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G/W Tokens ft. Rhys

Commander / EDH*

elijaenicke


Overview:

This is the first commander deck I created from scratch. I got into the format when the 2016 decks came out. For a while I just played a slightly modified, but still pretty bad K&T deck before I got this.

So this deck is like my baby. I've been tuning it for months now and playing with it quite often. It's now nearing the state that I want it, though missing some money cards. Thankfully, two very good ones of those are being reprinted in MM3 (Craterhoof Behemoth and Voice of Resurgence) so that's very nice.


How the deck plays:

In my opinion, the deck is very easy to pilot. The general play pattern is usually to play commander turn one or two, hopefully spend the turn you don't play him to ramp, ramp a little bit more on 4, and use the next couple turns ramping or playing small things while you make a token each turn. Once you get around 7-10 mana, you want to be hitting some of your big spells, mainly mass token generators, or even better, mana doublers into those things. The last step is to play some type of anthem, usually 2 or more on the turn you want to swing out and kill at least one person.

The most common way to win, I've found, is to so something like Secure the Wastes with X=10 or so right before your turn, then drop Beastmaster Ascension and play overrun, or some other anthems. There are a LOT of anthems in this deck. This usually will get you a kill on the most threatening person, if not the whole table, and leave you with a commanding position. Just be ready for everyone to gang up on you after that. It's quite helpful to have out something like Eldrazi Monument, Dauntless Escort, or Asceticism in those cases to protect your board.


Strengths:

Fast-ish: While by no means the fastest deck, you may be able to get some early kills. With a good draw you can get some turn 6-7 kills from 40 life, and that's not even that uncommon to be honest.

Hidden Power: One great thing about the deck is that you can go from an unassuming board state to killing someone in just one turn. A board of a handful of 1/1 tokens,a few slightly larger ones, your 1/1 commanders, a mana dork, and like your 2/1 Eternal Witness seems like not much to be scared of. But then you drop a Beastmaster Ascension and swing for 80.

Resilient (Somewhat): In some ways the deck is resilient. There is not much you can't come back from if you have cards in hand. One reason why this works is that a lot of the ramp fetches lands, meaning most of the time, your mana can't get hit by something like a Vandalblast. Second, for a lot of the game most for your board is tokens. While you may have had to spend mana and cards to get them, it's not the end of the world if they're gone. You still have many ways to make many more, even without Rhys. And lastly, a lot of your most valuable pieces are hard to hit. Many of the best cards in this deck are enchantments, which are a little harder to remove. And many of those, you only play when you're about to kill someone, meaning they can't get hit. But this brings us to weaknesses.


Weaknesses:

Mass Land/Enchantment Removal: If you've ramped a lot and get all your lands destroyed, that's pretty much game to be honest. And you have a lot of powerful enchantments that will sit on the board, presenting a juicy target. Usually people don't have that much enchantment removal, but when they do you're going to feel it.

Big Target: Most people know that Rhys is a powerful commander. And he's also extremely fragile at just 1/1. Any random ping can take him out. His second ability to double tokens will always be a threat to the table, and expect to be the archenemy if you have Parallel Lives sitting in play.

Running Out of Gas: Let's face it, G/W doesn't have the best card draw. I've done my best to mitigate that, however the problem is I don't have that many card draw spells. Sometimes you just run out of steam. However, there are two redeeming factors to this. First, Rhys himself is a great mana sink. Doubling your tokens is pretty nice as an alternative if you have no good cards. The second this is, when you hit one of the big card draw spells, you'll probably not run out of cards again. Shamanic Revelation, Rishkar's Expertise, Skullclamp, and Zendikar Resurgent (if it sticks around) will usually draw you as many cards as you would ever need. And I even threw in two cards to increase your max hand size; it's relevant more often that you might imagine in a G/W deck.


Major Additions:

If you have the money for it add these cards:

Savanah

Seedborn Muse

Triumph of the Hordes


First Cuts:

If I were cutting cards, these would be the first to go (not including lands):

True Conviction

Nissa, Vital Force

Sylvan Reclamation


Thank you all for reading and viewing my deck. I welcome any feedback you may have.

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Date added 7 years
Last updated 6 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

10 - 0 Mythic Rares

42 - 0 Rares

18 - 0 Uncommons

14 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.59
Tokens Beast 3/3 G, Copy Clone, Elf Druid 1/1 G, Elf Warrior 1/1 GW, Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Emblem Huatli, Radiant Champion, Human 1/1 W, Plant 0/1 G, Saproling 1/1 G, Soldier 1/1 W, Warrior 1/1 W
Folders rhys token
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