Magic: The Gatheringmade an unprecedented move in 2016, releasing a wave of four-color commanders as faces of the Commander 2016 precon lineup. These were Magic’s first four-color legendary creatures, which opened up a huge swathe of deckbuilding options that were only previously available to five-color decks.
Commander 2016 supplemented these new color identities withvarious partner legends, which have added endless customization options to Commander. Since then, the number of four-color legends has more than doubled, with another three being printed across products in 2023 alone.
Honorable Mention: The Guildpact Nephilim
The Nephilim creatures from Guildpact were the first four-color cards in Magic, printed long before Commander was even recognized as a format. They’re not legendary though, so they’re not technically viable as commanders, though that hasn’t stopped players from including them as honorary commanders in Rule 0 conversations.
While many players have clamored forerratato make the Nephilim legendary, it’s unclear how much of an impact they’d even have on the format. Most of them are pretty fiddly and revolve around combat triggers, with Ink-Treader Nephilim leading the pack as the most interesting (and annoying) of the cycle.
9The Fourteenth Doctor
The Doctor’s Doctor
The Fourteenth Doctor’s designed specifically to tie together all other Doctor cards released in theDoctor Who Commanderdecks and accompanying Secret Lairs. It encompasses all their colors, since none of them were black cards.
Besides unifying all the Doctors in one deck, you also get to take advantage ofthe Doctor’s Companion abilityto pair The Fourteenth Doctor with the earthling of your choice. You could add black to your deck with Clara Oswald or Vislor Turlough, though, canonically, Donna or Rose Noble would be the way to go.
8Kynaios And Tiro Of Meletis
The Ideal Group Hug Commander
Kyanios and Tiro of Meletis is the perfect commander for those who wish to be as benevolent as possible to their opponents. Of course, K&T isn’ttoofriendly; the commander always makes sure you come out on top.
You don’t necessarily want to be the player spending their cards and mana ona completely symmetrical effect, but Meletis’s heroes give you just a pinch more of an advantage than what’s bestowed upon your opponents. Perfect for making allies while still getting ahead in the game.
7Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder
Wield The Power Of Cascade
Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder has an incredibly powerful textbox, held back only by the need to connect in combat before it does anything relevant. Trample helps a ton, but findinga few haste enablersgoes a long way. Yidris is also competing with numerousother cascade cardsthat have entered the game since 2016.
There are two ways to go about building a Yidris deck. You can take the expensive spell approach where you’re hoping to cascade high mana value spells into other expensive spells. Or you can rattle off cheap spells for a flurry of cascades each turn.
6Breya, Etherium Sculptor
No Green, No Problem
Of the five original four-color legends, Breya, Etherium Sculptor was the only one that pointed players in an exact direction: artifacts. It wastheartifact commander for the first few years after release, though time and power creep have since knocked it down a few pegs.
Breya became somewhat infamous for its combo potential when combined with cards like Nim Deathmantle and Ashnod’s Altar. These cards combine to form aninfinite mana loopthat also creates infinite Thopter tokens, and it just so happens Breya’s abilities let you filter mana into damage, life gain, or board removal as needed.
5Saskia The Unyielding
Pure Aggro Energy
Saskia the Unyielding can be built in several different ways, but they all point towards delivering a swift death unto your opponents. you may choose a player you intend to attack anyway to double up your damage against them, or select a more well-defended player to slip damage past their blockers.
The ‘mean’ version of this deck involvesinfect creatures, which essentially bounce their damage from one player onto another. Since it only takes ten poison counters to eliminate a player, it’s an effective way to take out two opponents at once with only a few creatures in play.
4Omnath, Locus Of Creation
Fourth Time’s The Charm
Omnath’s been through the Magic equivalent of the five stages of grief, gaining a color every time we revisit the character. The four-color version reigns supreme, earning a previous Standard banning and an Alchemy rework onMagic Arena.
The goal with four-color Omnath is triggering landfall twice per turn. Fetch lands and spells like Cultivate make this fairly easy to do, after which Omnath refunds a large chunk of temporary mana. The life buffer and damage abilities are nice add-ons, and the icing on top is the card that Omnath draws as soon as it enters the battlefield.
3Aragorn, The Uniter
Ideal For Open-Ended Deckbuilding
Aragorn, the Uniter’s calling card is its flexibility as a commander. It advertises four-color shenanigans, but it leaves room for imagination. Some players try to maximize all four abilities at once, while others hone in on a specific ability and try to trigger it as much as possible.
The blue ability is the worst by far, followed by the white token-making ability, which is only a step above. The red and green abilities are the ones that convert your spells into damage, making them the most valuable triggers to focus on when building around Aragorn.
2Atraxa, Praetors' Voice
The Most Popular Commander Of All
Oh Atraxa, what can’t you do? The continued popularity of Atraxa, Praetors' Voice is a testament tojust how versatile proliferate is. +1/+1 counters, -1/-1 counters, poison counters, loyalty counters, filibuster counters (yes, that’s real)… you name it, Atraxa stacks ‘em up.
That’s all without crediting how good Atraxa is as a standalone (flyalone?) creature. Flying for evasion, lifelink to swing races, vigilance to play offense and defense, and deathtouch because why not? Bear in mind, Atraxa almost always has a couple +1/+1 counters onitselfto become an increasingly scary threat.
1Atraxa, Grand Unifier
The Ultimate Top-End Threat
Somehow the only creature more terrifying than Atraxa themself is… Atraxa themself? Atraxa, Grand Unifier took Magic by storm across just about every format. It does incentivize creative deckbuilding, insofar as ‘jam powerful cards with different types’ is creative.
While most formats are trying to cheat Atraxa 2.0 into play, Commander players are mostly content paying the full seven mana for such an imposing creature and an entire hand refill. You want to construct your deck to hit as many card types as possible, but it’s hard not to draw at least three to five cards without even trying.
