We’re just a few weeks past the official release of MTG Avatar, and we’re already getting bombarded with spoilers from another Universes Beyond set. Despite not releasing until June, a multitude of exciting Marvel Superheroes legends have been revealed, some of which make for cool Commander build-arounds.
For fans of iconic Villains, Baron Helmut Zemo definitely fits the mold as a sweet Commander option. There are tons of ways to abuse both his triggered and activated ability and make him as threatening as possible.
Building Around Baron Helmut Zemo
Baron Helmut Zemo is one of the most unique mono-black Commanders we’ve seen in a while. Right away, his triggered ability provides some great card selection. Being able to Connive consistently turn after turn is powerful, especially if you have some reanimation shenanigans to go with it. Pair Zemo with card draw payoffs like Alhammarret’s Archive, and you’ll pull ahead on resources in no time.
Even without any additional synergies, though, Zemo’s triggered ability does a great job enabling his Boast ability. This is where the bulk of Zemo’s upside lies, since the reward for copying three black spells of your choice is huge. Still, in order to get to fifteen black mana symbols or more in your graveyard in a timely manner, you do need to put in some effort.
Fortunately, there are some simple tricks to get things rolling. First and foremost, you’re heavily incentivized to play cards with lots of black pips in their mana costs. Just getting cards like Doomsday Excruciator and Zodiark, Umbral God into your graveyard can get you pretty close to the requisite fifteen mana symbols. In fact, with these cards in the mix, a single copy of Buried Alive instantly sets up Zemo’s Boast ability by itself!
Similarly, reliable mass Mill effects not only get you closer to Zemo’s payoff but also help fuel your graveyard with haymakers to cheat into play. Ripples of Undeath can get things started early while also generating card advantage. From there, as long as you have some life to spare, Doom Whisperer can Mill a huge portion of your deck at once. To further bolster this plan, Angel of Suffering keeps your life total high while simultaneously punishing your opponents for attacking you by getting you closer to Zemo’s activation.
Obviously, after putting in work, there are tons of combinations of big plays that can cement your advantage. Devotion payoffs like Gray Merchant of Asphodel as well as massive bombs such as Vilis, Broker of Blood are perfectly capable of closing things out in the right situation. Still, if you want to dig deeper, there are a handful of ways to reliably end the game on the spot with a single Zemo activation.
Winning on the Spot
As scary as Zemo’s Boast ability is on the surface, once you assemble a two or three-card infinite combo into your graveyard, it becomes a game-ending play. Infinite life drain combos centered around Bloodthirsty Conqueror and Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose or Chain of Smog and Professor Onyx do the trick nicely. Any of these combos that utilize only creatures can be enabled singlehandedly with Buried Alive, which is a nice bonus.
If you’ve successfully milled enough creatures, there are other avenues to victory that don’t even require infinite combo lines. Because Zemo can exile any number of black creatures from your graveyard at once, simply getting Syr Konrad into play prior to using Zemo’s Boast ability can end the game before you start casting spells for free at all. This can easily be set up using Morality Shift to fill your graveyard all at once. Pair the sorcery with some Rituals, and you can win the game extremely early.
Baron Helmut Zemo in the 99
While playing more generic roles in discard-centric strategies like Xu-Lift, Osteomancer or Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate, there are a couple legends that reward you more heavily for drawing Zemo over the course of the game. K’rrik, Son of Yawgmoth, for example, definitely fits the bill thanks to its unique set of abilities. With K’rrik in play, Zemo can come down for free. After that, you can follow up with more black spells, triggering Zemo to Connive a bunch of times. Soon enough, you’ll have a big board for your opponents to deal with and a scary Zemo activation looming.
Going further, Zemo makes for an excellent payoff in an Iname, Death Aspect deck. With the right supporting cast, Iname can dump enough black Spirits into your graveyard to get you to a Zemo activation by itself. Throw in a copy of Maskwood Nexus, and you’re free to tutor up any combo creatures of your choice into your graveyard and have Zemo win the game after attacking. Ultimately, even if Zemo looks a little hard to maximize in Constructed, its Commander appeal is through the roof.
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