(Elsha, Threefold Master | Art by Irina Nordsol)

En Masse

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 Spectacular Showdown is the only card that can give every creature on the battlefield double strike?)

It's no secret that I love aggro. Storm too. Voltron, though? Never been as much of a fan. But what if there was a commander that could do all three at once?

While a lot of the Dragons of Dragons of Tarkir have been bouncing off of me, Elsha, Threefold Master was an immediate hit.

A three-mana 1/1 with prowess and trample would've felt like a direct challenge to my Johnniness, but with her making Monks that also have prowess, this is almost too easy to even bother with. Almost.

Since we are going to delve into it, however, just what is the best thing you can do with Elsha?

Top 10 Jeskai Non-Creature Spells That Give Mass Double Strike

With Elsha pumping herself, one of the most impactful things we can do is give her double strike.

This not only doubles her damage for whatever poor soul you decide gets to die via commander damage, but also doubles the amount of Monks you get to put down, all of which have prowess as well.

Top 10 Double Strike Enablers

1. Boros Charm
2. [REDACTED] (On actual list)
3. Fireshrieker
4. Embercleave
5. Temur Battle Rage
6. Duelist's Heritage
7. Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
8. [REDACTED] (On actual list)
9. Two-Handed Axe
10. Twinferno

All right, we've got some heat! The only problem is: My Monks are feeling left out. These feel like a great opening salvo, but I want the whole kit and kaboodle. So, how do we give double strike to all my creatures? On the cheap, if possible?

Criteria: Non-creature, non-land cards within the Jeskai color identity that can grant double strike to all creatures you control. As is tradition, all results are ordered by EDHREC score.

10. Ajani, Inspiring Leader

(2,817 Inclusions, 0% of 2,556,456 Decks)

Cheap, Ajani, Inspiring Leader is not. Six mana to get out, and then you have to get 10 counters on him to actually hand out double strike. Next!

9. Concerted Effort

(4,082 Inclusions, 0% of 2,556,456 Decks)

The original Odric, Lunarch Marshal is a lot more reasonable at four mana, but also doesn't actually hand out anything unless one of your creatures already has it.

This does mean that Elsha would give out trample to all of your Monks, however, so the fact that this may not do what we want some of the time isn't the worst thing.

Combine that with the amount of individual double strike enablers there are that could come down as a surprise after blocks, and Concerted Effort is worth some consideration.

8. Flying Crane Technique

(4,511 Inclusions, 1% of 601,699 Decks)

I want Flying Crane Technique to work as much as the next guy--Maybe more. And to be clear, it can in decks that want to abuse the untap and want to go aggro.

Unfortunately, that's a very specific use case that doesn't just need a deck built around it, it also needs a special situation within said deck. For six mana, that's just too many hoops.

7. Rage Reflection

(11,906 Inclusions, 0% of 2,721,129 Decks)

What's better than giving all your creatures double strike for a turn? Giving it to them forever, of course! Or is it? You see, the thing about this being a six mana spell is, by the time you cast it, it's likely to end the game anyhow. So why not just use a cheaper version that will do it once, and end the game earlier?

6. Savage Beating

(27,982 Inclusions, 1% of 2,721,129 Decks)

Savage Beating does fit that "end it earlier" description, and can also get a couple extra mana thrown into it to guarantee the thing with an extra combat.

It coming down as an instant is also pretty huge, as already described by Elsha getting blocked "for lethal" and then you pumping her bigger to have her both live and trample over the top for Monks and damage.

I do have one issue with Savage Beating in Elsha specifically, however. With the prevalence of rituals in red, and how good they are with prowess, we want to abuse those whenever we can. The issue is, a ton of those rituals are sorcery speed:

Top 10 Red Rituals

1. Jeska's Will
2. Mana Geyser
3. Seething Song
4. Rite of Flame
5. Pyretic Ritual
6. Desperate Ritual
7. Battle Hymn
8. Brightstone Ritual
9. Rousing Refrain
10. Infernal Plunge

With a full half of the best red rituals coming in at sorcery speed, it's going to feel like a Savage Beating pointed at you when you have them and it in your hand.

The reason being, you can cast your rituals during your main phase, but then you can't cast Savage Beating until combat, when all that mana will have drained from your pool.

Which means that if we can find a similar effect that's slightly less good that can also be cast with only a bunch of red pips, Savage Beating is out.

5. War of the Last Alliance

(30,964 Inclusions, 1% of 2,410,663 Decks)

I'm torn on War of the Last Alliance. Where most aggro decks would welcome searching up the best legend in their deck twice, Elsha wants to be casting non-creatures.

And while there are some legendary creatures that can be alternatively cast for a non-creature half, that seems like a lot of hoops to jump through to then give all your creatures what you actually wanted two turns later.

4. Berserkers' Onslaught

(34,826 Inclusions, 1% of 2,721,129 Decks)

It turns out, if you want a cheaper Rage Reflection, you don't have to stoop to a one-time spell. You can just grab Berserkers' Onslaught instead! Sure, you'll lose your defensive double strike, but since when are you not tapping all those double strikers anyhow?

This does seem good enough for our Elsha brew at first glance, but we're also not going to have room for every double strike effect in the book. With that in mind, let's keep the jury open on this one, and see what ends up on the cutting room floor.

3. Spectacular Showdown

(36,526 Inclusions, 1% of 2,721,129 Decks)

You could not have designed a card more perfectly to fit Elsha, Threefold Master than Spectacular Showdown. Early game, you get to cast it and give Elsha double strike, triggering prowess and giving your four Monks, even if it's the only spell you cast that turn.

Late game, with 10 Monks out? This is a straight alpha strike for the win, giving them all +1/+1 and double strike to swing in for 40+ damage.

2. True Conviction

(59,725 Inclusions, 2% of 2,556,456 Decks)

Part of me yearns for the days when True Conviction was worth running. The other part of me wonders how on earth these inclusion numbers are still so high.

Six mana for double strike is already on the expensive end, as we've seen. Throwing in lifelink might make it enough for decks that care about life gain too, but I would accuse said decks of splitting their focus if they're also trying to win via aggro.

Still, brackets one and two exist for a reason, and this card will perform with exactly the kind of big, splashy play that those power levels are known for.

1. Akroma's Will

(241,092 Inclusions, 9% of 2,556,456 Decks)

If we've established that five or six is the going rate for giving all of your creatures double strike, then Akroma's Will is beating that rate to death with a hammer, providing not only double strike but a smorgasbord of every other keyword, as well. Slap an "at instant speed" on there to finish things off, and this was always in the deck.

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Honorable Mentions

There's not really anything further down the list than Ajani, Inspiring Leader, so we're going to have to shift gears back over to single targets.

Which is good, because if I'm being honest, our top 10 list of general double strike did not sit well with me. Boros Charm is all well and good, as is Embercleave and Twinferno.

But for Elsha, we're going to want some cheaper spells that will allow us to keep on triggering prowess again and again.

Assault Strobe fits that bill, letting us get straight into some serious damage as soon as Elsha loses summoning sickness. Violent Urge is a bit more finicky, needing Delirium to actually allow us to give Elsha double strike, but also has a higher ceiling once we get there, as it also gives her +1/+0 in addition to the +1/+1 she'll get for casting it in the first place.

That stacks up to a nice six Monks and six damage if its the only spell you've cast that turn, or a perfectly fine three damage and three Monks if you don't have Delirium yet. Lastly, Paladin Class barely fits what we're talking about.

It does cost one mana, and it can eventually grant double strike, but that's stretching all sorts of boundaries and definitions. What this really is is a cheap, one-mana spell that provides a bit of security on your turn for your commander, making it a lot less likely that you get two-for-oned when you cast something like Assault Strobe or Violent Urge on Elsha and invite in the removal.

Which is really the larger point. All three modes of Paladin Class are the exact things that this deck wants to be doing. Protecting Elsha at level one, going wide at level two, and making Elsha massive and double strikey to end the game, or to start to rebuild after a board wipe.

Which begs the question: What other effects is Elsha looking for? Well, for those of you who've attended my seminars on how Spellslinger decks work before, you'll know the classic formula of ramp and card draw. I'm sure most of you are thinking "all right, all the blue cantrips and red rituals you can muster", but I'd actually like to start at the beginning, if you don't mind.

Top 10 Jeskai, Non-Creature, Non-Land, Zero-Mana Ramp and Draw Effects That Cost Less Than 10 Dollars and Aren't X Spells in Reality or in Practice (get off my list, Everflowing Chalice!)

1. Mishra's Bauble
2. Sol Talisman
3. Paradise Mantle
4. Wheel of Fate
5. Ancestral Vision
6. Lotus Bloom
7. Urza's Bauble
8. Mox Tantalite
9. Jeweled Amulet
10. Lodestone Bauble

Now, I know what you're thinking. "Doug, you forgot to remove all these crappy Suspend spells from your list." Did I? Did I add that one-sentence-that-should-have-been-three-sentences description on there and then forget to leave out Suspend?

No sir. For those of you who haven't ever messed around with Suspend in a spellslinger deck, let me be the first to inform you that it's very, very good.

Why? Because it casts a whole bunch of spells for free at the beginning of your Storm turn, because almost all of the effects are Suspendable on turn one, and lastly, because almost all of the effects are either--you guessed it--draw or ramp.

So, take Sol Talisman, for instance. You can Suspend that on turn one, and it will remove a counter every upkeep. That will end up with it casting itself, not on turn three as you might expect, but actually on turn four.

Guess what else is likely to be happening on turn four in an Elsha deck? You untapping with Elsha and getting to attack with her. That means getting an extra two mana, putting you at six, and starting with one spell already cast to trigger prowess.

In other words, you're likely to end up with a monster Elsha that turn, so that when your Wheel of Fate from turn two unsuspends itself a couple turns later to refill your hand, you'll be sitting on fifteen Monks that also have Prowess to take advantage of another monster Storm turn to win the game. That's called snowballing, right there.

But how do I know that you can do all this? Well, because I built the deck, of course!

As you may have already guessed, this is an extremely commander-reliant deck. If we were being at all responsible, we'd be playing about 20 more pieces of interaction.

Instead, we're going full bore, hoping to untap with Elsha and swing in for ludicrous amounts of Monks.

And if you manage to do it, you'll hit a point where you'll be killing the table by turn five or six, easily. If not? Well then bide your time, load up your hand, and try again in a couple turns!

...or add some interaction. I know how you folks get about that kind of thing.

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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?

Despite being an aggro fan, I've rarely found a deck that's wanted Akroma's Will, so I feel like I'm a half dozen years behind asking if this is too powerful.

Four mana for an effect that usually costs five, and has substantial upside outside of that? Seems like a bit much, if you ask me. Then again, the other effects also feel over-costed, so maybe the true answer is somewhere in the middle?

And finally, what is your favorite double strike enabler? Does it affect one creature, or more? Are you building Elsha, and if so, in which bracket?

Let us know in the comments, and we'll see you at the table that has eight legs, for some reason.