Commander Guides
Best Go-Wide / Token Commanders
Krenko, Adeline, Rhys the Redeemed, Trostani and Jetmir all fill the battlefield with small creatures, but whether that board comes fast, doubled, defended, or already scaled to win changes which one leads the deck.
The short answer
Want the fastest possible token count? Krenko, Mob Boss doubles your Goblins every time he taps. Want a commander that attacks with the board it just made? Adeline, Resplendent Cathar builds and swings in the same trigger. Want a payoff rather than a generator, something to drop into a token shell you're already planning? Jetmir, Nexus of Revels turns any wide board lethal at three thresholds. All five are real go-wide builds, they just supply a different piece of the plan.
What we're ranking on
A go-wide commander is judged on how fast it produces bodies, how much it protects or buys time for that board once it exists, and whether it also closes the game or needs another card to do that. Vulnerability to board wipes is the archetype's shared weakness, so resilience matters as much as raw output.
How they compare
| Commander | Colors | Best for | Why it stands out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Krenko, Mob Boss | The fastest raw token count from a single card | Doubles your Goblin count every activation | |
| Adeline, Resplendent Cathar | Building and closing with the same attack | Power scales with board size, makes attacking tokens on the swing | |
| Rhys the Redeemed | Doubling an existing wide board | Copies every token you control at once | |
| Trostani, Selesnya's Voice | A slower, more defensive go-wide shell | Lifegain on every creature entering plus a populate ability | |
| Jetmir, Nexus of Revels | Turning any wide board into a lethal attack | Escalating team-wide buffs at 3, 6, and 9 creatures |
Commander spotlight
Commander Spotlight
Krenko, Mob Boss ↗
One tap creates a Goblin token for every Goblin you already control, itself included, which means the token count doubles every single turn it survives. Two untouched turns is a board of a dozen or more, entirely from one activated ability.
Want the full build? See How to Build Krenko, Mob Boss for the game plan, card choices, and an example decklist.
The rest of the field
Adeline, Resplendent Cathar ↗
Her own power equals your creature count, and every attack makes a token per opponent, tapped and already attacking. She builds a board and closes with it in the same action, rather than needing a separate finisher.
Rhys the Redeemed ↗
A one-mana token maker whose second ability copies every token you control at once. The cleanest doubling effect of any go-wide commander, though it needs real mana investment to fire more than a couple of times.
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice ↗
Gains life equal to a creature's toughness whenever it enters, which buys the slow turns a wide board needs to come online, plus a populate ability to copy your best token. The most defensive build here, built to survive to turn ten rather than sprint to turn six.
Jetmir, Nexus of Revels ↗
States the archetype's threshold explicitly: +1/+0 and a keyword at three, six, and nine creatures. He's not a token generator himself, he's the payoff that turns any wide board, however you built it, into a lethal attack.
What actually separates them
Krenko and Adeline both build a board fast, but Krenko needs to survive an extra turn untouched to really compound, while Adeline turns her tokens directly into damage the same turn they're made, which makes her less punished by removal aimed at the commander. Rhys and Trostani are both Selesnya, but Rhys wants to double an already-wide board for one huge turn, while Trostani wants to survive long enough for a wide board to matter at all, closer to a lifegain-go-wide hybrid than a purely aggressive shell. Jetmir isn't a generator at all, which makes him the easiest of the five to bolt onto an existing token package, but the worst choice if you're starting a go-wide deck from nothing.
Which one should you choose?
Pick Krenko, Mob Boss for the fastest, most self-contained token engine and the easiest first go-wide deck to build. Pick Adeline, Resplendent Cathar if you want the board to also be the clock, not just the setup. Pick Rhys the Redeemed if you want a single explosive doubling turn. Pick Trostani, Selesnya's Voice for a slower, more resilient version of the plan. Pick Jetmir, Nexus of Revels if you already have a token-making shell and want a payoff that scales with it.
Building around your pick
Every build here wants a steady token-generation base, a couple of anthem effects, and a way to protect the board from a single sweeper. See best board wipes in Commander to know what's coming for your board, and how many creatures in Commander for a general baseline before a go-wide plan pushes that number up.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between go-wide and Aristocrats in Commander?
Both make a lot of small creatures, but go-wide wants those creatures to survive and attack, while Aristocrats wants them to die for value. Ghave, Guru of Spores sits on the bridge between the two, and several go-wide decks splash a sacrifice outlet as insurance, but the core plans point in opposite directions.
Is go-wide vulnerable to board wipes?
Very. A wide board is a single sweeper away from an empty battlefield, which is the archetype's defining weakness. Trostani's lifegain buys time to rebuild, and most go-wide decks want at least a couple of ways to protect the board (Heroic Intervention effects) or rebuild it quickly afterward.
Do go-wide decks need anthem effects?
They benefit enormously from them, since a board of 1/1 tokens does far more work at +1/+1 or +2/+2 than at its base stats. Jetmir builds that scaling directly into the commander; other builds want a couple of anthem effects in the main deck to get the same result.
Build your go-wide deck and track how the board performs.
TurnZero HQ logs every game, so you can see how often your token count actually turns into a win.
Create Free Account