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Toski, Bearer of Secrets is a staple green source of card draw inMagic: The Gathering. He’s easily inserted into most Commander decks with even a hint of green for a reliable source of new cards. All you need to do is deal combat damage to an opponent with a creature. Simple, right?
While this Legendary Squirrel is often seen in a supporting role, give Toski a little support and our facially-furred friend can be the commander of his very own deck. Toski is a great example of how to make big things come in small packages.
The Commander: Toski, Bearer Of Secrets
Before we get to making a deck around Toski, let’s take a look at this Squirrel’s stats. He’s a 1/1 indestructible creature for four mana that can’t be countered and must attack on every turn. Not bad so far, but then the last line reads, “Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, draw a card.”
This blanket buff makesevery one of your creatures a potential source of card draw. All they have to do is deal combat damage to a player for the cards to come rolling off the top of your library.
There arelots of ways of ensuring combat damage. First iscreatures with evasion. Green doesn’t have a lot of evasive creatures, but it does have a few that are worth considering.
The second way is having abig creaturetrampleover smaller ones. Green has TONS of big creatures with trample or making small creatures big and then giving them trample, so we shouldn’t have any problems there.
A third way ofencouraging opponents not to block is viadeathtouch. If blocking means sacrificing your creature no matter how large or small, many opponents will just allow your deaththouch creature through instead, which translates into free cards with Toski.
Finally, there’s the ‘go wide’ approach with a bunch of creatures. Simply having more creatures than your opponent can successfully block means that some of them will get through to deal damage and thus draw cards courtesy of Toski. The best way to do that iswith token generators, so we’ll be sure to include a few.
Capitalizing on these four strategies will give you a bunch of cards, but that won’t necessarily give you the win. We could do the typical green thing and just play a bunch of giant monsters to consume every opponent at the table, but this is a Toski deck.Toski should be the star of the show.
So instead of casting a bunch of wurms and dragons, let’s insteadleverage Toski’s indestructibility. This keyword makes Toski extremely hard to eliminate, with very few sources of removal able to take Toski out of action.
This makes Toski the perfect target tostack a bunch of enchantments and equipmentthatturn him from a tiny ankle biter into a rampaging titan.
Giving Toski vigilancealso means being able toleverage Toski’s indestructibility for defenseas well as offense.
Building Your Toski, Bearer Of Secrets Commander Deck
To reiterate, Toski wants smallevasive creatures, bigtrampling creatures, and/orcreatures with deathtouch. He also wants a lot of creatures tooutnumber opponents, so token generators are a definite category to consider. Finally, we’re going toramp out a bunch of stacking enchantments and equipmentthat turn our tiny squirrel into a monster.
Throw in a fewstaple green answersand some backup card draw, and we’ve got ourselves a Toski deck.
Evasive, Trample, And Deathtouch Creatures
There are no green creatures that simply can’t be blocked, except forChampion of Lambholt. As the good Champion gets bigger, both itself and every creature on your team becomes harder to block, making her the perfect addition to any Toski deck.
Besides the Champion, there are a few green creatures that are harder to block than average.Silhana LedgewalkerandTreetop Scoutcan’t be blocked except by creatures that fly, andGingerbrutecan’t be blocked except by creatures with haste.Bellowing Tanglewormprovides everyone with the intimidate keyword, which is another great way of getting around defenders.
Thunderfoot Baloth,Defiler of Vigor, andEnd-Raze Forerunnersare all trampling creatures, plus we’ll discuss a bunch of enchantments and equipment that provide trample later on.
On the deathtouch side, we’ve gotMirkwood Spider,Wasteland Viper,Ohran Frostfang,Questing Beast, andAcidic Slime(which also doubles as removal). The first three can also provide deathtouch to Toski, making it more likely that our Squirrel Commander will get through to draw even more cards.
Token Generators
Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluseis probably the best card to pair with Toski. Jolrael is likely to create a 2/2 cat every turn, and eventually empower your entire army.
Hornet Queenis another great token producer that provides both 1/1 hornets with both flying and deathtouch.Garruk, Primal Huntercan produce a ton of tokens given enough time, and bothAnimal FriendandStaff of Titaniaturn Toski into a token generator.
Stacking Toski Buffs
Now let’s make a giant squirrel. The biggest and best way to buff Toski is withColossification, which turns him into a 21/21 Squirrel capable of ending players in a single swing.
Next up we haveBlanchwood ArmorandStaff of Titania, both of which enhance Toski based on the number of Forests on the table. This being a mono-green deck, we can expect there to a lot of Forests.Blackblade Reforgedoffers a similar bonus but doesn’t care if the lands are Forests or not.
Beastmaster Ascensionmight not go directly atop Toski, but it’s a +5/+5 blanket buff for the team that’s not hard to pull off.Power FistandBow of Nyleaprovide an escalating number of +1/+1 counters that eventually become too numerous to ignore.
One of the newer cards that deserves special mention isExcalibur, Sword of Eden. It’s expensive to cast, but providing +10 power to Toski alongside the vigilance keyword makes for an incredible threat that can also contribute to your defenses.Sword of Vengeanceis sort of like Excalibur’s baby brother.
Finally, there’sEldrazi Conscription. Turning a lovable squirrel into an ineffable being bent on destruction seems a little mean to Toski, but you can’t argue with an 11/11 trampling giant that demands two sacrifices every turn.
Green Staples
Being mono-green means leaning into what green does best. First, we’ll get some ramp courtesy ofLlanowar Elves,Elvish Mystic,Sakura-Tribe Elder,Llanowar Tribe,Omnath, Locus of Mana,Kodama of the West Tree, andCultivate. This will help get Toski out as soon as possible and also provide sufficient mana to cast all the cards we’ll be drawing.
Reclamation Sage,Acidic Slime,Beast Within,Return to Nature,Collective Resistance,Ram Through, andArchdruid’s Charmjoin semi-landsKhalni TerritoryandTanglespan Bridgeworksas our removal suite.Bala Ged Sancturary,Regrowth,Eternal Witness, andShifting Woodlandprovide access to cards in the graveyard.
Toski will draw a lot of cards, but you might still find yourself stalled on occasion.HarmonizeandReturn of the Wildspeakershould give you those extra few cards to get ahead.
Toski, Bearer Of Secrets Commander Deck List
Here’s asample deck listfor what a Toski, Bearer of Secrets deck would look like.
Return of the Wildspeaker
Gift of the Viper
Forest (26)
Budget Substitutions
Toski isn’t the most expensive card to build a deck around, but there are a few cards in the deck above that are a bit pricey.Here are some budget substitutionsif you don’t want to break the bank.
