Into the Vault: Siona, Captain of the Pyleas

            Happy New Year Commanders and what a year this will be. This year has been dubbed by Wizards and the Magic Community as Commander 2020. New Commander products will be release every quarter. I hope you are as excited as I am. Aside from the new products, I have also seen a surge of new commander players at Legends Trading one of our local game stores. They even had a very successful Blind Commnader Tournament last Saturday with at least 16 players participating in the said event. Congratulations to the winners and to everyone who participated in the event.

            Wizards has also started the year with a new set, Theros Beyond Death, and it has brought new toys for us to brew around and play with. I wanted to help all the new commander players by introducing a legendary creature straight from the DC Universe, it is non-other than Wonder Woman! I mean Siona, Captain of the Pyleas. To help new players out, we will keep our budget at $50.

The Commander

Siona, Captain of the Pyleas

            Siona is one a new uncommon Legendary Human Soldier whose looks very similar to Wonder Woman. Too bad she is not an Amazonian. Kudos to the artist.

            This commander has two abilities that work that is focused on an Aura Matter's theme. Her enter the battlefield effect allows her to get an Aura card from the top seven cards of your library. While her second ability let's her create a 1/1 white Human Soldier token whenever an Aura is attached to a creature you control. Please note that the Aura can be attached to any of your creatures which is awesome.

            There are many ways you can build around her. You can go for a Voltron strategy and have her deal a lot of commander damage; or you might want to take deck into a go wide strategy by attaching and possibly moving Aura's from one creature to another while she creates an army of 1/1s.

Aura, Chakra and Ki

            Since we are working on a budget, we won't be able to add a few iconic Aura spells such as Eldrazi Conscription. However, there are a few Auras that can help us bolster her power and her army of soldiers. This build comes with 29 different Auras that will either increase Siona's power, give protection, disrupt opponent's actions or help generate creature tokens.

Detainment Spell   Felidar Umbra   Shielded by Faith

            These three Aura's can help generate those 1/1 tokens. Detainment Spell can be attached to one of your opponent's creatures to stop them from activating their abilities if needed. While Felidar Umbra works as a protection spell since it has totem armor. Once you have enough mana, you can start moving these Aura's to your creatures while Siona is out and she can then generate tokens.

            Shielded by Faith is the MVP of this deck and a combo piece with Siona.Wwith these two cards, you can generate near infinite creature tokens and overwhelm your opponents in one fell swoop.

Blessings from the God of War

            Since Aura's are still enchantments, we'll add an Enchantress subtheme. For those of you who are not familiar with the Enchantresses, these are creatures or enchantments that trigger whenever an enchantment enters the battlefield such as drawing cards, creating creatures or adding +1/+1 counters.

Mesa Enchantress   Verduran Enchantress   Eidolon of Blossoms

            For consistency, we have a total of eight enchantress effects in the deck that can help us draw cards.

Auramancer   Danitha Capashen, Paragon   Heliod's Pilgrim

            One of the biggest downside of playing with Auras is that destroying the creature also destroys the Aura. It only takes one creature removal spell to basically remove two of our permanents. So cards like Auramancer can help bring our Aura's back from the grave. We also have cards like Danitha Capashen that reduces the cost of Aura spells which act as pseudo ramp cards.

            Finding the right Aura at a given time is also very important which is why we play cards like Heliod's Pilgrim.

Final Thoughts

            Siona, Captain of Pyleas is an awesome commander choice on a budget. The Aura spells you play help bolster your power and can help bring in an army of Soldier tokens to overwhelm your opponents while able to control your opponent's creatures. The best part is the cost which is currently at $50 at the time I am making this article.

            There are ways to upgrade this deck of course but I will leave that for a different article. The complete decklist for this awesome commander can be found below.

Decklist


Enchantment (30)
1x All That Glitters
1x Ancestral Mask
1x Armadillo Cloak
1x Boar Umbra
1x Canopy Cover
1x Detainment Spell
1x Elephant Guide
1x Enchantress's Presence
1x Ethereal Armor
1x Felidar Umbra
1x Fencer's Magemark
1x Flickerform
1x Flickering Ward
1x Gift of Immortality
1x Gryff's Boon
1x Hyena Umbra
1x Kenrith's Transformation
1x Mammoth Umbra
1x Mob Mentality
1x Oblivion Ring
1x Prison Term
1x Rancor
1x Sage's Reverie
1x Shield of the Oversoul
1x Shielded by Faith
1x Sigil of the Empty Throne
1x Spider Umbra
1x Spirit Mantle
1x Unflinching Courage
1x Unquestioned Authority

Creature (23)
1x Aura Gnarlid
1x Auramancer
1x Auratouched Mage
1x Celestial Ancient
1x Danitha Capashen, Paragon
1x Dreampod Druid
1x Eidolon of Blossoms
1x Eidolon of Countless Battles
1x Gatherer of Graces
1x Graceblade Artisan
1x Heliod's Pilgrim
1x Herald of the Pantheon
1x Hero of Iroas
1x Kitsune Mystic / Autumn-Tail, Kitsune Sage
1x Kor Spiritdancer
1x Mesa Enchantress
1x Nomad Mythmaker
1x Rabid Wombat
1x Satyr Enchanter
1x Setessan Champion
1x Sram, Senior Edificer
1x Verduran Enchantress
1x Yavimaya Enchantress

Instant (3)
1x Beast Within
1x Generous Gift
1x Unbreakable Formation

Commander (1)
1x Siona, Captain of Pyleas

Land (36)
1x Blighted Woodland
1x Evolving Wilds
14x Forest
1x Krosan Verge
15x Plains
1x Selesnya Guildgate
1x Selesnya Sanctuary
1x Terramorphic Expanse
1x Warped Landscape

Sorcery (6)
1x Kodama's Reach
1x Open the Armory
1x Plea for Guidance
1x Rampant Growth
1x Three Dreams
1x Winds of Rath
Artifact (1)
1x Crystal Chimes



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