GrixisLegendary Creature — Human Scientist Villain // Legendary Creature — Goblin Human VillainNorman Osborn // Green Goblin
Mana value2Rank#6,921
The Commander
Norman Osborn can't be blocked.
Whenever Norman Osborn deals combat damage to a player, he connives. (Draw a card, then discard a card. If you discarded a nonland card, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.)
: Transform Norman Osborn. Activate only as a sorcery.
Flying, menace
Spells you cast from your graveyard cost 
less to cast.
Goblin Formula — Each nonland card in your graveyard has mayhem. The mayhem cost is equal to its mana cost. (You may cast a card from your graveyard for its mayhem cost if you discarded it this turn. Timing rules still apply.)
Guide
Gameplan
Norman Osborn is a 2-mana evasive engine: he's unblockable, connives on combat damage to filter draws and grow, then flips into Green Goblin to flood the board from your graveyard. You loot/discard powerful spells, then replay them cheaply via mayhem or the cost reduction, generating massive card advantage that snowballs into a Grixis spellslinger or value finish.
Strengths
- Cheap, evasive commander that draws cards and grows every turn it connects
- Turns the discard half of connive into a resource via mayhem and graveyard recasting
- Grixis access to the format's best card draw, removal, and reanimation
- Self-recursion makes the deck extremely resilient to spot removal and board wipes
- Flexible: equally good as combo enabler, spellslinger, or value engine
Weaknesses
- Frontside is fragile—small body that dies to any removal before value piles up
- Graveyard-dependent, so Bojuka Bog / Rest in Peace shuts the engine off
- Mayhem only works on cards discarded that turn, requiring tight sequencing
- No built-in win condition; needs payoffs assembled around it
- Flipping costs the full , slowing aggressive starts
Key Cards
- Faithless Looting — Cheap loot that dumps spells into the graveyard to recast immediately via mayhem.
- Underworld Breach — Doubles down on the graveyard plan, enabling explosive recast turns and combos.
- Past in Flames — Gives all instants/sorceries flashback, synergizing perfectly with the cost reduction on the Goblin side.
- Sneak Attack — Cheats fatties in, and Norman's connive can feed huge creatures to the yard for reanimation.
- Dauthi Voidwalker — Another unblockable threat and powerful graveyard hate against opponents while you abuse your own.
- Bolas's Citadel — Casts off the top while your graveyard loops generate the life and value to keep going.
Upgrade Path
Add fast mana (Mana Vault, Jeweled Lotus) and tutors (Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor) to assemble graveyard combos faster. Lean into Underworld Breach + Lion's Eye Diamond or Brain Freeze loops for a true combo finish, and include graveyard protection like Silence effects. Cut clunky value cards for efficient cantrips and rituals so every discard fuels an explosive recast turn.
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
- ▸Combo kills via Underworld Breach plus rituals and a finisher like Thassa's Oracle
- ▸Grinding card advantage into a wide reanimated board for an alpha strike
- ▸Commander damage from a connive-pumped, unblockable Norman over several turns
- ▸Looping burn or extra-turn spells from the graveyard to close out the table
Archetypes
- Spellslinger — The cost reduction and mayhem let you machine-gun instants and sorceries from the graveyard.
- Graveyard Value / Recursion — Connive fills the yard and both halves of the card let you replay everything cheaply.
- Reanimator — Discarding fat creatures to connive sets up cheap reanimation or mayhem recasts.
- Combo — Underworld Breach and ritual loops in Grixis turn the graveyard into an infinite engine.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BRU), by popularity.
