Strong, the Brutish Thespian

Combos with Strong, the Brutish Thespian

The lines this card is part of, what it needs alongside it, and what the cards do together. An infinite result is the one that moves a deck's bracket.

• Agatha's Soul Cauldron Walking Ballista Infinite
  • Infinite +1/+1 counters on a creature
  • Infinite damage
  • Infinite self-mill on your next turn
  • Near-infinite lifegain on your next turn
  • Near-infinite lifegain triggers on your next turn
  See the steps on Commander Spellbook →

Combo data from Commander Spellbook, the community-maintained database of Magic combos. Mirrored nightly.

Rulings

11 official rulings, in the order Wizards published them.

• 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

  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

  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

  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

  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

  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

  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.”

• 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

  Rad counters are a kind of counter that a player may have. They’re not associated with any specific permanents.

• 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.

Rulings are Wizards of the Coast's own, mirrored from Scryfall and refreshed nightly.

In the 99

Every deck whose current list includes Strong, the Brutish Thespian, whatever its commander.