I recently picked up the Elspeth vs. Kiora duel deck. I love this deck series, the planeswalker decks especially. There are lots of great uses for pre-built decks, but the best thing about them is that they come with cards to try out in the Commander Cube.
The Elspeth deck is a white deck that just so happens to support the token theme that I am going for in my cube for that color. Elspeth, Sun's Champion is a powerhouse.
Since white is already at the card count I want for this cube, I made some substitutions to fit in the new cards.
Out:
Monk Realist
I already have War Priest of Thune in the cube, which is a strictly better. I don't need two of this effect. Easy swap.
Timely Reinforcements
Although this does produce tokens, it does it at Sorcery speed and only sometimes. There are times when it doesn't do anything. A dead draw is no fun.
Blinding Mage
There are too many times where using this guy is cumbersome. You have to tap down guys before attackers are declared, which creates a timing issue that drives people crazy when all you are trying to do is play a casual game of Magic. (It's the reason that I rarely play with Rhystic Study.)
In:
Elspeth, Sun's Champion
Good news, this planeswalker will walk away with games if you protect her. Better news, she protects herself. Generating three soldiers at a pop can get out of hand quickly. Her middle ability is often a one-sided sweeper. Her ultimate can close out games, but pumping out tokens and sweeping the board is usually enough.
Captain of the Watch
Makes soldiers. Buffs soldiers. Gets nutty with bounce, flicker, or reanimation shenanigans. Producing an instant army with one card is how white gets ahead on the board, and the Captain brings an army with her. 9 power on the board for 6 mana, all with Vigilance.
Dictate of Heliod
This enchantment joins several others that make my creatures bigger, but the fact that Dictate of Heliod has Flash really make it stand out. It's relatively easy to set up attacks that go unblocked only to flash this in and triple the damage.
The Kiora deck is a blue and green monsters and ramp deck. I purposefully left my Simic blue/green section of the cube open because I knew this duel deck was coming out. Since I had room for Simic cards in the cube, I didn't have to make any swaps for these cards.
In:
Kiora, the Crashing Wave
Under the right conditions, she can protect herself. If you bounce between her +1 and -1 abilities, you can get some serious value. If you do manage to build up to the ultimate, it creates a flavorful "crashing wave" of massive Krakens. It's nice that they come in at your end step.
Nimbus Swimmer
I'm not super pumped about this guy, but he flies and scales with the available mana. Not bad.
Plasm Capture
The "fixed" Mana Drain is still pretty good. Capturing the right spell at the right time can swing the game.
Simic Sky Swallower
Another flying beater, but this one protects itself. 7 mana is a lot, even for this format. We'll see how this guy does.
Kiora's Follower
This is a pretty sweet two drop. There are a number of artifacts that get nutty when you can unconditionally untap them. He also messes with combat math by creating a sudden, and often massive, blocker.
Coiling Oracle
Speaking of sweet two drops, it doesn't get much better than this. When you reveal a land, it ramps into play untapped. Your consolation prize for not revealing a land is getting to draw a card. That's my kind of prize.
Urban Evolution
For 5 mana, you get three new cards and a good possibility of ramp.
Lorescale Coatl
No evasion, and it doesn't protect itself, but it can come down early and grow quickly. Blue wants to draw cards anyway, so with some support this guy can turn into a monster. It is sadly outclassed by Chasm Skulker, though.
I also have a blue swap.
In:
Omenspeaker
Adding a small creature near the bottom of the curve that gives me Scry 2 for my trouble.
Out:
Into the Roil
I have plenty of bounce in this cube and this card often falls to the bottom of my list.
And a green swap.
In:
Explosive Vegetation
It grabs two basic lands and drops them into play for 4 mana. Fun with landfall triggers. Does a decent job of color-fixing.
Out:
Hunting Wilds
I'm not currently playing with the old dual lands in this cube, so getting "Forests" isn't as useful as it might be otherwise.
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