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Halana and Alena, Partners

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Halana and Alena, Partners

At a glance

  • Commander: Halana and Alena, Partners
  • Colors: Gruul
  • Archetype: Gruul fight-removal midrange control
  • Power tier: mid-high

Cards

Commander — the REAL card

Halana and Alena, Partners — , Legendary Creature — Human Ranger (5/5) First strike. Reach. At the beginning of combat on your turn, put X +1/+1 counters on another target creature you control, where X is Halana and Alena’s power. That creature gains haste until end of turn.

commander_oracle_ok = true — confirmed against printed text.

Note on the scout’s paraphrase: the assignment said the commander “dumps a +1/+1 counter onto your biggest creature.” That undersells it badly. The real card puts X counters where X = Halana and Alena’s own power (starting at 5), and it can target any other creature you control, granting haste. So turn after turn she hands a chosen creature a pile of counters (5, then more if she herself grows) plus haste. That changes the build: you don’t need your beater to already be big — you can drop a fresh 2-drop, and at the next combat it becomes a 7/7+ with haste. The deck is built around the real engine.

Gameplan

  1. Ramp into the commander (4 mana) on turn 3-4 off dorks/Cultivate effects.
  2. Each combat, target a resilient creature (ideally one with trample, reach, or a draw trigger) and dump 5+ counters on it with haste.
  3. Turn that giant into removal. Green is swimming in fight spells; the deck runs the one-sided ones too — Ram Through and Bite Down make your huge creature deal its power to a target without taking damage back, and Ram Through sends trample overflow at a face. Standard fights (Prey Upon, Pit Fight, Pounce, Titanic Brawl, etc.) clean up anything the giant can survive.
  4. Burn as flex removal that the fights can’t reach (hexproof dorks, planeswalkers, faces): Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Flame Slash, plus X-burn (Fireball, Disintegrate) for late-game reach or finishing a player.
  5. Grind to inevitability. Every turn = a free fight + a growing threat. You 1-for-1 the table into the dirt, protect the threat, and the snowball eventually trample-kills.

Key synergy lines

  • Commander + Tuskguard Captain / Duskshell Crawler: both give your countered creatures trample. A 12/12 with trample plus Ram Through ends games.
  • Commander + Snake Umbra: the enchanted beater draws a card on damage AND gets Umbra armor (destroy-protection). Counters + evasion + card advantage on one body.
  • Commander + Bite Down / Ram Through: your snowball deals its (enormous) power as damage with no fight-back. Pure one-sided removal, every turn.
  • Titanic Brawl costs less when targeting a creature with a +1/+1 counter — which is exactly what the commander manufactures.
  • Ambitious Dragonborn enters as an X/X based on greatest power — a strong second target for the counter dump, and a backup threat if the main one dies.
  • Haste matters: a creature handed counters at the begin-combat step can immediately attack or be used in an instant-speed fight that turn.

Role breakdown (counts)

  • Lands: 37 — 17 Forest, 13 Mountain, 4 RG duals (Gruul Turf, Rugged Highlands, Timber Gorge, Wooded Ridgeline), 3 fetch-fixers (Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse, Ash Barrens).
  • Ramp: 10 — Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves, Boreal Druid, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Farhaven Elf, Wood Elves, Rampant Growth, Cultivate, Kodama’s Reach. (Held to 10 — did not over-ramp.)
  • Card advantage: 9 — Snake Umbra, Greenseeker, Heart Warden, Avenging Druid, Centaur Rootcaster, Elven Farsight, Abundant Harvest, Faithless Looting, Confront the Unknown.
  • Spot removal / interaction: 20 — this is the archetype. ~10 fight spells (Prey Upon, Pit Fight, Pounce, Epic Confrontation, Hunt the Weak, Titanic Brawl, Wild Instincts, Ancient Animus, Outmuscle + one-sided Ram Through / Bite Down), ~7 burn (Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Flame Slash, Galvanic Blast, Disintegrate, Fireball, Dual Shot), plus Naturalize + Caustic Caterpillar for artifacts/enchantments. The count runs high on purpose: in a wipe-poor color pair, repeatable + redundant fights ARE the control plan and the inevitability engine.
  • Mass / pseudo-wipe: 2 — Sulfurous Blast (3 to each creature & player on your main phase) and Boiling Earth (1 to each opponent creature). Both swing in your favor because your snowball survives.
  • Payoffs / threats / protection (~21): the snowball targets and their support — trample-granters (Tuskguard Captain, Duskshell Crawler), evasive/reach bodies, Burning-Tree Emissary (free body + mana), Ambitious Dragonborn, and a protection suite (Snakeskin Veil, Ranger’s Guile, Tamiyo’s Safekeeping, Withstand Death) to keep the one threat alive through removal.

Pilot notes

  • Pick your counter target for resilience, not just size. A creature with trample (or one wearing Snake Umbra) is better than a vanilla fatty — you want the snowball to draw cards and punch through chump blocks.
  • Hold a protection spell when you commit hard to one creature. Tamiyo’s Safekeeping (hexproof + indestructible) and Withstand Death blank a kill spell or a fight.
  • Save one-sided removal (Ram Through / Bite Down) for the scary stuff — they don’t risk your creature.
  • Sulfurous Blast is a tempo reset: cast it when your giant is large enough to shrug off 3 and the board is full of x/3-or-less tokens/dorks.
  • X-burn (Fireball/Disintegrate) is your closer if the beater gets answered repeatedly — point overflow mana at a player.

Weaknesses

  • Single-threat fragility. The plan funnels value into one creature; serial removal or a board wipe you can’t dodge sets you back hard. Mitigated by the protection package and backup bodies (Ambitious Dragonborn, the dorks), but it’s the real risk.
  • Few true wipes. Commons RG has no Wrath. Against a wide go-wide deck you lean on Sulfurous Blast + grinding fights, which can be too slow.
  • Flyers. Reach on the commander and a couple of spiders/Scattershot Archer help, but a heavy air force is awkward.
  • Removal-light openers. If you brick on ramp + commander, the fight package has no creatures to fight with until you stabilize a board.

Decklist

⬇ Download as .txt — paste into Moxfield, Archidekt, or MTG Arena.

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