#commaner

I love tokens, and while I’ve made token decks in many different color identities (including monowhite, monoblack, monoblue, monored, naya, selesnya, dimir, gruul, boros, orzhov, bant, abzan, and jund), I got the urge to start another one when Mardu Ascendancy and Ponyback Brigade were spoiled.

Unfortunately, at the time of KTK’s release, none of the Mardu Commanders synergized particularly well with a token strategy. Zurgo was too strong of a Voltron Commander to helm a token build, as it was pointless trying to deal 40 damage with tokens when one could so easily deal 21 damage with him; Kaalia’s affinity for Angels, Demons, and Dragons did nothing for a deck that was mainly concerned with Goblins and Soldiers; in a three-color deck, Oros was more likely to slay your own tokens than clear a path for them. Left without a Legendary Creature that could contribute to my strategy in some way, I shelved the idea.

Several months later, I was working on an Alesha, Who Smiles at Death list when I noticed the synergy between Alesha and Siege-Gang Commander. Siege-Gang could sacrifice himself and Alesha could bring him back during combat, making three tokens each turn (and shooting some weenie in the process). I looked for more creatures with power 2 or less that generated tokens when they entered the battlefield (there are more than you might think) and then pulled up a list of sacrifice outlets to help round out my engine. With a token-generating creature, a sacrifice outlet, and Alesha, I could recur the same creatures over and over, netting tokens each time. Although there weren’t enough creatures fitting my criteria to build an entire deck around the strategy (again, the engine only worked with creatures with power 2 or less that generated tokens when they entered the battlefield), there were enough to cement Alesha’s position as the best Mardu token Commander. With Alesha in mind, I set to work on a list.

Token Generators

Since Red and White are the colors with the greatest token presence, I had many, many options to choose from when selecting my means of token production. In order to separate the wheat from the chaff, I created minimum cost-to-creature ratios for each point along my mana curve. Here are the standards that guided my deckbuilding:

CMC 1-4

Must generate at least three bodies immediately or have the ability to generate many bodies over time (ex: Hordeling Outburst, Goblin Assault)

CMC 5-6

Must generate at least four bodies immediately (ex: Conqueror’s Pledge, Cloudgoat Ranger)

Following these guidelines, here is the suite of token producers I ended up with:

Beetleback Chief Captain of the Watch Cloudgoat Ranger Emrakul’s Hatcher Evangel of Heliod Goblin Rabblemaster Hero of Bladehold Knight-Captain of Eos Mardu Strike Leader Marsh Flitter Mogg War Marshal Monastery Mentor Ponyback Brigade Precinct Captain Sengir Autocrat Siege-Gang Commander Stonybrook Schoolmaster Battle Screech Conqueror’s Pledge Goblin Rally Hordeling Outburst Increasing Devotion Launch the Fleet Spectral Procession Assemble the Legion Goblin Assault Goblinslide Luminarch Ascension Mardu Ascendancy Militia’s Pride Benevolent Offering Elspeth, Sun’s Champion Elspeth Tirel

Control Vs. Aggro

Generally, there are two ways to utilize tokens in Commander: you can use engines that convert tokens into cards (such as Skullclamp, Attrition, Grave Pact, etc.) or you can take advantage of the fact that anthem effects (like Dictate of Heliod, Fervent Charge, and Glory of Warfare) provide a lot more power when they’re spread across many bodies. The former option is more focused in Black and pushes me towards control while the latter, more aggressive build relies on Red and White cards. Rather than choose between the two, I’d rather incorporate both types of cards in order to increase the variance of gameplay, allowing my playstyle to be dictated by my draws. It’s not the most focused strategy, but it’ll allow me to play this deck for longer before I get bored with it.

Control Enablers

Sadistic Hypnotist Attrition Dictate of Erebos Grave Pact Larceny Martyr’s Bond Mind Slash Shivan Harvest Skullclamp

Anthem Effects

Archangel of Strife Mirror Entity Purphoros, God of the Forge Cathars’ Crusade Crescendo of War Dictate of Heliod Fervent Charge Glory of Warfare Shared Animosity Coar of Arms

Asymmetrical Board Wipes

Finally, we’ll round out the deck with a few sweepers that hurt our opponents way more than they hurt us.

Austere Command Hour of Reckoning Retribution of the Meek

Wrapping Up

Here’s a link to the full list:

Mardu Tokens

JORGE PEÑAILILLO: GP DE SANTIAGO 2015 EN AGOSTO Y FORMATO SELLADO

Magic The Gathering a nivel organizado en Chile, tiene un nombre y apellido: Jorge Peñailillo. Y es que él es una verdadera personalidad de este juego que tanto queremos: es juez certificado nivel 2 por Wizards, dueño de la tienda La Forja de Stoney, además, organizador del Grand Prix de Santiago. En una entrevista a fondo, Jorge nos contó qué se viene este 2015 para el Magic en el país más…

Had a few things I had to work through over the past couple days, but I'm back now and ready for another round of Commander Card Spotlight! Today's card is a exceptionally useful Green aura with a pretty cheap mana cost that fits into almost any creature-based build. It's a fairly well-known card in the community, but it's worth looking at just because of how much work it can do.

Pattern of Rebirth is a rare from the Urza's Destiny set. It triggers when the creature it's enchanting dies, allowing the creature's controller to tutor up a replacement and put it right out onto the field. As I'm sure you can already tell, there are a number of reasons why this is a great card. Getting a creature from your deck and putting it right into play is a huge shortcut. There's not a lot of cards that let you cut out the middleman that is your hand for an effect like this -- Tooth and Nail is one that a lot of people use, and this card fits right in next to it in a number of lists.

Another aspect of this card that's really useful is the amount of control you can build into its trigger. You can enchant one of your higher-impact creatures with it to keep him safe ("Kill this guy and I'll just find something even worse!"), or insert it into a sacrifice engine and enchant a throwaway creature for immediate gain. For an example of a deck that makes use of the card as a piece in a larger machine, check out my personal Sapling of Colfenor build.