March of the Machine Prerelease weekend is in the books. I hope you were able to get out and play in an event near you, or at least nab a few Prerelease packs to play at home! In addition to the Prerelease, you could also pick up booster boxes and the new Commander decks. This week I’d like to do a deep dive on the face commander from the Tinker Time deck: Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy!
Tinker Time provides a playable framework for a Gimbal deck, but it’s exciting to just build around this commander from the ground up. The mini-quest in this sort of deck is to have as many different artifact tokens as possible so that Gimbal’s end step trigger puts as many +1/+1 counters as possible on the Gremlin token it makes. If it gets big enough, Gimbal’s static ability of giving artifact creatures you control trample becomes relevant. I really love how different this Temur commander is from other choices, and the challenge it presents both in building and playing the deck.
Let’s dive in and see what sort of cards we’d want in the deck!
Tokens Matter
Even if the Gremlin that Gimbal makes is large, it’s still just creating one token a turn, so having ways to increase that number is going to be awesome. Lucky for us, Temur has a ton of options for this, from Parallel Lives to Adrix and Nev, Twincasters. Doubling Season is obviously the top of the mountain for this sort of effect, since it will not only double the Gremlin tokens, it will double the +1/+1 counters too.
I love that Meria, Scholar of Antiquity is perfect for this deck. Even though the Gremlin tokens will have summoning sickness when Gimbal creates them, Meria can still tap them for a green mana, which is enough to cast many of the new protection spells, like Tamiyo’s Safekeeping. And if you have plenty of mana open during your turn, you can use Meria’s ability to exile the top card of your library and play it this turn. Jaheira, Friend of the Forest does a similar thing, giving all of your tokens the ability to tap for a green mana, though unlike Meria they gain the ability so summoning sickness applies.
It’s a little mind-blowing just how good Junk Winder is in a token deck, and it’s just an uncommon! Though it’s in the precon deck, if you’re building this deck from scratch, don’t forget to get one for the 99. It will do a lot of heavy lifting.
Artifacts Matter
Since we’re going to want to have as many different artifact tokens as possible, we’ll want to take advantage of artifact synergies, and Temur has a lot of great options here. Cyberdrive Awakener springs to mind; it will effectively give all the Gremlin tokens +4/+4 for the turn, and animate any noncreature artifacts into 4/4 creatures, and its static ability of giving artifact creatures you control flying could set up a potent attack step.
Shimmer Dragon loves to have a bunch of artifacts lying about to give itself hexproof, and it can tap two of them to draw a card and keep the gas flowing. Goad is a powerful ability in Commander, and Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist can sacrifice one of the (hopefully many) artifact tokens this deck will be churning out.
The timing of Gimbal’s triggered ability is a bit awkward for Kappa Cannoneer, but we will have other ways to make artifact tokens during our main phase to enable Kappa’s evasion, and it will still snag that +1/+1 counter during your end step to better smash your next turn.
Fun-Of Tokens
I dug deep into the card database to find a bunch of spells that make unique artifact tokens, and put this list together so you don’t have to!
I’d likely put nearly all these cards in the deck to start with in order to maximize Gimbal’s triggered ability. Kibo, Uktabi Prince makes a Banana token; Clown Car makes Clown Robot tokens; Svella, Ice Shaper makes Icy Manalith tokens; Canoptek Scarab Swarm makes Insect tokens; and Yotia Declares War makes an Ornithopter token. Farid, Enterprising Salvager can sacrifice a duplicate artifact token you might have created in order to make a Scrap token that doesn’t do anything but add an extra +1/+1 counter to your Gremlin. And I love that Volo, Itinerant Scholar makes a Volo’s Journal token that’s an artifact.
Feldon of the Third Path, Scheme Thief, and Faerie Artisans make copies that are also artifacts, which can stretch the number of different artifact tokens.
It’s interesting to note that Curse of Opulence makes Gold tokens, which are actually different from Treasure tokens, even though they’re so close that a lot of people just assume they’re Treasure tokens (though Gold doesn’t require tapping to sacrifice for mana). Also, Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer has had its creature type updated as Phyrexian, and so the Myr it makes is now actually called Phyrexian Myr rather than Myr. Run Brudiclad and another way to make Myr tokens and maximize Gimbal’s +1/+1 counters.
Commonly Used Tokens
Now, there are a ton of artifact tokens that Magic design has made wide use of in various designs over the years, so I’ve listed them below along with a handful of potential choices that I would consider. If none of my choices float your boat, it’s pretty easy to dig deeper and find other options that might fit your deck better. For myself, I’ll be trying to pick one card for each of these tokens unless I want to lean further into those tokens for other reasons.
Treasure Tokens
My go-to here would be Goldspan Dragon, though if I had a fair number of instant or sorcery spells, I might go with Storm-Kiln Artist. Prismari Command offers some decent utility tied to the Treasure token.
Myr Tokens
In addition to Brudiclad’s Phyrexian Myr token, let’s pick a regular Myr token maker! I’d be leaning towards Mirrodin Besieged, since it can churn out multiple Myr tokens over time, and if you draw it late and your graveyard has been stocked with destroyed artifacts, it can even be a win condition.
Thopter Tokens
My go-to for Thopter Tokens will be Sai, Master Thopterist, and thankfully it’s been reprinted enough that it’s quite reasonably priced these days. I also like that it can cash in artifact tokens to draw cards in case of an unfortunately timed Vandalblast or other battlefield sweeper.
Servo Tokens
Animation Module is a sneaky way to make Servo tokens; when Gimbal makes the Gremlin token with +1/+1 counters, you can pay a mana to make a Servo with Animation Module. Retrofitter Foundry and Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter can make multiple differently named artifact tokens.
Construct Tokens
I think I like the “Karn-struct” tokens made from Karn, Scion of Urza the best, since they scale up in size the more artifacts you’ve spit out onto the battlefield. I also like Sokenzan Smelter as a way to trade in a duplicate token for a Construct token.
Powerstone Tokens
Hall of Tagsin offers a “free” source of Powerstone tokens without costing a nonland card slot in the deck, though I’d be careful adding too many colorless sources of mana in a three-color deck. I’d likely lean towards Sarinth Greatwurm as a huge monster to further press the trampling beatdown. Of note, Urza’s Command can potentially create two different artifact tokens – a Powerstone and a Construct (notably of the “Karn-struct” variety).
Food Tokens
People have a deep hatred of Oko, Thief of Crowns, but maybe if you pledge not to “Elk” your opponents’ commanders, they might cut the planeswalker a little slack. Oko lets you create Food tokens, but it can also change your 0/0 Gremlins with a bunch of +1/+1 counters into 3/3 Elks with a bunch of +1/+1 counters, though it will no longer be an artifact and won’t have trample from Gimbal.
Golem Tokens
Ich-Tekik, Salvage Splicer is a cool choice to add a Golem token to the mix, and it will add counters to itself and each Golem whenever an artifact is put into a graveyard from the battlefield—remember, Treasure tokens that anyone cracks will count here!
Clue Token
It would be hard not to include Academy Manufactor in this deck, since it looks for one of three different tokens and then creates the other two tokens. Alongside it, I’d run Tireless Tracker, which is one of my all-time favorite Clue generators.
Incubator Token
White and black seem to be the primary colors for making Incubate tokens, but there are a couple of options for Temur. I’d probably lean towards Chrome Host Seedshark because I just love flying Sharks.
Blood Token
Lastly, there are Blood tokens, and Voldaren Estate offers another “free” way to add these tokens without costing a nonland slot. I might be tempted to run Arterial Alchemy, since it can create multiple Blood tokens in one fell swoop, and you can cash in a few to filter your draws and still have one sitting around to boost Gimbal’s trigger.
What are you planning on doing with Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy? Are there any awesome cards I overlooked that you think are slam-dunk inclusions? Do you think there might be any cool new artifact tokens from cards in March of the Machine: The Aftermath?
Talk to Me
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And lastly, I just want to say: let us love each other and stay healthy and happy.
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