Oowww … NUTS! *PRIMER* (Commander / EDH MTG Deck)

Featured card: Chatterfang, Squirrel General

Oowww … NUTS! PRIMER

Commander / EDH BG (Golgari) Bracket 4 Squirrel Tokens

NV_1980

Creature (35)

Land (35)

Artifact (7)

Commander (1)

Commander: Chatterfang, Squirrel General

Enchantment (10)

Sorcery (8)

Instant (4)

Hi there! Welcome to the primer of this Golgari, squirrel-token deck; commanded by Chatterfang, Squirrel General. Leader of the squirrels of the Umbra Forest, who picked up the slack when his people’s long, peaceful existence got interrupted by drakes from the neighboring Ridgeback Mountains. Chatterfang, a veteran of wars against orcs, rallied an army of fighting squirrels to drive the drakes back and teach them a lesson they'd never forget. He personally took down over a dozen drakes on his own and now wears their fangs as trophies, and as a warning to all other would-be intruders. During the conflict, he proved to his brothers and sisters that he knows no fear, which acted as a rallying call to all who thought themselves too tiny to make a difference. That call has resulted into an ever-growing force of rodent-followers. That army, an ocean of tiny claws and teeth, now stands ready to face you and no matter what you bring to the table, they … will have MORE! This deck is meant to be played casually. It’s not meant to be used in a competitive fashion, but of course anyone is welcome to try! Feel free to comment on anything you (dis)like throughout this primer; hope you will enjoy it!

Why Chatterfang?

Because he’s arguably one of the best token generators ever created for the game. Whenever the deck creates tokens, he matches this effort by generating an equal amount of chittering, nut-consuming maniacs. What makes this ability especially interesting, is that it’s not just activated when creature-tokens are generated, but ANY tokens (some fun examples include ‘Clues’, ‘Food’ and ‘Treasure’ tokens. The fun doesn’t end there though. He’s cheap to cast, he’s a very decent combatant AND he’s even capable of assassination by squirrels. Truly, what’s not to love?

Strengths and Weaknesses

The following parameters have been used to determine the strength of the deck. For each, a score of 5 (very good), 4 (good), 3 (mediocre), 2 (bad) or 1 (very bad) has been allocated; when totalized this score represents the power rating of the deck.

Mana: indicates the availability of mana sources within the deck.
Ramp: indicates the speed at which mana sources within the deck can be made available.
Card Advantage: indicates availability of filter- and draw resources represented within the deck.
Overall speed: indicates the deck’s potential for pace, based on resource availability and mana curve.
Combo: indicates the measure of combo-orientation of the deck.
Army: indicates the deck’s creature-army strength.
Commander: indicates how much the deck is commander-oriented/dependent (less dependency is better).
Resilience: indicates the measure in which the deck can prevent and take punches.
Spellpower: indicates the availability and strength of high-impact spells.

Mana: 5

As the generation of tokens that generate mana, aka Treasure, directly benefits our commander’s token generation ability, it would make sense to include a number of options capable of making them (ten in all). Next to that, the deck contains some more conventional mana-generation means, like dorks (three cards), rocks, (two cards) as well as means that make use of tapping tokens to generate mana (two cards).

Ramp: 3

Along with the straight up mana-generation ability this deck already features, it also sports some very decent capability at ramping for additional land. Six options in total, out of which one can be used multiple times.

Card Advantage: 4

Fortunately the Golgari colors offer some excellent opportunities for card draw. Several repeating ones depend on our armies damaging opponents while others depend on our token generation (including the generation of Clues). The deck also contains three high-powered, general-purpose tutors.

Overall speed: 4

Plenty of traction to be had in this deck. With its low average CMC (sitting at just under 3.2) and resources galore of every conceivable type, it will often vie for being the fastest. The key to expanding one’s board-presence fast, is to deploy Chatterfang and start generating tokens with any spell/permanent you can get your hands on. An explosion of squirrels will be the result, and most decks will be hard-pressed to keep up with your token generation from this point forward.

Combo: 5

Quite a few ways to go completely, infinitely nuts (pun intended) have been included in this deck. Infinite ETB/LTB, infinite mana, infinite life, infinite (squirrel) tokens, infinite drain/ping, near-infinite card draw; it’s all here waiting to be found and can be activated by finding two or three out of twenty possible combo-pieces.

Army: 5

Does the army within this deck contain any truly strong battlecruisers? Yeah, there are some; eight or so, with the potential to create more when combined with power/toughness boosters. However, the real power of this deck lies within its ability to go wide, maybe in the strongest way we’ve ever thus far encountered. Twenty-five cards in this deck can generate tokens, and when those abilities are joined with Chatterfang’s, a tide of beady-eyes, claws and fangs unlike you’ve ever seen will be unleashed.

Commander: 4

Granted, our commander really adds the oomph to this deck. Yet it’s perfectly capable of surviving (even winning) without him due to its generous amount of resources, plenty of additional token generators and a lot of cards that benefit from tokens (dis)appearing onto/from the board.

Interaction: 3

There’s a decent amount of stuff going on that influences opponents directly. Most prominently amongst these, are the cards that have been added to drain based on things dying (nine cards). This is topped off with some opportunities for direct destruction (four cards), a bit of forced sacrifice and a little bit of whithering.

Resilience: 3

Considering Chatterfang’s of limited importance when it comes to the deck’s winning-potential, it’s been decided not to include some of the more common hexproof distributors in this deck (except for one option that provides it on mass to all our creatures). The deck does include a lot of life-gain; thirteen different options.

Spellpower: 3

When it comes to high-powered, non-creature shenanigans, there’s some beauties to be found in this deck. This includes three boosters, six token generators of various types (including three Treasure generators), two mass-ramp spells and an insanely strong tutor.

Total power score: 39

Overall this deck is very hard to beat. Its resources are plentiful, while its resource requirements are not. Its creature base is strong and can easily be replenished when wipes occur or after lost combats. It’s versatile when it comes to the types of opponents it can oppose effectively as it never needs many different components in order to pull off a win. Redundancy for the real game-changers in the deck completes the picture. It can’t counter though, and it’s not strong at preventing opposing actions either, but that usually doesn’t matter considering its capacity to increase its board-presence dramatically (exponentially) within the space of a single turn.

General strategy

The idea is to generate a ton of tokens (preferably squirrels) and use them to either attack our opponents until they run out of nuts (life) or benefit from their presence in some other way (like using them as fuel to cast other/more creatures or spells). Twenty-six different token-generators of various types and sizes ensure that we’ll not run out of fuel any time soon; whether that be mana, life, cards or just plain old creatures themselves.

Obviously, having Chatterfang, Squirrel General around when we start generating helps an immense deal. He’s able to basically double token generation in a unique way; he generates squirrels in similar amounts as any other token one happens to be generating at the time and he does so for free! Let’s say that again in a loud voice, for emphasis: ANY. OTHER. TOKEN. MEANS. FREE. SQUIRRELS. Because this includes artifacts, it means one’s treasures, food and clues come with attached, tree-dwelling, hairy animals.

Starting hand

At least three cards in the starting hand ought to be lands (or two lands and a cheap-to-cast rock (like Arcane Signet or Sol Ring) or a cheap ramp card like Burgeoning, Nature's Lore or Three Visits. It is recommended not to start a game without this hand; even if one has to mulligan down to three cards. The ideal hand would also contain some additional ramp and/or low-cost draw options or maybe a cheap life-gain opportunity.

Early game

Similar to most decks, this one starts games by prioritizing resourcing. More specifically, resourcing via conventional means (permanents that generate straight up mana- or card-advantage). This distinction is important, as the deck’s capacity to generate resource-tokens (Clues, Food and Treasure) needs to be kept in check until Chatterfang, Squirrel General has been summoned to the battlefield. After all, the more free squirrels we can get once he’s here, the better! So for additional mana, start by focusing on dorks/rocks/ramp (aside from the above mentioned examples, use stuff like Birds of Paradise, Circle of Dreams Druid, Elvish Mystic and Rampant Growth). For early card advantage, try Idol of Oblivion, Ravenous Squirrel and Tribute to the World Tree.

Once he’s here, we can cast/summon the treasure-generating stuff. Some prime examples would include Pitiless Plunderer, Prosperous Innkeeper, Revel in Riches, Ruthless Knave and Tireless Provisioner. Who says we need to stop at generating bling though? Let’s get some Food in here; Experimental Confectioner or Hazel's Brewmaster can help with that. Or maybe some Clues? Enter Tireless Tracker! And if we’re generating any one of these types of tokens, we can add Academy Manufactor to generate one of each instead. We can make it even crazier than this and start summoning other ways to create creature tokens as well. Ideas on this include Awaken the Woods, Bastion of Remembrance, Chitterspitter, Pest Infestation and Scurry Oak. If we can keep Shatterfang around while some of this enters the field and starts being used, … squirrels galore, baby!

Mid-game

With some basic tokens coming out, one ought to bet they’ll be used (up). So, if behooves us to get some profiteering in here to get this party started in earnest. Cheap stuff probably comes in first. Blood Artist, Mirkwood Bats, Nadier's Nightblade, The Meathook Massacre and Zulaport Cutthroat are all excellent alternatives to put in some drain hurt. Tokens can also be used for other benefits, like draw (Ravenous Squirrel and Yawgmoth, Thran Physician) and the forcing of opposing sacrifices (Grave Pact). Obviously, we won’t get rid of all our tokens. We need quite a few of them to put on some combat hurt. When we’re not using them for that, we can also have cards like Cryptolith Rite and Jaheira, Friend of the Forest make them very potent mana generators.

By the time we reach turns six through eight, we should have reached a point where our field is saturated with plenty of (different) tokens. Attacks should be carried out by them for the most part, while we keep our actual token-generators in reserve out of harms way. The creation of and attacking with (squirrel-) tokens can be paired with strengthening them and other creatures (through Banner of Kinship, Camellia, the Seedmiser, Ivy Lane Denizen and Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest), making them unblockable with Champion of Lambholt and/or making them help us gain more card-advantage through cards like The Odd Acorn Gang and Toski, Bearer of Secrets.

End-game

Closing out games with this deck can be decidedly fun; mostly because of the ridiculous nature of some ending moves. An interesting set of combos (for details, see next section) can grant infinite life, cause infinite drain, create infinite tokens and much more. Then there’s some of the more ridiculous token generators that can really churn out tokens like there’s no tomorrow. Examples include Avenger of Zendikar, Bootleggers' Stash, Mycoloth, Old Gnawbone and Parallel Lives; especially when combined with Chatterfang, Squirrel General! Once they’ve been generated, sac them for more value or attack with them; either options is almost guaranteed to pull in wins.

Combos

Note that by adding cards like Academy Manufactor, Parallel Lives and of course Chatterfang, Squirrel General himself, all of the above combos would create many additional benefits than the ones already mentioned, including infinite creature tokens, infinite coloured mana, infinite life and nigh infinite draw.

Card Choices

Lands

Reliable sources of mana, and some utility:

Bloodstained Mire/Marsh Flats/Misty Rainforest/Verdant Catacombs/Windswept Heath/Wooded Foothills: the lands used to filter through the deck, which makes it easier to find cards that impact strategy quicker.
Command Tower/Mana Confluence/Reflecting Pool: great all-color mana lands that have very few disadvantages in their use.
Gaea's Cradle: generation of mana based on all critters (including the squirrels).
Llanowar Wastes/Tainted Wood/Temple of Malady/Twilight Mire/Undergrowth Stadium/Woodland Cemetery: lands that provide Golgari mana, that depending in circumstances enter the battlefield tapped or untapped. The best MTG has to offer on this front has been incorporated, except for the original dual lands which are outside most players’ price-range.
Shizo, Death's Storehouse: can make it much harder for our opponents to block one of our creatures.
Swarmyard: a lot of squirrels (even some rats) will benefit from this land’s granting of regenerative powers to them.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: just some mana-fixing, in case it’s needed.
Westvale Abbey : sacrifice a few tiny creatures for one very dangerous, big one.
Yavimaya Hollow: a great tool to keep valuable creatures alive and kicking.

Mana and ramp

The cards used to accelerate mana-availability:

Arcane Signet: cheap-to-cast, comes into play untapped and grants Golgari mana.
Ashnod's Altar: creatures need not die in vain, they can still contribute their life-force to the cause of winning through powering other spells.
Birds of Paradise: one of the most quintessential dorks in MTG; excellent in multi-color decks that feature green.
Burgeoning: most EDH-groups consist of at least four players. This means that if one plays this on an early turn, the amount of possible advantage this enchantment alone over the others can be positively huge.
Circle of Dreams Druid: the creature-form of Gaea's Cradle.
Cryptolith Rite: turning all our creatures into mana sources greatly accelerates the deck’s speed and allows for more significant forces to appear much faster.
Harvest Season: an excellent sorcery in any token deck, with the potential to grab all its basic lands in one fell swoop.
Hazel of the Rootbloom: at the cost of some life and the tapping of tokens, we can create mana of whatever colours we need.
Jaheira, Friend of the Forest: tokens (not just creatures!) ought to be mana sources too.
Nature's Lore/Rampant Growth/Three Visits: cheap-to-cast, green ramp spells; some of which bring untapped lands onto the battlefield.
Sol Ring: are there EDH decks without this card?

Card Advantage

The mechanisms that provide card advantage:

Demonic Tutor: the most well-known tutor in MTG’s history, and also one of the most (cost-)effective ones.
Finale of Devastation: a tutor that can make all the deck’s creatures explode with power.
Idol of Oblivion: since there won’t be a turn in which we’re not generating tokens, this becomes one of the deck’s most reliable draw-resources.
Moldervine Reclamation: for EVERY death, this deck gets to draw and gets life.
Ravenous Squirrel: some mana and a small sacrifice … BOOM, we draw!
The Odd Acorn Gang: Chattergang’s friends are about to cause some major draw … on our side.
Toski, Bearer of Secrets: you’d better not let these creatures through, it’ll make you lose even faster.
Tribute to the World Tree: either our creatures become stronger when entering the battlefield OR we are allowed to draw when they’re already strong by themselves.
Vampiric Tutor: like its Demonic variant, it’s cheap to cast (even cheaper actually), but it does come at the cost of 2 life. Also, we can’t immediately draw it but we put it on top of the library instead. Ow well, all the more reason to cast it during an opponent’s turn.
Yawgmoth, Thran Physician: another excellent resource that allows for draw when we pay through the sacrifice of a creature.

Tokens

Let’s go wide while providing Chatterfang a chance to interact!/strong>

Damage, Destruction and Pain

Stuff must die, and when it does, you must suffer!

Abrupt Decay: hide your low-cmc but high-value stuff!
Agent of the Iron Throne: an opportunity for Chatterfang to get even more powerful than he already is; not just generating tokens but also the means to make use of them should they perish.
Assassin's Trophy: it dies … have fun with your land!
Bastion of Remembrance: some more drain to apply whenever something dies on this side of the battlefield.
Blood Artist: something dies, someone (or something) experiences some pain, and we get to gain a bit more life.
Grave Pact: we lose some, you lose some.
Mirkwood Bats: this is arguably the worst pain-engine in the deck, as it (potentially) punishes opponents twice for tokens on our end.
Nadier's Nightblade: any token (so not just creatures) leaving our side of the field will cause some serious drain.
Pest Infestation: destroys up to however many artifacts/enchantments we need to get rid of in exchange for twice the amount of bugs; a lot of fun to combine this one with Chatterfang.
The Meathook Massacre: not just a drain generator, but also acts as a wipe when it enters the battlefield!
Valley Rotcaller: when combined with Chatterfang, we’ve had this beauty outright kill opponents in this deck; sometimes multiple opponents simultaneously.
Zulaport Cutthroat: he inflicts pain only when something of ours dies, but he does hurt everyone in one go.

Boosts and Utility

To make ourselves even stronger than we already were.

Banner of Kinship: get this on the battlefield when squirrels are numerous, to turn them all into insane-sized, rodent behemoths.
Champion of Lambholt: in this deck, one is guaranteed of many creatures entering the battlefield, which means this creature is going to be huge while everything that’s weaker than her becomes unblockable.
Heroic Intervention: nothing of our stuff gets targeted or destroyed this turn!
Ivy Lane Denizen: massively helpful in a deck with this many green creatures entering the battlefield; can thereby strengthen any number of useful creatures.
Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest: exceptionally strong booster in a token deck.
Meren of Clan Nel Toth: one of the best multi-colour recursion enablers in existence. Even without any experience counters, we can still take something back into our hands from our graveyard every turn.
Ygra, Eater of All: she consumes and becomes ever stronger, which is easy for an entity that turns everything into food.

Notable exclusions

Craterhoof Behemoth: by all means, feel free to include this in your own version. It’s powerful and in many circumstances even game-endingly so. However, this deck sacrificed it for a bit more flavour (it still has many other great boosters for its creature tokens).

Thank you for reading!

Appreciate the time you took to read this primer. Hopefully it was entertaining and useful to you. If so, feel free to leave a +1 and/or feedback of any kind in the comments below. Thanks again!

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98% Casual

Competitive

Date added	4 days
Last updated	3 days
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	17 - 0 Mythic Rares 47 - 0 Rares 18 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.14
Tokens	Clue, Copy Clone, Eldrazi 10/10 C, Experience Token, Food, Forest Dryad 1/1 G, Human Cleric 1/1 WB, Human Soldier 1/1 W, Pest 1/1 BG, Plant 0/1 G, Rat 1/1 B w/ Can't Block, Saproling 1/1 G, Squirrel 1/1 G, Treasure
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