<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama of the North Tree" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama of the North Tree</a> | Art by <a href="https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CShishizaru%E2%80%9D&amp;unique=art" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shishizaru</a>
Welcome to Technically Playable, where our mission statement is "Every commander is technically playable" (the best kind of playable). The way this works is every article will have a commander generated using EDHREC's random button, I'll talk through the card, then write about how we can build around it!
This week's random commander is:
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Kodama of the North Tree"></div></div>
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama of the North Tree" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama of the North Tree</a> is a really weird commander. With six power, it's fairly clear that you want to be beating down your opponents with commander damage, but at the same time it has shroud, so it can't be targeted by any Auras or Equipment to make it bigger.
<h2>Bringing The Power</h2>
So, without the ability to attach <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama of the North Tree" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama of the North Tree</a> with Auras or Equipment, we have to look at some workarounds to make Kodama stronger. The main ways of doing this are anthems and effects that have the word "all" in them.
<h3>Anthems</h3>
An "anthem" is a term originating from <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Glorious Anthem" href="#" target="_blank">Glorious Anthem</a> and effectively relates to any card that buffs all of your creatures' power or toughness. While the majority of these are in white, green does have a few options.
The most typical of these are <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sylvan Anthem" href="#" target="_blank">Sylvan Anthem</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Gaea&#039;s Anthem" href="#" target="_blank">Gaea&#039;s Anthem</a>, but since we're mono-green, we can run <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kaysa" href="#" target="_blank">Kaysa</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hall of Triumph" href="#" target="_blank">Hall of Triumph</a>, too. These are what I would consider "traditional" anthems, as close as possible to <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Glorious Anthem" href="#" target="_blank">Glorious Anthem</a> as possible with some minor tweaks. These all work amazingly with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama of the North Tree" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama of the North Tree</a>, buffing its power and toughness without needing to target it. In addition, you only need one of these to get to that magic seven power.
But we also have some less typical but arguably more powerful anthems. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Beastmaster Ascension" href="#" target="_blank">Beastmaster Ascension</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Thunderfoot Baloth" href="#" target="_blank">Thunderfoot Baloth</a>, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Eldrazi Monument" href="#" target="_blank">Eldrazi Monument</a> all fall under this umbrella. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Thunderfoot Baloth" href="#" target="_blank">Thunderfoot Baloth</a> is probably the closest to our <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Gaea&#039;s Anthem" href="#" target="_blank">Gaea&#039;s Anthem</a>-style cards, but with the necessity of having your commander in play to get the benefit (spoiler: we always want our commander in play in this deck). <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Beastmaster Ascension" href="#" target="_blank">Beastmaster Ascension</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Eldrazi Monument" href="#" target="_blank">Eldrazi Monument</a>, on the other hand, are where we start to stray from our typical idea of what an anthem is, with the Ascension not even doing anything until you attack with enough creatures and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Eldrazi Monument" href="#" target="_blank">Eldrazi Monument</a> needing you to sacrifice your own creatures. These both work amazingly well with tokens, an archetype that often works really well with anthems, but I'll talk more about that later.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Sylvan Anthem"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Gaea&#039;s Anthem"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Beastmaster Ascension"></div></div>
<h3>Technically Not "Anthems"</h3>
At the other end of the spectrum, we have board-wide buffs that work amazingly well but that really stray from that idea of what an "anthem" is. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Unnatural Growth" href="#" target="_blank">Unnatural Growth</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus" href="#" target="_blank">Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus</a> are two really good examples of this, cards that buff your whole board immensely but that only work when your creatures are already fairly large. This works well with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama of the North Tree" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama of the North Tree</a>'s already sizable stats and only gets better the more other anthems we have (essentially doubling the buffs from our other anthems).
This can also be extended to some of the +1/+1 counter cards that use the word "all". <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Nissa, Voice of Zendikar" href="#" target="_blank">Nissa, Voice of Zendikar</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Loyal Guardian" href="#" target="_blank">Loyal Guardian</a> both give permanent buffs to your board even if they're removed, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Defiler of Vigor" href="#" target="_blank">Defiler of Vigor</a> both buffs your board while also making your spells cheaper to cast (we've got 40 life, no need to fret about spending a few of it on our spells).
And even further straying from the idea of an anthem are cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ohran Frostfang" href="#" target="_blank">Ohran Frostfang</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Asceticism" href="#" target="_blank">Asceticism</a>. The Frostfang doesn't buff your board's power or toughness but does provide a powerful keyword and card advantage. Both of these effects are amazing with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama of the North Tree" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama of the North Tree</a>'s trample ensuring you can get damage through no matter the size of the blocker thanks to the deathtouch and trample combo while also drawing extra cards. In a similar vein, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Asceticism" href="#" target="_blank">Asceticism</a> gives us a way to keep our already hard-to-kill commander alive by allowing us to regenerate through any non-<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Wrath of God" href="#" target="_blank">Wrath of God</a> board wipes.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Unnatural Growth"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Loyal Guardian"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Ohran Frostfang"></div></div>
<h2>Making the Most of Your Buffs</h2>
While our main gameplan is to dump a bunch of buffs and then crash in with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama of the North Tree" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama of the North Tree</a> to get to that 21 commander damage threshold, it's always good to have a backup plan for when your Orzhov opponent casts their eighth <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Damnation" href="#" target="_blank">Damnation</a>. As I mentioned above, one of the best ways to leverage the buffs from having a bunch of anthems or other buffs in play is to generate a bunch of tokens and try to go wider than your opponents; luckily, green offers a smorgasbord of ways to make tokens. When you look at the <a href="https://edhrec.com/tags/tokens/mono-green">mono-green tokens page</a> on EDHREC, we are immediately met with the goofy little <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Shroofus Sproutsire" href="#" target="_blank">Shroofus Sproutsire</a>. Now, not only is his name amazingly fun to say, he also synergizes super well with our anthem core, using the buffs to make more tokens, which then also benefit from the board-wide buffs, with trample to top it all off. In terms of other good synergies with our anthems, we can also use <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Tendershoot Dryad" href="#" target="_blank">Tendershoot Dryad</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Verdant Force" href="#" target="_blank">Verdant Force</a> to get tokens in everyone else's turn, too.
If you decide to go down the +1/+1 counter route, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mycoloth" href="#" target="_blank">Mycoloth</a> is a huge player in these kinds of decks, and with cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Defiler of Vigor" href="#" target="_blank">Defiler of Vigor</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Bristly Bill, Spine Sower" href="#" target="_blank">Bristly Bill, Spine Sower</a>, you can easily take over a game. If you decide to do this, I'd definitely focus more on the Saproling archetype and get cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Brightcap Badger" href="#" target="_blank">Brightcap Badger</a> to make the most out of each token. For a counter-focused deck <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Aeve, Progenitor Ooze" href="#" target="_blank">Aeve, Progenitor Ooze</a> also does a lot of work by giving you a large threat that you can use at instant speed to get value out of any spellslinger player's big turns, while <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ruxa, Patient Professor" href="#" target="_blank">Ruxa, Patient Professor</a> takes advantage of the fact that the majority of tokens have no abilities giving you some evasion to get damage through any board stalls that may form.
I could also talk about <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Scute Swarm" href="#" target="_blank">Scute Swarm</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Craterhoof Behemoth" href="#" target="_blank">Craterhoof Behemoth</a> here, but I feel like I don't really need to go into much detail about them. They're obviously very good in token decks, run them.
But buffing a bunch of tokens isn't our only way to take advantage of our buffs. My normal go-to card draw in a deck that buffs like this would be <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Last March of the Ents" href="#" target="_blank">Last March of the Ents</a>, but since <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama of the North Tree" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama of the North Tree</a>'s power is quite a lot higher than its toughness, it's actually better to use cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rishkar&#039;s Expertise" href="#" target="_blank">Rishkar&#039;s Expertise</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Soul&#039;s Majesty" href="#" target="_blank">Soul&#039;s Majesty</a>. What makes Rishkar's Expertise particularly good is that it allows you not only the draw but also the ability to play almost all of your anthems, with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Thunderfoot Baloth" href="#" target="_blank">Thunderfoot Baloth</a> being the only one that's too expensive. I'm a huge fan of all of these cards that draw you exponentially more cards based on a creature's power, or the number of creatures in play, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Become the Avalanche" href="#" target="_blank">Become the Avalanche</a> is one that I'll likely look to grab a couple of copies of. In this deck, it acts as a perfect finisher alongside a couple of anthems since they will bring any of your smaller creatures up to the four power needed to draw. In a dream scenario, you'll want to cast this after a <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Soul&#039;s Majesty" href="#" target="_blank">Soul&#039;s Majesty</a>-type effect to really make your board a huge threat.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Shroofus Sproutsire"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Mycoloth"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Become the Avalanche"></div></div>
As with all Technically Playable articles, this was a very quick look at <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama of the North Tree" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama of the North Tree</a> as a commander, and a few of the cards that can really make a deck with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama of the North Tree" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama of the North Tree</a> as the commander tick. Let me know in the comments below if you play <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama of the North Tree" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama of the North Tree</a>, if you want to build a <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama of the North Tree" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama of the North Tree</a> deck, or even if you just enjoyed this article!

anthem

Technically Playable - Kodama of the North Tree

Top 10 Goblin Lords

Underdog's Corner - Trostani Discordant

Underdog's Corner — Elenda, the Dusk Rose