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Tezzeret, Cruel Captain

Legendary Planeswalker — Tezzeret

Whenever an artifact you control enters, put a loyalty counter on Tezzeret.
0: Untap target artifact or creature. If it's an artifact creature, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
−3: Search your library for an artifact card with mana value 1 or less, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
−7: You get an emblem with "At the beginning of combat on your turn, put three +1/+1 counters on target artifact you control. If it's not a creature, it becomes a 0/0 Robot artifact creature."

CMC
3
Mana cost
{3}
Color identity
C
Rarity
mythic
Set
Edge of Eternities Promos
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#1588
Buy on TCGplayer
Tezzeret, Cruel Captain card art
Tezzeret, Cruel Captain hits the board and immediately starts taxing artifacts and generating value — the kind of sustained pressure that warrants serious consideration in any artifact-heavy shell. The cost is a planeswalker price tag and the need to protect loyalty counters, but synergy pieces like Ichormoon Gauntlet accelerate his ultimate fast enough that the window is shorter than it looks, and commanders like Lumra, Bellow of the Woods treat him as a near-auto-include.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Lumra, Bellow of the Woods

Lumra, Bellow of the Woods

34.8% of decks · synergy 0.33

Lumra, Bellow of the Woods runs Tezzeret, Cruel Captain in over a third of its builds because the artifact synergy axis aligns tightly with Lumra's resource-generation engine, letting Tezzeret's abilities compound alongside the commander's own value generation.

02
Mm'menon, the Right Hand

Mm'menon, the Right Hand

36.4% of decks · synergy 0.30

Mm'menon, the Right Hand slots Tezzeret, Cruel Captain in at a high rate because the deck's artifact-centric gameplan turns every loyalty ability into a meaningful tempo swing on the board state.

03
Kilo, Apogee Mind

Kilo, Apogee Mind

34.2% of decks · synergy 0.29

Kilo, Apogee Mind is the highest-volume home for Tezzeret, Cruel Captain by raw deck count, and the fit makes sense — Kilo's strategy rewards stacking incremental advantages, and Tezzeret delivers that turn after turn.

04
Zirda, the Dawnwaker

Zirda, the Dawnwaker

32.9% of decks · synergy 0.29

Zirda, the Dawnwaker's activated-ability reduction interacts cleanly with Tezzeret, Cruel Captain's loyalty abilities, effectively lowering the functional cost of going wide on activations each turn.

05
Sami, Wildcat Captain

Sami, Wildcat Captain

32.1% of decks · synergy 0.28

Sami, Wildcat Captain picks up Tezzeret, Cruel Captain as a complementary value engine, using the planeswalker's artifact synergies to extend board presence in a shell that already wants to go wide and press incremental advantages.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Tezzeret, Cruel Captain does his best work — the 100-card singleton format gives artifact strategies the room to build the critical mass of synergies he rewards, and a slower average game speed means his loyalty total is easier to protect. In competitive constructed formats like Modern and Pioneer he faces real pressure: planeswalkers that don't stabilize the board immediately or threaten an immediate win tend to get punished, and Tezzeret, Cruel Captain is more of an engine piece than a closer. Legacy and Vintage offer powerful artifact shells, but those formats are crowded with faster options. Standard and Oathbreaker round out the legal formats — Standard legality is worth noting for limited-environment play, and Oathbreaker is a natural home for any planeswalker with a strong activated-ability gameplan.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Pricing data for Tezzeret, Cruel Captain isn't currently available, so check Scryfall or your preferred vendor for the latest market rate before picking one up. Given the synergy density across artifact Commander builds, demand tends to be real — verify current stock and price before assuming availability at any given tier.

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Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.