Kodama of the North TreeKodama of the North Tree | Art by Shishizaru

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:

Kodama of the North TreeKodama of the North Tree 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.

Bringing The Power

So, without the ability to attach Kodama of the North TreeKodama of the North Tree 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.

Anthems

An "anthem" is a term originating from Glorious AnthemGlorious Anthem 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 Sylvan AnthemSylvan Anthem and Gaea's AnthemGaea's Anthem, but since we're mono-green, we can run KaysaKaysa and Hall of TriumphHall of Triumph, too. These are what I would consider "traditional" anthems, as close as possible to Glorious AnthemGlorious Anthem as possible with some minor tweaks. These all work amazingly with Kodama of the North TreeKodama of the North Tree, 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. Beastmaster AscensionBeastmaster Ascension, Thunderfoot BalothThunderfoot Baloth, and Eldrazi MonumentEldrazi Monument all fall under this umbrella. Thunderfoot BalothThunderfoot Baloth is probably the closest to our Gaea's AnthemGaea's Anthem-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). Beastmaster AscensionBeastmaster Ascension and Eldrazi MonumentEldrazi Monument, 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 Eldrazi MonumentEldrazi Monument 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.

Technically Not "Anthems"

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. Unnatural GrowthUnnatural Growth and Zopandrel, Hunger DominusZopandrel, Hunger Dominus 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 Kodama of the North TreeKodama of the North Tree'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". Nissa, Voice of ZendikarNissa, Voice of Zendikar and Loyal GuardianLoyal Guardian both give permanent buffs to your board even if they're removed, and Defiler of VigorDefiler of Vigor 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 Ohran FrostfangOhran Frostfang and AsceticismAsceticism. 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 Kodama of the North TreeKodama of the North Tree'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, AsceticismAsceticism gives us a way to keep our already hard-to-kill commander alive by allowing us to regenerate through any non-Wrath of GodWrath of God board wipes.

Making the Most of Your Buffs

While our main gameplan is to dump a bunch of buffs and then crash in with Kodama of the North TreeKodama of the North Tree 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 DamnationDamnation. 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 mono-green tokens page on EDHREC, we are immediately met with the goofy little Shroofus SproutsireShroofus Sproutsire. 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 Tendershoot DryadTendershoot Dryad and Verdant ForceVerdant Force to get tokens in everyone else's turn, too.

If you decide to go down the +1/+1 counter route, MycolothMycoloth is a huge player in these kinds of decks, and with cards like Defiler of VigorDefiler of Vigor or Bristly Bill, Spine SowerBristly Bill, Spine Sower, 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 Brightcap BadgerBrightcap Badger to make the most out of each token. For a counter-focused deck Aeve, Progenitor OozeAeve, Progenitor Ooze 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 Ruxa, Patient ProfessorRuxa, Patient Professor 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 Scute SwarmScute Swarm and Craterhoof BehemothCraterhoof Behemoth 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 Last March of the EntsLast March of the Ents, but since Kodama of the North TreeKodama of the North Tree's power is quite a lot higher than its toughness, it's actually better to use cards like Rishkar's ExpertiseRishkar's Expertise and Soul's MajestySoul's Majesty. 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 Thunderfoot BalothThunderfoot Baloth 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 Become the AvalancheBecome the Avalanche 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 Soul's MajestySoul's Majesty-type effect to really make your board a huge threat.

As with all Technically Playable articles, this was a very quick look at Kodama of the North TreeKodama of the North Tree as a commander, and a few of the cards that can really make a deck with Kodama of the North TreeKodama of the North Tree as the commander tick. Let me know in the comments below if you play Kodama of the North TreeKodama of the North Tree, if you want to build a Kodama of the North TreeKodama of the North Tree deck, or even if you just enjoyed this article!