Akuta is a terrible commander. So let's kill people with him.
If there’s something I get a kick out of in this glorious format we call Commander, it’s being a little different. It’s slapping down the legendary creature that everyone immediately wants to pick up in their grabby little paws so they can read it. Akuta fits this to a tee. If it’s his first time in a new group, I can watch someone scoop him up, mutter his rules text under their breath, then watch their faces scrunch in bewilderment. Oh, yeah. You read it right – straight outta Saviors.
So what's Akuta's deal? Well, let's take a look:
Okay, not the cheapest thing in the world, but we’re not exactly casting Avacyn, Angel of Hope here. Four mana means he can be seen turn 2 off a Sol Ring, and can be recast once or twice over the course of the game if he finds himself in the command zone again.
Creature type – Spirit
Black has a decently strong showing in the Spirit tribe, but if that’s your shtick, you’re probably using Iname, Death Aspect and running Akuta as one of the 99. So we won’t be doing anything with Akuta’s creature type here.
Combat stats: 3/2
Blegh. Four mana gets us so much more these days. Two toughness is a tough pill to swallow for four mana. 3 power isn’t terrible in mono-black, though. Hopefully his abilities save these underwhelming stats…
Ability #1: Haste
Huh. Well that’s kind of neat. Black doesn’t see haste terribly often. But where’s my evasion? You mean to tell me that four mana only gets me a 3/2 haste? I’m playing Commander with Vulshok Berserker at the helm?! Come on! Xiahou Dun gets frigging horsemanship (read: unblockable), and I get stuck with haste?! This is so fu- …oh there’s one more thing. Okay.
Ability #2: “At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have more cards in hand than each opponent, you may sacrifice a Swamp. If you do, return Akuta from your graveyard to the battlefield.”
Ummmm……
So I guess that makes him kind of hard to deal with? I think? Sacrificing a Swamp every time I want to bring him back is pretty harsh. Better than nothing, I guess. If anything, this means I can be liberal with board wipes and still threaten commander damage with no additional mana investment.
Oh wait. I have to have the most cards in hand, too? Wizards, have you seen how people hoard cards in this format?! Give me a break!
Okay, so we know what we have in the command zone. What exactly is our 99 looking to do to support him?
The Three Primary Strategies Show
Akuta is in a bit of a weird spot. His stats are aggressive, but his condition for returning to the battlefield requires you to hold cards. We'll try to hit both requirements at the same time with discard effects and X-for-1 removal. Special mention goes to any card that makes each opponent discard, since we're assuming the typical 3-4 player pod. Wrath effects are always good for getting ahead on resources, and have the added benefit of clearing the way for Akuta.
Akuta also doesn't especially mind dying to your own sweepers, as long as his condition is met. Given that we'll be spending our mana on clearing away our opponents' cards (from the hand and/or the field), any of our own creatures that can recur themselves at little or no mana cost will fit the theme nicely. With minimal effort, you can turn your Damnation into a Plague Wind!
So we went to all this trouble to strip our opponents' hands and rain caustic goo on their creatures. Akuta is free... to be promptly outclassed by like 90% of the creatures that see play in Commander. A 3/2 will not get you very far on its own, even if it does deal Commander damage. So we'll be wanting to soup him up with power-boosting Equipment to quicken the clock. Mono-black is actually quite good at this, thanks to Swamps-matter Equipment like Lashwrithe, Nightmare Lash, and Strata Scythe. As with our self-recurring creatures, saving mana on equip costs will go a long way towards keeping up maximum pressure. Free equip costs are especially wonderful!
So you've got your beefy spirit slug plugging away at your opponents after they've run low on cards and board presence. Then the table becomes wise to your commander's true power - so they point a removal spell at Akuta. Sure, whatever. You have the most cards in hand, so just eat a Swamp and get him back!
Akuta promptly eats another removal spell. So you sacrifice a Swamp and get him back again.
Except now you find yourself a bit short of mana to further develop your board. Akuta might stick around, but he's smaller and easier to corral. With scant few lands in play, and a heap in your graveyard, your offensive has finally been stunted.
That's the bad timeline. So let's make a better one, with the help of a suite of cards that keep you from running out of lands. Crucible of Worlds will let you continue making land drops without losing a card from your hand. Sword of the Animist and Myriad Landscape will ramp you. Armillary Sphere and Liliana of the Dark Realms will fill your hand with more lands. Keep 'em coming!
Disclaimers, Addendums, and Potpurri Show
Various things that don't really fit in the three primary strategies above.
It sort of happened by accident. While looking for powerful equipment, I noticed that a lot of them were geared toward legendary creatures. I'm talking about things like
Hero's Blade,
Champion's Helm, and
Blackblade Reforged. I'm also not so optimistic to assume that Akuta will be in a position to do all the work; circumstances may require you to suit up something else. Therefore, it made sense to lean into the legendary theme, in order to maximize the efficiency of the equipment. We don't have white's
ability to cheese equip costs, so this was my best approximation.
This is where I'll explain the most recent edit(s) I made to the list. It won't be exhaustive; ain't nobody got time fo' dat.
7/17/2021:
- +Shizo, Death's Storehouse, -Snow-Covered Swamp: Shizo is a land that's eluded me for a long time. Granting solid evasion to a voltron Commander at a good rate is a no-brainer.
- +Nezumi Shortfang
, -Stinkweed Imp: The Imp stuck around for a long time because it can recur itself, and occasionally mill something spicy like Filth or a Nether Whatever. But it was also clunky as hell. Meanwhile, subbing in will be the Cube stalwart Nezumi Shortfang
. Maybe not quite powerful enough for Commander, but repeatable discard is acceptable. And Stabwhisker the Odious
is the best name for a legendary creature of all time.
- +Fain, the Broker, -Ayara, First of Locthwain: Fain does a lot of things. I'm not sure how many of them the deck needs. If it turns out the answer is "zero," then expect this change to get reversed. Ayara isn't at her best in this list, but she does draw cards from time to time - and Akuta likes that.
- +Liliana, Waker of the Dead, -Liliana Vess: OG Lili is a fine card, but a lot of the time she's just Vampiric Tutor + gain 3-4 life. Waker of the Dead is a bit more effective at shredding hands.
- +Arcane Signet, -Scepter of Fugue: Adding one more mana rock to increase the chances of an early Akuta. I like Scepter of Fugue - probably more than I should - but it was the logical cut to make room.
- +Vorpal Sword, -Infernal Tribute: I'm still trying to figure out the sweet spot on Equipment density. Vorpal Sword makes the Nether Whatevers annoying to block, and while I don't expect the game-ender ability to ever happen, it's certainly a threat that demands an answer. I may very well get Infernal Tribute back in the list at some point, too - card's criminally underrated.
1/15/2023
Oops apparently I updated this and didn't put something in the changelog. Whatever, not like anyone's glued to this primer anyhow.
...oh. Right. Ahem:
- +Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion, -Fain, the Broker: Yeah so Fain ended up being a bit superfluous. I still think he's fine to run as a mana sink, but Nashi is just so good. Tamiyo's adopted son is like Etali Lite value-wise, and nothing feels better than sneaking one in off an unassuming Nether Whatever. Or even perhaps the next card on the list...
- +Tourach, Dread Cantor, -Nezumi Graverobber
: Graverobber was a ham-fisted attempt at graveyard hate that could also potentially work off both the legendary subtheme and reanimating opponents' goodies. Turns out, when you telegraph your intentions on a fragile 2/1 with a mana-intensive ability, people will usually find a way to stop you. Instead we'll run with Tourach, who carries a random protection (helpful when you're in voltron mode!), incidental syngergy with discard, and his eponymous hymn as a kicker. Bonus points for scooping him up with ninjutsu guys for reuse!
- +The Raven Man, -Yarok's Fenlurker: The Fenlurker was really only there as an early play that reduced hand size while going card-neutral, and the shade pump is too expensive to be a freeroll in combat (players will usually elect to trade their guy to Time Walk you), so instead let's up the legendary count some more. The Raven Man is pretty low-impact for Commander, but it ticks all the boxes for what Akuta is looking to do: play legends to cheat equip costs, punish discarding, and occasionally leave behind some spare bodies to strap equipment onto or feed to Mind Slash. Maybe this is the time to find space for Scepter of Fugue again...?
- +Malakir Rebirth
, -Snow-Covered Swamp: Low opportunity cost here, although it's important not to go too crazy with nonbasics if you're looking for Cabal Coffers and Cabal Stronghold to stay effective.
12/26/2023
Murray Crimbus, here's a small update!
