BlueLegendary Creature — Human AdvisorAkal Pakal, First Among Equals
Mana value3Rank#11,621
The Commander
At the beginning of each player's end step, if an artifact entered the battlefield under your control this turn, look at the top two cards of your library. Put one of them into your hand and the other into your graveyard.
Guide
Gameplan
Flood the board with artifacts—Treasures, Clues, thopters, and cheap rocks—so that at least one artifact enters under your control every turn, triggering Akal Pakal's impulse-draw on all four end steps. You bury the table in card advantage while assembling artifact synergies, then convert that velocity into a combo finish or an overwhelming board. Each turn cycle can net you up to four cards if your token engines keep producing.
Strengths
- Massive repeatable card advantage—up to four impulse-draws per turn rotation in a four-player game
- Cheap mono-blue commander (3 MV) that fuels itself with token-makers and Treasures
- Loads the graveyard, enabling reanimation/recursion payoffs alongside the draws
- Plays great with artifact mana ramp, blink, and combo pieces blue already wants
Weaknesses
- Trigger requires an artifact to enter EACH turn—if production stalls, the engine goes dark
- Mono-blue means no efficient removal for resolved threats and limited graveyard/recursion outside artifacts
- Heavy reliance on the board state makes a single wrath very punishing
- The advantage is card velocity, not raw power—needs a real win condition to close
Key Cards
- Sol Ring — An artifact that enters early to both ramp and switch on Akal Pakal's trigger.
- Trading Post — Repeatedly makes Goat or Treasure tokens each turn to guarantee an artifact enters.
- Thopter Spy Network — Generates a thopter every turn, reliably triggering Akal Pakal on your end step.
- Tezzeret the Seeker — Tutors artifacts, untaps rocks, and ultimates into a near-unbeatable artifact army.
- Whir of Invention — Instant-speed artifact tutor that also satisfies the enters-this-turn condition.
- Inspiring Statuary — Improvise plus a token engine pairs perfectly with an artifact-dense board.
Upgrade Path
Lean into reliable per-turn token makers (Trading Post, Thopter Spy Network, Sword of the Meek package) so the trigger never misses, and add fast mana like Mana Crypt and Mana Vault. Tighten the deck with strong tutors (Whir of Invention, Tezzeret) pointed at a compact combo such as Thopter Foundry/Ironworks or Time Sieve, and round out with blue's best interaction (Cyclonic Rift, Force of Will, Swan Song) to protect the engine through removal.
Core Cards
The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.
Win Conditions
- ▸Assemble an artifact combo (e.g., Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek + Krark-Clan Ironworks, or Time Sieve loops) for an infinite finish
- ▸Tezzeret the Seeker ultimate turning all artifacts into 5/5 attackers
- ▸Grind opponents out with overwhelming card advantage, then close with thopter/token swarms
- ▸Big artifact beaters or Blightsteel-style payoffs landed via the card velocity
Archetypes
- Artifacts (Big Mana) — Akal Pakal rewards a board stuffed with rocks and gadgets that fuel card flow and ramp.
- Tokens — Treasure, Clue, and Thopter generators guarantee an artifact enters each turn to fire the trigger.
- Combo — The relentless card velocity digs to infinite-artifact loops like Time Sieve or thopter engines.
- Control — Mono-blue counters and bounce protect the engine while the impulse-draws bury opponents in resources.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (U), by popularity.
