Tolsimir? I hardly know 'er!

Commander / EDH Budget Elves GW (Selesnya)

FineDog

Creature (32)

• 1x Beast Whisperer
• 1x Conclave Guildmage
• 1x Dauntless Escort
• 1x Earthshaker Giant
• 1x Elvish Archdruid
• 1x Elvish Harbinger
• 1x Elvish Hexhunter
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Elvish Piper
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Ezuri, Renegade Leader
• 1x Ferocious Pup
• 1x Garruk's Packleader
• 1x Howling Giant
• 1x Karametra, God of Harvests
• 1x Kessig Cagebreakers
• 1x Llanowar Tribe
• 1x Master of the Wild Hunt
• 1x Mirror Entity
• 1x Nightpack Ambusher
• 1x Nullmage Shepherd
• 1x Nylea, God of the Hunt
• 1x Pack Guardian
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Selvala, Explorer Returned
• 1x Sylvan Ranger
• 1x Tolsimir Wolfblood
• 1x Vigor
• 1x Wolf-Skull Shaman
• 1x Wolfbriar Elemental
• 1x Wood Elves
• 1x Wren's Run Packmaster

Enchantment (13)

• 1x Anointed Procession
• 1x Beastmaster Ascension
• 1x Cathars' Crusade
• 1x Cryptolith Rite
• 1x Feed the Pack
• 1x Howlpack Resurgence
• 1x Parallel Lives
• 1x Path of Discovery
• 1x Primal Rage
• 1x Raised by Wolves
• 1x Reprobation
• 1x Wolfcaller's Howl
• 1x Zendikar Resurgent

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Flower / Flourish
• 1x Howl of the Night Pack
• 1x Overwhelming Stampede
• 1x Sudden Disappearance
• 1x Sylvan Scrying
• 1x Triumph of the Hordes
• 1x Winds of Abandon

Instant (5)

• 1x Aura Mutation
• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Predator's Howl
• 1x Second Harvest
• 1x Swords to Plowshares

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x The Wanderer

Commander (1)

Land (36)

• 1x Canopy Vista
• 17x Forest
• 1x Fortified Village
• 1x Gavony Township
• 1x Karn's Bastion
• 1x Krosan Verge
• 1x Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 10x Plains
• 1x Sapseep Forest
• 1x Scattered Groves
• 1x Selesnya Sanctuary

Artifact (5)

• 1x Lifecrafter's Bestiary
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Panharmonicon
• 1x Vivien's Arkbow
• 1x Well of Lost Dreams

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Maybeboard

Enchantment (16)

• 1x Asceticism
• 1x Aspect of Wolf
• 1x Aura Shards
• 1x Bower Passage
• 1x Call To Serve
• 1x Collective Blessing
• 1x Elemental Bond
• 1x Gravity Well
• 1x Growing Ranks
• 1x Mirari's Wake
• 1x Rites of Flourishing
• 1x Seal of Primordium
• 1x Spidersilk Armor
• 1x Steely Resolve
• 1x Tranquil Grove
• 1x Wolfkin Bond

Artifact (5)

• 1x Door of Destinies
• 1x Obelisk of Urd
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Vanquisher's Banner
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

Instant (14)

• 1x Back to Nature
• 1x Eerie Interlude
• 1x Fracturing Gust
• 1x Gideon's Sacrifice
• 1x Hallowed Moonlight
• 1x Make a Stand
• 1x Moonmist
• 1x Naturalize
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Rootborn Defenses
• 1x Settle the Wreckage
• 1x Sundering Growth
• 1x Unbreakable Formation
• 1x Wear Away

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Explosive Vegetation
• 1x Harvest Season
• 1x Increasing Savagery
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Shamanic Revelation
• 1x Stomp and Howl

Creature (14)

• 1x Arbor Colossus
• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Emmara Tandris
• 1x Howlgeist
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Resolute Watchdog
• 1x Resplendent Angel
• 1x Silverchase Fox
• 1x Silverfur Partisan
• 1x Skalla Wolf
• 1x Somberwald Alpha
• 1x Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
• 1x Wolfir Avenger
• 1x Wolfir Silverheart

Land (4)

• 1x Hollow Trees
• 1x Memorial to Unity
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Stirring Wildwood

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Ajani, the Greathearted
• 1x Arlinn, Voice of the Pack

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Would you believe this deck started a wolf tribal deck? I started with all the wolves and wolf generators I could find, and then tripped down the rabbit hole while trying to build the ramp package and ended up in elf tribal before I knew what was happening.

Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves

Tolsimir is a cool guy. I mean look at that card art. The dude is a total badass. But more importantly, he's got versatility. He creates a 3/3 GW token when he enters the battlefield, and when that token or any other wolf enters the battlefield, you gain 3 life and have the option of making it fight something. Tolsimir is also a 3/3 elf himself.

Ramp

Because we're in GW, we have access to a lot of green mana dorks, most of whom are elves like Tolsimir. I've added Elvish Archdruid, Elvish Harbinger, Elvish Mystic, Llanowar Tribe, and Selvala, Explorer Returned for basic tap ramp. There's also Sylvan Ranger and Wood Elves for ETB land fetching.

Creatures matter a lot in Green, so we also have Cryptolith Rite, Karametra, God of Harvests, Path of Discovery, and Zendikar Resurgent to make the most of all the creatures in the deck.

Draw

Like I said, creatures matter. When we cast a creature, we should get something out of it (like more creatures). Beast Whisperer, Karametra, God of Harvests, Lifecrafter's Bestiary, and Zendikar Resurgent all care about casting creatures. Some of them let you draw whenever a creature is cast, while Karametra lets you fetch a land every time and put it on the battlefield tapped, which is both ramp and card advantage.

Garruk's Packleader and Path of Discovery only care about when a creature enters the battlefield, even if it wasn't cast, which is great once we get our wolf-creation engine going. And once we start getting those wolves, we'll get lifegain triggers from Tolsimir, which we can use to draw cards with Well of Lost Dreams.

Finally, Selvala, Explorer Returned is just a cheap way to get some extra draw and mana each turn.

Wolf Creation

The whole point of this deck, originally, was to play a bunch of wolves. The problem with wolves is that they may be good dogs but they're not a good tribe. Most non-token wolves just have some generic ETB effect that gives a creature +2/+0 until end of turn, or creatures with less power can't block them or something like that. Those are fine effects, but they don't have a lot of synergies.

That said, there are a lot of decent cards that can create wolf tokens. Mayor of Avabruck   is a 2-drop that can become a 3/3 that puts out a 2/2 wolf every turn and gives all wolves and werewolves +1/+1. Like all werewolves, he's annoying to flip, but if you can play him turn 2 there's probably still someone at the table who's still getting lands out and can't cast anything yet, and even if you have to sacrifice a turn early on to flip him, it's not the end of the world.

Wolfcaller's Howl is much more reliable and can easily get you three wolves every turn for several turns. Master of the Wild Hunt is slower, but he also doubles as a backup Tolsimir with his tap ability.

Wren's Run Packmaster, Howl of the Night Pack, and Wolfbriar Elemental are all great late-game plays when you have a lot of mana available.

Wolf-Skull Shaman, Feed the Pack, and Kessig Cagebreakers are both going to care about all the creatures you have in your deck. The Shaman won't get you a wolf every turn, but it should be often enough with the number of elves in the deck, and once your mana dorks have outlived their usefulness, Feed the Pack can convert a 1/1 dork into a 2/2 wolf, and the Cagebreakers can put more wolves out once those dorks are in your graveyard.

Finally, Pack Guardian, Predator's Howl, and Raised by Wolves can get you a few more wolves here and there.

Pump

With the exception of Voja, all these wolves are going to be 2/2s, which can't usually do a lot. So let's make them bigger. Overrun and Overwhelming Stampede are straight up wincons.

Path of Discovery and Cathars' Crusade should get some counters on things whenever they enter the battlefield.

Beastmaster's Ascension and Mirror Entity are half a wincon if we can get trample out.

Vigor will protect your creatures, make them bigger, and make everyone think twice about attacking or even blocking you.

Tolsimir Wolfblood just sort of has to be here for flavor even though his anthem effect is far too expensive at 6cmc, although his tap ability can put a new Voja out if you also have your commander and need some instant speed removal. And Ezuri, Renegade Leader is sort of a backup option if you can't get your wolves out and you have a ton of elves waiting for something to do, plus his regeneration ability can save your commander in a pinch.

Trample

A bunch of giant wolves won't do a lot of good if you can't get past the opponent's defenses, and I looked all over but unfortunately there aren't a lot of great options to give them all flying. So we'll make do with trample.

Overrun and Overwhelming Stampede are doing double duty here and can often close out a game in a single turn.

Waxing Moon, Primal Rage, and Howlpack Resurgence are all fairly cheap options to get trample when you need it.

Conclave Guildmage and Nylea, God of the Hunt are trample-enablers you can tutor for.

Triumph of the Hordes is another wincon that gives everything infect, so you only need to do a much more manageable 10 damage instead of 40 (or whatever).

Removal

Much of your creature removal can come from your commander with his fight effect. If you have Wren's Run Packmaster out, you can make a deathtouch wolf at instant speed and make it fight any threat, and even classic Tolsimir can put out a new Voja for smaller threats. However, I've found that if you abuse new-Tolsimir's fight effect too much, it makes him a target for removal. So to round things out, there's Master of the Wild Hunt (a backup Tolsimir, essentially), and Reprobation and Swords to Plowshares to avoid any pesky death triggers.

For artifact/enchantment removal, we've got Aura Mutation, Elvish Hexhunter, Glissa Sunseeker, Nullmage Shepherd, and Reclamation Sage. Most of these will work at instant speed and are also elves, so you can tutor them out and get other elf synergies.

Winds of Abandon can be cheap target removal, but it's also an incredible one-sided board wipe. Sudden Disappearance isn't as good, but it can still finish a game if you're ready.

Utility and other stuff

A lot of these cards have ETB triggers, including the commander himself, so I've added Panharmonicon to get double wolves, double life, double land fetches, etc.

Anointed Procession, Parallel Lives, and Second Harvest will let you get out wolves twice as fast, and also happen to work well with Tamiyo's Journal and its Clue tokens.

The journal, along with Eladamri's Call and Elvish Harbinger, are some decent tutors, although I'd like to find room for more somewhere.

Canopy Cover, Dauntless Escort, Ezuri, Renegade Leader, and Gift of Immortality are mainly here to protect Tolsimir, as he can become a bit of a target if your lifegain and/or fight effects get out of control. And Eternal Witness can pull a wincon out of the graveyard if you start running out of options.

Final Thoughts

I think I covered every card in the deck, so thanks for reading. The lands are still a work in progress that I'll figure out once all the spells are decided. The maybe list is mostly random removal and utility options I considered but either couldn't find the room for or couldn't find the money for, but I'm opening slotting them in if there's a place for them. I will say that as much as I'd like Aura Shards, it's a little out of my price range and also probably too powerful for my meta (also my girlfriend runs an enchantment deck and I don't want her to hate me).

I'm open to any feedback and suggestions. I may have focused too much on one category or another, but the earliest version of this deck was all over the place with no synergy or focus. If I could find room in the deck, I'd probably want more tutors and maybe more of the commander staples like Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot Boots. I'd also like a higher creature count, so if I could replace some of the non-creature spells with the same effect "on a stick", I'd have an easier time getting them out with all the other things that care about creatures. Less importantly, I'd also like to replace anything I can with more thematic cards, even if it's just something that does the same thing but has a wolf in the art or something.

Top Ranked	Achieved #11 position overall 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Budget 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Elves 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH GW (Selesnya) 4 years ago
Date added	4 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	5 - 0 Mythic Rares 38 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.72
Tokens	Elf Knight 2/2 GW, Saproling 1/1 G, Voja, Voja, Friend to Elves, Wolf 2/2 G
Folders	Active Decks, Commanders, Hounds, Dogs, Canines, Wolves, etc, Acid Wolfpack, Budget EDH
Based on	Budget EDH Wolf Tribal FineDog EDH