Commander Deck Tech - Voja, Jaws of the Conclave

Murders at Karlov Manor brought us several new commanders who are incredibly interesting and quite powerful. This time, we built a deck with Voja, Jaws of the Conclave featuring Elves, Wolves, and +1/+1 counters!

Voja has popped up a few times before, but only as a token created by Tolsimir and its many versions. It is the first time this commander shows up as its own card, and this time it even got its own Deck Tech.

Our Voja interacts with Wolves and Elves, but it focuses more on the number of Elves than of Wolves to create a strong board reasonably fast.

We have everything we need in the Naya color combination, considering we have Red as a support, aggro region, Green to access our Elves, and White to access the protection and removal cards we'll need throughout the match.

This deck will be like an elfball deck, but our Elves will be buffed by Voja through +1/+1 counters.

We have a few great interactions in this list, such as Maskwood Nexus, which turns all our Elves into Wolves and vice versa, which means Voja will consider them all as Wolves and consequently will draw us more cards. We also have other alternative win conditions that don't focus on combat damage, which will be shown throughout this article.

Accelerators and Mana Dorks

Of course, we couldn't leave out something any Elf deck needs: mana dorks. We included several cheap Elves which create mana so we can play our commander as fast as possible. Like so, we'll start and develop our game plan with these same Elves, only we'll also buff them with Voja, which shares its counters according to the number of Elves on the board.

With this in mind, we'll use just a few mana rocks: just Sol Ring and Arcane Signet. We also have less ramp cards, considering we'll only use these cards to fix our mana curve and play Voja.

We use Nature's Lore, Three Visits, and Farseek, and always prioritize shock lands or lands like Jetmir's Garden.

Mana dorks, on the other side, are relatively crucial, so we brought a reasonable amount of them. The simplest mana dorks in our list are Llanowar Elves, Fyndhorn Elves, Elvish Mystic, Paradise Druid, Bloom Tender, Druid of the Anima, Priest of Titania, and Elvish Archdruid, which only create mana and don't bring other effects to our game plan.

We have other cards which, besides creating mana, also bring another effect or create more mana than others. Gyre Sage and Incubation Druid, for instance, perform better if you have counters in play.

This also applies to Marwyn, the Nurturer. Speaking of counters, we also use Rishkar, Peema Renegade, which turns all our Elves with counters into natural mana dorks.

Finally, we have Devoted Druid.

Utility Elves

This deck can't work off only mana dorks; as a result, we have a few Elves that bring more utility, so our list can work better during our matches.

We have a few Elves, like Wood Elves, to help us with ramp, Reclamation Sage, to deal with artifacts and enchantments, and Beast Whisperer, to create resources for us and draw us cards. Realmwalker brings us a certain speed, considering it allows us to cast cards from the top of our deck if they're a creature.

It is interesting to note that, considering Realmwalker is a Changeling, Voja considers it a Wolf and an Elf, as we mentioned before when we discussed Maskwood Nexus' interaction.

We have a few Elves that interact with +1/+1 counters: Arwen, Weaver of Hope, to grow our creatures even more, Joraga Warcaller, which, even without its Kicker, buffs all our other Elves if it gets counters through any other source, Bramblewood Paragon, to give evasion to our creatures with +1/+1 counters through Trample. We also have Shalai and Hallar as a possible alternative win condition which doesn't focus on combat, considering it can deal a lot of damage with Voja even if you don't have that many Elves on the board.

We also have a few Elves that interact with Wolves directly and/or create Wolf tokens.

Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves was an essential addition, alongside Wolf-Skull Shaman and Wren's Run Packmaster. Giving Deathtouch to Voja is interesting thanks to the interaction between Deathtouch and Trample, which allows us to deal massive damage - we deal just one damage to the creature that is blocking us, which will then die because of Deathtouch, and allow us to deal the rest of the Trample damage directly to the enemy player.

Finally, still as a utility Elf, we use Elvish Warmaster to create even more Elves, Grand Warlord Radha to create a bit more mana, and Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer as a defensive resource - after all, growing Barrityl's power Goads enemy creatures, and this is excellent for us because it can grow significantly thanks to Voja. This way, our opponents will possibly spend a lot of time exchanging blows, and will become vulnerable to our attacks. On top of it all, we can also create Treasure tokens thanks to this Elf.

Wolves and Other Support Cards

Obviously, we had to add a few Wolves so Voja can draw us more cards.

Anara, Wolvid Familiar is quite useful because it defends our commander well, and also has a good body compared to how much it costs.

Hollowhenge Overlord may seem expensive, but, considering we have several mana dorks available, it managed to grab a space in our list.

Cemetery Prowler disrupts our opponent's game plan because it removes their graveyard resources, and improves our game plan because it reduces the cost of our spells. Roaming Throne is essential in this list, considering it is an excellent Wolf, triggers Voja twice and grows our creatures even more in the process.

We have a series of creatures that aren't Wolves or Elves, but are as useful as them in this build. Jetmir, Nexus of Revels, for instance, offers us defense with Vigilance, evasion with Trample, and aggression with Double Strike. It is also not that difficult to meet its conditions, not to mention the possible +3/+0 counters we'll give to our creatures, which will make them even more dangerous.

Aurelia, the Warleader and Karlach, Fury of Avernus were also excellent additions because they give us extra combat phases, more aggression, and trigger Voja's ability more times.

Master of the Wild Hunt creates Wolves for us and can be used as a removal. Mirror Entity is useful as a finisher because it can buff all our creatures until they have a significant base power, depending on how our match is going and how much mana we have.

Finally, we added Abzan Battle Priest to give us a bit more resilience - This card gives us a lot of health points, considering it gives Lifelink to all our creatures with +1/+1 counters, which is all our creatures most times.

Removals and Protection

A relevant issue with elfball decks is precisely rebuilding our board after facing a global removal, so keeping our creatures alive long enough to win the game is one of this list's priorities. Considering this, we use almost anything we can use to protect them.

To phase them out, we have Clever Concealment and Teferi's Protection. To make them Indestructible, we use Heroic Intervention, Flawless Maneuver, Boros Charm, and Inspiring Call - which also draws us one card per each creature with +1/+1 counters we control on the board.

The removals we'll use are the most popular, effective removals around. We use, as target removals, Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares, Beast Within, and Generous Gift. To solve multiple problems at once, we use Blasphemous Act, Austere Command, and Damning Verdict, which will keep our creatures alive most times.

Interactions with +1/+1 Counters and Miscellaneous

Above, we have a few interactions with +1/+1 counters that will help us increase the number of our counters, or enable other effects, such as Ozolith, the Shattered Spire, and The Ozolith, for instance. We also included Rhythm of the Wild to play against control decks. All Will Be One has the same role as Shalai and Hallar because it can be a finisher thanks to its damage output.

Drawing cards was also one of our concerns when we built this list, so we included cards like Rishkar's Expertise and Return of the Wildspeaker.

We added Enlightened Tutor to, basically, look for Maskwood Nexus, considering this artifact can drastically change the course of our games because it turns all our creatures into Elves and Wolves.

Finally, we have Howling Moon to buff Voja or another Wolf and create even more Wolf tokens.

The list above is cheaper, but it is still an aggressive deck, and still has some cards like Maskwood Nexus, Shalai and Hallar and Jetmir.

We didn't include a few Elves and other utility creatures we listed above in the other deck, but this budget version has the same game style and plan, and still has the main core fundamentals of the original list: Elves, Wolves, and a lot of aggression.

Building this deck wasn't as difficult as I was expecting. If we look at it from afar, this deck will probably be popular as soon as the new set comes along, and it is finally available to everyone. It might be strong and consequently challenging to face because of its consistency and speed. Only time will tell what commander tables will look like with Voja loose.

Did you enjoy this list? Would you add more Wolves? Or Elves? Share your thoughts in the comment section!

See you next time!