Legendary Creature — Cat Nightmare Beast

Nethroi, Apex of Death

Mana value5EDHREC#5,293

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The Commander

Mutate {4} {G/W} {B} {B} (If you cast this spell for its mutate cost, put it over or under target non-Human creature you own. They mutate into the creature on top plus all abilities from under it.)

Deathtouch, lifelink

Whenever this creature mutates, return any number of target creature cards with total power 10 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.

Guide

Gameplan

Nethroi fills the graveyard with creatures, then mutates to reanimate a wave of bodies totaling 10 power, often picking up creatures that cheat the power-10 cap or chain into game-ending combos. You self-mill and sacrifice early, then deploy Nethroi mid-game to flood the board and snowball value. Many builds aim to assemble an infinite combo or a single overwhelming reanimation turn.

Strengths

Mass reanimation off one mutate trigger creates huge swings
Deathtouch + lifelink makes Nethroi a strong, stabilizing body
Abzan colors give the best removal, recursion, and tutors
Power-10 cap rewards small high-value creatures, enabling combos

Weaknesses

Reanimation reads 'power 10 or less,' so high-power bombs must be reduced to 0 to count
Graveyard hate (Rest in Peace, Bojuka Bog) shuts down the whole plan
Mutate cost is steep and Nethroi is a removal magnet
Needs setup turns to mill/fill the yard before it pays off

Key Cards

Necrotic Ooze — With its 0 power it dodges the cap and enables activated-ability combos from the graveyard.
Dance of the Dead — Cheap reanimation backup, but the real combo is reanimating creatures whose printed power totals 10.
Devoted Druid — A 0-power-after-untap piece that combos with Swift Reconfiguration and Necrotic Ooze for infinite mana.
Walking Ballista — Enters with 0 power so it's always reanimatable, and serves as a damage-based wincon.
Buried Alive — Stocks the graveyard with the exact creatures you want Nethroi to return.
Eternal Witness — Reanimated to rebuy a key spell, and a low-power value engine.

Upgrade Path

Add fast self-mill (Stitcher's Supplier, Golgari Grave-Troll, Hermit Druid) and tutors (Buried Alive, Entomb, Final Parting) to set up the perfect reanimation pile, then lean into a compact infinite combo like Necrotic Ooze + Devoted Druid + Walking Ballista that Nethroi assembles in one trigger. Include ways to reduce big creatures' power to 0 or reuse mutate (Cauldron of Souls, blink), and protect the line with graveyard recursion and counter/disruption to beat hate.

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

▸Reanimate a combo (Devoted Druid + Necrotic Ooze + outlet) for infinite mana/damage
▸Walking Ballista with infinite counters as a kill
▸Overwhelming board of reanimated creatures swinging with lifelink
▸Aristocrats drain via repeated sacrifice and recursion

Archetypes

Reanimator — Nethroi's mutate trigger returns a board's worth of creatures from the yard at once.
Combo — Low-power pieces like Devoted Druid, Necrotic Ooze, and Walking Ballista assemble infinite loops on reanimation.
Aristocrats — Sacrifice fodder fills the graveyard, then Nethroi recurs it for drain and value.
Counters/Mutate — Stack multiple mutate creatures under Nethroi to trigger repeated reanimation.