Bracket 5 is the highest level of Commander. It’s an interchangeable name with cEDH (competitive commander). Decks are as optimized as possible and built around winning the game as quickly as possible. In Golgari, Tribal options are quite limited. Elves have potential, but this article will look at something a little more consistent in Chatterfang, Squirrel General. The deck is a combo fiend, utilizing Chatterfang’s ability with a ton of different enablers.
Tutors
The most important card type in Bracket 5 is tutors. These are cards that let you search for cards directly from your library. In cEDH Chatterfang especially, they are vital for the deck to hold its own at the powerful Bracket 5 tables. There are multiple cards that require combo pieces, and tutors allow you to get them without having to rely on drawing them.
You have the usual tutor set of Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor to get any card into your hand. A bit more costly, but Beseech the Mirror and Dina's Guidance are solid options as well. You make a lot of sacrifice fodder, so Diabolic Intent is online more often than not.
Something Green excels at is being able to get creatures from your library directly. Nearly all the combos in the deck are creature-based, making these especially good. Examples of these Green tutors include Nature's Rhythm, Green Sun's Zenith, Finale of Devastation, and Eldritch Evolution. You also have more traditional tutors with Summoner's Pact and Worldly Tutor. Thanks to convoke, Chord of Calling can often be cast for free to easily close out games by bringing your combo piece out directly.
Utility Cards
Golgari can struggle in Bracket 5 without the interaction that other colors have. You do have some solid removal options in Deadly Rollick for creatures and Force of Vigor for artifacts and enchantments. A downside of the deck is that it can be slow, so you need to slow others down. One such way to do that is with Collector Ouphe, which shuts down artifacts. You don’t run too many, so it won’t affect you too much. Deathrite Shaman can attack graveyards, and Orcish Bowmasters can punish card draw.
Ramp Package
The deck needs to generate a lot of mana quickly, so you need ways to get to that mana as fast as possible. There aren’t a ton of mana dorks that usually get run in Bracket 5 decks, but this deck is an exception. It runs the usual Delighted Halfling and Birds of Paradise, as well as more generic mana dorks like Elvish Mystic, Elves of Deep Shadow, and Fyndhorn Elves.
Warren Soultrader can turn any creature into a Treasure token and is a key part of multiple combos in the deck. With The Cabbage Merchant, all noncreature spells your opponents play turn into ramp with Food that can be used as mana rocks. If you get Rev, Tithe Extractor out early enough, you can keep netting Treasure tokens while enjoying cards from the top of opponents’ libraries.
Protection and Recursion
cEDH Chatterfang is a combo deck, and you don’t have access to Blue, making it much harder to fight back against interaction. Luckily, Green still has some tools to get the job done. Allosaurus Shepherd prevents all your Green spells from being countered, and Veil of Summer prevents your spells from being countered and provides all your permanents with hexproof from Blue and Black to make them harder to remove. Both Savage Summoning and Cavern of Souls can guarantee you cast a creature that can’t be countered.
Even if a combo piece gets removed, you have multiple ways to get it back. Eternal Witness returns any card to the hand when it enters, and Noxious Revival puts it on top of your library. Reanimate directly puts the creature back onto the battlefield, and Finale of Devastation can too, assuming you have the mana to pay for X.
Enchantment Suite
In Golgari, you have a few different enchantments that can do a variety of things. Both Sylvan Library and Necropotence can help you dig for your combo pieces deeper (though be aware, Necropotence shuts off Sylvan Library. Survival of the Fittest tutors for a creature card so long as you can discard a creature card. Both Earthcraft and Squirrel Nest are an infinite combo (which we’ll get to shortly), and Concordant Crossroads enables quicker wins. Nearly all your creatures are three drops or lower, enabling Aluren to cast them for free.
The Squirrels
Of course, this is Squirrel Tribal, and there is more than just the Squirrels your commander is making in the deck. Camellia, the Seedmiser is a part of an infinite combo, and can make your Squirrel tokens more threatening if you find yourself in a longer game (though don’t expect this to come up too much). Hazel's Brewmaster can give your many Food tokens activated abilities, something that can be used as a replacement for your commander in a pinch (or other combo cards). Another way to recur cards from your graveyard is Osteomancer Adept, which, at the cost of foraging, lets you play creatures from the graveyard. The one downside is they have finality counters, so if they die, they’re gone for good. Lastly, Scurry of Squirrels is a cute tech card that triggers your sacrifice triggers.
The Combos
Chatterfang, Squirrel General is a creature-combo deck. None of the combos are as easy as other ones, but the deck benefits from having one of the key combo pieces directly in the command zone. The combos are a bit slower to get to, but it is very resilient and can make attempts for game-winning combos multiple times thanks to all its recursion.
Chatterfang + Pitiless Plunderer
This is going to be the easiest combo in the deck to pull off. All you have to have is both Chatterfang, Squirrel General and Pitiless Plunderer on the battlefield with an extra Squirrel. Simply activate Chatterfang, sacrificing the Squirrel, which triggers Plunderer to make a Treasure, to trigger Chatterfang to make a Squirrel token. This provides you with a way to make Black mana for Chatterfang, Squirrel General‘s ability, and a creature to sacrifice. Simply loop these effects to give all creatures -X until no one has any but you. If you have a card that creates extra tokens, such as Academy Manufactor or Peregrin Took, you’ll also make an infinite number of Squirrel tokens.
Chatterfang + Zulaport Cutthroat + Warren Soultrader
This is a combo that is one of the main win conditions. With these three on the battlefield, you can burn everyone out of the game at instant speed. You need one extra creature to sacrifice with Warren Soultrader to start the loop. After the sacrifice, you make a Treasure token, creating a Squirrel thanks to Chatterfang, Squirrel General. Zulaport Cutthroat also triggers when that first creature dies, gaining you a life and making everyone lose one. Zulaport ensures you won’t run out of life doing this combo, and Chatterfang keeps giving you creatures to sacrifice. Marionette Apprentice can technically replace Zulaport Cutthroat, but you’re limited in activation since you don’t gain the life back.
Sacrificing creatures for value is called an Aristocrats strategy. If this kind of gameplay is appealing to you, Korvold is a cEDH commander for that archetype that focuses much more on it, and we have a handy guide for that over here.
Camellia, the Seedmiser + Peregrin Took + Hazel’s Brewmaster + Gilded Goose
This combo is a lot more involved compared to other ones. It requires a handful of setup, but it easy once you do. First, you need to have Gilded Goose in the graveyard, then exile it Hazel's Brewmaster‘s ability. Then, you need Camellia, the Seedmiser and Peregrin Took on the battlefield. All your Foods will have Gilded Goose‘s ability to sacrifice a Food to add a mana of any color. Simply activate this ability with your Food token and sacrifice it to make a mana, which will trigger Camellia, the Seedmiser‘s ability to create a 1/1 Squirrel token. Then, Peregrin Took will see this card get made and replace the Food token you sacrificed. This will also net you an infinite amount of mana. With said mana, if you have a big graveyard, you can use Camellia, the Seedmiser‘s activated ability to give all your Squirrels an infinite number of +1/+1 counters.
Earthcraft + Squirrel Nest
This is another combo that is quite easy to achieve. All you need is a basic land that’s enchanted by Squirrel Nest, and Earthcraft on the battlefield. To start, simply activate the ability of the land to create a Squirrel token. Then, use Earthcraft to tap that token to untap the land that Squirrel Nest is enchanting. Simply loop this to create an infinite number of Squirrel tokens. They are going to be tapped, so you’ll want to do this at the end step before your turn to actually be able to attack with them.
This combo has a bit more moving parts and setup. You need all of Chatterfang, Squirrel General, Ruthless Knave, and Earthcraft on the battlefield. You also need a creature to be sacrificed to start the combo chain. Activate Ruthless Knave to sacrifice a creature to make two Treasure tokens. Then, Chatterfang, Squirrel General will create two Treasure tokens. Use one of those Treasures to make a Black mana, then use the Squirrel tokens to untap the basic land and make a mana with it twice. Then, sacrifice one of the Squirrels to Ruthless Knave, and repeat. Each loop will make one extra Treasure and Squirrel token, giving you an infinite amount of Treasures and Squirrels. With these Treasures, you can draw out your entire deck with Ruthless Knave‘s other ability.
The Pros and Cons of Chatterfang
cEDH Chatterfang is a deck that has a lot of toys to play with, but distinct weaknesses as well. First, let’s start off with the positives. The deck has a lot of different avenues to get to its combo pieces. Thanks to a plethora of tutors and recursion, you’ll have multiple chances to make an attempt to win the game. Golgari doesn’t have a ton of toys to speed things up, but can still take advantage of rituals like Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, and Culling the Weak to try and get to a win as quickly as possible. The deck can take a bit to set up, but it’s very consistent at setting up. You never have to worry about casting your commander either, not until it’s time to go for a win.
The deck shines in a more Midrange metagame, as it gets stronger the longer a game goes on. On the contrary, one of the negatives is that it can struggle against faster and turbo decks. cEDH Chatterfang is slow in the Bracket 5 metagame, but that doesn’t make it unviable; you just have to position yourself much tighter and use removal spells carefully to cut others off while assembling your combo pieces. Speed is the deck’s greatest weakness, on top of having to rely on multiple creatures for its combo (one of the easiest kinds of permanents to remove). It can counteract this with spells that let you get cards out from the graveyard, but if you’re targeted, you can struggle. There are a few different backup plans from the main combos, but ultimately, you need Chatterfang to make most of them work effectively. cEDH Chatterfang isn’t super interactive, and instead you have to focus more on what you’re doing instead of what others are doing, so sometimes you’ll lose games from being unable to stop a combo. However, once you have your toys ready to go, you can steal games if everyone else was focused on stopping other players. That’s one benefit of playing a slower deck: everyone has to expend resources on the faster decks to stop them.
In Conclusion
cEDH Chatterfang is Golgari’s golden child when it comes to Bracket 5 Tribal decks in the color pairing. It’s not all-in on Squirrels, but takes advantage of Squirrel tokens to assemble multiple infinite combos to give you an infinite amount of Squirrels. And if you give them haste, you can overrun everyone with an army of Squirrels. It’s a slower deck for Bracket 5, but a more unique one in the sea of cEDH options.
And if you want to see some more Tribal decks, check out our Tribal deck showcase. They might not be Bracket 5 material, but they are a ton of fun!
