WhiteLegendary Creature — Human Soldier WarriorZhao Zilong, Tiger General
Mana value5Rank#25,655
The Commander
Horsemanship (This creature can't be blocked except by creatures with horsemanship.)
Whenever Zhao Zilong blocks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
Guide
Gameplan
Zhao Zilong is a mono-white voltron/aggro commander that leverages horsemanship—an evasion almost no other deck can interact with—to deal repeated, nearly unblockable combat damage. Suit him up with equipment and auras, swing every turn for commander damage, and use white's protection and recursion to keep him sticking. Most pods have zero horsemanship creatures, so once he's online he connects almost unconditionally.
Strengths
- Horsemanship is effectively unblockable in 99% of metagames, making him a reliable 21-commander-damage clock
- Mono-white gives strong access to protection, indestructibility, and equipment to keep him alive
- Cheap commander-damage kill once equipped—voltron games end fast
- His blocking buff makes him a respectable defensive body when needed
Weaknesses
- Mono-white is the weakest color for card draw and ramp, leading to flood and stalled hands
- Vulnerable to removal, edicts, and board wipes that hit his equipped self—high reliance on a single creature
- No native trample, so chump-blockers with horsemanship (rare) or fogs/damage prevention slow him
- Limited interaction with combo and noncombat win strategies
Key Cards
- Swiftfoot Boots — Hexproof and haste protect your sole threat and let him attack the turn he's recast.
- Sword of Fire and Ice — Adds protection, card draw, and damage to an already unblockable attacker for a devastating package.
- Skullclamp — Mono-white's premier card advantage engine to fight white's notorious draw problems.
- Shadowspear — Cheap equipment granting trample and stripping defenders' hexproof/indestructible while pushing damage.
- Sword of Hearth and Home — Protection from green/white plus blink and ramp keeps Zhao safe and accelerates you.
- Smothering Tithe — Best white ramp/advantage piece, fueling equipment and protection spells.
Upgrade Path
Prioritize cheap protective equipment (Swiftfoot Boots, Lightning Greaves) and recursion (Hammer of Nazahn, Brass Squire) to make him resilient and recast-friendly. Add white's best ramp and draw—Smothering Tithe, Land Tax, Skullclamp, Esper Sentinel—to overcome mono-white's card disadvantage. Round out with double-strike or trample enablers (Grappling Hook, Embercleave-style buffs, Shadowspear) to shorten the clock and play through chump defense.
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
- ▸Connecting for 21 commander damage with equipment/auras
- ▸Equipment-fueled general beatdown finishing one opponent at a time
- ▸Anthem/buff effects turning the unblockable attacker into a one-shot threat
Archetypes
- Voltron — Horsemanship makes him unblockable, so equipment and auras turn him into a fast commander-damage clock.
- Equipment Aggro — Mono-white's deep equipment suite stacks evasion, protection, and damage onto one reliable carrier.
- Mono-White Stax — White hatebears and taxing pieces slow opponents while Zhao chips away unimpeded.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (W), by popularity.
