As the name suggests, Commander Masters is a set-sized celebration of Magic: The Gathering's most popular format. Featuring an eye-watering 400 cards, many of which are storied staples on the Commander table, the setlist reads like the longest greatest hits album in history.
Naturally, many of these cards are viable commanders, and some even rank among the most popular and powerful options available in the format. After combing through their respected ranks, and giving each of the legends within a fair hearing, we’ve put together an elite team: the ten best commanders from the best Commander product in Magic’s history.
10 Experiment Kraj
If you enjoy building monsters as much as you enjoy building decks, then Experiment Kraj is the Ooze for you. Though it begins as a humble 4/6 for six mana, Kraj can quickly become an unstoppable powerhouse after just a few turns in play. This is due to Kraj’s passive ability, which causes it to inherit the activated abilities of every other creature with a +1/+1 counter on it.
In Commander, many creatures come with +1/+1 counters anyway, but Kraj can also place his own counters to grab particularly juicy abilities from anywhere on the board. Throw in a few untap effects and some +1/+1 counter synergies, and Kraj can become a slimy Swiss Army knife that will get you out of any sticky situation.
9 Nekusar, The Mindrazer
Nekusar giveth, and Nekusar taketh away. Specifically, he giveth each player a bonus draw each turn, and taketh away one life each time an opponent draws a card. One life seems like a small price to pay for such consistent card advantage, particularly when it’s multiplied out across a Commander pod, but it makes much more sense when you stop playing fair.
If you stack your deck with Howling Mine effects, Wheel effects and the like, Nekusar can quickly deal huge chunks of damage to all of your opponents simultaneously, paving the way for a quick finish. He also punishes decks that like to draw a lot of cards themselves, which covers the majority of decks in the format, making him effective in a wide range of gameplay scenarios.
8 Melek, Izzet Paragon
A six mana 2/4 may turn your stomach at first glance, but Melek’s true beauty is more than gelatinous skin deep. Not only does he function as a Future Sight, letting you look at the top card of your library any time, but he also lets you play said card if it happens to be an instant or sorcery, then copy it if you do.
This helps out Izzet spellslinger decks in a few key ways, providing them with information, ‘card draw’, and extra value in one fell swoop. Whether you’re copying cantrips to cycle through your deck, or doubling down on your biggest bomb spells, Melek feels great to play, as long as you can look past his surface-level stats.
7 Meren Of Clan Nel Toth
Consistently one of the highest-rated graveyard-matters commanders in the format, Meren is the clear standout among the experience counter Commanders printed in Commander 2015 and 2020. With an extremely easy experience gain trigger, she can rack up counters with ease, then leverage them to reanimate huge threats at the end of every turn.
Since experience counters are placed on players, rather than permanents in play, the progress you make with Meren sticks around, meaning she’s a solid choice in a fair deck. She really starts to shine when you throw in some sacrifice outlets and self-mill, however, letting you drown the rest of the table in wave after wave of grave-based value every single turn.
6 Urza, Lord High Artificer
It’s rare for a legendary creature to work well in both eternal formats and as a commander, but Urza is an exception to this rule. Magic’s most iconic hero (or villain, depending on your outlook) brings his trademark non-literal affinity for artifacts to the Commander table, turning every artifact you control into a blue mana rock, and giving you a powerful outlet in which to sink said mana if you need one.
With just a few artifacts in play, Urza can cheat out bombs from the top of your deck every turn. He also works well as a straightforward ramp piece, powering out huge Eldrazi or sea monsters from your hand with the blue mana he generates. Once you’ve played a few games with this powerhouse, you’ll understand why his reputation in the game looms as large as it does.
5 Karador, Ghost Chieftain
Commander tax is an irritating, if necessary, mechanic, which makes commanders that let you subvert this additional cost attractive options indeed. Karador is one such commander, starting off with a fairly sizable eight-mana cost, but quickly coming down to three once you’ve piled up a few bodies in the graveyard.
This reduction applies to Karador’s commander tax too, meaning he’ll be consistently cheap to recast throughout the game, provided you can keep the corpse train chugging along nicely. While he’s in play, he turns your graveyard into a second hand, letting you play key ‘silver bullet’ cards multiple times to deal with problem scenarios. Karador is a self-sufficient engine unto himself, and that makes him a stellar option in Commander.
4 Razaketh, The Foulblooded
Tutor effects are a staple part of the Commander format for a reason: they help to mitigate the inherent inconsistency of a singleton 100-card deck by giving you what you need, when you need it. Razaketh offers a Tutor effect of his own, one that you can use ad infinitum provided you have the creatures and life to sate his malicious hunger.
In Aristocrats-style decks, this effectively gives you access to your entire deck on tap, and at instant speed to boot. Razaketh himself is expensive at eight mana, but his 8/8 flying/trample body goes a long way towards making up for that, ensuring that if the card advantage he provides doesn’t win the game, his huge commander damage swings will.
3 Shirei, Shizo’s Caretaker
Shirei may look like the kind of overcosted, underpowered legendary creature that the original Kamigawa block was well-known for, but it’s actually a one-card enabler for a Stax-esque attrition deck that will have your table dreading the end step of each turn. By pairing its resurrection ability with a horde of low-power creatures with dies effects and a sacrifice outlet, you can do everything from gaining life to making everyone sacrifice a creature every single turn.
The fact that this ability works on every turn, not just your own, is the key here, since most good sacrifice outlets are instant-speed. As long as you can keep its frail 2/2 body alive, Shirei can take care of the game almost single-handedly.
2 The Ur-Dragon
Probably the best typal commander ever printed, The Ur-Dragon doesn’t even need to hit the board to have a huge impact on the game. Just by sitting in the command zone, he discounts all of your Dragons by one mana, effectively serving as a free, multi-use mana rock for the type.
In addition, whenever he, or any of his draconic subjects, attacks, you get to draw some cards and cheat out any permanent you wish, be it an Emrakul or an Omniscience. This effect is powerful enough to justify his color-intensive nine mana cost, and pairs up nicely with the raw advantage of the eminence effect to deliver a hugely impactful package.
1 Teysa Karlov
Any card that doubles an aspect of Magic is worth evaluating thoroughly, such is the exponential power of doing so in many cases, and Teysa Karlov is no exception. Her ability doubles not just your own creatures’ death triggers, but also other abilities that trigger based on creatures dying, such as Bastion of Remembrance.
This is powerful enough on its own, but Teysa also provides some nice benefits to your creature tokens as well, which you can easily work into a sacrifice-based deck if you want to take advantage. Even if you don’t, however, Teysa’s first ability is more than enough to land her a spot in this star-studded lineup.