Say you’ve opened a few neat legendary cards over your career as a Magic: The Gathering player, but can’t build Commander decks for all of them. The next best thing you can do is just jam them all into the same deck.
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Even then, you need to pick a single creature to lead your Legendary-Matters deck, and that’s where we come in. We scoured all the possible commanders you can run to get the most out of your other legendary creatures, with some being so powerful that you’ll become the archenemy of the game.
10
Shanid, Sleepers’ Scourge
Legendary Cantrips
While Shanid, Sleepers’ Scourge has less power than many other legendary-matters commanders, that doesn’t mean that the Human Knight isn’t a fun design space to build around. Building a deck around a weaker commander might seem counterintuitive to winning, but it does let you look somewhat unassuming compared to other players.
This red, white, and black commander gives all your other legendary creatures menace, as well as letting you draw a card when you play a legendary land and cast a legendary spell, though it costs you one life every time you do. Being in Mardu colors gives you plenty of ways to gain that life back, so it’s not too bad.
9
Kethis, The Hidden Hand
Discounts Abound
Here’s the thing about Kethis: he’s a true legendary-matters commander, giving you a discount on all legendary spells, from creatures to artifacts, and even the few legendary sorceries in the game. Many legendary cards have higher costs to compensate for their stronger abilities, so Kethis giving you a flat one generic mana less cost for them helps get you in the game faster.
The main reason why you’ll be running Kethis as your commander is that with his ability, you can keep bringing back your legendary cards turn after turn, so long as you have a healthy graveyard. It does come at the cost of exiling two cards from your graveyard.
8
Saskia The Unyielding
Dish Out Bonus Damage
Versatility is the name of the game with Saskia the Unyielding. With access to every color but blue, Saskia opens the door to tons of combos and design choices to give your deck a unique feel. She’s a popular commander since you can just dump all your favorite cards into her while making use of her ability.
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As Saskia comes into play, you get to pick a player. If one of your creatures deals combat damage to another player, the one you pick gets dealt that much damage too. This effectively turns all your combat stages into two-for-ones and lets you spread the damage out a bit. You can capitalize on a few tricky spells to blink Saskia as well, letting you switch where the damage is going at the last minute on an unprepared opponent.
7
Sisay, Weatherlight Captain
A Toolbox Commander
Having a commander that comes with a ton of utility is crucial in plenty of games, and there are few legendary creatures better than Sisay, Weatherlight Captain. For five mana, one of each color, you can go digging through your deck for a legendary permanent card with a mana value less than Sisay’s power.
So long as you can pump Sisy up high enough, there’s nothing you can’t get, no matter the situation. Naturally, Sisay can get up to a 7/7 thanks to her ability, and with a pump spell or two, there’s no stopping you.
6
Ratadrabik Of Urborg
Won’t Stay Dead
A Zombie-kindred deck on the surface, Ratadrabik of Urborg is really an intense legendary-matters deck with a baked-in resilience to practically all forms of removal your opponents throw your way.
Anytime a legendary creature you control dies, you get to bring it back as a 2/2 Zombie token copy of that creature, and it loses its legendary status. The original creature isn’t exiled or anything either, so you can always reanimate that creature back in play, giving you two copies of that creature.
5
Ezio Auditore da Firenze
Requiescat In Pace
You might look at Ezio Auditore de Firenze and see the five color ability that forces a player to lose the game as the main win-con, but it’s a distraction from the truly powerful ability. Ezio’s special freerunning ability lets you cheat in an Assassin card so long as you have dealt combat damage to a player.
The deck can go two different ways, either a pure Assassin kindred deck or one that utilizes cards to give the Assassin creature type to other powerful creatures. Sure, you will likely get a win or two off with the instant-lose ability, but getting a six or seven drop legendary creature out on turn two or three is much more reliable.
4
Esika, God Of The Tree // The Prismatic Bridge
Free Spells Every Turn
Almost anytime you build an Esika, God of the Tree and The Prismatic Bridge you will find yourself moving towards a legendary matters deck by sheer nature of the power of these cards. Really, the only side you’ll be using is The Prismatic Bridge for obvious reasons.
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Being able to get a free creature or planeswalker at the start of your turn is going to advance your board presence far beyond what your opponents can keep up with. The real challenge of the deck is keeping The Prismatic Bridge around long enough for it to trigger, since it’ll become the focus of everyone you’re playing with to take it out.
3
Dihada, Binder Of Wills
An Ancient Foe
A somewhat rare planeswalker commander, Dihada, Binder of Wills has abilities that enhance all your legendary creatures, fitting for a character that was hellbent on collecting powerful heroes.
Dihada has two main abilities that make your legendary deck stronger. Her first gives one of your legendary creatures vigilance, lifelink, and indestructible until your next turn, acting as the ultimate protector. Then you can remove three loyalty counters from Dihada to take a peek at the top four cards of your deck, snagging all the legendary cards you find and adding them to your hand, and making Treasure tokens equal to the number of cards you get.
2
Aragorn, The Uniter
Heir Of Isildur Returns
Playing four colors opens up a wider range of options to you, and playing Aragorn, the Uniter, you are setting yourself up for an extremely rewarding scenario. Having Aragorn at the head of your legendary matters deck is a brilliant pick, seeing as he is the leader of the Free Peoples of Middle-earth.
You can build him in a Lord of the Rings themed deck, focusing on the heroes of Middle-earth, or in a pure good stuff build, with all the best cards you can find until you out-value your opponents with your cards.
1
Jodah, The Unifier
The Ultimate Cascade
An instant threat in practically every game he comes down in, Jodah, the Unifier is the ultimate legendary-matters commander since it enhances every other legendary creature you play and rewards your legendary spells with more legendary cards.
Casting a legendary spell from your hand lets you exile cards from the top of your deck until you find another legendary nonland card that costs less than your initial spell. You get to cast that spell for free, which is incredible given the power of legendary creatures available to you in Commander.
- Franchise
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Magic: The Gathering
- Original Release Date
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August 5, 1993
- Player Count
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2+
- Age Recommendation
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13+
- Length per Game
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Variable
