Finding Homes for Janky Cards - Halana and Alena, Partner
August 23, 2023 by
Jordan Iacovella 
(Kilnmouth Dragon | Art by Carl Critchlow)
Every Card Deserves a Good Partner...
Hey there, my name is Jordan, and I run the EDH Jank Center on YouTube. Welcome to Finding Homes For Janky Cards, the series where we rifle through that big pile of bulk you've got lying around, find a package of five janky, budget, or underutilized cards, and pair them with a commander that will help them shine. The deck we get out of it might not be the fanciest or most extravagant at the table, but we're still going to build it, because every card deserves a loving home!
Today's lovely hosts are: Halana and Alena, Partners.
This lovely couple have been on my building radar for a good while now. I opened this card in the first Innistrad: Crimson Vow pack I bought and have just never gotten around to building around it. Good thing EDHREC gives me an excuse to do that now! What excites me about this kind of commander is that you can really take them in so many different directions. Their ability is so good and wide-ranging, which allows for the inclusion of cards that might otherwise be considered for certain decks.
The idea here is very simple: make our commander huge and then buff up an army of janky and/or underutilized cards! Sounds like the exact spirit of my channel and my articles, so with that out of the way, let's take a look at the average decklist for Halana and Alena, Partners:
Halana and Alena Average Decklist
View on Archidekt
Buy this decklist from TCGplayer
View this decklist on Archidekt
As per usual, we're seeing a ton of expensive staples smattered throughout the deck. Cards like Xenagos, God of Revels and All Will Be One do a lot of heavy lifting and for good reason: they're objectively great.
But you know what isn't objectively great? Spending A LOT of money when you could be spending... less money? I tried to come up with a clever transition to tell you that my version of the build is under $50 but yeah: the deck I built is under $50!
So, without further ado, let's take a look at the five cards I've chosen to highlight today:
Kilnmouth Dragon
0% of 1,402,365 decks
To be honest, I totally understand that most players who pay seven mana for a creature want it to be a bit more...impactful than this. That reason is why (I think) this chunky Dragon doesn't see more play. However, in our build today, this guy does WORK.
This deck wants to put counters on creatures and in my search for unique and fun cards this went to the top of my list. If this card gets big enough, it doesn't even have to attack to take a player out of the game! We can also remove problem creatures with that damage as well. Even with one singular counter on it this card can take care of a good number of EDH problem creatures like:
At it's worst, this card is a 5/5 flyer that in conjunction with our overall strategy will become a bigger and bigger beater for us throughout the game! Not bad for something that's sub-$1. Now let's talk about another really fun selection:
Summit Apes
0% of 1,358,440 decks
Outside of Kibo, Uktabi Prince decks this doesn't get played very often, which makes a ton of sense. But that's never stopped me before and it certainly won't now!
First of all: in our deck we'll most likely always have a mountain out at all times, thus guaranteeing this card being a 5/2 with menace at all times. On top of that, we throw in the +1 counters every turn from our commander and we're looking at quite the scary attacker. Also, if I can run Apes in a deck...I'm gonna run Apes in a deck, ya know?
Anyways, let's have a chat about another creature that loves to throw damage around:
Spikeshot Elder
0% of 1,382,788 decks
This is like a Fling effect but without the drawback of having to sacrifice the creature! This card is a repeatable Soul's Fire on a body that we can also attack with if we need to.
I love cards that provide us with versatility in our game plan. In other words: sometimes game scenarios will be such that we can't attack without risking losing advantage, a strong creature, or a powerful board state. Our deck relies mostly on combat, BUT it's really great to have cards in there that can skirt around that limitation.
And I don't know about you, but I really do think it's sometimes more satisfying to just shotgun a player's life total rather than slug it out in combat.
On to the next one!
Bouncer's Beatdown
0% of 1,089,163 decks
Any other Streets of New Capenna fans out there? A member of my Discord recently brought this card to my attention and I loved it immediately. I feel like every day I find a card from New Capenna that I absolutely love. Anyway, the tech here is honestly pretty simple: we're going to have a ton of high-power creatures in the deck, making this card one of our best pieces of removal!
We can snipe black permanents at a discounted rate, AND on top of that whatever creature we kill will be exiled instead of going to the graveyard, which is always super choice!
(Also, the idea of a normal-sized bouncer at a club beating up something like Snapdax, Apex of the Hunt is really funny to me.)
Alright let's chat about our last (and most flavorful) card of the day:
Gingerbrute
1% of 2,932,726 decks
Here's the facts: If I CAN put a gingerbread man into a deck, I WILL put a gingerbread man into a deck. This build is no different, and honestly, this card is one of our best attackers in the deck!
In our colors we don't have a ton of pure evasion, a lot of it is menace and trample-style effects. There's always flying I suppose, but Gingerbrute can make itself purely unblockable which is incredible for us when we're trying to throw a ton of damage around in combat!
Now that we've covered our list of cards, let's take a look at the jankified decklist that comes out to a price of $41.96 without basic lands!
Halana and Alena <$50!
View on Archidekt
|
Buy this decklist from TCGplayer
View this decklist on Archidekt
I love this list and had so much fun building around a commander that I've loved for a while. I hope you've enjoyed reading the article, and remember: Every card deserves a chance to shine.
That just about does it for this month's installment. Let me know in the comments down below what cards you'd like me to find a home for next! Your suggestions might just make it into the next article. Cheers!
Jordan Iacovella
Jordan is an actor, music producer, and gigantic nerd who runs the EDH Jank Center on Youtube! Through various tier lists, janky deck techs, and budget-friendly guides, the Jank Center hopes to show people that you don't need to be rich to have fun playing this wonderful game. Think outside the box, baby!
EDHREC Code of Conduct