Into the Vault: Chulane, Teller of Tales

            Brawl decks had just recently dropped bringing with them 4 new commanders for us to brew around. I am very excited to get my hands on arguably one of the best Bant Commander (a Commander whose color identity is Blue, White and Green) every printed. We will look at the pros and cons of this commander and my approach to building him.

            In this Article, we will cover the following topics:
                       • Why play this commander?
                       • Card Advantage versus Stax
                       • Racing to the Finish Line
                       • Weaknesses and how to overcome them
                       • Conclustion and Decklist

Why play this commander?

            Chulane Teller of Tales is a 5CMC (converted mana cost) Bant Commander that combines two of the most powerful abilities in my opinion: Card draw and Mana ramp. Whenever you cast a creature spell, you get to draw a card and put a land from your hand onto the battlefield. With this in mind, we need to place a lot of focus on creature spells so we can get that trigger going. In the event that we draw into too many lands, we can use Chulane’s activated ability to return one of our creatures to our hand, recast it and get that draw trigger. This card draw and mana ramp ability is very similar to another Commander staple card: Zendikar Resurgent.

            One of the downsides of Chulane is that his activated ability forces to pay 3 mana and tap him. This means we need to have enough mana to activate it and cast the creature as well. We also need a few more mana so we can cast the creature spells we draw into. His activated ability only allows us to use it once per turn since we need to tap him. Luckily, there are a few ways we can get around this issue which will be discussed in the next section of this article.

Card Advantage versus Stax

            Chulane is one of those commanders where you can build him using different strategies. You can either go with card advantage or go for a more stax like approach. Deciding how you want to go about it depends on how well you know your meta.

 

            Card Advantage is always a good and safe approach when you are going in blind. You can add cards like Beast Whisperer and Glimpse of Nature as a backup plan in the event that Chulane has died too many times making him too expensive to recast. You can also include creatures which draw or search effects when they come into play. This will potentially give you two or more draw triggers; a Chulane draw trigger, the creatures draw trigger and another draw trigger if you have Beast Whisperer or Glimpse of Nature on the battlefield. Now that’s what I call advantage. Below are some creatures with draw triggered abilities.

   

            In a more competitive and/or known meta, you may choose to go for a more Stax approach. For those of you who are not very familiar with the term, Stax is a term used to describe a deck strategy that mostly relies on resource denial, taxing effects, disruption or any other cards that can lock down opponents from casting spells, playing creatures or tapping lands for mana.

            As a Bant Commander, Chulane gains access to the best stax creatures out there. Creatures like Aven Mindcensor limits your opponents from searching their library. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Vryn Wingmare makes noncreature spells cost 1 more to cast. Thalian, Heretic Cathar and Blind Obedience makes opponents artifacts, creatures and/or non-basic lands come into play tapped. You can also play Narset, Partner of Veils to limit our opponents ability to draw more than 1 card and Teferi, Time Raveler to turn their instants into sorcery speed spells instead. The list goes on and on. Since stax pieces affect specific strategies, you will need to understand your opponents weaknesses and adjust your deck as needed.

Racing to the Finish Line

            There are so many options to choose from when you are trying to decide what win condition you want for the deck. Here are some of the options:

One Card Combos

   

            In my honest opinion, these one card combos are the best and most efficient way of winning the game. These three cards allow you to untap all your creatures so you can tap your dorks for mana, bounce one to your hand, cast a creature to get a Chulane trigger and then get another untap trigger. This will ultimately give you near infinite mana and draws. You can then win by casting a Laboratory maniac or ping your opponents using Walking Ballista.

Two Card Combos

Dramatic Reversal and Isochron Scepter (with mana dorks)
            A classic win condition that functions very similarly to the one card combo mentioned above.

Aluren and Shrieking Drake/Kor Skyfisher/Whitemane Lion (with Chulane) (with mana dorks)
            This is a great two card combo whose only mana requirement is for you to cast Aluren. Once Aluren is in the battlefield, you may play any of the three creatures for free and then bounce them back to your hand due to their enter the battlefield effect.

Aluren and Cloudstone Curio (with mana dorks, a creature on hand, one other in play and Chulane)
            This is the same with the above strategy except you will need 2 creatures that you can bounce back to your hand.

Flash and Protean Hulk (also known as Breakfast Hulk Combo)
1. Search for Karmic Guide + Sidisi's Faithful (Karmic Guide returns Protean Hulk, in response to the exploit trigger, exploit Protean Hulk and bounce Sidisi’s Faithful back to your hand.)
2. Search for Gigantoplasm + Saffi Eriksdotter (Gigantoplasm copies Karmic Guide returning Protean Hulk. Pay X=0 to kill Gigantoplasm, activate Saffi Eriksdotter’s ability to return Gigantoplasm this time copying Hulk. Pay X=0 to kill Gigantoplasm which will trigger Protean Hulk’s search ability.)
3. Search for Reveillark + Hapless Researcher (Reveillark returns Gigantoplasm + Saffi Eriksdotter to the battlefield. Gigantoplasm copies Protean Hulk again then pay X=0 to kill Gigantoplasm)
4. Search for Laboratory Maniac + Cephalid Illusionist + Nomad’s en-Kor (Activate Nomad’s en-Kor and target Cephalid Illusionist. This will trigger Cephalid Illusionist’s ability making you mill the top 3 cards of your library. Once you no longer have a library, sacrifice Hapless Researcher and you win the game.)

            Wow! That’s a long combo which requires a lot of card slots. This is a variation of the Breakfast Hulk Combo. This combo will let you win at instant speed. The downside is that it requires a lot of card slots. If you plan to use this combo, I suggest use it in a Card Advantage build instead of the Stax build.

            There are so many options to choose from when deciding to build your Chulane deck. Dumping all these combos inside your deck would not be the right approach. This will cause you to be inconsistent which lowers your chances of winning. What you would want to do is choose 2 to 3 combos and then add support cards such as tutors and countermagic. Protecting your combo is just as important as the combo itself.

Weaknesses and how to overcome them

            Chulane is primarily a creature centric deck. Commanders like Yawgmoth, Thran Physician and Ayula, Queen Among Bears are specially tricky since they can remove your mana dorks one at a time. Creature removal and board wipes are specially tiresome and can really set you back. Preventing your commander from ever hitting the battlefield is also a good way to deal with this deck.

 

            One way of dealing with targeted removal is giving your creatures Hexproof or Shroud. Cards like Shalai, Voice of Plenty and Asceticism would be the perfect cards. Asceticism can also help regenerate your creatures when you are in a pinch. Melira, Sylvok Outcast stops Yawgmoth from wreaking havoc. Gaea’s Herald and Veil of Summer can make sure that you can cast your commander and creature combos without worrying about those pesky countermagic.

Conclusion and Decklist

            It is no secret that the Brawl Commanders were not just designed for the Brawl Format but it was actually designed for Commander Players to play Standard. I personally do not play Brawl but I am definitely happy with how the Brawl Commanders have provided a new line up of strong Commanders that can even compete in the competitive meta of Commander. 2019 has been a great year for Commander but this is only the beginning. According to Wizards, 2020 will be on a whole different level. Let's all start saving funds since the next Commander set will be released early next year (April 24, 2020). I hope you are as excited as I am in getting a hold of those new Commanders.

            I decided not to create my own decklist for Chulane and showcase one of the most competitive Chulane decklist out there. Click here for the deck list.

            Till next time. Ciao!