Commander Deck Tech - Brenard, Ginger Sculptor

Undoubtedly, after seeing all legendary creatures from Wilds of Eldraine, I can say for certain Brenard, Ginger Sculptor was my favorite card revealed in the spoiler season. Splicers - creatures which create Golems and buff them in some way - finally found their space in Commander, in a fun Gingerbread Man deck!

The Bant color combination brought us Brenard, Ginger Sculptor and its fun "Reanimate" mechanic that brings back creatures as Gingerbread People - Food Golem tokens. Particularly, I thought it was genius how they combined lore and game design to create this card. Let's explore the potential this charismatic baker brings us.

We'll use each one of its colors thoroughly: we have Green to ramp, Blue to control, and White to defend ourselves. So, with all 3 combined, we'll aggro our opponents down with our several Food Golem tokens, and also mostly our Golems, thanks to the Splicer cycle which will also buff our Gingerbread People.

It is possible to say that, in this particular list, our focus is to create Golem tokens and win only through raw combat damage. With no other win conditions, the idea is truly to just ram this through.

In this color combination, you can easily bring many different finishers, but for this build I approached it more simplistically, focusing only on creatures hitting our opponents, and keeping the fun rhythm and atmosphere that Brenard provides us.

Accelerators

Mana Rocks

As some creatures cost a reasonable amount of mana, we'll use all signets and talismans we have at our disposal: Arcane Signet, Azorius Signet, Selesnya Signet, Simic Signet, Talisman of Progress, Talisman of Unity, Talisman of Curiosity, and, of course, the good old Sol Ring.

Ramp

Green's basic ramp kit is also included in this list: we have Kodama's Reach, Cultivate, Rampant Growth, Farseek, Three Visits and Nature's Lore.

Clearly, we also use the non-basic lands which are adequate to be searched - Spara's Headquarters, Breeding Pool, Hallowed Fountain, Temple Garden and many others.

Golem Creators

We have the aforementioned Splicers: Blade Splicer, Darksteel Splicer, Ich-Tekik, Salvage Splicer, Master Splicer, Sensor Splicer, Vital Splicer and Wing Splicer. They'll always create a Golem and give them some ability.

Thanks to Brenard, whenever these Splicers die, they'll take advantage of the buffs they grant, as they'll be Golems. And even if they aren't a Splicer, Malcator, Purity Overseer stands out, as it flows quite nicely with the token doublers, creating even more Golems for the Gingerbread People army.

Token Doublers

A great majority of the creatures in this deck have ETB abilities, so keep an eye out for the number of triggers which will happen when one of these token doublers is on board, particularly if they are creatures such as Adrix and Nev, Twincasters and/or Mondrak, Glory Dominus, considering both can become tokens thanks to Brenard. Other doublers are the classic Anointed Procession and Parallel Lives, which are present (whenever possible) in almost all token generator decks.

Other Golems and Interactions with Artifact-Creatures

To buff Golems, besides Brenard, we count on Urza, Prince of Kroog and Tempered Steel. Apart from Urza's buff, its ability of copying artifacts shows a lot of potential, considering this deck focuses on transforming creatures into artifact creatures, which makes this unit a great ally and a great problem for your opponents. Losheel, Clockwork Scholar does its job of preventing damage well, giving us a certain security when we choose who we'll attack. Its source of card draw, despite limited to once per turn, is still welcome - after all, drawing cards is rarely a bad thing.

Other Golems which were included were Meteor Golem, Solemn Simulacrum and particularly Bronze Guardian. It guarantees an extra safety measure on board, not to mention it, alongside Brenard, creates a creature with Trample and Double Strike, which means, it is one of the strongest creatures in the deck, and doesn't even need to die before it is buffed by your commander.

Creatures that Sacrifice Themselves

Sakura-Tribe Elder and Selfless Spirit create a lot of value: with Brenard on board, they fulfill their slay role one again, or more, if a token doubler is on the board. And speaking of value, Evoke works well with Mulldrifter and Foundation Breaker creating good bodies and performing their duties well alongside the commander.

Other Evoke creatures were considered, but for this build we only selected these ones.

Utility Creatures

Starting with two of my favorite green cards added to this list, we have Eternal Witness and Timeless Witness to recover resources you've already used or that were lost throughout the game. As this deck has 3 colors, Birds of Paradise is the only mana dork included. Of course, you can also add Noble Hierarch, but this card was left behind as it isn't that necessary.

Interacting with the tokens created due to its Populate mechanic, Nesting Dovehawk is one of the key-pieces in this deck: if it becomes a token, it is interesting to target this card to create an increasingly even bigger army.

Ohran Frostfang was also included as a form of aggression, as Golems will have Trample because of Brenard and Deathtouch because of Ohran Frostfang, dealing great amounts of combat damage thanks to this ability combination, and obviously to draw cards as well.

But the star of the utility creatures is Riftsweeper - Brenard exiles creatures with its abilities, making them inaccessible to be used again. However, Riftsweeper fixes this flaw by returning an exiled creature back into the deck. Ideally, you'll use it when a token doubler is on board, so that when it dies, it'll return the original Riftsweeper and another creature back into the deck.´

Answers and Interaction

Drawing Cards and Sacrifice Sources

Rhystic Study is added for the same reason it is added in almost all Blue decks: it can provide a lot of card draw and when it doesn't, it disrupts opponents' game plans considerably.

To help you with card draw, we also use Kindred Discovery. Considering this deck is aggressive and the number of Golems we can create is high, we can extract a lot from this card.

To sacrifice our creatures and add them to our army of Gingerbread People, we use High Market, Ashnod's Altar and Evolutionary Leap. I'll highlight Evolutionary Leap, considering that, besides answering exile effects well and helping you complement the commander, it also recovers resources this deck might eventually lose, providing another creature to your hand.

Protection, Counters and Removals

This deck is completely based on creatures and can only win through combat damage, so any protection spell you have is worth it. The more your board is preserved, the bigger are your chances to win. So, we use everything we have access to: Teferi's Protection, Clever Concealment, Rootborn Defenses, Heroic Intervention and Flawless Maneuver. It might seem like a lot, but it is important to remember Brenard exiles creatures after they die by its ability effect. So, after getting hit with a global removal, it will be difficult to rebuild the board.

As counters, we have Arcane Denial, Counterspell, Dovin's Veto and An Offer You Can't Refuse. As they are limited, be wise when you decide to use them. Punctual removals included are Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares, Beast Within, Generous Gift and Sundering Growth. As for global removals, we have Supreme Verdict, Vanquish the Horde and the indispensable Cyclonic Rift.

Though we don't have access to token doublers in this Budget version, we compensate through card increase with Populate. Splicers' essence is kept, providing a very similar experience through both versions, preserving the idea and fun from the original version.

It is a deck that, only by looking at the commander, already makes you want to smile as you play. We'll see how fast our small robots will develop and beat down opponents with the good old straight-forward combats most players prefer, even more so in a color combination that isn't too familiar with this archetype. However, it doesn't lose its Control traits, which makes this deck a very fun Midrange deck.

Would you go for Golem or Sacrifice line? Or through the ETB line? Share your thoughts in the comment section!