Dance of the Elements Commander Deck Upgrade Guide

Hoofprints needs four counters (one per card you draw) plus {2}{W} to make a single 4/4 flier. It is in about one Ashling deck in ten.

Twinflame Travelers is a 3/3 flier for {2}{U}{R} with a rule that matters here: if a triggered ability of another Elemental you control triggers, it triggers an additional time. Ashling is an Elemental, so every nontoken Elemental you sacrifice gives you two hasty token copies. It also doubles Risen Reef and Omnath, Locus of the Roil.

Elemental Spectacle is a six-mana sorcery. In five colours it can make several 5/5 tokens, but tokens never count for Ashling's trigger, which only looks at nontoken Elementals.

Ashling's Command is an instant that picks two modes: copy an Elemental you control, draw two cards, deal 2 damage to each creature a player controls, or make two Treasures. Copy a Mulldrifter and draw two, or copy Shriekmaw for a second kill spell.

With 40 lands, a one-mana Aura that draws a card and makes a land produce any colour is the easiest slot to give up.

Champion of the Path is a 7/3 for {3}{R} (you behold an Elemental and exile it as an additional cost; it comes back to your hand when Champion leaves). Whenever another Elemental enters under your control it deals damage equal to that creature's power to each opponent. Every evoke, every Ashling copy and every Omnath token now hits the table and the opponents' life totals together.

Fertile Ground is more fixing for a deck that already has plenty.

Brighthearth Banneret costs {1}{R} and makes Elemental spells cost {1} less. In a deck where almost every creature is an Elemental, that is a discount on most of your hand, and it speeds the turn you land Ashling and start sacrificing.

Shatter the Sky destroys every creature, including your Elementals, and each player with a power 4 or greater creature draws a card first. Destroy is not sacrifice, so nothing copies.

Sunderflock costs {X} less, where X is the greatest mana value among your Elementals, and if you cast it, it returns all non-Elemental creatures to their owners' hands. With a mana value 6 Elemental on the battlefield it costs just {1}{U}{U}, and you get a 5/5 flier that resets everyone else's board while yours stays.

Crib Swap is fine removal, but the deck already has Path to Exile, Reality Shift, Fury, Lamentation and Shriekmaw, and it hands the opponent a 1/1.

Greater Good is a repeatable sacrifice outlet: sacrifice a creature, draw cards equal to its power, then discard three. Sacrifice a 7-power Elemental and Ashling makes a copy of it too. Hold it until you have the cards to discard.

Springleaf Parade makes X 1/1 changeling tokens that tap for mana. It is the priciest card being cut, and it is played in under a third of Ashling decks.

Riveteers Ascendancy is {B}{R}{G}: whenever you sacrifice a creature, you may return a creature card with lesser mana value from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped, once each turn. Evoke a seven-drop and a Mulldrifter walks back in.

Distant Melody draws a card for each permanent of one type you control. It is fine, but it is four mana at sorcery speed with no board attached.

Nulldrifter draws two cards when you cast it, even if you evoke it for {2}{U}. Ashling then copies it: a 4/4 flying token with annihilator 1 and haste that stays if you pay {W}{U}{B}{R}{G} at your next end step. The draw does not repeat on the copy, but three mana for two cards and a hasty attacker is hard to beat.

Bane of Progress destroys all artifacts and enchantments, and this deck has five of the former and seven of the latter, including Sol Ring and its card-draw enchantments. It is a 2/2 body for six mana.

Shinestriker is a 3/3 flier for {4}{U}{U} with Vivid: when it enters you draw cards equal to the number of colours among permanents you control. In a five-colour deck that is up to five cards, and as an Elemental it gains evoke {4} from Ashling, which draws the cards and still leaves a hasty copy.

All five Thriving lands enter tapped. Thriving Isle is the weakest of them in a deck whose blue is already covered by Islands and the fixing lands.

Eclipsed Realms taps for {C}, or for one mana of any colour spent on a spell or ability of the type you choose as it enters. Choose Elemental and it fixes the cost of almost everything you cast, and it comes in untapped.

This is the first of two land-for-spell swaps. At 40 lands the deck can drop to 38 and still hit its drops, with the mana rocks and Cultivate doing the rest.

Temur Battlecrier is a 4/3 for {G}{U}{R} (an Orc, not an Elemental) that makes spells cost {1} less during your turn for each creature you control with power 4 or greater. Much of this deck's top end has power 4 or more, so the discount grows as you land them.

The second land-for-spell swap, and the last tapped Thriving land to go.

Elemental Bond draws a card whenever a creature with power 3 or greater enters under your control. Evoked creatures still enter, and so do Ashling's copies, so much of the deck's top end draws you a card.

Chromatic Lantern is a three-mana rock that makes every land tap for any color. It is played in about three Ashling decks in five, but it has little synergy with Ashling.

Animar, Soul of Elements is a 1/1 Elemental for {G}{U}{R} with protection from white and black. Whenever you cast a creature spell it gets a +1/+1 counter, and creature spells cost {1} less for each counter on it. The deck casts 32 Elemental creatures, so Animar makes each cheaper, and it is an Elemental for Ashling.