If you like to gather a massive army of squirrels to overwhelm even the mightest enemies, then Squirrel Tribal is the right deck for you!
I love tribal decks because they combine synergy and flavor and of course power. On top of that you can find many unique cards that support a tribe and can be great budget options as those cards work only on a specific tribal deck and are bad to unplayable to any other deck. That’s why I will try building and presenting a series of decks for all those who share the love for tribal decks.
Squirrel is a green creature type used for arboreal, bushy-tailed rodents (though in the unset Unstable they have a significant presence in black, and they’ve been gradually introduced to it and white in canon sets). (source: MtG Wiki)
Along with the release of Bloomburrow, came Squirreled Away, a Golgari 
Colored commander deck focused on Squirrels, creature and non-creature tokens. Moreover, it features some great Squirrels and Squirrel Tribal support cards. It is a great starting point for building Squirrel tribal, even if the theme of the deck is split between tokens and Squirrel Tribal. Although you can call it a precon upgrade, my build is more a precon remake than an upgrade so you can start from zero and buy singles. The optimal building option depends on the price and availability of the cards.
There are four Legendary Squirrels that can lead the tribe and they can lead to slightly different building paths, but they have more in common, so we can build a deck that can have each one of them as a commander! Chatterfang, Squirrel General is one of the strongest and the one we’ll choose as a starting point because he greatly supports both Squirrel Tribal and token strategy (but with Squirrel synergy). Hazel of the Rootbloom is also great but feels more like a good generalist focused on token and mana generation. The Odd Acorn Gang is great for pure squirrels, while Camellia, the Seedmiser feels a bit more of a Food commander with Squirrel synergy. Foods are tokens so they work with our token strategy and on top of that some of the latest Squirrels have synergy with Food tokens so it is a natural subtheme.
Synergy Diagram
I always like to make a simple synergy diagram in order to deeply comprehend the potential and the strategy areas that are supported by the commander when I choose top-down building. But in some cases, I do a mix of top-down and bottom-up building.
Let’s analyze the main goals of the deck:
- Add the best Squirrels. Our priority is to add the ones with powerful abilities (card draw, ramp, removal, etc.) and Squirrels that create Squirrel tokens or have token synergy.
- Add Squirrel Tribal support. Cards that create Squirrels or have Squirrel Tribal synergy are a great addition for our build.
- Add token synergy cards. Since Squirrel Tribal is known for going wide, cards that synergize with tokens are very strong in our build.
- Add Food token synergy cards. Since Food tokens synergize with some of our Squirrels and our token strategy, some Food token support can be strong in our build.
- Add cards that synergize with our strategies. To make the best out of our strategies, we can further amplify them by adding cards that support many of our strategies.
For the sake of flavor some of the choices are not optimal, but are (usually budget friendly) alternatives that greatly fit the Squirrel Tribal theme.
The deck:
Soldier Tribal
Comparative Analysis
Let’s see how the deck compares to the general ratios of my deckbuilding guide.
34 Lands
16 Ramp: Night of the Sweets’ Revenge , Thornvault Forager , Arcane Signet , Sol Ring , Elanor Gardner , Tireless Provisioner , Old Gnawbone , Bootleggers’ Stash , Binding the Old Gods , Jaheira, Friend of the Forest , Hazel of the Rootbloom , Talisman of Resilience, Golgari Signet, Academy Manufactor, Heaped Harvest, Patchwork Banner
9 Target Removal: Pest Infestation , Chatterfang, Squirrel General , Binding the Old Gods , Golgari Charm , Putrefy , Rootcast Apprenticeship , Butcher of Malakir , Hagra Mauling , Skemfar Elderhall
4 Board Wipes: Necrotic Hex , Swarmyard Massacre , Taste of Death, Szat’s Will
4 Graveyard Recursion: Osteomancer Adept , Scavenger’s Talent , Mudflat Village, Mortuary Mire
5 Graveyard Hate: Bojuka Bog , Verdant Command , Hazel’s Brewmaster, Szat’s Will, Restless Cottage
1 Tutors: Thornvault Forager
4 Protection: Verdant Command (Planeswalker loyalty ability), Golgari Charm , Revitalizing Repast , Swarmyard
11 Card Draw: Peregrin Took , Toski, Bearer of Secrets , Ravenous Squirrel , Skullclamp , Moldervine Reclamation , Deadly Dispute , Bonecache Overseer , The Odd Acorn Gang , Academy Manufactor , Ulvenwald Mysteries , Grim Backwoods
6 Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions: Night of the Sweets’ Revenge , Valley Rotcaller , Camellia, the Seedmiser , Honored Dreyleader, The Odd Acorn Gang, Beastmaster Ascension
As we see from the comparative analysis, the rates per category are very good. There is no score below the optimal low average while six categories are above the optimal max average. We see three spikes: Ramp at 16, Graveyard Hate at 5 and Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions at 6 which are important since Squirrel Tribal is a token deck that needs fuel to flood the board and ways to finish the game consistently.
Deck Highlights, synergy and flavor options:
Ramp
Hazel of the Rootbloom is the face commander of the Squirreled Away precon for a good reason, it is a powerful card focused on tokens and mana generation so it naturally fits our Squirrel Tribal and can even be used as an alternative commander in our build providing an alternative but also quite same gameplay. One of the best cards in our deck!
Jaheira, Friend of the Forest is an amazing card for our Squirrel Tribal build. It turns all our tokens into mana dorks and that includes (among others) all Squirrels and Food tokens. A powerful ramp option and I love the fact that she fits the flavor too. A true friend of the forest! Khalid would be proud.
Night of the Sweets’ Revenge works wonders with our Food token strategy since Food tokens become mana rocks providing us with extreme ramp. It even creates a Food token on EtB so we can get instant value. Moreover, by paying 
and sacrificing it, creatures we control get +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of Foods we control. With our Food strategy in Squirrel Tribal it can become a great finisher.
Elanor Gardner is a great card for our deck. She creates a Food token on EtB and at the beggining of our end step, if we sacrificed a Food this turn she let us ramp with an ability similar to Rampant Growth. Such a repeatable ramp source is way too powerful and can easily be achieved in our Squirrel Tribal build.
Heaped Harvest feels like a balanced ramp card with high Food synergy. Being a Food artifact itself makes it optimal for our Squirrel Tribal as we can sacrifice it at instant speed with cards with Food sacrifice synergy and get quick ramp consistently (among other benefits).
Tireless Provisioner is a great card in any green deck, but it has even more synergy in Squirrel Tribal since we have to choose among Treasure (ramp) or Food (lifegain). In addition, with Chatterfang, Squirrel General it becomes an amazing Squirrel token creator. Amazing flexibility and utility.
Academy Manufactor is a perfect card for our deck, as it creates a Clue and a Treasure token every time we create a Food token and that happens very often in our Squirrel tribal. Amazing value as it helps with card draw, lifegain and ramp. Moreover, it becomes absolutely insane with Chatterfang, Squirrel General as we easily create an army of Squirrel tokens.
Patchwork Banner is one of the best cards for Tribal builds as it combines ramp and tribal support. Being both a mana rock and a Tribal Anthem gives us amazing value for its mana cost. Of course it is a top pick for our Squirrel Tribal!
Old Gnawbone works wonders with our Squirrel Tribal build, as it turns our combat damage to players into that many Treasure tokens which with our commander in play translates into “in addition create that many Squirrel tokens”. Amazing synergy as we can potentially create an army of Squirrels with each attack.
Bootleggers’ Stash turns our lands into Treasure tokens creators which works wonders with Chatterfang, Squirrel General in play, as now our lands are creating both Treasure and Squirrel tokens. Amazing synergy!
Target Removal
Chatterfang, Squirrel General is our commander and offers us repeatable target removal as long as we have mana and Squirrels to sacrifice. With his great Squirrel token creation he ensures that we will always have enough Squirrels so his removal is quite consistent.
Pest Infestation is a great flexible X target removal spell for artifacts and enchantments and it creates twice X Pest creature tokens (and twice X Squirrel tokens with our commander in play). Great synergy with our Squirrel Tribal build!
Binding the Old Gods is a powerful saga that destroys target nonland permanent on EtB, and can help with ramp in II. On III it gives mass deathtouch to our creatures until end of turn, that can prove extra useful for our build as it turns all our small Squirrels into deadly threats.
Rootcast Apprenticeship is a great flexible spell that has great synergy with Squirrel Tribal as it can work both as artifact removal and for Squirrel token creation. In addition, it can buff our Squirrels with +1/+1 counters or copy any token we control. Its power lies in the flexibility.
Butcher of Malakir has great synergy with Chatterfang, Squirrel General as we can easily and repeatedly sacrifice some 1/1 Squirrels to create a mass creature sacrifice from our opponents. A dark play, but a very effective one!
Skemfar Elderhall is far from opional as target removal, but it is a Land that can help us with it and also has token synergy. By paying 
,
and sacrificing it, up to one target creature we don’t control gets -2/-2 and we create two 1/1 green Elf Warrior creature tokens (and two 1/1 green Squirrels with our commander in play). Nice synergy with our Squirrel Tribal build.
Board Wipes
Swarmyard Massacre has great synergy with our Squirrel Tribal deck as it works as an amazing one sided board wipe card for Insect, Rat, Spider and Squirrel Tribal decks and can start as low as -2/-2 and grow further as long as we have more Squirrels on board. At the same time it creates two 1/1 green Squirrel tokens. A top card for our deck!
Szat’s Will is an excellent choice for Squirrel Tribal as it can either work as a mini mass removal (but important as it makes each opponent sacrifice the creature with the greatest power), or as a mass graveyard hate (affecting only opponents) with token synergy. With Chatterfang, Squirrel General in play it lets us choose both options and it creates X Thrulls and X Squirrels where X is the greatest power among creatures exiled from graveyards this way and that has synergy with itself potentially giving us a big number for X. A great pick for our build!
Taste of Death is another excellent choice for Squirrel Tribal as it works as a mini mass removal (each player sacrificing 3 creatures) and we create 3 Food tokens. In our build, we should have 1/1 Squirrels to sacrifice, so it’s not that crucial to our board, while at the same time, with Chatterfang, Squirrel General in play we also create 3 1/1 green Squirrels so it replaces our loss and we gain 3 Food tokens which also synergize with our build. Cool synergy!
Necrotic Hex works alike Taste of Death but costs more and offers a better mass removal (each player sacrificing 6 creatures) and we create 6 2/2 black Zombie ceature tokens. If we have 6 1/1 Squirrels to sacrifice, it’s not that crucial to our board, while at the same time, with Chatterfang, Squirrel General in play we also create 6 1/1 green Squirrels so it replaces our loss and we gain a mini Zombie army. Nice pick for our Squirrel Tribal!
Graveyard Recursion
Osteomancer Adept is a great graveyard recursion tool as by it let us cast creature spells from our graveyard by foraging in addition to their other costs. It synergizes with our Food strategy and give us repeatable creature recursion which is valuable in our Squirrel Tribal.
Scavenger’s Talent is a great multipurpose tool for our Squirrel Tribal build. At level 1, it is a great Food token creator, at level 2 it also becomes a mill tool (which can help us fill our graveyard for foraging among others) and at level 3 it becomes a repeatable graveyard recursion tool as long as we have 3 creatures to sacrifice (which seems easy in our token focused build). A flexible card with great potential.
Mudflat Village by paying 
, and sacrificing it, it let us return target Squirrel card from our graveard to our hand. Great utility for a land.
Mortuary Mire on ETB, let us put target creature card from our graveyad on top of our library.
Graveyard Hate
Hazel’s Brewmaster is a powerful card for any Food token build and an optimal choice for Squirrel Tribal. Both on entering and attacking, it exiles target card from a graveyard and it creates a Food token. The real power though lies in its ability that gives Foods we control all activated abilities of all creatures exiled that way. A top pick for Squirrel Tribal.
Verdant Command is a flexible instant that helps in Squirrel token creation and graveyard hate by exiling target card from a graveyard. Some options are quite situational like countering planeswalker loyal abiility or gaining life, but once more, flexibility is the key.
Szat’s Will as we have already analized before, its a powerful card and an amazing graveyard hate option as it shuts down all opponents’ graveyards.
Restless Cottage is a nice utility land for our Squirrel Tribal, that has Food synergy and it can help with graveyard hate. By paying it becomes a 4/4 green Horror creature until end of turn and whenever it attacks, we create a Food Token and exile up to one target card from a graveyard.
Tutors
Thornvault Forager is a top card for our Squirrel Tribal build. It is a mana dork with potential to get even better by Foraging (with Food synergy), while at the same by paying 
, it works as a repeatable Squirrel tutor (to our hand).
Protection
Swarmyard is another card with high synergy with our deck as it works as a protection card for Insect, Rat, Spider and Squirrel Tribal decks, regenerating target Insect, Rat, Spider or Squirrel with . A great utility Land for our Squirrel Tribal!
Card Draw
Toski, Bearer of Secrets is a legendary Squirrel that works wonders with Squirrel Tribal. It is durable (indestructible), it attacks each turn and turns our combat damage to a player into card draw which suits great to our going wide strategy. A must-have card for our build.
Skullclamp is a card draw staple for decks with 1/1 creatures/tokens so it works wonders in our Suirrel Tribal build since Squirrel tokens are 1/1’s. A must-have card.
Peregrin Took provides us a free Food token whenever we create any token and by sacrificing three Foods we draw a card. He is a great Food token producer so he refills our Food supply and refuels himself. Works great with Chatterfang, Squirrel General, providing us with even more Squirrels. Great pick for our Squirrel Tribal.
Ravenous Squirrel by paying and sacrificing an atifact or creature let us gain 1 life and draw a card at instant speed. Moreover, it can grow into a threat as we put a +1/+1 counter on it every time we sacrifice an artifact or creature. A great pick for our Squirrel Tribal.
Moldervine Reclamation is a card draw engine on token decks and we have many small Squirrel tokens on our build.
The Odd Acorn Gang is a powerful Legendary Squirrel that can even act as an alternative commander in our Squirrel Tribal build. It makes our Squirrels able to buff target Squirrel at sorcery speed which works wonders in our Squirrel Tribal and even acts as a draw engine by letting us draw a card whenever a Squirrel we control deals combat damage to a player. A top card for our build!
Bonecache Overseer by and paying 1 life let us draw a card at instant speed as long as we Foraged this turn. In our Suirrel Tribal, with our Food token strategy, it can be quite consistent and a great choice for a 1 mana drop.
Academy Manufactor is a perfect card for our deck, as it creates a Clue and a Treasure token every time we create a Food token and that happens very often in our Squirrel Tribal. Amazing value as it helps with card draw, lifegain and ramp. On top of that it has amazing synergy with Chatterfang, Squirrel General as it can trigger his Squirrel token creation multiple times and create a Squirrel army for us. A top pick for our build!
Ulvenwald Mysteries has great synergy with Chatterfang, Squirrel General as it helps both in card draw and provides repeatable token creation that leads in repeatable Squirrel token creation. A nice pick for our Squirrel Tribal.
Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions
Camellia, the Seedmiser is another Legendary Squirrel that could be used as an alternative commander in our Squirrel Tribal, but this one is more focused on Food strategy. It provides other Squirrels Menace, which is a valuable form of evasion, it produces a Squirrels when we sacrifice a Food token and by paying , Forage it buffs all our other Squirrels at instant speed with a +1/+1 counter. With enough resources, we can use the buff multiple times so it can act as a great finisher.
Valley Rotcaller on attack trigger, can drain our opponents for X and let us gain X life. With Chatterfang, Squirrel General and our Squirrel Tribal build, we can expect to have numerous Squirrels arround, so that drain can even be lethal.
Honored Dreyleader can quickly grow into a huge threat because of our Squirrel token strategy and having Trample make it a real menace. A great pick for our Squirrel Tribal!
The Odd Acorn Gang is another card in our deck that can make our Squirrels into big threats as it gives our Squirrels the ability to buff target Squirrel with +2/+2 and Trample until end of turn and that can turn one or more of our Squirrels into finishers.
Beastmaster Ascension is a card that cares about attacking and in our Squirrel Tribal build we can easily create an army and gain 7 quest counters quickly. Then our creatures get +5/+5 and we can easily finish the game with our next attack(s).
Other synergy pieces
Great Squirrels
Squirrel Sovereign is a Squirrel Lord that buffs our Squirrels with +/+1 so it greatly fits our Squirrel Tribal build.
Vinereap Mentor is a Food token creator Squirrel (both when it enters and when it dies) so it is a nice inclusion for our Squirrel Tribal build.
Scurry of Squirrels has Myriad, myriad and buffs target creature we control with a +1/+1 conter whenever it does combat damage to a player. Myriad works wonders with our strategies and we can get double the Squirrels if Chatterfang, Squirrel General is in play. A top pick for our Squirrel Tribal.
Squirrel Mob can quickly grow into a huge threat with our going wide strategy as it gets +1/+1 for each other Squirrel on the battlefield. A great inclusion for our Squirrel Tribal.
Other
Compy Swarm is a great token producer that in a few turns can grow into a huge army of the battlefield. With Chatterfang, Squirrel General we can get double the number of tokens and an additional army of Squirrels. A nice inclusion for our Squirrel Tribal.
Emrakul’s Evangel with and sacrificing it, can turn our 1/1 Squirrels into 3/2 colorless Eldrazi Horror creatures. With Chatterfang, Squirrel General we can back the Squirrels and keep both armies. A great inclusion for our Squirrel Tribal.
Mirkwood Bats works wonders in our Squirrel Tribal as we create numerous Squirel tokens and it can easily drain our opponents. Bastion of Remembrance can also drain our opponents but triggers on death rather than creation. Nevertheless, both are fueled by our vast numbers of creatures.
Chitterspitter works wonders in our Squirrel Tribal as it can act as an amazing Squirrel Anthem, while on the same time it produces Squirrel tokens and let us sacrifice them, enabling other combos in our deck. One of the best cards for our build!
Nesting Grounds is a great utility card that let us move counters from a permanent we control to another target permenent. Although it can be used for the common +1/+1 counters, the main reason we include it in our build is to remove the Finality counters from Scavenger’s Talent and Osteomancer Adept so that we can recur our best Squirrels again and again for optimal value.
Infinite Combo
Scurry Oak and Ivy Lane Denizen are part of an infinite combo that results in infinite +1/+1 counters on Scurry Oak, infinite Squirrel creature tokens and Infinite ETB. The combo can be explained in detail here (EDHREC).
Although the combo works in every green deck, it is most relevant in our Squirrel Tribal since the infinite tokens are Squirrels and both cards work great even alone in our build.
Token Producers : 42 cards
Chatterfang, Squirrel General, Camellia, the Seedmiser, Vinereap Mentor, Academy Manufactor, Compy Swarm, Emrakul’s Evangel, Peregrin Took, Scurry Oak, Scurry of Squirrels, Tireless Provisioner, Elanor Gardner, Hazel of the Rootbloom, Hazel’s Brewmaster, Deep Forest Hermit, Drey Keeper, Nut Collector, Underworld Hermit, Old Gnawbone, Chatter of the Squirrel, Pest Infestation, Chatterstorm, Deadly Dispute, Verdant Command, Acorn Harvest, Rootcast Apprenticeship, Second Harvest, Swarmyard Massacre, Szat’s Will, Taste of Death, Necrotic Hex, Chitterspitter, Acorn Catapult, Bootleggers’ Stash, Scavenger’s Talent, Squirrel Sanctuary, Bastion of Remembrance, Cloakwood Hermit, Squirrel Nest, Ulvenwald Mysteries, Night of the Sweets’ Revenge, Restless Cottage, Skemfar Elderhall
Eventually, all token producers become Squirrel token producers with Chatterfang, Squirrel General. Most of them are Squirrel token producers anyway which helps in our Squirrel Tribal consistency.
Deep Forest Hermit also acts as a Squirrel Lord buffing our Squirrels with +1/+1, Drey Keeper can buff our Squirrels with +1/+0 and Menace by paying , Nut Collector buffs our Squirrels with +2/+2 as long as seven or more cards are in our graveyard, Chatter of the Squirrel and Acorn Harvest have Flashback and Chatterstorm has Storm.
Food Token Synergy : 12 cards
Let’s see some more statistics about our deck. Some important info to care about is the mana curve and the card type distribution, as it can help us understand better our deck and may indicate where there is space for improving it.
Mana Curve
The mana curve is not too far from average. There is a great spike at position 3-4 and an absence of 8+ mana drops. That is a result of our Squirrel Tribal build as we rely on low to middle-low Squirrels and token producers to gather an army and go wide, rather than relying on big threats.
Card Type Distribution
The Squirrel Tribal Card Type Distribution shows the dominant creature-heavy theme with 32 creatures. All other categories have a much smaller presence with Instants at 8, Enchantments at 10, Sorceries at 8 and Artifacts at 10. No Planeswalkers or Battles are present for the time.
Of course statistics and comparative analysis are great tools but they don’t always tell the whole truth, since many factors like synergy and combo pieces are hard to be measured numerically. For example in this deck, with our commander Chatterfang, Squirrel General, all token producers become Squirrel token producers so the value we get from cards that create tokens, cannot be measured correctly and our build is much deeper and consistent than it seems at first glance.
Now you can buy the whole deck list with a click of a button!
Great news! Now you can buy the best custom Squirrel tokens, Treasure tokens, Food tokens and Eldrazi Horror tokens made by Mystic Tokens to accompany your Squirrel Tribal deck! Buy now on Cardmarket at a special price!
If you liked the deck, don’t forget to revisit the article after every major new release as I will try to keep my decks updated and examine any potential upgrades. If you want to keep being updated, you can follow mtgbudgetcommander.com on social media (facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest, linkedin, reddit, tumblr, medium).
If you like my tribal series, you can check my other tribal decks.
