Bennie Bracks, Zoologist

Legendary Creature — Elf Druid

Convoke (You may tap your creatures as you cast this spell. Each creature you tap while casting this spell pays for {1} or one mana of that creature's colour.)

At the beginning of each end step, if you created a token this turn, draw a card.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (22)

rckclimber777 on Build a Deck with Me …

1 week 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? EDIT: So as it was pointed out in the comments Oltec only creates copies of TOKEN artifacts. We could use Molten Duplication to create a copy of an artifact, but still Oltec still does great at producing consistent tokens.

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. Also if you need a token for Sunstrike Legionnaire to go infinite you can tap her down (she's only 2 mana) create your 1/1 soldier, untap sunstrike, with Ghired on the field, tap Sunstrike to create infinite lifelink 1/1 soldiers. (actually happened in playtesting)

Generous Plunderer deserves a mention as you really need consistent tokens every turn and this does that. It gives you treasure tokens which is great and is likely to stick around since your opponents like the possibility of getting a treasure token as well. Dockside Extortionist can take the deck to new levels of degeneracy depending on when you play it/number of times you copy it with things like kiki jiki and jaxis.

Selvala, Eager Trailblazer is also great as you get 1/1 creatures every time you cast a creature spell. Her ramp also goes surprisingly well in the deck. I highly recommend it.

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).

I ended up starting out with 3 of these and then cut it down to just the two creatures mondrak and ojer taq. Both are still great and can quickly overwhelm the opponent. I found myself holding onto the enchantments in preference to playing token creators and creatures.

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)

Don't got too heavy on these or you won't have enough tokens to copy.

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.

Here is the final decklist: Ghired the infinite outlaw

Gidgetimer on Dopplegangbangers - Historic Flash Convoke Copies

2 months ago

Since tokens resulting from copying spells are not "created" Bennie Bracks, Zoologist doesn't do much here. Reki, the History of Kamigawa might be a good replacement.

As a general note, you seem a little light on mana if you don't get one of the untappers. I would probably add another land (Plaza of Heroes would be good and might make it in over a basic even if you don't go up lands), Arcane Signet, Kolvori, God of Kinship  ^Flip, and the three talismans.

Tsukimi on (Feedback appreciated!) Tsukimi, Root's Mirror

3 months ago

First playtest was a lot of fun! Tricky to gage because one friend was playing a group hug Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis deck with oath of the druids out turn 2 and then two dockside extortionists came out and it got crazier from there. I also managed to get rhystic study out turn 3 and keep it out and it was a 6 player game (usually we are 4) so things got out of hand fast and Tsukimi won pretty handily. Notably smothering tithe gained me at least a clue a turn so I think they need a "first time each turn" clause on the clue production. It was like my ideal setup and should not have been possible if not for being able to make copies of dockside (not even with Tsukimi) with rhystic study out. It was in many ways a perfect game. Especially because another friend was playing a board wipe deck and I managed to draw Minn, Wily Illusionist and Bennie Bracks, Zoologist So by the time he wiped I had 10 10/10 illusions.

Other than needing to add the first time per turn clause I think it's fairly balanced as of now and a beacon for removal so we'll see how less crazy games play out.

Crow_Umbra on Murders at Karlov Manor

3 months ago

Missed the edit window, but lol the Bant precon has reprints for Finale of Revelation, Bennie Bracks, Zoologist, Chulane, Teller of Tales, Farewell, and Koma, Cosmos Serpent,

DreadKhan on Ghave It All I Got

6 months ago

Not sure if you're looking for any new ideas, but since I thought of a few I thought I'd mention, in case you can find them! Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest and One with the Kami would be very good in here, and are very good together. If you also have something like Pawn of Ulamog or Sifter of Skulls you can turn any sacrificed non-token creature into a colourless mana (as well as a token creature). Pitiless Plunderer and Chatterfang, Squirrel General are both very good together and very good with your Commander. Jade Mage can make Saprolings for only 2G, and Ant Queen can make a 1/1 insect for only 1G. Skullclamp is really good value if you have a lot of 1 toughness tokens, paying 1 and killing your token to draw 2 feels great. Welcoming Vampire is a nifty option if you can make a token on each opponent's turn, as is Bennie Bracks, Zoologist. Soltari Champion is a neat anthem that is really hard to block, and Soltari Visionary is a handy way to cripple any Enchantment heavy decks, because very few decks can block Shadow creatures. With your counter theme you might use Incubation Druid, it's great value if you can cheaply get a counter on it. Ordeal of Nylea is good ramp if you can cheat some counters to speed it up.

Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor on Chapter Master | Esper Tokens | Primer WIP

1 year ago

You might consider Invasion of Tolvada  ^Flip since it reanimates any of your important permanents and flips into a Bitterblossom that is also a permanent Sorin, Solemn Visitor anthem for tokens.

Always got to plug the inclusion of my girl, Thalisse, Reverent Medium in token decks. She is a little awkward on the curve though at 5 mana, but she a great token generator.

You might not need them since Marneus draws a lot of cards on his own, but Bennie Bracks, Zoologist, Welcoming Vampire, and Tocasia's Welcome are really great card draw in token decks.

Clever Concealment is a great new protection spell that is essentially free in token decks.

DadHumanPraetor on Wonderbread

1 year ago

Surprised not to see Tocasia's Welcome Bennie Bracks, Zoologist Welcoming Vampire Mentor of the Meek or Rumor Gatherer in the mix. Grand Crescendo

I'm gonna put Mondrak in the 99 of my mono-white tokens deck.

Metalcop on Dennick

1 year ago

Hi igniteaxiom

Would you consider Jinxed Idol, Bennie Bracks, Zoologist, Nimble Obstructionist, Lion Sash, Read the Runes, Golden Guardian  ^Flip or spellshapers like Toymaker, Mageta the Lion... for this deck?

The idol is a cheap sacrifice outlet to put Dennick in the graveyard. On every opponents turn, it assures you creatures going into the graveyard since the other players won't like taking damage for a long time. Plus, if it comes back to you, you can tap it with shimmer dragon and then sacrifice one of your cheap creatures to give it back before taking damage.

@suarkdivad :

Can you unattach an equipment if you don't have another target to equip it? Cause if not, you won't be able to "sacrifice" if Dennick or your creature is alone on the battlefield.

Don't get me wrong. I really love Grafted Wargear but I would rather use Mortarpod here.