The Commander
Flying, vigilance
: Choose a creature card at random from target opponent's graveyard. Put that card onto the battlefield under your control.
Guide
Gameplan
Tariel is a Mardu reanimator-stealer that turns opponents' graveyards into your army. Fill enemy yards with creatures (via mill or forced sacrifice), then tap Tariel each turn to randomly yank a body onto your battlefield. You grind value, build a board of stolen threats, and close with reanimated bombs or attrition.
Strengths
- Repeatable, mana-free reanimation that costs you nothing to fuel since it uses opponents' graveyards
- Mardu colors give the best removal, sac outlets, and reanimation support in the format
- Flying and vigilance let her attack and still threaten her ability
- Steals enemy bombs, blunting their own reanimator and graveyard strategies
Weaknesses
- Random selection means you can't reliably grab the best target
- Sorcery-speed tap ability is slow and easy to disrupt with removal or graveyard hate
- Needs opponents to have creatures in their yards, so it whiffs against light-creature decks
- Vulnerable to summoning sickness and instant-speed kill spells before she can tap
- 7 mana and three colors make casting and recasting demanding
Key Cards
- Syr Konrad, the Grim — Punishes the constant creature movement out of graveyards for big incidental damage.
- Sepulchral Primordial — Adds another random/selective graveyard reanimation engine that synergizes with the steal plan.
- Mindslicer — With sac outlets you can empty hands while loading graveyards full of creatures for Tariel.
- Bojuka Bog — Represents the graveyard hate you must respect, but you also want ways to fill yards instead.
- Anya, Merciless Angel — Rewards your angel/flier tribal beatdown while you grind value with Tariel.
Upgrade Path
Add mill enablers (Mesmeric Orb, Bruvac, Fleet Swallower) so opponents always have creatures to steal, plus reanimation backups like Reanimate, Animate Dead, and Victimize to grab targets selectively when Tariel's randomness fails. Tighten with fast mana (Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Mardu signets) and protection (Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots) to keep her active, and add sac outlets like Viscera Seer plus Blood Artist payoffs to convert stolen bodies into reliable wins.
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
- ▸Beating down with an army of stolen bombs plus Tariel's evasive body
- ▸Aristocrats drain via Blood Artist effects looping stolen creatures
- ▸Damage payoffs like Syr Konrad punishing mass graveyard movement
- ▸Reanimating game-ending threats off opponents' yards and overwhelming the table
Archetypes
- Reanimator — Tariel's whole identity is pulling creatures from graveyards onto your battlefield for free.
- Theft/Control — She steals opponents' best dead creatures, denying their recursion while building your board.
- Aristocrats — Sac outlets let you abuse stolen bodies and trigger death payoffs repeatedly.
- Mill — Forcing creatures into enemy graveyards directly fuels her random reanimation.
Combos
- Phyrexian Altar + Tariel, Reckoner of Souls + Thornbite Staff
→ Infinite colored mana, Infinite death triggers, Infinite ETB
- Tariel, Reckoner of Souls + Intruder Alarm
→ Return all creature cards from each opponent's graveyard to the battlefield under your control
Combos via Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BRW), by popularity.
