Having Legendary synergy in your Commander Deck is a fun way to bring together your favorite Heroes and Villains from the Magic universe under one banner. Legendary-matters has received a lot of support in recent years, so here are 10 of the best Legendary Matters Commanders to helm your rag-tag bunch of adventurers.
THE BEST LEGENDARY MATTERS COMMANDERS
So usually for these kinds of articles, there is some kind of number order going on to countdown to the best card. The thing is, with this particular article today, I’m more aiming at showing off a variety of approaches to building Legendary-matters, so that approach doesn’t really apply.
Instead, I’m going to gradually add more colors, starting with two color builds.
HAJAR, LOYAL BODYGUARD
I bet you weren’t expecting to see Hajar, Loyal Bodyguard on today’s list, eh? Well, I can’t exactly blame you, as he hit in a heavily blue-oriented artifact set: Brother’s War. Hajar is a way to play Legendary-matters in Gruul, which has, until recently, not had a Commander to tie it together. Hajar can be that Commander, and at such a cheap initial cost to play, means you have no qualms about dropping Blasphemous Act, Chain Reaction et al to clear the way for your legends to connect.
Hajar can run Bard Class as a “secret Commander”, and let me tell you – if you build around RG legends specifically, this little enchantment can put some serious work in! Friend of my discord Aiden has a sweet Hajar list I always love playing against, which you can find on Moxfield here.
Gruul is very combat-oriented, and so you can run classics like Xenagos, God of Revels, while augmenting that strategy with newer hotness like Halana and Alena, Partners and Anzrag. MOLE GOD!
Of course, Bard Class isn’t the only consistency in these colors. Mina and Denn, Reki, Time of Need, Domri, Anarch of Bolas… Gruul Legends has a surprisingly robust shell to build within.
RATADRABIK OF URBORG
Over to Orzhov, and we have something spicy: Ratadrabik of Urborg. If you like legends, but you also like to do Aristocrats things and mayyyybe some combos, as a treat? Well, this Zombie Wizard has you covered. Even ignoring the combo potential and recursion, having a team with Vigilance and a Commander with Ward {2} is just really comfy.
The bread and butter of a Ratadrabik deck is having good sacrifice outlets, and thankfully there are some Legends who can hook you up. Bartolome and Yahenni both slot nicely into this build, as well as the traditional Altar of Dementia/Ashnod’s Altar. Altar of Dementia is one I always pack in a deck like this, because it lets you play my favorite reanimator card:
Living Death is great in a list like this, because all of the creatures you sacrifice to it will create token copies, which makes it hilariously one sided. I also like Lich-Knights’ Conquest as a “second copy” of Living Death, especially if you’re running…
…cards that make treasures, like the stellar Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff. Orzhov makes treasure pretty well, with Smothering Tithe being arguably the lynchpin of many strategies. Or at least, the thing that takes them up to 11.
Oh, and here are 31 combos involving your Commander. The easiest involves Boromir, so you should grab one. I mean, Boromir is also just a stellar card that hates on all the free spell nonsense in Commander.
NIAMBI, ESTEEMED SPEAKER
Card draw in the Command Zone? Check. Discard outlet for reanimator? Check. Utility with a relevant EtB? Check. Niambi checks a lot of boxes. While it’s tempting to go as many colors as possible for a Legends-matter deck, sometimes restrictions breed creativity, and Niambi is surprisingly good at doing Legendary reanimator.
Pitching Avacyn, Angel of Hope or Reya Dawnbringer to draw two cards and ensure that they can be Late to Dinner feels awesome, and if you run enough colorless sources you can even jam in new Emrakul from MH3 to take advantage of that discard outlet you always have access to.
Niambi gives you access to lots of utility in the likes of Linvala and Raff Capashen, allowing for good setup and plenty of staying power.
In Azorius, you get access to the best options for board control. While Urza’s Ruinous Blast is a staple of these kinds of decks, you could go as hard as playing Lavinia or OG Praetor Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur if you’re aiming your deck to play at hardcore tables.
Want an example list? Check out Cryptic’s list I’ve also had the pleasure to play against.
DJERU AND HAZORET
Next up, let’s visit Boros for something a little more, well, Boros. You gotta be attacking, it’s Boros. Djeru and Hazoret slam in and let you dig for a freecast of a legendary creature, which is honestly pretty good mana and card advantage for a RW deck.
Boros has some great Legends that feel a bit long in the tooth to be in the Command Zone in 2024, and Djeru and Hazoret is a Commander that can bring together these powerful creatures with some solid card advantage and get them into play. Aurelia and Iroas, two of the most powerful Boros Legends, synergize great in this deck, offering more triggers, and a way to attack with impunity.
Of course, you want to be attacking as soon as possible, and taking advantage of extra combats with the new creatures you have. That’s why packing some Haste is super important to helping the deck get off the ground.
More synergies abound, with Passionate Archaeologist giving some serious reach to those free spells. The new Surtr, Fiery Jotun from the Assassin’s Creed Starter Decks is worth considering, too, if you like to rain down lightning bolts. If you want to see an example list, another brewer from my Discord Munsu has an excellent list he’s been fine tuning.
CAPTAIN SISAY
We move to Selesyna for the OG, Captain Sisay. Captain Sisay was the progenitor of legendary matters as a toolbox approach, and even today she’s still a viable Commander to build around – if you want to try something Staxy.
Sisay is a true toolbox deck, meaning you can jam in the most powerful cards in her colors and reliably see them when you need them. That means fantastic draw power and survivability from The One Ring and The Great Henge, but also powerful creatures to swing with, like Avacyn, Angel of Hope and Sigarda, Font of Blessings that also protect your board.
She can run hatebears and stax, like God-Pharaoh’s Statue and Stone of Erech in order to really throw a spanner in your opponent’s plans. There are tools for every situation, and you can play in a way to suit the table.
Of course, getting to use her multiple times a turn cycle makes her even better, so new hotness Sting, the Glinting Dagger finds a forever home here alongside the stellar Thousand-Year Elixir.
Oh, and you can run this little “combo” that will boardwipe the opponent and leave you with a team of 4/4s. Unbearably cool.
KETHIS, HIDDEN HAND
Running all of your favorites in one deck can be challenging, especially as “legendary-matters” is so broad. Many players opt for three or more colors, and a good place to start is Kethis, the Hidden Hand. Kethis gives you Abzan synergy, graveyard synergy, cost reduction, and brings together many of the strategies we’ve explored in Ratadrabik and Captain Sisay.
Because you’re in Abzan, you get access to the landfall package and lands-matter tech, which can go a long way to increasing your consistency. Necrobloom in particular helps out a lot in a Planeswalker heavy build, making token blockers. If you’re still creature heavy, then Vraska Joins Up is your prize – super cheap card draw and added deathtouch.
As a graveyard build, you get to do fun stuff with The Capitoline Triad. Emblems are hard to interact with, so boosting your team to 9/9s is very, very strong. Likewise, loading up the yard means The Kenrith’s Royal Funeral is a solid hand refill for four mana.
Of course, this type of deck thrives on one-sided reanimation, and Eerie Ultimatum and Primevals’ Glorious Rebirth both continue to carry this deck, giving such absurd value that it’s hard to lose once set up.
DIHADA, BINDER OF WILLS OR SHANID, SLEEPERS’ SCOURGE
Dihada, Binder of Wills is a great option for you if you have a bunch of legends, no real Commander that excites you, and the urge to play around in the graveyard. She combines the graveyard matters synergies in Orzhov with the combat punch of Boros, with Rakdos cards bridging the two.
I wrote about her in my Archetypes You Can Build in an Hour article, but suffice to say, you can get a really consistent build going just by using her ability. The aforementioned Lotho fits well here, along with Kellogg and Magda to really zone in on treasures. Dwarves like Gimli and Gloin both synergize here too, so you can have a small contingent of Dwarves to satisfy Magda.
There are many directions to go with Dihada, but one I like the most is keyword soup. Odric, Lunarch Marshal and Bleeding Effect are both great build-arounds, especially with Dihada able to hand out keywords like candy. Get Akroma, Angel of Wrath or Zetalpa in your yard and you’re onto a winner.
Shanid and Dihada go hand-in-hand (especially because they were in the same precon, with The Reaver Cleaver. What a precon!). If you tire of treasure, or you don’t want a Planeswalker Commander, then Shanid is another great Mardu option. Drawing cards for making Legendary land drops or casting Legendary spells means you’ll never run out of cards.
In-built Menace for your team means this skews towards combat, and one build that is really good is Legendary humans. You get a really viable team that attacks even safer when it has Menace, and if you run haymaker after haymaker, you get to increase the chance Shanid stays in play to keep the cards coming.
Of course, if you do opt for Humans, then secret-Commander Winota is a powerful and fun card to build around. Putting cards like Yoshimaru and Anim Pakal in your build along with other cheap non-human legends and token makers makes a Winota a scary prospect.
SISAY, WEATHERLIGHT CAPTAIN
If Captain Sisay was the progenitor, then Sisay, Weatherlight Captain ushered in the Renaissance. Now we’ve arrived at five-color, and we mean business. Sisay is extremely powerful, and takes toolbox decks to the next level – she’s even cEDH viable if that’s your bag.
Good mana is essential in a five color deck, and thankfully there are some amazing options for Sisay to take advantage of. Relic of Legends just keeps going, and Faeburrow Elder and Bloom Tender can tap for up to five, just like Jegantha, and Selvala, Heart of the Wilds.
The best part about Sisay is using her at instant speed, combining the toolbox potential of Captain Sisay with the sheer power of combo lines and permission. Try adding cool cards like Dynaheir to copy her ability, or Najeela lines to win with. The sky’s the limit.
ESIKA, GOD OF THE TREE
If you want something a little more casual, there are two options. The first of which is Esika, God of the Tree. On the front she’s a ramp engine, while on the reverse? A way to cheat stuff into play.
She lets you run all of the expensive legends like Gisela, Blade of Goldnight or Atraxa, Grand Unifier, letting you sneak them into play with the Prismatic Bridge, or just ramp into them by tapping cheaper legends you curve out with.
Esika makes for a great legendary Gods deck, utilizing Prismatic Bridge to get them into play, and the World Tree land which can grab all of them out of your library, which makes for a very fun build.
JODAH, THE UNIFIER
It seems fitting to unify our options with one legendary Commander to rule them all. Jodah, the Unifier and his technicolor Coat of Arms is a force to be reckoned with, and the true successor of Sisay, Weatherlight Captain in casual EDH. Sisay is way more cEDH inclined, and way more linear, where Jodah offers that most fun of mechanics – more or less cascading into the next legendary card in your library.
What makes Jodah truly busted-levels of strong is that amazing anthem. By the time you get Jodah out, your board is probably already enjoying a buff of at least +3/+3.
There’s not much more to say here other than to jam everything you find fun into a Jodah deck, and a little bit of everything we’ve learned today.
END STEP
There are dozens of options for legendary-matters that aren’t just Superfriends, and I hope you’ve got some fresh ideas from today’s article. Who are you running? 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.