The Commander
Flying
If Szadek would deal combat damage to a player, instead put that many +1/+1 counters on Szadek and that player mills that many cards.
Guide
Gameplan
Cast Szadek (often cheated out early), connect with his evasive flying body, and instead of dealing damage you mill the defending player while Szadek balloons with +1/+1 counters. Each hit roughly doubles his power, so two or three connections can deck an opponent entirely. Protect him, push damage through, and grind opponents' libraries to zero.
Strengths
- Self-snowballing clock: every hit adds counters equal to power milled, so mill totals escalate fast
- Flying evasion makes him hard to block in many pods
- Mill is a kill condition that ignores life totals and life-gain decks
- UB gives access to the best card draw, removal, and reanimation in the format
Weaknesses
- Seven-mana commander that does nothing the turn it lands, vulnerable to removal before it connects
- Single-target clock: only mills the player it hits, slow against three opponents
- Heavily reliant on the commander; if Szadek is repeatedly removed the deck stalls
- Folds to fog effects, board wipes, and decks that benefit from a full graveyard (reanimator/Eldrazi shuffle)
Key Cards
- Rogue's Passage — Guarantees Szadek connects by making him unblockable for a single hit that can deck a player.
- Whispersilk Cloak — Grants unblockable and shroud, both protecting Szadek and ensuring the mill goes through.
- Aqueous Form — Cheap unblockable plus scry keeps the clock ticking each turn.
- Bruvac the Grandiloquent — Doubles all milling, turning a single Szadek hit into a near-instant deck-out.
- Phenax, God of Deception — Backup mill engine that taps creatures to mill, supplementing the singular Szadek clock.
- Fierce Guardianship — Free counterspell to protect Szadek through a key attack.
- Lightning Greaves — Haste lets Szadek swing immediately and shroud shields him from targeted removal.
Upgrade Path
Add fast mana and reanimation (Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead) to deploy Szadek ahead of curve, and load up on unblockable and protection (Slip Out the Back, Robe of the Archmagi). Include mill multipliers like Bruvac and broad mill spells (Maddening Cacophony with Kicker, Folio of Fancies) so you can pressure all three opponents instead of one at a time, and round out with premium counterspells and interaction to defend the commander through the swing that matters.
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 repeatedly with Szadek to mill a player out of their library
- ▸Bruvac or other mill doublers combined with one Szadek hit for an instant deck-out
- ▸Backup mill engines like Phenax and Maddening Cacophony to finish multiple opponents
- ▸Traumatize plus Szadek's combat mill to halve then empty a library
Archetypes
- Mill — Szadek is a premier commander-based mill engine, decking opponents through escalating combat damage.
- Voltron — His counters and need to connect reward unblockable enablers and protection like a Voltron deck.
- Control — UB removal and counters keep the board clear while Szadek mills one opponent out.
- Reanimator — Black lets you cheat the seven-drop into play early via reanimation effects.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BU), by popularity.
