Commander blueprint · The Hobbit

How to build Radagast of Rhosgobel

Radagast of Rhosgobel takes two mana off the first creature spell you cast each turn and lets you cast it at instant speed, and the card never says whose turn. So this build passes with its mana open and spends it while the other players are taking theirs.

Art by Anna Podedworna

The turn you cast Radagast is a turn with no discount

The ruling on Radagast is that his ability looks at the whole turn, including the part before he was on the battlefield. If you cast him this turn, he was your first creature spell, so nothing after him gets the two off. The same applies every time he comes back from the command zone. On the turn he lands, spend the rest of your mana on something that is not a creature, a Harrow or a Sylvan Library or an Elemental Bond, and let the next creature wait for the next player's turn, where it costs two less and arrives at instant speed anyway.

Counting from the start of the turn also makes the order of your own casts matter. The two comes off generic mana only, so Birds of Paradise and Elvish Mystic get nothing from it, and Sakura-Tribe Elder, Eternal Witness, Thrashing Brontodon, Duskwatch Recruiter and Wildborn Preserver get one. Cast any of those first and the turn's discount is spent on a card that could not use it. Cast the expensive creature first and the cheap one after it at full price, either in your own main phase or with Yeva, Nature's Herald or Vivien, Champion of the Wilds on the battlefield if the turn belongs to someone else.

Several of the full-discount creatures cost a single with Radagast out. Wood Elves is the best of them. It puts a Forest onto the battlefield untapped, so cast on an opponent's turn it has paid for itself before that turn ends. Reclamation Sage, Fierce Empath, Glademuse, Six, Tireless Tracker and Tireless Provisioner cost as well. An X creature takes the discount after X is chosen, so Genesis Hydra with X at 5 costs , reveals five cards and can put a permanent with mana value 5 or less onto the battlefield, all at instant speed. Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma stacks with it. It takes another off every creature spell with power 4 or more, so with both out Avenger of Zendikar and Thorn Mammoth cost and Craterhoof Behemoth costs .

Seedborn Muse is here to pay for the turns that are not yours

Mana is the limit on all of this. Lands untap once a round, at the start of your own turn, so seven lands give you seven mana to spread across four turns, and every creature you flash in on an opponent's turn is mana you chose not to spend on yours. Seedborn Muse removes that limit. Your permanents untap as each opponent's turn begins, so the same seven lands make seven mana on every turn of the round, twenty eight in all, and the discount has something to work with four times over. Nothing else in the ninety nine is on the Game Changers list, and on its own it puts the deck at bracket 3.

Four cheaper cards do part of the same job. Wilderness Reclamation untaps your lands at the beginning of your end step, so whatever you spent in your main phase is back before the next player starts. Patron of the Orochi taps once each turn to untap every Forest and every green creature, which on each opponent's turn means using your Forests twice. It says every Forest, so a green player across the table gets theirs back as well. Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx makes green mana equal to the green pips among your permanents, and this list is full of creatures that cost , Radagast among them. Castle Garenbrig makes six green that can only be spent on creature spells and creature abilities, which in this deck is where nearly all of the mana goes.

Green's removal is on creatures, so it can wait for the target

Green answers most problems with a creature that does something when it enters, and in most decks that means waiting for your own main phase while the problem gets a turn's use. Here the first one each turn is an instant. Reclamation Sage costs and can destroy an equipment while its equip ability is on the stack. Acidic Slime costs and takes a land, an artifact or an enchantment in someone's end step. Kogla, the Titan Ape costs and fights a creature as it enters, so it can meet a commander after attackers are declared, and as a 7/6 it usually walks away from the fight.

Thorn Mammoth turns that into a habit. It fights up to one creature you don't control whenever it or another creature of yours enters, so once it is out every creature you flash in on someone else's turn is also a fight with a 6/6. Ravenous Gigantotherium is the larger version for one turn. It can devour the tokens Hornet Queen or Avenger of Zendikar left behind, three counters for each, and then split damage equal to its power among as many creatures as it has power, in the middle of an opponent's combat if you like. Each creature it hits deals its own power back, so a big devour is what keeps it alive.

The defensive version is a blocker that was not there when the attack was declared. Hornet Queen cast after attackers are declared is five flying deathtouch blockers for . Elder Gargaroth makes a 3/3, gains 3 life or draws a card each time it blocks, and Radagast himself is a 2/5. A player who attacks into four open green mana is guessing.

Emrakul costs eight and gives the lands straight back

Emrakul, the Exigent Doom costs , and when you cast it you untap every land you control. That trigger resolves while Emrakul is still on the stack. With Radagast out it costs , so you tap eight lands, cast it, and all eight are untapped again before it reaches the battlefield. Paid for with lands, it is free. It untaps lands you tapped earlier in the turn as well, so a turn spent on other creatures can still end with Emrakul and a full set of untapped lands.

Cast it on an opponent's turn and you start your own with a 12/12 that has flying and trample and can attack at once. It is colorless, so Yeva does not give it flash, but Radagast and Vivien do. Fierce Empath can find it, since Empath looks for any creature card with mana value 6 or more, and with Goreclaw out as well it costs . Its ward asks for three permanents to be sacrificed, which is more than most removal at a casual table is willing to pay.

Drawn early, it is still worth its slot. For you can exile Emrakul from your hand and give one of your lands the ability to tap for two colorless mana, and you can cast Emrakul from exile whenever you like after that. The land keeps the extra mana until you do. So on turn three the card does the job of a mana rock, and later on it is the same finisher at the same , with the same untap when you cast it.

A creature cast before your turn is ready to attack in it

A creature can attack once you have controlled it continuously since the start of your most recent turn. Anything cast on another player's turn passes that test the moment your turn begins, so in this deck flash does the job of haste for every creature except the ones cast in your own main phase. That changes when the big ones should come down. The best moment is usually the end step of the player whose turn comes just before yours. Everyone else has had their sorcery-speed answers by then, the creature attacks next, and a board wipe has to wait a full round to catch it.

It also lets you hold threats back while the table decides whether to sweep. If someone casts a wipe, the creatures you kept in hand come down afterwards at instant speed and at a discount, and the turn another deck spends rebuilding, this one spends attacking. Craterhoof Behemoth is the exception. It has haste and its pump ends with the turn, so it belongs in your own main phase, where it costs .

Glademuse pays out on the turns this deck does its casting

Glademuse draws a card for any player who casts a spell when it is not their turn. Most decks cast almost nothing on other players' turns, so in most decks it is a card that helps the opponents. This one casts most of its creatures and its eleven instants there, so at it is a 2/4 that draws on nearly every spell. The cost is real. An opponent who answers you with an instant on your turn draws as well, so play your own turn quietly and the trade goes your way.

Two of those instants cost no mana at all off your own turn. Summoner's Pact is free to cast and finds a green creature, with the due at your next upkeep. Force of Vigor can be cast by exiling a green card from your hand when it is not your turn, and destroys two artifacts or enchantments. With Glademuse out each of them also draws a card, so Force of Vigor gets back one of the two cards it cost.

Most of the other card draw fires when a creature enters, which this deck does three or four times a round. Beast Whisperer draws on every creature spell you cast. Guardian Project draws for each nontoken creature that does not share a name with one you have, and in a singleton deck that is every one of them. Elemental Bond and Garruk's Uprising draw for the bigger bodies and Soul of the Harvest for any nontoken creature. The Great Henge puts a +1/+1 counter on each one and draws as well, and it costs less, where X is the greatest power among your creatures, so with Kogla on the battlefield it costs .

The core list

Radagast and ninety nine more, $420 at the cheapest printing of each card, with one Game Changer. Rest the pointer on a name to see the card.

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The budget rung keeps the discount and gives up the untapping

The budget rung is twelve swaps, costs $138 against $420 for the core list, and has no Game Changers at all. Nothing Radagast does costs money, so all of it survives: the budget list still has 36 creatures in the ninety nine and the same eleven instants. What it gives up is the support. Seedborn Muse goes, and Quest for Renewal takes the slot. Once four of your creatures have become tapped, it untaps your creatures as each opponent's turn begins, which brings back the mana creatures but none of the lands, so this version has less to spend away from its own turn and should spend it on the cheap creatures. Nyxbloom Ancient becomes Zendikar Resurgent, one extra mana from each land instead of three times the mana, plus a card for every creature spell. The Great Henge and Guardian Project become Primordial Sage and Lifecrafter's Bestiary, and Craterhoof Behemoth becomes End-Raze Forerunners, which is +2/+2 for the team rather than +X/+X.

That makes it a better first deck than most budget lists. Its plan is one habit rather than a combo, the habit is not tapping out on your own turn, and every deck a new player builds afterwards rewards it. Emrakul, the Exigent Doom stays at this rung, the most expensive card left in it at $16, because no cheap card does what it does with this commander.

At bracket 4 the tutors are instants too

The bracket 4 rung makes eight swaps, costs $734 and carries six Game Changers. Worldly Tutor suits this commander best because it is an instant. Cast it in the final end step before your turn, put the creature you want on top of your library, draw it, and it still costs two less when you cast it. Natural Order trades a green creature for any green creature in the library, which here usually means Craterhoof Behemoth. Crop Rotation turns a Forest into Winding Canyons or Nykthos at instant speed. Winding Canyons lets every creature spell that turn be cast as though it had flash, so the second and third creature of an opponent's turn no longer need Yeva or Vivien. Mana Vault and Ancient Tomb pay for the turn Radagast arrives.

Two creatures come in with them. Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger exiles two permanents when you cast it, and at with flash that is an answer to whatever an opponent is in the middle of doing. Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger adds a mana each time you tap a land, and every land an opponent taps for mana skips their next untap step. Beside Seedborn Muse your lands untap on every turn while a player who taps out gets theirs back a full round late, which is the point at which this stops being a deck a casual table wants to sit across from.

FAQ

Does Radagast of Rhosgobel work on opponents' turns?

Yes. The discount and the flash both apply to the first creature spell you cast in each turn, and that means every player's turn, not only yours. At a four-player table that is up to four creature spells a round that cost less, and three of them can be cast on someone else's turn.

Does casting Radagast of Rhosgobel use up that turn's discount?

Yes. His ability looks at the whole turn, even the part before he was on the battlefield, so if you cast Radagast in a turn, no later creature spell that turn can be the first one. Follow him with a noncreature card and save the next creature for the next player's turn.

Does Radagast of Rhosgobel reduce green mana?

No. He takes off the generic part of a cost only, so Birds of Paradise still costs and Hornet Queen still needs . The spell's mana value stays the same as well.

Can Radagast of Rhosgobel give more than one creature flash each turn?

No, only the first creature spell. This list runs Yeva, Nature's Herald, which gives every green creature spell flash, and Vivien, Champion of the Wilds, which does the same for any creature spell, so the second and third creature in a turn can wait for an opponent's turn as well.

How does Radagast of Rhosgobel work with X creature spells?

You choose X first and then take off the total, so the same mana buys two more X. Genesis Hydra with X at 5 costs instead of .

Is Radagast of Rhosgobel the same card as Radagast the Brown?

No. Radagast the Brown is the 2023 Lord of the Rings card, also a mono-green 2/5 for , and whenever a nontoken creature of yours enters it looks at the top of your library for a creature that shares no type with the ones you control. Radagast of Rhosgobel is from The Hobbit in 2026 and makes the first creature spell of each turn cheaper instead. Radagast, Wizard of Wilds is a third version, in blue and green.

What bracket is this Radagast of Rhosgobel deck?

Three, and one card decides it. Seedborn Muse is on the Game Changers list and nothing else in the ninety nine is. The budget rung replaces it with Quest for Renewal and has none, and the bracket 4 rung adds five more for six in all.

How much does a Radagast of Rhosgobel deck cost?

$420 as printed here, priced at the cheapest printing you can buy of each card. The budget rung costs $138 and the bracket 4 rung $734. Most of the core list's money sits in four cards: The Great Henge, Boseiju, Who Endures, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and Nyxbloom Ancient.

Is Radagast of Rhosgobel a good commander for a new player?

At the budget rung, yes. It costs $138, it wins with big creatures rather than a combo, and the one thing it asks you to learn, leaving mana open on your own turn and using it on everyone else's, is a habit that pays off in whatever you build next.