Degenerate Tolsimir

Commander / EDH* Combo Competitive GW (Selesnya) Infinite Combo

M8yena

Land (27)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Brushland
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 3x Forest
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Horizon Canopy
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Overgrown Farmland
• 2x Plains
• 1x Savannah
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Bastion
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Enchantment (11)

• 1x Aura Shards
• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Cream of the Crop
• 1x Death's Presence
• 1x Elemental Bond
• 1x Fecundity
• 1x Food Chain
• 1x Ground Seal
• 1x Sigarda's Aid
• 1x Survival of the Fittest
• 1x Sylvan Library

Artifact (18)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Amulet of Vigor
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Blasting Station
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Selesnya Signet
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thornbite Staff
• 1x Thousand-Year Elixir
• 1x Thran Dynamo

Instant (17)

• 1x Autumn's Veil
• 1x Avoid Fate
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Chord of Calling
• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Mana Tithe
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Noxious Revival
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Pull from Eternity
• 1x Renounce the Guilds
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Teferi's Protection
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Commander (1)

Creature (17)

• 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Dryad Militant
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Eternal Scourge
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Garruk's Packleader
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Mother of Runes
• 1x Protean Hulk
• 1x Riftsweeper
• 1x Seedborn Muse
• 1x Stoneforge Mystic
• 1x Stonehewer Giant
• 1x Ulvenwald Observer

Sorcery (9)

• 1x Altar of Bone
• 1x Idyllic Tutor
• 1x Natural Order
• 1x Open the Armory
• 1x Regrowth
• 1x Steelshaper's Gift
• 1x Sylvan Tutor
• 1x The Great Aurora
• 1x Wrath of God

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Thornbite Tolsimir Wolfblood (TbT) is a competitive variant of a normally supplementally played legendary creature seen supporting casual selesnya decks like Trostani and the like. This deck is a wicked twist on Tolsimir that lets you combo to mill everyone else out, get infinite card draw, or ping everyone to death. Not being a blue deck, this card draw can be an issue if it can't immediately let you go off and win, but has ways to manipulate this card draw to be in your favor.

Why Tolsimir?

Obviously Tolsimir isn't the ideal selesnya commander to be running competitively and he doesn't have much actually going for him in a setting in which slowly amassing lots of creatures isn't going to win you the game, and will instead end up with you resembling mulch as you get pummeled and locked out of actually playing. Firstly, I undertook taking this commander to it's limit as a challenge because when played casually he's fun and can stand to win a few games with 4 players involved, but his combo is unorthodox to an extent I haven't seen other commanders be able to exploit. Not that his combo is the ultimate powerhouse, but it's seems a bit janky and really bizarre. Secondly, Tolsimir is kinda unexplored territory for competitive builds since if you would be able to run him, you can probably run literally any other selesnya commander and they would fit it better because the most common builds I've seen are either wolf tribal or big bad selesnya creatures bringing pain.

Plan of Attack

Your goal when playing Tolsimir is to set up and go infinite in the same turn. Luckily for Tolsimir, all the infinite combo needs is one other card besides the commander. Thornbite Staff is the combo piece you need. The use of this equipment will be covered in the next panel but all you need to know is that the primary goal is to tutor out, play, and attach the staff to Tolsimir.

Your end goal should be to draw out most of your deck, cast The Great Aurora, play almost all of the lands in your deck, setup and hold mana for a Teferi's Protection or win on the spot with a combo you drew into. The only reason you would board wipe with the aurora first is to assure that no static effects will interfere with your combo when you go infinite the second time and to throw everyone elses board states into chaos while yours will either stay virtually unchanged or have improved. Normally casting TGA wouldn't be so skewed in your favor, but since you drew so many cards and made so many other people get set back you have the most options since you very easily could have had more lands after TGA finished resolving.

Infinite Combo & Uses

Thornbite Staff is one of your infinite combo pieces and rule 704.5j from the comprehensive rules is your other combo piece.

 704.5j If a player controls two or more legendary permanents with the same name, that player chooses one of them, and the rest are put into their owners’ graveyards. This is called the “legend rule.”

What makes this combo so strong is that almost no one will be running a Mirror Gallery so disrupting it will be really hard. If someone for some odd reason is running a gallery however, there's also Eternal Scourge and Food Chain which can mimic the combo almost exactly and as an added bonus can let you get your card draw for getting the staff out if needed without tapping out all your lands. Thornbite Staff + Tolsimir Wolfblood will cause you to make infinite Voja creature tokens.

Now, how does making an infinite amount of 2/2 GW legendary creature tokens that get buffed to 4/4 help you? There are a lot of ways a creature entering and leaving the field can help you win. Sadly there are no Grave Pacts or the like, and Mirror Gallery breaks the combo* and since its a state-based action you can't flash it in if you've got creature token duplication effects like Parallel Lives on the table. But there are a lot of other card that trigger to these creature creations and deaths.

Fecundity, Ulvenwald Observer, Garruk's Packleader, and Elemental Bond are card draw which can let you draw into The Great Aurora which will let you put all your opponents on a one-turn timer to either eliminate you or enact their own win con.

Aura Shards is just disgusting, letting you clear the field of everyones artifacts and enchantments besides your own.

Blasting Station will let you just kill everyone on the spot and unless some one Krosan Grips it, it's game over.

Altar of Dementia will mill everyone out.

Cream of the Crop will let you rearrange your entire deck.

Death's Presence will allow you to make a really big creature and at that point do what you want.

Getting the Party Started

Tutoring out thornbite staff should be the last thing you do before you enact the plan. Keeping it in your library is the best bet so people have a harder time removing it from you with either forced discarding or removing it from the board. That being said, if your library gets Acquired you can Enlightened Tutor in response and somehow draw a card to save it from it's fate. The only other way to protect the staff in the library is Stonehewer Giant which can also let you auto-equip the staff to Tolsimir which saves you 4 mana if done on another players end step or in response to someone taking it. Amulet of Vigor will help disable stax like Authority of the Consuls and Manglehorn. Casting Sigarda's Aid before the staff is also recommended since that will save you 3 mana.

Tutors

Creature Tutors

Chord of Calling, Eladamri's Call, and Worldly Tutor are your instant speed tutors. Chord of Calling plays straight onto the field making it stronger than the other tutors as long as the creature hitting the field can cause utter disruption.

Altar of Bone, Natural Order, and Sylvan Tutor are your sorcery speed tutors. Natural Order is really choice though because it puts the creature straight onto the field rather than into your hand, and all you have to do is sac a Voja token.

Artifact/Equipment and Enchantment Tutors

Enlightened Tutor is your only instant speed tutor which can be irritating at times but it doubles as a thornbite tutor and an enchantment tutor.

Open the Armory and Steelshaper's Gift are your sorcery speed equipment tutors but are inexpensive so casting them won't be a pain.

Idyllic Tutor is also pretty inexpensive but only tutors for enchantments so its not too strong since the enchantments will typically cost as much as the tutor itself if not more.

Since Tolsimir's ability can be used at instant speed you can theoretically go infinite on anyone's turn. If it would win you the game, go with it I guess but generally you want to have the priority and ability to play sorceries, namely The Great Aurora. Thousand-Year Elixir helps get Tolsimir going and can even provide a win one turn earlier.

Plan B

Getting the staff countered or exiled is not the end of the game for you. There are still a few outs available. If it gets countered or exiled there are a few cards that can save you. Pull from Eternity, a card that I don't see played often enough, can return that bad boy straight to your grave from exile, as long as it's removed face-up and Riftsweeper will put it in your library, making it tutorable once again. Buried Ruin, Regrowth, and Noxious Revival are second, third, and fourth chances to get that staff out of your grave and straight to your hand/deck.

Threats

There are several cards that will ruin your infinite combo. Aside from having the staff permanently removed, there are some static effect artifacts that will really cause trouble. Cards like Pithing Needle and other stax effects can really slow you down. Getting overwhelmed will be the death of this deck if an orb hits the field. Luckily, however, since most really dangerous stax cards come from artifacts or enchantments, getting Aura Shards out will hopefully end your woes and give you some board politics power before someone else removes it.

Removal

Aside from the removal staples of Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, and Nature's Claim, there are a few removal spells that Tolsimir can use more effectively than other decks. Renounce the Guilds is a choice removal spell since it won't actually hurt you because Tolsimir can make a Voja in response to you casting it and will most likely remove either everyone elses commander or another strong permanent. Aura Shards also works as removal, though it really only goes off once you start to go off, it can be nice for Getting rid of pesky stax enablers and you can remove your forced card draw enchantments once you start going infinite in order to avoid drawing your deck out.

Stall & Stax

Since this deck is GW, there's some stall and stax to be had.Grand Abolisher and Aven Mindcensor are good staples and Dryad Militant will stop instant and sorcery decks from repeatedly stalling you. Avoid Fate can easily save your combo since it's an unexpected hard counter in green for just {G}. The other counterspell, Mana Tithe, which will be slightly more expected can also save you from entering a sticky situation, and throw off mana calculations of the players trying to interrupt proceedings. A now white staple, Teferi's Protection is very nice, especially since you can generate a Voja and then phase out in reaction. This leaves a Voja on the field which does nothing most of the time it is kinda funny, but if you have something like Fecundity out when you phase back in, it will do something. Ground Seal will stop grave recursion, which may stall you for a bit too but it will make creatures stay dead.

Other Variants

Building a Tolsimir deck is very tricky. He has very few obvious plays unlike other commanders which have either better colors or better static/activated/triggered abilities. He is also too slow to play really competitively and takes a lot of patience to actually win a game. Like I mentioned at the start, Tolsimir is normally run as a supplementary creature meaning he will generally have fewer angles to be run from. Wolf tribal is usually the route run with him since he can potentially generate a 4/4 army when combined with Mirror Gallery but is set back by his 6 CMC and shamefully low P/T. Being in selesnya colors, he's blessed with plenty of creature token options but the token he generates will inevitably cause a state-based sacrifice of one of the wolves most of the time. It is my belief that the quickest route for a Tolsimir deck is to go for the thornbite staff and infinite untaps for major destruction.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	5 days
Key combos	Thornbite Staff + Tolsimir Wolfblood
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 48 - 0 Rares 30 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.25
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Voja