Optimus Prime, Hero // Optimus Prime, Autobot Leader

Gameplan

Optimus Prime is a Jeskai +1/+1 counter commander that snowballs your board through bolster every end step and a beefy bolster 2 plus trample handout on each attack. You deploy creatures, attack to pump your biggest threat, and grind through removal thanks to the death-recursion that flips him back as an indestructible-feeling Vehicle. Win by overwhelming with counters and trample damage or by turning a single bolstered creature into a one-shot threat.

Key Cards

• Hardened Scales — Multiplies every bolster trigger, turning incremental counters into a fast clock.
• Branching Evolution — Doubles +1/+1 counters from bolster, accelerating the snowball dramatically.
• Cathars' Crusade — Each creature you make adds counters across the board, synergizing with token swarms and bolster.
• The Ozolith — Banks counters when creatures die so board wipes don't waste your accumulated value.
• Anointed Procession — Token doublers give bolster more bodies to spread counters and trample across.
• Strionic Resonator — Copies the attack trigger for double bolster and an extra trample grant.

Upgrade Path

Add counter multipliers like Hardened Scales, Branching Evolution, and Doubling Season, plus proliferate sources to maximize bolster output. Include protection like Heroic Intervention and Teferi's Protection against wraths, and ramp such as Smothering Tithe and Talismans to cast him on curve. To push higher, lean into combo finishers like a Craterhoof-style payoff (e.g., Overwhelming Stampede) or Strionic Resonator loops to double attack triggers for a single-turn kill.