Top 15 Best Commanders in Magic! The Gathering
Magic! The Gathering has taken the world by storm becoming one of the biggest card games ever. The Game was released all the way back in 1993 and has seen many changes to the format.
On July 17, 2011 Wizards of the Coast released a new format Called commander which saw the deck size increased from 60 cards to 100 cards and 40 life instead of 20 allowing for bigger plays, more action, and endless customization.
The Commander was any legendary creature that stood by your field in the special commander zone. So with the options available, who do you use? Well, in this list I’ll discuss who I feel are the 15 best commanders to choose from.
15. Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait
While this card isn't necessarily game-breaking, being able to utilize his ability to play an extra land card every turn is invaluable for quickly overwhelming your opponents as soon as you can summon this card and as long as you can keep drawing the right mana or have enough mana search you can take advantage of this ability but later game this ability becomes increasingly more useless. The upside, however, is every time you play a land you can draw an additional card effectively giving you 3 draws every turn for no cost and no downside thus giving this card the number 15 spot.
14. Abomination of Llanowar
Abomination of Llanowar is a great choice for commander as his ability was a little lackluster in Standard Magic games but in commander format can become a massive snowball of destruction. While the ability isn't too monumental in early game, unlike the last entry, it becomes more effective as the game plays out. Green decks are usually jam packed with elf cards and black is a great color for banishing cards to your graveyard if you choose thus setting you up nicely to devastate opponents with this 3 mana card. While this card may not have topped tournaments, it definitely could be a solid choice for people looking to start a commander journey and can be utilized in a number of ways.
13. Marwyn, The Nurturer
This Legendary creature like the last entry plays well off of elf decks. Like the last entry this card becomes more powerful for every elf you play however unlike the last entry this card has an even better ability which allows you to tap this card to add massive bursts of mana to your pool allowing you to possibly bring out more elves enhancing this commander even more. Many players have found themselves in a place where they were unsure whether to use their mana to bring out more monsters, or affect the opponent’s board, or save their mana for defenses. Well, this card can come to save that choice allowing you to do all of the above. Not necessarily a game winner on her own, she can definitely be solely responsible for many power plays.
12. Obuun, Mul Daya Ancestor
This legendary creature also plays well with land cards with its landfall ability. This Commander gives you a land to do his battling for him. From your first turn you have the ability to have a 4/4 land creature to attack your opponent immediately, before they can even play their first land if you go first or seriously disrupt any defenses if you go second. With patience you can release a powerful monster late game, being green and white, could allow you to have him ready with trample and even lifelink that will work out well in your favor even if you don't pick up the win immediately.
11. Animar Soul of Elements
Here we have another late game monster. This card gains a +1/+1 for every creature you summon. While that in itself is a great effect it also reduces the nonspecific mana cost of creatures that you can cast making even some of the biggest cards in a deck cost next to nothing. This card also allows you to further the punishment with trample and haste that is prevalent in green cards and haste seen all throughout the red meta. Definitely not a Commander to scoff at especially while only costing 3 mana
10. Athreos God of Passage
This Card is good in standard games but in commander it becomes a true god. Allowing you to defend non-trample creatures with literally anything you have on the field and being able to recover your defender unless your opponent pays life is one of the best win-win situations that you can find yourself in. With the color scheme (sometimes referred to as a Chaos deck, for good reason) his ability will also work on any black cards that require you to sacrifice a monster you can get that creature back into your hand instead unless your opponent pays life. The possibilities and combos with this card are endless.
9. God-Eternal Kefnet
This is another card that becomes extremely powerful and godly in commander. One of the best ways to stop commanders is to exile said commander. With this card’s special ability, it makes exiling this creature impossible allowing it to always return to the commander zone. Its first ability however is extremely useful in commander, where you are only allowed 1 copy of each card, you can use this card to double every instant or sorcery giving you a massive advantage even without the reduced mana cost. A must have for any mill deck.
8. Heliod, God of the Sun
Heliod is another commander that has great abilities that you make it so that you don’t even have to summon this creature to take full advantage of what this card offers. Every monster you summon has vigilance and the ability to use this card to continuously summon creature tokens to fill out your army just adds to the power this card can bring to your deck. Add the prevalent first strike and lifelink abilities to this and you become a serious snow balling threat.
7. Karametra, God of Harvests
As a green white player myself Karametra God of harvest is a good card to have in standard MTG but in commander, he can be extremely broken. Allowing you to fetch any land that you need is very powerful in a dual color deck never again do you need to worry about drawing the right land for your hand when you can summon any number of single mana cost creatures and pull the other color out of your deck and when you can do this every turn it makes mana management a breeze. then when you have the cards to cast this creature you can buff it with life link trample and even possibly vigilance or double strike and have a true monster that is extremely hard to remove with his indestructible.
6. Mogis, God of Slaughter
This God can be devastating. There really isn't too much to say about this card’s power its self it does 2 damage or removes a monster every turn. The more players in the game the more devastating this card is. This card is a must have for any burn deck and being that this card is also a black means the possible combinations this card can utilize is endless.
5. Erebos, God of the Dead
This card is another one of those that was a good addition to a black deck in standard, however in a mono black Commander deck this card can be absolutely broken. If this card is combined with vampires the life cost to draw cards Is chump change. Meanwhile as you continue to gain life from all of your Lifelink cards, this commander stops your opponents from gaining life meaning managing their health becomes a lot trickier as every single point counts and when they're gone, they're gone. Definitely not a deck to take lightly and deserves its spot here.
4. Reaper King
In standard formats Rainbow decks are some of the hardest decks to pull off with so much mana to manage and so many different colors specific setups are required to be effective however in Commander, these decks truly shine. The versatility and unpredictability can be an uphill battle for any opponent. Reaper king's ability when paired with many scarecrow cards can keep many opponents struggling just to maintain their field. With the ability to destroy ANY permanent you can keep mana off their field, artifacts, monsters, the possibilities are endless.
3. Phenax, God of Deception
If you haven't had the misfortune of running into this card, count yourself lucky. This creature is the god of all mill decks costing only 5 mana to summon and being available as soon as you get the appropriate mana to do so can unleash devastation that would make even Jace jealous. If you pair this card with Consuming Aberration you can destroy decks faster than your opponent can say “what's that card do?” What makes this card even more broken is its dual color combination of blue and black with all the milling and countering you’ll be doing very few opponents will leave with their sanity intact.
2. Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
This creature at the time of writing this article is the number 1 most used commander in the format. I'm only giving this card the number 2 spot as I feel there is a better card to run, you can't argue with results. This creature allows you to place a –1/-1 counter on another creature at the cost of another creature sacrificed. If you do this you can draw a card and if you do you can pay 2 black mana to discard a card and give an additional –1/-1 token for every creature that has one. With cards like weaken and brain rot you can quickly destroy creatures just from minus counters alone. It appears that when it comes to aggro decks this card reigns supreme
1.Edgar Markov
This card, in My Opinion, can be one of the most broken cards in the commander its eminence ability allows this card to multiply your vampires with ease. Everytime you summon one you get another one instantly. If you play a waiting game long enough you can eventually summon this card to field and allow yourself to get +1/+1 counters on EVERY vampire card you control permanently. Add enchantments or auras that give your vampires vigilance and first strike if they don't already have it and your opponents will be facing an army of vampires that will skyrocket your hp faster and faster every turn that passes unless your opponent uses cards that can counter or banish your monsters. However, with this card also sharing a red color it allows you to curb those efforts with cards like wars toll which taps all of their mana even if they only use 1. Also, your army of buffed up vampires would be able to boost your life even more with war's toll as it can make the opponent attack with every creature they have. If they don't have trample and or vigilance then you essentially leave them without defenders on your next turn and can give yourself a nice life boost in the process.
This article is by no means an end all be all list this is just my opinion and interpretation of the cards I think are powerful commander cards to use. If you disagree with this list that is all fine, everyone has their own opinion of what is the strongest or their own favorites. What do you think is the strongest commander that you have ever used? If you enjoyed this list maybe you could check out these opinions on the subject.
