Louis Armstrong and the trumpet. Neil Armstrong and walking on the Moon. Stretch Armstrong and . . . stretching. Some people are known for amazing things they have done. I however am not known for doing anything amazing like that, no matter how cool dressing up as a wizard daily may be. I also am not known for playing/building Naya-colored decks, much less combat-oriented decks, but by Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong bracelet, I’m gonna try to honor Mr. Kattner’s request and turn his Rith, the Awakener from an unfocused pile of cards into something even Brian Kibler might touch (as long as it has an Armadillo Cloak on it)!

Craig stated that he built this deck around three themes:

• Tokens
• One-mana creatures
• Enchantments

How do we go about refining this? Well, we can combine a few themes together. Creatures that cost only a measly solitary unity of magical power aren’t that prevalent in Commander. They tend to have too low of an impact on games; Isamaru, Hound of Konda finds that it’s much harder to kill somebody when they start at twice as much life. Also, there happens to be a nonzero number of enchantments that create tokens.

All these opinions are just that of a simple Izzet mage outside his wheelhouse, but these musings combined with the fact that the commander himself is quite fond of creating tokens leads me to believe that taking Rith on the all-too-familiar token train with a minor enchantress feel is the way to take this particular commander. With cutting a major subtheme of the deck, I’ve taken out quite a few cards to put in some staples and other tokeny-enchantressy cards that hopefully will give form and function to our Nayan Dragon.

Rith Might Comes Right

OUT: Thragtusk; Sigarda, Host of Herons; Thrun, the Last Troll

While these guys were/are Standard all-stars, they just don’t do enough in Commander.

OUT: Avacyn’s Pilgrim, Birds of Paradise, Llanowar Elves, Quirion Elves

PSA: People enjoy playing board wipes in this format. While we are going to try to circumvent that by playing "armies in a can," we can’t really do that with mana dorks. So we’re going to shift these to spells that put actual physical lands into play. Like you’ll literally be standing on top of Montana when you cast Farseek.

OUT: Ranger of Eos, Veteran Explorer, Sylvan Safekeeper, Soul’s Attendant, Soul Warden, Scute Mob, Essence Warden, Dragonmaster Outcast, Devoted Caretaker

These are mainly a casualty of us dropping a previously supported theme in this deck. Don’t worry—in their place will be wonders of wonders like you’ve never seen before. Stay tuned.

OUT: Suture Priest, Harmonic Sliver, Sublime Archangel, Scavenging Ooze

These guys were my last cuts. Some of them work slightly with our theme, but others have just been replaced with more hardy versions of their previous incarnations.

IN: Hazezon Tamar

Craig mentioned that this dude right here might just best Rith at being the most awesome Naya token commander. Try to channel your best Old El Paso taco girl and say, "Why not both?"

IN: Heliod, God Of The Sun

We need something to pump our mana into when we have a lot of it, and this Pelor wannabe makes the cut over something less divine like Mobilization due to giving just a little more for your deifying mana. Also, I like to poll people as to if they count him as a creature or an enchantment in Limited decks. I myself am an optimist when it comes to building decks. What are you?

IN: Gahiji, Honored One; Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

Since much like a clown car we’re focusing on spitting out many small men, we need some anthems. These are the two best creatures for the job. Gahiji (or the Nayan Edric, as I like to call him) gives you some political prowess, and Elesh Norn is . . . well . . . a very large monk. Has anybody ever been disappointed when casting her?

Rith Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

OUT:  Boros Charm, Evolution Charm,

As charming as they are, they just don’t do enough in a format where people are routinely casting ten-mana spells.

OUT: Gather the Townsfolk, Midnight Haunting, Spectral Procession

While these are indeed on theme, yet again when people are casting Draco and Blinkmoth Infusion (note: nobody actually casts these cards), why do you just want two dudes? Seriously.

OUT: Harrow, Green Sun’s Zenith

We have better ramp spells, and we’ve actually taken out most of our green creatures, not to mention our toolbox lies in a different card type.

OUT: Jokulhaups

Do you really want to be that guy? This doesn’t even do much of anything for us, and I’d rather watch some basketball game than even think about playing this card.

IN: Artifact Mutation, Aura Mutation, Austere Command, Hour of Reckoning

Let’s face it—we need removal. We also want to make/not break our tokens. Voila!

IN: Farseek, Explore, Skyshroud Claim, Growth Spasm

More ramp stamps for your tree-hugging pleasure. Growth Spasm is particularly perfect in this deck, what with the token making, and it allows us to cast our commander by itself on turn 4.

IN: Idyllic Tutor

Back to our deck being an enchantress toolbox, this lets us get anything from token creating and pumping to graveyard hate and removal.

IN: Nomads’ Assembly, Martial Coup, Entreat the Angels, Increasing Devotion

What’s a token deck without some token makers? Despite all the fuss miracles made about making topdecks even more brutal and forcing people to physically play the game differently, they sure do add excitement. Just don’t play Temporal Manipulation. Time Warps are pretty much the definition of anti-fun for everybody involved except the walker.

IN: Titanic Ultimatum

I just want to spread the love to the non Grixis Ultimatums. KAMEHAMEHA!

Rithtic Study

OUT: Land Tax

We’re gonna be ramping ourselves, and outside of landing this card in the early turns, this card’s presence is hard to be felt.

OUT: Intangible Virtue

We’ve got bigger fish to fry.

OUT: Relentless Assault

This deck doesn’t need extra attack steps. What it does need is more dudes, so this card is unneeded.

OUT: Asceticism

Why do we need to protect our guys? They’re just 1/1s for less than a mana! Let ’em die. Ignominy ain’t never hurt nobody.

OUT: Armillary Sphere

I don’t really like spells that don’t actually put lands into play and just draw them. You don’t want lands in your hand late game, and the format is all about casting spells on turn N-X where N is the CMC of the given spell and X is the total number of Rampant Growth effects you’ve cast this game. Simple, right?

IN: Aura Shards

Even if this were neither a creature deck nor an enchantment deck, I would still recommend putting this card in every pile of 99 random Magic: The Gathering cards. Even if you’re mono-blue. Come on, it’s Commander—nobody will care.

IN: Awakening Zone, Hammer of Purphoros

Some are used for castin’ and some for fightin’, but they’re all used for fun.

IN: Shared Animosity, Beastmaster Ascension

Holy buffs Batman! Imagine how much damage you can do if you cast these guys into Increasing Devotion. That is of course after you’ve cast Doubling Season and Assemble the Legion. All with Cathars’ Crusade in play. I’m pretty sure there’s some irrational proof that says it kills every Magic player in a 5000-mile radius, but I’m too much of an ignoramus to figure it out.

IN: Mirari’s Wake

The quintessential Selesnya enchantment. Don’t leave your Conclave without it.

IN: Confusion in the Ranks

And here we get to our "removal." We cast a spell to put lots of guys into play; we get their far-superior creature. We cast an enchantment and hopefully just get to keep it since most decks don’t run very many, and we’ve exchanged one already (Confusion in the Ranks triggers on itself). This card is also loads of fun and will always create a good story to tell.

IN: Ground Seal

While we do have one nombo with it (Eternal Witness), it’s tutorable graveyard hate, and everybody’s deck needs a little Dampe haterade. It also cantrips, and we all know a card can cost fifteen mana and say "give a creature -1/-1" but as long as it says "draw a card" on it everybody loses their minds.

Rithwalker

Okay, so to make a long story short, we have a certain enchantment called Doubling Season in this deck. We also have a few ways to tutor it up. Now read how Doubling Season interacts with planeswalkers. Yes, pretty much every single one of them can ultimate the turn they come into play. This may seem a little combo douchey, but I’m completely fine with it because it’s two cards that are sorta bad by themselves and it’s actually a pretty sweet way to die. If you, you know, have to die. But even without Doubling Season in play, planeswalkers that make tokens (a fairly large number of them) aren’t all that terrible. I’m still not overly fond of them in multiplayer games, though, as they present a completely defensible excuse to get attacked and die. Okay, so maybe that was a long story after all.

IN: Garruk Wildspeaker; Garruk, Primal Hunter

Do you like ramping and drawing cards? If not, you probably don’t enjoy Magic: The Gathering, so why are you even here?

IN: Ajani Goldmane

He’s sorta like a bad anthem. Also, if you have multiple effects that double your token making, they stack. So just imagine the veritable cornucopia of 40/40s you’ll be making!

IN: Elspeth Tirel; Elspeth, Sun’s Champion

This completes our Elspeth trifecta, and her ultimates are particularly juicy to resolve. She’s also my favorite female planeswalker despite her being self-conscious and unsure in pretty much every interaction ever. I bet you can guess who my favorite male one is. If you guessed Tibalt and his suave Armani fashion sense, well, you’re wrong.

IN: Xenagos, the Reveler

Not only does he make tokens, but he can also add absurd amounts of mana in his pre-apotheosis state when he just enjoys breaking vases instead of causing a bunch of ruckus in the later expansions of Theros block.

Jurithdiction

OUT: Rith’s Grove

We’re still leaving behind two Groves, and studies show that players bouncing their own lands can lead to severe cases of losing the game.

OUT: 3 Forest, 3 Plains, 3 Mountain

These are primarily being taken out for more cheap dual lands to increase our color density and then a couple of spell lands. Lands are always the most annoying part to obtain for a Commander deck due in no small part to their return (being able to cast your spells when you draw many basic lands of the same type) compared to the return of actual spells in your deck. So this part is more of just a suggestion than the rest of this article or I suppose an even more suggestionly suggestion if you will.

IN: Grove Of The Guardian, Kher Keep, Khalni Garden

Who likes tokens? We like tokens! I’ve also added an extra land to get our grand total to 37, which is the number I like to at least reach. And that’s before counting additional mana sources.

IN: Windbrisk Heights, Krosan Verge

My slowly deteriorating Constructed MTG skills tell me that whenever we can put spells in our mana base to give us something to do when we flood or at least more options we should do so. So here ya go.

IN: Brushland, Battlefield Forge, Karplusan Forest, Clifftop Retreat, Sunpetal Grove, Rootbound Crag

I like to call these "Dew lands" in favor of the gaming community at large’s favorite drink: Pepsi.

Mirror Mirror On The Wall, Who’s The Fairest Rith Of Them All?

So with the 32 replaced cards (plus lands), we arrive at this Magic: The Gathering Commander decklist:

Rith, the Awakener

David McDarby

Test deck on 01-21-2014

Commander

Creatures (14)

• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Hazezon Tamar
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Deranged Hermit
• 1 Academy Rector
• 1 Rith, the Awakener
• 1 Emeria Angel
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 Hero of Bladehold
• 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1 Hornet Queen
• 1 Heliod, God of the Sun
• 1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
• 1 Gahiji, Honored One

Planeswalkers (7)

• 1 Ajani Goldmane
• 1 Garruk Wildspeaker
• 1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
• 1 Elspeth Tirel
• 1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
• 1 Xenagos, the Reveler
• 1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

Lands (37)

• 1 Brushland
• 6 Forest
• 2 Plains
• 1 Gaea's Cradle
• 1 Karplusan Forest
• 1 City of Brass
• 2 Mountain
• 1 Taiga
• 1 Savannah
• 1 Plateau
• 1 Windswept Heath
• 1 Kjeldoran Outpost
• 1 Battlefield Forge
• 1 Krosan Verge
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 1 Kher Keep
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Windbrisk Heights
• 1 Jungle Shrine
• 1 Rupture Spire
• 1 Rootbound Crag
• 1 Sunpetal Grove
• 1 Khalni Garden
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Clifftop Retreat
• 1 Grove of the Guardian
• 1 Opal Palace

Spells (41)

• 1 Ground Seal
• 1 Enlightened Tutor
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Artifact Mutation
• 1 Sterling Grove
• 1 Mirari's Wake
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Wayfarer's Bauble
• 1 Sylvan Scrying
• 1 Confusion in the Ranks
• 1 Eladamri's Call
• 1 Skyshroud Claim
• 1 Aura Shards
• 1 Aura Mutation
• 1 Doubling Season
• 1 Farseek
• 1 Hour of Reckoning
• 1 Search for Tomorrow
• 1 Austere Command
• 1 Idyllic Tutor
• 1 Shared Animosity
• 1 Titanic Ultimatum
• 1 Martial Coup
• 1 Beastmaster Ascension
• 1 Luminarch Ascension
• 1 Explore
• 1 Awakening Zone
• 1 Growth Spasm
• 1 Nomads' Assembly
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 White Sun's Zenith
• 1 Parallel Lives
• 1 Increasing Devotion
• 1 Cathars' Crusade
• 1 Entreat the Angels
• 1 Collective Blessing
• 1 Assemble the Legion
• 1 Primeval Bounty
• 1 Hammer of Purphoros

With this newfangled list, I’d like to think that we have a good mix of token creators and token buffers. Our enchantment subtheme lets us tutor up the appropriate card to answer what an opponent is trying to get away with or if nothing else get one of our token doublers (Doubling Season, Parallel Lives, Primal Vigor) and start "going to town" as the youngsters call it. We lost one theme but greatly strengthened the two other themes and even got to intertwine them as much as we could! If nothing else, we can just start whacking on players and exponentially double our green tokens every time we connect with our commander.

Marath, Will of the Wild seems like an exciting commander in his own right but doesn’t serve so well as just a member of an army instead of being at the helm. There are also some cards that I left out that just outright kill people without any notice. If you want to play cards like Natural Order (for Craterhoof Behemoth), Burn at the Stake, or Vicious Shadows, be my guest, but I wouldn’t condone them in my own decks, much less ones that I’m trying to advise other people about. Luminarch Ascension is the single token generator that is good enough include that I didn’t. You just feel cheated if people start making Angels that fast and there’s nothing you can do at that point. But hey, what do I know—I go bars and get Shirley Temples.

As always, Craig will get $20.00 store credit to StarCityGames.com that just might help him pick up a few of the cards I suggested, some of which can be found below!

I don’t think I could get any further away from the Naya shard if I tried, so if I missed any Nayan staples please let me know in the comments. I’d like to think that this is a more structured and focused deck, but hey, I just like drawing cards and burning things. Maybe I’m not all that far away after all. Maybe we should just forget about Guilds, Shards, and Volvers and embrace that which brings all of us together weekend after weekend for contests of glory and skill and makes us want to train to reach Alex Louis Armstrong’s level of strength . . . Nah, you wouldn’t catch me dead with a Wild Nacatl.

Thanks peeps!

David McDarby

@J_Beleren on Twitter

Linuka on Twitch

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