MTG: All Will Rot – Top 5 Abzan Commanders
Like things a little spooky? Want your graveyard to be a waiting area? Abazan is probably the Tarkir Wedge for you.
Welcome Planeswalkers and Praetors to our ongoing series about the best casual experience in Magic: Commander. For the uninitiated, Commander is a semi-casual format for Magic: the Gathering, where you use a deck of 100 cards led by a legendary creature, your Commander.
Aside from basic lands, you are only allowed one copy of each card in the deck. Moreover, you can only include cards in your Commander’s “color identity” or artifacts. Each color and color combo has a unique playstyle and a wealth of mighty generals to lead your deck to victory. EDHRec.com is a great source for Commander info and can give you ideas to build your next Commander deck or tune an existing one.
Abzan combines the colors of life, death, and growth into a lovely fungal circle. These commanders see death as a temporary state and don’t mind feeding their minions to the great mycoid machine. You’ll be making tokens, throwing them into the power shake, then doing it all over again.
Myrkul, Lord of Bones
One of the Dead Three gods of D&D lore, Myrkul is a surprising powerhouse from the Baldur’s Gate set. He WANTS your creatures to die, turning them into enchantments and giving you all their abilities without any of that pesky “life.” This lets you turn creatures like Devoted Druid or Walking Ballista into potentially infinite kill pieces and will leave your opponent wondering why all their removal is fizzling.
Thalia and the Gitrog Monster
Ah yes, the tale as old as time; the partnership between the brave young warrior maiden and the…horrible frog monster of your nightmares. This March of the Machine commander is an incredible piece, allowing you to play extra lands, tap down your opponent’s cards, and gain card advantage for the low price of a sacrifice. In Abazan, death is temporary, so that’s barely a cost. Plus, the duo also has first strike and deathtouch, meaning they’ll be able to remove even the strongest enemy blocker without a scratch.
Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit/Sam, Loyal Attendant
If there’s one thing Halflings love, it’s food, and this team makes them better than most. Sam makes tokens and lowers their cost, and then Frodo becomes a Commander damage/card advantage monstrosity. While this group needs a bit more support, it can go a lot harder than you expect once the ball gets rolling.
Ghave, Guru of Spores
Token and counter Commanders are always a popular choice, and Ghave is a great one. It comes in with a few counters already, and then can turn counters into creatures and vice versa. While counter creatures aren’t AS prevalent in these colors, you can still go pretty hard with this guy, especially with recent token doublers like Ojer Taq and Mondrak.
Nethroi, Apex of Death
Our final offering is a horrifying cat monster that wants to make itself worse. Nethroi is already strong, with deathtouch and lifelink, but the mutate ability makes it even better. Drawing cards out of your graveyard is nasty, especially if you’re playing high toughness/low power. Plus, this is an unexpected Cat commander, and that can be a lot of fun.
What do you think of these commanders?
