Commander Top 10: Nethroi, Apex Of Death

There are so many legendary goodies from Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths it’s hard to buckle down and choose one to start building around.  On my Monday night Commander deckbuilding stream recently (my Twitch channel is here) I explored Brokkos, Apex of Forever, so check it out on the Twitch on-demand video, or head over to my YouTube channel and you can see it there.  Since mutate is so much fun I decided to run it back here with Nethroi, Apex of Death!  Let’s take a look at this Cat Nightmare Beast:

The other legendary creatures in this cycle have mutate costs that either equal or are one mana more than their regular mana costs, so it seems reasonable to just run them out from the command zone if you don’t have a creature to mutate into them.

With Brokkos, you’re actually just fine castinging it as a 6/6 trampler for five mana, since its mutate superpower is to be able to cast it from the graveyard.  But Nethroi’s mutate ability costs a whopping seven mana, which means you don’t want to have to add too much commander tax or else it’s going to just be out of reach for much of the game.

So how do we build with that in mind?  First of all, you’re going to want to make it count when you mutate—the creatures you get from the graveyard should be impactful.  This is easy enough in Abzan: there are no shortage of good value creatures. But you can also look for good creatures that have zero power, since those are effectively “free” to get back with Nethroi. 

Second, we definitely don’t want to have Nethroi hit with a counterspell.  Normally, countering your commander is an exercise in futility since you can put it right back in your command zone to cast again soon.  But Nethroi’s mutate cost is so expensive it’s going to be very tempting to counterspell it, especially since it’ll be very obvious to your opponents when you’re going to be ready to go for it.  So, we’ll want to build in plenty of ways to neutralize an opponent able to easily do that to you.

Of the other abilities, lifelink is a big plus since it will help recoup life lost from damage you may have accrued while you await the right time to mutate Nethroi.  Deathtouch is a helpful way to kill huge creatures that would otherwise just run roughshod over your army, but the secret sauce lies in finding big trampling creatures you can mutate into Nethroi, since you only need one point of damage to a blocker to be considered lethal, with the rest trampling over. 

Okay, let’s get brewing!

1. Multani, Yavimaya’s Avatar

When looking for freeroll zero-power creatures to include in our deck, the one card that jumped out to me was Multani, Yavimaya’s Avatar.  A huge, recursive threat on its own, but it’s also a great target to mutate Nethroi on top of, since it will have a base of 5/5 but gets +1/+1 for each land you control and each land in the graveyard.  This could easily make Nethroi large enough to kill with commander damage in one or two hits, plus it has trample, which gives us that secret sauce with deathtouch we’re looking for.  At six mana Multani comes down one turn before you could mutate Nethroi, so this card is a slam-dunk inclusion for any Nethroi deck. 

Of the other zero-power creatures that made the cut, Blood Artist does nice work since your opponents will be motivated to sweep the battlefield once you mutate Nethroi and bring back a bunch of creatures.  Punish whoever does this with a bunch of death triggers from Blood Artist and then bring them all back with Nethroi again.

2. Westvale Abbey

When looking for good creatures that have indestructible, I ran across Westvale Abbey—or more precisely, its transformed side Ormendahl, Profane Prince. Ormendahl is a great threat all its own but sacrificing a bunch of creatures to transform is easily mitigated by Nethroi’s mutate ability.  And if you want to mutate Nethroi onto Ormendahl, you now have an indestructible 9/7 commander with flying, lifelink, deathtouch and haste.  Sounds fantastic!

I’ve included a few other creatures that have – or can obtain – indestructible.  Stuffy Doll is fun because it’s usually just a blocker that the targeted player won’t want to attack into, but if you mutate on top of it and start attacking, things can get quite scary!  Fleecemane Lion hits a bunch of different angles: not only does it gain indestructible, it also gains hexproof and gets a +1/+1 counter that makes the mutated creature even bigger.  Meow!

3. Shalai, Voice of Plenty

Speaking of hexproof, that is another awesome ability that helps make mutate even better and we have access to a fair number of them in the Abzan colors.  While Shalai, Voice of Plenty doesn’t have hexproof herself, she does give all your other creatures hexproof.  But that’s not all—she also gives you hexproof, which can be helpful for stopping some forms of graveyard removal that might stop you from taking advantage of Nethroi’s mutate ability.  Popular cards like Tormod’s Crypt, Nihil Spellbomb, Agent of Erebos, and Angel of Finality all target a player.

I’m including a bunch of other good creatures that naturally have hexproof, but of these the one I like the best is Carnage Tyrant since it adds trample to Nethroi’s deathtouch for that sweet creature combat secret sauce. 

Spirit of the Hearth is a backup for Shalai by giving you hexproof to protect your graveyard.

4. Gemrazer

I do want to include some other cards with mutate or cards that support mutate, and while all of them are roughly the same in terms of power level and utility, Gemrazer rises to the top by again giving us that sweet, sweet trample to go with Nethroi’s deathtouch.

Mysterious Egg gets the extra shout-out for being a zero-power creature you can get back for free with Nethroi!

5. Dragonlord Dromoka

I mentioned how awful it would be to get Nethroi hit with a counterspell when you’ve paid seven or more mana to mutate, so Dragonlord Dromoka is the hero we need.  At six mana it comes down the turn before you’re going to execute Nethroi’s mutate and once it’s your turn there are no spells your opponents can cast to stop you. 

If something bad happens to Dromoka, or if she’s on her break I’ve got a few backup creatures to help stop pesky counterspells.

6. Syr Konrad, the Grim

In the “good stuff” category is a wide range of cards to round out the list, but Syr Konrad, the Grim does heavy lifting in a deck where you’re going to be bringing a bunch of creatures back from the graveyard with Nethroi’s mutate ability. 

Luminous Broodmoth was neck and neck in the running for the best card in this group. Being able to protect your other creatures from their first death does a lot of good work bridging you later in the game where Nethroi can generate a ton of value.

7. Guardian Project

We want a good amount of card draw to keep our foot on the gas, and Guardian Project is the crème de la crème of green card draw.  It does a ton of work in this deck since you draw a card whenever a non-token creature enters your battlefield, so each creature you get back with Nethroi will draw you a card.  Now that is some premium gasoline!

I like Elvish Visionary and Dusk Legion Zealot here as early chump blockers that will likely be brought back from the graveyard with Nethroi if you had one more power open to reach ten and give you an extra card.

8. Heroic Intervention

In addition to our own gameplan, we’ll want to have cards that interact with your opponent’s cards too, and one thing we’ll want to keep an eye out for is a battlefield sweeper after you mutate Nethroi.  Heroic Intervention is the gold standard in keeping your team on the battlefield as an unpleasant surprise for your opponents.

Yavimaya Hollow and Mother Runes do good work in protecting your mutated creatures from a lot of destroy effects. Cards like Dust Bowl help keep powerful lands in check, and cards like Remorseful Cleric help keep opponents’ graveyard shenanigans on ice.

9. Solemn Simulacrum

Mutating Nethroi is crazy expensive so we’ll want to include tons and tons of mana ramp here, but the one I like the best is Solemn Simulacrum since it makes a great card to return from the graveyard with Nethroi’s mutate ability, basically paying half of the extra commander tax you’ll need to pay if Nethroi goes back to the command zone.

Phyrexian Altar can help power out Nethroi early, especially if you have some zero-power creatures you can sacrifice for mana and get back for free with the mutate ability.  Phyrexian Tower does the same thing but for just one creature to sacrifice for BB. 

10. Aura Shards

The Abzan color combination has a ton of removal options, but if we’re playing a deck where a whole bunch of creatures could enter the battlefield at once like ours can pull off, Aura Shards is even better than it normally is—potentially wiping clean your opponents’ battlefields of any and all problem artifacts and enchantments.

I’m also excited about Mythos of Nethroi, the ultimate instant-speed pinpoint removal spell if you have all three colors of your deck online, but even if you don’t, destroying a creature is usually going to be good enough.

Okay, so here’s how the deck ended up:

Here’s how the deck shakes out graphically, thanks to the good folks at Archidekt:

What do you think?  Are there any cards I’ve overlooked?  If you see any new cards from Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths that should find a home here, let me know!

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