The best Stella Lee, Wild Card EDH Deck for $100

[@granite_4576]

Yesterday I played a casual game with a Stella player. He said up front: " if I draw a card that goes infinite with Stella on its own I'll announce it, exile it and draw again" It happened twice in the game, and he still won 😂

[@BasedDeckDept]

Stella with infinites is not a casual deck in any way 😂😂😂

[@granite_4576]

@@BasedDeckDept well like obviously not hence rulezeroing a draw around any combos. The point was deck variety for a final game because even he was sick of Rocco and a million triggers after 3 other games.

[@BasedDeckDept]

@@granite_4576Yeah fair How did he win whilst avoiding his combos? Eris / Dragons?

[@granite_4576]

@@BasedDeckDept Niv mizzet shenanigans, alas.

[@BasedDeckDept]

@@granite_4576 Alas indeed

[@ursa64]

What I used to do, and I dont anymore because I unmade the deck to play in lower power tables, was to draw my entire deck, exile simian, play lotus petal, tap for 1 mana, sol ring, then red mana from simian and two from solring to play twisted fealty and thats it. it was pretty damn powerful, and my list was like 4 dollars above 100.

[@BasedDeckDept]

Yeah this build definitely isn't a low power casual deck We're basically doing the same thing with Simian, Petal, Sol ring, and Simian, Rite and Ritual aka draw deck = free Twisted Fealty. Which cards in my list did you omit to fit the petal?

[@shayarun9977]

Wow as an exclusively cedh player I love this deck so much, I did something a couple months ago with Orvar cause all there combo wins have really janky cards attached to them. I will say one thing you can do is add a everflowing chalice. At worst it's an extra mindstone without the draw, but at best it allows you ramp with offer by countering your own 0 cmc spell making 2 treasures! Also since stella doesn't have haste a great budget include would be rising of the day in order to your commander haste as soon as you cast it! Love the vid excited for more !

[@BasedDeckDept]

Thanks friend, glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the suggestions!

[@bwtk-i7w]

Wow this explanation from vid so much help for me! Hope you continue make more for combo+finisher explanation like this for every commander as possible!

[@BasedDeckDept]

Alas I wish I had the time :) But glad you enjoyed this explanation, as I felt it was critical to playing the deck properly. If I do more combo decks, I'll likely do the same again.

[@mr.nakamura9088]

This deck was too easy to build, I couldn't believe Stella was just $1 for the entire release month.

[@BasedDeckDept]

She's a powerhouse, that's for sure. I don't know what's worse, that, or that the fumbled the build of the precon that badly. Not saying they should put infinites in the precon, but it doesn't do her justice at all.

[@Jawzah]

@@BasedDeckDept But wouldn't the rest of the precon being bad actually make her more expensive.. Less people bying multiples of the precon so not that many Stellas baing sold as singles? of course if the precon has OK other cards but just does not play well it might result in people who bought it being disappointed.. But I don't think there's easily much demand for any commander only card that's available in precons as long as the precons are available.. And I suppose Stella deck is just not that much fun to play in casual and if you really go for cEDH .. you'll mroe likely be buying the precon rather than a single - just too much trouble finding a singles seller - maybe -- or if you do bother bying and selling - you could be selling the cards you do not use from the precon..

[@BasedDeckDept]

@@Jawzah fortunately the precon has a lot of decent staples so despite the construction being a bit wonky, lots of people have picked it up

[@aazusaa6200]

Wow this is so fun to watch! I started playing Magic 3 months ago and Stella's precon was my very first magic deck. I upgraded my commander to Veyran as her mid-range style is more versatile and less likely to bored me as it is my only deck (I play 8 hrs/ week so things do get repetitive easily). I always want to build another deck that focus on Stella's ability, guess this video is a perfect place for me to start :) Thanks for the informative video!

[@BasedDeckDept]

Glad you enjoyed it! 🤜🤛 You're exactly the kind of person I hoped would find it. Hope you enjoy your time with Stella, but definitely only play it in the right pods if you make this list as it will probably do unspeakable things to most precons

[@aazusaa6200]

My pod runs budget Yuriko and Krark/Sakashima, so I guess they can't blame me for pulling out Stella Can't wait to play her as commander again and looking forward to your future videos as well!

[@BasedDeckDept]

@@aazusaa6200 Yeah ok I think $100 Stella passes the vibe check! I think you're going to have a lot more fun with a build focused around her properly, which the precon wasn't. Thanks again for watching!

[@jemm113]

Love the bit at the beginning about the precon because that was my EXACT issue with playing it 😂 And that land count was atrocious! Definitely making it my Eris deck, and thankfully I have most pieces for the true cEDH version and even then I would play it in proxy-friendly tournaments (I’m for sure missing volcanic island, and I’m not sure if the list runs grim monolith, intuition, or time twister but those are the Ur staples I’m missing; I do have all the other cEDH ramp and free counters however!)

[@BasedDeckDept]

Glad I was on the money! Wish I was in your shoes in having all those cedh staples

[@jacksonkillilea]

I built this and it’s been very fun. I just picked up Ral, Storm Conduit to swap in to add in an additional win con.

[@BasedDeckDept]

Glad you liked it!

[@Zeyga]

Excellent deck tech dude!

[@BasedDeckDept]

Hah, thanks again. Glad you enjoyed the Stella video. You should check out my new Melek video for a slightly different Izzet build :D

[@NateFinch]

I was sooo much happier with the precon once I made Eris the commander. Stella actually seemed actively bad in the precon. Eris is the only Izzet spellslinger commander that I have actually liked. Most just feel too exposed to attack or too fiddly with spells vs payoffs.

[@BasedDeckDept]

Yeah I can appreciate that. I would also rather run Eris within the precon. You should watch my recent video about Melek. He's far from fiddly 😁

[@NateFinch]

​@@BasedDeckDeptI came here after watching that one! :). Melek also looks cool. I do like that melek doesn't require balancing payoffs vs spells. I think I'll stick with Eris for Izzet though. I'm a green player at heart and pumping out 4/4 prowess dragons is definitely in my wheelhouse.

[@BasedDeckDept]

@@NateFinch Haha, yeah look if you're a stompy man at heart, Eris is the perfect fit.

[@aljiichiban]

I had to cut down rite of flame, personal tutor, merchant scroll and a bunch of dual lands for the deck to be under $100. I also added wincons 2 and 3: 2nd wincon: dramatic reversal, toils of night and day, colored mana rock - rolling thunder. I can bargain with any player for a 1 v1 once I burn the other players. 3rd wincon: dramatic reversal, toils of night and day - Ral,Storm Conduit. I have not won with this one yet, since Ral often gets targeted. At least it diverts the attention away from Stella.

[@BasedDeckDept]

Wow have the card prices spiked that much since I made the video? That's wild

[@AndrewS-vu4ji]

I built a version of stella based on tapping and untapping in general, i have quite a large portion of the lands and artifacts that tap for 2+ mana, so i don't run any rituals or other stuff, just untap effects that can theoretically go infinite with stella lee. It definitely does bring it out of the budget range tho, im a proxy player.

[@BasedDeckDept]

Yeah she's pretty versatile. As long as you're enjoying your deck that's all that matters ✊

[@AndrewS-vu4ji]

I don't actually have it built yet, I build so many decks that I have a backlog that I need to get through before I can print out the required proxies for a new deck, which then means I don't often return to and refine decks, which means I spend more time building decks, which means I'm slower playing them... That's partially why I watched this, to see if I missed anything before I commit to a decklist for at least 2-3 games. I have over 100 decks now, a good portion of which are full commander decks. I've been playing 1-2 times a week for 2 years.

[@lawrenceclarke7404]

stumbled across this channel, now I know who to build next! thank you. Could you do a control based deck at some point? would be great to see

[@BasedDeckDept]

Glad you enjoyed it! Any particular commanders in mind?

[@nathancarlk]

Can you show what cards you would take out to replace for the upgrade?

[@BasedDeckDept]

Yeah good suggestion. I'll do that in future videos. In this case it's safe to assume that cards would replace their cheaper / worse counterparts, one for one starting with the weakest or slowest cards in the category. For example, Fierce Guardianship would probably replace Negate, Pact of Negation could replace Daze. Then Dockside and Mox could replace our two worst mana rocks. You get the idea. If there's a specific card you're unsure about, I can tell you what I'd take out

[@nathancarlk]

@BasedDeckDept thank you! Sometimes it takes several plays with a deck before I can gather what to repace.

[@BasedDeckDept]

@@nathancarlk It's a pleasure. Happy to help!

[@just_zohan]

What do you think about adding some other combos here that are also easy to use in this kind of deck like Brain Freeze + Lotus Petal + Underworld Breach or Dualcaster Mage + Molten Duplication and add some cool value creatures to duplicate, like Archmage Emeritus, Storm-Kiln Artist and spell cost reducers? Will that dilute the core gameplay too much or is that actually a good idea to have a plan B?

[@BasedDeckDept]

My personal take is that a laser focus is the best path for this deck to take. Adding in option B's adds more cost to the deck, and as you say, dilutes it. I'm the very unlikely situation that my twisted fealty gets exiled, I'd rather admit defeat than slowly try to stumble towards a cobbled together plan B

[@keving.4650]

Commandersalt has this at 7.3, which isn’t bad for a $100 budget. You could win cEDH pods out of nowhere if all the other players spend all their interaction countering all the other win cons.

[@BasedDeckDept]

Yeah it arguably has the most chance of winning in a cEDH than any of my strong yet casual decks.

[@Vernas_R]

Thank you for the video! As my lgs gets more competitive, this should let me keep up! Would you suggest anything from the new sets that came out recently?

[@BasedDeckDept]

It should definitely do that yeah :) And fortunately it's not that oppressive so you can hang in pods with other strong non cEDH decks. As for recent additions, I haven't looked closely, but I don't think so.

[@attackoncardboard]

I've played with the Precon twice, in both games I have attacked for 40+ damage in a single turn as early as turn 5. Definitely have not had slow games with the deck.

[@BasedDeckDept]

Maybe a case of player diff 😃as that's the polar opposite of what I've seen. What lines enable 40 damage by turn 5?

[@attackoncardboard]

@@BasedDeckDept handful of creatures into a Pyretic Charge. In my first game, I resolved a Rousing Refrain into Mizzix Mastery into this card. Extremely glass canon though. I was out of gas after that.

[@ManaMoot]

Nice Work!

[@BasedDeckDept]

Thanks!

[@thomaatoes2874]

I have stella cedh deck Aside from twisted fealty, my other wincons are nic mizzet parun near infinite damage and jace wielder of mystery deck draw win.

[@BasedDeckDept]

Do you feel like the deck needs alternate wincons? How often are the valuable

[@thomaatoes2874]

@@BasedDeckDept when you play as stella, twisted fealty is the most common wincon. One game I played, I took risk to cast twisted fealty without a counter spell but got countered. I casually played jace wielder of mysteries and used copied unlimited refocus and won the game from there. same happened where I niv mizzet parun on the field and pinged all my opponents from there with unli copy of twitch. It's better to have plenty of tricks up your sleeve.

[@whyjon2990]

What would you cut for jeska's will and spellseeker

[@BasedDeckDept]

I'm actually not a huge fan of Jeskas Will in the deck, because typically I only cast Stella Lee when I'm ready to combo. That makes Will a lot weaker. That said if you did want to swap it in, I'd cut one of the removal cards like Expel from Orazca. For Spellseeker I'd cut one of the one mana cantrips like Opt, or one of the haste enablers as a secondary option

[@benji2014]

This deck's game plan and combo is really interesting to me, great deck and video! I was wondering if there may be any room for Dizzy Spell (Transmute for 1 CMC card, Cerulean wisps/haste enabler) or Drift of Phantasms (Transmute for 3 CMC, Twisted Fealty/Twitch). I think it may make the threats a little more telegraphed, but I feel like these are also some really good and cheap cards to make tutoring for the combo more consistent. What do you think?

[@BasedDeckDept]

Glad you enjoyed it! You could definitely fit either card, although I'd personally only consider Dizzy Spell, as I much prefer the wisps line in the deck. Definitely worth it I think.

[@danielharrison2383]

"STELLA!"

[@BasedDeckDept]

STELLAR!

[@ssgod101]

What card would you take out for Jeska's Will? The others upgrade options seem easy to fit in since there are similar roles to replace, but jeska's will would be a 4th ritual, and i assume we don't want to take out the spirit guide -> rite of flame -> desperate ritual combo.

[@BasedDeckDept]

Yes I definitely wouldn't touch the Guide, Rite, Ritual synergy. A word of caution that I haven't tested Jeska's much, so how it fits in to the overall flow of the deck, I'm not sure. Could be clunky. That said, given it's part draw, I'd probably swap a draw spell. Highway Robbery, Demand Answers, etc. Cathartic Reunion would be my pick for the swap target.

[@ssgod101]

@@BasedDeckDept Thanks! What about spellseeker? (caved in and got one since it was not as expensive as the others). My guess would be muddle the mixture since its the only 3 mana tutor, but the flexibility of also being a counterspell makes it tempting to keep it.

[@BasedDeckDept]

@@ssgod101 probably one of the card draw spells, maybe one of your cheap cantrips. The card draw really exists to assemble your combo, so if you've got another tutor you have less need for it. 90% of the time you want to go Stella -> Haste Enabler -> Wisps, so the need for the cantrips is minor.

[@nauet8]

Very nice and budget deck, i'm considering doing it. Two question, is it good to replace tath many creatures? And the planeswalker Ral, storm conduit is it good for win condition? Ty and sorry my english

[@BasedDeckDept]

Never apologize for a second language If I understand correctly, we don't need more creatures as we're aiming to win the game before anyone can do lethal damage by combat. If you want to add creatures, there are many that can be useful, like Snapcaster Mage. Are they critical? No. Are they nice to have? Yes. Then for Ral, Storm Conduit, he is too expensive / slow and we don't need to copy spells with this deck, because the only copying we need, stella does for us. Hope this helps!

[@thataccount1]

Say i had no budget since you said wicked implement was the only wincon is there any other good wincons that can combo into a win like how wicked does.

[@BasedDeckDept]

I missed this question, sorry! There are other typical cEDH wincons, but Twisted Fealty is the best of them.

[@BudgetPubStomper-lr7nh]

In my first comment I left the deck tech to one of my suggestion commanders for new to comp players (Kinnan). If you wanna see how it runs I have a video of gold fishing the deck; kzbin.info/www/bejne/i6rGpGClfdednsksi=Y_xeP7GjYriq6AWv

[@saleen12]

And what happens when you exile the only win con in the entire deck with Stella's first ability?

[@BasedDeckDept]

Typically, we're playing Stella and our wincons on the same turn, so her exiling them has no impact. Even if we cast her earlier, you wouldn't want to cast her anything more than one turn before you plan to combo off, and you'd only do that because you don't have the mana to do everything in one turn. This isn't a problem I've ever run into.

[@xavrikxify]

Alright, I may be really really new to magic, but how do you win off of drawing your own deck when you still need mana to play the cards you draw?

[@BasedDeckDept]

Fair question especially for a newer player. Watch from 11:18 for about a minute. You chain Simian Spirit Guide into Rite of Flame into Desperate Ritual, which makes 3 red mana for you out of nowhere. Exiling Simian Spirit guide from your hand gives you the first red mana, even if you have no untapped lands. Hope this helps!

[@xavrikxify]

​@BasedDeckDept Awesome. I see now. It chains and you get off the three mana to get the combo off. I feel scared with that route as you leave yourself open without counter protection, haha.

[@BasedDeckDept]

@@xavrikxify Great :) And to be fair, that combo line and total of 6 mana does include a single blue mana for a counterspell or protection. So technically the 3 red mana from drawing the deck should be in addition to a blue mana. But such is the joy of playing combos :D

[@vladtheimpaler9660]

Can you use Thassa as a wincon?

[@BasedDeckDept]

The wincons here are pretty efficient and Thassa is so commonly used, that I feel I'd personally not want to bring her into this deck.

[@Papiness]

cEDH is weird to me because unlike almost any other competitive card game it has no curated banlist to keep things "fair". All these infinite combos make it essentially solitaire and the multiplayer aspect becomes irrelevant most of the time. It becomes about building the most power creep infinite combos with emphasis on consistency to dish it out.

[@BasedDeckDept]

To be fair to cEDH, I think it's arguably more balanced than casual EDH, because it's clear what the most broken things are, and it's no holds barred. None of the power level or social hi jinx to get through. All that said, this list is meant to be a cheap way to play against people with powerful decks below cEDH, as it's definitely not quite at cEDH level, nor could it be without thousands of dollars. Get's surprisingly close though.

[@loganblackblood6713]

shoutout to the funny jp character pngs

[@JeffBoes-m4s]

Why no Counterspell?

[@narkfly]

Too many pips in the casting cost for non mono-U.

[@BasedDeckDept]

$2.50, double blue mana and slower than any of our one mana counters pushing our combo back a turn. The one mana counters typically perform the same function as a fully fledged counter on turn 4-5 as no one has two+ untapped mana after they've cast a spell attempting to stop us.

[@JeffBoes-m4s]

@@BasedDeckDept Dominica Remastered version is about $1.

[@JeffBoes-m4s]

@@BasedDeckDept also, Muddle the Mixture and Mission Briefing are already in the deck, so ...

[@BasedDeckDept]

@@JeffBoes-m4s Muddle the mixture doubles up as a tutor which far outweighs the value of Counterspell to me. And I don't mean that all double blue casting costs are bad. Mission briefing is great, although I hope I never have to cast it. I'm not against subbing in Counterspell, but this is why I won't be

[@Tardvark]

*Do a **#Merfolk** deck*

[@BasedDeckDept]

Just buy the Hakbal precon (although I'm guessing you already have). Whilst it's not my style of merfolk... I like sneaky merfolk / evasion / countermagic of old, it's incredibly solved for a merfolk deck and a precon at that. I think you can improve it by swapping out maybe 5 cards.

[@livanbard]

All 2 mana rocks that enter tapped will ONLY BRING YOU DOWN. Mfs are better off with IDK expedition map or something.

[@BasedDeckDept]

Haha, given our curve they're really not that bad. The opportunity cost is very low.

[@nokthar97]

I feel sooo Srry for american mtg players I bought this deck for less then 75$ cause the american market is Facked....... Otherwise Fun and good deck

[@BasedDeckDept]

Glad you're enjoying the deck. To be fair it outperforms even that $75 price tag by about 5 times :D

[@nokthar97]

@@BasedDeckDept I can see that 😀 Keep up with the Great decks 🫡❤️

[@BasedDeckDept]

@@nokthar97 Thank you friend 🙏

[@MisterWebb]

Are you actually “based”?

[@BasedDeckDept]

Depends on your definition 😉

[@MisterWebb]

@@BasedDeckDeptOK, subbed, but I would prefer it if you avoided female commanders and furries.

[@BasedDeckDept]

@@MisterWebb You love to see it (re subbing). What about bears?

[@MisterWebb]

@@BasedDeckDept I kind of don’t mind female spellcasters, but absolutely no female fighters. Quadrupedal bears are fine.

[@starmanda88]

@@BasedDeckDeptit’s a shit look to pander to people like that honestly.

[@thataccount1]

Say i had no budget since you said wicked implement was the only wincon is there any other good wincons that can combo into a win like how wicked does.

[@BasedDeckDept]

Yeah there are plenty of 'standard cEDH wincons' like Dualcaster Mage + Twinflame or Heat Shimmer that can work in the deck. That said even if I threw more money at the deck, that's not what I'd improve. I'd just make the combo more sticky, like adding Underworld Breach to allow you to replay Twisted Fealty or other combo cards.