Legendary Creature — Insect

Zask, Skittering Swarmlord

Mana value5EDHREC#6,741

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The Commander

You may play lands and cast Insect spells from your graveyard.

Whenever another Insect you control dies, put it on the bottom of its owner's library, then mill two cards. (Put the top two cards of your library into your graveyard.)

{1} {B/G} : Target Insect gets +1/+0 and gains deathtouch until end of turn. ( {B/G} can be paid with either {B} or {G} .)

Guide

Gameplan

Build a wide, recursive Insect board that grinds value off the graveyard, then turn sideways with deathtouch-pumped attackers or go infinite with sacrifice loops. Early turns ramp and self-mill to stock the yard, mid-game you flood the board with Insect tokens and creatures, and Zask lets you replay milled lands and recast dead Insects for relentless pressure.

Strengths

Built-in card advantage and recursion—dead Insects loop back and refill your library while milling fuels graveyard synergies
Cheap repeatable deathtouch pump turns any small Insect into a removal threat and makes attacks miserable to block
Resilient to board wipes since lands and Insects come back from the graveyard
Strong sacrifice/aristocrats engine with a deep, self-replacing creature base

Weaknesses

Graveyard hate (Rest in Peace, Bojuka Bog) shuts off Zask's entire engine
Insect tribal support is narrow, so you lean on tokens and a few key payoffs
Self-mill can deck you out in long grindy games without checks
Zask costs five and the deck wants the commander out, inviting repeated removal taxing

Key Cards

The Swarmlord — A premier Insect that floods the board and synergizes directly with Zask's tribal recursion.
Hornet Queen — Generates five deathtouch Insect tokens you can loop and pump for explosive value.
Grist, the Hunger Tide — A planeswalker that is an Insect in non-battlefield zones, enabling recursion and token generation.
Blossoming Bogbeast — Anthem and ramp that buffs your wide Insect swarm into a lethal attack.
Skullclamp — Turns your small and recurring Insects into a relentless card-draw engine.
Ashnod's Altar — Free sacrifice outlet that combos with recurring Insects and token generators for mana and triggers.

Upgrade Path

Add fast mana and ramp (Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Sakura-Tribe Elder) to deploy Zask ahead of schedule, then tighten the aristocrats package with Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, and free sacrifice outlets like Phyrexian Altar to enable drain loops. Include targeted graveyard protection and your own hate pieces, and lean into efficient token producers plus Skullclamp to convert the recursive swarm into nonstop cards and an inevitable win.

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

▸Wide Insect alpha strike buffed by anthems and Zask's deathtouch pump
▸Aristocrats drain loops with Blood Artist/Zulaport Cutthroat and recurring Insects sacrificed repeatedly
▸Infinite sacrifice combos using free outlets, token generators, and recursion
▸Out-grinding opponents on card advantage until you overwhelm them

Archetypes

Insect Tribal — Zask makes Insects recursive and castable from the yard, rewarding a dedicated bug-themed build.
Aristocrats — Self-replacing Insects feed sacrifice outlets and death-trigger payoffs without losing material.
Tokens / Go-Wide — Token makers like Hornet Queen and Grist build a swarm that the deathtouch pump turns lethal.
Graveyard Value / Recursion — Playing lands and Insects from the yard plus self-mill creates a grindy value engine.