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At the very edge ofMagic: The Gathering’s multiverse, humans and other sentient lifeforms live life in the shadow of a collapsed star. Life is dangerous, and often cut short, and none cut it as short as Alpharael.
After Alpharael’s sister was cut down on a suicide mission, he became the wielder of a strange artifact that will protect you while cutting each of your opponents down. With a little help, they can kill your opponents without even hitting them. Here’s why you should choose Alpharael, Stonechosen as your next commander.
Swamp (27)
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Whilethis deck is firmly inBracket 3: Upgraded, it can be downgraded to a Bracket 2: Core deck. The quickest way, at least on paper, is to replace Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, and Bolas’s Citadel with Diabolic Tutor, Feed the Swarm, and Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER.
The Commander
There are a couple of different cards representing the character Alpharael, but Alpharael, Stonechosen is a mono-black version. It’sa legendary 3/3 Human Cleric that costs three generic and two black mana, and has two special abilities.
The first ability is a unique version ofward, which counters your opponents’ spells that target it unless they discard a card at random. A few other creatures have a ward that forces opponents to discard a card, but none at random. If they’re trying to remove Alpharael before another play, they might lose the next card they need!
The second, more important abilitycauses one of your opponents to lose half their life, rounded up, when Alpharael attacksthem, as long as a nonland permanent left the battlefield earlier that turn or a spell was warped.
This ability has two really important features. First,you need to be able to consistently sacrifice, destroy, or warp stuffin order to set it up. And second,you only need to declare the attack;you don’t actually need to deal combat damage.
The timing of the life loss is another important factor: since it happens before combat damage,you could get an opponent down to the point that you can deal lethal damagebefore they can even consider blocking.
Building The Deck
Effects that cut an opponent’s life in half have diminishing returns. You can hit your opponent for 20 life, or for two. Thankfully,Alpharael’s version rounds up, and applies for combat damage, so it can score you a kill if your opponent has seven life or less.
Of course, this is only true if you canensure that permanents leave the battlefieldregularly. Thankfully, black is pretty good at both destroying your opponents’ creatures and sacrificing your own.
A robust set of sac outlets like Phyrexian Altar allows you to turn creatures into resourceswhile activating Alpharael, Stonechosen’s ability. There are also a few ways to make extra creatures, and salt-inducing effects like Grave Pact to ensure that they won’t go to the graveyard alone.
Cutting life in half is neat, but if you control an effect like the one on Bloodletter of Aclazotz, which doubles life loss,effectively killing a player when you declare your attack. This deck contains no less than three versions of the effect, along with backup methods to halve your opponents’ life if you can’t keep Alpharael in play.
The final piece of the puzzle is The Endstone, the very stone that chose Alpharael. This legendary artifactresets your life to 20 at the end of your turn, allowing you to use your life as a resource and get it right back. There are also several other ways to gain life, particularly in the form of gaining life when an opponent loses some.
Ramp
Black has some excellent mana acceleration options, especially if you’re willing to sacrifice some creatures for mana.
The two mana altars,Phyrexian Altar and Ashnod’s Altar, are classic ways to turn creatures into mana. They don’t tap, so your only real limit is how many creatures you’re willing to sacrifice upon them.
A less common mana rock is Crowded Crypt, whichtaps for one black mana and accumulates corpse countersas your creatures die. Later, for six mana, you cansacrifice it and get as many 2/2 Zombies as it had corpse counters, giving you a small army to finish the game with or to sacrifice for even more mana from the aforementioned altars.
A mono-colored deck is going to have a lot of basic lands by default, so any effect that increases the mana produced by them is good to have. Crypt Ghast does exactly that,doubling the mana production of each of your Swamps. It also has extort, which allows you to pay an extra black mana whenever you cast a spell to drain one life from each opponent.
While not quite mana acceleration,Bolas’s Citadel does allow you to bypass mana requirementsto cast spells from the top of your deck, using life instead. This is a particularly powerful effect if you have The Endstone in play, allowing you to burn through life and get refilled to 20 every turn.
Draw
Black has access to some phenomenal draw options, and a variety of them are included in this deck.
Phyrexian Arena is a black staple that simplytrades one life for one extra card at the beginning of your upkeep. It’s cost-effective, but even better, it’s simple. In a game as complex as Commander, where you need to keep track of dozens of effects, don’t underestimate the importance of simplicity.
With almost the same effect on the opposite end of your turn,Voidforged Titan is almost like a second copy of Phyrexian Arenathat happens to have a 5/4 body. The only downside is that the ability is keyed to the void keyword, so you’ll need to warp a spell or sacrifice a creature. Basically, you need to do exactly what the deck is built to do.
Susur Secundi, Void Altar is a land withthe station ability, which works a lot like crew or saddle, except that you can build up to it over time. Susur Secundi, Void Altar usually just taps for black mana, butwhen fully crewed you can pay two mana, two life, and sacrifice a creature to draw cards equal to the creature’s power.
This version of Braids, Arisen Nightmare isn’t a game changer, but it can feel like one, with a little forethought. It allows you to sacrifice a permanent, thenforce your opponents to match your sacrificewith a permanent of the same type.If any of them can’t, you draw a cardand they lose two life.
Backups And Double-Ups
As previously mentioned, cutting your opponents’ life in half can feel like a big deal, but it doesn’t usually end the game. Not without a little help, at least.
If you control both Alpharael, Stonechosen, and Bloodletter of Aclazotz, you can pretty mucheliminate an opponent in each of your combat phases. Declare Alpharael’s attack, and your opponent loses all of their life.
Archfiend of Despair and Wound Reflection do the same thing, but a little slower. Each of them causes each opponent tolose life equal to the life they already lost that turn during each end step, not just your own. They can also be used for trick plays, allowing you to half an opponent’s life and then play them in the second main phase.
you’re able to’t always keep your commander in play, which is why it’s good to have a backup or two with similar effects. Virtus the Veiled is one such backup:it cuts an opponent’s life in half, just like Alpharael, but only when it deals combat damage. Use Rogue’s Passage to make it unblockable, then go to town!
Grievous Wound is usually best if an opponent is playing with a lot of life gain, but it can also be used to help get a problematic player out of the game. If someone keeps killing Alpharael, Stonechosen, consider giving them this curse so that you and their other opponents can close the game out.
