Magic: The Gathering is currently in the habit of releasing a ridiculous number of Legendary Creatures. Thanks in part to the advent of Universes Beyond, there are now an absurd number of Commanders for players to potentially build around. There are so many Legendary creatures now that it’s not unusual for some to slip through the cracks as players gravitate towards shinier payoffs on release day.
One such forgotten legend appears to be gaining attention this week. Thanks to a TikTok reel from MTG content creator Maldhound, players are quickly discovering the power of The Archimandrite, a legendary creature released as part of Dominaria United.
The Archimandrite MTG
For five mana in Jeskai colors, The Archimandrite turns your lifegain into a typal board buff, which is absurd. Just gaining three life with a full hand of seven cards, for example, will cause all of your Advisors, Artificers and Monks to get +3/+0. Making things even better, all of your typal creatures will gain vigilance, which Archimandrite can turn into card draw. Since this is an instant-speed effect, you even get to leave all of your creatures untapped on your opponent’s turns, warding potential attacks away and being rewarded with card draw.
This means that, while, gaining life with The Archimandrite is extremely important, it’s not something you need to do every turn. What’s more important is getting as many Monks, Advisors and Artificers into play as possible. The Archimandrite can turn that into card draw, preparing for a massive alpha strike that takes everyone out. You don’t need to gain life constantly, but instead just gain one big shot of it before combat.
Better yet, while the creature type restrictions on The Archimandrite may seem demanding, it’s actually rather generous. Excluding Changelings, you have about 395 different choices for creatures with the appropriate color identities and creature types for The Archimandrite. This gives players a lot of options for the Commander, but there are still some that are better than the rest.
Maximizing The Archimandrite
Of all the creature types that The Archimandrite synergizes with, Monks seem to work best with the Commander overall. As important as gaining life is, it’s arguably even more important to go wide as quickly as impossible. This means that smaller increments of lifegain will have a much larger impact on the amount of damage you can push.
To this end, it’s difficult to beat cards like Monastery Mentor and Elsha, Threefold Master. If you choose to use noncreature spells for your lifegain effects, Monastery Mentor will go wide extremely quickly with Monk tokens that all grow with The Archimandrite’s lifegain trigger. Elsha, on the other hand, creates Monk tokens equal to the amount of damage she does, synergizing with The Archimandrite’s lifegain bursts extremely well.
Monks can also gain an absurd amount of life, making The Archimandrite’s triggered ability extremely powerful. Rhox Faithmender, for example, doubles the amount of life you gain while doubling as a Monk with Lifelink itself. Alternatively, Soulfire Grand Master can give your damage-based instants and sorceries Lifelink, amplifying the effectiveness of unique removal spells like Lightning Helix. Serra Ascendant, one of the most popular Monks in all of Commander, is an auto-include in any lifegain deck, and The Archimandrite is no different.
Past supporting The Archimandrite’s core game plan, there’s also a series of creatures that profit from The Archimandrite’s triggers, but offer some extremely valuable flexibility. Loran of the Third Path and Dauntless Dismantler are some example of this, providing premium artifact and enchantment removal while offering a body that synergizes with your Commander. Sunset Strikemaster and Ledger Shredder are a few other examples of cards under The Archimandrite’s typal umbrella that can offer a ton of value even when your Commander isn’t in play.
The last thing you should consider for this deck is cards to protect your board. Because this strategy ultimately requires a big board to maximize, you’ll need some spells to prevent board wipes from setting you so far back that you’re no longer in the game. Teferi’s Protection and Flawless Maneuver are two Commander classics seeing Avatar reprints that do this, but some other options, like Flare of Fortitude, can also fit the bill.
This Has Everything a Successful Commander Needs
In my experience, Magic’s best Commanders generally offer some sort of combination of a win condition, flexibility, and card advantage, all things that The Archimandrite offers in spades. The build-around conditions make this Commander interesting to play, but there’s still a wide array of powerful cards that you can include. It feels like many of the Legends released in Dominaria United went underappreciated, so seeing The Archimandrite get some attention is exciting.
This won’t be breaking down any doors in cEDH, but The Archimandrite seems like an interesting, off-the-wall Commander that can bring some variety to your Commander nights.
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