The Commander
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, Guide
Gameplan
Strax is a fight-matters voltron/midrange commander that turns artifacts into removal while snowballing +1/+1 counters. Each turn you sacrifice an artifact (ideally a Treasure or other token) to fight a creature, killing it and growing Strax, then swing in with vigilance and trample. You ramp into Strax, set up cheap artifact fodder, and use fight buffs or first strike to win combats and snowball into a lethal beater.
Strengths
- Repeatable creature removal stapled to your commander via Grenades!
- Self-growing threat that snowballs +1/+1 counters from every fight
- Vigilance and trample make it both a blocker and a hard-to-chump attacker
- GR has deep artifact-token and ramp support to fuel the activated ability
- Doubles as a sacrifice outlet for Treasures, Clues, and Food synergies
Weaknesses
- Grenades! targets a random player, so you can't reliably hit the most threatening creature
- Fighting can backfire and kill Strax if you fight something bigger without protection
- Heavily commander-dependent—removal slows the deck if Strax keeps getting answered
- No card advantage or recursion baked in; mana-intensive at 2 plus an artifact per activation
- Weak to interaction during the fight (instant pump/protection on the opposing creature)
Key Cards
- Lightning Greaves — Hexproof and haste protect your one-creature engine from removal and let Strax attack immediately.
- Ohran Frostfang — Gives Strax deathtouch so any fight kills, and draws you a card whenever it connects.
- Basilisk Collar — Deathtouch plus lifelink turns every Grenades! fight into a guaranteed kill that also gains life.
- Goldspan Dragon — Generates beefy Treasures that double as removal fuel for Grenades! while pressuring life totals.
- Xenagos, God of Revels — Doubles Strax's power and grants haste, making fights one-sided and combat lethal fast.
- Skullclamp — Cheap artifact you can sacrifice to Grenades! while turning your token fodder into a card-draw engine.
Upgrade Path
Add deathtouch granters (Ohran Frostfang, Basilisk Collar) and free-artifact engines (Treasure/token makers, Trading Post-style outlets) so every Grenades! activation is a guaranteed two-for-one. Lean into protection (Lightning Greaves, Heroic Intervention, Tyvar's Stand) and power doublers (Xenagos, Berserkers' Onslaught for double strike) to make a single attack lethal, and include proliferate (Inexorable Tide, Evolution Sage) to accelerate the counter snowball. To push higher, run efficient ramp and a few cheats like Greaves/Swiftfoot Boots so Strax dominates a turn early.
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
- ▸Suit Strax up with counters and equipment to deal lethal commander/trample damage
- ▸Grind out the board with repeatable deathtouch fights, then attack into an empty field
- ▸Combine counter doublers and Xenagos-style power doublers for a one-shot kill
- ▸Overrun-style anthem effects punch through with trample after fights clear blockers
Archetypes
- Fight Tribal / Removal Midrange — Grenades! plus deathtouch enablers turns repeatable fights into a removal-on-a-stick engine.
- Voltron — Glory of Battle and counter doublers grow Strax into a trampling, vigilant one-shot threat.
- Artifact Tokens (Treasure/Clue/Food) — Treasure and token generators feed both ramp and the artifact-sacrifice cost of Grenades!.
- +1/+1 Counters — Strax naturally accumulates counters, so proliferate and doubling effects make it explosive.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (GR), by popularity.
