Bracket 4 · Pod notes
RULE ZERO. read this first.
The rule-zero script, a ten-Game-Changer disclosure, the five-tutor readout, the readout for both infinite loops, the go-wide clock, and the salt management for a Bracket 4 Selesnya token pod on Zuko, Redeemed.
Guide reviewed List 6645dbd9
Rules and list review, not a playtest record. Turn windows and matchup advice are estimates. The list reference covers card quantities and the command zone; card changes require another guide and pod-note review.
Rules basis: Magic Comprehensive Rules, August 19, 2026. Bracket basis: Wizards’ October 2025 update and February 2026 follow-up.
Bracket 4 readout.
Say before shuffling up
Bracket 4 Selesnya tokens with Rhys, printed here as Zuko, Redeemed, and twenty Hare Apparents. Ten Game Changers, tutors and token multipliers can make a large board quickly. Combat is the visible plan, and two infinite loops are disclosed in the notes: a Squirrel Girl mana loop and an altar recursion loop. I use protection and rebuild spells, but no extra turns or mass land denial. Pace numbers are author estimates, not playtest results. I will announce token totals and combo prerequisites, and can switch decks if this is too much for the table.
// Bracket 4 · high-power
decks.foiltilt.com/rhys-hare-apparent/tournament-4/
Table disclosures
Classification
Bracket 4 (Optimized). Ten Game Changers, five tutors, and two infinite loops, all disclosed.
Game Changers
10 listed: Aura Shards, Enlightened Tutor, Gaea's Cradle, Mana Vault, Mayor Tong of Chin Village, Seedborn Muse, Smothering Tithe, Survival of the Fittest, Aang's Shelter (Teferi's Protection), The One Ring. Checked against the February 9, 2026 Game Changers list.
Infinite combos
Two, both disclosed. (1) The Squirrel loop: Cryptolith Rite plus Concordant Crossroads plus The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl for unbounded Squirrel tokens and unbounded mana. Each activation costs four mana and pays out one Squirrel per Squirrel you control, so it at least doubles the Squirrel count and never re-taps a Squirrel it already used: the mana for the next activation comes from the batch the last one made. Four Squirrels cover an activation exactly, the four it makes pay the next one exactly, and every iteration after that nets mana. With any doubler out the bar drops to two, though that activation still takes two mana from elsewhere. It is exponential growth you choose when to stop rather than a loop that returns to a repeated game state, disclosed as a combo either way. Seedborn Muse is NOT a piece of it: the line needs no untapper, and what she actually does is untap all my permanents on each opponent's untap step. (2) The Karmic Guide loop: Karmic Guide plus Reveillark plus a free sacrifice outlet (Phyrexian Altar or Ashnod's Altar) for infinite creature enters, infinite mana off either altar, and infinite board-wide counters under Cathars' Crusade. With Aura Shards out either loop destroys every artifact and enchantment at the table, and with Guide of Souls out either loop gains arbitrarily large life. Every piece of both loops is tutorable, and Survival of the Fittest finds the creature halves again and again.
Mass land denial
None.
Extra turn spells
None. Trouble in Pairs also makes opponents skip any extra turn they would begin.
Fast mana
Sol Ring (not on the Game Changer list), Mana Vault (Game Changer), and Smothering Tithe Treasures (Game Changer). Seedborn Muse (Game Changer) is the largest mana multiplier in the list: she untaps all my permanents on each opponent's untap step. No Moxen, no rituals, and no mana dorks. One honest caveat: Cryptolith Rite gives every creature I control '{T}: Add one mana of any color,' so on a wide board the token swarm itself matches Gaea's Cradle as the deck's biggest mana source, and it is a piece of the Squirrel loop. Gaea's Cradle (Game Changer) is the other half of that: one land that taps for one green for each creature I control, so a wide board pays twice, once through the creatures and once through the land. It is dead on an empty board and it only makes green.
Tutors
Five. Four are creature-only: Lifelong Friendship (Eladamri's Call), a {G}{W} instant that searches any creature card to hand; Formidable Speaker, a {2}{G} 2/4 that tutors on entry by discarding a card; Finale of Devastation, an {X}{G}{G} sorcery that searches library or graveyard for a creature with mana value X or less and puts it straight onto the battlefield, doubling as the alpha-strike wincon at X of 10 or more; and Survival of the Fittest, a {1}{G} enchantment whose {G} and a discarded creature card search any creature card into hand, as often as I can pay, which makes it the only repeatable tutor in the deck. The fifth is Enlightened Tutor, a {W} instant that searches any artifact or enchantment and puts it on top of my library. It reaches both combo altars, Cryptolith Rite, Concordant Crossroads, Doubling Season, Survival of the Fittest (which then finds any creature, so the two together are a two-step search for anything with a power and toughness), and the enchantment and artifact anthems (Cathars' Crusade, Sphere Grid, Beastmaster Ascension, Akroma's Memorial). The other three multipliers are out of its reach: Mondrak and Ojer Taq are creature-tutor targets, and no tutor in the deck finds Elspeth, Storm Slayer.
Win condition
Primary: go-wide combat, either the counter avalanche (Ouroboroid, Bristly Bill, Cathars' Crusade, and Germination Practicum feeding Sphere Grid trample, with Gavony Township and an Elspeth 0 growing the board) or the alpha strike (Craterhoof trample, a Beastmaster Ascension +5/+5 team, Akroma's Memorial, with Concordant Crossroads granting same-turn haste). Either infinite loop also wins outright: the Squirrel loop makes an arbitrarily large hasty board, and the Karmic Guide loop grows the whole team without bound under Cathars' Crusade.
Pace note. All turn windows are author estimates, not measured results. Distinguish a first elimination from winning the whole table.
Read this before sitting down at a Bracket 4Commander brackets: 1 Exhibition, 2 Core, 3 Upgraded, 4 Optimized, 5 cEDH. Assess Game Changers, intent, pace and disruptive patterns together. Zuko pod. The pregame above is the script to say out loud. The compliance list is what to volunteer if asked. The Q and A below handles the specific questions players tend to run at a token deck. The headline disclosures are ten Game Changers, five tutors, and two infinite loops.
Game Changers
Ten, and this is the Bracket 4 readout. Bracket 4 sets no ceiling on Game Changers, so the number is not a rules problem; it is a courtesy problem, and the courtesy is naming all ten before the first shuffle rather than letting the table discover them one at a time.
GC (Game Changer)
Slot 1 · fast mana Mana Vault
1 mana, taps for {C}{C}{C}. It does not untap during your untap step; you may pay {4} at your upkeep to untap it, and if it is still tapped at your draw step it deals 1 damage to you (NOT 4). Front-loads a doubler or a finisher a turn early. The only artifact in the 99 that taps for mana past Sol Ring.
GC (Game Changer)
Slot 2 · protection Aang's Shelter
{2}{W} instant, the Avatar print of Teferi's Protection: same card rules-wise, Avatar art and flavor name. Until your next turn your life total can't change and you gain protection from everything, and all your permanents phase out. It saves the whole board from a wrath and fogs a lethal swing-back. Premium insurance for a go-wide deck whose main loss condition is a board wipe.
GC (Game Changer)
Slot 3 · draw and protection The One Ring
{4} legendary artifact, indestructible. Cast it and you gain protection from everything until your next turn: a full turn of cover for the player, not the board, so it does not stop a wrath. {T} puts a burden counter on it and draws a card for each burden counter; you lose 1 life per counter at your upkeep. The deck's card-advantage engine and the shield on the turn that matters. Disclose the protection window up front.
GC (Game Changer)
Slot 4 · lock piece Mayor Tong of Chin Village
{1}{W} 1/3, the Avatar print of Drannith Magistrate: same card rules-wise, Avatar art and flavor name. Your opponents can't cast spells from anywhere other than their hands, so commanders in the command zone, flashback, and graveyard or exile casting are all off, all game. Hard hate against combo and commander-reliant decks, and the piece most likely to draw the table's removal.
GC (Game Changer)
Slot 5 · removal engine Aura Shards
{1}{G}{W} enchantment. Whenever a creature you control enters, you may destroy target artifact or enchantment. Tokens count, and this deck makes tokens by the dozen, so one Hare Apparent with three other Hares out is four separate destroy triggers, one for the Hare itself and one for each Rabbit it makes, and a Zuko copy activation under a multiplier can strip the whole table's rocks, anthems, and stax pieces in a single batch. It is a may trigger, so it never forces you to destroy your own permanents. Realistically the most table-warping card in the 99: call it out on its own, not just as one name in a list.
GC (Game Changer)
Slot 6 · tax and ramp Smothering Tithe
{3}{W} enchantment. Whenever an opponent draws a card they may pay {2}, and if they don't you create a Treasure. That includes every draw step, so a four-player pod pays three times a round before anyone casts a cantrip. Mondrak, Elspeth, Storm Slayer, and Doubling Season all double the Treasures; only Ojer Taq's triple skips them. It is how a five-mana turn becomes a seven-mana turn.
GC (Game Changer)
Slot 7 · untap engine Seedborn Muse
{3}{G}{G} 2/4. Untaps all your permanents during each other player's untap step. In a four-player pod that is three extra Zuko copy activations per round, plus lands untapped to hold up instant-speed protection on somebody else's turn. She grants no haste, so tokens made on your own turn are still summoning sick during those extra untaps unless Concordant Crossroads or Akroma's Memorial is out. She is a value engine, not a combo piece: she is not part of either loop.
GC (Game Changer)
Slot 8 · toolbox tutor Enlightened Tutor
{W} instant. Search your library for an artifact or enchantment card, reveal it, shuffle, then put it on TOP of your library, not into hand, so it costs a draw step; the clean line is casting it on the end step before your turn. It reaches Doubling Season (the only one of the four multipliers that is an enchantment), the enchantment and artifact anthems, Aura Shards, Smothering Tithe, The One Ring, Akroma's Memorial, Mana Vault, Survival of the Fittest, both combo altars, and two of the three pieces of the Squirrel loop. This is the card that makes the loops assemblable rather than incidental, and it is the honest reason the combo disclosure below is longer than it used to be.
GC (Game Changer)
Slot 9 · repeatable tutor Survival of the Fittest
{1}{G} enchantment. {G} and a discarded creature card search your library for a creature card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle, as often as I can pay the mana. The only repeatable tutor in the deck: every creature half of both loops, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Karmic Guide, and Reveillark, is one green away, and so is Craterhoof Behemoth on the turn the board is wide. The discard is not waste either, since Karmic Guide returns a creature card from the graveyard, so the card pitched to find the Guide can be what the Guide brings back. Enlightened Tutor finds this, which is why the two of them together read as a search for any creature in the deck.
GC (Game Changer)
Slot 10 · wide-board land Gaea's Cradle
Legendary land. {T}: Add {G} for each creature you control. On a board of Hares and Rabbits a single tap of the Cradle matches what the whole swarm makes through Cryptolith Rite, and it taps no creatures to do it, so the tokens are still free to attack or to pay a Squirrel Girl activation the same turn. Two honest limits: it adds nothing on an empty board, so it is a dead land the turn after a wrath, and it only makes green, so it never pays a white cost on its own. No tutor in the deck finds it, because it is a land; Crop Rotation out of the flex box would, at instant speed.
Everything else has been checked against the current list. Sol Ring is not a Game Changer; it was deliberately left off despite being fast mana. Akroma’s Memorial is in the deck and is explicitly not a Game Changer. Nothing else in the 99 is on the list: the count is exactly ten. One flex-box note, because it changes the number: Crop Rotation is itself a Game Changer, so if it is sleeved in this becomes an eleven-Game-Changer deck and needs re-disclosing, and it fetches Gaea’s Cradle at instant speed.
The two infinite loops
There are two, and only one of them is slow.
Loop A · the fast one Squirrel Girl + Cryptolith Rite + Concordant Crossroads
Cryptolith Rite gives your creatures '{T}: Add one mana of any color.' Concordant Crossroads gives all creatures haste, so fresh tokens can tap the moment they arrive. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl is herself a Squirrel and reads {1}{G}{G}{G}: create X 1/1 Squirrels, where X is the number of Squirrels you control. Each activation costs four mana, which means tapping four creatures, and pays X new untapped Squirrels. X counts every Squirrel you control, so each activation at least doubles the count, and no step in this line ever waits on an old Squirrel to untap: the mana for the next activation comes out of the batch the last one made. Four Squirrels cover an activation exactly, that activation makes four more, and from there the batch runs eight, sixteen, thirty-two with mana to spare. With any doubler out the bar drops to two, though that one activation still takes two mana from elsewhere; ordinary Hares and Rabbits cover it, because Rite taps any creature you control. Result: unbounded Squirrels and unbounded mana, in one turn. Say it precisely if asked: this is exponential growth you choose when to stop rather than a loop that returns to a repeated game state, and Seedborn Muse is not a piece of it. Note that all three pieces were already in this deck before the current build; this is a disclosure correction, not a new addition.
Loop B · the slow one Karmic Guide + Reveillark + a free altar
Sacrifice KARMIC GUIDE FIRST to a free sac outlet (Phyrexian Altar or Ashnod's Altar), then sacrifice Reveillark. Reveillark's leave trigger picks targets as it goes on the stack, so the Guide has to already be in the graveyard; at power 2 it is a legal target, and Reveillark at power 4 can never return itself. The trigger returns Karmic Guide, whose enter trigger returns Reveillark. Board restored, nothing spent. Sacrificing Reveillark first kills the line. Both altars make infinite mana: Phyrexian two of any color per iteration, Ashnod's four colorless. Every iteration is two creatures entering, so under Cathars' Crusade the board grows without bound; close with a Sphere Grid trample swing. If you stop with Karmic Guide out, its echo {3}{W}{W} is due at your next upkeep.
Loop B is assembled late, only after the go-wide combat plan has been answered. Loop A is not late at all: it comes out of cards the deck is already casting to build a board. Every piece of both loops can be searched for. The four creature tutors reach Squirrel Girl, Karmic Guide, and Reveillark, and Survival of the Fittest reaches them again and again for one green and a discarded creature card; Enlightened Tutor reaches Cryptolith Rite, Concordant Crossroads, both altars, and Survival of the Fittest itself. Eerie Interlude protects an assembly mid-stack, and if the Karmic Guide pieces die the recovery is hardcasting Karmic Guide, whose enter trigger returns Reveillark from the graveyard (Return to the Ranks and Raise the Past only return mana value 2 or less, so neither rebuys a piece).
If they ask
How many Game Changers?
Ten. Aura Shards, Enlightened Tutor, Gaea’s Cradle, Mana Vault, Mayor Tong of Chin Village, Seedborn Muse, Smothering Tithe, Survival of the Fittest, Aang’s Shelter (the Avatar print of Teferi’s Protection), and The One Ring. Bracket 4 does not cap them, so this is legal for the table we agreed to; I am reading all ten out so nobody is surprised. If the pod would rather play a lower table, I bring a different deck.
Are there any infinite combos?
Two, and one of them is fast. The quick one is Cryptolith Rite plus Concordant Crossroads plus The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: unbounded Squirrels and unbounded mana, out of cards I am already casting to build a board. The slow one is Karmic Guide plus Reveillark plus a free sac outlet (Phyrexian Altar or Ashnod’s Altar) for infinite creature enters and infinite mana, which grows the whole board without bound under Cathars’ Crusade. With Aura Shards out either loop destroys every artifact and enchantment at the table, and with Guide of Souls out either loop gains me arbitrarily large life. Every piece of both is tutorable: four creature tutors reach the creature halves, Survival of the Fittest reaches them every turn for one green and a discarded creature card, and Enlightened Tutor reaches the altars, Cryptolith Rite, Concordant Crossroads, and Survival of the Fittest itself. Answering a piece is a real way to stop me.
How fast does it kill?
Turn 6 to 8. It needs a few turns to build a wide board and land an anthem or a finisher before a lethal swing. There is no mana dork in the list, so turns two and three are slower than they look. The Squirrel loop can end a game earlier than that if the board is already wide and nobody has interacted.
What is the most degenerate thing it does?
The multiplier stack, or the Squirrel loop. With Ojer Taq (times three) plus Doubling Season, Mondrak, and Elspeth, Storm Slayer (times two each), a single Hare Apparent with five other Hares out makes 120 Rabbits. The wide board itself telegraphs the swing, and Concordant Crossroads can hand a board built that same turn the haste to attack at once. The Squirrel loop is the other one, and it is faster to assemble than the Karmic Guide line. Aura Shards deserves its own mention here too: on a token turn it is a one-sided repeatable artifact and enchantment sweeper.
Salt level?
High, managed by disclosure. Go-wide is a visible, fair clock, but six things at this table can feel unfair and all six should be named up front. Aura Shards destroys an artifact or enchantment on every token that enters, which on a Hare turn means the table’s rocks and enchantments all die at once. Mayor Tong of Chin Village locks opponents out of casting from anywhere but their hands, commanders included. Smothering Tithe taxes every card an opponent draws. Seedborn Muse multiplies my effective turns. Survival of the Fittest turns one green and a spare creature card into whichever creature the board needs, every turn. The One Ring buys me a protection-from-everything turn. Own all of them when you read out the Game Changers so the table plans around them instead of into them. No theft, no extra turns, and no mass land denial: spot removal (Generous Gift, Boseiju, Who Endures) can hit a single land, and Aura Shards can repeatedly remove mana rocks.
Why Bracket 4 and not Bracket 5?
Because Bracket 4 has no Game Changer cap and this deck is not built for a cEDH field. Ten Game Changers, five tutors and two infinite loops are what Bracket 4 exists to cover. But it is not Bracket 5 either: the clock is turn 6 to 8, there is no free interaction, no Force-effect suite, no mana dorks, and the primary plan is attacking with a board of 1/1 Rabbits. It wins by going wide and it loses to a well-timed wrath. Bracket 4 is the honest label.
What if a combo is answered?
The deck shrugs and keeps attacking. Neither loop was ever the plan: Craterhoof Behemoth, a Beastmaster Ascension +5/+5 team, an Akroma’s Memorial swing, an Elspeth 0 for board-wide flying, or a Sphere Grid plus Cathars’ Crusade trample board all close the game without either one, and Ouroboroid and Bristly Bill, Spine Sower keep growing the swarm through interaction. Return to the Ranks and Raise the Past rebuild the Hare board after a wipe, though never the Karmic Guide pieces (both spells only return mana value 2 or less). Answering a loop costs the table a card; the combat plan keeps coming.
MTG terms that show up above.
Open glossary
- Game Changer
- A specific card on Wizards' published Game Changer list. Bracket 3 caps at 3. Bracket 4 has no published cap, but running more than a few flags more attention at the table.
- Bracket
- Wizards' Commander conversation framework: 1 Exhibition, 2 Core, 3 Upgraded, 4 Optimized, 5 cEDH. A stock precon is not automatically a particular bracket. Discuss deck intent, speed, consistency, and play patterns as well as card restrictions.
- Voltron
- The strategy of stacking equipment, auras, and counters onto a single creature (usually the commander) to one-shot opponents through commander damage.
- Commander damage
- A player who has been dealt 21 or more combat damage by the same commander over the game loses. Track each commander separately, including partners. Noncombat damage does not count, and gaining life does not erase this total.
- ETB
- Short for 'enters the battlefield'. Any triggered ability that fires when a permanent enters play is an ETB trigger.
- Equip
- An Equipment's activated ability: pay its equip cost to attach it to a target creature you control. Normally activate only during your main phase with an empty stack and priority. A separate attach effect follows its own timing and restrictions.
- Attach
- The keyword action for putting an Equipment or Aura onto a creature. ETB triggers that attach an equipment for free bypass both the equip cost and the sorcery-speed limit.
- Free equip
- Attaching without paying the printed equip cost. Sigarda's Aid supplies a triggered attach effect. Puresteel Paladin with metalcraft grants equip 0, which still uses normal equip timing unless another effect changes it.
- Treasure
- Sacrificial colorless artifact token. Tap, sacrifice it, add one mana of any color. Counts as an artifact for triggers and metalcraft.
- Phase Out
- A phased-out permanent is treated as though it does not exist, with limited exceptions. Phasing is not a zone change, destruction, or exile. It normally phases in during its controller's untap step, but effects such as Out of Time specify a different duration.
- Cascade
- A cast trigger: exile cards until you exile a nonland card with lower mana value than the cascade spell. You may cast it without paying its mana cost only if the resulting spell also has lower mana value. Put the other exiled cards on the bottom in a random order.
- Affinity
- A cost-reduction keyword. 'Affinity for artifacts' means the spell costs 1 less to cast for each artifact you control.
- Modified
- A creature is modified if it has a counter, is equipped, or is enchanted by an Aura controlled by that creature's controller. The Equipment's controller does not matter; the Aura's controller does.
- Vigilance
- Attacking does not cause a creature with vigilance to tap. It still needs to be untapped and otherwise eligible to attack. Brave the Sands grants vigilance; Shadowspear grants trample and lifelink instead.
- Lifelink
- Damage dealt by a source with lifelink also causes its controller to gain that much life at the same time. Shadowspear grants lifelink. Vampiric Link instead uses a triggered life-gain ability that resolves later and is not lifelink.
- Mindslaver
- A 'Mindslaver effect' lets you control an opponent's next turn: their draws, plays, and attacks. Named for the Mindslaver artifact; some commander-specific triggers replicate the effect.
- Metalcraft
- An ability word marking effects that care whether you control three or more artifacts. Read the individual card: metalcraft is not itself an activated ability or a shared rules ability.
- Impulse draw
- Exile cards from the top of your library, then you may play them this turn (sometimes longer). At higher power levels, mass impulse effects double as burst card advantage and mana.
- Mulligan
- Under the London mulligan, shuffle and draw seven each time, then put cards on the bottom after choosing to keep. In multiplayer Commander the first mulligan is free; a keep after the second mulligan puts one card back, the third puts two back, and so on.
- Drain
- A trigger that makes an opponent lose life and gains you that much, Blood Artist style. Life loss is not damage, so it goes through protection and prevention that only stop damage.
- Rule-zero
- The pre-game conversation about deck power, combos, tutors and table expectations, held before the first shuffle so nobody is surprised by what the deck does.
- Summoning sickness
- A creature cannot attack, and cannot activate an ability with the tap or untap symbol in its cost, unless it has been under its controller's control continuously since their most recent turn began (CR 302.6). Haste turns it off, and it never applies to other permanent types.
- Replacement effect
- A continuous effect that watches for an event and replaces it with a different one as it happens, rather than triggering afterwards (CR 614.1). When several would apply to the same event, the affected object's controller or the affected player picks the order (CR 616.1).
- Storm
- A triggered ability that functions on the stack: when you cast the spell, copy it for each other spell cast before it this turn (CR 702.40a). The copies are not cast, so they never add to the storm count themselves.
- Mana Vault
- A one-mana artifact that taps for three colorless mana and does not untap during your untap step. Its upkeep trigger lets you pay {4} to untap it. Its draw-step trigger deals 1 damage to you if it is still tapped; paying or declining the upkeep cost is not itself the damage condition.
Play guide
Bracket 4 · how to pilot it
Opening hands, game plan, win conditions, sequencing, and common mistakes for this build.
Reference
Full deck list
The complete list for this build, with copy, download, and print options.
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