We’re a little over a week into Spooky Season. Last week I looked at some spooky Commanders to build around this October, and I’m doing something similar this week – only I’ll be specifically taking a look at spooky creature types and my pick for the best Commander that best embodies what each of these creature types are all about.
ZOMBIES: WILHELT, THE ROTCLEAVER
I don’t know about you, but Zombies are the first creature type I think of when it comes to Halloween. These reanimated courses have been a staple of horror films since 1968’s Night of the Living Dead, and they have only become even more popular over the years.
Wilhelt is not only powerful, he does a pretty good job of making your opponent feel like they are dealing with a real horde of Zombies. If they kill one, one quickly shows up to replace it, and you can even give up your Zombies to draw extra cards and keep the pressure on them. The Zombies just don’t stop coming when you control Wilhelt. They might be slow-moving, but they’ll devour your opponent eventually.
While any and all Zombie payoffs are great with him, he gets especially good alongside recursive Zombies, as well as other Zombies that generate value when your Zombies die.
Gravecrawler is a must-have, since you can give it up every turn to get a 2/2 zombie and a card. Because you will undoubtedly control a Zombie, you can just recast him every turn and do it again.
Headless Rider gives you another Zombie (and this one isn’t decaying!) any time one dies, and Undead Augur can draw you even more cards. Wilhelt is powerful enough on his own, but when combined with additional value engines like this his horde is truly unstoppable.
VAMPIRES: OLIVIA VOLDAREN
If Zombies aren’t the first spooky creature type you think of during this time of year, there’s a good chance Vampires are. And indeed, they’ve been part of horror for much longer than Zombies have.
While blood-sucking undead beings have been part of worldwide human culture since at least the birth of civilization, Vampires as we think of them today were really born with Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which came out in 1897. Ever since then, they’ve been a major part of popular culture.
It’s difficult to argue that Edgar Markov isn’t the most powerful Vampire Commander, but when it comes to the flavor of Vampires, I think Olivida Voldaren best fits the bill because she really makes you feel like a Vampire. Her first activated ability lets her bite opposing creatures and turn them into vampires while powering up Olivia. And her second one lets you gain control of them.
There are other cards that will really make you feel like a vampire lord who has sired countless children. Captivating Vampire buffs your vampires, but also lets you tap them to turn opposing creatures into Vampires and steal them.
Olivia’s Wrath gives you a one-sided board sweeper that gets more potent the larger your Vampire army grows, and Anowon is a fellow Vampire who punishes your opponent’s creatures for not joining you on your side of the battlefield.
SCARECROWS: REAPER KING
Scarecrows are common decorations this time of year. Magic’s scarecrows are a lot like ours, only they’re actually alive – and that makes them a lot spookier than the cute scarecrow in your front yard.
The choice for a Scarecrow Commander is glaringly obvious. While he was finally joined by two fellow legendary Scarecrows last year (Rendmaw, Creaking Nest and The Swarmweaver) Reaper King is the only one who gives you an actual payoff for playing Scarecrows. He’s not only a lord for your fellow straw men, he also lets each of them annihilate a permanent any time they enter the battlefield.
This means that combining his fellow Scarecrows with blink effects – especially mass or recurring blink effects, can be particularly nasty. Eerie Interlude can blink every one of your Scarecrows all at once, and Conjurer’s Closet lets you do it every single turn.
While there is literally only a single other Scarecrow payoff in the game – Scarecrone – Reaper King is powerful enough to carry this creature type all on his own, though he certainly doesn’t mind the Crone’s help. Not only can she give up Scarecrows to draw you cards, she can also reanimate Scarecrows to give you that “enters” trigger again.
As I’ve already hinted, Reaper King has recently gotten some nice upgrades thanks to the Duskmourn and Aetherdrift Scarecrows. Wickerfolk Indomitable is particularly interesting since it has a built-in recursive effect that can potentially allow you to get it back every turn and destroy another permanent.
Scarecrow upgrades are likely to continue well beyond Spooky Season and into 2026, as Lorwyn Eclipsed is all but guaranteed to give us some new Scarecrows. Some new Scarecrow payoffs in particular – or perhaps a new incarnation of Reaper King himself – would be welcome.
NIGHTMARES AND HORRORS: UMBRIS, FEAR MANIFEST
“Nightmare” and “Horror” are Magic creature types that aren’t exactly part of mainstream Halloween the way the other types in this article are. However, within the Magic lore they are some of the scariest creature types around.
Horror is a broad creature type used for many of the most frightening creatures in the multi-verse who defy classification, while Nightmares are terrifying beings created from the greatest fears of the unconscious mind.
Umbris is capable of commanding both of these macabre creature types, and the way he does it is likely to make your opponent feel like they’re going insane. Any time a Nightmare or Horror enters, your opponent exiles cards from their library until they hit a land card.
This makes Umbris a powerful mill Commander, but that’s not the only axis he operates on, since he also gets more and more massive the more cards that get exiled. Umbris ends up feeling a whole lot like Freddie Krueger from the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. After all, he’s torturing your opponent’s unconscious mind (their library) and getting stronger the deeper you pull them into dream land (their exile zone.)
Any card that can repeatedly create Nightmare or Horror tokens is particularly potent with Umbris, since you can get the trigger numerous times. This means that two versions of Ashiok – Nightmare Muse and Wicked Manipulator – are particularly good alongside Umbris. Flavorful too!
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What spooky creature types are you building around this Halloween? Let me know over on X or Bluesky.
Jacob has been playing Magic for the better part of 24 years, and he especially loves playing Magic’s Limited formats. He also holds a PhD in history from the University of Oklahoma. In 2015, he started his YouTube channel, “Nizzahon Magic,” where he combines his interests with many videos covering Magic’s competitive history. When he’s not playing Magic or making Magic content, he can be found teaching college-level history courses or caring for a menagerie of pets with his wife.