Quick Links
Lara Croft, Tomb Raider was released as a part ofMagic: The Gathering’s Universes Beyond series of products. Lara Croft was released as a part of a Secret Lair, and although nearly all the cards in the Tomb Raider Secret Lair were reskins of existing cards, Lara Croft, Tomb Raider was mechanically unique.
Lara Croft, Tomb Raider is a Temur (green/blue/red) commander that’s meant to be built around legendary artifacts and lands, being able to re-use them from the graveyard by exiling them with discovery counters. As such, much of the deck primarily consists of legendary spells and ways to discount the spells cast from Lara Croft’s ability.
Grimoire of the Dead
x5 Forest
x3 Island
x5 Mountain
The Shire
Yavimaya Coast
This sample decklist consists of 23 creatures, nine sorceries, seven instants, 23 artifacts, three enchantments, and 34 lands. The creature side of the deck focuses on synergizing with Lara Croft, Tomb Raider and the artifacts help keep her protected and a threat in combat so you can attack with her without worry.
Key Cards
Lara Croft, Tomb Raider
The commander of the deck,Lara Croft, Tomb Raiderhas a low casting cost to let her hit the battlefield very early. Her effect interacts with the graveyard,giving you the ability to cast cards from exilethat you put a discovery counter on.
Notably, a discovery counter causes the card to go back to the graveyard if it’s removed. This allows you to keep recycling legendary artifacts and lands so long as you have the means to exile them.
Lara Croft requires you to attack in order to use her effect, but with a 3/4 base statline, she has great stats for a three-drop. She’ssupported by the various Equipment cardsincluded in the deck, so you can attack with her without having to worry about Lara Croft dying in combat.
Lara Croft, Tomb Raider’sraid effect just requires you to attackthat turn. Itdoes not require you to attack with Lara Croft herself, meaning if she’s not well-protected, another creature can attack tostill get a Treasure tokenafter your combat for the turn finishes.
Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius
The cards you exile with Lara Croft, Tomb Raider still have to be cast with their proper mana cost. This can be costly normally, but this is whereDoc Aurlock, Grizzled Geniuscomes into play. While you aren’t plotting cards, youare casting cards from exile.
The two-mana discount has the potential to make a spell free if it only has a two-mana casting cost since Doc Aurlockwill discount the entire cost. When mixed with the Treasure token generation that Lara Croft provides, it becomescheaper to cast spells from exilethan it would be to cast from your hand.
The Reaver Cleaver
While Lara Croft, Tomb Raider is the main attraction for the deck,you still want Equipmentto improve upon that.The Reaver Cleaveris one of the best. The stat-boost is fairly minor, but giving the equipped creature trample can be very threatening with other stat-boosting permanents.
The Reaver Cleaver’s most notable effect is theability to generate Treasure tokensequal to how much damage was dealt. Since Lara Croft still requires you to pay for mana, these extra Treasure tokens are useful for not wasting any turns waiting to get more mana and can help you play cards directly from your hand to better improve your board state.
Strong Back
Since the deck has a lot of Equipment,Strong Backis an Aurathat will not only give the enchanted creature (in most cases Lara Croft, Tomb Raider) a massive stat boost but also make it much easier to attach Equipment to it.
A downside of Auras is that once they’re removed, they’re very difficult to get back. Since Strong Back is not a legendary artifact or land,once it’s gone it’s near impossible to bring backoutside of a few cards. Despite this, its strength makes it worth making room for.
Displaced Dinosaurs
Youwill be making a lot of Treasure tokensin a Lara Croft deck, andDisplaced Dinosaurscan turn those into 7/7 Dinosaurs while still being able to be used for their original intention. It also makes any legendary creature you cast into a 7/7, including Lara Croft if you’re casting her later in the game.
One downside to Displaced Dinosaurs' effect is that it makes all your artifacts susceptible to board wipes as they’re turned into creatures. However, non-tokens have the potential to be re-cast with Lara Croft later in the game.
Displaced Dinosaurs alsoturns your Equipment into 7/7 creatures. With how easy it is to cast all of your historic spells (something both artifacts and legendary creatures are considered to be), making them into 7/7s can very quickly get out of hand to swing out to take your opponents out of the game.
How To Play The Deck
A Lara Croft, Tomb Raider deck focuses on Lara Croft herself. She hassolid keyword abilities in first strikeand reach, making her both a solid attacker and blocker. A good bit of the deck plays a plethora of stat-boosting Equipment to make Lara Croft even stronger to the point no one will want to block her (if they even can in the first place).
You do want access to a lot of mana and casting discounts. Since almost a quarter of the deck consists of artifacts, cards likeEnthusiastic Mechanaut,Etherium Sculptor,andJhoira’s Familiarall make your artifacts cast one mana less (and in Jhoira’s Familiar’s case, discounts your legendary creature spells as well).
Lara Croft can cast cards from exile but also generates a lot of Treasure tokens. As such, cards likeXornandJolene, the Plunder Queenhelp to make even more Treasure tokens so mana is something you never have to worry about while playing the deck.
Lara Croftplays more like a Voltron deck(a deck where you are putting a lot of focus on one creature, stacking Equipment and Aura onto it). With the many Equipment spells, stacking up Lara’s stats is easy, and makes it trivial to take opponents out throughcommander damage - your primary win condition.
There are a handful of cards in the deck thatdraw and discard cards. Since Lara Croft lets you use cards in the graveyard later by exiling them, you won’t care about what’s getting discarded. It’s better to get the non-legendary cards into your hand while putting legendary ones in the graveyard since it’ll act more like a second hand in Lara Croft’s case.
Lara Croft requires you tosee who is the most threatening to swing atto deal large outbursts of commander damage before their board gets too out of hand. Since she requires you to go more “all in” on her, it can leave the rest of your battlefield on the weaker side. However, with all the Equipment she can have, Lara Croft can be given such high stats that she can take someone out of the game in just one attack.
