Magic:the Gathering has so many deck archetypes sometimes it can be overwhelming to make a choice on what strategy you want to play and sometimes, let's face it, for the uninitiated, the strategy nicknames mean very little. "Aristocrats? Is that just creatures in waistcoats?" you might ask. Well dear reader, I am here to explain what the philosophy around Aristocrat decks are, some key cards and what Commanders you should be looking for if you want to give this deck archetype a run for its money.

Deck philosophy

Aristocrats is the shorthand for any deck type that wants to sacrifice a creature for a much better effect, often this is in the form of extra mana from cards like Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar and Black Market but also cards that let you draw cards when one of your creatures go to the graveyard, like Skullclamp, Greater Good or Deadly Dispute. Like Emperor Kusco before us, we are using all of our little guys in a way that will let us groove our way to victory.

Primarily Aristocrat decks use Black as the main colour identity, Black being the colour for graveyard synergies and then use other colours as support.

So we want our things to die?

I know what you're thinking "creatures dying? How can that possibly be a good thing?" Well, we actually use creatures that want to yeet themselves into the bin faster then Forky from Toy Story 4. There are plenty of creatures that have death triggers, making it so that we get exponentially more value by putting them through our value machines. We have access to old school sacrifice fodder, Solemn Simulacrum, who gives us a land when it enters and a card when it leaves, Body Launderer, who lets us bring a non-rogue creature back from the graveyard, and Hallowed Spirit Keeper, who makes a tonne of tokens, making it way more profitable for us to board wipe. Whilst our opponents are busy rebuilding, we already have an army to hit face with.

Back in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty we had a cycle of Dragons that were not only really big beaters but also excellent sacrifice fodder. Each of these legendary creatures have an amazing death trigger but there are 3 that are excellent for any aristocrat deck that can use them. We have Ao, the Dawn Sky, which lets us get any number of non land permits from top 7 cards on the battlefield, so long as the total mana value is 4 or less or it puts 2 +1/+1 counters on creature we control. Junji, the Midnight Sky, who also makes our opponents discard a card or lets us revive any non-dragon creature card from the graveyard right to the battlefield. Our last sacrificial scaley beasts is Atsushi, the Blazing Sky who allows us to get card advantage or create 3 treasure tokens. Now this might not sound like a lot but when we look at commanders later, Atsushi can combo with one commander easily.

And if all that wasnt enough we can also get even more values by including cards that double our triggers. We have the OG of Death and Taxes and the head of the spooky bankers association on Ravnica, Teysa Karlov and a more recent entry from Phyrexia: All will be One Drivnod, Carnage Dominus. Both of these cards double up our triggers, with the added benefit of giving our tokens Vigilance and Lifelink from Teysa and Drivnod can protect itself at instant speed. That doesn't even mention the 8/3 body, which is utterly absurd.

Victory requires Sacrifice

Now we have talked a little about the game plan and the value we can generate from the efforts of our devotees, but how do our capitalist commanders win? Well, there are a few ways but the most consistent way that we win is with a gain and drain strategy. There are a ton of cards that gain us life and make our opponents lose life. Classic Aristocrat all star Blood Artist is a perfect example of what we want from this strategy, whenever we sacrifice a creature target player loses a life. Goblin Bombardment is a free sac outlet which cannot be underestimated and turns it into direct damage rather than life loss, which I know sounds weird, but there is a difference. Mayhem Devil takes that targeted damage and throws it around quicker then a toddler and a jar of cinnamon (I speak from experience).

Bastion of Rembrance is another excellent card. It's an enchantment (making it harder to remove) that says here make a dude and hey sacrifice this dude, as Elton John once sang, it's the circle of life!

Possible Commanders

With all the aristocratic basics out of the way let's talk possible commanders. Classically Aristocratic themed decks have been based in Orzhov (Black and White) colour identity, and it's easy to see why. White can make a bunch of small guys whilst Black can make these small guys into fodder for other things. My favourite Orzhov Commander is Elas Il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim. This Commander is cheap, coming in at two mana, has deathtouch, making it hard to be attacked into and has the gain and drain ability already on it. Furthermore, because he is so cheap we can use Lurrus of the Dream-Den as a companion and fill our deck with cheap, efficient pieces like Doomed Traveller, who is able to replace himself when he dies. Removal peices like Leonin Relic-Warder are excellent too because the exile and return to battlefield abilities are separate. What this means is that you can sacrifice the Relic-Warder in response to the exile ability, the return to battlefield trigger will resolve before the exile effect, making your target permanently yeeted. We also can include a bunch of free sacrifice outlets like Bartolome del Presidio who can get real huge real quick.

Want to try something out not in Orzhov? Well dear reader let me introduce you to the wonderful world of Jund. Jund is based in Black, Red and Green and works on a similar idea as Orzhov, sacrificing small guys to get the bigger beasties out in their place. Slimefoot and Squee is an excellent commander card for this as it's not only an aristocrat themed deck but also a reanimtor deck. We want to fill our graveyard with big nasties that have really impactful effects like Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness and then use our commander's ability to bring themselves and another creature back from the yard. Then use effects like Insidious Roots to gain more value from installing a rotating door on our graveyard. There is a way to abuse this even more too. Remember Atsushi, the Blazing Sky's ability to make treasure on death? If we sacrifice it and our commander to Phyrexian Altar we can generate enough mana to bring them both back an infinite amount of times, then we can drain our opponents out with Syr Konrad, the Grim. Honestly, Grim is the right word here for this kind of combo!

Finally, our last commander that we are going to take a look at is Meren of Clan Nel Toth, a Golgari (Green and Black) Commander who gets quest counters whenever one of our creatures bite the big one. Then, on end step we can return any creature with mana value equal to the number of quest counters. Here's the thing about Quest counters, there is no way to remove them, only get more so even if our Golgari Gal Pal gets removed, we keep the counters. We then fill our decks with creatures that we want to be able to loop like Spore Frog to prevent us losing to combat damage, Shriekmaw for targeted removal and Plaguecrafter which is a 3 for 1 that is reccurable and gets around indestructible creatures. What I really enjoy about this sort of deck is that we can also win with my favourite combo. It's not infinite, but it is a doozy and a finisher.

With our commander out, we play Gray Merchant of Asphodel draining our opponents for a minimum of 3 each and gaining 9 life, then we use Saw in half to destroy it and make 2 more copies. Each copy has the same mana value so when they enter, we will be draining each opponent for a 5 this time and gaining 15. Finally, on endstep we return the original Gary draining for 10 each and gaining 30 life. Dealing a total of 28 minimum to our opponents and gaining us 54 life puts us in such an insurmountable position it will be impossible for our opponents to recover.

Aristocrats is a much-loved archetype and its easy to see why. There are so many colours and philosophies you can look into, want to draw cards, gain life or just hand out the pain, then there is a commander there for you. Happy Brewing!