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| Format | Legality |
| 1v1 Commander | Legal |
| Archenemy | Legal |
| Arena | Legal |
| Block Constructed | Legal |
| Canadian Highlander | Legal |
| Casual | Legal |
| Commander / EDH | Legal |
| Commander: Rule 0 | Legal |
| Custom | Legal |
| Duel Commander | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Highlander | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Leviathan | Legal |
| Limited | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Planechase | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Beast Whisperer
Creature — Elf Druid
Whenever you cast a creature spell, draw a card.
![Vraska, the Silencer feature for Petrified by the Gorgussy [Primer]](http://static.tappedout.net/mtg-cards-2/OTJ/vraska-the-silencer/regular-1711618615.png)
rckclimber777 on Build a Deck with Me …
3 days ago
First a quick introduction. I've been playing magic off and on for years. When this site first started out, I was super active and then I stopped playing. I recently got back into it and plunged deep into the Commander format. I love building decks around interesting concepts and often trying to break cards.
My slightly ambitious goal is to create a series of threads that show my thought process as I build a commander deck. I figure it will serve two purposes: First, it will aid newer players who have some precon decks and perhaps are looking to upgrade them or they see a commander and want to build it, but aren't sure how. The second is purely self-motivated in that more experienced players can fine tune my own logic and make suggestions for my own improvement.
So with that, the first commander deck I'm going to build here is Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds. This is a card that begs to be broken and creates for interesting and powerful decks. There are also several different lines you can choose to go with. You can make it go infinite if you like degeneracy or don't like the people in your playgroup, or you can decide to go the way of building lots of tokens quickly and then turning them sideways and swinging. (Spoiler alert we are going infinite)
So first things first, we need to think about what the commander actually does and what it is going to need to do that effectively. First, it allows all nontoken creatures to tap and create tokens that I control that entered the battlefield this turn. So a couple things to point out: First is that it is tokens not creature tokens specifically, so treasures, clues, food, etc. are fair game. Secondly, it doesn't have to be my turn that the tokens came in, you can activate the ability at instant speed if you create a token on your opponent's turn. Now Ghired also is only 3 mana in Naya colors with Haste which means he's going to come down early in the game, so we'll want some other creatures out there when he comes down to start building up tokens right away.
With his abilities in mind, there are a couple things that we want to think about: Cards that create tokens, cards that double tokens, cards that untap things, and cards that do interesting things when they're tapped, example Wylie Duke, Atiin Hero, who comes down early as well, and when she is tapped I gain life and draw a card. We will obviously need to consider interaction, ramp, and card draw, but those are secondary in my thoughts. Every deck needs those, but what items you add often depends on what your deck is trying to do. In this case, we want to make tokens, tap creatures, make more tokens.
Token Generators
So a couple really good token generators here to start would be things that keep making them rather than one offs. In my playtesting Oltec Matterweaver is hard to beat. It comes in early (turn 2 if you can get a sol ring). When you cast a creature spell you can copy a target artifact or bring out a 1/1 gnome. Turn 1 you play a plains and a sol ring. Turn 2 you bring this out, turn 3 you bring out Ghired, creating a copy of sol ring, tap your Oltec Matterweaver and create another sol ring. You now have 3 sol rings on the field on turn 3... You are now the archenemy, congrats?
Some other standouts are Emmara, Soul of the Accord who when tapped creates a 1/1 soldier with lifelink. So tapping will actually create two tokens. Thousand Moons Smithy  Flip is another beast of a card. It comes down turn 4, Ghired is already out along with any other low cost creatures. Let's say you have a Birds of Paradise and Ghired when this comes down and maybe a mana rock. You create a 5/5 Gnome (2 creatures, 2 artifacts, and the gnome itself). Now you tap the bird and Ghired and create two more Gnomes. You now have 3 7/7s, on turn 4...
Honorable mentions here are things like Smothering Tithe who will create treasures each opponent's turn, tap a creature and create another. Rain of Riches, create some treasures, copy them cast something and get cascade.
Also, populate is a thing, I like Growing Ranks and Nesting Dovehawk for that.
Doublers
Ok, so doublers is a pretty easy topic, there are quite a few out there, they are expensive and honestly for this deck you don't need much. I chose a couple that I particularly like for this and by like I mean I own them and didn't have to go out and spend $50-60. Examples are Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation  Flip, Mondrak, Glory Dominus, Primal Vigor (careful as this one applies to everyone not just you).
Untapping Abilities
Untapping abilites can make it even worse as time goes on. If you have a Seedborn Muse you untap each upkeep so they draw a card, Smothering Tithe creates a treasure, during their end step you tap your creatures creating more treasures. Untap on the next opponent's untap step, rinse and repeat.
This is also where infinite combos begin to happen. Sunstrike Legionnaire untaps everytime a creature enters the battlefield. Make a creature token, tap sunstrike legionnaire, create another creature token, sunstrike legionnaire untaps, rinse and repeat, gg. Midnight Guard works too for one more mana. Other options include making copies of your own creatures that untap creatures when they enter the battlefield like Hyrax Tower Scout, Zealous Conscripts, Sparring Mummy. Mix that with notable salty cards like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Molten Duplication, Splinter Twin, Jaxis, the Troublemaker and you're off to infinite again. (Jaxis uses his ability targeting sparring mummy, sparring mummy comes in untaps him, now Jaxis just taps to make a copy of the sparring mummy token (from Ghired) which has haste, it comes in untaps Jaxis, rinse and repeat, swing with a legion of sparring mummies)
Cards that do cool things when tapped aren't super plentiful, but the two I've mentioned already are great for this deck. (Wylie and Emmara).
Interaction, ramp, card draw
Now for the ramp, interaction, and card draw. Ramp is fairly straightforward, since we have the Oltec Matterweaver, I opted to put in some signets, but left some other stones out. Normally when I'm in green I go heavy on green ramp. I opted for cheap ramp spells like Rampant Growth, Farseek, Three Visits and Birds of Paradise (could maybe use more mana dorks since having a body later will help in producing larger tokens).
Interaction is super important in this one. Board wipes are coming, targeted removal is coming, so need to prepare, but we also need to be flexible in taking out our opponents. So to save us from board wipes, we have Heroic Intervention, the ubiquitous and hopefully soon to be reprinted (one can dream) Teferi's Protection, Boros Charm, and Smuggler's Surprise (which is heroic intervention in disguise).
Getting rid of threats is crucial, so Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares are useful, but not as useful as Beast Within, Generous Gift, and Stroke of Midnight. These obviously target more than just creatures, but also produce tokens. There are situations where a well-timed beast within on your own treasure token to create a 3/3 beast that you can copy a bunch of times is the right play. That make it not just removal, but also a token generator.
Finally, we come to card draw. Since we are producing tokens (hopefully most turns) we can include things like Bennie Bracks, Zoologist and Idol of Oblivion. I also like Welcoming Vampire for this deck. It is creature heavy so Guardian Project is great, so is Beast Whisperer and Garruk's Uprising. Esper Sentinel is always good. We already have Wylie from earlier. Getting card draw is vital to the survival of any deck and particularly this one as we need to be producing tokens regularly and you need cards to produce them. I chose to run about 11 card draw engines in the deck to ensure I'm drawing regularly.
Lands... I mean... make sure you have dual lands in the deck and triomes if you can. One noteworthy utility land is Grove of the Guardian which can have a nice payoff when you create an 8/8 with a few creatures out along with Ghired.
I'll post the deck that I built from this thought process on my page in case you want to see the final product. And if you made it this far thanks for joining me on this, I hope it was helpful. Feel free to comment on how you would do it differently or cards that should have been mentioned. Also feel free to mention commanders you want to see built. I have a couple in mind to start but want to see suggestions as well.
Headers13 on
Power and Poison
1 month ago
ToonDeMeister on
Simic Prime Speaker
3 months ago
I'm gonna test it out tonight. I think it's the best version I could make using my collection (Some cards are already in other decks, so if avoidable I would like to keep them in there). Small doubts on some cards though. Maybe its better to put Tormod's Crypt in, so that I can draw or get the creatures back that I sacrificed, but I don't know what to take out. And Maybe 40 lands is a bit much, online I read a lot of people have 38, some ramp decks even 34-36. But some of my ramp is about playing extra land from my hand, so not sure. Also I wouldn't know what to change.
Also my best card draw instants and sorcery's are in my Jace, Wielder of Mysteries deck. But I think with cards like Narset, Parter of Veils , Elder Gargaroth and Beast Whisperer and such in the deck that it will work out.
DreadKhan on
Meren, Clan of Nel Toth
7 months ago
One of my favourite things to do in Meren is to ramp (my deck is on the clunkier side, and it runs very few lands), and one of the better ways to repeatedly ramp is to use more stuff like Sakura Tribe Elder, variations include Diligent Farmhand, Dawntreader Elk, Yavimaya Granger, and maybe Burnished Hart/Fertilid. All of these can find a Swamp for you, each sacrifices itself and thus they have some nice synergy with Meren. I think the only Meren decks that don't want multiples of that effect is if they are building a very high powered list, where this kind of play 'isn't advancing your board' sufficiently. I often find that farming XP isn't a waste of time early, so these recursive ramp sources offer that as well. I think it's very hard to justify running land ramp Sorceries when you can run creatures that do the same thing, and arguably do a better job of it. I would also shave stuff like Arcane Signet or the Talisman for creature ramp, Meren can't recur your rocks for you when they get blown up. In addition to Meren there are tons of things that synergize with creatures, stuff like Beast Whisperer and Liliana's Standard Bearer can draw lots of cards via creatures, and you don't get that synergy with a 2 mana rock. Using Meren to recur Liliana's Standard Bearer is a pretty impressive bulk draw option.
Some generically good cards for a Meren list that I love are Buried Alive, Final Parting, and Jarad's Orders, each of these offers real tutoring power, and none are especially pricey. Buried Alive can find a whole combo for you to win with. Old Stickfingers is probably worth a look for the similar reasons, Meren feels really weak if you have no creatures in your yard to reanimate. I'm not sure if it's too high budget, but Fiend Artisan has a lot of synergy with Meren. You don't have to dig out a combo piece for the card to do useful things.
In my Meren deck it's a much better Rhystic Study (I run a very high creature count), but I suspect you'd get some value out of Lurking Predators. There is also Heartwood Storyteller, in my experience both belong in a deck with even more creatures but they could still be useful I think.
In my limited experience Callous Bloodmage offers pretty good graveyard hate on a very low budget, and if you don't need that it can do other stuff, it's a great card to use in infinite loop since it can do a few useful things.
Mitotic Slime offers you a ton of bodies for only 5 mana, it's not especially hard to go infinite with as a result. I like using it with Demon of Dark Schemes and Pitiless Plunderer (and a sac outlet) to win, the nicest part about using a combo like this is that each piece is independently good. Phyrexian Altar is better than Plunderer, but it's even more money (though the difference has dropped sharply).
Dawnstrider is an extra Spore Frog, one that doesn't require reanimation but offers a discard outlet, letting you put creatures in your graveyard. Silverglade Pathfinder is another discard outlet, but offers ramp instead.
I hope this isn't too try-hard for your deck, Meren is a very fun Commander to build.
CHAREDot9 on
Crouching Kadena, Hidden Phage [Ultimate]
8 months ago
Is Lotus Cobra something you could consider for early game ramp paired with Yedora, Grave Gardener Combo power? Could be a cute idea, I thought about it and it is kinda just win-more with the stuff your already doing.
Elven Chorus Seems good, its a solid card for when you board ends up super wide and also pairs well with Lightning Greaves
Primordial Mist Gets mentioned in your archives a bit. Maybe it does not align with the decks goals perfectly. Personally I think it could be too good to look past. 1. Passive value just by existing on the board 2. Mana sink options (With CMDR, and the Beast Whisperer draw doodads The card also can combo off with the right amount of cost-reduction and in general creates a lot of value. I realize this list does its thing in a pretty streamlined manor and probably benefits from staying on task. Final argument: Mists feels good on an empty board or a full one, it can do sneaky back end things like offering a way protect morphs if you have flash available.
It may also be worth noting that while Ugin, the Ineffable is expensive at 6 mana it makes your rocks and combo pieces cheaper and offers some removal and a body.
I LOVE what you have done with the deck btw.
Sir_Bebop on
Gaddock Teeg
8 months ago
Thanks for the feedback DreadKhan! Card draw is definitely lacking in this deck. I was to play a game with it this week and it did pretty well, but it could be a bit faster. Beast Whisperer might be a good idea.
Flavuss on
Discardelves
9 months ago
msimcoe First of all i'd like to thank you for the detailed comment . For the mana base : i was thinking from the start about the fetch+shock lands modern Staples but i tried to avoid them because of the Life loss: with all the dorks that let me add mana while losing Life i thought It was a bit risky to try the Classic fetch + shock and i find the mana fix in this deck to be quite easily manageable . I tried Woodland Cemetery too but i found that sometimes It came tapped early in the game . [Fury] and dork removal Is the reason im playing target discard , to enable the dorks plays discarding their removal spells. But you're definitely right about the pure discard being Better later in the game , especially with Nath of the Gilt-Leaf. I've imagined this list to be a slower Elf ramp: "defending" the early plays by controlling the opponent hand i think its crucial for the strategy. But still , to find the perfect balance between the early targeted discard and the generic discard its something do be done here. I'll definitely try funeral charm by removing 2 target discard cards. I find Devoted Druid to be quite a nice addiction here because It has good sinergies with Tyvar the Bellicose and the +1 Tyvar Kell : to turn the mana dorks into Little beaters throught those cards was one of the approach i took while Building the deck. Do you think that this strategy Is lackluster ( keep in mind the slower-controllish way of this build) ? Harmonize feels good when It hits but you're right , im looking for some other draw engine to keep the flow going and i Will try Beast Whisperer for sure. What do you think about Harald Unites the Elves ? Maybe its Just me loving this card but i think It deserves a Place somewhere ahah.
PS. This Go Blank Will definitely find a Place in the sideboard . Yes , your input has been very helpful.
| Have (6) | Azdranax , orzhov_is_relatively_okay819 , reikitavi , metalmagic , JordanSanFran , gildan_bladeborn |
| Want (12) | flop123 , Goji , C0LDE , mflint , beesaurs , AjaxSlumbering , Sandwitcher , LordOfDankness , Yahtzee55 , qao50 , krblomqu , ACrispyTaco |