Rith
“The circle is begun again. It is but a short arc now. When it is complete, no one will be able to stand before the nation of dragons.”
—Rith, to Darigaaz, from Planeshift by J. Robert King

If you're a lover of Dragons throughout the history of Magic, and had the pleasure of reading the Invasion block novels then you know how freakin' amazing the Primevals were. When even Yawgmoth, the ultimate baddie, tried to prevent their revival by having his minions destroy Darigaaz's tomb, you knew their combined power as a pantheon was enough to threaten Yawgy and thwart his invasion. As you may have guessed, the cunning and clever Rith was my favorite Primeval. She took a focal point in the novel beside Darigaaz, deviously manipulating him to awaken their immortal brethern by sacrificing mortal dragons. When Rith, Darigaaz, Treva and Dromar plunge into Urborg to awaken Crosis during the coalition's final battle against Tsabo's forces and all five Primevals are reborn as gods and start reigning destruction on everything and everyone, it was a thing of absolute draconic beauty! I can't say enough about how cool the Primevals were, they stole the show for me in the Planeshift novel when I read it as a kid and I hope they revisit them again some day in the lore. Maybe when we return to Dominaria in the upcoming set?? Darigaaz is reborn and he is all that is needed to start the cycle of their rebirth. Rith might be whispering in his mind and he is fighting with every fiber of his being to resist the call to free his brothers and sisters, but let's face it, the heroes will need all the help they can get against the Phyrexians and that might be all Darigaaz needs to think it's a good idea to revive a pantheon of elder dragon gods!

There's probably a better option for a tokens matter commander in Naya, but Rith, the Awakener is nothing to snooze at. She can pump out a ton of sapos because her ability accounts for ALL nonland permaments of a color on board, not just yours, so always keep that in mind and how that benefits your strategy. There's been games where I don't even cast Rith because this deck doesn't need her to win, but her effect synergizes with everything you'll be doing so having the option to have something like that in the command zone is never a bad thing.

Tokens make this deck go, so pumping them out as early as you can is your main objective. This deck wants to utilize your early turns to build your foundation and it'll hit its stride around turn 5-7, and you're looking to win around turn 10, but it can certainly win faster depening on how things break down for you. This deck can win via combat with cards like Cathars' Crusade, Jetmir, Nexus of Revels, or even Phabine, Boss's Confidant coupled with something like a big Champion of Lambholt. There's a myriad of ways to bag a kill via combat, but you can always go the easy route with effects like Purphoros, God of the Forge, Impact Tremors, or Goblin Bombardment with a shit ton of tokens. The snowball ability of this deck should not be underestimated. If you have an altar or Cryptolith Rite along with a draw engine out you can easily draw a large chunk of your deck and wrap the game up within that turn.

Tokens is what makes this deck go and you'll want as many on the board as possible to make all of your mana producing, card drawing, and opponent attacking dreams come true. We'll hightlight some of the big bangers in this section.

Adeline, Resplendent Cathar This lady is an absolute house in a token deck. What sets her apart from all your other attack trigger token generators is that she herself does not need to attack. She can come down with summoning sickness and you will still get her effect off by swining with something that was already on board. Adeline is a PROBLEM that only gets bigger and bigger the longer she's on your board and has to be dealth with.

Cadira, Caller of the Small Another little problem in the same vein as Adeline that needs to be dealth with a quickness or she'll overrun the board with bunnies. She won't make tokens by herself, so you'll want to drop her when you have tokens on board or you know you'll get a token machine rolling that turn or the turn after when you swing.

Avenger of Zendikar What can you say about Avenger? He's a classic token factory that you see in just about every token deck that dips into the green slice of the color pie.

Tana, the Bloodsower fits nicely into the whole token making strategy, but being a 2/2 she'll sometimes need a little support in order to connect safely so keep that in mind.

Rhys the Redeemed you don't play this guy turn 1 because he's just an easy kill target at 1/1. Hold back until you can generate some value off his second ability would be my recommendation. Having a haste enabler on board would be optimal so you could just slam him down and overload your board on the same turn.

Rose Room Treasurer This guy synergizes with a lot of what you'll be doing in this deck, which is making tokens, and he'll fly under the radar in most games. In order to maxamize his effectiveness you'll want a token generator like Tendershoot Dryad, Arasta of the Endless Web, Dragon Broodmother, etc. making you tokens every turn. Depending on what you got going on this guy could also be a nice little finisher with his final damage trigger that hits ANY target.

Arasta of the Endless Web every time i think about putting her on the bench to try a new card I play a game where she's just flat out awesome. Her tokens have reach, which is always nice, and good luck if someone tries to storm out with her and an Impact Tremors out.

Tendershoot Dryad if your opponents are smart they won't let her stick on the board for long, but she's awesome at pooping out tokens on your opponent's turns for the creaturefall cards and everything else you got going on.

Dragon Broodmother she's worth every bit of mana you spend into casting her. She's a nice sac outlet for Fecundity to boot.

Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin not much to say about Krenko outside of that he makes more and more gobos each time you swing with him.

Phabine, Boss's Confidant she can make tokens, buff your board, and draw cards for the table so she'll usually stick around for a bit, but that haste enabler for tokens is what makes her deadly.

Grand Crescendo Instant speed makes the versatility of this card top notch in my books. It will not only make you a ton of tokens, but also save your board in a pinch.

March of the Multitudes This is a nice little card to have up your sleeve because it lets you surprise your opponents with convoke if you're completely tapped out, but have tokens out to make this spell pack a punch.

Secure the Wastes Unlike many of your other X token spells this takes only 1 white pip and the rest is just poured into token making goodness.

Awaken the Woods This deck loves X spells because it takes advantage of all those tokens with certain utility pieces to make mana. This spell takes care of both making tokens and providing mana and the forest dryads come in with haste to boot!

Finale of Glory What's better than 10 soldiers with vigilance? 10 angels with vigilance to go along with them.

Anointed Procession and Parallel Lives There's not much to be said here. Instead of 1 token, you get 2, and we like more tokens.

You want your tokens to keep your hand full and these cards will help you do that.

Bennie Bracks, Zoologist Works similarly like Rumor Gatherer and Rose Room Treasurer where you're ideally making tokens on your opponents turns as well as your own. Bennie also comes with the token flagship ability of convoke so he can come out early and start filling your hand back up.

Ohran Frostfang Turns all your weenies into deathtouch hand fillers.

Toski, Bearer of Secrets Great card advantage for a go-wide strategy. You don't get the added benefit of deathtouch, like Ohran Frostfang, but when you go wide you're bound to trigger Toski.

Rite of Harmony This card can be absolutely bonkers, especially if you're looking to have a big token output turn with an X spell and it has flashback.

Fecundity Sure, it also potentially gives your opponents cards, but when we have a sac outlet on board nobody will be able to abuse the draw triggers like this deck will be doing.

Sylvan Library Always pay the 8!

Skullclamp This deck runs 3 artifacts and there isn't one much better than this to fill your hand back up with an army of weenies on your board.

Gaea's Cradle a quintessential piece of ramp when your gameplan is to flood the board with dudes.

Circle of Dreams Druid Cradle on a stick, 'nuff said.

Growing Rites of Itlimoc   Cradle 2.0...this will help you dig for a creature and flip into a Cradle on your end step if you control 4 or more creatures, easy enough, right?

Dockside Extortionist we all know what this little monkey does, plus he synergizes with your token gameplan.

Professional Face-Breaker I don't need to sing his virtues here, but not only does he ramp you, but if you want to see new cards just sac a treasure.

Cryptolith Rite tap your myriad of dudes for any color of mana. This is easily something you'll find yourself digging for to feed into your strategy.

Song of Freyalise Cryptolith Rite 2.0. For it's last chapter it wants you to swing out or boardwipe while keeping your board intact.

Druids' Repository if you're swining out with an army of tokens, you'll want this card out, and they don't even need to connect because you add counters with the attack trigger. In most instances you're not going to care if those tokens die because they'll replace themselves with the mana you're going to be generating.

Smothering Tithe besies being one of the hottest cards in recent memory, it provides token synergy with several other pieces.

Jaheira, Friend of the Forest she turns all your tokens into dorks, including treasures if you want to keep them around for later.

Utopia Mycon this little terror always flys under the radar, but he's basically an altar for sapos. The number of tokens you're making when Rith connects is never a paltry amount, so this guy will always pay off and thensome.

Wild Growth / Utopia Sprawl these essentially do the same thing with some minor differences between them. They're both fantastic cards for 1 cmc.

Phyrexian Altar / Ashnod's Altar these cards are obviously amazing and must haves when your deck can generate sac fodder.

Austere Command I tend to run this over Farewell in decks where I can run tricks that preserve my board while everyone else waves goodbye to theirs.

By Invitation Only Whose going to sac 13 creatures and still have a board? The token deck!

Descent of the Dragons this acts like spot removal for opponents if they have a dangerous creature you want to get rid of while you target 20 of your 1/1 sapos.

Pest Infestation get rid of pesky enchantements or artifacts and make double the tokens. This card is absolutely amazing in a token deck.

Subterranean Tremors this is basically a boardwipe for non-flyers and a vandalblast wrapped into one card, and if you have enough mana you get a big chungus as well.

Vandalblast I usually run this if I'm running red, especially as of late with so much treasure producing cards pushed.

Out of Time this card won't make you any friends. If the board is getting a little crazy for your liking and you got, let's say 5 tokens, wave goodbye to everything for as many turns as there were creatures that were phased out.

Nature's Claim cheap instant speed removal that hits artifacts and enchantments. If you run green as one of your main colors, you should run this like 99% of the time.

Path to Exile /Swords to Plowshares a couple of commander staples that are in the same vein as Nature's Claim in that they're cheap instant speed removal that should go in just about any deck running white.

Goblin Bombardment You can pick small creatures off very easily, as well as low life opponents.

Aura Shards absolutely amazing card in a token deck. If your opponents threat assessment is on point and they run removal this won't stay on your board for long so be smart about playing it.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Adding a primer...slowly but surely, or a primer to the best of my ability. I've been updating this deck for several years now and if anyone is interested as to why I made the card choices I made, how they fit with the overall strategy of the deck, or are interested in putting together and piloting this deck or something similar I figured a primer will help.

Comments

96% Casual

Competitive

Revision 204 See all

(1 year ago)

-1 Rhys the Redeemed main
+1 Wildfire Awakener main
Date added 8 years
Last updated 1 year
Legality

This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

16 - 0 Mythic Rares

65 - 0 Rares

11 - 0 Uncommons

5 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.04
Tokens Angel 4/4 W w/ Vigilance, Citizen 1/1 GW, City's Blessing, Copy Clone, Dragon 1/1 RG, Dragon 4/4 R, Elemental 1/1 R w/ Haste, Elemental 1/1 R w/ Pinging, Forest Dryad 1/1 G, Goblin 1/1 R, Human 1/1 W, Kobolds of Kher Keep 0/1 R, Lizard 8/8 R, Pest 1/1 BG, Plant 0/1 G, Rabbit 1/1 W, Saproling 1/1 G, Satyr 2/2 GR, Soldier 1/1 W w/ Lifelink, Soldier 2/2 W, Spider 1/2 G, Treasure, Warrior 1/1 W
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