Build a Deck with Me - Episode 1

Commander (EDH) forum

Posted on April 26, 2024, 3:21 p.m. by rckclimber777

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

UltimateRoxas40 says... #2

Orthion, Hero of Lavabrink could be really fun in this deck. He can be both a source of token creatures that your other nontoken creatures are able to copy and a potential wincon, depending on what else is in the deck. If you've got something with a good death/etb trigger like Ryusei, the Falling Star or Terror of the Peaks, that could quickly add up to a lot of damage.

April 27, 2024 8:23 a.m.

rckclimber777 says... #3

Yea Orthion is great. I saw him in my binder and added him as well. He does the similar thing as Kiki Kiki and Jaxis in this deck.

April 27, 2024 1:56 p.m.

Quickspell says... #4

Hi. Great idea, I’m well entertained!

Here is a thing, I don’t get the following play.

Context:
T1 Sol Ring
T2 Oltec Matterweaver
T3 Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds

[sic!]
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.
[/sic!]

Oltec creates a token that’s a copy of an artifact token. It basically populates it. Ghired, too, only allows for creating copies of tokens.
So how does Ghired create a copy of Sol Ring? Where does that copy come from?

April 27, 2024 5:18 p.m. Edited.

Quickspell says... #5

[sic!] 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. [/sic!]

Just to clarify Emmara, Soul of the Accord and Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds‘s interaction.

The activated ability given by Ghired requires a legal target. Without target the ability cannot be activated. So Emmara cannot tap this way if there is no token that has entered the battlefield this turn and that could be targeted.
But only after activating the ability does Emmara‘s own ability trigger to create a token.

So Emmara does not copy it's own token from that turn, because the token does not yet exist. And Emmara cannot copy its tokens from previous turns, because they didn’t enter this turn.

Emmara can still be great to copy other tokens (as any nontoken creature in this deck), and it can create a consistent army especially with the doublers.

April 27, 2024 6:43 p.m.

Quickspell says... #6

(Accidental double post)

April 27, 2024 6:45 p.m. Edited.

FormOverFunction says... #7

Looking at the commander, and the mechanics: Lands aren’t token creatures, right? How hilarious would a Living Lands-type effect be? Probably not worth trying to build around... but...

April 27, 2024 9:25 p.m.

FormOverFunction says... #8

When there’s free tapping I also go back to look at the “inspired” mechanic, to see if there’s anything there. While not great, this is probably the closest it’s gotten to being worth considering ;p Could be some useful tokens. Satyr Nyx-Smith makes hasties.

April 27, 2024 10:03 p.m.

rckclimber777 says... #9

Quickspell. Good catch on Matterweaver. I missed the token keyword. And yes I should have been specific on Emmara that you need to first create a token for her to use Ghired but when you have it will create a second token (the 1/1 from her when tapped ability)

April 28, 2024 5:15 p.m.

Quickspell says... #10

If I may add a few other notes to your thought process.

At this point, you are already on the track of using known combos and putting them into a Naya shell. There are many other combos that can go with this, you just need to tutor for them.

Note that haste is an important aspect to this. Zealous Conscripts is much better than Hyrax Tower Scout or Sparring Mummy for this reason, even though both have cheaper mana value. Without haste, your million tokens will just be board-wiped. You could argue for redundancy, but the truth is that tutors and recursion such as Eternal Witness and Skullwinder are much better, because they add to your strategy with more flexibility.

Most creature tutors are green non-creature spells that search for green creatures. However, you want to keep the amount of non-creature spells low, because Ghired's ability doesn't apply to them. But there are some great tutors that can help you find your pieces:

Most of these cards use ETBs. If you can give them haste - ideally with creatures - you can cast them, make use of their ETB, and directly tap them with Ghired for value. Anger comes to mind, Hellraiser Goblin is great (you won't be attacking, because you are going to tap your creatures with Ghired), Yarus, Roar of the Old Gods can be okay. As for non-creature spells, you have Mass Hysteria, Concordant Crossroads, Fervor, Rising of the Day. Though I would probably only consider Hammer of Purphoros as it can create tokens.

As for the token doublers, I'm not sure if they really fit the deck. Sure, they are staples for token strategies. But what's the point of making infinite tokens go double? Mondrak, Glory Dominus and Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation  Flip will put a bounty on your head which is not a good thing in a combo-deck. You want to stay under the radar until you can go off.
Mondrak only doubles creature tokens, so you are not making more treasures. And the other doublers like Anointed Procession, Parallel Lives etc. will not tap with Ghired. Since you also want to put in all the other Naya-staple enchantments like Smothering Tithe and Guardian Project etc., you will just fill your deck with non-creatures that don't synergize with your commander.

Some cards worth mentioning are:
- Illusionist's Bracers - Cloudstone Curio (create a creature token, return a creature with an ETB to your hand). - Helm of the Host

April 29, 2024 5:50 a.m.

Quickspell says... #11

*Ojer Taq only creates creature tokens I meant.

April 29, 2024 7:56 a.m.

rckclimber777 says... #12

Quickspell - So a couple things. I agree that the tutoring effect would likely be better in the deck, but I also hate tutors... Actually that's not true, I just didn't think to put them in. I do tend to limit my tutor usage, but imperial recruiter is a great choice here.

I also assumed, wrongly, that a token of a creature that has haste and a new ability given to it by Jaxis should be copiable, but alas the copy would only copy the text on the original creature not the token (which is not intuitive at all since if I'm copying a token that has certain abilities that are normally copiable they should, in my mind, be copiable), so you're right hyrax and sparring mummy are less helpful here.

I agree with the doublers and I actually only included a total of 3 (mondrak, ojer tak, and parallel lives). While it's a combo deck in the end, I also just like doing crazy things in it like dropping advent of the wurm with multiple wurm tokens then creating more with Ghired. So Mondrak is out, cast advent of the wurm. Create 2 5/5s. Tap mondrak and ghired, create 4 more. It's only 3 cards for a subtheme that still hits hard. And it kind of unexpected.

I didn't know about twinflame and heat shimmer, thanks for pointing those out. I like molten duplication because I can get the copies of artifacts as well. Which then lines up nicely with oltec matterweaver.

April 29, 2024 10:47 a.m.

Quickspell says... #13

I’m thinking about what other cards can combo with Ghired.

A combo usually has the drawback that it’s single pieces don’t do anything by themselves. So ideally you want combos that work with your Commander and are synergetic by themselves.

Here is an idea.

Pili-Pala can tap with Ghired to copy any token, and for you can untap it to gain one mana of any color.

Illusionist's Bracers will copy any activated ability as long as it doesn’t create mana. In this deck especially, this card is great as it works with your Commander and any other creature that has received your Commander‘s ability to basically act as a token doubler.

Now, if you equip Pili-Pala with the Bracers, and if you made a treasure and a clue token this turn (which isn’t inconceivable in this deck), you can now do the following:

  1. Tap Pili-Pala to create two copies of the treasure.
  2. Use those treasures to untap Pili-Pala and gain one mana of any Color
  3. Repeat this process any number of times to gain any number of coloured mana.
  4. Move on to tap Pili-Pala to create two copies of the Clue token.
  5. Use your infinite floating mana to untap Pili-Pala (and generate more mana).
  6. Repeat this process to create any number of Clue tokens.
  7. Use your infinite floating mana to crack those Clues and draw your entire deck.
  8. Use your infinite floating mana to cast any number of spells from your hand.

I just came up with the combo while waiting for my food, but I think should work.

You could also use Ashnod's Altar. This card usually is great in creature token decks, as it, too, is useful by itself.

In this case you can use Pili-Pala to create a copy of a creature token. Sac that token to the altar to get . Use this mana to untap Pili-Pala and generate one mana of any color.

Repeat this to generate an infinite amount of mana. Then proceed to copy a Clue token. Since you have infinite mana in your pool, you can keep untapping Pili-Pala and keep creating Clue tokens. You can then go on to crack them and draw and cast everything.

April 29, 2024 3:20 p.m. Edited.

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