Goldberry, River-Daughter: Commander Deck Tech

Goldberry, River-Daughter's natural charm and primordial magic already echoed through the multiverse of The Lord of the Rings. Now, it's time for her to enchant Magic players.

As a legendary creature, Goldberry emerged as a significant force in Commander, captivating players with her unique and versatile abilities.

In this article, we'll explore thoroughly this mysterious and powerful character's journey, analyzing its effects on the battlefield and how she molds strategies and interactions in Commander decks.

Goldberry's special ability, ": Move a counter of each kind not on Goldberry, River-Daughter, from another target permanent you control onto Goldberry, River-Daughter", promotes a notable synergy with other creatures and artifacts in her deck. This ability allows her to hoard a variety of counters, be them +1/+1, loyalty or any other type of counter, making her a blank slate to hoard power and influence.

But, this commander's versatility doesn't stop there. Through her second ability, ", : Move one or more counters from Goldberry onto another target permanent you control. If you do, draw a card", she allows players to share these counters, resulting in infinite strategic possibilities. This sharing action not only makes other creatures stronger, but it also rewards you with an extra bonus: drawing a card. The card advantage can become essential for this deck's success, and it increases even more Goldberry's utility as the game goes on.

Throughout this article, we'll examine some of the main strategies and interactions which Goldberry, River's Daughter, provides players in Commander decks. From powerful combinations with other creatures and artifacts, to more thematic and creative approaches, we'll unravel the secrets of this legendary card which has conquered players across the world.

This deck will tread an obvious path, counters. There are many decks in the game's history which have juggled these objects, moving them around and reordering them in ways that create more incisive situations in game, which are comfortable to the player. In Modern, we can quote decks such as Hardened Scales and Dice Factory, recent and very interesting decks, capable of bringing great results.

As a commander, Goldberry, River-Daughter will allow us only the use of the color Blue, which might seem a bit restrictive, but it will give us access to very pertinent mechanics to the deck's theme, such as Proliferate, for instance. Besides that, we will be able to use cards such as Freed from the Real, capable of enabling countless tapping-and-untapping combos, or, at the very least, a long chain of tapping and untapping a specific card, which ornates this commander's abilities really well.

This is the list we'll use in this article:

By skimming the deck, we can see many cards which place, move, or remove counters to pay for costs. With that, we can begin to prepare the strategies which we'll use with our Goldberry, River-Daughter.

One very simple, but very fun strategy is with this nymph's interaction with Crystalline Giant, a construct which can create random counters which grant it abilities, such as Flying, Deathtouch, Hexproof, and others. Using this commander's abilities, it is possible to share these abilities to the creatures which will use them best, sometimes even in the same turn, with the use of cards such as Freed from the Real or Aphetto Alchemist.

Charge counters, the most common types on artifacts in the game, are also plentiful in this deck, and, with them, it is possible to cast the permanents which use them to extract the most out of their abilities. Umezawa's Jitte, known for being an engine in eternal formats, is a great way of manufacturing these counters for us. Afterward, we can swap them onto cards such as, for instance, Magistrate's Scepter or Lux Cannon, with which they can be used better.

Another great interaction is removing counters which can be harmful to your permanents. A good example of that is Glen Elendra Archmage, a card with the Persist ability, which recalls from the graveyard creatures which have died without -1/-1 counters and places a counter of this type on it, preventing them from returning again. By using Goldberry's abilities, it is possible to remove this counter and make this fairy return from the graveyard many times, always keeping an open counter on your board.

Understanding the types of counters in this deck, the cards which use them and how they create and use these objects, will make your matches with this deck much more pleasant and easier. But, of all the ways of filling the board with counters, there is one which is more interesting...

Proliferate is a keyword with the following text: "Choose any number of permanents and/or players that have a counter, then give each one additional counter of each kind that permanent or player already has", which means, it will give, to the multiple targets chosen, extra counters of types that they already have, be them positive or negative counters.

Some of the cards with this mechanic that we have available in the deck are extremely strong, such as Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus, which can both double all instances of Proliferate which your cards have access to, as it can also become an engine for providing counters which have the Indestructible ability, sharing these counters so that all your various permanents can resist all sorts of global removals.

By allowing counters to stack more rapidly on permanents or players, the Proliferate mechanic boosts the game's strategic progression. Besides artifacts and creatures, the ability to Proliferate can reinforce Loyalty counters on planeswalkers, amplifying your options for the use of the abilities.

This flexible mechanic offers a tactic advantage by enabling the destruction of counters as the situation requires, which makes this counter deck more versatile and unpredictable for opponents.

The deck has a few combos, but these are less obvious than the ones we tend to use. Many times we might have a good combo in hands, or even on board, but we won't be seeing it because we won't be thinking about the whole structure as a whole.

Besides that, much of what this deck does is based on a few interchangeable pieces, which can make us look at a situation and not realize it as a victory just because it has pieces with similar effects, but different from those we are used to using.

We'll touch on some examples of big loops this deck can create next.

Unctus, Grand Metatect

The greatest asset to Unctus, Grand Metatect is in its ability: "Other blue creatures you control have "Whenever this creature becomes tapped, draw a card, then discard a card."".

Therefore, we count with a great variety of creatures which tap and untap either alone, or with the help of a friend who needs to be tapped for that. Aphetto Alchemist can create this loop of tapping and untapping alone, guaranteeing a high number of consecutive draws.

Now, Fatestitcher and Vizier of Tumbling Sands is a duo which can create this same sort of combo tapping and untapping one another, in a kind of electrifying Magic ballet.

Drawing the whole deck is, obviously, a gigantic advantage. It is a perfect ability to find cards pertinent to your situation, or even finish the game with a Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Laboratory Maniac or Thassa's Oracle, whichever one is your favorite. Though quite popular, it is an interaction too perfect to not be used.

Magistrate’s Scepter

Just like Unctus, Grand Metatect was the central piece of a combo with variations, Magistrate's Scepter will also be the same. With it, we'll try to create one of the favorite situations for any Blue player; infinite turns.

With only one charge counter on your precious artifact needed to do this, we'll be able to use many ways in this deck to Proliferate them and create a new turn every turn. The favorite cards to do this are cards such as Thrummingbird, which will consistently create proliferations every turn.

But, if you want to do this in a very aggressive way, Coretapper, Contagion Engine, Viral Drake, Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus are all separate ways of hoarding counters to your scepter, which can create even more value to your artifact when used together, making the recurrence of extra turn effects extremely easy.

With these extra turns, you can draw infinite cards and finish with Jace, Wielder of Mysteries or by hitting many times with your Flying creatures.

This deck also has a Budget version, leaving aside expensive cards such as Sapphire Medallion, which cost more than 10% of the deck. As usual, decks with this approach try to keep their competitive traits and their capability of creating good friction on board, without being ignored or trivialized by their opponents.

The deck in its Budget version can be found below:

While players embark on journeys alongside commanders coming from J.R.R. Tolkien's collective imagination, Goldberry, River-Daughter is an option to be considered, even if she isn't that popular as a character. By involving herself with the counter mechanic, Goldberry becomes the epicenter of a harmonious synergy, allowing you to build a deck full of possibilities and surprises.

The rhythm of the abundant counters being played like juggling balls on your cards becomes enchanting, and will amuse a lot the owner of the deck and their table buddies.

I hope you liked this article! If you have any questions, I'll be available in the comment section. See you next time.