The Commander
Whenever Hans Eriksson attacks, reveal the top card of your library. If it's a creature card, put it onto the battlefield tapped and attacking defending player or a planeswalker they control. Otherwise, put that card into your hand. When you put a creature card onto the battlefield this way, it fights Hans Eriksson.
Guide
Gameplan
Hans Eriksson is a top-of-library cheat engine: swing each turn, flip the top card, and slam a creature directly into combat for free. You stack your deck with massive threats and immediately attack with them, while neutralizing the mandatory fight against Hans so he survives. The deck snowballs into an overwhelming board through repeated combat-step reanimation/dumping of fatties.
Strengths
- Free, repeatable creature cheating that bypasses mana costs entirely
- Cheated-in creatures enter attacking, applying pressure immediately
- Pairs naturally with green ramp and library-stacking effects for consistency
- Even non-creature flips refill your hand, so attacks rarely whiff
Weaknesses
- The mandatory fight kills Hans if you flip a creature with high power and don't protect him
- Removal or chump-blocking Hans shuts the whole engine off
- Hans must connect/attack, so he's vulnerable before the trigger resolves
- Random top-of-library flips can be inconsistent without scry/manipulation
- Color identity lacks counterspells to protect the combo
Key Cards
- Lightning Greaves — Grants haste and shroud so Hans can attack the turn he lands and dodge targeted removal.
- Brave the Wilds — Cheap aura-style protection; indestructible Hans survives every fight against fattie flips.
- Sneak Attack — Backup engine to dump huge creatures and overlaps perfectly with the cheat-into-combat plan.
- Worldspine Wurm — A massive top-deck hit that ends games when slammed in attacking, and survives the fight.
- Sylvan Library — Top-deck manipulation ensures Hans reveals exactly the creature you want each turn.
- Greater Good — Sacrifice cheated creatures before the fight for card draw, turning fragile flips into value.
- Rishkar's Expertise — Draws a fistful off your fatties, refueling after the board is established.
Upgrade Path
Add more top-deck control (Scroll Rack, Brainstorm-style effects, Vampiric Tutor) so every Hans attack hits the creature you want, and prioritize indestructible/protection (Heroic Intervention, Xenagos) to keep him alive through fights. Lean into payoff bombs with ETB or trample like Avenger of Zendikar, Craterhoof Behemoth, and Eldrazi titans, and include sac outlets to dodge unfavorable fights while extracting value.
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
- ▸Cheating in a haymaker like an Eldrazi or Wurm and swinging for lethal commander damage and trample
- ▸Building an unstoppable board of free fatties over consecutive attacks
- ▸Comboing with Sneak Attack/library stacking to drop multiple threats in one turn
Archetypes
- Big Mana / Stompy — Hans cheats expensive fatties into play attacking, sidestepping their huge mana costs.
- Reanimator-style Cheat — He functions as a recurring put-into-play engine alongside Sneak Attack and similar effects.
- Combo — Pairing Hans with stacked-library tutors enables guaranteed game-ending creature drops.
- Aristocrats — Sacrificing cheated creatures before the fight converts random flips into draw and value.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (GR), by popularity.
