Due to Magic’s relentless release schedule, players rarely have enough time to properly consider a new set’s Commanders nowadays. This isn’t exactly a new problem, too, as some extremely powerful Commanders from a few years ago have seemingly been totally overlooked. This is a crying shame for Commanders like Torsten, Founder of Benalia, which see remarkably little play despite their power.
MTG Torsten, Founder of Benalia
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Between refilling your hand on entry and creating an instant board on death, Torsten, Founder of Benalia, is all you really need to win a game of MTG. That said, because Torsten only draws creatures and lands, you’ll want almost your entire deck to be exclusively those card types. Fortunately, thanks to Magic’s extremely expansive card pool, this is easier to do than it looks.
To get your Commander out, for instance, ramp staples can easily be replaced by Troop of Ponies, Wood Elves, or even Fanatic of Rhonas. Omen creatures like Bloomvine Regent, or Adventure creatures like Giant Killer can also give you instants and sorcery effects that Torsten will still draw on entry.
Torsten’s white color identity also gives access to tons of removal options, too, like Solitude, Loran of the Third Path, and Skyclave Apparition. Since many of these creatures offer their value as enters abilities, including your Commander, blink effects like Felidar Guardian or Emiel the Blessed can easily create tons of value.
Should Torsten die, the seven tokens it creates can easily lead 64-damage swings with creatures like Craterhoof Behemoth or Moonshaker Cavalry. Including other token generators like Avenger of Zendikar or Illustrious Wanderglyph can make these win conditions even more consistent. While it’s not needed, you can also use token doublers like Ocelot Pride or Mondrak, Glory Dominus, but it seems like overkill.
Even with a token focus, however, just playing Torsten once won’t always be enough, and replaying it is extremely expensive. Because of this, reanimation creatures like Karmic Guide and Saffi Eriksdotter can save you a ton of mana later on. You can also put Torsten in your hand with utility pieces like Command Beacon and cheat it into play with Eladamri, Korvedal, who just helps you cast a ton of creatures otherwise.
Since your entire deck will be creature-based, cards that need creatures to trigger, like Beast Whisperer or Karametra, God of Harvests are easy inclusions with Torsten. Cost reducers like Cemetary Prowler and Radaghast of Rhosgobel also excel here, since they’ll be making almost every spell in your deck cheaper.
Drawing and Playing Every Creature in Your Deck
If you want to really end the game in a flourish, Torsten, Founder of Benalia has some absolutely ridiculous infinite combos. With a sacrifice outlet like Phyrexian Altar and Nim Deathmantle equipped to Torsten, for example, you’ll net infinite mana, tokens, and draw every single creature and land in your deck.
After sacrificing Torsten to the Altar, Torsten will trigger, creating seven more tokens to sacrifice. With eight mana at your disposal, you can easily pay for Torsten, reanimating the creature and triggering its enters ability. You can repeat this infinitely, finding a Walking Ballista with Torsten to win the game.
On top of this combo being extremely powerful, it also has some redundancy, with Ashnod’s Altar also working as a sacrifice outlet. Nim Deathmantle can also be replaced with Enduring Renewal, but you’ll need the colored mana from Phyrexian Altar to make this combo work.
Founding a Creature Empire
With all of the different subthemes that Torsten, Founder of Benalia has, building a powerful deck around the Commander is surprisingly easy. With an extremely low play rate of 541 decks according to EDHREC, this Commander seems to be shockingly unknown, too, giving you an opportunity to surprise opponents with it. Even its 99 play rate of approximately 6,410 decks seems way too low for a card like this.
Thanks to its relative obscurity, Torsten is an extremely cheap card to buy despite its limited supply. A traditional variant will cost you just $1.14, while Etched Foils are even less, at $0.85. With all the different cards that work with Torsten, building a powerful deck around the Commander should be doable at any budget.
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