The Commander
You may pay 
rather than pay the cycling cost of the first card you cycle each turn.
Whenever you draw your second card each turn, create a 2/2 red and white Dinosaur Cat creature token.
Guide
Gameplan
Gavi turns your free cycle each turn plus a second draw into a steady stream of 2/2 tokens, fueling a cycling-matters Jeskai midrange deck. You churn through your library cheaply, build a wide board, and convert card advantage into damage or value engines. Each turn you want to trigger two draws (cycle for free, then any extra draw) to make a Dino Cat, then snowball with payoffs.
Strengths
- Free cycling each turn smooths draws and digs to answers without card disadvantage
- Generates tokens from triggers many decks already run, making board presence almost incidental
- Jeskai colors give access to wraths, counters, removal, and powerful card-draw payoffs
- Synergizes with a huge pool of cycling and 'cycling-matters' cards
Weaknesses
- Token generation is slow and grindy without dedicated extra-draw enablers
- Commander itself is a 5-mana 'do nothing' body until you start drawing twice per turn
- Vulnerable to board wipes since the strategy leans on tokens
- No built-in evasion or finisher; can fizzle against faster combo decks
Key Cards
- New Perspectives — Lets you cycle freely for explosive card draw and triggers waves of token generation.
- Astral Drift — Turns cycling into repeatable blink value and pairs with cycling-matters payoffs.
- Drannith Stinger — Pings each opponent every time you cycle, converting your engine into reach and a wincon.
- Teferi's Ageless Insight — Doubles your card draw so every draw step also nets a second card and a Dino Cat.
- Anvil of Bogardan — Forces an extra draw each turn, reliably enabling Gavi's second-card trigger.
- Fluctuator — Drops cycling costs to near-nothing, letting you cycle repeatedly to flood the board.
- Valley Floodcaller — Untaps lands and gives flash to creatures when you draw extra cards, enabling explosive turns.
Upgrade Path
Add more zero-or-cheap cycling cards plus cost reducers (Fluctuator, New Perspectives) and extra-draw doublers (Teferi's Ageless Insight, Alhammarret's Archive) to reliably hit two draws per turn. Include token payoffs like Cathars' Crusade, Intangible Virtue, and Skullclamp for grind and card flow. Tighten the mana with fast rocks (Arcane Signet, fetch-fixing) and add interaction like Cyclonic Rift and Swords to Plowshares to survive to your engine turns.
Core Cards
- Astral Drift
- Spellpyre Phoenix
- Sun Titan
- Psychosis Crawler
- Boros Signet
- Forgotten Cave
- Boon of the Wish-Giver
- Slice and Dice
- Desert of the Mindful
- Lightning Rift
- Martial Impetus
- Windfall
Seeded from a single deck — rates appear once more public decks exist.
Win Conditions
- ▸Going wide with Dino Cat tokens backed by an anthem like Cathars' Crusade or Coat of Arms
- ▸Cycling-trigger damage from Drannith Stinger or similar pingers
- ▸Doubling/extra-draw engines fueling overwhelming card advantage and a big board
- ▸Combat damage from a buffed token swarm after a clear board
Archetypes
- Cycling Tribal — Gavi rewards a critical mass of cycling cards with free cycles and token payoffs.
- Tokens / Go-Wide — Repeated second-draws build an army of 2/2 Dino Cats to swarm or pump.
- Spellslinger Card Advantage — Extra-draw effects fuel both Gavi's tokens and draw-matters payoffs like Drannith Stinger.
- Control / Midrange — Jeskai's removal and wraths keep you alive while the card engine grinds out advantage.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (RUW), by popularity.
