Arcane Foundry › Commanders › Cabal Patriarch
Cabal Patriarch
Legendary Creature — Human Wizard · {3}{B}{B}{B} · Black commander
What Cabal Patriarch actually does
Read off the card by the same engine the Forge and Analyzer use — this is the mechanical classification, not a summary.
- Activated ability{2}{B}, Sacrifice a creature: Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
- Activated ability{2}{B}, Exile a creature card from your graveyard: Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
What a Cabal Patriarch deck needs
Plays as aristocrats. What the commander asks of the other 99 — read from the card and checked by hand.
- expendable creatures and tokens to sacrifice (the commander is a sacrifice outlet)
- self-mill, discard and recursion (the graveyard is a resource its text reads)
The Cabal Patriarch deck plan
The roles the Forge fills for this commander, and how many cards of each.
- 29× Creatures you are happy to sacrifice — a free sac outlet on the commander is worthless with nothing to feed it
- 12× Put your own cards into your graveyard as a resource
- 5× Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- 9× Find the exact card the plan needs
- 1× Answer a whole board at once
- 7× Refill your hand
- 2× Keep a permanent you control alive through removal
- 11× Get ahead on mana
Best cards for Cabal Patriarch
Ranked by an engine that reads what each card does — its real cost, its delay and how reliably it works — rather than counting how often other people play it.
Creatures you are happy to sacrifice — a free sac outlet on the commander is worthless with nothing to feed it
- Nurgle's Rot1 mana
- Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal // Temple of the Dead5 mana
- Phyrexian Triniform9 mana
- Exquisite Huntmaster4 mana
- Grixis Slavedriver6 mana
- Liliana, Heretical Healer // Liliana, Defiant Necromancer3 mana
- Hangarback Walker0 mana
- Enduring Tenacity4 mana
Put your own cards into your graveyard as a resource
- Takenuma, Abandoned Mire0 mana
- Stitcher's Supplier1 mana
- Ripples of Undeath2 mana
- Eden, Seat of the Sanctum0 mana
- Tomb Fortress0 mana
- Millikin2 mana
- Perpetual Timepiece2 mana
- Syr Konrad, the Grim5 mana
Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- Defile1 mana
- Tragic Slip1 mana
- Infernal Grasp2 mana
- Fatal Push1 mana
- Bitter Triumph2 mana
- Black Sun's Twilight1 mana
- Cut Down1 mana
- Erebos's Intervention1 mana
Find the exact card the plan needs
- Entomb1 mana
- Demonic Tutor2 mana
- Diabolic Intent2 mana
- Vampiric Tutor1 mana
- Imperial Seal1 mana
- Demonic Consultation1 mana
- Grim Tutor3 mana
- Tainted Pact2 mana
Answer a whole board at once
- Toxic Deluge3 mana
- Damnation4 mana
- Bontu's Last Reckoning3 mana
- Sickening Dreams2 mana
- Crypt Rats3 mana
- Extinction Event4 mana
- Endemic Plague4 mana
- The Meathook Massacre2 mana
Refill your hand
- Skullclamp1 mana
- Black Market Connections3 mana
- Braids, Arisen Nightmare3 mana
- Morbid Opportunist3 mana
- Phyrexian Arena3 mana
- The One Ring4 mana
- Vexing Bauble1 mana
- Ayara, First of Locthwain3 mana
Keep a permanent you control alive through removal
- Lightning Greaves2 mana
- Swiftfoot Boots2 mana
- Eldrazi Monument5 mana
- Commander's Plate1 mana
- Mithril Coat3 mana
- Akroma's Memorial7 mana
- The Walls of Ba Sing Se8 mana
- Brotherhood Regalia2 mana
Get ahead on mana
- Sol Ring1 mana
- Palladium Myr3 mana
- Worn Powerstone3 mana
- Chrome Mox0 mana
- Everflowing Chalice0 mana
- Mox Diamond0 mana
- Mana Vault1 mana
- Wayfarer's Bauble1 mana
Build this deck in the Arcane Forge →
Arcane Foundry is free to join and every tool is included: the Arcane Forge deck builder, the ARCANE Analyzer that scores a deck by simulating games rather than counting staples, a card scanner, a collection vault, and live webcam Commander tables.
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