How to build Gowron, Eager for Battle

Gowron sacrifices a creature for free whenever you like, grows from every death at the table, and draws a card only when the creature he eats is a Klingon. Klingons did not exist in Magic before this set, so most of the work here goes into manufacturing them.

Before this set Magic had no Klingons, so the deck manufactures most of them

The card draw is the half of Gowron that decides how the deck is built, and it reads a single creature type. Klingon did not exist as a type before Star Trek. Across that set and Star Trek Commander, 13 Klingons in black or red have been shown so far, and the core list plays eight of them: General Chang, Cold Warrior, Battle-Scarred Survivalist, Munitions Enthusiast, The Duras Sisters, L'Rell, Fierce Visionary, Worf, Intelligence Contractor, Cha'DIch Investigator and Klingon Strike Force. Eight cards in 99 is not a plan. A sacrifice outlet that draws needs a Klingon to hand on most turns, so the rest come from three other places.

Changelings are every creature type, which makes each of them a Klingon wherever it is. Changeling Outcast, Universal Automaton, Graveshifter and Taurean Mauler take the printed count to twelve. Mutavault becomes a 2/2 with all creature types for , so in a pinch a land can go to Gowron for a card.

Tokens are the larger source. The Duras Sisters leave a 2/1 Klingon behind when they die, so sacrificing them draws twice over two activations. Cha'DIch Investigator brings one with it, L'Rell makes one at the start of every combat on your turn, and D-7 Battle Cruiser does the same once it holds three charge counters. Black Market Connections can hire a 3/2 changeling every turn for 3 life, and Maskwood Nexus makes a 2/2 changeling for .

The third source changes the deck rather than adding to it. Maskwood Nexus and Conspiracy each make every creature you control a Klingon, which turns Bitterblossom's Faeries, Hordeling Outburst's Goblins and anything borrowed from an opponent into a card the moment Gowron eats it.

A token that dies at the end step should die to Gowron first

L'Rell's token and D-7 Battle Cruiser's token both arrive with haste and the same instruction: sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step. Let that trigger do the job and Gowron still takes a counter, because the token died, but nobody draws, since only a sacrifice to his own ability pays the card. So attack with the 2/1, let the damage land, and feed it to Gowron in your second main phase. With both engines running that is two cards a turn for 2 life, from tokens that were never going to see the next turn anyway.

Everything this list borrows works on the same clock. Worf, Intelligence Contractor takes one creature from each opponent with mana value 3 or less until end of turn, untaps them and gives them haste. Captivating Crew takes any opposing creature for at sorcery speed, as often as you can pay, and the first chapter of The Wrath of Khan takes a creature that survives 4 damage. Each of them goes home when the turn ends unless it is dead, so swing with it and then sacrifice it. Worf makes his loans Warriors rather than Klingons, so on their own they draw nothing, but with Maskwood Nexus or Conspiracy out they are Klingons too and each one is a card.

Every creature that dies anywhere is a counter, so Grave Pact turns one sacrifice into four

Gowron's first ability does not care whose creature died, and that changes what the black enchantments here are worth. Sacrifice a token with Grave Pact on the battlefield and each other player sacrifices a creature too. At a four-player table that is four creatures in the graveyard for one free activation, and four +1/+1 counters on Gowron. Dictate of Erebos is the same trigger with flash, and with both out each opponent loses two creatures per sacrifice while he takes seven counters at a time. Butcher of Malakir is a third copy that waits in the budget rung.

The edicts do the same sum at a lower price. Fleshbag Marauder and Merciless Executioner make every player sacrifice a creature, you give up a Goblin token, and each opponent gives up whatever they valued least, which is still a counter apiece. Priest of Forgotten Gods repeats that every turn for two of your bodies. Massacre Wurm gives the opposing board -2/-2, and each creature it kills is one more counter and 2 life from its controller. Kardur, Doomscourge makes the opposing creatures attack somebody other than you until your next turn, and every one that dies in those fights is a counter as well.

Blood Artist and Falkenrath Noble read every death the same way, so they drain on the opponents' sacrifices as well as yours. Zulaport Cutthroat counts only your own creatures, which is why it sits beside them rather than replacing either.

Trample costs a creature, and that creature leaves a counter behind

Activate Gowron after blockers are declared, not before. The sacrifice is free and works at instant speed, so the defending player has to block a 3/3 that has no trample, and only then does the ability make him a trampler. The creature you gave up for it also died, so his first ability puts a counter on him before damage is dealt. Paying for trample makes him one bigger. A chump blocker now soaks damage equal to its toughness and the rest reaches the player as combat damage, which counts toward 21.

Make that sacrifice a Klingon if one is spare, since the card comes free with it. Throwing more than one is fine as well: a second trample does nothing, but every extra body is another counter, and the counters stay.

Maskwood Nexus reaches into the library, and that is the part the Sword of Kahless reads

The Sword of Kahless gives the equipped creature +2/+2, and whenever it attacks you look at your library's top five cards and may put a Klingon or Warrior creature card from among them onto the battlefield. On Gowron that is a free creature each attack, and so a free sacrifice later. Eighteen creature cards in this list qualify: the eight Klingons, the four changelings, and six Warriors that are here for other reasons, Beetleback Chief, Mogg War Marshal, Reassembling Skeleton, Khan, Vengeful Heart, Fleshbag Marauder and Merciless Executioner. Against a full library the top five holds one a little under two times in three.

Maskwood Nexus moves that number, because it covers creature cards you own that are not on the battlefield as well as the creatures you control. With it out every creature card in the library is a Klingon, and the same top five holds at least one of them about seven times in eight. Conspiracy carries the same clause, so either one does it.

The two are not interchangeable everywhere else. Conspiracy says creatures you control are the chosen type, not that they gain it, so a Goblin under it stops being a Goblin. That is the reason Siege-Gang Commander is not in this list: its ability sacrifices Goblins, and Conspiracy would leave it none to throw. In return Conspiracy makes General Chang, Cold Warrior a pump for the whole team, because Chang puts a counter on each Klingon you control. Name Klingon and nothing else in the core list loses anything. Maskwood Nexus adds types instead of replacing them, so it has no such side effect.

Lightning Greaves grants shroud, and shroud stops your own equip abilities as well as everyone else's spells. Move the Greaves to another creature for before equipping the Sword to Gowron, move them back afterwards, and accept that he is exposed while those abilities are on the stack.

Each card costs 1 life, and a drain on the same death pays it back

Gowron charges a life for every card he draws, and the list stacks more costs on top. Bitterblossom takes 1 each upkeep, Black Market Connections takes 1 to 3 for each mode you pick, Midnight Reaper deals 1 to you with every card it draws, and Castle Locthwain charges a life for each card left in your hand.

The drain creatures cover that, and they do it off the same death. Sacrifice a Klingon with Blood Artist out and you lose 1 to Gowron and gain 1 back from the Artist, so the card was free. Add Zulaport Cutthroat or Falkenrath Noble and each sacrifice gains you more than it costs while every opponent loses life. The first drain creature is the card that turns the engine from expensive to profitable, so cast it ahead of a second token maker.

Thirty black sources, twenty-six red, and one hybrid card both counts lean on

Thirty-five lands carry this list, 17 of them basics, beside five mana rocks. That is light on ramp by the usual count, and it is a trade with the curve: the average mana value is 2.75 and 31 of the 64 spells cost two or less. Pitiless Plunderer, Black Market Connections, Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Tower all turn the deck's own deaths into mana, and none of them shows up in a ramp count. Twenty-seven lands enter untapped, seven more do under a condition this deck meets most turns, and Temple of Malice is the only one that always enters tapped.

One pip of either colour is easy. Thirty black sources give 95.1% to have one by turn two and 26 red sources give 92.1%. Two of a colour by turn three is where the list is thin, 82.2% for black and 74.2% for red, and both numbers are worse on paper than at the table. The Duras Sisters cost , which either colour pays, but the count files them under both, and they are the only two-mana card in the list asking for two red. The real red pairs start with Hordeling Outburst at three and Beetleback Chief at four. Black is the colour to plan around: Bloodghast at , then Bedevil, Khan, Vengeful Heart and Grave Pact at , which is the card this deck most wants on turn four. That is why the basics lean nine Swamps to eight Mountains, and why two of the three single-colour utility lands, Takenuma and Castle Locthwain, make black.

The list has no bracket floor, and one three-card loop still deserves a mention

Not one of the 99 is a Game Changer and none of them destroys lands en masse, so there is no bracket floor. It is built and pitched as bracket 3, and one thing in it belongs in the pre-game conversation. Ashnod's Altar, Pitiless Plunderer and Reassembling Skeleton together make a loop with no end. Sacrifice the Skeleton to the Altar for , take a Treasure from the Plunderer, then spend the Treasure's and one of the to return the Skeleton for . Every pass leaves a spare , kills a creature and puts a counter on Gowron, so with Blood Artist or Zulaport Cutthroat out it ends the game. The bracket 3 description is aimed at early two-card combos and this takes three specific cards, so it fits, but say it is in the deck before the first game.

Gowron makes one more line worth naming. He is an outlet with no cost and no limit, so any recursive creature that pays for its own return turns him into one end of a loop, and the bracket 4 rung below adds exactly that card.

Koloth is the Klingon this list leaves in the box

Koloth, Tribble Hunter is a red Klingon from the Star Trek Commander decks, and it reads like free fodder for this commander: at your end step each player creates two 1/1 Tribbles that can't block. The trouble is the word each. Every opponent also gets two bodies a turn, and in a deck whose edicts and Grave Pact effects are its removal, those Tribbles are exactly what the opponents will sacrifice instead of anything they care about. Koloth gives the three opponents six tokens a turn and you two. Their Tribbles are goaded and so will attack someone else, which is the only consolation.

Kruge, Genesis Seeker is the other red Klingon left out. It gives attacking Klingons +1/+1 when it attacks, which is a lot of conditions for a 2/2 at three mana.

A second sacrifice outlet is the reflex pick for any aristocrats list, and it is wrong here. Viscera Seer and Carrion Feeder exist to let a deck sacrifice at instant speed for nothing, and Gowron already does that from the command zone in every game. Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Tower stay because they turn a death into mana, and Goblin Bombardment stays because it turns one into damage, neither of which Gowron can do.

The core list

Gowron and 99 cards, pitched at bracket 3. Hovering a card name shows the card, and each price is the cheapest paper copy of that card on sale.

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Cheaper means plain Klingons, and bracket 4 means Gravecrawler

Dropping to the budget rung moves the total from at least $242.54 down to at least $72.83, and it keeps the commander's card draw by spending part of the saving on Klingons. Bitterblossom, Black Market Connections and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker leave, and Warship Flight Crew, Defense Force Aggressor and Mek'leth Berserker come in from the Star Trek Commander decks. All three are vanilla, and under most commanders a 2/1 for with no text is filler. Here it is a body that draws a card the moment Gowron sacrifices it, which is close to what the expensive token engines were doing. Grave Pact becomes Butcher of Malakir, the same trigger on a seven-mana flier, and Ashnod's Altar becomes Mind Stone, which also takes the three-card loop out. The real bill is the land. Phyrexian Tower, Bloodstained Mire, Takenuma, Blazemire Verge, Luxury Suite and Blood Crypt make way for Canyon Slough, Bloodfell Caves, Rakdos Guildgate, Qo'noS, Path of Ancestry and Exotic Orchard, and six lands now enter tapped where the core list has one. That costs tempo rather than anything the deck does. Four of the new cards have no price yet, so the rung's total is low by those four.

Going up to bracket 4 raises the total to at least $626.04, and five Game Changers put the floor at 4: Ancient Tomb, Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Orcish Bowmasters and Jeska's Will. The tutors find Grave Pact or Maskwood Nexus on the turn they matter, and Yawgmoth, Thran Physician draws off any creature you sacrifice, Klingon or not, for a life each. The card that moves the bracket on its own is Gravecrawler. It can be cast from your graveyard for while you control a Zombie, and Pitiless Plunderer pays that with a Treasure each time it dies, so Gowron, the Plunderer and Gravecrawler loop forever with no Altar involved. Phyrexian Altar does the same job if the Plunderer is missing. The Zombie is easy to find, since the four changelings, Midnight Reaper and Fleshbag Marauder all qualify, and Maskwood Nexus makes every creature you control one. Conspiracy is the exception to remember: naming Klingon strips the Zombie type from everything you control and switches the loop off. That loop is the reason not to bring this rung to a bracket 3 table even with the Game Changers taken out.

FAQ

Does sacrificing a changeling to Gowron draw a card?

Yes. Changeling makes a card every creature type, Klingon included, so Changeling Outcast, Graveshifter or the 3/2 changeling token from Black Market Connections all draw a card when Gowron sacrifices them. Mutavault counts as well while it is a creature, because it has all creature types.

When is Gowron, Eager for Battle legal in Commander?

He joins the format on 13 November 2026, when Star Trek goes on sale. A deck checker run before that date flags him, and it flags the other Star Trek newcomers on this page for the same reason, while reprints such as Blood Crypt already pass.

Does Gowron get a counter when an opponent's creature dies?

Yes. His first ability triggers whenever another creature dies, whoever controlled it, so your removal, an opponent's board wipe and the creatures they lose to Grave Pact all grow him. Only the card draw is narrower: it needs a Klingon that you sacrificed to his own ability.

Can Gowron sacrifice a creature in response to removal?

Yes. The ability costs no mana and can be used at any time you have priority, so a creature targeted by removal can be sacrificed before the spell resolves. Gowron still takes his counter, and if the creature was a Klingon you still draw. It cannot save Gowron himself, because the ability sacrifices another creature.

How much does this Gowron deck cost?

At preview-season prices the core list totals at least $242.54, with 86 of its 100 cards priced. The budget rung comes to $72.83 or more and the bracket 4 rung to $626.04 or more. All three are minimums, because the fourteen Star Trek cards in the core list have no price yet. Phyrexian Tower, Bitterblossom and Grave Pact are the three dearest cards in the core list, and all three leave in the budget rung.

Is Gowron, Eager for Battle good?

For four mana he does a lot, because the sacrifice outlet costs nothing and the counters come from every death at the table. How good he gets depends on the Klingon count. With only the printed Klingons the card draw is occasional, and with Maskwood Nexus or Conspiracy out every sacrifice is a card, which is the version of the deck this list is built to reach.

What colors is Gowron, Eager for Battle?

Black and red. His mana cost is , so his colour identity is Rakdos and the 99 can hold black, red and colourless cards. That rules out the three Klingons shown so far with white in their cost: Worf, Honor-Bound Warrior, Worf, Defiant Commander and Worf, Chief Tactical Officer. The first is a red and white hybrid card, and a hybrid white pip counts toward colour identity even when you would pay it with red.