Arcane Foundry › Commanders › Koh, the Face Stealer
Koh, the Face Stealer
Legendary Creature — Shapeshifter Spirit · {4}{B}{B} · Black commander
What Koh, the Face Stealer 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 Koh enters, exile up to one other target creature.
- Triggered ability · deathWhenever another nontoken creature dies, you may exile it.
- Activated abilityPay 1 life: Choose a creature card exiled with Koh.
- AbilityKoh has all activated and triggered abilities of the last chosen card.
What a Koh, the Face Stealer deck needs
Plays as ability theft. What the commander asks of the other 99 — read from the card and checked by hand.
- creatures dying with strong activated and triggered abilities — yours and theirs (it exiles them and borrows their abilities)
- removal
The Koh, the Face Stealer deck plan
The roles the Forge fills for this commander, and how many cards of each.
- 9× Exile a permanent you control and return it — the button a value-ETB deck presses
- 11× A permanent whose value is in its enter-the-battlefield trigger — the payload a blink deck reuses
- 4× Sacrifice a creature for no mana, repeatably
- 10× 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 Koh, the Face Stealer
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
- Eldrazi Confluence4 mana
- Ashnod's Intervention1 mana
A permanent whose value is in its enter-the-battlefield trigger — the payload a blink deck reuses
- Orcish Bowmasters2 mana
- Accursed Marauder2 mana
- Solemn Simulacrum4 mana
- Cauldron Familiar1 mana
- Fleshbag Marauder3 mana
- Plaguecrafter3 mana
- Gray Merchant of Asphodel5 mana
- Burglar Rat2 mana
Sacrifice a creature for no mana, repeatably
- Carrion Feeder1 mana
- Viscera Seer1 mana
- Altar of Dementia2 mana
- Spawning Pit2 mana
- Umbral Collar Zealot2 mana
- Bloodthrone Vampire2 mana
- Dark Privilege2 mana
- Ashnod's Altar3 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
- Demonic Tutor2 mana
- Diabolic Intent2 mana
- Vampiric Tutor1 mana
- Imperial Seal1 mana
- Demonic Consultation1 mana
- Grim Tutor3 mana
- Tainted Pact2 mana
- Scheming Symmetry1 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
Combos with Koh, the Face Stealer
Known combos from Commander Spellbook that Koh, the Face Stealer is a piece of, and how many decks list them.
- Koh, the Face Stealer + Sheoldred, The Apocalypse + Vilis, Broker Of Blood574 decks
- Koh, the Face Stealer + Asmodeus The Archfiend + Skirge Familiar305 decks
- Koh, the Face Stealer + Repay In Kind154 decks
- Koh, the Face Stealer + Bloodthirster83 decks
- Koh, the Face Stealer + Port Razer68 decks
- Koh, the Face Stealer + Rowan, Scion Of War + Exsanguinate53 decks
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