SimicLegendary Creature — Mutant Frog TurtleVenus, Torn Between Worlds
Mana value5Rank#17,379
The Commander
Whenever Venus is dealt damage, put that many +1/+1 counters on her. (She must survive the damage to get the counters.)
Whenever a creature you control with a counter on it deals combat damage to a player, you may pay . If you do, draw a card.
Guide
Gameplan
Venus is a counters-matters value engine: grow your team with +1/+1 counters, push through combat damage, and refuel your hand by paying per counter-bearing attacker that connects. Use fight/ping/burn effects to deal damage to Venus herself and snowball her into a huge threat. You grind opponents out with card advantage, then close with an oversized board or a counter-doubling alpha strike.
Strengths
- Repeatable, scalable card draw whenever counter creatures connect, turning wide boards into massive refuels
- Self-damage triggers make Venus a resilient, self-growing threat that punishes removal that doesn't kill her
- Strong synergy with the deep Simic counters package and proliferate effects
- Blue interaction and green ramp keep the engine protected and ahead on resources
Weaknesses
- Card draw costs per trigger, which can be mana-intensive across a wide board
- Engine relies on creatures actually connecting in combat, vulnerable to fog, fliers, and gummed-up boards
- No built-in evasion or protection on Venus herself outside the counters
- Spot removal or board wipes can reset the counter investment quickly
- Self-damage to fuel her growth can backfire against punisher effects or careless math
Key Cards
- Hardened Scales — Adds extra +1/+1 counters to every placement, accelerating Venus and your whole team.
- Doubling Season — Doubles counters placed, turning a single hit on Venus into an enormous body.
- Inspiring Call — Protects your counter creatures from a wipe and draws a card for each one, perfect insurance.
- Branching Evolution — Doubles +1/+1 counters, supercharging both Venus's self-damage trigger and your draw engine.
- Evolution Sage — Proliferates on every land drop, spreading counters to enable more draw triggers.
- Rishkar, Peema Renegade — Puts counters on multiple creatures, immediately enabling Venus's draw trigger across the board.
- Ezuri, Claw of Progress — Showers counters each combat, widening the number of creatures that trigger card draw.
- Bident of Thassa — Forces opponents to attack while drawing on connect, layering with Venus's own draw engine.
Upgrade Path
Lean harder into counter doublers (Hardened Scales, Branching Evolution, Doubling Season) stacked with cheap proliferate to multiply both growth and draws. Add evasion and protection—Rogue's Passage, Shorikai-style trample, and counterspells like Swan Song or Fierce Guardianship—so Venus reliably connects and survives wipes. Top-end finishers like Craterhoof Behemoth or Triumph of the Hordes convert your counter army into a one-shot 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
- ▸Alpha strike with an oversized counter-stacked board, often pumped by counter doublers
- ▸A massive Venus pushing huge combat damage while refueling your hand
- ▸Overrun-style finishers like Craterhoof Behemoth or Overwhelming Stampede off your wide counter board
- ▸Grinding card advantage into inevitability, then closing with evasive threats
Archetypes
- +1/+1 Counters — Venus rewards loading creatures with counters and proliferating them across the board.
- Spellslinger Pinging — Burn and fight effects can target Venus to grow her while clearing blockers for connects.
- Value Midrange — Her per-connect draw turns combat into a card-advantage engine that grinds opponents down.
- Go-Wide Aggro — A counter-laden token board generates explosive draws and lethal alpha strikes.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (GU), by popularity.
