Summary
There have been plenty of cool sets, Secret Lair drops, and extra expansions forMagic: The Gatheringin 2023, and with them have come some of the coolest commanders the game has seen yet. Legendary creatures have become ubiquitous with all these sets, powering up Commander with specially crafted creatures to lead your Commander decks with.
2023 brought with it some truly unique commanders from some of the most unique sets Magic has ever seen, like Tales of Middle-earth, The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, and even a few from Universes Beyond releases like Doctor Who. Let’s take a look back at what commanders dropped in 2023 and see how they stack up.
10Etali, Primal Conqueror
The Dinosaur King Is Back
While often found inside decks, sticking Etali, Primal Conqueror as your commander is certainly a powerful statement for your opponents. When Etali, Primal Conqueror comes into play, you get to steal a spell from the top of each player’s deck, letting you choose to cast them for free.
Since this is an enter the battlefield trigger, and Etali costs a hefty seven mana, you’ll want some protection to stop your opponents from countering your stuff. Whatever route you take, casting Etali is basically a 5-for-1 when it resolves, giving you all sorts of free stuff to use to win the game.
9Atraxa, Grand Unifier
All Will Be One
The longtime boogeyman of Commander, Atraxa received an immense update in her Phyrexia: All Will Be One version. Keeping her suite of keywords, she also gains an added ability that lets you pick the best cards from the top ten cards of your deck and put them into your hand. The only restriction is that you can only pick one of each card type, but more often than not you’re adding anywhere between four to five cards any each activation.
Sure, Atraxa now costs a bit more at seven mana, but you’re in four colors and one of them is green, so you practically get to do whatever you want.
8Themberchaud
Turn Your Mountains Into Trouble
Hot off the heels of the Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves film came a Secret Lair depicting the characters from the film. As the secret card in the Secret Lair, Themberchaud was a surprise hit among fans.
Even though he is among the few Dragons in Magic that can’t fly normally, you an exert him to get him airborne. The real power behind this Dragon is his enter the battlefield ability, which deals damage to each other creature that also doesn’t fly and each player, with X equal to the number of Mountains you control. In a mono red deck, you can deal some serious damage with this mad lad.
7Tom Bombadil
Sagas Have Never Looked So Good
Sagas have had a few commanders that synergized with the Enchantment subtype, but they didn’t have a dedicated legendary creature to guide the deck until Tom Bombadil came to play. This five-color Commander lets you play any and every Saga you want, picking the best for your deck.
Bombadil will only get betteras more Sagas are releasedso it’s only a matter of time before Tom gets some new pieces for your deck. His ability does require some careful consideration since it triggers only once per turn, but it still is an incredibly powerful effect in the game.
6Slimefoot And Squee
Reanimator Combo In Jund
The whole point of playing Slimefoot and Squee is just getting them into the graveyard and making sure you have another bomb in there and at least four mana open. Once you do, all you have to do is sacrifice a Saproling token and you get to bring back Slimefoot and Squee and another creature from your graveyard back to play.
There are tons of sacrifice outlets available in Jund, so getting this commander into the graveyard is no problem at all. Just toss another huge creature in the graveyard and you’ll be miles ahead of your opponents as early as turn four or five.
5Talion, The Kindly Lord
Pick A Number, Any Number
Talion is one of the more unique commanders to be released in 2023, with a truly unique ability to help give you the advantage against your opponents. When Talion comes into play, you pick a number between 1 and 10.
If anyone would cast a spell with a mana value equal to the number you pick, or if they cast a creature with power or toughness equal to that value, they lose two life and you draw a card. It takes some careful consideration to decide which number you want to pick for Talion, but you’re pretty safe picking two or three most of the time.
4Hylda Of The Icy Crown
The Queen Of Ice
Normally, Commander strategies that focus on tapping down your opponent’s board are a slog and generally unfun way to play. It slows the game down immensely and makes you the ultimate villain in the game.
With Hylda though, you don’t focus on tapping down everything, you just need to stop the worst things coming your way while generating value for yourself. This type of deck is mana heavy, often having you tap turn after turn, but since you’re generating all sorts of value including some beefy creatures and drawing cards, you can control the battlefield with ease.
3Pantlaza, Sun-Favored
Discover A New Way To Play
Making all yourDinosaur spells a two-for-oneis a fantastic way to build a board state and Pantlaza, Sun-Favored does that better than anyone else. Anytime Pantlaza or another Dinosaur enters the battlefield under your control, you get to discover for a value equal to that creature’s toughness.
It only happens once each turn, it is incredibly easy to get it to trigger on your opponent’s turns with flicker effects or creatures with flash. Even though you don’t get to control what spell you get off of it, being able to cast multiple spells in a turn, one of which is free, is an incredible advantage over your opponents.
2The Tenth Doctor
“Allons-y!”
Speaking of free spells,The Tenth Doctor has been a powerhousefrom the Universes Beyond Doctor Who expansion. While tons of The Doctors are great cards, few have such explosive turns as this one.
Anytime you attack you get to exile the top card of your deck until you hit a nonland card, putting three time counters on it and suspending it outside the game. Not all you have to do is wait three turns (or less if you can keep the Doctor around to activate his ability) and you can resolve your spell for free.
1Aragorn, The Uniter
You Have My Sword
There are a few different versions of Aragorn that released across the Tales of Middle-earth set, but by far the most exciting one is Aragorn, the United. This four color legendary creature encourages you to build a deck where all or most spells have two or more colors in them, getting the most value out of red and white based on his abilities, but green and blue are not bad too.
If you really want to get wild there’s a Food Chain combo built right into him, letting you loop copies of Squee, the Immortal infinitly and eventually burn your opponents out.
