Infect has always been a controversial effect to bring to a Commander table. It’s extremely easy to die to Poison Counters out of nowhere, which makes many players raise their guard immediately, but if you’re looking for a win condition to close out longer games, it’s also pretty hard to go wrong with Infect.
Grafted Exoskeleton, an uncommon equipment all the way back from Mirrodin, is a well-known nasty win condition, but despite that, it hardly sees any play. According to EDHREC, only 0.82% of decks actually employ the card. This is likely because Infect effects like this one earn the ire of the table immediately, like they should. Regardless, Grafted Exoskeleton has some additional synergies with recent popular MTG Commanders that make it a great inclusion if your deck is taking a little too long to close the game properly.
MTG Grafted Exoskeleton
Grafting Exoskeleton buffs a creature it equips to but, more importantly, it grants Infect. This pairs extremely well with Commanders that deal damage in the form of abilities, which, ironically, seem to be very popular right now.
Starting the conversation with a Commander we spoke about recently, Ragost, Deft Gastronaught is getting some attention right now because of its interaction with Grafted Exoskeleton. Because Ragost himself deals the damage from his Food sacrifice ability, you’ll be dealing 3 Infect damage to each player when he is equipped with Grafted Exoskeleton. Bizarrely, this stacks with Lifelink on Ragost. Both of these effects modify damage, so, if you grant Ragost Lifelink with a card like Basilisk Collar, you’ll both gain three life and deal three Infect damage. The damage gets modified into lifegain and Poison Counters at the same time, meaning the Lifelink still recognizes the damage.
If you set up this nasty combo, you only need four turns to knock out the entire table. Ragost will untap on each end step, ready to deal three more Poison Counters to all of your opponents. If you ever see Grafted Exoskeleton on a Ragost player’s table, focusing them until the Exoskeleton is gone isn’t a bad idea.
MTG Y’shtola, Night’s Blessed
Y’shtola has some awkward synergy with Grafted Exoskelton. Because Y’sholta’s triggered ability causes the Cat Warlock to deal damage to opponents itself, it already has some powerful combos with cards like Curiosity. Grafted Exoskeleton will turn the damage Y’shtola deals into Infect damage. You just need to cast five noncreature spells with mana value three or greater to end the game. Casting Grafted Exoskeleton also triggers Y’shtola’s triggered ability itself.
The awkward interaction comes with Y’shtola’s other triggered ability. You won’t be causing players to lose life with Infect damage, so Y’shtola will not be drawing you cards with its other triggered ability. That said, if you’re playing Grafted Exoskelton, you’re doing so with the objective of ending the game. This likely means that, if you do play the card, it will be extremely late in the game, so you may not need the card draw, anyway. Since Y’shtola is a papercut-focused strategy, ending the game can be somewhat difficult without a big combo. Grafted Exoskeleton certainly works as a win conditon. It’s not the most efficient, but most of the other strong win conditions, like Bolas’s Citadel, are on the Game Changer list.
MTG Captain America, First Avenger
Similar to Ragost, Deft Gastronaught, Captain America, First Avenger uses a lot of damage-based combos because his Throw ability has Captain America deal the damage himself. Basilisk Collar makes another appearance in this Commander deck thanks to Deathtouch. Captain America can divide his damage three different ways, killing three different creatures.
Since Captain America personally deals damage with his ability, Grafted Exoskeleton can turn Throw into a one-player nuke, as long as you can unattach enough equipment to deal ten Poison damage. This has a lot of additional synergy with Captain America in particular, since you can equip Grafted Exoskeleton for free with Catch, and as a Voltron strategy, swinging in with a massive Infect creature is an effective way to kill someone, as well.
Most Voltron decks have absolutely no problem killing one opponent, but winning the game is an entirely different matter. After you amass enough resources to knock out one player, it’s common for your other opponents to deal with you on the crackback since, if you untap, you’ll be knocking out another player. Grafted Exoskeleton allows Captain America to deal with multiple players in one turn with his Throw ability. Swing in and knock someone out with combat damage, then start unattaching equipments to knock out another.
Just don’t unattach the Grafted Exoskeleton itself. Not only will this prevent Captain America from dealing Infect damage, but Exoskeleton’s ability will almost always end in the Cap’s demise.
MTG The Emperor of Palamecia
This last recently printed MTG Commander is by no means popular, but it is the Commander that stands to gain the most from equipping Grafted Exoskeleton mentioned so far. The Emperor of Palamecia offers a lackluster payoff for the classic Izzet Spellslinger archetype. There are far better Commanders out there to pull off this strategy with, but if you show up with The Emperor of Palamecia, you need to make sure the payoff of Transforming this card is worth playing for. Grafted Exoskeleton ensures that it is.
In a focused strategy, getting ten noncreature, nonland cards in your graveyard is a rather easy thing to do. This means that The Lord Master of Hell’s attack trigger, when partnered with Grafted Exoskeleton, will turn into a one-hit kill. Double that trigger with cards like Adric, Mathematical Genius, and you can kill multiple players with just one attacker that stands to gain the most from equipping Grafted Exoskeleton.