Syr Konrad, the Grim
BLegendary Creature — Human Knight

Syr Konrad, the Grim

Mana value5EDHREC#252

The Commander

Whenever another creature dies, or a creature card is put into a graveyard from anywhere other than the battlefield, or a creature card leaves your graveyard, Syr Konrad deals 1 damage to each opponent.

{1}{B}: Each player mills a card. (They each put the top card of their library into their graveyard.)

Guide

Gameplan

Syr Konrad is a mono-black aristocrats/mill payoff that turns every creature hitting a graveyard into direct damage to all opponents. You flood the board with expendable creatures, sacrifice and recur them repeatedly, and use his mill ability to dump creature cards from libraries—each trigger pings everyone. The game ends when you generate a loop or mass-death event that drains the table out.

Strengths

  • Inevitable, color-agnostic damage that ignores blockers, lifegain, and most creature-based defense
  • Punishes opponents' own creature deaths and self-mill, making him relevant in any pod
  • Mono-black gives access to elite tutors, recursion, and ramp like Cabal Coffers
  • Multiple trigger types (deaths, milling, graveyard exile/recursion) make him absurdly flexible

Weaknesses

  • Hard commander-dependent; the deck does little without him on the field
  • Highly vulnerable to graveyard hate that shuts down recursion engines
  • Triggers can be slow without a payoff engine and easily disrupted by removal
  • Single-color means no interaction with counterspells and limited flexible answers

Key Cards

  • GravecrawlerRecurs from the graveyard for one mana endlessly, pinging the table on each leave and death with a sac outlet.
  • Phyrexian AltarFree sacrifice outlet that, combined with Gravecrawler and a Zombie, creates an infinite damage loop.
  • Grimgrin, Corpse-BornWith Gravecrawler and a sac outlet, enables infinite sacrifice loops that Konrad converts to lethal damage.
  • Gray Merchant of AsphodelMassive drain that also feeds graveyards, and pairs with reanimation for repeated value.
  • Mind GrindPairs with Konrad to mill entire libraries, dealing damage for every creature card revealed.

Upgrade Path

Add fast mana and tutors (Dark Ritual, Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Diabolic Intent) to assemble combos faster and protect Konrad. Prioritize free or repeatable sacrifice outlets (Phyrexian Altar, Viscera Seer, Ashnod's Altar) plus recursion like Reassembling Skeleton to enable infinite loops. Round out with graveyard protection, mass reanimation (Living Death), and Cabal Coffers/Nykthos ramp to power out enormous mill activations.

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

  • Infinite sacrifice loops (Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar + Grimgrin) for unbounded Konrad damage
  • Mass mill effects converting opponents' creature cards into table-wide pings
  • Big death/recursion swings draining the whole pod simultaneously
  • Gray Merchant or board-wipe aristocrats turns to finish low-life opponents

Archetypes

  • AristocratsKonrad converts every creature death into damage, rewarding sacrifice outlets and token generators.
  • Mill/Self-MillHis activated ability and damage triggers turn milling creature cards into direct damage.
  • ReanimatorCreature cards leaving your graveyard trigger Konrad, so recursion doubles as a damage engine.
  • ComboGravecrawler plus a free sac outlet and a Zombie creates infinite damage loops.

Combos

Combos via Commander Spellbook.

Related Commanders

Same color identity (B), by popularity.

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