GreenLegendary Creature — Insect BeastAltanak, the Thrice-Called
Mana value7Rank#7,470
The Commander
Trample
Whenever Altanak becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, draw a card.
, Discard this card: Return target land card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.
Guide
Gameplan
Cast a big mono-green stompy curve, ramp hard into Altanak as a 7-mana beater that punishes opponents for targeting it by drawing cards. Use the graveyard land-recursion ability for value when you don't need him in play, then close games with trampling fatties, big mana payoffs, and overrun-style swings.
Strengths
- Built-in card advantage in a color that struggles for it — opponents can't safely target him with removal or interaction
- Flexible: works from the command zone as a finisher or pitched for land ramp acceleration
- Trample makes him hard to chump and a great target for buffs
- Mono-green consistency with strong, cheap ramp and tutors for lands/creatures
Weaknesses
- Seven mana is steep; he's a do-nothing-the-turn-he-lands beater without haste
- Board wipes, edicts, and -X/-X effects sidestep the targeted-draw clause entirely
- Mono-green lacks interaction, card filtering, and counterspells
- Draw trigger relies on opponents choosing to target him — savvy tables just ignore him
Key Cards
- Heroic Intervention — Protects your board and bait-targets Altanak yourself? No — but shields him from removal while you keep value.
- Crop Rotation — Fuels the land-recursion ability and fetches utility lands to rebuy from the yard.
- Cultivate — Ramps toward seven mana and stocks the graveyard with lands for Altanak's reanimation ability.
- Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger — Doubles your land mana while taxing opponents, turning Altanak's ramp shell into explosive turns.
- Craterhoof Behemoth — Mono-green's premier finisher, converting Altanak and friends' trample into a one-shot kill.
- Rishkar's Expertise — Draws a massive pile off Altanak's power and free-casts another threat.
Upgrade Path
Add fast mana (Sol Ring, mana dorks, Nature's Lore) and protection (Heroic Intervention, Tyvar's Stand) to deploy and defend Altanak ahead of curve. Lean into a payoff package — Craterhoof, Triumph of the Hordes, Finale of Devastation — so your ramp converts to wins, and include strong recursion lands and Crop Rotation to maximize his graveyard ability. Top end like Vorinclex and Nyxbloom Ancient pushes ceiling toward high-power explosive turns.
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
- ▸Overrun effects like Craterhoof Behemoth or Pathbreaker Ibex turning trampling creatures lethal
- ▸Repeated huge trample swings from Altanak buffed by auras and equipment
- ▸Out-grinding the table via card advantage and bigger threats
Archetypes
- Big Mana Stompy — Altanak is a payoff for ramping into huge trampling threats and overrun effects.
- Lands — His discard ability rebuys fetched and sacrificed lands, rewarding a landfall/land-recursion build.
- Voltron — Trample plus protection lets you suit him up while drawing cards off enemy removal attempts.
- Value Midrange — Card draw on being targeted keeps mono-green's grindy, creature-heavy plans fueled.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (G), by popularity.
