Pavel Maliki

Pavel Maliki is a straightforward aggro commander that turns mana into raw combat damage. His main strength is that he's a 5/3 flyer on turn 4-5 that can immediately threaten opponents, and his activated ability lets you convert excess mana into pump damage. The deck wants to ramp early, hit the board with Pavel as soon as possible, and then use a combination of his repeatable pump and other evasive creatures to close out games quickly.

You'll build around efficient mana acceleration (Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Runaway Steam-Kin) so Pavel comes down faster and you have mana left over to pump him. Include cheap card draw to keep threats coming, and lean into black-red's natural strengths: sacrifice synergies for value, discard outlets, and direct damage. Since Pavel rewards you for having spare mana each turn, any mana-positive engine (like Klothys, God of Destiny or Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer) becomes backbreaking. Win by dealing 21 commander damage before opponents can stabilize.

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