The Commander
Whenever Shagrat attacks, attach up to one target Equipment to it. Then amass Orcs X, where X is the number of Equipment attached to Shagrat. (Control of the Equipment doesn't change. To amass Orcs X, put X +1/+1 counters on an Army you control. It's also an Orc. If you don't control an Army, create a 0/0 black Orc Army creature token first.)
Guide
Gameplan
Suit Shagrat up with cheap Equipment, then attack to free-attach gear and grow your Orc Army with counters scaling off attached Equipment. You snowball a single Army token into a massive threat while Shagrat himself becomes a hard-hitting Voltron carrier, closing games with commander damage or an oversized Army swing.
Strengths
- Free Equipment attachment on attack saves equip mana and enables hefty Equipment that would otherwise be costly to move
- Builds a board presence (the Army) and a threat (Shagrat) simultaneously from one trigger
- Rakdos gives access to aggressive removal, recursion, and reliable Voltron payoffs
- Equipment-matters synergies make many tutorable, redundant pieces available
Weaknesses
- Heavily commander-dependent; losing Shagrat stalls the whole engine and removal slows you badly
- All your eggs in one Army basket—a single wrath or edict can erase your scaled-up token
- No built-in evasion or protection, so Shagrat can be chump-blocked or killed in combat
- Equipment-light openers leave you with a vanilla 4-mana 3/3 doing little
Key Cards
- Sword of Feast and Famine — Untaps your lands on combat damage and grants protection, fueling extra plays while protecting Shagrat as he attacks.
- Lightning Greaves — Haste and shroud let Shagrat attack immediately and dodge targeted removal, critical for a commander-reliant deck.
- Embercleave — Cheats out cheaply with multiple attackers and gives double strike for explosive commander or Army damage.
- Sigarda's Aid — Lets you flash in and attach Equipment at instant speed, multiplying value before combat triggers.
- Stoneforge Mystic — Tutors and cheats Equipment into play to keep Shagrat's attack triggers loaded.
- Open the Armory — Finds your best Equipment or Aura to ensure consistent attachment value each turn.
- Hammer of Nazahn — Free auto-attach and indestructibility make Shagrat sticky while padding the Army count.
Upgrade Path
Add more zero-equip-cost or auto-attaching Equipment (Hammer of Nazahn, Puresteel Paladin, Sigarda's Aid) and tutors like Stoneforge Mystic and Steelshaper's Gift for consistency. Lean into protection and evasion—Whispersilk Cloak, Swiftfoot Boots, and the Swords cycle—so Shagrat reliably connects. Finally, include resilience and recursion (Goblin Welder-style or graveyard fetch) plus a trample/overrun payoff to convert your oversized Army into a guaranteed kill.
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
- ▸Commander damage from an Equipment-loaded, evasive Shagrat
- ▸A massively counter-stacked Orc Army swinging for lethal
- ▸Embercleave or double-strike enabled alpha strike across multiple bodies
- ▸Burn and reach finishers (e.g., overrun/trample effects) to push through blockers
Archetypes
- Voltron — Free attachment lets you stack Equipment on Shagrat and kill via commander damage.
- Equipment Aggro — The deck wants maximum Equipment density to maximize attach triggers and amass counters.
- Tokens/Go-Wide (Army) — Repeated amass grows a single huge Army, supportable with anthem and overrun effects.
- Aggro Beatdown — Rakdos pressure plus a snowballing Army and equipped commander apply fast, relentless damage.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BR), by popularity.
