commander · Esika, God of the Tree
From Cute to Brute (SLD).
A five-color double-faced card deck from Secret Lair, led by Esika, God of the Tree — put legendary creatures into play off The Prismatic Bridge, or use Esika's front face to generate mana from your legendary permanents.
The Commander
From Cute to Brute is Secret Lair's double-faced card Commander deck — it contains forty-seven double-faced cards with "cute" art on the front and "brute" art on the back. Esika, God of the Tree is the face commander. She's a 1/4 with reach that gives all legendary creatures you control the ability to tap for any color of mana. The Prismatic Bridge — her back face — is a five-color enchantment that reveals the top card of your library at your upkeep and puts the first nonland permanent with mana value six or more directly onto the battlefield.
Esika, God of the Tree provides two completely different strategies depending on which face you play. Esika's front face builds a legendary creature battery that generates any color of mana. The Prismatic Bridge cheats any expensive permanent directly into play every turn — in a five-color deck full of six-plus mana creatures, that's a free bomb every upkeep. Run the front face for legendary synergy builds or the back face to cheat in the deck's biggest threats.
Key Cards
Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
On entry, each opponent discards a card. Pay four mana to flip into Nicol Bolas, the Arisen — a planeswalker with powerful draw, exile, and drain abilities. The Prismatic Bridge can put Nicol Bolas directly into play if he's the first six-plus mana card revealed. The transformation into the planeswalker form provides an ongoing engine that generates card advantage and threat removal each turn. A free Nicol Bolas entry from the Bridge immediately disrupts all opponents' hands.
Archangel Avacyn
Flash. When she enters, all creatures you control gain indestructible until end of turn. When a non-angel creature dies, Avacyn transforms into her Avacyn, the Purifier form at the beginning of the next upkeep, dealing three damage to each non-angel creature and player. With The Prismatic Bridge potentially cheating her in, her flash ability also makes her a surprise instant-speed play in response to a board wipe. Avacyn transforms into a damage engine after any creature death, which in Commander happens constantly.
Bloodline Keeper
Creates a 2/2 Vampire token each turn when tapped. Transforms into Lord of Lineage when you control five or more Vampires — Lord gives all Vampires +2/+2. In a five-color deck, Bloodline Keeper's token generation feeds whatever tribal payoffs the deck runs, and the transformation to Lord of Lineage creates a significant board-wide pump. Since the deck contains every double-faced card card ever printed across all colors, the vampire tokens from Keeper trigger any other death or enter effects among the fifty-plus double-faced cards.
Westvale Abbey
A land that taps for colorless but can pay five mana and sacrifice five creatures to transform into Ormendahl, Profane Prince — a 9/7 flying lifelink indestructible haste demon. In a token-heavy board with the Bridge deploying threats every turn, sacrificing five creatures for an indestructible 9/7 that attacks and gains life the same turn it enters is a reliable game-ending threat. The double-faced nature of this land means it's both a mana source and a finisher from a single card slot.
Seedborn Muse
Untaps all permanents you control during each other player's untap step. With The Prismatic Bridge triggering at each upkeep, Seedborn Muse converts other players' turn cycles into additional Bridge triggers — effectively tripling or quadrupling the number of free deployments per turn cycle. With Esika's mana-generating legendary permanents all untapping each turn, the mana pool for large spells also becomes functionally unlimited.
How to Play
The choice between Esika's front and back face sets up two completely different game plans. Against creature-heavy pods, The Prismatic Bridge cheats one bomb per turn cycle without spending mana — over three or four turns, five massive permanents have entered for free and the board state becomes impossible to overcome. Against more controlling pods, Esika's front face with legendary mana generation provides the mana consistency for the full five-color spell package. The double-faced card theme means many threats have two relevant game states — run them through Westvale Abbey as sacrifice fodder, then deploy the flipped versions as the game state demands. Win through the sheer overwhelming power of The Prismatic Bridge deploying six-plus mana threats each turn.