The Commander
: Choose a card name that hasn't been chosen from among Disenchant, Braingeyser, Terror, Shivan Dragon, Regrowth, and Black Lotus. Create a copy of the card with the chosen name. You may cast the copy. (You still pay its costs.)
Guide
Gameplan
Garth is a value engine that taps each turn to manufacture one of six iconic cards—removal (Terror, Disenchant), card draw (Braingeyser), recursion (Regrowth), a beater (Shivan Dragon), or a free mana rock (Black Lotus). You protect and untap him to grind incremental advantage, then leverage that flexibility into a five-color goodstuff or combo shell that out-resources the table over a long game.
Strengths
- Five-color identity opens the entire card pool for support, tutors, and combos
- Built-in repeatable removal, card draw, and recursion makes him a self-contained value engine
- Black Lotus copy ramps you and fuels big plays for free
- Each ability is a unique card name, so he keeps generating new copies even after using some
Weaknesses
- Slow without untap effects—one ability per turn is modest tempo
- Heavily commander-dependent; spot/recurring removal shuts off the engine
- Five-color manabase is expensive and prone to color-screw
- No innate evasion or protection, so he dies easily
- Lacks a fast clock unless built specifically toward combo
Key Cards
- Thousand-Year Elixir — Lets Garth tap the turn he enters and untaps him for two activations per turn.
- Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix — Partner-style ramp aside, untappers and mana doublers convert Black Lotus copies into explosive turns.
- Aphetto Alchemist — Untaps Garth each turn for double the value, and combos with the Black Lotus copy for infinite mana.
- Intruder Alarm — With a way to make tokens or repeatedly untap, it can loop Garth's activations for runaway value.
- Smothering Tithe — Five-color decks lean on broad ramp and value enchantments to keep Garth churning.
- Rhystic Study — Backs up Braingeyser to bury opponents in cards while you grind.
Upgrade Path
Add untappers (Thousand-Year Elixir, Aphetto Alchemist, Kydele) and mana doublers to squeeze multiple activations and enable infinite-mana combos with the Black Lotus copy. Upgrade the manabase with fetches, duals, and fast rocks like Mana Crypt so the five-color shell is consistent. Then layer in efficient tutors and a compact combo finish (Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation) to convert Garth's grind into reliable wins.
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
- ▸Infinite mana via Aphetto Alchemist + Black Lotus into a lethal Braingeyser or X-spell finisher
- ▸Grinding card advantage with Braingeyser/Regrowth until you out-value and overwhelm the table
- ▸Beating down with copied Shivan Dragons backed by untap loops
- ▸Assembling a separate combo (e.g., Thassa's Oracle, Niv-Mizzet) enabled by Garth's card flow and mana
Archetypes
- Five-Color Goodstuff — Garth's flexible toolbox slots into a value pile of the best cards across all colors.
- Combo — Aphetto Alchemist plus a Black Lotus copy generates infinite mana to fuel Braingeyser or X spells.
- Control — Repeatable Terror and Disenchant plus card draw let you answer threats and out-resource the table.
- Superfriends/Toolbox — His self-sufficient engine pairs well with planeswalkers and tutors in a grindy attrition shell.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BGRUW), by popularity.
