Arcane Foundry › Commanders › Harald, King of Skemfar
Harald, King of Skemfar
Legendary Creature — Elf Warrior · {1}{B}{G} · Black/Green commander
Menace (This creature can't be blocked except by two or more creatures.)
When Harald enters, look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal an Elf, Warrior, or Tyvar card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Build a Harald, King of Skemfar deck →
What Harald, King of Skemfar actually does
Read off the card by the same engine the Forge and Analyzer use — this is the mechanical classification, not a summary.
- Triggered ability · etbWhen Harald enters, look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal an Elf, Warrior, or Tyvar card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a
- Keyword · menacemenace
What a Harald, King of Skemfar deck needs
Plays as elf typal. What the commander asks of the other 99 — read from the card and checked by hand.
- blink and recursion aimed at the commander itself (its value is its own enter trigger)
- elf/warrior creatures (its text counts them)
The Harald, King of Skemfar deck plan
The roles the Forge fills for this commander, and how many cards of each.
- 6× Exile a permanent you control and return it — the button a value-ETB deck presses
- 27× A body of the exact type the commander's trigger requires — the wrong type is worthless here regardless of quality
- 8× A permanent whose value is in its enter-the-battlefield trigger — the payload a blink deck reuses
- 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 Harald, King of Skemfar
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.
Exile a permanent you control and return it — the button a value-ETB deck presses
- Conjurer's Closet5 mana
- Voyager Staff1 mana
- Golden Argosy4 mana
- Diabolic Servitude4 mana
- Meandering Towershell5 mana
- Eldrazi Confluence4 mana
- Ashnod's Intervention1 mana
A body of the exact type the commander's trigger requires — the wrong type is worthless here regardless of quality
- Elvish Mystic1 mana
- Fyndhorn Elves1 mana
- Llanowar Elves1 mana
- Arbor Elf1 mana
- Deathrite Shaman1 mana
- Elves of Deep Shadow1 mana
- Bloom Tender2 mana
- Allosaurus Shepherd1 mana
A permanent whose value is in its enter-the-battlefield trigger — the payload a blink deck reuses
- Orcish Bowmasters2 mana
- Eternal Witness3 mana
- Accursed Marauder2 mana
- Solemn Simulacrum4 mana
- Arboreal Grazer1 mana
- Cauldron Familiar1 mana
- Fleshbag Marauder3 mana
- Plaguecrafter3 mana
Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- Assassin's Trophy2 mana
- Defile1 mana
- Tragic Slip1 mana
- Infernal Grasp2 mana
- Fatal Push1 mana
- Beast Within3 mana
- Bitter Triumph2 mana
- Nature's Claim1 mana
Find the exact card the plan needs
- Demonic Tutor2 mana
- Diabolic Intent2 mana
- Vampiric Tutor1 mana
- Green Sun's Zenith1 mana
- Imperial Seal1 mana
- Demonic Consultation1 mana
- Nature's Rhythm2 mana
- Grim Tutor3 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
- Vicious Rivalry4 mana
- Endemic Plague4 mana
Refill your hand
- Skullclamp1 mana
- Sylvan Library2 mana
- Black Market Connections3 mana
- Braids, Arisen Nightmare3 mana
- Garruk's Uprising3 mana
- Herald's Horn3 mana
- Morbid Opportunist3 mana
- Phyrexian Arena3 mana
Keep a permanent you control alive through removal
- Guardian Augmenter3 mana
- Saryth, the Viper's Fang4 mana
- Lightning Greaves2 mana
- Swiftfoot Boots2 mana
- Asceticism5 mana
- Eldrazi Monument5 mana
- Commander's Plate1 mana
- Mithril Coat3 mana
Get ahead on mana
- Sol Ring1 mana
- Golgari Signet2 mana
- Incubation Druid2 mana
- Palladium Myr3 mana
- Worn Powerstone3 mana
- Ilysian Caryatid2 mana
- Heritage Druid1 mana
- Joraga Treespeaker1 mana