Category: Torment


 

A Legendary Minion lord! Not that minions really needed much of a lord, as there’s less than 2 pages of them on the gatherer. Balthor the Defiled for 2BB is a 2/2 with 2 abilities. His first ability is his static ability, giving your minion creatures +1/+1. Sadly, Minions are a rather old type, the most recent being a blue creature from Ravnica. However, his other ability is very good; for BBB, you can exile Balthor the Defiled to return all black and red creatures from all graveyards to the owner’s battlefield. Sadly, this isn’t a great attribute in Commander, as it’s each player, and you won’t be able to take advantage of bringing back red creatures, as he is a mono-black commander. I’d certainly play him in a Red/Black deck, however. Or even Grixis; River Kelpie combos well with him, letting you draw a card for each creature entering the battlefield under your control.

However, Balthor the Defiled is the second version of Balthor, after he sacrificed himself to destroy Burke. His original card, Balthor the Stout is different:

 

Balthor the Stout is a 2/2 for 1RR, and has been errata’d a little bit:

Other Barbarian creatures get +1/+1.
Red: Another target Barbarian creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
 Nothing too significant. He gives Barbarians other than himself +1/+1. Sadly, there aren’t many more barbarians than there are minions, but you can find the list of barbarians here. His second ability gives another target Barbarian fire-breathing; a respectable ability for a 3-drop 2/2.
Sadly, he can’t target himself with his second ability, and his first ability doesn’t affect him. Lovisa Coldeyes is a slightly better general, though more expensive.

Ambassador Laquatus is a very interesting Legendary Creature. A 1/3 for 1UU isn’t bad, but it’s his ability that makes him shine. For 3 colorless mana, target player mills three cards. With infinite mana combos, you have infinite mill all across the board in EDH. And regardless, he’s quite a good card if you’re playing anything that needs to mill and actually has some power. Mill is a common element among blue cards, and if you want to play mono-blue mill, the Ambassador is a great choice for your commander.

Cards to play with Ambassador Laquatus as your commander:

  • Jin-Gitaxis, Core Augur
  • Jace, Memory Adept
  • Jace Beleren
  • Jace the Mind Sculptor
  • Jace’s Phantasm
  • Increasing Confusion
  • Tome Scour
  • Training Grounds
  • Heartstone
  • High Tide
  • Mindshrieker

Cards to play Ambassador Laquatus with in a Commander deck:

  • All of the above
  • The Mimeoplasm
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