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Ghired, Conclave Exile

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Ghired, Conclave Exile

At a glance

  • Commander: Ghired, Conclave Exile
  • Colors: Naya
  • Archetype: Naya tokens go-wide / populate
  • Power tier: mid-high

Cards

The commander (real printed text)

When Ghired enters, create a 4/4 green Rhino creature token with trample. Whenever Ghired attacks, populate. (The token enters tapped and attacking. To populate, create a token that’s a copy of a creature token you control.)

The scout text was accurate: ETB makes a 4/4 trample Rhino, and every Ghired attack populates — copies the biggest/best token you control. Built around the real card. commander_oracle_ok = true.

Gameplan

Classic Naya go-wide. Flood the board with cheap token-makers, then turn the corner with anthems and trample-pumps to alpha-strike. Ghired is both an engine and a payoff: he hands you a free 4/4 trampler the turn he lands, and once he’s attacking he doubles your biggest token every combat. Populate a 4/4 Rhino, a 3/3 Centaur/Elephant, or a copy of any big body you’ve made — board presence snowballs fast and the trample makes blockers irrelevant.

Two inevitability paths beyond raw beatdown:

  1. Populate value loop — Ghired attacking each turn is a free token per combat; the populate instants (Wake the Reflections, Eyes in the Skies, Druid’s Deliverance, Rootborn Defenses, Coursers’ Accord) copy your fattest token at instant speed, and Trostani’s Judgment exiles a threat and populates.
  2. Mass pump finish — Sigil Blessing, Dauntless Unity (kicked), Heroic Charge (kicked = +trample), Rouse the Mob, and Stampeding Elk Herd / Thundering Ceratok grant trample so a wide board punches through to lethal in one swing.

Key synergy lines

  • Ghired + any 3/3+ token: attack, populate the big token, repeat. Coursers’ Accord / Call of the Conclave / Trumpeting Herd / Elephant Ambush give Centaurs and Elephants that are great populate fodder.
  • Rootborn Defenses / Druid’s Deliverance double as combat tricks — populate AND fog/indestructible during a crackback or wrath.
  • Trostani’s Judgment is removal that also copies your best token. Sundering Growth kills an artifact/enchantment and populates.
  • Horncaller’s Chant late game makes a 4/4 Rhino + populate — a mini-Ghired ETB.
  • Anthems over a token swarm (Sigil Blessing, Heroic Charge, Dauntless Unity) plus a trample-granter = one-shot kills.

Role breakdown (with counts)

  • Lands — 37 (18 nonbasic fixing + 19 basics: 8 Forest / 6 Plains / 5 Mountain). High end for three colors.
  • Ramp — 9: Sakura-Tribe Elder, Diligent Farmhand, Oashra Cultivator, Wood Elves, Rampant Growth, Cultivate, Kodama’s Reach, Commander’s Sphere, Manalith. (Cultivate/Reach/Wood Elves also fix.)
  • Card advantage — 9: Elvish Visionary, Inspiring Overseer, Prophetic Prism, Mother Bear (recursion → 2 bodies), Brindle Shoat (death value), Chatter of the Squirrel (flashback), Travel Preparations (flashback counters), Rukh Egg (death → 4/4), Conclave Naturalists (ETB body + Naturalize).
  • Spot removal / interaction — 11: Prey Upon, Pounce, Epic Confrontation, Go for Blood (fights leverage big tokens), Burst Lightning, Lightning Strike, Lava Coil, Skewer the Critics, Journey to Nowhere, Pacifism, Trostani’s Judgment, Sundering Growth, Caustic Caterpillar (last three flexible). Net ~11 hard interaction + 2 flex.
  • Mass/pseudo-wipe — 0. Naya has no clean common board wipe; the deck compensates with above-rate interaction and an inevitability via populate + go-wide plan rather than draw-go.
  • Token makers — ~15: Doomed Traveler, Cartouche of Solidarity, Centaur’s Herald, Call of the Conclave, Saproling Migration, Raise the Alarm, Gather the Townsfolk, Dragon Fodder, Krenko’s Command, Kuldotha Rebirth, Captain’s Call, Triplicate Spirits, Trumpeting Herd, Elephant Ambush, plus the populate package.
  • Populate package — 6: Wake the Reflections, Druid’s Deliverance, Rootborn Defenses, Eyes in the Skies, Coursers’ Accord, Horncaller’s Chant (+ Sundering Growth / Trostani’s Judgment riders).
  • Anthems / pump / trample (wincon) — ~9: Veteran Armorer, Charge, Glorious Charge, Dauntless Unity, Sigil Blessing, Heroic Charge, Banners Raised, Rouse the Mob, Stampeding Elk Herd, Thundering Ceratok, Spectral pump bodies.

Manabase / fixing note

37 lands: full RW/GR/GW guildgate + bounceland + Crag/Highlands/Sands tapland sets, Sheltering Landscape (Naya fetch), Command Tower/Path of Ancestry/Cryptic Spires/Crystal Grotto/Rupture Spire any-color sources, plus Evolving Wilds/Terramorphic/Naya Panorama fetches — roughly 18 fixing lands. Add 9 ramp pieces (several fetching/any-color) and Prophetic Prism for ~22 fixing sources total. Green ramp leans on Forests, so Forest is the heaviest basic.

Pilot notes

  • Mulligan for fixing + a turn-2/3 ramp or token-maker. You want Ghired down on turn 4-5 onto an existing board so the first populate is meaningful.
  • Don’t overcommit into open mana if a board wipe is likely — Naya can’t recover with a wrath of its own. Hold Rootborn Defenses to blank one.
  • Populate the biggest token. After a couple Coursers’/Trumpeting bodies, Ghired’s attack copies a 3/3+ each turn.
  • Save fight spells (Prey Upon/Pounce/Go for Blood) for after a token grows or with a Rhino — your tokens are big enough to eat most things.
  • Closing: build a wide board, swing with Ghired (populate), then drop an anthem + trample-granter for the alpha strike.

Weaknesses

  • Board wipes — no recovery wrath; biggest vulnerability. Rootborn Defenses is the only protection.
  • Flying defense is thin; the deck wins on the ground via trample, so a flying race or a fog-wall opponent can stall.
  • Card advantage is mediocre at common — grindy control decks can outlast you if the early aggression fizzles. Lean on the populate engine for inevitability.

Decklist

⬇ Download as .txt — paste into Moxfield, Archidekt, or MTG Arena.

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