Koh, the Face StealerKoh, the Face Stealer | Art by Antonio Jose Manzanedo

Koh, the Face StealerKoh, the Face Stealer is a commander that activates the combo player inside all of us. It can combine the abilities of cards that designers would never put together, like Pili-PalaPili-Pala and Palladium MyrPalladium Myr, or Sheoldred, the ApocalypseSheoldred, the Apocalypse and Vilis, Broker of BloodVilis, Broker of Blood.

That's not to mention the powerful abilities it can gain just by exiling our opponents' cards, even if we're not as able to build a deck around those cases.

The limiting factor of having to pay one life per time we want to change what Koh copies is more of a puzzle piece than an actual safety valve; it just asks for us to do a little more work. Koh can still go infinite in a number of ways, and the added cost just pushes us to make sure Koh is copying some juicy abilities.

Koh's power of copying abilities isn't entirely new. We've seen commanders like Mairsil, the PretenderMairsil, the Pretender and Trazyn the InfiniteTrazyn the Infinite that can gain activated abilities from cards in graveyards. Necrotic OozeNecrotic Ooze has long been a glass cannon dream in various formats, and Standard players will probably wince at the mention of Agatha's Soul CauldronAgatha's Soul Cauldron, which terrorized the format alongside Vivi OrnitierVivi Ornitier until just a few weeks ago.

There are a few differences between these cards and Koh. In general, Koh is slightly harder to set up, as he needs a card to get to the battlefield at some point before gaining its abilities, whereas the others just need it to be in the graveyard, which is so much easier. Mairsil and Trazyn can also gain abilities from artifacts, which opens up some other combos and shenanigans.

But the big innovation with Koh is that he not only copies activated abilities, but can gain triggered abilities as well. This can be a huge upside, especially when stealing other players' cards. So many creatures these days have powerful triggered abilities, from Scute SwarmScute Swarm to Esper SentinelEsper Sentinel to Blood ArtistBlood Artist, and we can steal those abilities from our opponents for profit.

Copying our own triggered abilities is harder to break than activated abilities, as in order to give those abilities to Koh, we need the creature that originally had those abilities to make it onto the battlefield, at which point it doesn't make much sense sacrificing that creature to give its same abilities to Koh. Combined on one creature, the activated abilities of Phyrexian DevourerPhyrexian Devourer and Walking BallistaWalking Ballista can do more than the sum of their parts, but Bloodthirsty ConquerorBloodthirsty Conqueror and Enduring TenacityEnduring Tenacity don't need to be combined onto one creature to win the game.

There are some exceptions to this rule, such as cards that have better effects on a larger creature (Marionette MasterMarionette Master), but in general Koh's gaining triggered abilities will be more useful as a way to continue using those abilities after the original creature that had them dies than as a combo route.

Key Cards for Koh, the Face StealerKoh, the Face Stealer

Given that our commander costs six mana, and that many of the pieces that work best with him are also high up on the mana curve, our deck should rely on the classic mana engines that can propel mono-black. Cabal CoffersCabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of YawgmothUrborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth have been making too much mana together since the format's inception, and Cabal StrongholdCabal Stronghold adds redundancy to the plan.

Magus of the CoffersMagus of the Coffers and Crypt GhastCrypt Ghast hold their own weight, but can also lend their abilities to Koh if they die before their time.

We'll need to control when our creatures die in order to give their abilities to Koh, and luckily a lot of the best ways to do that involve their own powerful activated abilities.

Warren SoultraderWarren Soultrader turns creatures into mana in a highly repeatable manner, and is no stranger to its own combos in several formats. Priest of Forgotten GodsPriest of Forgotten Gods offers card advantage as well as the mana boost, and while requiring to tap is a limiter, we can give its ability to Koh in order to reuse it.

Continuing down this Aristocrats-esque line of thought, Soldevi AdnateSoldevi Adnate can also fuel our mana-hungry deck, supported by (the admittedly weaker) Basal ThrullBasal Thrull and Blood VassalBlood Vassal.

Yawgmoth, Thran PhysicianYawgmoth, Thran Physician and Yahenni, Undying PartisanYahenni, Undying Partisan round out our sacrifice outlets as individually strong threats that also look good exiled under Koh.

One of the easiest ways to break Koh is to give him powerful tap abilities and also give him the power to untap at will. Pili-PalaPili-Pala is the best untapper, as it's low-friction in the worst cases and can turn our life points into mana if Koh can also gain the abilities of Palladium MyrPalladium Myr or Magus of the CoffersMagus of the Coffers.

Cinderhaze WretchCinderhaze Wretch is an oddball that ports well from Mairsil, the PretenderMairsil, the Pretender as a way to untap several times for free. It can put itself into the graveyard (for Koh to exile) at will with its own ability, and in a pinch it can make our opponents discard a sizeable number of cards alongside Koh's larger toughness.

Finally, Eater of the DeadEater of the Dead can untap for the cost of a single creature card in a graveyard.

Unfortunately, if Koh exiles creatures using Eater of the DeadEater of the Dead's ability, he won't be able to gain their abilities. His life-paying ability is linked to his first two lines, and only refer to cards exiled in those ways. I found this video helpful in understanding linked abilities, and recommend keepingitcasualmtg for tons of niche rules interactions.

Koh is absolutely able to pull off some crazy combos, but before we dive into them, there are some standalone cards that work extremely well with it. Tree of PerditionTree of Perdition is sneakily good when put onto a six-toughness creature, especially since multiple activations can entirely upset the order of the table.

Magus of the MirrorMagus of the Mirror is even scarier in this deck, since Koh can bring our life total to one whenever he wants. In our upkeep we can go to one, sacrifice the Magus, exile it under Koh, go to one again, and sacrifice Koh to bring two opponents to the brink of death. Asmodeus the ArchfiendAsmodeus the Archfiend is also ridiculous exiled with Koh, as Koh won't gain the clause that prevents us from drawing cards. Paying to draw seven cards can dig us for exactly what we need to close the game.

If we need to shift to a more controlling stance, then we have a couple ways to turn our commander into a repeatable removal engine. Pack RatPack Rat can discard a card to copy itself, and if Koh steals its whiskery face, he can make copies of himself. These copies will die to the legend rule, but first they will exile a creature.

Similarly, the new Joo Dee, One of ManyJoo Dee, One of Many can make extra copies of our commander (which we can sacrifice to the second part of the ability before state-based actions force us to get rid of the extra legend) to remove problematic threats. And I couldn't resist including the OG Avatar of WoeAvatar of Woe, which holds up to this day, and becomes even stronger with the dream of combining it with an untapper.

Finally, while Koh is a powerful way to combine abilities in new contexts, he is neither the first nor the most breakable. The other options slot into the maindeck without a doubt.

Agatha's Soul CauldronAgatha's Soul Cauldron gives abilities to all of our creatures with +1/+1 counters, meaning we might have multiple bodies with the powers of Avatar of WoeAvatar of Woe or Asmodeus the ArchfiendAsmodeus the Archfiend. Necrotic OozeNecrotic Ooze also copies abilities of cards in graveyards, but doesn't even have to remove them. Marvin, Murderous MimicMarvin, Murderous Mimic doubles any activated abilities we have on the battlefield, and can combine them to be more than their sum.

The reason these cards are easier to break than our commander is that they can all gain two cards' abilities at the same time, whereas Koh requires a constant paying of life to toggle between two of his exiled cards.

Winning the Game With Koh, the Face StealerKoh, the Face Stealer

This deck will usually win using some form of near-infinite combo that exchanges life for resources at an unfair rate. These combos may require three or more cards to set up, but half of their strength stems from the fact that most of the cards involved are just good on their own, and have additional synergies in this deck when we're not going for the win.

Vilis, Broker of BloodVilis, Broker of Blood is a massive draw engine on his own, since Koh gives us a free way to pay life repeatedly to draw tons of cards. Sheoldred, the ApocalypseSheoldred, the Apocalypse is a hyper-efficient creature that puts a clock on our opponents while crucially buffering our life total. But together, these two creatures combine with Koh to let us draw our deck. Koh can pay one life to draw, which will gain us two life, so we can repeat as much as we want. Koh gives us a free backup for this combo as well if our opponents are able to kill one of the other pieces, and even if they kill Koh himself, the other two pieces are very strong together.

Asmodeus the ArchfiendAsmodeus the Archfiend is already a crazy card alongside our commander, but Skirge FamiliarSkirge Familiar puts it over the top by letting us turn our cards back into mana in order to draw more cards. This combo not only draws our whole deck, but gives us the mana to cast it as well.

If we can exile both Walking BallistaWalking Ballista and Phyrexian DevourerPhyrexian Devourer underneath Koh, then we can exile our library and shoot our opponents for an amount of damage equal to the total mana value we exiled. For one life, we can turn Koh into a Phyrexian DevourerPhyrexian Devourer, and remove our library from the game, responding to the sacrifice trigger when he goes over seven power the first time. This trigger won't re-trigger while the first instance is still on the stack, so we can still put a ton of counters onto Koh and then finish the game by paying one more life to make him a Walking BallistaWalking Ballista and removing those counters to deal damage.

Since we're already playing a mono-black combo deck with Walking BallistaWalking Ballista, why not throw in Mikaeus, the UnhallowedMikaeus, the Unhallowed for the old MikeMike & TrikeTrike combo as well?

Finally, there's a weird interaction between Koh and Enduring TenacityEnduring Tenacity that opens up some truly convoluted combos.

First, we need to exile Enduring TenacityEnduring Tenacity under Koh, and then Koh needs to die while copying the Snake's triggered ability. Then Koh will return to the battlefield as an enchantment. Once he's no longer a creature, if he exiles Cinderhaze WretchCinderhaze Wretch, he can activate its untap ability as many times as we want since enchantments don't care about -1/-1 counters.

By itself, this can force our opponents to discard all of their cards, but it gets extra spicy if we can also throw in another tap ability like Avatar of WoeAvatar of Woe or Joo Dee, One of ManyJoo Dee, One of Many. Even without Cinderhaze WretchCinderhaze Wretch, turning our commander into an enchantment can shield it from a good number of common removal spells.

Koh, the Face Stealer Commander Deck List

Koh is truly a monster of a commander, and he complements the big-mana mono-black strategy well. The fact that he removes a creature whenever he enters and then steal its abilities means that we can play the fair midrange game as well as anyone, but we can also pivot into a combo role if we ever draw two or three of the right cards.

This deck is similar to a few other midrange/combo decks I've built in that it contains ten or fifteen cards that increase the potential power level of the strategy, and a good number of the combinations of three or four of those cards will win us the game, whether by creating a true infinite combo or by generating a wicked strong engine.

The pieces overlap surprisingly well, so even if Phyrexian DevourerPhyrexian Devourer isn't ending the game on the spot, it won't be a dead draw in most games.