RakdosLegendary Creature — Phyrexian BeastKethek, Crucible Goliath
Mana value4Rank#9,155
The Commander
At the beginning of your end step, you may sacrifice another creature. If you do, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a nonlegendary creature card with lesser mana value, put it onto the battlefield, then put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Guide
Gameplan
Sacrifice a creature each end step to dig and cheat a cheaper nonlegendary creature straight onto the battlefield, recurring value while assembling a sacrifice-fueled board. You ramp into expensive creatures, feed them to Kethek's trigger, and chain payoffs as bodies enter and leave to grind opponents out or assemble a combo finish.
Strengths
- Free, repeatable creature cheating every end step that snowballs board presence
- Strong synergy with both death triggers and ETB triggers (double-dipping value)
- Cheap, easy-to-cast 4-mana commander that immediately advances your plan
- Aristocrats and reanimator overlap give the deck multiple angles to win
Weaknesses
- Trigger only fires on your end step, so it's slow without sacrifice or extra-turn enablers
- Requires a high-mana-value creature to sacrifice to hit big payoffs, creating awkward gaps
- Heavy reliance on the commander; repeated removal/exile shuts the engine down
- Random bottoming and 'lesser mana value' clause can whiff if your curve is poorly built
- No card draw or protection built in; needs supporting pieces
Key Cards
- Pitiless Plunderer — Turns every Kethek sacrifice into Treasure, fueling explosive ramp and combos.
- Blood Artist — Each creature dying off Kethek's loop drains the table for an incremental win.
- Mountain Goat — Cheap creatures matter less—you want a curve so Kethek reliably hits a lesser-MV body.
- Woe Strider — Free sacrifice outlet and scry that smooths Kethek's reveals and enables loops.
- Mayhem Devil — Pings opponents every time something is sacrificed, converting the engine into damage.
- Grave Pact — Each sacrificed creature forces opponents to sacrifice, dismantling their boards.
Upgrade Path
Tighten the creature curve so Kethek reliably hits impactful lesser-MV bodies, and add free sacrifice outlets (Viscera Seer, Carrion Feeder, Ashnod's Altar) plus Treasure makers to accelerate and enable loops. Layer in multiple aristocrat payoffs (Blood Artist effects, Mayhem Devil) so the engine wins even through interaction, and include commander protection and recursion like Lightning Greaves and Phyrexian Reclamation to keep the loop online.
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
- ▸Aristocrats drain via Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, and Bastion of Remembrance
- ▸Mayhem Devil / sacrifice-pinger damage as creatures loop
- ▸Assembling an ETB or death-loop combo with Treasure and a free sac outlet
- ▸Simply overwhelming with a snowballing board of cheated-in creatures
Archetypes
- Aristocrats — Kethek wants creatures dying every turn, perfectly feeding sacrifice payoffs and drain effects.
- Reanimator/Cheat — Kethek puts big nonlegendary creatures directly into play, sidestepping mana costs.
- Combo — With Treasure-makers and free sac outlets, Kethek can loop bodies into infinite ETB/death triggers.
- Midrange Value — Steady end-step creature recursion grinds out incremental advantage over a long game.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BR), by popularity.
