Arcane Foundry › Commanders › Lazav, Familiar Stranger
Lazav, Familiar Stranger
Legendary Creature — Shapeshifter · {1}{U}{B} · Black/Blue commander
Whenever you commit a crime, put a +1/+1 counter on Lazav. Then you may exile a card from a graveyard. If a creature card was exiled this way, you may have Lazav become a copy of that card until end of turn. This ability triggers only once each turn. (Targeting opponents, anything they control, and/or cards in their graveyards is a crime.)
Build a Lazav, Familiar Stranger deck →
What Lazav, Familiar Stranger 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 · otherWhenever you commit a crime, put a +1/+1 counter on Lazav. Then you may exile a card from a graveyard. If a creature card was exiled this way, you may have Lazav become a copy of that card
What a Lazav, Familiar Stranger deck wants
The plan the Forge derives for this commander: the roles it fills and how many of each.
- 14× A permanent whose value is in its enter-the-battlefield trigger — the payload a blink deck reuses
- 9× Put your own cards into your graveyard as a resource
- 16× Put +1/+1 counters on creatures you control, or multiply the ones already there
- 5× Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- 1× Answer a whole board at once
- 2× Answer a spell or ability before it resolves
- 9× Find the exact card the plan needs
- 7× Refill your hand
- 2× Keep a permanent you control alive through removal
Best cards for Lazav, Familiar Stranger
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.
A permanent whose value is in its enter-the-battlefield trigger — the payload a blink deck reuses
- Bojuka Bog0 mana
- Chrome Mox0 mana
- Mystic Sanctuary0 mana
- Cabaretti Courtyard0 mana
- Dimir Aqueduct0 mana
- Dismal Backwater0 mana
- Lotus Field0 mana
- Mortuary Mire0 mana
Put your own cards into your graveyard as a resource
- Takenuma, Abandoned Mire0 mana
- Stitcher's Supplier1 mana
- Altar of Dementia2 mana
- Brain Freeze2 mana
- Mindcrank2 mana
- Ripples of Undeath2 mana
- Codex Shredder1 mana
- Hedron Crab1 mana
Put +1/+1 counters on creatures you control, or multiply the ones already there
- Karn's Bastion0 mana
- Ripples of Potential2 mana
- Thrummingbird2 mana
- Blightbelly Rat2 mana
- Contagion Clasp2 mana
- Contentious Plan2 mana
- Drown in Ichor2 mana
- Experimental Augury2 mana
Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- Reality Shift2 mana
- Pongify1 mana
- Rapid Hybridization1 mana
- Resculpt2 mana
- Defile1 mana
- Tragic Slip1 mana
- Suspend1 mana
- Infernal Grasp2 mana
Answer a whole board at once
- Do or Die2 mana
- Force of Despair3 mana
- Displacement Wave2 mana
- Accursed Marauder2 mana
- Bontu's Last Reckoning3 mana
- Innocent Blood1 mana
- Coils of the Medusa2 mana
- Forced March3 mana
Answer a spell or ability before it resolves
- Pact of Negation0 mana
- Counterspell2 mana
- Three Steps Ahead1 mana
- Long River's Pull2 mana
- Force of Will5 mana
- Abjure1 mana
- Archmage's Charm3 mana
- Cancel3 mana
Find the exact card the plan needs
- Entomb1 mana
- Demonic Tutor2 mana
- Diabolic Intent2 mana
- Vampiric Tutor1 mana
- Lively Dirge2 mana
- Imperial Seal1 mana
- Insatiable Avarice1 mana
- Diabolic Intent2 mana
Refill your hand
- Mystic Remora1 mana
- Skullclamp1 mana
- Orcish Bowmasters2 mana
- Curiosity1 mana
- Wizard Class1 mana
- Black Market Connections3 mana
- Braids, Arisen Nightmare3 mana
- Morbid Opportunist3 mana
Keep a permanent you control alive through removal
- Gleaming Overseer3 mana
- Cryptothrall4 mana
- Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus4 mana
- Lost in the Maze2 mana
- Lightning Greaves2 mana
- Swiftfoot Boots2 mana
- Eldrazi Monument5 mana
- Commander's Plate1 mana