The Commander
Flying
Whenever one or more creatures deal combat damage to you, each opponent sacrifices a creature of their choice that dealt combat damage to you this turn. The Ring tempts you.
Discard a card: Witch-king of Angmar gains indestructible until end of turn. Tap it.
Guide
Gameplan
Witch-king is a mono-black evasive threat that turns combat into a one-sided removal engine: opponents who attack you lose a creature, and you can discard cards to make him indestructible and survive blocks or board wipes. You play him as a recurring Ring-bearer beater while leaning on black's discard-as-resource synergies, then close games with reanimation, evasive damage, or a combo finish.
Strengths
- Cheap, evasive 5-mana commander with built-in indestructibility that survives most board wipes and combat
- Punishes opponents for attacking you, deterring early aggression and protecting your life total
- Discard-to-protect cost fuels graveyard and madness/discard payoff synergies
- The Ring temptation gives free card advantage, evasion, and protection over time
- Mono-black access to the best tutors, ramp, and reanimation in the format
Weaknesses
- The sacrifice trigger only fires when creatures hit YOU, so it's irrelevant against noncreature decks or when you're not attacked
- Discarding cards for indestructibility drains your hand and can be a real resource cost
- Mono-black struggles with enchantments and resilient artifacts
- No inherent way to force opponents to attack you, making the marquee ability inconsistent
- Single-color decks lack the explosive interaction of multicolor builds
Key Cards
- The One Ring — Thematic and powerful card-draw engine that also gives a turn of protection while you build your hand.
- Reanimate — Cheaply returns whatever you discarded for indestructibility, turning the activated cost into card advantage.
- No Mercy — Stacks with Witch-king's trigger to brutally punish any creature that connects with you.
- Liliana of the Dark Realms — Mono-black ramp and tutoring that feeds big plays and consistent Swamp drops.
- Bolas's Citadel — Converts your deep mono-black mana and life total into explosive card velocity and combo potential.
- Gray Merchant of Asphodel — A reliable mono-black finisher that drains the table based on your heavy black pip count.
Upgrade Path
Add fast mana (Dark Ritual, Jet Medallion, Mana Vault) and premium tutors (Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor) to assemble your engine faster and more consistently. Lean into reanimation and discard payoffs so the indestructibility cost generates value rather than just bleeding cards, and include 'forced attack' or goad effects plus deterrents like No Mercy and Dictate of Erebos to maximize the sacrifice trigger. Round out with a compact combo line (Mikaeus + a sacrifice loop or Bolas's Citadel + Aetherflux) so you have a reliable closer when grinding stalls.
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
- ▸Commander damage from the evasive, indestructible flyer over several turns
- ▸Gray Merchant of Asphodel or Exsanguinate-style life drain
- ▸Reanimating a massive threat and beating down
- ▸Bolas's Citadel into a tutor-assisted combo finish
Archetypes
- Reanimator — His discard-for-indestructible ability naturally bins fat creatures you then cheat back with black reanimation spells.
- Aristocrats — Forcing opponents to sacrifice attackers pairs with your own sac outlets and death-triggered drain effects.
- Voltron/Beatdown — Flying plus repeatable indestructibility makes him a hard-to-remove evasive threat for commander damage.
- Control — Black's removal suite plus deterrent combat triggers let you grind opponents out and win late.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (B), by popularity.
