Do you too love getting big fat ugly creatures out of the graveyard in Magic: the Gathering? It's one of my favorite things to do! And when Wizards of the Coast gives you an albino frog reclining on a throne of lily pads -- you sign up!

Meet Glarb: Our Sultai Reanimator Commander

Glarb, Calamity's Augur is a Sultai (Black-Green-Blue) legendary creature with the unique typing of Frog Wizard Noble. For just three mana, you get a 2/4 body with deathtouch and these juicy abilities:

  • You may look at the top card of your library at any time
  • You may play lands and cast spells with mana value 4 or greater from the top of your library
  • {T}: Surveil 2

Listen, you do have to build a commander deck with a certain amount of enablers, ramp, and things like that, but any commander player would tell you that it's pretty easy to start at four mana and get the effect you want. It's more expensive and harder to find cards with cheap and useful effects.

Glarb allows you to play off the top of the library, which is pretty effective card advantage when you have the ability to surveil stuff into the graveyard. Surveil can be a pretty powerful mechanic, especially in these colors, because in these colors, you've got reanimator cards and reanimator targets galore!

The Game Plan

The game plan? Get Glarb out there, see if there's anything good on top of the library (four-cost spells, lands, it's a little card advantage), then surveil stuff into the graveyard, discard stuff, loot stuff, and dig it back out with devastating effect. Classic reanimator!

Let's break down this commander deck shell.

Filling the Graveyard

First thing we're going to need to do in a Glarb deck is to surveil some stuff into the graveyard. We're going to loot some stuff into the graveyard. We have some stuff that surgically implants stuff into the graveyard.

The Likeness Looter (Blue/Black) - This fairy shapeshifter is a 1/1 with flying that can:

  • Tap to draw a card, then discard a card (classic looter right there!)
  • X: Become a copy of target creature card in your graveyard with mana value X, except it has flying and this ability

Favorite looter out of Wilds of Eldraine! This super looter has that baked-in evasion too - if it becomes a copy of some big fat creature, it's got flying plus it looks cool. 

Obsessive Stitcher (Blue/Black) - A 0/3 human wizard that offers:

  • Tap to draw a card, then discard a card
  • 2B, Tap, Sacrifice it: Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield

"It's hard to find a good partner these days, so you make one from discarded corpses." This is great for getting big fatties stuck in your hand back where they belong - the graveyard!

Hostile Negotiations (3B) - We all love a little Fact or Fiction, that great card that lets us see five cards and gives us a lot of control over what we put in the graveyard. Wish we had more effects like that, right? But we don't. We have this instead! Exile the top three cards of your library in a face-down pile, then exile the top three cards of your library in another face-down pile. Look at each pile, then turn a pile of your choice face up. An opponent chooses one of those piles. Put that pile into your hand, the other into your graveyard. You lose 3 life. You get to play a little mind game with your opponent!

Doom Whisperer (3BB) - This HR nightmare with all those hands is a 6/6 creature Nightmare Demon with flying and trample. Pay 2 life: Surveil 2. A 6/6 with trample for five mana at just 67 cents - it's not even enough to buy one Cool Ranch Dorito in today's economy!

Other excellent options include Frantic Search (just got a couple reprints, basically free real estate in this deck), Buried Alive (just got a reprint, as cheap as I've ever seen it, this graveyard staple is cheap), and Violent Eruption (a zombie hanging out in the field with a bunch of shadowy figures - looks like Bohemian Grove out there).

Underrealm Lich (3BG) - This zombie elf shaman changes how you draw cards: If you would draw a card, instead look at the top three cards of your library, put one in your hand and the rest in your graveyard. It also has "Pay 4 life: This gains indestructible until end of turn" and you can tap it. This just got a reprint in Clue: The Tale of Scooby-Doo and is a great way to give your graveyard a little boost. $4 for this fella!

Reanimation Package

Our commander and our ancillary spells are plopping things into the graveyard, so let's dig them on out! In addition to Reanimate, Animate Dead, and Necromancy which just got reprints, we can afford to slot in some bigger reanimate spells.

Body Double - I've always been a fan of this one. Love the art - an androgynous faceless figure from Game of Thrones. Don't invite those folks to dinner!

The Mimeoplasm - A classic reanimator commander that's worth an interesting build-around all on its own. It's also a pretty good generic reanimator spell. Worth noting that this can hit opponents' graveyards if there's something fat in there as well.

Phyrexian Delver - Has a sweet old art, with text similar to Reanimate although it can only target your own graveyard. This hasn't had a reprint of that sweet old Invasion art, and that makes me sad. Phyrexians used to be Quake enemies, and I think they were better off back then!

Drana, the Last Blood Chief (3BB) - A 4/4 with flying. Whenever this attacks, defending player chooses a non-legendary creature card in your graveyard. You return that card to the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter on it. That creature is a vampire in addition to its other types. Spreading blood all over the place, reverse-handing a sword and wearing the hat from Thor Ragnarok, this is a fun card that can get you permanents onto the battlefield.

Reanimation Targets

As far as reanimator targets go, I love ETB (enters-the-battlefield) effects! I have this budget deck stocked up with 23 or so ETB effects - you get immediate value off of these.

Yarok, the Desecrated (2BGU) - A 3/5 legendary Elemental Horror with deathtouch and lifelink. If a permanent entering the battlefield causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time. Not a bad little blocker, sweet build-around on its own.

So we're talking about plopping permanents onto the battlefield. It's not always a bad idea to plop!

Kodama of the East Tree (4GG) - A 6/6 legendary Spirit with reach. Whenever another permanent enters the battlefield under your control, if it wasn't put onto the battlefield with this ability, you may put a permanent card with equal or lesser mana value from your hand onto the battlefield. Love the art on this fella - chilling out in the woods with orbs, something I've done a thousand times!

Hoarder Brood Lord, Rune-Scarred Demon, and Burning-Rune Demon - These are huge flying beaters that can tutor up whatever effect you need. I'm a fan of these! Together they are about $8, and they're all great reanimator targets.

Titan of Rex (7GG) - An 11/11 dinosaur Beast with trample. Has cycling for 1G (When you cycle it, put a trample counter on target creature you control). Look at this big beefy monster! Puts itself in the graveyard, what a nice creature for later reanimation. Captain Too-Many-Horns over here, that's what I call this one!

Kaedus Assassin (4UB) - This card got a little pricey. A 3/3 legendary human shapeshifter assassin with flash. Has Polymorphine - you may have Kaedus Assassin enter the battlefield tapped as a copy of any creature on the battlefield, except it has "When this creature enters the battlefield, destroy up to one other target creature with the same name as this creature." It's a little two-for-one! Phenomenal art straight out of American Horror Story - she's got that suit right out of a rock, but she's not here for a good time, she's here to take heads!

Alpha Death Claw (4BG) - This creature, fresh out of the Fallout universe, is a 6/6 lizard mutant with menace and trample. When it enters the battlefield or becomes monstrous, destroy target permanent. Has 5BG: Monstrous 4. This big critter comes down and merks that Smothering Tithe for only 29 cents. This card's pretty fantastic!

The Old One Eye (5G) - A 6/6 legendary Tyranid with trample. Other creatures you control have trample. When this enters the battlefield, create a 5/5 green Tyranid creature token. It has Fast Healing - at the beginning of your pre-combat main phase, you may discard two cards; if you do, return this from your graveyard to your hand. Rather have it in the graveyard most of the time! Neat looking fella. They didn't steal this aesthetic from H.R. Giger's Alien design at all. That's called sarcasm! And this card's 70 cents!

Why Choose Glarb?

Of course, we've seen graveyard commanders in these colors before, and they all have their unique quirks. We talked about The Mimeoplasm, even Muldrotha might be great in this deck, Sidisi, The Wise Moth-person, The Master Transcendent - these all kind of have their own spins and are powerful in their own right. But Glarb is three mana, has some decent abilities, and allows that top-of-library manipulation shenanigans.

Plus, Glarb's is just cool, dood! That Roman vibe! The Caesar on the throne of plants! This is a fun deck, good times - frog relaxation in the swampy sun!