team up to totally screw a third player by giving them three copies of the card. It's more likely that we'll get one copy of the Horse and give our opponents two, but if someone's enough of an archenemy, they could get ganged up on.

But it's even more evil to give our opponents resources that are amazing for us, but are completely useless, or even harmful for them. Krosan CloudscraperKrosan Cloudscraper is a glorious card to demonstrate, a 13/13 that our opponents can almost touch until they have to sacrifice it at their upkeep. It's a terrible card, but it's so cruel to our opponents.

However, I don't think any of those are nearly as evil as the card that Elda combos with.

The Best Combo with Elda, Conjurer of Spectacle

Usually when I say combo, I mean a group of cards that will go infinite together, like Peregrine DrakePeregrine Drake and Deadeye NavigatorDeadeye Navigator. Infinite ETB, infinite turns, or even infinite damage. But sometimes a combo is just a couple of cards that instantly kill a player, like Elda, Conjurer of SpectacleElda, Conjurer of Spectacle and LevelerLeveler. Yup, Elda can just force players to cast a spell that kills them. It's totally gonna end us too, but if there are only two players left, it'll deck our opponent first. Shabam!

LevelerLeveler has to be one of the strangest cards in Magic. A five-mana 10/10 that kills whoever plays it. Usually it's only playable if we can counter the ETB, maybe using something like HushbringerHushbringer, but in this case we simply don't care about the downside. One way or another, casting LevelerLeveler is going to end our game. And if we have a really terrible grudge against a player, we can just take both of us out of the game and leave the other two to duke it out.

The Most Competitive Way to Use Elda, Conjurer of Spectacle

Players figured out pretty darn fast that Slivers are nuts with Elda. The earliest Slivers were all symmetrical, making a Sliver mirror match quite the puzzle. But Elda can use that symmetry to give us a crazy boost. If we demonstrate a Might SliverMight Sliver, every Sliver gets +6/+6. Our opponents get that bonus too, but we have 200% their combined number of Slivers, so we get a more than significant advantage. Slivers already snowball like crazy, and tripling their bonuses is wild.

Then, we can combine that with Elda's second most powerful interaction, populate. It's a mechanic that hasn't been printed too often because of its niche use cases: copying existing creature tokens. The best thing that's usually populated is that 6/6 SmaugSmaug Token, but with Elda, we can duplicate literally anything. You thought three Might SliverMight Slivers were strong? How about six? Since populate is usually seen as an underwhelming mechanic, the cards are pretty awesome too. Druid's DeliveranceDruid's Deliverance is an excellent Fog, Sundering GrowthSundering Growth is NaturalizeNaturalize with a huge upside, and Rootborn DefensesRootborn Defenses saves our creatures while making one more. Elda has a lot of options to make a very menacing deck.

The Worst Deck for Elda, Conjurer of Spectacle

Marisi, Breaker of the CoilMarisi, Breaker of the Coil is a very intimidating commander, goading every creature an opponent controls when we deal combat damage to them. All we have to do is sneak around our enemies' blockers, and there's one perfect mechanic for that: shadow. Green, white and red don't really have much in the way of unblockable creatures, but Marisi doesn't have to settle too hard because creatures with shadow might as well be. As long as our opponents aren't running the exact same strategy as us, we're totally fine. Unless, of course, we choose to demonstrate a creature with shadow, giving our opponents the one thing that could save them from being goaded. In this deck, Elda doesn't just give our opponents a free creature; she makes our entire board useless when she does. One shadow creature on our opponents' side is worth way more than an extra one for us. Surely this is the worst deck for Elda.

Elda, Conjurer of SpectacleElda, Conjurer of Spectacle is such a unique commander, and I feel like I haven't even scratched the surface of what she can do. I know that there are a bunch of cards out there that will interact in crazy ways with her, but they're buried super far because they're trash in any other deck. If you know of a niche card that goes nuts, or even just does something unusual with Elda, let me know in the comments! I'm excited to see what y'all find.