The Commander
When Phage enters, if you didn't cast it from your hand, you lose the game.
Whenever Phage deals combat damage to a creature, destroy that creature. It can't be regenerated.
Whenever Phage deals combat damage to a player, that player loses the game.
Guide
Gameplan
Cast Phage from your hand (never cheat her in or you instantly lose), then suit her up to connect for combat damage and eliminate a player outright. Every turn you protect her, give evasion, and force through one lethal hit while removing blockers, since her touch destroys any creature she fights.
Strengths
- Single-handedly removes a player from the game with one combat hit, ignoring life totals
- Doubles as a removal engine—any creature she damages dies and can't regenerate
- Mono-black gives access to the best tutors and recursion to find and rebuild her
- Naturally punishes go-tall and lifegain strategies since damage doesn't matter
Weaknesses
- Must be hard-cast from hand—reanimation, blink, and cheat tactics literally lose you the game
- Telegraphed threat that eats removal and chump blockers all day
- No evasion baked in; needs help to actually connect
- Slow at 7 mana and easy to chump-block or fog repeatedly
Key Cards
- Whispersilk Cloak — Grants unblockable plus shroud, letting Phage connect for the kill while dodging targeted removal.
- Rogue's Passage — Repeatable unblockable enabler that pushes Phage through any board for a lethal swing.
- Lightning Greaves — Haste lets her attack the turn she lands and shroud shields her from spot removal.
- Grave Pact — Turns Phage's creature kills and any sacrifice into board-wide edicts that strip away blockers.
- Dauthi Voidwalker — Evasive support and disruption that fits the unblockable theme while exiling threats.
- Fierce Guardianship — Free protection that keeps your commander alive through a removal-heavy turn.
Upgrade Path
Lean into cheap evasion and protection—Whispersilk Cloak, Rogue's Passage, Lightning Greaves, and free counters like Deflecting Swat/Fierce Guardianship—so a single attack ends a player. Add the full mono-black tutor suite (Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Imperial Seal) to reliably assemble enabler plus protection, and pack edict/sac engines like Grave Pact and Dictate of Erebos to strip blockers. Round out with a Torment of Hailfire backup wincon so you aren't fully reliant on combat math.
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
- ▸Connect with Phage for combat damage to eliminate a player outright
- ▸Repeated unblockable swings to pick off opponents one at a time
- ▸Force lethal through edicts and sacrifice effects clearing all blockers
- ▸Alternate finishers like Torment of Hailfire when Phage gets answered
Archetypes
- Voltron — Phage only needs one connection to win, so equipment, auras, and evasion turn her into a one-shot kill.
- Aristocrats — Her creature-destroying touch and mono-black sacrifice payoffs like Grave Pact clear blockers and grind value.
- Stax/Control — Black disruption and edicts strip away the chump blockers and removal that otherwise neutralize her.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (B), by popularity.
