Elmar, Ulvenwald Informant | Art by Eliz Roxs | Hargilde, Kindly Runechanter | Art by David Sondered

In many different countries, Sunday, August 3rd, was International Friendship Day! It's a day meant to honor the spirit of camaraderie, platonic love and respect, and, most of all, your friends. As such, I've drafted up a deck for today that aims to give credit to the power of friendship.

This deck tech, based on Elmar, Ulvenwald InformantElmar, Ulvenwald Informant and Hargilde, Kindly RunechanterHargilde, Kindly Runechanter, pays homage to the power of friends and the good they bring to the world. Players may also know these cards better as Max and Dustin (respectively) from Netflix's Stranger Things and the tie-in that Universes Beyond Secret Lair provided.

In a nutshell, this deck is powered by casting at least two spells per turn and benefiting from such lines of play. It's meant to be a Bracket 2 deck, but can be played as a Bracket 1 if that's the call. So follow me as I flurry into a world of fun!

Let's get friendly!

What Do Elmar and Hargilde Do?

Elmar, Ulvenwald InformantElmar, Ulvenwald Informant is a 3/2 legendary Human creature with haste that investigates whenever you cast your second spell each turn. Investigating, for those new to the mechanic, means you create a Clue token that can be sacrificed for to draw a card.

Elmar costs . He is but one of the commanders for this deck, but instead of partner, he has "friends forever." The mechanic is essentially the same as the partner ability, however, friends forever can only be paired with commanders with the same mechanic.

Hargilde, Kindly RunechanterHargilde, Kindly Runechanter also has friends forever, and so Elmar can pair with her. For a cost of , Hargilde is a 2/3 legendary Human creature that taps for to use only for artifact costs. I can use this pair of colorless mana either for spells or activated abilities, provided they're that of artifacts.

As you may have already figured out, that's the same amount of mana it costs to sacrifice a Clue token!

In this way, Elmar, Ulvenwald Informant and Hargilde, Kindly Runechanter work well in tandem with each other. Elmar, the commander you'll want to cast first, curves into Hargilde immediately from one turn into the next. Elmar creates a Clue, and then Hargilde makes it easy to sacrifice that Clue.

This is the easy part, however, as the trick then becomes casting two spells in the same turn. Given that Elmar and Hargilde are in the command zone of your deck, they won't be a drag on your hand. So, first and second spells should feasibly come to you without much difficulty.

Competing Commanders

Elmar and Hargilde are fairly novel when it comes to Clue generation in their colors. As far as I can recall, no other commander (or commander pair) in sans-black can utilize such a strategy. Even the friends forever commanders can't exactly do this specifically. Bjorna, Nightfall AlchemistBjorna, Nightfall Alchemist and Othelm, Sigardian OutcastOthelm, Sigardian Outcast are the only other friends forever pair that can make up a sans-black color pairing, but neither generates Clues.

Truly, Elmar and Hargilde's friendship is worthy of this deck tech!

The Strategy of This Deck

When it comes to the strategy behind this deck, my throughline revolves around the following overall trajectory.

First, I want to cast my commanders and/or any number of spells that care about casting a second spell. The deck has the lion's share of these cards, so there's very little chance that I won't draw into one in the first three turns plus my opening hand.

Then, I aim to go to town with casting two spells a turn, as often as I can. If possible, I'd prefer to have a Leyline of AnticipationLeyline of Anticipation out as early as possible too, but that's at the mercy of the top-deck.

Nevertheless, the third part of this strategy has me paid off through the same cards I'm running for the second spell synergies. It'll often feel a little like deja vu, but that's a small price to pay... for friendship!

Key Cards for Elmar and Hargilde

As I often do for my deck techs, I'll be empirically summing this deck up with three key ideas. For Elmar and Hargilde, these concepts are:

• Second-Spell Enablers: These are cards that, while not necessarily mana reducers, can fall under that category as well.
• Second-Spell Payoffs: These cards will trigger some sort of ability whenever you cast two spells in a turn.
• Rebound: Rebound is a major part of my strategy to ensure two spells get cast as often as possible.

Now, let's go into the cards that make these categories function smoothly and efficiently!

Second-Spell Enablers

In this deck, I've included five cost reducers for the second spell cast each turn. Monk ClassMonk Class, Alisaie LeveilleurAlisaie Leveilleur, and Raging Battle MouseRaging Battle Mouse all do good work in this deck via added utility, while Highspire Bell-RingerHighspire Bell-Ringer is simply cheap and efficient.

Edge of Eternities newcomer Uthros PsionicistUthros Psionicist is also highly efficient here.

In addition, while generally useful for a great many decks, flash enablers like Leyline of AnticipationLeyline of Anticipation and High Fae TricksterHigh Fae Trickster are especially useful here. Being able to cast at least two spells in a turn is vital, but having the ability to do it multiple times in a single turn cycle is even more crucial.

With cards like these, the next step should come fairly intuitively. If I get even one of the cards from each of these subcategories, it usually means I'm about to make things really chaotic for my opponents to catch up from.

Second-Spell Payoffs

For the most part, if this deck's creatures aren't enabling my two-cast playstyle, they're payoffs for that strategy. No matter how long the game actually takes and regardless of the outcome, I'm almost guaranteed to draw into at least one of these payoffs. That's how abundant they are in this deck.

As for a few examples of second-spell payoffs, these fall into a few subcategories, just as the enabler category does.

For one, several cards draw cards off of casting the second spell. Jori En, Ruin DiverJori En, Ruin Diver and Alphinaud LeveilleurAlphinaud Leveilleur are just two examples of this kind of ability. The Council of FourThe Council of Four is another, in a sense, as well as Shiko and Narset, UnifiedShiko and Narset, Unified. These second is an honorary second-spell cantrip, while the first acts as a second cantrip off of a preliminary second-spell cantrip.

Meanwhile, Trouble in PairsTrouble in Pairs and Mangara, the DiplomatMangara, the Diplomat punish opponents for trying to do the same, causing some disparity in my favor.

Moving away from the lion's share of draw options, there are other things to do when casting a second spell. I can damage opponents with Cori Mountain StalwartCori Mountain Stalwart, create tokens with Cori-Steel CutterCori-Steel Cutter, or even blink one of my creatures with Oji, the Exquisite BladeOji, the Exquisite Blade.

There are plenty of other things to do with this event, and I highly recommend you look into it by testing this deck out!

Rebound

The third major category this deck utilizes is a glut of rebound spells. Rebound, for players unfamiliar with the keyword, means when you cast the spell, exile the card instead of putting it into the graveyard. Then, the caster can cast it again, for free, at their next upkeep.

It's a great tool for second-spell matters decks, because the spells count as casting something on the rebound as well.

Plenty of strong cards fall under this category. Perhaps the most infamous rebound card in here is EphemerateEphemerate, a card that has seen its share of salt in a variety of formats.

I have flashbacks to losing against a particularly nasty Ephemerate deck in Pauper, for example. That deck archetype is a testament to how degenerate a keyword ability like rebound can be.

Other neat cards with rebound include Nomads' AssemblyNomads' Assembly and Quantum MisalignmentQuantum Misalignment, both of which create creature tokens, and TerramorphTerramorph, a potent ramp spell. Stronger than these even still is World at WarWorld at War, providing its caster with extra combat steps for two turns. It's fantastic!

All of the categories I'm discussing here coalesce into a deck that loves to cast multiple spells in a given turn. But how does this deck manage to win games?

How Do Elmar and Hargilde Win?

The deck's most prominent win-con is probably Aetherflux ReservoirAetherflux Reservoir. If I'm casting two spells each turn in a four-player game, by the end of the turn cycle, I'll have gained 12 life. Repeating this line of play four times means somebody is taking 50 damage from the Reservoir.

The difficult part of this is getting Reservoir to stick around for that long, but the deck's theming and contents, paired with the seeming inefficacy of the Reservoir in practice, might dissuade others from taking me out. If my playgroup was more wary of my game plan, I'm certain they wouldn't keep it on the board, however.

Beyond the Reservoir, the rest of the game plan to secure victory comes from outmaneuvering other players and accruing a slow, incremental hoard of value. The things these cards all do is small overall, perhaps even unimpactful, but they'll add up over the course of the game.

Elmar & Hargilde Commander Deck List

A Deck for the Sake of Friendship

All in all, this deck is a low-bracket build meant to evoke a casual, friendly game of Commander. If someone in a Bracket 1 or Bracket 2 game takes issue with this deck, I'd assure them that it runs by the letter and spirit of the law. Many decks in those brackets surprisingly don't follow the spirit, even if they follow the letter. But that's just my opinion.

And now, I'd like to open the floor to you, dear readers! Do you like this friends forever build? What would you add to it to make the deck even more adherent to that theme without changing the commanders?

Also, how did you spend your International Day of Friendship? I hope you spent it among your comrades. Nevertheless, feel free to sound off in the comments below!