Before it was known as Commander, the most popular format in Magic: the Gathering was known as EDH. This stands for Elder Dragon Highlander and was a joking descriptor of the format. Highlander stood in for the fact that each card in the deck had to be unique (“THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!”), and Elder Dragons were the first legendary creatures, who served as the leaders of the decks. Over the years, the format has become known more commonly as Commander.

The Elder creature type has been one of the most iconic types in MtG since its first days. The type has only been used sparingly and is not just for creatures that are old. Creatures that bear the Elder type stand as pinnacles of their magic. Even more creatures have earned the Elder type in recent years, but it is still rare and momentous to see. 

With more legendaries printed every day and more new Elder creatures popping up in the lore, I set out to build a True EDH deck. With Morophon, the Boundless at the Helm, I’ve built a deck showcasing Elder creatures both new and old.

The New and The Old

I love Elder Creatures, especially Elder Dragons. Whenever I play my Ur-Dragon shell, I am always tempted to sleeve up my Elder Dragons from my collections. These creatures are iconic, important in the story and their settings, and always fun to play. In the past, I was content to use this to experience Elder Dragons. So, what has changed?

This year has released some strong spoilers for future sets, and it is due to these spoilers that I have finally decided to build my Elder Deck. With the release of Tarkir: Dragonstorm today, there are so many new dragons that it’s time to make room in Sarkhan’s Menagerie for some new contenders. Additionally, spoilers for the Final Fantasy set have released an Elder Wizard, Emet Selch. With a new Elder on the way and new dragons releasing today, there was no better time to build this deck!

Elder Stories

The expansion of the Elder type into something greater than it once was is a story that reaches back to the last Tarkir set, almost ten years ago. In Tarkir’s introduction, it was ruled by brutal warlords, called Khans, in a plane where dragons had been purged centuries ago. Despite this, a planeswalker named Sarkhan risked everything to step back in time and alter the course of events. 

This led to the creation of a new timeline where the Khans and tribes of Tarkir had lost a crucial battle, and the dragons dominated and assumed control over the clans. When Sarkhan returned to the new present, the dragons that had perished in the previous timeline were now alive and had become the first new Elder Dragons since the original five from Dominaria.

I first started playing Magic during Tarkir, and I still remember how momentous this event felt. The card game had not seen Elder creatures since its early days, and now, they reappeared only due to magic that altered the flow of time to ensure their survival. 

The Tarkir block set a new precedent for what we could expect from new Elder creatures. Elders are powerful creatures in control of the magic of an entire plane. Additionally, the “Fate Reforged” storyline showed us that encountering these Elders was usually not possible. Elders are typically isolated from the main story due to powerful barriers, such as time or death.

What’s Eld is New

Over the years, new Elder creatures have been introduced since the Tarkir Dragonlords. On the first visit to Ixalan, Wizards of the Coast introduced Elder Dinosaurs. While there was an Elder Dinosaur for each color, one stood out from the rest. In contrast, Zacama was three colors, mythic instead of rare, and much more powerful. Locked away in the unreachable city of Orazca, Zacama was another perfect example of what could be expected from Elders, established back in Tarkir.

The hits have kept on coming for Elders. On Theros, we met the Titans, Elder Giants trapped beyond death, trying to escape into the world of the living. On Strixhaven, five more Elder Dragons who ruled the plane emerged to round out the-two color Elder Dragons. We have also now encountered three Elder Demons.

As if the new Elders weren’t enough, Magic even returned to its oldest Elder Dragons by giving them new cards in Core Set 2019. These cards present better versions of these dragons that generally have fewer drawbacks, and some that are incredibly powerful.

Magic has even seen its first set of non-legendary Elders with the Ancient Dragon cycle during the D&D collaboration. To be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of these Elder Dragons since the Elder type does not mean that a creature is simply old. However, these creatures are still incredibly powerful and deserve a mention.

Stars of the Show

With almost fifty Elder creatures to choose from today, there are too many to fit in our deck. So, how do we decide which ones stay? Since our commander is Morophon, the Elder creatures that will get the biggest discount and be the cheapest to play will be the ones with more colors. Unfortunately, this means we’ll be leaving many of the monocolor Elders, such as the Elder Dinosaurs and Ancient Dragons, behind.

Using a collection of two-color and three-color Elders, we can make something incredibly fun. This gives us a solid base of cards to work from, though we won’t be using all of them. The two color Elder Dragons are a slam dunk, and the Theros Titans. However, for the most part, I won’t include the oldest Elder cards since their newer counterparts are better. The exception is Arcades Sabboth, whose newest card cares about defender, which is not a mechanic supported in this deck.

Between the Elder Giants and Elder Dragons gracing this deck, we already have a strong base, but there are a few more good hits. Both Zacama and Mycotyrant are Ixalan natives and serve as a great fit for the deck. With Morophon out, “The Mycotyrant” only costs a single mana, and Zacama’s ability to untap lands for only six mana is excellent. Finally, Valgavoth’s two-color card will be our final true elder for this deck.

Eld Enough

As cool as all of our Elder creatures are, there is something of a problem with this deck: it doesn’t have any support creatures. The Elder creatures we already have don’t provide a lot of low mana options for this deck until the commander comes out. So, we need cards to round out the lower end of our deck that will also make our Elder cards better without breaking our theme.

Changelings to the rescue! Changelings are cards that count as all creature types at all times, allowing them to benefit from Morophon’s cost reduction and other support cards. This means we can add a few more cards that count as Elders and make it easier to play this deck while technically still playing all Elder creatures.

In particular, our two biggest allies here are “Unsettled Mariner” and “Realmwalker.” “Realmwalker” is already notably strong and able to fit into any Kindred deck without issue. It allows you to look at a future card and play more Elders. On the other hand, “Unsettled Mariner” makes it harder to target our Elder creatures.

We can also play a few shapeshifters that will count as Elders. “Metallic Mimic” and “Adaptive Automaton” are two classics that will buff all our Elders. We also have some lands that can turn into Elders! “Faceless Haven,” “Mutavault,” and “Soulstone Sanctuary” each have different abilities that can turn them into Elders to help out with our other cards. 

An Interesting Challenge

In contrast to other kindred decks I’ve made, this deck provided a unique challenge. This is primarily because solving the challenge required a surprisingly generic solution. 

I landed in this confusing position due to how “kindred” decks have been supported in EDH. A Kindred deck, once referred to as a tribal deck, is any deck that focuses on playing cards of a specific creature type. However, some creature types don’t have a lot of cards, or they don’t have cards that specifically support them. For example, cards like “Call the Spirit Dragons,” “Rooftop Storm,” and “Elvish Piper” each support a specific creature type. The Elder type, however, despite being the oldest Legendary type, does not have a single card that supports it.

While the lack of specific support cards may once have been a problem for Kindred decks, there has been a push to print cards that generically support Kindred strategies. The commander of this deck, Morophon, is a great example. Morophon is a changeling that reduces casting types of a type you choose, making it slot in as a commander for any creature type without support.

Therefore, in order to make this deck work, I had to rely on adding generic tribal cards while still keeping the deck unique. For that purpose, I added in cards like “Herald’s Horn,” “Descendants’ Path,” and “Kindred Summons,” which are all cards that make it easier to rush out cool Elder cards.

Respect Your Elders

One of the most common types of generic support for kindred decks is anthems. Anthems buff creatures of a certain type, and some provide additional powerful effects. We are packing the deck full of these for some easy Elder support.

Anthems might be uninteresting, but they certainly pack a punch and get the job done. For this reason, we’re running “Rally the Ranks,” “Radiant Destiny,” and “Obelisk of Urd.” All of these provide useful stat boosts that can help our creatures punch through. We’re even running “Door of Destinies,” which provides stronger buffs for each Elder cast.

Requiem for an Elder

It’s time to tie it all together. Now that we have our creatures and a bunch of support cards, we need to add cards to support the deck’s main strategies. This is where we run into a bit of a problem. Elders don’t really have a strong mechanical identity in Magic. This means running a bunch of them doesn’t automatically hand a strategy to us.

Nevertheless, I’ve found something that Elders are very good at: dying. Ironically enough, a good amount of Elders have an ability that will kill them. All of the original Elder Dragons had upkeep costs that had to be paid, or the Elder would die. The new Titans also can only stay on the battlefield if they escape the graveyard, otherwise, they die as soon as they enter.

Between the notable amount of Elders that die quite quickly and the Elders that care about creatures dying or bringing creatures back, we’ve found a solid strategy. This strategy then helps determine the final support cards we’ll be running.

Grave Strength

When our Elders come back, they really want to remove cards from our graveyard to do it. Because of this, we are running a LOT of fetch lands that sacrifice themselves and lands that cycle. Due to our commander’s ability, we actually don’t need very many lands of specific colors, so we can use our lands as fodder to help our Elders return from the grave. A whopping 18 out of our 37 lands have ways to easily pitch them to the graveyard for extra value.

Given how disposable our lands are, this makes “Formless Genesis” a great fit in our deck. This card is a sorcery that makes changelings that get stronger depending on how many lands are in your graveyard. Additionally, its retrace ability lets you cast it again and again by pitching lands from your hand. Considering how we’ve built this deck, this is an extremely powerful card that can make us a ton of Elders.

Finally, when you expect your creatures to die, it’s a good idea to find ways to bring them back. To aid in our plan, we’re running “Primevals Glorious Rebirth,” “Haunting Voyage,” and “Patriarch’s Bidding,” two of which are perfect for returning Elders in particular to the battlefield.

Just a Pinch of Cheating

With most of our central strategies covered and our Elders provided with a deck to help them wreak havoc on a table, it’s time to talk about how we can cheat. We’re already breaking the game due to our Commander’s insane ability to reduce the mana needed to play Elders… but this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Since Morophon reduces card costs by five mana of each color, running cards that set costs up to five mana of each color would allow us to cast spells for free. With “Fist of the Suns” and “Leyline of Mutation” in our deck, we can meet this requirement and cast our Elder cards for free as long as we control our Commander.

This is a powerful and fun interaction between cards and exactly the kind of thing you should be looking to find in your own commander deck. While this strategy might be too strong for some tables, this interaction is what the commander format is all about.

The Elden Days of Yore

Elder creatures are some of the most storied and iconic creatures in all of Magic: the Gathering. Looking up an Elder usually means unearthing huge chunks of lore central to the setting or the main story. I love these cards, and I can’t wait to see what new Elder’s magic announces.

This deck is both a way for me to play my Elder Dragons together, as well as a way to celebrate Magic’s history and story. If you’re a lover of both Commander and Magic’s story, this might be the perfect deck for you.