Toski, Bearer of Secrets is a staple green source of card draw in Magic: 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?

Related

Magic: The Gathering - Flubs The Fool Commander Deck Guide

Fool friends and foes with a singing frog in Magic: The Gathering.

Posts 1

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 makes every 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 are lots of ways of ensuring combat damage. First is creatures 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 a big creature trample over 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 of encouraging opponents not to block is via deathtouch. 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.

Toski, Bearer of Secrets by Jason Rainville

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 is with 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 instead leverage 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 to stack a bunch of enchantments and equipment that turn him from a tiny ankle biter into a rampaging titan.

Giving Toski vigilance also means being able to leverage Toski’s indestructibility for defense as well as offense.

Related

Magic: The Gathering - Maha, Its Feathers Night Commander Deck Guide

Maha, Its Feathers Night, one of Magic's legendary creatures in the Bloomburrow set, offers you a powerful control deck. Learn some tips for it here!

Posts 1

Building Your Toski, Bearer Of Secrets Commander Deck

Hornet Queen by Robin Olausson

To reiterate, Toski wants small evasive creatures, big trampling creatures, and/or creatures with deathtouch. He also wants a lot of creatures to outnumber opponents, so token generators are a definite category to consider. Finally, we're going to ramp out a bunch of stacking enchantments and equipment that turn our tiny squirrel into a monster.

Throw in a few staple green answers and some backup card draw, and we've got ourselves a Toski deck.

Evasive, Trample, And Deathtouch Creatures

Close

There are no green creatures that simply can't be blocked, except for Champion 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 Ledgewalker and Treetop Scout can't be blocked except by creatures that fly, and Gingerbrute can't be blocked except by creatures with haste. Bellowing Tangleworm provides everyone with the intimidate keyword, which is another great way of getting around defenders.

Thunderfoot Baloth, Defiler of Vigor, and End-Raze Forerunners are all trampling creatures, plus we'll discuss a bunch of enchantments and equipment that provide trample later on.

On the deathtouch side, we've got Mirkwood Spider, Wasteland Viper, Ohran Frostfang, Questing Beast, and Acidic 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

Close

Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse is 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 Queen is another great token producer that provides both 1/1 hornets with both flying and deathtouch. Garruk, Primal Hunter can produce a ton of tokens given enough time, and both Animal Friend and Staff of Titania turn Toski into a token generator.

Stacking Toski Buffs

Close

Now let's make a giant squirrel. The biggest and best way to buff Toski is with Colossification, which turns him into a 21/21 Squirrel capable of ending players in a single swing.

Next up we have Blanchwood Armor and Staff 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 Reforged offers a similar bonus but doesn't care if the lands are Forests or not.

Beastmaster Ascension might not go directly atop Toski, but it's a +5/+5 blanket buff for the team that's not hard to pull off. Power Fist and Bow of Nylea provide an escalating number of +1/+1 counters that eventually become too numerous to ignore.

One of the newer cards that deserves special mention is Excalibur, 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 Vengeance is sort of like Excalibur's baby brother.

Finally, there’s Eldrazi 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

Close

Being mono-green means leaning into what green does best. First, we'll get some ramp courtesy of Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Llanowar Tribe, Omnath, Locus of Mana, Kodama of the West Tree, and Cultivate. 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, and Archdruid's Charm join semi-lands Khalni Territory and Tanglespan Bridgeworks as our removal suite. Bala Ged Sancturary, Regrowth, Eternal Witness, and Shifting Woodland provide access to cards in the graveyard.

Toski will draw a lot of cards, but you might still find yourself stalled on occasion. Harmonize and Return of the Wildspeaker should give you those extra few cards to get ahead.

Related

Magic: The Gathering - The Most Valuable Cards From Bloomburrow

There are tons of great cards in Bloomburrow, and if you've opened any of these special cards you got yourself a valuable Magic: The Gathering card.

Posts

Toski, Bearer Of Secrets Commander Deck List

Colossification by Johan Grenier

Here's a sample deck list for what a Toski, Bearer of Secrets deck would look like.

Toski, Bearer of Secrets Commander Deck List

Commander (1)

Toski, Bearer of Secrets

Creatures (26)

Llanowar Elves

Elvish Mystic

Sakura-Tribe Elder

Mirkwood Spider

Wasteland Viper

Champion of Lambholt

Ohran Frostfang

Saryth, the Viper's Fang

Silhana Ledgewalker

Gingerbrute

Treetop Scout

Acidic Slime

Llanowar Tribe

Kodama of the West Tree

Scavenging Ooze

Reclamation Sage

Eternal Witness

Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse

Bellowing Tanglewurm

Omnath, Locus of Mana

Questing Beast

Defiler of Vigor

Hornet Queen

Thunderfoot Baloth

End-Raze Forerunners

Apex Devastator

Planeswalkers (2)

Garruk, Primal Hunter

Vivien, Champion of the Wilds

Sorcery (5)

Cultivate

Nylea’s Intervention

Harmonize

Return of the Wildspeaker

Regrowth

Instants (8)

Beast Within

Return to Nature

Gift of the Viper

Heroic Intervention

Ram Through

Archdruid's Charm

Collective Resistance

Tyvar’s Stand

Artifacts (13)

Swiftfoot Boots

Blackblade Reforged

Sol Ring

Thought Vessel

Emerald Medallion

Rhona's Monument

Basilisk Collar

Power Fist

Excalibur, Sword of Eden

Bow of Nylea

Staff of Titania

Sword of Vengeance

Pariah's Shield

Enchantments (9)

Lure

Animal Friend

Colossification

Beastmaster Ascension

Kenrith's Transformation

Rancor

Bear Umbra

Blanchwood Armor

Eldrazi Conscription

Lands (37)

Castle Garenbrig

Rogue's Passage

Access Tunnel

Boseiju, Who Endures

Bala Ged Sanctuary

Khalni Territory

Tanglespan Bridgeworks

Reliquary Tower

Shifting Woodland

Field of Ruin

Emergence Zone

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

Bonder's Enclave

Forest (26)

Budget Substitutions

Power Fist by Campbell White

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 substitutions if you don't want to break the bank.

Card

Substitution

Kodama of the West Tree

Scute Swarm, Fanatic of Rhonas

Apex Devastator

Silverback Elder, Vigor, Avenger of Zendikar

Heroic Intervention

Snakeskin Veil, Tamiyo's Safekeeping

Archdruid's Charm

Wilt, Krosan Grip, Nature's Claim

Power Fist

Haunted Cloak, Champion’s Helm, Brotherhood Regalia

Excalibur, Sword of Eden

Belt of Giant Strength, Colossus Hammer, Argentum Armor

Eldrazi Conscription

Prodigious Growth, Raised by Giants

Boseiju, Who Endures

Oran-Rief, the Vastwood, Tranquil Thicket, Forest

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

Myriad Landscape, Forest

Castle Garenbrig

Blighted Woodland, Forest

Related

Magic: The Gathering - The Most Valuable Commander Precons

Commander preconstructed decks are the bread and butter of Magic: The Gathering's Commander format, and some are worth quite a bit.

Posts

Tips For Playing Toski, Bearer Of Secrets In Commander

Blackblade Reforged by Chris Rahn
  • Put Lure on Toski, then give him deathtouch with something like Basilisk Collar or Bow of Nylea, and he'll start killing creatures every turn.
  • Toski is a great creature to be equip Pariah's Shield. Since Toski is indestructible, all the damage he receives from Pariah's Shield does nothing.
  • Gift of the Viper and Wasteland Viper are both fantastic combat tricks to play on Toski.
  • Colossification is great to play with Saryth, the Viper's Fang already on the table. This allows you to untap the Colossified creature (preferably Toski) and swing with it on the same turn it comes into play.
Next

Who Is Your Favorite Planeswalker In Magic: The Gathering?

Magic's heroes and villains have the Planeswalker Spark, letting them travel the Multiverse. Who is your favorite?

Posts