When I was a kid first picking up Magic: The Gathering, my family introduced me to Scrye magazine. These were the early days of the internet back in 1999 and so magazines like this, Inquest, The Duelist, and TopDeck provided a great resource to the various tabletop games of the era. I'd pour over these magazines to learn all kinds of information about what cards seemed cool and the latest strategies the game had to offer. One such card that I recall reading about in that first issue of Scrye magazine that would stick with me for years, though, was Sneak Attack.

The artwork of a bunch of goblins sneaking up on a sleeping dragon against the Red card frame really stood out to me. This was also well before I understood just how good the card was. Playing a creature for one turn only to have it die? Who would want to do that? Then I realized exactly what kind of creatures people were sneaking into play: the large kinds that would demolish opponents in record time. Once it clicked, it was all I wanted to be doing in formats like Legacy, Commander, and Cube. If Sneak Attack was open or I got to do some Reanimator nonsense, I was all over it.

Turns out after 25 years with the game, this is still something I love to do. As Bloomburrow previews started rolling out in July, one card that enabled this exact kind of strategy caught my eye. That was a little legendary weasel known as The Infamous Cruelclaw.

When taking into context a format like Standard right now, it's not hard to see the kinds of nonsense you can get up to with this. Imagine cheating an Atraxa, Grand Unifier or an Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness onto the battlefield with ease. Oh, and you discard a card to do so as well, meaning you can pitch another big creature that you can then use some kind of reanimation spell on. Then consider doing this in older formats where you get access to creatures like Griselbrand or the various eldrazi titans!

It seemed like a pretty enticing build around and I immediately wanted to see if I could bring this sort of deck to Commander. Turns out it's pretty easy to do so after all! Let's take a look at a list first and then we'll discuss it at length.

The Sneaky Cruelclaw | Commander | Paige Smith

• Commander (1)
• 1 The Infamous Cruelclaw

• Creatures (18)
• 1 Archon of Cruelty
• 1 Artisan of Kozilek
• 1 Big Game Hunter
• 1 Combustible Gearhulk
• 1 Etali, Primal Storm
• 1 Feldon of the Third Path
• 1 Grave Scrabbler
• 1 Ilharg, the Raze-Boar
• 1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1 Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded
• 1 Rottenmouth Viper
• 1 Scourge of the Throne
• 1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
• 1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
• 1 Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire
• 1 Vile Entomber

• Instants (7)
• 1 Bedevil
• 1 Cauldron Dance
• 1 Entomb
• 1 Gravepurge
• 1 Terminate
• 1 Through the Breach
• 1 Vampiric Tutor

• Sorceries (14)
• 1 Avacyn's Judgment
• 1 Biting Rain
• 1 Buried Alive
• 1 Cruel Tutor
• 1 Cruelclaw's Heist
• 1 Drown in Sorrow
• 1 Forever Young
• 1 From Under the Floorboards
• 1 In Garruk's Wake
• 1 Insatiable Avarice
• 1 Reanimate
• 1 Rise of the Dark Realms
• 1 Terminal Agony
• 1 Vandalblast

• Enchantments (3)
• 1 Animate Dead
• 1 Sneak Attack
• 1 The Creation of Avacyn

• Artifacts (16)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Bilbo's Ring
• 1 Brainstone
• 1 Brotherhood Regalia
• 1 Charcoal Diamond
• 1 Crystal Ball
• 1 Fire Diamond
• 1 Nim Deathmantle
• 1 Prowler's Helm
• 1 Quicksilver Amulet
• 1 Sensei's Divining Top
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Talisman of Indulgence
• 1 Trailblazer's Boots
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Liliana Vess

• Lands (40)
• 5 Mountain
• 9 Swamp
• 1 Barren Moor
• 1 Blackcleave Cliffs
• 1 Blazemire Verge
• 1 Blightstep Pathway // Searstep Pathway
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Canyon Slough
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Dragonskull Summit
• 1 Forgotten Cave
• 1 Graven Cairns
• 1 Haunted Ridge
• 1 Isolated Watchtower
• 1 Kher Keep
• 1 Lavaclaw Reaches
• 1 Luxury Suite
• 1 Mortuary Mire
• 1 Raucous Theater
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Smoldering Marsh
• 1 Study Hall
• 1 Sulfurous Springs
• 1 Tainted Peak
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 1 Temple of Malice
• 1 Witch's Cottage

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When it comes to building this deck, there were four primary things I looked for when putting it together. These are the big creatures and spells to cast off The Infamous Cruelclaw (naturally), ways to make Cruelclaw unblockable, additional Sneak Attack and reanimation effects, and cards that manipulate the top of your deck. Each of these provides a crucial aspect to make your commander function properly. Let's break each aspect down, starting with the creatures.

Here I went with some of the traditional heavy hitters. This includes eldrazi titans like Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and genuine monsters such as Archon of Cruelty and Rottenmouth Viper. Several of these are admittedly pretty pricey on their own, and doesn't even consider how deep you could go with these. For example, both Emrakul, the Promised End and Ulamog, the Defiler are both massive but also quite costly - arguably more than some of the ones already in this list, so I left them out.

Conversely, there's also plenty of very budget friendly options out there if you can't go all-in on your options like with this. Some of the cards in here like Combustible Gearhulk, Scourge of the Throne, and Etali, Primal Storm can be obtained quite cheaply and will have a massive impact on the board any time they get cheated in. Heck, even something as simple as a Noxious Gearhulk or Inferno Titan can have tremendous implications to a game even if they aren't quite eldrazi-level good. There's tons of options out there for you to choose them and the ones here are just some of the better ones, but I highly recommend experimenting to find what works best for you.

But wait, The Infamous Cruelclaw doesn't specify that you're limited to only casting creature spells off the top of your deck! So what about noncreature options? In this list, I went with only a couple options. Those are In Garruk's Wake and Rise of the Dark Realms - both extremely powerful spells that are typically too costly to make good use of in normal games. Casting them for free, however, is more than worth it. You can also use spells like Worldfire, Portal to Phyrexia, Spine of Ish Sah, Plague Wind, Breach the Multiverse, Bolas's Citadel and Army of the Damned - just to name a few. Each of these can completely turn the tide of any game, so if you want to do something more than simply putting big creatures into play, consider giving these a shot.

So now that we have a good idea of the kinds of things we're looking to cast, let's try and look at how we can make use of them the best. This requires two primary aspects: making sure The Infamous Cruelclaw can get in damage and making sure there's something on the top of the deck to use. After all, a big problem with this sort of effect is how easy it can be to whiff on the effect. Without the proper setup, you could easily flip over a mana rock or something similarly trivial, which is hardly the sort of thing you want to see here.

First, let's look at the easier side of things: making sure Cruelclaw can get damage in. This is actually quite simple to pull off. Many pieces of equipment can either make a creature unblockable or else extremely hard to block. Bilbo's Ring, Whispersilk Cloak, Trailblazer's Boots, Prowler's Helm, and the recent Brotherhood Regalia all do this perfectly. Oh, and there's also a classic land that does this in the form of Rogue's Passage as well.

Another favorite that provides some solid evasion in this list is Nim Deathmantle. It's not perfect, as it does still allow your creature to be blocked provided your opponent has a Black, Red, or artifact creature in play. However, between the extra protection and natural menace, it should still be a breeze to push attacks through. It's also worth mentioning that this card is tremendously helpful as well even without The Infamous Cruelclaw. If you sneak a creature into play for a turn and let it die, you can then immediately revive it by paying the cost of the triggered ability on the Deathmantle itself. Not a bad deal!

So now comes the real trick: setting up the top of your library. There's a few ways to do this effectively, but it's a bit more challenging without access to Blue, which is the color typically associated with library manipulation. Instead, we have to rely on some more unusual angles - particularly in Black. A very simple method is good old-fashioned scrying. There aren't too many ways to do this, but even something like having access to a Crystal Ball can go a long way. Cards like Brainstone and Sensei's Divining Top also work wonders here.

One of the best ways to set up your library is with good old fashioned tutoring. Typically tutoring is played in such a way that it puts the cards directly into your hand. However, Black happens to have a pretty decent number of them that put the card on top of your deck rather than into your hand. These include cards like Vampiric Tutor (and the similar Imperial Seal if you're feeling spendy), Cruel Tutor, and Insatiable Avarice. The Creation of Avacyn works here also, and you can even get multiple tutors off both Liliana Vess and Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire so long as your opponents don't pick them off.

There's also a much more roundabout way of pulling this off. This involves putting creatures directly into your graveyard first. To do this, you ideally want to use cards like Entomb, Buried Alive, Vile Entomber, and Unmarked Grave. Then, once you do this, you can cast a spell like Forever Young or Gravepurge to put multiple creatures from your graveyard on top of your library. Not only will this set you up for one Cruelclaw trigger, but several for the turns that follow.

Alternatively, you can simply ignore The Infamous Cruelclaw and simply use other means to get your creatures out. You're already shoving creatures into your graveyard, right? Why not bring them back the old fashioned way? Pack copies of cards like Reanimate and Animate Dead and you can easily get the creatures into play once you pitch them to The Infamous Cruelclaw or otherwise. You can even set it up so that you cast an Artisan of Kozilek by discarding another big creature and get that creature back with the Artisan's cast trigger. Bonus points if you bring back a Sheoldred, Whispering One for even more reanimation shenanigans.

There's also the option of finding additional Sneak Attack methods. These include, well, the most obvious card of the bunch to start: Sneak Attack itself. Over the years, though, there have been numerous additional cards that grant this effect. One of the more notable ones for a while was Through the Breach, a card that acts as a one-time sneak effect. Since then, though, we've also had two very noteworthy options that act as more repeatable Sneak Attacks: Ilharg, the Raze-Boar and Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded. None of these is terribly hard to acquire (except for perhaps Through the Breach, which has been making waves in Modern) so they all should provide great utility in games where you can't reliably use your commander.

In short, there's a ton of powerful things The Infamous Cruelclaw enables at Commander pods. Very few of those things are fair, but they're reasonable enough that it won't necessarily end games instantly. It's not like you're winning off of an infinite combo or anything, you're merely using big creatures to beat face! Your opponents may not be too thrilled, though, but it's a small price to pay for getting to do the silly things a deck like this enables. Even if your opponents aren't having the best time, it's almost certain to provide you with a great experience at your next Commander night. Who knows, maybe you'll even get a few good stories out of it that you and your friends can share for years to come.

Paige Smith

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