The Commander
Sneak 
(You may cast this spell for if you also return an unblocked attacker you control to hand during the declare blockers step. He enters tapped and attacking.)
Deathtouch
Whenever Shredder enters or attacks, another target creature you control gains deathtouch until end of turn.
Guide
Gameplan
Shredder is a mono-black aggro/midrange commander that turns small, evasive attackers into removal engines. Use cheap unblocked creatures to Sneak Shredder in (or just cast him), then repeatedly grant deathtouch on attack so your team trades up and pings down opposing blockers and pinging deathtouch synergies. You grind incremental advantage and finish with combat damage backed by drain and reanimation.
Strengths
- Repeatable deathtouch granting makes any creature a fearsome attacker or removal threat
- Sneak lets you cheat him in early and reuse evasive attackers for value
- Deathtouch enables efficient combat trades and pairs with pingers/trample for board control
- Mono-black gives access to the best tutors, removal, and recursion in the format
Weaknesses
- Single-color means no access to ramp/card-advantage colors and weaker interaction diversity
- Effects are creature-dependent—prone to board wipes that reset your engine
- Deathtouch grant needs Shredder attacking/entering, so removal-heavy tables blunt the plan
- No built-in card advantage; can run out of gas without dedicated draw
Key Cards
- Basilisk Collar — Pairs deathtouch with lifelink and lets any attacker kill creatures it touches, doubling Shredder's theme.
- Quietus Spike — Deathtouch attackers plus halve-life punishes any blocker decision and accelerates kills.
- Ngathrod — Wide deathtouch on your evasive Ninja swarm turns combat into a one-sided massacre.
- Walking Ballista — Deathtouch makes each ping lethal removal, a flexible Shredder target every turn.
- Gravepact — Each deathtouch trade triggers sacrifice, snowballing edicts across the table.
Upgrade Path
Add fast mana (Sol Ring, Dark Ritual) and top-tier tutors (Demonic/Vampiric Tutor) to assemble Shredder plus a deathtouch payoff faster. Lean into a combat-conversion engine—Walking Ballista, Quietus Spike, and Gravepact—and reanimation like Reanimate to recover from wipes. Tighten removal with Toxic Deluge and Bojuka Bog while adding card draw (Phyrexian Arena, Necropotence) to fuel the grind.
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
- ▸Chip away with evasive deathtouch attackers and finish via combat damage
- ▸Drain the table with aristocrats payoffs like Blood Artist and Gravepact
- ▸Equip Quietus Spike/Basilisk Collar for fast Voltron-style life loss
- ▸Overrun with a deathtouch-granted, anthem-pumped Ninja swarm
Archetypes
- Ninjas — Sneak rewards evasive attackers and Ninjutsu shells that bounce and replay for value.
- Aristocrats — Deathtouch trades and sacrifice payoffs convert combat into drain and board control.
- Voltron/Deathtouch-tribal — Equipping deathtouch+lifelink+wither effects makes a single attacker a removal-and-life engine.
- Midrange Control — Mono-black removal, recursion, and repeatable deathtouch grind the board to a stall you break with finishers.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (B), by popularity.
