
Strong, the Brutish Thespian
Legendary Creature — Mutant Berserker
Ward
Enrage — Whenever Strong is dealt damage, you get three rad counters and put three +1/+1 counters on Strong.
You gain life rather than lose life from radiation.
"Strong learn secret to human power from Mack Beth."
7 / 7
Commander bracket
Derived from card traits, not a ruling — bracket rules turn on how a deck intends to use a card. Bracket rules
EDHREC
Combos 3
Commander recommendations
Top synergy 50
Played far more in this commander's decks than elsewhere.
- Tato Farmer
- Mariposa Military Base
- Harold and Bob, First Numens
- Prizefight
- Bushwhack
- Titanic Brawl
- Brawn
- Tail Swipe
- Ulvenwald Tracker
- Ancient Animus
- Hedge Shredder
- Smell Fear
- Inscription of Abundance
- Glowing One
- Mutant's Prey
- Bighorner Rancher
- Prey Upon
- Aftermath Analyst
- Caltrops
- Power Fist
- Genesis
- Gaea's Blessing
- Khalni Ambush
- Khalni Ambush
- Six
- Branching Evolution
- Ramunap Excavator
- Lily Bowen, Raging Grandma
- Bridgeworks Battle
- Bridgeworks Battle
- Cartouche of Strength
- Timeless Witness
- Ent's Fury
- Longstalk Brawl
- Blessed Respite
- Eternal Witness
- Arena
- Desert
- Hardened Scales
- Primal Might
- Rampaging Yao Guai
- World Shaper
- Pounce
- Conduit of Worlds
- Evolution Sage
- Rancor
- Swiftfoot Boots
- Unnatural Restoration
- The Mending of Dominaria
- Elixir of Immortality
Most included 50
Highest share of decks running them, distinctive or not.
- Forest
- Tato Farmer
- Mariposa Military Base
- Bushwhack
- Prizefight
- Harold and Bob, First Numens
- Sol Ring
- Cultivate
- Brawn
- Titanic Brawl
- Ulvenwald Tracker
- Tail Swipe
- Smell Fear
- Inscription of Abundance
- Ancient Animus
- Hedge Shredder
- Swiftfoot Boots
- Glowing One
- Eternal Witness
- Rogue's Passage
- Rampant Growth
- Emerald Medallion
- Llanowar Elves
- Beast Within
- Mutant's Prey
- Bighorner Rancher
- Branching Evolution
- Bridgeworks Battle
- Bridgeworks Battle
- Aftermath Analyst
- Khalni Ambush
- Khalni Ambush
- Kodama's Reach
- Return of the Wildspeaker
- Prey Upon
- Ramunap Excavator
- Six
- Elvish Mystic
- Power Fist
- Hardened Scales
- Caltrops
- Genesis
- Rishkar's Expertise
- Heroic Intervention
- Gaea's Blessing
- Evolution Sage
- The Earth Crystal
- Timeless Witness
- Garruk's Uprising
- Myriad Landscape
Format legality
Rulings
- 2024-03-08
Any effects (such as proliferate) that interact with counters a player gets, has, or loses can interact with rad counters.
- 2024-03-08
If a player has fewer cards remaining in their library than the number of rad counters they have when the triggered ability resolves, they’ll mill as many cards as they can.
- 2024-03-08
If lethal damage is dealt to Strong, its enrage ability triggers. Strong leaves the battlefield before that ability resolves, so you won’t put three +1/+1 counters on it. In this or any other case where Strong is no longer on the battlefield when its enrage ability resolves, you’ll still get three rad counters.
- 2024-03-08
If multiple sources deal damage to Strong at the same time, most likely because multiple creatures blocked it, its enrage ability will trigger only once.
- 2024-03-08
In a game using the shared team turns option, such as an Archenemy or Two-Headed Giant game, the inherent triggered ability associated with rad counters triggers once for each player on the active team that has rad counters. Each instance of that ability is controlled by one of those players.
- 2024-03-08
Keep track of how many rad counters each player has. Potential ways to track this include writing them down on paper or using dice, but any method that is clear and mutually agreeable is fine.
- 2024-03-08
Rad counters are a kind of counter that a player may have. They’re not associated with any specific permanents.
- 2024-03-08
Rad counters don’t go away as steps, phases, or turns end. They only go away when an effect instructs a player to remove rad counters from themselves.
- 2024-03-08
Strong’s last ability changes what happens when the inherent triggered ability associated with having rad counters resolves. You’ll still mill cards equal to the number of rad counters you have, and you’ll still remove a rad counter from yourself for each nonland card you milled, but instead of losing life, you’ll gain 1 life for each nonland card you milled.
- 2024-03-08
The cards are milled all at once, which means abilities that trigger “whenever one or more nonland cards are milled” will trigger exactly once as long as at least one nonland card was milled.
- 2024-03-08
There is an inherent triggered ability associated with having rad counters. This triggered ability has no source and is controlled by the active player. The full text of this ability is “At the beginning of the precombat main phase of a player with rad counters, that player mills cards equal to the number of rad counters they have. For each nonland card milled this way, that player loses 1 life and removes one rad counter from themselves.”