The Commander
, 
: Regenerate target creature.
Guide
Gameplan
Ragnar is a Bant goodstuff commander whose actual ability (paying GWU to regenerate a creature) is almost irrelevant, so you build around the color identity rather than the card. You play a value-driven midrange or counters/blink shell, ramp into powerful creatures and engines, and grind opponents out with card advantage before closing with a built-around finisher.
Strengths
- Access to the strong Bant (GWU) color pie: ramp, card draw, counterspells, removal, and protection
- Cheap mana value (3) means easy recasts if removed
- Regeneration can blank a board wipe or save a key creature in a pinch
- Bant is among the most flexible identities for value and combo packages
Weaknesses
- The commander's ability is mana-intensive (three colors plus a tap) and rarely worth activating
- Provides no inherent card advantage, ramp, or engine—he's purely a color shell
- Regeneration does nothing against exile, -X/-X, bounce, or sacrifice effects
- Lacks an evasive or aggressive body, so he doesn't pressure opponents himself
Key Cards
- Smothering Tithe — Premier white ramp engine that funds the powerful spells your colors offer.
- Cyclonic Rift — Blue's signature one-sided board reset and de facto win-enabler in Bant.
- Heroic Intervention — Cheap, instant-speed protection that does Ragnar's job better against wraths and targeted removal.
- Aura Shards — Repeatable enchantment/artifact removal that keeps a creature-heavy Bant board in control.
- Esper Sentinel — Low-cost tax engine that refills your hand throughout the game.
Upgrade Path
Since the commander is a weak engine, consider whether Ragnar should be the deck's focus at all—most builds gain power by treating him as a backup body and loading up on standalone engines. Add fast mana (Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Birds of Paradise), top-tier card advantage (Rhystic Study, Mystic Remora), and a tight win package like an infinite combo or Craterhoof Behemoth finish. Tuning the mana base with Bant fetch/dual lands and adding stax or protection pieces will sharpen consistency well beyond the regeneration plan.
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 and board advantage, then overwhelm with a wide or large board
- ▸Cyclonic Rift overload followed by an alpha strike
- ▸A counters payoff or evasive threat carrying the game (e.g. trample finisher)
- ▸A compact combo such as infinite mana or token loops the colors support
Archetypes
- Midrange Value — Bant goodstuff lets Ragnar ramp into card-advantage engines and grind incrementally.
- +1/+1 Counters — GWU is the premier counters wedge with Hardened Scales, proliferate, and synergy payoffs.
- Blink — White and blue offer flicker effects to abuse ETB creatures for repeated value.
- Control — Counterspells, board wipes, and Cyclonic Rift let you stall and win late.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (GUW), by popularity.
