BlackLegendary Creature — Human WizardMaga, Traitor to Mortals
Mana value3Rank#19,316
The Commander
Maga enters with X +1/+1 counters on it.
When Maga enters, target player loses life equal to the number of +1/+1 counters on it.
Guide
Gameplan
Ramp into massive mana, then cast Maga for a huge X to drain an opponent for potentially lethal life loss the moment she enters. Between Maga casts, grind the table with mono-black staples, removal, and recursion while building toward another giant X. Maga is a one-shot kill button you reload via flicker, sacrifice, and rituals.
Strengths
- A single Maga cast can outright kill a player, ignoring board states and combat entirely
- Mono-black gives access to the format's best tutors, ramp, and reanimation
- Effect is hard to interact with unless they counter the spell itself
- Cheap base cost (XBB) means you only need to assemble big mana, not a full combo
Weaknesses
- Crippled by commander tax and life-loss/damage prevention effects like Platinum Emperion or fog-style life gain
- Maga does nothing the turn she's a small body—no value if cast cheaply
- Relies on producing enormous mana, which can be slow without rituals or rocks
- Vulnerable to counterspells and graveyard hate that disrupt recasting
- Single-target drain leaves two other opponents untouched in three-player pods
Key Cards
- Cabal Coffers — With enough Swamps it generates the explosive mana that turns Maga into a kill spell.
- Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx — Doubles your black devotion into mana for a backbreaking X.
- Crypt Ghast — Doubles Swamp mana and adds extort to push Maga's mana toward lethal.
- Cabal Stronghold — Another mass mana doubler that scales with your Swamp count.
- Bubbling Muck — A ritual that temporarily floods you with black mana for a one-turn giant Maga.
- Phyrexian Reclamation — Cheaply returns Maga to hand to dodge commander tax and reset the X engine.
- Imperial Seal — Tutors for whatever mana piece or protection you need to land the killing Maga.
Upgrade Path
Lean into mana doublers (Cabal Coffers, Nykthos, Cabal Stronghold) and rituals (Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Bubbling Muck) so you can spike a lethal X early. Add fast tutors—Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Imperial Seal—and recursion like Phyrexian Reclamation or Reanimate to make Maga repeatable. For the highest power, build toward infinite black mana combos and pair Maga with redundant X-finishers like Exsanguinate and Torment of Hailfire to cover the whole table.
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
- ▸Casting Maga with X large enough to drain a player to zero
- ▸Looping Maga via flicker/recursion to pick off opponents one at a time
- ▸Infinite black mana (e.g., Deserted Temple + Cabal Coffers loops) into a lethal cast
- ▸Backup mono-black drain like Exsanguinate or Torment of Hailfire alongside Maga
Archetypes
- Big Mana / X-Spell — Maga's payoff scales directly with how much black mana you can dump, rewarding ramp and rituals.
- Mono-Black Midrange — She fits as a top-end finisher in a grindy removal-and-tutor shell.
- Combo — Infinite or near-infinite black mana loops instantly translate into a lethal Maga drain.
- Reanimator — Cheap recursion lets you recast Maga repeatedly without paying full commander tax.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (B), by popularity.
