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Rhys, the Token God [Primer] [2023]

Commander / EDH* Casual Counters Enchantment GW (Selesnya) Primer Tokens Weenie

Mitrian

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Enchantment (21)

Sorcery (11)

Planeswalker (3)

Land (36)

Artifact (11)

Commander (1)

Commander: Rhys the Redeemed

Creature (12)

Instant (10)

Sideboard

Enchantment (5)

Sorcery (2)

Creature (5)

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Sorcery (8)

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Enchantment (4)

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*** finalizing decklist, still need to make five more cuts ***

The Token God is all about abusing the power of math and token generation. Make lots of mana. Make lots of tokens. Make lots of counters. Then double all of that, again and again. And again.

And again.

But what makes this better than any other token build? All decks ramp. All decks have a strategy. All decks seek to stop the other player. The unique thing in this build is explosive combat tricks and playing on other turns. Ok, so that’s not super unique, but generating board presence on each end step results in serious value compared to only on our turn and I find that is what sets this apart from other token builds I’ve come across.

The most fun thing I've done with this deck so far was Rhys equipped with Illusionist's Bracers, three 1/1 tokens, and Earthcraft. So, five total nonland permanents on my board. I passed the turn with three untapped lands. On the end step before my turn, I tapped out and used Earthcraft on the three untapped tokens, to activate Rhys' second ability, and thanks to the bracers this effectively quadrupled the tokens, then I untapped him with Wirewood Lodge and used the new tokens and Earthcraft to quadruple again. I now have 48 1/1 tokens ready to attack on my turn. But first, I played Grand Abolisher, which amazingly resolved, then I played Cathars' Crusade, and quadrupled the tokens again, giving me counters (+192/+192 on the 48 tokens without summoning sickness) for the biggest alpha strike I've ever done. (9264 damage) It was kind of a Magical Christmasland scenario, but I'm proof that it does happen sometimes. An astute player would’ve seen the bracers on Rhys and taken immediate action, but it lasted a full round in the case above. And this is just one example of how the deck can explode from almost out of nowhere.

So how does it work?

The key focus of the deck, obviously. As this effect is the core of the deck, let’s take a close look at each one of them.
  • Rhys the Redeemed - cheap to cast, and can create tokens, but it’s mostly about his doubling ability, unless there’s nothing else to do with just three mana. Abuse him with untap effects, and aim to burst out tokens on the end step of the turn before ours.
  • Rabble Rousing - this is effectively a passive token doubler, that rewards constant aggression on the enemy. With this card, the only reason not to attack is if you’ve got big tokens or counters that you don’t want to lose. Combined with any of our doublers, or especially with Cathars' Crusade, it’s shockingly good because it encourages attacking with all tokens every turn, keeping constant pressure on opponents. Worst case, all your attackers die, but get replaced with new tokens. And if we have any death or ETB triggers going on, this card can be bonkers good.
  • Aura Mutation - Cheap removal that creates tokens? Yes please. Many of the best enchantments to remove are high CMC, so there's potential for a nice handful of tokens, but even if this just hits a Blind Obedience, two tokens and removal is definitely worth the slot in the deck.
  • Call the Coppercoats - For three mana, you're basically getting a chump blocker for every possible attacking creature, at worst. At best, you have a token doubler and/or Cathars' Crusade or some other anthem out and you can pull off some fun combat tricks with this cheap little Instant spell.
  • Grand Crescendo - One of many X spells in the deck, that functions as a response to board wipes or other targeted destruction as well as decent value token generation for almost any stage of the game.
  • Fresh Meat - Another awesome board wipe protection card, but in a different way. If all your 1/1 tokens get wasted by something, you can cast this at end of turn and come back even stronger with 3/3 tokens. (Tokens enter the graveyard before they poof out of existence, so make sure to keep track of how many died when you have this card in hand.)
  • March of the Multitudes - Another X-mana spell! This card is special because it can be convoked, essentially allowing you to double your existing count of creatures, or more, if you have excess mana to spend on it as well. Nice bonus is that the tokens have lifelink.
  • Secure the Wastes - Just another nice, X-mana token generator at instant speed. Is it possible to have too many of these cards in the deck? This may be cut as it doesn't provide anything else, but is still good enough value to stay in consideration.
  • White Sun's Zenith - Another X spell, but what makes this one different is that it's shuffled back into the deck after being cast, to potentially be played again in the future. The 2/2 tokens are nice as well.
  • Avenger of Zendikar - The best token-generating creature spell that everyone knows and loves(hates), with landfall triggers that pump the plant tokens. Can be bounced with Erratic Portal To cast again if we have the mana.
  • Captain of the Watch - Only three tokens here, but it's in the list for the anthem effect. It's potentially on the block, however, because the anthem is limited to soldiers. The vigilance is nice too!
  • Knight-Captain of Eos - Only two tokens here, but they are soldiers, and he also comes with some board wipe protection which is great in a token swarm deck.
  • Nacatl War-Pride - This one's on the block because the tokens exile at end of turn, however, if Rhys can double them before that, the doubled tokens will remain, and the forced blocking is really solid for getting your other attackers through for combat damage. Combined with some of the anthem effects we have, this guy can be really devastating.
  • Scute Swarm - Only one token per landfall with less than six lands, but… the multiplicative effect after six lands is why the card made the cut. For now anyway. This may get cut, because so far it's been underwhelming when I've drawn it.
  • Tendershoot Dryad - This card used to be an all-star, because of the generation on every upkeep, not just our own. But compared to many of the other effects we have now, it's been somewhat lackluster as well.
  • Awaken the Woods - Another X spell in the deck, that also functions as mana ramp. One of my favorite spells, given how well it's performed so far. With a doubler, it's like doubling mana, and combined with Thousand-Year Elixir it's almost a completely free spell. If they survive for the following turn, or if you have cards like Seedborn Muse or Wilderness Reclamation, it opens up huuuge plays on opponents turns with our other X spells -- and we have quite a few in the deck.
  • Finale of Glory - Yep, another X-mana spell to crank out more tokens. This one's best if you can get to 12 mana, as it'll create 20 tokens right there, and half are 4/4 angels! If you can cast that before your upkeep with Epic Struggle already out, that's a win. Unfortunately, it's a sorcery spell so that's tricky.
  • Pest Infestation - And another X-mana spell, this time one that also removes multiple enemy artifacts and enchantments, and then gives you tokens for the mana spent. As a final bonus, the tokens gain life when they die. Love this card!!
  • Storm Herd - 10 mana is not hard with this deck, and assuming you cast this when you're above 10 life, it's a baller of a spell. One of the few tokens with flying that we have as well, so double nice.
  • Nomads' Assembly - This will likely get cut, as it's basically the same as Rhys' ability, except that you get to rebound it once for free. Nice card, for sure, but when cuts have to be made, it's on the block.
  • Elspeth, Knight-Errant is here mostly for the emblem, as her single token per turn is pretty slow for this deck, but… it does fit. I prefer to only cast her once I have Doubling Season in play though, if possible.
  • Elspeth, Sun's Champion - Now this version is definitely here for the tokens, although all three of her effects are relevant to us.
  • Smothering Tithe - Treasure tokens! They're still tokens though, so they benefit from all our doublers! And work beautifully for early ramp and later burst for all our X-mana spells.
Not including the ability on Rhys himself, we have five other doublers that even with only one out, provide amazing value with everything we have going on. With more than one of these out, even a single token generated becomes four or more tokens. Now we're multiplying instead of adding!
  • Illusionist's Bracers are amazing for turning Rhys into a quadrupler! Amazing synergy right here.
  • Doubling Season - the best enchantment in the list by far, as it also doubles counters (all counters, including loyalty counters) and is a no-brainer for the deck list.
  • Anointed Procession and Parallel Lives - simple and effective, 4CMC, worth the slot and the four mana.
  • Mondrak, Glory Dominus - The last doubler here is also a creature, but it can get Indestructible very easily, so it's a very good include. 4CMC as well.
While Rhys is cheap to cast, his doubling ability is what we care about, and that's six mana. Also, we run a high number of X-mana spells, so cranking out mana is critical to our plans. We run ramp, doublers, untappers, dorks and dork-makers.

Ramp:

  • Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, and Skyshroud Claim - staple ramp cards.
  • Harvest Season - This can sometimes clear out all the remaining basics from the deck, and we run 17 total basics. Super powerful ramp spell on the right board. But even if it only grabs 3+ lands, that still makes it the best ramp spell in the deck.
  • Traverse the Outlands - This one is based on creature power, so may eventually get cut, but it's performed well so far. It complements our X-mana spells while thinning the deck so we don't draw into basics late game. For now, it stays.

Dork-Makers and Doublers:

Mana Untappers:

Mana Rocks:

  • The EDH staples of Arcane Signet, Mana Crypt, and Sol Ring are the only rocks we run.
  • Well, and one more, which is The Great Henge, which is more about its versatility than just it's mana production. But 2 green is still nice to have. Last one here, is Ashnod's Altar which is a combo piece in many decks, but here is mostly just for mana. Use it to generate extra mana to power up our many X-mana spells. Use it in response to a board wipe, so we have mana to recast after the wipe resolves. It’s especially useful in combination with our token doublers, or Mana Reflection, and will help to pay for multiple Rhys activations. Even without doublers though, most of our X-mana spells create tokens 1 per mana, so sacrificing one token in play for two mana, is still usually a net gain in tokens from the Altar. It’s not part of any infinite combos in this list (that I’ve found), but it is awesome value regardless.
Rhys is vulnerable to targeted removal, so having some options for protection are vital to building and preserving board state for us. We have lots of options here:
Similarly, some of our best stuff here is in the form of enchantments, so we want to protect those as well. Again, we have quite a few options here:
Of course we can't ignore the enemy board state, so we run some key removal of our own:
  • Aura Shards - with all the tokens we have entering constantly, this one is bonkers and will be targeted for removal ASAP if the enemy is able.
  • Aura Mutation, Beast Within, and Path to Exile for single target removal options.
  • Pest Infestation deserves its own mention simply because with enough mana, you can remove quite a few targeted artifacts and enchantments all while generating a bunch more tokens. Great card for this deck!
  • Collective Effort is a card with multiple effects, all of which are good for us, and two escalations should be easy for us most of the time. Only negative here is sorcery speed.
  • Hour of Reckoning is our only board wipe spell, but in a token swarm deck we don't usually want to board wipe. Unless we can do it without killing our tokens, which… hey, that's this card!
We’re not likely to win with just a bunch of 1/1 tokens unless we go infinite, or win with Epic Struggle, so we want to find ways to pump the weenies and swing big as well as wide.
  • Beastmaster Ascension - Very easy to enable the turn it's played, and +5/+5 is huge when swinging wide with a token swarm.
  • Cathars' Crusade - One of the best enchantments here, especially with multiple creatures entering simultaneously— if five creatures enter from the same spell, they all get +5/+5; if ten creatures, they all get +10/+10. It’s just so powerful and enables combat tricks all over the place. Swinging with five puny tokens? Once the enemy declares blockers, tap Rhys to double them and our puny tokens just got BIG! Managing counters can get fiddly, however, so beware.
  • Intangible Virtue - Cheap, small boost, but the vigilance is super valuable too. We can attack, but still have them available second main phase to tap for mana with Cryptolith Rite or Earthcraft.
  • Mirari's Wake - This one’s here for the mana, but the anthem is highly beneficial as well, for sure.
  • Captain of the Watch - Another small anthem, just for soldiers, but we’ll take it!
  • Craterhoof Behemoth - Yeah, it’s a common win condition for swarm decks. As much as I like to be unique, it’s hard not to run this guy here. So strong!
  • Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite - Serious card for serious power. Buffs our tokens and clears out most enemy dorks and utility creatures. Balances the board so our weenies can better handle the beefy beaters common to EDH.
  • Shalai, Voice of Plenty - The +1/+1 counters are the same cost as doubling with Rhys, so it’s rarely ever a good play. The hexproof is why she’s here, but even so, she may not survive final cuts.
  • Tendershoot Dryad - The anthem only affects saprolings, unfortunately.
  • Collective Effort - This one is here for the removal, but the counters are a nice bonus.
  • Gavony Township - Five mana for a counter on everything is pricey, but comes in handy sometimes.
  • Oran-Rief, the Vastwood - Because our tokens often enter in large groups, this effect can be really nice. Unfortunately many of our tokens are not green, so this misses sometimes.
We don’t have a lot, but the ones we have are pretty damn good:
  • Huatli, Radiant Champion usually only needs to survive a full round to use her ultimate and give us an emblem that should win us the game, or at least keep our hand full at all times.
  • Skullclamp is an auto include in a weenies token deck. Most useful in early game, but still fires often later as well.
  • Mentor of the Meek is another auto-include for a deck like this. Just have to be careful to save mana for the draws.
  • Camaraderie - The green/white version of a Sphinx's Revelation. Very good for us.
  • Bennie Bracks, Zoologist - Not as good as Mentor, but can still draw quite a few cards, especially if we’re regularly operating on the opponent’s turn.
  • Zendikar Resurgent is our last draw, and while we don't cast a ton of creatures, when combined with Erratic Portal, this can effectively get repeated card draw for two mana by bouncing and recasting Rhys.
We don’t have a lot of it, but the little we do helps a ton.
  • Trostani, Selesnya's Voice - can be a huge gainer for us, if we’re able to keep it alive long enough to benefit.
  • Camaraderie is a one-shot gain based on board presence.
  • March of the Multitudes - Lifelink can be great and trigger multiple times if the tokens stick around enough for multiple attacks. Really though, the hope here is to combine them with an anthem that pumps them enough to get a big jolt of healing at least once.
  • Pest Infestation - These are small gains, but if we can duplicate them enough, they’ll add up nicely.
  • The Great Henge - this will gain us two life every turn. Might as well call us Oloro!
We want to use Rhys multiple times per turn, and multiple times per enemy turn as well. First we need ways to untap Rhys, and then, because his ability is expensive, we need ways to untap mana as well.

This deck does not mainboard any infinite combos or rely on tutors much, although the sideboard includes both Squirrel Nest (infinite with Earthcraft) and Tooth and Nail to tutor up Craterhoof and Elesh Norn. These enter the deck, along with a few more oppressive cards, only when I'm playing against more competitive style decks. Against top tier cEDH decks though, this still wouldn't do too well.

But in general, this deck is geared towards a more casual table that just has fun seeing cool things happen, because cool things definitely happen here.

Focus on ramp. Don't keep a hand that has zero ramp -- you at least want one or two land fetches or mana rocks, if possible. An opening hand with Earthcraft is hard to pass on as well. You can play Rhys early if you have nothing else to do with three mana per turn, but generally you want to wait until you've got six mana and some tokens to double before bringing out the commander.

Once you're around 8 mana you can start pushing out the doublers and focus on X-mana spells to being creating explosive value. If you can drop something that allows untapping and playing on enemy turns, that is best, as you'll start to overtake opponents in the value game. Untapping on enemy turns is essentially getting to take an extra turn for each opponent, which in a 3 or 4 person game is a substantial advantage. Hopefully you have removal protection because those untappers will be hated on quick.

Epic Struggle is surprisingly easy to trigger for the win, especially if you're untapping on the opponent's turn. And if you have a card like Finale of Glory and Vedalken Orrery in play, you can win from an otherwise empty board, really catching players by surprise.

Similarly, Halo Fountain can win with just 15 tokens (or creatures), and is even easier because you can win on the spot, at Instant speed. Tap with Earthcraft or Cryptolith Rite, or you can just declare as attackers and activate the fountain before blockers even declare.

But otherwise, you're goal is to just maintain aggression, attacking as much as possible, and forcing opponents into bad blocks and hard decisions. Token beatdown is easily possible, when you're creating as many tokens as this deck can create.

Card draw can sometimes be a problem. When you're producing 10-20 mana every turn, you can burn through the cards in hand pretty fast. This is mostly a good problem though, because most of the cards we run are big mana cards.

Interaction isn't strong for us, and while we do run some removal, most of our play is offensive, and we're fairly one-dimensional. When opponents can prevent combat damage or put up pillow-forts, it can really shut us down. The sideboard helps with this somewhat, but this is probably is greatest weakness.

Finally, without access to counterspells, we die to infinite and instant-win combo decks. At least in those cases, it's over quick and we can shuffle up to go again.

I'm a veteran player, who started playing Magic back in the days of Alpha -- which means I'm getting pretty old. I once had my own Black Lotus, more than one I believe, and I of course played them unsleeved. Back then, as a kid, I didn't like the card, because I didn't even dream about things like Turn 1 wins. So they were traded away. Not that it matters, because my early collection of cards, which included the moxen, duals, and other craziness (by today's standards anyway) were all heavily played, bent up, and ultimately lost over the course of moves and life transitions.

In my thirties I got back into Magic, spending a lot of time and money playing Standard during the days of Lorwyn, Alara, Zendikar, Mirrodin, and Innistrad. I never won any tournaments, but I played in quite a few. I had full playsets of every card produced during those 5-7 years, so could build any Standard deck I wanted -- man that was a lot of fun. But eventually, I lost the taste for the ultra-competitive scene and switched back to kitchen table Magic where I fell in love with Commander. My first Commander ever built was Maelstrom Wanderer and I still try to keep that deck current and relevant.

I've stopped spending as much money these days, and play mostly with MPC proxies, which means I don't worry about card costs much at all. I feel strongly that people should play with whatever cards they enjoy playing with, not just the ones they can afford to buy. Magic is an expensive hobby, but finances shouldn't be what prevents any participation. I do, however, still support WotC and I buy almost every Commander pre-con deck they make, which lately has gotten crazy with the number being produced.

There are some elements of Magic that I tend to avoid -- including MLD (generally not fun for people to play against), excessive tutors (makes many decks too linear for me, and searching and shuffling often slows things down), and extra turns (often creates "feels bad" moments and more downtime for opponents). I respect the power of these cards and styles, but I'm more interested in games where everyone is having fun, and not just me.

I build and play to win (without those cards, usually), in every game, but ultimately I really don't mind losing -- I just love to play.

Thanks for reading my long-winded primer! I write these not for Internet points, but because it's become part of my process for building and fine-tuning a deck. I find when I have to write out justifications for my card choices, it's easier to be honest and objective about which cards are actually effective, and which are just 'pet' cards. However, please feel free to comment and share thoughts. I welcome alternative opinions!

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Date added 5 years
Last updated 1 year
Legality

This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

17 - 3 Mythic Rares

48 - 8 Rares

16 - 4 Uncommons

6 - 0 Commons
Cards 105
Avg. CMC 3.54
Tokens Angel 4/4 W, Angel 4/4 W w/ Vigilance, Beast 3/3 G, Citizen 1/1 GW, Copy Clone, Elemental 8/8 GW, Elemental */* GW, Elf Warrior 1/1 GW, Emblem Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Emblem Huatli, Radiant Champion, Forest Dryad 1/1 G, Human Soldier 1/1 W, Insect 1/1 G, Pest 1/1 BG, Plant 0/1 G, Saproling 1/1 G, Soldier 1/1 W, Soldier 1/1 W w/ Lifelink, Soldier 2/2 W, Squirrel 1/1 G, Treasure, Warrior 1/1 W
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