Squirrel Sanctuary

Enchantment

When this enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 green Squirrel creature token.

Whenever a nontoken creature you control dies (is put into the graveyard from the battlefield), you may pay {1}. If you do, return this to its owner's hand.

Tokens

• Squirrel 1/1 G

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
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (4)

BlueTorche on !!! Chatterfang and the hungry Crew !!!

11 months ago

In my personal decklist (Chatterfang Casual EDH), I have 3 win cons :

• Lifedrain (with Bastion of Remembrance, Zulaport Cutthroat and Blood Artist), which is the most reliable one, as it usually kills all my opponents at once. With Chattefang, it's easy to reach 20+ drains, which is huge in late game.

• Big tokens (with cards like Creakwood Liege, Return of the Wildspeaker, Craterhoof Behemoth (more expensive this one)), which can easily kill your opponent if you have 10+ squirrel on the battlefield. Garruk, Cursed Huntsman isn't a bad addition in the deck, but I think it's a bit "slow", as it will need at least 1 full turn of table before having the emblem. Your opponents will usually focus it and kill it during this time.

• Commander Damage, it doesn't happen often (to be honest, I never killed someone with commander damage in more than 20 games). But it is useful if you play against a lifegain deck or a stax deck. Commander damage can easily be done when you buff all your squirrels (including Chatterfang), and you can also sacrifice X squirrels to give +X/-X to Chatterfang. It's also why I suggested Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth, which make your commander unblockable (and is a good land anyway). The BLB card The Odd Acorn Gang you put in the deck also helps this win condition.

Additionally, Pitiless Plunderer and Warren Soultrader are cards that wins you the game always all the time you'll play it with Chatterfang, as they'll give you almost-infinite mana and ETB/LTB trigger.

Another win condition would be to add Ivy Lane Denizen, which combo with Scurry Oak and give you an infinite/infinite creature and infinite 1/1 squirrels. You may need to add some creature tutor to get both of the cards at the same time (I would suggest Chord of Calling, Dig Up, Diabolic Tutor and Fauna Shaman as buget card. You may also add more expensive card like Vampiric Tutor or Demonic Tutor).

As you say, with the new BLB card, it may exist other win conditions, which can involve food token.

I think you shouldn't focus on one particular win condition. Having more than one way to win can make your deck more reliable (that is my opinion, it may not be true). However, focusing on 1 or 2 win conditions will help you cut some card and having a better deck (it's a question of perfectly balance, as all think should be).

I will also suggest you Acorn Harvest which give you squirrel (not a very strong card, but for 6 mana it creates you 4 squirrels (8 with Chatterfang), not bad).

As cut suggestions, I would suggest Acorn Catapult (which I find very expensive, just to create 1 Squirrel by turn), Cloakwood Hermit (as it need "creature card" put in your graveyard. However, token aren't cards (rule 111.6. A token is subject to anything that affects permanents in general or that affects the token’s card type or subtype. A token isn’t a card) so it doesn't work (I thought about this card when a friend suggests it to me, I was disappointed to learn this rule :( )) and Squirrel Mob (on paper, the card seems good in the deck, but fill the board with tokens is better than having a big creature that will be blocked by anything). I also find Squirrel Sanctuary a bit slow (but it combos with Earthcraft, which I don't have because of its price, but make Squirrel Sanctuary strong). Wrap in Vigor is literally a Golgari Charm in less good (its only advantage is that is cost {1}{G} instead of {B}{G}). Toski, Bearer of Secrets is also a card I find a bit slow. I bought it for my deck, but it never convinced me, and I would prefer Driven / Despair to it, which can also help you win, or other draw cards (Village Rites, Plumb the Forbidden...). Finally, Putrefy is not the most relevant card in the deck, as you already have a lot of Artifact/Enchantment removal, and Chatterfang is a creature removal. You may prefer Nature's Claim or Maelstrom Pulse as removal, or add more token synergy card (you can also add Crack Open, which is similar to Pest Infestation in the deck (I need to buy Pest Infestation, it seems incredible in a Chatterfang deck))

TheVectornaut on Squirrel Necromancer

2 years ago

The first card that strikes me as weak here, although I do see the flavor reason for its inclusion, is Vermin Gorger. Requiring a tap to sacrifice really hurts its ability to sacrifice things tactically. A cheap alternative could be Carrion Feeder as it also plays with the +1/+1 theme. On the more expensive but also more exciting side, there are mana generators like Ashnod's Altar or Phyrexian Altar. This could help you play a lot more spells each turn, synergizing particularly well with Squirrel Sanctuary and Chatterstorm. I could even see cards in the vein of Reassembling Skeleton being useful with such an engine, but I'll admit that I'm probably in the weeds at this point. I also think you might have too many Disentomb and pump effects. I'd rather just have more copies of the best creatures than spend extra mana to recall and then recast them, and there's little point in protecting creatures when you actively want them to die a lot of the time. A final line of play that might be interesting is to go fur a Lure approach in an attempt to get more triggers off Druid's Call. Hornet Nest can offer a similar and compounding role while also conveniently being a target for Swarmyard. With a Chatterfang out, I can see the tokens getting out of hand very quickly. Then again, actually forcing attacks into a defender would probably require going into red for Infectious Bloodlust or something.

SOTC on Chatterfang´s Karre

3 years ago

Hey Fridulina, what a cool deck! I love the theme; token shenanigans are a particular favorite of mine. As it stands, this deck has 105 cards - let's shave it down to a legal 100, and see if we can't make it a bit more focused to boot :)

Cards to Add
- Additional recursion and protection cards keep Chatterfang and your other combo pieces in the game. I have to say I love the addition of Gyome, Master Chef - he interacts excellently with all your deck's pillars, and keeps both you and your important creatures alive. Economical ways to keep your general around are Kaya's Ghostform and Aspect of Mongoose. The former recurs him no matter what; the latter keeps him from being targeted, and should he get board-wiped, you still get the Aura back! In a general sense, picking up a Regrowth is just an all-round good idea: you can go fish for anything you lose.
- Consider using Mycoloth, as it synergizes fantastically with this deck. As a mass sacrifice outlet, a big stompy creature, and a prolific token generator all in one, this Fungus has it all.
- Though expensive at , Nadier, Agent of the Duskenel can get huge real fast in this deck, and removing him only worsens your opponents' problem.
- For reliable card-draw, an Idol of Oblivion and a Species Specialist will do tons of work here. They also have supplemental uses in providing creature bodies to swing and block with.

Cards to add: 7

Cards to Cut
- I'd say Squirrel Sanctuary & Squirrel Nest don't really work fast enough to warrant their mana costs. Additionally, this deck doesn't exclusively lean on Squirrels but has a general token-value theme, diminishing the synergy they may have had in a pure tribal deck.
- Mitotic Slime is somewhat over-costed for its effect. If there would be a reliable way to keep sacrificing and recurring it, it would be quite a bit better.
- Avenger of Zendikar works better in a landfall or Plant deck; here it's a token maker that only occasionally buffs those tokens, provided it and they even stick around. For , that's not very spectacular.
- Sifter of Skulls and Golgari Germination both suffer from the 'nontoken' element in their rules text. While this deck is all about tokens kicking the bucket, you don't really want to lose any of your 23 creature cards - most of them only provide value while they are alive, and you want to save recursion for your commander.

On single-use spells in EDH
This deck runs into a problem many Commander players encounter: that of smaller, value-providing instants and sorceries underperforming in EDH. Cards like Read the Bones, Sign in Blood, Chatter of the Squirrel, Skeletal Scrying, Village Rites and Scatter the Seeds can be played only once or twice, unless your deck runs permanent-based recursion effects to keep bringing them back. As a rule of thumb for EDH, if you want to include an instant or sorcery, its effect should be at least one of these:

1. Dramatic: powerful game-changing effects, as on Kindred Dominance;
2. Permanent: ramp spells such as Three Visits are a good example;
3. Reactive: capable of selectively enhancing or protecting one of your cards, negating an opponent's (more expensive) spell - i.e. a Professor's Warning to stop a removal effect.

These criteria are born from necessity - in EDH, you don't have a single opponent to defeat, but three. In a two-player game, a Village Rites gives you a one-card advantage over your opponent - you spend one, and gain two. In a four-player game, with each of your opponents drawing a card for turn, you have accrued a one-card deficit.

With that in mind, I'd recommend culling the aforementioned instants and sorceries. This deck already has powerful card-drawing (Toski, Bearer of Secrets) and token-making (Chatterfang) effects available to it. Trust that they will do the job well.

Cards to cut: 12

Wrapping Up
And with that, we're down to 100! I hope this helps you streamline the deck, so you may overrun your foes with a horde of vengeful rodents. Good luck!

Epicurus on Mazirek's Nut Sac

3 years ago

Endersword334 I honestly have been thinking that Squirrel Sanctuary is a bit lackluster in this deck, so maybe that's something that I could swap out for more removal. I do appreciate the suggestion, and I'll keep it in mind as the deck evolves over time. Thanks!