Lazav, Familiar Stranger

Lazav, Familiar Stranger is a shapeshifter that grows and copies creatures by committing crimes—targeting opponents, their permanents, or their graveyards. Your core gameplan is to blend evasive crime-committing with graveyard synergy. Each turn, you'll trigger Lazav by doing what blue-black loves anyway: using removal, discard, targeted card draw, and theft effects. As Lazav stacks +1/+1 counters, you're also filling graveyards (yours and opponents') with creatures to copy, turning your 1/4 into threats that match whatever utility creatures your opponents are running.

The deck wins through commander damage using Lazav as an adaptable threat that transforms into whatever your opponents are playing, or by leveraging the tempo and card advantage you generate from crime triggers. You're not racing to a specific combo—instead you're playing a midrange game where every removal spell, every Mill effect, and every bit of evasion also grows and improves Lazav. The graveyard becomes your second hand, and Lazav becomes a toolbox that answers the table's threats while pressuring life totals.

Strategy generated by Tapped Decks AI. Not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast.