Buying and building a new Magic: The Gathering deck is a difficult choice, there are so many options out there, especially when new cards are added to the game frequently. Publisher Wizards of the Coast have made this decision somewhat easier by creating pre-built Commander deck boxes for those looking to play the popular Commander format. The Commander format brings new life to Magic and the fundamental rules are: 100 card decks, each card must be unique (excluding lands), and the decks are built around their “Commander” or “General”, learn more about the Commander format in this article.
There are many Commander decks out there to choose from and deciding the best Commander decks is a difficult task. Lucky for you, we have done the hard work for you.Below you will find the 10 Best Magic: The Gathering Commander decks that we could find, ranked, and ordered based on their pros and cons, and which commanders will lead you to the most victories! Most of the decks featured here will be suitable for both experienced and new players, but some have more complex mechanics to understand before playing with them.
Magic doesn’t usually use rogue-like mechanics, but this Sneak Attack deck provides a much-needed element of mischief. The aim of this deck is to swarm your opponents with an army of rogues, who are ‘hidden’ and totally unblockable! Whilst also ‘stealing’ your opponent’s cards by milling their deck and forcing them to put cards into the graveyard. Stopping them from using their best cards, or getting off any combos. This deck allows you to buff your creatures, mostly rogues, by milling your opponent.
The commander card for Sneak Attack is Anowon, the Ruin Thief whose two abilities are at the core of this deck. The first ability lets you buff all other rogues your control by giving them +1/+1, one extra attack, and one extra defense, with pretty much every creature in your deck being a rogue this amounts to a lot of extra damage. His second ability lets you mill 1 of the opponent’s cards for every 1 damage dealt by a rogue, so if you deal 10 damage they will have to mill 10 cards, pretty powerful once the damage starts stacking. There’s also an additional benefit when this happens because you can draw one card if the opponent mills at least one creature card.
Sneak Attack is a great deck for beginners because of its simple and straightforward mechanics, it’s also fairly powerful when played correctly. The mill mechanics will especially frustrate and annoy your opponents and stop them from having any reliable game plan going into a match, throwing them off their game and forcing spontaneous decisions.
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Key Features
Buff your army of Rogues and make them unblockable
Three card printed for the first time
Blue Black Tribal Mill deck
Heavily rogue themed
Specifications
Number of Cards: 100
Rare Cards Included?: 1 Legendary Foil, 4 Mythic Rare, 19 Rare
Language: English
Brand: Magic: The Gathering
Pros
Simple mechanics, attack and mill your opponent
Powerful deck that will frustrate opponents
Good starter deck
Cons
Needs tweaking to be more viable
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Zendikar Rising Commander Deck – Sneak Attack
This deck is all about getting as many elves on the board as possible in the way of tokens and using sheer numbers to overwhelm your opponents. Black and Green are an exciting combination in Magic, letting you combine the powers of nature and get lots of damage-based creatures onto the board while taking advantage of the heavy disruption capabilities of a black deck and using sneaky life-steal abilities in order to bolster your own field.
As pre-cons go this is on the stronger side of the pack, letting you deal consistent damage from the outset and combo lots of synergistic cards in order to get the most value out of your hand. Every card in this deck feels like it synergizes well with every other card in the deck, making it incredibly strong, as well as being incredibly easy to upgrade and make even more viable in other Magic rule sets outside the commander rules.
The simple and easy-to-understand mechanics make this a viable deck for complete newbies to Magic: The Gathering, the mechanics essentially rely on the fundamental rules of Magic in order to be successful, so you don’t need to concern yourself with learning the best strategies, or intricacies in order to be successful with this precon.
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Key Features
8 unique cards printed for this deck
Black-Green Elf tribal deck
Focus on getting as many elves into play
Lots of lifesteal and other buffs
Specifications
Number of Cards: 100
Rare Cards Included?: 1 Legendary Foil, 19 Rare
Language: English
Brand: Magic: The Gathering
Pros
Great synergy out of the box
Viable deck even without changes
Can be played casually or as part of competitions
Easy and simple mechanics to understand
Cons
High chance the foil card is bent or damaged
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Kaldheim Commander Deck – Elven Empire
Arm for Battle was among the early releases of the official Commander precons, so it might have some simple mechanics and lack some flair of the fancy new cards that have been released, but it is still an incredibly solid deck that is still very much viable today. This deck focuses on buffing creatures with either equipment or with auras, to increase their damage potential and to dodge attacks from your opponents. Otherwise, known as a Voltron deck.
This deck has some incredible potential, but in its current state lacks some cards experienced Magic players would expect to find in a Voltron deck, these have mostly been omitted due to their high cost, but also for balance reasons. With just a few minor tweaks, albeit expensive tweaks, this deck would easily shoot to the top of this list.
The commander for this deck Wyleth, Soul of Steel is an absolute card-drawing machine. Every time he attacks you can draw one card for each aura and equipment attached to him, in a Voltron deck that means a lot of card draw potential. Most of the cards in this deck see some level of play throughout the commander format, meaning that they are reliable and have great potential when used in the right combination.
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Key Features
Focus on buffing creatures to deal damage and dodge attacks
Red White Aura/Equipment Voltron deck
Three cards make their debut for this deck
Designed with card synergy in mind
Specifications
Number of Cards: 100
Rare Cards Included?: 1 Legendary Foil, 1 Mythic Rare, 23 Rare
Language: English
Brand: Magic: The Gathering
Pros
Fantastic value for a solid deck
Lots of useful equipment cards for other decks
Very synergistic cards
Can be incredibly powerful
Cons
Some of the better equipment cards are missing for balance reasons
Low ramp/mana draw capabilities
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Commander Legends Commander Deck – Arm for Battle
Reap the Tides is an excellent starter deck for any player looking to begin their Magic: The Gathering career, as a pre-configured deck (precon) it delivers extraordinary performance straight out of the box in both Commander rules and other Magic rule sets. The focus of this deck is to ramp up mana quickly and get heavy-hitting creatures out onto the playing field, whilst using the blue side of the deck to deploy counters and control the board to your advantage. Whilst it may not be as strong as some other commander decks out there, it is very consistent and has lots of scope for upgrading down the line.
It’s a simple and straightforward deck to play, letting you consistently draw cards and build a mana pool to deliver devastating blows to your opponent. The unique commander for this deck, Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait, lets you play one additional land card each turn, as well as letting you draw a card every time a land enters the battlefield, meaning you will never be short on mana or cards. The precon deck also features lots of staple cards, meaning that it is excellent value for experienced Magic players looking to get a great deal. The only weakness of this deck is when you’re versus a deck with lots of flying creatures, as none feature in this deck, meaning that blocking their attacks is almost impossible.
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Key Features
Three Cards printed exclusively for this commander deck
Focus on card draw and high land count
Green Blue ramp deck, with lots of control spells
Unique commander themed Deck box
Specifications
Number of Cards: 100
Rare Cards Included?: 1 Legendary Foil, 1 Mythic Rare, 21 Rare
Language: English
Brand: Magic: The Gathering
Pros
Incredibly powerful deck
Viable in other rules with minor tweaks
Simple and easy to understand gameplay concepts
Great starter deck for new players
Cons
Constant card draw can increase playtime
Weak against flying
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Commander Legends Commander Deck – Reap the Tides
The second deck released in the Kaldheim Commanders series, Phantom Premonition introduces a brand-new mechanic of its own the Magic: The Gathering. Whilst this deck is powerful and a precon it is difficult to recommend to new players because of the slightly more complex gameplay mechanics that it utilizes. Even more, experience Magic players have claimed that the mechanics are too complex and difficult to implement effectively in gameplay. The new foretell mechanic lets you pay mana to exile a card to your graveyard in order to play it later for a reduced cost, couple this with the blink, or flicker, a mechanic that lets you replay a card to the battlefield in order to re-trigger its enters-the-battlefield ability. Both of these mechanics require some serious thinking in order to fully utilize them.
However, the deck offers excellent value for money and gives you access to some great cards which can be utilized in your own custom deck. It’s a very powerful deck when in the right hands, but because of the difficulty in playing Phantom Premonition, it appears fairly low in our list.
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Key Features
8 Viking inspired cards make their debut
Blue White Utilizing new ‘Foretell’ mechanic
Large focus on exiling opponents cards to weaken defence
Lots of flying creatures
Specifications
Number of Cards: 100
Rare Cards Included?: 1 Legendary Foil, 4 Mythic Rare, 19 Rare
Language: English
Brand: Magic: The Gathering
Pros
Lots of flying creatures
Interesting gameplay mechanics
Great deck value
Cons
Somewhat complex gameplay mechanics
Only a few big damage dealing cards
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Kaldheim Commander Deck – Phantom Premonition
If dragons are your thing then this deck is definitely for you, Draconic Rage is all about creating big powerful dragons in order to deal overwhelming damage to your opponents. The commander of this deck, Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients, lets you create a 5/4 Dragon spirit token every time he is dealt damage, but sadly whenever that dragon deals damage it must be sacrificed. This ability can be played both as an actively-aggressive ability or passively for defense, because every time a die is rolled Vrondiss may deal 1 damage to itself, so… infinite dragons anyone?
It’s a solid precon for players of any ability, the core mechanics are simple; to create lots of strong dragons and have them attack en masse. It relies on damage and aggression early on to crush the opponent and stop them from building a large board presence. With lots of land cards available to naturally draw, the deck does not need to rely on drawing lots of cards in order to be successful. However, due to the high cost of some cards, there can be issues early game with land/mana count, and may take a couple of turns for things to get rolling.
The deck provides a fantastic springboard for building a high-damage deck, but as a precon, it can be easily controlled by custom decks due to a low overall synergy with the cards, with only 9/100 cards having abilities to trigger Vrondiss’.
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Key Features
Includes iconic Dungeons and Dragons Heroes and Monsters
Red Green Ramp Dragon themed deck
Focus on dealing overwhelming damage
Includes 2 legendary foil cards
Specifications
Number of Cards: 100
Rare Cards Included?: 2 Legendary Foil, 4 Mythic Rare, 42 Rare
Language: English
Brand: Magic: The Gathering
Pros
Easy to play and understand
Great springboard to build a damage deck
Dragons offer lots of fun and exciting gameplay
Cons
Weak against custom decks
Has issues early game with land/mana
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Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Commander Deck – Draconic Rage
This is an excellent deck to get, either to use as a precon or as a jump-start to building your very own vampire deck. Out of the box the deck is more than playable, but with just a few upgrades it can become an extremely powerful deck that will leave your opponents stunned.
Vampiric Bloodline is all about utilizing a new feature to Magic, Blood Tokens, in order to cheat out other vampires for free and create a formidable board presence. Some combos in this deck can be difficult to pull off, but when you do, they are extremely effective and utilize the card mechanics to the fullest extent possible, creating a very synergistic feeling deck at times. The commander of this deck Strefan, Maurer Progenitor lets you create one blood token for every player that took damage that turn, every turn. Combine this with his second ability which lets you sacrifice two blood tokens to play any vampire card in your hand, for free, and make it indestructible until the end of the turn. Just this card alone makes the deck incredibly powerful, and difficult to play against.
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Key Features
Includes 1 Planeswalker as well as unique Commander card
Black Red Vampire deck
Focus on creating blood tokens and creating more vampires
Includes 15 cards not found in main set
Specifications
Number of Cards: 100
Rare Cards Included?: 2 Legendary Foil, 3 Mythic Rare, 40 Rare
Language: English
Brand: Magic: The Gathering
Pros
Some interesting synergies
Works well out of the box
Lots of rares and mythics
Great starter to build a vampire deck
Cons
Pulling off combo’s can be difficult
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Innistrad: Crimson Vow Commander Deck – Vampiric Bloodline
The first ever spirit tribe precon released by Wizards of the Coat, ‘Spirit Squadron’ delivers a somewhat viable deck for you to use. Focusing on getting lots of spirit tokens onto the battlefield, whilst utilizing disruptive spells in order to lessen the opponent’s board presence, this deck provides a fun and decent entry point to build a spirit-based deck. It has lots of early attack potential due to the low average cost of many of the cards, and its fast ramping abilities.
The commander card in this deck, ‘Millicent, Restless Revenant’, is probably the strongest spirit commander available and therefore the most viable. Her abilities can be used early game, and you can get an incredible amount of value out of her. She gives you an incredible resistance to board wipes, letting you almost instantly create a new army of 1/1 spirit tokens. Her main ability is that whenever a non-token spirit you control dies or deals damage to a player you can create a 1/1 flying spirit token. Her secondary ability lets you play her for 1 less mana for every spirit you control, letting you get her onto the board a lot earlier than some other commanders available.
Some weakness of this deck however is how inconsistent the deck can be. A few cards are incredibly useful and have lots of value to give, but many are of limited use and are probably better off replaced by land or other types of mana generation.
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Key Features
Aggressive deck with evasive threats and disruptive spells
White Blue Spirit Token deck
Lots of Mythic Rares and rares, as well as a Planeswalker card
Play with an army of spirits
Specifications
Number of Cards: 100
Rare Cards Included?: 2 legendary foil, 1 Mythic Rare Planeswalker, 2 Mythic Rare, 45 Rare
Language: English
Brand: Magic: The Gathering
Pros
Low ramp deck, lets you attack early
Lots of attack potential letting you grow quickly
Performs above it’s price-tag
Cons
Some cards are not very useful
Inconsistent deck to play
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Innistrad: Crimson Vow Commander Deck – Spirit Squadron
Fans of Baldur’s Gate should be excited about this semi-recent release to the commander precon list. Bringing some of your favorite characters from the Baldur’s Gate series to the world of Magic: The Gathering this deck, Exit from Exile, lets you amass an army of wolves to defeat your opponents and is very creature heavy. Rather than using spells or enchantments, this deck is primarily a creature deck, utilizing the abilities of the creatures in order to either bring themselves or other cards, back to the board from exile, hence the name.
Whilst utilizing fairly basic mechanics may sound boring and bland, this deck can be surprisingly fun to play, especially for new players who want to get stuck in immediately and start dealing damage right off the bat without having to learn a complex strategy. However, this does mean that this deck can be easily overwhelmed by more mechanic-rich decks, so is best played against other precons.
There is also an issue with the deck having a very high average mana cost (4.16) which can slow down the early game, but there is lots of opportunity to be casting mana ramp cards to counter this. The deck also comes with a collector booster pack, letting you potentially make some tweaks to the deck right out of the box and make it an even more effective deck.
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Key Features
Contains 2 Planeswalker cards as well as unique commander card
Red Green Creature heavy deck
Lead an army of wolves
Focus on exiling cards in order to play them for lower cost
Specifications
Number of Cards: 100
Rare Cards Included?: 1 Legendary Foil, 2 Mythic Rare Planeswalker, 4 Mythic Rare, 44 Rare
Language: English
Brand: Magic: The Gathering
Pros
Comes with a collector booster pack
Very easy to play for new players
Has lots of mana ramp potential early game
Cons
Has high average mana cost (4.16)
Has a high cost-performance ratio
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Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate Commander Deck – Exit From Exile
Continuing the Dungeons and Dragons and Baldur’s gate theme, Draconic Dissent leans heavily into the dragon theme yet again, although this time not quite so effectively as the other dragon deck mentioned in this list.
Draconic Dissent suffers from some split personality issues, meaning that does not have one clear focus on the mechanics it’s trying to utilize. Instead, it tries to jam dragon synergies, top-end beaters, and the Goad mechanic into one single deck. Hidden among this jumble is a very capable deck that can pack a punch at times, it’s just incredibly inconsistent. When the deck works well, it is incredibly powerful, but because of the jumble of mechanics nestled within the deck, it is better off in the hands of an experienced Magic player.
As a precon, this deck is mediocre at best, but it gives you access to a lot of high-value cards which can easily be used to build a very powerful deck. There are lots of powerful dragons available, which when combined with Goad can help you get the upper hand in a 1v1 situation. If a creature is affected by Goad, it must attack a player other than the one that applied goad, if able. So essentially in a 1v1 if you apply Goad to an opponent’s creature, it must attack that player. Of course, the commander of this deck, Firkraag, Cunning Instigator, makes use of this mechanic. He allows you to apply goad to one creature whenever a dragon you control attacks an opponent, his secondary ability lets you put a +1/+1 token on himself and draw a card whenever a creature is forced to attack via the Goad effect.
Although this deck has some issues, it still makes the top 10 because of how powerful it can be.
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Key Features
Build an army of dragons
Blue Red Dragon goad deck
Familiar characters from Baldur’s Gate
Introduces 10 brand new cards
Specifications
Number of Cards: 100
Rare Cards Included?: 1 Legendary Foil, 2 Mythic Rare Planeswalker, 2 Mythic Rare, 45 Rare
Language: English
Brand: Magic: The Gathering
Pros
Includes a collector booster pack
When the deck works it is very powerful
Includes Planeswalkers and some other amazing cards
Cons
Suffers from some split personality issues
Very Inconsistent for the price
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Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate Commander Deck – Draconic Dissent
Magic: The Gathering Commander decks are incredibly varied, and each deck requires a different play style in order to be successful. As any Magic player knows the mana color of the deck usually determines what kind of deck is being played, and these Commander decks are no exception. Each deck is built to the strengths of the “commander” and only uses the mana color of the commander.
When choosing the best Magic: The Gathering Commander deck for you, you should be aware of the mana color of each deck, as this determines the play style that the deck will require in order to be successful. You also need to look at the key abilities of the chosen “commander” for that deck as the deck is primarily built around the “commander” and dealing lots of damage with that card can win you the game early.
These Commander decks come with all the cards you need to start playing the commander format right away, but you can always bolster your deck with other cards. You can even completely disregard the Commander rule set and use the pre-built deck as a basis to build a traditional magic deck and play with other rulesets, the only limitations are your imagination and magic knowledge! Maybe pick yourself up a new playmat to keep your cards looking as pristine as possible as well.
