T'Challa, the Black PantherT'Challa, the Black Panther | Art by Eli Minaya

T'Challa, the Black PantherT'Challa, the Black Panther is a commander balanced only by the color pie. Repeatable ramp in the form of the PowerstonePowerstone-esque Vibranium tokens can accelerate into massive artifacts early on, and two +1/+1 counters for each hefty artifact we can cast means T'Challa will almost always have a good attack to keep making more Vibranium.

If this card were in blue and red, the premiere Artifacts colors of the format, or in blue and white, a color pair that often struggles to find consistent ramp, he would be turning heads left and right. Green and white isn't a color pair traditionally associated with artifacts, as evidenced by the mere 595 Artifacts decks on EDHREC.

What's more, T'Challa's greatest strengths of growing huge and accelerating out mana are two things that the color combo does exceedingly well already. But T'Challa is powerful enough to overcome these obstacles and then some. His ramp ability especially is worth getting creative with deckbuilding to make work.

T'Challa gives us clearly defined resources: Vibranium tokens can tap for artifact spells and for ability costs. But the payoff he offers is much more flexible. As long as we're casting sizeable artifacts, which is what he incentivizes us to do already, he'll keep getting counters, which is a bonus without too much direction. We can give that bonus a direction, though, if we lean into the +1/+1 counters as a strategy rather than just as a stats boost.

Maybe I'm just the proverbial hammer looking for nails, but T'Challa looks like a great commander for one of my favorite strategies in Commander: modular.

Modular is one of the perfect mechanics of the game, combining the best of Artifact strategies, +1/+1 counters, and Aristocrats gameplay. A creature with modular enters with a number of +1/+1 counters on it, and when it dies we can move them onto another artifact creature. Our creatures grow to threatening sizes, but they're resistant to removal since the counters move when they die.

Since the core package of modular creatures is colorless, Modular decks can exist in any color combination, and this archetype has received a lot of fun new toys in the past couple years. Plus, T'Challa's ramp ability means we can lean into the larger side of the strategy and play some cards that struggle to find a home in more low-to-the ground versions.

Key Cards for T'Challa, the Black PantherT'Challa, the Black Panther

The basic package of Modular decks begins with the word "Arcbound." Type that into Scryfall, and then move any creature that costs four or less into the deck list. The range in quality is high, from Arcbound RavagerArcbound Ravager to Arcbound StingerArcbound Stinger all the way down to Arcbound PrototypeArcbound Prototype, but at this point the most important thing is getting a sufficient density of modular creatures.

Iron ApprenticeIron Apprentice also makes the cut as a more flexible version of Arcbound WorkerArcbound Worker, serving a crucial role in our curve.

The next package of the creatures is the "Walkers." Hangarback WalkerHangarback Walker was once a Standard staple, and even made an impact on Modern, and if we can load it up with counters from our other creatures it can threaten a Commander board just as well.

Walking BallistaWalking Ballista is one of the most egregious artifact creatures of all time, fitting into any curve and serving roles from utility creature to combo win condition. And the relatively recent Marketback WalkerMarketback Walker can give us tons of cards if we put a little work into it.

These creatures fit well into this deck especially as spells that can use up any amount of mana we can generate, and flexible threats that can come down early or trigger T'Challa's ability to grow.

In order to pump our creatures up, we can run a suite of creatures that repeatedly add more counters to our whole board. Steel OverseerSteel Overseer used to be a Modern staple in Affinity decks, and Iron Spider, Stark UpgradeIron Spider, Stark Upgrade represents the next generation of that effect. Patrolling PeacemakerPatrolling Peacemaker and Surge ConductorSurge Conductor, both from Edge of Eternities Commander, proliferate so often that even a tiny board can become a problem in the blink of an eye.

T'Challa wants us to include a high number of four-drops, and there are some great cards at that mana value for this strategy.

Arcbound CrusherArcbound Crusher grows whenever an artifact enters under anyone's control, meaning it gets out of hand quickly. Crystalline CrawlerCrystalline Crawler is a great place to put counters from other creatures, as it can convert them into mana to fuel big turns. Mindless AutomatonMindless Automaton similarly converts counters into resources, but it can turn them into cold hard card draw.

Finally, Big Mother MouserBig Mother Mouser can grow exponentially over the course of a few attacks, and spews out Robots when it bites the dust.

Much of this deck's power and flexibility revolves around our ability to move counters from one creature to another when they die, so we need to include some good sacrifice outlets. Luckily, there are plenty of spicy engines we can include that sacrifice artifacts specifically.

Throne of GethThrone of Geth is a ridiculously powerful outlet, balanced only by its narrowness, but in our deck it fits perfectly. TechnodromeTechnodrome can cash in artifacts for cards, and even becomes a potent threat later in the game. And Arcbound RavagerArcbound Ravager is simply busted, capable of ending games just as well in Commander as it did in Standard and Modern.

One of the biggest draws to playing T'Challa as the commander for this deck is the fact that he lets us include some of the bigger cards that this archetype wants to see.

Arcbound OverseerArcbound Overseer is a slam dunk in this deck, growing our team every turn, and Threefold ThunderhulkThreefold Thunderhulk offers everything we want, from board presence to counters to a sacrifice outlet. TriskelionTriskelion may be overshadowed by Walking BallistaWalking Ballista these days, but it still pulls its weight.

The trio of TetravusTetravus, PentavusPentavus, and TriskelavusTriskelavus let us adapt, going wide or tall as the board state dictates.

Most of the cards mentioned so far are colorless, and while that is the core of our deck, we do also get some benefits for building in the green and white color pair.

Yotian DissidentYotian Dissident is a great engine to buff up our creatures early on. Hamza, Guardian of ArashinHamza, Guardian of Arashin can often make our subsequent colorless creatures free as long as we have a good sized battlefield, unlocking an explosive late game. The Great HengeThe Great Henge is good in any deck, but here it pulls double duty as an expensive artifact that triggers T'Challa while making more counters and giving us much-needed card draw.

Finally, The Skullspore NexusThe Skullspore Nexus is another hefty artifact that we can cast for a discount, and it plays into our sacrificing theme by creating tokens as big as whatever dies.

Winning the Game With T'Challa, the Black PantherT'Challa, the Black Panther

It's nice to have a deck where all the main engines create board presence. +1/+1 counters can win a lot of games on their own, with minimal shenanigans. This deck can also create an alpha strike seemingly out of nowhere to take out a player by moving all of our creatures' counters onto one unblocked attacker. But there are some cards that supercharge everything we're trying to do.

Agatha's Soul CauldronAgatha's Soul Cauldron can buff our creatures and hate on graveyards, but its main strength in this deck is alongside all of our activated abilities. Giving all of our creatures with counters the ability of a Steel OverseerSteel Overseer or a PentavusPentavus is powerful, but where the Cauldron really pops off is with something like Mindless AutomatonMindless Automaton or Walking BallistaWalking Ballista, ways to turn counters into value for no mana.

If we pull off that combo, we'll be able to end the game in short order.

The OzolithThe Ozolith isn't exactly a secret, as it sees play in over 315,000 decks, but it certainly does end games. With modular specifically, it lets us move our counters to two places at once when our modular creature dies, effectively doubling up the amount of counters we get to work with. (This is actually a case where reading the card doesn't explain the card - both modular and The OzolithThe Ozolith refer to moving "a creature's counters," implying we have to choose one place where these counters move, but that phrase is actually shorthand for "put an equal number of those counters on a new permanent" so two of that same effect can put a creature's counters in two places at once).

It won't take too long to stack our way into a lethal threat.

T'Challa, the Black Panther Commander Deck List

One of the fun things about Artifact decks is how portable they are into different color combinations. It's funny to think of blue and red as "artifact colors" and white and green as bad colors for that strategy, when most artifacts could fit into either deck. And some of our payoffs, like Yotian DissidentYotian Dissident and T'Challa, the Black PantherT'Challa, the Black Panther himself are made more powerful than they would be in other colors simply because they're in the "wrong" colors for that kind of deck.

These rewards are few and far between in green and white, but the ones we do get are absurd, and we don't need many, since the rest of our deck is filled with colorless powerhouses.

T'Challa is a surprisingly speedy commander. He comes down and begins ramping by the equivalent of one mana rock per turn, as long as we can continue attacking. Overlord of the HauntwoodsOverlord of the Hauntwoods is a proven powerhouse, and T'Challa offers the same play pattern at only three mana.

I'm excited to see what these Vibranium tokens look like, and excited to be able to play some of the heftier artifacts in the Modular strategy with the ramp they provide.