Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Snapdax, Apex of the Hunt!

Snapdax is a four mana 3/5 with a mutate cost of 5, double strike, and whenever this creature mutates it deals 4 damage to a creature or planeswalker an opponent controls and you gain 4 life.

Mutate is an interesting mechanic to build around and it lends itself to a unique type of Voltron strategy, because while the creature gains a ton of abilities, it doesn’t get the power or toughness of the creatures it mutates with.

This means that we need to find a few creative ways to get the most out of the mutant payoffs while also buffing Snapdax into dealing lethal Commander damage.

We need to take a look at the kind of creatures with mutate and what benefit they give Snapdax.

Dirge Bat not only gives Snapdax flying, but also whenever Snapdax mutates you get the additional ability to destroy a creature or Planeswalker an opponent controls. With Snapdax’s own mutate ability, this can mean we can potentially take two things out whenever Snapdax mutates.

Insatiable Hemophage drains an opponent X with X being the number of times the creature has mutated and gives deathtouch, Cubwarden creates two 1/1 Cat tokens with lifelink while also giving lifelink, and Cloudpiercer allows you to discard a card to draw a card and gives reach.

We can also mutate Snapdax onto other creatures, like Mysterious Egg to add an additional +1/+1 counter whenever you mutate onto it, or Zagoth Mamba to give a creature an opponent controls -2/-2 until end of turn whenever it mutates.

The next thing that we should prioritize, especially with a Voltron strategy is making sure we can protect Snapdax.

Undying Malice and cards similar to it are cheap enough options to consider, especially if we manage to get a large number of cards mutated onto Snapdax. While the other mutates will go to the graveyard, Snapdax will come back.

Gods Willing can offer protection from a color until end of turn if we want to keep Snapdax safe for a turn while also giving us a scry to help fix our next draw if we need it.

We are going to be running more removal than most other decks in order to keep Snapdax safe, so any flexible removal or protection spells like Wear//Tear, Boros Charm, Rip Apart, or Rakdos Charm can prove to be most essential.

If we need to clear the board while keeping our things safe, then we have something like Ruinous Ultimatum to clear our opponents board to give us the opening we need.

We know our plan to win is through a Voltron plan, so any way we can achieve that goal faster is ideal.

Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar is one of the best ways to makes sure that we get damage through to everyone since if our Commander deals combat damage to an opponent, it deals that damage to each opponent.

The other Familiars, Keleth, Sunmane Familiar and Falthis, Shadowcat Familiar are also helpful in this regard because Keleth puts a +1/+1 counter on Snapdax which is a huge benefit for a creature with double strike, and Falthis gives menace and deathtouch which can help clear more creatures.

Any spells that give a benefit to your Commander are worth taking a look at like creatures with the Lieutenant ability, Background enchantments, or spells that look at the mana value of Snapdax or how many times they’ve been cast.

We should also take a look at ways to reduce the cost of your mutate cards, like Killian, Ink Duelist, the Monument cycle from Amonkhet, the Medallions, and Rakdos, Lord of Riots.

Snadax requires a very specific playstyle to get to work effectively, which while easily interactable, does offer some customization in how we make the deck work effectively.

Sometimes a linear strategy is the best way to get some Commanders to work, which may seem like it stymies creativity, it actually forces some creative workarounds to make the deck interesting. It’s also an off kilter strategy that most people aren’t ready to deal with, which can offer a slight edge in some matches.

Thank you for reading, see you tomorrow for the next Daily Commander!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual