Getting Nutty with Chatterfang Squirrels in Commander
Hurray! Modern Horizons 2 is finally here. The day this article goes live is the MH2 pre-release and it is going to be fun and crazy. I think everyone is hyped for this one and it should be a whole lot of fun.
I decided to choose a new legendary creature for this week's commander article.
Chatterfang, Squirrel General
The deck is green, but also black because of Chatterfang's activated ability to sacrifice X squirrels to give a creature (+X-X) until end of turn.
I chose to add some powerful cards to the deck but in a nutty way. I wanted it to be squirrel themed but I also wanted it to be powerful in general. I figured this deck would be good at making a hoard of squirrels / creatures and over-running your opponent's. There are actually only 5 Squirrel creatures in the deck as I opted to play the more powerful ones, and none of the less powerful ones.
The Squirrels are; Chatterfang, Squirrel General, Toski, Bearer of Secrets, Squirrel Sovereign, Squirrel Mob, and Ravenous Squirrel.
Of course we have 10 other ways to create Squirrel tokens via; Squirrel Wrangler, Nut Collector, Drey Keeper, Deranged Hermit, Chatter of the Squirrel, Chatterstorm, Acorn Harvest, Squirrel Sanctuary, Squirrel Nest, and Chitterspitter.
So this deck only has 15 Squirrel themed cards and I added 6 mana rock / mana acceleration spells. It could run more, but the average mana cost of the whole deck is only 3.53 as it runs many lower mana cost cards. We also always want spot removal like Assassin's Trophy, but we do not want to forget to add in new MH2 goodies! Sudden Edict is one of my favorite cards in the set. It can be way better than Sudden Shock, but it is in black. Another new card I added was Flay Essence, as I just thought it was a multi-use removal spell for efficient mana. I wanted to run Damn in the deck but unfortunately it's overload costs removes it from the color identity of the deck, so I just ran Damnation instead.
The deck runs 2 tutor spells for versatility. I went with the traditional Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor, as they were the most cost efficient. One could also run Worldly Tutor, but it did not make my 99. Who knows, maybe when I have all the cards I'll work it in after some play testing. I also threw 4 Planeswalkers in just for the heck of it! They're all versatile and also are forms of removal and/or creature creation via their abilities.
The mana base was crazy because this deck will be able to run both Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth, and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. There are 2 ways to give your opponent a Forest via Yavimaya and Song of the Dryads. Who doesn't like getting some damage in with Forest Walk or land walk? The cost of the mana base in this deck will be insane with Bayou, Gaea's Cradle, Cabal Coffers, and fetch lands. If on a budget switch these out for basic lands, or the non-basic come into play tapped lands.
We also need some card advantage so it does run; Sylvan Library, Skullclamp, Toski, Bearer of Secrets, Beast Whisperer, Tireless Tracker, Species Specialist, Ravenous Squirrel, Ohran Frostfang, and 3 of the 4 planes walkers have some sort of card advantage ability.
Let us not forget to double up. No token making deck is complete without the following toolbox of: Parallel Lives, Doubling Season, Primal Vigor, and Parallel Evolution. However, these are some pricey cards and could always be substituted with more removal or big creatures.
This deck has 3 different main ways to win.
First we can kill them with infect via 2 cards: Triumph of the Hordes, and Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon.
The second way to win is just with an Overrun type effect, and we also have 2 of those with: Craterhoof Behemoth, and Coat of Arms.
The third and least likely way the deck can win is by draining the life of the opponent. There are 3 creatures that can drain life and those are: Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, and Poison-Tip Archer.
This deck has everything in the forest and swamps and then some more. "Squirrels, Snakes, Beasts, Insects, Faeries, and Dragon O My!" I made this deck more on the versatile side for a 4 or more person group game and not really for a 1v1. The deck is going to be fun to play but will also pack a wallop. Hopefully this will give you some ideas on how nutty to build your own Chatterfang, Squirrel General deck.
Be safe and have fun at your MH2 Pre-Releases. I hope everyone opens some good loot, and is able to upgrade their commander decks. Be safe, and thanks for reading!
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