[Top 15] Best Commanders in MTG Arena

Updated:

02 Feb 2021

Brawl is a relatively new game mode in MTG where you get to play the same mechanics as EDH. There are a few changes, however, such as the number of cards allowed on your deck and the omission of Commander damage. In Brawl, you get to choose one commander out of all the Standard-legal Legendary Creatures and Planeswalkers and pair it with 59 other cards in your collection. Just like in EDH, you cannot have duplicates of cards that are non-basic lands, with the exception of cards like Persistent Petitioners.

With the emergence of this game mode, many people are playing Brawl in the Arena. Crafting a deck that has a lot of combos and win conditions is a challenging part of Brawl. However, with this list, you can pick which Commanders are great, allowing you to build around them.

15. Kenrith, the Returned King

If we’re being completely honest, Kenrith is only used as a Commander because Golos is no longer legal. The activated abilities of Kenrith aren’t that great at all and you will only rarely use them. Nevertheless, it is still a good commander that can be flexible if you want to play all five colors. Since we are ranking the commanders and not the decks, Kenrith takes the 15th spot.

What’s great about this commander?

Five-color commander identity
- With its activated abilities spanning all colors, you get access to all five colors of MTG.
- This allows you to play multiple decks with Kenrith as a Commander since you are not just locked into a specific type or style of gameplay since Kenrith is just there to give you access to all the colors you need.

14. Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose

Vito is a powerful card when paired with a bunch of lifegain. However, when you use it as a Commander, you won’t have that much access to the lifegain staples in white, which makes Vito weaker than it actually is. You can still play a decent amount of combos for this deck but having no access to white is a huge blow for decks like this.

What’s great about this commander?

Lifegain is a good mechanic especially when you are up against a lot of creatures that deal small amounts of damage in the early game.
- With Vito, you can turn this defensive tactic into a really strong offensive weapon as you deal damage to your opponent equal to the life you gain.
- Combined with lots of lifegain, Vito can definitely extract the life out of your enemies
You can play multiple removal spells to help you set-up your combos in the later parts of the game.
- Surviving the first couple of turns can be an easy task for a deck that has access to a lot of removals and lifegain so this won’t be much of a problem for you.

13. Heliod, Sun-Crowned

Sticking to the theme of lifegain, Heliod is a staple on mono-white lifegain decks as it incentivizes you by allowing you to pump your creatures every time you gain life. Plus, having an indestructible body is already a huge plus on your side of the board as it is not that susceptible to the massive amount of Commander tax that you would get in other Commanders that are not indestructible.

What’s great about this commander?

You get a huge incentive when you attack with your lifelink creatures
- Heliod can get your tiny Healers Hawk to a 3/3 flier in just a few turns, allowing you to pad your life total while dishing out an exponentially increasing amount of damage to your opponent
- Not only that, but Heliod can also give your creatures lifelink with its activated ability. You can see yourself giving your massive 10/10 Ajani’s Pridemate lifelink and it’s almost game over at that point.

12. Torbran, Thane of Red-Fell

Going opposite the direction of our first two Commanders, Torbran is a very good addition to all red decks whether you are focusing on the big creatures or you are just planning on dishing out Shocks to the opponent’s face. This is a very dangerous card since you can instantly deal lethal amounts of damage even if you just have a bunch of 1/1 creatures on the board.

What’s great about this commander?

You can literally deal ‘surprise damage’ to your opponents with Torbran’s ability
- Turn that Shock to a Lightning Bolt with Torbran since it allows you to deal an additional two damage if the damage came from a red source and since you are running a mono-red deck, all damage will have plus 2.
- It is also great at removing threats on the board, especially when paired with Soul-Scar Mage. With this pairing, you won't have to completely kill the opponent’s creatures since you can just make them smaller. It is also great against cards like Phyrexian Obliterator since their ability won’t proc when you deal non-combat damage to them with Soul-Scar Mage

11. Ayara, First of Locthwain

Another version of mono-black that is great in Brawl is devotion. You can set-up winning plays by placing your high devotion creatures on the battlefield and chipping away at the opponent’s life total until you are at a striking distance with Gray Merchant of Asphodel. Ayara is great in this type of gameplay since it gives out three devotion and it also helps in chipping away at the opponent’s life total with its ability.

What’s great about this commander?

Ayara can give you massive value especially since your deck will be creature-based
- By casting multiple cheap creatures during your turn, Ayara’s ability can proc multiple times resulting in a lot of damage to the opponent while padding your life total so you won’t have to worry about that.
- You can also gain card advantage with this card as it can sacrifice one of your black creatures in exchange for card draw

10. Ashiok, Nightmare Muse

Mill is currently a very powerful concept in Standard so carrying it over to Brawl is also a good idea. Ashiok is the best mill Commander that captures both colors of Rogues. It helps with the mill concept but we can say that Ashiok has her own thing going on as it directly exiles the cards that it mills with its Nightmare tokens. Nevertheless, it is still a good Commander if you want to focus on Mill-Control.

What’s great about this commander?

You get weapons on both Mill and Control with this as your commander
- With Blue and Black, you have access to a bunch of card advantages as well as removal spells, both of which are equally important in longer games.
- You also get a body with Ashiok’s +1 which can provide you with a pretty decent blocker against creature decks.

9. General Kudro of Drannith

Humans are plentiful in the current Standard metagame and with the proper tools, you can turn these Humans into monsters. General Kudro of Drannith helps pump your creatures so you can deal massive amounts of damage during each of your turns.

What’s great about this commander?

General Kudro makes your creatures stronger with its +1/+1 pump
- Since your creatures will mostly be comprised of Humans, this ability will always be relevant as it will help you deal extra damage to your opponent
It also helps counter some strategies with its ability to exile cards from the opponent’s graveyard
- With this ability, you can shut down cards like Uro, and other cards that employ the Escape mechanic

8. Alela, Artful Provocateur

If you want to play with a bunch of artifacts and enchantments, then Alela is probably one of your best bets as a Commander. At just 4-mana to cast, you get a bunch of value with this cards it generates creatures and pumps them as well. Even if Alela is the only thing you have on board, it is still a pretty decent creature with flying, deathtouch, and lifelink.

What’s great about this commander?

There are a bunch of cheap artifacts in Standard and having Alela as your commander will help maximize the value of these
- You will practically get double value when you play your artifacts since Alela will net you a 1/1 flying creature which it also pumps with its +1/+0 ability
- You can assemble a value engine with your artifacts while also assembling an army of Faerie creature tokens that can dominate the air

7. Narset of the Ancient Way

If you want to divert from the typical decks that utilize creatures in Brawl, Narset of the Ancient Way is a pretty decent option. With the Jeskai colors, you can extract a lot of value with your noncreature spells as they can deal damage, gain you life, or draw you cards.

What’s great about this commander?

Narset features a very great control deck archetype with its abilities
- Having Jeskai colors means you get access to a huge chunk of Standard control staples with the addition of cards like Inspired Ultimatum and Storm’s Wrath to deal with other problems you might encounter
- You can also play Whirlwind of Thought and extract a lot of card advantage since most of your spells are non-creature

6. Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig

Mono-green beatdown is a deck that you can never go wrong with in any format. This is particularly true in Brawl since the gameplay is much slower here than in Standard or Historic. You can assemble a giant army early on to deal huge amounts of damage to your opponent with the decent amount of ramp you have.

What’s great about this commander?

You get incentivized for playing huge creatures early on
- You have a lot of ramp in your deck and once you deployed Yorvo or even just a Pelt Collector, you can already see yourself dealing excessive amounts of damage to the opponent’s face
It is very easy to cast and is a great bang for your buck
- At only three mana, you can already cast Yorvo. With a mono-green deck, you can cast it as early as turn two, giving you a huge advantage on your board state already.

5. Radha, Heart of Keld

In an aggressive ramp deck, Radha is a very powerful weapon that you can cast in the early stages of the game. Your deck will focus primarily on ramp not only to bring huge creatures early but also to have lots of lands in play for when you activate the ability of Radha that gives her +X/+X where X is the number of lands you control. Radha as a commander gives you the perfect balance of ramp and beatdown

What’s great about this commander?

Very cheap to cast, but very valuable on board
- Casting Radha early can help you hit your land drops since you can cast land cards from the top of your library.
- This concept, specifically, already gives you a decent card and mana advantage
Radha’s ability is a good mana sink during the later stages of the game
- When you find yourself in the middle of a stalemate, you can just activate Radha’s ability to present a very scary attack against your opponent. This will often help break the stalemate

4. Illuna, Apex of Wishes

If you are into combo decks, then Illuna is a great Commander to use. It uses the concept of Mutate to exile cards off the top of your library and when the right time comes, you can simply cast a Thassa’s Oracle to instantly win the game.

What’s great about this commander?

You can utilize the mutate mechanic to cheat in extra value from your creatures
- Since you will only be running a few creature cards in this deck, it is just right that each mutate effect will net you large amounts of value
- Mutating Illuna alone can already help you bring in more creatures or at least thin your deck for when you cast a Thassa’s Oracle

3. Pylath, World Sculptor

Gruul aggro that uses Landfall mechanics to accelerate their advantage is a very powerful concept in any format. With Pylath, and other cards that have landfall, you can do a bunch of things like ramping or even dealing additional damage.

What’s great about this commander?

You are basically getting mana and card advantage since casting Pylath will also give you a bunch of 0/1 tokens
- Every time you cast Pylath, you will also have 0/1 tokens equal to the number of basic lands you control
- As you play more lands, these 0/1 tokens will get bigger allowing you to pressure your opponent’s life total

2. Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy

Any way to cheat in a huge spell is always a treat when you are playing Brawl. With Kinnan, you can get in those creatures very early with its activated ability as well as its ability to double the amount of mana your creatures give you. This is a very strong concept that will definitely win you a lot of games especially when you drop a monster from out of nowhere.

What’s great about this commander?

At only two-mana, you can already drop in this Commander, allowing you to accelerate your ramp
- Kinnan’s ability revolves around creatures that give out mana since it doubles the mana that they produce. This means that you can already activate Kinnan’s ability at a very early stage of the game giving you loads of advantage.

1. Korvold, Fae-Cursed King

Korvold is the go-to Commander if you are looking at making a sacrifice combo deck. As we have seen in the past, sacrifice is a very strong concept in both Historic and Standard. It also fits well into the slower pacing of Brawl which makes it our top pick for the best Commander.

What’s great about this commander?

Sacrifice is a very powerful mechanic
- With cards like the Priest of Forgotten Gods and Mayhem Devil, you can dish out a lot of damage and extract massive amounts of value in each of your turns
- Coupling this commander with cards that generate tokens, you will surely see a big dragon dishing out lethal damage fast

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