The Commander
Flying, menace
Other Insects you control have menace.
Whenever one or more cards leave your graveyard, you may create a 1/1 black and green Insect creature token, then put a number of +1/+1 counters on it equal to the greatest mana value among those cards. Do this only once each turn.
Guide
Gameplan
Amzu turns graveyard recursion and exile into board presence: every turn one or more cards leave your graveyard, you spawn a beefy evasive Insect. You self-mill or fill the yard, then trigger leaves-graveyard effects (flashback, escape, reanimation, delve, retrace) to drop a token sized to your biggest card, swinging with a menace-and-flying swarm.
Strengths
- Generates a free evasive body every turn just by playing a graveyard-centric value game
- Menace anthem plus Amzu's own flying/menace make the swarm very hard to block profitably
- Synergizes with strategies you'd run anyway in Golgari—recursion, sacrifice, and self-mill all naturally trigger it
- Token can be enormous since counters scale to the greatest mana value leaving the yard
- Rewards 'flexible' cards (escape, flashback, jump-start) by giving a second payoff
Weaknesses
- Trigger is capped to once per turn, so it won't snowball as fast as it looks
- Heavily reliant on having a stocked graveyard—graveyard hate (Rest in Peace, Bojuka Bog) shuts off the engine
- Five mana and somewhat fragile for a creature you must keep recasting
- Tokens are 1/1 base; without big-MV fuel the bodies stay small
- No built-in card advantage or ramp—you must supply the recursion engine yourself
Key Cards
- Eternal Witness — Returns a card from the yard while you replay it, triggering Amzu and recurring your best spells.
- Underrealm Lich — Lets you self-mill on every draw to stock the yard and surveil away graveyard cards to fuel triggers.
- Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath — High mana value escape creature that exiles cards from the graveyard, making a large Insect when it returns.
- Cabal Coffers — Provides the heavy black mana to recast Amzu and power expensive escape/reanimation that leave the yard.
- Skullclamp — Turns the steady stream of 1/1 Insect tokens into a relentless card-draw engine.
- Craterhoof Behemoth — Closes games by giving your wide, menacing Insect swarm trample and a massive pump.
Upgrade Path
Add efficient recursion and self-mill (Eternal Witness, Underrealm Lich, Stitcher's Supplier, Grim Flayer) so every turn reliably triggers Amzu, and lean into high-mana-value escape/flashback cards to maximize token size. Strengthen the token payoff with Skullclamp, Pitiless Plunderer, and a finisher like Craterhoof Behemoth or Overwhelming Stampede. Protect the engine with graveyard insurance and recursion of Amzu herself (Phyrexian Reclamation, Eldrazi Conscription targets), and ramp via Cabal Coffers and fast mana to recast her after 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
- ▸Swarming with evasive menace/flying Insects backed by an overrun effect like Craterhoof Behemoth
- ▸Aristocrats drain via Blood Artist/Zulaport Cutthroat off sacrificed tokens
- ▸Beating down with a single huge counter-loaded Insect token plus the menace anthem
- ▸Reanimating large threats repeatedly while building an unblockable board
Archetypes
- Graveyard Value / Recursion — Amzu pays you off every time a card leaves the yard, rewarding flashback, escape, and reanimation loops.
- Aristocrats — Sacrifice outlets feed the graveyard while the steady Insect tokens are fodder for drain effects.
- Tokens / Go-Wide — The anthem grants menace to all your Insects, turning a token swarm into hard-to-block damage.
- Self-Mill / Reanimator — Milling fills the yard and exiling/returning big creatures makes oversized counter-laden Insects.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BG), by popularity.
