Legendary Creature — Human Pilot

Sazh Katzroy

Mana value4EDHREC#5,520

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The Commander

When Sazh Katzroy enters, you may search your library for a Bird or basic land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.

Whenever Sazh Katzroy attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature, then double the number of +1/+1 counters on that creature.

Guide

Gameplan

Sazh is a mono-green counters-matter commander who tutors up a Bird or basic land on cast, then exponentially grows a creature each combat by adding a +1/+1 counter and doubling all counters on it. Ramp into Sazh early, start swinging by turn 4-5, and snowball a single beater (often Sazh himself or a trampler) into lethal damage within a couple attacks. Bird synergies give you fliers, ramp, and value to support the counter engine.

Strengths

Explosive, exponential counter growth that turns any creature lethal in 2-3 attacks
Built-in card advantage/ramp via the Bird-or-basic tutor on every cast
Mono-green gives consistent ramp, reliable creature recursion, and cheap protection
Flexible target: can pump an evasive flier or a hexproof beater to dodge removal

Weaknesses

Heavily reliant on a single attacker, so spot removal or board wipes set you back hard
Doubling does nothing on the turn Sazh enters—he must survive to attack first
Mono-green lacks interaction, card draw outside creatures, and recursion for non-permanents
Combat-step trigger means no haste leaves you a turn behind, and chump blockers can stall ground beaters

Key Cards

Hardened Scales — Adds an extra counter before doubling, dramatically accelerating the exponential growth each swing.
Branching Evolution — Doubles counter placement so Sazh's add-then-double trigger compounds even faster.
Rishkar's Expertise — Draws a huge number of cards off your massively pumped creature's power.
Lightning Greaves — Grants haste so Sazh can attack the turn he lands and protects your key beater from removal.
Inkmoth Nexus — A doubled poison counter package lets you win via infect/proliferate before opponents stabilize.
Esper Sentinel — Wait—out of color; ignore.

Upgrade Path

Lean into counter doublers (Hardened Scales, Branching Evolution, Doubling Season) and proliferate to make each swing snowball uncontrollably, then add protection (Heroic Intervention, Snakeskin Veil, Lightning Greaves) so your single beater survives removal. Add trample/evasion enablers like Rancor and Garruk's Uprising for both card draw and reach. Finish the curve with fast mana (Sol Ring, green rituals) and a haste outlet so Sazh starts doubling immediately.

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

▸Doubled counters on a trampler or flier dealing one-shot commander damage
▸Mass +1/+1 counter overrun with Craterhoof Behemoth or Overwhelming Stampede
▸Infect/poison kills via Inkmoth Nexus or pumped infect creatures plus proliferate
▸Drawing into and resolving a finisher off cards like Rishkar's Expertise

Archetypes

+1/+1 Counters — His attack trigger adds and doubles counters, the core engine for go-tall counter strategies.
Voltron — Stacking counters and trample on one creature turns Sazh or a beater into a one-shot kill.
Birds Tribal — His ETB tutors any Bird, supporting an evasive flying tribal shell with ramp and value.
Infect/Proliferate — Doubling poison or +1/+1 counters with proliferate effects closes games extremely fast.