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Bringing an Army to a Duel

Commander / EDH Casual GW (Selesnya) Tokens

Abzkaban

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Land (34)

Protection (11)

Tokens (15)

Ramp (12)

Overrun (7)

Removal (7)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist

Combat Tricks (12)

Card Advantage (11)

Token Doublers (4)

Maybeboard

Combat Tricks (6)

Multiple Roles (2)

Tokens (1)

#1 HIGHEST RATED

Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist

DECK ON TAPPEDOUT!

"Never bring a knife to a gun fight."

An idiom meaning to enter into a confrontation or other challenging situation without being adequately equipped or prepared. It is sound advice to be sure, but Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist has taken the saying to a whole new level. She's effectively bringing a gun to a knife fight. Except the knife is a rock. And the gun is a nuke.

This is a tokens deck that wants to abuse Mirri's abilities:

  • Whenever Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist attacks, each opponent can't block with more than one creature this combat.

This ability is perfect for go-wide strategies that swarm the board. Our opponents can only block one creature while the rest get to do as much damage as they please.

  • As long as Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist is tapped, no more than one creature can attack you each combat.

Thanks to her second ability, Mirri makes sure that we are under protection from creature threats. She is the perfect general to master the combat step. We'll just have to make sure other threats are taken care of so that we don't "take a knife to a gun fight."

There are plenty of other commanders that would be better at the helm of a tokens deck, but rather than trying to find the best tokens build, it is my goal to build around Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist as effectively as possible. The reason for this is that the deck is primarily for my wife who needs a decent deck that is fairly straightforward to play and can stand up to the other high power decks I've built. I bought her the Cat Tribal precon deck in 2017 because...well she loves cats. However she liked Mirri more than Arahbo, Roar of the World , so I made it my goal to build her a decent deck around her. My idea is to take advantage of Mirri's ability and abuse the combat step as much as possible while trying to keep as many cats in the deck as I can. It won't be cat tribal anymore, and she knows that, but I still want some of her pets to remain if possible. Cat tokens will do the trick.

That being said, Mirri's abilities actually fit a tokens deck fairly well since she lets nearly her entire army get through enemy blockers and prevents an onslaught in retaliation. She's almost an Overrun on her own. We just need to pump our creatures up ourselves.

Deck Breakdown

Avenger of Zendikar - Puts out a bunch of plants that can get bigger with landfall. Not to mention we can pump them up in other ways as well. He's the reason we want to run more land fetching ramp cards over dorks and rocks.

Brimaz, King of Oreskos, Emmara, Soul of the Accord, Hero of Bladehold, Leonin Warleader - Cheap cmc and attack to create tokens. Since attacking is what we want to do anyway--and there's usually not a drawback to doing it--these are perfect to start building an army.

Elspeth, Sun's Champion - She doesn't have a single ability that is irrelevant in this deck. Sitting near the top of our mana curve is fine for what she does. I'm all for spitting out 3 tokens a turn.

Fresh Meat - Board wipe? No problem! Get your army back at the low, low cost of with a mana back guarantee! (Not really)

Garruk Wildspeaker - Can give us a 3/3 beast in addition to his other abilities.

Khalni Garden - A land that pops out a token.

March of the Multitudes - Produce tokens at instant speed with a Convoke cost. It would be easier to just print a card that says "double your army." Auto-include.

Martial Coup - I like how modal this card is. It can give us a few tokens or wipe the board if need be. We can also make its effects one-sided by protecting our board state when we play it.

Tendershoot Dryad - Getting a saproling each upkeep is a good way to build up our army, and since we basically get the city's blessing as soon as we play it, we're essentially getting a bunch of 3/3s every round.

Nacatl War-Pride - The bigger our opponent's board state, the more tokens we get!

Parallel Lives - Double our tokens!

Second Harvest - Double our tokens on a budget. Yay! Only downside is it's a dead draw in the event we don't have any or very many tokens in play.

Secure the Wastes - Lots of tokens at instant speed! Good for getting past summoning sickness by playing it at the end of an opponent's turn or by giving us an army of blockers in an emergency.

White Sun's Zenith - Lots of cat tokens at instant speed! Best part is we get to use it again later.

Notable Exclusions

Token doublers:

Not included due to budget restraints but would be excellent fits in the deck. The only reason Parallel Lives is included is because I had a spare in my binder.

The bane of any tokens deck is a boardwipe, so we want several ways to prevent that from happening.

Dauntless Escort, Selfless Spirit - Sacrifice to give our creatures indestructible. Proactive boardwipe prevention.

Eerie Interlude - Saves the creatures but not the tokens. Turns a disaster into a minor setback especially if that disaster is an overloaded Cyclonic Rift.

Heroic Intervention - Don't touch my stuff this turn!

Rootborn Defenses - Gives everything indestructible and populates!

Shalai, Voice of Plenty - A freaking all-star. Not only does she give everything hexproof, but she can buff our army as well. Give her a Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot Boots and we can't be touched by spells.

Unbreakable Formation - Gives indestructible with the added effect of +1/+1 counters if played on our turn. Can be proactive or reactive.

Notable Exceptions

Asceticism - Hexproof and regeneration for all would be fantastic, but it's a bit pricy. I already have enough $10-15 cards in the list, and I can create a similar board state protection with Shalai, Voice of Plenty.

Privileged Position - Hexproof for everything else we control would be great, but again it's a bit out of the budget.

Since our strategy relies on keeping Mirri active on the board, we need ways to keep her safe.

Bear Umbra, Snake Umbra - Totem armor to protect our general. They have the added bonus of untapping our lands or card draw.

Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots - Protection from removal. The added haste is good to get Mirri swinging sooner, too.

Mother of Runes - Modal creature protection. She's here primarily to keep Mirri safe, but the good thing about her is that she can be used to protect any of our creatures.

Shield of the Oversoul - Not only does it give our commander indestructible, but it brings her battle to the air as well.

Basilisk Collar - Deathtouch is always a good thing to have to deter blockers (read: blocker...singular), but this one is usually reserved for Mirri. First strike + Deathtouch is even better. It will almost always assure that Mirri will survive being blocked by something bigger.

Bear Umbra - Play stuff with mana then swing with this attached. Now play stuff during someone else's turn as well!

Bow of Nylea - Board wide deathtouch with some utility most notably the ability to put cards from our graveyard back into our deck.

Deftblade Elite - Provoke is an awesome keyword to have in a Mirri deck. Now their one blocker must block this creature, and it's cheap enough to protect if the block is unfavorable.

Glare of Subdual - Not only can this card tap down any creatures we don't want our opponents to choose as a blocker, but it can tap Mirri so that we're behind her pillowfort without the need for combat.

Lowland Tracker - Another provoke creature to force a block. The first strike is good on its own, but give him deathtouch and he becomes removal on a stick.

Magnetic Web - Step 1. Put a magnet counter on one of our creatures--like a deathtouch-enabled Mirri for instance. Step 2. put a magnet counter on whatever creature we want our opponent to use as a blocker. Step 3. Attack. Now they have to block with the magnet counter creature as their only blocker for the turn, and they have to block our magnet counter creature. This card makes for some combat shenanigans.

Masako the Humorless - Who needs vigilance when we can just block with our tapped creatures?

Matsu-Tribe Decoy - I'm always looking for more ways to force a block, and this card does the trick. Not only that but it can keep a creature tapped. Great for those who try to go tall especially if we can keep Matsu-Tribe Decoy safe with something like Mother of Runes.

Nacatl War-Pride - Punish opponents for going wide. The more creatures they have, the more we get, and they can only block one thanks to Mirri.

Nature's Will - Great for untapping all our lands again and can be useful for tapping down an opponent we don't want messing with our second main phase or another player's turn.

Odric, Master Tactician - Here we go! This is what I'm talking about! We'll almost always be attacking with at least 3 other creatures. Mirri only allows one blocker, and Odric decides which creature blocks and how it blocks.

Throne of the God-Pharaoh - This card is one of the reasons why we'd rather keep our creatures tapped when we can. After getting our damage through, this effect damage serves as a double-whammy.

Avacyn's Pilgrim - mana dork

Cryptolith Rite - Not as good as Earthcraft, but you know, budget and stuff. Still it turns every creature we get into a mana dork which is some super ramp. It's also a way to tap Mirri when combat is not a favorable option.

Cultivate, Farseek, Harvest Season, Kodama's Reach, Nature's Lore, Skyshroud Claim, Krosan Verge - Fetch some lands which synergizes well with Avenger of Zendikar. Harvest Season in particular can get out of hand fast.

Garruk Wildspeaker - Untapping lands is good ramp especially when that land is Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun.

Growing Rites of Itlimoc   - A poor man's Gaea's Cradle

Mirari's Wake - Double our mana which is always good. Also gives an anthem to our creatures.

Sol Ring - Sol Ring

Camaraderie - More gas in the tank when we've run out of cards to play. The lifegain is nice as well. The +1/+1 is okay.

Huatli, Radiant Champion - Turn 1, put lots of loyalty counters on Huatli. Turn 2, get a card draw emblem. Get more creatures and draw more cards! Her -1 is relevant in some cases as well.

Mentor of the Meek - Most of our tokens will be 1/1 or 2/2, so card draw will almost always be possible.

Overwhelming Instinct - A lot of what this deck does is attack, so why not draw cards for doing what it does best?

Skullclamp - Unless we have an anthem up, this will allow us to draw 2 cards for for most of our tokens.

Slate of Ancestry - Surprisingly useful. Great for refilling our hand when we have nothing else to play.

Snake Umbra - Card draw in addition to protection. A better Sixth Sense.

Eladamri's Call - It's the only tutor in the deck because it's affordable. Great for getting that creature we need. Chord of Calling is next on the list, though it is a little pricier though could be invaluable. I'll be looking for a slot for it later.

Reliquary Tower - With many of these cards saying "draw a card for each creature you control", it's nice to be able to keep those cards and not discard them at the end of our turn.

Elspeth, Sun's Champion - She can act as a selective board wipe which usually leaves most of our board alone.

Krosan Grip - Split Second is a wonderful keyword. Naturalize something whether they like it or not.

Martial Coup - The main purpose of this card is to spit out some tokens, but it can double as a board wipe in certain circumstances.

Return to Dust - Flexible removal that can get rid of two things on our turn.

Sundering Growth - A Naturalize that populates.

Swords to Plowshares - Creature spot removal

Mirri lets most of our attacks go through, but we still need to pump them up.

Beastmaster Ascension - +5/+5 to all our creatures!

Cathars' Crusade - This card will get stupid really fast. Every token means an even bigger board!

Elspeth, Sun's Champion - What can't Elspeth do? The flying is mostly irrelevant if we control our commander, but the buff to our creatures is good once we've built up our board state enough.

Garruk Wildspeaker - He's an Overrun in addition to his other abilities!

Gavony Township - +1/+1 counters aren't the core of our strategy, but they really add up when you place one on every creature.

Jazal Goldmane - It doesn't matter that he doesn't give trample as long as Mirri is attacking. The +X/+X is enough to wipe the whole board.

Overrun - Overrun

Overwhelming Stampede - A bigger Overrun

Shalai, Voice of Plenty - She's many around for the protection, but she's also a great mana dump to pump out counters and build up our army.

Notable Exclusions

Craterhoof Behemoth - As great as this card is, it's too expensive.

Triumph of the Hordes - Infect is a quick and cheap way to win. I would include it if my budget wasn't going toward other expensive cards. It may find a home here someday.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Upgrades — May 5, 2020
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I haven't really tuned this deck in a long time. It was time for some upgrades.

Tuning the Deck — April 7, 2019
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Revision 18 See all

(2 years ago)

+1 Arid Mesa main
+1 Flooded Strand main
-1 Jazal Goldmane main
-1 Krosan Verge main
+1 Marsh Flats main
+1 Misty Rainforest main
+1 Prismatic Vista main
-1 Rootborn Defenses main
-1 Selesnya Sanctuary main
-1 Stirring Wildwood main
-1 Sungrass Prairie main
-1 Temple of Plenty main
+1 Verdant Catacombs main
+1 Wooded Foothills main
Top Ranked
Date added 5 years
Last updated 2 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

10 - 0 Mythic Rares

52 - 0 Rares

17 - 0 Uncommons

12 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.03
Tokens Beast 3/3 G, Cat 1/1 W w/ Lifelink, Cat 2/2 W, Cat Soldier 1/1 W, City's Blessing, Copy Clone, Elf Warrior 1/1 GW, Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Emblem Huatli, Radiant Champion, Plant 0/1 G, Saproling 1/1 G, Soldier 1/1 W, Soldier 1/1 W w/ Lifelink, Warrior 1/1 W
Folders Cool Decks, Other's EDH Decks, cool, cool commander decks, SIngleplayer Commander, Nice, EDH Decks, Token army, Commander Decks, Decks
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