Innistrad: Crimson Vow brought a plethora of exciting new commanders to the Commander format in Magic: The Gathering, and among them, Halana and Alena, Partners stand out as a dynamic duo ready to lead your next Gruul (Green/Red) deck. While they might not be the flashiest commanders at first glance, their unique abilities offer a compelling path to victory through creature enhancement and aggressive strategies. Let’s delve deep into the potential of Halana and Alena, Partners, exploring how to build a powerful and synergistic deck around them.
Halana and Alena, Partners
Halana and Alena, Partners, often referred to as “H&A,” enter the battlefield as a 2/3 creature for four mana, equipped with first strike and reach. While their base stats might seem modest for their cost, their true strength lies in their combat trigger. At the beginning of combat on your turn, they empower another target creature you control with +1/+1 counters equal to their power and grant it haste until the end of turn.
This ability is ingeniously designed, encouraging a creature-heavy strategy. The keyword “another” is crucial; it prevents H&A from solely buffing themselves, pushing players to build decks with a robust creature base to maximize their commander’s potential. To fully unlock their power, you’ll need to assemble a diverse army of creatures and find ways to amplify H&A’s power, thus increasing the potency of their buff. The +1/+1 counter mechanic also naturally leads us into exploring the rich landscape of +1/+1 counter synergies within Magic: The Gathering.
Powering Up Halana and Alena Partners
To truly make Halana And Alena Partners shine, boosting their power is paramount. A higher power directly translates to more +1/+1 counters being distributed to your other creatures each combat. Fortunately, numerous cards in Green and Red can achieve this, ranging from temporary buffs to persistent power enhancements.
Agitator Ant
Equipment and Auras: Low-cost equipment like Bonesplitter or enchantments like Rancor are excellent choices for early power boosts. Rancor, in particular, provides a solid +2 power for just one green mana, grants trample, and even returns to your hand if removed. For a more substantial, albeit riskier, power surge, consider Colossification. While it taps the enchanted creature and costs seven mana, the staggering +20/+20 boost it provides to H&A translates to an enormous amount of +1/+1 counters for another creature, creating immediate threats.
Creature-Based Buffs: Creatures like Stumpsquall Hydra and Verdurous Gearhulk offer dynamic power increases. Upon entering the battlefield, they can distribute +1/+1 counters, some of which can be placed on Halana and Alena, Partners themselves. This immediately amplifies H&A’s power, which can then be redirected to another creature on the same turn, creating a powerful, hasty attacker. Imagine casting Verdurous Gearhulk the turn after H&A – you could potentially attack with H&A for six power and the Gearhulk for ten in the same turn!
Anthems and Global Effects: Cards like Thunderfoot Baloth and Bard Class provide ongoing power buffs to all your creatures, including Halana and Alena Partners. These anthems ensure that H&A consistently deliver a significant power boost to your chosen creature each combat, further strengthening your board presence. Even seemingly simple spells like Snakeskin Veil can offer temporary protection and a power boost, ensuring H&A survive to trigger their ability again.
Synergies with Increased Power
Boosting Halana and Alena Partners’ power is only half the equation. The real payoff comes from leveraging that increased power and the resulting +1/+1 counters to create further advantages. Many cards in Magic: The Gathering reward you for having high-power creatures or for distributing +1/+1 counters.
The Great Henge
Mana Generation: Turn those +1/+1 counters into mana with creatures like Gyre Sage, Incubation Druid, and Marwyn, the Nurturer. As creatures get buffed by H&A, these mana dorks will generate increasingly larger amounts of mana, allowing you to cast even more powerful spells and creatures.
Power Amplification: Cards like Wild Beastmaster and Cultivator of Blades translate individual power boosts into team-wide advantages. Wild Beastmaster directly scales its power with the highest power among your creatures, while Cultivator of Blades buffs all attacking creatures based on its own power. With H&A consistently increasing creature power, these cards can lead to overwhelming combat steps.
Evasion and Board Control: Champion of Lambholt becomes increasingly difficult to block as your creatures get stronger, paving the way for unhindered attacks. Boosting the power of token generators like Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin (Goblin tokens) or Tana, the Bloodsower (Saproling tokens) allows them to produce more tokens, creating a wider board presence for both offense and defense.
Card Advantage and Ramp: The Great Henge is a powerful card in any green deck, and with H&A consistently creating large creatures, you’ll be able to cast it ahead of schedule. The Henge then provides both card draw and mana ramp, fueling your engine even further.
+1/+1 Counter Synergies
Given Halana and Alena Partners’ ability to distribute +1/+1 counters, exploring dedicated +1/+1 counter synergies is a natural deck-building direction. Green is particularly rich in cards that interact favorably with +1/+1 counters, creating a synergistic and powerful game plan.
Bloodspore Thrinax
Counter Doubling and Proliferation: Cards like Branching Evolution and Doubling Season (though expensive) amplify the number of +1/+1 counters placed on your creatures, making H&A’s ability even more impactful. Proliferate effects, found on cards like Evolution Sage or through planeswalkers, can further increase your counter count, snowballing your board state.
Counter Manipulation and Protection: The Ozolith acts as a counter bank, preserving +1/+1 counters when creatures leave the battlefield and allowing you to redistribute them later. Inspiring Call not only draws you cards equal to the number of creatures you control with counters but also grants them indestructible, protecting your buffed creatures from board wipes.
Scaling Threats: Kalonian Hydra is a prime example of a creature that thrives in a +1/+1 counter strategy. Imagine casting it the turn after H&A – it receives two counters from H&A’s trigger and then doubles its counters upon attacking, becoming a massive threat very quickly. Similarly, Bloodspore Thrinax becomes a mini-commander in your deck, distributing its own +1/+1 counters to other creatures, creating explosive growth potential, especially when combined with a heavily buffed H&A.
Continuous Growth: Oran-Rief Ooze ensures that all your subsequent green creatures enter the battlefield with additional +1/+1 counters, creating a consistent stream of growing threats.
Creatures with Built-in +1/+1 Counters
To further capitalize on the +1/+1 counter theme, consider including creatures that naturally enter the battlefield with counters. These creatures not only benefit directly from H&A’s ability but also often have abilities that synergize with having counters.
Spike Weaver
Ramp and Utility: Fertilid provides early ramp and becomes even more efficient with +1/+1 counters, allowing you to fetch more lands. Spike Weaver uses its counters to prevent damage, acting as a potent defensive tool.
Versatile Threats: Hydras like Stonecoil Serpent, Steelbane Hydra, and Vastwood Hydra are excellent choices. Stonecoil Serpent offers protection and reach, Steelbane Hydra provides removal, and Vastwood Hydra grows exponentially, all while benefiting from +1/+1 counters. Hooded Hydra, Hangarback Walker, and Ochre Jelly provide resilience against board wipes, generating tokens or splitting into multiple creatures when they die, maintaining board presence. Imagine the value of putting a large number of counters on Lifeblood Hydra – you gain a massive amount of life and draw cards when it’s removed.
Benefits from Haste
Don’t underestimate the value of haste granted by Halana and Alena Partners. Giving haste to the right creature at the right moment can be game-changing, allowing you to utilize powerful attack triggers immediately.
Delina, Wild Mage
Immediate Impact Creatures: Creatures with powerful attack triggers, such as Etali, Primal Storm, become significantly more potent when given haste. Etali allows you to cast spells from the top of each player’s library for free, generating immediate card advantage and board presence. Kogla, the Titan Ape can enter, fight a creature, attack with haste and a power boost, and then destroy an artifact or enchantment – a huge swing in momentum. Furthermore, Kogla can protect H&A from removal by returning them to your hand.
Overwhelming Offense: Pathbreaker Ibex becomes a game-ender when given haste. It not only receives a power boost from H&A but also buffs your entire team and grants them trample, ensuring your attacks connect for massive damage.
Deathtouch Enhancement
Halana and Alena Partners’ first strike ability pairs perfectly with deathtouch. By granting H&A deathtouch, they become a formidable blocker and attacker, able to eliminate even the largest threats in combat while taking no damage themselves.
Nightshade Peddler
Deathtouch Enablers: Ohran Frostfang not only grants deathtouch to your attacking creatures but also provides card draw whenever they deal combat damage to a player, creating card advantage alongside combat dominance. Basilisk Collar and Bow of Nylea are other efficient ways to grant deathtouch, with Bow of Nylea also offering versatile utility. Nightshade Peddler allows you to give deathtouch to H&A at instant speed, providing a surprise defensive or offensive boost. Saryth, the Viper’s Fang provides deathtouch to your tapped creatures, which can be particularly useful in an aggressive deck where you are consistently attacking. Giving Saryth haste with H&A also allows you to untap a creature targeted by removal, turning on its hexproof protection.
Persist Mechanic Interaction
While not a core synergy, Halana and Alena Partners can interact favorably with creatures that have persist. Persist creatures return to the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter when they die. H&A’s ability to grant +1/+1 counters can remove these -1/-1 counters, effectively resetting persist creatures for repeated value.
Aerie Ouphes
Value Engines: Woodfall Primus is a powerful example. It destroys a noncreature permanent when it enters the battlefield and again when it persists. By using H&A to remove the -1/-1 counter, you can potentially repeat this destruction effect. Aerie Ouphes can repeatedly destroy artifacts or enchantments with persist and H&A’s counter ability. Devoted Druid, while not having persist, can generate significant mana by untapping itself and accumulating -1/-1 counters. H&A can then remove these counters, allowing for further mana generation.
Budget-Friendly One-Drop Creatures
To ensure a smooth early game and maximize H&A’s impact, include a selection of efficient one-mana creatures. These creatures can be played early, establish board presence, and then become potent threats when buffed by Halana and Alena Partners.
Soul-Scar Mage
Early Game Presence: Arboreal Grazer provides early ramp and defense. Ulvenwald Tracker offers creature-based removal in green.
Scaling Threats: Pelt Collector grows quickly as creatures die and can gain trample, becoming a significant threat in the mid-game. Experiment One evolves and gets counters from H&A, becoming a resilient and growing threat. Slumbering Dragon deters early attacks and can quickly become active with +1/+1 counters.
Mid-Range Two and Three-Drop Creatures
Filling the two and three-mana slots with impactful creatures is crucial for transitioning into the mid-game. These creatures should offer a mix of utility, aggression, and synergy with H&A’s game plan.
Radha, Heart of Keld
Mana Ramp and Advantage: Lotus Cobra provides explosive mana ramp. Goblin Anarchomancer reduces the cost of your red and green spells. Dryad of the Ilysian Grove fixes your mana and enables landfall triggers. Springbloom Druid and Tireless Provisioner offer creature-based ramp.
Aggression and Disruption: Kari Zev, Skyship Raider and Robber of the Rich are aggressive two-drops that become more threatening with +1/+1 counters. Scavenging Ooze provides graveyard hate and grows in size. Fynn, the Fangbearer enables a deathtouch-focused subtheme, potentially leading to quick victories. Radha, Heart of Keld, with first strike and mana generation based on power, becomes a potent attacker and mana source when buffed by H&A.
Utility Creatures: Reclamation Sage provides essential artifact and enchantment removal on a creature body.
Utilizing Extra Attack Steps
Extra attack steps synergize exceptionally well with Halana and Alena Partners. By triggering H&A’s ability multiple times in a turn, you can distribute even more +1/+1 counters and create overwhelming offensive pressure.
World at War
Multi-Triggers: Cards like Combat Celebrant and Port Razer can be given haste by H&A and immediately trigger their extra attack step abilities, creating a chain of attacks and counter distribution. Moraug, Fury of Akoum becomes devastating with multiple attack steps, buffing your entire team with each landfall trigger. Spells like World at War and Relentless Assault provide additional combat phases, allowing you to trigger H&A’s ability multiple times per turn. Scourge of the Throne can offer extra attacks based on being the monarch or based on opponents having more life, leading to explosive turns.
Partnering with Themselves
For a flavorful inclusion, consider adding the original versions of Alena and Halana to your 99. While they are not as powerful as the partner commanders, they offer unique synergies within the deck.
Alena, Kessig Trapper
Synergistic Inclusion: Alena, Kessig Trapper can generate mana based on the power of creatures you control, potentially fueling more spells and abilities. Her first strike also benefits from +1/+1 counters. While Halana, Dean of Order‘s fight ability might not directly synergize with the +1/+1 counter theme, it provides creature removal and can be used to clear blockers, making it safer to attack with your buffed creatures.
Conclusion
Halana and Alena, Partners offer a compelling and versatile commander option for players who enjoy creature-centric, aggressive strategies with a focus on +1/+1 counters and synergistic interactions. Their ability to consistently buff another creature each combat, combined with their access to powerful Gruul colors, allows for a wide range of deck-building possibilities. Whether you focus on maximizing H&A’s power, leveraging +1/+1 counter synergies, or utilizing haste and extra attack steps, Halana and Alena Partners provide a dynamic and engaging Commander experience. They are not only a strong commander choice but also a valuable inclusion in the 99 of other creature-heavy Commander decks seeking consistent value and combat enhancement. Explore the many card options available and build your own unique and powerful Halana and Alena Partners Commander deck today!
