Best Cards to Boost Lorthos, Tentacled Terror

Best Cards to Boost Lorthos, Tentacled Terror

In TCG ·

Lorthos, Tentacled Terror MTG card art

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Boosting Lorthos with a blue toolkit

When you lean into mono-blue with a legendary octopus of pure control like Lorthos, Tentacled Terror, you’re chasing a game where every decision weighs in with cool precision and a splash of chaos. Lorthos is a rare treat from the Unknown Event set, a creature that wears its blue heart on its sleeve: {6}{U}{U} for an 8/8 with a partner pairing and a truly peculiar twist on the opening hand. Mono Eminence means that if Lorthos is your commander and your deck’s color identity stays mono-blue, your starting hand becomes 8—imagine the tempo and tempo leaks this unlocks right from the first draw step 🧙‍♂️. Then, when Lorthos attacks, you tap all permanents your opponent controls, a tempo blow that can swing the room in a single swing ⚔️. Layer in Partner, and you’re free to curate a two-commander strategy that piles on the blue spell-slinging and mind-bending card advantage. This isn’t just power; it’s style, myth, and a little mischief all rolled into a single arcane—pardon me—octopodal package 💎.

Card draw engines: keep the currents flowing

  • Rhystic Study — In a mono-blue shell, Rhystic Study keeps the flow of cards constant, turning opponents’ spell casts into your own draw engines. It’s the classic pressure-release valve that lets you keep Lorthos on the table and ahead on every turn 🎲.
  • Mystic Remora — If you’re facing heavier spell presses, Remora taxes opponents while lining your hand with fresh options. It’s a perfect companion to an eight-card opening and a way to maintain parity as the game snowballs 🔥.
  • Consecrated Sphinx — For a big-play payoff, Consecrated Sphinx dumps a thunderous cascade of cards onto your hand. It can feel like peering into a treasure vault, especially with Lorthos projecting tempo by tapping opponents’ boards on attack 💎.

Countermagic and protection: the blue fortress

  • Force of Will and Counterspell — Blue’s guard rails. Your plan often hinges on protecting Lorthos while you assemble the pieces to swing the game with his tapped-permanents effect. A solid counter-suite buys you time to deploy your threats and your two-commander setup without blinking 🔒.
  • Pact of Negation — For a contingency plan that can foil a critical spell at senior moment, Pact acts as a shield when you’re juggling multiple axes of defense and attack 🎭.

Mana acceleration and hand-size padding

  • Sol Ring and other colorless accelerants help you reach the big 8-mana threshold more reliably, letting you cast Lorthos earlier than your opponents expect. In blue-heavy lists, a few mana rocks are a reasonable trade for late-game inevitability.
  • Reliquary Tower and similar effects keep your hand-max flexibility aligned with Lorthos’s big opening and the inevitable card draw that follows. +8 starting hand is powerful—this helps you weather the inevitable counterspells and still keep options online 🔋.
  • Brainstorm and Preordain (and their cantrip siblings) help you sculpt your draws toward essential answers and threats while shuffling away dead cards—clean, elegant, blue-spellcraft 🎨.

Tempo, tap-down synergy, and win conditions

Blue’s strength is in tempo and control, and Lorthos invites a thoughtful application of those tools. With Mono Eminence granting an 8-card hand at the outset, you’ll often find yourself on a rapid path to board control by the time Lorthos swings. Then you attack, tap all permanents your opponents control, and watch the room recalibrate in real time 🧙‍♂️. To press that advantage, consider blue finishers and tempo pieces like Teferi, Time Raveler or Time Warp/Temporal Manipulation-style spells to ensure your lines stay open across turns. A cool trick is using a blink or untap engine on your own end step to set up another big attack after the tap effect lands—blue loves sequencing, and Lorthos loves the disruption ⚔️.

“In the right shell, the octopus is less a brute force behemoth and more a surgeon with a splash of carnival magic.” 🧙‍♂️

Tutor and inevitability: finding the right tools

Blue tutors, insurance spells, and ways to fetch specific answers help you assemble your plan swiftly. Whether you lean on Mystical Tutor or Vampiric Tutor (colorless variants exist in some lists) to fetch plan-B or plan-C, the idea is clear: you’ve got a deep well to draw from, and Lorthos’s big attack is your finishing stroke. Pair him with a second commander via Partner to tailor extra card advantage or control options, and you’re launching a strategy that’s both thematic and ruthlessly effective 🎲.

On a practical note, the Unknown Event-set lineage of Lorthos adds a playful “what-if” vibe to any Commander table. The rarity and mono-blue flavor keep the list tightly themed, but the real magic comes from how you blend this octopus’s eight-card opening with blue’s never-ending fountain of options. If you’re chasing a game that rewards careful planning and a little misdirection, Lorthos wants to be your focus—because in magic, big ideas deserve big hooks 🔥.

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Lorthos, Tentacled Terror

Lorthos, Tentacled Terror

{6}{U}{U}
Legendary Creature — Octopus

Mono Eminence — As the game begins, if Lorthos is your commander and your deck's color identity is mono-blue, your starting hand size becomes 8. (You draw 8 cards and your maximum hand size is 8.)

Whenever Lorthos attacks, tap all permanents your opponent controls.

Partner (You can have two commanders if both have partner.)

ID: 40dd4917-a3c9-47a6-8417-4a6d3d53b0c5

Oracle ID: eb2e1d45-31de-4b4a-995e-2663b5e4a85b

Colors: U

Color Identity: U

Keywords: Mono Eminence, Partner

Rarity: Rare

Released: 2023-07-29

Artist:

Frame: 2015

Border: black

Set: Unknown Event (unk)

Collector #: RU08a

Legalities

  • Standard — not_legal
  • Future — not_legal
  • Historic — not_legal
  • Timeless — not_legal
  • Gladiator — not_legal
  • Pioneer — not_legal
  • Modern — not_legal
  • Legacy — not_legal
  • Pauper — not_legal
  • Vintage — not_legal
  • Penny — not_legal
  • Commander — not_legal
  • Oathbreaker — not_legal
  • Standardbrawl — not_legal
  • Brawl — not_legal
  • Alchemy — not_legal
  • Paupercommander — not_legal
  • Duel — not_legal
  • Oldschool — not_legal
  • Premodern — not_legal
  • Predh — not_legal

Prices

Last updated: 2025-12-03