It's been a long road, but we are finally at the end. We've already seen some powerful commanders, but the top of the list here is a cut above. As most of us have probably seen by now, this set has some incredibly powerful commanders that are going to see a lot of play for a long time. I am going to go into a little more detail about the top five cards or so, but I still want to include a link to the card gallery here. for reference.
Anyway, without further ado, let's close out our rankings.
53) Kimahri, Valiant Guardian
In addition to being super flavorful, Kimahri will just about always be the most powerful creature in play, even if just by a little. Thanks to vigilance, he will be able to both attack and use any abilities, which makes him even stronger. It's not a complex or interesting commander, but it's a strong one.
In addition to being super flavorful, Kimahri will just about always be the most powerful creature in play, even if just by a little. Thanks to vigilance, he will be able to both attack and use any abilities, which makes him even stronger. It's not a complex or interesting commander, but it's a strong one.
52) Ultimececia, Temporal Threat
Do you want to kill your opponents out of nowhere? How about draw a billion cards. Well then step into Ultimecia's time compressed world and fill your deck with as many blue beasties as you can fit. The fact that this instantly impacts the board really spikes the power level and the ability to tap down all creatures can swing a game on the spot. I know it costs six and it's one color, but I think a lot of people are sleeping on how strong these two abilities are together. I definitely don't want to be last in turn order when I see this in the zone.
51) Y'Shtola Rhul
This is another tough one to rank because it feels like there just aren't that many really strong end step triggers in blue. That said, two free blinks a turn is awesome and I get the vibe that this card is just begging to be broken.
50) Aerith Gainsborough
Getting Aerith big isn't going to be difficult at all in white and activating a lot of really small life gain triggers is going to speed the process even more. You can even redistribute the counters when she inevitably dies. Unfortunately, you can't just put them on anyone, the target has to be legendary. It's what keeps the card from going higher, even though the effect is strong.
49) Urianger Augurelt
Hope you got your hands on Pemmin's Aura or Freed From the Real before they inevitably shoot up in price due to someone we will discuss later. Urianger will help you filter your deck and can even help set up miracle and counterbalance plays. He's efficient and not so threatening that he's going to be instantly targeted. The life gain is a nice bonus but the sort of card advantage and cost reduction is what we are here for.
48) Tellah, Great Sage
This is an interesting version of a spellslinger commander, though I feel like you kind of have to build more around the first two abilities. Four is a lot when you are trying to cast multiple spells in a turn, but drawing two cards off it is a huge bonus. You almost don't want the last ability to trigger unless you are trying to win the game, because you have to sacrifice Tellah. I will say, this card is another huge flavor win for FFIV, I think that's the game this set has best captured the essence of.
47) Venat, Heart of Hydaelyn/The Mothercrystal
Again with the triggers once each turn stuff. I don't think Venat needed that to limit her power, as she already only triggers off legendary spells. That said, card draw is card draw and it's really nice that her transform ability comes with an additional effect. Once she is flipped, it's going to be fairly hard to get rid of her. It's also going to be easy to pump up your other legends and protect them while drawing cards. Two things keep this from potentially being the best mono-white commander ever printed. One is the "once per turn clause." The other is the sheer amount of exile effects combined with the fact that her toughness puts her in range of a lot of the minus removal effects. Still a great card though.
46) Hildibrand Manderville
Now this is interesting. Hildibrand is going to build your board quickly. Then he's going to pump your tokens. The real fun is that he's going to be incredibly difficult to deal with, especially since he's already so cheap. You are going to need instant speed, targeted, exile-based removal, on a board state where the Hildibrand player is tapped out and has no semblance of a sacrifice outlet to even think of getting him back into the command zone. And while you are trying to deal with him, he's going to be cranking out more and more zombies. It's a bit slow, but incredibly unique and high value.
45) Vincent, Vengeful Atoner
His other iteration may have better flavor, but I think this version of Vincent is going to be much more powerful. He comes down early, so it's not going to be too hard to get creatures through to pump his power. By your second combat, he should be fully prepared to start tossing huge damage around the table, and menace is going to make it easier to connect.
44) Rydia, Summoner of Mist
We will get to this in a little bit, but I think WOTC continues to underestimate how powerful landfall is. Coming down for two makes Rydia incredibly efficient and the ability to filter through cards just by playing land is incredibly powerful. Even with the finality counter, the ability to bring back sagas is insane and many decks that run this will probably have ways to remove counters anyway. It's only an uncommon, but I think Rydia is going to be shockingly powerful. Kind of a flavor miss though, if anyone in the set should have a flip card, its Rydia.
43) Matoya, Archon Elder
Matoya may be mono-color, but with an ability like that in blue it's probably for the best. Not only do you get to draw cards every time you scry or surveil, you get to do it AFTER you scry or surveil. A lot of cards provide card advantage, even more provide card selection, but it's a rare case when you have a commander that can provide both.
42) Zenos yae Galvus//Shinryu, Trancendent Rival
Now we have yet another step up in power level. Anything with "you win the game" printed on it is going to draw attention, even if you have to jump through hoops to get there. Honestly, those hoops aren't even that prohibitive, you get to choose the creature that needs to die, so obviously you are going to choose either the weakest one or one that absolutely needs to die so your opponent kills it. However, the politics of the format work against Zenos, as not only will the opponent you choose start targeting you, the other opponents will likely start helping them because they don't want to lose the game.
41) Zodiarc, Umbral God
Unless you run into someone playing God tribal, Zodiark is going to decimate most of your opponent's boards and leave you with a giant threat in the process. Killing him is almost as bad as letting him live, because you don't want him to trigger again. Being mono black and not having evasion are what keeps him from going higher.
40) Fandaniel, Telophoroi Ascian
I have a feeling this guy is going to be miserable to play against. It's not hard to get a lot of instant and sorcery spells into your graveyard in black, especially when you are surveilling on each cast. You might think "how is this going to work without red?" Well, you are going to be facing down a pile of discard and removal spells, with the occasional Kaya's Ghostform effect thrown in. You are just going to sit there with no board or cards in your hand while your life slowly but surely dwindles away. It may not be fun to play against, but it's going to be powerful. Look for Fanny here on the salt list in the near future.
39) Cloud, Planet's Champion
One of FF's most recognizable characters, Cloud actually has three iterations in this set. This is probably the weakest, though it's still quite powerful, if a bit boring. Giving him double strike and indestructible when equipped, while also reducing equip costs, leads to yet another boring equipment strategy we've all seen before. But it's also a strategy that has proven quite effective.
38) Wakka, Devoted Guardian
Wakka seems like he's going to be pretty strong, ya? Trample means he's going to be blowing up artifacts pretty consistently while growing himself and the rest of your board. It's simple and straightforward, but effective and a solid value for four mana.
37) Aerith, Last Ancient
Aerith isn't particularly hard to cast or easy to kill, as she's largely out of range of most damage-based removal. It's pretty much a guarantee that you are getting a creature to your hand every turn and it shouldn't be too hard to start bringing guys back directly to the battlefield. This is another card I feel is going to be way stronger than it looks.
36) Locke, Treasure Hunter
His other version wasn't great, but I really like this version of FFVI's resident treasure hunter. He's essentially unblockable unless someone wants to put dorks in front of him (or is playing Arcades). He's kind of like a weird mix between the Infamous Cruelclaw and Etali, both of whom are fun commanders. Sure, you have to pay for the spells, but he mitigates this a little bit by creating treasure. A really interesting and fun looking commander.
35) Ardyn, the Usurper
Oh boy, we can do some really broken stuff here. There are a lot of really, really powerful demons and the ability to get copies of them into play for free is incredibly strong. You don't even have to wait a turn cycle either, as Ardyn triggers at the beginning of combat. The only problem here is that he's an eight mana 4/4 in black. Otherwise, you can bet he'd be higher.
34) Gladiolus Amicita
I was shocked to see this was an uncommon. To this day, I don't think the WOTC design team actually understands how strong these landfall/lands matter commanders are. I think they should be forced to sit for a week straight and do nothing but play historic brawl games against Bristly Bill and Mythweaver Poq decks, then they might get it. Also, did we learn nothing from Golos being able to pay his own commander tax? Obviously, Gladiolus isn't THAT powerful, but instantly pumping a creature in green, which now gets 5/5's for 3, and giving it trample is a strong effect. And that's not even the half of it. Like Golos, Gladio here can get ANY land. That might be the single best thing about it. Did I mention this is an uncommon?
33) Gilgamesh, Master at Arms
He may be a bit expensive, but the ability to dig for and put multiple equipment on the battlefield is absurdly powerful and will lead to tons of damage out of nowhere. You even get to attach one to Gilgamesh (or any other samurai you might have around) for free. Give him haste and you are digging 12 cards deep, putting all equipment you find on the battlefield and attaching two of them to Gilgamesh. Now six mana doesn't sound like such a bad deal.
32) Yuna, Hope of Spira
As one might expect, Yuna is going to play very well with the summon creatures that are all over this set. Most of them are already pretty strong and giving them trample, lifelink and ward is going to make them even more so. Yuna even protects herself. Big the real big payoff here is going to be bringing back enchantments. This is really aimed at recurring sagas, but I won't ever say no to bringing back an Ancestral Mask or Ethereal Armor that an opponent thought they got rid of for good. It can even reanimate enchantment creatures, which is a nice bonus.
31) Tidus, Yuna's Guardian
"Do this only once this turn" really brings this commander down. Tidus would have been in contention for the strongest card in the set if not for that clause. Still, drawing a card and proliferating off of combat damage in a deck that already wants to be attacking is a good ability. I know it isn't the intent, but this plays pretty well with planeswalkers. Moving a single counter around between creatures doesn't seem like it will matter much, but it will definitely have its uses.
30) Clive, Ifrit's Dominant//Ifrit
I really, really like this card. Even a slight focus on permanents is going to allow you to draw four, five, maybe six cards whenever he drops (the minimum is two because devotion counts the creature itself). You can even try and find ways to make the discard work to your advantage, though red decks usually have pretty small hands by turn six. Get him flipped and Ifrit can start taking out creatures before he flips back into Clive, again giving you a boat load of cards and some mana to play them with.
29) Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER//One-Winged Angel
This guy again? You are going to have to focus heavily on having creatures to sacrifice, not to mention outlets other than the commander himself. But this might be one of the best sacrifice payoffs I've ever seen at its minimum it's a Bastion of Remembrance on a creature that actually gives you cards. Once flipped, it gives you an emblem that triggers on creature deaths, which offsets one of the biggest weaknesses of these kinds of decks. Card draw on sacrificing is just icing on the cake.
28) Vaan, Freedom Seeker
Why just have one Ragavan when you can turn all of your scouts, pirates and rogues into everyone's least favorite monkey? At minimum, Vaan is going to ramp you with tons of treasures. At its best, he's going to be snagging spells of all sizes from opponents while making himself way bigger in the process. He doesn't even have to go into combat himself to do it.
27) Ultima, Origin of Oblivion
Now this is going to be absolutely nasty. So much so that it might not end up seeing that much play. The ability to deny opponents their mana is kind of taboo in commander, but it's incredibly powerful. Doubling colorless mana is also going to help these decks do exactly what they always want to: ramp into giant Eldrazi
26) Alphinaud Leveilleur + Alisaie Leveilleur
I was kind of expecting to see more partners in this set, but these two will have to do. Blue and White is a great color combination for these effects and they play off each other well. At the same time, they don't NEED to be in play at the time to be useful. That's important for partner pairs. I think Alphinaud is the more important of the two as he's drawing you cards, but cost reduction is nothing to sneeze at. I don't think it's going to be particularly difficult to draw three or four cards per rotation with these guys, which is hugely powerful.
25) Sephiroth, Fallen Hero
All the Sephiroths are kind of clustered around each other, though I think this one is the strongest. Obviously, you want to be modifying creatures before he even comes down, so you can start swinging with boards full of seven+ power creatures right away. Perhaps more importantly, he cheats on commander tax, which is something you should know by now I really like. Red and white is kind of a miss for color identity, this card should have black both mechanically and thematically, so that keeps him out of the upper echelon.
24) Terra, Herald of Hope
Having a little bit of mill is nice in a deck that clearly wants you to play around with your graveyard. Flying is important too because Terra needs to connect to really work. It's also a shame you have to pay and can only get a creature with power of three or less. Those things really limit the power level here, which is a shame. It's still a very powerful card though. Having a three-color identity keeps it higher, but it just feels like Terra should do more.
23) Lulu, Stern Guardian
You know I once took care of a donkey named Lulu? No, I'm dead serious. Anyway, This Lulu is going to heavily disincentivize your opponents from attacking you and is probably going to give a lot of players at the table fits. It's not just that you can tap it down for one turn, you can pretty much keep any creatures that come after you pinned down as long as you see fit. Because the real thing that is going to make this card so powerful is proliferate. Yes, it costs four mana, but it doesn't require tapping. Any long-time commander player knows how powerful mana sinks can be, and Lulu here has an incredible one. Look for her in saga and planeswalker decks if she isn't helming her own.
22) Cloud, Midgar Mercenary
Yes, it's mono white, but it's also a two-mana tutor out of the command zone that does a great job of wearing the equipment it searches for. Again, white is also great at blinking, so it's not going to be difficult to repeat the ability. Even if Cloud dies, then you are going to get another trigger, this time for four. It's a shame he doesn't have red in his color identity, but a tutor is a tutor at the end of the day.
21) Tifa Lockhart
20) Hope Estheim
I was kind of hoping to see literally anybody else from any other game, but we have a Hope card I guess. And we might have ourselves a new default mill commander. Gaining tons of life in white is easy to do, so I wouldn't be surprised if you end up milling five+ cards per turn. Usually mill in commander is underwhelming, but the fact that this hits all players make it a major threat. Triggering at the end step means you will likely get some level of value off of it. An obnoxious ability for an obnoxious character, how fitting.
19) Gogo, Master of Mimicry
Sure it's mana intensive, but the ability to copy either triggered or activated abilities MULTIPLE TIMES is absolutely insane. At least they made it unable to target mana abilities, or things would have gotten out of control. As it is, they might get out of control anyway. Gogo is going to enable some crazy stuff.
18) Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER
Even more Clouds, look at that. As strong as tutoring out of the command zone, I think this one is stronger. For one, it's in three colors, red, green and white. It costs five, but it also has haste and can instantly put on any equipment on the field. That's incredibly powerful and can lead to a lot of damage out of nowhere. But that's all. If you have a few creatures with equipment, you are going to draw a bunch of cards when they attack. That's especially powerful in an archetype where running out of cards is a frequent problem. Oh, if Cloud has seven power, very likely since he will be wearing equipment, you get treasure tokens. Yeah, there's a lot of value, and power, here.
17) Golbez, Crystal Collector
Super efficient at two mana and hard to kill with four toughness, Golbez may not look like much on the surface. But there is so much going on here and there is an insane amount of value on offer. Surveilling every time an artifact enters ensures you can cycle through your deck and fill your graveyard. Getting creatures back in your hand, something that's going to be very easy to trigger, allows you to reset extremely powerful ETBs. The life loss from the second half of the ability is going to be harder to trigger, but the damage is going to add up fast. In blue and black, you have all sorts of play patterns available, storm, cheerios, combos, reanimator, you name it. I feel like this is going to see a lot of play.
16) Emet Selch of the Third Seat
This is an incredibly powerful card, and its not even the strongest version of Ememt-Selch in the set. It greatly reduces flashback and other costs just on its face, which is nice. But doubling up on your instant and sorcery spells is really what you are here for. Having your opponent lose life to trigger it is negligible for the ability to get additional casts of extra turn spells, win conditions and any number of absurd things that graveyard commanders can often pull off.
15) G'raha Tia, Scion Reborn
So wait, we are turning our spells into creatures now? This is going to get out of hand really fast. Say you cast a four mana removal spell. Now your opponent is down a creature and you have a 4/4 at the low cost of four life. It's the kind of thing that will snowball huge advantage if not dealt with. It even has lifelink to gain back some of the life he requires you to pay. Being in blue, black and white, an incredibly strong color identity, just makes G'raha Tia even stronger.
14) Kuja, Genome Sorcerer//Trance Kuja, Fate Defied
Ideally, you are flipping Kuja right away, putting him into play with wizards already on the board and having him transform on your end step. Then you can start slinging around non-creature spells and pinging the table down. I really like these new wizard tokens and I kind of hope they keep them going once they move on from the Final Fantasy universe. Even if Kuja gets killed, you are still going to have wizards hanging around to ping the table, especially if you build the deck around creating as many of these tokens as you can.
13) Tifa, Martial Artist
Now that I got my rant about green out of the way, I can finally talk about one of my favorite FF characters. As strong as the other version of Tifa is, I think this one is a bit more consistent. It's not going to be difficult to connect with a seven power creature and extra combat steps are a very worthwhile effect. Tifa is surprisingly efficient as a 4/4 for four that can easily get to the requisite seven power. It isn't anything revolutionary, but it's an incredibly powerful, proven effect.
12) Jenova, Ancient Calamity
I think this is going to be an incredibly slept on but powerful commander. Black and green are a good combination for a commander that wants to attack with big creatures and also kind of wants to creatures to die. You probably want to supplement the counters that Jenova gives with changelings and Maskwood Nexus kinds of effects. This is going to provide a ton of value, especially in decks that focus on recurring the creatures that are hitting the graveyard.
11) Sin, Spira's Punishment
Sin being as expensive as it is gets offset a little bit by the fact it triggers on cast. Yes the ability is random, but it's not hard at all to sort of sculpt your graveyard so you know you are going to hit the card you want. It's even easier with Sin because even if you do hit a land, you get to repeat the process over and over again. Heck, you might want to start hitting lands so you can ramp like crazy and mitigate Sin's commander tax. Because trust me, this is going to get targeted. Blue, green and black is probably the strongest three color identity, especially now that Dockside is banned, and the access to ramp and rituals further mitigates the high mana value.
10) Choco, Seeker of Paradise
Now this is how you do a bird commander. First, it's in a strong color combination of blue, green and white. Second, it's a very relevant 3/5 for four. And that's before you get into his actual ability which will allow you to dig one card into your library for each bird that attacks. And that ability? It allows you to pick the best of those cards and put it into your hand AND, not or, and, put ALL of the lands you hit directly onto the battlefield. That would be enough to get our feathered friend up here, but there's more. Choco also has landfall and will get +1/+0 for each land that enters, making him even stronger. Not that he even has to attack to trigger his ability, but just wow.
9) Emet Selch, Unsundered//Hades, Sorcerer of Eld
Emet is in a strong color combination, allows you to filter cards and isn't all that difficult to transform. Once he is flipped, he's a Yawgmoth's Will on a stick. For those of you that don't know, Yawgmoth's Will is an incredibly broken, cEDH level card that can basically win the game if you cast it. Here's the problem: Emet transforms at your upkeep, so he's going to have to survive at least one rotation of the table. All of your opponents are going to make absolutely sure that doesn't happen, because they know it's bad news if it does. This is the sole thing that keeps Ememt-Selch as merely a top five commander and not the absolute strongest in the set.
8) The Wandering Minstrel
We've now hit the "this is going to be run in cEDH" tier of our list. These next few commanders have already received plenty of speculation that they would being seeing play at high power tables, and for good reason. I initially had this guy much lower. Right now, the town mechanic is entirely too parasitic and I'm not sure we will ever see more. But I kind of forgot about the bounce lands from Ravnica and how this would go crazy with those and additional land effects. Even then, said interaction almost feels more gimmicky than good. Apparently, a lot of people that are way better than me at MTG disagree. I guess any five color commander that only costs two mana and does literally anything will get brewed with at competitive tables. Five colors is five colors and even giving your whole board +2/+2 or +3/+3 with the last ability could be relevant.
7) Terra, Magical Adept//Esper Terra
I don't know if she's quite going to replace our old friend Tom Bombadil, because I think he's a bit more consistent and faster. But Terra is still an absolutely absurd five color commander for sagas and can also be used with enchantments in general. Even if the token copies don't stick around, they can still cause a major swing in the game. Heck, you might even be able to take advantage of having to sacrifice said tokens by playing auras with death triggers. And if you do get to three lore counters, Terra is going to make a whopping 10 mana, basically allowing you to play whatever you want. And she doesn't even go back to the zone, she just flips back over. Overall an awesome commander...and that's just in casual pods. I've seen a lot of press about Terra as the new best Food Chain commander for cEDH decks, as she's five colors and can dig for the deck's namesake efficiently.
6) Kefka, Court Mage//Ruler of Ruin
Kefka is a very reasonably costed 4/5 for five in one of the strongest three color combinations, red, blue and black. It gets you value instantly, forcing your opponents to discard while drawing you cards. It could be as few as one, but it could also be more than four if your opponents pitch cards with multiple types. And things only get better when he transforms. Sure, it costs eight mana, but it's all colorless and doesn't require tapping. It also forces your opponents to sacrifice a creature, again providing instant value. And now it gets better, as a 5/7 flyer that draws you a card whenever opponents lose life on your turn. Only being on your turn limits it, but still, this ability is insane and easy to trigger right away in these colors. There is so much to like here and definitely earns its spot as a top commander.
5) Y'Shtola, Night's Blessed
This may be my favorite card in the whole set. White, blue and black is a great color combination and Y'Shtola's abilities play perfectly with what those colors like to do. It's not going to be difficult at all to ensure a player loses four life in a turn, especially because you can be that player and black has tons of ways to pay life. Then you can slowly but surely start gaining it all back. It's a little bit disappointing that the ability only triggers on spells of mana value three or greater, but otherwise it might be a bit too powerful. As it is, I still think it's an interesting commander that can be built around storm, paying life or any number of different strategies. Another commander I really want to build and one I think is going to be extremely powerful.
4) Celes, Rune Knight
Red, black and white is a strong color combination, but I really like the wheel effect out of the command zone. It's going to allow you to quickly cycle through your deck while filling the graveyard. In more casual settings, you obviously want to be building some level of reanimator/graveyard deck with this, as the counters from the second ability are going to add up quickly. And in more competitive settings, it will allow you to grab the persist creatures it goes infinite with. It's a really good, strong card that is all upside, one I kind of feel compelled to build.
3) Yuna, Grand Summoner
Yuna is in a strong color combination, with blue, white and green. She also produces infinite mana relatively easily with untapping effects like Pemmin's Aura or Freed From the Real. She can take infinite turns with Second Chance and Solemnity. She can win off Walking Ballista combos. Spira's high summoner can do it all. Even without the combos, her abilities are inherently useful without them, possibly more so than the two commanders ahead of her. However, I also think she's a little less explosive and requires a little bit more otherwise dead cards than the two commanders ahead of her, so she ends up third.
2) Vivi Ornitier
Hope you checked your binder for all those copies of Quicksilver Elemental you've been hoarding for years. It's only had one printing and that was 20 years ago, and now it goes infinte with our little black mage friend here. But even without that interaction, Vivi is an incredibly broken card that's going to go absolutely insane, building himself up and producing all kinds of mana with very little investment or effort. The aforementioned Quicksilver Elemental interaction is the one everyone is talking about, but I have a sneaking suspicion we have only scratched the surface of how busted this card is going to be at both casual and competitive tables. It probably has the most upside of any card in the set, but I have it second for a few very minute reasons. One, current interactions with it do require some level of cards that are dead without it, not as many as Yuna but more than the commander I have ranked ahead of it. Two, its color identity. This stuff really matters at the more competitive tables and only being blue and red does kind of matter in a world of three, four and five color commanders. Red has been especially weakened now that Dockside is gone. That said, at least you have all of blue's interaction and Underworld Breach to further go crazy. I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up the most powerful commander in the set, but for now I give the slight edge to...
1) Noctis, Prince of Lucis
I will say, I think Vivi's floor is a lot higher than Noctis. Vivi is going to be one of those commanders that can't be built casually, where you could very easily make a low-key Noctis deck. But right now, Noctis just feels like it's more consistent in a stronger color combination than Vivi. Having access to both blue and black allows you to play consult/thoracle while giving you access to white's strong removal and stax pieces. Not to mention, the ability to recur cheap artifacts has proven to be incredibly strong. You can go storm, you can go stax, you can go so many ways with Noctis. If you can get solemnity or hex parasite on board, you are going to be able to storm off with ease. Again, Vivi is a far more splashy commander that can lead to some huge, out of nowhere plays. But at higher power tables, consistency is key and it seems like Noctis will be able to pull off more proven lines more consistently. Vivi might end up surpassing the prince, but for now Noctis takes the top spot.
Well, that's going to do it for us here. That was a lot of cards and I am pleasantly surprised about how powerful most of them are. I'm already overwhelmed with stuff to build and now we have more than a hundred that are viable in some way. Either way, I'm excited to start cracking packs and playing this awesome new set.
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