Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about The Odd Acorn Gang!

The Odd Acorn Gang is a five mana 5/5 with menace, trample, reach, gives Squirrels you control “Tap: Target Squirrel gets +2/+2 and gains trample until end of turn. Activate only as a sorcery.” and whenever one or more Squirrels you control deal combat damage to a player, draw a card.

Squirrels have been a community loved creature type for a while, and ever since Wizards of the Coast has given more and more support to them over the years, there are plenty of ways for us to get plenty of Squirrels for this deck to work.

The plan is simple, get a bunch of Squirrels in play so we can boost our other Squirrels or give The Odd Acorn Gang a large enough boost so that they can swing for a massive amount of Commander Damage to win us the game, and bonus points if we can manage both in the same deck.

The first thing we need to look for are as many ways to get Squirrel tokens in play as possible.

Nut Collector is a bit expensive to cast, but they do allow us to create a 1/1 Squirrel token at the beginning of our upkeep while also giving all Squirrels +2/+2 as long as there are seven or more cards in our graveyard.

In terms of pure Squirrel token generation we have Chatter of the Squirrel which makes a single Squirrel token with Flashback, Acorn Harvest to make two Squirrel tokens that also has Flashback, and Deep Forest Hermit to make four Squirrels when it enters and giving Squirrels we control +1/+1 with the downside of having Vanishing.

Ever since Bloomburrow released, Squirrels have an affiliation with Food tokens which we can make use of some of those synergies by using Camellia, the Seedmiser who gives other Squirrels we control menace and whenever we sacrifice one or more Foods we make a Squirrel token and we can pay two mana and Forage (exile three cards from our graveyard or sacrifice a Food) to put a +1/+1 counter on each Squirrel we control.

To add a bit of extra synergy there we can also include Hazel’s Brewmaster who when they enter or attack we exile up to one target card from a graveyard and make a Food token while also giving Foods we control the activated abilities of all creature cards exiled by Hazel’s Brewmaster.

Of course one of the most efficient ways for us to make Squirrel tokens would be Chatterfang, Squirrel General who if one or more tokens would be created under our control, those tokens plus that many Squirrel tokens are created instead, along with having Forestwalk and for a black mana and sacrifice X Squirrels we can give a creature +X/-X until end of turn.

The next thing we need are ways for our Squirrels to be able to have a clearer path to deal damage to our opponents and/or buff our Squirrels.

Cover of Darkness is perfect for us because we can choose a creature (Squirrel) and creatures of the chosen type have fear, which means that they can’t be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or black creatures, which may not always work for us, but when it does it can mean that we can deal a ton of damage to a player.

Door of Destinies is also a great way to boost our Squirrels by a significant amount because we choose a creature type (Squirrel) and whenever we cast a spell of the chosen type we put a charge counter on it and each creatures we control of the chosen type get +1/+1 for each charge counter on Door of Destinies.

Pact of the Serpent is a great way for us to potentially get a bunch of cards because we can choose a creature type and target player draws X cards and loses X life where X is the number of creatures they control of that type. Not only can it be a way for us to draw a bunch of cards, but if we are playing against another typal strategy that also happens to get out of hand like say Goblins, we can potentially have them lose a bunch of life for all the Goblins they control.

We can also use the number of Squirrels we have to clear the board by using Swarmyard Massacre which makes two Squirrel tokens and then each creature that isn’t an Insect, Rat, Spider, or Squirrel gets -1/-1 until end of turn for each creature we control that is any one of those creature types, which can help get rid of a massive number of creatures and resilient creatures.

The last thing that we need are a couple of additional ways to help us eek out the extra bit of damage we need to win.

Valley Rotcaller is one such way for us to have each opponent lose X life while we gain X life for each other Squirrel, Bat, Lizard, and Rat we control, which if we did our job right means that we can have our opponents lose a ton of life and have our Squirrels clean things up.

If we want to win via Commander Damage with The Odd Acorn Gang because we don’t have enough Squirrels that can attack, we can use Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler to have creatures we control able to activate their abilities as though they had haste, untap a creature, and mill three cards and return a creature with mana value two or less from our graveyard to the battlefield.

Sword of the Squeak can also take advantage of us having a lot of Squirrel tokens in play for a potential Commander Damage win because it gives the equipped creature +1/+1 for each creature we control with base power or toughness 1, and whenever a Hamster, Mouse, Rat, or Squirrel we control enters we can attach Sword of the Squeak to that creature.

As far as other going wide options to win, we can use cards like End-Raze Forerunners to give other creatures we control +2/+2 along with vigilance and trample until end of turn, Overrun to give creatures we control +3/+3 and trample until end of turn, or even a Craterhoof Behemoth to give creatures we control +X/+X and trample until end of turn where X is the number of creatures we control to help us absolutely win the game with our Squirrel gang.

The Odd Acorn Gang serves as the ideal sort of base idea for a typal Commander. Benefits the creature type, can be flexible in a go tall or go wide strategy, has a way for us to gain card advantage, and has solid enough stats and abilities to boot for a Commander.

While we do have ways to protect our creatures, board wipes are going to be the antithesis for our deck regardless of if we want to play a go wide Squirrel strategy or a Commander Damage based strategy because of how much our deck relies on sheer volume of Squirrels.

We have enough ways to make a ton of Squirrels, but the next problem arises if we don’t manage to keep them in play and buff them so we can actually be a threat. if our lords or ways to boost our Squirrels die or get removed, even with a mass volume of Squirrels we can have a difficult time in winning.

Still, Squirrels are a very well supported creature type, and I imagine that more Squirrel stuff will be coming down the pipeline to help make the deck even stronger.

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

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual