Lead Wakanda Into Battle with Black Panther

Posted on November 5, 2024

The first Universes Beyond Crossover between Magic: The Gathering and Marvel is here, in the form of five secret lairs featuring five iconic Marvel superheroes. All five new cards are really cool and are begging to helm commander decks, and today I want to talk about Black Panther, Wakandan King. This is the first time in years that I've been excited about a Selesnya commander (Red and Black are more my jam), so I'd like to give you some suggestions for how to build Black Panther and what kinds of cards play well with him.

As with all my deck techs, before I give you card recommendations, I like to break down what our Commander wants to do and what strategies it facilitates. In this case, Black Panther is a two-mana 2/2 for a Green and a White with three abilities. The first is First Strike, the second is a triggered ability that puts a +1/+1 counter on a land you control whenever it or another creature enters under your control, and the third lets you pay three generic mana to move all +1/+1 counters from a land you control onto a creature, then you gain that much life and draw a card. Black Panther's abilities combine the three quintessential Selesnya archetypes: life gain, counters, and tokens, and bring them together very elegantly. For this deck tech, I'll be focusing on going wide with tokens and spreading the counters from Black Panther's triggered ability onto all of our lands in order to draw cards and modify our creatures off his activated ability as many times as possible.

In order to maximize the number of triggers we get from Black Panther's triggered ability ability, we should be trying to run as many creatures as possible. To do this, I have prioritized running the creature versions of effects where possible, like playing Sakura-Tribe Elder over Rampant Growth. This is easy to do with the deck's ramp package, with cards like Wood Elves, Topiary Stomper, Farhaven Elf, and Solemn Simulacrum replacing staples like Cultivate or Kodama's Reach. There are also several ramp pieces that care about +1/+1 counters specifically, with Fertilid being a good option if you're willing to put in the mana and Kami of Whispered Hopes also adding additional +1/+1 counters to permanents we control.

The token package of the deck is simple but effective. Cards like Resolute Reinforcements, Distract the Guards, and Torens, Fist of the Angels can all make extra bodies in the early game while cards like Farmer Cotton, Secure the Wastes, and Finale of Glory can all scale into the late game to make massive armies. Springheart Nantuko and Scute Swarm can also amass tokens as we play lands, with Nantuko doubling as a way to clone creatures as well.

To win the game with these tokens, we can grow them with Black Panther's Ability or use other cards to buff them up for a lethal attack all at once. Cultivator of Blades combines these two methods perfectly, buffing our other creatures equal to its power when it attacks. Champion of Lambholt also fills this role well, growing on its own or with Black Panther in order to make our board unblockable. Finally there's Overwhelming Stampede, AKA Craterhoof at home, which can turn our tiny creatures into huge threats if we manage to stack counters on one big creature.

With the tokens out of the way, how can we best utilize the counters we spread around with Black Panther's activated ability? To start, there are a bunch of cards that buff our creatures with counters on them, with Abzan Falconer giving flying, Pridemalkin giving trample, and Envoy of the Ancestors giving lifelink. Ashaya is an interesting addition that lets us somewhat bypass having to pay mana for Black Panther's activated ability, letting add those counters directly onto our creatures by turning them into lands. Reluctant Role Model is a new card from Duskmourn that serves as a budget replacement for The Ozolith, letting us move counters from dying creatures onto others. I also really like Kudo, King Among Bears in this deck, as it essentially ensures that we always have the biggest creatures on the board thanks to the +1/+1 counters on our side of the board.

Finally, let's round out the deck with card advantage and interaction. Drawing cards off tokens has become easier and easier in recent years, so let's add in some of the greatest hits. Welcoming Vampire, Enduring Innocence, and Tocasia's Welcome can all draw cards when our small creatures enter, although they are limited to once per turn. Symmetry Matrix lets us pay one generic mana to draw a card whenever a creature with equal power and toughness enters, which is most of our tokens, and Shamanic Revelation can give a big burst of cards when our board gets wide enough. For interaction, board wipes like Dusk // Dawn and The Battle of Bywater can be mostly one-sided most of the time, although creatures we've put counters on may get swept up, and Hour of Reckoning call also be mostly one-sided while also cheating on mana with convoke. Since we're playing White and Green we can run the typical removal package of Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Generous Gift, and Beast Within, with a few creature-based removal spells like Loran of the Third Path, Druid of Purification, and Skyclave Apparition thrown in to trigger Black Panther extra times.

Up until now, most of my suggestions have been very budget-friendly, but if you want to tune the deck up there are a lot of cards you could add while breaking the bank. The easiest way to do this is with token doublers like Anointed Procession, Mondrak, Glory Dominus, Ojer Taq, and Doubling Season. You could also add some +1/+1 staples like The Ozolith or Innkeeper's Talent, one-shot creature lands like Inkmoth Nexus, and better ramp like Birds of Paradise or Kodama of the West Tree.

This deck tech only scratches the surface though, so if you want my full version of the deck you can check it out here: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/65zmPpPSYUSB2hZByCBg1w. That's all for now, see you next time!