5 Commanders That Prove Grixis Gets All the Fun

When you sit down to build a new Commander deck, picking something that’ll be fun to play is near or at the top of the list for most players. In Kristen’s mind, some color combinations can offer more fun options than others. So, here are five recent Grixis Commanders that prove that Grixis gets to have all the fun. 

GRIXIS IS A HELLA STRONG COLOR COMBO

When you think of Grixis, you tend to think about what the colors can do when combined. When you add red, blue and black together, you end up with the perfect combo for controlling the board and assembling tricky and resilient win conditions. Most people think of Grixis decks as being deliciously aggressive in their pursuit of glory, happy to become the archenemy, and built with that in mind.

One of the most popular cEDH decks is RogSi, which uses classic win cons like Laboratory Maniac and Thassa’s Oracle in combination with Demonic Consultation and Tainted Pact to win the game. “Getting there” is achieved with the best interaction available in the colors, leveraging Rograkh being a 0 mana Commander to enable free spells like Deflecting Swat and Fierce Guardianship. 

Classic Grixis Commanders like Jeleva, Nephalia’s Scourge and Kess, Dissident Mage do the spellslinger control gameplan at more casual tables, and usually end up being just as potent but on a slower trajectory. You have Commanders like Marchesa, the Black Rose that capitalize on how +1/+1 counters can be placed on creatures to keep them coming back, and Inalla, Archmage Ritualist that similarly lets you cheat a bit with making extra Wizards – even when Inalla isn’t in play. 

Grixis decks have always been powerful and bend the rules when it comes to achieving combos and synergies. With access to counterspells, redirects and cheap reanimator, they need dealing with to stop their inevitable domination.

Here are 5 Recent Grixis Commanders that capitalize on the strengths of Grixis to offer fun gameplay and huge stopping power. 

HONORABLE MENTION: OBEKA, SPLITTER OF SECONDS

I want to mention Obeka before we get into the list proper, as she’s one of the most popular Grixis Commanders for a reason. The tantalizing prospect of being able to chain together upkeeps after your Combat phase is one that’s hard to pass up, especially when some upkeep triggers can take over a game if you get to untap – while others just end games instead.

The only reason Obeka isn’t on the list today is because she’s something of a known quantity. This means that you’ve likely already built her or decided not to – and it also means she’s a bit of a glass cannon, which can overall reduce how fun she is to play. If there’s some new nuggets of strategy to offer, it’s to play Genji Glove and Brotherhood Regalia if you aren’t already. 

5. SAURON, THE DARK LORD

Instead, consider playing Sauron. Much like Obeka, Sauron is exceedingly popular – but unlike Obeka, he won’t just win the game if you get to go to combat, and he is a lot costlier to remove from play, which means your fun should last a little longer. 

Getting a slowly growing Orc Army is fun, as is ticking it up. Ticking it up alongside a Taurean Mauler (which is also an Army) is even more fun. The payoff for Sauron is getting to throw away your hand and draw four more cards when the ring tempts you. This leads you inevitably to one of the most fun archetypes in the game: Reanimator.

What makes Sauron fun is that you can truly take it in a direction of your choosing. If you like, you can go full-theme, and lean into playing all of the Orcs and Villains in the Lord of the Rings. 

You can even play a thematic deck and jam as many Nazgul & Wraiths in the deck as possible.

Or, you can choose to play with some of strongest reanimator targets in the game, along with enablers and other discard outlets. The choice is really yours, and that makes Sauron a fun build with a lot of potential. 

4. EDWARD KENWAY

Next up I want to recommend Edward Kenway. Sure, he’s from Assasin’s Creed, and he cares about Assassins. That is definitely something you’re more than welcome to build around, should you desire it.

But what I think makes Edward Kenway so fun and cool is that he is arguably the strongest and most fun Pirates Commander that you could hope to build. He is the glue that holds a pirates deck together, giving you treasure tokens at the end of your turn equal to the number of tapped Pirates, Vehicles and Assassins you control. Because you can crew Vehicles with your creatures, you’re all but guaranteed the ability to make serious mana gains every turn.

You get to run all of the best pirate ships because you get to run colored artifacts as well as colorless ones – and let me tell you, Jackdaw is a house. 

Plus, it’s a deck where you can run the rather fantastic Vaan, Street Thief that you opened and were wondering where to put.

3. KEFKA, COURT MAGE // KEFKA, RULER OF RUIN

Speaking of Final Fantasy, have you checked out Kefka yet? Drawing cards is hella fun, and doing so in the Command Zone in your control-combo finish Grixis deck is a helluva drug. Kefka triggering on enters and attacks makes him well worth the five mana. 

He’s also a Wizard, so while you’re cashing in on Waste Not and Monument to Endurance, you can also be doubling up Kefka’s triggers with Harmonic Prodigy.

The goal is, of course, to strip resources from opponent’s hands while drawing more cards yourself. Eventually when you flip Kefka, you’ll get to draw even more cards as you slowly dispatch your opponents. 

One of the disadvantages of playing Control in Commander is that the card disadvantage of countering single spells or removing single permanents really starts to feel like a bad deal. Kefka lets you even the playing field by tipping card advantage in your favor, and limiting options for opponents to get back into the game.

2. ABADDON THE DESPOILER

I feel like if Abaddon wasn’t amongst the first Universes Beyond cards, it would have gotten a lot more love. As is stands, it’s an extremely potent Commander that I’m always equal parts scared and excited to see across the table.

Pain for All and Shadow of the Goblin join the likes of Keeper of Secrets to bolster Abaddon’s arsenal of damage-dealing and Cascade synergy, and are just two reasons to consider building this Commander in 2025.

Another reason is to play a card that always puts in way more work than you’d think it would, which is The Lost and the Damned. This card is terrifying, because it gets out of hand incredibly quickly – especially if you pair the burn aspect of Abaddon with cards like Terror of the Peaks or Impact Tremors effects to really get the (fire)ball roilling. 

Abaddon remains a fun deck because of how fun Cascade is as a mechanic. It dodges the complexity of Temur Cascade decks and leans into game progression through burn, and that can only be a good thing for the average player.

1. GORO-GORO AND SATORU

The deck I’ve had the most fun being murdered by and seeing pop off in Grixis, though, has to be Goro–Goro and Satoru. Every color combination these days has a way to play aggressively, and Grixis’ premier option is always a fun time. 

Of course, playing Ninjas is on the table, because you get to use Ninjutsu to trigger the creation of Dragon tokens. You can also use Sneak Attack and Tannuk to get things into the red zone the same turn. But that’s thinking too linearly.

You can curve into making a 5/5 dreadfully easily in this deck by playing some cards you might not play elsewhere, like Maestro’s Diabolist, or making tokens with Myriad – which can net you even more Dragon tokens. And, while you’re at it, using Saheeli to make even more token copies with haste to make more Dragon tokens.

With the ability to quickly amass Dragon tokens to block with, burn with or otherwise slam into people with, and the ability to play full-tilt into aggression and give your board haste, it becomes a hard deck to deal with quite quickly indeed. Part of that is that having multiple 5/5s in play as early as turn 5 can stop other decks from attacking into you to gain advantage, and those 5/5s being quickly lethal also stops those same players from going shields down and attacking each other for long, too. 

END STEP

What makes Grixis such a fun color combination in Commander? It’s probably that you get to play red cards, which I fundamentally think at the most fun-promoting cards in Commander, augmenting any color or color pair with the juice to get things done – with a little chaos and unpredictability thrown in there for good measure.

If you’re after a fun new deck, then Grixis is apparently the gift that keeps giving.