The Minstrel's Ballad — At the beginning of combat on your turn, if you control five or more Towns, create a 2/2 Elemental creature token that's all colors.
: Other creatures you control get +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of Towns you control.
Ramp into Town-typed lands while keeping them untapped, hit five Towns to start churning out free all-color 2/2 Elementals each combat, then overrun the table with the Minstrel's six-color pump activation. You play a grindy lands-matter midrange game in WUBRG, leveraging the best removal and ramp every color offers while your land count quietly becomes a wincon.
Five-color identity gives access to the best removal, ramp, and tutors in the format
Lands enter untapped, so you never lose tempo to ramping and can deploy fast
Builds a wide token board for free once you reach five Towns, then closes with a built-in anthem
Hard to disrupt the engine since it keys off lands rather than the creature itself
Heavily dependent on having enough Town-typed lands, which can be a narrow and fragile theme
Two-mana commander is easy to remove early before you reach five Towns
The pump activation costs six specific mana, demanding heavy fixing
Mana base consistency is tough across five colors without strong fixing
With many lands online it provides the explosive mana for the Town-scaling pump.
Maximize Town consistency with effects like Prismatic Omen, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove, and Urborg/Yavimaya-style land-type changers so you reliably hit five Towns early. Add premium fixing (fetchlands, duals, Triomes, Chromatic Lantern) and fast mana such as Mana Crypt and Smothering Tithe to power the costly activation. Round out with mass-token engines and a haste enabler so your free Elementals can swing the turn they arrive.
Legendary Creature — Human Bard
