Arcane Foundry › Commanders › Pako, Arcane Retriever
Pako, Arcane Retriever
Legendary Creature — Elemental Dog · {3}{R}{G} · Green/Red commander
Partner with Haldan, Avid Arcanist
Haste
Whenever Pako attacks, exile the top card of each player's library and put a fetch counter on each of them. Put a +1/+1 counter on Pako for each noncreature card exiled this way.
Build a Pako, Arcane Retriever deck →
What Pako, Arcane Retriever 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 · attackWhenever Pako attacks, exile the top card of each player's library and put a fetch counter on each of them. Put a +1/+1 counter on Pako for each noncreature card exiled this way.
- Keyword · hastehaste
What a Pako, Arcane Retriever deck needs
Plays as combat trigger. What the commander asks of the other 99 — read from the card and checked by hand.
- counter doublers and proliferate (it grows only itself with +1/+1 counters)
- evasion and protection for the commander, and extra combats (its own attack is the engine; it has haste)
The Pako, Arcane Retriever deck plan
The roles the Forge fills for this commander, and how many cards of each.
- 8× Make the commander connect — a body that never deals combat damage never triggers
- 12× Put +1/+1 counters on creatures you control, or multiply the ones already there
- 8× Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- 10× Find the exact card the plan needs
- 3× Answer a whole board at once
- 10× Refill your hand
- 4× Keep a permanent you control alive through removal
- 11× Get ahead on mana
Best cards for Pako, Arcane Retriever
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.
Make the commander connect — a body that never deals combat damage never triggers
- Garruk's Uprising3 mana
- Eldrazi Monument5 mana
- Goblin War Drums3 mana
- Akroma's Memorial7 mana
- Gruul War Chant4 mana
- Archetype of Aggression3 mana
- Beamtown Beatstick1 mana
- Sticky Fingers1 mana
Put +1/+1 counters on creatures you control, or multiply the ones already there
- Branching Evolution3 mana
- Hardened Scales1 mana
- Ozolith, the Shattered Spire2 mana
- Kami of Whispered Hopes3 mana
- Benevolent Hydra2 mana
- Michelangelo, Weirdness to 112 mana
- The Earth Crystal4 mana
- High Score3 mana
Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- Wild Magic Surge2 mana
- Beast Within3 mana
- Nature's Claim1 mana
- Crush1 mana
- Emerald Charm1 mana
- Naturalize2 mana
- Origin of Metalbending2 mana
- Natural State1 mana
Find the exact card the plan needs
- Green Sun's Zenith1 mana
- Nature's Rhythm2 mana
- Worldly Tutor1 mana
- March of Burgeoning Life1 mana
- Archdruid's Charm3 mana
- Chord of Calling3 mana
- Eldritch Evolution3 mana
- Summoner's Pact0 mana
Answer a whole board at once
- Blasphemous Act9 mana
- Chain Reaction4 mana
- Street Spasm1 mana
- Selective Obliteration5 mana
- Mizzium Mortars2 mana
- Delete2 mana
- Earthquake1 mana
- Needle Storm3 mana
Refill your hand
- Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer1 mana
- Skullclamp1 mana
- Sylvan Library2 mana
- Garruk's Uprising3 mana
- Professional Face-Breaker3 mana
- Beast Whisperer4 mana
- The One Ring4 mana
- Sticky Fingers1 mana
Keep a permanent you control alive through removal
- Hexing Squelcher2 mana
- Guardian Augmenter3 mana
- Saryth, the Viper's Fang4 mana
- Lightning Greaves2 mana
- Swiftfoot Boots2 mana
- Asceticism5 mana
- Eldrazi Monument5 mana
- Commander's Plate1 mana
Get ahead on mana
- Sol Ring1 mana
- Gruul Signet2 mana
- Incubation Druid2 mana
- Palladium Myr3 mana
- Worn Powerstone3 mana
- Ilysian Caryatid2 mana
- Heritage Druid1 mana
- Llanowar Tribe3 mana
Combos with Pako, Arcane Retriever
Known combos from Commander Spellbook that Pako, Arcane Retriever is a piece of, and how many decks list them.
- Pako, Arcane Retriever + Aggravated Assault + Bear Umbra1,346 decks