Magic: The Gathering – The 10 Best Cards For A Lae'zel, Vlaakith's Champion Commander Deck

Summary

• Master Chef pairs well with Lae'zel's abilities in a white and green deck, boosting all creature counters upon entry.
• Hardened Scales should not be the only counter-enhancing card in your deck, but it's a great value generator over time.
• Champion of Lambholt excels in combat, preventing opponent's creatures from blocking yours, especially with Lae'zel's counter boost.

A surefire way to win a game of Commander is from good ol’ combat damage. If you’re looking for a strong commander to get you to victory through waves of enemies, and quite a few combat tricks while you’re at it, you should definitely look into Lae’zel, Vaakith’s Champion as your next Magic: The Gathering commander.

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Lae’zel’s addition to Baldur’s Gate 3 means players all get to meet the powerful Githyanki warrior through the massive role-playing game, and you might be feeling the itch to build a deck around your favorite warrior. If you’re looking for some inspiration to build this counter-heavy deck, look no further.

10 Master Chef

Dish Out Plenty Of Pain

We’re going to make a quick assumption that you’re going with a white and green deck since Lae’zel has the ability to pick a Background, an enchantment, as your second commander. Master Chef is one of the better ones with Lae’zel, despite how silly it might seem to have the deadly warrior from the Astral Plane to be a chef in her time before becoming an adventurer.

Master Chef gives your commander, Lae’zel gains the ability to have your other creatures enter the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it. Pair it with Lae’zel’s natural ability to put one extra counter of any type on a creature or planeswalker when counters are put on them. This gives all your creatures at least two +1/+1 counters when they come into play, helping them to outclass your opponent’s creatures.

9 Hardened Scales

More Counters Can’t Hurt

Having Master Chef in the Command Zone is a fantastic card and gives you guaranteed access to the ability, but that should by no means be the only one in your deck. Hardened Scales functions similarly to Lae’zel, putting an extra +1/+1 counter on a creature you control anytime one would be put on it.

At just one mana you can drop Hardened Scales early in the game and just let it ride for the rest of the match, generating tons of value over time and helping to turn all your creatures into a threat turn after turn.

8 Champion Of Lambholt

Combat Is Your Domain

A highly efficient creature that can easily and quickly turn the tide of a game, Champion of Lambholt is explosively fast and gives your opponents little to no chance to do anything about it. Every time a creature enters the battlefield under your control, Champion of Lambholt gets a +1/+1 counter.

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Then when you go to attack, creatures your opponents control can’t block your creatures if their power is less than the Champions. With Lae’zel out, those counters are going to climb faster and faster, all but guaranteeing you’ll be able to swing out and take down an opponent in one strike.

7 Ozolith, The Shattered Spire

Counters Everywhere

Another instance of multiplying counters like Master Chef and Hardened Scales, but we promise this is the last time we’ll list a card with that effect for Lae’zel. The Ozolith, the Shattered Spire is just too good not to include it.

Not only does it increase the number of +1/+1 counters you put on your creatures and artifacts by one, but you can use it to add counters to your stuff. In the absolute worst-case scenario, you can also cycle it to draw a card for two mana, so in a pinch, it’s never going to be a dead card.

6 Damning Verdict

Bring Down The Hammer

A somewhat more situational board wipe, Daming Verdict is a great way to swing the odds in your favor. Damning Verdict destroys all creatures that don’t have any type of counter on them. In a deck built around a commander like Lae’zel, you’ll more likely than not have counters on most, if not all, of your creatures.

Daming Verdict then acts like a targeted board wipe, leaving your creatures intact while getting rid of your opponent’s board. There will likely be times when a few straggling creatures might slip by, but the odds are pretty good you’ll be the only one left with any type of creature in play once Daming Verdict resolves.

5 Doubling Season

Double Trouble

Remember when we said that the Ozolith was going to be the last time we see a counter multiplier? Well, Doubling Season is a little different. Yes, it does as its name suggests, it doubles the number of counters you put on a permanent.

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It also multiplies the number of tokens you generate, so if you have an effect that creates tokens, you get to double those as well. One of the more interesting interactions with Doubling Season is when you play a planeswalker onto a board with Doubling Season out, you get to immediately double the starting loyalty counters on your planeswalker, likely letting you activate their final ability as soon as it comes into play.

4 Andúril, Narsil Reforged

The Flame Reforged

A deceptively powerful piece of equipment, Anduril, Narsil Reforged is a sword that gives your entire team a buff each combat. When the equipped creature attacks, your creatures all get a +1/+1 counter.

If you are ascended, which happens when you have ten or more permanents, you get the city’s blessing, a permanent status for the rest of the game. If you have the city’s blessing, your creatures get two +1/+1 counters instead. This, when combined with cards like Lae’zel, gives you a ton of counters after even just one combat step.

3 Cathars' Crusade

Too Many Dice

If you like math, Cathars’ Crusade can put in some amazing work, though you might need a steady supply of dice ready to keep track of it all. Anytime another creature enters the battlefield under your control, you get to put a +1/+1 counter on all creatures you control.

If you have an effect that will create multiple creature tokens at once, you can watch Cathars’ Crusade spiral out of control. Of course, the big downside is that you’ll quickly find yourself using multiple dice on a single creature to keep track of all the counters. The good news is by the time it gets too much, your opponents will likely be close to losing.

2 Sovereign Okinec Ahau

The Best Kitty Around

Such a cool card from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan release, Sovereign Okinec Ahau rewards you even further by giving your creatures +1/+1 counters by turning them into unstoppable powerhouses that just get bigger and bigger with each attack.

When the Sovereign attacks, your creatures that have a power larger than their printed base power get +1/+1 counters equal to the difference. So, if you have a 1/1 that is a 3/3 thanks to some buff, you get to put two +1/+1 counters on it, making that creature even bigger for the next time you attack.

1 The Great Henge

So Great You'll Want It Every Game

Objectively one of the better artifacts to be printed in Magic’s recent history, The Great Henge is a powerhouse that makes mana, draws you cards, and even gains you life. The main bit that you’ll want to use The Great Henge for is its card drawing abilities.

It is no secret that white and green are notoriously not great when it comes to drawing cards, but if you can turn your creature cards coming into play into a cantrip every time, while also putting a +1/+1 counter or two on it, you’ll end up with a powerful engine that can almost never run out.

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