RedLegendary Creature — Human SamuraiGilgamesh, Master-at-Arms
Mana value6Rank#5,210
The Commander
Whenever Gilgamesh enters or attacks, look at the top six cards of your library. You may put any number of Equipment cards from among them onto the battlefield. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. When you put one or more Equipment onto the battlefield this way, you may attach one of them to a Samurai you control.
Guide
Gameplan
Cheat Equipment straight onto the battlefield off Gilgamesh's enter/attack triggers, then stack them on Gilgamesh or another Samurai to build a lethal voltron threat. You ramp into Gilgamesh, swing for the dig, free-attach a backbreaking Equipment each combat, and grind through blockers with double strike and trample to close fast.
Strengths
- Free Equipment cheating bypasses heavy equip costs, turning expensive gear into tempo plays
- Repeatable card advantage on every attack keeps the deck from running dry in mono-red
- Built-in voltron payoff that scales hard with double strike and trample effects
- Cheap to recast and aggressive, applying pressure early in the game
Weaknesses
- Single-target commander reliant: spot removal or repeated chump blocks slow you to a crawl
- Mono-red lacks reliable protection from board wipes and graveyard hate
- Variance from only seeing six cards—dead triggers when no Equipment is revealed
- Can be outscaled by dedicated combo or ramp decks if the early aggression stalls
Key Cards
- Embercleave — Cheats in off the trigger to immediately grant double strike and trample for explosive lethal swings.
- Colossus Hammer — Turns any Samurai into a 10/10 trample threat, and Gilgamesh auto-attaches it for free.
- Sword of Fire and Ice — Premium protection, card draw, and damage that the trigger drops in without paying equip costs.
- Sigarda's Aid — Lets you flash and free-attach Equipment, supercharging the auto-attach engine at instant speed.
- Bruenor Battlehammer — Slashes equip costs and pumps your equipped attacker, accelerating the voltron plan.
- Reconfigure — Equipment creatures broaden your hits and survive board wipes by becoming gear again.
Upgrade Path
Add fast mana like Jeska's Will, Mana Crypt, and Sol Ring to deploy Gilgamesh ahead of curve and recast through removal. Lean into evasion and protection Equipment (Swiftfoot Boots, Whispersilk Cloak, the full Sword cycle) plus extra-combat enablers like Aggravated Assault to convert triggers into guaranteed kills. Tighten the curve with cheap card-advantage Equipment so every attack trigger reliably hits, and add Hammerhand or Reconfigure creatures to dodge wraths.
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
- ▸Connecting for lethal commander damage with a double-striking, trampling Gilgamesh
- ▸Going wide with equipped Samurai and overwhelming through evasion
- ▸Big single-swing kills via Embercleave or Colossus Hammer plus pump effects
Archetypes
- Voltron — Stacks multiple powerful Equipment on Gilgamesh or a Samurai for one-shot commander damage.
- Equipment Aggro — The trigger cheats gear into play turn after turn for relentless, mana-efficient pressure.
- Samurai Tribal — Free auto-attach rewards a Samurai-heavy board with multiple equipped threats.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (R), by popularity.
