Getting cards into play for free is one of the most powerful things you can do in Magic: The Gathering. We’ve seen repeatedly how free spells and upend competitive formats, and they’re a vital tool in Commander. Beyond one-off free spells, there are even engines that can repeatedly cheat cards in for free, like Deathrender. While you do have to jump through a few hoops to make things happen, this equipment has absurd combo potential.
MTG Deathrender
While Deathrender takes a lot of work to set up, the payoff is definitely worth it. Spending a total of six mana for a +2/+2 buff is mediocre at best, but the death trigger makes up for it. Just cheating one big creature, like Blightsteel Colossus, into play can end the game on its own.
Thanks to this, Polymorph decks are likely the best place to use Deathrender. To set up their key spells, the deck commonly runs token producers like Skrelv’s Hive, giving Deathrender plenty of targets to equip to. Once set up, you can get beaters like Ghalta Stampede Tyrant that are stranded in your hand into play. While getting creatures stranded in hand is something most Polymorph decks should be built to handle, the redundancy Deathrender offers is valuable nevertheless.
Aristocrats can also use Deathrender to great effect, especially alongside Korvold, Fae-Cursed King. With a free sacrifice outlet like Vicera Seer, you can easily cheat out of a ton of cards, potentially even your entire deck. Even if the creatures you cheat out almost instantly get sacrificed, Blood Artist and other support makes this more than worthwhile.
If you want to try to use this in an equipment deck, it is rather easy to make Deathrender more efficient. Speeding up your equipment while giving it redundancy, Ratonhnhaké꞉ton, and Forge Anew can both reanimate Deathrender and bypass its equip cost. From there, cards like Stone Haven Outfitter can help draw into big bodies for Deathrender to cheat out.
Sadly, outside of cards like Gilgamesh, Master at-Arms and Godo, Bandit Warlord, there aren’t a lot of big bodies in this archetype to cheat into play. Still, with the right equipment Commander, going infinite with MTG Deathrender is trivial.
Going Infinite
Since Deathrender reequips itself after triggering, it’s pretty easy to go infinite with the artifact. That being said, there is a fair bit of setup required to properly pop off. On top of needing Deathrender attached to a creature, you’ll need a free sacrifice engine and a card that recurs creatures like Koll, the Forgemaster. Thankfully, while this is a four-card combo, at minimum, there is a fair bit of redundancy to it.
Not only are there plenty of free sacrifice outlets to choose from, but Enduring Renewal can sub in for Koll, too. After this, you’ll just need a card to actually win the game, like Altar of Dementia or Impact Tremors. Once again, there are plenty of options in this category, so building around this combo isn’t as risky as you might think.
Outside of these recursive engines, there’s a whole subset of creatures that can return themselves to your hand on their own. Michelangelo, On the Scene or Endless Cockroaches, for example, can go infinite with Deathrender and a sacrifice outlet.
Not a Token Trinket
While Deathrender isn’t always the easiest card to use, it is an extremely flashy and explosive artifact. Thanks to this, the card does see some Commander play, appearing in roughly 9,960 decks according to EDHREC. Still, considering how strong this becomes with some building around it, the sword could easily become more popular.
Sadly, despite being reprinted twice, Deathrender remains a little pricey. $3.28 before shipping is the absolute cheapest you’ll find a copy of this card for, but sales more often trend towards $5. If you’re interested in blinging out your Deathrender, a Secret Lair variant of the card is available for about $8 in nonfoil and $9 in foil.
While this means that Deathrender isn’t a budget card, it’s not overly expensive, either. Considering many cheat cards cost far more than this, Deathrender could be the sweet spot between efficiency and price that you’ve been looking for.
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