BlackLegendary Creature — Zombie Mutant AdvisorHancock, Ghoulish Mayor
Mana value3Rank#6,378
The Commander
Each other creature you control that's a Zombie or Mutant gets +X/+X, where X is the number of counters on Hancock.
Undying (When this creature dies, if it had no +1/+1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control with a +1/+1 counter on it.)
Guide
Gameplan
Hancock is a mono-black Zombie/Mutant lord whose anthem scales with the number of counters on him, so you flood the board with Zombies and then pile counters onto Hancock to deliver a lethal team buff. Early turns build the board and ramp; mid-game you load Hancock with +1/+1 (and any) counters via proliferate and counter doublers; late game you swing wide for a huge alpha strike or grind value through recursion and aristocrat drains.
Strengths
- Cheap (3 MV) commander that immediately anthems your whole tribe
- Undying makes him hard to remove and naturally grows his own buff
- Mono-black gives access to deep tutors, removal, and recursion
- Scales explosively with proliferate and counter-doubling effects
Weaknesses
- Anthem is zero with no counters on Hancock, so he needs setup to matter
- Single color limits interaction—no counterspells or efficient exile
- Board-wipe vulnerable since the strategy is go-wide
- Removing or chump-blocking Hancock cuts the whole team's power
- Undying is shut off once he carries a +1/+1 counter
Key Cards
- Doubling Season — Doubles counters placed on Hancock, instantly doubling the anthem your team receives.
- Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider — Black-castable counter doubler that supercharges Hancock's buff and your proliferate.
- Inkmoth Nexus — A repeatable proliferate target and infect threat, but mainly any counter source pumps Hancock.
- Gravecrawler — Recurring Zombie body that benefits from the anthem and fuels sacrifice loops.
- Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver — Generates a stream of Zombie tokens to maximize Hancock's team-wide buff.
- Cabal Coffers — Mono-black ramp engine to power out lords, proliferate, and big mana plays.
Upgrade Path
Add counter doublers (Doubling Season, Vorinclex) and proliferate sources to spike the anthem, plus efficient tutors (Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor) to find them. Tighten the mana with Cabal Coffers/Nykthos and protect the board against wipes using Boromir or recursion like Liliana, Death's Majesty. For higher power, lean into a sacrifice-and-drain backup line so you can win even when the swarm gets swept.
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
- ▸Wide alpha strike with the full team buffed by a counter-loaded Hancock
- ▸Aristocrat drain via Blood Artist effects and Zombie sacrifice loops
- ▸Commander/creature damage piling counters fast with Doubling Season-style effects
- ▸Grinding opponents out with recursive Zombies and incremental anthem pressure
Archetypes
- Zombie Tribal — Hancock is a built-in lord that buffs every other Zombie you control.
- Tokens / Go-Wide — More bodies means more recipients for the scaling anthem and a wider alpha strike.
- +1/+1 Counters — Proliferate and counter doublers raise Hancock's X to amplify the whole team.
- Aristocrats — Undying and Zombie tokens feed sacrifice outlets for repeated drain effects.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (B), by popularity.
