I have been looking at possible commanders all day and found Oona,Queen of the Fae and knew that's what I wanted to use as my commander.
My problem is I've never made a commander deck or have made a deck around tokens and stuff so I came here for advice on building a deck around her.
There's a lot to consider here, so it's probably good to start off by asking a few questions and moving forward from there. I haven't built specifically around Oona before, but I can help guide you towards what you're looking to build.
What is it that makes you want to build around Oona?
How would you like to look at winning?
How strong is your playgroup? Are they averse to combo? Oona is known for being a combo general - that being said if your playgroup is more casual, you can build however you like.
What sort of budget are you looking at?
I'm sure you'll find plenty of people here happy to help, but these are the sort of things we need to know to personalise that help and make it more relevant to you.
What made me like oona was the colors she is as I've never really played them and her overall design
Winning is nice but I also like having fun which usually means having a good challenge so im not really looking to make the best deck just one that is fun to play.
I'm not sure what the play group is like cause I was gonna start attending my FLGS Thursday nights cause they play commander during that time but never have because I have no deck to play with.
I don't have to much of a budget as I usually acquire my decks slowly instead of buying them all at once.
Oona decks typically fall into three categories (although by no means do you need to stick to popular themes).
Oona Combo typically runs as many infinite mana combos as the player can afford, then takes advantage of the fact that your Commander’s ability wins the game at that point. This is an expensive way to go and will definitely paint a target on you, but it is a very effective deck.
Oona can also be built as a Faerie tribal deck with all the typical payoffs like Scion of Oona, Spellstutter Sprite, and Glen Elendra Liege. This is probably the most straightforward way to build around Oona’s ability.
It can also be built as a Milling deck that attacks players libraries and runs them out of cards. There are sometimes some combos involved, but there are actually a lot of different options for building a deck like this. If you are interested, there’s a link to my Oona mill deck in my sig.
With infinite mana, she can be a competitive commander, like the other posts have said. If that's your wincon though then you're going to be driving for that every game, and if this is your one Commander deck your games will start to feel pretty stale to you and your opponents.
Without infinite mana though she's not going to make a lot of faeries. Even against a mono-color deck I've gone 10 mana into her and gotten 1 or 2 faeries. Go in expecting to get a wide variance on payoff with her, and considering how much she costs to cast, know you'll only get her out a couple of times a game. If there are a lot of wraths you might just hold her back. Still, just a few faeries from Oona, and a few played from your hand with a Coat of Arms is going to get some good swings. Door of Destinies is also great if you're going tribal. Dimir colors are great for grinding out so consider cards that will get more value out of your faeries like Blood Artist and Grave Pact effects.
But as the others have said, she's pretty flexible. She's a flying beater, you don't even have to go far into faeries. Consider what you want to be doing during a 30 minute to 2 hour Commander game. Are you playing and protecting threats? Are you stopping other people's threats? Are you pillow forting up and going for a late game alpha strike? You don't seem to care a lot about winning so I imagine you want to focus more on being able to do fun things during a game. Again, what can you imagine doing on your turn, or other people's turns (which dimir is good at)?
A fairy tribal deck sounds interesting and I think a token/milling deck would be the most fun for me personally. I also like to stop others peoples threats rather then pillow forting.
A fairy tribal deck sounds interesting and I think a token/milling deck would be the most fun for me personally. I also like to stop others peoples threats rather then pillow forting.
To me, this sounds like you want to start more casual - you can always increase power far more easily. You may also want to go more token-build, with various anthems or ways to use creatures entering the battlefield, while avoiding infinite combos.
Dire Undercurrents is an immediate first thought for me, though the discard half might be a bit brutal. Kindred Discovery does much the same for you as well, though would be specific to a more tribal route. Bident of Thassa and Coastal Piracy seem like good token strategy cards for card draw. Of course, skullclamp will always be an allstar.
Personally, I'm a fan of Salvaging Station, and the tokens you'll be producing can make some excellent fuel for the station. Blue/Black is an excellent color combination for it, with plenty of tutors such as Artificer's Intuition. Be aware that the Salvaging Station package can usually take up to 10 card slots from you, though each can be individually useful.
You could also go Blood Artist style routes, but I personally would be more iffy of those, as they can lead to un-interactive styles - As a sub theme, it could be a potent alternate win though - to make sure you'll have options.
Removal will be primarily in black, though Blue can offer things like Curse of the Swine. Artifacts and enchantments will be an issue, so you may need some colorless options like Scour from existence.
I don't want to go too far into building a deck - but my initial thoughts personally take it in a very artifact-centric token direction, and looks like this, take from it what you like:
Some parts will obviously need to be removed, or changed, such as Talrand or Metallurgic Summongings if the decks ends up spell light, or Sai, if it ends up artifact light - Those probably offer a choice of a split in how you want to build your deck.
Oona is fun. I ran her for a short time myself. She has a lot of potential to be casual or suffocating. I would make sure you have an infinite Mana combo or two, but only if the card used to make infinite Mana can be justified to be played by themselves as well. That way you still have a tribal theme going, while also having an "oops I win" in your back pocket.
A fairy tribal deck sounds interesting and I think a token/milling deck would be the most fun for me personally. I also like to stop others peoples threats rather then pillow forting.
I've always liked the idea of a fairy tribal/control deck with some Dimir shenanigans. My wife had a fairy tribal deck at one point, and was somewhat disappointed at the relative scarcity of tribal components for the deck; being as they were only a significant tribe during Lorwyn/Shadowmoor block, there's not many of them. There have been some cool additions since, here and there; Faerie Artisans comes to mind. That thing is nuts.
That being said, they come with a lot of cool tricks. Vendilion Clique, Knacksaw Clique and Puppeteer Clique all have cool effects, then there's Wydwen, the Biting Gale. I'd think you'd just be building somewhat of a creature scarce build if you went tribal, and that can work, you've just gotta make do with what's available.
Most of them don't manafix which is fine for a 2-colour deck, but they do double duty for your commander, both giving you lots of mana to be casting her (especially since, as kraus911 says, you'll only be able to play her a couple times a game because she's mana hungry, so more mana helps get her out more often) as well as tons of mana to sink into her ability to mill people and raise your odds of getting faeries.
On the subject of power level, I think it might be a good idea to visit your LGS during Thursday night commander just to see what sort of decks people are playing, or maybe just ask the store owner or someone you know that plays on Thursdays what sort of power level to expect. If you show up on Thursday with your casually-oriented deck and everyone is playing highly competitive and tuned lists, you aren't gonna have a great time (same goes for if you end up building too competitive and everyone is playing super casually). At the very least I would go in with the expectation that you might have to end up scaling your deck up or down in power level in order to match the level of what other people are packing.
On the subject of power level, I think it might be a good idea to visit your LGS during Thursday night commander just to see what sort of decks people are playing, or maybe just ask the store owner or someone you know that plays on Thursdays what sort of power level to expect. If you show up on Thursday with your casually-oriented deck and everyone is playing highly competitive and tuned lists, you aren't gonna have a great time (same goes for if you end up building too competitive and everyone is playing super casually). At the very least I would go in with the expectation that you might have to end up scaling your deck up or down in power level in order to match the level of what other people are packing.
I second this, very good advice. Usually what I'll do on an LGS visit is take 2/3 decks with different power levels and strategies to accommodate for whoever turns up.
I played Oona a few years ago, and the biggest takeaway from my experience was that she is the most mana-hungry commander I've ever played. First, she costs six mana to bring out, with no protection of any kind. Second, once you do get her out, you'll probably want to stuff as much mana as you can into that really cool activated ability of hers, and your opponents will want to get her off the table as fast as possible. Just a few things to keep in mind when you finally get to bring her out.
My problem is I've never made a commander deck or have made a deck around tokens and stuff so I came here for advice on building a deck around her.
What is it that makes you want to build around Oona?
How would you like to look at winning?
How strong is your playgroup? Are they averse to combo? Oona is known for being a combo general - that being said if your playgroup is more casual, you can build however you like.
What sort of budget are you looking at?
I'm sure you'll find plenty of people here happy to help, but these are the sort of things we need to know to personalise that help and make it more relevant to you.
Winning is nice but I also like having fun which usually means having a good challenge so im not really looking to make the best deck just one that is fun to play.
I'm not sure what the play group is like cause I was gonna start attending my FLGS Thursday nights cause they play commander during that time but never have because I have no deck to play with.
I don't have to much of a budget as I usually acquire my decks slowly instead of buying them all at once.
EDHREC is a great resource. It lets you see what other people are doing with a particular card. It even lets you look at particular themes.
Oona Combo typically runs as many infinite mana combos as the player can afford, then takes advantage of the fact that your Commander’s ability wins the game at that point. This is an expensive way to go and will definitely paint a target on you, but it is a very effective deck.
Oona can also be built as a Faerie tribal deck with all the typical payoffs like Scion of Oona, Spellstutter Sprite, and Glen Elendra Liege. This is probably the most straightforward way to build around Oona’s ability.
It can also be built as a Milling deck that attacks players libraries and runs them out of cards. There are sometimes some combos involved, but there are actually a lot of different options for building a deck like this. If you are interested, there’s a link to my Oona mill deck in my sig.
Without infinite mana though she's not going to make a lot of faeries. Even against a mono-color deck I've gone 10 mana into her and gotten 1 or 2 faeries. Go in expecting to get a wide variance on payoff with her, and considering how much she costs to cast, know you'll only get her out a couple of times a game. If there are a lot of wraths you might just hold her back. Still, just a few faeries from Oona, and a few played from your hand with a Coat of Arms is going to get some good swings. Door of Destinies is also great if you're going tribal. Dimir colors are great for grinding out so consider cards that will get more value out of your faeries like Blood Artist and Grave Pact effects.
But as the others have said, she's pretty flexible. She's a flying beater, you don't even have to go far into faeries. Consider what you want to be doing during a 30 minute to 2 hour Commander game. Are you playing and protecting threats? Are you stopping other people's threats? Are you pillow forting up and going for a late game alpha strike? You don't seem to care a lot about winning so I imagine you want to focus more on being able to do fun things during a game. Again, what can you imagine doing on your turn, or other people's turns (which dimir is good at)?
WUBRG Some of these decks can actually win games...WUBRG
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StaffTo me, this sounds like you want to start more casual - you can always increase power far more easily. You may also want to go more token-build, with various anthems or ways to use creatures entering the battlefield, while avoiding infinite combos.
Dire Undercurrents is an immediate first thought for me, though the discard half might be a bit brutal. Kindred Discovery does much the same for you as well, though would be specific to a more tribal route. Bident of Thassa and Coastal Piracy seem like good token strategy cards for card draw. Of course, skullclamp will always be an allstar.
Favorable Winds, Grand Architect, Gauntlet of Power, Caged Sun, etc, can make for good lord effects.
Of course, you'll want a bit of redundancy with your commander for token generation in case your Commander gets removed a few times. Talrand, Sky summoner, Docent of Perfection, Bloodline Keeper, Cemetery Reaper, etc, can help make some tokens.
You'll want some mana ramp, and I find that Sword of the animist, Burnished Hart, and mana rocks can make a decent start.
Personally, I'm a fan of Salvaging Station, and the tokens you'll be producing can make some excellent fuel for the station. Blue/Black is an excellent color combination for it, with plenty of tutors such as Artificer's Intuition. Be aware that the Salvaging Station package can usually take up to 10 card slots from you, though each can be individually useful.
You could also go Blood Artist style routes, but I personally would be more iffy of those, as they can lead to un-interactive styles - As a sub theme, it could be a potent alternate win though - to make sure you'll have options.
Removal will be primarily in black, though Blue can offer things like Curse of the Swine. Artifacts and enchantments will be an issue, so you may need some colorless options like Scour from existence.
I don't want to go too far into building a deck - but my initial thoughts personally take it in a very artifact-centric token direction, and looks like this, take from it what you like:
Some parts will obviously need to be removed, or changed, such as Talrand or Metallurgic Summongings if the decks ends up spell light, or Sai, if it ends up artifact light - Those probably offer a choice of a split in how you want to build your deck.
6 Oona, Queen of the Fae
Artifact
1 Chromatic Sphere
1 Chromatic Star
1 Conjurer's Bauble
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Executioner's Capsule
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Scrabbling Claws
1 Phyrexian furnace
1 Universal Solvent
1 Skullclamp
2 Sword of the Animist
2 Spawning Pit
2 Thaumatic Compass
3 Proteus Staff
4 Bident of Thassa
5 Gauntlet of Power
6 Caged Sun
6 Salvaging Station
7 Summoning Station
7 Spine of Ish Sah
Mana Rocks
1 Sol Ring
2 Mind Stone
2 Felwar Stone
2 Dimir Signet
3 Commander's Sphere
3 worn powerstone
3 Darksteel Ingot
2 Nezumi Graverobber
2 Oona's Blackguard
3 Burnished Hart
3 Sai, Master Thopterist
3 Trinket Mage
3 Trophy Mage
3 Treasure Mage
3 Chasm Skulker
3 Grand Architect
3 Thief of Sanity
3 Thada Adel, Acquisitor
4 Solemn simulacrum
4 Talrand, Sky Summoner
4 Bloodline Keeper
4 Faerie Artisans
4 Golden Guardian
4 Orc Sureshot
5 havengul Lich
6 Grave Titan
6 Frost Titan
7 Abhorrent Overlord
Instant
1 Undying Evil
1 Supernatural stamina
2 Cyclonic Rift
3 Murder
4 Silence the Believers
4 Memory Plunder
7 Scour from Existence
3 Mnemonic Betrayal
4 Mutilate - deals with indestructible
9 Connive/Concoct
2x Black Sun's Zenith
2x Curse of the Swine
Enchantment
2 Artificer's Intuition
2 Favorable Winds
2 Search for Azcanta
4 Death Pit Offering
5 Coastal Piracy
5 Dire Undercurrents
5 Metallurgic Summonings
Planeswalkers
5 Tezzeret the seeker
5 Tezzeret, Artifice Master
6 Tezzeret, Master of Metal
6 Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge
6 Vraska, Scheming Gorgon
Lands
0 Bojuka Bog
0 Scavenger Ground
0 Buried Ruin
0 Seat of the Synod
0 Vault of Whispers
0 Darksteel Citadel
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
I've always liked the idea of a fairy tribal/control deck with some Dimir shenanigans. My wife had a fairy tribal deck at one point, and was somewhat disappointed at the relative scarcity of tribal components for the deck; being as they were only a significant tribe during Lorwyn/Shadowmoor block, there's not many of them. There have been some cool additions since, here and there; Faerie Artisans comes to mind. That thing is nuts.
That being said, they come with a lot of cool tricks. Vendilion Clique, Knacksaw Clique and Puppeteer Clique all have cool effects, then there's Wydwen, the Biting Gale. I'd think you'd just be building somewhat of a creature scarce build if you went tribal, and that can work, you've just gotta make do with what's available.
Most of them don't manafix which is fine for a 2-colour deck, but they do double duty for your commander, both giving you lots of mana to be casting her (especially since, as kraus911 says, you'll only be able to play her a couple times a game because she's mana hungry, so more mana helps get her out more often) as well as tons of mana to sink into her ability to mill people and raise your odds of getting faeries.
With all that extra mana, you then might consider going for a "big Dimir" route with some splashy expensive spells like Clone Legion or Rise of the Dark Realms (Rise in particular is great if you go for a mill-oriented deck - unfortunately it doesn't work with Oona's milling though), some X spells to sink your big mana into like Mass Manipulation and Torment of Hailfire as well as the new Finales (Finale of Eternity and Finale of Revelation), and maybe some fatties like Rune-Scarred Demon or Nezahal, Primal Tide.
On the subject of power level, I think it might be a good idea to visit your LGS during Thursday night commander just to see what sort of decks people are playing, or maybe just ask the store owner or someone you know that plays on Thursdays what sort of power level to expect. If you show up on Thursday with your casually-oriented deck and everyone is playing highly competitive and tuned lists, you aren't gonna have a great time (same goes for if you end up building too competitive and everyone is playing super casually). At the very least I would go in with the expectation that you might have to end up scaling your deck up or down in power level in order to match the level of what other people are packing.
I second this, very good advice. Usually what I'll do on an LGS visit is take 2/3 decks with different power levels and strategies to accommodate for whoever turns up.