The Commander
: Goad target creature. Whenever that creature attacks one of your opponents this turn, you draw a card. (A goaded creature attacks each combat if able and attacks a player other than you if able, until your next turn.)
Guide
Gameplan
Maeve turns your opponents' creatures into weapons against each other while you draw cards off the chaos. Each turn you spend mana goading the biggest threats, forcing them to swing at other players, and refill your hand off the resulting attacks. You sit back behind defenses, accrue card advantage, and close with an evasive finisher, big spells, or a 'punish-the-attacker' payoff.
Strengths
- Mono-blue card advantage engine that scales with the number of creatures on the board
- Politically powerful—you choose who gets attacked while staying low-aggro yourself
- Repeatable goad on a cheap activated ability that survives commander recasting well
- Excellent at multiplayer pods where opponents have fat creatures to redirect
Weaknesses
- Weak against creature-light decks (combo, spellslinger) where there's little to goad
- Mono-blue struggles to remove resolved permanents and lacks lifegain/sweeper density
- Goad makes attackers hit OTHER opponents, so it can grow the wrong player's board state via combat damage
- No inherent way to defend yourself—needs a strong pillowfort shell or you become the target
- Mana-hungry: goading multiple creatures per turn taxes your development
Key Cards
- Disrupt Decorum — Mass-goad effect that turns an entire board into attackers, triggering Maeve repeatedly for a massive draw.
- Propaganda — Pillowfort taxes incoming attacks so goaded creatures get redirected away from you.
- Ghostly Prison — Another tax effect protecting you while opponents brawl among themselves.
- Crawlspace — Limits attackers against you to two, blunting any goad-induced retaliation.
- Cyclonic Rift — The premier mono-blue board reset and one-sided overload finisher for control shells.
- Rhystic Study — Stacks card advantage on top of Maeve's draws to bury the table in resources.
- Curiosity — Adds extra draws on a flier you can swing in for incremental value while goading.
- Mystic Remora — Early card advantage that synergizes with the slow, controlling game plan.
Upgrade Path
Lean harder into pillowfort (Propaganda, Ghostly Prison, Sphere of Safety, Crawlspace, No Mercy) so goaded creatures never come back at you, and add fast mana (Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Mind Stone) to goad multiple creatures per turn. Upgrade the control suite with premium counters (Mana Drain, Fierce Guardianship, Swan Song) and card engines (Rhystic Study, Mystic Remora, The Reality Chip). For a faster kill, include a compact combo like Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal or a finisher such as Cyclonic Rift into a wide goaded swing.
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
- ▸Grind out the table with overwhelming card advantage, then win with a few evasive threats or big finishers
- ▸Let goaded combat whittle opponents down until you mop up with Cyclonic Rift plus attackers
- ▸Assemble a mono-blue combo or alternate wincon like Laboratory Maniac/Thassa's Oracle off your deep card draw
- ▸Beat down with an evasive Voltron threat (e.g. enchanted flier) while opponents are forced elsewhere
Archetypes
- Group Slug / Goad — Maeve's whole ability forces opponents to attack each other, weaponizing their boards while you draw.
- Control — Mono-blue counters and bounce protect your engine while goad keeps the table off-balance.
- Pillowfort — Tax and fog effects keep you safe so redirected attackers hit everyone but you.
- Politics — Choosing each turn who gets attacked makes you a kingmaker and deflects aggression.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (U), by popularity.
