The best Magic: The Gathering Commander decks May 2023

Our top Magic: The Gathering Commander decks for playing with friends, in casual leagues, and at your local game store.

The best Magic: The Gathering Commander decks May 2023
Published by Noah @ PC Game Spotlight a year ago


Best Magic: The Gathering Commander Decks

Looking for the best Magic: The Gathering Commander decks? Commander is the format of choice for many players, thanks to the high power level of the cards and the fun you can have with your friends. Building a deck around a strong commander is crucial, and we have a selection of the top commanders for you to choose from.

If you’re new to the format, you’ll find plenty of solid color combinations, with access to card draw, mana ramp, and some extremely aggressive creatures. We’ve picked some of the best commanders for each color combination, ensuring that you can’t go wrong with any of these commanders in your deck.

Temur

Averna, the Chaos Bloom is a solid Temur commander that synergises with the cascade mechanic, allowing you to land an early threat and then land more mana sources to keep the pressure on. It also synergises with Averna’s ability, allowing you to draw extra cards if you discard a land card. Averna also enables you to play additional lands from your hand, so you can keep the pressure on with additional threats.

Illuna, Apex of Wishes is a powerful creature, especially at six mana. The mutate ability is particularly strong in Commander, enabling you to cheat high-cost permanents into play. You can use Illuna to cheat an Eldrazi into play or simply cheat in a powerful Planeswalker. Surrak Dragonclaw is a commander that’s difficult to stop, as opponents are unable to counter him. Surrak grants trample to all your other creatures, which give you an extremely aggressive start.

Surrak also triggers on your opponent’s upkeep, so if you have cards like Genesis Chamber and Warstorm Surge, you can start creating tokens before your opponent can get a foothold. The Swarmlord is a powerful commander that can be difficult to stop and takes advantage of +1/+1 counters and death triggers. The more times you cast The Swarmlord, the stronger the card becomes, especially in games where you are pulling ahead.

Maelstrom Wanderer is a splashy commander that will win you games thanks to haste and cascade twice when entering the battlefield. The additional benefit of granting haste to all your creatures is that you can use that additional mana to cast cards like Stormtide Leviathan, which will keep your opponent’s board clear. Omnath, Locus of the Roil deals damage equal to the number of Elementals you control, which you can easily ramp into. Omnath also synergises with lands and mana ramp, allowing you to turn those excess lands into damage.

Haldan and Pako

Haldan and Pako are a powerful partner duo, allowing you to steal your opponents’ creatures and then play them immediately thanks to the mana ramp in your deck. Riku of Two Reflections has a wide range of uses, and with a deck full of instants, sorceries, and creature spells, you can copy the cards that matter most. Riku can also copy your opponents’ card draw, turning it into value for you by generating snake tokens.

Xyris, the Writhing Storm converts your opponents’ card draw into value by generating snake tokens. Rashmi and Ragavan provide card advantage by exiling cards from your opponents’ libraries and creating Treasure tokens. Magus Lucea Kane adds +1/+1 counters and has the ability to copy spells and abilities with X in their cost. Kalamax copies the first instant or sorcery cast each turn, but the best part is that Kalamax grows with +1/+1 counters. This means that, if you can generate additional mana with Rashmi and Ragavan, Kalamax will become a threat in its own right.

Miirym creates token copies of nonlegendary Dragons, which is a solid group to be a part of. Miirym has a very powerful ward 2, making it difficult for opponents to remove. Animar, Soul of Elements is a commander that’s extremely creature-focused, and it’s one of the best at growing in size thanks to the amount of creature spells you’ll be playing.

Animar also benefits from every counter you add to it, and if you can generate additional mana, you can use it to cast Genesis Chamber and Warstorm Surge, creating tokens and gaining even more counters. Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm is another Dragon commander that’s difficult to remove thanks to its ward 2 ability. You can create token copies of nonlegendary Dragons easily thanks to the amount of ramp in your deck.

Kalamax is a powerful commander that can copy the first instant or sorcery you cast each turn. Kalamax also has +1/+1 counters, which means that you can use your additional mana to keep the pressure on with additional threats. Riku of Two Reflections is a powerful commander that can copy instants, sorceries, and creature spells. The ability to copy instants, sorceries, and creatures spells is valuable in Commander, where you can get a lot of value out of copying powerful spells.

Xyris, the Writhing Storm converts your opponents’ card draw into value by generating snake tokens. Rashmi and Ragavan provide card advantage by exiling cards from your opponents’ libraries and creating Treasure tokens. Magus Lucea Kane adds +1/+1 counters and has the ability to copy spells and abilities with X in their cost. Kalamax copies the first instant or sorcery cast each turn and grows with +1/+1 counters. This means that, if you can generate additional mana with Rashmi and Ragavan, Kalamax will become a threat in its own right.

Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm creates token copies of nonlegendary Dragons and has ward 2 for protection. Animar, Soul of Elements is a commander that’s extremely creature-focused, and it’s one of the best at growing in size thanks to the amount of creature spells you’ll be playing.

Animar also benefits from every counter you add to it, and if you can generate additional mana, you can use it to cast Genesis Chamber and Warstorm Surge, creating tokens and gaining even more counters. Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm is another Dragon commander that’s difficult to remove thanks to its ward 2 ability.

You can create token copies of nonlegendary Dragons easily thanks to the amount of ramp in your deck. Haldan and Pako are a powerful partner duo, allowing you to steal your opponents’ creatures and then play them immediately thanks to the mana ramp in your deck. Riku of Two Reflections has a wide range of uses, and with a deck full of instants, sorceries, and creature spells, you can copy the cards that matter most. Riku can also copy your opponents’ card draw, turning it into value for you by generating snake tokens.

Xyris, the Writhing Storm converts your opponents’ card draw into value by generating snake tokens. Rashmi and Ragavan provide card advantage by exiling cards from your opponents’ libraries and creating Treasure tokens. Magus Lucea Kane adds +1/+1 counters and has the ability to copy spells and abilities with X in their cost. Kalamax copies the first instant or sorcery cast each turn and grows with +1/+1 counters. This means that, if you can generate additional mana with Rashmi and Ragavan, Kalamax will become a threat in its own right.

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