Vihaan, Goldwaker Treasure Commander Deck Guide

Vihaan, Goldwaker | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

We can all agree that Treasure is broken, right? It’s incredible how many Magic cards these days come with Lotus Petal attached—sometimes several of them. We’ve all seen what Treasure can do with busted treasure commanders like Prosper, Tome-Bound and Korvold, Fae-Cursed King, but I wanted to see if I could do something a little different with my Treasure tokens than just make mana.

Enter Vihaan, Goldwaker! The backup commander from Outlaws of Thunder Junction’s Most Wanted Commander precon, Vihaan does everything I wanted: It turns my Treasure into a win condition without storming off or casting a massive X-spell.

Let’s see how we can exploit it!

The Deck

Mastermind Plum | Illustration by Bryan Sola

This Vihaan, Goldwaker EDH deck is a grindy, casual midrange deck. You want to amass enough Treasure to make Smaug jealous then convert it into a living army with Vihaan to pummel your opponents. It combines that pressure with a few sacrifice synergies to find the last few points of damage you need to win the game.

The Commander: Vihaan, Goldwaker

The star of the show, Vihaan, Goldwaker’s treasure animation ability makes it possible for this deck to win. While we’ve seen other versions of this effect including Cyberdrive Awakener, Rise and Shine, and Displaced Dinosaurs, this Mardu commander is the first time we’ve gotten it in the command zone. That adds an unrivaled level of consistency.

This deck goes pretty light on the outlaw synergies from Vihaan’s first ability in favor of Treasure shenanigans. Since Vihaan gives your outlaws vigilance – and assassins are among the creature types that count as outlaws – you can still crack your Treasures for mana afterwards, which is key to enabling cards like Blood Artist and Mayhem Devil to burn your opponents out.

Treasure Exploitation

Before we get to the swathe of cards that create Treasure, let's look at the cards that use it to its fullest potential. It’s important to consider that many of these cards produce Treasure themselves.

Magda, Brazen Outlaw turns a bunch of Treasure into a dragon or artifact. Notable grabs include Cavern-Hoard Dragon for pressure and The One Ring for card draw. If five Treasure is too high a price for you, Magda, the Hoardmaster makes 4/4s at a much cheaper rate.

Kambal, Profiteering Mayor not only drains your opponents when you create Treasure, but it steals a cut of the profits from any chests your opponents crack open.

Kellogg, Dangerous Mind steals your opponents’ best permanents. The second ability essentially casts Mind Control over and over with Treasure.

Mastermind Plum encourages you to use your Treasure for mana, but I’ll allow it for such a powerful ability: Making every spell you cast cantrip buries your opponents in card advantage.

Crime Novelist and Goldspan Dragon double any mana you feel the need to make while providing lots of pressure to leverage the mana advantage.

Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter converts Treasure into 1/1s, which become Treasure! It lets you fiddle around with your sacrifice synergies and builds a board state if Vihaan, Goldwaker gets removed.

Grim Hireling converts Treasure into interaction while fueling itself; what’s not to love? Between this card and Professional Face-Breaker, your attacking Treasures populate surprisingly fast.

Reckless Fireweaver pings your opponents as you create Treasure while Marionette Apprentice hits them on the way out. The best of your pingers is undoubtedly Mayhem Devil since it can pick off small creatures like Orcish Bowmasters and Ocelot Pride in addition to going face. I’m counting Blood Artist as a pinger since you can sacrifice the animated Treasure.

Malevolent Witchkite cashes in a bunch of Treasure for cards. It can be a great way to enable all those pingers for a bunch of damage when you don’t have an outlet for the mana.

Idol of Oblivion and Caretaker's Talent turn your Treasure production into a source of steady card advantage. The third level of the class enchantment pushes a bunch of damage.

Treasure Creation

While most of your Treasure payoffs create Treasure themselves, I added additional cards that just create Treasure to ensure your coffers are always full; remember, in this deck, making Treasure isn’t that far from creating 3/3s.

I’m stretching the definition of a Treasure generator slightly with Xorn and Mondrak, Glory Dominus since they only double the tokens something else creates, but doubling your forces and your mana is too valuable an ability to pass up.

No matter how often I play Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff, I’m astounded by how much Treasure it produces for a 2-drop. It exploits the ramp-heavy strategies of Commander since double spelling takes little effort.

Black Market Connections does far more than produce Treasure, but that’s the ability this deck cares about the most. Of course, you’re happy to draw some cards and make Shapeshifter tokens, which count as outlaws for Vihaan.

Pain Distributor and Generous Plunderer make Treasure for you and your opponents with the goal of punishing them for having or using the artifact tokens. I like these cards as cheap Treasure generators that hold political value in the early game.

It’s hard to discuss Treasure without mentioning Prosper, Tome-Bound. Most cards that combine card advantage with mana production are quite powerful, with Prosper being one of the most notable examples.

Smothering Tithe might be the most infamous Treasure producer in Commander. It’s certainly one of the best. Making at least three Treasures a turn cycle is good enough already, let alone a bunch of 3/3s! And if your opponents decide to pay, it costs them enough mana to warp their mana curve, so that’s cool.

Descent into Avernus is one of my favorite Treasure producers in the format. The combination of burn and mana production forces things to happen. Sometimes you aren’t the one doing those things, but so it goes.

The Closers

These cards are a combination of finishing spells that make your tokens better and big spells to cast with the Treasure. While that’s not the primary goal of the deck, it would be foolish to produce this much mana and not use at least some of it.

Since Vihaan, Goldwaker makes your Treasure into assassins, Arno Dorian gives them a huge power boost to make your assault all the deadlier.

Neyali, Suns' Vanguard provides a pseudo-anthem with double strike that helps your board clear small blockers. But I find the card draw ability even more exciting. You can draw up to three cards a combat if you can attack each of your opponents!

Akroma's Will is one of your most important finishers because it doubles as a protection spell to keep your board safe from sweepers and other interactive spells.

Insurrection only works as a finisher when your opponents have a bunch of creatures, but that tends to happen in casual games. You can reasonably expect to double your attack force and clear away any pesky blockers.

Breach the Multiverse lets you go tall by milling and stealing four of the best creatures or planeswalkers that have either died or been milled in a given game.

I like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite as top end because it usually impacts the game. Even if your opponent removes it as you move to combat, it kills off any small creatures other players control. If it sticks around, the uber-anthem finishes your opponents in short order.

Protection Spells

Protection spells are critical. The deck relies heavily on Vihaan as a finisher, so you need to keep your commander around; you also have 30 creatures, which makes you pretty susceptible to Wrath of God.

Teferi's Protection sets the standard with total protection from everything but cards that literally say “You Win the Game”. Phasing out all your permanents is a nice touch since it protects your unanimated Treasure. Clever Concealment offers you similar protection and can cost next to (or literally) nothing thanks to convoke.

When selecting protection spells, it can be tricky to decide between efficient single-target spells that protects one important piece and more expensive spells that protect your entire board but suck against Swords to Plowshares and similar cards. Thankfully, Galadriel's Dismissal absolves you of the decision by acting as both! You can protect Vihaan or all your creatures as the situation demands. You could even phase out an opponent’s board to clear a path for a lethal attack.

Malakir Rebirth makes it into virtually every black deck I play. The flexibility of a Swamp that sometimes saves a creature can’t be matched.

Dawn's Truce rounds things out with a Heroic Intervention effect that can protect all your permanents. Gifting a card looks like a downside, but it can be a great way to gain a favor from somebody.

Interactive Spells

Interaction is king; you need some ways to stop your opponents from winning the game before you do.

Shatterskull Smashing makes it into pretty much any red deck I play; much like Malakir Rebirth, the flexibility of the MDFC makes it nearly impossible to pass up in my book. Fell the Profane and Witch Enchanter are similarly necessary.

Winds of Abandon is just Plague Wind. Giving your opponent a bunch of lands can be dicey, but if you cast this in the late game, you can beat them down before they leverage the mana ramp.

Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile are simply among the most efficient removal spells ever printed in Magic. Snuff Out gives them a run for their money since you can cast it without paying its mana cost, though it hits a narrower range of creatures. Vanishing Verse can be a tidy answer to most threats.

Final Showdown has some neat tricks up its sleeve. It can protect Vihaan, but a common play pattern involves using it pre-combat to destroy all creatures except for Vihaan. Since your Treasure tokens aren’t creatures yet, they stick around while this spree spell clears the way for your assassins to sweep in.

The Mana Base

I’m a huge fan of utility lands to pack as many impactful cards into my deck as possible. I never leave home without the channel lands from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty—in this case, Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire and Takenuma, Abandoned Mire.

Fountainport plays well with your token theme, converting spare Treasure into card draw or generating Treasure and (much less exciting) Fish tokens if you have spare mana.

Volatile Fault gives you a thematic Field of Ruin effect that answers problematic nonbasic lands like Field of the Dead and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx.

Treasure Vault provides you quite the windfall if you have a bunch of mana up. I like it in coordination with protection spells; it disguises why you’re holding a bunch of mana up and gives you a way to sink said mana if it turns out a board wipe wasn’t coming.

Command Beacon kind of serves as a protection spell for Vihaan, Goldwaker in that it allows you to circumvent the commander tax. It’s not as good as saving it outright, but it helps.

Urza's Saga rounds out the utility lands. The only artifact to tutor is Sol Ring, but you’re mostly interested in the Construct tokens that become huge threats with your Treasure production.

The Strategy

You want to amass Treasure and smack face. It sounds simple, because it is. This deck would be great for a burgeoning Commander player thanks to its straightforward gameplan.

The most crucial element to have in your opening hand is a form of Treasure production. Luckily, you have enough that most hands comfortably clear that bar. Your commander requires Treasure to be impactful and the deck relies on its commander, hence the strong need for it.

It’s okay to spend some of your early Treasure to develop your board state, especially if you come across a steady Treasure generator like Prosper, Tome-Bound or Kellogg, Dangerous Mind that reliably replenish your coffers. Once you get past turn 4 or 5, or if you find something like Xorn or Arno Dorian that helps stockpile, look to conserve your Treasure. Piloting this deck well is a matter of resource management; some amount of Treasure needs to be spent to build a strong board quickly, but you must retain enough to have attackers.

You can turn the corner quickly once you start attacking thanks to the combination of finishers and pingers to burn your opponents out. Some high-value cards to try and play early include Reckless Fireweaver, Mayhem Devil, and Kambal, Profiteering Mayor. Each of them generates value in proportion to the amount of time they spend on the field.

Combos and Interactions

While this deck has no infinite combos, it has a couple of neat interactions you can look out for to leverage your cards the best.

Firstly, Mondrak, Glory Dominus and Insurrection pair well. You can activate Mondrak’s last ability to sacrifice some of the creatures you send back to your opponents. The redundant indestructible counters don’t do anything and it costs quite a bit of life, but it gets rid of some nasty threats while triggering Blood Artist and Mayhem Devil.

Prosper, Tome-Bound and Professional Face-Breaker lead to explosive turns. You use Face-Breaker to exile a card. If you can play it from exile, Prosper creates a Treasure, which you can then sacrifice to draw another card. This combo works best in the late game when you have lots of mana.

Descent into Avernus and Generous Plunderer produce a shocking amount of damage. Your opponents can sacrifice some of the Treasure before the Plunderer’s trigger resolves, but that just pushes Descent towards a busted, asymmetrical effect that damages everybody and only rewards you.

Rule 0 Violations Check

I can’t imagine this deck failing a Rule 0 conversation. Some cards like The One Ring and Smothering Tithe might not be acceptable for casual play at all pods, but those feel like pretty extreme outliers in this casual shell.

Budget Options

The best place to begin making budget cuts will always be the mana base. Turning shock lands into gates, utility lands into basic lands, and fetch lands into cycling lands affects the deck’s power level by slowing it down, but it also reduces the price dramatically.

Smothering Tithe has the price tag to match its status as one of Commander’s best white cards. Life Insurance or Monologue Tax work as budget alternatives (these are also good options if your playgroup has it house-banned).

The One Ring’s dominance in Modern and beyond has it boasting the highest price of the list. Black has a variety of enchantments that let you draw an additional card at the cost of some life that you can substitute for it, most famously Phyrexian Arena.

Teferi's Protection, Akroma's Will, and Clever Concealment are among the best protective spells in the format. You can try swapping them for cards like Make a Stand, Guardian of Faith, or Unbreakable Formation.

Esper Sentinel gives the deck some decent card draw, but you could lean on Chivalric Alliance or Firemane Commando to get card advantage from your combat step.

Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer could become the moderately less impressive Impulsive Pilferer to help make Treasure from turn 1.

Other Builds

Vihaan, Goldwaker locks itself pretty hard into a Treasure theme since most of the impact comes from the animation ability. You could take a more typal-oriented route and play up on the outlaw synergies with cards like Shared Animosity and Hellspur Posse Boss. Another route could lean into a niche like artifact-creature-matters with cards like Steel Overseer and Tempered Steel; this didn’t make the cut here because I really wanted to home in on the Treasure theme, but I could see relaxing that by cutting a card or two like Mastermind Plum for different synergies.

Commanding Conclusion

Clever Concealment | Illustration by Alexey Kruglov

If you want to build a Treasure EDH deck that’s more than just ramp or exploiting busted commanders like Prosper, Tome-Bound and Korvold, Fae-Cursed King, Vihaan, Goldwaker seems like the complete package. It’s much more casual than the other examples while letting you use the Treasure for something more interesting than just ramp.

How would you build Vihaan? What’s your Treasure commander of choice? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and keep hoarding!