Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy!

Gimbal is a five mana 4/4 that gives artifact creatures you control trample and at the beginning of your end step you create a 0/0 red Gremlin artifact creature token then you put X +1/+1 counters on it where X is the number of differently named artifact tokens you control.

Gimbal wants us to have as many trinket artifacts tokens like Treasures, Food, Clues, Blood, etc. and while the deck will be aiming to be getting as many of those sorts of tokens in play, I think it would be fun to see if we can get as many random artifact tokens in play.

The goal of the deck is simple, get a ton of differently named artifact tokens in play and get as much value from them as possible for being in play.

The first thing we need are artifact tokens that can generate value over time because they stay in play.

Roxanne, Starfall Savant does this perfectly because she makes a Meteorite token when she enters or attacks which when that enters it deals 2 damage to any target and can tap to add a mana of any color. On top of that, whenever we tap an artifact token for mana we add one mana of any type that artifact token produced, meaning we get more value from our Meteorite’s and our other mana artifacts.

Speaking of making mana artifacts, Svella, Ice Shaper can make a snow artifact token named Icy Manalith which can tap to add a mana any color and then Svella can be a late game mana sink to let us look at the top four cards of our library and cast a spell from among them without paying its mana cost.

We also have the classic token generators in Tireless Tracker which can make a Clue token when we trigger Landfall and when we sacrifice a Clue the Tracker gets a +1/+1 counter, Tireless Provisioner can make a Food token or a Treasure token whenever we trigger Landfall, and Academy Manufactor which makes a Clue token, Food token, and Treasure token if we would make one of those three.

Gilded Goose is a solid utility creature in this deck since it comes in with a Food token and we can tap it and sacrifice a Food to make a mana of any color as well as spend two mana and tap it to make a Food token, and this pairs especially well with Peregrin Took who makes an additional Food token when we would make one or more tokens and can sacrifice three Foods to draw a card.

One that would be very useful to have for not just the utility but also to present a bit of a threat would be Kibo, Uktabi Prince which can tap to have every player make a Banana token which can tap and sacrifice to add a red or green mana and gain two life, and whenever an artifact an opponent controls is put into a graveyard from the battlefield we put a +1/+1 counter on each Ape and Monkey we control and whenever Kibo attacks, the defending player sacrifices an artifact.

Now we are definitely going to be making a lot of artifact tokens, we can’t be around durdling and not defending ourselves.

The flavor text of Stridehangar Automaton is apropos to our deck building, and its ability is also very useful because whenever we make an artifact token we make those tokens along with an additional 1/1 Thopter artifact token with flying while also giving Thopters we control +1/+1.

Myr Battlesphere is also a way we can get a decent number of bodies onto the battlefield because when it enters we make four 1/1 Myr artifact tokens and when it attacks (as a 4/7 mind you) we can tap X untapped Myr we control to give it +X/+0 until end of turn and deal X damage to the player or Planeswalker it is attacking.

We can also put our artifact tokens to work by using Jaheira, Friend of the Forest to have all of our tokens tap to add green mana, which helps us keep our Treasures in play while still being able to use them for mana generation.

In a similar vein, if you don’t mind playing a Game Changer, we can also use Urza, Lord High Artificer who enters with a 0/0 colorless Construct artifact token that gets +1/+1 for each artifact we control, can tap an untapped artifact we control to add a blue mana and can let us pay five mana to shuffle our library, exile the top card, and until end of turn play that card without paying its mana cost.

There are also cards like Reckless Fireweaver which deals 1 damage to each opponent whenever an artifact we control enters, Hedron Detonator which deals 1 damage to target opponent whenever an artifact enters the battlefield under our control and can sacrifice two artifacts two exile the top card of our library and can let us play it that turn, Ingenious Artillerist who whenever one or more artifacts we control enter under our control they deal that much damage to each opponent.

Utility cards like Break Down, which destroys an artifact or enchantment and makes a Junk token, also are incredibly useful to keep around. Stern Lesson draws us two cards and has us discard a card and then makes a Powerstone token, Brackish Blunder bounces a creature and if it was tapped we make a Map token, and Many Partings can search for a basic land and put it into our hand and then make a Food token.

The last thing that we need is a way to win, and we should be able to do so if we make our artifact tokens help us.

Rise and Shine is a perfect card for this since we can pay two mana to turn a target noncreature artifact we control into a 0/0 artifact creature that gets four +1/+1 counters, but we can Overload it to turn all of our noncreature artifacts into essentially 4/4 creatures that can swing for a massive amount of damage.

We can also supplement this newly turned swarm of artifact creatures with cards like Master of Etherium which has power and toughness equal to the number of artifacts we control and gives other artifact creatures we control +1/+1 and Workshop Elders to give artifact creatures we control flying and at the beginning of combat on our turn turn a noncreature artifact we control into a 0/0 creature and put four +1/+1 counters on it.

If we want to make sure our token artifact creatures have a clear path to deal damage then we can use Perplexing Test to bounce either all creature tokens to their owners hands or more often we bounce all nontoken creatures to their owners hands.

Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer also comes in to be very useful because it gives creature tokens we control haste and makes a 2/1 Myr artifact creature token and then we can choose a token we control and turn each other token we control into a copy of that token.

While one of the best targets to for Brudiclad’s ability would be the tokens that Urza, Lord High Artificer makes, if you don’t want to play with a Game Changer then there is also Karn, Scion of Urza which can make the same type of Construct Urza makes, while able to reveal the top two cards of our library and having our opponent put one into our hand and exiling the other with a silver counter on it, and us being able to put that counter in our hand at a later turn.

Gimbal serves more as an engine Commander in which they help facilitate a game plan by making bigger and bigger Gremlin tokens, so long as we supply the fuel of more and more differently named artifact tokens.

We do suffer from needing some turns to set up, but once we do we can become a threat incredibly quickly. However, if we are consistently delayed by having all of our artifacts being removed or Gimbal not being able to stick to the battlefield, then we can be drastically hindered.

Playing slow and steady can allow our opponents to not pay us any mind, so when we have all of our pieces assembled we can potentially blind side our opponents into a sudden win.

Thank you for reading, see you tomorrow for the next Daily Commander!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual