   Betor, Ancestor's VoiceThe best way to gain life isn't Soul Sisters, or big lifegain spells, or combos. No, the best way to gain life is punching people right in the face. |
 Niko, Light of HopeSome decks run only a single copy of Sol Ring, but what kind of Commander deck is limited to one-copy-per-deck? My Niko deck makes everything into copies of it. |
 The Fourteenth Doctor // Dan LewisDan Lewis helms this almost-Equipmentless Equipment deck that wins by hitting you with a car. I don't mean driving into you with it, either; I mean he hits you with a car. |
Shorikai, Genesis Engine Reanimating creatures is so blasé. You've seen it a million times before! Why not try this Shorikai deck which reanimates artifacts and enchantments instead? |
Raffine, Scheming Seer One reanimator spell gets back your whole graveyard in this clone-filled cluster of a deck. Raffine fills your graveyard, so all you have to do is get the revival chain started. |
Zada, Hedron Grinder You can threaten enemy creatures to steal them, but I'm a much more meek individual. Simply threaten your own creatures to give them haste, reuse their tap abilities, and make tons of mana! |
The Necrobloom Landfall, landfall, landfall. Any deck can play lands; in fact, pretty much all of them do. This anti-Landfall deck cycles them away again and again. |
The Fugitive Doctor // Adric, Mathematical Genius Every set comes with a card that doubles triggered abilities, but those only work on permanents. What about triggered abilities from instants and sorceries? |
Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds You all know how enchantress decks play - cast an enchantress, cast an enchantment, clock out of work at five, go to the gym for an hour, and then watch TV at home until you go to sleep at 10:30. My enchantress deck skips all that and plays no enchantments whatsoever. |
Satoru, the Infiltrator This decklist has a total of seven different commanders you can run in it. If you're having a hard time deciding which decks to bring to game night, now you can just bring them all! |
Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo Having your creature attack and deal combat damage to one player? Boring. Having your creature block and deal combat damage to every player all at once? Now you're talking. |
Mazzy, Truesword Paladin Once upon a time, there was a keyword called Substance that did absolutely nothing. It died horribly and nobody remembers it. Nobody but me! This deck harnesses the power of the Substance un-keyword to back up an incredible Enchantress deck. |
Volo, Guide to Monsters Volo, Guide to Monsters usually has to play it safe to make sure none of the creatures in the deck share a creature type. I don't have that problem, since none of the creatures in this Volo deck have any types. That's because we're casting them all face-down! |
Sovereign Okinec Ahau It's said one is the loneliest number, but that doesn't mean it's the weakest. How far can you go in a commander deck with just one creature? |
Xavier Sal, Infested Captain Enemies off the starboard bow, captain! This deck sees Xavier Sal use the counters on battles as fuel to populate a deadly crew. |
Ellie and Alan, Paleontologists This deck's curve is insane, and it only runs about twenty or so lands. How do Ellie and Alan do it? Check out this landcycling deck and discover a powerful strategy lurking beneath. |
Stangg, Echo Warrior Stangg, Echo Warrior makes copies of everything attached to him and puts them on his twin every time he attacks. But wait: those Auras and Equipments can do something when they enter the battlefield, too. Let's make an army out of thin air! |
The Twelfth Doctor // Romana II There's cards printed that say "you lose the game" on them. What if we forced our opponents to play them against their will? |
Sedris, the Traitor King Unfortunately, unearthing creatures doesn't count as casting them, so Sedris can't get the cast triggers of something like an Eldrazi for cheap. That's not gonna stop me though: all you need is a little bit of cloning goodness. |
Sydri, Galvanic Genius Incubate makes double-faced tokens a reality. Sydri uses them to flip double-faced artifacts way before you were ever supposed to. |
Horde of Notions So many players want to win by taking infinite turns. Well, fine: my Horde of Notions deck gives your opponents all the turns they could ever want. |
Kess, Dissident Mage With Kess, you usually can only ever cast a spell twice: once from hand, and once from the graveyard. By relying on casting Buyback spells from the graveyard, that restriction is becomes mere suggestion. |
Myrkul, Lord of Bones Exile is supposed to be the untouchable zone where you can never get anything of yours back. This Myrkul deck begs to differ. |
Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist // Wernog, Rider's Chaplain Three commanders? With a Lurrus companion, it's more than just a pipe dream. |
Wilson, Refined Grizzly // Tavern Brawler Tavern Brawler pumps up your commander by the mana value of whatever card you exile with it. Did you know that split cards have a naturally high mana value, since it's the sum of both halves? |
Xantcha, Sleeper Agent Everyone gets their own Xantcha in this crazy deck that wins, somehow, by using an old Aura that punishes people for activating the abilities of artifacts. |
Extus, Oriq Overlord Extus turns every instant and sorcery you cast into creature recursion, but what if your creatures are instants and sorceries? Adventures, Bloodrush, and Extus's double strike make this a unique Voltron deck that doesn't rely at all on Auras or Equipment to win! |
Archelos, Lagoon Mystic Another insanely jank list! Use Archelos alongside Thawing Glaciers to gain tons of cleanup steps, rejuvinating your creatures multiple times a turn, and take out everyone with Pestilence effects! |
Tocasia, Dig Site Mentor Tocasia's ability grants all your creatures the power to surveil, but that's only half of it. It also lets all your creatures tap whenever they want, which makes for quite a good Inspired-themed deck. |
Elesh Norn |
Omnath, Locus of All You've heard of mono-black devotion, but there's four other colors out there to play with. By using big hybrid mana cards and a sprinkling of color hacking spells, this Omnath list shows its devotion to every color. |
God-Eternal Kefnet Tired of the fact that your instants and sorceries are one-and-done? By using Library of Leng and a bunch of looters, God-Eternal Kefnet can cast the same spell over and over and over again! |
Ashnod, the Uncaring Some strategies are synonymous with a certain color, and sometimes it's fun to break the mold. With a bevy of artifacts that search for lands and put them onto the battlefield, Ashnod can head up a particularly strong Landfall deck without needing green at all. |
Volrath, the Shapestealer Volrath, the Shapestealer can turn himself into a copy of other creatures on the battlefield. My deck wins by turning Volrath into a copy of himself. |
Mairsil, the Pretender Mairsil is known for going infinite by taking the activated abilities of creatures and artifacts. My list works by instead turning Mairsil into the ultimate combination Planeswalker. |
Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker // Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper This completely unplayable jankfest suggested by a fan uses Exchange of Words to mutate creatures onto themselves. Can you keep up with all the text-changing effects? |
Preston, the Vanisher Preston duplicates any creature that enters the battlefield without being cast. Hey, did you know lands aren't cast? |
Agrus Kos, Eternal Soldier Tired of having to buy a shiny new Equipment for every single one of your creatures? This classic deck teaches your army the value of sharing, as it attaches your Equipment to all your creatures. |
Muldrotha, the Gravetide If you don't like being goofy, ignoring the negative people, or taking a little bit of chance, this deck's not for you. The rest of you? We've got stickers to put on all our stuff. |
Ellyn Harbreeze, Busybody // Passionate Archaeologist Casting spells from exile is nothing new for Boros, but this Background demands we cast expensive spells from the zone to dome our opponents for huge chunks of life. My affinity for artifacts list does just that by paying pennies on the dollar for all of its cards. |
Dynaheir, Invoker Adept Dynaheir can copy activated abilities that cost more than four — and we've got three great candidates: Embalm, Eternalize, and Encore. Activate her multiple times in a single turn and upgrade making three tokens into thirty! |
Vhal, Candlekeep Researcher // Raised by Giants This $10 Voltron deck featuring Vhal and Raised by Giants can easily make heaps of mana, smash enemies to pieces, and find an actual, legitimate home for Prismite. |
Cadric, Soul Kindler For just one mana, Cadric can duplicate any legendary permanent that hits the battlefield. What if we did this with planeswalkers? |
Zevlor, Elturel Exile This one's the splice onto Arcane deck. Copy spells that Zevlor was never meant to copy by splicing additional targets onto them! |
Jon Irenicus, Shattered One It's almost as if Jon was from Thunder Junction, because my Jon Irenicus deck can almost always force a draw. |
Ognis, the Dragon's Lash Talk about climate change: when building my Ognis deck, I realized that almost every land animation spell happens to give them all haste, too! Swing out with all your property and cash in! |
Perrie, the Pulverizer Time for a challenge: How many different counters can we get on Perrie if we're never allowed to repeat a single type? |
Halana, Kessig Ranger // Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder En-Kor! This Partner deck redirects damage from Halena to all of your Enrage creatures point-by-point whenever anything enters the battlefield under your control! |
 Karn, Silver GolemThis charge counter-themed deck uses the Ozolith to put way more charge counters on artifacts than Urza intended. Time to make forty snakes a turn! |
Sliver Overlord Slivers used to be symmetrical, but since it's unlikely your opponents will have any in play in a typical game, that generally doesn't matter. Unless you abuse certain Changeling spells to suddenly turn enemy chip damage into alpha strikes. |
Grusilda, Monster Masher April Fools, everyone! This Uncommander does the monster mash and combines multiple creatures together into one, big, terrifying one! |
Sefris of the Hidden Ways Sefris likes to sacrifice and cycle creatures to venture into the dungeon, but unfortunately, that can only happen once per turn. This list gets around that by abusing the legend rule to venture multiple times a turn instead. Could this be the only Commander deck that can actually use Grandeur? |
Alesha, Who Smiles at Death Alehsa heads up my bizarro-goad deck, which uses strange, old cards to kill creatures that don't attack. "Goad" a creature into attacking, tap it down so it can't, and watch it explode from the contradiction! |
Kadena, Slinking Sorcerer Another complete jankfest. This Kadena deck goes beyond playing morphs and uses a combination of cards to suspend permanents from the battlefield! |
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed I'm told Ruric Thar exists so that everyone can play fair magic. It's too bad that you can give him lifelink and completely nullify his downsides then. |
Demonlord Belzenlok Ever wanted to flex on an opponent? This Belzenlok list draws your entire deck just to put it right back. |
Feather, the Redeemed Some creatures wanna be blocked, but sometimes your opponents aren't willing to play along. My Feather deck wins by blocking your own creatures — and I don't mean forcing your opponents to block, either. |
Codie, Vociferous Codex Codie says you can't cast permanent spells with them on the battlefield, but their activated ability has no such restriction. Make mana with them, blink them off the field, and then cast a Bringer for cheap to cascade into gigantic spells! |
Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer This is the most complicated deck you'll ever see, bar none: my infamous Brudiclad list uses the incredible jank of Licids to equip Auras, fortify nonlands, and Bestow in reverse! |
Svella, Ice Shaper Make lots of artifact tokens with Svella, and go for broke by turning them all into huge amounts of life! |
Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed It's a complete scam: Xiahou Dun uses quick-reanimation effects like Feign Death to sacrifice himself over and over for value! |
Kethis, the Hidden Hand Karma's a beach, as this Kethis deck can attest to. Punish your opponents for ramping by dealing them more damage the more lands they have! |
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary With Momir, any creature that's both green and blue can find you Painter's Servant! Flummox your opponents with tons of color-hacking trickery! |
Felisa, Fang of Silverquill Felisa is too high-brow to sacrifice common fodder in her aristocrats deck. Behold Superaristofriends: the deck archetype that sacrifices nothin' but Gideon, Gideon, and more Gideon! |
Vadrok, Apex of Thunder This is another can't-miss list. Dash creatures return to your hand at the end of the turn if you cast them for their dash cost, so mutating Vadrok onto them means you'll always be able to cast him without incuring any Commander tax. Run him out over and over to cast as many spells as you want from the graveyard! |
Yasova Dragonclaw Yasova steals creatures from your opponents, but instead of just sacrificing them, why not Polymorph them into something terrifying? |
Zaxara, the Exemplary One of my landmark techs, this Zaxara, the Exemplary deck wins by casting X spells for 0. Use aristocrats staples alongside some clever tech like Shirei and Mortuary to take your enemies down! |
Mila, Crafty Companion It's a $10 reanimator deck! Temporarily reanimate your creatures using Lukka's ability, and then blink your reanimated creature to keep it around forever! |
Zagras, Thief of Heartbeats Zagras grants your entire board deathtouch. Could that pair well with a set of vampire-like creatures who get extra benefits when they kill creatures, and could you turn that power inward for some extra-janky combos? |
Tayam, Luminous Enigma Usually, Tayam works by removing counters from your own creatures to get extra value out of the graveyard. This version removes counters from your animated Sagas instead! |
Gerrard Capashen White's well-known for symmetrical draw effects, where you can draw cards as long as you give your opponents some, too. But full hands are the devil's plaything, at least when you get Gerrard Capashen involved to take advantage of your overencumbered opponents! |
Orvar, the All-Form Creatures so nice you'd play them twice: that's Orvar's usual MO. But what if I told you Orvar's most fun target is the upkeep step itself? |
Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh // Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix Why settle for one when you can have two? This pair of partners runs as many cards as possible that care about casting and keeping your commanders around! |
Ghen, Arcanum Weaver Ghen's no stranger to enchantments, but this particular list has a special twist. Use damage-preventing enchantments to nullify any pain you'd otherwise deal to yourself, and even transform the deadly Pestilence into a lifegain engine! |
Zur the Enchanter Now you see me, now you don't — this phasing-themed deck puts an ethereal twist on your typical Zur the Enchanter stax list! |
Arni Brokenbrow Go on a hot streak and swing for twenty one as Arni Brokenbrow copies your creatures' firebreathing abilities! |
Araumi of the Dead Tide Something's a little off with the Araumi list — is she all there is, or is a hidden commander buried beneath a deadly disguise? |
Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis Distract your opponents with this Sliver-filed Kynaois and Tiro list, and gain incredible value whenever an enemy targets one of your permanents! |
Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper My Commander's Herald debut article! This version of Noyan Dar uses clone effects to duplicate land creatures, lending itself to a rather unique Landfall build! |
Sol'kanar the Swamp King Sol'kanar the Swamp King makes almost every spell you cast gain you life, meaning you'll get some real mileage out of cards like Lich's Mastery! |
Roon of the Hidden Realm The Eldrazi are coming! This deck uses Eldrazi Processors to ferry enemy creatures from exile straight to the grave, turning Roon of the Hidden Realm into a deadly force on the board! |
Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator // Breeches, Brazen Plunderer My famous $10 Storm deck! Use inexpensive spells that change creature types to transform your poor, innocent minions into fearsome pirates, and then combo off with Malcolm and Breeches! |
Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist // Silas Renn, Seeker Adept Ardenn usually attaches Auras and Equipment to your own creatures, but did you know he can target your enemy creatures, too? Force your opponents to play a Voltron strategy they never signed up for! |
Mannichi, the Fevered Dream Use Mannichi to swap the power and toughness of each creature you control, making you a formidable threat when attacking and a resolute wall on defense! |
Vhati il-Dal Vhati il-Dal's ability sets an enemy's toughness to one, meaning even one -1/-1 counter is enough to take down the mightiest threats. Use your infect creatures to keep the board clean and take out your opponents! |
Razia, Boros Archangel Punch your own creatures in the face to spite your enemies! This deck specializes in creatures that damage your opponents whenever they're hurt, meaning all your powerful removal spells pull double duty as ammo against your rivals! |
Hua Tuo, Honored Physician Aristocrats strategies are usually the purview of white and black, but Hua Tuo, Honored Physician proves that green can do it too! Recur tons of small creatures that sacrifice themselves only to get them back again and again! |
Ramses Overdark Ramses Overdark can destroy any enchanted creature with the flick of his wrist! Enchant enemy creatures with Auras that benefit you when they die, and clear the board of any potential threats. |
Gabriel Angelfire The deck that started it all! The more creatures that block Gabriel, the stronger he becomes. Use your arsenal of Auras, Equipment, and one-shot Lure effects to punch your enemies for lethal right through all their blockers! |