Bard, King of Dale EDH Deck Guide: Three Builds, Bracket 2 to 4

Bard, King of Dale is a six-mana Azorius commander who doubles every card you draw outside your draw step and every token you create, and our three builds are that same engine at three power settings. The Bracket 2 list goes wide with Human Soldiers and fair draw, the Bracket 3 list adds the tax enchantments and Skullclamp, and the Bracket 4 list runs thirteen Game Changers and wins by drawing its own library with Laboratory Maniac on the table. Each one has been through our deck audit, so the bracket next to its name is measured rather than guessed.

Bard costs for a 3/5 with reach and vigilance, and the body is the least interesting part. His first ability turns any card you would draw, apart from the first one in your own draw step, into two cards. His second doubles every token that would be created under your control. Both are replacement effects, so they never touch the stack and nobody gets to respond once he's in play.

The draw-step exemption matters more than it looks. Your first card of the turn never doubles, so a single cantrip (a cheap spell like Opt that replaces itself) after your draw step becomes your second and third card of the turn, which is exactly what a deck full of "whenever you draw your second card each turn" payoffs wants. On an opponent's turn you haven't drawn anything yet, so the first card any effect hands you arrives as a pair and trips those same payoffs again. Every draw trigger in the deck becomes a second-card trigger, on every turn of the game.

The token half compounds with itself. The official rulings note that a second Bard would quadruple both effects, and the same maths applies to any other doubler: Bard plus Anointed Procession makes four of every token, and the Bracket 4 list's five doublers make thirty-two. The tension all three builds share is that none of this happens until a six-drop resolves and survives, and the difference between the brackets is mostly how fast they get him out and how well they keep him there.

Roughly a third of each list is the same package, and it's worth understanding before the brackets diverge.

The Queen of Dale is the card that makes Bard a Commander deck rather than a pile of cantrips. For she recruits whenever an opponent casts their first noncreature spell in a turn: you draw a card, discard a card, and make a 1/1 Human Soldier if you discarded a nonland card. Under Bard that reads as draw two, keep the better one, and get two Soldiers, and it happens on almost every opponent's turn. Bard's Company is a flash anthem that recruits when it enters or attacks, so the same engine runs on your turn too.

Every token that enters then cascades. Belladonna Took triggers separately for each token, so a doubled pair gains you a life and draws you two cards, and the second batch of tokens in the same turn puts a +1/+1 counter on your whole team. Prince Imrahil the Fair turns the second card you drew into two more Soldiers, which trip Belladonna again. Homunculus Horde and Mischievous Mystic make more bodies off the same second card, Caretaker's Talent draws a pair the first time tokens enter each turn, and Faramir, Prince of Ithilien asks an opponent a question every end step and pays you either two cards or six Soldiers depending on the answer. One opponent's first noncreature spell routinely becomes four bodies and more cards than you can sensibly hold.

Gleaming Splendor and The Council of Four make the opponents' draws work for you as well. Splendor pays out a doubled Treasure whenever an opponent draws their second card, and its activation hands two players a card each, a mana sink that pushes opponents toward that second draw and pays you when they get there. The Council draws you a pair whenever the active player takes their second card of the turn and makes two Knights whenever anyone casts their second spell in their own turn, and Loran of the Third Path feeds both for the cost of a tap.

The rest of the shared core is the glue you'd expect in Azorius: the cheap blue cantrips, Counterspell, Arcane Denial and Dovin's Veto, Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile, Supreme Verdict for the boards you can't race, Adeline, Resplendent Cathar for six attacking tokens a turn, and Moonshaker Cavalry to turn a lawn of 1/1s into lethal in the air. Reliquary Tower and Thought Vessel are in all three lists because a twenty-card hand is normal here.

The Bracket 2 list audits at zero Game Changers, 37 lands, a 2.84 average mana value and about $225. That price deserves a sentence, because it isn't a budget deck in the usual sense: the money is in the Hobbit mythics, with Gleaming Splendor alone around $49 at the time of writing and The Queen of Dale and Bilbo's Gambit near $21 each. The staples that usually drive a deck's cost are mostly absent.

This is the go-wide version of Bard. Horn of Gondor makes a Soldier for every Human you control, doubled, and since the tokens are Humans too the second activation is bigger than the first. Elspeth, Sun's Champion ticks up for six 1/1s instead of three, and Great Gilded Boat recruits whenever you attack whether or not the Boat is crewed. Mister Fantastic, Reed Richards draws two every time a batch of tokens enters with no once-per-turn clause, Mentor of the Meek lets you pay per token for two more, and Curiosity Crafter hands every token a draw trigger on combat damage while making Birds off your second card. Bard the Bowman turns that second card into a +1/+1 counter and lifelink for whichever body needs it.

The Arkenstone // Seek the Heart is the list's one tutor, and its best target is almost always the Queen; the artifact half comes down later as an anthem that draws you a pair at your end step. Bilbo's Gambit and Reprieve are the interaction, and both bounce a spell rather than counter it while replacing themselves. Gambit's gift mode also stops everyone casting spells for the rest of the turn, which is how you buy an uninterrupted combat step.

What this build does well is play a long, fair game and never run out of things to do. What it can't do is protect Bard beyond Lightning Greaves, and it has no way to win on the spot. You win by swinging with twenty Soldiers under Moonshaker Cavalry or by burying the table in card advantage, which is honest Bracket 2 Magic: precon-level power with a far better engine. Expect to be the archenemy anyway once the pod watches the Queen draw you four cards on someone else's turn.

The Bracket 3 list trades the Hobbit commons for the Azorius tax package and audits at two Game Changers, 35 lands, a 2.75 average mana value and about $468. Most of the extra cost is the tax enchantments, the doublers and a fetch-and-shock mana base.

The tax cards are the reason to move up. Rhystic Study, Mystic Remora and Esper Sentinel each draw you a card off an opponent's spell unless they pay extra, and every one of those draws is a pair; Esper Sentinel and the Queen even share a trigger condition, so an opponent's first noncreature spell is taxed twice. Smothering Tithe pays out two Treasures per opponent draw unless they pay , Tataru Taru adds a Treasure pair the first time an opponent draws outside their own turn, and Faerie Mastermind and King T'Challa // Black Panther, Hope Enduring draw you a pair whenever anyone hits their second card, T'Challa included on your own turn. You are now drawing on all three opponents' turns, which is where Bard is at his best.

Skullclamp is the best card in the deck and it costs to equip. Put it on any 1/1 token and the token dies, you draw two, and Bard makes it four. Anointed Procession and Elspeth, Storm Slayer, a token doubler that also makes a Soldier every turn, push the maths to eight per source, and Cosmogrand Zenith, Alandra, Sky Dreamer and Emrakul's Messenger add three more second-card and second-spell payoffs. Voice of Victory turns every attack into at least four extra bodies and stops opponents casting spells during your turn, the cheapest protection in the deck. Bard, Heir of Girion draws a pair on every attack on top of an anthem.

This build also gets a real finish. Approach of the Second Sun normally takes several turns to find again, but Bard digs two cards per cantrip and Frantic Search digs four, so the seven-card gap can close inside a single turn cycle. Windfall with Teferi's Ageless Insight beside Bard draws you four cards for every one your opponents draw, and Ominous Seas pays out two 8/8 Krakens instead of one.

The two Game Changers are what keep this list at Bracket 3, and the audit page shows exactly which cards they are. If your pod plays upgraded precons and homebrews with a couple of staples, this is the build to bring.

The Bracket 4 list is a different animal, auditing at thirteen Game Changers, 33 lands, a 2.79 average mana value and about $1,924 at the time of writing. It keeps only four Hobbit cards, the Queen, Belladonna, Gleaming Splendor and Bard's Company, drops Approach, Ominous Seas, the Boat and Horn of Gondor, and replaces all of it with fast mana and free interaction. Lightning Greaves didn't survive the move up either; this list keeps Bard alive with free spells instead.

The plan is to resolve Bard on turn three or four off Mana Vault, Chrome Mox and Ancient Tomb, then hold him there with Force of Will, Force of Negation, Fierce Guardianship, Mana Drain and Teferi's Protection. Grand Abolisher and Voice of Victory together mean next to nothing happens on your turn that you didn't choose, and Grand Arbiter Augustin IV makes every opponent's answer cost more while your own spells cost less.

The card advantage stops pretending to be fair. The One Ring draws one, then two, then three each upkeep, each of them doubled. Consecrated Sphinx draws you four every time an opponent draws one. Sea Gate Restoration // Sea Gate, Reborn draws twice your hand size. With Teferi's Ageless Insight alongside Bard every draw is four cards, and at that point Laboratory Maniac is a win condition rather than a joke: a Windfall for eight draws you thirty-two, and drawing past the bottom of your library ends the game. Urza's Saga fetches Skullclamp, Sol Ring, Chrome Mox or Mana Vault, and Enlightened Tutor finds whichever engine piece you're missing.

The combat kill is still there for tables that answer the Maniac. Mondrak, Glory Dominus and Exalted Sunborn join Bard, Procession and Elspeth for five token doublers, so Adeline, Resplendent Cathar attacking into three opponents creates ninety-six tokens and Voice of Victory's mobilize makes sixty-four. Cyclonic Rift clears the blockers and Moonshaker Cavalry gives the whole army flying and around a hundred power each.

Thirteen Game Changers is well past the four that define Bracket 4, so bring this to a pod that expects free counters and turn-three commanders. It isn't cEDH, mostly because Bard is still a six-mana creature with no built-in protection, but it will end games in the same window.

Pick by the table, not by the price. The Bracket 2 build is the right deck for a pod that plays precons and mild upgrades, and it will still feel like the strongest deck there once Bard resolves. The Bracket 3 build is for a pod that already runs Rhystic Study and expects to see it, and it has the best ratio of power to cost of the three. The Bracket 4 build is for a pod where Force of Will is normal, and it will get you targeted from turn one anywhere else.

All three share the same weakness, which is Bard's mana cost. Against a pod packing cheap removal, the right play is usually to cast the Queen and Belladonna early, let the two-drops grind while the table spends its answers elsewhere, and hold Bard until you can protect him. And if you find yourself winning every week with the Bracket 2 list, that is a bracket conversation to have with your pod rather than a reason to cut cards.

Run your own list through the deck audit before you sit down; the three audits linked above are exactly that tool. Bard is one of the four legends we rated the best new commanders in The Hobbit, and if you'd rather play the Elf side of the set, our Thranduil guide uses the same three-bracket format. Every Hobbit card mentioned here is on the set page with current prices, and once you've built one, record your games so you can see whether the bracket you chose was the right one.