Smothering Tithe
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed 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
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Smothering Tithe

Enchantment

Whenever an opponent draws a card, that player may pay . If the player doesn't, you create a Treasure artifact token. (It's an artifact with ", Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any colour.")

rckclimber777 on Build a Deck with Me …

7 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.

DemonDragonJ on Clash of the Titans

6 days ago

I have replaced The Immortal Sun with Smothering Tithe, which reduced the average converted mana cost of this deck from 4.45 to 4.42, which is very good, as that card provides me with a way to either accelerate my own mana or slow down my opponents, both of which are a good thing, in a deck that has such a high mana curve.

DemonDragonJ on Seeking advice for Zur the …

1 week ago

Would you consider either Rhystic Study or Smothering Tithe? Would you be willing to spend 2 more mana to replace Grand Abolisher with Myrel, Shield of Argive or 1 more mana to replace Despark with Anguished Unmaking, or is keeping a low mana curve a high priority for this deck?

Coward_Token on Fuck it, late Outlaw of …

3 weeks ago

I wish Kambal, Profiteering Mayor's first ability was worded so that you could choose when to get the copies. As is, "junk" token creations like from individual Smothering Tithe triggers can get in the way of more valuable ones.

With Breeches & Malcolm both branching out into a second color, I wish Gisa & Geralf would go respectively . Suits their personalities more.

wallisface on Sheoldred Control

1 month ago

Some thoughts:

MTGBurgeoning on Linvala, Giada & Akroma

2 months ago

Thank you for the suggestions! Land Tax, Smothering Tithe and Urza's Incubator are great recommendations and will be slam-dunk inclusions once copies of them become available. Adding Starnheim Aspirant and Youthful Valkyrie are also strong considerations, especially Starnheim Aspirant. With SOOO many Angels from which to choose, Youthful Valkyrie got squeezed out during the initial construction of this build, opting instead for Angels the provide more versatile abilities, which applies to Starnheim Aspirant. Revisions may be on the way! Thank you and happy brewing!

RazorRose on Can you eat gold

2 months ago

I was thinking the same thing about Regal Bloodlord I'm testing out taking Smothering Tithe and Priest of Forgotten Gods although I think I might put the priest back in. I feel the same about Utter End but man it's felt really good on some playtests, the versatility to destroy almost anything is great.

Profet93 on Blinking Contest

2 months ago

KCisSICKnasty +1

Deck is SOLID AF. Given your deck is very reliant upon your commander, do you feel you have enough ramp to bring him out quickly enough? Mind Stone might be a potential consideration to increase your artifact count that could bring him out more quickly from 5 to 6. Maybe swapping out commander sphere or better yet, desertion? The former is great but doesn't bring your commander out sooner. The latter is fun but holding up 5 mana and being restricted to only getting creatures/artifacts, one that might not have synergy with your overall plan might not be ideal.

Maybe Mother of Runes? - Protection

How has Inventors' Fair been treating you? Given you have about 14 artifacts or so, do you trigger it reliably? Perhaps maybe swap it or even the exotic orchard which doesn't necessarily tap for your colors for Blinkmoth Well? Blinkmoth can mess with opposing artifact synergies and most importantly, make your Static orb one sided.

Fierce Guardianship in your maybeboard seems amazing given it can protect your commander at 0 cost, since your reliant upon your commander. Maybe even a Rhystic Study or even a Smothering Tithe for some good value?

^EDIT: I missed your $ exclusions regarding fierce gaurdianship

I would love your thoughts regarding your thought process. I'm scared to ever come across this deck.

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