OrzhovLegendary Creature — Spirit NobleKing of the Oathbreakers
Mana value4Rank#11,798
The Commander
Flying
Whenever King of the Oathbreakers or another Spirit you control becomes the target of a spell, it phases out. (Treat it and anything attached to it as though they don't exist until your next turn.)
Whenever King of the Oathbreakers or another Spirit you control phases in, create a tapped 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying.
Guide
Gameplan
Build a wide, evasive army of Spirits that punishes opponents for targeting your creatures while you snowball into a flying horde. The King protects your team from spot removal and turns every phase-out into a free token, so you grind value while pressuring life totals through the air. Late game you go wide with anthems and aristocrat payoffs or alpha-strike with evasive beaters.
Strengths
- Built-in protection: targeted removal phases out your Spirits instead of killing them
- Generates free flying tokens that snowball board presence
- Evasive aggro that closes games quickly in the air
- Strong synergy with self-targeting effects (auras, blink, fight) to manufacture tokens
Weaknesses
- Board wipes and edict effects bypass the phase-out protection entirely
- Commander-dependent: without the King the deck loses its engine and token generation
- Phasing your own Spirits can tempo you back a turn at inopportune times
- Few impactful Spirits exist, so the tribal payoffs are thinner than other tribes
Key Cards
- Patriarch's Bidding — Mass Spirit reanimation refills your board after a wipe and triggers nothing-but rebuilds your evasive army.
- Anointed Procession — Doubles every Spirit token the King produces, accelerating your go-wide plan.
- Teferi's Protection — Phases out your entire board to dodge wraths, and your Spirits make tokens when they phase back in.
- Skullclamp — Turns your endless stream of 1/1 Spirit tokens into a relentless card-draw engine.
- Intangible Virtue — Anthem that buffs your wide token army into a real clock.
- Bishop of Wings — Lifegain and extra angels whenever Spirits enter, rewarding your token flood.
Upgrade Path
Add fast mana and efficient tutors (Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor) to find the King and Skullclamp consistently. Lean into either an aristocrats kill (Zulaport Cutthroat, Blood Artist, Bitterblossom) or a go-wide finish (Anointed Procession, Cathars' Crusade, Divine Visitation turning tokens into 4/4 angels). Tighten the mana base with duals and Cabal Coffers/Nykthos-style payoffs, and run more self-targeting tricks to reliably mill out free tokens each turn.
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 evasive Spirit beatdown backed by anthems
- ▸Aristocrats drain via Blood Artist effects sacrificing tokens
- ▸Token doublers plus mass-pump finishers like Cathars' Crusade or overrun effects
Archetypes
- Tribal Aggro — Spirits with flying plus anthems create a fast, evasive board that races opponents in the air.
- Tokens — Phase-in triggers and doublers flood the board with flying Spirit tokens.
- Aristocrats — BW gives access to sacrifice outlets and drain payoffs to convert excess tokens into damage.
- Blink/Flicker — Self-targeting and phase effects abuse the King's token-on-phase-in trigger for value.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BW), by popularity.
