Budget Commander - Eleven & Will Spellslinger

Secret Lair's Superdrops brought new mechanics and excellent commanders, among them Eleven, the Mage (Cecily, Haunted Mage), with the devastating ability that emulates Omniscience if you have eleven cards in hand and Wernog, Rider's Chaplain (Will the Wise), which has a subtle ability that can easily end the game.

The deck proposal of Cecily, Haunted Mage and Wernog, Rider's Chaplain is a Spellslinger based on Eleven, utilizing our commander's ability to play spells at no cost, seeking to end the game with spells like Crackle with Power or Jaya's Immolating Inferno. There is an alternative win line through combo using Wernog, Rider's Chaplain generating Infinite tokens or Infinite ETB.

Cecily, Haunted Mage Jane "El" Hopper, better known as Eleven, is one of the protagonists of the Stranger Things TV series. She developed great mental powers while incarcerated at Hawkins National Laboratory after being a guinea pig for experiments to amplify her innate psychokinetic abilities

The Cecily, Haunted Mage card has high power and toughness, evading most of the most common damage removals in the format. Its ability to expand the maximum number of cards in hand to eleven is relevant, allowing us to sculpt our strategy without the need for excessive discards. However, its cost substitution ability is brutal, allowing us to play huge spells without paying their costs as long as there are eleven or more cards in our hand.

Wernog, Rider's Chaplain, William "Will" Byers, is one of the central characters in the plot of Stranger Things. Will was abducted by a creature known as Demogorgon and taken to Upside Down, a dimension parallel to the known world. Upon returning, he displayed psychic abilities and could see between the planes.

Wernog, Rider's Chaplain triggers his ability both when entering or leaving the battlefield, which alleviates the fact that his power and toughness are fragile. It says the following: When Will the Wise enters or leaves the battlefield, each opponent may investigate. Each opponent who doesn’t loses 1 life. You investigate X times, where X is one plus the number of opponents who investigated this way.

This ability, if triggered multiple times, generates an interesting asymmetry, creating a relevant card advantage.

Our deck has two distinct and complementary strategies centered on each of the commanders. Wernog, Rider's Chaplain is an excellent source of card advantage in the Command Zone, ensuring additional draws and keeping the game going, especially when we're speeding up the game to reach the eleventh card.

Ghostly Flicker is a card that gives the nickname to a famous mechanic which consists of exiling a permanent and returning it to the battlefield under its owner's control. Wernog, Rider's Chaplain is extremely synergistic with this mechanic, maximizing the generated value.

Release to the Wind and Ghostly Flicker along with duplicating mages like Dualcaster Mage and Naru Meha, Master Wizard tend to have infinite combos where we'll have infinite Investigate triggers, and dealing damage with their own ability or with Ral, Storm Conduit.

We have a possible line using wizards and Flicker cards. By replacing Wernog, Rider's Chaplain with Venser, Shaper Savant we can return all desired permanents to the owner's hand. By including Azami, Lady of Scrolls or Archmage Emeritus we can draw an unlimited number of cards, winning with Laboratory Maniac.

Cecily, Haunted Mage can generate card advantage every time she attacks, however drawing many cards is necessary for its greatest advantage to be established. For this, we have a selection of cards that make draws that generate a positive balance, or that draws two or more cards. To increase our limit of cards in hand, we have a group of cards for this function; Wizard Class and Triskaidekaphile are highlighted for their versatility.

Triskaidekaphile has an activated ability to draw cards and a triggered ability that wins the game if we have exactly thirteen cards in hand at the beginning of the upkeep. For both cases, the spell Necrology can serve as a finisher.

Locating the right cards at precise times is always an advantage. Seeking to have this benefit, we selected cards in two categories: tutors and selection cards. Tutors look for specific cards in the deck and add them to their hand.

Vedalken Aethermage and Step Through have the ability Wizardcycling, when recycled they add a wizard from the deck to your hand. Dark Petition fetches any card in the deck and adds three black mana.

On the other hand, card selection like Creative Outburst look at a certain number of cards from the top and between them select some and add the hand. Another way to select cards is by selecting cards in the graveyard, so Past in Flames and Volcanic Vision have been added to the deck.

Some commanders have very transparent game plans, such as Cecily, Haunted Mage, which attracts unwanted attention from other players. Consequently, for our game plan to develop, it is necessary to have interactions.

Therefore, we chose to use spells with different uses: Reinterpret has a similar function to Mana Drain, while Insidious Will resembles the powerful Cryptic Command. Another way to counter spells is by replicating the counters with cards like Reiterate and Dualcaster Mage, which are very useful for this purpose. Nimble Obstructionist prevents effects activated or triggered abilities, and Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir has a static effect that changes all opponents' spells to sorcery-speed

Removals are important for dealing with dangerous permanents or STAX pieces, strategy based on disruption, taxes and resource constraints. Venser, Shaper Savant deals with both permanents and spells before they resolve, while the Split card Commit // Memory returns the threat to its owner's deck and, when played on Aftermath, allows you to shuffle all cards from your hand and graveyard into your deck. Other less subtle ways to deal with problems are through damage, and to do this Explosive Welcome hits multiple targets, and Volcanic Vision acts as a sweeper.

The ability to play spells without paying mana costs on initial turns allows us to have a reduced number of accelerators in the form of permanents. Fast mana stones like Pentad Prism and curve correcting stones like Sphere of the Suns or spells like Strike It Rich form our choice along with Stonework Packbeast, in the function of mana filter. The use of rituals generates huge amounts of predominantly red mana, hence the importance of having a filter.

To correct our mana curve, we have the budget fetchlands, Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds, in addition to the Mirage cycle and the Alara Panoramas, which plays well with the "dual" snow-lands of Kaldheim.

However, our finishers need large amounts of mana to reach full effectiveness. We can highlight Mana Geyser and Rousing Refrain which generate plenty of mana and Apex of Power which, in addition to generating an expressive card advantage, guarantees ten mana of a chosen color.

Among the possible finishers for Cecily, Haunted Mage are large spells like Crackle with Power and Jaya's Immolating Inferno dealing lethal damage. Blue Sun's Zenith can be used to force someone to draw all cards in their deck plus one. Sunbird's Invocation and Swarm Intelligence, in addition to acting as amplifiers, generate storm count, and to end the game with Storm, Tendrils of Agony was the chosen option.

Our alternate win condition is up to Approach of the Second Sun that, if cast from our hand twice, wins the game.

Cecily, Haunted Mage is a commander with immense potential for those who enjoy big spells and memorable games. Lines like Enter the Infinite, Necropotence, Underworld Breach or Oracle-Consultation are expected choices in cEDH.

For those looking for a more subtle and paced game and more complex combo lines, Wernog, Rider's Chaplain is a solid option that generates card advantage and interactions with artifacts, or aristocrats, especially when combined with the other commanders of the Secret Lair x Stranger Things. The possibilities expand to Farm lines, turbo-nauseam and other combo decks.

Thanks for reading and good games!

Any questions, I'm available in the comments!