Thanks to Commander’s grindy nature, a strong control deck can seriously excel at multiple tables. With opponents setting up massive plays requiring multiple permanents, board wipes can commonly send them back to the Stone Age. In these scenarios, Commanders that can generate tons of value on their own like Tasigur, the Golden Fang, can seriously excel.
MTG Tasigur, the Golden Fang
It may seem expensive at first glance, but Delve lets Tasigur, the Golden Fang hit the board on the cheap. The synergy with Delve and Tasigur’s second ability is important, too, keeping unwanted spells out of your graveyard. Having an opponent pick your recurring spells is certainly a downside, but there’s also an interesting political aspect. Generally, you’ll be able to answer the biggest threat at your table.
While this value-oriented game plan can go late rather easily, you can also choose to be aggressive, getting Tasigur into play quickly. Cards like Tome Scour and Stitcher’s Supplier easily satisfy Delve, allowing Lotus Petal to power out Tasigur on turn one.
To help get your game plan online early, activated ability reducers, like Training Grounds or Biomancer’s Familiar, double Tasigur’s efficiency.This can be bolstered further by cards like Roaming Throne, giving you two Tasigur triggers for just two mana.
With Tasigur able to mill over so many cards, your endgame can capitalize on your graveyard. Colossal Grave-Reaver, for example, can put creatures that Tasigur mills over right onto the battlefield. With so many cards leaving your graveyard, Insidious Roots and Teval’s Judgment can help Tasigur cast all his extra cards.
Despite all of this potential synergy, however, Tasigur really does its best work as a slow, generic control Commander. Recurring consistent value creatures like Psychic Frog, alongside selective board wipes like Toxic Deluge, is a winning strategy. You can also leverage reanimation spells like Animate Dead to get your typical big beaters into play early.
Infinite Ability Activations
If you’re interested in building towards a specific objective in the late game, Tasigur is quite adept at going infinite with the infamous Mind Over Matter. With any number of different cards that can tap for four mana, like White Lotus Tile or Topiary Lecturer.
Once assembled, you can tap your mana source to activate Tasigur’s ability, discarding your acquired card using Mind Over Matter to untap your mana resource. You can rinse and repeat this to mill your entire deck, setting up a Thassa’s Oracle win.
If infinite mill isn’t interesting, there’s another infinite available with Tasigur and Mindslaver. Since the artifact allows you to control your opponent, you can force them to return Mindslaver with Tasigur’s ability. Most of the time, this will allow you to control one player for the rest of the game, but with enough mana, you can theoretically control everyone.
Should See More Play
While Tasigur, the Golden Fang is only mildly popular in Commander, he has a ton of success in adjacent formats. In Duel Commander, for example, Tasigur is one of the most popular options in the entire format. Considering this, Tasigur only having 6,429 decks according to EDHREC is somewhat surprising.
On the plus side, thanks to a recent reprint, Tasigur is an extremely powerful budget card that you can pick up. Available for just $0.50 after appearing in Tarkir Dragonstorm’s Sultai Arisen precon, there’s never been a better time to build this Commander.
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