Commander is the format for players who want to pull off potentially suboptimal, but ridiculous feats. With this in mind, nothing is closer to the spirit of Commander than Jumbo Cactuar. This card is far from competitively viable, but having a 10,000 power attack trigger means it gets some funky interactions with a multitude of different MTG cards.
While granting the Cactuar Trample is likely the most effective way of using the card, it’s not the most fun. Flinging Jumbo Cactuar aside, here are some absolutely ridiculous things to pull off with Magic’s highest Power creature.
Jumbo Cactuar & Saw in Half
Saw in Half had players excited the day it was revealed. While this Unfinity card was an amazing card to use alongside Dockside Exortionist, that card is no longer Commander legal, so players are looking for other homes for this instant.
Jumbo Cactuar has a surprisingly strong interaction with it. If you Saw in Half your Cactuar after using its attack trigger, you’ll get two Jumbo Cactuars with 5000 power. They’ll retain their triggers as well, allowing your tokens to attack with 15,000 power. Even if you can’t assemble this combo specifically, Saw in Half is a solid card that synergizes well with any enters triggers, and Jumbo Cactuar still threatens to end players on its own. You should be able to find decent uses for either of these cards even outside of the combo.
Excess Damage
Sometimes, just Flinging a Jumbo Cactuar isn’t enough. If you want everything to take a healthy dose of 10,000 damage, Chandra’s Ignition is the card for you. In the likely scenario that your threatening cactus gets chump-blocked, you can just deal 10,000 damage to everything your opponents have, including themselves.
Windswift slice does something similar, allowing Jumbo Cactuar to convert its damage into 1/1 Elf tokens. Just attack with the Cactuar and use the instant to kill an opposing creature. This will generate 10,000ish creatures, which is more than enough to clear 120 life from your opponents. These are rather hilarious ways to end a game of Commander, but it’s not without its issues.
Both of these combos demand that your opponents have an answer, but just about any answer will do. Chandra’s Ignition and Windswift Slice have to target your Jumbo Cactuar, which means that any spot removal on the Cactus will fizzle your spell. Counterspells targeting the instant/sorcery also work.
10,000 Mana
There is a small subset of creatures that create mana equal to another creature’s power. Selvala, Heart of the Wilds is best among these, translating a creature’s power into mana of any color at a small cost. She even draws cards when a new creature with the greatest power enters play. Because Jumbo Cactuar only has 10,000 power after attacking, it’s easier to trigger this than you might think.
More often than not, creating 10,000 mana is more than enough to win a game in any number of ways. You can also use Bighorner Rancher or Tanuki Transplanter to generate mana this way, but you’ll only get green mana.
Alternatively, if you’re playing a Treasure Tokens matters deck, Ruthless Technomancer can create 10,000 Treasure tokens by sacrificing Jumbo Cactuar. Mirkwood Bats will end the game real quick if this happens. Better yet, Ruthless Technomancer can reanimate all of your creatures if you can somehow give it Haste.
If you’re playing Jumbo Cactuar in a Landfall deck, consider Traverse the Outlands. This card will hilariously find 10,000 basic lands from your deck. Of course, you won’t have that many, so if you do consider playing this, make sure that finding all of your basic lands accomplishes something meaningful.
Similar to the other combos we’ve already talked about, a simple piece of creature removal will break this up.
Gain 10,000 Life
Jumbo Cactuar can be absolutely hilarious with cards that gain life equal to a creature’s power. The one that will come up most often is likely Swords to Plowshares. This appears in every Commander deck as removal, but has a secret(ish) secondary mode that can grant you 10,000 life. Solitude plays a very similar role, and is even free, to boot.
If you don’t want to use a piece of removal on your own creature, you can also play a variety of other cards that do the same thing. Here are some cards that can gain 10,000 life with an attacking Jumbo Cactuar.
Of course, you can also just give Jumbo Cactuar Lifelink, but that does mean the Cactus has to deal combat damage to gain life.
Sacrificing the Cactus
There is a collection of cards that can sacrifice a creature and gain benefits equal to its power. Ruthless Technomancer technically falls into this category while also generating mana.
Your other options for sacrificing Jumbo Cactuar, however, might be even more interesting than Ruthless Technomancer. Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord might be the most powerful of the bunch. Commonly creating a combo with Lord of Extinction, if Jarad manages to sacrifice an attacking Jumbo Cactuar, all of your opponents will lose 10,000 life.
Tend the Pests also works as a fantastic sacrificial card for Jumbo Cactuar, creating 10,000 1/1 Pest tokens. This should easily be enough to end a game on the next turn. Even if it forces a boardwipe, you’ll gain 10,000 life from all the death triggers. Infested Thrinax accomplishes something similar, but your Cactuar will need to die of other causes.
Altar of Dementia will also end someone’s game, or maybe everyone’s if you’re a self-mill deck trying to win with Thassa’s Oracle, but it remains as another card that can create a flashy moment with Jumbo Cactuar.
10,000 +1/+1 Counters
Yannik, Scavenging Sentinel can exile Jumbo Cactuar temporarily after it attacks. Should you manage to pull this off, you can distribute 10,000 +1/+1 counters in any way to deem fit. In emergency situations, you can even give opponent’s creatures +1/+1 counters to deal with an even more menacing threat. 40 is a small amount in this picture, easily allowing you to grant any opponent the ability to take another out. Politics are at their best here.
Nikara, Lair Scavenger, the natural Partner to Yannik, can turn the creatures you do end up buffing into card draw, giving you insurance against board wipes that don’t exile or bounce the board. The game should end most of the time if you manage to pull this off, but if someone has the board wipe to get out of it, you should be stocked up to keep presenting threats.
Inkshield
If one of your friends really likes to play with Jumbo Cactuar, playing Inkshield can create a funny blowout situation. Not only will this prevent all the damage it wants to deal, but you get 10,000 2/1 fliers. 20,000 damage should be more than enough to take out the rest of the table.
Of course, if you’re interested in just using Jumbo Cactuar to its best potential, Trample, Lifelink, Fling effects, and unblockable buffs are your best bet. Whispersilk Cloak, in particular, is rather difficult to beat when equipped to a Jumbo Cactuar. That said, these options certainly create more hilarious moments.
