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Child of Alara

Mana value5EDHREC#8,029

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The Commander

Trample

When Child of Alara dies, destroy all nonland permanents. They can't be regenerated.

Guide

Gameplan

Child of Alara is a five-color Avatar that turns its own death into a board wipe, destroying every nonland permanent. You build a creature/lands deck that uses Child as a repeatable, sacrifice-on-demand reset button, then rebuild faster than your opponents thanks to lands, mana rocks, and resilient threats. Sac Child whenever the board turns against you, then deploy a closer the same turn or shortly after.

Strengths

Access to all five colors means best-in-class removal, ramp, and tutors
Asymmetric Armageddon effect: you keep your lands while everyone's permanents die
Repeatable board wipe attached to a cheap-to-recur commander
Trample makes Child a real beater if left unchecked
Great political tool — the threat of a free wipe keeps opponents honest

Weaknesses

The wipe destroys your own nonland permanents too, including artifacts and enchantments
Requires a sacrifice outlet to use on demand; otherwise opponents won't kill it
Five-color mana base is expensive and prone to color screw
Doesn't generate card advantage on its own — you can wipe yourself into a empty board
Vulnerable to exile-based removal that bypasses the death trigger

Key Cards

Goblin Bombardment — Free, repeatable sacrifice outlet that lets you fire off the board wipe at instant speed.
Phyrexian Altar — Sacrifices Child for mana and helps recast it the same turn for back-to-back resets.
Crucible of Worlds — Recurs sacrificed and fetched lands so you rebuild mana faster after each wipe.
Birthing Pod — Sacrifices Child to tutor up your next threat while triggering the wipe.
Avenger of Zendikar — Floods the board with plant tokens off lands after a wipe, a perfect post-reset closer.
Smothering Tithe — Generates treasure to power the demanding five-color mana base and rebuild quickly.

Upgrade Path

Improve the mana base with fetchlands, original duals, and Triomes to make five colors consistent, then add fast mana like Mana Crypt and Jeweled Lotus. Lean into free or repeatable sacrifice outlets (Viscera Seer, Carrion Feeder, Ashnod's Altar) so the wipe is always available, and pair them with cheap reanimation (Reanimate, Animate Dead) to loop Child. Finally, prioritize land-based payoffs and resilient post-wipe finishers so your board reset always advantages you, not the table.

Core Cards

The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.

Win Conditions

▸Resolve a haymaker creature (Avenger of Zendikar, Craterhoof Behemoth) after wiping the board
▸Grind opponents out with repeated asymmetric wipes until they run out of threats
▸Beat down with Child's trample once the board is clear
▸Land-based engines (Field of the Dead, Scapeshift) overwhelm a stalled table

Archetypes

Stax/Control — Repeatable board wipes plus land-based asymmetry let you grind opponents to nothing while keeping your engine.
Lands — Child only destroys nonland permanents, so a land-heavy strategy survives every wipe intact.
Aristocrats — Sacrifice outlets that fuel Child's death also enable a value-and-drain shell.
Reanimator — Five colors give access to the best recursion to keep bringing Child back for another wipe.