Top Commander Pairings for Marionette Master’s ETB Effect

In TCG ·

Marionette Master MTG card art from Forgotten Realms Commander, depicting a cunning artificer with brass filigree and a tangle of gears

Image courtesy of Scryfall.com

Top Commander Pairings for Marionette Master’s ETB Engine

Marionette Master isn’t just a cute name in a fancy creature—it's a design that leans into the classic thrill of Fabricate: when it enters the battlefield, you get to put three +1/+1 counters on it or create three 1/1 Servo artifact creature tokens. The real payoff, though, is the backup plan: whenever an artifact you control heads to the graveyard from the battlefield, target opponent loses life equal to Marionette Master’s power. That means your board state can flip from a sturdy threat to a blow-torch that punishes opponents for every fallen servo that hits the graveyard 🔥🧙‍♂️. In a two-commander setup, pairing Marionette Master with a compatible black commander can turbocharge the ETB-based drain into a reliable, late-game finisher. Let’s explore five strong pairing concepts and why they click with this mechanical engine ⚔️💎.

Erebos, God of the Dead — Mono-Black Graveyard Control Meets ETB Drain

With Erebos leading the charge, Marionette Master shares a dark lane: both leverage the graveyard as a resource and a threat. Erebos isn’t shy about turning life into advantage and punishing opponents for missed answers, while Marionette Master’s ETB drain scales with its own power—especially if you’ve placed multiple +1/+1 counters on it. A classic mono-black axis emerges: you ramp into the six-mana behemoth, drop it with Fabricate, and watch opponents scramble as Servos clog the board and life totals melt from the graveyard-based triggers. The synergy is straightforward, brutal, and deeply satisfying for players who love a well-timed swing and a grim grin 🧙‍♂️💀.

  • Fabricate-driven lines maximize early pressure: counters on Marionette Master let you doggedly threaten life loss as the game goes long.
  • Graveyard interaction ensures your resources aren’t just milled away; they become a recurring threat that fuels both board and life totals.
  • Synergy with discard and reanimation tools keeps your engine flexible in a format famous for disruption.

K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth — Accelerating the ETB for Quick Start Wins

Pairing Marionette Master with K’rrik aims to accelerate timing and make the critical first ETB lands feel like a blueprint for domination. K’rrik’s life-for-mana dynamic can shave precious turns off the countdown to your six-mana drop, letting you cast Marionette Master sooner than expected. Once on the battlefield, the ETB effect can start chunking away at opponents’ life totals, especially if you maximize the +1/+1 counters from Fabricate to boost Marionette Master’s power to a frankly terrifying level. It’s a take-no-prisoners approach that rewards careful mana planning, precise spell sequencing, and a little surgical dollop of luck 🔥🎲.

  • Early acceleration opens doors to repeated ETB triggers across the table, pressuring multiple opponents in multiplayer games.
  • Counter-boosted Marionette Master punishes artifact removal—every graveyard death converts into damage, and the board can snowball quickly.
  • Mana efficiency becomes a winning plan, letting you deploy additional support artifacts or control spells during your opponents’ turns.

The Scarab God — Reanimate, Reclaim, Reuse

The Scarab God takes Marionette Master’s design into the graveyard-forward realm with a different flavor: you’re not just draining life—you’re recycling the battlefield and refueling your engine. With Marionette Master present, each artifact that ends up in your graveyard can translate into life for your opponents, but The Scarab God can blink that energy back into action by reanimating key pieces or resourcing undead symmetries to swing again. This pairing invites a rhythm: you leverage graveyard interactions to reset threats, then deploy Marionette Master again to push lethal damage, turning attrition into a controlled demolition of your opponents’ life totals 🪦⚡.

  • Graveyard recursion keeps your artifact suite in circulation, unlocking repeated uses of Fabricate and the damage pump from power-based drains.
  • The ongoing threat of reanimation ensures even sweeps and board wipes don’t derail your plan for victory.
  • Blue splash sometimes helps with countermagic and card selection to keep the engine humming.

Ob Nixilis, the Fallen — Drain, Pressure, and Plate-Spinner Momentum

Ob Nixilis brings a traditional, relentless pressure to the table. In a Marionette Master build, you pair a life-drain engine with a relentless threat that punishes opponents for allowing you to build your board. The combination yields a spectacle: you cast Marionette Master, you fabricate three Servos or power up with counters, and then every artifact that meets its graveyard fate translates into meaningful life loss for your opponents. It’s a combination of grind and glory—a classic black strategy done with a modern, robotic twist 🎨⚔️.

  • Life-for-mana interplay can compress games, especially if you’ve slowed opponents with removal and counterplay.
  • Artifact-driven pressure gives you a consistent path to victory, even if your opponents attempt to race you with their own threats.
  • Strong removal and protection help you weather wipes while your engine refuels from graveyard interactions.

Across these pairings, the core thrill remains: Marionette Master’s ETB can pivot a game on its head once you’ve tilted the board enough to maximize its power-based life drain. Craft your list with a balance of artifact generators and graveyard enablers, lean into the fabricate + counters route when you need to push big damage, and don’t forget to protect your engines with selective removal and counterplay. The result is a deck that feels almost cinematic—a mad inventor with brass, gears, and a grin that says, “Let’s see how you count your losses.” 🧙‍♂️💎🎲

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