The Commander
Creature tokens you control have training. (Whenever a creature token you control attacks with another creature with greater power, put a +1/+1 counter on that token.)
Blind Betrayal — Sacrifice another creature: Elder Arthur Maxson gains indestructible until end of turn.
Guide
Gameplan
Flood the board with creature tokens, then turn them into a real threat with universal training so they snowball +1/+1 counters in combat. Maxson stays alive through anything thanks to a repeatable sacrifice-fueled indestructibility, letting you commit hard to the board and swing wide while feeding aristocrat synergies.
Strengths
- Grants all your token swarms training for free, scaling an army instead of buffing one creature
- Built-in protection makes Maxson hard to remove, so token engines keep humming
- Naturally bridges go-wide tokens with aristocrats sacrifice value
- BW gives elite removal, recursion, and reanimation to grind through removal
Weaknesses
- Training only triggers when attacking, so it does nothing on defense and needs a bigger creature to anchor each combat
- Vulnerable to board wipes that erase the token base Maxson relies on
- Sacrifice ability needs spare creatures, putting tension between protection and combat
- Tokens enter small (1/1) and counters take time to accumulate, leaving you slow against fast combo
Key Cards
- Cathars' Crusade — Every token you make pumps the whole team, stacking with training for explosive counter growth.
- Ravos, Soultender — Reanimation plus an anchor body whose power helps trigger training across your swarm.
- Anointed Procession — Doubles token production, fueling both the wide attack and the sacrifice ability.
- Skullclamp — Turns 1/1 tokens into a relentless card-draw engine, perfect with Maxson's sacrifice fodder.
- Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite — Anthem boosts every token's power above blockers and weakens opposing defenses for training value.
Upgrade Path
Add token doublers (Anointed Procession, Mondrak), proliferate (Inexorable Tide, Evolution Sage), and aristocrat payoffs (Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat) to multiply both axes of the deck. Tighten the mana with fast rocks and dual lands, and include a finisher like Craterhoof Behemoth or Cathars' Crusade to convert the board faster. Free sacrifice outlets such as Viscera Seer and Ashnod's Altar let you protect Maxson and trigger aristocrats without slowing down your attacks.
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
- ▸Swing wide with trained, counter-laden tokens for lethal combat damage
- ▸Aristocrats drain via Blood Artist effects and repeated token sacrifices
- ▸Convert a massive board into damage with overrun effects like Craterhoof Behemoth
- ▸Grind opponents out with recursion while Maxson stays indestructible
Archetypes
- Tokens — Maxson gives every token training, rewarding mass token generation and go-wide aggression.
- Aristocrats — His sacrifice ability and abundant token fodder feed death-trigger and drain engines.
- Counters Matter — Training piles +1/+1 counters onto tokens, synergizing with proliferate and counter payoffs.
- +1/+1 Go-Wide Aggro — Anthems and a snowballing trained army close games through combat damage.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BW), by popularity.
