Masters sets tend to craft some of the most amped Limited environments a Magic: The Gathering set can produce. There's demand on these sets to reprint powerful, staple cards for various formats, which in turn means including cards above the average expected power threshold of normal Limited sets. It follows that the combos and card interactions are equally strong when they come together in a draft.
Commander Masters is one of the most juiced Limited environments ever created, with a long list of rarity downshifts and an emphasis on high-power multiplayer gameplay contributing to a collection of above-rate quality cards. The potential combos scale to the power level of the set, creating opportunities to pull off some formidable 2- or 3-card game-warping plays.
10 Shipwreck Dowser Creates Recursive Loops
Shipwreck Dowser lends itself to some soft-lock situations alongside several instants and sorceries, most notably reanimation spells like Wake the Dead or Victimize. These can return Dowser from the graveyard to the battlefield, who can then pick the spell right back up.
If you sacrifice Shipwreck Dowser to the Victimise, you can't then choose it as a reanimation target. You'll need other ways to get Dowser into your graveyard to keep this loop going.
Mass bounce spells like Evacuation and Aether Gale also enable Dowser loops that keep your opponents off balance as well, resetting the board and leaving Dowser available to rebuy the bounce spell you just used. Eternal Witness creates similar lines, with recursive spells like Verdant Confluence filling in for black reanimation or blue bounce spells.
9 Alms Collector Leaves Your Opponents Empty Handed
The body and effect on Alms Collector are already a fine rate without any combos, and the potential to respond to a draw effect can catch players off guard. Commander Masters comes custom-equipped with a few ways to proactively unlock Collector's true potential.
With Collector on board, Day's Undoing and Magus of the Wheel leave your opponents with only one card each while you draw a full seven cards plus one extra for each opponent who wheeled. The table will be appropriately angry at you, but they'll have significantly fewer resources to retaliate with.
8 Grave Pact Turns Sac Fodder Into Board Wipes
If you're lucky enough to open Grave Pact, fill your deck with sacrifice outlets and recursive or expendable creatures. The Eldrazi Spawn tokens created by creatures like Kozilek's Predator and Dread Drone cover both bases at once, making them premium pick-ups.
Reassembling Skeleton is secretly one of the key cards to make Grave Pact tick. It's the easiest creature to keep recurring from the graveyard, which, when paired with a sac outlet, can make it difficult for opponents to keep creatures in play. Yahenni, Undying Partisan and Ashnod's Altar are top-tier sac outlets to make this combo whir.
7 Zada Has Combat Tricks Aplenty
Zada, Hedron Grinder wants as many allies in play as possible, using cards like Loyal Apprentice and Dragon Fodder to get multiple creatures from a single card. Once you have bodies, step two is finding the right combat trick to pull it all together.
Fist of Flames is one of the most potent options. Each copy that resolves cantrips and pumps its target at an increasing rate. You can also choose Zada as the only target of an entwined Unbounded Potential to put a +1/+1 counter on every creature you control, proliferating each time a copy resolves.
6 Mikaeus Makes Wake The Dead Permanent
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Wake the Dead are individually powerful cards that should be on your draft radar already. Combine the two together to build your own permanent mass reanimation spell.
The critical text here is the sacrifice clause on Wake the Dead, which is supposed to ensure the reanimation effect is only temporary. However, add Mikaeus's undying ability into the mix and all the non-Human creatures you brought back will return a second time with +1/+1 counters. The combo's even easier to pull off if Mikaeus is already in your graveyard when you cast Wake.
5 Heartless Hidetsugu Can One-Shot Players
It's no secret that Heartless Hidetsugu can insta-kill players with a damage doubler in play, and Command Masters has a few tools to make that happen. The most prominent is Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, which doubles Hidetsugu's damage while halving the damage you take, so you don't have to worry about whether your life total's odd or even.
Sower of Discord essentially makes Hidetsugu hit two players two times each. This will almost always result in at least one KO, even though you will take a large chunk of damage in the process.
4 Selvala And Omnath Make Near-Exponential Mana
Selvala, Heart of the Wilds and Omnath, Locus of Mana are both well-known for their mana-producing capabilities. It stands to reason then that the two cards are quite good in tandem with one another.
Omnath is actually the ultimate enabler for and beneficiary of Selvala's mana ability. Selvala produces large amounts of green mana, which Omnath can "store up" to become bigger, which in turn makes Selvala's next activation produce even more green mana. Rinse and repeat ad nauseam. Either smash with a giant Omnath or find a place to sink all of your stored up mana into.
3 Yedora Tends Some Tricky Graves
Yedora, Grave Gardener has a unique ability that turns your creatures into Forests when they die. Turning fallen creatures into extra mana is nice, but the real trick is digging up those Forests and turning them back into creatures.
That's where Ghostly Flicker comes in. It's a double-blink spell that can target lands, which can pick up Yedora's Forests and return them to the battlefield on their front-facing side. Of course, you may be content leaving those lands alone for creatures like Crash of Rhino Beetles and Rampaging Brontodon.
2 Star of Extinction Domes Someone For 20
Commander Masters has an assortment of red sweeper effects, but Star of Extinction is the one that ensures the board stays clear (bonus points if it kills any dinosaurs). It's expensive but effective, and has an uncommon partner floating around the set.
Fiendlash usually needs some sort of synergistic support piece to justify its equip cost. How about a 20-point life-swing for support? If Fiendlash is equipped to something when Star of Extinction resolves, you can hurl 20 damage at any of your opponents even if the equipped creature dies.
1 Doubling Season Combos With Just About Everything
There are enough token-generators and +1/+1 counter effects in the format that you'll have synergy with Doubling Season without even trying. There's even a few planeswalkers that can ultimate right away with the enchantment already on board.
It even unlocks the potential for an infinite combo if the pieces fall in your lap. Slimefoot, the Stowaway and Ashnod's Altar can drain out all of your opponents simultaneously with Doubling Season in play, which is facilitated by the support pieces both being uncommons, and the fact that you can always have access to Slimefoot if you make it your commander.