Legendary Creature — Elder Dinosaur

Tetzimoc, Primal Death

Mana value6EDHREC#10,391

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The Commander

Deathtouch

{B} , Reveal this card from your hand: Put a prey counter on target creature. Activate only during your turn.

When Tetzimoc enters, destroy each creature your opponents control with a prey counter on it.

Guide

Gameplan

Tetzimoc is a mono-black control commander that picks off threats before he even hits the battlefield. From your opening hand you spend {B} each turn to mark opposing creatures with prey counters, then cast Tetzimoc as a one-sided board wipe that also leaves a 6/6 deathtouch body behind. You grind the game out with removal, recursion, and card advantage before closing with a big finisher or commander damage.

Strengths

Repeatable, targeted board wipes—recast Tetzimoc to mark and destroy threats again
6/6 deathtouch is a strong defensive blocker and beater that profits from removal
Mono-black gives access to the best tutors, ramp, and recursion in the format
Prey counters can be seeded for free from hand, dodging counterspells on the kill

Weaknesses

Marking creatures requires Tetzimoc in hand, telegraphing the wipe and giving opponents time to react
No card draw or evasion built in—relies entirely on the 99
Mono-black struggles with enchantments and is weak to graveyard hate on its recursion package
Slow tempo: each prey counter is one mana per creature, easily outpaced by go-wide decks

Key Cards

Crypt Ghast — Doubles your black mana so you can seed multiple prey counters in a single turn.
Cabal Coffers — Generates the explosive black mana Tetzimoc's repeatable activations crave.
Liliana, Dreadhorde General — Provides the card draw and token defense the commander lacks while pressuring the board.
Ashnod's Altar — Sacrifice Tetzimoc to recast him from command zone for repeated one-sided wipes.
Phyrexian Reclamation — Returns Tetzimoc to hand cheaply so you can re-mark and re-cast the death trigger.
Reanimate — Cheats Tetzimoc into play, though you'll want to pre-load prey counters first.
Sheoldred, the Apocalypse — Punishes opponents' draws and refills your hand while you grind with removal.

Upgrade Path

Add fast mana and tutors (Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Dark Ritual) to set up prey counters and recast Tetzimoc ahead of curve. Lean into a sacrifice/recursion loop with Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Tower, and Phyrexian Reclamation to weaponize the death trigger repeatedly, and finish with Torment of Hailfire or Exsanguinate powered by Cabal Coffers and Nykthos. Round out weaknesses with disruption like Bontu's Last Reckoning and graveyard recursion to out-grind faster combo decks.

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

▸Grind opponents out of threats with repeated Tetzimoc wipes, then beat down with the 6/6
▸Commander damage backed by evasion or buffs like Whispersilk Cloak
▸Resolve a big mana finisher such as Torment of Hailfire or Exsanguinate
▸Reanimator value engine overwhelming a depleted board

Archetypes

Control — Repeatable targeted board wipes plus mono-black removal let you dismantle every threat on the table.
Reanimator — Black's reanimation suite recurs Tetzimoc and other big creatures for value and repeated death triggers.
Mono-Black Devotion/Ramp — Cabal Coffers and Crypt Ghast fuel mass prey-counter seeding and huge X-spell finishers.
Voltron — A 6/6 deathtouch evades opposition and can kill via commander damage with light equipment support.