Loot, the AnomalyLoot, the Anomaly | Art by Filip Burburan

Though the rush of preview season is over for the set, there is still a lot to explore in Reality Fracture! One uncommon legend really jumped out at me as something weird and unique, and I had just had to brew up a deck around it, so today I'm sharing a deck tech built around Loot, the AnomalyLoot, the Anomaly.

What Does Loot, the AnomalyLoot, the Anomaly Do?

We've seen a lot of different versions of cute little Loot, but Echoverse version of Loot has been locked away by crazy Jace and turned dark. Remarkably, he has negative power, but Loot doesn't let that slow him down: if Loot's power is negative, he assigns combat damage as though his power were positive.

We've only seen negative power on a handful of creatures before: Char-RumblerChar-Rumbler, Half-Squirrel, Half-Half-Squirrel, Half-, and Spinal ParasiteSpinal Parasite. Their negative power was basically a card design balancer, an obstacle to overcome.

Usually in Magic: The Gathering, creatures get weaker when their power gets smaller, but Loot gets stronger, so you'll want to have ways in the deck that lower Loot's power. Luckily, Loot has a built-in way to lower his own power by being able to sacrifice another creature or planeswalker, once you've reached threshold.

This suggests a weird Voltron strategy where you adjust Loot's size to the point that attacks can take out opponents with commander damage in just a few hits, but instead of the traditional ways that you'd typically go about boosting your commander's size, you've got to shrink his size. Given his threshold activated ability, you'll want to include ways to self-mill or otherwise get cards in the graveyard, and you'll want plenty of sacrificial fodder to feed Dark Loot's quest for negative power. This makes for a really fun deckbuilding challenge!

Key Cards for Loot, the AnomalyLoot, the Anomaly

The first order of business is finding other cards that lower Loot's power, and the first card that popped to mind is Glistening OilGlistening Oil. This is a nifty Aura that gives enchanted creature infect at the cost of the creature gaining a -1/-1 counter at the beginning of your upkeep. Typically, this makes the enchanted creature less effective at dealing infect damage over time, but Loot spins that on its head and gets more effective. So Loot would first do two infect damage, then three, then four, then five, which would be enough to take out an opponent with poison counters. That's not even accounting for other ways to lower Loot's power. Glistening Oil also has the awesome text that if it is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, return it to owner's hand, making it an incredibly sticky threat. Then there's DespondencyDespondency, another Aura that comes back to your hand if it ends up in the graveyard from the battlefield; you rarely see this played in Commander, but it's perfect for Loot.

ContagionContagion is another card you rarely see in Commander since it's not very effective at killing creatures with those weird -2/-1 counters, but Loot is more than happy to shoulder them to hit for six damage!

This year's Sinister GnarlbarkSinister Gnarlbark is a solid card drawing engine with what's supposed to be a drawback, but Loot happily takes that blight counter. Dawnhand DissidentDawnhand Dissident has two useful activated abilities that involve blight: the first one surveils, which can help fill your graveyard to reach threshold. The second one can provide some control against graveyard strategies, and in a pinch you can use it on yourself and remove counters to bring a creature back from the graveyard.

Blight GrenadeBlight Grenade lets you take out a big creature and then give all creatures -3/-3 to sweep away small chump blockers and letting Loot attack for five if the coast is clear.

Black Sun's ZenithBlack Sun's Zenith can scale to the size you want to shrink everyone's creatures permanently, and if you make X = 3, Loot survives and can deal five damage. The shrinking from Nuclear FalloutNuclear Fallout only lasts until end of turn, but the rad counters you get help self-mill to achieve threshold for Loot. Toxic DelugeToxic Deluge is a grade A removal spell in Commander that's even better when Loot is on the battlefield.

Then we have Belbe's ArmorBelbe's Armor, which is basically FirebreathingFirebreathing for Loot that also boosts his toughness. This is an on-board "combat trick" that can make your opponents' attacking or blocking choices difficult whether you activate it not.

What's also fun is some of the "low power matters" cards we can make use of. The skulk ability of Skeleton KeySkeleton Key makes Loot unblockable since no other creature is going to have less power, and Loot will almost never have a power higher than three, so Thieves' ToolsThieves' Tools will also make him unblockable.

What's really fun is to utilize "the Ring tempts you" mechanic. If you choose Loot as your Ring-bearer, he gains "can’t be blocked by creatures with greater power", which pretty much makes him the most effective Ring-bearer of all time! Call of the RingCall of the Ring is the best since it continually tempts you, so if Loot bites the dust you can redeploy him and make him the Ring-bearer again. Oh, and that card draw is nice! One Ring to Rule Them AllOne Ring to Rule Them All's mill ability isn't really going to fire with Loot, but all the rest of the card is going to be awesome, and in a deck with sacrificial fodder, Gollum, Patient PlotterGollum, Patient Plotter is going to do some work and keep that tempting going.

Claim the PreciousClaim the Precious, Inherited EnvelopeInherited Envelope, and Sam's Desperate RescueSam's Desperate Rescue aren't exactly Commander all-stars, but they do good work making Loot the ultimate Ring-bearer.

With some of the effects that give Loot or all creatures some variable of -1/-1, boosting Loot's toughness beyond four is going to further extend the upper range of where you take that. The new Captain America's ShieldCaptain America's Shield is awesome for this; being indestructible makes it so much harder to remove, and being able to tap down a defender when you attack is invaluable. Slagwurm ArmorSlagwurm Armor is a little less effective but still worth the slot, and Leather ArmorLeather Armor asks for minimal mana investment for a slight improvement to toughness and a nice ward .

To fuel Loot's threshold-enabled sacrifice abilities, I'm loading up on good sacrificial fodder. Bloodsoaked ChampionBloodsoaked Champion and Reassembling SkeletonReassembling Skeleton can potentially be sacrificed and redeployed multiple times in a turn with enough mana, and so can Cult ConscriptCult Conscript if a non-Skeleton creature died that turn.

I also added a few more recursive creatures that are a bit less of engines than sticky creatures that come back again and again. BloodghastBloodghast returns with a landfall trigger; Nine-Lives FamiliarNine-Lives Familiar has actual nine lives as it comes back eight times; and Unstoppable SlasherUnstoppable Slasher can easily come back one time, but has the added benefit of being an attacking and blocking threat on its own.

Since we're in black, I always like to put in a dash of reanimation, so I'm running the awesome VictimizeVictimize and the fun Ever AfterEver After.

While we aren't a full-scale graveyard deck, we do want to achieve threshold reliably, so I've got some cards to help with that. Stitcher's SupplierStitcher's Supplier is an old classic, and Liliana the RepentantLiliana the Repentant is a brand new enabler that is sure to be popular; and you've got to love that exhaust ability for a little extra reanimation. Necron DeathmarkNecron Deathmark is an excellent creature kill spell attached to a body you can bring back from the graveyard, and its enters ability can get you nearly halfway to threshold. Plus, since it has flash, you could even use it to mess up someone's attempt to stack their library (such as Enlightened TutorEnlightened Tutor) to mill it away.

Breach the MultiverseBreach the Multiverse gives you threshold immediately, and it happens to be one of the best things you can do in Commander for seven mana... especially since you just don't know what you're going to get from everyone before you mill!

Buried AliveBuried Alive is a fantastic way to get three of your recursive creatures into the graveyard, or a good target for your reanimation spells. I thought it could be fun to run a couple dredge creatures to help get you to threshold. Stinkweed ImpStinkweed Imp is a flier that can hold off attackers with its destroy ability, and when Golgari ThugGolgari Thug dies you can put a creature from your graveyard on top of your library to draw.

How Does This Loot, the AnomalyLoot, the Anomaly Commander Deck Win?

As a sort-of Voltron deck, it's mostly looking to win by knocking out opponents with commander damage and other combat chip shots, but I've added a few more ways to get in more damage.

Gray Merchant of AsphodelGray Merchant of Asphodel has long been a staple of mono-black decks, and it really takes advantage of the reanimation spells to hit the battlefield multiple times in a game, draining opponents of life and stacking your own. Plus there's Syr Konrad, the GrimSyr Konrad, the Grim, which does a similar thing but spread out over time as creatures jump in and out of graveyards.

If you happen to own an Agatha's Soul CauldronAgatha's Soul Cauldron, you'd definitely want to put that in this deck to combo with Viscid LemuresViscid Lemures. Sacrifice the Lemures to Loot, and if you have a clear attack, exile Lemures with Agatha's Cauldron to give Loot the Lemure's activated ability over and over until Loot's power is negative 21 or lower. Since that ability gives swampwalk, you could include Urborg, Tomb of YawgmothUrborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth to make sure everyone has SwampSwamps! EndlingEndling is another great creature to exile to Agatha's Cauldron, with that one mana activation giving Loot -1/+1.

I don't have those cards in my decklist because Agatha's Cauldron is rather expensive, but if you own the Cauldron you should snip some cards to make room!

Loot, the AnomalyLoot, the Anomaly Commander Deck List

Conclusion

While this deck isn't going to be taking cEDH tables by storm, I think it's a quirky card that opponents will find fun to face down. It's Dark Loot, y'all!

What other cards would you find good to run in a Loot, the Anomaly deck that I overlooked here?

Read more:

How Good is Reality Fracture for Commander?

Best New Commanders from Reality Fracture