Ellie and Alan, Paleontologists
{T}, Exile a creature card from your graveyard: Discover X, where X is the mana value of the exiled card. Activate only as a sorcery. (Exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card with that mana value or less. Cast it without paying its mana cost or put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom in a random order.)
How Ellie and Alan decks play in EDH
Ellie and Alan, Paleontologists is a Bant commander in white, blue and green costing 2GWU, and its legendary creature - human scientist line shapes the whole deck around it. It works out of the graveyard, so self-mill and cheap recursion effectively become extra card advantage. The cards below are the ones Ellie and Alan, Paleontologists decks actually play most often, grouped by the job they do.
Most-played cards
20 cards · about $20.49Play rates from EDHREC. Prices from Scryfall, refreshed daily.
Ramp (3)
Card draw (8)
Counterspells (1)
Creatures (8)
Build the full 100
Grimoire generates a complete, Commander-legal Ellie and Alan, Paleontologists decklist with a written strategy, a full mana base and live prices — from the whole card pool, or only from cards you already own.
Start with Ellie and AlanEllie and Alan deck questions
What colours can I use in a Ellie and Alan, Paleontologists deck?
Ellie and Alan, Paleontologists has a Bant colour identity, so every card in the deck must be white, blue and green or colourless. That includes mana symbols in rules text, not just casting cost.
What are the best cards for Ellie and Alan, Paleontologists?
The cards played most often in Ellie and Alan, Paleontologists decks include Elven Raft-Steerer, Vinelasher Adept, The Queen of Dale. The full list of staples above is grouped by the job each card does, so you can see the deck's skeleton rather than just a pile of names.
How much does a Ellie and Alan, Paleontologists deck cost?
The 20 most-played cards shown above come to roughly $20.49 at current market prices. A complete 100-card build costs more, and Grimoire can generate a budget version instead if you set a price ceiling.
Can I build a Ellie and Alan, Paleontologists deck from cards I already own?
Yes. Import your collection into Grimoire and choose "my cards" when you build. The generator will only use cards you actually own, and the Missing Cards page shows what you would need to buy to finish any list.