The Commander
Whenever Mastermind Plum attacks, exile up to one target card from a graveyard. If an artifact card was exiled this way, create a Treasure token. (It's an artifact with "
, Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color.")
Whenever you cast a spell, if mana from a Treasure was spent to cast it, you draw a card and you lose 1 life.
Guide
Gameplan
Mastermind Plum turns Treasures into card advantage: spend Treasure mana on any spell to draw a card (losing 1 life), so you flood the board with Treasures and chain spells into a grindy advantage engine. Early turns you ramp and set up Treasure production, then attack to exile artifacts from graveyards and bank extra Treasures while drawing through your deck. You win by out-resourcing the table and converting that card advantage into a big mana payoff or a sacrifice/drain finish.
Strengths
- Repeatable card draw in mono-black, a color that historically pays life for cards anyway
- Treasure synergy doubles as ramp, fixing, and fuel for the draw trigger
- Cheap 3-mana commander that's easy to recast and pressures graveyards on attack
- Slots into Treasure-matters and aristocrats shells with strong sac-fodder overlap
Weaknesses
- Mono-black means no proactive interaction against combo or protection for the engine
- Life loss adds up fast and can be exploited by aggro or a mirror life-payment race
- The draw trigger requires actually spending Treasure mana each spell, which needs setup
- Relies on Treasure makers; without them the commander is just a 2/2 graveyard nuisance
- Board wipes hit your Treasure-token base and stall the whole plan
Key Cards
- Pitiless Plunderer — Turns every creature death into a Treasure, fueling both ramp and Plum's draw trigger.
- Revel in Riches — Generates Treasures on opponents' creature deaths and offers an alternate Treasure-count win.
- Black Market Connections — Makes Treasures and draws cards, slotting perfectly into the spend-Treasure-mana plan.
- Mahadi, Emporium Master — Floods you with Treasures at end of combat, directly powering the engine each turn.
- Smothering Tithe — Generates a steady stream of Treasures to spend on spells for draws.
- Bolas's Citadel — Lets you cast off the top while Treasure mana converts that into refilled hands and draws.
- Reckoner Bankbuster — A reliable Treasure and card source that keeps the loop running.
Upgrade Path
Add fast Treasure ramp and rituals (Dark Ritual, Jeweled Lotus) plus more no-downside Treasure engines like Smothering Tithe and Mahadi to make every spell trigger Plum reliably. Tighten the deck with strong black tutors (Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor) and efficient interaction (Deadly Rollick, Damnation) so the engine survives. Top-end payoffs like Bolas's Citadel, Exsanguinate, and an aristocrats drain package convert the card lead into consistent kills.
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 card advantage and finish with a big X-spell or mass drain like Exsanguinate or Torment of Hailfire
- ▸Aristocrats drain via Blood Artist effects and repeated sacrifice loops
- ▸Revel in Riches Treasure-count alternate win
- ▸Beatdown with Plum plus the cards your engine digs into while opponents run dry
Archetypes
- Treasure / Artifacts — Treasure tokens are the core resource that both ramps you and triggers Plum's draw on every spell.
- Aristocrats — Death-triggered Treasure makers and sac outlets create fodder that doubles as draw fuel and a drain finish.
- Big Mana / Storm-lite — Stacking Treasures enables explosive turns casting multiple spells, each drawing into the next.
- Control / Value Grind — Constant card advantage lets you out-resource the table and answer threats reactively.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (B), by popularity.
