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Those afraid of dolls avert your eyes, Arabella, Abandoned Doll is one of the legendary creatures introduced inMagic: The Gathering’sDuskmourn set. This Boros (red/white) commander is a very aggressive one and has a low curve to snowball away with the game quickly.
There are a lot of benefits to playing an Arabella deck, and if not kept in check, you can run away with the game. Thanks to the primary use of tokens to make the most out of Arabella’s effect, you can craft it relatively cheaply as well. If you’re a fan of swinging wildly and holding up blockers, an Arabella Commander deck is perfect for you.
Mentor of the Meek
Helm of the Host
x7 Mountain
x9 Plains
War Room
Windbrisk Heights
The decklist containsone planeswalker, 20 creatures, ten sorceries, six instants, 17 artifacts, 11 enchantments,and34 lands. While the total creature count is on the smaller side, many of the other card types create creature tokens to help build up your board state.
Key Cards
Arabella, Abandoned Doll
The commander of the deck,Arabella, Abandoned Dollis what makes the deck function. Nearly your entire deck consists of creatures with power two or less, or ways to create creature tokens with those stats. This feeds intoArabella’s effect to gain a ton of life and do a ton of burn damage.
The effect triggerswhenever Arabella attacks. As such, unless you have a way to make sure Arabella is unblockable, you shouldonly be swingingit atopponents without a creature that can kill itin combat.
Arabella counts itself for its effect, so at minimum, you willbe gaining one life and burning everyone else for one damage. It only costs two mana to cast, so even if it does get removed, you’ll be able to easily recast it to keep using the effect.
Reconnaissance
Reconnaissanceis one of the permanents you’ll be getting the most use out of. There are a handful of creatures with effects that trigger when they attack with low stats, and Reconnaissancehelps keep those creatures safe in combat.
Reconnaissance’seffect costs no mana and can be done any number of times in a turn. This allows you to keep burning and gaining life with Arabella, as well as generating creature tokens with the rest of your creature suite without having to worry about them being defeated in combat.
Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon
Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moonessentially acts as the deck’s secondary commander. The more you attack, the more 1/1 Gnome creatures you create. This gives you power creatures for Arabella’s effect and more to block and attack with later.
If both Anim Pakal and Arabella are on the battlefield, you may stack it so Anim Pakal resolves first, creating more 1/1 tokens for Arabella when its effect resolves since the X burn/lifegain isn’t determined until Arabella’s effect is resolving.
Notably,Anim Pakal does not need to attack itself to trigger the effect. This allows you to hold Anim Pakal back from attacking so that it’s never put in harm’s way, and you can keep taking advantage of a growing army of Gnomes.
Delney, Streetwise Lookout
The majority of your creatures are ones with two or less power, soDelney, Streetwise Lookoutis the perfect support card for them. It makes them unblockable from threatening opposing creatures and doubles up on all your triggered abilities.
Once Delney is on the battlefield, it just has to sit back and support your other cards. There is no shortage of cards in the deck with triggered abilities likeArabella, Anim Pakal,andKrenko,andAgate Instigator.
How To Play The Deck
An Arabella, Abandoned Doll Commander deck is all aboutswinging in with Arabella while amassing an army of 1/1 tokens. The deck is very explosive, capable of running away with the game quickly,thanks to its low mana curve.
There are a lot of consistent ways to get tokens on the battlefield.Assemble the Legionslowly gives you more tokens every turn,Rabble Rousinggives you a 1/1 token for every creature you control that is attacking, andKrenko, Mob Bosscreates Goblin tokens for every Goblin you control when you tap it.
An important factor is that whileyou want to be attacking frequently,you don’t necessarily want to be engaging in combat.As such, cards likeDolmen Gate, Iroas, God of Victory, and Reconnaissancehelp prevent damage to your attacking creatures (and, in Reconnaissance’s case, taking it out of combat entirely).
The deck features aton of ways to draw cards from creatures with power two or less entering the battlefield, making sure your hand is filled so you always have cards to cast.Enduring Innocencecan even return as a regular enchantment if it ever dies.
Mentor of the Meekdoes require mana payment for the card draw, but you do get to keep using it as opposed to just once.Welcoming Vampirealso cats as a solid attacker thanks to its flying ability.
Thebiggest weakness of the deck is the lack of power. All of your creatures have very low stat lines, making it hard for them to be threatening. Thethreat primarily comes fromArabella, Abandoned Doll, so without it on the battlefield, your opponents likely won’t have to be worried about you.
Youcan overrun with creature tokens, but that requires a lot of extra setup that might come too late.
Theprimary win condition is winning through burn damage,primarilythrough Arabella, Abandoned Doll. Your commander is what’s going to get you to close out games quickly, especially since it burns all of your opponents at once as opposed to just one. This is backed up by giving burn damage an extra kick with cards likeCity on FireandTorture Pit.
Cards that deal burn damage upon creatures entering are important for your win condition as well.Agate Instigator and Impact Tremorsboth burn for one damage on creatures entering, something that stacks up once you start creating a ton of tokens. These tokens can lead to more burn damage withRaid Bombardmentto get a little extra burn damage in to close out the game.
