Tergrid, God of Fright, is a highly controversial commander in Magic: the Gathering. Some players find her extremely fun to play. But others vehemently hate Tergrid and go as far as banning her within their own playgroups.
Let’s take a look a Tergrid, analyze why so many players hate her, and showcase what makes a good Tergrid Commander deck!
Tergrid, God of Fright
Tergrid is a commander that is all about discarding. When you force your opponent to discard a permanent, you can put that permanent onto your battlefield for free.
The God of Fright comes with a nifty artifact on the backside of the card. There are some niche situations in which Tergrid’s Lantern comes in handy. But for the most part, this deck aims to play out Tergrid and make your opponents discard cards, taking their permanents in the process.
Why Do Players Not Like Tergid?
No one likes when their cards are taken away from them. It feels even worse when an opponent steals and uses your cards against you. This is what Tergrid, God of Fright, symbolizes to most players. She’s a thief and she steals everything that Magic players hold near and dear.
There’s no restriction to what kinds of permanents Tergrid can steal. She either steals a bunch of your lands to fuel another big discard play, or she uses your creatures, planeswalkers, enchantments, and artifacts against you.
Often, all it takes is Tergrid plus a mass-discard spell such as Dark Deal, and the game practically feels over.
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Discard Effects
This deck is jam-packed with discard spells to make the most out of Tergrid’s ability.
Continuous Discard
There are some fantastic mono-black enchantments that can attack your opponents’ hands every turn. Oppression has grave consequences whenever a player casts a spell. Necrogen Mists and Bottomless Pit, on the other hand, always trigger in each player’s upkeep, causing them to discard a card. This is a ton of fuel for Tergrid!
Discard Everything!
In addition to consistent discard pressure from enchantments, you’ll want bursts of discard to swing the game in your favor.
Tergrid and Death Cloud are the dream team! You can pump as much mana into Death Cloud as you want, causing everyone to discard cards, and sacrifice their creatures and lands. But with Tergrid on the battlefield, you’ll take everything under your control.
Dark Deal is a good way to refresh your hand while stealing all the permanents in your opponents’ hands. And Awaken the Erstwhile clears away your opponents’ hands entirely.
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More Discard Payoffs
Tergrid is one of the best payoffs for discard strategies in all of MTG. But you won’t always have access to Tergrid. Magic players consider her a must-answer threat and kill her as soon as possible. For this reason, this deck needs additional ways to capitalize on discarding effects.
Waste Not
Waste Not does it all! It makes creatures, mana, and draws cards. What more could you ask for? It’s an absolute value engine.
Geth’s Grimoire
For all the cards you make your opponents discard, you’ll draw that many with Geth’s Grimoire. This digs through your library for additional discard spells to constantly keep your opponents out of options.
Tinybones, Trinket Thief
Tinybones is like a Dark Confidant when played in a discard-focused deck, drawing you a second card each turn so long as an opponent discarded a card.
As if that weren’t enough, Tinybones can even act as a win condition as it can drain opponents for 10 life when they don’t have any cards in their hands.
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Sacrifice Shenannigans
Tergrid can also steal her opponents’ permanents when they sacrifice them.
Grave Pact will make your opponents think twice before killing your creatures, because if they do, they’ll have to sacrifice their own creatures.
Shadowgrange Archfiend plays into both aspects of Tergrid’s ability. It has madness, allowing you to play it at a discount when you discard it. And when it enters the battlefield, each opponent has to sacrifice a creature.
Sheoldred is a classic Commander card that causes your opponents to sacrifice their creatures while allowing you to reanimate yours from the graveyard.
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Protect Tergrid
Your opponents will do everything in their power to prevent your Tergrid from sitting on the battlefield turn after turn. Because Tergrid is a magnet for removal, cards such as Malakir Rebirth, Supernatural Stamina, and Undying Malice are needed to give her some resiliency.
Infinite Damage Combo
At first glance, Chain of Smog may look like a mediocre discard spell. But it is actually a devastating combo piece.
If you target yourself with Chain of Smog, you can make a copy, target yourself again, and repeat this infinitely. Making yourself discard all your cards may seem like a bad idea. But when you pair Chain of Smog with Professor Onyx or Sedgemoor Witch, you’ll infinitely trigger their magecraft abilities. This results in infinite damage and infinite life gain in the case of Professor Onyx, or a field of infinite Pest creature tokens in the case of Sedgemoor Witch.
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New Toys For Tergrid From Kamigawa
Tergrid gained a bunch of new toys from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. Invoke despair can make an opponent sacrifice a variety of permanents. Virus Beetle is a playable two-mana creature that forces all three of your opponents to discard a card. And Junji can cause each opponent to discard two cards when it dies.
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