Commander blueprint · Marvel Super Heroes

How to build Thanos, the Mad Titan

His power-up destroys every other creature with an odd mana value, or every one with an even mana value, and you choose which as it resolves. Every creature in this list costs an even amount, so odd always spares your side, and each time Thanos comes back to the battlefield the next wipe costs three mana.

Art by Björn Barends

Twenty two creatures, and not one of them costs an odd amount

Thanos costs three, but his ability says each other creature, so he never hits himself. Everything else in the creature count sits at two, four, six or eight. That is seven two drops, nine four drops counting Thassa, Deep-Dwelling, five six drops and Archon of Cruelty at eight. Name odd and not one of them is touched, while every odd creature across the table is.

Tokens fall on your side of the line as well. A token that was not copied from a card has no mana cost, its mana value is zero, and the reminder text on Thanos settles that zero is even. The two Zombies Grave Titan makes each time it enters or attacks survive an odd wipe, and so do the two 3/3s Wurmcoil Engine leaves when it dies. Hydroid Krasis survives too, whatever X you paid, because X only counts while the spell is on the stack, and on the battlefield it is a two drop.

A few creatures are here for their cost as much as their text. Gyruda, Doom of Depths makes each player mill four and puts one creature card with an even mana value from among them onto the battlefield under your control, and in this deck every creature card you mill qualifies. Wurmcoil Engine is a 6/6 with deathtouch and lifelink for six, which is exactly the body Thanos has after his counters, on a card that also leaves two bodies behind.

When their threats are even, four cards let you name even anyway

Odd is the safe choice, not always the right one. A token deck is all zeroes, plenty of commanders cost four or six, and the creature that is beating you may share a parity with your whole board. The choice is made as the ability resolves, not when you activate it, so you can wait until every response is done and then look at what is left before you pick.

Four cards make even a one sided wipe as well. Flawless Maneuver costs nothing while you control a commander, and Thanos counts, so it can answer your own activation for free and make every creature you control indestructible for the turn. Heroic Intervention does the same for two mana and adds hexproof, and Boros Charm covers every permanent you control. Eerie Interlude takes a different route. It exiles your creatures until the next end step, so the wipe finds none of them, and if Thanos is one of the targets he comes back in that end step as a new permanent whose power-up costs . Name even with the first activation and odd with the second, and both halves of their board are gone while yours returns whole. Counting his cast, that is a twelve mana turn.

Command Tower cannot pay the colourless symbol, and neither can a Treasure

The in the power-up is not generic mana. It has to be paid with mana that has no colour, and the usual five colour package makes none. Command Tower, Arcane Signet, Exotic Orchard, City of Brass, Mana Confluence, Chromatic Lantern, Paradise Druid and all ten triomes only ever add coloured mana, and so does a Treasure token. A deck built from those alone casts Thanos every game and never wipes a board with him.

Nineteen cards here can make colourless mana, and most of them make colours too. The ten painlands tap for without dealing you damage, which for once makes the painless half of their text the reason they are in the deck. Talisman of Curiosity, Talisman of Hierarchy and Talisman of Conviction work the same way as rocks, and Sol Ring, Mind Stone, Spire of Industry and a single Wastes make seventeen. The two lands in the next paragraph make it nineteen. Wastes is a basic land, so Fabled Passage, Prismatic Vista, Cultivate, Sakura-Tribe Elder and Solemn Simulacrum can all fetch it. With nineteen sources in ninety nine cards, at least one turns up in the first twelve cards you see 93.5% of the time, which is turn six on the play.

Two lands do more for Thanos than for anything else in the list. Secluded Courtyard and Unclaimed Territory both tap for , and both make coloured mana for one creature type, chosen as the land enters. Choose Villain, the type on his card. The Courtyard's colours can then pay his cast and every pip of the power-up, and the Territory's can pay his cast. Neither helps the rest of the deck much, and that suits this list, because the turn its mana must be perfect is the turn he arrives and wipes, which asks for all six symbols at once.

Fourteen ways back, and every return makes the next wipe three mana

The once only limit belongs to the permanent. Exile Thanos and return him, and what comes back has never activated anything, and because he entered this turn the power-up drops to . Fourteen cards in the list make that happen, and the command zone is a fifteenth route at two more mana each time.

Ephemerate, Cloudshift and Ghostly Flicker do it at instant speed, which turns a removal spell aimed at him into a wipe instead. Ghostly Flicker takes a second target, and a tapped Talisman sent along with him comes back untapped and ready to pay the . Ephemerate rebounds, so it brings him back a second time in your next upkeep. Restoration Angel has flash, Emiel the Blessed does it for as often as you can pay, and Felidar Guardian, Charming Prince and Brago, King Eternal do it when they enter or connect. Eerie Interlude, from the section above, is one more.

Teleportation Circle, Thassa, Deep-Dwelling and Conjurer's Closet each do it at the beginning of your end step, every turn, with no card spent. The new Thanos can wipe right there. Your end step falls between any opponent casting a creature and that creature's first attack, so nothing without haste that shares the parity you name ever gets to swing. Any one of the three on the battlefield is a wipe every turn for three mana. That is the strongest thing the deck does and the thing most likely to end the game, so say it out loud before the game if your table does not expect it.

Two cards cover the times he dies instead. Thunderbolts Conspiracy returns a Villain you control that dies, and Thanos is the only Villain in the list, so let him go to the graveyard rather than the command zone and he returns with a finality counter and a power-up for . Sun Titan returns a permanent card with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard when it enters or attacks, and Thanos is exactly three.

The wipe only destroys creatures, so the removal is for everything else

Thanos handles creatures in bulk with two gaps. Anything indestructible survives him, and he never touches an artifact, an enchantment or a planeswalker. The spot removal is chosen for those gaps. Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile exile, which answers an indestructible creature. Anguished Unmaking, Vindicate, Assassin's Trophy, Chaos Warp, Generous Gift and Beast Within can each take a nonland permanent of any type. Ravenous Chupacabra is the one removal spell stapled to a body, and as a four drop it stays put when you name odd.

Two of those leave something behind. Generous Gift and Beast Within each give the opponent a 3/3 token, and a token is even, so an odd wipe misses it. Point them at the permanent that matters and plan to meet the 3/3 in combat, where a 4/4 with deathtouch blocks it all day.

Spark Double, Lightning Greaves and Hulk, Gamma Goliath look right and are not

Spark Double copying Thanos is a Thanos that is not legendary and carries his mana cost, so its mana value is three, which is odd. Its power-up then destroys the real Thanos if you name odd, and your board if you name even. A clone fits a deck that wants two of him at once, and this one wants one at a time.

Lightning Greaves gives shroud, and shroud stops your own spells as well as theirs. With Greaves on him, Ephemerate, Cloudshift and Teleportation Circle cannot target Thanos at all. Shalai, Voice of Plenty gives him hexproof instead, which keeps out only the opponents.

Hulk, Gamma Goliath makes the power-ups of your other creatures cost less, and a reduction like that can only take generic mana off a cost. The power-up on Thanos has no generic mana in it, so Hulk saves him nothing.

The core list

Hovering a card name brings up its image. Prices are the least expensive paper printing of each card on 23 October 2026, and the list totals $604.09.

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.

Cheaper tri-lands on the way down, tutors and colourless rocks on the way up

Nineteen swaps make the budget rung, and most of the money comes out of the lands. All ten triomes become the ten three colour lands from Shards of Alara and Khans of Tarkir, which also enter tapped and make the same colours for well under a dollar each. What they lack is a basic land type, so in that version Farseek can only find a basic, Nature's Lore and Three Visits only a Forest, and Kodama's Reach comes in to put more basics on the battlefield. Mana Confluence becomes Shimmering Grotto, which is a twentieth source of . The three Game Changers leave as well. Consecrated Sphinx becomes Frost Titan, Rhystic Study becomes Phyrexian Arena, and The One Ring becomes Wall of Blossoms, and every creature the rung adds is even, so nothing about the parity plan changes.

What the budget deck loses is speed and one engine. Thassa, Deep-Dwelling goes for Momentary Blink, which leaves Teleportation Circle and Conjurer's Closet as the only cards that wipe every turn, and a table that finds that oppressive can cut those two as well without breaking anything. With no Game Changers it can sit down at bracket 2, and the bill drops from $604 to $138.

Ten swaps take the list to bracket 4, and they buy two things the core list rations. One is colourless mana in bulk. Ancient Tomb makes two colourless mana and Mana Vault makes three, and colourless pays the as well as any generic cost, so the six mana turn comes sooner. The other is finding the engine. Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor and Enlightened Tutor go and get Teleportation Circle or The One Ring, and Deadeye Navigator pairs with Thanos and gives him : exile and return him, which brings each wipe down to five mana and lets it happen at instant speed as often as you can pay. Fierce Guardianship, Cyclonic Rift, Teferi's Protection and Smothering Tithe fill out the rung. Twelve Game Changers rule out anything below bracket 4, and the total climbs to $1,136.

The core list stays at bracket 3 because Consecrated Sphinx, Rhystic Study and The One Ring are on the Game Changers list, three cards, the most bracket 3 permits. Its two tutors, Idyllic Tutor and Bring to Light, are not on that list, and it runs no extra turns and no land destruction. The one thing to raise before the game is the end step loop, because a wipe on every one of your turns is legal at this bracket and still not what most bracket 3 tables expect to sit across from.

FAQ

Can Thanos, the Mad Titan's power-up be activated at instant speed?

Yes. Nothing on the card limits when it can be activated, so it works any time you hold priority, including in response to removal aimed at him and during an end step. The only limit is once per Thanos, and a Thanos who has left the battlefield and returned counts as a new one with an unused power-up.

Is a token odd or even for Thanos's power-up?

Even, in almost every case. A token that was not copied from a card has no mana cost, so its mana value is zero, and the reminder text on Thanos says zero is even. A token copy of a card keeps that card's mana value, so a copy of a three drop is odd. A creature with X in its cost counts X as zero once it is on the battlefield.

Can Command Tower pay for Thanos's power-up?

Only for the coloured part. The has to be paid with colourless mana, and Command Tower, Arcane Signet, Chromatic Lantern and Treasure tokens only make coloured mana. Painlands, Talismans, Sol Ring, Mind Stone and Wastes can pay it, and this list runs nineteen cards that make colourless mana.

Does Thanos destroy himself when you choose odd?

No. The ability destroys each other creature, so Thanos survives whichever parity you pick and keeps his two new +1/+1 counters. A copy of him gets no such protection from the original's ability, and its own power-up treats the original as just another three drop, which is why this list runs no clones.

What bracket is a Thanos, the Mad Titan deck?

This build is bracket 3, because Consecrated Sphinx, Rhystic Study and The One Ring are on the Game Changers list and nothing else in it is. Thanos himself is not on that list. The budget version drops all three, and the bracket 4 version runs twelve. A wipe every turn from Teleportation Circle is allowed at bracket 3, but it is worth mentioning before the game starts.

How much does a Thanos, the Mad Titan deck cost?

About $604 for the list on this page, $138 for the budget version and $1,136 for the bracket 4 version, using the lowest paper price of each card on 23 October 2026. Ten triomes account for a large share of the first figure, which is why the budget version swaps them before anything else.

Does Thanos get his power-up back after he dies?

Yes. The once only limit belongs to the permanent, not the card. Cast him again from the command zone and he is a new object, and on that turn his power-up costs , because the discount is his printed mana cost. Commander tax raises the price of casting him by two each time, but it never touches the power-up.