As we roll through October, I've been brewing up Commander decks around some of the scarier legendary creatures found in Duskmourn: House of Horror, and out of that set's four precon decks. For this week's column I've got the scariest Scarecrow to get printed on a Magic card since Reaper King.

Rendmaw, Creaking Nest is a 5/5 Scarecrow with menace, reach, and a really cool party trick. When he enters or whenever I play a card with two or more types, each player will create a 2/2 Black Bird creature token with flying that's goaded for the rest of the game. That means even if Rendmaw isn't in play, those bird tokens will still have to attack each turn and will have to attack a player other than me if able.

Card Types and Copyable Values

The first thing to understand is that Rendmaw cares about the types on a card you play, but not the supertypes or subtypes. Be aware that it's common for people to talk about subtypes but to refer to them as a "type". If you're going to build or pilot a Rendmaw deck you have to get this right. You are looking for cards that have two or more of the following in their type line: Land, Creature, Artifact, Enchantment, Planeswalker, Battle, Instant, Sorcery, Kindred (formerly Tribal).

Older cards may have obsolete types like Interrupt printed on them, so remember to check the oracle text for any card you are unsure of to make sure you get it right. The oracle text is the current official text the card should be played with, regardless of what is on the actual printed card. You can find a card's oracle text on any major Magic card database, such as gatherer.wizards.com and scryfall.com.

Rendmaw cares about when you play a card. For a land, that means the game will look at what the card's types are when it enters play. Dryad Arbor is a land and a creature, and will trigger Rendmaw. For a nonland, that means the game will care about what types the card has when it is put on the stack.

The split card Destined // Lead has both an instant and a sorcery on it, but when you play it you choose which one you are casting and that choice determines what it is when you put it on the stack. An enchantment creature with bestow such as Nighthowler or Noble Quarry can be cast as an enchantment aura for a different mana cost. If it is cast for its bestow cost as an aura, it will just be an enchantment on the stack and won't trigger Rendmaw. If you cast any of these bestow creatures as a creature, it will trigger Rendmaw and your opponents will create those 2/2 Black Bird creature tokens.

It's worth noting that any spell with kindred will trigger Rendmaw, as it will always have another type. You might not think that would amount to much, but there are 36 of these cards that are playable in Rendmaw.

Token doublers that will have an effect produce additional tokens will have those additional tokens be goaded. Doubling Season and Primal Vigor will produce twice as many goaded Black Bird tokens. If you then make copies of the bird tokens that are already on the field, those tokens will have all of the copyable values from the token. The fact that they are goaded is not a copyable value, so a card like Second Harvest will make 2/2 Black Bird tokens that are not goaded.

Leaning Into the Bit

Rendmaw, Creaking Nest came out of the Death Toll precon deck from the Duskmourn expansion set. That list is typical of most precon decks in that it has a bunch of themes and it tries to focus a bit on each of them.

While it's great to have a deck that can do lots of different things, those decks tend to be less good at each of those things. I prefer to lean into the bit and focus on a chosen theme both when I'm building a deck from scratch and when I'm reworking a precon deck. I've got plenty of decks already and if I am looking for different themes I'll switch decks between games. If you only have a few decks, it might make sense for you to have some decks that have what can at times feel like multiple personalities.

For Rendmaw, I decided to focus very heavily on maximizing the number of 2/2 goaded Black Bird tokens that I could produce. I dropped out nearly every graveyard-focused card from the precon, kept a bunch of cards with two types, and went to work. My focus was on making those goaded tokens, and then dealing with them once the end game came around and it was down to a one-on-one match.

Step one was to load up on cards with two types.

A few years ago I picked up a Secret Lair Bitterblossom and then promptly managed to lose the tokens, loaning them out to a tablemate and forgetting to grab them at the end of the game. This fantastic Enchantment will have me lose a life and make a 1/1 Black Faerie Rogue token with flying on my upkeep. I was able to order new tokens from this fine retailer earlier this month, so thanks to CoolStuffInc.com I'm all ready to get play this great card, make a bunch of 2/2 Black Bird tokens, and plop down a gorgeous Secret Lair Faerie Rogue token if it makes it to my next upkeep.

The vast majority of my cards, a full third of my deck, are creatures, and most of them have two types. I tried to focus on card draw, interaction, and low casting costs, all in an effort to let me make as many Bird tokens as possible. Howling Golem checks several boxes for me, as it is an Artifact Creature and it represents a friendly way to keep cards flowing into players' hands. I'm also running a few extra lands with multiple types. Valgavoth's Lair is an Enchantment Land and I also threw in Darksteel Citadel and Scene of the Crime, both of which are Artifact Lands.

The most common two-typed creatures I could run in this deck are Artifact Creatures. Loading up with scarecrows would do the trick nicely, but I decided to run an assortment. A few of them are also Equipment creatures and have the Reconfigure ability, which lets them be equipped to a creature. Tanuki Transplanter, shown above, will give me Green mana when it or equipped creature attacks. I'm also running Skyscanner, Skittering Surveyor, Gingerbrute, Mindless Automaton, and a bunch of others. I've got 17 artifact creatures in all.

I've got around half as many Enchantment Creatures in the list. Archetype of Finality might be one of my best additions, giving my creatures deathtouch and preventing my opponents' creatures from having deathtouch.

There are only two Enchantment Artifacts in Blue and Green in all of Magic's history. Whip of Erebos was already in the precon deck, and it was an easy decision to throw in Bow of Nylea. It's a little odd that there haven't been more, but I'm sure in time we'll see more Enchantment Artifacts.

Leaning into a single combination of types might result in a stronger deck, but I love variety so I decided to run both Artifact Creatures and Enchantment Creatures. The only major drawback is that I won't be able to take advantage of cards that synergize with one of those card types. Foundry Inspector would be an auto-include if I were going with Artifacts. Eidolon of Blossoms, which is in my list, would draw me a ton of cards if I was leaning more into running Enchantment Creatures.

Breaking Symmetry

Making a lot of 2/2 Black Bird tokens is great, but I need to remember that eventually those tokens will be coming my way. They will be goaded, but that only means that they have to attack another player if able. If I'm one of the last two players in the game, any goaded creatures will have to attack me, and my own bird tokens will most likely be tapped because they'll also be goaded.

One-Eyed Scarecrow is an Artifact Creature, so I'll make a bird token if Rendmaw is in play, and it will give creatures with flying my opponents control -1/-0. Cutting the incoming damage from an army of Birds in half is pretty good. If I've got Smog Elemental in play, my opponents' flyers will get an additional -1/-1. The best thing about these two creatures is that they won't affect my own murder of crows.

My favorite card for this deck might be Palazzo Archers. This Assassin's Creed card is a Human Archer with reach and a great ability. Whenever a creature with flying attacks me or a planeswalker I control, it will deal damage equal to its power to that creature. They might be the best archers ever, as an opponent could attack with a literal million one or two toughness flyers and they would shoot them all down. Adding deathtouch is tempting, and if I've got Archetype of Finality in play they'll shoot down and kill even the largest flyers, provided those attackers aren't indestructible.

I decided to run a few cards that seem really good against token decks, as those decks usually focus on a limited number of creature types. In a pinch I can use these spells to deal with Bird tokens. Legion's End will exile target creature an opponent controls with mana value 2 or less and all other creatures they control with the same name, Tokens generally have the name of their creature types, so my Bird tokens are all named Bird. It also checks the player's hand and graveyard, but in a singleton format that shouldn't do anything even if Legion's End had targeted a nontoken permanent.

Bile Blight is an instant that will give target creatures and all creatures with the same name -3/-3 until end of turn. That should deal with all of the Bird tokens on the field, unless someone has a way to pump theirs. My last card to deal with Bird tokens is the sorcery Pitiless Carnage. It allows me to sacrifice any number of permanents I control and then draw that many cards. In some games my greatest hope might be found in drawing cards to find an answer to some threat. I might not pull into what I need, but if I'm able to draw a bunch of cards by sacrificing some Birds, it might be worth trying.

I'm running Beastmaster Ascension and Coat of Arms as ways to close out a game. The former will get a quest counter whenever a creature I control attacks, and if it has seven or more quest counters, my creatures will get +5/+5. The latter is a bit of a double-edged sword.

Coat of Arms gives each creature +1/+1 for each other creature on the battlefield that shares a creature type with it. In a four-player game if each player has four 2/2 Black Bird tokens, they will each get +15/+15. Assuming nobody has given their army vigilance, players are likely to start getting murdered. As players get killed off, there would be less Birds in play, but if I play it in my precombat main phase I should be able to make the most of it. I just need to be careful to not hand the game to someone on a kindred build. A player with an Elf, Goblin, Dragon, or Sliver army would probably be very happy to send their now enormous un-goaded creatures at me to "deal with the problem."

Rendmaw's Murder Spree

I have to wonder why they didn't have those 2/2 Black Bird creature tokens be Crows or Ravens, but I assume they occasionally try to keep things simple when putting out new cards. It would be silly to have a Raven or Crow subtype when they already have Bird, and they don't generally give nonlegendary tokens names other than just the creature type.

The one thing I looked for but didn't find was a reliable way to give my creatures vigilance. Having my own Bird tokens stay untapped would be a pretty nice advantage, but aside from attacking with a Copperhorn Scout or plopping down Akroma's Memorial, I didn't see a lot of options. I brewed up this list with cards I have in paper, and my Akroma's Memorial was already spoken for, as were a few other cards that might have fit in nicely. Craterhoof Behemoth always works well in Green decks that go wide and want to attack a lot.

Scheming with Raffine | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Rendmaw, Creaking Nest

• Creatures (32)
• 1 Archetype of Finality
• 1 Baba Lysaga, Night Witch
• 1 Beast Whisperer
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Courser of Kruphix
• 1 Deathcap Cultivator
• 1 Eidolon of Blossoms
• 1 Foreboding Statue
• 1 Gingerbrute
• 1 Grim Guardian
• 1 Haywire Mite
• 1 Howling Golem
• 1 Leech Gauntlet
• 1 Massacre Wurm
• 1 Mindless Automaton
• 1 Noxious Gearhulk
• 1 Nyx Weaver
• 1 One-Eyed Scarecrow
• 1 Ornithopter of Paradise
• 1 Palazzo Archers
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Scrapwork Rager
• 1 Scuttlemutt
• 1 Skittering Surveyor
• 1 Skola Grovedancer
• 1 Skyscanner
• 1 Smog Elemental
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Soulreaper of Mogis
• 1 Suspicious Bookcase
• 1 Tanuki Transplanter
• 1 Weaver of Harmony

• Instants (5)
• 1 Arachnogenesis
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Bile Blight
• 1 Harrow
• 1 Putrefy

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Culling Ritual
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Ezuri's Predation
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Legion's End
• 1 Pitiless Carnage
• 1 Rampant Growth

• Enchantments (6)
• 1 Beastmaster Ascension
• 1 Bitterblossom
• 1 Deathreap Ritual
• 1 Guardian Project
• 1 Into the Pit
• 1 Scion of Halaster

• Artifacts (10)
• 1 Amulet of Vigor
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Bow of Nylea
• 1 Coat of Arms
• 1 Golgari Signet
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Talisman of Resilience
• 1 Whip of Erebos
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak

• Lands (39)
• 13 Forest
• 13 Swamp
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Darkmoss Bridge
• 1 Darksteel Citadel
• 1 Dryad Arbor
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Scene of the Crime
• 1 Tainted Wood
• 1 Tree of Tales
• 1 Twilight Mire
• 1 Valgavoth's Lair
• 1 Vault of Whispers
• 1 Woodland Cemetery

Buy This Deck Export text

If you wanted to tune this list down or drop the budget, you might drop out Coat of Arms, Amulet of Vigor, Bitterblossom, and Guardian Project, but this is already fairly budget-friendly. The most oppressive thing about Rendmaw has little to do with budget and everything to do with all those goaded Black Bird tokens. You might drop the number of cards in your list with more than one type, but if you did that, I'd have to question why you'd bother to keep running Rendmaw as your commander.

To tune this list up, there are some pretty simple upgrades you could make. A few additional ways to pump up your birds' damage output might make sense. Craterhoof Behemoth, End-Raze Forerunners, Overwhelming Stampede, and the like might help out. A few fog effects could position you to deal with that final one-on-one stage where your opponent might think they've got you dead to rights by swinging with the birds you gave them. Fogging an alpha strike and winning on the crackback always feels good.

Early Results

I was able to get this deck into a couple of games and the results were something of a surprise. I figured I'd be able to make a bunch of bird tokens, and I figured they might help out, but I didn't expect to win any games. The deck ended up going 2-0, winning a three player and a four-player game. Neither win was a cakewalk.

The three-player game went well enough, but I think one of my tablemates just had terrible luck with their deck so it was something of a non-game. I might have won on the back of a Beastmaster Ascension, but at this point I can't recall exactly what allowed me to eke out a victory.

The four-player game saw me get three 2/2 bird tokens onto everyone's board and I was able to drop a Coat of Arms and turn them all into 13/13s. Rather than kill someone, I decided to send one at each player, leaving everyone else in the game, but also poised to murder each other over the coming turn cycle. That's basically what happened, but I definitely thought at one point that I had misplayed by not also sending Rendmaw at the player who was the biggest threat at the time.

I obviously liked that the deck managed to win its first two games, but I also liked that the wins didn't feel like they came easy. I think the deck is going to be good at surviving to be one of the last two players, but I'm not incredibly optimistic the win streak will continue. It felt like I got lucky to some extent, and that I might just as easily have lost both of those matches.

Final Thoughts

If a commander like Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls, The Lord of Pain, or Kaervek, the Merciless, can feel oppressive in one way, Rendmaw, Creaking Nest is oppressive in a completely different way. It's not that often that you play an EDH game where flying threats are everywhere and they are attacking every single turn. It can make for a short game, even though they each only have a modest base 2 power.

If you're playing against players with ways to pump up their own army, you may well just hand them the game. It's the risk you take when you give away attackers that are able to come back at you later in the game when it's one on one and the goad mechanic becomes much less relevant.

That's all I've got for this week. I'll be brewing up one last scary deck for next week's column. Until then, thanks for reading and I'll see you next Monday!