Primal Vigor
Set Price Alerts

Combos Browse all Suggest

Legality

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

Primal Vigor

Enchantment

If one or more tokens would be created, twice that many of those tokens are created instead.

If one or more +1/+1 counters would be placed on a creature, twice that many +1/+1 counters are placed on that creature instead.

rckclimber777 on Build a Deck with Me …

9 hours 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?

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. 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).

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)

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.

Tsukimi on Prime Slime [PRIMER]

2 months ago

Chase_To2000 Token doublers like Primal Vigor and Doubling Season do double the +1 +1 counters as well. See Here.

Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor on Atraxa's Egg Cracking Awakening

11 months ago

This is a pretty awesome list and a fresh new way to take a well trodden (and unfortunately stale), but forever cool commander. +1 from me.

Here are some suggestions:

An immediate thought I had for inclusion is Inspiring Call. It won't protect most of your non-token creatures unfortunately (unless you are going ham with Ozolith, the Shattered Spire, but it will protect all of your incubate tokens and draw you cards. Clever Concealment is another great protection spell for token based strategies.

I've personally never been a fan of Primal Vigor since it can backfire spectacularly. You might consider replacing it with a simple ramp spell since 8 true ramps spells is a little low IMO.

Also, for flavor, you could throw in Atraxa, Grand Unifier, but I know it doesn't really play with your strategy here.

Other than that you already have a few of my potential suggestions in your "maybeboard": Eyes of Gitaxias, Compleated Huntmaster, and Blighted Burgeoning.

Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor on Will you forget the head slicing thing!?

1 year ago

Slashdance - Thank you for the supportive comment!

Hooded Hydra is a great call for another 0/0 hydra that has additional utility. I'll have to find a space for that one.

I have never really been a fan of Primal Vigor due to the card's abilities being symmetrical. I've been burned before by it helping my opponents as much as, or more than me in games.

Tetravus is a blast from the past for sure. Not sure if I have room for it or the other iterations of it, but it does have interesting synergy with hydras.

Tocasia's Welcome is great in this deck. First of all, it triggers on creatures with 3 mana value or less, not 3 power or less. Each hydra token I make and each hydra I cast is potential card draw (very rarely will I cast a hydra where X is greater than 0). The "once per turn" clause does limit it's explosiveness compared to the other options I have, but it actually has the widest range among Elemental Bond, Tribute to the World Tree, and Guardian Project in this deck's strategy (I run all of these by the way). Garruk's Uprising is a fantastic card, but I decided to exclude it since most of my creatures come in with less than 4 power.

Slashdance on Advertise your COMMANDER deck!

1 year ago

I love hydras, so thank you for a look at this deck!

Since you're using Cathars' Crusade, I would like to suggest adding Hooded Hydra ... it can really give a nitro boost your other creatures, and can even be death-triggered during an attack if you kill it yourself. Super potent if you have your Doubling Season (or similar) also in play.

Speaking of which, Primal Vigor also plays well with Cathars' Crusade and/or Hooded Hydra.

These cards could really allow a secondary option of going wide when needed.

A bit of a jank suggestion, but it goes well with your hydra theme and everything else I've mentioned, even without being an actual hydra. Tetravus could be a fantastic add to your wonderful deck.

Is Tocasia's Welcome doing much work for you? I assume most of your hydras are coming into play with more than just 3 counters on them, leaving you with only 8 creatures with 3 or less power to trigger the Welcome ... and even some of those may end up not triggering if you have Cathars' Crusade in play. Maybe Garruk's Uprising or better yet Elemental Bond might help to draw cards more often? Doing so would double your potential eligible chances from 8 to 16+, not counting tokens. That said, if you take any of my token advice, like Tetravus, all the card-draw cards start to even out and it's a coin flip.

Thank you and good luck!

Here's my Shalai deck, which is also Hydra based!

deck chart

Shalai, Full Auto - Primer

Commander / EDH Slashdance

SCORE: 4 | 1 COMMENT | 24 VIEWS | IN 4 FOLDERS

Papini on I wanna be a man, mancub

1 year ago

Hi Gleeock

Such a great song :p I was going to say that Structural Assault was a little unreliable as a board wipe, but you make a great point, my apes will get pumped to offset the damage and it becomes a one-side board wipe. I will test it out. Thanks a lot.

I'm scared that Primal Vigor could easily get out of hand ... That's why I'm running Doubling Season and Parallel Lives instead.

I played Return of the Wildspeaker in the deck but then I switched it out for Inspired Tinkering or Escape to the Wilds I don't remember.

Gleeock on I wanna be a man, mancub

1 year ago

I wanna talk like you, walk like you too-oo-oo

You should use the power of man's red flower to make a one-sided boardwipe: Structural Assault. Because for all that dmg creatures are taking, your apes will get pumped to offset.

You could get real reckless with it: Primal Vigor

Viridian Revel

Return of the Wildspeaker

Steamroll on Grumgully Tribal

1 year ago

-Consider getting rid of Blood Moon cause everyone hates that card as it just ruins the fun at the table lol.
-Branching Evolution, Hardened Scales, and Master Chef allow you to double counters and get really out of hand if you have 2 or 3 doubling effects on the board at once.
-Primal Vigor is another Doubling Season and is great but is a double-edged sword as it also effects your opponents.

My version of this deck I just updated just to give you some ideas...
(I don't run any infinite combos because I loath them, just a fyi.)

deck chart

Very Generous Goblins

Commander / EDH Steamroll

SCORE: 3 | 162 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER

Load more