I wanted to write about the newest Magic set but I wasn’t sure I could. Do I focus on the Basic lands? I don’t know that I could make a very compelling article about land. How about contraptions? Considering your group would have to be pretty cool and also let you fundamentally violate the rules of Commander to do it, I’m not sure that’s a very good topic for us, either. Besides, aren’t contraptions only balanced in a Limited format and you could make a pretty stacked deck-building around them? Steamflogger Boss is the only Unstable card we can play in Commander and I’m pretty sure that we don’t want to do that, even though it gives changelings +1/+0 and haste. I was pretty disappointed that I wouldn’t really be able to touch on Unstable at all this week. That is, until I saw this Tumblr post.

Mark Rosewater maintains a Tumblr account to field Magic questions and it’s a great resource. The best part is you can do what I do and sit back and wait for nerds to mine the relevant info and post it to Reddit. Some nerd did just that and now you’re getting the relevant info posted here by me since there’s a good chance you don’t want to go to Reddit because who wants to go to Reddit? I guess that makes me the nerd and makes you the me in this scenario. Not sure how to feel about that . . . 

The point is that we’re getting a foil token in every pack and that’s a good thing. Half of them will be Unstable tokens, which is not a good thing, but half of them will be classic Magic tokens which will be amazing. Between the full-art Basics, the token and the fact that the set should be fun to draft, their questionable decision to release the set in a jam-packed 4th quarter with like a two week window to draft it will likely be mitigated. Unstable may even sell better than Iconic Masters which would be a real coup. Regardless, a lot of us are going to get what a lot of us want, provided you want Squirrel tokens. If you don’t want Squirrel tokens . . .  who hurt you?

I can’t decide if I want to celebrate this special occasion by making the squirreliest deck ever or the tokeniest deck ever. I think I am leaning toward the latter because while we’re virtually guaranteed to get a new squirrel token, not much else is assured. Making a deck with a lot of token appeal increases our odds of being able to play more new foil tokens than just the squirrels. Am I jamming cards like Deranged Hermit and Squirrel Nest in the deck? Duh. But I’m going to make a deck that hangs with other decks while I’m at it.

So which is the most tokeny deck of all? Opinions are mixed on this, frankly. I have a couple of options, actually. The first would be the go Green and Blue and have Intruder Alarm shenanigans couple with the tokens. That said, I did that already and it worked out pretty well. Another option would be to do put Squirrel Nest in a non-traditional build and use the tokens for mana and other purposes with Earthcraft and Cryptolith Rite. I was excited for a minute or two except I also did that already and it worked out pretty well. I even came up with a better article title for that one than I did this week. I clearly want to be using Squirrel Nest, but I think that it might be more of an afterthought in the deck at this point since I’ve pretty much explored all of the novel applications of it that I thought of for this week. I am going to jam some squirrels, certainly, but I think I want to instead focus on going wide, and I might not be able to find room for any infinite combos like the ones we get with Intruder Alarm. Instead, I will maximize the use of cards like Collective Blessing to make sure my tokens are as formidable as possible. And while we’re throwing back to cards like Deranged Hermit, why not throw back and build around an Elder Dragon Legend?

Ok, maybe not that far back. 75% doesn’t mean terrible and Palladia-Mors is terrible.

That’s a little better. Rith rewards us for hitting people, gives us a ton of tokens and gives us lots of ways to get advantages by giving us a few different things we can double. If we double tokens that come into play, he’ll be better. If we give him double strike, he’ll be better. If we get multiple attack phases, he’ll be better. He’s not quite Saskia, but considering Saskia is about as popular as (insert latest disgraced celebrity people looked up to), maybe that’s a good thing. Let’s Rith a bit on this topic (does that scan? His name sound kind of like “riff” so I was . . .  yeah, you’re right) and make some tokens happen.

Puttin? on the Rith ? Commander | Jason Alt

• Commander (1)
• 1 Rith, the Awakener

• Creatures (22)
• 1 Avenger of Zendikar
• 1 Birds of Paradise
• 1 Captivating Crew
• 1 Champion of Lambholt
• 1 Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1 Decimator of Provinces
• 1 Deranged Hermit
• 1 Dragonlair Spider
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Gahiji, Honored One
• 1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• 1 Iroas, God of Victory
• 1 Mentor of the Meek
• 1 Mycoloth
• 1 Myr Battlesphere
• 1 Nacatl War-Pride
• 1 Ogre Battledriver
• 1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
• 1 Rhys the Redeemed
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Thelonite Hermit
• 1 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 1 Xenagos, the Reveler

• Instants (5)
• 1 Artifact Mutation
• 1 Aura Mutation
• 1 Boros Charm
• 1 Second Harvest
• 1 Teferi's Protection

• Sorceries (8)
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Harmonize
• 1 Hour of Reckoning
• 1 Insurrection
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Martial Coup
• 1 Mass Mutiny
• 1 Titanic Ultimatum

• Enchantments (15)
• 1 Aggravated Assault
• 1 Anointed Procession
• 1 Assemble the Legion
• 1 Aura Shards
• 1 Beastmaster Ascension
• 1 Cathars' Crusade
• 1 Collective Blessing
• 1 Cryptolith Rite
• 1 Doubling Season
• 1 Fires of Yavimaya
• 1 Impact Tremors
• 1 Intangible Virtue
• 1 Mirari's Wake
• 1 Parallel Lives
• 1 Primal Vigor

• Artifacts (8)
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Eldrazi Monument
• 1 Gruul Signet
• 1 Phyrexian Altar
• 1 Quietus Spike
• 1 Selesnya Signet
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sol Ring

• Lands (38)
• 10 Forest
• 4 Mountain
• 5 Plains
• 1 Boros Garrison
• 1 Canopy Vista
• 1 Cinder Glade
• 1 Clifftop Retreat
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Gavony Township
• 1 Jungle Shrine
• 1 Kessig Wolf Run
• 1 Rootbound Crag
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Selesnya Sanctuary
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 1 Sunpetal Grove
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Temple of Abandon
• 1 Temple of Plenty
• 1 Temple of Triumph
• 1 Wooded Foothills

Buy This Deck

I wanted to make a list with Rith that rewarded us for hitting hard and often but still allowed us to go wide. I also wanted a 75% spin that would let us borrow their creatures for a while. What we got seems like a “hybrid” Rith build and there are a few directions we can go.

If you want to be less about Rith and more about tokens, there are some easy changes to make to the deck. I couldn’t find room for cards like Thunderfoot Baloth, Utvara Hellkite or even the Squirrel Nest I was sure I was going to put in here. There are a ton of ways to generate tokens and if you want to put your own favorite card in, there’s room. Cut some of the “Voltron” stuff and go deeper on tokens.

Similarly, if you like the idea of hitting hard with Rith and hitting often, there are a ton of cards you could add. Breath of Fury is a card that probably belongs in here because you can generate a lot of combat with it. I might also include cards like Nature's Will and Bear Umbra. Equipment like Sword of Feast and Famine is also pretty spicy in a build like this. There are plenty of Rith Voltron builds to draw inspiration from. Cute some of the more cutesy token stuff and maybe some of the redundancy (keep Craterhoof, cut Decimator, etc.) to give yourself some room to add more.

I wanted to add some standard EDH staples that feel like they belong in a 75% deck such as Mirage Mirror. If you want to make the deck feel more “75%” you can add Mirror, maybe a few more borrow effects like Zealous Conscripts and maybe another altar. Borrow their stuff by playing a Mob Rule and then either fling it with Goblin Bombardment (and card that’s good in this deck anyway) or sac it to an altar. Remember, it’s only borrowing if you give it back alive, otherwise it’s just 75% removal.

What do we think? Is this too much like a stock Rith list? Too dissimilar? Did I neglect your favorite card? Include your least favorite? Which token are you most excited to see in the new set? Leave it in the comments section. Thanks for reading, everyone. Until next time!