Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Felothar, Dawn of the Abzan!

Felothar is a three mana 3/3 with trample and when she enters or attacks, you may sacrifice a nonland permanent and when you do you put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.

I really do enjoy Commanders that combine several different strategies into one really solid strategy. In Felothar’s case, she wants us to have things to sacrifice to make our things bigger, and since we want a lot of creatures to be bigger then we also benefit from having a go wide strategy.

Go wide and tall while having things to sacrifice is the game plan, and there are a plethora of ways we can go about this, and I do enjoy some open ended Commanders.

Since we are planning to go wide, the first thing to look at are ways that enable us to get a lot of tokens onto the battlefield.

Adeline, Resplendent Cathar is perfect in this regard, not only because she makes tapped and attacking tokens equal to the number of opponents we have whenever we attack, but due to the way we can stack the triggers, we can have the tokens generate, sacrifice something, and turn our 1/1 Humans into 2/2’s that are tapped an attacking.

Illustrious Wanderglyph is a way for us to not only get more creatures on the battlefield at the beginning of each upkeep, in this case 1/1 Gnome artifact creature tokens, but once we get the city’s blessing then artifact creatures we control get +2/+2, and since we are going to be generating a bunch of tokens this should not be hard.

We can also use a token generator as a bit of field and graveyard control by using Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, which if a nontoken creature an opponent controls dies it is exiled instead and we make a 2/2 Zombie token, and we can pay three mana and sacrifice a Zombie or Vampire to put two +1/+1 counters on Kalitas, and since they have lifelink, it can lead to some pretty big life swings.

Oketra’s Monument provides a combination of cost reduction in that white creature spells we cast cost one less to cast and whenever we cast a creature spell, regardless of color being an important aspect, we get to make a 1/1 Warrior creature token with vigilance.

With Curse of Disturbance we can incentivize our opponents into attacking an opponent since whenever we attack the enchanted player we make a 2/2 Zombie token, and each opponent attacking that player does the same, which may not endear us to one player, but it does spread out any attacks.

Since we are looking for things to sacrifice and ideally we want more creatures in play, we should look at noncreature cards that want to be sacrificed.

Hopeless Nightmare and its counterpart Hopeful Vigil are great cards since whenever either are put into the graveyard from the battlefield we get to scry 2. Hopeful Vigil gives us a 2/2 Knight with vigilance, which is great in getting more bodies onto the battlefield for us, and Hopeless Nightmare has each opponent discard a card and lose 2 life.

We can make use of the various Implement cards from Kaladesh, all of which draw us a card when they go to the graveyard from the battlefield, but also have a way to self sacrifice for an additional ability. Implement of Ferocity to give a +1/+1 counter, Implement of Improvement to gain 2 life, and Implement of Malice to have an opponent discard a card.

In a similar vein we have Ichor Wellspring which draws a card when it enters or is put into our graveyard from the battlefield, Mephitic Draught which draws us a card and has us lose 1 life when it enters or is put into the graveyard from the battlefield, and Lembas which let’s us scry 1 then draw a card when it enters and then is shuffled back into our library when it goes to the graveyard.

If we are looking to sacrifice some creatures, ideally we should have them generate us some value when they die. Abyssal Gatekeeper has each player sacrifice a creature when it dies, Serrated Scorpion to deal 2 damage to each opponent and we gain 2 life, and Termagant Swarm to create 1/1 Tyranid creature tokens equal to its power for us when it dies.

Speaking of Termagant Swarm, there is also a way for us to generate some long term value if we let a creature stick around before we sacrifice it, like Elenda, the Dusk Rose, who gets a +1/+1 counter whenever another creature dies, and when she dies we get to make a number of 1/1 Vampire tokens with lifelink equal to her power when she dies.

The last thing we need are ways to go over the top with the amount of counters that we are making in order for us to swing out for the game.

Stalwart Successor is a great way for us to accumulate a whole mess of counters, since if one or more counters are put on a creature we control, and it’s the first time this has happened this turn, then we put a +1/+1 counter on that creature. So with this, Felothar, and something to sacrifice, we can be putting two +1/+1 counters on each creature we control.

If we add in something like a Hardened Scales, that becomes three +1/+1 counters, or if we happen to also have a Branching Evolution in play then that can become eight +1/+1 counters if my understanding of how the counters are being put on would work, since the one added by Felothar is a different instance of adding counters than with Stalwart Successor.

Speaking of enchantments that help us go over the top, Revival of the Ancestors gets us more bodies to attack with or sacrifice in the form of 1/1 Spirit tokens, distributes three +1/+1 counters among one, two, or three creatures we control, and for the final chapter we give creatures we control trample and lifelink until the end of turn.

To even just have creatures we control get damage through we can use Synchronized Charge to distribute two +1/+1 counters among one or two creatures we control and it gives creatures we control with counters on them vigilance and trample until end of turn, all for two mana or can be cast from the graveyard via Harmonize.

There is even a way for us to clear the battlefield in order for us to potentially make some uncontested attacks using Damning Verdict, which destroys all creatures with no counters on them, and since most of our creatures should have counters on them, this should not be a problem.

Felothar is a Commander that wants us to go over the top in order to get an aggro victory with a horde of big creatures. We are susceptible to board wipes of course, and there are also plenty of ways that leave us open to retaliation if we are unable to close the game with a few big attacks.

However, Felothar is a fun way for us to combine a variety of strategies in order to go big and win big if we can pull it off.

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

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual