"This might hurt less if you don't fight so hard. But I doubt it."
- Liliana's Caress, M11
Commander is a casual Magic: the Gathering format, but below the surface of precons is a passionate community of spikes. The competitive Commander community builds decks that win as efficiently as possible (which an unknowing spectator would unrealistic for a format of 99 different cards).
Quite the contrary, friends! The singleton aspect of Commander allows you to build using different cards with similar effects instead of acquiring four copies of one. You have room for crazy combos and chaos, and you get to play devastating win conditions early on with easy access to ramp effects.
Without further ado, here are the 10 strongest decks in the current competitive Commander meta!
1. Breakfast Hulk
Commanders: Thrasios, Triton Hero & Tymna the Weaver (Partner)
Decklist
Protean Hulk by Matt Cavotta
Protean Hulk has had a great time since leaving the Commander banlist in 2017. The deck gets its name from using Protean Hulk to eat up Cephalid Illusionist, but offers win conditions through Dread Return targets and either Hermit Druid or Ad Nauseam-Angel’s Grace combos.
The UG+WB colors provide access to Commander’s strongest combo and control cards. The resilience and consistency offered is unmatched.
2. Grixis Storm
Commanders: Kess, Dissident Mage or Jeleva, Nephalia’s Scourge
Decklists: Kess, Dissident Mage, Jeleva, Nephalia’s Scourge
Yawgmoth’s Will by Ron Spencer
Grixis Storm has worked roughly the same throughout Commander’s existence: Ritual, Ritual, Ritual, Draw Cards, More Spells, Mind’s Desire, Tendrils of Agony, Yawgmoth’s Will, Laboratory Maniac (or Doomsday if you’re down to have a heart attack). Now that we have Aetherflux Reservoir, killing opponents is more degenerate than ever before.
Using the tutors and control cards from the UBx core and combining them with the fire power of R keeps Grixis Storm relevant years into the format. Similar decks run Nekusar as a wheeling punisher commander, but these Grixis Storm commanders provide more individual value.
3. Isochron Scepter Thrasios and Tymnna
Commanders: Thrasios, Triton Hero & Tymna the Weaver (Partner)
Decklist
Blind Obedience by Seb McKinnon
This build is a true Scepter deck built around the Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter infinite mana combo and using Thrasios as a mana sink. The linked list by archetype experts features easy card advantage and a 99 full of staples in the format’s strongest colors.
Access to infinite mana and card draw means the deck doesn’t really need to play a win condition. Evidence of that is the inclusion of 30 dedicated slots to interaction (which is unheard of for Ad Nauseam). Looping Timetwister gives you any number of ways to win the game, but Blind Obedience’s Extort combined with Dramatic Scepter is the “fun” way to do it.
4. Food Chain Tazri
Commander: General Tazri
Decklist
General Tazri by Chris Rahn
The printings of Squee, the Immortal and Eternal Scourge breathed new life into the Food Chain decks commanded by Prossh . Resilience added by UW makes General Tazri an acceptable substitute. Prossh offers stronger backup plans and is more naturally-resistant than Tazri, but Tazri requires less combo slots and makes room to tune for your play group.
To win, complete the Food Chain mana combo with ‘cast from exile’ creatures and cast Tazri to grab game-ending Allies (Hagra Diabolist, Halimar Excavator, or Kalastria Healer). Remove Tazri and ‘cast from exile’ dudes with Food Chain and trigger your Allies any number of times.
5. Doomsday Zur
Commander: Zur the Enchanter
Decklist
Doomsday by Noah Bradley
Zur has been a competitive favorite since Commander’s inception. He’s been built for stax, enchantress, and voltron, but here we have a list that uses Zur only as a backup plan to an ultra-fast combo deck. The deck abuses an ultra-low curve with Ad Nauseam and Angel’s Grace.
Getting to 5 mana to cast Ad Nauseam is easy, but creating the mana to pull out a win takes practice, especially with this greedy mana base. Ad Nauseam + Angel’s Grace into Doomsday, then mill yourself with a Laboratory Maniac on the field. Play greedy, because if you don’t win the turn that you combo you’ll probably lose.
6. Chain Veil Teferi
Commander: Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Decklist
Stroke of Genius by Stephen Daniele
Mono-blue is arguably the strongest mono-color in Commander given its access to artifact ramp, control cards, and card advantage. Teferi’s Gatherer ruling states that his last ability also affects planeswalkers that come into your control after he resolves, meaning that you can incrementally produce more mana across permanents while drawing your deck.
The gameplan is to land Teferi, Temporal Archmage and The Chain Veil. If you have enough mana to re-cast Teferi you can run an effectively-infinite loop to generate mana and abuse planeswalker activations. Dig for Jace, the Mind Sculptor and use his -12 twice for each opponent. GG.
7. Combo Gitrog
Commander: The Gitrog Monster
Decklist
Life from the Loam by Terese Nielsen
When Gitgud Toad was first released, the Commander meta exploded with brews. Today the Top Frog is built for comboing with infinite mana into a cleanup step win with Rath’s Edge (yes, that’s an actual sentence).
The deck has dipped in popularity because the combo is overly-complicated and difficult to execute while being weak to stax and control metas. It can play around interaction and force the combo through removal, but the learning curve is ridiculous. You’ll take long turns, your friends will hate you, and you might have an aneurysm navigating the win..
8. Birthing Pod Tana and Tymna
Commanders: Tana, the Bloodsower and Tymna the Weaver (Partner)
Birthing Pod by Daarken
This is a Commander interpretation of Kiki-Jiki Mirror Breaker Birthing Pod that uses the black from Tymna the Weaver to access the format’s strongest tutors. The deck can “accidentally” win by landing Kiki-Jiki and one of its infinite combo partners like Felidar Guardian or Village Bell-Ringer. But it mostly plays out like a 4C value midrange deck with hatebears like Aven Mindcensor, Eidolon of Rhetoric, and Linvala, Keeper of Silence.
The list has the flexibility to tweak the creature suite for your meta. The mana base can feel greedy, asking RRR if you’re forced to hard-cast Kiki-Jiki, but want to hard-cast Kiki-Jiki when you run Birthing Pod and Yisan, the Wanderer Bard.
9. Midrange Yisan
Commander: Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
Decklist
Craterhoof Behemoth by Chris Rahn
Would a meta list be complete without a Craterhoof Behemoth deck? Every playgroup has one. This mono-green midrange list can grind through hate and removal and slow down ultra-fast combo decks.
You play a number of stax pieces in your 99 but are forced to play around other players’ stax effects like Humility, Stranglehold and Grafdigger’s Cage. If you live for making difficult decisions and playing for the long game, you might enjoy it! A similar deck is built using Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, but uses infinite mana and drawing your deck to loop kills on opponents.
10. Stax Jhoira
Commander: Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain
Decklist
Negate by Managle Villeneuve
Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain is new to Magic at the time of writing this article but was destined to hit the competitive Commander scene. This nifty list runs over 30 historic cards to trigger Jhoira’s draw effect. It lets you produce infinite mana, draw your deck, lock out opponents…
The possibilities are endless! And so are the ways you can end the game; there are multiple win conditions including Aetherflux Reservoir, Isochron Scepter (for infinite Lightning Bolts or Swan Song tokens), or Words of Wind effects.
Honorable Mention: Hackball Momir Vig
Commander: Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Decklist
Utopia Sprawl by Ron Spears
Hackball gets its name from Magical Hack (a card not actually in the deck) and Elfball. The deck “hacks” Momir Vig, Simic Visionary by using Mind Bend or Sleight of Mind to change his second ability from triggering “Whenever you cast a blue creature spell” to “whenever you cast a green creature spell.” Once you have out Momir Vig, “hack” him and start dropping Elves. You can create mana loops, mill combos, and tutor through your deck at a whim--but be warned! To pilot Hackball you need to adapt on the spot and know your deck to properly chain tutor effects for a turn 4 win.
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