Magic: the Gathering’s Commander format has had a swift uptick in players recently, especially with the large influx of Commander products being released with almost every set. Commander is one of the most difficult formats to transition into since almost every card in MtG’s history is legal in the format. Sometimes the best cards are frustrating to deal with when extensive card knowledge is not yet available.
EDHrec.com is a valuable resource for Commander fans, since it compiles resources and information from various deckbuilding sites online. It is especially useful for knowing what is happening on a week-to-week basis. Commander is one of the most interesting formats, since new releases can reveal new cards, but also dig up old gems. With a new commander released in a random magic product, a card from 2012 with one printing can become one of the most sought-after cards in the format. Analyzing what is popular in the format can make players better deckbuilders by informing them of things they may see at the table, and possibly help them modify their own decks to combat these possibilities.
Eriette of the Charming Apple
Eriette of the Charmed Apple is the first of the most popular Wilds of Eldraine Commander. She is incredibly unique, as she is one of very few commanders that focus on enchanting opponent’s assets with auras instead of their own. She also drains opponents based on the number of auras her controller controls. She is going to focus on slinging negative enchantments at her opponents creatures, such as Darksteel Mutation, Withercrown, and Reprobation. She also will utilize enchantress effects that draw cards and give other benefits. Some of these such cards are Mesa Enchantress, Sram, Senior Edificer, and Hateful Eidolon. Killian, Ink Duelist is a huge benefit to the deck, as he will reduce the cost of all auras.
How to Beat Eriette of the Charming Apple
One of the best strategies to deal with having creatures enchanted by opponents is to have a ready supply of sacrifice outlets like Ashnod’s Altar and Viscera Seer. Of course, another way to deal with Eriette is to use her own medicine against her, utilizing humble effects. Humble and Imprisoned in the Moon are great examples of these.
Alela, Cunning Conqueror
Alela, Cunning Conqueror marks the return of the legendary faerie rogue from the original Eldraine set. This card has Alela in the Black and Blue colors, and focuses yet again on faerie typal synergy. She allows her controller to create a 1/1 black and blue faerie creature token with flying each time that they cast a spell on an opponents’ turn. Obyra, Dreaming Duelist and Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor are both from this round of Eldraine cards and feature the same faerie synergy that Alela does. Obyra drains opponents whenever a faerie enters the battlefield, while Tegwyll provides an anthem effect on faeries and card draw whenever a faerie dies. Nymris, Oona’s Trickster is a legendary creature from a recent Commander set that also has synergy with casting spells on opponents’ turns. Lastly, Glen Elendra Liege is another faerie that provides a +1/+1 bonus to black creatures and to blue creatures, thus providing both bonuses to most faeries.
How to Beat Alela, Cunning Conqueror
Since Alela’s controller benefits from casting spells on their opponents’ turns, stopping that is one way to deal with Alela. Grand Abolisher and Teferi, Time Raveler are both ways to protect from this on personal turns, while Silence is one way to do this on any turn. Additionally, any way of making large amount of flying blockers like Hangarback Walker or Thopter Spy Network are a way to deal with large amounts of flying faeries.
Hylda of the Icy Crown
Hylda of the Icy Crown is a white and blue Commander that focuses heavily on controlling opponents' boards by tapping their creatures. She has an ability that allows her controller to pay one mana of any color to create one of three effects. She will create a large amount of creatures that continue to get bigger, while still maintaining a healthy amount of cards in hand. Hylda’s Crown of Winter is an obvious choice, since it is her crown. It allows its controller to tap creatures for one mana. Additionally, Plunge into Winter, Succumb to the Cold, and Blustersquall each tap creatures that opponents control at instant speed, allowing Hylda’s controller to activate her abilities just before their turn if need be.
How to Beat Hylda of the Icy Crown
The only obvious choice for dealing with Hylda’s shenanigans are cards that punish opponents from drawing cards. Sheoldred, the Apocalypse causes opponents loss of life whenever they draw cards, while Faerie Mastermind and Consecrated Sphinx allow their controller to keep up with Hylda’s card draw.
Rowan, Scion of War
Rowan, Scion of War shows the return of Rowan after the loss of her spark. This card reduces the cost of spells cast by her controller based on the amount of life that they have lost this turn. The best spells to benefit from this are spells with X in their cost, since they do not have a ceiling of the amount they can be reduced by. Song of Totentanz creates a large swarm of non-blocking rats. Crackle with Power features Rowan in its art and deals a large amount of damage to a large amount of targets. Exsanguinate is probably the most efficient option, simply causing opponents to lose X life and its caster to gain X life, literally gaining back the amount of life lost to reduce its cost. Lastly, Torment of Hailfire is a classic option in Commander, causing opponents to lose life or lose cards in hand or on board.
How to Beat Rowan, Scion of War
There are not any specific threats that come from Rowan, since most of her utility comes from just casting big, good spells. Counterspells are going to be a very important part of dealing with this deck, saving the counterspells for the large, discounted spells that are cast after Rowan’s controller has already lost a lot of life. Additionally, targeting Rowan with Humble effects will turn off her tap ability completely.
Imodane, the Pyrohammer
Imodane, the Pyrohammer is a unique commander who redirects damage from instants and sorceries that target single creatures to all opponents. As such, small spells that deal damage to a single creature are going to have a high possibility for snowballing into more as the game drags on. Virtue of Courage seems to be made specifically for Imodane, since it is an adventure card that then can come back to reward card advantage from permanents that deal damage. Flame Slash, Lightning Axe, and Electrodominance are all burn spells that are greatly enhanced by Imodane’s ability. Additionally, one mana burn spells that target only one creature are much more effective here than anywhere else. Lightning Bolt is the classic option, while Shock is the slightly less effective version. Additionally, in recent years, MTG has added several ways to just increase the damage from red sources. Two of these cards are Fiery Emancipation and Torbran, Thane of Red Fell, and they will increase the amount of damage dealt from each source in an Imodane deck.
How to Beat Imodane, the Pyrohammer
Imodane is going to focus on slinging damage towards creatures much more than a regular deck, since the damage is also directed to opponents. As such, providing creatures with Shroud and Hexproof are going to greatly inhibit Imodane’s plan. Additionally, focusing on maintaining a healthy life total with tools such as Alhammaret’s Archive or Aetherflux Reservoir will allow their controller to outlast the other opponents.
Zhulodok, Void Gorger
Zhulodok, Void Gorger was released in Commander Masters earlier this year. Zhulodok is a colorless Eldrazi commander who benefits from casting other large colorless spells, such as other Eldrazi titans or large artifacts. Rise of the Eldrazi, Desecrate Reality, and Calamity of Titans are all colorless non-permanent cards that work with Zhulodok’s ability. These three cards were also included in the Eldrazi Unbound precon that Zhulodok was released as a part of. The goal of the deck is to use large Eldrazi like Flayer of Loyalties, It that Betrays, or any of the Eldrazi Titans like Kozilek, the Great Distortion to cascade into other powerful value engines or win-cons like Forsaken Monument, Conduit of Ruin, Geode Golem, or Horizon Stone.
How To Beat Zhulodok, Void Gorger
Zhulodok is going to be a very late-game deck, given the fact that the Commander itself costs six mana. Additionally, the deck wants to cast big spells, so it probably will be fairly stagnant while ramping in early game. Zhulodok’s power shows most when its controller has a lot of mana to spend, so countering or removing Zhulodok before its controller can get off one of its cascade triggers is one of the best strategies. Since Zhulodok costs so much, it may also be a very valuable strategy to make sure Zhulodok stays around, albeit with no abilities. Cards with humble effects like Kenrith’s Transformation, Darksteel Mutation, and Imprisoned in the Moon force Zhulodok’s controller to remove it themselves before they are able to use the cascade again.
Atraxa, Praetor’s Voice
Anyone who has been playing Commander for a decent while will recognize this commander: Atraxa, Praetor’s Voice. She is a Phyrexian Angel known as the Grand Unifier and was first printed on a card in Commander 2016. This card is known for its powerful proliferate ability, which triggers on each of its controllers’ end steps. This proliferate ability is commonly combined with planeswalker cards, since their loyalty abilities can be added to with proliferate. More recently, MtG has included far more proliferate cards than before with the release of the War of the Spark set and the culmination of the Phyrexian arc. Cards from the Commander Masters set may make an appearance in an Atraxa deck, since one of the preconstructed commander decks was the superfriends-style Planeswalker Party.
How To Beat Atraxa, Praetor’s Voice
Atraxa Commander decks are the most scary when the commander can come back repeatedly. If her ability is left to trigger, done at the end of the controller’s turn each time she’s cast, her controller is allowed to gain a large advantage over their opponents. Cards that keep her around but remove her abilities are great again here. Another strategy is to just remove the counters that she may add. Thrull Parasite and Hex Parasite are cheap options for removing counters in black, while Ferropede and Spinal Parasite are both colorless options that can go in virtually any deck.
The Ur-Dragon
The Ur-Dragon has been one of the most popular commanders in the format for a long time. The card was first released in Commander 2017 as the head of the Draconic Domination preconstructed deck. The Ur-Dragon is a five-color dragon commander with an Eminence ability that causes dragon spells its controller casts to cost one less mana. Reducing the mana cost of one of the most populous and powerful creature types in MTG is probably one of the best abilities that has ever been printed on a Commander. This deck will be playing large dragons for a reduced price, and once The Ur-Dragon is out, its controller will be playing more free dragons from their hand. Look out for big draconic threats like Goldspan Dragon, Terror of the Peaks, Old Gnawbone, Steel Hellkite, and Hellkite Tyrant.
How To Beat The Ur-Dragon
The main threat of this deck is going to obviously be dragons, so spells that can specifically target dragons like Crux of Fate are going to be good counters for it. Whiptongue Hydra and Whirlwind are both green cards that specifically destroy all creatures with flying. More than most commanders, humble effects will be extremely detrimental to this commander, since if it is not in the Command Zone, its controller doesn’t get its eminence effect.
Sauron the Dark Lord
Sauron, the Dark Lord, like many currently popular commanders, was released as part of the Lords of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth set. This card’s strategy focuses on Orc Armies and the Ring Tempts You mechanic. Sauron grows his Army whenever an opponent casts a spell, so games with a lot of players are great for this deck. It relies on powerful new Amass cards like Orcish Bowmasters and Saruman, the White Hand, and cards such as Nazgûl and Call of the Ring supply the deck with plenty of Temptation from the Ring. The other Sauron card, Sauron, Lord of the Rings, is another card that might be seen in this deck, benefitting from the death of opponents’ commanders. Witch-king of Angmar is a prime choice for Ring Temptation especially when used in conjunction with Nazgûl, or even Lord of the Nazgûl for some extra protection.
How To Beat Sauron the Dark Lord
The best way to deal with this card is to avoid casting a lot of spells while it is on the battlefield. Sauron decks benefit from opponents ignoring it and allowing its controller to grow their Army. Ways to remove this Commander without casting spells is one of the best ways to counter a Sauron deck. For example, Otawara, Soaring City can be channeled to return Sauron to its owner’s hand, forcing them to recast it. Of course, countering Sauron while he is on the stack instead of letting him hit the battlefield is a great strategy too. Counterspell and other blue counterspells are the traditional option, but other counterspells that can target Sauron are the Red counterspells. Red Elemental Blast, Pyroblast, and Tibalt’s Trickery might be easier to bluff with only Red mana open. The last course of action for dealing with Sauron is to make sure to include cheap legendary artifacts and creatures in decks to counter his Ward requirement to target him. "Mox" mana rocks like Mox Amber and Mox Opal are great choices, as well as beneficial equipment like Helm of the Host and Sword of the Animist that are good in many decks and can be used as sacrifice fodder for Sauron.
Anikthea, Hand of Erebos
Anikthea, Hand of Erebos was another commander on this list that was released with Commander Masters. She was the main commander of the Enduring Enchantments precon, which focused on graveyard manipulation of powerful enchantments and sagas. Her first ability gives its controller’s enchantment creatures menace, which is paired with an enter the battlefield or attack trigger that allows her controller to return a non-Aura enchantment from their graveyard as a Zombie enchantment creature. This ability allows for some extremely unique interactions, mainly stemming from having enchantments that are not usually creatures as powerful attacking threats on the board, and then creating multiple copies of them.
How To Beat Anikthea, Hand of Erebos
Dealing with Anikthea may seem difficult, but it becomes a bit simpler when realizing that she and most of the creatures in the deck will also be enchantments. Therefore, enchantment removal goes much further against this deck. Back to Nature, Cleansing Meditation, and Calming Verse all are lesser-played enchantment removal that may aid players in playing against Anikthea and similar decks.
Aragorn, the Uniter
Aragorn, the Uniter is an extremely unique commander that benefits from casting spells of each of his colors. He is a Red, Green, White, and Blue card, so the only color of cards this deck can’t utilize is Black. This deck is best served by a combat strategy, focusing on the Green effect that pumps a creature. Another strategy is focusing on the Red and White side of the card, using Red spells to zap opponents for damage, and the White effect to build a large board of humans. The best of the decks will blend these strategies, along with the scrying from Blue, to create a powerful machine of synergy. There are great cards that synergize with Aragorn from the Lord of the Rings set, such as powerful humans like Théoden, King of Rohan and Éowyn, Shieldmaiden, or ways to pump creatures like Aragorn, Company Leader and Elrond, Master of Healing. All of these cards are great ways to get this deck rolling.
How To Beat Aragorn, the Uniter
One of the primary ways to deal with Aragorn’s toolbox of abilities is to make it harder for its controller to cast spells. Cards that only allow players to cast one spell per turn is one way to do this. Rule of Law is a prime example of this mechanic. Additionally, players can increase the cost of the spells coming from opponents, which can be done with cards like Grand Arbiter Augustin IV and Tithe Taker. Another strategy is to just strip Aragorn of his abilities. This ability comes in many colors too, for example Frogify in Blue, Kenrith’s Transformation in Green, and Reprobation in White.
Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit and Sam, Loyal Attendant
These commanders are a formidable force together, forming an incredible Abzan lifegain deck. Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit benefits from lifegain and focuses on the Ring tempts You mechanic, while Sam, Loyal Attendant is great at utilizing food tokens to gain life. In Frodo and Sam decks, some of the cards that players may encounter are food-makers and lifegain synergy. Sam’s other cards, Samwise Gamgee and Samwise the Stouthearted, have a place in the deck. Additionally, Frodo, Sauron’s Bane is a powerful Orzhov creature with an alternate win-con printed on it. It will also feature control spells like Anguished Unmaking, a removal spell that comes with lifegain, or Boromir, Warden of the Tower, who counters free spells and can protect his controller’s whole board with his sacrifice ability. Alhammaret’s Archive is a card that will be seen in this deck nine times out of ten, since it doubles up lifegain and card draw for its controller.
How To Beat Sam & Frodo
One of the best ways to counteract a Sam and Frodo deck's strategy is to get rid of its food tokens. General creature or artifact removal works well enough, but targeting tokens specifically may be helpful. Steel Hellkite is an excellent choice for any deck, since it is colorless and can destroy every permanent a players controls with a certain mana value. Since tokens have a mana value of zero, if Steel Hellkite deals damage to the owner of this commander deck, all of their tokens can be destroyed for zero mana. Culling Ritual also destroys all permanents of a low enough mana value. Blast Zone also has this effect on a Land card. Additionally, Austere Command can target all artifacts, all creatures, or both of those options.
Lathril, Blade of the Elves
Lathril, Blade of the Elves quickly rose to the top of the popular commanders when she was released as a part of Kaldheim Commander. She is an Elf Noble who creates Elf Warriors whenever she damages another player. Her second ability uses her built-up elven hordes to drain opponents, allowing her to tap ten elves you control and deal ten damage to each opponent and gain you ten life. Lathril becomes extremely dangerous the more elves she controls, so token doublers like Doubling Season and Parallel Lives are useful to this deck, while Second Harvest can multiply those tokens even further.
How To Beat Lathril, Blade of the Elves
Playing against Lathril can be terrifying, especially once her controller gets over ten elves. Board wipes and mass permanent removal are going to be most effective against her to reduce the size of her hordes. She is also a prime target of humble effects, yet again. Without her tap ability, her elves become much less scary.
Tom Bombadil
The release of Tom Bombadil marked the beginning of a surge of Saga commanders being released and adopted by players. Tom Bombadil is the most popular option, perhaps since he is all five of the colors and can include and other saga commanders can just be included in the deck. Anikthea, Hand of Erebos and Narci, Fable Singer were both a part of the Enduring Enchantments precon from Commander Masters, which had a subtheme of sagas. Both cards are great at protecting and recycling enchantments between the battlefield and graveyard. Satsuki, the Living Lore is a green-white saga commander from Kamigawa, Neon Dynasty that also gives some extra saga recursion. Additionally, Tom Bombadil decks will include cards with proliferate and similar mechanics that multiply counters on permanents.
How To Beat Tom Bombadil
Tom Bombadil decks are interesting because if Tom and a few sagas are out, he is just going to cycle through the deck and recycle those sagas. Since Tom gives himself hexproof and indestructible, the best options for his removal involve getting around these abilities. Arcane Lighthouse can remove shroud and Shadowspear can remove indestructible, so these cards can be used together or with other removal to get around Tom’s defenses. Alternatively, there are certain board wipes that can completely get around these keywords. Cards that accomplish this are Farewell and Merciless Eviction, which both exile, while Toxic Deluge reduces the toughness of all creatures.
Giada, Font of Hope
Giada, Font of Hope is a commander from Streets of New Capenna. She was a teenaged angel on New Capenna who was involved with the story of Elspeth Tirel. As a commander, she allows other angels to enter the battlefield with a+1/+1 counter for each angel its controller already controls. She also is a mana dork that taps for White mana that can only be used to play angel spells. Giada decks are going to be unique since Giada is a fairly low-cost angel and will be out on the battlefield first. She is going to be used to ramp up to more powerful angels like Metropolis Reformer, Lyra Dawnbringer, or Sephara, Sky’s Blade.
How To Beat Giada, Font of Hope
Giada is yet another deck that deals with mainly flying creatures. Therefore, cards like Whirlwind are going to be useful again here. Giada is going to continually ramp to larger and larger angels, so removing her often and early is also a valuable tactic. Additionally, Sandworm Convergence gives protection from flying attackers, which will protect its controller from angels deeper into the game.