Arcane Foundry › Commanders › Ishkanah, Grafwidow
Ishkanah, Grafwidow
Legendary Creature — Spider · {4}{G} · Black/Green commander
What Ishkanah, Grafwidow 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 Ishkanah enters, if there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard, create three 1/2 green Spider creature tokens with reach.
- Activated ability{6}{B}: Target opponent loses 1 life for each Spider you control.
- Keyword · reachreach
What an Ishkanah, Grafwidow deck needs
Plays as spider 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)
- drain and life-loss payoffs (the damage is not combat damage)
- self-mill, discard and recursion (the graveyard is a resource its text reads)
- spider creatures (its text counts them)
The Ishkanah, Grafwidow deck plan
The roles the Forge fills for this commander, and how many cards of each.
- 12× Life loss that is not combat damage — each opponent loses life, repeatably
- 6× Exile a permanent you control and return it — the button a value-ETB deck presses
- 26× 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
- 6× 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
Best cards for Ishkanah, Grafwidow
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.
Life loss that is not combat damage — each opponent loses life, repeatably
- Zulaport Cutthroat2 mana
- Deathrite Shaman1 mana
- Leechridden Swamp0 mana
- Marionette Apprentice2 mana
- The Meathook Massacre2 mana
- Mirkwood Bats4 mana
- Ayara, First of Locthwain3 mana
- Bastion of Remembrance3 mana
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
- Twitching Doll2 mana
- Mirkwood Spider1 mana
- Radioactive Spider1 mana
- Chainweb Aracnir1 mana
- Nyx Weaver3 mana
- Deadly Recluse2 mana
- Spider-Ham, Peter Porker2 mana
- Arasta of the Endless Web4 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
Put your own cards into your graveyard as a resource
- Takenuma, Abandoned Mire0 mana
- Stitcher's Supplier1 mana
- Aftermath Analyst2 mana
- Ripples of Undeath2 mana
- Smuggler's Surprise1 mana
- Six3 mana
- Argoth, Sanctum of Nature0 mana
- Eden, Seat of the Sanctum0 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
- Entomb1 mana
- Demonic Tutor2 mana
- Diabolic Intent2 mana
- Vampiric Tutor1 mana
- Green Sun's Zenith1 mana
- Imperial Seal1 mana
- Demonic Consultation1 mana
- Nature's Rhythm2 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
Combos with Ishkanah, Grafwidow
Known combos from Commander Spellbook that Ishkanah, Grafwidow is a piece of, and how many decks list them.
- Ishkanah, Grafwidow + Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar371 decks
- Ishkanah, Grafwidow + Eldrazi Displacer + Ashnod's Altar
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