Legendary Creature — Troll ShamanBortuk Bonerattle
Mana value6Rank#21,010
The Commander
Domain — When Bortuk Bonerattle enters, if you cast it, choose target creature card in your graveyard. Return that card to the battlefield if its mana value is less than or equal to the number of basic land types among lands you control. Otherwise, put it into your hand.
Guide
Gameplan
Cast Bortuk to reanimate or retrieve a creature from your graveyard, with the size of the target scaling off how many basic land types you control. Fill the yard early with self-mill and dorks, then loop Bortuk to repeatedly cheat fatties or value creatures back onto the battlefield, grinding the table into the dirt. You win through accumulated card advantage and recursion rather than speed.
Strengths
- Built-in, repeatable reanimation every time Bortuk re-enters from cast
- Strong color identity for ramp, tutors, and graveyard fueling in Golgari
- Domain scaling rewards fixing you'd run anyway, enabling big reanimation targets
- Resilient grindy value engine that recovers well from board wipes
Weaknesses
- Reanimation only triggers when cast, so commander tax and recasting are real costs
- Domain check at six mana value baseline is low without dedicated land-type fixing
- No native protection or evasion; Bortuk is just a 4/4 body that begs for removal
- Vulnerable to graveyard hate which shuts off the entire plan
- Two-color identity lacks blue card draw and counter protection
Key Cards
Upgrade Path
Add land-type fixing like Prismatic Vista, Fabled Passage, and dual-typed lands plus Dryad Arbor to push Domain higher and unlock bigger reanimation targets. Layer in reusable sacrifice/blink outlets and protection (Bolster Bortuk with Lightning Greaves), and tighten the self-mill package with Buried Alive, Stitcher's Supplier, and Golgari Findbroker for consistent fuel and recursion. keyCards placeholder.
Core Cards
The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.
Win Conditions
- ▸Reanimating huge threats like Grave Titan or Sheoldred and beating down
- ▸Aristocrats drains via repeated sacrifice and recursion loops
- ▸Grinding out card advantage until opponents run out of resources
Archetypes
- Reanimator — Bortuk's cast trigger cheats creature cards out of the graveyard onto the battlefield for free.
- Aristocrats — Repeatedly returning sacrificial creatures pairs with death-triggers and recursion engines for incremental value.
- Self-Mill Value — Golgari excels at filling the yard, giving Bortuk a deep menu of reanimation targets.
- Lands/Domain — Maximizing basic land types raises the mana value you can reanimate, turning fixing into power.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
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