(Seven Dwarves | Art by Jason Rainville)

Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho!

Once Upon a Time, in the magical land known as EDHREC, there was a collection of sad, neglected cards, each played in 300 decks or less. But these cards knew that, despite the minimal amount of attention they garnered, one day their prince would come and use them in some amazing strategy no one else was playing. That prince was named Forgotten Harvest.

You'll have to forgive my fanciful introduction, but today we're all about fairy tales in this edition of Forgotten Harvest. Specifically, we're going to look at the new Throne of Eldraine card, Seven Dwarves. Now, we're limited to only using seven copies of this card in the deck, which is better than the traditional one copy, but is probably going to need some help if we want some really big Dwarves. Thus, we're going to pair these Seven Dwarves with a copy/token strategy led by the great Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer.

The goal here will be to build up an army of Dwarves that all pump one another, and then either grant them evasion with Levitation or Archetype of Aggression, or clear the rest of the board with something like Ghired's Belligerence, before making one big attack.

We'll start by talking about how we can reliably get at least a couple of the Seven Dwarves onto the battlefield from our deck. Then we'll get into some options for turning our existing creatures into one of the Seven. Finally, we'll cover some great and underplayed token-making options in Izzet. How does that sound?

Don't be Bashful!

According to math, you've got a 41% chance of drawing one of the Seven Dwarves in your opening hand. And while Izzet isn't well known for its creature tutors, blue does make it pretty easy to get a second copy of something once you have your first. For instance, Mitotic Manipulation is a great way to knock through a chunk of your deck on the hunt for a second Dwarf. It also can hunt for a basic land, should that be needed instead. For that second reason, especially, I think this card could see play in more than the 81 decks that use it right now.

Should one of your Seven Dwarves still be in your hand, you could always use an activation from Assembly Hall to nab a second. It's understandable why such a card that depends on multiple copies to be relevant would see so little play in Commander. I mean, it's only in 5 decks right now on the site! F-I-V-E!!! Thrumming Stone is the likely culprit, pushing Assembly Hall out of Persistent Petitioners and Shadowborn Apostle decks. For this deck, though, given the upper limit of seven copies of our Dwarves, the Hall is going to play so much better, and be worth the mana investment. If you'd prefer this ability, but in creature form, I also recommend the recently-printed Pattern Matcher (only in 9 decks).

When you want to get another Dwarf into play quickly, perhaps even as a combat trick, nothing beats Mask of the Mimic from Stronghold. For a measly blue mana, you can swap out a token at the end of an opponent's turn for a second copy of Seven Dwarves. Again, this isn't the strongest card for your typical singleton build. Nor does it play well with Persistent Petitioners decks where, odds are, you'd end up just trading one Petitioner for another. This is verified by the 13 decks that use it on the site. Here, however, it's a champion!

Because I'm Happy!

There are so many great clone and copy-making cards in Izzet, and they all see plenty of play. Cards like Rite of Replication, Mimic Vat, and Helm of the Host have become auto-includes in typical Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer decks. There are also a few not-so-well-known cards that can create a similar effect, and help to boost our Seven Dwarves to the max.

Tilonalli's Skinshifter is a great eighth copy of Seven Dwarves when on the attack. Plus, it has the added versatility to become a second copy of Rapacious One should the moment call for it. It's only in 188 decks right now, but this clone ability in mono-red is a rare thing. Couple that with red's evasion options and the number of cards red has that trigger abilities on combat damage, and this card seems very undervalued, generally speaking.

Then, there's one of my favorite Magic cards: Spy Kit. It can make any of your creatures into a Seven Dwarves in name, adding one more round of +1/+1 to all of the Dwarf brethren. It combos very well with Mask of the Mimic, letting you grab any creature out of your deck and drop it onto the battlefield. Even the +1/+1 boost from the Equipment is relevant, when played with the self-immolating card Goblin Kaboomist. Spy Kit needs to see play in more than the 51 decks that currently use it. Please help me out by looking out for other potential uses.

What's Up, Doc?

The last piece of this deck is to ensure there are plenty of tokens that we can turn into our copied Seven Dwarves using Brudiclad's ability. Along with standard token-making options like Dockside Extortionist, Bloodforged Battle-Axe, and Notorious Throng, I've also included some lesser-played options for getting our token numbers up.

One of the first places I looked for red and blue token production was the cycle of token-creating Spellshapers from Future Sight. All of these creatures are underplayed, including Cloudseeder (86 decks), Sparkspitter (64 decks), and Sliversmith (129 decks). Now, none of these cards are going to provide an explosive swarm of tokens a la Clone Legion, but they all come out early and can generate steady tokens for several turns in anticipation of Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer with a huge payoff. These tokens can also be great for chump blocking or sacrificing to Mask of the Mimic.

A card I'm surprised that I get to talk about, Faerie Formation, feels far too good compared to the number of decks that use it (259 at the time of writing). I guess I have the lack of Brawl deck availability to thank when discussing this powerful token generator. Four mana feels like a steal when you get to draw a card and create a 1/1 flyer. On a five-mana 5/4 body with evasion, this Faerie is all kinds of good. Hopefully with the second print run of the Brawl decks we can see its numbers go up.

Here's the final decklist:

[Creatures]
*1 Cloudseeder
*1 Dockside Extortionist
*1 Goblin Kaboomist
*1 Loyal Apprentice
*7 Seven Dwarves
*1 Sliversmith
*1 Archetype of Aggression
*1 Goblin Rabblemaster
*1 Legion Warboss
*1 Sparkspitter
*1 Tilonalli's Skinshifter
*1 Crafty Cutpurse
*1 Pattern Matcher
*1 Faerie Formation
*1 Deepfathom Skulker
*1 Rapacious One
[/Creatures]

[Instants]
*1 Mask of the Mimic
*1 Cyclonic Rift
*1 Lazotep Plating
*1 Cackling Counterpart
*1 Chaos Warp
*1 Counterflux
*1 Fated Infatuation
*1 Spell Swindle
[/Instants]

[Sorceries]
*1 Earthquake
*1 Fireball
*1 Tempt with Vengeance
*1 Vandalblast
*1 Ghired's Belligerence
*1 Heat Shimmer
*1 Mitotic Manipulation
*1 Quasiduplicate
*1 Notorious Throng
*1 Rite of Replication
*1 Tempt with Reflections
*1 Kindred Charge
*1 Stolen Identity
*1 Blasphemous Act
*1 Clone Legion
[/Sorceries]

[Artifacts]
*1 Bloodforged Battle-Axe
*1 Sol Ring
*1 Izzet Signet
*1 Spy Kit
*1 Commander's Sphere
*1 Mimic Vat
*1 Thran Dynamo
*1 Helm of the Host
*1 Assembly Hall
[/Artifacts]

[Enchantments]
*1 Curse of Opulence
*1 Metamorphic Alteration
*1 Mirror Mockery
*1 Flameshadow Conjuring
*1 Levitation
*1 Storm the Vault
*1 Followed Footsteps
*1 Mirror March
[/Enchantments]

[Planeswalkers]
*1 Jace, Cunning Castaway
[/Planeswalkers]

[Lands]
*1 Cascade Bluffs
*1 Dwarven Mine
*1 Fabled Passage
*1 Haunted Fengraf
*12 Island
*15 Mountain
*1 Shivan Reef
*1 Spirebluff Canal
*1 Steam Vents
*1 Sulfur Falls
*1 Temple of the False God
[/Lands]

[/Deck]

It's Home from Work We Go!

Thus we conclude the tale of Brudiclad and the Seven Dwarves as told by Forgotten Harvest. As we've now wrapped up storytime, feel free to leave your questions, comments, and snide remarks in the comments section below. I'll be there thinking of more ways I can use Spy Kit in Commander builds, expounding on the benefits of Spellshapers, and waiting for True Love's Kiss.

If you've got a neglected card in 300 decks or less that you'd like to see highlighted on here, or a particular strategy that you think needs more love, let me know! I thrive on reader suggestions. Until next time, may you live Happily Ever After!

Kyle Keller

Midwest transplant to the Pacific Northwest, Kyle has been playing the jankiest of decks for nearly 20 years. He loves non-lethal combos, obscure deck themes, Cloudstone Curio, and winning with Coalition Victory. When he's not tapping lands or brewing decks, Kyle is enjoying his other ridiculously expensive hobby: building with Lego.