Magic: The Gathering Abzan Commanders
Looking for the best Magic: The Gathering Abzan commanders? The Abzan Houses have some of the most versatile options for deck construction, with three-color combinations providing some of the best opportunities for different strategies.
Commander decks can be built around a specific theme or strategy, such as graveyard-based creatures, or counters. The best Abzan commanders work with these themes, offering options for powerful synergies. Graveyard-based strategies work well with high-toughness creatures, while counters can provide additional value by returning creatures from the graveyard.
The best Abzan commanders are:
Nikara, Lair Scavenger and Yannik, Scavenging Sentinel
Nikara and Yannik are perfect for an Abzan counters deck. Nikara can be a little slow to get going, but once you get a few counters on her, Yannik can bring back any creatures you’ve previously countered, helping to keep the value train going.
Colfenor, the Last Yew
Colfenor is a great graveyard-based commander that works particularly well with high-toughness creatures. If you’re looking to build a deck with an emphasis on life gain, you’ll want to consider adding cards like Soulmender, which can return a creature every time you gain a life.
Anafenza, the Foremost
Anafenza is a good disruption commander for graveyard strategies, and her ability to generate +1/+1 counters helps push damage through to your opponents. If you’re looking to build a deck around this Abzan leader, cards like Strata Scythe can double up as both removal and a way to generate those all-important +1/+1 counters.
Kathril, Aspect Warper
Kathril is a great choice for decks looking to synergise with ability counters and graveyard synergies for some powerful effects. Take a look at cards like Teya, the Hopeful and High Market, which allow you to put a land into your hand and draw a card when an ability counter is added to your pool.
Doran, the Siege Tower
Doran is an excellent option for any deck looking to get the most out of high-toughness creatures. Doran makes your creatures deal damage based on their toughness, giving you the option to push through more damage with larger creatures.
Kethis, the Hidden Hand
Kethis offers a little bit of everything, as she reduces the cost of legendary spells, and allows you to cast them from the graveyard. If you’re looking to play a deck with a few legendary cards, Kethis can help you dig through your deck, while also giving you the option of playing them from the graveyard if they’re no longer useful in your hand.
Karador, Ghost Chieftain
Karador is another graveyard-based commander, but this time you get to cast Karador for less mana. When Karador returns to the battlefield, you get to play as many creatures from your graveyard as you have the mana for, which can be great for getting multiple threats down, or resurrecting a key creature.
Ghave, Guru of Spores
Ghave is an excellent addition to any counters deck, as you get a creature who excels at adding counters and generating tokens. This flexibility is key in adapting to different situations – if your opponent has a single big creature across the board, you can build up counters on Ghave, then use them to remove the threat. Alternatively, you can use the counters to generate a bunch of Food tokens, and use Ghave as a finisher.
Nethroi, Apex of Death
Nethroi is another great graveyard-based commander, and this one can be particularly devastating, as you can return multiple creatures from the graveyard at once. Returning an opponent’s powerful legendary creature to their hand can be a huge hit, but Nethroi can single-handedly win you games by returning your own fatties.
Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa
Ixhel is another commander that can provide a different win condition through poison counters, while also allowing you to play your opponents’ spells. If you’re playing Ixhel, you’ll want to add plenty of card draw, as you can replay your opponents’ spells if you have the mana, and this provides an alternative to playing your own cards.
Sam and Frodo
Sam and Frodo is a powerful Food token-based commander duo, and this deck is designed to draw extra cards with Soulmender and O-Yoroi Armor, while gaining additional life with each life gain effect in the deck.
Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant
Bilbo is a great commander for a life gain deck, and the more cards you put into your graveyard, the more life Bilbo generates. As such, we’ve added plenty of card draw and life gain effects, while also including some disruption options in the form of Thought Hemorrhage and Strata Scythe.
And that’s our pick of the best Magic: The Gathering Abzan commanders. If you want to play a commander from another house, we have a full list of the best commanders by color.
