Incredible MTG Graveyard Commander Creates Multiple Instant Death Combos

In Commander, especially at Bracket 3 tables, graveyard decks are often one of the most powerful strategies you can use. With tons of powerful cards available to explosively fill your graveyard, creating lots of value or massive tempo swings from nowhere is easy. Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord is just one example of this, creating graveyard-based death combos with ease.

MTG Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord

While all of Jarad’s abilities do somewhat separate things, there are a few underlying themes that help tie things together. Whether they’re in the graveyard or in play, Jarad cares about creatures, leading the Commander to include lots of creatures that can fill the graveyard.

The usual suspects, like Stitcher’s Supplier Stitcher’s Supplier When this creature enters or dies, mill three cards. (Put the top three cards of your library into your graveyard.) , Splinterfright Splinterfright Trample
Splinterfright's power and toughness are each equal to the number of creature cards in your graveyard.
At the beginning of your upkeep, mill two cards. (Put the top two cards of your library into your graveyard.) , and Dredge cards like Stinkweed Imp Stinkweed Imp Flying
Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a creature, destroy that creature.
Dredge 5 (If you would draw a card, you may mill five cards instead. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to your hand.) , kick off Jarad’s game plan nicely, easily creating a massive creature. Aftermath Analyst Aftermath Analyst When this creature enters, mill three cards. (Put the top three cards of your library into your graveyard.)
{3}{G}, Sacrifice this creature: Return all land cards from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped. is a particularly strong inclusion here, both milling over cards and recurring lands sacrificed to Jarad’s last ability. Of course, you can also include noncreature milling cards like Palantir of Orthanc Palantir of Orthanc At the beginning of your end step, put an influence counter on Palantír of Orthanc and scry 2. Then target opponent may have you draw a card. If that player doesn't, you mill X cards, where X is the number of influence counters on Palantír of Orthanc, and that player loses life equal to the total mana value of those cards. and Grisly Salvage Grisly Salvage Reveal the top five cards of your library. You may put a creature or land card from among them into your hand. Put the rest into your graveyard. as strong value pieces.

Once you’ve filled your graveyard with creatures, Jarad wants to leverage high-powered creatures with his second ability, dealing massive blows to your opponents’ life totals. Fortunately, there’s a ton of overlap here, with cards like Lord of Extinction Lord of Extinction Lord of Extinction's power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in all graveyards. , Old Stickfingers Old Stickfingers When you cast this spell, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal X creature cards. Put all creature cards revealed this way into your graveyard, then put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Old Stickfingers's power and toughness are each equal to the number of creature cards in your graveyard. , and Mortivore Mortivore Mortivore's power and toughness are each equal to the number of creature cards in all graveyards.
{B}: Regenerate this creature. (The next time this creature would be destroyed this turn, instead tap it, remove it from combat, and heal all damage on it.) becoming massive with a graveyard theme. Alternatively, cards like Ghoultree Ghoultree This spell costs {1} less to cast for each creature card in your graveyard. can become exceptionally easy to cast, while Honest Rutstein Honest Rutstein When Honest Rutstein enters, return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
Creature spells you cast cost {1} less to cast. can help Jarad put up constant threats.

Sweetening the pot, there’s a whole series of payoffs for high-stat creatures past Jarad’s ability. Between cards like Greater Good Greater Good Sacrifice a creature: Draw cards equal to the sacrificed creature's power, then discard three cards. and Riskhar’s Expertise, there are tons of insane card draw options for the Commander. You can also use graveyard-centric support pieces like Brawn Brawn Trample
As long as this card is in your graveyard and you control a Forest, creatures you control have trample. and Filth Filth Swampwalk (This creature can't be blocked as long as defending player controls a Swamp.)
As long as this card is in your graveyard and you control a Swamp, creatures you control have swampwalk. to give your big bodies evasion, letting them crash through chump blockers.

Likewise, since you’re already focusing on the graveyard, Jarad also makes for a great reanimation Commander, using cards like Animate Dead Animate Dead Enchant creature card in a graveyard
When this Aura enters, if it's on the battlefield, it loses "enchant creature card in a graveyard" and gains "enchant creature put onto the battlefield with this Aura." Return enchanted creature card to the battlefield under your control and attach this Aura to it. When this Aura leaves the battlefield, that creature's controller sacrifices it.
Enchanted creature gets -1/-0. to cheat big bombs into play. Alternatively, cards like Conduit of Worlds Conduit of Worlds You may play lands from your graveyard.
{T}: Choose target nonland permanent card in your graveyard. If you haven't cast a spell this turn, you may cast that card. If you do, you can't cast additional spells this turn. Activate only as a sorcery. and Deadbridge Chant Deadbridge Chant When this enchantment enters, mill ten cards.
At the beginning of your upkeep, choose a card at random in your graveyard. If it's a creature card, put it onto the battlefield. Otherwise, put it into your hand. can help give Jarad a more incremental value engine that uses the graveyard. Heck, if you want to abuse Jarad’s last effect, you can even use Splendid Reclamation Splendid Reclamation Return all land cards from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped. or The Gitrog Monster The Gitrog Monster Deathtouch
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice The Gitrog Monster unless you sacrifice a land.
You may play an additional land on each of your turns.
Whenever one or more land cards are put into your graveyard from anywhere, draw a card. to strong effect.

You can even build Jarad as a Voltron Commander, dumping a ton of creatures into the graveyard and relying on equipment. If this is your plan, Commander’s Plate Commander’s Plate Equipped creature gets +3/+3 and has protection from each color that's not in your commander's color identity.
Equip commander {3}
Equip {5} and Sword of Feast and Famine Sword of Feast and Famine Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from black and from green.
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, that player discards a card and you untap all lands you control.
Equip {2} can give Jarad Protection from all colors, while doubling up on mana each turn. Otherwise, equipment like Brotherhood Regalia Brotherhood Regalia Equipped creature has ward {2}, is an Assassin in addition to its other types, and can't be blocked.
Equip legendary creature {1}
Equip {3} ({3}: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.) and Whispersilk Cloak Whispersilk Cloak Equipped creature can't be blocked and has shroud. (It can't be the target of spells or abilities.)
Equip {2} can help make Jarad impossible to block.

Infinite Damage

When it comes to winning the game with an instant combo, Jarad has an absurd number of options. A fair few of these are two-card combos, too, since Jarad can generally end a game by sacrificing any creature with 40 or more power. This makes cards like Jumbo Cactuar Jumbo Cactuar 10,000 Needles — Whenever this creature attacks, it gets +9999/+0 until end of turn. , Phyrexian Devourer Phyrexian Devourer When this creature's power is 7 or greater, sacrifice it.
Exile the top card of your library: Put X +1/+1 counters on this creature, where X is the exiled card's mana value. , and Wall of Blood Wall of Blood Defender (This creature can't attack.)
Pay 1 life: This creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn. two-card combos with Jarad, potentially ending the game on the spot.

If you want a bit more consistency, Jarad also has a few three-card death combos to try. Cosmogoyf Cosmogoyf Cosmogoyf's power is equal to the number of cards you own in exile and its toughness is equal to that number plus 1. is responsible for most of these, easily becoming a lethal sacrifice with Demonic Consultation Demonic Consultation Choose a card name. Exile the top six cards of your library, then reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a card with the chosen name. Put that card into your hand and exile all other cards revealed this way. or Leveler Leveler When this creature enters, exile all cards from your library. . You can also use Hatred Hatred As an additional cost to cast this spell, pay X life.
Target creature gets +X/+0 until end of turn. to turn any of your creatures into a lethal sacrifice for Jarad, so long as you have enough life.

Notably, these combos are not included in the decklist above, but you can customize it in our deckbuilder if you’d like to add them.

Tons of Synergy and Big Kills

With lots of different ways to build it, and some powerful infinite combos to take advantage of, Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord can be an incredibly powerful and entertaining Commander to tinker with. Heck, with all the different focuses available, you could even build multiple decks for it, especially if you don’t want instant wins in one of them.

With all this in mind, it shouldn’t be too surprising to hear that Jarad is a rather popular Commander. With 5,691 decks on EDHREC, Jarad is just outside of the top 500 Commanders. Fortunately, thanks to a recent reprint in Dragons of Tarkir Commander, Jarad isn’t the most expensive Mythic to pick up, worth about $2.

If you’re looking for a new graveyard-based Commander to try that can support multiple different side themes, Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord should be exactly what you’re looking for.

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