WhiteLegendary Creature — Human SamuraiCyan, Vengeful Samurai
Mana value7Rank#10,801
The Commander
This spell costs 
less to cast for each creature card in your graveyard.
Double strike
Whenever one or more creature cards leave your graveyard, put a +1/+1 counter on Cyan.
Guide
Gameplan
Fill your graveyard with creatures so Cyan comes down cheap and swings as a double-striking threat early. Recur and exile creatures from your graveyard repeatedly to pump Cyan into a one- or two-shot Voltron kill while generating board value. You play a grindy attrition game in mono-white, looping recursion effects to grow Cyan and bury opponents in card advantage.
Strengths
- Cyan's cost reduction lets him land on turn 3-4 in a deck full of creatures
- Double strike means counters scale doubly fast, enabling fast commander-damage kills
- Mono-white access to cheap, reliable graveyard recursion and protection
- Synergizes with sacrifice and aristocrats loops that constantly move creatures in and out of the yard
- Counters are permanent, so removing and recasting him still leaves a payoff engine
Weaknesses
- Mono-white has poor self-mill, so filling the graveyard can be slow without setup
- No built-in trample or evasion, so chump blockers stall the Voltron plan
- Heavily dependent on the graveyard, vulnerable to exile-based hate like Rest in Peace
- No card draw inherent to the commander; relies on white's weaker draw
- Targeted removal resets tempo even if counters persist
Key Cards
- Reveillark — Returns small creatures from the yard, triggering Cyan's counter ability while rebuilding the board.
- Sun Titan — Recurs permanents each attack, repeatedly moving cards out of the graveyard to grow Cyan.
- Skullclamp — Premier mono-white draw engine that floods the yard with creature cards to feed cost reduction.
- Emeria, the Sky Ruin — Repeatedly returns creatures from the graveyard, triggering Cyan every upkeep.
- Mangara, the Diplomat — Provides the card advantage white normally lacks to keep recursion fueled.
- Felidar Sovereign — Alternate life-total wincon that pairs with white's lifegain shell.
- Welcoming Vampire — Draws cards as small creatures enter from recursion loops.
- Swords to Plowshares — Cheap, efficient interaction to protect Cyan and clear blockers.
Upgrade Path
Add fast mana like Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, and white rituals to cheat Cyan out even earlier, plus protection like Swiftfoot Boots and Flawless Maneuver. Tighten the recursion engine with Sun Titan, Reveillark, and sacrifice loops, and include evasion or trample enablers (Whispersilk Cloak, Loxodon Warhammer) so the Voltron plan actually connects. Top-end stax pieces and Smothering Tithe push it toward higher-power tables.+}<br>NOTE? Just give upgrade.
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
- ▸Commander damage from a heavily counter-pumped double-striking Cyan
- ▸Going wide with recurred and token creatures for an alpha strike
- ▸Felidar Sovereign or other incidental life-total wins in a lifegain build
- ▸Grinding out the table with overwhelming recursion-based card and board advantage
Archetypes
- Voltron — Double strike plus stacking +1/+1 counters lets Cyan close games with commander damage quickly.
- Aristocrats — Sacrifice outlets fill the yard with creatures and recursion loops trigger his counter ability repeatedly.
- Reanimator/Recursion — White recursion engines move creatures out of the graveyard to grow Cyan while rebuilding the board.
- Tokens — Token swarms feed sacrifice and provide bodies to recur, supporting both value and beatdown.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (W), by popularity.
