SimicLegendary Creature — Cat WarriorKimahri, Valiant Guardian
Mana value4Rank#7,525
The Commander
Ronso Rage — At the beginning of combat on your turn, put a +1/+1 counter on Kimahri and tap target creature an opponent controls. Then you may have Kimahri become a copy of that creature, except its name is Kimahri, Valiant Guardian and it has vigilance and this ability.
Guide
Gameplan
Kimahri is a Simic toolbox/voltron threat that grows every turn and weaponizes your opponents' own creatures. Each combat he gains a +1/+1 counter, taps down a blocker or attacker, and can become a copy of that creature while keeping his accumulated counters, vigilance, and the Ronso Rage ability. You ramp early, protect him, and snowball counters until he's a huge evasive copy of the best creature on the board, killing tables with commander damage.
Strengths
- Self-growing commander that adds a counter every single combat with no extra cards needed.
- Vigilance plus a built-in tap effect lets him attack while neutralizing an opponent's best blocker or attacker.
- Copying retains his +1/+1 counters, so he can become any bomb on the board and stay enormous.
- Lives in Simic, the best colors for counters, ramp, card advantage, and protection.
Weaknesses
- Heavily commander-dependent voltron plan folds to repeated removal and edicts.
- Copy ability is reactive—if opponents have no good creatures, you only get a vanilla counter.
- No innate evasion or trample beyond what he copies; can be chump-blocked.
- Slow to threaten lethal compared to dedicated combo decks in higher-power pods.
Key Cards
- Hardened Scales — Turns his single combat counter into two-plus every turn, accelerating the snowball.
- Doubling Season — Doubles every +1/+1 counter Ronso Rage adds, making him lethal in a couple of swings.
- Branching Evolution — Stacks with other doublers and dramatically speeds up his counter growth.
- Rogue's Passage — Pushes a copied or oversized Kimahri through for unblockable commander damage.
- Lightning Greaves — Hexproof and haste protect your fragile, counter-laden commander from removal and let him swing immediately.
- Inspiring Call — Draws a card per creature with a counter and protects Kimahri from board wipes at instant speed.
- Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider — Doubles your counters while halving opponents', supercharging his growth asymmetrically.
Upgrade Path
Add counter doublers (Doubling Season, Hardened Scales, Branching Evolution) and proliferate engines to make him lethal faster, plus protection like Lightning Greaves, Heroic Intervention, and Swiftfoot Boots. Lean into the copy plan with high-impact targets and Sakashima of a Thousand Faces or copy-heavy interaction. Round out with strong ramp, evasion enablers like Rogue's Passage, and a finisher such as Craterhoof Behemoth to convert a wide board into a kill.
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
- ▸Commander damage from a giant, counter-stacked Kimahri made unblockable.
- ▸Becoming a copy of the table's biggest bomb and beating face with it.
- ▸Going wide with counter synergies and proliferate, then overrunning with Craterhoof or Overwhelming Stampede.
- ▸Repeatedly tapping down key blockers/attackers to grind incremental damage while drawing into more threats.
Archetypes
- Voltron — Built-in counter accrual and vigilance make him a recurring evasive beater you suit up for commander-damage kills.
- +1/+1 Counters — Every combat feeds counters, synergizing with proliferate, doublers, and counter payoffs.
- Clone/Copy — His copy ability rewards a shell of clones, Sakashima effects, and copy-doubling tech.
- Control — The mandatory tap effect plus Simic interaction lets you stall and grind while Kimahri grows.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (GU), by popularity.
