
Imotekh the Stormlord
The Commander
Phaeron — Whenever one or more artifact cards leave your graveyard, create two 2/2 black Necron Warrior artifact creature tokens.
Grand Strategist — At the beginning of combat on your turn, another target artifact creature you control gets +2/+2 and gains menace until end of turn.
Guide
Gameplan
Imotekh is a mono-black artifact engine that turns graveyard recursion into an army of 2/2 Necron Warriors. You flood the board with cheap artifacts, fill the graveyard, then loop artifacts out of it (reanimation, eldrazi-style recursion, escape, or just casting them back) to spawn token pairs, while Grand Strategist makes one artifact creature a menacing threat each combat. Win by going wide, going tall on a single buffed beater, or draining the table with aristocrats payoffs.
Strengths
- Generates repeatable, mana-efficient token value just by recurring artifacts you'd play anyway
- Mono-black gives access to the best tutors, reanimation, and removal in the format
- Grand Strategist provides a free evasive combat threat every turn with no extra mana
- Synergizes deeply with artifact-matters and Necron tribal support
Weaknesses
- Color identity locks you out of green ramp and blue card advantage/interaction
- Tokens are fragile 2/2s vulnerable to board wipes and sweepers
- Engine is graveyard-dependent and folds to graveyard hate like Rest in Peace
- Can be slow to assemble the recursion loop without dedicated enablers
Key Cards
- Myr Retriever — Recurs an artifact from the graveyard on death, directly triggering Phaeron for two tokens and looping easily.
- Junk Diver — A flying Myr Retriever that returns an artifact to hand when it dies, feeding the Phaeron trigger repeatedly.
- Trading Post — Sacrifice and recur artifacts at will, giving you an on-demand token-generating engine.
- Goblin Welder — Swaps artifacts in and out of the graveyard, pulling cards out to make Necron Warriors while cheating in bombs.
- Krark-Clan Ironworks — Sacrifices artifacts for mana and combos with recursion to spew out tokens and fuel big turns.
- Pitiless Plunderer — Turns dying tokens and artifacts into Treasure, fueling more recursion and casts.
- Bontu the Glorified — A sacrifice outlet that drains the table as your expendable Necron Warriors die.
Upgrade Path
Add fast mana and rituals (Mana Vault, Dark Ritual, Jet Medallion) plus efficient artifact recursion (Goblin Welder, Junk Diver, Scrap Trawler) to make the engine explosive. Layer in aristocrats payoffs and free sacrifice outlets (Phyrexian Altar, Ashnod's Altar) to convert tokens into wins, and include graveyard insurance or alternate token sources to hedge against hate. Top-end tutors like Vampiric Tutor and Demonic Tutor let you assemble loops consistently.
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
- ▸Swing wide with an army of Necron Warrior tokens, often pushing one through with Grand Strategist's menace
- ▸Aristocrats drain via Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, and repeated sacrifice loops
- ▸Voltron-style kills by stacking buffs on a single evasive artifact creature
- ▸Combo finishes with Krark-Clan Ironworks plus recursion engines for arbitrarily large boards
Archetypes
- Artifacts/Recursion — Phaeron rewards every artifact that leaves the graveyard, making artifact looping the core engine.
- Tokens (Go-Wide) — Each recursion spawns two 2/2 artifact creatures to swarm the board.
- Aristocrats — Cheap, expendable Necron Warriors pair perfectly with sacrifice outlets and drain payoffs.
- Reanimator — Black reanimation spells double as token generators by returning artifact creatures from the yard.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
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Same color identity (B), by popularity.

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