Sokka is probably my favorite Avatar: The Last Airbender character, because he never lets his non-bending be an obstacle to helping the team. He's all about teamwork, and that's the flavor in his card Sokka, Tenacious Tactician.

So, how do we take Sokka and turn him into a game-winning engine? That ally token generation passive ability is right where we need it to be.

More Allies Than You Can Shake a Stick At

Based on Sokka's card design, he wants to win and he wants to win yesterday. He gives your whole board of allies menace and prowess and gets those things himself. Not only does he create tokens every time you play a non-creature spell, he buffs them with those abilities. And you know what works really well with allies? Other allies.

In our creature corner (which won't be a lot of cards, but we still are going to have a few) we'll focus on utility. Hero of Goma Fada and Hakoda, Selfless Commander gives our board resilience, avoiding board wipes. Kabira Evangel gives our allies evasion by allowing us to protect against a color every time an ally enters the battlefield.

Halimar Excavator might seem like a weird addition, but with a deck that pops off like this, you might end up milling eight to ten cards every time an ally enters the battlefield. Aang, Airbending Master gives us a free ally token on our upkeep.

Resolute Blademaster gives all our allies another key ability in double strike, and Murasa Pyromancer will help us deal a bit of non-combat damage to get across the line.

Sea Gate Loremaster is a great obscure add, giving you card advantage based on the amount of allies you have on the field. Sun Warriors rounds out the allies in the deck, giving us a way to produce more allies with its firebending ability.

Katara, Water Tribe's Hope and Katara, Waterbending Master are both auto-includes in this deck because of how quickly they can snowball thanks to Sokka's token-creation ability. Adding a few support pieces will round out our aggro shell.

The thing that really puts us in ahead is a way to consistently get allies onto the field. Here's how we approach it.

Non-Creature Spells = Allies

With such a low number of allies, how can we ever expect to take over a game? Sokka's passive ability will do a lot of the work for us, but it'll get backup in some interesting ways. Back in the Gatewatch days, we got a handful of ally token creation spells. We'll stick a few of those in here.

Allied Reinforcements gives us a pair of tokens (and with Sokka on the field, we'll get another one). Captain's Claws gives us a free Kor Ally Token every time we attack with it. Oath of Gideon and Retreat to Emeria also give us some good token action that synergizes with Sokka's ability.

Join the Ranks and its strictly better relative Unified Front are also great additions, giving us a few 1/1 tokens. The tokens come in handy because with Sokka's ability, we get another token for free. That turns a mediocre spell like Oath of Gideon into something ridiculous. But that's not all by a long shot.

Removal Is Crucial

The best way to make sure your threats stick is by ensuring that you can remove things when you need to. Luckily, both Red and White have access to some really great removal spells that also give us a free ally token once Sokka's in play.

The typical removal suite of Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares, and Generous Gift are must plays. Hour of Reckoning is worth considering, especially if you can make Sokka indestructible. Winds of Abandon and Settle the Wreckage are great exile-based removal effects that deal with a wide board. Vanquish the Horde and Blasphemous act are also great board removal spells, especially if you can ensure your creatures don't get wiped (with a well-placed Hero of Goma Fada, say).

Raise the Palisade is a wonderful way to clear the board of everything that isn't an ally. Chaos Warp gives you good targeted removal for anything (it's one of the best red removal spells around, after all), with some chaos thrown in. Lightning Bolt, Stroke of Midnight, and Imprisoned in the Moon are also great catch-alls for removal.

How To Never Run Out Of Cards

As with most aggro-type decks, running out of cards is a real concern. Opt and Consider are perfect instant-speed draw spells that'll give us a token with Sokka out. Even if he's not out, they're extremely useful cards in this deck to give us back cards.

Frostcliff Siege and Whirlwind of Thought do a lot of work for us in this deck. One gives us card draw every time we land a hit with our ally army and the other is good to replace every spell we cast that's not a creature. With so many non-creature spells in the deck, it's a no-brainer that these should be in our card draw suite.

Jeskai Ascendancy is worth considering, even though it doesn't give us card draw, just filtering. Meeting of Minds is a great addition because of the convoke. Treasure Cruise is also good based on how many cards are likely to be in your graveyard.

Repeatable card draw is where it's at, though. Kindred Discovery and Staff of the Storyteller are both awesome at getting cards back into your hand.

Making Things Big To Win The Game

Sokka wants to win through combat damage and that usually means making our team big enough to overcome the opponents. We have a few cards that do that.

Moonshaker Cavalry is probably the best way to make our board big and evasive. It's expensive, but with the right setup, it'll cause havoc when it hits the board. An alternative that's cheaper but doesn't give evasion is Mirror Entity, but can still be useful to turn your board into a menacing threat.

Paladin Class looks innocent, until it gets to level three, and then it becomes an extreme threat. Renewed Solidarity not only gives an attack buff to your creatures, but it also copies all tokens that came into the field on your turn.

Cathars' Crusade makes those small creatures big creatures really fast. Warleader's Call and Impact Tremors both turn your noncreature spells into burn spells if Sokka's on the board. Shared Animosity just makes ALL of your creatures massive. But we're not quite done yet.

To round out the game winners, we need to look at things that give our creatures haste. That way, even tokens we make on our own turns can swing in for extra damage. The best way I've found to do this is Rising of the Day. Mass Hysteria is also a good option.

The last thing that we'll add to this is a few cards giving us extra combat steps. Full Throttle, Great Train Heist, and Relentless Assault are all options to end the game for multiple opponents. Seize the Day gives you two combats for the cost of one.

Utility Lands

This deck is going to be very mana-intensive so we'll need to be smart with our land choices. Shock or Tap Lands in these colors are best (depending on what you have available), but aside from those, there are a few really good utility lands that should be in the land base.

Three Tree City is perfect to fit in here, likely giving us a ton of mana. Fountainport gives us an additional draw engine in our base. Mystic Sanctuary gives you a potential way to recur a spell from your graveyard if it comes in after three other islands. Finally, Castle Embereth gives you some more damage extension through the activated ability.

Not Bad But Has Its Weaknesses

Sokka's Band of Merry Allies | Commander | Jason Dookeran

• Commander (1)
• 1 Sokka, Tenacious Tactician

• Creatures (13)
• 1 Aang, Airbending Master
• 1 Hakoda, Selfless Commander
• 1 Halimar Excavator
• 1 Hero of Goma Fada
• 1 Kabira Evangel
• 1 Katara, Water Tribe's Hope
• 1 Katara, Waterbending Master
• 1 Mirror Entity
• 1 Moonshaker Cavalry
• 1 Murasa Pyromancer
• 1 Resolute Blademaster
• 1 Sea Gate Loremaster
• 1 Sun Warriors

• Instants (12)
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Consider
• 1 Generous Gift
• 1 Great Train Heist
• 1 Join the Ranks
• 1 Lightning Bolt
• 1 Meeting of Minds
• 1 Opt
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Settle the Wreckage
• 1 Stroke of Midnight
• 1 Swords to Plowshares

• Sorceries (11)
• 1 Allied Reinforcements
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Full Throttle
• 1 Hour of Reckoning
• 1 Raise the Palisade
• 1 Relentless Assault
• 1 Seize the Day
• 1 Treasure Cruise
• 1 Unified Front
• 1 Vanquish the Horde
• 1 Winds of Abandon

• Enchantments (15)
• 1 Cathars' Crusade
• 1 Frostcliff Siege
• 1 Impact Tremors
• 1 Imprisoned in the Moon
• 1 Jeskai Ascendancy
• 1 Kindred Discovery
• 1 Mass Hysteria
• 1 Oath of Gideon
• 1 Paladin Class
• 1 Renewed Solidarity
• 1 Retreat to Emeria
• 1 Rising of the Day
• 1 Shared Animosity
• 1 Warleader's Call
• 1 Whirlwind of Thought

• Artifacts (12)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Azorius Signet
• 1 Boros Signet
• 1 Captain's Claws
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Fire Diamond
• 1 Izzet Signet
• 1 Marble Diamond
• 1 Sky Diamond
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Staff of the Storyteller
• 1 Thought Vessel

• Lands (36)
• 1 Castle Embereth
• 1 Fountainport
• 7 Island
• 10 Mountain
• 1 Mystic Sanctuary
• 14 Plains
• 1 Raugrin Triome
• 1 Three Tree City

Buy This Deck Export text

If this deck manages to pop off early, it can quickly put someone out of the game, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have its own weaknesses. With so many board wipes, having one of the two protection creatures on the board at any point in time becomes crucial. Without those, a single board wipe could potentially put you back. Sokka, at 4 mana, isn't difficult to cast for the first few times, but after three or four removal spells he becomes really difficult to get into play. Your game plan should be to end the game before that happens.

The deck has a decent amount of reach and alternative win conditions in the Impact Tremors, Warleader's Call and Murasa Pyromancer combination or the incremental mill from Halimar Excavator.

Sokka might not demand a spot as one of the top 5 aggro commanders, but he's got some legs on him. With the right draw, Sokka and his Merry Band of Allies could overwhelm the enemy before they got their legs under them.