Gavi's Cycling Nest of Tokens

Commander / EDH RUW (Jeskai, America)

GayBlackNerd

Land (37)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Ash Barrens
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Desert of the Fervent
• 1x Desert of the Mindful
• 1x Desert of the True
• 1x Drifting Meadow
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Forgotten Cave
• 1x Irrigated Farmland
• 5x Island
• 1x Lonely Sandbar
• 6x Mountain
• 1x Mystic Monastery
• 4x Plains
• 1x Prairie Stream
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Remote Isle
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Secluded Steppe
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Skycloud Expanse
• 1x Smoldering Crater
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Training Center

Artifact (9)

• 1x Abandoned Sarcophagus
• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Boros Signet
• 1x Fluctuator
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Raugrin Crystal
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x The Celestus

Creature (19)

• 1x Akim, the Soaring Wind
• 1x Brallin, Skyshark Rider  ^Flip
• 1x Chasm Skulker
• 1x Containment Construct
• 1x Curator of Mysteries
• 1x Eternal Dragon
• 1x Herald of the Forgotten
• 1x Jace's Archivist
• 1x Nezahal, Primal Tide
• 1x Nimble Obstructionist
• 1x Psychosis Crawler
• 1x Shabraz, the Skyshark  ^Flip
• 1x Spellpyre Phoenix
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Surly Badgersaur
• 1x The Locust God
• 1x Timeless Dragon
• 1x Valiant Rescuer
• 1x Yidaro, Wandering Monster

Sorcery (12)

• 1x Akroma's Vengeance
• 1x Approach of the Second Sun
• 1x Boon of the Wish-Giver
• 1x Change of Fortune
• 1x Decree of Annihilation
• 1x Decree of Justice
• 1x Dismantling Wave
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Fervent Mastery
• 1x Migratory Route
• 1x Windfall
• 1x Winds of Abandon

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Chandra, Flamecaller

Commander (1)

Enchantment (17)

• 1x Anointed Procession
• 1x Astral Drift
• 1x Astral Slide
• 1x Cast Out
• 1x Decree of Silence
• 1x Drake Haven
• 1x Flame Blitz
• 1x Hoofprints of the Stag
• 1x Lightning Rift
• 1x New Perspectives
• 1x Ominous Seas
• 1x Reconnaissance Mission
• 1x Shark Typhoon
• 1x Solemnity
• 1x Tectonic Reformation
• 1x Teferi's Ageless Insight
• 1x Unpredictable Cyclone

Instant (4)

• 1x Emergency Powers
• 1x Hieroglyphic Illumination
• 1x Neutralize
• 1x Sphinx's Revelation

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So when I saw a commander with a name so similar to my own, I had to make her. (My name is Gavin)

Gavi revolves around cycling, drawing at least 2 cards each turn, and making tokens. Hence, this is a cycling deck with a token subtheme. You'll feel awesome when you have a hand full of cycling cards with Gavi out. You'll feel hopeless when you have no cards with cycling in your hand when she's out. It can be...a very bipolar experience.

This deck is fairly close to the original precon, so I will be careful not to call it completely original. What can I say; they jam-packed the original precon with a lot of great cycling synergies. The modifications I made are a mixture of toxic and value. Cards like Containment Construct and Nezahal, Primal Tide are amazing value adds, while cards like Decree of Silence and Decree of Annihilation are just...the epitome of toxic. As I said, this deck provides quintessential bipolar gameplay.

We spend the first 5 turns setting up value engines, and ramping to Gavi if we are fortunate to draw mana rocks in our opening hand. An early Fluctuator or Teferi's Ageless Insight makes our cycling easy and extra effective. Once Gavi is out, we start cycling to success. For long-term survivability, we only cycle to ensure that we are drawing two cards on EACH turn, if possible. We want as many Cat Dinosaurs as we can get, since they block well and attack well. Speaking of tokens, we can make a variety of them.

Ominous Seas and Hoofprints of the Stag provide passive ways for us to turn draws into powerful tokens. 8/8s and flying 4/4s excel at killing opponents, and we make them pretty easily in this deck with our constant cycling and wheeling. Valiant Rescuer and Akim, the Soaring Wind give us additional 1/1s each turn, though Akim's six-mana ability is often just too costly to be utilized. Anointed Procession doubles our tokens, which is especially powerful when paired with one of our best token generators, the almighty Shark Typhoon.

If you don't want to win via the slow grind of making tokens to attack with, we have two alternative win conditions that our oftentimes my main ways to victory. Psychosis Crawler and Brallin, Skyshark Rider   work as a lethal pair to allow us to kill our opponents simply by cycling and wheeling through our deck. New Perspectives makes that game-plan trivially easy. Approach of the Second Sun wins us the game when we cast it twice. It is especially great in our deck, as we can often dig to it by our next turn.

If you have cleared the board of major threats and have a value engine setup, you can lock your opponents out of the game using the Decree of Silence/Solemnity combo. It counters all of your opponents' spells, which is oftentimes enough to make players scoop on the spot. Well, that and blowing up all lands with a Decree of Annihilation cycled for free. This is especially funny when you have a Herald of the Forgotten on the stack when you cycle it, since it will get back some of your lands. I love that big cat; it oftentimes turns the game around for us.

There is a lot of interaction in this deck. Interestingly, a bit of it can be played for free with Gavi out. Dismantling Wave clears the board of artifacts and enchantments when it is cycled, and Nimble Obstructionist can stop a game-winning ability from resolving when it is cycled. Winds of Abandon is my favorite board wipe for aggressive decks, as it clears the way for you to swing for lethal against your opponents' big board states. Flame Blitz is funny, as it just says no to keeping planeswalkers on the field. We don't mind, since we only run Chandra, Flamecaller, who can act as a board wipe herself.

This deck may have a few powerful cards in it, but it still isn't much more powerful than the precon. Blowing up lands and countering all your opponents spells sounds funny, but it isn't usually a surefire way to win. That is especially true when you can't reliably tutor for those effects. This is a fun deck to play if you enjoy building up value engines that synergize with drawing cards. Think of it as being a loving mother who watches her kids multiply as she feeds them yummy draws, in the form of cycling and wheels. Just remember to protect your nest.

Date added	2 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 42 - 0 Rares 19 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.08
Tokens	Angel 4/4 W, Bird 1/1 W, Dinosaur Cat 2/2 RW, Drake 2/2 U, Elemental 3/1 R, Elemental 4/4 W, Human Soldier 1/1 W, Insect 1/1 UR, Kraken 8/8 U, Shark X/X U, Soldier 1/1 W, Squid 1/1 U, Timeless Dragon 4/4 B, Treasure