Derevi Tokens! (Commander / EDH MTG Deck)

Derevi Tokens!

Commander / EDH* Casual GWU (Bant) Tokens

atomskprime

Land (35)

Tokens (8)

Equipment (1)

1x Skullclamp

Ramp (14)

Utility (10)

Draw (6)

TokenSupport (4)

Commander (1)

Tutor (12)

Removal (9)

Deck Intro and Concept

When I brewed Derevi, I wanted to avoid strategies involving STAX or prison-like effects. Although fairly powerful, most tables do not appreciate fighting through a table-wide lockdown. Instead, I wanted to design a list that leveraged both of her activated and passive abilities in a more palatable manner. Derevis activated ability allows her to circumvent the commander tax, thus making her a repeatable target for Birthing Pod. Her passive allows us to either abuse tap abilities or reuse mana sources for the second main phase. When I looked at these abilities combined, I felt that a token strategy fit best.

Tokens have several notable disadvantages in multiplayer EDH. In order to wipe a player from a game, a tokens deck will need a critical mass of power and an opening to attack. Without effects like Avenger of Zendikar or Storm Herd, tokens will take time to amass and will inevitably telegraph a win condition. In addition, most EDH metas have enough wraths and removal to keep a large army at reasonable size.

With Derevi at the helm, a single token can contribute some value outside of combat. The untap/tap ability allows a token to re-enable mana sources after Main Phase 1. If the current situation doesnt call for open mana, tokens can untap themselves to chump incoming damage.

Birthing Pod and Captain Sisay

Derevi supports both Birthing Pod and Captain Sisay as powerful card engines. Between the two engines, Derevi can help draw the following:

Pod List

Sisay List

Sisay clearly provides more value than Birthing Pod. Keeping Sisay alive with Derevi can easily net 3-4 cards before heading into Main Phase 2.

As deck engines, Pod and Sisay offer ways for our deck to adapt and address the present board. To avoid a complete shutdown, the list does not lean too heavily into either engine piece. Without Sisay and Pod, the list can still function (albeit at a less rapid pace)

Early and Mid Game

During early game, well want a hand with at least some form of ramp (preferably a mana dork like Birds of Paradise) and card draw/tutor. The early mana dork will often enable a turn 2 Derevi. From there, we can use Derevi to make our Main Phase 1 (M1) and Main Phase 2 (M2) mana use efficient.

While casting Derevi on turn 2 can enable some powerful plays, some situations call for casting our commander at later times. For example, a hand with 3 lands, a mana dork, and Selvala, Explorer Returned will benefit from Derevi on Turn 3. Casting Selvala first in this scenario allows us the following chain:

Land for turn, Mana Dork
Land for turn, Selvala
Tap Selvala for mana, cast Derevi. Untap Selvala with Derevi trigger. If possible, attack Selvala into an open player. Derevi passive trigger, untap Selvala. Tap Selvala for Main Phase 2 (M2) use.

This line of play nets us some life gain, some green mana, and card draw in M1 and M2. Since we run a decently lean curve, we can use the mana generated in M2 to cast additional dorks or smaller spells.

Around turns 4 through 6, we need to rapidly building a board state or addressing immediate threats. If the board doesnt have too many creatures, we can start building tokens by finding a Planeswalker or creature generator. If the board requires a wipe, then well need a wrath effect before we start tokens.

Late Game

Once we start building tokens, we should start searching for a win condition. For token support, we have 4 main cards that will accelerate combat:

Cathars' Crusade With repeatable token generation, this can start pumping our army fairly quickly.
True Conviction Great at restabilizing our board if were low at life.
Shalai, Voice of Plenty With enough mana, we can slowly pump our team. The hexproof aura can also protect key creatures like Sisay from targeted removal.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite The hyper anthem Elesh provides immediately grows our team and makes combat difficult for opponents.

To support our win conditions, we run both Monk Idealist and Auramancer to recur our power enchantments. Sisay can find Shalai and Elesh Norn to give our tokens a stat boost. Since we run limited win conditions, we need to time spells and abilities carefully. Our deck will fold hard in the event we lose all 4 token support spells.

Thoughts and Considerations

Throughout this write-up, I considered changing Derevi to Anafenza, the Foremost several times. The color shift to Abzan provides more synergy with token based strategies. In exchange for blue, black grants us powerful tutors, more token creation, and utility in the form of reanimation/creature recursion. Abzan gives us access to sacrifice outlets and effects that would grind an opponents resources. For example, Sadistic Hypnotist and Blood Artist gain enormous value when paired with free tokens to sacrifice. Moving to Anafenza and Abzan colors would mean losing consistent Birthing Pod chains and utilizing Sisay for tap/untap cycles. This would make tutoring for token outlets and utility creatures more difficult. In addition, the loss of blue means no Snapcaster and a serious hit our card draw resources. Lastly, Anafenza herself has less synergy with a tokens-based strategy.

As for deck changes, the list does not feature cards like Flash, Protean Hulk, or Academy Rector. Protean Hulk demands its own list and build-around strategy. While Flash and Academy Rector can tutor out an enchantment at instant speed, Flash alone doesnt synergize with any other creature. Cards like Anointed Procession, Doubling Season, and Paralell Lives may make their way into the list at some point. I hesitated on such cards due to the mana cost and very narrow application. Even at 4 CMC, Anointed Procession does not impact the board without a token generator. At 4 CMC and above, the deck has enough slots taken up. Drawing into Procession without a token enabler essentially forces us to waste a turn or cast it in the same turn we have a generator. Either way, the synergy cards like Procession provides does warrant serious consideration for future edits.

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Casual

95% Competitive

Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 0 Mythic Rares 52 - 0 Rares 12 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.89
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Cat Soldier 1/1 W, City's Blessing, Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Emblem Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Emblem Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Human 1/1 W, Knight Ally 2/2 W, Plant 0/1 G, Saproling 1/1 G, Soldier 1/1 W, Thopter 1/1 C
Folders	Decks I Like to Play
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