There has always been a faction among the MTG faithful who have LOVED squirrels. They have waited and hoped that someday there would be enough squirrel cards or ‘squirrel adjacent’ cards to make a decent Commander Deck. The only problem? No Legendary Squirrels. They Kaldheim hit and Wotc found the perfect time to drop their first Legendary Squirrel; Toski, Bearer of Secrets. But, although Toski was a fun card to play and brought a nice level of draw advantage to the game, the first legendary squirrel just didn’t bring to the table the type of Commander Clout we were hoping for.
Well, fret no more, True Believers! With Modern Horizon 2, we have, not only, a great Commander but actually a couple of Squirrel Lords!
As I said, Modern Horizon 2 has brought us not one, but two squirrel lords. Unfortunately, only one stands supreme as Commander. Chatterfang, Squirrel General, arrives followed by a virtual army of his kin; quite literally. Our new Nut King makes a 1/1 green Squirrel creature token for every token generated. On top of this, he has a sacrifice engine which forces us, for good or ill, to include black mana in the deck.
Squirrel Soverign ramps all other Squirrels a +1/+1. This makes him one in a hundred and just another support to our new king, Chatterfang. But read that flavor text. If that doesn’t endure him to you, I’m not sure what will.
Chatterfang’s sacrifice engine won’t be very useful to ramp your creatures, but it will aid you in removal.
So what are the elements of this deck? Tokens, of course, everything that generates tokens and anything that will ramp or trigger to squirrels. I think I’ve found some cool Convoke cards that, coupled with your army of Squirrel Tokens, will allow you to cast just about anything you draw. Add to that all of the great staples that double your token generation.
Also appearing in Modern Horizons 2 is the Ravenous Squirrel. This vicious little critter ramps to sacrifice. So every squirrel token you sacrifice will trigger it.
PLUS if you absolutely NEED a sac engine or your commander isn’t available, it can sacrifice an artifact or creature to gain one life, draw a card and ramp itself!
Also, don’t forget to include a squirrel’s best friend, a druid/hermit. The Deep Forest Hermit AND the Deranged Hermit ramp Squirrels by +1/+1. Not only that but both drop four Squirrel Tokens upon entering. You can even answer the Druid’s Call by enchanting ANY creature with this card and generate tokens equal to how much damage it takes.
The best creature to enchant with Druid’s Call is Toski, Bearer of Secrets. This will either diswade attacks or allow you to block anything and rain squirrels onto the battlefield. All this and NOT loose Toski since, well, he’s indestructible!
Two other Druids can come in VERY hand in this Commander deck also. Nut Collector, first of all, generates a squirrel token at its upkeep. Then, if you have at least seven cards in your graveyard, gives ALL squirrels +2/+2. You may look toward a bit of the black/green self mill cards to help. Squirrel Wrangler brings a couple of sacrifice engines to help ramp the Ravenous Squirrel and can either create two squirrel tokens or give your army of squirrels an additional +1/+1 for the turn.
There are also a few enchantments, creatures, intants and sorcery that helps with token duplication. Doubling Season, an Enchantment, is the most popular, of course, which doubles tokens and counters. Another Enchantment, Primal Vigor, also ramps them. Second Harvest, an instant, and Parallel Evolution, a sorcery, will double the tokens you have out at the time. Liege of the hollows, a spirit creature, once it goes to the graveyard, it allows each player to pay for Squirrel Tokens. The only difference is that your commander will double that!
Some optional, unexpected additions I made include the Krosan Beast that grows to horrific proportions when your graveyard is filled out. Feaster of Fools that can be ‘Convoked’ into play and can sac ANY NUMBER OF CREATURES and ramps double that. Lastly, Hogaak, Arisen necropolis, can also make use of Convoke AND Delve. It’s an 8/8 with Trample and can be cast from the graveyard.
Below is my deck list. I would love to hear how you would build this! Hit us up in the comments below or on our social media (links on the homepage)
CREATURES (25)
CHATTERFANG, SQUIRREL GENERAL (COMMANDER)
TOSKI, BEARER OF SECRETS
DEEP FOREST HERMIT
DERANGED HERMIT
KROSAN BEAST
LIEGE OF THE HOLLOWS
NUT COLLECTOR
SCURRID COLONY
SQUIRREL WRANGLER
RAVENOUS SQUIRREL
SQUIRREL MOB
SQUIRREL SOVREIGN
FEASTER OF FOOLS
HOGAAK, ARISEN NECROPLIS
PHARIKA, GOD OF AFFLICTION
SABER ANTS
SCUTE SWARM
SPOREWEB WEAVER
ARASTA OF THE ENDLESS WEB
BELEDROS WITHERBLOOM
CREAKWOOD LIEGE
EMRAKUL’S EVANGEL
GRISMOLD, THE DREADSOWER
HORNET NEST
LIVING HIVE
SORCERY (16)
CHATTER OF THE SQUIRREL
ACORN HARVEST
ENDLESS OBEDIENCE
NISSA’S EXPEDITION
OVERWHELM
SPROUTING RENEWAL
PARALLEL EVOLUTION
PLANEWIDE CELEBRATION
SPIDER SPAWNING
WAITING IN THE WEEDS
BEACON OF CREATION
DEATH MUTATION
DEMONIC TUTOR
MORBID BLOOM
DIABOLIC INTENT
DIABOLIC TUTOR
INSTANT (7)
MURDER
MOB
PAUSE FOR REFLECTION
SCATTER THE SEEDS
SUNDERING VITAE
UNMAKE THE GRAVES
PREDATOR’S HOWL
ARTIFACTS (6)
ACORN CATAPULT
OBELISK OF URD
SECOND HARVEST
TEND THE PESTS
ARACHNOGENESIS
MASKWOOD NEXUS
ENCHANTMENT (9)
DRUID’S CALL
SQUIRREL NEST
SQUIRREL SANCTUARY
MURAGANDA PETROGLYPHS
PARALLEL LIVES
PRESENCE OF GOND
PRIMAL VIGOR
PRIMEVAL BOUNTY
DOUBLING SEASON
LAND (35)
SWARMYARD
OVERGROWN TOMB
ATZAL, CAVE OF ETERNTITY (JOURNEY TO ETERNITY)
UNDERGROWTH STADIUM
GOLGARI ROTFARM
20 FORESTS
11 SWAMPS
PLANESWALKERS
VRASKA, RELIC SEEKER
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