Edge of Eternities brings with it 18 new options to helm your Commander deck. Of the options available, we’ve narrowed it down to the five that have gotten us the most excited to brew with.
THE FRESHEST EDGE OF ETERNITIES COMMANDERS
HALIYA, GUIDED BY LIGHT
Haliya, Guided by Light is the newest “Sister” to join the band. She’s got Soul and she’s a soldier. As a Commander, she opens up your deck to play “all of the Soul Sister” effects, sure, but you still need a little direction with that, or you’re going to be sitting doing a lot of nothing. Thankfully, as she also triggers off of artifacts, that means you can lean into Clues, and run the likes of Wojek Investigator.
First up, you’ll obviously want the strong one mana effects: Soul Warden, Soul’s Attendant, Guide of Souls, and these days, probably Ocelot Pride, too. Don’t sleep on the two mana effects like Auriok Champion, though. That protection is always relevant, whether it’s attacking, blocking, or just surviving a Blasphemous Act.
Ranger Captain of Eos and Ranger of Eos provide search for your one drops, so packing Esper Sentinel and Benevolent Bodyguard is a good way to get more out of these tutors.
Now, while Haliya can draw you a card each turn, that’s hardly enough to win a game. You’ll want to run lifegain that triggers on opponent’s turns, and payoffs that do also. The Gaffer gives you card draw each end step, and making tokens with Resplendent Angel and Crested Sunmare is right where you want to be.
Archangel of Thune, meanwhile, helps to grow your team whenever another creature enters, which can get out of hand fast. Nykthos Paragon can do the same, but also likes you to swing with a lifelink creature for maximum efficiency.
Where the deck will truly shine, however, is in gaining oodles of life in bursts. Having a way to sacrifice Elenda’s Hierophant to make a bunch of tokens, or casting Call the Coppercoats, with Haliya in play? You’re gaining a whole boatload of life, especially with another Soul Sister in play. The same goes for dropping a Springjack Shepherd when you have high devotion, or a Riot Control in the face of a big swing.
The payoff, then, is to dump your lifegain into an Aetherflux Reservoir, or drop a Moonshaker Cavalry to jump the team. Alternatively, if you’re managed to make them tall with +1/+1 counters, you could pay just one mana into a Brave the Elements to give them all protection from whatever color you want to be unblockable from for the turn.
MM’MENON, THE RIGHT HAND
What makes Mm’menon, the Right Hand so cool is that basically it’s not Urza, Lord High Artificer. That’s kinda all it needs to be popular and fun, because it means you can try a similar strategy to Urza decks but at less sweaty tables.
The first thing to consider in this build is how to get cheap mana. Thankfully, there are an abundance of zero and one mana value artifacts to turn into conditional Mox Sapphires. Darksteel Relic survives a wrath, Witching Well fixes your top deck, and Sensei’s Diving Top can basically pay for its own activation.
Sometimes you’ll get stuck with the top card of your library, and so Forensic Gadgeteer can draw those non-artifact cards into your hand in a pinch. I kind of prefer this to Mystic Forge, though I could see a world where I’d be running both, for sure. Artificer’s Assistant is another cheap way to ensure you can keep digging, while The Reality Chip gives you nice redundancy for your Commander but also opens you up to play lands and instants/sorceries/creatures etc.
Of course, to keep “storming” spells off the top, you need cost reduction. Sapphire Medallion, Etherium Sculptor and Cloud Key are obvious includes here, but if your artifact creature count is high enough – and particularly if you’re on Treasure Mage, Trinket Mage et al – then Semblance Anvil can do a lot of heavy lifting.
This is an ideal deck to try Isochron Scepter/Dramatic Reversal in if you’re at a spicier table.
For the second time today, I’ll be suggesting Aetherflux Reservoir as a win con – which is kinda funny, in the Space set. You also, however, have deck-out wincons like Laboratory Maniac and Brain Freeze, and a good-old Cyberdrive Awakener, plus many multi-piece combos. Go nuts!
RAGOST, DEFT GASTRONAUT
Are you telling me that a shrimp wrote this joke? Well, you’re mostly correct. *adjusts position in deskchair*
Ragost is the latest in a long line of inventive Boros (RW) designs, and it has people furiously brewing – Card Kingdom folks included. A two mana Commander is always worth considering, because two mana means they can be a much more vital part of your gameplan to build off of. Sacrificing artifacts in RW will largely amount to sacrificing Clues and Treasures, and if you use your imagination, using Strixhaven’s exploration of artifact graveyard synergies that you’d usually see in an Osgir deck to create nice little engines.
If you’re deep on artifacts (which arguably you should be), Weapons Manufacturing can make your food a little spicier by upping the Scoville scale. Nuka-Cola Vending Machine and Academy Manufactor both deserve a shout, though, as any deck doing stuff with Food has access to these combo pieces that are otherwise huge engine pieces.
Untapping Ragost is where the real value lies, and if you haven’t gotten a copy of Sting, the Glinting Dagger yet (which I’ve recommended many times since release) then now’s the time. Battlemage’s Bracers finally gets a chance to shine here too, while Drumbellower is a natural add if you’re looking to cook up a storm. Plargg Dean of Chaos // Augusta Dean of Order and White Plume Adventurer are considerable too if you’re going deep.
Artifacts are of course where you want to be for your permanents if you can, so having cards like Marvin, Murderous Mimic and Magewright’s Stone as ways to double-dip on Ragost – and ultimately to sacrifice to him – is a great plan.
Final Fantasy grants Ragost some extra seasoning. Edgar allows you to recast your artifacts each turn, and though they enter tapped, Ragost an either sacrifice them or you might get to untap them with the aforementioned effects. Joshua, meanwhile, is card filtering, and gets in on your decks main gameplan with his first two chapters as the Phoenix, while returning your stuff on chapter III.
If you don’t want to do infinite stuff with Krark-Clan Ironworks or Nuka-Cola Vending Machine, then leveraging artifacts and damage from Ragost is the way forward. Descent into Avernus speeds up any deck’s gameplan, but works exceedingly well in RW decks that can out-lifegain opponents while they burn up. Damage doublers turn Ragost into 6 damage each Food – which if you have an untapped, makes for 24 damage a rotation. Add a tripler like Fiery Emancipation? Well, lets just say your opponents have mopped up The Last Dab.
SAMI, WILDCAT CAPTAIN
Sami might be the most tempting Commander in the set to build. A blanket cost reduction for spells, in red-white? And a Commander with 4/4 of double-striking vigilance body to connect with? That’s pretty damn good mana cheating and finishing potential.
On the surface, Sami has two distinct build paths. Either you go full-tilt on expensive artifacts, like Portal to Phyrexia, or you go ham on Equipment, and use Sami as a Voltron beat stick. Both options are pretty sweet.
If you take the Voltron route, for instance, you get to cheat on the mana cost of your equipment. Historically, it’s been much easier to cheat on the equip costs, using the likes of Sigarda’s Aid, Fighter Class and Puresteel Paladin. You still had to pay for the equipment. Now, though, you’re getting a nice discount of at least three mana on your equipment, provided you curve out some mana rocks and play plenty of artifact lands for Sami to take advantage of.
On the other hand, slamming in with big artifact creatures and getting value from artifacts like Chimil, the Inner Sun is really easy when Sami is reducing their cost so much.
When it comes to winning the game, one handy combo card is Ancestral Statue. With affinity count of 4, you can just keep bouncing this one back to your hand and recasting it, for infinite enters the battlefield triggers. A handy Impact Tremors or Weftstalker Ardent will make short work of your opponents, and you can also use Empty the Warrens as your Storm payoff too.
Both routes ignore the fact that Sami can also cost reduce any spell, though. So, that means you get to cost reduce big Eldrazi, Burn spells, and token generating X spells. Boros big-mana is here.
TANNUK, STEADFAST SECOND
If there’s one Commander more balls-to-the-wall and wilder than any other this set, it’s Tannuk, Steadfast Second. Tannuk lets you have the best parts of Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded for just four mana. Warp, too, is better in many ways than the Sneak Attack adjacent ability of Purphoros, and you also get a 3/5 always-on blocker too. While casting for Warp cost doesn’t get around counterspells like Purphoros, it does enable cast triggers.
Oh, and it also lets you warp in artifacts, not just artifact creatures. That’s a hugely relevant bit of text.
Our inner spikes have no doubt all conjured up Blightsteel Colossus, and it’s true – Blightsteel is one of the more lethal things to warp in. That said, the previously mentioned Portal to Phyrexia becomes a three mana edict wrath of sorts, and that’s pretty nice too – and quite scary on turn four or five.
There are plenty of value plays that can give card advantage, like Ingenuity Engine, Coveted Jewel and Knollspine Dragon – the latter of which feels excellent for just three mana.
You can also get a lot out of some permanents as rituals. RMS Titanic is crewable by Tannuk, and can make up to seven treasures – or more if you somehow buff it or give it double strike. Chromatic Orrerry turns three mana into five, and Neheb as a hasted three mana play early
Mono red has access to a whole host of great effects, and they’re usually tied behind high mana costs and needing haste. Tannuk can solve both issues, allowing you to throw haymaker after haymaker to decimate your opponents.
END STEP
Edge of Eternities has some really fun looking Commanders to build around. I can’t decide which I’m most excited for – what are you hoping to build? Let us know on Bluesky.
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.