Magic: The Gathering - Helga, Skittish Seer Commander Deck Guide

Helga, Skittish Seer is one of the many commanders available in Magic: The Gathering'sBloomburrow set. Helga was one of the main characters for the story of the set, taking part in the main party and one of the perspectives that were followed over the story.

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As a card, Helga offers the perfect effect for Stompy strategies (a playstyle that is focused on primarily casting large creatures). It is capable of snowballing the game once it gets going, and with the right combination of cards, it can cast a ton of creatures in just one turn to immediately put you ahead of everyone else.

Decklist

Commander: Helga: Skittish Seer

Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner

Apex Devastator

Avacyn's Pilgrim

Beast Whisperer

Bonny Pall, Clearcutter

Chakram Retriever

Chulane, Teller of Tales

Defiler of Vigor

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

Elvish Mystic

Fanatic of Rhonas

Forgotten Ancient

Ghalta and Mavren

Goldvein Hyrdra

Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma

Gwenna, Eyes of Gaea

Hullbreaker Horror

Hydroid Krasis

Inga and Esika

Kalonian Hydra

Kami of Whispered Hopes

Karametra, God of Harvests

Keruga, the Macrosage

Koma, Cosmos Serpent

Llanowar Elves

Mr. Foxglove

Mulldrifter

Nezahal, Primal Tide

Railway Brawler

Saryth, the Viper's Fang

Shalai, Voice of Plenty

Silverback Elder

Sovereign Okinec Ahau

Surrak and Goreclaw

Thyrx, the Sudden Storm

Twenty-Toed Toad

Vaultborn Tyrant

Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus

Cultivate

Day of Judgment

Farseek

Nature's Lore

Rampant Growth

Rootcast Apprenticeship

Supreme Verdict

Three Visits

Beast Within

Generous Gift

Path to Exile

Return of the Wildspeaker

Swords to Plowshares

Arcane Signet

Commander's Sphere

Patriar's Seal

Sol Ring

Talisman of Curiosity

Talisman of Progress

Talisman of Unity

Thousand-Year Elixir

Branching Evolution

Brokers Ascendancy

Communal Brewing

Felidar Retreat

Garruk's Uprising

Hardened Scales

Adarkar Wastes

Brushland

Canopy Vista

Castle Garenbrig

Command Tower

Deserted Beach

Dreamroot Cascade

Exotic Orchard

x7 Forest

Gavony Township

Glacial Fortress

Hinterland Harbor

x4 Island

Karn's Bastion

Overgrown Farmland

x4 Plains

Prairie Stream

Rejuvenating Springs

Reliquary Tower

Rogue's Passage

Sunpetal Grove

Yavimaya Coast

The decklist contains 37 creatures, eight sorceries, five instants, eight artifacts, six enchantments, and 34 lands. Since Helga, Skittish Seer revolves around creatures with a mana value of four or greater, the majority of the deck are creatures fitting that bill.

Key Cards

Helga, Skittish Seer

Helga, Skittish Seer is the commander of the deck and what gives the deck its explosive factor. It grows in stats whenever you cast a creature with a mana value of four or more, which in turn can be used to tap for even more mana to cast more creatures. With ways to untap Helga, you can make sure its effects keep triggering.

While Helga, Skittish Seer is a very strong card, the deck is perfectly functional without it, so even if it gets countered or removed, you have other tools to make sure you can play your spells.

Helga offers a ton of value just by simply playing your deck. Not only does it act as a mana dork for creatures, it also gains you life and draws you cards. It only costs three mana to play itself, letting you start growing its stats very early in the game. Since Helga puts +1/+1 counters on itself, cards that give extra counters let Helga tap to cast multiple creature spells.

Defiler Of Vigor

Since you are playing a creature-based deck, Defiler of Vigor will put +1/+1 counters whenever you cast green permanent spells. The majority of the permanents in the deck are green, making sure Defiler of Vigor always triggers. You can pay 2 life for the green mana cost, saving mana for other spells. Since Helga gains life, this life loss hardly matters.

Helga wants as many +1/+1 counters on it as possible, so Defiler of Vigor's effect is especially useful in growing it so it can tap for an excess amount of mana. A lot of creatures in the deck have trample, and with the addition of counters, can make them into even bigger threats than they already are.

Thousand-Year Elixir

Thousand-Year Elixir is one of the biggest enablers for Helga's effect. Normally, you'd have to wait a turn to start taking advantage of Helga, but since it's an activated ability, you can use it as though it had haste with Thousand-Year Elixir.

Thousand-Year Elixir lets you untap any creature, letting you use Helga's ability multiple times a turn. This mana can only be used for creature spells, but if Helga has high power, it can potentially be enough to play all the creatures in your hand.

With Thousand-Year Elixir and Helga, Skittish Seer, you can use Helga's ability to make one kind of mana, untap it with Elixir, and tap Helga again for another color of mana.

Keruga, the Macrosage

Of all the permanents in the deck, only 12 have a mana value of two or less, meaning almost everything will draw you a card when Keruga, the Macrosage enters the battlefield. While you can't use it as a companion, it's more than worth playing it in the deck.

Since Keruga, the Macrosage doesn't do anything after its enter-the-battlefield effect triggers, you should wait to cast it until you have a battlefield of permanent with a mana value of three or more to make sure the effect will do something impactful.

The sheer amount of cards that Kregua can draw can refill your entire hand depending on what is on the battlefield before it. It has solid stats as well while being relatively easy to cast (especially thanks to how easy it is to generate mana).

Fanatic Of Rhonas

Fanatic of Rhonas is a great backup mana dork if Helga can't stick to the battlefield. Normally, it only taps for one mana, but its ferocious abilityis what makes it so strong. Since the majority of the time, you'll have at least one creature with four or more power, it's easy to tap four for green mana.

Fanatic of Rhonas has eternalize, meaning even if it ever gets removed, you can bring it back for four mana as a 4/4 Zombie. If you do eternalize it, since its power is four, its ability will always tap for four mana.

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How To Play The Deck

Helga, Skittish Seer is all about flooding the battlefield with creatures and amassing a giant board state. This is done with various mana dorks such as Helga itself, along with Fanatic of Rhonas, Gwenna, Eyes of Gaea, and Inga and Esika, the last of which turns all your creatures into mana dorks while drawing you cards.

Since you want to tap Helga for mana multiple times a turn, cards that untap it are very useful. Thousand-Year Elixir, Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner, and Patriar's Seal all let you do just that and should be used almost exclusively on Helga.

The deck has a ton of ways to ramp to get more lands onto the battlefield. It has the usual green ramp card suite, along with Bonny Pall, Clearcutter, Chulande, Teller of Tales, and Karametra, God of Harvests.

In addition, using enchantments that put more counters on your creatures makes them all into bigger threats, and in Helga's case, lets it tap for even more mana. Branching Evolution, Hardened Scales, and Communal Brewing all give extra counters, and Brokers Ascendancy puts +1/+1 counters on all your creatures every end step.

The deck is all about creating a board state that quickly gets out of hand. Thanks to its much higher-than-average mana generation, you can out-aggro most of your opponents. Your primary win condition is winning through combat. You can easily grow the stats of your creatures to make them big threats and swing out at your opponents to deal large outbursts of damage, potentially enough to win in one turn.

The biggest weakness of the deck is it can struggle after a board wipe. Since it's built heavily on creatures, losing all of them can prove to be a struggle. You can build back up, but if your opponents can stop you before you build back up, you'll be taken out of the game. Since Helga snowballs so fast, you're likely to become the main enemy very quickly, so you'll be targeted more than your opponents.

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