Legendary Creature — Elf Ooze Wizard

Vannifar, Evolved Enigma

Mana value4EDHREC#7,817

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The Commander

At the beginning of combat on your turn, choose one —

• Cloak a card from your hand. (Put it onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature with ward {2} . Turn it face up any time for its mana cost if it's a creature card.)

• Put a +1/+1 counter on each colorless creature you control.

Guide

Gameplan

Vannifar churns out face-down 2/2 cloaked creatures every combat, building a wide board of colorless threats that you then pump with the +1/+1 counter mode. You flip key cards face up for free value, hide expensive bombs to deploy cheaply, and snowball into a beatdown or eldrazi-fueled finish.

Strengths

Free repeatable card advantage and board presence every turn via cloaking
Cheats expensive creatures onto the battlefield as 2/2s you can flip later
Anthem effect that scales hard with a wide colorless/cloaked board
Ward on cloaked cards protects your investment from removal
Flexible: each combat you adapt between developing and attacking

Weaknesses

Cloaked cards are vulnerable to board wipes before you can flip them
Modal trigger is once per combat, so it builds slowly compared to explosive combo decks
Reliant on the commander staying on the battlefield to generate value
Face-down 2/2s contribute little until pumped or flipped
Can be mana-hungry needing to pay flip costs while developing

Key Cards

Kozilek, the Great Distortion — A massive colorless payoff you can cloak cheaply, flip for value, and pump with Vannifar's counters.
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger — Cheats a game-ending colorless threat onto the board face down to flip when ready.
Inkmoth Nexus — Colorless creature-land that loves +1/+1 counters and turns the anthem mode into an infect-style kill.
Hardened Scales — Doubles Vannifar's +1/+1 counter mode, accelerating your colorless army's growth.
Branchloft Pathway — Smooths GU mana to reliably pay flip costs while curving out cloaked threats.
Lithoform Engine — Copies Vannifar's combat trigger to cloak twice or pump and develop in the same turn.
Doubling Season — Doubles counters from the anthem mode and works with any token-cloak synergies.

Upgrade Path

Lean into proliferate and counter-doublers like Hardened Scales, Branching Evolution, and Doubling Season to make the anthem mode explosive. Add high-impact colorless bombs (Eldrazi titans, Wurmcoil Engine, Walking Ballista) worth cloaking, plus protection like Heroic Intervention and Lightning Greaves to shield your board. Tighten the mana with fast rocks and dual lands so you can flip cloaked cards the same turn you deploy them.

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

▸Pumping a wide colorless board with the counter mode for a lethal alpha strike
▸Flipping up Eldrazi titans or other bombs to dominate the board
▸Infect/counters synergy via Inkmoth Nexus and similar creature-lands
▸Overwhelming opponents with relentless face-down 2/2 value over time

Archetypes

Colorless Counters — The +1/+1 mode rewards filling the board with colorless creatures and Eldrazi.
Big Mana / Eldrazi Ramp — Cloaking lets you cheat huge colorless bombs into play and flip them on the cheap.
Tokens / Go-Wide Beatdown — Repeatable 2/2s plus an anthem builds an army that pumps into lethal swings.
Value Midrange — Cloaking entwines card advantage with board development for a grindy, resilient game.