Mystery Booster: Commander Edition is a true love letter to old-school Magic lore, giving a ton of flavor text characters cards of their own. Davvol, Evincar of Rath is a prime example, going from a goofy joke on Carnival of Souls to a serious MTG Commander option. Offering terrifying mana acceleration and easy combo lines, this long-awaited Phyrexian is one of the best legends in a stacked set.
Davvol, Evincar Of Rath MTG
Davvol is essentially a better Carnival of Souls in the command zone, giving you mana for your own creatures without burning you for opponents’. This is fantastic for quickly developing an aggressive board, chaining creatures like Deathrite Shaman and Forsaken Miner with ease. It also makes one-black-mana activated abilities, like Attrition‘s, much more reliable and attractive.
Davvol gets even scarier when you bring tokens into the mix, essentially turning cards like Scute Swarm and Pest Infestation into rituals. Combined with a Haste granter like Concordant Crossroads, you can use the Davvol mana from your tokens to pay for an immediate Overwhelming Stampede effect and smash in. Add in a token doubler like Parallel Lives, and you can potentially create lethal boards.
To keep swarming the board with Davvol, powerful Green card advantage options, including Guardian Project and The Great Henge, can keep your hand stocked. You can also dip into black’s deep pool of sacrifice-based draw, with cards like Yawgmoth, Thran Physician. Skullclamp is particularly nice here, since Davvol’s mana covers its equip cost each time.
As Davvol’s ability takes a heavy toll on your life total, life gain tools like Essence Warden and Virulent Emissary can refund your life right after it’s lost. Blood Artist effects, such as the recent Cauldron of Essence, help out a ton too if you’re packing a good supply of sacrifice outlets.
Celebratory Combos
Davvol, Evincar of Wrath also has a deep suite of infinite combos, including an infinite enters/dies line with Gravecrawler and Carrion Feeder. Simply sacrifice Gravecrawler to Feeder, then re-cast it from your ‘yard for one black. Davvol will refund you that mana, letting you rinse and repeat for a win with Zulaport Cutthroat or something similar.
In a similar vein, Davvol can build up an infinite Storm count alongside Acererak the Archlich and Heartless Summoning. With this setup, you can cast Acererak for one black, refund it with Davvol, then bounce it back to your hand. Throw in Aetherflux Reservoir to balance out the life loss, and you can have infinite life as well as infinite damage.
Davvol can even make you infinite tokens and mana, when paired up with Spawning Pit and Doubling Season. With one creature to sacrifice to Pit initially, you can put two counters on it, then remove them to make two tokens and two black mana. With something like Prosperous Innkeeper around to keep you alive, this combo can win with lethal token swarms and Walking Ballista alike.
While it can certainly be a risky MTG Commander due to the life loss, Davvol, Evincar of Rath more than makes up for that with its sheer power. Once the dust settles, I expect this to be one of the clear standouts from Mystery Booster: Commander Edition.
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