Featured in the Magic: The Gathering Abzan Armor preconstructed Commander deck, Betor, Ancestor’s Voice doesn’t perfectly align with that deck and is often one of the first cards to be removed. Fortunately, Betor shines as a strong Commander all on its own outside the preconstructed setup.
This Abzan (white/black/green) Commander leans into a mix of lifegain and life loss strategies. While Betor offers abilities for both gaining and losing life, triggering the lifegain benefits is much easier. Therefore, the focus of the deck leans more towards accumulating life.
Decklist
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Commander: Betor, Ancestor’s Voice |
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Avacyn’s Pilgrim |
Beledros Witherbloom |
Birds of Paradise |
Celestine, the Living Saint |
Chatterfang, Squirrel General |
Children of Korlis |
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Darkstar Augur |
Doom Whisperer |
Elves of Deep Shadow |
Enduring Tenacity |
Envoy of the Ancestors |
Essence Warden |
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Heliod, Sun-Crowned |
Kami of Whispered Hopes |
Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn |
Pitiless Plunderer |
Priest of Fell Rites |
Rhox Faithmender |
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Rodolf Duskbringer |
Sakura-Tribe Elder |
Sheoldred, Whispering One |
Soul’s Attendant |
Soul Warden |
Spike Feeder |
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Starscape Cleric |
Valgavoth, Terror Eater |
Vilis, Broker of Blood |
Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose |
Walking Ballista |
Warren Soultrader |
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Willowdusk, Essence Seer |
Buried Alive |
Eerie Ultimatum |
Farseek |
Nature’s Lore |
Rampant Growth |
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Reanimate |
Three Visits |
Toxic Deluge |
Will of the Abzan |
Anguished Unmaking |
Beast Within |
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Bitter Triumph |
Dismember |
Eladamri’s Call |
Generous Gift |
Path to Exile |
Swords to Plowshares |
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Aetherflux Reservoir |
Arcane Signet |
Fellwar Stone |
Sol Ring |
Staff of Completion |
Talisman of Hierarchy |
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Talisman of Resilience |
Talisman of Unity |
Whip of Erebos |
Bitterblossom |
Black Market Connections |
Cleric Class |
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Greed |
Hollowmurk Siege |
Phyrexian Arena |
Sanguine Bond |
Unspeakable Symbol |
Brushland |
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Canopy Vista |
Caves of Koilos |
Command Tower |
Deathcap Glade |
Exotic Orchard |
x5 Forest |
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Gavony Township |
Horizon Canopy |
Isolated Chapel |
Llanowar Wastes |
Overgrown Farmland |
x4 Plains |
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Sandsteppe Citadel |
Shattered Sanctum |
Sunpetal Grove |
x6 Swamp |
Tainted Field |
Tainted Wood |
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Twilight Mire |
Vault of the Archangel |
Woodland Cemetery |
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In total, the Betor, Ancestor’s Voice Commander deck comprises 31 creatures, 9 sorceries, 8 instants, 9 artifacts, 8 enchantments, and 34 lands. Many of the cards in this deck facilitate lifegain, while others help induce life loss, ensuring you can always activate both of Betor’s abilities.
Betor, Ancestor’s Voice
Betor is the central figure of the deck and the focal point around which its strategies revolve. It has the ability to place +1/+1 counters on creatures and bring them back from the graveyard, based on how much life you gain or lose.
This deck includes several infinite lifegain combos that are relatively simple to achieve, allowing you to place an infinite number of counters on a creature.
While reanimation is certainly valuable, the ability to add counters to creatures is far more impactful. The best recipient of these counters is Betor itself, as it has lifelink and can build on its lifegain potential. Additionally, this grants you a shot at winning through commander damage once Betor accumulates enough power.
Unspeakable Symbol
Unspeakable Symbol provides a straightforward way to reduce your life total, enabling you to reanimate anything with Betor, provided you have enough life to spare. Each time you lose life, it also enhances your creatures with +1/+1 counters. Notably, there are no restrictions on how often you can use Unspeakable Symbol as long as you can afford the life cost.
This card is particularly helpful if you aim to win through commander damage. It allows you to stack counters on Betor, potentially reaching the 18 counters needed to eliminate an opponent in one hit.
Chatterfang, Squirrel General
Although it may not seem like Chatterfang plays a crucial role in the overall strategy, the combos it facilitates make it an essential card. It’s essentially the best way to gain infinite life while clearing your opponents’ creatures from the board.
Chatterfang requires Pitiless Plunderer to unleash its infinite combo potential. These two creatures working together can provide infinite life and burn damage. Here’s how the combo works:
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Prerequisites: Have Chatterfang, Squirrel General, Pitiless Plunderer, and two other non-Chatterfang Squirrels on the battlefield, along with one black mana available. |
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Step 1: Activate Chatterfang using one black mana, sacrificing two Squirrels. |
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Step 2: This triggers Pitiless Plunderer, creating two Treasure tokens, while Chatterfang creates two more Squirrel tokens. |
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Step 3: Use one of the Treasure tokens to activate Chatterfang again. |
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Step 4: Repeat steps 1-4. |
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Results: This cycle generates infinite Treasure tokens and triggers that deal infinite toughness loss to all opposing creatures. |
Enduring Tenacity
Enduring Tenacity effectively transforms all your lifegain into damage. This makes it possible to explore a burn strategy alongside other avenues to victory. Given the amount of life you gain while using a Betor deck, Enduring Tenacity can deal substantial damage as the game progresses.
If a card is exiled, it doesn’t die, so Enduring Tenacity won’t return to the battlefield.
While there are other cards that offer similar effects, Enduring Tenacity is the sturdiest choice because when it dies, it re-enters the battlefield as an enchantment, meaning your foes must eliminate it twice to truly get rid of it.
How to Play the Deck
The Betor, Ancestor’s Voice Commander deck combines various strategies into a cohesive whole. It primarily focuses on a lifegain strategy, constantly accumulating life while dealing damage with permanents like Enduring Tenacity, Starscape Cleric, and Sanguine Bond. However, it can also pivot to a Voltron strategy (focusing on a single creature) when Betor has enough counters.
Lifegain is essential for this deck’s strategy. Cards that easily generate life should be prioritized on the battlefield, such as Soul Warden, Essence Warden, and Cleric Class.
It’s important to get permanents that draw cards at the cost of life into play as early as possible. This way, you can start losing life to set the stage for Betor’s resurrection abilities. Early game, aim to discard large creatures to manage hand size for reanimation later.
There are three primary win conditions with the Betor, Ancestor’s Voice Commander deck. First, you can achieve victory through commander damage—once Betor reaches 21 power, it can take out any opponent in a single attack since it has flying, making it easier to land hits. The second way is through direct burn damage—many cards deal damage based on your lifegain, and with substantial life gains, this can be quite potent. Lastly, you can win through combat by distributing +1/+1 counters to turn all your creatures into formidable threats.
The primary drawback of this deck is its speed; there are many components that need to be on the board to maximize effectiveness. Consequently, it can take time to set up, leaving you vulnerable in the early game. However, with the significant lifegain potential, any early life loss can often be recovered later.
