Legendary Creature — Weasel Mercenary

The Infamous Cruelclaw

Mana value3EDHREC#4,844

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The Commander

Menace

Whenever The Infamous Cruelclaw deals combat damage to a player, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card. You may cast that card by discarding a card rather than paying its mana cost.

Guide

Gameplan

Suit up Cruelclaw, connect for combat damage via menace, and chain free spells off the top of your library by discarding a card. The deck wants to enable consistent connection (evasion, haste, protection) and load the library with high-impact nonland cards, turning each hit into explosive tempo and card advantage.

Strengths

Generates massive card advantage and free spells every combat hit, snowballing fast
Menace makes the commander naturally evasive and hard to block profitably
Three-mana, cheap-to-recast commander that comes online early
Rakdos gives access to elite removal, sacrifice synergies, and aggressive enablers

Weaknesses

Effect is combat-dependent and does nothing if the commander is blocked or removed
Discard cost can leave you hellbent, and a flooded top can whiff into lands
Needs evasion/protection support to connect reliably against go-wide boards
Vulnerable to fogs, single-target removal, and Propaganda-style taxers

Key Cards

Rogue's Passage — Guarantees Cruelclaw connects for an unblockable trigger when menace isn't enough.
Fervor — Gives haste so Cruelclaw can attack the turn it lands and immediately start chaining spells.
Reconnaissance — Lets you attack freely, trigger combat damage, and pull Cruelclaw back before blocks resolve.
Sword of Fire and Ice — Adds protection, evasion-enabling stats, and extra value while pushing damage through.
Bolas's Citadel — Doubles down on top-of-library payoffs and lets you cast off the top alongside Cruelclaw's trigger.

Upgrade Path

Prioritize cheap, reliable evasion and protection (Rogue's Passage, Lightning Greaves, Whispersilk Cloak) plus a haste enabler so Cruelclaw connects every turn. Stack the deck with high-value nonland cards and graveyard payoffs to make discards meaningful, and add fast mana like Sol Ring and signets to recast the commander and deploy threats early. Top-end engines such as Bolas's Citadel and reanimation targets push the ceiling toward explosive, game-ending turns.

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

▸Chaining free bombs and removal off repeated hits to overwhelm the table
▸Voltron commander damage with evasion and equipment
▸Reanimating or free-casting a haymaker that closes the game
▸Aristocrats drain and recursion grinding opponents out

Archetypes

Voltron — Equipment and auras let Cruelclaw connect repeatedly to maximize the cast-from-exile trigger.
Aristocrats — Discarded and sacrificed cards plus death triggers turn the discard cost into value.
Reanimator — Discarding fatties to Cruelclaw's cost fuels graveyard recursion and big reanimation payoffs.
Spellslinger/Tempo — Free expensive spells off combat damage fuel an aggressive, value-driven game plan.