The Commander
Menace, indestructible
Bontu can't attack or block unless a creature died under your control this turn.
, Sacrifice another creature: Scry 1. Each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.
Guide
Gameplan
Bontu is a cheap, indestructible mono-black aristocrats commander. You flood the board with expendable creatures and tokens, then chain Bontu's sacrifice ability to scry, drain each opponent, and gain life while attacking for 5 menace. The deck grinds the table out through repeated death triggers and incremental drain rather than a single big swing.
Strengths
- Indestructible 5-power body that's hard to remove and only costs 3 mana
- Repeatable activated drain that pings every opponent and gains you life
- Mono-black gives access to the best tutors, ramp, and recursion in the format
- Aristocrats payoffs turn fodder into damage, draw, and life swings
Weaknesses
- Bontu's ability and her attacking restriction both require a steady stream of dying creatures
- Vulnerable to graveyard hate and exile-based removal that dodges indestructible
- Single color means no access to interaction outside black (limited to artifact/creature destruction)
- Needs board presence to function—wraths and stax can leave her stranded
Key Cards
- Blood Artist — Doubles every Bontu sacrifice into extra table-wide drain and lifegain.
- Zulaport Cutthroat — Stacks with Blood Artist to make each death a multi-point swing across the table.
- Bastion of Remembrance — An enchantment version of the drain effect that survives creature removal.
- Pitiless Plunderer — Generates Treasure on each death, fueling endless Bontu activations.
- Gravecrawler — A free, recurring sacrifice fodder that loops with Phyrexian Altar for value.
- Dictate of Erebos — Punishes opponents' boards every time you sacrifice to Bontu.
Upgrade Path
Add a free sacrifice outlet beyond Bontu (Viscera Seer, Carrion Feeder) and reliable infinite loops like Gravecrawler plus Phyrexian Altar with a Blood Artist effect to convert grind into a hard kill. Improve the mana with fast rocks (Sol Ring, Mana Vault) and quality tutors (Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor) to assemble combos faster, and include reanimation like Reanimate and Animate Dead to recur key pieces. Round it out with protection such as Imp's Mischief or counterspell-adjacent disruption to defend your engine.
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
- ▸Incremental life drain from Bontu plus Blood Artist effects
- ▸Infinite sacrifice loops (e.g. Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar + a drain payoff)
- ▸Beating down with an indestructible 5-power menace attacker
- ▸Mass aristocrats triggers off a board wipe or Dictate of Erebos
Archetypes
- Aristocrats — Bontu's sacrifice outlet plus death-trigger payoffs is the textbook aristocrats engine.
- Sacrifice Combo — Free sac fodder, Treasure makers, and a drain payoff enable infinite life-loss loops.
- Tokens — Token generators provide cheap bodies to feed Bontu's ability turn after turn.
- Reanimator — Black recursion repeatedly brings back creatures to sacrifice and recast.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (B), by popularity.
