Commander blueprint · Star Trek · Preview

How to build Gul Dukat, Colonial Prefect

At the beginning of every end step, not only yours, Gul Dukat makes each opponent lose as much life again as they lost that turn, and gives you the total. So this mono-black list is built to make the table bleed on its own turns, through every card they draw, every spell they cast and every attack they make.

Art by Joel Chaim Holtzman

Four end steps a round, and three of them belong to someone else

At a four-player table Gul Dukat triggers four times a round, and only one of those end steps is yours. A drain deck built in the usual way does its work on its own turn, and he doubles that once. The other three triggers are the reason to play him. Each one counts what all three of your opponents lost since that turn began, not only what the active player lost, and nothing in a normal drain list makes them lose anything then.

So most of this list is chosen for what it does while someone else is the active player. Their draws, their spells, their discards and their attacks each cost them life through a permanent of yours. The damage they deal each other counts as well, because Gul Dukat does not ask who caused the loss, only how much of it there was.

Every card an opponent draws costs them life

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse takes 2 life for each card an opponent draws. Underworld Dreams and Fate Unraveler deal 1 damage per card, and so does Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted for as long as he stays on the battlefield. With all four out, the single card a player draws in their own draw step costs them 5 before they have played a land, and Gul Dukat makes it 10 by the end of their turn. Orcish Bowmasters ignores that first draw and answers every extra one with 1 damage to any target and another counter on its Orc Army.

The extra draws come from two creatures. Scrawling Crawler makes every player draw a card as your upkeep begins and takes 1 life from each opponent for each card they draw. Seizan, Perverter of Truth does more: at the start of each player's upkeep, that player loses 2 life and draws two cards. Those are the opponent's own draws on the opponent's own turn, so Gul Dukat counts them at that player's end step, and Orcish Bowmasters fires for both because neither came in a draw step. Seizan does the same to you, 2 life and two cards at your upkeep, and with Sheoldred out your two draws give back 4. Handing opponents more cards is a real cost all the same, so Seizan waits until two or three of the punishers are already on the battlefield.

Casting, discarding and attacking are taxed too

Painful Quandary charges an opponent 5 life or a card from their hand every time they cast a spell. Liliana's Caress takes 2 life for every card an opponent discards, so with both out the cheaper answer still costs 2, and Gul Dukat doubles whichever one they choose when the turn ends. Torment of Scarabs sits on one opponent and makes a similar demand at each of their upkeeps: 3 life, a card from hand or a nonland permanent. Syphon Mind makes each other player discard a card and draws you one for each, which is 2 life apiece with Liliana's Caress out.

Bloodchief Ascension takes a quest counter at any end step in which an opponent has lost 2 or more life, which in this deck is most of them, so it is usually ready within a round. From then on, whenever a card goes to an opponent's graveyard from anywhere, you may have that player lose 2 and gain 2 yourself. Their own instants and sorceries count, and so do discarded cards, dead creatures and anything milled.

Kai Winn, Faithless Leader names a card as she enters, and any opponent who casts a spell with that name, or activates an ability of a source with that name, loses 3 life. Name a commander whose owner activates it every turn and that is 3 life on each of their turns, 6 once Gul Dukat has seen it.

Revenge of Ravens and Marchesa's Decree charge 1 life for each creature that attacks you, and Revenge of Ravens gives you 1 back each time. Marchesa's Decree also makes you the monarch, which draws you a card at each of your end steps and gives the table a reason to attack you that the Decree then charges for. The other way to put damage on opponents during their turns is to have them deal it to each other. Bloodthirsty Blade can be moved onto an opponent's creature for on your turn, and Parasitic Impetus enchants one, and either way that creature has to attack each combat and has to attack someone other than you if it can. Parasitic Impetus also takes 2 life from its controller every time the creature attacks and gives you 2. Whatever the creature hits, Gul Dukat charges the player it hit the same amount again at the end of that turn and pays it to you, so a goaded creature on someone else's board works like a drain spell you only had to cast once.

Wound Reflection and Archfiend of Despair copy the trigger, so Gul Dukat's resolves last

Two older black cards carry the same end step trigger without the life gain: Wound Reflection and Archfiend of Despair. Each copy counts the loss at the moment it resolves, so a later copy counts what an earlier one took. An opponent who lost 3 during a turn loses 3 more to the first trigger, 6 to the second and 12 to the third, which takes that turn's loss from 3 to 24, and with all three out it happens at every end step.

All three trigger at the same moment and you choose their order. Put Gul Dukat's on the stack first so it resolves last. His life gain equals what his trigger took, and his trigger takes the most once the others have doubled the count: 12 from that opponent in the example instead of 3.

Gul Dukat counts life lost and ignores life gained, so a player who loses 8 and gains 8 back during a turn still loses 8 more at its end. Lifegain cannot shrink his trigger, but it can keep an opponent alive. Archfiend of Despair and Erebos, God of the Dead each stop your opponents gaining life at all, so with either out, the life the table loses stays lost.

Pestilence works best on someone else's turn

Pestilence deals 1 damage to each creature and each player for each you spend on it, and you can activate it any time you have priority, on an opponent's turn as readily as your own. Three activations during one opponent's turn cost each opponent 3, and Gul Dukat makes that 6 apiece at that turn's end and pays you 9. You take 3 of your own as well.

The best moment is with Gul Dukat's trigger already on the stack. It counts the turn's loss as it resolves, so activations made in response are counted, and by then you know what the turn has cost everyone before you choose how much more to add.

It hits your own creatures too. Gul Dukat has 6 toughness, so five activations in one turn is the limit while he is out. Kai Winn and Orcish Bowmasters die to the first, Crypt Ghast and Scrawling Crawler to the second and Vito to the third, so spend it after they have done their job. Pestilence is sacrificed only at an end step that begins with no creatures on the battlefield, and a 6/6 commander keeps that from happening most turns.

On your own turn, Bloodletter of Aclazotz doubles the doubling

Your own turn drains the ordinary way, and one creature changes the sums. Bloodletter of Aclazotz makes an opponent lose twice as much life during your turn, and your end step is part of your turn, so Gul Dukat's trigger there is doubled too. With Gul Dukat out, Gray Merchant of Asphodel counts at least 5 devotion from the two of them. Each opponent loses 5, which Bloodletter makes 10, and at your end step Gul Dukat's 10 becomes 20, for 30 from one creature entering.

Exsanguinate and Torment of Hailfire spend whatever mana a long turn leaves over, and Massacre Wurm takes 2 life from a player for each of their creatures that dies. Bolas's Citadel's last ability, ten nonland permanents for 10 life from each opponent, is a finisher in this deck: Gul Dukat turns the 10 into 20 by the end of the turn, and with Bloodletter out as well the same activation ends the turn at 60.

The life Gul Dukat pays you is the second weapon

At a four-player table his trigger can hand you a lot of life, and three cards turn that gain straight back into loss. Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose, Sanguine Bond and Enduring Tenacity each make a target opponent lose as much life as you just gained. Gul Dukat's gain arrives as a single event, so each of them triggers once for the whole amount and each can aim at a different opponent. Revenge of Ravens sets all three off as well, once per attacking creature. Enduring Tenacity returns as an enchantment the first time it dies as a creature, so one removal spell does not end it.

The rest of the life is spent. Necropotence turns it into cards at 1 life each, Bolas's Citadel lets you cast from the top of your library by paying life equal to the mana value, and Erebos, God of the Dead draws a card for and 2 life. Castle Locthwain and War Room draw for life as well. Aetherflux Reservoir is the finisher at the other end: 50 life for 50 damage to any target, which is within reach once Gul Dukat has been collecting from the whole table for a round or two. It also gains you life with every spell you cast, and Vito turns each of those gains into loss.

Seven mana, so eleven pieces of ramp and three ways to keep him

Gul Dukat costs seven, plus two more for each time you have already cast him from the command zone. Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Mind Stone, Thought Vessel, Fellwar Stone, Charcoal Diamond, Coldsteel Heart, Wayfarer's Bauble, Worn Powerstone and Thran Dynamo get him out early, and Crypt Ghast makes the turns after him bigger. Jet Medallion takes off every black spell, Gul Dukat included. Cabal Coffers and Cabal Stronghold count Swamps, and with 27 basic Swamps and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth that count gets large.

The 36 lands give 39 black sources, 98.5% to have a black mana by turn two and 93.4% to have two by turn three. Bojuka Bog is the only one that always enters tapped. Rogue's Passage and War Room make colourless, and Artificial Anomaly, new in Star Trek, can later be sacrificed for to drain each opponent for 2 and leave a land that makes any colour.

Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots keep him safe from anything that targets him, Darksteel Plate from anything that destroys him, and nothing in the list saves him from a sweeper that exiles. Menace means each attack needs two blockers, and Rogue's Passage takes even that away for , though his combat damage matters less than what his trigger does with it.

Necropotence, Bolas's Citadel and Orcish Bowmasters set the floor, and the loops stay out

Those three are on the Game Changers list, and three is as many as bracket 3 allows, so the core list's floor is bracket 3. Two of them spend life, which this commander supplies, and the third punishes the extra draws Seizan and Scrawling Crawler hand out. Nothing in the list destroys lands en masse or takes extra turns.

Two black cards that look made for Gul Dukat are left out on purpose. Exquisite Blood and Bloodthirsty Conqueror each gain you whatever life an opponent loses, and next to Vito, Sanguine Bond or Enduring Tenacity that loops until every opponent is at 0. The official brackets want no intentional infinite combo in brackets 1 and 2 and none that wins in the early game in bracket 3. Vito and Exquisite Blood cost eight mana together, which this much ramp can find early, so both loop pieces wait in the bracket 4 rung.

None of the three Star Trek cards here carries a Game Changer mark. Wizards adds marks when it revises the brackets, not when a set is released, so a mark on Gul Dukat, Kai Winn or Artificial Anomaly at a later revision would give the core list a fourth Game Changer and a floor of 4.

The core list

Hovering a card name shows the card and the printing whose price this page used.

Load into the deck builder Copy decklist

“Load into the deck builder” opens this list in your account, ready to edit or save. “Copy decklist” gives you plain text for Moxfield, Archidekt or Arena, with no account needed.

Buy this deck on TCGplayer Buy this deck on Card Kingdom

Both open all 100 cards in the store’s own deck tool, where you choose the printings. TCGplayer links are affiliate links, so we may earn a commission on purchases.

Bracket 2 taxes attacks instead of draws, and bracket 4 lets the life loop

The budget rung takes the total from at least $606.32 down to at least $149.03 in 17 swaps. All three Game Changers go, so the rung has no floor at all, and the largest single saving is Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. With Orcish Bowmasters gone too, the draw tax is down to Underworld Dreams, Fate Unraveler, Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted and Scrawling Crawler, so the attack tax grows to make up for it. Hissing Miasma and Blood Reckoning join Revenge of Ravens and Marchesa's Decree, and an opponent who attacks you with three creatures loses 12 before combat damage, which Gul Dukat doubles when their turn ends. Mage Hunter keeps a little of the spell tax at 1 life for each instant or sorcery an opponent casts.

Bloodletter of Aclazotz makes way for Epicure of Blood and Enduring Tenacity for Marauding Blight-Priest. Both newcomers take 1 life from every opponent for each gain, where Enduring Tenacity took the whole gain from one, and Vito and Sanguine Bond stay. Defiant Bloodlord takes Aetherflux Reservoir's slot as a third card that turns gain into loss. Greed replaces Necropotence at and 2 life a card, and it works at instant speed. Corrupt and Crypt Rats replace Torment of Hailfire and The Meathook Massacre: Corrupt deals damage equal to the Swamps you control and gains you as much, and Crypt Rats hits every creature and every player for X, which Gul Dukat survives up to X of 5. Sign in Blood takes Bolas's Citadel's slot, and it can be pointed at an opponent, who then draws two cards into every draw punisher on the table.

The mana gets slower. Urborg, Cabal Coffers and Cabal Stronghold give way to three lands that enter tapped, Crypt Ghast to Burnished Hart and Jet Medallion to Commander's Sphere, so the big turns late in the game are smaller and Gul Dukat may land a turn later. Heartless Act, Diabolic Tutor and Blood Reckoning fill the slots of Deadly Rollick, Grim Tutor and Bloodchief Ascension.

The bracket 4 rung costs at least $1,248.85 and runs ten Game Changers, seven of them new: Mana Vault, Imperial Seal, Ancient Tomb, The One Ring, Ad Nauseam, Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor. The other two adds are the loop the core list holds back. Exquisite Blood or Bloodthirsty Conqueror beside any one of Vito, Sanguine Bond and Enduring Tenacity runs until every opponent is at 0, and Gul Dukat's trigger can start it at an end step with nobody casting anything, because the loss it causes is enough to set Exquisite Blood off. Three tutors find whichever half is missing. Ad Nauseam is safer here than in most black decks, because the life it costs is the one resource Gul Dukat keeps refilling. Wayfarer's Bauble, Coldsteel Heart, a Swamp, Read the Bones, Night's Whisper, Grim Tutor, both goad cards and Kai Winn make room. Goading one creature is a slow way to drain a table that is racing to assemble its own combo, and a bracket 4 pod is that table.

FAQ

Does Gul Dukat, Colonial Prefect trigger on my opponents' turns?

Yes. His ability goes off as every end step begins, whoever's turn it is, which means four triggers in every round of a four-player game. Each time, every opponent loses as much life again as they lost during that turn, the player whose turn it is included, and you gain the total.

Does Gul Dukat count damage my opponents deal to each other?

Yes. He counts all the life an opponent lost that turn, whatever caused it, so combat between two other players, a fetch land's life payment and an opponent's own Necropotence are all counted. Bloodthirsty Blade and Parasitic Impetus are in the list to make more of that combat happen.

If an opponent gains life back, does Gul Dukat take less?

No. He counts life lost and ignores life gained, so a player who lost 6 and gained 8 during a turn still loses 6 at its end. Wound Reflection works the same way and its rulings spell this out. Archfiend of Despair and Erebos, God of the Dead stop your opponents gaining life at all.

Does Gul Dukat count life lost before he entered the battlefield?

Yes. He checks the whole turn when his trigger resolves, so you can attack, cast him in your second main phase and still have that combat counted at your end step. Life lost after his trigger has resolved is not counted that turn.

What happens with Gul Dukat and Wound Reflection together?

Both trigger at the start of the end step and you choose the order. The second to resolve counts the loss from the first, so the loss doubles twice. Put Gul Dukat's trigger on the stack first so it resolves last, because he gains you what his trigger takes and his trigger takes the most when it comes last.

When can I play Gul Dukat, Colonial Prefect in Commander?

From release day, 13 November 2026. Kai Winn, Faithless Leader and Artificial Anomaly become legal the same morning, and every other card in the list can be played today.

How much does a Gul Dukat deck cost?

With each card bought at its lowest paper price, at least $606 for the core list, $149 for the budget rung and $1,248 for the bracket 4 rung. Gul Dukat has no price yet, so all three totals leave him out, and Kai Winn and Artificial Anomaly are still at preorder prices.

What bracket is a Gul Dukat deck?

The core list's floor is bracket 3, from Necropotence, Bolas's Citadel and Orcish Bowmasters. The budget rung drops all three and so carries no floor. At bracket 4 the count rises to ten, and the Exquisite Blood loops come in too. A Game Changer mark on Gul Dukat or another new card in the list would give the core list a fourth and move it to bracket 4.