The Queen of DaleThe Queen of Dale | Art by Magali Villeneuve

Hello rowdy recruits and welcome back to another deck tech! Marvel Super Heroes is already in the rearview mirror, which is fine since I like this next IP much better. That's right, we are diving into The Hobbit, with one of the strongest mono-white commanders ever printed: The Queen of DaleThe Queen of Dale.

I believe this is supposed to represent the wife of Bard, King of DaleBard, King of Dale, the guy who kills SmaugSmaug. I am irked by this, only because we have a non-named character from the source material, who isn't given a name here, as a legendary creature. This is where I think Universes Beyond fails a little bit, but since we can't change that, we'll just have to accept this absolutely bonkers mono-white commander and build a deck around her.

What Does The Queen of DaleThe Queen of Dale Do?

Recruit is an amazing mechanic. I've waxed poetic about how much I love connive, and this is so much better. It's a little bit more generically flavored, so we can see it on a wider set of cards and hopefully get future printings of it. It also isn't restricted to a certain creature conniving; instead you do it as the player. That means we don't lose value if our creature that would connive gets killed in response. Finally, making a body instead of a +1/+1 counter is so much better for board presence, from Commander all the way to Limited.

We don't have all the spoilers at time of writing, but The Queen of Dale might be the strongest recruiting card out there, at least for Commander. The two-mana body can come down early, probably as everyone else is spending turn two casting Arcane SignetArcane Signets and Nature's LoreNature's Lores, so the recruiting can start right away.

The Queen will trigger on each opponent's first noncreature spell on each turn. So, if opponent A casts a noncreature spell on their turn, and opponent B counters it, and then opponent C casts a removal spell, you'll get three recruit triggers for that turn. If the same thing happens next turn, you'll get three more.

The looting effect is especially good for mono-white decks, as they usually struggle with sources of card velocity. As I've said before, I like thinking in terms of card velocity rather than pure card advantage. With Queenie here, we'll get to churn through our deck to find our win conditions, interaction, and land drops, all while taking advantage of cards going to the graveyard, building us virtual card advantage over our opponents.

There's a bunch of different ways we can build around recruit as a mechanic, but it wouldn't be one of my articles if I didn't lean hard into the graveyard. Fortunately, white has plenty of reanimation spells for the haymakers we'll discard, and some sneaky ways to play around with casting spells out of the 'yard as well.

Key Cards for The Queen of DaleThe Queen of Dale

Reanimate Package

Let's get straight into our big reanimate targets. Avacyn, Angel of HopeAvacyn, Angel of Hope is usually the go-to, but I also want to include Reya DawnbringerReya Dawnbringer and Silver SeraphSilver Seraph as additional big Angels to aim for as well. The former will keep the reanimate train going down the tracks, while the latter is an anthem (a static pump ability named for Glorious AnthemGlorious Anthem) for our tokens when we get threshold, which should be trivial in this deck. Speaking of tokens and anthems, Moonshaker CavalryMoonshaker Cavalry is an obvious win condition and reanimate target for this deck too.

How about our reanimation spells? The best one is recently printed Restoration SeminarRestoration Seminar, which gets us any nonland permanent back from the yard on each of our turns. Sevinne's ReclamationSevinne's Reclamation not only reanimates a small permanent but is easy to pitch when recruiting thanks to flashback.

Karmic GuideKarmic Guide is a classic and can also be reanimated over and over since it puts itself into the graveyard thanks to echo. Late to DinnerLate to Dinner and ResurrectionResurrection are the more mana-efficient ReanimateReanimates we get in white.

Finally, the recently reprinted Emeria, the Sky RuinEmeria, the Sky Ruin is worth picking up at its new lower price, and is simple to turn on in a deck running more than 30 Plains and ways to fetch them (more on that in a bit).

Castable from the 'yard

Reanimation is not the only way we can abuse the graveyard. I mentioned the flashback on Sevinne's ReclamationSevinne's Reclamation before, and there are a number of other cards that are castable from the graveyard that we can add so discarding them is actually an advantage.

Prismatic StrandsPrismatic Strands, the top of the heap, is a FogFog that we can cast from the graveyard for free, especially since we'll get the creature to tap to pay for its alternate cost when we discard it. Group ProjectGroup Project and Battle ScreechBattle Screech are also manaless ways to add more tokens to the board, and Practiced OffensePracticed Offense or Auron's InspirationAuron's Inspiration are excellent ways to make all these tokens more lethal.

Dusk // DawnDusk // Dawn works great as a wrath for our deck, killing off all the big stuff on the board while keeping our commander and tokens safe. Plus, we can cast the back half from the graveyard to recur a bunch of creatures, commander included again. Divine ReckoningDivine Reckoning is another wrath, with flashback for a late-game board sweep as needed.

Lastly we'll throw in Chaplain of AlmsChaplain of Alms and Lunarch VeteranLunarch Veteran. They both are castable from the graveyard thanks to disturb, and each synergizes well in a deck putting a bunch of creatures on the board.

More graveyard abuse

Believe it or not, white also has a few ways to abuse discarding cards. ConfessorConfessor is an old one-drop but gets us plenty of incremental life gain, while Spirit CairnSpirit Cairn plays into the token synergies and gives us a repeatable mana sink. Note that both trigger when any player discards, so we get some value from our opponents as well.

White also gives us access to three fun creatures that we actively want to sit in the graveyard. ValorValor gives all of our creatures first strike, while Dearly DepartedDearly Departed lets each of our recruited tokens enter with a +1/+1 counter since they are indeed Human Soldiers, not just regular Soldier tokens. GloryGlory is the best of the three, giving all of our creatures protection from a color. If someone tries to Blasphemous ActBlasphemous Act on the cheap thanks to our big board, they better check we don't have Glory down and up.

Tokens

Token synergies are a tale as old as time in Commander, and we'll include some here as well. I recently highlighted Angelic AberrationAngelic Aberration, which turns any of our base 1/1 creatures into 4/4 flyers. It's useful as another reanimation target since unlike other Eldrazi-related triggers, it is an enters trigger rather than a cast trigger. Divine VisitationDivine Visitation is also pretty nuts, turning the first noncreature spell from an opponent into a 4/4 flyer that loots.

Convoke, another one of my favorite mechanics, is always good with tokens. Bennie BracksBennie Bracks turns the recruiting into pure card draw each turn, while there isn't a better board protection spell in my opinion than Clever ConcealmentClever Concealment. The Wandering RescuerThe Wandering Rescuer, Triplicate SpiritsTriplicate Spirits, Venerated LoxodonVenerated Loxodon, and Knight-Errant of EosKnight-Errant of Eos all make the cut thanks to convoke and how well it fits into the deck's game plan.

We'll follow up with some of the more generic token payoffs. Enduring InnocenceEnduring Innocence and Welcoming VampireWelcoming Vampire are pretty sick turn-three follow-ups to The Queen of DaleThe Queen of Dale, now turning each recruit trigger into loot, then draw a card. Caretaker's TalentCaretaker's Talent does the same, but with the option of being an anthem in the late game too. And of course we can add any token doublers of our choosing. They'll be in the final list but aren't very exciting to talk about outside of Elspeth, Storm SlayerElspeth, Storm Slayer thanks to her anthem ability as well as doubling tokens.

Mono-white Ramp

Before we round out the deck with the necessary suite of mana acceleration, interaction, etc., I want to highlight ways to maximize white's catch up ramp effects. Knight of the White OrchidKnight of the White Orchid and friends do their ramp thing if we control fewer lands than our opponent. We can do this simply via bouncelands like Guildless CommonsGuildless Commons and Arid ArchwayArid Archway, or with something like Lotus FieldLotus Field. Using these lands lets us keep mana production up while lowering our on-board land count to ensure we can trigger the catch-up ramp effects. Keep these in mind in sans-green, white-inclusive decks as an option for ramping.

Gameplay

The gameplay with The Queen of DaleThe Queen of Dale seems pretty straightforward: cast her and start recruiting. We've got a few extra one-mana protection spells in the final list since the body is pretty fragile, so if you've got one in hand I'd consider waiting until turn three to cast her. If not, we probably want to get the recruiting going to fill the graveyard, and thanks to her low initial mana cost, recasting her a couple of times isn't too bad.

I'd also think ahead about what to dig for with the recruit triggers. Once we get a big threat in the graveyard, following it up with a reanimation spell is top priority, since we want to give our opponents as little time as possible to react to it. On the other hand, if we're in a dominating position, grabbing a board protection spell like Clever Concealment will shore up the inevitability. Also, we shouldn't be afraid to discard lands if that's what we need to do. With this much card velocity, hitting land drops shouldn't be a problem, so unless we're desperate for a blocker it's okay to not get the absolute full value from recruit every time.

Wrap Up

That was a long one, but The Queen of DaleThe Queen of Dale is such a cool commander and there are plenty of cards that work well with it. While we went for the "big creature" style of reanimation, you could also build this as a powerful weenie reanimator list with Raise the PastRaise the Past and Return to the RanksReturn to the Ranks as the big payoffs. The Queen is also really good in the 99 of a lot of graveyard or tokens decks, and I'm even considering it for my Ratadrabik of Urborg list.

Let me know how you'd build The Queen of Dale down in the comments, or if I missed any interesting synergies with the card. I'm happy to be back in Middle-earth for another set, and I hope you're enjoying the previews as much as I am. Until next time, happy brewing!

The Queen of Dale Commander Deck List