Arcane Foundry › Commanders › Zurzoth, Chaos Rider
Zurzoth, Chaos Rider
Legendary Creature — Devil · {2}{R} · Red commander
Whenever an opponent draws their first card each turn, if it's not their turn, you create a 1/1 red Devil creature token with "When this token dies, it deals 1 damage to any target."
Whenever one or more Devils you control attack one or more players, you and those players each draw a card, then discard a card at random.
Build a Zurzoth, Chaos Rider deck →
What Zurzoth, Chaos Rider 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 an opponent draws their first card each turn, if it's not their turn, you create a 1/1 red Devil creature token with "When this token dies, it deals 1 damage to any target."
- Triggered ability · attackWhenever one or more Devils you control attack one or more players, you and those players each draw a card, then discard a card at random.
What a Zurzoth, Chaos Rider deck needs
Plays as devil typal. What the commander asks of the other 99 — read from the card and checked by hand.
- effects that make opponents draw — wheels, group draw and forced draw (the opponents' draws are its trigger)
- devil creatures (its text counts them)
- a wide board that attacks every turn (the trigger fires on the attack)
The Zurzoth, Chaos Rider deck plan
The roles the Forge fills for this commander, and how many cards of each.
- 28× A body of the exact type the commander's trigger requires — the wrong type is worthless here regardless of quality
- 8× Make opponents draw — for a commander that punishes their draw, the punishment is the deck's damage source
- 5× A team pump that actually pumps tokens
- 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 Zurzoth, Chaos Rider
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 body of the exact type the commander's trigger requires — the wrong type is worthless here regardless of quality
- Vexing Devil1 mana
- Witty Roastmaster3 mana
- Forge Devil1 mana
- Gibbering Fiend2 mana
- Torch Fiend2 mana
- Devilish Valet3 mana
- Pain Distributor3 mana
- Sin Prodder3 mana
Make opponents draw — for a commander that punishes their draw, the punishment is the deck's damage source
- Geier Reach Sanitarium0 mana
- Mikokoro, Center of the Sea0 mana
- Howling Mine2 mana
- Scrawling Crawler3 mana
- Horn of Greed3 mana
- Temple Bell3 mana
- Font of Mythos4 mana
- Ghirapur Orrery4 mana
A team pump that actually pumps tokens
- Patchwork Banner3 mana
- Castle Embereth0 mana
- Great Train Heist1 mana
- Heraldic Banner3 mana
- Rising of the Day3 mana
- Purphoros, God of the Forge4 mana
- Kavaron, Memorial World0 mana
- Adaptive Automaton3 mana
Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- Wild Magic Surge2 mana
- Crush1 mana
- Umezawa's Jitte2 mana
- Titan's Presence3 mana
- Abrade2 mana
- Untimely Malfunction2 mana
- Chaos Warp3 mana
- Kozilek's Command2 mana
Find the exact card the plan needs
- Imperial Recruiter3 mana
- Shield-Wall Sentinel4 mana
- Skyship Weatherlight4 mana
- Moonsilver Key2 mana
- Pattern Matcher4 mana
- Gamble1 mana
- Hoarding Dragon5 mana
- Shrine Steward5 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
- Apocalypse5 mana
Refill your hand
- Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer1 mana
- Skullclamp1 mana
- Herald's Horn3 mana
- Professional Face-Breaker3 mana
- The One Ring4 mana
- Sticky Fingers1 mana
- Vexing Bauble1 mana
- Birgi, God of Storytelling // Harnfel, Horn of Bounty3 mana
Keep a permanent you control alive through removal
- Hexing Squelcher2 mana
- 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
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