The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Commander Deck Guide

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl | Illustration by Kim Dingwall

I’m back on my nutty nonsense. As Draftsim’s resident Squirrel Girl*, one of Marvel Super Heroes’ standout commanders called to me like a siren from across the Great Lakes.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl is hands down one of the best commanders in the set, both because of its sheer raw power and how easily you can build a cheap aggro deck around it.

I like to cruise in the middle lane, so I’ve built this Squirrel Girl deck with a few accessible combos, but also a sampling of the fun, lesser used tools that make Commander the format of pet cards.

Follow along if you want to Go Nuts!

The Deck

Squirrel | Illustration by Daniel Ljunggren

In a nutshell: mono-color token aggro. If you’ve seen Krenko, Mob Boss or Shroofus Sproutsire decks, you’ve got the gist of what’s going on here.

Some of the combos technically push the deck into Bracket 4 territory because of how quickly you can assemble them, but the power output and its vulnerability to wraths, counterspells, and fliers leave it closer to Bracket 3. No lower though, due to the sheer number of creature tutors.

The Commander: The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl is all about assembling an army of squirrels, with an enters/attack trigger that creates them one by one and an activated ability that pumps them out Krenko style. ain’t nothing, and it’s hard to reduce in mono-green (though not impossible). The good, super green part is that you can activate it at instant speed and as many times as you have the mana to do it, a classic mana sink.

But here’s the thing: If you combine Squirrel Girl’s ability with the likes of Cryptolith Rite and Jaheira, Friend of the Forest to turn your creatures into mana dorks, you can start to make absurd numbers of tokens, and Marvel Super Heroes gave us the perfect tool to slot into the 99.

The Squirrels

For a somewhat typal deck, this build is light on proper squirrel creature cards aside from the commander.

The straight lord is Squirrel Sovereign, plus the off-type but Marvel-flavored Spider-Ham, Peter Porker.

Without reanimation or proliferation, Deep Forest Hermit is a temporary lord that comes with four other squirrel bodies. Nut Collector is the later game version that wants you to have cards in your graveyard to set up threshold.

Honored Dreyleader and Squirrel Mob grow with your board, which lets them stand tall as primary blockers or serve as the targets for your fight or solo pump spells. Toski, Bearer of Secrets and Scurry of Squirrels want to get into combat, so they can join Squirrel Girl on the attack.

Thornvault Forager serves two key roles as a mana dork and a creature that can repeatedly tutor for your some of your key creatures.

Tippy-Toe, Terrific Partner is almost identical to Peregrin Took (also in the deck), but the halfling is obviously better. Tippy-Toe locks the card draw to your end step and needs you to have gained life, which in this deck, means you need to have paid to sacrifice a Food token.

Bloodroot Apothecary punishes players that rely on Treasure or other utility tokens like Blood, Maps, or Clues. If you decide to get it into combat, toxic 2 makes blocking tougher, especially if your opponent doesn’t have something decent yet expendable to trade with it.

Scurry Oak is the other nontypal token generator. If you know your combos, you know what it pairs with.

This list packs its fair share of Squirrel token generators that aren’t creatures, like Acorn Harvest, Chatterstorm, Chitterspitter, Chatter of the Squirrel, and Squirrel Nest.

Other token generators like Rootcast Apprenticeship and Verdant Command make squirrels as one of multiple modes. Modal spells get more than one type of value out of the same card slot, which is especially important in mono-color decks.

I’m including Roaming Throne mainly to show off its bonus sheet printing in Marvel Universe, but it does its “win more” thing well in this deck, where it counts as a squirrel and doubles your squirrel triggers. That’ll mostly be stuff like two tokens off your commander or Tippy-Toe, or two cards per creature off Toski, but there’s extra spice with the threat of four poison counters from Bloodroot Apothecary.

Maskwood Nexus turns all off-type support creatures into squirrels to power up Squirrel Girl’s activated ability, but it also makes them fetchable with Thornvault Forager, doubles their triggers with Roaming Throne, and pumps them with your squirrel lords.

Token Doublers and Creature Payoffs

Doubling Season is the first token doubler you think of for token decks; since this specific build doesn’t use many +1/+1 counters, you can run Parallel Lives instead with minimal impact. Since there’s a new MAR printing of Primal Vigor, I’ve included it here, too.

Green has a few spells that copy the tokens you have on the board, like For the Common Good and Second Harvest.

Champion of Lambholt grows as your Squirrel tokens enter, but the true value comes from the unblockable text. As long as it’s bigger than your opponents’ army, your attackers are unblockable. It’s a simple and effective way to secure your win condition.

If you’re going for a Squirrel Girl combo, you’ll need cards that turn your creatures into mana dorks. That’s where Enduring Vitality and Jaheira, Friend of the Forest come in. Springleaf Parade is another version of this effect that you can pump mana into to generate shapeshifter tokens. Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu combines with any of these to let you activate creatures’ abilities (including mana abilities) as though they had haste.

Ohran Frostfang is an often-used backup to Toski that also gives your attackers deathtouch. In a deck that churns out tokens, you make it really hard for your opponent to block you profitably.

Pumps

If you’ve messed around with Shroofus Sproutsire, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl lends itself to a very similar deck. Both commanders pump out tokens of their respective types, and you can win by leaning on budget overruns and combat tricks like Might of the Masses and Tyvar's Stand. I’ve included some cards of that nature here; with a wide enough board, your opponents’ blocking decisions may be the last ones they make.

The nice thing about Sword of the Squeak is that it only cares about base stats, so it counts your Squirrel tokens even if your lords are on the battlefield. It also auto-equips to your commander and other squirrels as they enter, though Squirrel Girl is very appealing because of the commander damage potential.

Beastmaster Ascension and Sylvan Anthem are staples of creature decks in the format, and there’s few overruns as straightforward as Craterhoof Behemoth. Mono-green go-wide decks are the perfect place for the ‘Hoof, since you don’t need fixing to support the in its cost. I’ve of course slotted in the namesake Overrun, and I’ll always include Preposterous Proportions in a squirrel deck with even the slightest potential to attack with a bunch of tokens.

Return of the Wildspeaker pairs a mid-sized buff with the option to draw a bunch of cards instead. Go Nuts! is only a pump spell when you choose the +1/+1 counter mode, and it’s not supported terribly well here. But the art and flavor are an auto-include, at least in a more casual build.

Nuts and Bolts

This deck packs the cards you’d expect in a mono-green aggro deck. There’s ramp spells, removal spells, and protection spells.

Archdruid's Charm is among the gems in Murders at Karlov Manor, a modal spell that offers a flexible land/creature tutor, a pump/punch spell, and an exiling Naturalize. Chord of Calling can grab anything you have the mana or creatures for.

Skullclamp lets you trade your tokens in for cards, especially if you turn them into mana dorks. It won’t work with your lords on the battlefield unless you send your Squirrel into battle, but an early Skullclamp can help to prevent you from lagging behind the control player’s card advantage.

The Mana Base

Aside from the classic mana rocks and the expected Emerald Medallion, I’ve included your favorite green mana dorks like Elvish Mystic and Llanowar Elves, in addition to Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu and Thornvault Forager.

Although not all of your creature spells are squirrels, Patchwork Banner is still a worthy inclusion as yet another anthem that pumps up your tokens.

For utility, Oakhollow Village and Swarmyard are staples of the creature types they support, as is Oran-Rief, the Vastwood in decks that generate green creature tokens in bursts.

Mosswort Bridge lets you squirrel away a key piece for later, and 10 power shouldn’t be too high a threshold in this deck. Castle Garenbrig is mana positive, and it lets you filter two colorless mana into if you need to.

Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun, Evendo, Waking Haven, and Three Tree City all give you lots of mana once your Squirrel tokens are flowing, which you can then funnel into your commander for, guess what, more tokens!

The Strategy

This Squirrel Girl deck comes with a few paths to victory that all come from generating an absurd number of tokens.

Ideally, you want to start the game early with some Squirrel tokens and an Enduring Vitality effect to turn them into mana dorks. The more squirrels you have on the field before you cast your commander, the better. You’d also like to ramp before you cast The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl; since it’s a prime removal target, you need the mana to protect it, or at least activate its ability before it dies.

While you have a few ways to assemble infinite token combos, they’re far from guaranteed. They’re nice if you draw into them or your tutors by chance, but don’t hold out for them if the opportunity for an earlier combat damage win presents itself. Your infinite token combos also don’t secure a victory on their own; either you need your infinite tokens to survive until the lose summoning sickness, or you need a creature you’ve pumped as they entered like Honored Dreyleader to attack unblocked or with trampling damage.

You’ve got two types of mass pumps: board-wide and single-target. Your board-wide buffs are fairly obvious; you want to apply them when you’re ready to attack everyone with an army of squirrel tokens. Your single-target pumps can target your commander and other attackers like Scurry of Squirrels or the Dreyleader, but if you’re not sure that they’ll get through unblocked, you can save instant-speed ones to pump a token that’s been left unchecked.

Combos and Interactions

It wouldn’t be a new squirrel commander if it didn’t also make infinite tokens somehow. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl just needs you to turn your creatures into mana dorks (Jaheira, Friend of the Forest, etc.) and give them haste. To that end: Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. It lets you activate your creatures’ abilities as though they had haste, which means you can tap them to activate mana abilities. As long as you’re making four tokens whenever you activate Squirrel Girl, you can make yourself an infinite chittering army.

The classic Scurry Oak + Ivy Lane Denizen combo is here. Scurry Oak gives you creatures when it gains +1/+1 counters, and Ivy Lane Denizen gives a creature +1/+1 counters when green creatures enter, including your Squirrel tokens. Scurry Oak has a “may” ability, so you won’t lock the game. You can stop the combo at any time.

It takes so little set up if you have both cards: Scurry Oak’s evolve gives it the counter to start the chain, and Ivy Lane Denizen has the stats to trigger it if Scurry Oak doesn’t have any other counters.

If you combo off with Ivy Lane Denizen and Scurry Oak while Peregrin Took is on the field, you also create infinite Food tokens, which you can trade in to draw your deck.

Rule 0 Violations Check

The two primary infinite squirrel combos may be enough to turn some players off. Since you can assemble either one before turn 6 or 7 with the right opening hand, these likely qualify as “fast” combos for Bracket-based discussions. Squirrel Girl and Shang-Chi at least need an assist from Jaheira or a similar ability, but Ivy Lane Denizen and Scurry Oak just need you to cast them back-to-back.

Aside from the combos and maybe Bloodroot Apothecary, you aren’t messing with your opponents’ ability to play Magic in any way. Anything that might be a “problem” in this deck can be answered if your opponents pack enough removal.

Budget Options

Three Tree City is the most egregious part of the mana base, alongside Evendo, Waking Haven. Basic Forests can take their place, though I’d be tempted to cut a few other cards and increase the land count to 37. Castle Garenbrig’s ramp and filtering is nice, but it isn’t game breaking if you leave it behind.

Eldrazi Monument is a worthwhile substitute for Craterhoof Behemoth since it turns your tokens into indestructible fliers. Roaming Throne is in no way essential here, and you can include pretty much anything you want in its place; Bala Ged Recovery’s MDFC flexibility and ability to save something from your graveyard would be welcome in this deck. Just be careful not to swap it for something that costs more mana. Heroic Intervention can come out for targeted protection like Tamiyo's Safekeeping.

If you want to cut a card I haven’t mentioned but aren’t sure what to add, you could do worse than Animal Friend, a 2-mana aura that’ll double up on Squirrel Girl’s attack trigger to give you more Squirrel tokens.

You can replace Growing Rites of Itlimoc or Primal Vigor too, but they’re already the budget versions of other cards like Gaea's Cradle and Doubling Season. The token doubling isn’t at all necessary if you plan to be at a lower Commander Bracket, though.

If you want to trim the budget and add more single-target creature buffs, cards like Get a Leg Up and Echoing Courage can help you out.

Springleaf Parade and Enduring Vitality are over $10, but they’re essential to the combo part of the deck and its mana base. If there’s anywhere you don’t skimp, these, your commander, and Shang-Chi are the cards to prioritize.

Other Builds

I didn’t want to make this deck too busted, but if you run Concordant Crossroads, Squirrel Girl makes an infinite board state. Shang-Chi is here because it’s a flavorful MSH card, but a 1-mana world enchantment felt like too much of a cheat code for the power level I want. There’s plenty of other ways to tune up the deck with Worldly Tutor, Boseiju, Who Endures, and the real Gaea's Cradle. I had only two token doublers, but you can obviously add Parallel Lives to your build, too.

In an early draft, I had more of a +1/+1 counters subtheme with cards like Tribute to the World Tree, Hardened Scales, and Germination Practicum (for those longer, grindy games), but that was before Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu was spoiled.

You can focus more on board-based mass pumps and attacking with your creatures, or you can also lean more into nontoken squirrels. In that case, you’ll probably have more of a Food token/utility token subtheme because of Bloomburrow’s forage cards.

Commanding Conclusion

Go Nuts! | Illustration by Ignatius Budi

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl lets you build a deck for almost any power level you want, from casual typal decks to tuned-up combo builds. This deck sits somewhere in the middle, with the ability to combo off and some tutors to enable that, but Squirrel Girl is fine if you generate a more “fair” board state and pump it up.

Which cards would you slot into an Unbeatable Squirrel Girl build? Have any other commanders from Marvel Super Heroes caught your attention, and for what kind of archetype or power level? Let me know in the comments below or over on the Draftsim Discord. For more Magic x Marvel stuff, subscribe to our newsletter, The Daily Upkeep.

Until next time, eat nuts and kick butts!