The Commander
Maraxus's power and toughness are each equal to the number of untapped artifacts, creatures, and lands you control.
Guide
Gameplan
Maraxus is a mono-red beater whose power and toughness scale with your untapped artifacts, creatures, and lands. Flood the board with cheap permanents and mana rocks, hold them untapped, then suit up Maraxus with evasion and a doubler to swing for lethal commander damage. You play a fast, wide red board and convert it into one or two huge connections.
Strengths
- Can be a one-shot kill threat through commander damage with very little support
- Mono-red gives access to fast mana, rituals, and recursive burn for reach
- Untapped permanents you already play (lands, rocks, tokens) all feed his size for free
- Cheap to recast relative to the explosive output he provides
Weaknesses
- Loses all power the moment your permanents are tapped or board is wiped
- No built-in evasion or protection, so a single removal spell or block stalls him
- Mono-red lacks reliable card advantage and instant-speed protection
- Tapping out for mana shrinks him, creating tension between casting spells and attacking
Key Cards
- Rogue's Passage — Grants unblockable to push a lethal Maraxus swing through any board.
- Fireshrieker — Double strike effectively doubles commander damage from a massive Maraxus.
- Swiftfoot Boots — Hexproof and haste let him connect the turn he lands and dodge targeted removal.
- Rabbit Battery — Cheap haste enabler that itself counts as an untapped permanent boosting his size.
- Sword of Feast and Famine — Evasion, protection, and untapping all your lands so he stays huge through your turn.
- Smothering Tithe — Generates Treasure tokens that pad his power while ramping you—though they tap when spent.
Upgrade Path
Prioritize cheap haste and evasion enablers (Lightning Greaves, Rogue's Passage, Whispersilk Cloak) plus a double-strike source so a single hit kills. Add untap and protection effects like Sword of Feast and Famine and a few mono-red tutors (Steelshaper's Gift, Open the Armory is off-color—use Goblin Engineer/Inventors' Fair for artifacts) to assemble the kit faster. Lean into ramp that stays untapped and ritual mana to recast him quickly after removal.
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
- ▸One-shot or two-shot opponents with 21+ commander damage via evasion and double strike
- ▸Go wide with creature tokens and alpha strike alongside Maraxus
- ▸Burn out remaining opponents with red reach spells like Comet Storm or Fireball
Archetypes
- Voltron — His scaling P/T plus equipment turns a single attack into lethal commander damage.
- Aggro — A wide untapped board both grows him and provides backup attackers.
- Artifacts — Mana rocks and cheap artifacts directly increase his power while ramping you.
- Stax — Mono-red prison pieces protect your fragile board state while Maraxus closes games.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (R), by popularity.
