With Universes Beyond being so prevalent nowadays, it’s easy to forget where this initiative first started. Originally debuting as Secret Lair drops, it took until the first Warhammer 40,000 Commander decks for players to realize the potential. Offering plenty of flavorful and interesting legends with support pieces, this set massively helped to pave the current path we’re on.
That being said, the Warhammer 40,000 Commander decks didn’t exactly get off to the best start. Thanks to production problems stemming from the pandemic, this set was delayed. This caused it to be released on the same day as another MTG set, Unfinity. With these two releases vying for attention at the same time, it’s no wonder that some cool cards from both ended up being overlooked.
Given that Unfinity was only half playable in Commander, overlooking cards like Magar of the Magic Strings is somewhat understandable. The same, however, cannot be said for Trazyn the Infinite from the Necron Dynasties Commander deck. Offering insane combo potential and fantastic utility, too, this budget Commander is remarkably underplayed.
MTG Trazyn the Infinite
While Trazyn the Infinite is a monocolored Commander, this deck-building restriction isn’t actually too damning. Thanks to naturally synergizing with artifacts, a good portion of a Trazyn deck will end up being colorless anyway. On top of this, many of the best self-Mill and reanimation engines are in black anyway, making deckbuilding surprisingly simple.
It’d be easy enough to include a fairly typical reanimation package with Trazyn, for instance. Running Stitcher’s Supplier, Reanimate, and Massacre Wurm, cheating out massive threats is easy in mono-black. While this strategy is effective, realistically, it feels like it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
By gaining the activated abilities of any artifact in the graveyard, Trazyn the Infinite can become an engine for ramp, card draw, or just about anything, really. All you have to do is get a card like Nyx Lotus or Mazemind Tome into the graveyard. Getting utility artifacts like Staff of Compleation into the bin can be especially effective, since they provide tons of utility.
Since Trazyn needs these cards in the graveyard, leaning into self-Mill is definitely the go-to gameplan. Doing this, however, is risky with graveyard removal floating about, so cards like Wichbane Orb and Orbs of Warding can be helpful. Similarly, you’ll likely want artifacts like Patchwork Gnomes and Amaranthine Wall in the graveyard to help protect Trazyn itself.
Once set up, the possibilities with Trazyn the Infinite are practically endless. Not only is this card a fantastic engine for utility, but it can even become a major threat when using Phyrexian Devourer’s ability. This is just scratching the surface of Trazyn’s power, however, as there are tons of infinite combos available.
Infinite Everything
Unsurprisingly, by inheriting all of the activated abilities on artifacts in the graveyard, Trazyn the Infinite can go infinite incredibly easily. One of the best ways to do this is with Staff of Domination and Sol Ring in the bin. After tapping Trazyn using Sol Ring, you’ll have enough mana to use the Staff’s untap effect, netting you one mana.
With infinite mana on the table, you can easily use the rest of Staff of Domination’s abilities to draw cards, gain life, and tap everything. For some added redundancy, any artifact that makes more than two mana can enable this combo. Basalt Monolith, Gilded Lotus, Thran Dynamo, and plenty, plenty more give this combo remarkable consistency.
To make things even better, you can even throw in Pili-Pala as another combo piece, although it only makes infinite mana. Alternatively, Farmstead Gleaner can put infinite +1/+1 counters on Trazyn using the same loop. If you’re after damage, Phyrexian Devourer can also be used alongside Walking Ballista to nuke each opponent without attacking.
As if all that somehow wasn’t enough already, you can also get infinite turns using Magistrate’s Scepter. While it’s easy to set this up with six mana and Gemstone Array in the bin, Trazyn notably works with Spacecraft. Since each Spacecraft is an Artifact, you can use their Station ability to get Charge Counters easily. All you need are creatures with power three or greater, and you’re off to the infinite races.
While any of these combos is more than enough to win on their own, Trazyn the Infinite hardly stops there. With access to all in color activated abilities on artifacts, the possibilities are practically endless. Piggybacking on infinite mana and untap loops, making tokens, milling, gaining life, or practically anything is on the table.
A Budget Bomb
Despite having so much potential, both as a utility engine and combo piece, Trazyn the Infinite is remarkably underplayed. To date, this card helms a little over 2,000 Commander decks and appears in the 99 of just about 8,000. Even with the fact that you have to jump through some hoops in mind, it feels like Trazyn is wildly underplayed.
If you’re looking to pick up a copy of Trazyn the Infinite, this card being slept on is very good news. Unlike many Warhammer 40,000 cards, which are wildly expensive, Trazyn is available for around $1. If you do want to splash the cash on a fancy foil variant, however, then Surge Foils can be picked up for around $15 on average.
All in all, Trazyn the Infinite feels like a fantastic Commander, so long as you can restrain yourself. With graveyard removal being a major threat, you’ve definitely got to play around it carefully when Milling. If you can do that, however, then Trazyn will reward you with insane utility and combos to boot.
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