(Baylen, the Hammer | Art By: Kemonomichi)

Silly Rabbit Trix Are For Kids

Cereal is delicious. Most people would agree on this enough to call it a fact. Another fact is that Baylen, the HaymakerBaylen, the Haymaker, is the most built Commander in Bloomburrow when writing this piece. Another fact is that I have teched a deck that is so unique that there are no other entries on the site that have the Bonk Bunny and a particular ten-mana sorcery in the 99. Venture into the land of adorable woodland creatures with me, Nick, for another outside-the-box deck tech.

Why Does This Deck Look So Weird?

Baylen, the Haymaker is undoubtedly powerful. The card does everything anyone wants and stays nice and safe in the command zone. All versions of Baylen will utilize tokens to an extent, but how we use those tokens is the key. Are we making mana? Drawing cards? Or making the single biggest bunny anyone has ever seen and swinging for lethal? If I told you none of these are true, you'd stop reading this article and move on, so I won't say that. I can say the ability to pump up Baylen is something I am trying never to have to use in this deck. Using that ability to kill someone is plan Z in the "ways, this deck wants to win the game" handbook.

I can say that the ability to draw a card and, to a lesser extent, make mana is vital to this deck's ability to win the game. Card draw is always crucial to commander decks, and it is no surprise that commanders who can draw cards are often "better" than those who can't. This deck is also a bit mana intensive; remember, we built around a ten-mana card. We also have green, so mana production isn't as hard to come by as with other colors.

One, Two, Punch

Nine legal sorceries cost ten CMC, which we could build around in this deck. Five of them wrath the board in one way or another. Explosive SingularityExplosive Singularity deals damage.Apex of PowerApex of Power can let you cast more spells. Storm HerdStorm Herd makes pegasi. But there is one card that makes our deck unique:

Some of you may have seen a Primal SurgePrimal Surge deck before. Most often, it's in Nikya of the Old WaysNikya of the Old Ways or Ruric Thar, the UnbowedRuric Thar, the Unbowed. Both cards actively force you to run very few to no other non-permanents outside of the surge itself. I've always wanted to make a deck using Primal Surge as the win condition, and I think Baylen is a sneaky way to do it. There is no small list of permanents that reward you, HEAVILY, for making tokens. Almost every commander player has seen one, if not all, of these cards.

These three are the most popular. They are often the best of the bunch. Four CMC for Anointed Procession and Parallel Lives means they come down faster, and Doubling Season has a historic pedigree and extra synergy with planeswalkers. But let me introduce you to the B-Team of these effects.

The CMC and added effects bring down the ratings for all these cards: Ojer Taq, Deepest FoundationOjer Taq, Deepest Foundation, and Dual NatureDual Nature only affect creatures. Primal VigorPrimal Vigor has the slight drawback of giving benefits to your opponents, not just you. As someone who has gotten many more Bs in my academic career than As, these will do just fine. One more card in the deck can make between zero and an indeterminate amount of tokens. It just depends on if you feel lucky, punk, do you?

But how do we get to cast all these spells, and more importantly, how do we get to cast Primal SurgePrimal Surge, with its high cost? Dorks, lots of dorks.

How We Build It

We need to make a lot of mana and fast. If you are flush with cash or have access to specific pieces of technology, like a sharpie, Gaea's CradleGaea's Cradle will be a boon to this deck. Land enchantments like Utopia SprawlUtopia Sprawl help ramp and color fix. Selvala, Explorer ReturnedSelvala, Explorer Returned, and Selvala, Heart of the WildsSelvala, Heart of the Wilds both give us access to more cards, more mana, and a small amount of lifegain. And since we can't run the typical green staple cards such as Kodama's ReachKodama's Reach or Three VisitsThree Visits, we're running all three of the Signets:

I will always shout out the card Cryptolith RiteCryptolith Rite, especially when it is so good in this deck.

Gotta Go Fast

As the saying goes, "haste makes waste." I want to make waste of the other players at the table, so haste seems essential to this deck. Concordant CrossroadsConcordant Crossroads, Rhythm of the WildRhythm of the Wild and Samut, Voice of DissentSamut, Voice of Dissent. But haste often comes with attacking, as does making a massive board of tokens. But why would I not care about how big Baylen can get if that is the case? Why would I not want to use the Bonk Bunny?

Because I've been lying to you this entire time, readers.

Burn it Down

We are not "just" built around Primal SurgePrimal Surge. We are also the only Baylen deck with the card Flame FusilladeFlame Fusillade. Attacking with creatures is so 2014; we're all about tapping creatures in 2024. Firstly, this causes a problem for our deck. It stops the Primal SurgePrimal Surge as it's not a permanent. This is what makes Baylen's ability to draw cards so good. It can help us find both sorceries in the deck so that the surge does not stop. Once we surge our deck like 1995, we can tap dance our way to victory unless we are playing against a table full of pesky lifegain decks. Then, once again, we turn to our furry friend, make some mana, and activate Aggravated AssaultAggravated Assault as many times as necessary.

In Conclusion

Baylen, the HaymakerBaylen, the Haymaker, is one of the strongest commanders I've seen recently, which says a lot. It's a Swiss army knife of a card living in your command zone. But truthfully, to me, it is a bit boring. I wanted to stretch the limits on this card in a way that still takes advantage of what the deck is trying to do at its heart but also catches people by surprise. The deck runs many expensive to cast and "not very strong" token-making creatures like Trostani's SummonerTrostani's Summoner and GodsireGodsire, but that's the point. There's also three different Eternal WitnessEternal Witness effects if we ever lose our wincons.

There's one type of card I did omit from this deck for many reasons. Those would be the OverrunOverrun creatures, famously Craterhoof BehemothCraterhoof Behemoth. Should it be in the deck for efficiency's sake? Yes, it should. Is it super predictable and somewhat played out? I think so. But this is my build of the deck and I'm wearing my hipster hat, so if you sleeve up Baylen, put in whatever cards make you happy. If you want to see any other deck techs I have done, set reviews where I undoubtedly judged a card wrong, or the many things I have said about Planeswalkers, check out my previous articles on EDHREC under my name or the Myth Realized series.

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Nicholas Lucchesi

Player and lover of all Magic the Gathering formats. Forged in the fires of Oath of the Gatewatch expeditions. Always down to jam games with anyone and everyone. When not playing Magic I am doing something else equally, if not more nerdy.