Innistrad has to be one of my all-time favorite planes in Magic. The mix of gothic horror, the sublime, and the introduction of eldritch horror later on was all right up my street. Innistrad also has a whole host of great Commanders to try, and this week, we’ll look at some underrated and underplayed options.
Previous entries have looked at Zendikar and Strixhaven. We’re going to be looking at all of Innistrad for this list – so any creature native to the plane. Let’s dive in.
JELEVA, NEPHALIA’S SCOURGE
Jeleva is a “classic” Commander, first released in Commander 2013. For the longest time, she was a somewhat fairer Narset, casting from opponent’s libraries instead of her own. Casting spells from an opponent’s library has since become quite common, with the Grixis colors especially dipping into this mechanic time and time again.
The meta has changed a lot since the early days of Jeleva, and thanks the the relative dearth of board wipes in the average deck, and access to way more Ninjutsu creatures and solid bounce cards like Run Away Together, Jeleva decks can keep the engine going way easier.
In fact, I’d say that there’s never been a better time to try a Jeleva deck, and part of that is because of how much more value you can get with her these days thanks to the sheer quantity of support cards printed since 2013.
Harmonic Prodigy and Roaming Throne allow you to double dip in both of Jeleva’s abilities: firstly, her exiling of spells, and secondly, casting more than one when she attacks. While extra combat spells help a lot, it’s permanents like this you want to look at.
Using the exile zone has also never been easier. Oblivion Sower can ramp you many, many lands, and Wild-Magic Sorcerer ensures that you get to double-dip on value. If you run enough extra combat spells, then you could really go on a tear by hitting one off of the first Jeleva spell.
There’s support too in cards like Don Andres, that will give you extra treasures to bank for recasting Jeleva.
And come on – if you play Jeleva you have to play Fevered Suspicion. It’s a hella fun card to resolve. Check out Mercury01’s Jeleva deck for inspiration.
LAURINE, THE DIVERSION & KAMBER, THE PLUNDERER
Strefan understandably got a lot of love when the Crimson Vow Commander Precons released, being the face Commander and all. I also feel like Partner With is forever overshadowed by the power level of the original Partner mechanic, and to a lesser extent, the Backgrounds option. Partner With asks you very specifically to play with these two creatures.
The thing is, I think people are missing a trick here. Laurine and Kamber are a lot of fun, and every time I resolved one of them in my Burakos/Guild Artisan Rakdos Treasures deck, I had an urge to build them as their own deck. Laurine’s access to repeatable Goad can be monumentally powerful in Casual Commander.
It’s easy to be put off by Blood Tokens being a somewhat parasitic mechanic, but two things: firstly, we have had new Blood Token cards printed since we got Kamber and Crimson Vow. Secondly, Kamber makes a mass of Blood Tokens usually, as you play her in conjunction with mass edicts or removal. Making a mass of Blood Tokens is making a mass of artifacts, and that’s what’s key.
Rakdos artifacts is a flexible archetype, and there’s plenty of ground here. The death-by-one-thousand-cuts approach works well, especially given both of your Commanders can be Agents of the Iron Throne, doubling up on triggers.
You’ve got ways to turn those Blood Tokens into mana with Crime Novelist, and when you do inevitably wipe the board, you can get Treasures as well as Blood by playing Mahadi, Emporium Master or Gadrak.
If you want to keep the Blood economy going, you can invest in one of my favorite cards, Archfiend of Ifnir, and new hotness Maha, Its Feathers Night. Both allow you to selectively prune opposing boards to get your tithes.
You also have access to some fun finishers. No matter the composition of the deck, cards like Imskir Iron-Eater and The Balrog, Durin’s Bane can be made cheaper with your Blood economy.
WERNOG, RIDER’S CHAPLAIN & SOPHINA, SPEARSAGE DESERTER
Speaking of Rakdos artifacts, how about adding white? How about moving the focus to Clues, and unlocking the ability to play Academy Manufactor?
That’s enough to sway a lot of you, I think, so consider Wernog and Sophina, Friends Forever. You get access to all of the Rakdos artifacts synergies, but with the aristocrats synergies of Orzhov and the attack power of Boros.
Low on the curve you get the excellent Thorough Investigation, bringing you oodles of extra value for doing what you wanted to do anyways, and Teysa, Opulent Oligarch, who will likely trigger whenever you’re playing or flickering Wernog, ensuring you always get your Clues.
Mardu opens up access to Kambal, Profiteering Mayor. He helps with the usual aristocrats “clock”, but more than that, he helps you get extra value. He can potentially copy a whole swarm of tokens from a spell or ability, or getting a chunky token when someone uses a clone spell.
Clues decks also have some neat win conditions. Merchant of Truth keeps Clues churning over while giving a big exalted boost.
Sentinel Sarah Lyons turns those stockpiled Clues into pure damage, and Persuasive Interrogators even uses poison counters to annihilate an opponent. You need only sacrifice five clues to do it.
Mardu also opens up some really strong enablers, like Isshin, Two Heavens as One. Check out VazSun’s Wernog & Sophina deck for some pointers.
SORIN OF HOUSE MARKOV // SORIN, RAVENOUS NEONATE
Sephiroth Sorin here is a relative newcomer on the block. That said, he’s got a sneaky win condition baked right in that can do some serious damage. When you get him flipped, his -1 can deal a boatload of damage to someone’s face (which is where it’ll usually go).
Getting him flipped in the first place is relatively easy in the early game given his in-built Extort can do it for you, and from there, the deck is pretty straightforward to build – but a lot of fun, if you like lifegain.
The obvious includes if you want to go down a lifelink wincon route are the cards that allow you to combo out and win the game. There are probably a dozen of them now, and getting various halves of the classic Exquisite Blood/Sanguine Bond combo can allow for a pretty competitive deck.
Gaining decent chunks of life on your turn is key to winning through Sorin’s -1 ability, so Twilight Prophet and Serra Ascendant are both great ways to get that number closer to 10.
Other Sorin Planeswalkers actually synergize really well with MH3 Sorin. Vengeful Bloodlord gives your board lifelink for those big swings, and brings back Sorin from the yard, while OG Sorin Markov can set an opponent to 10 life before you use your Commander to finish the job.
I don’t need to tell you that Sheoldred, the Apocalypse is a good card, but let me tell you – it shines in this build.
Lifegain payoffs are necessary, as you’ll want some ways to keep yourself from being attacked out of the game. Elenda’s Hierophant makes you a bunch of tokens when it dies, and Celestine helps with reanimation. I’d probably want Archangel of Thune in there too, and maybe even a couple of Angels like Lyra Dawnbringer.
ODRIC, BLOOD-CURSED
If you’re still peckish for more Blood, then may I interest you in a bowl of keyword soup?
Odric, Blood-Cursed is a refreshing take on Boros. When he enters, you make a bunch of Blood tokens. That’s what he does. That’s it. But it’s a solid anchor to build a deck around.
You’ll want to fill your curve with creatures with plenty of keywords in order to get maximum Blood. Damn, this article really glazes Blood tokens, doesn’t it?
Once you’ve spread a board out, you’ll want to play into the keyword soup payoffs, like Odric, Lunarch Marshal and Akroma, Vision of Ixidor. These can make your board pretty hard to deal with, and work especially well if you can make a bunch of tokens to share the keywords and buffs to.
Of course, play lots of value EtBs too; Odric himself wants to be flickered for value, so the rest of your creature base should too.
Also, keep in mind that Boros is pretty good with the graveyard these days. Reconstruct History, Sevinne’s Reclamation… even other flashback spells like Divine Reckoning can be solid picks when discard cards to cracked Blood tokens.
If you need some inspiration for a “Bloodric” list, sink your teeth in Cole’s Vampiric Vengeance list.
END STEP
Here are the 5 promised Underrated Commanders from Innistrad. Technically, there were even 7!
Share your underrated and underplayed Commanders with us 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.