Find out how to use Betor, Ancestor’s Voice to its fullest with our in-depth guide!
Tarkir: Dragonstorm has some incredible new Commanders to mess around with, but from among all of them, few are quite as interesting as Betor, Ancestor’s Voice. This version of Betor is the backup Commander from the Abzan Armor Commander Precon, and it does a fantastic job of representing the Abzan clan and the abilities the clan has to offer.
However, we don’t think it fits in the Commander Precon, so we’ll build a completely new deck to fit these abilities better. We’re also going to talk about the lore of this mighty spirit dragon, along with the strengths and weaknesses of the card itself and what kind of deck you’ll want to play Betor in.
Lore Intro
Betor, Ancestor’s Voice
Commander: Tarkir: Dragonstorm, Mythic
Betor is one of the five spirit dragons summoned after the Phyrexian invasion, where these dragons helped to retaliate against the draconic lords of old and have now settled within various clans on Tarkir. Betor found a home in the Abzan clan alongside Felothar; and is working to create a thriving Abzan clan in a post-Omenpath world. Regardless, the Abzan are still known for their resiliency and honoring their ancestors.
Strengths
Market Price: $13.18
Betor, Ancestor’s Voice does an incredible amount for the mana value. This five-mana white, black, and green 3/5 with flying and lifelink that reads, “At the beginning of your end step, put a number of +1/+1 counters on up to one other target creature you control equal to the amount of life you gained this turn. Return up to one target creature card with mana value less than or equal to the amount of life you lost this turn from your graveyard to the battlefield.”
Basically, you want to gain and lose a lot of life, but you also want to put cards into the graveyard, but you also want to make the most of +1/+1 counters. The core here is the lifegain, but we’ll also want ways to make the most of the creature recursion and the counters. It’s a lot of moving parts, but Betor is worth it.
Weaknesses
Market Price: $21.26
Market Price: $34.77
As for weaknesses, Betor has no built-in protection (such as hexproof, ward, etc). It’s not an uncommon affliction, and five toughness does push you out of the danger zone in terms of burn spells, but it’s worth noting the other notable weakness is how much you need to track and the game actions you need to take when playing the deck. While Betor, Ancestor’s Voice is incredibly cool, it’s mechanically dense, which may make it a little bit harder for newer players to wrap their heads around. As a result, this also causes some stress on the deckbuilding process.
Recommended Archetypes
Our primary focus with Betor, Ancestor’s Voice will be playing around with our life total. However, we’re also going to want to use a lot of creatures to make the most of the ability to bring them back from the graveyard and some passive +1/+1 counter support for good measure. This means we’ll be rocking two subthemes, and while the graveyard and counter shenanigans will happen in any Commander strategy, we do want to try and tie it all together with Betor.
Key Cards
If you did want to create your very own Betor, Ancestor’s Voice deck, but you’re just looking for a bit of direction, then we’re going to go ahead and recommend these as some of the best cards:
- Children of Korlis
- Doom Whisperer
- Heliod, Sun-Crowned
- Celestine, the Living Saint
- Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn
- The Ozolith
Strategy
Market Price: $12.15
Market Price: $13.55
Our primary strategy here is to gain (and lose) life every turn. In essence, Betor counts the total life gained and total life lost. So, if you start at twenty, gain ten, and lose ten — it’ll see both the gain and the loss. It’s not about the life total you start and end a turn with, you see? This means that massive changes aren’t as notable as just changing your life total a lot. We also want to make these life point swings on our turn, meaning we need some good ways to pay life for spells or abilities.
With all that in mind, Children of Korlis might be the best card in this deck outside Betor, and it only costs one mana. This white 1/1 allows you to sacrifice it to gain life equal to the life you’ve lost this turn. Because this is one mana, we can pretty much return the card to the battlefield at the beginning of the end step, meaning this is highly repeatable.
We’ll put a few ways to pay life into the deck, but one of the most exciting is easily Doom Whisperer. This five-mana black 6/6 with flying and trample can hold its own in a fight, but more importantly, it allows you to pay two life to Surveil 2. This means you can look at the top two cards of your library, and even put one in the graveyard if you want. It’s perfect for what we’re looking to do here. We’ve then got some excellent payoffs for gaining life, too. Heliod, Sun-Crowned is a three-mana enchantment creature with indestructible, and it allows you to put a +1/+1 counter on a creature or enchantment whenever you gain life. Also, you pay mana to give another creature lifelink, which can be ideal in a pinch and works wonderfully with Walking Ballista.
Commander
Betor Ancestor Voice
Market Price:$697.36
Maindeck, 99 cards
Sortsort deckCommander (1)
- 1Betor, Ancestor’s Voice
Creature (37)
- 1Children of Korlis
- 1Doom Whisperer
- 1Heliod, Sun-Crowned
- 1Celestine, the Living Saint
- 1Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn
- 1The Speed Demon
- 1Beledros Witherbloom
- 1Dark Confidant
- 1Spore Frog
- 1Sakura-Tribe Elder
- 1Eternal Witness
- 1Darkstar Augur
- 1Rhox Faithmender
- 1Vilis, Broker of Blood
- 1Archangel of Thune
- 1Walking Ballista
- 1Haywire Mite
- 1Karlov of the Ghost Council
- 1K’rrik, Son of Yawgmoth
- 1Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar
- 1Selfless Spirit
- 1Essence Channeler
- 1Tivash, Gloom Summoner
- 1Vona, Butcher of Magan
- 1Blossoming Bogbeast
- 1Tymna the Weaver
- 1Keen Duelist
- 1Dragonlord Dromoka
- 1Astarion, the Decadent
- 1Soul Warden
- 1Twilight Prophet
- 1Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
- 1Birds of Paradise
- 1Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
- 1Esper Sentinel
- 1Sorin of House Markov
- 1World Shaper
Sorcery (7)
- 1Toxic Deluge
- 1Buried Alive
- 1Three Visits
- 1Cultivate
- 1Eerie Ultimatum
- 1Exsanguinate
- 1Farewell$
Instant (6)
- 1Heroic Intervention
- 1Anguished Unmaking
- 1Entomb
- 1Mortality Spear
- 1Heliod’s Intervention
- 1Inscription of Abundance
Artifact (9)
- 1The Ozolith
- 1Bolas’s Citadel
- 1Sol Ring
- 1Arcane Signet
- 1Chromatic Lantern
- 1Whispersilk Cloak
- 1Swiftfoot Boots
- 1Aetherflux Reservoir
- 1Well of Lost Dreams
Enchantment (3)
- 1Ripples of Undeath
- 1Black Market Connections
- 1Font of Agonies
Land (37)
- 1Vault of the Archangel
- 1Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
- 1Cabal Coffers
- 1Reliquary Tower
- 1Bojuka Bog
- 1War Room
- 1Gavony Township
- 1High Market
- 1The Black Gate
- 1Command Tower
- 1Caves of Koilos
- 1Llanowar Wastes
- 1Brushland
- 1Overgrown Tomb
- 1Godless Shrine
- 1Temple Garden
- 1Windswept Heath
- 1Verdant Catacombs
- 1Marsh Flats
- 1Indatha Triome
- 1Sandsteppe Citadel
- 1Mana Confluence
- 1City of Brass
- 1Horizon Canopy
- 1Silent Clearing
- 1Nurturing Peatland
- 1Horizon of Progress
- 1Path of Ancestry
- 3Forest
- 3Swamp
- 3Plains
Celestine, the Living Saint is a five-mana white 3/4 with flying and lifelink that enables you to return a creature from your graveyard back into play as long as its mana value is equal to or less than the life you gain that turn. Essentially, it’s the inverse of the last part of Betor’s ability. Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn is a four-mana 2/2 with lifelink that lets you put a +1/+1 counter on any number of creatures equal to the amount of life you gained in that turn, which is going to be fantastic with the amount of life gain within the strategy.
Finally, there’s the The Ozolith. The card accrues any counters on creatures you control when they die, and then at the beginning of combat during your turn, you can put those counters onto another creature. This is an excellent bit of insurance for all of the +1/+1 counters we’ll be making, and you can throw these onto Betor if you want to attack for some Commander damage. You can then keep messing around with your life total as much as you want, build up some strong creatures on the battlefield, and have an absurd amount of resilience as you keep bringing them back from the dead. How very Abzan this all feels.
Now that you’re ready to do a little bit of everything — all of the time, you should check out our other Commander Bestiary articles, too. If you’re looking for more Commander inspiration, you can sign up for the Commander Bestiary newsletter to receive more engaging content to your inbox!