There’s a moment in every Commander game when you realise your deck isn’t just performing; it’s humming. Not spiking, not floundering. Just doing exactly what it’s meant to do. For me, that moment comes with Baylen, the Haymaker and a warren of rabbits.
This deck isn’t flashy in the traditional sense. It doesn’t combo off in a single turn or lock the table out with oppressive control. Instead, it wins through rhythm, resilience, and overwhelming charm. And that consistency? It’s no accident. It’s repetition and redundancy.
You can click here to view the deck on Moxfield. I’m going to then discuss it, below.
At the heart of the deck is Hare Apparent, a token generator so central it’s earned 25 slots. That’s not a typo. There are 25 of them in here. With Baylen at the helm, each rabbit becomes a potential haymaker; literally. And when you’re running Thrumming Stone, Panharmonicon, and Mondrak, Glory Dominus, those rabbits multiply faster than the table can blink.
Add in Doubling Season, Anointed Procession, and Coat of Arms, and suddenly your board presence isn’t just wide; it’s seismic. These aren’t even all the token doublers in the deck.
The most interesting doubler in here is probably Renewed Solidarity. Here’s the card:
See, it doesn’t immediately double your token, but adds a token for each of your chosen type during the end step. Let’s math this!
Scenario 1: 3 rabbit tokens produced. 2 regular doublers on the board.
My three rabbits hit the first doubler (say, Doubling Season) and become 6 rabbit tokens. The 6 rabbit tokens then hit the second doubler (say, Anointed procession) and become 12 rabbit tokens. I have 12 rabbit tokens.
Scenario 2: 3 rabbit tokens produced. 1 regular doubler on the board, plus Renewed Solidarity.
My three rabbits hit the normal doubler (say, Mondrak, Glory Dominus) and become 6 rabbit tokens. We move to the end step and Renewed Solidarity creates one rabbit token for each rabbit token created this turn. That gives me an additional 6 rabbit tokens. These six rabbit tokens then hit the normal doubler and become 12 rabbit tokens. I have 18 rabbit tokens.
The one downside is that I don’t immediately have those tokens to synergise with Baylen, but have to wait until my end step, but given that Baylen’s abilities are instant speed, it does still leave us with options.
What makes this deck truly consistent isn’t just its ability to flood the board; it’s how well it recovers. Ghostway, Semester’s End, Lae’zel’s Acrobatics, and Eerie Interlude offer blink-based protection that dodges wipes and resets your ETBs. Storm of Souls and Raise the Past bring the burrow back from the brink.
Even your wipes (Hour of Reckoning, Fell the Mighty, Everything Comes to Dust) are asymmetrical, letting your tokens hop through the carnage unscathed.
Cards like Impact Tremors, Warleader’s Call, and Suture Priest turn every token into incremental damage. You don’t need to swing to apply pressure. And when you do swing? Akroma’s Will, Craterhoof Behemoth, and Baylen’s own buffing ability make sure it counts.
This deck doesn’t rely on a single wincon. It builds pressure turn by turn, rabbit by rabbit, until the table realises it’s too late. I’ve won through chip damage, by launching tons of rabbit tokens, by launching rabbits powered up by the Craterhood Behemoth, through commander damage, and by untapping 15 rabbits with the Halo Fountain. I have options!
Yeah, this deck is full of strengths. Let’s sum them up:
- Redundancy: Multiple token doublers, blink effects, and anthem-style finishers.
- Low dependency on commander: Baylen is great, but the deck functions even without him. He’s a value engine who can speed things up.
- Flexible answers: Spot removal (Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile), board wipes, and clever tricks (Deflecting Palm, Everybody Lives!).
- Mana smoothing: Between medallions, signets, Baylen’s ability to tap tokens for mana, and a decent-ish land base, you rarely stumble. I’m not sure that I really need Three Tree City, but it can help me get a good Jacked Rabbit out.
- Recoverability: I’ve had plenty of games where I’ve either gotten off to a terrible start or had my board state reduced to nil, only to come back and win over a few turns. The deck just doesn’t need much to get going. It’s not mana hungry and the main pieces are cheap.
This deck is strong, but more importantly, it’s reliable. And in Commander that can be a rare breed.
I’d like to upgrade it a little further, but I don’t see massive improvements to be made, outside of quite expensive additions. Approach of the Second Sun is one that would be a good shout, given the amount of card draw I can get from Baylen in the right circumstances. Deflecting Swat is pricey, but it would be an obvious addition as well, alongside maybe Jeska’s Will (about which I have recently written). Just the strong staples, really.
So, yes, it seems that this might be my strongest deck at the moment. I’ve always considered my Grolnok, the Omnivore deck to be my strongest, but I’m being told by my regular opponents that in terms of consistency and regular wins, Baylen takes the prize.
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