Nadier, Agent of the DuskenelNadier, Agent of the Duskenel | Art by Yongjae Choi

Welcome back to Bottom of the Barrel! This is a series where we pick a theme from EDHREC and look at the “bottom of the barrel.” This means that we look at the least played color-combinations and pick a commander in those colors to brew a spicy new deck around!

Today's episode explores the most popular green creature type: Elves. According to EDHREC, there are over 45 thousand Elf kindred decks in the database, second only to Dragons and their staggering 54 thousand decks. With numbers like this, I was curious if building an Elf deck without green was even possible, and stumbling upon Nadier, Agent of the DuskenelNadier, Agent of the Duskenel, brought this idea to life.

And Sakashima of a Thousand FacesSakashima of a Thousand Faces, well, is just for the blue.

Nadier himself is an Elf who makes more Elves, and even though he's black, he feels much more like a green creature. I compare his ability to that of Lathril, Blade of the ElvesLathril, Blade of the Elves, but one that's less reliant on combat damage, which can be much stronger. Also, notably, Nadier triggers when he leaves the battlefield, which means he triggers whenever he leaves play at all. Someone casts Swords to PlowsharesSwords to Plowshares? You still get the Elves. He dies? Get Elves. Gets flickered? Still get Elves.

Category #1: Pump Our Boy

Nadier's trigger relies on how big he is, which means pumping him can really boost our gameplan. There are plenty of ways to do this, but here are a couple of the most efficient in these colors.

Cultist of the AbsoluteCultist of the Absolute gives Nadier a +3/+3 boost and flying, but forces us to sacrifice a creature on our upkeep. This might seem bad, but sacrificing Nadier just gives us more Elves!

Haunted OneHaunted One gives Nadier and all of our other Elves +2/+0 and undying when he becomes tapped, which is amazing considering we usually want him to die and will have ways to sacrifice him.

Blackblade ReforgedBlackblade Reforged pumps Nadier equal to the amount of lands we have in play, and Stoneforge MasterworkStoneforge Masterwork pumps Nadier equal to our total Elf count. Both are very good.

Pumping Nadier is not our main goal; it's just the cherry on top of our "Dimir Elves sundae".

Category #2: Make Nadier Go Home (Or Other Places)

The easiest way to create Elves from Nadier's trigger is to find ways to sacrifice him. Luckily for us, black excels at this. We have a few ways to do this at instant speed, all of which will grant us card advantage in some way: Corrupted ConvictionCorrupted Conviction, Deadly DisputeDeadly Dispute, Village RitesVillage Rites, Vampiric RitesVampiric Rites, Plumb the ForbiddenPlumb the Forbidden, and Shadowheart, Dark JusticiarShadowheart, Dark Justiciar are all terrific inclusions that satisfy this category.

A cheeky way to sacrifice Nadier for his token-making trigger is to copy him. If the copy is legendary, we'll have to sacrifice it due to the "legend rule".

Ways to copy him would include QuasiduplicateQuasiduplicate, Reflections of LittjaraReflections of Littjara, Glasspool MimicGlasspool Mimic, and even Tomb of Horrors AdventurerTomb of Horrors Adventurer. We can keep our original Nadier around and just benefit from the copy's "leave the battlefield" trigger.

Even though sacrificing Nadier is an easy way to guarantee his trigger, there are two ways to guarantee the trigger without sacrificing him, and both cards are incredibly similar: Thassa, Deep-DwellingThassa, Deep-Dwelling and Conjurer's ClosetConjurer's Closet. They are essentially the same card and serve the same purpose: blink Nadier on our end step to create more tokens. As previously mentioned, he only needs to leave the battlefield, so blinking him is not only a great alternative to sacrificing him, but it's also much stronger.

Category #3: We Have Elves... Now What?

After blinking or sacrificing our commander, we will have some Elf tokens at our disposal. So, what do we do now? Well, we have plenty of options.

Our first option is arguably the best when it comes to 1/1 tokens: SkullclampSkullclamp. Equipping Skullclamp to a token will instantly kill it, allowing us to draw two cards. That seems pretty broken to me.

In a similar vein, we can draw bunches of cards with things like Pact of the SerpentPact of the Serpent, Distant MelodyDistant Melody, and Kindred DiscoveryKindred Discovery. Kindred DiscoveryKindred Discovery is a consistent and repeatable form of card draw, arguably being the strongest card draw option for kindred decks.

Okay, we can draw cards, but can we win?

Yes. Yes, we can.

Two incredible finishers in this deck are Banner of KinshipBanner of Kinship and Coat of ArmsCoat of Arms. Sure, Coat of Arms can be very dangerous, but it makes our commander exponentially better each time he dies. Besides, we'll have so many Elves that it shouldn't matter. Not to mention, Rogue's PassageRogue's Passage is in the deck.

Category #4: "Secret Sauce" - A Mantle for an Elf

If any reader is familiar with Nim DeathmantleNim Deathmantle, you may have noticed how it interacts with Nadier. When Nadier leaves, he creates 3 Elves at minimum, which means when we have an Ashnod's AltarAshnod's Altar in play, we can create an infinite number of Elf tokens, along with infinite "enters" and "leaves" triggers.

If this combo is on the board and we also have a Nadier's NightbladeNadier's Nightblade out, that's game over.

Closing Thoughts

Overall, this deck was super fun to build, and even though we rely pretty heavily on our commander to create our "Elf Kindred" theme, it still feels very strong. Sure, this might be stronger with green, but the whole point of this series is to explore new ways to play themes that are often locked in a specific color combination.

Check out my decklist below!