Merry, Warden of Isengard and Pippin, Warden of Isengard Commander Deck Guide

Last updated on December 7, 2023

Merry, Warden of Isengard & Pippin, Warden of Isengard | Illustration by Viko Menezes

Good preconstructed Commmander decks usually offer a pretty clear way to upgrade the deck and build something more powerful. The best preconstructed decks offer several ways, and several alternative commanders to choose from. Food and Fellowship from Tales of Middle-earth Commander is a great example of this type of precon as each alternate commander has a pretty clear way to build a different exciting deck.

Merry, Warden of Isengard and Pippin, Warden of Isengard are a set of alternate commanders with partner. These two work very well together to create a good amount of tokens that you can put to use in a variety of ways. Together they give you access to a lot of great token options in the Abzan colors ().

For this deck, I created something that would give you ways to cash in on the lifegain you can get from Pippin’s Food tokens, as well as ways to use the soldiers that Merry creates. I’ve also included general token support that works well with both commanders. I’ve tried to stay more on theme with some of my Lord of the Rings builds and keep as many of the Middle-earth cards as I could, but for this deck I focused a little more on creating powerful synergies than keeping a consistent theme. Keep reading to see a more thematic build of the deck.

The Deck

Sam, Loyal Attendant | Illustration by Campbell White

Merry, Warden of Isengard and Pippin, Warden of Isengard are both largely focused on creating tokens, so general token support helps them both become stronger. Token doublers like Anointed Procession and cards that create extra tokens like Academy Manufactor work very well with these commanders.

Generating tokens is one part of the plan, but you’ll need something to do with them if you want to win the game. The two main types of tokens that you’ll be creating are Food tokens and soldier tokens, and you’ll want ways to support and utilize both types of tokens.

Food can be used for food-specific abilities like the one on Gilded Goose, but it can also be used to gain life. That means lifegain payoffs like Treebeard, Gracious Host also work well in this deck.

Alternatively, cards like Craterhoof Behemoth make your soldier tokens stronger. This means you won’t just be sitting on a pile of 1/1s, but instead, you’ll have a board that’s able to take out one of your opponents.

The Commanders

Each of these commanders on their own offer you some pretty good benefits. Most of the tokens this deck creates are artifacts, so Merry, Warden of Isengard will usually make you an additional soldier token each time you create a Food or other type of artifact token. Pippin, Warden of Isengard creates Food tokens that work well with your lifegain cards, or if you have enough Food you can use it to buff all your creatures. Merry and Pippin are even more effective together since each Food token Pippin creates will also trigger Merry’s ability and create a soldier token as well.

Extra Tokens

The more tokens you can create at a time, the more effective this deck will become. That means cards like Peregrin Took or Chatterfang, Squirrel General can really accelerate your game.

Academy Manufactor is a particularly strong choice because of how well it interacts with both of your commanders. It allows Pippin to create three tokens for a single mana, one of which will replace the mana you spent to create them. Merry will obviously add a soldier token to the pile.

Cadira, Caller of the Small won’t double up all of your token-making abilities, but it can double all of the tokens you’ve already made. You can use your Rogue's Passage to help trigger Cadira’s ability if your opponents have too many blockers.

Token doublers like Anointed Procession and Parallel Lives are even more effective because they will double up all of these abilities. Mondrak, Glory Dominus is a token doubler that can be harder to remove than your other options.

Token Utility

There are ways to use each token in this deck beyond its intended use. For example, Gilded Goose can use Food tokens to make mana, whereas Savvy Hunter can sacrifice them for extra cards.

Any of your creature tokens can be sacrificed to Phyrexian Altar to create extra mana, which can often be a good trade. Because many of your creature tokens are 1/1s, they can also easily be equipped with Skullclamp to instantly kill them and allow you to draw cards.

Nadier's Nightblade drains life from your opponents when you sacrifice tokens of any kind. This works especially well with Treasure tokens since you don’t have to pay to sacrifice them, or if you have Phyrexian Altar out to sacrifice your creature tokens for free.

Lifegain

You have a few other ways to gain life apart from your Food tokens. This will help you take advantage of any lifegain payoffs without necessarily relying on Food.

Cards like Essence Warden and Soul Warden are good ways to gain extra life, especially when you’ll be creating a good number of creature tokens.

Ajani, Strength of the Pride can gain a lot of life when you have a wider board state. Alternatively, you can gain a good amount of life by giving one large creature lifelink with Heliod, Sun-Crowned.

Lifegain Payoffs

To make the best use of both your Food tokens and other lifegain cards, you’ll need some good payoffs for gaining life.

Treebeard, Gracious Host can buff up your commanders or itself whenever you gain life. Similarly, Heliod, Sun-Crowned can also buff a single creature each time you gain life. Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn can be especially powerful in this deck as it can spread counters across a wide variety of your creatures, or even your opponents’ creatures if there’s an instance where you need to work together.

Having a higher life total will also allow you to pay for cards that cost life like Bolas's Citadel. Aetherflux Reservoir can even be used to eliminate another player if you’ve managed to reach a high enough life total.

Protection

One of the worst things about playing a token deck is that you have to rely on having a wide board state. This means that a board wipe will be much more devastating to your game than it might be to someone who relies on spell-slinging or just one or two large creatures. Spells and abilities that grant some form of protection can help keep you from losing your tokens and having to start over.

Instants like Heroic Intervention and Golgari Charm are good ways to keep your tokens and creatures safe. Teferi's Protection is your most comprehensive form of protection, essentially letting you disappear for a turn and not be affected by anything that happens in the game.

Free-activated abilities like Boromir, Warden of the Tower’s are especially strong because you won’t have to keep any mana open for it. King Darien XLVIII has one of the best versions of this for a token deck, since it plays into your strategy while it’s onboard and protects your creature tokens when needed.

The Mana Base

As with any multicolor deck, it’s important for your mana base to include cards like Command Tower and City of Brass that can tap for any color you might need. Dual- and tri-lands are the next best thing. Cards with the Forest subtype like Indatha Triome and Murmuring Bosk are particularly helpful because you can search for them with Nature's Lore.

Both Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth are helpful for mana fixing in green and black decks. Filter lands like Wooded Bastion and Twilight Mire can also help you make mana of colors you may not have lands for yet.

Hall of Heliod's Generosity can be a helpful way to get your token doublers back if they get removed. Meanwhile, Inventors' Fair can help you find cards you might need from your library, like Aetherflux Reservoir.

You also have a few mana rocks to help with ramp in this deck, like Sol Ring and Arcane Signet, as well as mana dorks like Birds of Paradise and Delighted Halfling. These give you options to accelerate your mana output.

The Strategy

What you’re aiming to do with this deck is build up a lot of tokens that you can use as resources later in the game. A good way to get started is by keeping a hand that allows you to quickly get Merry and Pippin onto the field together, as they’ll help one another create more tokens. You’ll also want to keep an eye out for cards like Sylvan Library or Black Market Connections that can be played early and increase the consistency of your game through card draw and extra mana production.

Token doublers like Parallel Lives or cards that create extra tokens like Samwise Gamgee are a good next step to help you increase your token output.

Don’t be afraid to use cards like Flawless Maneuver or Heroic Intervention early on to save your value engines. Don’t hold out for when you think you might have a bigger board state, because you might never get there if you don’t save your important cards early on.

We’ll get to a few combos you have that can help close out the game, but you can always try to buff your creatures with things like Pippin, Warden of Isengard’s ability and win through combat damage. Finale of Devastation, Craterhoof Behemoth, or both together can be another great way to finish out a game. Triumph of the Hordes can also be an effective game winner if your board is wide enough to get around blockers. That being said, don’t be afraid to use one of these methods to just take out one player, because you have multiple other ways to win.

Combos and Interactions

You have a few infinite combos in this deck that can help you win the game. You’ll want to know how to use them, both for strategic purposes and to warn your opponents during a Rule 0 discussion in case they don’t like playing against infinite combos.

One of these combos involves Cauldron Familiar and Samwise Gamgee combined with a free sacrifice outlet like Viscera Seer or Phyrexian Altar. Sacrifice the cat to one of the outlets, then you can bring it back using a Food token. Sam will create another Food token when the cat enters the battlefield. You’re then free to sac the cat again and bring it back with the new Food. You can repeat this until Cauldron Familiar has drained your opponents out.

Another infinite combo can be created using Heliod, Sun-Crowned, Scurry Oak, and any card that gains you life when a creature enters the battlefield such as Soul Warden or Prosperous Innkeeper. Once all of the pieces are on the battlefield, you just need to gain life. You can either play Scurry Oak last and set things off, or you can activate a Food token to gain life. Then, place a +1/+1 counter on Scurry Oak with Heliod, Sun-Crowned’s triggered ability. This will create a squirrel token, which will gain you life when it enters, starting the cycle over again.

While this second combo will create infinite squirrels and gain you infinite life, it won’t win you the game outright. With infinite life you can use Aetherflux Reservoir to take out all of your opponents. Alternatively, if you have a free sacrifice outlet and Nadier's Nightblade you can just sacrifice enough tokens to drain all your opponents’ life totals to 0.

Rule 0 Violations Check

It’s important to check how your playgroup feels about playing against decks with infinite combos. It may also be worth describing the specific combos you’re using to see if those are okay or not. Some players might not be happy with the Cauldron Familiar combo that wins you the game, but might be okay with the Scurry Oak combo, since it takes extra steps for you to close out the game with it.

Personally, I’d recommend either bringing a second deck, or some alternate cards that you can swap into your deck to replace the combo pieces. That way you have options if someone isn’t happy with the way this deck plays.

Budget Options

The unfortunate truth of token decks is that some of your best cards, the token doublers, are also very expensive. Mondrak, Glory Dominus, Parallel Lives, and Anointed Procession all cost over $30, and there aren’t really cheaper alternatives. One option would be to replace these with more cards that just make extra tokens like Queen Allenal of Ruadach. While not as effective, they won’t break the bank either.

Finale of Devastation is another card that’s very expensive. You can replace it with the cheaper Green Sun's Zenith to help search for a card, or End-Raze Forerunners if you want a similar way to buff your creatures.

Sylvan Library has also crept up in price, so you may want to replace it with a cheaper draw engine like Beast Whisperer.

Other Builds

Because Merry, Warden of Isengard and Pippin, Warden of Isengard represents the moment when Merry and Pippin lead the ents to tear down Saruman’s machines of war, I had initially planned to build this deck as a treefolk typal deck, utilizing the ent cards from the Lord of the Rings set and treefolk cards like Doran, the Siege Tower.

Merry and Pippin aren’t technically the most optimized commanders for treefolk typal, but they’re the right colors for it. Treefolk typal decks also sometimes use cards like Black Market Connections and Phyrexian Arena, so having a way to gain back some of the life you lose to these cards could be nice. The 1/1 soldiers Merry creates can also synergize well with cards that benefit low-power creatures like The Battle of Bywater or Fell the Mighty. These fit into a treefolk deck since they typically have lower power and higher toughness.

Commanding Conclusion

Treebeard, Gracious Host | Illustration by Campbell White

Merry and Pippin are great commanders that you can build in a variety of ways. You should check this build-out if you enjoy token decks and don’t mind winning through combos. Even if you decide you want a different type of deck, it’s still worth checking out some version that uses these two commanders, as I think anyone can have a lot of fun with them.

How would you build Merry and Pippin? What other alternate commanders from precons do you enjoy? Let me know in the comments or on Draftsim’s Twitter.

Thank you for reading and I look forward to seeing you on the next article!