Strong, the Brutish Thespian

Bracket

• B1 Exhibition — allowed: No restriction at this bracket
• B2 Core — allowed: No restriction at this bracket
• B3 Upgraded — allowed: No restriction at this bracket
• B4 Optimized — allowed: No restriction beyond the banned list
• B5 cEDH — allowed: No restriction beyond the banned list

Why

• No Game Changer, mass land denial, extra turn, tutor or two-card combo

How Lotus Vault estimates a bracket

Bracket: Lotus Vault analysis, with Commander Spellbook flags

Combos

3 known combos.

• Strong, the Brutish Thespian + Agatha's Soul Cauldron + Walking Ballista
  Produces: Infinite +1/+1 counters on a creature, Infinite damage, Infinite self-mill on your next turn
  View on Commander Spellbook
• Strong, the Brutish Thespian + Agatha's Soul Cauldron + Triskelion
  Produces: Infinite +1/+1 counters on a creature, Infinite damage, Infinite self-mill on your next turn
  View on Commander Spellbook
• Strong, the Brutish Thespian + Agatha's Soul Cauldron + Deathbringer Thoctar
  Produces: Infinite +1/+1 counters on a creature, Infinite damage, Infinite self-mill on your next turn
  View on Commander Spellbook

Combos: Commander Spellbook

Rulings

• 2024-03-08 · Wizards of the Coast
  Any effects (such as proliferate) that interact with counters a player gets, has, or loses can interact with rad counters.
• 2024-03-08 · Wizards of the Coast
  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 · Wizards of the Coast
  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 · Wizards of the Coast
  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 · Wizards of the Coast
  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 · Wizards of the Coast
  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 · Wizards of the Coast
  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 · Wizards of the Coast
  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 · Wizards of the Coast
  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 · Wizards of the Coast
  Rad counters are a kind of counter that a player may have. They’re not associated with any specific permanents.
• 2024-03-08 · Wizards of the Coast
  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: Scryfall · Wizards of the Coast