Arabella, Abandoned Doll Toy Commander Deck Guide

Arabella, Abandoned Doll | Illustration by J.P. Targete

Magic is a complex game. Even at the most casual of Commander tables, there’s a lot going on. So many commanders are value engines that snowball out of control, and they require their players to jump through hoops to reach that point. Some Commander games feel like four players playing their own mini-games until the table itself collapses from exhaustion.

Arabella, Abandoned Doll asks a simpler question: “Wanna play with toys?” This Boros commander just wants you to play small creatures and attack, so that’s what we’re gonna do. It’s a refreshingly simple game plan for today’s chaotic Commander format.

The Deck

Agate Instigator | Illustration by Quintin Gleim

The Commander: Arabella, Abandoned Doll

Arabella, Abandoned Doll’s triggered ability is our primary win-condition. We want to spend the game casting creatures with power 2 or less, so that Arabella’s attack trigger deals as much direct damage as possible every time. For that reason, the most important cards in our deck are the creatures, especially ones that come with bonus bodies or card advantage. Since it’s only 2 mana, we don’t mind casting Arabella multiple times in a game, either.

Creatures

The most important part of a deck helmed by Arabella, Abandoned Doll is the creatures. They’re our bread and butter, since our primary game plan is to have as wide a board as possible. Let’s take a look at the highlights!

Token Generating Creatures

One of the most efficient ways to boost Arabella’s attack trigger is for the creatures you play to come with bonus creatures by generating lots of tokens. We’re stocked up heavily on these effects.

Loyal Apprentice, Siege-Gang Lieutenant, and Skyknight Vanguard can make tokens for our commander every turn.

Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin and Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon can make tons of tokens, too.

Adeline, Resplendent Cathar makes up to three 1/1s every attack, which adds up quickly.

Charismatic Conqueror can slow your opponents down, and if it doesn’t, it’ll rack up tokens for Arabella.

Ocelot Pride does enough on its own to include even without considering the tokens it can double.

Agate Instigator is perfect in this deck. We’re casting lots of creatures, and this offspring creature can be one or two bodies for Arabella.

Oltec Matterweaver might be the MVP of token generation, though, since it makes every creature we cast worth 2 Arabella damage. Oketra's Monument is an artifact that has a similar effect.

Card-Drawing Creatures

It’s important that we draw cards as much as we can, since those cards are probably going to be more creatures.

Mentor of the Meek is a classic card advantage engine for a deck like this. Enduring Innocence and Welcoming Vampire play a similar role. Irreverent Gremlin doesn’t provide card advantage, but the option to rummage away an unwanted card for something new is consistently helpful.

Esper Sentinel finds a great home in this deck.

This deck’s also the perfect place for creature-tutoring ETBs like Recruiter of the Guard and Imperial Recruiter, who can find just about any creature in the deck.

Archivist of Oghma is very strong in fetch land metas or tutor-heavy tables.

Protection Creatures

Mother of Runes, Skrelv, Defector Mite, and Giver of Runes are here to protect our commander from being removed, whether that be with a removal spell or in combat. Arabella needs to actually attack for our plan to work, so it’s important to make sure that they aren’t blocked by something huge.

Selfless Spirit is a great card to help our game plan against board wipes, which are one of Arabella’s vulnerable points.

Grand Abolisher also plays a protection role, keeping your strategy safe on your own turn.

Interaction

Sweepers

Our deck doesn’t love board wipe effects. We want to be the player with tons of creatures in play at all times, so regular old Wrath of God just doesn’t mesh.

This is why we play The Battle of Bywater which strategically keeps our creatures alive and provides some artifact value to boot. Fell the Mighty and Dusk / Dawn play a similar role.

Removal

There’s not a ton of removal that synergizes well for us, so we’re mostly focused on removing problematic blockers. Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile are obvious. Deflecting Swat can play a hybrid protection/removal role, saving your creature and pointing the spell somewhere else. Thraben Charm works well with our wide creature boards.

Protection Spells

Flawless Maneuver is a no-brainer for us, especially with such a cheap commander.

Grand Crescendo both protects and expands your board. Dawn's Truce can protect from sweepers and targeted removal, which is nice.

A convoked Clever Concealment can save our entire board for cheap.

Teferi's Protection is arguably the best protection spell there is, so it’s here.

Other Card Choices

Delney, Streetwise Lookout can make Arabella’s attack trigger happen twice, which can be game-ending later on. Not to mention all of the extra triggers it’ll get you off of other creatures, and the amount of unsafe attacks that Delney turns into safe ones. This card is one of the strongest in the deck, and one of the best targets for our creature tutors.

Dollmaker's Shop makes Arabella-compatible tokens often, and Porcelain Gallery is a good spare win-condition if Arabella themself can’t get you there for some reason. Note that Dollmaker's Shop won't make a token if Arabella's the only creature attacking.

Assemble the Legion left unchecked is a win-condition with Arabella, Abandoned Doll. Commander games can grind out for a lot of turns— there’s a good chance that eventually it’s making five or more tokens every single turn, which will lead to a lot of damage with our commander.

Assemble the Players serves as a cheaper card advantage engine. There’s nearly 40 creatures in our deck that meet this requirement, so you should be able to squeeze a lot of value out of it.

Tocasia's Welcome is another card draw engine that rewards us for casting our creatures.

Prosperous Partnership comes with two creatures of its own, but it’s far more exciting that it lets our creatures create Treasure tokens.

Rogue's Passage and Access Tunnel are great utility lands for us, since they can make it safe to swing with Arabella.

Reconnaissance can take Arabella out of combat after their trigger resolves, so that it doesn’t get removed in combat.

The Mana Base

We’re playing 35 lands. There’s 20 basic lands and 15 non-basic land cards. In addition, we’ve got two MDFC lands: Witch Enchanter/Witch-Blessed Meadow and Kabira Takedown/Kabira Plateau.

On the mana rocks side of things, we’ve got Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Boros Signet, and Talisman of Conviction.

Our manabase is lightweight since our mana curve is so low. It’s not absurdly light, though, since we’ll want to be casting multiple creatures at 2-3 mana each on later turns.

The Strategy

Now that you’ve seen the deck, let’s talk about how to play it. The most important part of your game plan is to grow your board. All Arabella, Abandoned Doll cares about is the number of creatures with power 2 or less. Your goal is to make that number as big as possible and to keep it that way.

If you have some kind of protection like Swiftfoot Boots early in the game, you can try to cast Arabella early and keep them protected. If not, it’s not a big deal to cast your commander later on.

You’re going to want a card advantage engine of some sort, whether it’s a creature like Subira, Tulzidi Caravanner or an enchantment like Tocasia's Welcome. You’ll just want some way to keep the cards flowing as soon as possible.

In the early and mid-game, make safe attacks on your opponents to chip life totals down. If you can safely get Arabella, Abandoned Doll swinging, even better. If it’s not looking like the type of game where Arabella can make safe attacks, you’ll likely want to find one of the Mother of Runes style effects so that you can get your commander in unblocked.

There’s not much more to it than that– just keep chipping their life away with Arabella and your army of creatures until your opponents have 0 life. Use your card advantage engines and pieces like Assemble the Legion to guarantee a massive army.

Combos and Interactions

In a deck like this, Recruiter of the Guard and Imperial Recruiter are your ultimate toolboxes. They can find nearly 40 creatures, so there’s always a lot of options based on what you need. Finding Delney, Streetwise Lookout is usually a good idea, though. You can also find artifact hate or enchantment removal with Loran of the Third Path. Find Selfless Spirit if you’re worried about an opposing board wipe. It’s worth noting that you can find a land by tutoring for Witch Enchanter, too!

Norin, Swift Survivalist is a weird one. It allows Arabella (or any creature) to attack safely, so long as you have the mana to re-cast them if they’re blocked. This can get us some cheeky extra enter the battlefield triggers, but safe attacking is the reason they’re here.

Reconnaissance is similar, allowing us to remove a creature from combat if it’s met with an unfavorable block, and allowing Arabella to trigger without committing fully to an attack.

Welcoming Vampire and Tocasia's Welcome only trigger one time each turn, but remember that this includes the opponents’ turns! You can use Secure the Wastes or other methods to make creatures at instant speed and draw more cards on other players’ turns.

Rule 0 Consideration

This deck isn’t designed with any particular power level in mind. It’s definitely not cEDH, and I avoided “generically good” cards that don’t synergize with Arabella, Abandoned Doll in one way or another – Drannith Magistrate was avoided for this reason.

The spirit of this deck is that of an aggro deck that wants to play creatures and attack with them, so I didn’t include Skullclamp either, even though it’d be pretty good in this deck. I also thought that The Jolly Balloon Man might be a bit much in combination with the creature tutors, and including it might lead to weird games where the Arabella plan is no longer the focus, despite how clearly powerful that card would be in this deck.

Budget Options

If you saw my decklist and thought that this deck might be too expensive, I’ve got great news for you: Arabella can be a strong commander regardless of deckbuilding budget. All this deck needs is a critical mass of creatures, so there’s room to maneuver.

Agate Instigator can pretty easily be replaced with its grandfather-figure Impact Tremors.

It’s hard to match the sheer value of Ajani, Nacatl Pariah. There’s not really another 2-drop with that much raw power, so I’d recommend replacing it with something completely different. I was pretty close to including Charming Prince or Raging Battle Mouse, so either of those could fit in an empty 2-drop slot.

Delney, Streetwise Lookout is similarly singular. This is one of the best cards in the deck and there’s no way to replace it that doesn’t feel bad. Living Phone can be a budget-friendly toy if you need one, though.

When it comes to the manabase, there’s no better budget land than basics. In a 2-color deck, having a mostly-basic manabase is totally fine. Play some of the cheaper dual lands like Clifftop Retreat. Definitely don’t miss out on Kher Keep, Escape Tunnel, and Access Tunnel, though!

Other Builds

As I mentioned earlier, there are a couple of cards I didn’t include. The Jolly Balloon Man would work wonders in this deck, since it can contribute to Arabella in a lot of ways – like if it copies Siege-Gang Lieutenant, for example. Mr. Balloons gets really absurd, though, when you consider that it can copy Recruiter of the Guard every turn and find whatever creatures you need. It’s just an absurd card, and it’d go very well with Arabella, but I think it’d lead to a lot of games that feel like The Jolly Balloon Man might as well have been your commander.

You could also build Arabella with a lot more of a focus on the lifegain that it provides – maybe with Essence Channeler style effects. Rhox Faithmender would be perfect, too.

Commanding Conclusion

Loran of the Third Path | Illustration by Steven Belledin

Well, I hope Arabella, Abandoned Doll looks like as much fun to you as it is to me. I love the idea of a go-wide creature aggro deck, especially in a format like Commander where that’s a little more unconventional.

Are you going to build Arabella? What other Duskmourn commanders are you interested in? What was your favorite toy growing up, and did you abandon it? Let us know in the comments or over on the Draftsim Discord.

Thanks for reading, I hope you have a wonderful day and play some good Magic!