Legendary Creature — Halfling Horror

Gollum, Obsessed Stalker

Mana value2EDHREC#4,967

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The Commander

Skulk (This creature can't be blocked by creatures with greater power.)

At the beginning of your end step, each opponent dealt combat damage this game by a creature named Gollum, Obsessed Stalker loses life equal to the amount of life you gained this turn.

Guide

Gameplan

Connect with Gollum at least once via Skulk to 'mark' each opponent, then spend the rest of the game gaining as much life as possible so your end step drains every marked opponent for that amount. You build a lifegain engine and stack big single-turn gains to deal lethal noncombat damage to the whole table at once.

Strengths

Cheap 2-mana commander that can deal global, repeatable, non-combat damage to every opponent it has connected with
Skulk makes early hits reliable since most creatures have higher power
Turns lifegain (normally durdly) into a true win condition that hits the whole table simultaneously
Mono-black gives strong tutors, recursion, and life-payment payoffs

Weaknesses

You must land combat damage on each opponent first, so a single chump or removal can lock one player out of the drain
Fragile 1/1 body that dies to nearly anything and resets the requirement when recast (the mark persists per-game once dealt, but removal stalls future damage)
Lifegain payoff is dead without a built lifegain engine, making the deck reliant on multiple pieces coming together
Vulnerable to lifegain hate and graveyard hate disrupting recursion

Key Cards

Aetherflux Reservoir — Massive single-turn life swings translate directly into huge end-step drains, and it's a backup wincon on its own.
Sanguine Bond — Doubles your payoff: lifegain pings opponents immediately AND triggers Gollum's end-step drain.
Exquisite Blood — Pairs with any drain to loop life and fuels enormous end-step damage totals.
Whip of Erebos — Grants lifelink to your whole team so every attack feeds Gollum's drain, plus reanimation insurance.
Rogue's Passage — Guarantees Gollum connects to mark a problem opponent regardless of blockers.
Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose — Repeats the Sanguine Bond effect, converting lifegain into instant damage while stacking the end-step drain.

Upgrade Path

Add fast mana (Sol Ring, dark rituals) and tutors (Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor) to assemble lifegain payoffs sooner, and lean on free evasion (Whispersilk Cloak, Trailblazer's Boots) so Gollum reliably marks every opponent. Tighten the combo by pairing Exquisite Blood with Sanguine Bond/Vito as a redundant table-wipe, and include protection like Lightning Greaves and Heroic Intervention to keep your fragile commander alive between end steps.

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

▸Stack a single-turn life gain large enough that Gollum's end-step drain kills all marked opponents at once
▸Aetherflux Reservoir 50-life laser to the face
▸Sanguine Bond/Exquisite Blood loop draining the whole table to zero

Archetypes

Lifegain Combo — Gollum converts your highest single-turn life total into damage dealt to all marked opponents, rewarding explosive lifegain.
Aristocrats — Sacrifice payoffs like Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat both drain and gain life, feeding Gollum's end step.
Voltron/Evasion — Skulk and unblockable tools let you focus on connecting with Gollum to set up the kill across the table.