DimirLegendary Creature — Merfolk RogueZareth San, the Trickster
Mana value5Rank#10,140
The Commander
, Return an unblocked attacking Rogue you control to its owner's hand: Put this card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped and attacking.
Whenever Zareth San deals combat damage to a player, you may put target permanent card from that player's graveyard onto the battlefield under your control.
Guide
Gameplan
Build a wide, evasive Rogue board, mill opponents to stock their graveyards, then connect with Zareth San to steal their best permanents for free. He repeatedly re-enters combat by bouncing an unblocked Rogue, so each combat can swing the game by stealing planeswalkers, bombs, or lands.
Strengths
- Repeatable graveyard theft of any permanent type, including from your own mill
- Flash and the bounce ability make him hard to kefor opponents to permanently remove
- Rogues and mill synergize, fueling both card advantage (Faerie Rogue tribe) and theft targets
- Dimir gives premium interaction, counterspells, and evasion
Weaknesses
- Combat-damage-dependent payoff is fragile to blockers and removal
- Three-color theft ability is mana-intensive to chain
- Graveyard hate shuts off the theft engine entirely
- Relies on connecting, so flying/menace enablers are mandatory or he stalls
Key Cards
- Thieves' Guild Enforcer — Cheap Rogue that mills on attack, building the graveyards Zareth San plunders and going huge with the Rogue subtheme.
- Soaring Thought-Thief — Ninjutsu and Rogue payoff that gives evasion-style value and helps your team connect for theft.
- Anowon, the Ruin Thief — Mills and draws off Rogue combat damage while protecting your board, a perfect partner engine.
- Whispersilk Cloak — Grants unblockable so Zareth San reliably lands combat damage and his bounce trigger always has a target.
- Notion Thief — Stops opposing draw and fuels your own card advantage while being an evasive body to enable steals.
- Drown in the Loch — Flexible counter/removal that scales with graveyard fill from your mill plan.
Upgrade Path
Lean into unblockable enablers (Aqueous Form, Trailblazer's Boots, Rogue's Passage) so his trigger is reliable, and add evasive value Rogues plus efficient mill to flood graveyards. Push mana with rocks like Arcane Signet and Fellwar Stone to chain his bounce ability, and include protection (Heroic Intervention, counters) so a single removal spell doesn't collapse the engine.
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
- ▸Stealing opponents' biggest threats and turning them into your win engine
- ▸Grinding incremental value into a dominant board, then alpha-striking with evasive Rogues
- ▸Mill-based decking using effects like Bruvac the Grandiloquent or Maddening Cacophony
- ▸Reanimating a game-ending permanent (e.g., a stolen planeswalker or combo piece)
Archetypes
- Rogue Tribal — His bounce cost wants attacking Rogues, and Rogue payoffs reward going wide with the tribe.
- Mill — Filling opponents' graveyards directly stocks the targets his combat trigger steals.
- Theft/Reanimator — He reanimates and steals any permanent from any graveyard, including yours, as a recurring value engine.
- Ninjas/Tempo — Ninjutsu and flash creatures let you cheat in evasive threats and re-trigger his bounce loop.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BU), by popularity.
