Magic: The Gathering - Arabella, Abandoned Doll Commander Deck Guide

Those afraid of dolls avert your eyes, Arabella, Abandoned Doll is one of the legendary creatures introduced in Magic: The Gathering's Duskmourn set. This Boros (red/white) commander is a very aggressive one and has a low curve to snowball away with the game quickly.

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There are a lot of benefits to playing an Arabella deck, and if not kept in check, you can run away with the game. Thanks to the primary use of tokens to make the most out of Arabella's effect, you can craft it relatively cheaply as well. If you're a fan of swinging wildly and holding up blockers, an Arabella Commander deck is perfect for you.

Decklist

Commander: Arabella, Abandoned Doll

Elspeth, Sun's Champion

Adeline, Resplendent Cathar

Agate Instigator

Anim Pakl, Thousandth Moon

Delney, Streetwise Lookout

Enduring Innocence

Gold Myr

Iroas, God of Victory

Iron Myr

Jacked Rabbit

Krenko, Mob Boss

Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin

Loyal Apprentice

Mentor of the Meek

Ornithopter of Paradise

Otharri, Sun's Glory

Saradoc, Master of Buckland

Siege-Gang Lieutenant

Soul Warden

Welcoming Vampire

Wildfire Awakener

Dusk // Dawn

Form a Posse

Forth Eorlingas!

Hop to It

Hour of Reckoning

Martial Coup

Release the Dogs

Song of Totentanz

Tempt with Bunnies

The Battle of Bywater

Call the Coppercoats

Chaos Warp

Generous Gift

Grand Crescendo

Secure the Wastes

Swords to Plowshares

Anduril, Flame of the West

Arcane Signet

Boros Signet

Brotherhood Regalia

Commander's Sphere

Dolmen Gate

Halo Fountain

Helm of the Host

Lightning Greaves

Meekstone

Skullclamp

Sol Ring

Strionic Resonator

Swiftfoot Boots

Talisman of Conviction

Trailblazer's Boots

Whispersilk Cloak

Assemble the Legion

City on Fire

Dollmaker's Shop // Porcelain Gallery

Echoing Assault

Felidar Retreat

Impact Tremors

Rabble Rousing

Raid Bombardment

Reconnaissance

Skrelv's Hive

Spiked Corridor // Torture Pit

Access Tunnel

Battlefield Forge

Boros Garrison

Castle Ardenvale

Clifftop Retreat

Command Tower

Exotic Orchard

Fountainport

Inspiring Vantage

Kher Keep

Minas Tirith

Mirrex

x7 Mountain

Needleverge Pathway // Pillarverge Pathway

x9 Plains

Rogue's Passage

Sunbaked Canyon

Sunscorched Divide

War Room

Windbrisk Heights

The decklist contains one planeswalker, 20 creatures, ten sorceries, six instants, 17 artifacts, 11 enchantments, and 34 lands. While the total creature count is on the smaller side, many of the other card types create creature tokens to help build up your board state.

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Key Cards

Arabella, Abandoned Doll

The commander of the deck, Arabella, Abandoned Doll is what makes the deck function. Nearly your entire deck consists of creatures with power two or less, or ways to create creature tokens with those stats. This feeds into Arabella's effect to gain a ton of life and do a ton of burn damage.

The effect triggers whenever Arabella attacks. As such, unless you have a way to make sure Arabella is unblockable, you should only be swinging it at opponents without a creature that can kill it in combat.

Arabella counts itself for its effect, so at minimum, you will be gaining one life and burning everyone else for one damage. It only costs two mana to cast, so even if it does get removed, you'll be able to easily recast it to keep using the effect.

Reconnaissance

Reconnaissance is one of the permanents you'll be getting the most use out of. There are a handful of creatures with effects that trigger when they attack with low stats, and Reconnaissance helps keep those creatures safe in combat.

Reconnaissance's effect costs no mana and can be done any number of times in a turn. This allows you to keep burning and gaining life with Arabella, as well as generating creature tokens with the rest of your creature suite without having to worry about them being defeated in combat.

Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon

Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon essentially acts as the deck's secondary commander. The more you attack, the more 1/1 Gnome creatures you create. This gives you power creatures for Arabella's effect and more to block and attack with later.

If both Anim Pakal and Arabella are on the battlefield, you can stack it so Anim Pakal resolves first, creating more 1/1 tokens for Arabella when its effect resolves since the X burn/lifegain isn't determined until Arabella's effect is resolving.

Notably, Anim Pakal does not need to attack itself to trigger the effect. This allows you to hold Anim Pakal back from attacking so that it's never put in harm's way, and you can keep taking advantage of a growing army of Gnomes.

Delney, Streetwise Lookout

The majority of your creatures are ones with two or less power, so Delney, Streetwise Lookout is the perfect support card for them. It makes them unblockable from threatening opposing creatures and doubles up on all your triggered abilities.

Once Delney is on the battlefield, it just has to sit back and support your other cards. There is no shortage of cards in the deck with triggered abilities like Arabella, Anim Pakal, and Krenko, and Agate Instigator.

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How To Play The Deck

An Arabella, Abandoned Doll Commander deck is all about swinging in with Arabella while amassing an army of 1/1 tokens. The deck is very explosive, capable of running away with the game quickly, thanks to its low mana curve.

There are a lot of consistent ways to get tokens on the battlefield. Assemble the Legion slowly gives you more tokens every turn, Rabble Rousing gives you a 1/1 token for every creature you control that is attacking, and Krenko, Mob Boss creates Goblin tokens for every Goblin you control when you tap it.

An important factor is that while you want to be attacking frequently,you don't necessarily want to be engaging in combat. As such, cards like Dolmen Gate, Iroas, God of Victory, and Reconnaissance help prevent damage to your attacking creatures (and, in Reconnaissance's case, taking it out of combat entirely).

The deck features a ton of ways to draw cards from creatures with power two or less entering the battlefield, making sure your hand is filled so you always have cards to cast. Enduring Innocence can even return as a regular enchantment if it ever dies.

Mentor of the Meek does require mana payment for the card draw, but you do get to keep using it as opposed to just once. Welcoming Vampire also cats as a solid attacker thanks to its flying ability.

The biggest weakness of the deck is the lack of power. All of your creatures have very low stat lines, making it hard for them to be threatening. The threat primarily comes from Arabella, Abandoned Doll, so without it on the battlefield, your opponents likely won't have to be worried about you.

You can overrun with creature tokens, but that requires a lot of extra setup that might come too late.

The primary win condition is winning through burn damage, primarily through Arabella, Abandoned Doll. Your commander is what's going to get you to close out games quickly, especially since it burns all of your opponents at once as opposed to just one. This is backed up by giving burn damage an extra kick with cards like City on Fire and Torture Pit.

Cards that deal burn damage upon creatures entering are important for your win condition as well. Agate Instigator and Impact Tremors both burn for one damage on creatures entering, something that stacks up once you start creating a ton of tokens. These tokens can lead to more burn damage with Raid Bombardmentto get a little extra burn damage in to close out the game.

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