Arcane Foundry › Commanders › Toph, Hardheaded Teacher
Toph, Hardheaded Teacher
Legendary Creature — Human Warrior Ally · {2}{R}{G} · Green/Red commander
When Toph enters, you may discard a card. If you do, return target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand.
Whenever you cast a spell, earthbend 1. If that spell is a Lesson, put an additional +1/+1 counter on that land. (Target land you control becomes a 0/0 creature with haste that's still a land. Put a +1/+1 counter on it. When it dies or is exiled, return it to the battlefield tapped.)
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What Toph, Hardheaded Teacher actually does
Read off the card by the same engine the Forge and Analyzer use — this is the mechanical classification, not a summary.
- Triggered ability · etbWhen Toph enters, you may discard a card. If you do, return target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand.
- Triggered ability · cast_spellWhenever you cast a spell, earthbend 1. If that spell is a Lesson, put an additional +1/+1 counter on that land.
What a Toph, Hardheaded Teacher deck needs
Plays as spellslinger. What the commander asks of the other 99 — read from the card and checked by hand.
- blink and recursion aimed at the commander itself (its value is its own enter trigger)
- +1/+1 counter producers and payoffs (its text places or reads +1/+1 counters)
- self-mill, discard and recursion (the graveyard is a resource its text reads)
- cheap spells of any kind (its trigger fires on every cast)
The Toph, Hardheaded Teacher deck plan
The roles the Forge fills for this commander, and how many cards of each.
- 18× A cheap spell of any kind — casts per turn are the engine for an unrestricted cast trigger
- 6× Exile a permanent you control and return it — the button a value-ETB deck presses
- 8× A permanent whose value is in its enter-the-battlefield trigger — the payload a blink deck reuses
- 14× Put +1/+1 counters on creatures you control, or multiply the ones already there
- 6× Put your own cards into your graveyard as a resource
- 5× Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- 9× Find the exact card the plan needs
- 1× Answer a whole board at once
- 7× Refill your hand
Best cards for Toph, Hardheaded Teacher
Ranked by an engine that reads what each card does — its real cost, its delay and how reliably it works — rather than counting how often other people play it.
A cheap spell of any kind — casts per turn are the engine for an unrestricted cast trigger
- Chrome Mox0 mana
- Everflowing Chalice0 mana
- Lotus Petal0 mana
- Mox Amber0 mana
- Mox Diamond0 mana
- Lion's Eye Diamond0 mana
- Walking Ballista0 mana
- Zuran Orb0 mana
Exile a permanent you control and return it — the button a value-ETB deck presses
- Norin the Wary1 mana
- Conjurer's Closet5 mana
- Voyager Staff1 mana
- Golden Argosy4 mana
- Clive, Ifrit's Dominant // Ifrit, Warden of Inferno6 mana
- Meandering Towershell5 mana
- Eldrazi Confluence4 mana
A permanent whose value is in its enter-the-battlefield trigger — the payload a blink deck reuses
- Eternal Witness3 mana
- Solemn Simulacrum4 mana
- Arboreal Grazer1 mana
- Dualcaster Mage3 mana
- Imperial Recruiter3 mana
- Reclamation Sage3 mana
- Rishkar, Peema Renegade3 mana
- Wood Elves3 mana
Put +1/+1 counters on creatures you control, or multiply the ones already there
- Branching Evolution3 mana
- Hardened Scales1 mana
- Ozolith, the Shattered Spire2 mana
- Kami of Whispered Hopes3 mana
- Benevolent Hydra2 mana
- Michelangelo, Weirdness to 112 mana
- The Earth Crystal4 mana
- High Score3 mana
Put your own cards into your graveyard as a resource
- Aftermath Analyst2 mana
- Smuggler's Surprise1 mana
- Six3 mana
- Argoth, Sanctum of Nature0 mana
- Eden, Seat of the Sanctum0 mana
- Grapple with the Past2 mana
- Millikin2 mana
- Perpetual Timepiece2 mana
Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- Wild Magic Surge2 mana
- Beast Within3 mana
- Nature's Claim1 mana
- Crush1 mana
- Emerald Charm1 mana
- Naturalize2 mana
- Origin of Metalbending2 mana
- Natural State1 mana
Find the exact card the plan needs
- Green Sun's Zenith1 mana
- Nature's Rhythm2 mana
- Worldly Tutor1 mana
- March of Burgeoning Life1 mana
- Archdruid's Charm3 mana
- Chord of Calling3 mana
- Eldritch Evolution3 mana
- Summoner's Pact0 mana
Answer a whole board at once
- Blasphemous Act9 mana
- Chain Reaction4 mana
- Street Spasm1 mana
- Selective Obliteration5 mana
- Mizzium Mortars2 mana
- Delete2 mana
- Earthquake1 mana
- Needle Storm3 mana
Refill your hand
- Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer1 mana
- Skullclamp1 mana
- Sylvan Library2 mana
- Garruk's Uprising3 mana
- Professional Face-Breaker3 mana
- Beast Whisperer4 mana
- The One Ring4 mana
- Sticky Fingers1 mana
Combos with Toph, Hardheaded Teacher
Known combos from Commander Spellbook that Toph, Hardheaded Teacher is a piece of, and how many decks list them.
- Toph, Hardheaded Teacher + Toph, The First Metalbender + Zuran Orb + Gruul Turf1,361 decks
- Toph, Hardheaded Teacher + Toph, The First Metalbender + Zuran Orb + Selesnya Sanctuary1,310 decks
- Toph, Hardheaded Teacher + Toph, The First Metalbender + Zuran Orb + Boros Garrison956 decks
- Toph, Hardheaded Teacher + Gaea's Cradle + Constant Mists + Amulet Of Vigor242 decks
- Toph, Hardheaded Teacher + Gaea's Cradle + Constant Mists + Spelunking160 decks
- Toph, Hardheaded Teacher + Toph, The First Metalbender + Ashnod's Altar + Gruul Turf148 decks
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