The Commander
Trample
When Ivora enters and whenever it deals combat damage to a player, create a Blood token. (It's an artifact with "
, 
, Discard a card, Sacrifice this token: Draw a card.")
Whenever you discard a card, put a +1/+1 counter on Ivora.
Guide
Gameplan
Drop Ivora on turn two, generate Blood tokens, and turn every discard into a +1/+1 counter to snowball her into a trampling threat. You loot through Blood and other rummaging effects to fuel counters and dig toward payoffs, then close games with an oversized commander or by going wide with madness/discard synergies.
Strengths
- Cheap, fast commander that grows itself with built-in card advantage via Blood tokens
- Discard-matters payoff turns 'downside' draw filtering into board growth
- Trample makes counters lethal and ensures Blood/combat damage triggers connect
- Strong synergy with madness, blood, and cycling cards in mono-red
Weaknesses
- Mono-red lacks reliable interaction and ramp compared to other colors
- Highly commander-dependent; repeated removal stalls the whole plan
- Counters and Blood generation are grindy and can be too slow against combo decks
- Vulnerable to flyers and chump blockers without evasion support beyond trample
Key Cards
- Faithless Looting — Cheap double-discard that pumps Ivora twice and digs for action.
- Vampiric Rites — Repeatable discard outlet that draws cards and grows Ivora each activation.
- Anje Falkenrath — Free repeatable looting that triggers a +1/+1 counter every time you discard.
- Key to the City — Discard outlet that also grants Ivora unblockable evasion to push combat triggers.
- Bag of Holding — Turns discards into recurring card advantage while feeding counters.
- Containment Construct — Generates extra value off every discard, rewarding your looting engine.
Upgrade Path
Add efficient discard outlets that don't cost mana per use (Anje Falkenrath, Containment Construct) and counter-doublers (Hardened Scales, Doubling Season) to accelerate Ivora's growth. Improve evasion and protection with Rogue's Passage, Whispersilk Cloak, and red protection like Deflecting Swat to ensure connections. Round out with mono-red ramp (Jeska's Will, Treasure makers) and burn finishers (Fireball, Comet Storm) so you have a backup plan when Ivora is answered.
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 with a large, trampling Ivora loaded with +1/+1 counters
- ▸Doubling counters with cards like Doubling Season or Hardened Scales for a one-shot kill
- ▸Combat damage with evasion (Key to the City, Rogue's Passage) to push lethal commander damage
- ▸Grinding card advantage through Blood/discard engines to overwhelm with cheap threats
Archetypes
- Voltron — Trample plus self-fueling +1/+1 counters from discarding makes Ivora a fast, single-creature kill.
- Spellslinger/Madness — Discard outlets enable madness cards and rummaging spells that both grow Ivora and provide value.
- Aggro — A two-mana evasive threat that snowballs lets you apply early pressure and race the table.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (R), by popularity.
