So you want to make some tokens. Well Rhys the Redeemed just might be the commander for you. I will cover some of the most powerful cards available to Rhys as well as some of the synergies in the deck. There are a number of ways that Rhys can be built including monowhite, monogreeen and elf tribal but this deck will be a traditional G/W token deck. I've included a toolbox theme as well and since green and white can only tutor up lands, creatures and enchantments consistently my toolbox is focused around these types of permanents. Instants, sorceries & planeswalkers have been kept to a minimum to allow for more toolbox cards to be included and the bulk of the ones I've included are tutors.
Rhys may be the commander for you if you:
1. Like making tokens and enjoy swarm strategies.
2. Want to play a very cheap commander.
3. Like proactive strategies and want to force opponents to react to what you're doing.
4. Enjoy toolbox strategies that give you a wide variety of answers.
5. Think G/W is a great color combination and want to use some of the powerful G/W gold cards.
Rhys may not be the commander for you if you:
1. Want to interact with the stack.
2. Want a deck that can win very quickly.
3. Are looking for a top tier deck.
4. Play on MTGO. This deck spits out a lot of tokens.
5. Feel bad killing off critters for profit.
Deck History
This was one of my earliest commander decks and the oldest commander deck I've kept together. I went with Rhys since I like cheap commanders and I already had a casual token deck which I liked so this was an attempt to port that over to commander. I think I built this during Shadowmoor block and as I was just learning the format it was quite bad, mainly just G/W goodstuff with a small token theme. Over the years I tuned the deck and focused it more on token spamming with an enchantment and toolbox subtheme. Currently my metagame is much more competitive than when I first started and this list reflects adjustments I have made to combat this including lowering the curve and including more powerful interactions. It's also the reason I've pushed the toolbox theme so that I was better able to have answers for the powerful plays my opponents were making. This deck has held up well over the years and still picks up wins regularly.
Alternate Commanders
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice - Trostani is a fine option for a token commander. I would try to play some lifegain matters cards with her and put more focus on making bigger tokens. More ramp would be a good idea as well since the commander is more expensive.
Gahiji, Honored One - This is a very strong option for a more aggressive build. Adding red gives you access to more haste effects which are very powerful and Gahiji provides a powerful ability while providing an incentive for opponents to attack each other.
Hazezon Tamar - Hazezon adds red to the mix similar to Gahiji but I'd be adding in a lot more ramp to make him work so I'd move away from a toolbox theme and more into a ramp deck. Adding more sac outlets would be a good idea as well.
Ghave, Guru of Spores - Ghave adds black to the mix and the commander provides a sac outlet as well as the ability to make tokens. This deck tends to focus more on combos as many of the combos can use Ghave as a piece and the black tutors give the deck consistency. A very powerful option for sure and one of the more popular Commanders out there.
These cards build the foundation of the deck and should be run in most every Rhys deck. They're what will be winning you most games and many will be frequent tutor targets. This section will just cover the staples with the remainder of the cards being covered in the card options section below.
Academy Rector - Academy Rector is an excellent tutor that is able to be fetched by creature tutors. It can be clunky but having Rector in the deck allows your creature tutors to fetch her (him?) and then use Rector to fetch an enchantment. Rector is also able to hold the ground against the scariest of non-flying creatures, even ones with trample, for fear of fetching problematic enchantments.
Avenger of Zendikar - As far as one shot token generators go this is the best option for us. He make a lot of tokens which can be built up in size and providing a 5/5 body just because. He'll be a frequent tutor target and can be fetched alongside Regal Force with Tooth and Nail for huge card draw (assuming correct trigger stacking).
Aura Shards - The best enchantment and artifact hate available to the deck this can easily clear the board of all of your opponents enchantments and artifacts and prevent them from playing any more until it is destroyed. Many of the token generators operate at instant speed allowing you to blow up permanents in response to Aura Shards being destroyed.
Craterhoof Behemoth - This is our main win condition being able to turn even a handful of tokens into a lethal force. With 5 tokens you can kill a player, any more than that and you're probably threatening to kill everyone. If you have Concordant CrossroadsTooth and Nail can fetch Craterhoof and Avenger of Zendikar as a lethal combination.
Doubling Season - Can be pretty good in most decks but it is great here. It enables multiple infinite combos and even with something simple like Sacred Mesa it can get out of control very quickly. This is also especially potent with cards that both use counters and make tokens like Spawning Pit and Mycoloth.
Earthcraft - Easily one of the best cards in the deck it can convert tokens into mana (without killing the tokens!). This mana is generally used to make even more tokens which gets out of control quickly. There are many infinite combos as well. Earthcraft is the reason we are including at minimum 1 Plains and 1 Forest since it only works with basic lands.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite - This can stop other token strategies, shut down annoying utility generals, is easy to tutor up, provides a significant boost to your team and works with Kamahl, Fist of Krosa to ruin opposing manabases. Very powerful indeed.
Gaea's Cradle - Easily the most powerful land Cradle is capable of generating huge amounts of mana with all the tokens that can be produced. This deck can produce infinite tokens and therefore infinite mana with Cradle.
Mentor of the Meek - The deck needs a draw spell on a body for the toolbox and I think this is your best bet. I've had excellent success with Skullmulcher in the past and wouldn't fault anyone for using him instead or in addition to Mentor of the Meek.
Mirari's Wake - It is a small anthem effect but the main reason for inclusion is the Mana Flare it provides. This interacts very nicely with many of the mana hungry token generators we will be including.
Mirror Entity - Obviously the main function of Mirror Entity is to pump up your tokens to a dangerous size. The second reason for inclusion is that he can double as a sac outlet for the Reveillark chain.
Parallel Lives - As we don't have many +1/+1 counter synergy this is often a cheaper Doubling Season.
Sacred Mesa/Luminarch Ascension - These are very important token generators for the deck since unlike Ant Queen they remain in play after most board sweepers. I've also found 2 mana is the magic number for token generation so I think these are much better than Mobilization even though they appear similar.
Seedborn Muse - While generally a good card in most green decks the Muse is especially strong here. In addition to her powerful synergy with Rhys she interacts very well with many of the lands and other token generators.
Skullclamp - Probably the best card in the deck, this can draw a ton of cards. Being an artifact makes it pretty difficult to fetch however there are a few tutors like Stoneforge Mystic that can get it.
Survival of the Fittest - It's tutorable with enchantment tutors and enables some very powerful plays. It can set up the Reveillark combo by itself, dump Genesis into the graveyard for you and since this deck runs so many creatures anyways it is easy to find something to pitch to get it started.
Combos
The deck doesn't run very many combos but the ones it does run can be rather confusing. Here's the combos the deck runs and how to actually use them.
6. Repeat step 5 for all remaining triggers except for the very last one. Each time, Yosei, the Morning Star will die and you will choose 5 permanents to tap, tap every permanent all your opponents have and they have to skip their untap step. When the last trigger resolves, Reveillark will trigger and come into play. Get back Mirror Entity & Saffi Eriksdotter. You can now repeat the combo for 0 mana at instant speed.
Mirror Entity can be replaced with any sac outlet that costs no mana (Martyr's Cause, Spawning Pit), sac outlets that cost 1 if you have Earthcraft in play (Perilous Forays) or sac outlets that cost 2 if you have both Earthcraft and a mana flare. Yosei can be replaced by any other creature with an enters or leaves the battlefield effect or goes to graveyard effect (like Skullmulcher to draw your library). If the creature you want to loop has 2 or less power you only need Saffi or Karmic Guide, not both (Acidic Slime and Eternal Witness are good for this).
Phyrexian Altar combos - I don't run Phyrexian Altar but this is the most appropriate place to cover it. The idea here is that you're able to sac tokens to generate enough mana to make more tokens. It will work similar to Earthcraft though often will require an additional piece to do something of value. If you have Doubling Season + Sacred Mesa for example it will allow you to keep sacrificing the tokens to make more but you'll need an additional piece to make this worthwhile.
Many playgroups discourage the use of infinite combos so we can remove the ones in the core list simply by removing a couple of cards. To break up the Earthcraft combos we will need to remove Earthcraft which combos with far too many things to go infinite. The Reveillark combo can be removed by taking out either Reveillark or Karmic Guide depending on your build (if you remove Karmic Guide you can't add in Saffi Eriksdotter, she'll basically do the same thing). I'm not a fan of pulling punches during games but if you're fine with that you can obviously just choose not to go infinite. The deck still functions very well without these cards.
Piloting the deck
First off some general observations on the deck. The card advantage (mostly through card draw) tends to be very clumpy, you won't be getting extra cards that often but when you do it will usually be a lot of cards. This means it is very important not to overextend because if you hit a long period of not having a draw spell or card advantage engine you risk running out of gas. Also, since you are usually drawing so many cards at a time, try and dump your hand first and then refill with your Skullclamp. Drawing 10 cards off of Skullmulcher isn't as good when you have to discard 8 cards at EOT.
This is a proactive deck that will typically make most of it's plays during your main phase. I would probably classify it as a mid-range deck. Against a heavy control deck you will probably want to take on an aggressive role and against a very aggressive deck you will want to be defensive and build up for your late game. You're typically going to want to include sorcery speed spells over instants since they tend to be more cost effective and there just aren't a lot of other instants this deck wants to run that you would be wanting to keep the mana open for.
Every game should start out either land/Rhys or ETB tapped land then next turn land/Rhys. Turn 3 will be land/make token most games. This means the deck has a natural hole in the 2 drop slot for curving out purposes with the 1 drop and 3 drop slots occupied almost every game with your general. There are a number of things you can do turn 2, drop an ETBT land, Sensei's Divining Top + activate, a few search spells, etc. It certainly isn't essential to curve out in this format but a gap at the 2 drop is something to keep in mind during deck construction. Alternatively if you have cheap ramp, Land Tax, Sensei's Divining Top or something else that helps develop your board faster you might want to wait a turn or 2 to cast Rhys. Just try to keep a low profile and build up your board position to set yourself up for powerful plays in the mid game.
Mid game is where you want to start assembling some of the powerful interactions, go for a combo or just tutor up Skullclamp and draw a ton of cards so you can set yourself up to start taking people out. I'll try to keep my board as innocuous as possible then untap and drop a card or 2 that lets me go nuts. This deck is very capable of winning out of nowhere going from a handful of tokens to a lethal board within a turn and you definitely want to use that to your advantage. Craterhoof Behemoth is your main go to at this point of the game so you can work towards getting him set up as well. You should have access to enough answers to buy you some time but you're ideally wanting to be proactive and use your tutors for cards that will win you the game.
Late game is usually when I try to break out the power plays, at this point I should have a lot of land built up and have seen a few tutors (hopefully I still have 1). Then I try and dig for the Replenish/Armageddon, go infinite with tokens, drop Kamahl and Overrun 3 times, etc. Basically try to seal up the game ASAP because you won't have as good a late game as the slow control decks.
Card Options
Let's look at filling out card options that are either run or could potentially be run. I'll try and cover most cards that I think should be considered for a deck slot. Note that some cards fit into multiple categories, I will put them in the first one they are eligible for. Also keep a note of your creature count for Survival of the Fittest and Humility. The other cards are there to explain your available options if you want to customize the deck, are missing cards due to cost or just think the cards I'm using suck.
Cards that I'm running in my deck are in bold.
Tutors
Tutors are among the most powerful effects in the format. The deck has a number of extremely powerful individual cards which we can fetch with tutors in addition to some synergies and combos that can be set up. There is a point of diminishing returns on tutors so you will not want to have a deck full of them. We want to have a useful toolbox to select from when we cast our tutors and the more tutors we have the less variety we'll have in our toolbox. The number you will want is somewhat dependent on your playgroup, if everyone you play against just has 1 deck they use every time you can add in a few hoser cards for each specific deck and put in a high concentration of tutors to get those key hosers. In my playgroup most people have 5 or more decks and everyone has at least 2 so I need to have a wide variety of answers for many different strategies thus limiting the number of deck slots I can devote to tutors.
Creature Tutors Altar of Bone - You will have plenty of tokens to sac in most cases so the drawback really isn't much of an issue.
Brutalizer Exarch - The primary role for this card will be for disruption and the ability to handle indestructible non-creature permanents and unlike Primal Command you can tutor for it. However it also doubles as another creature tutor.
Defense of the Heart - If your group plays enough creatures that this will consistently fire it is absolutely incredible. Basically acts as a tutorable Tooth and Nail for 1/2 the mana.
Fauna Shaman - Repeatable tutor and the deck should already be set up for some Survival of the Fittest abuse. If survival is out of your budget this is the next best thing.
Green Sun's Zenith - Limited to just green cards but putting a creature directly in to play is very powerful and it gives a bit of redundancy for some of your best guys. It also interacts well with Dryad Arbor to give you some early ramp.
Natural Order - This is a very powerful tutor since it puts the target directly into play. Our go to targets for this are Seedborn Muse, Avenger of Zendikar, Regal Force and Craterhoof Behemoth depending on the board state. Just make sure that both the creature you sacrifice and the target you get are green.
Primal Command - A bit expensive it is still a pretty solid tutor. It is also an out to Darksteel Forge and a few other troublesome permanents as well as graveyard hate in a pinch.
Summoner's Pact - I find it a bit limiting as some of the creatures I tutor for the most often are white.
Traverse the Ulvenwald - Early on it can land cycle and while it's not easy to hit delirium will come online eventually then this will be very strong fetching Gaea's Cradle or a key creature.
Wild Pair - Pretty limited and inconsistent but can tutor repeatedly.
Worldly Tutor - Very cheap but usually results in card disadvantage unless you are getting Skullmulcher. Being an instant is very helpful and don't forget that you can cast this during your upkeep if you need a creature this turn and were unable to cast Worldly Tutor last turn.
Eternal Dragon - I run him instead of a basic Plains. Not exciting but worth a slot on most lists.
Knight of the Reliquary - Good if you have enough basics to fuel him though it can be frustrating that he takes a turn to get going. Having him in your deck also gives your other tutors a bit more flexibility. You could, for example, use Idyllic Tutor to get Survival of the Fittest to get Knight of the Reliquary to get Gaea's Cradle. It is clunky but I like having the option available.
Krosan Tusker - One of the better basic land tutors and increases the creature count for Survival. Definitely worthy of consideration.
Land Tax - We don't play a lot of ramp that puts extra land into play so this card is usually "on".
Perilous Forays - Really good deck thinner and also a sac outlet. Overall pretty solid. Note that it can fetch dual lands and Mistveil Plains.
Other Tutors Captain Sisay - Allows you to tutor for a few cards that are otherwise very difficult to get such as Mindslaver and Umezawa's Jitte as well as Gaea's Cradle and some other powerful legends. Also very accessible since she's a creature.
Stoneforge Mystic - This tends not to be a very equipment heavy deck, I only have 1 piece of equipment in the core list above and even my own personal list only has 2 so the Mystic may seem like an odd tutor choice. The one piece on this list though is Skullclamp which is extremely powerful and Mystic can be tutored for with creature tutors which allows us to tutor for Mystic then use her to tutor for Skullclamp. The only other options to get Skullclamp are Enlightened Tutor which we already run but can't tutor for, Steelshaper's Gift which we can't tutor for and is quite bad if we've already drawn Skullclamp, Planar Portal which is very mana intensive and difficult to tutor for and Stonehewer Giant which is mana intensive and pretty slow.
Token Generators
Rhys is a pretty solid guy at making tokens but he shouldn't have to do all the work. There are many good token generators out there that can help. Token generators that either cost 3+ mana/token or that only make 1 token per turn should generally be avoided since they tend to be too expensive and/or slow. There are a few exceptions to this however such as when you are making either larger than average tokens or tokens with some special function.
Ant Queen - Like Sacred Mesa and Luminarch Ascension Ant Queen makes tokens for only 2 mana. It's also on a body making it easy to access and can fill in for the enchantments if you're trying to set up a combo or just get some good value.
Awakening Zone - Haven't tested this card but it certainly has potential to do good things.
Elspeth, Sun's Champion - This is pretty much exactly what we're looking for in a planeswalker. Capable of spamming tokens and acting as a pseudo sweeper.
Garruk Wildspeaker - Makes good sized tokens and can Overrun. I found him to be a bit on the slow side.
Genesis Chamber - There are some combos with this but has potential to backfire.
Kjeldoran Outpost - Being able to pump out tokens with a land is pretty sweet though it does set you back a little. You can sac Flagstones of Trokair to keep your land and don't forget to float mana before you sac your land, could be enough mana for a token!
Secure the Wastes - I don't like spells in this deck but this is very efficient at what it does. On paper White Sun's Zenith may seem more appealing but the math gets thrown off with anthems and sometimes you just want dudes you can Skullclamp. Haven't tried either but I typically prefer quantity over quality with my tokens.
Selesnya Guildmage - Can both make tokens and pump them. 4 mana is a lot for 1 token however.
Snake Pit - If you play against a lot of blue and black decks this could be very useful.
Springjack Pasture - Another land that can produce tokens, and they're goats! Mirror Entity can turn your whole team into goats if you need life, mana and/or a sac outlet.
Sprout Swarm - This is a great token maker because it hides in your hand making it difficult to deal with. It also gives you some free tokens due to the convoke mechanic and being an instant is nice because it helps you recover from sweepers quicker.
Soul Foundry - This allows you to make tokens out of your creatures which is a very strong effect.
Squirrel Nest - Goes infinite with Earthcraft however I don't find it to be very good on it's own. Very nonbasic heavy builds need to keep in mind that the combo requires a basic land and will want to include more fetches for their few basics.
Terrastodon - Even better than normal in a Rhys deck since you have the ability to double the tokens.
Triskelavus - I think this is the best one of these types of cards. Costs a lot of mana but allows for direct damage dealing which is something these colors normally don't have.
Twilight Drover - An efficient and very accessible token producer. Once you get him going he's among the better options in the deck.
Verdant Embrace - This is an interesting enchantment option that you doesn't require you to dump a bunch of mana into it to make tokens. Since you are typically enchanting a lowly token the typical issue of getting 2 for 1'd for playing an aura doesn't really apply.
White Sun's Zenith - A one shot token make this one can be used EOT similar to Decree of Justice to make an instant army ready for you to untap and abuse and as an added bonus makes 2/2s.
Now that we have all these tokens we need to make the most of them. This will cover all the cards that can make use of tokens such as pump effects, sac outlets and other cards that care about tokens or having a lot of creatures in play.
Ashnod's Altar/Phyrexian Altar - Turns tokens into mana though generally I find that if I have a bunch of mana I just make more tokens. These allow for a number of ways to go infinite when combined with a variety of cards though there are probably more efficient ways to do so.
Beastmaster Ascension - This is one of the best anthem effects available to us as it is easy to get online and gives our tokens a huge +5/+5 boost.
Citanul Hierophants - I'm still trying this guy out, he might be too slow but allows for generous mana production. Verdict: A bit slow but not a bad option.
Coat of Arms - Makes for some seriously large tokens though being an artifact makes tutoring it up difficult.
Eldrazi Monument - Another excellent option for protecting your tokens from various sweepers. The +1/+1 and flying is also very nice.
Epic Struggle - This provides a solid alternate win condition for us but usually takes a full turn. Can be cheated into play at EOT with Academy Rector + sac outlet.
Gilt-Leaf Archdruid - While absolutely terrible by itself since we hardly run any druids this guy can be combined with Mirror Entity and tokens for a very powerful effect.
Jaddi Lifestrider - Another card I tried out to help recover from Magister Sphinx type effects. Loops with the Reveillark chain for infinite life.
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa - Kamahl is a powerhouse in this deck. In addition to providing massive Overrun ability for your tokens he also protects the deck from sweepers with his ability to turn your opponent's lands into creatures in response to a sweeper.
Loxodon Hierarch - Many of the most popular and effective sweepers in this format lack the no regen clause of Wrath of God making the Hierarch a possible choice to protect tokens.
Martyr's Cause - This is a free sac outlet that can take the place of Mirror Entity in the Reveillark loop and helps stop a number of things that are a problem for us, namely things like x spells to the face and gigantic evasive monsters such as Uril, the Miststalker with Pollenbright Wings (the effect doesn't target however the source you choose must either be in play or on the stack, if they disenchant it you can't just sac a creature and name Comet Storm in response for example).
Nullmage Shepherd - While not as good as Aura Shards redundancy is important and she allows us to take out several targets a turn.
Overrun variants - There are many varieties of this spell in both white and green (the white ones tend not to give trample) that act as a 1 time pump spell. They are effective but being Sorceries and Instants are very difficult to tutor for so I prefer to have enchantment and creature based mass pump effects.
Regal Force - I found him to be quite inconsistent, sometimes crazy good, sometimes I would have an army of only white tokens and other times he would deck me if I cast him. *EDIT: Back in for another go as I've limited the enchantment theme a bit in favor of more creatures.
Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant - Protects tokens from damage based sweepers, particularly effective against red decks.
Skullmulcher - I've had great success with this card in the past. Backed with token generations he's able to draw huge number of cards while leaving behind a sizable body.
Slate of Ancestry - This has the same problem as Regal Force in that it has a risk of decking you if you can't regulate the number of tokens on board with a sac outlet. Still quite useful.
Smokestack - We will often have the advantage of having many more permanents than our opponents which allows us to make good use of Smokestack to grind our opponents down.
Triumph of the Hordes - This one shot pump spell can get lethal very quickly and would be the one I would recommend trying if you want to give that type of effect a shot.
Like most commander decks we will want some additional disruption to prevent our opponents from winning before we can. Disruption can also be used to prevent our opponents from disrupting us. The disruption you choose to run will vary widely from list to list based on what you are playing against. Specifically for disruption we will want easy access to our answers so these will be primarily in enchantment, creature and land form since that is what we can reliably tutor up. In addition to these there is also a long list of color specific hoser cards.
Aven Mindscensor - A unique form of disruption available to us this prevents opponents from being able to find answers and assemble combos.
Bane of Progress - This guy is a Purify on legs. While hitting our own stuff is a drawback his upsides make him well worth it and being a creature gives us very easy access to him.
Beast Within - A nice Vindicate in green and in a pinch you can hit an extra land if you just need the token.
City of Solitude & Grand Abolisher - An excellent answer to control decks that tend to play lots of instants and counterspells. City of Solitude can be dangerous as it prevents the blue player from countering other players spells though being an enchantment can make it very difficult for the blue control deck to deal with. It's very good at what it does however and is a nice way to speed up a game, players can't even tap land for mana when it's not their turn which is pretty cool.
Duplicant - Pretty easy to tutor up and exiles the creature which is very important.
Fiend Hunter - Fiend Hunter can be killed/sac'd in response to his trigger to permanently exile the target. He can also loop with Sun Titan which is beneficial if your sac outlet is something like Phyrexian Altar or provides another positive effect.
Gaddock Teeg - Teeg can be quite a hindrance to us as many of our enchantments and spells cannot be cast with him in play. It is clunky to work around him but he can be sac'd at EOT, brought back by Genesis or other reanimation effect and recast once you have played your 4+ mana spells. He does however provide excellent disruption.
Glare of Subdual - Sadly this is no Opposition but is the best one of these types of cards available to us. Effective at holding off large evasive monsters and a way to avoid Winter Orb/Static Orb among a few others.
Mangara of Corondor - Like Duplicant he is tutorable and exiles the target but I find him to be a bit slow. Usually if I need to blow up something I need to do so quickly. Interacts nicely with Thousand-Year Elixer and sac effects + Genesis.
Martyr's Bond - While expensive at 6 mana the effect is very powerful. Protects us from spot removal and we have a number of sac outlets to use it for creature control.
Null Rod - It shuts down a number of our cards but there are some decks that have a very difficult time dealing with Null Rod. Note this turns off mana abilities such as Sol Ring and Signets which is fairly unusual for this type of card.
Oblation - Able to answer a variety of problem cards in addition to putting generals in libraries. Can also be cast on your own permanents if you just need to cycle it.
Oblivion Stone - I had taken this out for awhile but put it back in after several castings of Enlightened Tutor where I really wished I had it in as an option.
Pacifism variants - You will want to stick with variants that prevent activated abilities such as Arrest, Gelid Shackles and Lignify. Prison Term can potentially deal with shrouded creatures.
Parallax Wave - This is a very flexible card allowing you to protect your own creatures, abuse ETB triggers and wave out opponent's creatures. With Eternal Witness you can loop it over and over for an annoying soft lock. This card plays out much better than it looks on paper so I strongly recommend you play it to see for yourself how good it is.
Scavenging Ooze - Great graveyard hate on a body and he can also function as a reasonably sized beater.
Seeds of Innocence/Creeping Corrosion - This deck typically runs very few artifacts making this a pretty onesided effect. Great if artifacts are getting to be a problem in your group as a backup Austere Command.
Spirit of the Labyrinth - Doubly accessible being both a creature and an enchantment. You can sac it if you need to draw cards, dies nicely to Skullclamp!
Swords to Plowshares/Path to Exile/Condemn - Some of the best spot removal available is unfortunately difficult to tutor. Against faster generals the additional early disruption may be necessary.
Terastodon - Great non-creature disruption that hits multiple targets and has a large body.
Tormod's Crypt variants - We don't want to exile our own graveyard but will probably want to exile our opponents at some point.
Willow Satyr - This is a very unusual effect for these colors. He's also easy to tutor up.
Woodfall Primus - One of the best of these types of creatures he can also be abused with Oran-Rief, the Vastwood making him tough to kill albeit expensive at 8 mana.
World Queller - Good for forcing a creature sac every turn and just a generally useful card for handling problem permanents like Plainswalkers.
Wrath of God variants - Austere Command is my personal favorite usually being cast for creatures with converted mana cost > 3 & artifacts. Hallowed Burial is another excellent option since it hides the opponents generals. Hour of Reckoning will keep your tokens alive and is often quite cheap to cast because of convoke.
Yosei, the Morning Star - We don't have a lot of sac outlets but enough that he is still a solid card on his own. The main reason for including him is to loop in the Reveillark chain to create a near impossible lock to break out of. Better the more sac outlets you run since getting him stolen can be very painful.
Ramp
Ramp is useful for most commander decks and this one is no exception. Rhys is often able to utilize extra mana himself and many of the token generators require large amounts of mana to be effective. I like having my ramp stapled on a creature when possible so I have early targets for my cheap tutors. It allows you to keep hands you otherwise wouldn't be able to but does open you up to having your ramp killed by sweepers.
Kodama's Reach/Cultivate - These are nice options but I prefer the 2 mana ramp spells over these because there is a natural hole in the curve on turn 2 if you play Rhys turn 1.
There are many excellent cards Rhys lists can run that don't fit into any of the previous categories. The cards here include just generally good cards in our colors, utility lands and defensive cards. I'm going to try and stick with cards that are specifically good in a Rhys deck. Stuff like Krosan Verge and Selesnya Sanctuary are still really good but they're good in most G/W decks.
Concordant Crossroads - It is a symmetrical effect that can backfire but it is one of the few ways to give our tokens haste. The only other options available to us are Akroma's Memorial which I find to be overcosted and difficult to tutor and Thousand-Year Elixer which only gives haste for abilities. Overall I think this is a very important card to give the deck more explosiveness.
Dauntless Escort - This is one of the best ways to protect your tokens from most sweepers.
Dryad Arbor - It's a creature and a land which is interesting for a number of reasons. It can be abused as a creature normally could, get fetched with Green Sun's Zenith and is extremely accessible if it's needed.
Fresh Meat - Fantastic sweeper protection that not only protects your tokens but in most cases will significantly upgrade them as well. The only downside is not being able to tutor for it but that is just me being picky.
Lightning Greeves - Just an all around good card, the haste is not so important in this deck as the shroud.
Mana Reflection - I really like having this in my deck as a backup for Mirari's Wake. It interacts nicely with Signets, the Signet lands and the Filter lands.
Praetor's Counsel - An extremely powerful Restock variant with a Spellbook tacked on though expensive to cast and does not affect the board.
Privileged Position - Excellent on its own it is very good with Sterling Grove to give all your permanents troll shroud. I strongly recommend you include this on your list.
Sacred Ground - This is a meta call for me as my group is mass LD heavy. If this is not the case for you I'd run something else in this slot.
Saffi Ericksdotter - Not the best on her own she is still a very reasonable and solid creature. The most compelling reason to put her in the list is that she allows the Reveillark chain to loop any creature and is a backup to Karmic Guide for looping creatures with 2 or less power.
Sylvan Library - Some quality card selection and possible card advantage if you have the life to spare. There aren't a ton of ways to offset the lifeloss but it can help you get an explosive start early on and gives added value to shuffle effects.
Sun Titan - Just a general good stuff card that's strong enough to make the cut. Doesn't synergize particularly well with anything.
Sword of Feast and Famine - This is a great option for a second equipment. It's often free to cast due to the untap ability and it can generate a lot of extra mana which can be dumped into Rhys or another token generator.
The Great Aurora - It's kind of like a green Warp World acting as a huge board reset and possible win condition if we're able to draw into the right cards. This should benefit us much more than opponents because we can benefit from all the tokens we produce.
Tireless Tracker - He doesn't have much synergy with the deck but provides much needed card advantage.
Weaknesses
The deck is certainly not without vulnerabilities. In addition to the obvious sweepers there are a number of very problematic cards and strategies that can be used against us. I'll also cover some counter measures for dealing with those cards and strategies.
1 Shot Sweepers - Sweepers are certainly annoying but can be recovered from without too much effort. The most problematic of these are the ones that sweep both tokens and enchantments, examples include Oblivion Stone, Austere Command and All is Dust. Karmic Justice can discourage the use of most enchantment sweepers and things like Replenish and Second Sunrise can speed up recovery significantly.
Combo decks/lock decks - Without permission, discard or many of the usual ways of dealing with combo and lock decks available to us handling these can be difficult. There are a wide variety of answers depending on the nature of the combo or lock deck you are playing against, Storm decks can be shut down by Gaddock Teeg, Ethersworn Cannonist and Rule of Law, Sharuum + Sculpting Steel can be shut down by graveyard hate, etc. Since there are so many possible combos and locks with various answers it may just be best to post with the specifics. These types of decks can in some cases be dealt with through multiplayer politics depending on the nature of your group.
Enchantments - There are a number of very annoying enchantments that can greatly impede the advancement of our board position. These include things like Lethal Vapors, Spreading Plague, Tainted Aether, Pendrall Mists, Aether Flash, etc. Fortunately this deck is pretty well prepared to deal with enchantments so these tend to be more of an annoyance rather than something that shuts this deck down.
Mana Denial - This is not the fastest deck and is also very mana hungry making mana denial strategies a very potent answer. Things like Winter Orb, Infernal Darkness, Contamination and any Armageddon variant can be very difficult to handle. Depending on the type of mana denial the best counter measure may vary. Against Armageddon type cards things like Second Sunrise, Sacred Ground and Planar Birth can all be effective. Winter Orb and Contamination obviously just need to be smashed somehow. Artifact mana like Darksteel Ingot and Selesnya Signet can also be useful or simply try maintaining a strong enough board position that mass land destruction can't be used.
Recurring sweepers - Repeated board wipes are very bad for us. Among the most effective are creature based sweepers and things like Academy Ruins + Engineered Explosives. Examples include Magma Phoenix, Shard Phoenix, Pestilence Demon and Thrashing Wumpus. Additionally since black has so much creature recursion this would also include something like Kagemaro, First to Suffer + Corpse Dance. These are among the most difficult for us to deal with and since many of these creatures kill themselves or can be sac'd something like Duplicant isn't always a sufficient answer. Most of these rely on graveyard recursion making additional graveyard hate very effective but our best answer to many of these is Humility and it can be difficult to deal with something like Pestilence Demon without it. If damage based sweepers are a constant problem then including something like Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant or Eldrazi Monument would be a good idea.
Umezawa's Jitte - Normally I consider the Swords/Warhammer to be much stronger in this format but an early Jitte against this deck is terrifying. It pretty much needs to be dealt with quickly or you risk falling very far behind since it can repeatedly kill Rhys and start shooting down any tokens you have been building up.
Additional Resources
Everything Token by ISBPathfinder - This goes into more detail about token options that are available.
Changelog
11/3/11
-Skullmulcher - Sad as I am to see him go I wanted to try Mentor of the Meek as my creature based draw card. He may come back in over or in addition to Mentor of the Meek.
-Mistveil Plains - Didn't do enough to justify a card slot. Not recommended.
-Terramorphic Expanse - Trying to limit ETB lands and this is just a fixer.
-Bloom Tender - The worst of the 2 drop mana accel creatures but not a bad option.
+Mentor of the Meek - Seems like a solid card draw machine for a token deck albeit a bit expensive.
+Horizon Canopy - Fantastic land I should have added a long time ago.
+Serra's Sanctum - This is very much on trial.
+Natural Order - Heard good stuff and wanted to see what the fuss was about.
5/25/12
-Lightning Greaves - Just didn't do much other than give me something to tutor for with Stoneforge Mystic if I already had my Skullclamp.
-Nullmage Shepherd - When it's good it's a monster but sometimes you just want to smash something and this takes a bit of setup.
-Forest - It's a Forest...so I replaced it with a Forest.
-Kamahl, Fist of Krosa - Amazing card that I'm sad to see go. I'm trying the deck without him for curve reasons not quality reasons.
-Congregation at Dawn - It's a good option but at this point I feel I have an extra tutor and this is the weakest.
-Sprout Swarm - Really good but not being able to tutor for it is a big drawback. When you draw it it's usually very good.
+Sword of Feast and Famine - Hopefully this will be better for me than Greaves.
+Qasali Pridemage - Trying to upgrade Nullmage Shepherd to something more reliable.
+Dryad Arbor - Works with Green Sun's Zenith and fetches if I need a land I can Skullclamp.
+Craterhoof Behemoth - I have high hopes for this guy. This is exactly the type of Overrun I like...one that will deal 200 damage to someone at 30 life.
+Elvish Archdruid - This is an attempt to bolster that ramp a bit. I have heard good things.
+Sun Titan - This guy has never agreed with me but I am finally giving him a chance. I'd be happy to cut him for something else if he doesn't work out.
10/14/12
-City of Solitude - Swapping this out for Grand Abolisher.
-Primeval Titan - Suffers from a severe case of being banned.
-Sun Titan - Just not a fan and I feel like cutting him will let me put something in with a little more synergy. Too good stuff for my tastes.
-High Market/Saltcrusted Steppe/Gavony Township - I'm trying to lessen my dependance on non-basics as my meta runs a good amount of hate for them. With Primeval Titan gone High Market loses a lot of it's appeal and the other two didn't feel necessary.
+Grand Abolisher - Has some nice upsides over City of Solitude, has been performing well.
+Kamahl, Fist of Krosa - Despite being an expensive mana hog I really missed him in the deck. He's very synergystic which is a big plus.
+Sacred Ground - A meta call as my group is mass LD heavy.
+Forest x 2/Plains - Move along, nothing to see here.
4/23/13
-Thawing Glaciers - I think it's a great card and I may miss it as a tutor target but it's a very slow card and this deck has sped up since I built it. It's time to try it without and see how it goes.
+High Market - Despite not having Primeval Titan any more I've missed this card quite a bit. It's nice to have a sac outlet on a land to help protect creatures from exile and theft. Makes me want to run more land tutors, note for future.
-Springjack Pasture - Very good card with some Mirror Entity tricks and goat doubling shenanigans but it has a steep activation cost. Kjeldoran Outpost fills the token making land roll well at a cheaper cost.
+Thespian's Stage - Not much to say here, utility land that deals with Legendary lands and copies value lands.
-Martyr's Bond - Managing creatures is the biggest draw and this card does that very well but at an expensive cost. When looking for a cut for Sylvan Primordial I decided to keep all my creatures. Acidic Slime still fills a roll in the Lark chain and I felt everyone was pulling their weight. The spells were tutors and bombs as they should be so I looked to enchantments. This card does helps you control the board and protect your board but there are cards in the deck that do a better job of filling these rolls.
+Sylvan Primordial - This guy is obviously very powerful and a must play. Ramp and board control in one package and he even helps us against fliers.
12/30/13
In this update I'm trying to cut back on the enchantments due to Bane of Progress so the list is being shifted more towards creatures.
-Austere Command
+Elspeth, Sun's Champion
Elspeth gives us some pseudo sweeping ability and with the addition of Bane of Progress we have much better access to mass enchantment and artifact destruction so the Command can finally go after it's many years of service.
-Mana Reflection
+Bane of Progress
I've felt Mana Reflection was redundant for quite awhile so it's getting cut in favor of the very powerful Bane of Progress.
-Night Soil
+Scavenging Ooze
This is a swap to go to a slightly more creature heavy build. Ooze will still serve the same purpose of graveyard hate while losing a bit of synergy.
-Fecundity
+Regal Force
I may go back to Skullmulcher but I'm giving Regal Force another chance.
-Sword of Feast and Famine
+Fauna Shaman
With the increase in creatures I wanted another tutor for them and I felt Fauna Shaman was my best option. Not sure if going down to 1 equip is the best move so I may find room for the sword or something else in the future.
-Genesis
+Sun Titan
Both are recursion pieces but play out very differently. Sun Titan feels like the "faster" card so I'm giving him another shot. This is a swap I could go back on if it doesn't work.
-Spawning Pit
-Plains
+Nature's Lore
+Three Visits
I like these ramp cards quite a bit and I felt that Spawning Pit, while very good, has always been expendable.
5/27/14
-Sylvan Primordial
+Spirit of the Labyrinth
Primordial was banned and I was too lazy to update the list until now. Been trying out Spirit of the Labyrinth for awhile now and it's good disruption against blue. I like that it gets shroud from Sterling Grove too.
9/29/15
-Elspeth, Sun's Champion
-Spirit of the Labyrinth
+The Great Aurora
+Twilight Drover
2/14/16
Trying to move away from ETB tapped lands when I can.
-Temple of Plenty
+Canopy Vista
4/25/16
+Cryptolith Rite
-Humility
Humility has been in since the beginning and is one of my favorite Magic cards but as this list has shifted away from enchantments to creatures in recent years Humility has become more detrimental. Additionally this card is played in quite a few decks so people have gotten very good about building with it in mind making it less effective than it was.
+Tireless Tracker
-Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
I think Kamahl’s time has finally come, which is especially painful as I just got a foil copy. This helps reduce the curve and since I didn’t want to cut a draw spell or card advantage spell for the tracker since we need all we can get I decided Kamahl should sit on the sidelines for now. Kamahl does several different things but aside from the Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite interaction he has much better replacements. Mirror Entity is a better pump effect and Dauntless Escort provides significantly cheaper (and often times better) sweeper protection.
+Traverse the Ulvenwald
-Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
I’m trying to trim back the number of ETB tapped lands. Oran-Rief is too slow and there are also a lot of token makers that it doesn’t interact with.
8/18/16
Don't need 2 of this effect and the Spirit is better. Dauntless Escort's many years of service will not be forgotten.
-Dauntless Escort
+Selfless Spirit
I suggest you don't run Humility. It is a great card, has a huge effect, and would most likely be benifical to you if you get it out. Don't run it, between annoying folks and causing rules questions I have found it to be not worth the effort.
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All the kids who played the blues
Would learn my licks with a bottle neck slide
I suggest you don't run Humility. It is a great card, has a huge effect, and would most likely be benifical to you if you get it out. Don't run it, between annoying folks and causing rules questions I have found it to be not worth the effort.
My group is pretty cutthroat so cards like Humility don't cause problems and nothing has come up so far with it that we didn't know the rules on. There is also a Sliver Overlord deck I play against that gets annihilated by this card which is an added bonus.
I just wanted to let you know that this combo doesn't work. Elspeth adds counters as a cost, not an effect.
While that is a good point, from the wording of his comment ((indestructible for the rest of the game right away)) I think he is under the impression that doubling season doubles the amount of counters on permanents when they come into play with counters on them or something like that.
Because even if adding loyalty was an effect it still wouldn't be "right away"
While that is a good point, from the wording of his comment ((indestructible for the rest of the game right away)) I think he is under the impression that doubling season doubles the amount of counters on permanents when they come into play with counters on them or something like that.
Because even if adding loyalty was an effect it still wouldn't be "right away"
Regardless, it still doesn't work.
According to the comprehensive rules when the planeswalker comes into play the counters are put on it as a replacement effect meaning Elspeth would come into play with 8 counters and could immediately ultimate. Am I reading this incorrectly? Think it is rule 212.9.
Had a chance to play 3 games last weekend. The first ended poorly as Gaddock Teeg started swinging with a Jitte on turn 4 and I couldn't keep any tokens on the board. I get beat down by Silvos and Mobilization tokens on one side and giant flying monsters on the other. Need a creature other than Nullmage Shepherd I can tutor for that destroys enchaments/artifacts that doesn't require tokens, probably the G/W guy that got spoiled from the new set. Game 2 was much better, player to my left gets buried under a token army while another player drops an Oblivion Stone. I have Doubling Season, Spawning Pit, Earthcraft & Perilous Forays in play so I go infinite and make him blow it during my attack but not before putting every basic land in my deck into play ( untapped too! ). I am able to recover with Replenish on the same turn but without Spawning Pit am unable to rebuild my army quickly enough and have to be satisfied with 2nd place. Game 3 I am playing against a Niv Mizzet deck who is trying to stop my combos with counterspells. I cast Enlightened Tutor, which resolves, and get Choke. Since he can't tap out now for fear of being choked I am able to start building up enchantments. Finally gets to a point where all 4 players are still alive, I have 12 tokens & a Mana Reflection in play with Mirror Entity and Gilt-Leaf Archdruid in hand. I play the Choke, it gets countered but he has no blue mana left so I play Mirror Entity, who gets killed but turns the tokens into druids and the Archdruid lets me splash for blue and red. A massive Decree of Justice next turn finishes everyone off quickly. This game would have been much easier but my Saffi kept getting Sudden Shocked so I couldn't keep an unkillable Reveillark in play for long. Will be making the following changes:
-1 Restock
-1 Karoo
-1 Jungle Basin
+1 Qasali Pridemage
+1 Kodama's Reach
+1 Harmonize
The Karoo lands just suck in here since I am trying to pump most of my mana through my general in the early game and I can't seem to find time to drop them without being a pain. I don't like Harmonize very much in what is basically a combo deck but it is the best I can think of to help continue making land drops, I had Far Wanderings in but never had threshold.
Also needs a Crovax and Primal Command.
Crovax+Kamahl=GG
Didn't think about Crovax + Kamahl, that combo is pretty sick. Primal Command is great and I've been thinking about it for awhile but I just don't know what to cut. How about I change the following:
I think I got enough counter hoser in Choke and City of Solitude that I don't need Dosan. Loxodon Hierarch was in there to combat Oblivion Stone but Dauntless Escort can do the same thing and also protect my tokens from *** effects.
Not knocking your deck, but it looks like good stuff with a relatively small amount of token generation (about a dozen cards). To fully utilize Rhys, I'd add some things that make big tokens, elephants and beasts. Garruk, CotH, stuff like that. Of course, I am a pretty casual player too.
Not knocking your deck, but it looks like good stuff with a relatively small amount of token generation (about a dozen cards). To fully utilize Rhys, I'd add some things that make big tokens, elephants and beasts. Garruk, CotH, stuff like that. Of course, I am a pretty casual player too.
On that note, I see a couple cards I need to check my deck for. I really need a Doubling Season, but they are so dang expensive.
I don't think the flashback cards are good enough, I can't tutor for them and they don't make very many tokens ( when compare with something like Sacred Mesa ). If I want large tokens I can just tutor for Kamahl. Garruk was in the deck but got cut awhile back because he just didn't make enough of an impact. Get that Doubling Season! Card is awesome.
Currently for graveyard recursion on a creature I already have Eternal Witness, Genesis, Karmic Guide and Reveillark and these all seem much better than the treefolk unless there is something I am missing. I am not opposed to trying him out but what should I cut?
According to the comprehensive rules when the planeswalker comes into play the counters are put on it as a replacement effect meaning Elspeth would come into play with 8 counters and could immediately ultimate. Am I reading this incorrectly? Think it is rule 212.9.
Yes, that works. The adding of counters being the cost rather than the effect has no change, but the comes into play with counters would mean those get doubled. Similar to how the 0/0 Simic creatures from Rav-Block would come into play twice as big.
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EDH Decks:
UWMerfolk (Sygg, River Guide) B Vampires (Anowon the Ruin Sage) BRU Zombies! (Lord of Tresserhorn) WUBRG Allies (Karona, False God) W Soldiers (Darien, King of Kjeldor)
Yes, that works. The adding of counters being the cost rather than the effect has no change, but the comes into play with counters would mean those get doubled. Similar to how the 0/0 Simic creatures from Rav-Block would come into play twice as big.
Not sure why the list does not include Garruk or Ajani goldmane. Goldmane might be underwhelming but in cases where you dump a bunch of tokens, and use the Vigilance ability, things can get stupid. Garruk should be included since he accelerates with cradle, and with a doubling season in play, you can use the ultimate right away.
I personally play with Storm Herd since that card is seriously retarded when resolved. Not to mention you have pump effects. Storm Herd is more casual-broken. I would opt for Decree of Justice as a more serious-environment win-condition for either instant EOT Soldier cycling or dropping loads of Angels after a Wrath effect.
Rhys has definitely been a blast, and I'm not sure if Crovax + Kahmahl is worth running. I might give it a shot. In my group, Kahmahl is risky due to control magic effects, so broken plays with him tend to fireback on myself. Stone rain for G is definitely retarded. How often do you pull the Mirror Entity Gilt-leaf druid combo? I'm very curious with that combo. Lark combos in your deck seems really good too. I might opt for that route too.
Here's my list for sharing and critique. GENERAL: 1
[1/1] Rhys the Redeemed
CREATURES: 24
[1/1] Weathered Wayfarer (ONS) (tutors for Cradle, Maze of Ith, Strip)
[1/1] Heritage Druid (provides early acceleration)
[1/1] Bramblewood Paragon (probably too weak, fun with Rhysthough)
[1/1] Selesnya Guildmage (Japanese)
[1/1] Mirror Entity
[1/1] Knight of the Reliquary (tutors for Cradle)
[1/1] Eternal Witness
[1/1] Imperious Perfect
[1/1] Spawnwrithe (amazing after Wrath or early game)
[1/1] Wilt-Leaf Liege
[1/1] Quasali Pridemage
[1/1] Wren's Run Packmaster
[1/1] Nullmage Shepherd
[1/1] Genesis (best late-game)
[1/1] Juniper Order Ranger (for fun, very stupid with Rhys tokens)
[1/1] Mycoloth
[1/1] Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
[1/1] Vigor
[1/1] Tolsimir Wolfblood
[1/1] Twilight Shepherd
[1/1] Adakar Valkyrie
[1/1] Woodfall Primus (Defense of the Heart Target)
[1/1] Verdant Force (9E)
[1/1] Magus of the Disk (broekn with Yavimaya Hollow)
ENCHANTMENT/ARTIFACT: 20
[1/1] Land Tax
[1/1] Sol Ring
[1/1] Sensei's Divining Top
[1/1] Survival of the Fittest
[1/1] Earthcraft
[1/1] Planar Collapse
[1/1] Squirrel Nest (Japanese) (very good, underestimated this card, Earthcraft Squirrel Nest combo, or generating more tokens for no mana cost for Coat of Arms/Rhys/Cradle is good in the deck)
[1/1] Sylvan Library (I pay an average of 12 life in a game to use this)
[1/1] Aura Shards (most broken disenchant for this deck. Rhys tokens and this is deadly)
[1/1] Oblivion Ring
[1/1] Martyr's Cause (easily the best defense mechanism in this deck)
[1/1] Defense of the Heart
[1/1] Glare of Subdual
[1/1] Muraganda Petryoglyphs
[1/1] Humility
[1/1] Crucible of Worlds
[1/1] Mirari's Wake
[1/1] Mind's Eye
[1/1] Coat of Arms (7E, Japanese)
[1/1] Doubling Season
INSTANTS/SORCERIES: 17
[1/1] Enlightened Tutor
[1/1] Idyllic Tutor
[1/1] Catastrophe
[1/1] Congregation at Dawn
[1/1] Condemn
[1/1] Eladamri's Call
[1/1] Seed Spark
[1/1] Wrath of God
[1/1] Rout
[1/1] Hallowed Burial
[1/1] Fracturing Gust
[1/1] Austere Command
[1/1] Martial Coup
[1/1] Tooth and Nail
[1/1] Hour of Reckoning
[1/1] Decree of Justice
[1/1] Storm Herd
Not sure why the list does not include Garruk or Ajani goldmane. Goldmane might be underwhelming but in cases where you dump a bunch of tokens, and use the Vigilance ability, things can get stupid. Garruk should be included since he accelerates with cradle, and with a doubling season in play, you can use the ultimate right away.
Garruck has been in and out, every time I have him in the deck I either don't draw him or get him at the wrong time and when I take him out I see him in my binder and wonder how I can not run this guy. The biggest knock against him is that I can't tutor for him so I only saw him once every 3 games or so.
I personally play with Storm Herd since that card is seriously retarded when resolved. Not to mention you have pump effects. Storm Herd is more casual-broken. I would opt for Decree of Justice as a more serious-environment win-condition for either instant EOT Soldier cycling or dropping loads of Angels after a Wrath effect.
I have no doubt Storm Herd is insane when it resolves, my group is pretty counter magic heavy ( and land destruction heavy ) so I just can't bring myself to run 10 mana spells.
Rhys has definitely been a blast, and I'm not sure if Crovax + Kahmahl is worth running. I might give it a shot. In my group, Kahmahl is risky due to control magic effects, so broken plays with him tend to fireback on myself. Stone rain for G is definitely retarded. How often do you pull the Mirror Entity Gilt-leaf druid combo? I'm very curious with that combo. Lark combos in your deck seems really good too. I might opt for that route too.
Haven't tried the Crovax + Kamahl combo yet, hopefully in a couple weeks I'll get some games in and let you know how it is. Also just put in the Gilt-Leaf + Mirror Entity combo and it won me the game when I assembled it so I'm keeping it in for now. You can even Tooth and Nail ( or Defense of the Heart in your list ) for the combo which is nice. On the downside, the Archdruid is terrible by himself. The lark combo is just plain broken since you can assemble the entire combo with Survival. Very good but not casual friendly.
Thanks a lot for the list and feedback, I am going to go over my list tonight and try and fit in Martyr's Cause, Sylvan Library, Squirrel's Nest and maybe Heritage Druid for starters. I'd really like to run Land Tax & Weathered Wayfarer but I almost always have more land in play than my opponents. I can't even run Defense of the Heart because it would trigger so rarely, we can't even get Planar Collapse to trigger all the time in a 4 person game. BTW, Perilous Forays looks really clunky but I finally added it and in the few games I have used it it has been excellent, highly recommended.
1. Survival of the Fittest. By itself it can dump Mirror Entity, Karmic Guide, Yosei and Saffi in the graveyard leaving Reveillark in my hand. If I can evoke it unimpeded I can Yosei lock my opponents. If Yosei gets RFG but I have the other pieces I can gain infinite life with Loxodon Hierarch, draw my graveyard with Eternal Witness and draw my library with Skullmulcher.
2. Gilt-Leaf Liege + Mirror Entity + tokens. Mirror Entity makes all my tokens druids and I can start taking peoples land.
Choke is an interesting choice. Are there a lot of mono-blue decks in your meta? If so, then BLARGH how maddening. I feel lucky that there's not much of that where I play.
Choke is an interesting choice. Are there a lot of mono-blue decks in your meta? If so, then BLARGH how maddening. I feel lucky that there's not much of that where I play.
There are 2 and they really don't like to see Choke. There are also 3 monoblack decks but they don't do very well against this deck due to all the enchantments so I haven't added Karma.
Juniper Order Ranger - Haven't seen him on many Rhys lists. I'll be playing him along with Blasting station and Kitchen Finks for an infinite damage / life combo.
I am starting to doubt whether Loxodon Warhammer is worth running over something like Noble Purpose, or if I should even run those cards at all.
I love the ideas in this thread. Keep 'em coming!
@B1nd: The Warhammer probably isn't strong enough, there's only a few creatures that are strong enough to really benefit from it. I had Beacon of Immortality & Essence Warden but found that I just didn't need the lifegain. Behemoth Sledge is another option if you like the Warhammer since it offers a bit of protection as well.
@Oven: I really tried to limit the number of artifacts but the Blasting Station is pretty appealling since it would be great by itself. Juniper Order Ranger is pretty solid on his own as well as a token pumper. Kitchen Finks seems like the weak link but is infinitely better than Gilt-Leaf Archdruid on his own so maybe I should switch out that combo for this one. Gilt-Leaf Archdruid has been a lot of fun in the 2 games I've gotten him though, better to run both combos!
So you want to make some tokens. Well Rhys the Redeemed just might be the commander for you. I will cover some of the most powerful cards available to Rhys as well as some of the synergies in the deck. There are a number of ways that Rhys can be built including monowhite, monogreeen and elf tribal but this deck will be a traditional G/W token deck. I've included a toolbox theme as well and since green and white can only tutor up lands, creatures and enchantments consistently my toolbox is focused around these types of permanents. Instants, sorceries & planeswalkers have been kept to a minimum to allow for more toolbox cards to be included and the bulk of the ones I've included are tutors.
Rhys may be the commander for you if you:
1. Like making tokens and enjoy swarm strategies.
2. Want to play a very cheap commander.
3. Like proactive strategies and want to force opponents to react to what you're doing.
4. Enjoy toolbox strategies that give you a wide variety of answers.
5. Think G/W is a great color combination and want to use some of the powerful G/W gold cards.
Rhys may not be the commander for you if you:
1. Want to interact with the stack.
2. Want a deck that can win very quickly.
3. Are looking for a top tier deck.
4. Play on MTGO. This deck spits out a lot of tokens.
5. Feel bad killing off critters for profit.
Deck History
This was one of my earliest commander decks and the oldest commander deck I've kept together. I went with Rhys since I like cheap commanders and I already had a casual token deck which I liked so this was an attempt to port that over to commander. I think I built this during Shadowmoor block and as I was just learning the format it was quite bad, mainly just G/W goodstuff with a small token theme. Over the years I tuned the deck and focused it more on token spamming with an enchantment and toolbox subtheme. Currently my metagame is much more competitive than when I first started and this list reflects adjustments I have made to combat this including lowering the curve and including more powerful interactions. It's also the reason I've pushed the toolbox theme so that I was better able to have answers for the powerful plays my opponents were making. This deck has held up well over the years and still picks up wins regularly.
Alternate Commanders
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice - Trostani is a fine option for a token commander. I would try to play some lifegain matters cards with her and put more focus on making bigger tokens. More ramp would be a good idea as well since the commander is more expensive.
Gahiji, Honored One - This is a very strong option for a more aggressive build. Adding red gives you access to more haste effects which are very powerful and Gahiji provides a powerful ability while providing an incentive for opponents to attack each other.
Hazezon Tamar - Hazezon adds red to the mix similar to Gahiji but I'd be adding in a lot more ramp to make him work so I'd move away from a toolbox theme and more into a ramp deck. Adding more sac outlets would be a good idea as well.
Ghave, Guru of Spores - Ghave adds black to the mix and the commander provides a sac outlet as well as the ability to make tokens. This deck tends to focus more on combos as many of the combos can use Ghave as a piece and the black tutors give the deck consistency. A very powerful option for sure and one of the more popular Commanders out there.
1 Rhys the Redeemed
Creatures
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Grand Abolisher
1 Priest of Titania
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Elvish Archdruid
1 Eternal Witness
1 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Mentor of the Meek
1 Mirror Entity
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Twilight Drover
1 Academy Rector
1 Karmic Guide
1 Reveillark
1 Ant Queen
1 Acidic Slime
1 Seedborn Muse
1 Bane of Progress
1 Sun Titan
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Regal Force
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
Enchantments
1 Concordant Crossroads
1 Land Tax
1 Cryptolith Rite
1 Earthcraft
1 Luminarch Ascension
1 Sacred Ground
1 Sterling Grove
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Sylvan Library
1 Beastmaster Ascension
1 Karmic Justice
1 Sacred Mesa
1 Aura Shards
1 Martyr's Cause
1 Parallax Wave
1 Parallel Lives
1 Mirari's Wake
1 Doubling Season
1 Privileged Position
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Skullclamp
1 Oblivion Stone
Sorceries
1 Traverse the Ulvenwald
1 Nature's Lore
1 Three Visits
1 Idyllic Tutor
1 Natural Order
1 Replenish
1 Tooth and Nail
1 The Great Aurora
1 Green Sun's Zenith
Instants
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Tithe
1 Worldly Tutor
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Chord of Calling
Land
1 Canopy Vista
1 Command Tower
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Flagstones of Trokair
11 Forest
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 High Market
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Kjeldoran Outpost
1 Kor Haven
1 Krosan Verge
1 Mosswort Bridge
4 Plains
1 Savannah
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Strip Mine
1 Temple Garden
1 Temple of the False God
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Windbrisk Heights
1 Windswept Heath
1 Yavimaya Hollow
Key Cards
These cards build the foundation of the deck and should be run in most every Rhys deck. They're what will be winning you most games and many will be frequent tutor targets. This section will just cover the staples with the remainder of the cards being covered in the card options section below.
Avenger of Zendikar - As far as one shot token generators go this is the best option for us. He make a lot of tokens which can be built up in size and providing a 5/5 body just because. He'll be a frequent tutor target and can be fetched alongside Regal Force with Tooth and Nail for huge card draw (assuming correct trigger stacking).
Aura Shards - The best enchantment and artifact hate available to the deck this can easily clear the board of all of your opponents enchantments and artifacts and prevent them from playing any more until it is destroyed. Many of the token generators operate at instant speed allowing you to blow up permanents in response to Aura Shards being destroyed.
Craterhoof Behemoth - This is our main win condition being able to turn even a handful of tokens into a lethal force. With 5 tokens you can kill a player, any more than that and you're probably threatening to kill everyone. If you have Concordant Crossroads Tooth and Nail can fetch Craterhoof and Avenger of Zendikar as a lethal combination.
Doubling Season - Can be pretty good in most decks but it is great here. It enables multiple infinite combos and even with something simple like Sacred Mesa it can get out of control very quickly. This is also especially potent with cards that both use counters and make tokens like Spawning Pit and Mycoloth.
Earthcraft - Easily one of the best cards in the deck it can convert tokens into mana (without killing the tokens!). This mana is generally used to make even more tokens which gets out of control quickly. There are many infinite combos as well. Earthcraft is the reason we are including at minimum 1 Plains and 1 Forest since it only works with basic lands.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite - This can stop other token strategies, shut down annoying utility generals, is easy to tutor up, provides a significant boost to your team and works with Kamahl, Fist of Krosa to ruin opposing manabases. Very powerful indeed.
Enlightened Tutor/Idyllic Tutor - These are very important cards since they, in addition to Academy Rector, give us access to our enchantment toolbox. Enlightened Tutor is the better of the 2 since it can also fetch Skullclamp and other artifacts.
Gaea's Cradle - Easily the most powerful land Cradle is capable of generating huge amounts of mana with all the tokens that can be produced. This deck can produce infinite tokens and therefore infinite mana with Cradle.
Mentor of the Meek - The deck needs a draw spell on a body for the toolbox and I think this is your best bet. I've had excellent success with Skullmulcher in the past and wouldn't fault anyone for using him instead or in addition to Mentor of the Meek.
Mirari's Wake - It is a small anthem effect but the main reason for inclusion is the Mana Flare it provides. This interacts very nicely with many of the mana hungry token generators we will be including.
Mirror Entity - Obviously the main function of Mirror Entity is to pump up your tokens to a dangerous size. The second reason for inclusion is that he can double as a sac outlet for the Reveillark chain.
Parallel Lives - As we don't have many +1/+1 counter synergy this is often a cheaper Doubling Season.
Sacred Mesa/Luminarch Ascension - These are very important token generators for the deck since unlike Ant Queen they remain in play after most board sweepers. I've also found 2 mana is the magic number for token generation so I think these are much better than Mobilization even though they appear similar.
Seedborn Muse - While generally a good card in most green decks the Muse is especially strong here. In addition to her powerful synergy with Rhys she interacts very well with many of the lands and other token generators.
Skullclamp - Probably the best card in the deck, this can draw a ton of cards. Being an artifact makes it pretty difficult to fetch however there are a few tutors like Stoneforge Mystic that can get it.
Survival of the Fittest - It's tutorable with enchantment tutors and enables some very powerful plays. It can set up the Reveillark combo by itself, dump Genesis into the graveyard for you and since this deck runs so many creatures anyways it is easy to find something to pitch to get it started.
Combos
The deck doesn't run very many combos but the ones it does run can be rather confusing. Here's the combos the deck runs and how to actually use them.
2. Evoke Reveillark getting back Mirror Entity & Karmic Guide with the trigger. Get back Reveillark with Karmic Guide.
3. Activate Mirror Entity for 0 a bunch of times, I'll use 100 for this example.
4. First trigger activates, kills your team & triggers Reveillark who gets back Saffi Ericksdotter & Karmic Guide. Karmic Guide gets back Reveillark. Sac Saffi Eriksdotter targeting Reveillark. 99 triggers on the stack, let the next one resolve.
5. Reveillark triggers then comes back from Saffi Ericksdotter, get back Saffi Eriksdotter & Karmic Guide. Karmic Guide gets back Yosei, the Morning Star. Sac Saffi Eriksdotter targeting Reveillark. 98 triggers on the stack, let the next one resolve.
6. Repeat step 5 for all remaining triggers except for the very last one. Each time, Yosei, the Morning Star will die and you will choose 5 permanents to tap, tap every permanent all your opponents have and they have to skip their untap step. When the last trigger resolves, Reveillark will trigger and come into play. Get back Mirror Entity & Saffi Eriksdotter. You can now repeat the combo for 0 mana at instant speed.
Mirror Entity can be replaced with any sac outlet that costs no mana (Martyr's Cause, Spawning Pit), sac outlets that cost 1 if you have Earthcraft in play (Perilous Forays) or sac outlets that cost 2 if you have both Earthcraft and a mana flare. Yosei can be replaced by any other creature with an enters or leaves the battlefield effect or goes to graveyard effect (like Skullmulcher to draw your library). If the creature you want to loop has 2 or less power you only need Saffi or Karmic Guide, not both (Acidic Slime and Eternal Witness are good for this).
Many playgroups discourage the use of infinite combos so we can remove the ones in the core list simply by removing a couple of cards. To break up the Earthcraft combos we will need to remove Earthcraft which combos with far too many things to go infinite. The Reveillark combo can be removed by taking out either Reveillark or Karmic Guide depending on your build (if you remove Karmic Guide you can't add in Saffi Eriksdotter, she'll basically do the same thing). I'm not a fan of pulling punches during games but if you're fine with that you can obviously just choose not to go infinite. The deck still functions very well without these cards.
First off some general observations on the deck. The card advantage (mostly through card draw) tends to be very clumpy, you won't be getting extra cards that often but when you do it will usually be a lot of cards. This means it is very important not to overextend because if you hit a long period of not having a draw spell or card advantage engine you risk running out of gas. Also, since you are usually drawing so many cards at a time, try and dump your hand first and then refill with your Skullclamp. Drawing 10 cards off of Skullmulcher isn't as good when you have to discard 8 cards at EOT.
This is a proactive deck that will typically make most of it's plays during your main phase. I would probably classify it as a mid-range deck. Against a heavy control deck you will probably want to take on an aggressive role and against a very aggressive deck you will want to be defensive and build up for your late game. You're typically going to want to include sorcery speed spells over instants since they tend to be more cost effective and there just aren't a lot of other instants this deck wants to run that you would be wanting to keep the mana open for.
Every game should start out either land/Rhys or ETB tapped land then next turn land/Rhys. Turn 3 will be land/make token most games. This means the deck has a natural hole in the 2 drop slot for curving out purposes with the 1 drop and 3 drop slots occupied almost every game with your general. There are a number of things you can do turn 2, drop an ETBT land, Sensei's Divining Top + activate, a few search spells, etc. It certainly isn't essential to curve out in this format but a gap at the 2 drop is something to keep in mind during deck construction. Alternatively if you have cheap ramp, Land Tax, Sensei's Divining Top or something else that helps develop your board faster you might want to wait a turn or 2 to cast Rhys. Just try to keep a low profile and build up your board position to set yourself up for powerful plays in the mid game.
Mid game is where you want to start assembling some of the powerful interactions, go for a combo or just tutor up Skullclamp and draw a ton of cards so you can set yourself up to start taking people out. I'll try to keep my board as innocuous as possible then untap and drop a card or 2 that lets me go nuts. This deck is very capable of winning out of nowhere going from a handful of tokens to a lethal board within a turn and you definitely want to use that to your advantage. Craterhoof Behemoth is your main go to at this point of the game so you can work towards getting him set up as well. You should have access to enough answers to buy you some time but you're ideally wanting to be proactive and use your tutors for cards that will win you the game.
Late game is usually when I try to break out the power plays, at this point I should have a lot of land built up and have seen a few tutors (hopefully I still have 1). Then I try and dig for the Replenish/Armageddon, go infinite with tokens, drop Kamahl and Overrun 3 times, etc. Basically try to seal up the game ASAP because you won't have as good a late game as the slow control decks.
Let's look at filling out card options that are either run or could potentially be run. I'll try and cover most cards that I think should be considered for a deck slot. Note that some cards fit into multiple categories, I will put them in the first one they are eligible for. Also keep a note of your creature count for Survival of the Fittest and Humility. The other cards are there to explain your available options if you want to customize the deck, are missing cards due to cost or just think the cards I'm using suck.
Cards that I'm running in my deck are in bold.
Tutors
Tutors are among the most powerful effects in the format. The deck has a number of extremely powerful individual cards which we can fetch with tutors in addition to some synergies and combos that can be set up. There is a point of diminishing returns on tutors so you will not want to have a deck full of them. We want to have a useful toolbox to select from when we cast our tutors and the more tutors we have the less variety we'll have in our toolbox. The number you will want is somewhat dependent on your playgroup, if everyone you play against just has 1 deck they use every time you can add in a few hoser cards for each specific deck and put in a high concentration of tutors to get those key hosers. In my playgroup most people have 5 or more decks and everyone has at least 2 so I need to have a wide variety of answers for many different strategies thus limiting the number of deck slots I can devote to tutors.
Creature Tutors
Altar of Bone - You will have plenty of tokens to sac in most cases so the drawback really isn't much of an issue.
Brutalizer Exarch - The primary role for this card will be for disruption and the ability to handle indestructible non-creature permanents and unlike Primal Command you can tutor for it. However it also doubles as another creature tutor.
Congregation at Dawn - Unlike Worldly Tutor this can be a bit deceptive since it will often result in card advantage. You can set up something like Avenger of Zendikar or Ant Queen into Skullmulcher or Regal Force to turn this into a powerful draw spell. Can also set up missing parts of the Reveillark chain and other creature based combos like Kamahl, Fist of Krosa + Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and Mirror Entity + Gilt-Leaf Archdruid.
Defense of the Heart - If your group plays enough creatures that this will consistently fire it is absolutely incredible. Basically acts as a tutorable Tooth and Nail for 1/2 the mana.
Fauna Shaman - Repeatable tutor and the deck should already be set up for some Survival of the Fittest abuse. If survival is out of your budget this is the next best thing.
Green Sun's Zenith - Limited to just green cards but putting a creature directly in to play is very powerful and it gives a bit of redundancy for some of your best guys. It also interacts well with Dryad Arbor to give you some early ramp.
Natural Order - This is a very powerful tutor since it puts the target directly into play. Our go to targets for this are Seedborn Muse, Avenger of Zendikar, Regal Force and Craterhoof Behemoth depending on the board state. Just make sure that both the creature you sacrifice and the target you get are green.
Primal Command - A bit expensive it is still a pretty solid tutor. It is also an out to Darksteel Forge and a few other troublesome permanents as well as graveyard hate in a pinch.
Summoner's Pact - I find it a bit limiting as some of the creatures I tutor for the most often are white.
Tooth and Nail - Allows us to tutor up a number of creature based combos as well as just being a generally good tutor. Eternal Witness interacts well with it, you could tutor up Genesis & Eternal Witness, Witness gets back Tooth and Nail, tutor up Skullmulcher and another creature to eat Genesis and Eternal Witness then use Genesis to get back Eternal Witness who gets back Tooth and Nail, etc. Also sets up creature based combos very nicely.
Traverse the Ulvenwald - Early on it can land cycle and while it's not easy to hit delirium will come online eventually then this will be very strong fetching Gaea's Cradle or a key creature.
Wild Pair - Pretty limited and inconsistent but can tutor repeatedly.
Worldly Tutor - Very cheap but usually results in card disadvantage unless you are getting Skullmulcher. Being an instant is very helpful and don't forget that you can cast this during your upkeep if you need a creature this turn and were unable to cast Worldly Tutor last turn.
Land Tutors
Crop Rotation - Can fetch Gaea's Cradle which is a good thing.
Eternal Dragon - I run him instead of a basic Plains. Not exciting but worth a slot on most lists.
Knight of the Reliquary - Good if you have enough basics to fuel him though it can be frustrating that he takes a turn to get going. Having him in your deck also gives your other tutors a bit more flexibility. You could, for example, use Idyllic Tutor to get Survival of the Fittest to get Knight of the Reliquary to get Gaea's Cradle. It is clunky but I like having the option available.
Krosan Tusker - One of the better basic land tutors and increases the creature count for Survival. Definitely worthy of consideration.
Land Tax - We don't play a lot of ramp that puts extra land into play so this card is usually "on".
Perilous Forays - Really good deck thinner and also a sac outlet. Overall pretty solid. Note that it can fetch dual lands and Mistveil Plains.
Reap and Sow - Land destruction + get Gaea's Cradle. Not bad at all.
Sylvan Scrying - Straightforward and efficient.
Tempt with Discovery - This one may be excellent depending on your group and if nothing else puts Gaea's Cradle into play.
Tithe - Instant speed 2 for 1 for W is pretty rare and fetches dual lands as an added bonus.
Weathered Wayfarer - He's pretty easy to tutor up and can get multiple lands over time.
Yavimaya Elder - Very good basic land tutor.
Other Tutors
Captain Sisay - Allows you to tutor for a few cards that are otherwise very difficult to get such as Mindslaver and Umezawa's Jitte as well as Gaea's Cradle and some other powerful legends. Also very accessible since she's a creature.
Stoneforge Mystic - This tends not to be a very equipment heavy deck, I only have 1 piece of equipment in the core list above and even my own personal list only has 2 so the Mystic may seem like an odd tutor choice. The one piece on this list though is Skullclamp which is extremely powerful and Mystic can be tutored for with creature tutors which allows us to tutor for Mystic then use her to tutor for Skullclamp. The only other options to get Skullclamp are Enlightened Tutor which we already run but can't tutor for, Steelshaper's Gift which we can't tutor for and is quite bad if we've already drawn Skullclamp, Planar Portal which is very mana intensive and difficult to tutor for and Stonehewer Giant which is mana intensive and pretty slow.
Token Generators
Rhys is a pretty solid guy at making tokens but he shouldn't have to do all the work. There are many good token generators out there that can help. Token generators that either cost 3+ mana/token or that only make 1 token per turn should generally be avoided since they tend to be too expensive and/or slow. There are a few exceptions to this however such as when you are making either larger than average tokens or tokens with some special function.
Ant Queen - Like Sacred Mesa and Luminarch Ascension Ant Queen makes tokens for only 2 mana. It's also on a body making it easy to access and can fill in for the enchantments if you're trying to set up a combo or just get some good value.
Awakening Zone - Haven't tested this card but it certainly has potential to do good things.
Elspeth, Knight Errant - Not the best token generator out there but she does combine with Doubling Season for instant indestructibility.
Elspeth, Sun's Champion - This is pretty much exactly what we're looking for in a planeswalker. Capable of spamming tokens and acting as a pseudo sweeper.
Garruk Wildspeaker - Makes good sized tokens and can Overrun. I found him to be a bit on the slow side.
Genesis Chamber - There are some combos with this but has potential to backfire.
Imperious Perfect - Pumps the tokens Rhys makes and makes tokens.
Kjeldoran Outpost - Being able to pump out tokens with a land is pretty sweet though it does set you back a little. You can sac Flagstones of Trokair to keep your land and don't forget to float mana before you sac your land, could be enough mana for a token!
Knight Captain of Eos - Pretty easy to get a fog out of him every turn with Rhys. Kjeldoran Outpost makes soldiers.
Martial Coup - One of the better sweepers available though sadly kills Rhys.
Master of the Wild Hunt - On the slow side but still a solid removal option.
Mobilization - I found this card to be a bit too slow but survives most *** effects.
Mycoloth - Can go nuts with Doubling Season but would be better if you could give the tokens haste. Decks running Concordant Crossroads or something may want this guy.
Nemata, Grove Guardian - Makes tokens and pumps them. Goes well with other Saproling producers.
Night Soil - Solid tutorable graveyard hate that makes tokens.
Orochi Hatchery - Works very well with Doubling Season.
Parallel Evolution - If you have a lot of tokens already you're probably already doing well.
Phyrexian Processor - This is one of the better ways to make large tokens.
Secure the Wastes - I don't like spells in this deck but this is very efficient at what it does. On paper White Sun's Zenith may seem more appealing but the math gets thrown off with anthems and sometimes you just want dudes you can Skullclamp. Haven't tried either but I typically prefer quantity over quality with my tokens.
Selesnya Guildmage - Can both make tokens and pump them. 4 mana is a lot for 1 token however.
Snake Pit - If you play against a lot of blue and black decks this could be very useful.
Springjack Pasture - Another land that can produce tokens, and they're goats! Mirror Entity can turn your whole team into goats if you need life, mana and/or a sac outlet.
Sprout Swarm - This is a great token maker because it hides in your hand making it difficult to deal with. It also gives you some free tokens due to the convoke mechanic and being an instant is nice because it helps you recover from sweepers quicker.
Soul Foundry - This allows you to make tokens out of your creatures which is a very strong effect.
Squirrel Nest - Goes infinite with Earthcraft however I don't find it to be very good on it's own. Very nonbasic heavy builds need to keep in mind that the combo requires a basic land and will want to include more fetches for their few basics.
Terrastodon - Even better than normal in a Rhys deck since you have the ability to double the tokens.
Triskelavus - I think this is the best one of these types of cards. Costs a lot of mana but allows for direct damage dealing which is something these colors normally don't have.
Twilight Drover - An efficient and very accessible token producer. Once you get him going he's among the better options in the deck.
Verdant Embrace - This is an interesting enchantment option that you doesn't require you to dump a bunch of mana into it to make tokens. Since you are typically enchanting a lowly token the typical issue of getting 2 for 1'd for playing an aura doesn't really apply.
Verdant Force - Oh how he wishes he could be Avenger of Zendikar. Still really good at making lots of tokens.
Verdeloth the Ancient - Token making x spell on a stick.
White Sun's Zenith - A one shot token make this one can be used EOT similar to Decree of Justice to make an instant army ready for you to untap and abuse and as an added bonus makes 2/2s.
Wolfbriar Elemental - Another x spell for more ramp oriented decks.
Token abusers
Now that we have all these tokens we need to make the most of them. This will cover all the cards that can make use of tokens such as pump effects, sac outlets and other cards that care about tokens or having a lot of creatures in play.
+1/+1 Anthems - Gaea's Anthem, Glorious Anthem, Marshal's Anthem, Spear of Heliod, Kongming, "Sleeping Dragon", Leyline of the Meek, Tolsimer Wolfblood & Wilt-Leaf Liege. Generally I think there are better pump effects than these anthems. They just don't pump your guys quite enough. Muraganda Petroglyphs also falls under this category.
Ashnod's Altar/Phyrexian Altar - Turns tokens into mana though generally I find that if I have a bunch of mana I just make more tokens. These allow for a number of ways to go infinite when combined with a variety of cards though there are probably more efficient ways to do so.
Beastmaster Ascension - This is one of the best anthem effects available to us as it is easy to get online and gives our tokens a huge +5/+5 boost.
Citanul Hierophants - I'm still trying this guy out, he might be too slow but allows for generous mana production. Verdict: A bit slow but not a bad option.
Coat of Arms - Makes for some seriously large tokens though being an artifact makes tutoring it up difficult.
Eldrazi Monument - Another excellent option for protecting your tokens from various sweepers. The +1/+1 and flying is also very nice.
Epic Struggle - This provides a solid alternate win condition for us but usually takes a full turn. Can be cheated into play at EOT with Academy Rector + sac outlet.
Gilt-Leaf Archdruid - While absolutely terrible by itself since we hardly run any druids this guy can be combined with Mirror Entity and tokens for a very powerful effect.
Helm of Possession - Vedalken Shackles for token decks. Can deal with creatures repeatedly if you have a sac outlet.
Jaddi Lifestrider - Another card I tried out to help recover from Magister Sphinx type effects. Loops with the Reveillark chain for infinite life.
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa - Kamahl is a powerhouse in this deck. In addition to providing massive Overrun ability for your tokens he also protects the deck from sweepers with his ability to turn your opponent's lands into creatures in response to a sweeper.
Cryptolith Rite - A second fixed Earthcraft. Losing the pseudo haste is rough but it doesn't require basics and is just as good once Concordant Crossroads is in play.
Loxodon Hierarch - Many of the most popular and effective sweepers in this format lack the no regen clause of Wrath of God making the Hierarch a possible choice to protect tokens.
Martyr's Cause - This is a free sac outlet that can take the place of Mirror Entity in the Reveillark loop and helps stop a number of things that are a problem for us, namely things like x spells to the face and gigantic evasive monsters such as Uril, the Miststalker with Pollenbright Wings (the effect doesn't target however the source you choose must either be in play or on the stack, if they disenchant it you can't just sac a creature and name Comet Storm in response for example).
Nullmage Shepherd - While not as good as Aura Shards redundancy is important and she allows us to take out several targets a turn.
Overrun variants - There are many varieties of this spell in both white and green (the white ones tend not to give trample) that act as a 1 time pump spell. They are effective but being Sorceries and Instants are very difficult to tutor for so I prefer to have enchantment and creature based mass pump effects.
Regal Force - I found him to be quite inconsistent, sometimes crazy good, sometimes I would have an army of only white tokens and other times he would deck me if I cast him. *EDIT: Back in for another go as I've limited the enchantment theme a bit in favor of more creatures.
Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant - Protects tokens from damage based sweepers, particularly effective against red decks.
Skullmulcher - I've had great success with this card in the past. Backed with token generations he's able to draw huge number of cards while leaving behind a sizable body.
Slate of Ancestry - This has the same problem as Regal Force in that it has a risk of decking you if you can't regulate the number of tokens on board with a sac outlet. Still quite useful.
Smokestack - We will often have the advantage of having many more permanents than our opponents which allows us to make good use of Smokestack to grind our opponents down.
Triumph of the Hordes - This one shot pump spell can get lethal very quickly and would be the one I would recommend trying if you want to give that type of effect a shot.
Wardens - Essence Warden, Soul Warden, Auriok Champion & Soul's Attendant. More lifegain options which all can loop in the Reveillark chain.
Disruption
Like most commander decks we will want some additional disruption to prevent our opponents from winning before we can. Disruption can also be used to prevent our opponents from disrupting us. The disruption you choose to run will vary widely from list to list based on what you are playing against. Specifically for disruption we will want easy access to our answers so these will be primarily in enchantment, creature and land form since that is what we can reliably tutor up. In addition to these there is also a long list of color specific hoser cards.
Armageddon/Ravages of War/Catastrophe - Once you've gained an advantage on the board these can help you lock up your victory.
Aven Mindscensor - A unique form of disruption available to us this prevents opponents from being able to find answers and assemble combos.
Bane of Progress - This guy is a Purify on legs. While hitting our own stuff is a drawback his upsides make him well worth it and being a creature gives us very easy access to him.
Beast Within - A nice Vindicate in green and in a pinch you can hit an extra land if you just need the token.
City of Solitude & Grand Abolisher - An excellent answer to control decks that tend to play lots of instants and counterspells. City of Solitude can be dangerous as it prevents the blue player from countering other players spells though being an enchantment can make it very difficult for the blue control deck to deal with. It's very good at what it does however and is a nice way to speed up a game, players can't even tap land for mana when it's not their turn which is pretty cool.
Duplicant - Pretty easy to tutor up and exiles the creature which is very important.
Fiend Hunter - Fiend Hunter can be killed/sac'd in response to his trigger to permanently exile the target. He can also loop with Sun Titan which is beneficial if your sac outlet is something like Phyrexian Altar or provides another positive effect.
Gaddock Teeg - Teeg can be quite a hindrance to us as many of our enchantments and spells cannot be cast with him in play. It is clunky to work around him but he can be sac'd at EOT, brought back by Genesis or other reanimation effect and recast once you have played your 4+ mana spells. He does however provide excellent disruption.
Glare of Subdual - Sadly this is no Opposition but is the best one of these types of cards available to us. Effective at holding off large evasive monsters and a way to avoid Winter Orb/Static Orb among a few others.
Grand Abolisher - An important card to combat blue decks and doesn't stop them from keeping other decks in check unlike Dosan the Falling Leaf and City of Solitude.
Indrik Stomphowler and friends - There are many different variations depending on what your deck needs, Wickerbough Elder, Harmonic Sliver, Viridian Zealot, Mold Shambler, Kor Sanctifiers, etc.
Linvala, Keeper of Silence - There are a number of these types of effects including Pithing Needle, Cursed Totem & Damping Matrix but Linvala is the easiest to fetch and doesn't hamper you.
Mangara of Corondor - Like Duplicant he is tutorable and exiles the target but I find him to be a bit slow. Usually if I need to blow up something I need to do so quickly. Interacts nicely with Thousand-Year Elixer and sac effects + Genesis.
Martyr's Bond - While expensive at 6 mana the effect is very powerful. Protects us from spot removal and we have a number of sac outlets to use it for creature control.
Null Rod - It shuts down a number of our cards but there are some decks that have a very difficult time dealing with Null Rod. Note this turns off mana abilities such as Sol Ring and Signets which is fairly unusual for this type of card.
Oblation - Able to answer a variety of problem cards in addition to putting generals in libraries. Can also be cast on your own permanents if you just need to cycle it.
Oblivion Stone - I had taken this out for awhile but put it back in after several castings of Enlightened Tutor where I really wished I had it in as an option.
Pacifism variants - You will want to stick with variants that prevent activated abilities such as Arrest, Gelid Shackles and Lignify. Prison Term can potentially deal with shrouded creatures.
Parallax Wave - This is a very flexible card allowing you to protect your own creatures, abuse ETB triggers and wave out opponent's creatures. With Eternal Witness you can loop it over and over for an annoying soft lock. This card plays out much better than it looks on paper so I strongly recommend you play it to see for yourself how good it is.
Qasali Pridemage - Just a simple Disenchant that is easy to fetch.
Scavenging Ooze - Great graveyard hate on a body and he can also function as a reasonably sized beater.
Seeds of Innocence/Creeping Corrosion - This deck typically runs very few artifacts making this a pretty onesided effect. Great if artifacts are getting to be a problem in your group as a backup Austere Command.
Spirit of the Labyrinth - Doubly accessible being both a creature and an enchantment. You can sac it if you need to draw cards, dies nicely to Skullclamp!
Stripmine/Wasteland/Tectonic Edge/Ghost Quarter - You should run some number of these, they are listed best to worst. They also combine well with Crucible of Worlds & Life from the Loam.
Swords to Plowshares/Path to Exile/Condemn - Some of the best spot removal available is unfortunately difficult to tutor. Against faster generals the additional early disruption may be necessary.
Terastodon - Great non-creature disruption that hits multiple targets and has a large body.
Tormod's Crypt variants - We don't want to exile our own graveyard but will probably want to exile our opponents at some point.
Willow Satyr - This is a very unusual effect for these colors. He's also easy to tutor up.
Woodfall Primus - One of the best of these types of creatures he can also be abused with Oran-Rief, the Vastwood making him tough to kill albeit expensive at 8 mana.
World Queller - Good for forcing a creature sac every turn and just a generally useful card for handling problem permanents like Plainswalkers.
Wrath of God variants - Austere Command is my personal favorite usually being cast for creatures with converted mana cost > 3 & artifacts. Hallowed Burial is another excellent option since it hides the opponents generals. Hour of Reckoning will keep your tokens alive and is often quite cheap to cast because of convoke.
Yosei, the Morning Star - We don't have a lot of sac outlets but enough that he is still a solid card on his own. The main reason for including him is to loop in the Reveillark chain to create a near impossible lock to break out of. Better the more sac outlets you run since getting him stolen can be very painful.
Ramp
Ramp is useful for most commander decks and this one is no exception. Rhys is often able to utilize extra mana himself and many of the token generators require large amounts of mana to be effective. I like having my ramp stapled on a creature when possible so I have early targets for my cheap tutors. It allows you to keep hands you otherwise wouldn't be able to but does open you up to having your ramp killed by sweepers.
Joraga Treespeaker/Priest of Titania/Elvish Archdruid - These were added in an attempt to make the early game more explosive and they've reasonably successful at accomplishing this.
Kodama's Reach/Cultivate - These are nice options but I prefer the 2 mana ramp spells over these because there is a natural hole in the curve on turn 2 if you play Rhys turn 1.
Llanowar Elves/Birds of Paradise/Fyndhorn Elves/Arbor Elf/Elvish Mystic - All fine one mana ramp options and most are elves as well for tribal synergies. Can be Skullclamp'd later on if not needed.
Nature's Lore/Three Visits - Just some simple ramp spells. I prefer these over Cultivate/Kodama's Reach since they only cost 2, the land ETB untapped and they can fetch one of my duals.
Utility
There are many excellent cards Rhys lists can run that don't fit into any of the previous categories. The cards here include just generally good cards in our colors, utility lands and defensive cards. I'm going to try and stick with cards that are specifically good in a Rhys deck. Stuff like Krosan Verge and Selesnya Sanctuary are still really good but they're good in most G/W decks.
Concordant Crossroads - It is a symmetrical effect that can backfire but it is one of the few ways to give our tokens haste. The only other options available to us are Akroma's Memorial which I find to be overcosted and difficult to tutor and Thousand-Year Elixer which only gives haste for abilities. Overall I think this is a very important card to give the deck more explosiveness.
Dauntless Escort - This is one of the best ways to protect your tokens from most sweepers.
Dryad Arbor - It's a creature and a land which is interesting for a number of reasons. It can be abused as a creature normally could, get fetched with Green Sun's Zenith and is extremely accessible if it's needed.
Fresh Meat - Fantastic sweeper protection that not only protects your tokens but in most cases will significantly upgrade them as well. The only downside is not being able to tutor for it but that is just me being picky.
Karmic Justic - It doesn't protect creatures but this deck tends to run a lot of enchantments. Combined with Sterling Grove and Privileged Position this can be very tough to penetrate aside from All is Dust.
Lightning Greeves - Just an all around good card, the haste is not so important in this deck as the shroud.
Mana Reflection - I really like having this in my deck as a backup for Mirari's Wake. It interacts nicely with Signets, the Signet lands and the Filter lands.
Praetor's Counsel - An extremely powerful Restock variant with a Spellbook tacked on though expensive to cast and does not affect the board.
Privileged Position - Excellent on its own it is very good with Sterling Grove to give all your permanents troll shroud. I strongly recommend you include this on your list.
Sacred Ground - This is a meta call for me as my group is mass LD heavy. If this is not the case for you I'd run something else in this slot.
Saffi Ericksdotter - Not the best on her own she is still a very reasonable and solid creature. The most compelling reason to put her in the list is that she allows the Reveillark chain to loop any creature and is a backup to Karmic Guide for looping creatures with 2 or less power.
Sylvan Library - Some quality card selection and possible card advantage if you have the life to spare. There aren't a ton of ways to offset the lifeloss but it can help you get an explosive start early on and gives added value to shuffle effects.
Sun Titan - Just a general good stuff card that's strong enough to make the cut. Doesn't synergize particularly well with anything.
Sword of Feast and Famine - This is a great option for a second equipment. It's often free to cast due to the untap ability and it can generate a lot of extra mana which can be dumped into Rhys or another token generator.
The Great Aurora - It's kind of like a green Warp World acting as a huge board reset and possible win condition if we're able to draw into the right cards. This should benefit us much more than opponents because we can benefit from all the tokens we produce.
Tireless Tracker - He doesn't have much synergy with the deck but provides much needed card advantage.
The deck is certainly not without vulnerabilities. In addition to the obvious sweepers there are a number of very problematic cards and strategies that can be used against us. I'll also cover some counter measures for dealing with those cards and strategies.
Additional Resources
Everything Token by ISBPathfinder - This goes into more detail about token options that are available.
Changelog
11/3/11
-Skullmulcher - Sad as I am to see him go I wanted to try Mentor of the Meek as my creature based draw card. He may come back in over or in addition to Mentor of the Meek.
-Mistveil Plains - Didn't do enough to justify a card slot. Not recommended.
-Terramorphic Expanse - Trying to limit ETB lands and this is just a fixer.
-Bloom Tender - The worst of the 2 drop mana accel creatures but not a bad option.
+Mentor of the Meek - Seems like a solid card draw machine for a token deck albeit a bit expensive.
+Horizon Canopy - Fantastic land I should have added a long time ago.
+Serra's Sanctum - This is very much on trial.
+Natural Order - Heard good stuff and wanted to see what the fuss was about.
5/25/12
-Lightning Greaves - Just didn't do much other than give me something to tutor for with Stoneforge Mystic if I already had my Skullclamp.
-Nullmage Shepherd - When it's good it's a monster but sometimes you just want to smash something and this takes a bit of setup.
-Forest - It's a Forest...so I replaced it with a Forest.
-Kamahl, Fist of Krosa - Amazing card that I'm sad to see go. I'm trying the deck without him for curve reasons not quality reasons.
-Congregation at Dawn - It's a good option but at this point I feel I have an extra tutor and this is the weakest.
-Sprout Swarm - Really good but not being able to tutor for it is a big drawback. When you draw it it's usually very good.
+Sword of Feast and Famine - Hopefully this will be better for me than Greaves.
+Qasali Pridemage - Trying to upgrade Nullmage Shepherd to something more reliable.
+Dryad Arbor - Works with Green Sun's Zenith and fetches if I need a land I can Skullclamp.
+Craterhoof Behemoth - I have high hopes for this guy. This is exactly the type of Overrun I like...one that will deal 200 damage to someone at 30 life.
+Elvish Archdruid - This is an attempt to bolster that ramp a bit. I have heard good things.
+Sun Titan - This guy has never agreed with me but I am finally giving him a chance. I'd be happy to cut him for something else if he doesn't work out.
10/14/12
-City of Solitude - Swapping this out for Grand Abolisher.
-Primeval Titan - Suffers from a severe case of being banned.
-Sun Titan - Just not a fan and I feel like cutting him will let me put something in with a little more synergy. Too good stuff for my tastes.
-High Market/Saltcrusted Steppe/Gavony Township - I'm trying to lessen my dependance on non-basics as my meta runs a good amount of hate for them. With Primeval Titan gone High Market loses a lot of it's appeal and the other two didn't feel necessary.
+Grand Abolisher - Has some nice upsides over City of Solitude, has been performing well.
+Kamahl, Fist of Krosa - Despite being an expensive mana hog I really missed him in the deck. He's very synergystic which is a big plus.
+Sacred Ground - A meta call as my group is mass LD heavy.
+Forest x 2/Plains - Move along, nothing to see here.
4/23/13
-Thawing Glaciers - I think it's a great card and I may miss it as a tutor target but it's a very slow card and this deck has sped up since I built it. It's time to try it without and see how it goes.
+High Market - Despite not having Primeval Titan any more I've missed this card quite a bit. It's nice to have a sac outlet on a land to help protect creatures from exile and theft. Makes me want to run more land tutors, note for future.
-Springjack Pasture - Very good card with some Mirror Entity tricks and goat doubling shenanigans but it has a steep activation cost. Kjeldoran Outpost fills the token making land roll well at a cheaper cost.
+Thespian's Stage - Not much to say here, utility land that deals with Legendary lands and copies value lands.
-Martyr's Bond - Managing creatures is the biggest draw and this card does that very well but at an expensive cost. When looking for a cut for Sylvan Primordial I decided to keep all my creatures. Acidic Slime still fills a roll in the Lark chain and I felt everyone was pulling their weight. The spells were tutors and bombs as they should be so I looked to enchantments. This card does helps you control the board and protect your board but there are cards in the deck that do a better job of filling these rolls.
+Sylvan Primordial - This guy is obviously very powerful and a must play. Ramp and board control in one package and he even helps us against fliers.
12/30/13
In this update I'm trying to cut back on the enchantments due to Bane of Progress so the list is being shifted more towards creatures.
-Austere Command
+Elspeth, Sun's Champion
Elspeth gives us some pseudo sweeping ability and with the addition of Bane of Progress we have much better access to mass enchantment and artifact destruction so the Command can finally go after it's many years of service.
-Mana Reflection
+Bane of Progress
I've felt Mana Reflection was redundant for quite awhile so it's getting cut in favor of the very powerful Bane of Progress.
-Night Soil
+Scavenging Ooze
This is a swap to go to a slightly more creature heavy build. Ooze will still serve the same purpose of graveyard hate while losing a bit of synergy.
-Fecundity
+Regal Force
I may go back to Skullmulcher but I'm giving Regal Force another chance.
-Sword of Feast and Famine
+Fauna Shaman
With the increase in creatures I wanted another tutor for them and I felt Fauna Shaman was my best option. Not sure if going down to 1 equip is the best move so I may find room for the sword or something else in the future.
-Genesis
+Sun Titan
Both are recursion pieces but play out very differently. Sun Titan feels like the "faster" card so I'm giving him another shot. This is a swap I could go back on if it doesn't work.
-Spawning Pit
-Plains
+Nature's Lore
+Three Visits
I like these ramp cards quite a bit and I felt that Spawning Pit, while very good, has always been expendable.
5/27/14
-Sylvan Primordial
+Spirit of the Labyrinth
Primordial was banned and I was too lazy to update the list until now. Been trying out Spirit of the Labyrinth for awhile now and it's good disruption against blue. I like that it gets shroud from Sterling Grove too.
8/9/14
-Serra's Sanctum
-Forest
+Temple of Plenty
+Tithe
Upgrading some land.
9/29/15
-Elspeth, Sun's Champion
-Spirit of the Labyrinth
+The Great Aurora
+Twilight Drover
2/14/16
Trying to move away from ETB tapped lands when I can.
-Temple of Plenty
+Canopy Vista
4/25/16
+Cryptolith Rite
-Humility
Humility has been in since the beginning and is one of my favorite Magic cards but as this list has shifted away from enchantments to creatures in recent years Humility has become more detrimental. Additionally this card is played in quite a few decks so people have gotten very good about building with it in mind making it less effective than it was.
+Tireless Tracker
-Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
I think Kamahl’s time has finally come, which is especially painful as I just got a foil copy. This helps reduce the curve and since I didn’t want to cut a draw spell or card advantage spell for the tracker since we need all we can get I decided Kamahl should sit on the sidelines for now. Kamahl does several different things but aside from the Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite interaction he has much better replacements. Mirror Entity is a better pump effect and Dauntless Escort provides significantly cheaper (and often times better) sweeper protection.
+Traverse the Ulvenwald
-Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
I’m trying to trim back the number of ETB tapped lands. Oran-Rief is too slow and there are also a lot of token makers that it doesn’t interact with.
8/18/16
Don't need 2 of this effect and the Spirit is better. Dauntless Escort's many years of service will not be forgotten.
-Dauntless Escort
+Selfless Spirit
Would learn my licks with a bottle neck slide
My group is pretty cutthroat so cards like Humility don't cause problems and nothing has come up so far with it that we didn't know the rules on. There is also a Sliver Overlord deck I play against that gets annihilated by this card which is an added bonus.
I just wanted to let you know that this combo doesn't work. Elspeth adds counters as a cost, not an effect.
Two X Chromosomes and A Whole Lot of Attitude
While that is a good point, from the wording of his comment ((indestructible for the rest of the game right away)) I think he is under the impression that doubling season doubles the amount of counters on permanents when they come into play with counters on them or something like that.
Because even if adding loyalty was an effect it still wouldn't be "right away"
Regardless, it still doesn't work.
Reckless Waif; It's the red Delver of Secrets.
According to the comprehensive rules when the planeswalker comes into play the counters are put on it as a replacement effect meaning Elspeth would come into play with 8 counters and could immediately ultimate. Am I reading this incorrectly? Think it is rule 212.9.
-1 Restock
-1 Karoo
-1 Jungle Basin
+1 Qasali Pridemage
+1 Kodama's Reach
+1 Harmonize
The Karoo lands just suck in here since I am trying to pump most of my mana through my general in the early game and I can't seem to find time to drop them without being a pain. I don't like Harmonize very much in what is basically a combo deck but it is the best I can think of to help continue making land drops, I had Far Wanderings in but never had threshold.
Crovax+Kamahl=GG
Didn't think about Crovax + Kamahl, that combo is pretty sick. Primal Command is great and I've been thinking about it for awhile but I just don't know what to cut. How about I change the following:
+Primal Command
+Crovax, Ascendant Hero
+Dauntless Escort
-Loxodon Hierarch
-Worldly Tutor
-Dosan the Falling Leaf
I think I got enough counter hoser in Choke and City of Solitude that I don't need Dosan. Loxodon Hierarch was in there to combat Oblivion Stone but Dauntless Escort can do the same thing and also protect my tokens from *** effects.
Thanks for clearing that up!
Not knocking your deck, but it looks like good stuff with a relatively small amount of token generation (about a dozen cards). To fully utilize Rhys, I'd add some things that make big tokens, elephants and beasts. Garruk, CotH, stuff like that. Of course, I am a pretty casual player too.
I also like Angel of Salvation, Wall of Roots, Ajani Goldmane and other convokey stuff with tokens.
On that note, I see a couple cards I need to check my deck for. I really need a Doubling Season, but they are so dang expensive.
I don't think the flashback cards are good enough, I can't tutor for them and they don't make very many tokens ( when compare with something like Sacred Mesa ). If I want large tokens I can just tutor for Kamahl. Garruk was in the deck but got cut awhile back because he just didn't make enough of an impact. Get that Doubling Season! Card is awesome.
Currently for graveyard recursion on a creature I already have Eternal Witness, Genesis, Karmic Guide and Reveillark and these all seem much better than the treefolk unless there is something I am missing. I am not opposed to trying him out but what should I cut?
Yes, that works. The adding of counters being the cost rather than the effect has no change, but the comes into play with counters would mean those get doubled. Similar to how the 0/0 Simic creatures from Rav-Block would come into play twice as big.
UWMerfolk (Sygg, River Guide)
B Vampires (Anowon the Ruin Sage)
BRU Zombies! (Lord of Tresserhorn)
WUBRG Allies (Karona, False God)
W Soldiers (Darien, King of Kjeldor)
Thanks for confirming this. Made 1 small change:
-Plains
+Windbrisk Heights
Must have missed this somehow.
I personally play with Storm Herd since that card is seriously retarded when resolved. Not to mention you have pump effects. Storm Herd is more casual-broken. I would opt for Decree of Justice as a more serious-environment win-condition for either instant EOT Soldier cycling or dropping loads of Angels after a Wrath effect.
Rhys has definitely been a blast, and I'm not sure if Crovax + Kahmahl is worth running. I might give it a shot. In my group, Kahmahl is risky due to control magic effects, so broken plays with him tend to fireback on myself. Stone rain for G is definitely retarded. How often do you pull the Mirror Entity Gilt-leaf druid combo? I'm very curious with that combo. Lark combos in your deck seems really good too. I might opt for that route too.
Here's my list for sharing and critique.
GENERAL: 1
[1/1] Rhys the Redeemed
LANDS: 36
[0/1] Strip Mine
[1/1] Gaea's Cradle
[1/1] Maze of Ith
[1/1] City of Brass
[1/1] Brushland
[0/1] Kor-Haven
[1/1] Vitu-Ghazi the City Tree
[1/1] Selesnya Sanctuary
[1/1] Arctic Flats
[1/1] Elfhame Palace
[1/1] Mistveil Plains
[1/1] Salt-crusted Steppe
[1/1] Wooded Foothills
[1/1] Windswept Heath
[1/1] Flooded Strand
[1/1] Temple Garden
[1/1] Savannah
[1/1] Wooded Bastion (Japanese)
[1/1] Ancient Tomb
[1/1] Dustbowl
[1/1] Thawing Glaciers
[1/1] Urza's Factory
[2/7] Plain
[0/7] Forest
CREATURES: 24
[1/1] Weathered Wayfarer (ONS) (tutors for Cradle, Maze of Ith, Strip)
[1/1] Heritage Druid (provides early acceleration)
[1/1] Bramblewood Paragon (probably too weak, fun with Rhysthough)
[1/1] Selesnya Guildmage (Japanese)
[1/1] Mirror Entity
[1/1] Knight of the Reliquary (tutors for Cradle)
[1/1] Eternal Witness
[1/1] Imperious Perfect
[1/1] Spawnwrithe (amazing after Wrath or early game)
[1/1] Wilt-Leaf Liege
[1/1] Quasali Pridemage
[1/1] Wren's Run Packmaster
[1/1] Nullmage Shepherd
[1/1] Genesis (best late-game)
[1/1] Juniper Order Ranger (for fun, very stupid with Rhys tokens)
[1/1] Mycoloth
[1/1] Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
[1/1] Vigor
[1/1] Tolsimir Wolfblood
[1/1] Twilight Shepherd
[1/1] Adakar Valkyrie
[1/1] Woodfall Primus (Defense of the Heart Target)
[1/1] Verdant Force (9E)
[1/1] Magus of the Disk (broekn with Yavimaya Hollow)
ENCHANTMENT/ARTIFACT: 20
[1/1] Land Tax
[1/1] Sol Ring
[1/1] Sensei's Divining Top
[1/1] Survival of the Fittest
[1/1] Earthcraft
[1/1] Planar Collapse
[1/1] Squirrel Nest (Japanese) (very good, underestimated this card, Earthcraft Squirrel Nest combo, or generating more tokens for no mana cost for Coat of Arms/Rhys/Cradle is good in the deck)
[1/1] Sylvan Library (I pay an average of 12 life in a game to use this)
[1/1] Aura Shards (most broken disenchant for this deck. Rhys tokens and this is deadly)
[1/1] Oblivion Ring
[1/1] Martyr's Cause (easily the best defense mechanism in this deck)
[1/1] Defense of the Heart
[1/1] Glare of Subdual
[1/1] Muraganda Petryoglyphs
[1/1] Humility
[1/1] Crucible of Worlds
[1/1] Mirari's Wake
[1/1] Mind's Eye
[1/1] Coat of Arms (7E, Japanese)
[1/1] Doubling Season
INSTANTS/SORCERIES: 17
[1/1] Enlightened Tutor
[1/1] Idyllic Tutor
[1/1] Catastrophe
[1/1] Congregation at Dawn
[1/1] Condemn
[1/1] Eladamri's Call
[1/1] Seed Spark
[1/1] Wrath of God
[1/1] Rout
[1/1] Hallowed Burial
[1/1] Fracturing Gust
[1/1] Austere Command
[1/1] Martial Coup
[1/1] Tooth and Nail
[1/1] Hour of Reckoning
[1/1] Decree of Justice
[1/1] Storm Herd
OTHERS: 2
[1/1] Garruk, Wildspeaker
[1/1] Elspeth, Knight Errant
Using Drain to fight Workshops is like using Exclude to fight Dark Confidant.
VERY CHEAP LEGACY SALE (priced to move before April 09!)
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=8172551#post8172551
Garruck has been in and out, every time I have him in the deck I either don't draw him or get him at the wrong time and when I take him out I see him in my binder and wonder how I can not run this guy. The biggest knock against him is that I can't tutor for him so I only saw him once every 3 games or so.
I have no doubt Storm Herd is insane when it resolves, my group is pretty counter magic heavy ( and land destruction heavy ) so I just can't bring myself to run 10 mana spells.
Haven't tried the Crovax + Kamahl combo yet, hopefully in a couple weeks I'll get some games in and let you know how it is. Also just put in the Gilt-Leaf + Mirror Entity combo and it won me the game when I assembled it so I'm keeping it in for now. You can even Tooth and Nail ( or Defense of the Heart in your list ) for the combo which is nice. On the downside, the Archdruid is terrible by himself. The lark combo is just plain broken since you can assemble the entire combo with Survival. Very good but not casual friendly.
Thanks a lot for the list and feedback, I am going to go over my list tonight and try and fit in Martyr's Cause, Sylvan Library, Squirrel's Nest and maybe Heritage Druid for starters. I'd really like to run Land Tax & Weathered Wayfarer but I almost always have more land in play than my opponents. I can't even run Defense of the Heart because it would trigger so rarely, we can't even get Planar Collapse to trigger all the time in a 4 person game. BTW, Perilous Forays looks really clunky but I finally added it and in the few games I have used it it has been excellent, highly recommended.
What is combo 2? gilt leaf liege?
Sorry, supposed to be Gilt-Leaf Archdruid.
My Captain Sisay Duel Commander Primer
Duel Commander Mega-Thread
There are 2 and they really don't like to see Choke. There are also 3 monoblack decks but they don't do very well against this deck due to all the enchantments so I haven't added Karma.
Have any of you considered cards like Wirewood Symbiote and Quirion Ranger to bounce all your 187 elves? For this reason alone, I have kept Viridian Shaman over Qasali Pridemage. I also play Elvish Visionary, which has been excellent. Here's my current list:
1 Rhys, the Redeemed
Creatures
1 Wirewood Symbiote
1 Saffi Eriksdotter
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Elvish Visionary
1 Thelonite Hermit
1 Viridian Shaman
1 Eternal Witness
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Mirror Entity
1 Knight of Reliquary
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Deranged Hermit
1 Genesis
1 Archon of Justice
1 Mycoloth
1 Skullmulcher
1 Duplicant
1 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
1 Eternal Dragon
1 Tornado Elemental
1 Regal Force
1 Symbiotic Wurm
1 Woodfall Primus
Spells
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Path to Exile
1 Condemn
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Night Soil
1 Sprout Swarm
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Life from the Loam
1 Regrowth
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Sacred Mesa
1 Idyllic Tutor
1 Aura Shards
1 Recollect
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Skyshroud Claim
1 Return to Dust
1 Glare of Subdual
1 Mirari's Wake
1 Primal Command
1 Mind's Eye
1 Restock
1 Doubling Season
1 Austere Command
1 Tooth and Nail
1 Decree of Justice
1 Crush of Wurms
1 Storm Herd
9 Forest
6 Plains
1 Savannah
1 Temple Garden
1 Windswept Heath
1 Bant Panarama
1 Brushland
1 Wooded Bastion
1 Krosan Verge
1 Saltcrusted Steppe
1 High Market
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Treetop Village
1 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
1 Nantuko Monastery
1 Mosswart Bridge
1 Temple of the False God
1 Slippery Karst
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Vesuva
1 Stripmine
1 Wasteland
I love the ideas in this thread. Keep 'em coming!
@B1nd: The Warhammer probably isn't strong enough, there's only a few creatures that are strong enough to really benefit from it. I had Beacon of Immortality & Essence Warden but found that I just didn't need the lifegain. Behemoth Sledge is another option if you like the Warhammer since it offers a bit of protection as well.
@Oven: I really tried to limit the number of artifacts but the Blasting Station is pretty appealling since it would be great by itself. Juniper Order Ranger is pretty solid on his own as well as a token pumper. Kitchen Finks seems like the weak link but is infinitely better than Gilt-Leaf Archdruid on his own so maybe I should switch out that combo for this one. Gilt-Leaf Archdruid has been a lot of fun in the 2 games I've gotten him though, better to run both combos!