Thanks to Commander’s slower nature, board wipes are more powerful in the format than usual. With many players needing to set up kills on board, wipes can set players back multiple turns. One-sided wipes make this even worse, allowing you to press your advantage unopposed while your opponents are reset. Thanks to this, Thanos, the Mad Titan looks like one of the best new Commanders when built around.
MTG Thanos, the Mad Titan
Staying true to his lore, Thanos, the Mad Titan is interested in destroying half of every living being. Magic represents that in Thanos’s Power Up ability, destroying all odd or even-costed creatures in play outside of himself. With this in mind, making sure that your creatures are on the surviving side is easy.
Since Thanos doesn’t destroy himself, you can go with either odd or even creatures, but odd seems to have some slightly better payoffs. Since Thanos is odd himself, you can run Obosh, the Preypiercer as a Companion, doubling the damage of all odd-costed sources. This can create some rather nasty combos with Jeska, Thrice Reborn, making one hit with Thanos become lethal Lifelinking Commander damage.
There are a few more odd-costed payoffs, however, that make this direction for Thanos more interesting. Yennet, Cryptic Sovereign is the biggest one, casting free spells off the top of your library with the aid of Sensei’s Divining Top. You also get a few extra one-sided board wipes in the form of Zimone’s Hypothesis and Mutinous Massacre, setting up game-ending plays with ease.
Since Thanos’s Power Up ability puts him in five colors, you’ll have access to all of the best odd-costed creatures in the game, like the ever-popular Esper Sentinel, and MTG’s various mana dorks. That said, using Thanos’s board wipe effect, you can buy time to deploy larger threats. Cards like Hullbreaker Horror and Nezahal, Primal Tide are some of the best odd-costed threats available, turning the game after one resolution.
Wiping the Board Repeatedly
While buying time with Thanos’s board wipe is a powerful strategy, it does come with a catch. Because his board wipe ability is a Power Up one, Thanos can only use it once for each time he is in play. Cards like Mithril Coat can ensure Thanos sticks around long enough to use it, but using it a second time can be difficult.
Fortunately, there are ways to reset Power Up that you can include in your 99. Blink pieces, like Conjurer’s Closet and Soulherder, are the best ways to do this, since you’ll get Power Up’s cost reduction for immediate use. You can pair this with powerful entry effect creatures, like Eternal Witness and Formidable Speaker, for a grindy blink subtheme.
If blinking isn’t your game plan, making copies of Thanos also provides fresh Power Up abilities. Most copy effects are even-costed spells, but Irma, Part-Time Mutant and Quantum Misalignment can make copies of Thanos for fresh wipes. Since you’re sticking with an odd theme, these copies won’t board wipe one another, either.
Instead of board wiping constantly, you could also use Thanos as a control tool after wiping the board once. Thanks to his Deathtouch and Lifelink keywords, cards like Viridian Longbow can turn Thanos into a constant removal machine. Lifelink, meanwhile, can support a few powerful inclusions like Serra Ascendant, setting up some really aggressive starts.
With all kinds of different subpackages to try, Thanos, the Mad Titan can encompass a wide variety of different Commander strategies. You can also go the even route if you so choose, or just put together a five-color goodstuff pile with a boardwipe in the Command Zone. Whatever you do, Thanos, the Mad Titan is unlikely to disappoint.
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