RakdosLegendary Creature — Human ClericLyzolda, the Blood Witch
Mana value3Rank#18,159
The Commander
, Sacrifice a creature: Lyzolda deals 2 damage to any target if the sacrificed creature was red. Draw a card if the sacrificed creature was black.
Guide
Gameplan
Lyzolda is a Rakdos aristocrats engine: flood the board with cheap, expendable creatures and tokens, then feed them to Lyzolda for repeatable damage and card draw. You grind the table down with death triggers and direct damage while refueling your hand, eventually pinging out opponents or comboing for the kill.
Strengths
- Repeatable sacrifice outlet that doubles as removal and card advantage in one body
- Cheap 3-mana commander that comes down early and rebuilds value quickly
- Plays well with token generators, aristocrats payoffs, and recursion
- Black/red gives access to the best sac outlets, drain effects, and tutors
Weaknesses
- The per activation makes Lyzolda mana-hungry and slow without ramp or rituals
- Removal-heavy by nature but lacks reach against enchantments and decks that go over the top
- Commander tax and targeted removal stall the engine if you lean on Lyzolda alone
- No inherent lifegain or board protection, so you take damage in attrition wars
Key Cards
- Blood Artist — Turns every sacrifice into table-wide drain, converting Lyzolda's fodder into a clock and lifegain.
- Zulaport Cutthroat — Stacks with Blood Artist for redundant aristocrat drain on each creature you feed Lyzolda.
- Bastion of Remembrance — An enchantment-based drain payoff that's hard to remove and pings every death.
- Pitiless Plunderer — Generates Treasure on each death, paying the sacrifice cost and enabling explosive turns.
- Mahadi, Emporium Master — Treasure on every end-step death funds repeated activations and ramps you out.
- Reassembling Skeleton — A recurrable black body that returns for mana, giving infinite-ish sac and draw fodder.
- Goblin Bombardment — A free sac outlet so you don't always pay Lyzolda's tax, splitting damage across the table.
Upgrade Path
Add free sacrifice outlets like Viscera Seer and Carrion Feeder so you stop paying Lyzolda's tax, then layer redundant drain payoffs (Cruel Celebrant, Falkenrath Noble). Build toward a tight persist/undying combo line with Geralf's Messenger or Murderous Redcap plus a free outlet, and improve ramp with Treasure makers and fast mana to power explosive sacrifice turns.
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
- ▸Aristocrat drain from Blood Artist effects multiplied across mass sacrifice
- ▸Infinite combos (e.g. persist creatures + sac outlet + Blood Artist) draining the table
- ▸Repeated Lyzolda pings and direct damage whittling opponents to zero
- ▸Going wide and converting a board of tokens into lethal drain and burn
Archetypes
- Aristocrats — Lyzolda is a built-in sacrifice outlet that rewards creature death with damage and cards, the core aristocrats loop.
- Tokens — Token swarms provide endless cheap fodder to convert into drain, damage, and draw.
- Reanimator — Recurring creatures from the graveyard gives sustainable sacrifice fuel and value engines.
- Combo — Persist/undying creatures plus aristocrats payoffs and free sac outlets enable infinite drain loops.
Combos
- Lyzolda, the Blood Witch + Nim Deathmantle + Dockside Extortionist
→ Infinite colored mana, Infinite damage, Infinite death triggers
Combos via Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BR), by popularity.
