MTG Commander Format Magic: The Gathering
MTG Commander Format Magic: The Gathering

Hurkyl is seen much more often in the 99 of The Archimandrite, where she can provide some excellent card advantage on a relevant creature type (in addition to just being a very flavorful inclusion). An Aurelia, the Warleader Commander deck is all about setting up your battlefield full of creatures, and constantly taking extra combat steps to keep attacking all your opponents. It's all about putting pressure on your opponents and overpowering them before they have the creatures to protect themselves from the onslaught. The cards above are generic examples for each category, with a focus on being good budget options.

I like The Twelfth Doctor well enough that I built an entire Sliver deck around him, but if I'm honest, the really interesting tidbit here is his most popular Doctor's Companion, Vislor Turlough. Well, so far at least, there are only nine legal Companions (RIP, Lutri) and seven cards with Friends Forever. In other words, we'll get to them, but let's focus on what we do have at number ten for now. Companion is an infamous mechanic that attempted to bring the idea of a "commander" to other formats, and in doing so, broke every single one of them. Solve the case of the Murders at Karlov Manor with these brand-new Commander decks, releasing with the set on February 9, 2024. Four new Commander decks (and Collector's Edition Commander decks) will hit stores when Modern Horizons 3 releases June 14, 2024!

This is the first time in the history of the game that a sorcery can be cast from your command zone. The other type of mulligan is called Gabriel Special Surprise Mulligan, or GSS Mull. This style allows you to draw a first hand of 10 cards and then select three to shuffle back into your library. I’ve established that your commander's color identity determines what other 99 cards can go into your deck. This means that the cards’ color identities also need to be the same as your commander's.

Magic: The Gathering - Aurelia, The Warleader Commander Deck Guide

Again, you can check out your commander's page to look for common card velocity effects. These tend to be instants, sorceries, or enchantments, but not always. Each color combination and commander page on EDHREC has a handy "mana artifacts" section that can help get you started. I would try to include about eight to twelve cards that fall into the ramp category. Another way to use EDHREC to help you find your wincons is to go to your commander's page. It turns out, though, if you want the most popular partner pairing, it's not with the Partner mechanic, but rather the Partner With mechanic.

Ridiculous Riddles are Rampant

I wasn't very worried about not having any valid Commanders under my Companion rules since those guys slightly outnumber the Companions, so I decided to start with the Companions. If you're playing a game of Commander with three or more people, you play against each other in a free-for-all multiplayer format. They also have an additional advisory group that consists of people who work for Wizards or who are deeply involved in the format one way or another. This allows them to have a variety of opinions on what’s good for the format from people who are involved either as developers of the game or as players.

Keep in mind that the commander tax only applies when casting it from your command zone. So getting your commander back into your hand can help you recast it for its original cost without any penalties. The same goes if you can put it into your graveyard and recast it from there. The only other candidate that's close to your description and could have been valid is Sylvia Brightspear. In the case of partner, a deck actually has two commanders, and they both contribute to color identity.

This is an example of a commander that has a different color and color identity. Kenrith, the Returned King’s casting cost is and it has five abilities. Each of these abilities requires one mana of each of the five colors in the color pie. Decks that use Kenrith as the commander can have cards from any of the five mana colors.

Despite his uniqueness and enduring popularity, however, the only other Dakkon that has ever been printed is a planeswalker which, unfortunately, can’t be run as a commander. To finish out a game, you’ll likely be using some of the alternate win conditions we discussed earlier with Kwain. Laboratory Maniac and Triskaidekaphile can both help us win based on our card draw. We also have the Niv-Mizzet combo from earlier, too, allowing us to burn our opponents and draw an infinite number of cards. Finally, if you want to win purely through your generosity, try Alexios, Deimos of Kosmos! Your opponents will be thanking you profusely for your wonderful gift as Alexios grows larger and larger while you sit back and relax.

Partner

And you can simply play it again the next chance you get once it’s there. Since you can cast any side of a modal double-faced card (MDFC), you can cast Extus as Awaken the Blood Avatar and technically have a sorcery in your command zone. But even then, you can only do this by having a legendary creature as your commander. With various double-faced cards existing, you can “cheat” different cards into your command zone. The Magic Origins set lets you have creatures as your commander that turn into planeswalkers under certain circumstances. We got something even more original in Strixhaven with Extus, Oriq Overlord.

If Rabble Rousing gets removed, you will no longer be able to cast the spell exiled with its hideaway ability. As such, you want to be careful to not exile a key card or else you may permanently lose access to it . I'd start out with one or two tutors that can get your wincons, but if you start working your way up the power scale, having more will be necessary for keeping up with your pod. Using our Elf example from before, Fierce Empath is an effective way to find Craterhoof Behemoth.

Check out all the details and decklists here once they're previewed. Do you have any interesting house rules you think everyone should know about? Feel free to leave a comment and don't forget to check out our blog for more content like this, Draft may be in our name, but we love Commander too. Many of the basic rules of commander are already covered in that Commander article at the top, so let's get to the answers to your questions.

Can a Commander deck have two commanders?

Even without Pir in play, Toothy gets bigger every turn, and no matter how it leaves the battlefield, you're bound to mtg card draw an absurd amount of cards when it does. Partner debuted in Commander 2016, still the only four-color-focused set in the history of Magic, and that history colors the mechanic to this day. After doing a little work of my own, I ended up with 3 valid, interchangeable Companions - Keruga, Lutri, and your choice of Obosh or Kaheera.