In Commander, we often have to run a decent amount of removal. Most removal being creature removal in Magic: The Gathering. The reason being that a lot of the game revolves around creatures and combat. What if I told you that the secret to some of the best removal and effects are creature based effects? What if I told you because there is so much good creature removal they've made some creatures absolutely cracked to compensate?

Removal

What creature-based removal should you be running? Kogla, The Titan Ape is kind of the inspiration for this article. For six total mana, Kogla, The Titan Ape, is a 7/6. When it enters, it fights up to one target creature. If a player wants to counter this spells from resolving, before entering, they will need something like Arcane Denial or Counterspell because this is a creature spell. The thing is most counterspells are weak against creatures, at least easier ones to cast.

A reason why creature-based effects are strong. Back to Kogla, The Titan Ape: Most creatures are below 6 toughness so Kogla can safely remove all kinds of creatures. That's not all! When Kogla, The Titan Ape attacks, it destroys up to one artifact or enchantment. All this removal on one creature is insane! And it's a 7/6 body that can deal damage.

What are some removal on creatures? Creatures like Druid of Purification, Reclamation Sage, Hullbreaker Horror, and Aven Interrupter are all types of creatures with removal attached. Reclamation Sage destroys on enter. Druid of Purification gets more than one thing and doesn't target. Hullbreaker Horror bounces permanents when a spell is cast after it has entered. Interrupter is one of my personal favorites because with Flash it can plot a counterspell and make it useless. All creature-based removal that get around a lot of counter magic.

Card Draw

What are some creature based draw you should be running? If I said it once, I'll say it again: card draw through creatures! Card draw is one of the best things you could do as a game action in Commander. Aerial Extortionist is a great card that inspired this category. It exiles something, which might be great removal depending on what it is. Anything cast from anywhere other than the hand, draws you a card. Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait is another amazing card. For six mana, every land you play draws you a card, and you get an additional land drop, which is three cards per turn. Absolutely insane card draw if you make it to 6 mana in Simic colors...which you absolutely will do.

What about drawing for attacking? Akiri, Fearless Voyager draw you a card whenever you attack one or more equipped creatures at a player. That could be as much as three cards a turn as well. What about drawing a card when people search their decks: Archivist of Oghma. What about drawing a card when you cast or copy an instant or sorcery: Archmage Emeritus. The benefits here is passive card draw through creatures. They are weak to creature removal but often they are cheaper to get out or highly valued at its cost for what it does. Hard to counter, and expensive or tough to remove permanently.

Ramp

What are some creature based mana production? I've said it in previous articles, but creature-based ramp is secretly the most necessary thing for your decks. Being able to ramp from Forest to Birds of Paradise, to next turn a Circle of Dreams Druid is super powerful. Or a Forest into Elves of Deep Shadow, into your third color is extremely strong mana fixing. This is true for Somberwald Sage, Fanatic of Rhonas, Llanowar Tribe, and Karametra's Acolyte in Green. Green is the best at this. Deranged Assistant is somewhat useful if you need a little more mana and intend to self-mill. Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion is great in Red if the goal is to discard and recur.

Aside from these cards ramping you, they are great sacrifice fodder for those kinds of effects. They're good chump blockers, and they are unassuming. Part of what makes this great are in situations where you have Guardian Project and they ramp and draw you cards. Creatures are so versatile and interactive with the majority of cards in Magic: The Gathering. The thing is because they are so necessary and integral, means a lot of removal gets them: Sac effects, board wipes, exile effects. This doesn't mean they aren't good though.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read. I hope this helps in your next deck-building session! @cashinds on X