Azlask, the Swelling Scourge
CommanderAzlask, the Swelling Scourge is a five-color, colorless-creature sacrifice engine that turns dying bodies into experience counters and then cashes them in for a lethal team-wide pump.
Public decks: 3Bracket: 1
Card text
Legendary Creature — Eldrazi
Whenever Azlask or another colorless creature you control dies, you get an experience counter.
: Creatures you control get +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of experience counters you have. Scions and Spawns you control gain indestructible and annihilator 1 until end of turn.
Building around this commander?
Use MTG Master to build or analyze a Commander deck around this card, check consistency, and find weak spots before your next game.
Overview
- Prioritize making and looping colorless creatures (especially expendable bodies) so deaths translate into experience counters.
- Use the WUBRG activation as your main closer: a single turn can turn a wide board into a one-shot threat based on your accumulated experience.
- Scion/Spawn tokens naturally fit the plan: they die for value, then later become indestructible attackers with annihilator 1 for a finishing push.
- Your early game often looks like setup and fixing; your midgame is about building a steady death count without losing tempo.
- You tend to play as the inevitability deck at casual tables: the longer the game goes, the more threatening every activation becomes.
Common lines
- Set up mana fixing and sources of repeated colorless bodies, then let those bodies die incidentally through combat, sacrifice, or sweepers to bank experience.
- Deploy a board of tokens and colorless attackers, hold up WUBRG, and threaten an end-step or pre-combat activation to force awkward blocks.
- After a wipe (yours or theirs), rebuild with token makers and lean on your stored experience to immediately re-present lethal pressure.
- Stabilize behind disposable blockers, then convert that same board into an alpha strike once you can activate and attack safely.
Strengths
- Scales hard with time: experience counters make your late-game activations brutally efficient.
- Turns attrition into advantage: your creatures dying is often part of the plan rather than a setback.
- Explosive closing turns: a wide board plus one activation can end games quickly.
- Token-heavy boards can be difficult to race once they become indestructible for the key turn.
- Five-color identity gives access to broad interaction and fixing options, depending on build choices.
Weaknesses
- Heavily mana-hungry: casting Azlask and repeatedly activating WUBRG can be slow without strong fixing and ramp.
- Relies on creatures actually dying; exile-based removal and effects that prevent death triggers can stunt your growth.
- If the table keeps your board small, the pump is less impactful and you can struggle to convert experience into damage.
- Commander tax hurts: recasting Azlask repeatedly can set back both your engine and your finishing plan.
- Token strategies can be checked by fog effects, pillowfort tax effects, and well-timed instant-speed interaction on your big turn.
Rule zero notes
- Call out that the commander can grant annihilator (even if only annihilator 1) and can create sudden, game-ending combat steps.
- Discuss whether your build leans into repeated sacrifice/looping of tokens and how quickly you expect experience counters to stack up.
- If you run asymmetrical sweepers or colorless-board reset effects (for example, All Is Dust), mention it up front.
- Clarify your expected speed: are you a slow inevitability deck or trying to set up an early lethal activation?
- If you include any lock-style pieces to protect your big turn, disclose that density before the game.
Matchups
Best into
- Creature-heavy midrange pods that trade resources and attack into blockers
- Grindy tables where board wipes happen and games go long
- Decks that struggle to answer a wide board or to interact at instant speed on the decisive turn
Struggles against
- Fast combo pods that end the game before experience counters matter
- Control shells heavy on exile, bounce, and stack interaction aimed at your activation turn
- Pillowfort and fog-heavy strategies that invalidate a single huge combat step
Recent public decks
Staples
Browse all public decksFAQ
What is Azlask actually trying to do?
Accumulate experience counters from colorless creatures dying, then convert that stored value into a massive team-wide pump that ends the game through combat.
Do I have to play Scions and Spawns?
No, but they line up naturally with both halves of Azlask: they die easily to build experience, and later they become indestructible attackers with annihilator 1 for the finishing turn.
How do I usually win?
Most wins come from one or two combat steps where you activate WUBRG, swing with a wide board, and overwhelm blocks with a huge +X/+X boost.
What kind of removal hurts this deck the most?
Exile and bounce tend to be more annoying than destroy effects, because they can stop your death-based experience engine or disrupt your lethal turn without feeding you counters.
Is this deck more go-wide tokens or big Eldrazi?
It can be either, but Azlask rewards having multiple bodies in play; even if you like big threats, you typically want a steady stream of smaller colorless creatures to keep experience climbing.