Toby, Beastie Befriender is a mono white commander released inMagic: The Gathering’sDuskmourn: House of Horror set. Mono white tends to veer towards a more unpopular choice of a commander, but Toby, Beastie Befriender offers a unique blend of a token deck and a blink deck.
Unlike other mono white commanders, there’s a lot of versatility in a Toby, Beastie Befriender deck. There’s a lot of card drawing to be had (something usually uncharacteristic in white) along with creature tokens to make to constantly trigger various permanents. If you like amassing a token army, look no further than Toby, Beastie Befriender.
Wand of the Worldsoul
Song of the Worldsoul
x24 Plains
War Room
Windbrisk Heights
The decklist containsone planeswalker, 24 creatures, four sorceries, 13 instants, 12 artifacts, 11 enchantments,and34 lands. The cards included either create tokens, draw cards, or care about creatures entering the battlefield.
If you want to spend extra money, cards that double the number of tokens made likeAnointed Procession, Mondrak, Glory Dominus,andOjer Taq, Deepest Foundation(which triples)can be included in the deck.
Key Cards
Toby, Beastie Befriender
The commander of the deck,Toby, Beastie Befriender is going to be the most important card. Youalways want to blink it(exiling it and bringing it back to the battlefield) since you can keep making 4/4 Beast tokens with each enter trigger. Since the token isn’t legendary, you can have as many as you want.
Youmake a ton of tokens with Toby, making it easy to activate the passive ability to give your creature tokens flying. This effect is great, asit makes all of your attackers much more evasive, especially when paired with other cards that give your tokens stat boosts.
Cathars' Crusade
Cathars' Crusadeis one of the most important cards in the deck for building up an army with giant stats. Since you willbe blinking a ton of times over the course of the game, you will have a ton of creatures entering the battlefield at all times. This will constantly trigger Cathars' Crusade, and keep giving all your creatures +1/+1 counters.
When you blink, you will lose all the +1/+1 counters on the creature you exile (if they had any). So ensure you’d rather get their enter the battlefield effect over having them with high stats.
Cathars' Crusade, while a bit of a headache to track, is still worth an inclusion in your deck. Thecard turns your already threatening tokens into game-endersby giving them stats that make it easy to swing out and take someone out of the game in just one attack.
Halo Fountain
While you can win through combat easily,Halo Fountainis the best alternate win condition for the deck. Youwill be making a ton of creatures, which can then be untapped with Halo Fountainto gain a variety of effects, including a way to automatically win the game.
Even if you don’t have enough creatures to win the game with it,Halo Fountain can still untap your creatures to act as blockers. None of the effects of Halo Fountain have a downside, so there’s not even a cost of untapping a creature outside of the mana cost itself.
Prava Of The Steel Legion
You are going to have a ton of tokens in a Toby deck, andPrava of the Steel Legionis a way to make them all much safer in combat. Thestatic effect of Prava gives a unique stat boost of +1/+4, which makes them much less likely to die in combatso you’re able to attack more recklessly.
The effect to create a 1/1 token can be done at instant speed, so if you have mana open before your turn starts, you can pump any untapped mana sources into Prava’s effect to start your turn with a bigger board state.
Althoughthe stat boost only happens during your turn, it’s still worth playing Prava so you canattack without having to worry about creature trades in combat. While the tokens that Toby makes already have solid stats,Prava is especially useful for your weaker 1/1 creature tokensto make them more of a threat.
Teleportation Circle
Teleportation Circleis going to beone of your most consistent ways to blink your creaturesevery turn. It is permanent, so unlike your instant blink spells, you won’t lose a card in the process of blinking.
It only costs four mana,allowing you to nicely curve into it after casting Toby, Beastie Befriender the turn prior. Even if you’re not blinking Toby for more than 4/4 creature tokens, youcan blink various other creatures that have strong enter the battlefield triggers.
How To Play The Deck
A Toby, Beastie Befriender Commander deck is one thatwill be generating a ton of tokens by utilizing blink effects and drawing cards the same way. Theprimary gameplan is to amass a giant battlefield of tokens to make a ton of useful attackers and blockers.
WhileToby, Beastie Befriender is your main blink target, there are others you’ll want to blink for different effects. In the case of needing to draw cards, you’ll want to blinkPriest of Ancient Lore, Wall of Omens,andSpirited Companion. Alternatively, if you want more creatures, then you’ll want to blinkEvangel of HeliodorReverent Hopliteto make 1/1s equal to your devotion to white.
Yourbattlefield will primarily consist of tokens, so you want permanents that give them stat boosts such asIntangible Virtue, Inspiring Leader, andCaretaker’s Talent. Alternatively, you can give them +1/+1 counters withCathars' CrusadeandFelidar Retreat.
Theprimary win condition of the deck is winning through combat. You’ll want to build up a giant battlefield of token creatures and then swing out at your opponents. Alternatively, if you have enough mana and creatures to untap, youcan win with the alternate win condition on Halo Fountain to untap 15 creatures for five white mana.
Thebiggest weakness of the deck is the heavy reliance on blinking. If you don’t have any cards that can blink your creatures, you’ll struggle to build up any kind of board state. This is counteracted with draw power to get you to your consistent blink enablers as quickly as possible.
