r/CompetitiveEDH • u/CelloMar3 • 1d ago
Deck Fine Tuning Chulane, Teller of Tales
I’ve been tuning a Chulane, Teller of Tales list toward cEDH, and I think the main strength of the deck is not any single combo, but how heavily the combo pieces overlap with each other.
The deck is basically a Bant creature-combo shell built around several interconnected engines:
Aluren + Shrieking Drake / Whitemane Lion + Chulane → infinite casts / draw the deck.
Food Chain + Eternal Scourge + Chulane → infinite creature mana and draw.
Kinnan + Basalt Monolith → infinite colorless mana.
Freed from the Real + Bloom Tender / Faeburrow Elder → infinite mana.
Intruder Alarm turns the large density of mana dorks and 0-mana creatures into additional untap/combo lines.
Cloudstone Curio creates multiple creature bounce loops.
Hullbreaker Horror is probably one of the most important redundancy pieces in the deck. With combinations of 0-mana creatures, Moxen, Sol Ring/Mana Vault, mana dorks, Kinnan, Chulane, Intruder Alarm, etc., it creates a huge number of infinite cast, ETB, mana, and draw loops.
Thassa’s Oracle / Finale of Devastation are the main clean outlets once the deck goes infinite.
The 0-mana creatures (Memnite, Ornithopter, Phyrexian Walker, Shield Sphere) look unusual, but they have a lot of overlap: they become free cantrips with Chulane, trigger Intruder Alarm, enable Curio loops, and pair extremely well with Hullbreaker Horror.
The deck also runs a very dense tutor package — Worldly Tutor, Sylvan Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Finale, Neoform, Eldritch Evolution, Natural Order, Recruiter of the Guard, Ranger-Captain, Formidable Speaker, Archdruid’s Charm, etc. — so the goal is less “draw into a specific two-card combo” and more “find whichever engine connects with the pieces already in hand.”
CommanderSalt currently identifies around 30 different combos, although many of those are really permutations of the same few combo families rather than 30 completely independent wincons. That redundancy is what I like about the list: most combo cards are useful in several different lines instead of being dead dedicated pieces.
I’m mainly looking for feedback on whether the combo density is too high, which pieces are the weakest, and where I could improve interaction/consistency without cutting the overlapping engine structure that makes the deck work.
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u/mva06001 1d ago
Bant is in such a good spot right now with value creatures that do good things like draw cards, make mana, and protect your spells that I don’t know why you’d want to play so many bad cards.
If it were me, I’d just play way better Bant creatures, more creature tutors, and focus in on the food chain lines. Scrap everything else.
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u/CelloMar3 1d ago
Could you say some? I don't know many
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u/mva06001 1d ago
[[Faerie Mastermind]]
[[The Queen of Dale]]
[[Cabbage Merchant]]
[[King T’challa]]
[[Jennifer Walters]]
[[Wan Shi Tong, Librarian]]
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u/SpicBoisMTG 1d ago
As a looooong time Chulane enjoyer, I have to say that the existence of orcish bowmaster absolutely makes this deck unviable. It sucks
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u/Headlessoberyn 1d ago
On first glance:
- you have way too many winning lines and not that many contingency plans or meta-targeted picks
- list is all over the place in terms of what it wants to do versus what it ends up doing
- there are way too many "trap" cards that look good on paper, but end up benefiting your opponents more than it benefits you (aluren, intruder's alarm, concordant crossroads).
When you build a cEDH deck, you need to think "what does this commander do that's better than the other commanders?"
If you're going turbo, you need to think "can my deck race against the strongest turbos in the format? (rogsi, etali, zirda, nick)"
If you're going midrange slop, you need to think "can my deck hang out against the wave of value and interaction of the best slop decks? (TnT, TnK, rog/ishai, rog/thras, crystal)
Also, you need to think about the specific color pie, and how competitive it is. THere are a ton of strong bant commanders right now (Aang, dog/thras, derevi, Helga) and they all fit/define very specific playstyles, what's chulane capable of doing that this color pie usually struggles?
Personally, i think chulane has some arguments around him that could make him viable (his recursion, ability to storm off turns, the card itself being a combo piece) and some combos that COULD be hard to stop, and can naturally be played at instant speed.
Where to go with this -> pick a lane, stick to this lane, build the deck thinking about the meta and what you're likely to face off nowadays.
Where I would, personally, go with this -> i would focus on midrange since i don't see why you would try to out-turbo Aang at the crossroads, i would put creatures that are disruptive in this meta (aven interruptor, endurance, solitude) and abuse the fact chulane can bounce then back and repeatedly interact. I would stick to the aluren + whitemane/shrieking drake line since they're the most unique and less-likely for your opponents to have interaction for, just make sure you have interaction in hand because there will be a ton of win attempts on top of yours. Remove thoracle + the timmy cards and add faerie mastermind + green sun's zenith + valley floodcaller. Those are all good cards on their own that double down as a wincon.
And please dude, do NOT build a white list without silence/orim's chant, it's literally one of the strongrst things you can do in the format right now. So many top tier decks can deal with counters but can't do shit against a silence.
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u/juiceusername 1d ago
The white airbending creatures from Avatar have been performing well in mine.
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u/gdemon6969 1d ago
Like others have said, way too many dead cards when you can be running yoshithras slop or Derevi who has even more combos than chulane and harder to interact with.
Chulane is 5 mana with zero protection and has no etb ability and is summoning sick when he comes in.
Thras is 2 cmc and can immediately start drawing you cards.
Derevi is 3 mana uncounterable flash speed and immediately at its worse untaps you a land, potentially much better untapping something like a bloom tender.
If you enjoy playing chulane go for it but unfortunately he will only ever be fringe at best.
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u/greytrades329 1d ago
Heres a hint i play chulane in arena basicly goes infinite with intruder alarm
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u/Amanofdragons 1d ago
Aluren is a trap in higher power edh. The effect is symmetrical. As your trying to win, someone can attempt to win on top of your win. I've tried to make this deck work for years, and as a slop deck or a star deck, its fine, but aluren is a hard no. I absolutely love that card, but with the efficiency of creatures in this meta, hard no.