Legendary Creature — Human Shaman

Bugenhagen, Wise Elder

Mana value2EDHREC#3,082

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The Commander

Reach

At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control a creature with power 7 or greater, draw a card.

{T} : Add one mana of any color.

Guide

Gameplan

Bugenhagen is a 2-mana mono-green engine that rewards going big: deploy a fat creature with power 7+ and you draw a card every upkeep while ramping mana of any color. Curve out with mana dorks into huge beaters, refill your hand off Bugenhagen, and crush the table with trampling threats.

Strengths

Cheap, early-drop commander that doubles as a Birds of Paradise-style any-color mana source
Repeatable card advantage in mono-green, a color that traditionally struggles to draw
Reach lets it block fliers and survive while the engine runs
Synergizes naturally with the +X/+X and big-creature payoffs green already wants

Weaknesses

Card draw is conditional—you must reliably field a 7+ power creature or the engine does nothing
Relies on a 2-mana commander that dies to any removal, disrupting both ramp and draw
Mono-green lacks interaction, so you fall behind to combo and control
Telegraphs your big threats, inviting board wipes and targeted removal

Key Cards

Ghalta, Primal Hunger — Easily cast huge with power 12, instantly switching on Bugenhagen's draw trigger.
Doubling Season — Amplifies counters and tokens so your creatures blow past the power-7 threshold.
Hardened Scales — Cheaply pumps +1/+1 counter creatures to 7+ power to keep cards flowing.
Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger — A 7+ power beater that doubles your ramp and chokes opponents' mana.
Beast Within — Premium mono-green interaction to remove problem permanents the deck otherwise can't touch.
Garruk, Primal Hunter — Makes token beaters and refills your hand alongside Bugenhagen for explosive card flow.

Upgrade Path

Add more efficient ramp (Sol Ring, Nature's Lore, Three Visits) and ways to cheat creatures in (Elvish Piper, Selvala's Stampede) to hit the power-7 threshold faster and more consistently. Pack protection like Heroic Intervention and Snakeskin Veil to shield Bugenhagen and your threats, and include a Craterhoof Behemoth/Triumph of the Hordes finisher to convert the board into lethal damage.

Core Cards

The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.

Win Conditions

▸Beating down with trampling 7+ power creatures buffed by counters or auras
▸Overrun effects like Craterhoof Behemoth or Pathbreaker Ibex for a one-shot alpha strike
▸Grinding card and mana advantage until you simply out-resource the table
▸Commander damage via a Voltron'd large creature

Archetypes

Big Creatures / Stompy — Bugenhagen turns oversized beaters into a card-draw engine while ramping into more of them.
+1/+1 Counters — Counter synergies reliably push creatures to power 7+ to fuel the upkeep draw.
Ramp / Mana Acceleration — Its any-color tap ability plus green ramp lets you cheat out enormous threats early.
Voltron — Aura and equipment stacks push your commander or a single creature past 7 power and trample for kills.