Last week I couldn't help gushing about some of the crazy Commander shenanigans I've been getting into recently. Only one of these lists was new and the rest of them were longtime favorites I'd played for years. Today I want to talk about two more decks that I'm going to be running in some fun games of Commander over the next week. After all, every major Constructed format is arguably in a bit of a rough spot, so why not just step back and have some fun for a change?

This time around I've only got two decks, but both of them - especially this first one - are doozies. Allow me to introduce you to one of my favorite decks: Tri-Theme Bant.

Tri-Theme Bant | Commander | Kendra Smith

• Commander (1)
• 1 Rafiq of the Many

• Creatures (26)
• 1 Angus Mackenzie
• 1 Archangel of Tithes
• 1 Avatar of Growth
• 1 Baird, Steward of Argive
• 1 Battlegrace Angel
• 1 Birds of Paradise
• 1 Braids, Conjurer Adept
• 1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Frontline Sage
• 1 Giltspire Avenger
• 1 Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer
• 1 Jenara, Asura of War
• 1 Noble Hierarch
• 1 Peacekeeper
• 1 Phelddagrif
• 1 Questing Phelddagrif
• 1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
• 1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
• 1 Spore Flower
• 1 Stoic Angel
• 1 Sublime Archangel
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 Tatyova, Benthic Druid
• 1 Sylvan Caryatid
• 1 Windborn Muse

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 1 Jace Beleren

• Instants (10)
• 1 Arcane Denial
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Dream Fracture
• 1 Krosan Grip
• 1 Mandate of Peace
• 1 Return to Dust
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Sylvan Reclamation
• 1 Teferi's Protection

• Sorceries (6)
• 1 Austere Command
• 1 Collective Voyage
• 1 Fractured Identity
• 1 Minds Aglow
• 1 Supreme Verdict
• 1 Wrath of God

• Enchantments (12)
• 1 Angelic Benediction
• 1 Dictate of Karametra
• 1 Dictate of Kruphix
• 1 Dueling Grounds
• 1 Finest Hour
• 1 Ghostly Prison
• 1 Propaganda
• 1 Reverence
• 1 Rites of Flourishing
• 1 Shield of the Oversoul
• 1 Sphere of Safety
• 1 Web of Inertia

• Artifacts (7)
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Crawlspace
• 1 Gate to the Aether
• 1 Ghirapur Orrery
• 1 Horn of Greed
• 1 Howling Mine
• 1 Sol Ring

• Lands (36)
• 2 Island
• 3 Forest
• 3 Plains
• 1 Adarkar Wastes
• 1 Bountiful Promenade
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Brushland
• 1 Cathedral of War
• 1 Celestial Colonnade
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Flooded Strand
• 1 Gavony Township
• 1 Glacial Fortress
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Hinterland Harbor
• 1 Irrigated Farmland
• 1 Lumbering Falls
• 1 Maze of Ith
• 1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Savannah
• 1 Scattered Groves
• 1 Sea of Clouds
• 1 Seaside Citadel
• 1 Stirring Wildwood
• 1 Sunpetal Grove
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Tropical Island
• 1 Tundra
• 1 Windswept Heath
• 1 Yavimaya Coast

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Much like the Karona Girl Power list I talked about last week and my Sharuum list I wrote about last year, Tri-Theme Bant was a deck I built years ago back in college. During this time I was building new decks pretty much every week, tearing down new ones, building more, and so on. Tri-Theme Bant came about from my love of playing Bant colors in numerous formats and the synergy they seemed to have with one another. In fact, I found I loved it so much, that I was having difficulty in building a deck around one specific Commander. Eventually I had a solution: why not use all of them?

Originally the internal debate of what to play came about when I came into possession of my copy of Angus Mackenzie in paper. At the time when I was getting back into the game, I'd cobbled together a Commander list on Magic Online with a bunch of the jank I'd put together at the time and stuffed it with the best legendary creature I could find in my account. That card happened to be Angus himself and it made for some really fun little games that I wanted to replicate in paper.

The more I started to look at things, however, the more I wanted to get some damage in as well, which Angus' turbo-fog plan was at odds with. This made me look at cards like Rafiq of the Many and Jenara, Asura of War. I also had loved the card Rubinia Soulsinger since I was a kid and very much wanted to find a home for her in the deck, though you'll notice she's since been removed in favor of other cards. This led to me wanting a deck with multiple angles where I could switch between generals. Since I also enjoyed group hug elements, I also decided to throw Phelddagrif into the mix to round things out, because why not?

This formed the basis for my three themes: exalted voltron, turbo fog, and group hug. As it turns out, the themes at play all played like a dream with one another. By pushing the exalted mechanic and the turbo fog, it allowed for more nuanced combat rather than the usual free-for-all. Meanwhile the group hug would further deter players from trying to hit you but also push the envelope with all players at the table.

The best part is how when you swap the legendaries in the command zone, it changes the overall feel of your games drastically. This is because while your 99 is still the same, your focus shifts thanks to your commander changing. Because of this it ends up creating a lot of replayability in how you can take your opponents down however you want.

Chulane, Teller of Tales might also be a decent contender in this kind of deck, but it feels like it would take things over a bit so I opted to leave the card out of here. In addition, I'd actually had Selvala, Returner Explored in my list before I found out it was bugged on Magic Online and breaks the game when its ability is activated. That's kind of bad when my usual weekly Commander night is done through the MTGO client, so I gave it a small swap in the sweet Game Night card Avatar of Growth. This way we can have some great fun and hopefully not break the game's client - something we've done over the last few weeks.

This leads me to the other deck I'll be playing online this week: Trostani, Selesnya's Voice.

Trostani Tokens | Commander | Kendra Smith

• Commander (1)
• 1 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice

• Creatures (18)
• 1 Armada Wurm
• 1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• 1 Avenger of Zendikar
• 1 Biogenic Ooze
• 1 Crested Sunmare
• 1 Deep Forest Hermit
• 1 Emmara Tandris
• 1 Heliod, God of the Sun
• 1 Hornet Queen
• 1 Kazandu Tuskcaller
• 1 Phantom General
• 1 Rampaging Baloths
• 1 Selesnya Eulogist
• 1 Selesnya Guildmage
• 1 Tireless Tracker
• 1 Tolsimir Wolfblood
• 1 Trostani Discordant
• 1 Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage

• Planeswalkers (6)
• 1 Ajani, Strength of the Pride
• 1 Elspeth Tirel
• 1 Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
• 1 Garruk Wildspeaker
• 1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
• 1 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar

• Instants (11)
• 1 Advent of the Wurm
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Heroic Intervention
• 1 Krosan Grip
• 1 March of the Multitudes
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Rootborn Defenses
• 1 Second Harvest
• 1 Secure the Wastes
• 1 Sundering Growth
• 1 Swords to Plowshares

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Decree of Justice
• 1 Entreat the Angels
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Overrun

• Enchantments (20)
• 1 Angelic Accord
• 1 Anointed Procession
• 1 Asceticism
• 1 Aura Shards
• 1 Beastmaster Ascension
• 1 Cathars' Crusade
• 1 Collective Blessing
• 1 Cryptolith Rite
• 1 Dictate of Heliod
• 1 Divine Visitation
• 1 Doubling Season
• 1 From Beyond
• 1 Growing Ranks
• 1 Intangible Virtue
• 1 Legion's Landing
• 1 Leyline of the Meek
• 1 Mirari's Wake
• 1 Parallel Lives
• 1 Sandwurm Convergence
• 1 Song of the Worldsoul

• Artifacts (4)
• 1 Moonsilver Spear
• 1 Selesnya Signet
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Well of Lost Dreams

• Lands (35)
• 7 Forest
• 7 Plains
• 1 Blossoming Sands
• 1 Canopy Vista
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Gavony Township
• 1 Grove of the Guardian
• 1 Horizon Canopy
• 1 Kjeldoran Outpost
• 1 Krosan Verge
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1 Savannah
• 1 Scattered Groves
• 1 Secluded Steppe
• 1 Selesnya Sanctuary
• 1 Sunpetal Grove
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Temple of Plenty
• 1 Tranquil Thicket
• 1 Verdant Catacombs
• 1 Windswept Heath
• 1 Wooded Foothills

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In all honesty, if you've seen a Trostani list before, you've seen them all. I'd like to think there's some fresh innovation here but there probably isn't. The way the deck functions is simple: find the best token generators you possibly can in Selesnya and run with it. You then make lots of tokens, and make some more tokens, and then make even more tokens still, eventually ending the game by Overrunning your opponents.

You might not know it, but man do I enjoy some tokens - especially when it comes to Selesnya. I remember when Ravnica: City of Guilds first came out and I just had this natural love for everything the Selesnya guild had going on. The whole look and vibe of all the color's cards coupled with all the token nonsense made me fall in love with it. And then I got the Selesnya theme deck for the holidays that year and I'll never forget just how great it felt going hard with Selesnya Guildmage and Tolsimir Wolfblood.

When Return to Ravnica came out my love for token decks had only increased, and cards like Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage were just all I needed in my life. Then they previewed Trostani and it was all over. This was what I needed to be playing. As it turned out, though, I never really got much of a chance to play with Trostani in Commander. I even acquired a foil one but never ended up using it.

All this makes me super excited to play the deck on my friend Lily's stream Friday where I'm going to be playing with her, Chase aka ManaCurves, and a friend named Meghan. In addition to these sweet games we'll be having a bit of a roundtable discussion about Commander and Magic in general. It's going to be fun so make sure you check out the stream at around 9:30AM EST or else catch the replay on Lily's channel! I did remove a few cards from my original list (Storm Herd and Rhys the Redeemed) as a precautionary measure to avoid too many triggers causing Magic Online to crash as has happened twice to me recently, but I still expect a grand ol' time nevertheless.

I'll be honest, it's been seriously refreshing to take a step back from the competitive scene lately and just jam lots of Commander. It feels even better right now when just about every major format is having a rough time thanks to increased power levels across the board and especially thanks to the companion mechanic. Bans are coming down the line next week and it's going to be very interesting to see. While I'm sure I'll find myself playing more Legacy when that happens and Lurrus of the Dream-Den inevitably exits the format, I still think I'll find myself returning to Commander more than I have in years. It's just too hard to not have fun, and more than ever, I think that's something we can all stand to have a bit of in this day and age.

Kendra Smith

Twitter: @TheMaverickGal

Twitch: twitch.tv/themaverickgirl

YouTube: Kendra Smith