(Celes, Rune Knight | Art by Néstor Ossandón Leal)

Aggroristocrats

Welcome to Too-Specific Top 10, where if there isn’t a category to rank our pet card at the top of, we’ll just make one up! (Did you know that Venerable Warsinger is the only creature with trample that can return another creature to the battlefield upon doing combat damage?)

I know, I know, we care about Dragons and Khans right now, but back here in the past... I'm kinda still on one of those Final Fantasy teasers.

Celes, Rune Knight already has some cEDH hype for being a Wheel in the command zone that will go wild with Underworld Breach, and also combos with Murderous Redcap and a sac outlet.

If you have the willpower to keep away from those obvious lines, however, she also is just one heck of an aggro and Aristocrats commander.

My question is: Can she do both at the same time?

Top 10 Unearths

For those unfamiliar, Unearth is a card that lets you recur a small creature from the graveyard. It's the go-to example because it was the original, but the effect has actually mostly moved from black to white these days.

It's also become quite the common limited effect, which means there are more than enough of them to trigger Celes, Rune Knight's +1/+1 counter effect over and over again.

So, let's take a look!

Top 10 Mana, Power, or Toughness-based Recursion Cards

1. Agadeem's Awakening
2. Unearth
3. Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle
4. Ruthless Technomancer
5. Meren of Clan Nel Toth
6. Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler
7. Ascend from Avernus
8. Reveillark
9. Celestine, the Living Saint
10. Carmen, Cruel Skymarcher

Well, this wasn't what I was talking about, at all. A bunch of four- and five-mana repeatable recursion effects would fit right in if we were going full Aristocrats, but we're not trying to do that.

We're trying to be an aggro deck that cares about the graveyard. What we need is the cheap cards!

Criteria: Cards which can be cast for two or less that return a creature from the graveyard to the battlefield based on either its power, toughness, or mana value, that aren't X spells or X costs (get outta here, Black Sun's Twilight and Relentless Dead!). As is tradition, all results are ordered by EDHREC score.

10. Can't Stay Away

(1,879 Inclusions, 0% of 1,221,811 Decks)

Our first entry doesn't have me too hopeful for this idea. I was hoping for a few Unearths attached to a creature at the two-mana slot, but this not only isn't that, it also exiles the creature!

The flashback is relevant, but I'm hoping to be killing the opponent for five mana, not just getting a three-drop back. Let's hope things improve as we move up the list.

9. Orzhov Charm

(3,854 Inclusions, 0% of 1,221,811 Decks)

Okay, here's the kind of thing we need at two mana. As a recursion spell, this is subpar at best, only getting back a one-drop for two. What we're paying for there is the flexibility, however.

In fact, I'd go out on a limb to say that despite our hunger for recursion, that third of the card is probably the one we'll use this for least. Our commander is scary and will proc removal, meaning the bounce effect is relevant.

What we'll be doing 90% of the time, however? Just taking out the biggest problem at the table.

Still, "just" getting back a one-drop is underselling Orzhov Charm, at least in our Celes, Rune Knight brew. Grabbing back a one-drop and giving our whole team a +1/+1 counter means that this thing will often be the key to an alpha strike.

8. Call a Surprise Witness

(4,605 Inclusions, 0% of 1,760,270 Decks)

Flying is relevant, so I don't want to be too dismissive of Call a Surprise Witness. We're going to able to be extremely aggressive with our swings even without evasion, however, as we aren't really going to care that much if our mass of creatures dies, especially if they're trading along the way. With that in mind, this one probably gets left by the wayside.

7. Return Triumphant

(4,706 Inclusions, 0% of 2,133,780 Decks)

Another two-mana option, this one synergizes with the deck quite well. Return Triumphant brings back the creature with a Young Hero Role attached to it, the rare role that doesn't just give a creature +1/+1 as part of the Aura, but instead puts one on when the creature attacks.

That only happens until it has three toughness, but given that we're probably going to be playing around with +1/+1 counters quite a bit with proliferate and the like, even just getting one counter on there is going to be a pretty good deal!

6. Jailbreak

(5,345 Inclusions, 0% of 2,495,886 Decks)

If I can be honest, I love Jailbreak. I play it in my mono-white lands matter Pegasi build, and it's just white ramp, most of the time. This has led me to actually include it in pretty much all of my mono-white decks, if I can find the space.

That's all well and good for white decks, but in Celes, Rune Knight, we'll have other ramp options coming from the red and black side of the house.

Combine that with this likely getting back a blocker for the other player if we want to get a creature back, and this loses its allure fast. Sorry, Jailbreak, it's to the cutting room floor for you, provided I have anything but Plains in the 99.

5. Helping Hand

(11,033 Inclusions, 1% of 1,973,140 Decks)

Hey, a one-mana one! Helping Hand doesn't quite live up to our namesake in Unearth here, as it doesn't have the cycling option. With that said, we don't care about that, at all.

Even before our commander enters and wheels a bunch of cards into our graveyard, we're going to end up with creature targets because we're going to be aggressively swinging in with weenies from turn one on. In other words, Helping Hand should never be dead, and will always be a welcome sight to rip off the top.

4. Jolted Awake

(10,930 Inclusions, 1% of 1,374,879 Decks)

Which is why Jolted Awake is a bit disappointing in comparison, at least for our brew. It's still one-mana recursion, so we're absolutely going to play it, but the tradeoff of only being able to get back a two-drop in return for the option to cycle just doesn't seem as appealing when you're more or less guaranteed to have targets in the graveyard.

3. Recommission

(12,993 Inclusions, 1% of 2,495,886 Decks)

Back to the two-mana options, if we were excited about Return Triumphant, we're over the moon about Recommission.

Being able to get back an artifact means being able to grab a mana rock off of our wheel, and we still love the free +1/+1 counter when we get back a creature. Great options for the extra mana, through and through.

2. Chthonian Nightmare

(28,919 Inclusions, 2% of 1,607,263 Decks)

I completely dismissed the Energy portion of Jolted Awake, as I didn't think we'd have any possible reason to have Energy just laying around.

Well, it turns out, we will! Chthonian Nightmare is a shout-out to the hopefully-unbanned-soon Recurring Nightmare, a card that broke standard in half back in 1998.

For the most part, this is a tamer version, only able to get back a three-drop at sorcery speed, and having a trigger to respond to so folks can remove it before you do your thing (that may seem small, but if you've ever had to have a Recurring Nightmare situation explained to you by a smug opponent informing you that there's nowhere you receive priority to get rid of it other than on the stack, you'll begin to see how big a deal it is).

Where this version is better, however, is at its mana cost. Recasting Recurring Nightmare for three mana gets more and more difficult each time, outside of a few infinite loops, so Chthonian Nightmare being a mana less is actually a huge deal.

Combine that with it also being able to stack up energy counters if you're returning one- and two-drops instead of three, and this begins to leave its predecessor behind in some ways.

For our deck, at least? If we saw a Recurring Nightmare unban here in April, we'd probably still just keep on chugging with Chthonian Nightmare, happily.

1. Unearth

(90,560 Inclusions, 3% of 2,755,035 Decks)

It's always a bit awkward when the card you're trying to find versions of for one of these top ten brews is so well-known. Unearth was always going to be at the top of this list, and for good reason.

One mana to bring back a three-drop is a great rate, and having the option to cycle, even though we'll rarely use it, is just gravy.

In short, the king is the king, and will be the best card on this list for us to see in-game, with the exception of the ludicrously repeatable Chthonian Nightmare.

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Honorable Mentions

I'd say that we missed Claim // Fame because it technically had a mana value of three, but if we did, so did everyone else! Claim to Fame only has 1,355 inclusions total, and would have just missed the list behind Can't Stay Away.

With that said, it's perfect for what we're trying to do here, being another copy of Jolted Awake that can also be recast from the graveyard to give a creature haste and a boost. It almost feels like it was made specifically for this deck!

As for other cheap recursion? You really can't do better than my favorite in this area, Brought Back. A mini Second Sunrise, the number of times I've gotten a table by just holding up two white mana as someone thinks they've completely wrecked me is beyond number.

It's just not something people are even considering, and can turn a bad combat or board wipe into a complete win for you.

Throw in some nonsense like Lotus Vale or fetch lands that will also let you use it as ramp, and the versatility is also off the charts.

Where I think we really missed today, however? Was on the repeatable, creature-based recursion. If I'd made the cutoff three mana instead of two, we would have seen some, but I really wanted to see what the cheapest options were, not what the most repeatable ones are.

With that in mind, however, let's take a look at some aggro creatures who can also recur small creatures from the graveyard.

Top 10 Three-Mana Recursion Creatures in Mardu

1. Liliana, Heretical Healer
2. Alesha, Who Smiles at Death
3. Ayara, Widow of the Realm
4. Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate
5. Jackdaw Savior
6. Venerable Warsinger
7. Zoraline, Cosmos Caller
8. Necropanther
9. Gurgling Anointer
10. Extraction Specialist

Maybe I did the wrong top ten today, because I feel like this one cuts off right as we get to the best options. In opposition to all of these creatures that cost mana or only bring things back once, there are a few more creatures that bring back compatriots for free when they do combat things, much the same way that Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate and Venerable Warsinger do.

These five make up the bulk of the card advantage we'll see in our otherwise straight aggro deck, allowing for multiple combats where we're bringing back multiple creatures and tacking on a +1/+1 counter for the team.

Unforgiving One especially likes that last part, and comes with menace to help it get through and not die in combat after it's done the deed.

If it does, however, then Bereaved Survivor will be fine with it, as it flips over into Dauntless Avenger to start bringing back two-drops swinging.

Finally, Custodi Soulcaller might be my favorite here, as it gives us an excuse to spread the damage out to make it into a 3/4 that will bring back three drops every time it swings.

Which pretty much wraps up the deck. What deck, you ask? I'm glad you did.

As might be expected, given how great Celes, Rune Knight looks on paper, this aggro brew can routinely kill on turns five and six. With that in mind, despite not actually containing any game changers, I've bumped it up to the Upgraded (3) bracket.

With that said, I don't think this will actually kill a table that early that often, because folks will have an inclination to do exactly what they should do when they see your commander: Kill it with fire.

With that in mind, if you do build this, I would highly suggest going for more typical aggro out of the gate, and not casting your commander until you have extra mana available to try and reanimate some things.

The other thing to look out for, as all of our card advantage outside of Celes herself puts things onto the battlefield, rather than into hand, is board wipes.

If you've never had to play a format that's trained you to not play out your entire hand, this deck should train you in that lickety split, as the first board wipe you experience will shatter you.

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Nuts and Bolts

There always seems to be a bit of interest in how these lists are made (this seems like a good time to stress once again that they are based on EDHREC score, NOT my personal opinion…), and people are often surprised that I’m not using any special data or .json from EDHREC, but rather just muddling my way through with some Scryfall knowledge! For your enjoyment/research, here is this week’s Scryfall search.

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What Do You Think?

Thinking about the brewing of yet another commander that probably won't be all that fun to play for you or your opponents, due to it being a huge sign that says "you can't let me play Magic at all or I'll win the game outright", I can't help but wonder once again about power creep.

How did we get here, where 4/4's for four can wheel upon entering and then permanently pump your entire team anytime you bring something back from the graveyard you just filled? And is it sustainable?

And finally, what is your favorite Unearth? Is it the namesake, or something a bit more obscure? Are you brewing Celes? For casual or for cEDH?

Let us know in the comments, and we'll see you at the table where they used to do Final Fantasy TCG league nights.