Zhao, the Moon Slayer

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Zhao is a 2cmc 2/2 menace stax commander that enters nonbasic lands tapped — a meaningful tax on nonbasic-heavy decks. His {7} activated ability upgrades to a full land-hosing lock, converting all nonbasic lands into Mountains, which devastates multicolor and combo opponents. The 7-mana activation is very slow and telegraphed, but the base ETB-tapped effect on nonbasics is already impactful at bracket 2-3. Signature home is mono-red stax-prison; actively conflicts with ramp-big-mana and combo shells that depend on nonbasic utility lands.

• Zhao's base static ability (nonbasics enter tapped) applies at ALL times — even before the conqueror counter is placed — making him a meaningful stax piece from turn 2 without ever activating the {7} ability.

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• The conqueror-counter activated ability costs {7} with no tap symbol, so it can be activated at instant speed and even multiple times in a turn if you have the mana, though the effect is not cumulative since one counter is sufficient.

  tagging · claude-sonnet-4-6

• When Zhao converts nonbasic lands to Mountains, those lands lose all other abilities including mana abilities — opponents' command towers, shocklands, and utility lands become vanilla Mountains, completely shutting down multicolor strategies but also leaving you reliant on basics for your own non-red mana needs.

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• EDHREC rank: #10,656