Reality Fracture features 86 new possible Commanders spread across the Multiverse Reforged Commander Precon and the main set. That’s a massive amount of new options, but which ones are the ones spiking our interest? Here are five of the coolest Commanders in Reality Fracture – in our humble opinion, of course.
5 OF THE BEST COMMANDERS IN REALITY FRACTURE
In picking our five Commanders today, we looked at several criteria, but the jist of it is that they offer fun, interesting and unique deckbuilding opportunities – all while being powerful, too.
AERID KONSTRARI
If you’re someone who enjoys off-meta picks for classic archetypes, you might already be big on Gruul Artifacts. Meria, Scholar of Antiquity is the cult classic in RG, encouraging you to spam out lots of small artifacts to make mana and impulse draw with. Aerid Konstrari feels like it operates in similar space when it comes to win conditions, as much like Meria, it’s geared up for big Voltron beats.
Your gameplan will consist of trying to get as many artifacts into play as possible – either through playing artifact creatures, artifact lands, and mana rocks, or by playing creatures that net you continuous output of artifact tokens. Given the Voltron viability of Konstrari, you can also play some equipment to help get that artifact count up. With enough artifacts in play, your Commander can represent lethal with ease.
Don’t forget to cash in on your artifact theme by playing a Sarinth Steelseeker, and other cards that care about artifacts entering. Once you’ve amassed a wide enough board of artifact tokens and mana rocks, you can gear them for battle with Depthshaker Titan and Craterclaw Colossus.
Konstrari seems like great more midrangey option for Gruul Artifacts.
KWIA VIGORBLOOM
On to another of the Elder Sphinxes now, with Kwia Vigorbloom. Kwia offers a twist on the Selesnya big-mana archetype by pushing you in a narrower direction – which really helps for deckbuilding. Your goal here is lifegain, incidentally, on everyone’s turn, in order to generate Black Lotus tokens. That’s a pretty sick design.
Obviously, you’re going to need your Essence Warden and Soul Warden, and other “Soul Sister” designs that trigger on each turn of the game. You’re going to want to try out Lifegift alongside Authority of the Consuls, and use incidental lifegain on your fogs (Riot Control), your protection (Restoration Magic) and even on your land drops (Graypelt Refuge).
Your payoffs include existing lifegain payoffs Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn and the many token producers you have access to – whether Angels from Angelic Accord or horses from Crested Sunmare, or even the Angels from a fat Finale of Glory. Those big spells (including Finale of Devastation, and Storm Herd) are what are winning you the games.
TAMIYO, UPRISER CROWNED
Big Boros beats is always a strong archetype, and we keep getting more interesting RW Commanders to build around. Tamiyo, Upriser Crowned is the latest, and looks like a lot of fun. Six mana is a lot, but she’s coming down to end the game, not start it. Your early game is about setting up the perfect conditions for Tamiyo to come down from the top rope.
The early to mid-game looks like you drawing as many cards as possible, while deploying useful creatures to the board that help to encourage attacks go elsewhere. You want to create openings with Goad, and deploy some other evasive attackers that can get large – Black Widow, Agile Avenger being ideal for this.
When you’re ready to try and win the game, you need to bring out the big guns. Promise of Loyalty and similar sweepers that leave Tamiyo behind can create your openings, but you also need to buff Tamiyo to help you finish games. Using the Exalted effects from Sublime Archangel and Frontline Rush work great here, especially if you made efforts to deploy an army in the early to mid-stages of a game – an army that wants to block to keep the Monarch.
THE UR-SPHINX
The Ur-Sphinx is to the Sphinx flavored Ur-Dragon, and instead of peeling off of your own library, you’re milling each player and casting cards that way. In some ways this feels more powerful than Ur-Dragon, depending on your set up.
You want to ensure you get some of the other obvious cost reducers in there like Unesh and Urza’s Incubator, but also utility Sphinx like Dazzling Sphinx to get extra value as you’re curving out.
Winning the game with flyers isn’t difficult, but pushing towards that win with Magister Sphinx can get you there a lot quicker. With all of that mill – and the chance to cast big spells for free – lean into it with Breach the Multiverse and Rise of the Dark Realms.
NIV-MIZZET, GHOST COUNCIL
Niv–Mizzet, but a ghost, is arguably my favorite design in the set, because it gives BW Lifegain decks a really strong draw engine that helps get them closer to their win conditions – while enabling a bunch of cards that are otherwise really underplayed.
While some includes are more obvious – like Sheoldred granting you three cards whenever you draw one, Blind Obedience tacking on Ancestral Recall to your spells, and Ayri being a suped up Greater Good – there are plenty of other cool synergies to try.
Much like Kwia, you’re wanting to get that incidental lifegain on other effects. How about four cards off of Revitalize? How about redrawing Approach of the Second Sun immediately? Just keep a Tainted Sigil or Children of Korliss in your back pocket to get that life you’re paying back.
END STEP
There are plenty of great new Commander options in Reality Fracture to try out, and today we’ve showcased a few of the ones we’re excited about. Did you cover your top picks? What are you brewing? Let us know on socials.
Kristen is Card Kingdom’s Head Writer and a member of the Commander Format Panel. Formerly a competitive Pokémon TCG grinder, she has been playing Magic since Shadows Over Innistrad, which in her opinion, was a great set to start with. When she’s not taking names with Equipment and Aggro strategies in Commander, she loves to play any form of Limited.