BlackLegendary Creature — Human ArtificerAshnod, Flesh Mechanist
Mana value1Rank#11,402
The Commander
Deathtouch
Whenever Ashnod attacks, you may sacrifice another creature. If you do, create a tapped Powerstone token.
, Exile a creature card from your graveyard: Create a tapped 3/3 colorless Zombie artifact creature token.
Guide
Gameplan
Ashnod turns expendable creatures into Powerstone ramp and recurs them as 3/3 Zombies, fueling an aristocrats/artifact engine in mono-black. You sacrifice fodder on attacks to flood the board with Powerstones, then convert your graveyard into a wall of Zombies or pour the mana into big artifacts, X-spells, and reanimation while draining the table with sac payoffs.
Strengths
- One-mana commander with deathtouch makes it a cheap, reusable attacker that trades up and pressures players from turn 1.
- Powerstone generation gives explosive mana for artifacts, mana rocks, eldrazi, and activated abilities.
- Converts dead creatures in the graveyard into a recurring stream of 3/3 bodies, providing inevitability and grind.
- Slots perfectly into aristocrats: every sacrifice can trigger Blood Artist effects while also netting ramp.
- Mono-black gives access to the best tutors, recursion, and removal in the format.
Weaknesses
- Powerstones can't pay for most nonartifact spells, so the ramp is awkward and often stranded.
- The Zombie ability costs a hefty 5 mana per body, making it slow without ramp.
- Heavily reliant on a steady stream of sacrifice fodder to keep engines running.
- Vulnerable to graveyard hate, which shuts off both Powerstone fuel decisions and the Zombie recursion.
- Mono-black struggles with enchantment removal and lacks card-draw efficiency outside life payment.
Key Cards
- Pitiless Plunderer — Stacks Treasure on top of Powerstones every time you sacrifice, turning Ashnod's attacks into massive mana.
- Bitterblossom — Generates a free token every turn as perpetual sacrifice fodder for Ashnod's attack trigger.
- Blood Artist — Each sacrifice and Zombie death drains the table, converting Ashnod's engine into a wincon.
- Dictate of Erebos — Punishes opponents every time you sacrifice a creature, turning fodder into board wipes.
- Ashnod's Altar — Free sacrifice outlet that loops with your fodder and tokens for ramp and aristocrat triggers.
- Pawn of Ulamog — Makes Eldrazi Spawn tokens whenever your nontoken creatures die, refilling the sacrifice supply.
- Phyrexian Altar — Sac outlet producing usable black mana, helping fix around Powerstones' artifact-only restriction.
Upgrade Path
Add fast mana and rituals (Sol Ring, Dark Ritual, Phyrexian Altar) and free sac outlets so you're not dependent on attacking. Lean into a tight aristocrats combo package—Pitiless Plunderer with an altar and a recurring sacrifice token, capped by Blood Artist effects—for a deterministic kill. Round out with mono-black tutors (Demonic Tutor, Diabolic Intent) and graveyard recursion (Reanimate, Victimize) to make the Zombie engine and combos consistent.
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
- ▸Aristocrats drain via Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, and Bastion of Remembrance triggers off mass sacrifice.
- ▸Beatdown with an army of recurred 3/3 Zombies plus a deathtouch commander.
- ▸Ramp into a haymaker artifact or game-ending X-spell powered by Powerstones and Treasures.
- ▸Combo finishes using free sacrifice loops (Pitiless Plunderer + altar + reusable fodder) for infinite drain.
Archetypes
- Aristocrats — Ashnod is a free sacrifice engine on attack that pairs with death-trigger payoffs to drain the table.
- Artifact Ramp/Big Mana — Powerstone tokens chain into giant artifacts, mana rocks, and Eldrazi-style payoffs.
- Reanimator — Mono-black recursion plus the graveyard-exile Zombie ability rewards filling and emptying the yard.
- Tokens — Cheap token generators provide endless fodder to feed Powerstone and Zombie production.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (B), by popularity.
