By BDC
Besides that Vorinclex card, Toski, Bearer of Secrets, has been all the chatter. Long have we waited for a Legendary Squirrel and NOW we have it! And, unlike the aforementioned Phyrexian, Toski is confirmed and coming in Kaldheim. I mean, it was a no brainer. If you were to get a legendary squirrel, a norse inspired setting is the place. It’s in the mythology. Ratatoskr is the mythical squirrel that spends his day running insults back and forth between the dragon in the roots and the eagle in the top of the branches of the world tree Yggdrasil.
So, it all comes together in Kaldheim. Our man, Panda, has been awaiting this day and cannot wait to build this in paper. He’s always been a fan of the squirrel cards. Whether they be in the UNsets or not, he collected all he could. I remember, a couple of years back, attending a MTG function in Oklahoma City, acquiring custom art squirrel tokens from Andrea Radeck (pictured below) for the Panda Man’s Christmas. It’s just been HIS thing.
Of course, Squirrel tribal has not been on Wotc’s to-do list. So, there’s not a great many of them to work with. But Panda found a way. And what he came up with was a casual EDH deck, of course. If you knew us, you’d know that we don’t build on the competitive end. We love jank and weird tribal and this ranks right up there as one of the top janky weird tribal decks I’ve seen in our group.
Now, as you can see below, this is not just a Squirrel token deck. It’s an outright menagerie! So this is more of a ‘Token Tribal than an outright squirrel tribal. But Toski is the commander and rules the roust.
But Toski isn’t alone, as I said before. The idea is to flood the battle field with token attackers, ramp them and keep the resources coming with Toski’s draw advantage. You want to go wide so fast and so big that you overwhelm the opponent. This can be done with cards that ramp your field’s power to the tune of the number of creatures you have on the field like Craterhoof Behemoth. Also Degree of Savagery, Caged Sun, Eldrazi Monument, Hall of Triumph and Wild Onslaught adds counters to every creature you control. So go wide and go big! Add further insult by throwing a Dragon Throne of Tarkir on one of the big boys!
Now, don’t fret! There’s plenty of squirrel token makers and rampers to go around. Panda has the Deep Forest Hermit AND the Dearanged Hermit that both make 4 1/1 Squirrel tokens and adds +1/+1 to every squirrel you control including Toski! Liege of the Hallows may profit you more dead than alive since you can pay as much as you want and get that many 1/1 Squirrels. Nut Collector generates a new squirrel token every upkeep and, if you have seven or more cards in your graveyard, all Squirrels are +2/+2. (I’m running into a few creatures in this deck that do that. Not to tell Panda what to do, but maybe a graveyard/squirrel deck?) And, to top it all off, Squirrel Mob, Acorn Harvest, Chatter of the Squirrel and Squirrel Wrangler not only help make more squirrel tokens but ramps them as well.
Also you have creatures making tokens of themselves upping your battlefield and making it hard for your opponent to mount an adequate defense. Giant Adephage and Caller of the Pack can make it hard for your opponent to keep up with your green onslaught. And to help get one of these out, Finale of Devestation may fit the bill.
Now, of course, Panda could have went with a simple Populate deck to round it out, but why stop at doubling one token when you can double them all with Parallel Evolution (and do it again by paying its FLASHBACK cost. Of course, don’t for get Doubling Season, Second Harvest and Parallel Lives to do it every time you play a token making card!
A nice enchantment to put on Toski would be Druid’s Call. This way, every time some one blocks your indestructable legendary squirrel, whatever damage they would have done is translated into 1/1 green squirrel tokens.
Now this deck may not be competitive, but is NOT a budget deck. TCGplayer says this deck would cost $240 to almost $400 to build. We may try to playtest it online and see what it does. But, by the looks of it, it may be a massive token engine.
Below you can check out the deck layout and see what you think! Come find us one Facebook or Twitter and let us know what you would add or take out. You can find the links in the top right of this page! Until next time!
AoE Table Top 