Skip to content
Commander Nexus
  1. Commander Nexus
  2. Commanders
  3. Zaffai, Thunder Conductor

Command zone

Zaffai, Thunder Conductor

Zaffai, Thunder Conductor

Legendary Creature — Human Shaman

Zaffai wants a deck that casts lots of instant and sorcery spells. It leads the ready-made Prismari Performance deck (2021).

  • Mana cost2 genericbluered
  • Blue, Red ()
  • Power / toughness1 / 4
  • RarityMythic

Magecraft — Whenever you cast or copy an instant or sorcery spell, scry 1. If that spell's mana value is 5 or greater, create a 4/4 blue and red Elemental creature token. If that spell's mana value is 10 or greater, Zaffai deals 10 damage to an opponent chosen at random.

Build a deck with Zaffai Find it in the app

Themes

Cards That Fit Zaffai, Thunder Conductor

Picked for what they do in Zaffai's deck. When two cards do the same job, the one with the lower comes first. All of them fit Zaffai's color identity.Mana ValueThe total amount of mana a card costs, all added up. A card costing two generic and one green has a mana value of three. Wizards renamed this from "converted mana cost" in 2021, so older cards and articles may still use the old name.Sol RingOpen the full glossary

plan6

The 6 Cards

plan6

The 6 Cards

plan6

The 6 Cards

Decks Led by Zaffai, Thunder Conductor

Zaffai leads a ready-made deck.PreconShort for preconstructed deck: a ready-to-play deck sold in a box by Wizards of the Coast. A Commander precon comes with its commander and all 100 cards, so you can play it straight away and change cards later.Open the full glossary

Rulings for Zaffai, Thunder Conductor

explain how Zaffai works in tricky situations. They come from Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic.RulingThe official answer to how a card works in a tricky situation. Most rulings are written by Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic, and a few are notes from Scryfall, the card database Magic players use. A ruling explains a card. It does not change what the card says.Open the full glossary

Wizards of the Coast 16 Apr 2021

"That spell's mana value" refers to the spell that caused the ability to trigger, not the card you look at when you scry.

Wizards of the Coast 16 Apr 2021

Each magecraft ability has a different effect, although they all have the same trigger condition, whenever you cast or copy an instant or sorcery spell.

Wizards of the Coast 16 Apr 2021

For example, if you control Archmage Emeritus and cast an instant or sorcery spell, Archmage Emeritus's magecraft ability will trigger and you will draw a card.

Wizards of the Coast 16 Apr 2021

If an effect creates a copy of an instant or sorcery spell, this will also cause the magecraft ability to trigger.

Wizards of the Coast 16 Apr 2021

If an effect creates multiple copies of an instant or sorcery spell, magecraft abilities trigger once for each copy created by the effect.

Wizards of the Coast 16 Apr 2021

If the instant or sorcery spell has {X} in its mana cost, X is the value chosen for X as the spell was cast.

Wizards of the Coast 16 Apr 2021

Some effects instruct you to copy an instant or sorcery card in a zone other than the stack. These copies do not cause magecraft abilities to trigger. However, most effects that do this also allow you to cast the copy, and casting the copy will cause magecraft abilities to trigger.

Wizards of the Coast 16 Apr 2021

The wrong card name was inadvertently included in Zaffai's printed rules text. The text above is correct and the full name of the card is Zaffai, Thunder Conductor.

8 rulings, all written by Wizards of the Coast. Read the originals on Gatherer ↗

Similar Commanders

Commanders that share the most with Zaffai, and what they share.

Color identityEvery color of mana symbol on a card, in its cost and in its rules text. Your commander's color identity sets the limit for your whole deck: every other card has to fit inside it. A deck led by a green and white commander cannot play a card with any blue in its color identity.Open the full glossaryURPlayers write colors as letters: U for blue, R for red. Blue is U because B was already taken by black.SpellslingerSpellslinger decks cast lots of instants and sorceries, one-time spells, and play creatures that reward every spell you cast. Instants and sorceries take effect once and then go to your graveyard, and an instant can even be cast during another player's turn.Open the Spellslinger pageSpellslinger PayoffRewards you specifically for casting or copying instants and sorceries, usually with a trigger each time. Narrower than Spellslinger, which covers the whole instant-and-sorcery family. Archmage Emeritus, Storm-Kiln ArtistOpen the Spellslinger Payoff pageSpellslingerRewards you for casting instants and sorceries, usually triggering each time you cast one. Storm-Kiln Artist, GuttersnipeOpen the Spellslinger pageCoin Flip / Die RollLeaves part of the outcome to chance: a coin flip, a die roll, or a choice made at random. A flip that can only hurt you, like the one on Mana Crypt, does not count, because no deck is built around it. Ancient Copper Dragon, Delina, Wild MageOpen the Coin Flip / Die Roll pageChaosChaos decks fill the game with random effects like coin flips, dice rolls and random swaps, so nobody's plan goes as expected. It is built for fun and big stories more than for winning quickly.Open the Chaos pageToken MakerCreates one or more tokens. Different cards make very different ones: creatures Grave Titan, Treasures Smothering Tithe, Clues Tireless Tracker or Food Gilded Goose. This is one of our largest tags, so pair it with an archetype or theme when you are hunting a specific kind.Open the Token Maker pageTokensToken decks fill the battlefield with small creatures made by their cards, then attack with all of them or make them all bigger at once. A token is a creature (or other object) that a card creates, not a card from your deck.Open the Tokens pageToken EngineMakes tokens again and again rather than once. A token is a creature or other permanent created by a card, with no card of its own. Something that makes one token gives you a body; something that makes them every turn gives you a board you can keep rebuilding after it is cleared. Grave Titan, Bitterblossom, OphiomancerOpen the Token Engine page