Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Hans Eriksson!

Hans is a four mana 1/4 with whenever they attack you reveal the top card if your library and if it’s a creature card then put it onto the battlefield tapped and attacking, putting it into your hand if it isn’t a creature, and if you do put it onto the battlefield then it fights Hans.

This is a character that originates from flavor text from Lhurgoyf and then the Unhinged card Ach! Hans, Run!, which is a fun reference. It also helps that this is a good effect that allows you to tutor a creature onto the battlefield that is tapped and attacking, meaning we can get a huge creature into play efficiently.

While Hans does fight the creature when it enters, we can find ways around it and have Hans survive to do it again.

The first thing we need to do is make sure we can manipulate the top of our library to guarantee that there are creatures at the top.

Doors of Durin is ideal for this because not only does it scry 2 whenever we attack, we can reveal it and if its a creature we put it onto the battlefield tapped and attacking, gaining trample if we control a Dwarf and hexproof if we control an Elf.

This means that if we have two creature on the top of our library we can get both the Doors of Durin trigger and Hans’ trigger to get both creatures, with only one fighting Hans.

We can also take advantage of explore effects like Enter the Unknown to have a creature explore and allows us to play another land, which means that if the top card is a land we can play it and not lose anything with playing it. It does lose the element of surprise, but consistency is the name of the game with Hans.

If you have a bit of money or are able to get the Mystery Booster 2 version of it, Mirri’s Guile is one of the best ways to manipulate the top of our library because it looks at the top three cards of our library and rearrange them in any order at the beginning of our upkeep. This means we can get what we want into our hand while leaving a creature second from the top that will enter when Hans attacks.

The next thing we should concern ourselves with is making sure that Hans is able to survive a fight with any of the huge creatures we get onto the battlefield.

Defend the Rider is the newest addition to green instants that give your creature indestructible and hexproof and they will be vital to making sure that Hans will be able to attack again.

Tamiyo’s Safekeeping, Tyvar’s Stand, and Withstand Death have the same essential aspect, which is giving a creature indestructible until end of turn, and they can also offer a different benefit depending on which one you use.

We can also look into the two mana slot that offer similar effects, but also usually include another benefit like Gaea’s Gift which puts a +1/+1 counter on the creature while also giving it trample, hexproof, and indestructible.

Overprotect is similar, but it gives a +3/+3 bonus while also giving trample, hexproof and indestructible. It is actually a benefit that Hans has a lower power because any bonuses should not be able to kill the creatures we bring in with Hans’ ability.

Now we get onto the creatures that we get to come onto the battlefield, and we ideally should be looking for big creatures that get better when damaged.

Enrage is an interesting mechanic and when attached to something like Silverclad Ferocidons then when it fights Hans it triggers, forcing our opponents to sacrifice a permanent, and it makes the blocks awkward because if it is damaged again then our opponents will sacrifice something else.

Similarly Apex Altisaur can enter and not only fight when it enters the battlefield, it fights another creature after it fights Hans, meaning we can potentially clear the board of small blockers to get our attacks through with our other creatures.

Sun-Crowned Hunters deals three damage to an opponent, Ripjaw Raptor draws us a card, and Needletooth Raptor deals five damage to a creature.

There are also creatures that have a pseudo-enrage effect like Coalhauler Swine which when damaged deals that much damage to our opponents. Ironscale Hydra is not only a big body, but whenever it will be dealt damage then you prevent that damage and out that many +1/+1 counters on it, meaning it gets at least one +1/+1 counter when it fight Hans.

Hans is a Commander that can enable some wacky plays, and even if he does die to the fight with whatever we get onto the battlefield, at the very least we can replace it with a big creature. If you can convince your play group to allow Ach! Hans, Run! naming the Lhurgoyf then you can potentially get a fun flavor win.

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

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual