Elsha of the Infinite Top Combo (EDH / Commander) [Revision 43]

The object of the game is to have Elsha of the Infinite in play along with Sensei’s Divining Top and either of Helm of Awakening or Etherium Sculptor.

From this state we can draw the library and assemble any of our wins, generating infinite mana by casting Silence (for reasons that will become clear), and Smothering Tithe, Echo of Eons and Narset's Reversal (hereafter "Echo Reversal"). After drawing the deck, it will be exceedingly rare that we do not have enough mana in rocks (especially since they will be free to cast with both Sculptor and Helm in play) that we cannot at least loop Dockside Extortionist profitably with Snap, Chain of Vapor, and a kill spell into either Sevinne's Reclamation or Underworld Breach. It's important to Reversal the Echo each time, as otherwise Echo ends up in the graveyard. If that happens, we have a limited number of uses of Underworld Breach to get it out.

The deck plays a mostly controlling strategy, looking to stop wins and accrue value off top deck casts with Elsha or Future Sight.

We have two main win lines, depending on taste.

Cascadia: When you want to play another game today.

With infinite mana and prowess triggers, Elsha has become Very Large. We can cast Swords to Plowshares, exiling her to gain a very large amount of life, and Earthquake for another (smaller) large amount to deal lethal to each opponent simultaneously.

Out of Mind: When someone plays Glacial Chasm

With deck in hand, we cast Angel’s Grace, Underworld Breach, and Windfall. This has everyone draw upwards of 80 cards. We then delve away 3 cards to cast Windfall again and have everyone draw from an empty library. Since we can’t lose the game for drawing from an empty library, we win.

Bolt from the Blue: When you want to play favourites.

With infinite mana available, we cast Lightning Bolt, targeting our least favourite opponent. We can then return it to our hand by casting Echo Reversal. Repeat until that opponent has lost the game, then we repeat, targeting our second-least favourite opponent, and so on.

Cards whose inclusion I feel should be commented on:

Future Sight represents a redundant combo piece in case the commander gets too expensive to cast in a drawn out game. It is also an amazing value piece, allowing us to effectively draw many cards per turn, including lands, and do so through a Narset-type effect. While UUU is sometimes painful, subsequent turns more than make up for it, especially when you can make land drops from your top deck; a turn 2 or 3 Future Sight is not to be underestimated and well worth the loss of information. Showing a counterspell on top can force opponents to let your spell resolve by promising they have to waste at least two counters.

Scroll Rack is a way to get the combo off the ground at instant speed if we have the right pieces in hand, since if Elsha is in play we can put the relevant pieces on top of our library and play them in response to some other threat or counterspell war. If we have a cost reducer in play, which we should if we’re drawing everything, all our rocks are mana neutral or positive. This line became much less possible with the removal of dramatic scepter combo since we no longer have a way to untap rack any time we like, but we keep it around to protect ourselves from wheels and grind value off fetches and tutors.

Narset's Reversal is one of the more versatile pieces of interaction in the deck, ensuring our winning loops and protecting our instants and sorceries, but has the potential to make huge tempo plays in the early game by stealing the green player's Rampant Growth or Farseek, or the black player's Demonic Tutor. Especially when used early, there isn't much the opponent can do and they end up either losing a turn while we get the early play they kept their hand around or pitching a Force of Will or similar for their value piece.

Underworld Breach is a huge include for the deck, allowing us to get back any spell in the graveyard for a marginal cost. In a pinch this lets us dig topless, so to speak, by casting Windfall repeatedly to get to the pieces we need. Breach can also function as a value play, getting us back a tutor or draw spell, or even ramp us back after a Bane of Progress or Vandalblast.

Sevinne's Reclamation gets us back top and can recur an Underworld Breach, but can also function more modestly as a ramp spell, recurring one or more of our fetches or Dockside Extortionist. Recurring Breach for value can get addictive, so take care not to put yourself down a recursion spell prematurely.

Pull From Eternity is an unfortunate necessity with the amount of hate I tend to generate. It’s not infrequent for someone to exile top in any number of ways, including Sadistic Sacrament which feels terrible, thank you very much. Pull gives us a way back while also being reusable for an exiled win con in an Echo Reversal situation.

Cursed Totem works well in my meta of creature activation value engines and wincons, but may be better swapped for a torpor orb or similar depending on what you expect to see across the table.

Overburden is a spicy meta tech. Because of our lack of creatures, it doesn’t really hurt us, and if we would miss a land drop we can make up for it by playing a creature into it. Opponents often have many more creatures than us and its effectiveness against these decks is often worth the price of being dead against Chulaine decks

I should mention that this list is entirely cards I own, so there might be some glaring omissions especially for making the deck competitive. Cards I would add if money were no object include (in no particular order) Chrome Mox, Mox Opal, Mox Diamond, Mana Crypt, Lion's Eye Diamond, Timetwister, each fetch land minus Verdant Catacomb, the three ABUR duals, Mana Drain, Gilded Drake, Wheel of Fortune, Force of Negation, Mana Drain, Ancient Tomb, and Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale:

Maybe board:
Verity Circle
Back to Basics
Blood Moon
Containment Priest
Counterspell

I've not yet gotten ahold of any Ikoria cards, but I'm looking into the following: Fierce Guardianship, Deflecting Swat, Drannith Magistrate, and Lore Drakkis. Lore Drakkis in particular seems like a great dockside enabler, allowing us to generate infinite mana with them and, for example, chain of vapor if our opponents all together control 6 or more enchantments and artifacts.

I am indebted to Flash_Andretti for his list (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/cedh-primer-to-infinity-beyond-1/), whose earlier versions this deck is largely based on and the Elsha of the Infinite cEDH Discord for discussion.