Yargle, Glutton of Urborg
BLegendary Creature — Frog Spirit

Yargle, Glutton of Urborg

Mana value5EDHREC#6,239

The Commander

Guide

Gameplan

Yargle is a vanilla 9/0 mono-black beater that turns the game into a Voltron race: suit him up with protection and evasion, swing for 9+, and close games in two or three connects. You ramp into him early, deploy cheap protective auras and equipment, and use black's reanimation and tutors to keep him on the battlefield no matter how many removal spells get thrown his way.

Strengths

  • A 9-power body at five mana already threatens lethal commander damage in three hits
  • Mono-black gives deep access to tutors, recursion, and removal to clear blockers and protect Yargle
  • Cheap to recast and easy to reanimate, so he keeps coming back
  • Massive power scales hard with trample, double strike, and power-doubling effects

Weaknesses

  • Zero toughness means he dies to any -1/-1, pingers, and most board wipes that he can't dodge
  • No evasion or built-in protection on the card itself—he's a pile of buffs away from doing nothing
  • Heavily reliant on connecting; one Fog or chump block can stall a turn
  • All-in Voltron lines fold to a single well-timed removal spell if you've overcommitted auras

Key Cards

  • Whispersilk CloakGrants unblockable and shroud, making Yargle's 9 damage land safely and untargetable.
  • Rogue's PassageRepeatable unblockable enabler that needs no investment Yargle can lose to removal.
  • FireshriekerDouble strike effectively turns Yargle into an 18-damage swing, halving the clock.
  • Loran's EscapeProtection-granting instant that also draws a card, saving Yargle from targeted removal.
  • Sword of Feast and FamineProtection from two colors plus untap-lands and discard makes Yargle resilient and explosive.
  • ReanimateCheaply brings Yargle back when he's killed, keeping the pressure relentless.

Upgrade Path

Add more protection-on-a-stick like the Swords cycle, Shizo, Death's Storehouse, and instant-speed hexproof spells (Snakeskin Veil, Tyvar's Stand) so a single removal spell never blows you out. Prioritize repeatable unblockable enablers (Rogue's Passage, Whispersilk Cloak, Trailblazer's Boots) over fragile aura piles, and lean into power doublers and trample like Embercleave-style payoffs and Berserk for explosive one-shot kills. Round it out with fast mana (Sol Ring, dark rituals) and cheap reanimation to make Yargle inevitable.

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

  • Lethal commander damage from a buffed, unblockable Yargle in two to three swings
  • Doubling his power with effects like Berserk or double strike for a one-shot kill
  • Grinding the table out with black removal while Yargle chips away each turn

Archetypes

  • VoltronYargle's enormous power begs for auras and equipment to deliver lethal commander damage fast.
  • Mono-Black AggroHe's a top-end beater backed by black's removal and recursion to push damage.
  • ReanimatorHis cheap mana value and recastability reward dumping and reanimating him repeatedly.

Combos

No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.

Related Commanders

Same color identity (B), by popularity.

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