Legendary Creature — Treefolk Shaman

Colfenor, the Last Yew

Mana value6EDHREC#7,222

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The Commander

Vigilance, reach

Whenever Colfenor or another creature you control dies, return up to one other target creature card with lesser toughness from your graveyard to your hand.

Guide

Gameplan

Build a board of high-toughness creatures (Colfenor himself is huge), then loop death triggers to recur smaller-toughness creatures back to hand for value engines. You grind opponents out with recursion, sacrifice synergies, and toughness-matters payoffs, eventually winning through accumulated card advantage or a combo loop.

Strengths

Relentless card advantage—every creature death rebuys a creature, refilling your hand
Naturally synergizes with aristocrats sac engines and ETB value creatures
Deep BGW recursion, removal, and tutors to assemble engines
High toughness on Colfenor (and friends) survives most board wipes and combat
Self-recurring: when Colfenor dies he can grab a smaller creature, keeping the chain alive

Weaknesses

Six mana and color-intensive; slow to start and stumbles on bad mana
Recursion only returns to hand, not the battlefield—needs mana to re-cast
Toughness-matters payoffs are narrow and can be dead cards
Vulnerable to graveyard hate that shuts off the recursion engine
Exile-based removal and -X/-X effects bypass his death-loop value

Key Cards

Doran, the Siege Tower — Turns your high-toughness army into real damage and pairs perfectly with the toughness theme.
Viscera Seer — A free sacrifice outlet to trigger Colfenor on demand and scry through your deck.
Blood Artist — Drains opponents each death while Colfenor refuels your hand, the core aristocrats payoff.
Phyrexian Altar — Sacrifice outlet that also generates mana to immediately recast the creatures you return.
Eternal Witness — Repeatable recursion that loops with sac outlets and Colfenor for engine value.
Assassin's Trophy — Premium BGW interaction to clear blockers, combo pieces, and problem permanents.

Upgrade Path

Add fast mana and ramp (Sol Ring, Three Visits, Cultivate) to deploy Colfenor ahead of curve, and tighten the deck around a compact loop like Phyrexian Altar plus a cheap recurring creature and a drain payoff. Cut narrow toughness-matters filler for efficient sac outlets, tutors (Demonic/Vampiric Tutor, Diabolic Intent), and protection like Heroic Intervention to safeguard the engine.

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

▸Aristocrats drain via Blood Artist/Zulaport Cutthroat loops fueled by sacrifice
▸Combat damage through huge toughness creatures with Doran, the Siege Tower
▸Infinite sacrifice-recursion loop (e.g., Phyrexian Altar + recurring creature + drain effect)
▸Grinding opponents out of resources until your engine overwhelms them

Archetypes

Aristocrats — His death trigger turns sacrifice loops into a card-advantage and drain engine.
Reanimator/Value Recursion — He continually returns creatures from the graveyard to rebuy ETB effects.
Toughness Matters — Pairs with Doran and high-toughness payoffs for a combat-centric stax-adjacent build.
Combo — Free sacrifice outlets plus recursion loops enable token or drain combos.