(Ashiok, Wicked Manipulator | Art by Raymond Swanland)

...Cards Instead of Life!

Welcome to Too-Specific Top 10, where if there isn’t a category to rank our pet card at the top of, we’ll just make one up! (Did you know that Gallowbraid is the only commander with Cumulative Upkeep except for its same-set companion, Morinfen?)

One of the first spoilers out of Wilds of Eldraine happened to catch my eye, as it has a very unique effect we've rarely seen.

Ashiok, Wicked Manipulator cares about you exiling your own library, something we really haven't seen since Arc-Slogger. That's rare enough on its own, but Ashiok also lets you exile cards instead of paying life, an ability that we've never seen before, and that seems absolutely off-the-walls broken at first glance. Then again, we only have 100 cards in our decks, which doesn't seem like that much more than 40 life, so maybe I'm overreacting? Let's take a look at the top cards that can abuse this to find out.

Top 10 Repeatable Life-Paying Effects

1. Bolas's Citadel
2. Aetherflux Reservoir
3. Necropotence
4. Phyrexian Reclamation
5. [REDACTED] (On actual list)
6. Vilis, Broker of Blood
7. Greed
8. Defiler of Vigor
9. Razaketh, the Foulblooded
10. Lim-Dûl's Vault

Okay, so there's nothing here that actually seems like that much of a problem, shockingly. Bolas's Citadel remains a "go until you hit a land" unless you have another means of paying life to exile cards off the top. Aetherflux Reservoir can still only be activated if you have 50 life, and even then you're only going to get a single activation. Necropotence becomes a sort of combination of Ad Nauseam and Doomsday, exiling half your library to draw the other half, but is ultimately what it always was: Drawing most of your deck and keeping your best seven.

Phyrexian Reclamation and Greed still need mana. Vilis, Broker of Blood was already broken and still costs eight mana (ditto for Razaketh, the Foulblooded). The Defiler cycle is more interesting, with a real possibility of playing out a ton of stuff for essentially free. At first glance, I thought this might break Lim-Dûl's Vault wide open, but all it really does is let you do what you were already going to do with it and possibly keep going forever to change up your stacks of five, which I do not want to be around for the 45 minute resolution process of.

In short, none of this seems like a reason to go all-out with Ashiok, even in a setting like Oathbreaker where it could be your commander. So, why don't we look at what commanders we could pair with it, instead?

Top 10 Life-Paying Commanders

There are 30 legal commanders that have some sort of effect which lets you pay life, so no reason to get that list any more specific, let's just take a look at what's at the top!

Criteria: Commanders with an effect that can have you pay life. As is tradition, all results are ordered by EDHREC score.

10. Savra, Queen of the Golgari

(Helms 1,060 Decks, Rank #691; 6,116 Inclusions, 1% of 636,861 Decks)

Savra, Queen of the Golgari isn't exactly the "pay as much life as you want, do the thing you want to do forever" effect we're looking for, but she is pretty close. Sacrificing a black creature isn't a crazy hurdle to clamber over, and without having to worry about life totals, it's very possible you'll be able to keep an entire table from having creatures indefinitely. Throw in a Bolas's Citadel, and you'll either win in short order or mill yourself out!

9. Chainer, Dementia Master

(Helms 1,233 Decks, Rank #623; 10,799 Inclusions, 1% of 1,492,928 Decks)

With both a mana cost and an exile clause, Ashiok isn't going to be doing anything too crazy with Chainer, Dementia Master. This isn't to say that it's a bad card to include in the deck, however. The likelihood that you'll be playing Nightmare typal whether you planned to or not is high, and Ashiok is going to make two of them for you that get bigger in addition to the ones Chainer is already making. Your big problem here is still as it ever was: If Chainer gets removed, so does your entire board, and Ashiok only adds to that problem instead of helping with it. Unless you get to their ultimate, of course, in which case Chainer has just added more fuel to the fire!

8. Miara, Thorn of the Glade

(Partners 1,340 Decks; 12,908 Inclusions, 1% of 1,492,928 Decks)

Between mana value and a conditional trigger based on a creature type that Ashiok doesn't have anything to do with, and only paying one life? Miara isn't going to light anyone's world on fire when paired up with Ashiok, no matter what other colors you include.

7. Licia, Sanguine Tribune

(Helms 1,998 Decks, Rank #429; 1,503 Inclusions, 0% of 340,489 Decks)

Despite only being able to activate Licia, Sanguine Tribune once a turn, five cards is enough. You're going to end up with quite the stockpile when Ashiok is in play. It also means that you get to keep all the life you gained, as opposed to losing it making Licia bigger. This is a decent pairing, even before you consider that you have a +1/+1 counter theme going on here with Ashiok's Nightmare tokens.

6. Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor

(Helms 2,311 Decks, Rank #361; 17,494 Inclusions, 2% of 797,236 Decks)

Having built a Gix deck, I can tell you that you're not worried about the life loss at first, just thinking of it in terms of value, but it really does sneak up on you. Granted, it's a may, so you don't have to pay to draw the card, but wouldn't you rather just start chucking your cheap evasive creatures into exile to draw even more of them off the top?

In all honesty, no. Throwing in some lifelinkers to offset the life you're losing from drawing cards is still a good idea, but you can get those at one mana, whereas a five-mana card in a Gix deck is likely going to slow you down the majority of the time, impeding the main game plan of "play a ton of small creatures, swing with a bunch of small creatures, draw a ton of small creatures, repeat."

5. Beledros Witherbloom

(Helms 3,385 Decks, Rank #239; 30,090 Inclusions, 5% of 636,861 Decks)

At first look, this is yet another commander that can't really abuse the pay life ability since you can only do it once a turn. Personally, I would more or less dismiss that out of hand. Ten cards is a very relevant amount, as is the effect of untapping all of your lands. On top of all that, you can still use the effect once for each player's turn, meaning you're going to be able to mill 40 cards a turn cycle if the table can't get rid of your Beledros Witherbloom or your Ashiok. And if they do? Well, then you just pay the life anyway, because Witherbloom's ability is just that good!

4. Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

(Helms 5,118 Decks, Rank #131; 59,260 Inclusions, 4% of 1,492,928 Decks)

Possibly the best mono-black Aristocrats commander ever printed, anyone who has played against Yawgmoth, Thran Physician knows that his -1/-1 and draw a card ability can get completely out of control. With that in mind, then, what you're talking about in a dedicated Yawgmoth deck with an Ashiok in play is this: Everyone's blockers getting removed, a full grip, and a couple of Nightmares that keep getting bigger every turn. The only thing missing here is the want or need to care about milling your opponents with Ashiok's ultimate.

3. Liesa, Shroud of Dusk

(Helms 8,696 Decks, Rank #42; 7,067 Inclusions, 1% of 667,751 Decks)

Liesa already feels unimpedable when you're paying life to recast her from the command zone over and over, but being able to exile cards gives you more ammo to ensure she sticks around and punishes the table. Throw in a couple of blocking Nightmares to help you stay up above the rest, and this is a combination that can work well.

You probably won't be milling anyone out, but if you're swinging in for five damage/five life every turn while having the table lose two to four life, all of that's going to add up as you stack cards in your hand and put Nightmares in play. Throw in more life-paying activated abilities that have mana activations you can use instead of pinging yourself to death, and you have the bones of a deck that really cares about Ashiok.

2. K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth

(Helms 9,335 Decks, Rank #37; 28,785 Inclusions, 2% of 1,492,928 Decks)

None of this even holds a candle to the first commander everyone thought of when they saw Ashiok, however. K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth is already one of the most popular mono-black commanders to ever have been printed, even with him often getting you down to single digit life totals the moment he enters play. Let that K'rrik player mill their entire library instead (or in addition)? That spells game over as they spill a quarter of their deck onto the table through a cavalcade of Sign in Bloods, Necropotence, and Promise of Power, and that's before we get into how scary the various Pestilences are when the K'rrik deck isn't taking three with every activation. While this particular deck doesn't tickle my fancy, I have no doubt that you're going to see Ashiok soon if you already have a K'rrik player in your meta.

1. Tymna the Weaver

(Partners 20,238 Decks; 17,845 Inclusions, 3% of 667,751 Decks)

Tymna isn't going to combo off with Ashiok like K'rrik will, but if you are looking to build around the strange "exile most of my deck to then hopefully exile most of my opponents' decks" strategy that Ashiok presents, this might still be your best opportunity. The reason why is simple: Tymna and a partner gives you the means for supplying the colors you need to find the strange cards that are going to help you win. In any of those brews, however, the one thing you're going to want most? Access to blue.

Whether you're trying to win through milling yourself or milling your opponents, blue gives you the tools to do so. The best mill color, and home to all three of the Lab Man variants, blue is the only means toward making a true "Secret Commander Ashiok" brew work. So, what partners would help us make that happen?

Top 10 Blue+ Tymna Partner Pairings

1. Thrasios, Triton Hero: 4,020 Decks
2. Kraum, Ludevic's Opus: 3,045 Decks
3. Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator: 906
4. Sakashima of a Thousand Faces: 746
5. Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix: 451
6. Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist: 254
7. Esior, Wardwing Familiar: 181
8. Silas Renn, Seeker Adept: 181
9. Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker: 120
10. Siani, Eye of the Storm: 43

The obvious choice whenever you talk a partner pairing with Tymna the Weaver is Thrasios, Triton Hero. Thrasios brings access to Simic while also being an infinite mana outlet that can draw your entire deck, which is why he's a cEDH staple. It's also why I would shy away from using this particular pairing. Tymna attracts enough attention on her own without having the entire cEDH pairing in your command zone, and all for what? The ability to use Tornado? Instead, I would take a long hard look at Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator and Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist. Malcolm brings ramp in the command zone while giving us the access to blue we need, and Ludevic is easy card draw while giving access to red. Both incentivize attacking with hordes of creatures alongside Tymna, a strategy we can easily morph into milling our opponents with the various Rogue Classes out there.

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Honorable Mentions

Still, we should at least take a look at the other options before just picking the number one on the list, right?

Top 30 Life-Paying Commanders

11. Elenda and Azor: Helms 985 Decks, Rank #719
12 Rona, Herald of Invasion: Helms 964 Decks, Rank #732
13. Vilis, Broker of Blood: Helms 884 Decks, Rank #767
14. Erebos, God of the Dead: Helms 795 Decks, Rank #809
15. Selenia, Dark Angel: Helms 670 Decks, Rank #889
16. Anrakyr the Traveller: Helms 623 Decks, Rank #922
17. Verrak, Warped Sengir: Helms 561 Decks, Rank #965
18. Tivash, Gloom Summoner: Helms 518 Decks, Rank #995
19. Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion: Helms 401 Decks, Rank #1,120
20. Shessra, Death's Whisper: Helms 368 Decks, Rank #1,150
21. Vona, Butcher of Magan: Helms 326 Decks, Rank #1,209
22. Lorcan, Warlock Collector: Helms 324 Decks, Rank #1,213
23. Erebos, Bleak-Hearted: Helms 225 Decks, Rank #1,385
24. Razaketh, the Foulblooded: Helms 164 Decks, Rank #1,526
25. Kinzu of the Bleak Coven: Helms 151 Decks, Rank #1,554
26. Wydwen, the Biting Gale: Helms 118 Decks, Rank #1,659
27. Kuro, Pitlord: Helms 68 Decks, Rank #1,912
28. Gallowbraid: Helms 52 Decks, Rank #2,044
29. Morinfen: Helms 43 Decks, Rank #2,143

There are no real slam dunks for the mill version of Ashiok remaining in this list, with only Elenda and Azor, Rona, Herald of Invasion, and Wydwen, the Biting Gale providing access to blue and none of them being particularly inspiring in the life-pay department. There are still some standouts for just general value with Ashiok, however.

Erebos, God of the Dead is a Greed in the command zone that will have you paying life and drawing cards throughout the game. Anrakyr the Traveller can have you setting up expensive artifact combos with things like Darksteel Forge, although being able to pay life just once a turn is a bit of a deal breaker when it comes to caring about Ashiok.

Lastly is the EDHREC page that everyone looking to abuse Ashiok will be using as a reference, Verrak, Warped Sengir. If you're going to go the general value route without trying to abuse Ashiok's ultimate, then Verrak is already doing all of the things that you want to be doing with Ashiok. The caveat there, however, is that Verrak's ability doesn't actually work with Ashiok on the battlefield, as Ashiok's replacement effect ensures that you never pay the life you need to trigger Verrak's ability. While that's definitely a non-bo, I wouldn't go so far as to say there's no version of a Verrak deck that you shouldn't be including Ashiok in.

As for me, however, I'd much rather be going all in on this weird adventure of a card and trying to abuse all aspects of it, which pretty much means getting access to a ton of colors and trying to force mill, life-pay, and aggro into one cohesive strategy.

Of all things, the list utilizing our number one Ashiok commander, Tymna the Weaver, ended up settling on the decidedly low-power strategy of casting your opponents' stuff. Why? Because there are a ton of creatures that do that while swinging at opponents, letting you focus on aggro and milling your opponents at the same time with the various "when [this] attacks/deals combat damage, exile the top card of your opponent's library, you can play it" creatures out there. It's a pretty fun list, although testing it without opponents to play against was a challenge!

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Nuts and Bolts

There always seems to be a bit of interest in how these lists are made (this seems like a good time to stress once again that they are based on EDHREC score, NOT my personal opinion…), and people are often surprised that I’m not using any special data or .json from EDHREC, but rather just muddling my way through with some Scryfall knowledge! For your enjoyment/research, here is this week’s Scryfall search.

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What Do You Think?

Playing a secret commander is all well and good, but you do have to wonder what playing Ashiok as your actual commander would be like. With that in mind...

And finally, what do you think of the new Ashiok? Are you building with it in mind, or adding it to any of your life-paying commanders on this list?

Let us know in the comments, and we'll see you at the table that is slowly eroding away with every game we play.