Druids would have to be one of the most overlooked tribes in Magic. This tribe has given us some of the most important utility creatures in Magic history – look no further than Llanowar Elves – and gets very little in the way of recognition for their important contributions. When I stumbled upon this Druid tribal deck, therefore, I was genuinely taken aback at some of the absurdly powerful things you can do with these unassuming creatures.
Seton, Krosan Protector is a hell of a commander, turning your entire squad into… well, Llanowar Elves, sure, but that’s pretty good! When you’ve got plenty of stuff to spend that mana on, and ways to untap your team and do it again, Seton can be an absurd mana engine that breathes all-new life into some of Magic’s most resilient workhorses. Er, workdruids, I suppose. Here’s summerfreeze’s list!
Seton Druid Tribal by summerfreeze
Commander
Planeswalker (1)
Creature (39)
Sorcery (9)
Instant (7)
Artifact (6)
Enchantment (7)
Land (30)
Even without Seton out, a lot of the team taps for mana. All part of the plan, of course, as this deck plays an Elves-like strategy that, well, to be honest, isn’t as good as Elves. It is sweeter, though! There are all these weird non-Elf Druid cards that do all kinds of silly things – Augur of Autumn can help you play lands, Druid of Purification disenchants stuff, while cards like Beast Whisperer and Voice of Many will draw you a ton of cards.
But it’s primarily mana we’re interested in here, particularly when Seton is out, and oh my goodness me, you can generate so much mana with this deck. After playing Seton and tapping the entire team for a bunch of green mana, you can then play cards like Mobilize, Vitalize or Benefactor’s Draught to untap everything and do it all again! If you’ve got a Leyline of Abundance out, you’ll have about a billion mana by this stage… but where to put it?
Green does have a fair few interesting card draw spells, of course – there’s the classic Glimpse of Nature that can help you go off, but this deck gets really stupid with cards like Collective Unconscious and Shamanic Revelation. From there, it’s just a matter of finding Chord of Calling, Natural Order or Green Sun’s Zenith to fetch up the ‘Hoof – or you can just draw it naturally, of course, and swing with the untapped team for a trillion damage.
Outside of this big mana plan, there are some surprising cards that offer some other Druid-focused synergies. If you don’t have access to your Craterhoof, for whatever reason, one of the biggest baddest Druids yet printed, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa can instead juice up the team with all that mana you generated. Additionally, there’s this weird card I had literally never seen before today: Gilt-Leaf Archdruid. Excuse me!? Take control of all an opponent’s lands? Yes please.
I’m not going to argue that this deck is just worse than a more orthodox Elf deck, but that’s not the point. It’s so, so sick that strategies like this can flourish in commander! Your opponent can sit down across from you with Seton, Krosan Protector as their commander, and a few turns later, they’re activating Gilt-Leaf Archdruid and stealing your lands, and you never see it coming. Decks like this are what make Commander so great!!
