First released in Theros Beyond Death, Athreos, Shroud-Veiled is a surprisingly underplayed legend in Commander. While it does admittedly take some time to get going, it’s hard to deny that this God has potential. In particular, from a combo perspective, Athreos can do real work thanks to its unique Coin Counters. Thanks to this, Athreos, Shroud-Veiled makes for a great and unique build-around option in MTG Commander.
MTG Athreos, Shroud-Veiled
Thanks to its multitude of abilities, Athreos, Shroud-Veiled has a lot going in its favor. As an Indestructible threat, Athreos isn’t vulnerable to traditional removal spells, letting it stick around long-term to distribute tons of Coin Counters. This allows Athreos to be a value machine, consistently bringing back your biggest threats time and time again.
Naturally, if you’ve only got a few Coin Counters to spare, you’ll want to put them on your biggest and best creatures. In particular, creatures with powerful enters effects, like Sepulchral Primordial or Archon of Cruelty, tend to be the go-to choice. Using these alongside sacrifice synergies, like those provided by Braids, Arisen Nightmare, can let you quickly run away with the game.
That being said, while things move fast once set in motion, Athreos, Shroud-Veiled is naturally fairly slow as an MTG card. Not only does it cost six mana to begin with, but it only dishes out one Coin Counter per turn. Thankfully, with fast mana and exploitable synergies on your side, it’s surprisingly easy to get Athreos up to speed rather quickly.
Using cards like Strionic Resonator and Lithoform Engine, for example, you can double dip on Athreos’ end step trigger to spread Coin Counters faster. Provided you already have at least one in play, Contractual Safeguard can do the same, much faster, for just three mana. On top of these, having The Ozolith and Resourceful Defense let you keep Coin Counters in play, unlocking additional synergy.
As if using Athreos, Shroud-Veiled with your own creatures wasn’t exciting enough, it’s worth noting your opponent’s creatures are fair game too. This can effectively allow you to steal your opponent’s creatures, especially alongside blink effects that avoid them needing to die. With all this together, it’s clear that Athreos, Shroud-Veiled has plenty of potential, but that’s all just the tip of the iceberg.
Different Types of Combos
While Athreos is a strong build-around just at face value, it becomes a more formidable force when you incorporate combos into the mix. The simplest game-ending combo available involves landing Altar of Dementia and Resourceful Defense alongside Athreos. From there, as long as you have two nontoken creatures with at least one power in play, you can Mill each opponent out during your end step.
All you have to do is put a Coin Counter on one of the nontoken creatures, then sacrifice it to Altar of Dementia to have an opponent Mill a card. This will trigger Athreos and Resourceful Defense, letting you move the Coin Counter to the other nontoken creature and return the sacrificed creature to play. By repeatedly sacrificing a creature and redistributing the Coin Counter, you’re free to repeat this process an infinite number of times.
Notably, there are a lot of redundant combo pieces that can fill in for either Altar of Dementia or Resourceful Defense. Replacing Resourceful Defense with Reluctant Role Model or Enduring Bondwarden enables the same combo kill, for example. Meanwhile, substituting Blasting Station or Phyrexian Altar for Altar of Dementia will let you win by dealing infinite damage or generating infinite mana instead of Milling each opponent.
For those who want to go above and beyond, it’s even possible to take infinite turns by using Athreos in conjunction with Ugin’s Nexus and a sacrifice outlet. Admittedly, does take some work, since you need a card like Karn, the Great Creator to turn Ugin’s Nexus into a creature so it can obtain a Coin Counter. Additionally, you need an effect like Meticulous Excavation that can bounce Ugin’s Nexus to your hand after you sacrifice it and return it to play. Nonetheless, if you can pull this off, you’ll be the talk of your Commander pod.
An Underplayed Commander
Despite being such a unique legend to craft around, Athreos, Shroud-Veiled remains a very underrated Commander. Appearing as the Commander of less than 2,000 Commander decks, there’s a good chance your opponents will be caught off guard by this legend. That being said, it is a fairly popular inclusion alongside Aminatou, Veil Piercer and Child of Alara, so it’s not totally groundbreaking.
If his power level wasn’t enough to sway you, this legend also makes for a great budget Commander. With a price tag that barely exceeds $0.50, Athreos hardly breaks the bank. So, if you’re looking to add an outside-the-box Orzhov Commander to your arsenal, consider taking Athreos for a spin.
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