Hello and welcome to another edition of A Seat at the Table where I pick a commander and discuss what would go well in their 99. This week, following in the backup commander from the Warhammer 40k decks trend of my last article, I’m talking about Bothersome Quasit from the Grixis Warhammer commander precon.

For 3UBR, you get a Flying 6/5 Legendary Demon Noble which is fine, but the real juice comes from its two other abilities. Let’s check out that textbox.

“Flying  

Prince of Chaos — When Be’lakor, the Dark Master enters the battlefield, you draw X cards and you lose X life, where X is the number of Demons you control.  

Lord of Torment — Whenever another Demon enters the battlefield under your control, it deals damage equal to its power to any target.”  

Talk about a Demon payoff.

Believe it or not, we haven’t really had an amazing Demon tribal commander yet and with this Dark Master, A.K.A. Prince of Chaos, A.K.A. Lord of Torment coming in the next month, we’re about to see a ton of Demons in the sky. Sure, there are some people with their pet Demon decks, like Rakdos the Defiler or Rakdos Showstopper. Not all the demons will be mono black. Here’s a spotlight on those that aren’t mono black or part of the new cards in the precon.

Here are a few of my favourite picks.

Bothersome Quasit / Immersturm Raider

Starting with a couple role players that I think are great in this deck. Immersturm Raider is a Demon with an optional rummage on ETB. It’s fine. But it’s low on the curve and is a Demon in early turns, fills your yard if you need, is a fine target for flicker effects when your commander isn’t available, like with Conjuror’s Closet or Thassa, Deep-Dwelling. Most of all, it’s cheap enough to tack on an extra card draw when you’re about to play Be’lakor and when the commander is out, the Raider also Shocks. That’s not bad.

Bothersome Quasit on the other hand is a powerhouse that nobody has seemed to notice yet. Three mana is a good spot to be in this deck and then every mana rock, or draw spell, or Warstorm Surge also becomes a way to goad a creature an opponent controls and make sure they can no longer block. It’s removal, it’s evasion, and it’s a low cost Demon that gets you what you  need.

Orcus, Prince of Undeath

While Grixis isn’t known for its big mana, with black and red rituals, you can have a hell of a turn.

Oh, wait. I almost forgot about Dockside Extortionist.

Anyway, if you pump enough into Orcus, you can bring back a solid stack of creatures. Of course, being Demon tribal means that  you’re going to need A LOT of mana, but it can still make for a turn that nobody saw coming. You can also use Orcus as removal. Even without the X, you can get five damage anywhere with your commander out. In black, you have many ways to bring this guy back to your hand to make a loop happen. Sacrifice him, Phyrexian Reclamation, boom. Time to party.

Prince of Thralls

Prince of Thralls makes the list simply because it is undeniably a cool card that does not stand up to current power creep, but deserves some love. I remember seeing Prince of Thralls for the first time and wondering why you’d ever want to bring back permanents for your opponent, then reread it and screamed.

It is very expensive at eight mana. Again, with the commander costing six and being in black, you’ll have ways to cheat this beefy, spiky Demon into play or you’ll focus enough on ramp to bring this out. Whenever an opponent cracks a fetch, they have to pay four life if they don’t want you to get a fetch land. Whenever you kill any permanent, they lose 3 life or you gain more board presence. If there’s ever been a time I’ve been tempted to play mass land destruction spells like Ruination, it’s here.

Gyruda, Doom of Depths

Ikoria’s Companion mechanic was busted for other Eternal and Constructed formats, but really was just a way to get another commander into the command zone with a deck building restriction and only as a one time shot. Gyruda, Doom of Depths is a popular commander and companion. You can even run it as a companion with Be’lakor! Hell the only card I’ve highlighted so far that doesn’t fit is Bothersome Quasit. If you go the blink route with Thassa, Deep-Dwelling and Panharmonicon, Gyruda is going to get very annoying for your opponents. Toss in a Sakashima of a Thousand Faces and make a bunch of copies to be extra powerful.

Balor

Balor is a mythic rare from Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate, which means it has the same drop rate as the Ancient (blank) Dragon cycle and yet only costs a fraction of the price. Yes, the Dragons are very flashy, but I anticipate all Be’lakor decks will want a Balor in the 99. Balor triggers on attack and death, so if it resolves once, unless it gets exiled, you get to throw a lot of hate everywhere. I love Balor in a bunch of my decks and see it shine brightest in Jaxis, the Troublemaker. I absolutely anticipate this card being an all-star in the Grixis Demon Tribal deck we’re talking about today.

Here’s a list of the rest of the Demons I considered talking about!

Honorable Mentions

Thanks for reading. Come on back! Let me know what Commander you’d like covered for next  article! @mikecarrozza on Twitter.

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