Hello happy people! I hope that your day is delicious! Today I want to look at another leader from Crimson Vow for a Commander brew. You cannot have a Red Wedding without a groom, and we'll be looking at the groom part of the wedding later on.

Let's look at my previous stuff I've written for these sets.

1. I created a deck around Runo Stromkirk. When I built it, it hadn't been added to EDHREC.com, but in the first week there are already 120 decks built around it! People love him as much as I do! I built around the flavor of copying the Deep Sea tribe and have natural good entries there like Deep-Sea Kraken, flipping him reliably with expensive cycling creatures like Scion of Darkness, adding in creatures that have triggers you'd love to get twice such as Aethersnipe, and then some tribe washing like Conspiracy. You can find this awesome deck here.
2. Then I took the really interesting Golgari leader Old Rutstein and his Peasant self out for a spin! Since all three of his abilities make tokens, I dug deep in token doubling effects like Doubling Season, Blood-matters cards in Black from the same set like Falkenrath Forebear, Treasure cards like Academy Manufactor and Grim Hireling, and loads of Food, Treasure, Blood and Clue making cards for the win! It's really a fun deck...enjoy it here! This may wind up being my favorite build from the set.
3. Next, I wrote around the really cool Odric, Blood-Cursed, which was a fun synergy of keywords-matter like Akroma, Vision of Ixidor, as well as artifact matters cards like Nettlecyst and Akiri, Line-Slinger. We also have Blood makers and matters card from the Red half of Rakdos's theme, like Olivia's Attendants and Arterial Alchemy. I even found space to blink Odric a few times with things like Flickerwisp and Teleportation Circle. Check it out here!
4. Then I created a deck around the popular Umbris, Fear Manifest from the Commander set that debuted with the set. For this Nightmare Horror you need to exile your opponents' stuff, so I have graveyard exiling like Relic of Progenitus and Planar Void, exiling counters like Dissipate, exiling removal like Vraska's Contempt, exiling milling like Tasha's Hideous Laughter, and exile from a library like Sadistic Sacrament. Enjoy this nasty brew here!

Today?

We are building around Edgar part two! The original Edgar Markov is one of the most played Commanders in the game with 5,562 decks registered and is the fifth most-played leader! This isn't. It just has 106 decks after a while. Not the same thing, I hear you. The decks over at EDHREC.com are building an Orzhov Vampire deck around him, which makes sense. He's an on curve 4/4 for 4 mana that pumps all (other) Vampires by +1/+1 and when he dies he heads back into his Coffin. That will make a 1/1 Vampire with lifelink on your upkeep and put a bloodline counter on the Coffin. When the bloodline counter hits three, he emerges from the Coffin and heads back out. Orzhov Vampires makes sense.

But...it's a flavor foul. How so? Orzhov was Vampires in one place. The Vampire Conquistador faction of the Ixalan plane. To make this work you'll need to lean into that block heavily and that's the wrong place. But I have an idea that works with Edgar that will do something else entirely. Orzhov Tokens. This archetype debuted in the first Innistrad block around cards like Lingering Souls and Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. This deck archetype was made by his kin! I'll want ways to sacrifice Edgar into his Coffin self and make tokens with him, and while many tokens are pumpable as Vampires, many won't be, so the front side won't be as meaningful.

We'll still include token making Vampires and things from other sets as this isn't deep enough for just Innistrad, but the Innistrad sets will be our major contributors to this brew.

Ready for my Orzhov Tokens brew?

Arguably the best Commander for Orzhov Tokens was just printed recently in Thalisse. As you can see, this 3/4 can make a bunch of 1/1 flying Spirit tokens during each end stop equal to the number of tokens you made that turn. Note that she'll make creature tokens from any token you make from Blood to Treasure to Clue. Nasty right? I think so as well!

Check out this duo of awesome. The Elder Dragon is here because of his combat trigger, but he's fine otherwise. He's a flying double strike 2/5 for 5 mana that can really punch the board around. When you begin your combat, you have three options, one you can choose for yourself and one you can give a foe. It's a may effect. Ideally, you want to create a 2/1 flying Inkling token dork while you give a foe with just one or no dorks a +1/+1 counter on each of their dorks. However, there are times when you want to +1/+1 your big team and instead you can force someone to draw a card and lose a life, or maybe give them a 2/1 since you aren't swinging their way. On a naked board you might just want to use him as a Phyrexian Arena on a stick. Good stuff!

The transforming Vampire is nasty here. He gets pumped by Edgar. He's a 3/3 flying for 4 mana that's on curve and can tap and make a 2/2 flying Vampire token, which is also pumped by Edgar. If you control 5 or more Vampires, you can transform him and double pump your Vampires as well as fly for 5/5 and can still tap to make them. Note that the tappings are mana free! Good pair!

Adeline, Resplendent Cathar was heavily pushed in power, and I built a nasty creature heavy deck that wants to kill with her by the fifth turn with Commander damage which you can check out here. She's also mega-powerful in a token going wide brew like this one which can really push your deck around. Attack as many foes as you have and you can make a ton of tokens with Adeline, and that's powerful stuff. This thing is nasty in a going wide brew with as many tokens as you have and is broken with Thalisse. Good card for the brew!

Let's pump our tokens up with this creature duo! We also have more anthems in here like Intangible Virtue. Teysa can pump up all your creature tokes by giving them vigilance and lifelink, a nasty combo. Vigilance is amazing here in multiplayer as you can swing at an open dork and keep your horde ready to block attackers that might attack you or your friends. I also love Prava here as well since it'll pump your team +1/+4 on your turn, which is pretty good. You can also activate Prava for 4 mana and make a 1/1 Soldier token, which is a nice mana sink which works nicely with cards like Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. Good pumping combo!

Let's add in another Teysa. This is the first Teysa printed ever! As you can see, she's a nice 2/3 for 3 mana that can sacrifice three dorks and then exile a dork. Many of our tokens are White and Black, so they can easily be sacrificed to exile a problem like a Pathbreaker Ibex that just arrived to the party. Also, as your black stuff dies (including tokens) you can make a 1/1 White Spirit token with flying, which is amazing together. If you sacrifice three of those tokens then you'll make three White flyers which can be sacrificed to take out another dork. That's the end of that group of tokens, although trading three tokens to exile two dorks permanently is a nice play.

Can you see why our second look at Kalitas is here? He's a Vampire for Edgar's pumping, and he's a nice 3/4 with lifelink for 4 mana, which is just okay size wise for cost without his abilities. As opposing nontoken dorks die, you exile that card permanently, which is a nice break on recursion. And then you can get a 2/2 Zombie token from that exiling. Nice! And then you can sacrifice a Zombie from Kalitas or a Vampire from somewhere else and then load up two +1/+1 counters on this card, which is fine and dandy, just like candy!

And then check out Harmonious Archon! I have a few dorks that bring tokens to the battlefield when they arrive, but I wanted to highlight this one as it's amazing in a token build. As you can see, all non-Archons have a 3/3 base power and toughness, so your 1/1 Humans you made on arrival are now 3/3s, which is 10/11 power and toughness across three bodies for 6 mana - nice. Every other token from Spirits to Vampires to Zombies to Inklings are smaller than 3/3 and will be pumped up, while big stuff like your foe's Avatar of Woe are now just 3/3s and will trade with your tokens, which only you want to see as that's great card advantage for you. I wish this unique card was a legendary dork so you could build around it, as it's a very strong card!

Check out the Court. On arrival you gain the monarchy and draw a card. With your tokens, you should be able to keep people from taking it back and drawing cards over time. The vigilance from Teysa will help swing and keep your monarchy at the same time. During your upkeep, if you are not the Monarch you make a free Spirit and if you are then you make a nasty 4/4 flying Angel instead. Good free creatures over time!

Check out this Standard-legal rare from the Silverquill School of Language. After it arrives it pumps your token team by +1/+1. When one (or more) non tokens you control die you can create a 2/1 White and Black Inkling with flying, although just once a turn. Nice stuff!

Every deck should have mass answers to stuff in case things get out of hand. Your deck has the same need as any other, even though it's far into the creature zone. Enter this trio. The first card is a classic mass removal spell for tokens and going wide decks, since you can just put 4 into the X and make 4 dorks and keep up the pressure if you don't need the sweepage. Otherwise, you'll get a fat number of 1/1 Soldiers on a Day of Judgment for everything else. That's pretty cool from where I am sitting! Strixhaven introduced another variant on this that's two colors, which is...your colors in an Orzhov build! This time you'll make X 2/1 Inking flyers. If it's 6 or more, you also get a mass removal spell for all non-dorks, non-lands which is pretty good for the cause. Check out the final one! You can sweep all non-token dorks, which is some of your stuff, and all of your foes. I really like this when you control Edgar as you can put him to his Coffin for free. Good stuff!

Check out this card. It really wants to go on the 4/4 Edgar, Charmed Groom. When it does, your leader gets defender and can tap with two generic mana and give your other stuff +4/+4 until the end of the turn, which is pretty nasty in this sort of build! I only have one other piece of equipment here, the obvious card drawing machine Skullclamp, as normal things like Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots to give haste or protect your leader aren't needed here and would be a waste of slots.

I have a ton of planeswalkers in this brew - a dirty dozen to be precise. That is more than I have run in my weekly Commander deck for months. I can't remember the last time I ran a double-digit number of planeswalkers. They are ideal in a token brew for a few reasons. First, your tokens can keep them alive for longer than they otherwise might do so, and that's really strong here. Secondly, many of them make tokens and thus can join the team as mechanical powerhouses. Most of the 12 here do. Let's turn to many of the 'walkers that made the cut.

Let's kick things off with two of the most powerful planeswalkers in their colors. The former one is a 5 mana 4 loyalty walker that has two nice abilities. His +2 can make two 0/1 Thrull tokens which are great for pumping and blocking attacks on planeswalkers. His +1 can sacrifice a dork or planeswalker to draw two cards, three if it's Edgar! You'll love to do that with him and then swap him over to the Coffin side. You can also swap a token like his 0/1 Thrull for two cards, which is great card flow. The latter card is amazing here, as a 6 cost 4 loyalty that has a +1 to churn out three 1/1 Soldiers for positive loyalty, nasty. Her -3 to destroy everything with a size or 4 or more power is also very strong here since your stuff will rarely qualify. Each of these are among the most powerful mono-colored planeswalkers in their colors for Commander.

Sorin is the grandson of our Commander so let's toss in some Markov Scion versions. The Solemn Visitor is a powerful 4-drop that can +1 it's 4 loyalty to give your team lifelink and +1 for the turn. Nice before an attack and a big life swing with a large body. I really love his -2 here to make a 2/2 Vampire with flying that is pumped by Granddaddy. Nice! The Grim Nemesis is here for that +1 of card flow. Reveal the top card of your library and draw it and then force your foes to lose life equal to its casting cost. You can also -X this six loyalty dork to drain life from a target dork or fellow walker of the planes which is nice board control and can remove a potential blocker for your horde.

Check out this mono-White power couple. Elspeth is great here and can -2 to churn out two 1/1 Soldiers. You can do it twice, which is good token making quickly. Then you can -1 and kill her to pump two dorks up +2/+1 and recast her and keep up the pressure with two more dorks that turn. Do use her escape a lot, since it's the only graveyard using card in the brew. I tossed in mass graveyard removal answers like Scavenger Grounds and Relic of Progenitus. Gideon is amazing here as another four-drop. He can +1 and turn into a 5/5 and swing for the turn which is nice and good value on a naked board. He's here for the 0 to make a 2/2 Knight Ally dork. Good value for the mana cost, and if you want, you can just -4 him on arrival to give your team a permanent, unanswerable Glorious Anthem effect. Good power couple!

Here's a very different power couple. Lolth is an option that will toss on counters a-ga-ga when your stuff dies, and if you manage to get her to 8 loyalty from this death you can get a powerful emblem that can win the game quite ably in Commander as long as you have bodies to deal combat damage. Then you can 0 and draw a card and lose a life, nice card flow, and the -3 to churn out two 2/1 Black reaching Spiders is great value here. She has amazing synergy here! And then you have the most powerful Liliana ever printed for Commander. As your stuff (including tokens) dies, you will draw cards. You can +1 her starting 6 loyalty and make a 2/2 Zombie token, which you can sacrifice to Kalitas. Then you can -4 her to Barter in Blood the battlefield and you'll likely sacrifice two dorks and draw two cards. Maybe sacrifice Edgar, Charmed Groom and a token. Great fun!

Now let's leave behind planeswalkers and turn to lands!

Check out a trinity of lands. I want to reliably be able to swap Edgar over to the Coffin, and I don't want to waste spots on sacrifice effects elsewhere, so I dedicated three land spots to it. We can sacrifice Edgar for 2 mana, gain 1 life or gain 4 life. I like using this in response to exiling removal like Path to Exile that would send Edgar back to the Command Zone where we'd need to recast him with the Commander Tax. Keep one of these untapped so you can protect him. You can also sacrifice tokens or dying cards for life or mana as well to keep up the standards.

We need to make token creatures from loads of sources, so I tossed in this duo. The Castle is a powerful tapper of White mana that will usually enter the battlefield tapped. You can tap it and 4 mana and make a 1/1 Human dork. Love it at the end of the turn or to block a lethal attack on a planeswalker that otherwise appears open. Good card! I love the Abbey. You can tap it and 5 mana and pay a life for a 1/1 Cleric Human token. Note it's both colors for sacrificing to Teysa, Orzhov Scion. You can tap it and sacrifice five dorks to transform into the nasty Ormendahl that is a 9/7 with flying, lifelink, indestructible and haste. Nasty right? I also tossed in Urza's Factory to make tokens.

This pair of lands will sacrifice and make tokens! The first can sacrifice for 4 mana to make two 1/1 Soldiers. The second taps for Black and can sacrifice for 3 mana to make a strong 4/4 flying Angel warrior with vigilance. After you have used your mana and set up shop, these are great ways to keep up the creature flow or to make a dork at the end of a foe's turn and then swing on yours. Good stuff!

Let's leave lands behind (sorta). My initial decklist wound up with 62 cards and 38 lands, so I tossed in 6 modal land cards, including 5 from Zendikar Rising. I ran three obvious ones for a going wide token brew - Emeria's Call // Emeria, Shattered Skyclave that makes tokens, the creature saving Malakir Rebirth // Malakir Mire and Sejiri Shelter // Sejiri Glaciar and then a creature removal spell in Black. And then...for the first time ever in one of my brews, I tossed in Kabira Takedown // Kabira Plateau. Since we are going wide a lot, an instant way to answer a dork or remove a blocker is pretty good. You can also direct it at a planeswalker instead! Enjoy it!

Now let's turn to some cards from Crimson Vow.

Check out Kaya, Geist Hunter. As you can see, she is a powerful 3-loyalty 'walker that arrives early. She can +1 to give your stuff deathtouch and a +1/+1 counter on a token. No one will want to trade down their Consecrated Sphinx for your 1/1 flying Spirit with deathtouch that you made from Lingering Souls. You can also -2 her and double your tokens for the turn. Nasty stuff! I also tossed in the Procession to double your tokens as well!

Every Commander deck needs to draw cards, and a token deck is no different. We can draw cards with our small stuff entering the fray, hence the Vampire which plays into a similar space as the heavily used Soldier. As you can see, each costs 3 mana for a two-powered dork. The Vampire flies and has a bigger butt. And it's a Vampire for Edgar, Charmed Groom synergies. Flying is nice. As smaller things arrive under your control, you draw a card. You don't need to spend any mana or pay life or sacrifice another resource, it's free. But it only happens once per turn, so you'll have to spread out things like Castle Ardenvale on your foe's turns to draw more cards. The Human is a Commander standard that is played in 29,718 decks which is pretty big for White the least played color in the game. It does require a mana each time you have a small fry enter the battlefield to draw a card, but it's not otherwise limited. I see both getting a lot of play in the same builds, and we are running both here.

Our last planeswalker addition is the latest Sorin. We are adding in 2/3rds of the new planeswalkers into this brew! The Mirthless version is a four-drop 4-loyalty force for good that can +1 to look at the top card of your library and draw it if you want and lose life equal to its casting cost, like a reverse version of his Grim Nemesis version. You see it first and don't have to do it if the life isn't worth the card. Nice card flow though. I also really like his -2 to make a 2/3 flying, lifelinking force of Vampire loving nature, which works nicely with Grandad.

One more card and we'll call it!

This artifact is from the Commander set that debuted with Crimson Vow. As you can see, this will create a Blood token whenever a Vampire you control attacks, which is likely given our minor love of the tribe and its tokens here. Note that this will trigger Thalisse, Reverent Medium if you control her and you'll net a 1/1 Spirit with flying. And then you can tap it and a mana and spend a life to make a Vampire with lifelink. Vampires are good with Mr. Markov Founder and for the Blood attack trigger here. It's both colors for Teysa, Orzhov Scion. Then you can sacrifice the Heart and 13 Blood tokens to force all foes to lose 13 life and you gain it - highly unlikely here as you are pretty much going to 13 attacks to get it since this is the only source of Blood making in the brew and they'd be destroyed in a sweeping effect accidentally like Vandalblast or Akroma's Vengeance long before then. But hey, it's there in case weird stuff happens like you control both Anointed Procession and double tokens with Kaya, Geist Hunter.

And now let's move from deep dives into the decklist!

Edgar's Tokens | Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Edgar, Charmed Groom // Edgar Markov's Coffin

• Creatures (19)
• 1 Adeline, Resplendent Cathar
• 1 Bloodline Keeper
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1 Geist-Honored Monk
• 1 Grave Titan
• 1 Guardian of Faith
• 1 Harmonious Archon
• 1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
• 1 Mentor of the Meek
• 1 Prava of the Steel Legion
• 1 Shadrix Silverquill
• 1 Skeletal Vampire
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Teysa Karlov
• 1 Teysa, Orzhov Scion
• 1 Thalisse, Reverent Medium
• 1 Thraben Doomsayer
• 1 Welcoming Vampire

• Planeswalkers (12)
• 1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
• 1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 1 Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis
• 1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
• 1 Kaya, Geist Hunter
• 1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General
• 1 Lolth, Spider Queen
• 1 Sorin, Grim Nemesis
• 1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
• 1 Sorin the Mirthless
• 1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
• 1 Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools

• Instants (12)
• 1 Akroma's Will
• 1 Anguished Unmaking
• 1 Call the Coppercoats
• 1 Generous Gift
• 1 Hagra Mauling // Hagra Broodpit
• 1 Kabira Takedown // Kabira Plateau
• 1 Malakir Rebirth // Malakir Mire
• 1 Rootborn Defenses
• 1 Secure the Wastes
• 1 Sejiri Shelter // Sejiri Glacier
• 1 Teferi's Protection
• 1 Utter End

• Sorceries (9)
• 1 Blot out the Sky
• 1 Call to the Feast
• 1 Decree of Justice
• 1 Emeria's Call // Emeria, Shattered Skyclave
• 1 Hour of Reckoning
• 1 Increasing Devotion
• 1 Lingering Souls
• 1 Martial Coup
• 1 Vindicate

• Enchantments (9)
• 1 Anointed Procession
• 1 Cathars' Crusade
• 1 Court of Grace
• 1 Divine Visitation
• 1 Dramatic Finale
• 1 Felidar Retreat
• 1 Intangible Virtue
• 1 Legion's Landing // Adanto, the First Fort
• 1 Phyrexian Arena

• Artifacts (6)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Dragon Throne of Tarkir
• 1 Glass-Cast Heart
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Talisman of Hierarchy

• Lands (33)
• 4 Plains
• 4 Swamp
• 1 Ash Barrens
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Cabal Coffers
• 1 Cabal Stronghold
• 1 Castle Ardenvale
• 1 Caves of Koilos
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Great Hall of Starnheim
• 1 High Market
• 1 Memorial to Glory
• 1 Miren, the Moaning Well
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Orzhov Basilica
• 1 Phyrexian Tower
• 1 Scavenger Grounds
• 1 Shambling Vent
• 1 Snowfield Sinkhole
• 1 Temple of Silence
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Urza's Factory
• 1 Vault of the Archangel
• 1 Vault of Champions
• 1 War Room
• 1 Westvale Abbey // Ormendahl, Profane Prince

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100 cards later there you go! What did you think of my different take on Edgar, Charmed Groom that's quite different than the direction that EDHREC.com heads? Anything you like or that inspired you or that I missed? Just let me know!