A total of 1,927 new cards were unleashed on the Commander format this year, which is a lot. Still, some stand-out cards are more monumental than others. These are the Most Important New Commander Cards of 2025.
THE MOST IMPORTANT NEW COMMANDER CARDS OF THE YEAR
The cards I’m highlighting today aren’t necessarily the most powerful, the coolest, the most expensive, or the most fun to play in limited. They’re cards that signifyl watershed moments in design, cards we’ve waited on for a while, or cards that signal where the format is headed.
RED BORROWING FROM GREEN
First up, let’s talk about red’s new design space. Red has always been able to make mana through rituals, and it can make temporary mana easily enough. It can also make treasures, both as a one-off, or repeatedly/en-masse. Up until now, it hasn’t been making mana in other ways.
Red mana dorks are in this year, and Tarkir Dragonstorm’s Sunset Strikemaster was our first look at an unconditional dork at two-mana. It even has a relevant late-game mana sink which – while designed for limited primarily – is also massively relevant in Commander.
Final Fantasy continued the trend of exploring red dorks with Freya Crescent, a one mana dork. While you can only spend the mana on an equipment spell or to activate an equip ability, it’s still pretty darn monumental to see a one mana red mana dork. Oh, and it flies during your turn, so it wears equipment well, too.
Mana dorks weren’t the only designs in which red explored some of green’s traditional space in the color pie. Zell Dincht gave us an extra land drop with a drawback. The drawback feels very red, but the fact this is even a thing in mono-red is pretty damn notable.
I expect to see more of this exploration of mana generation in red next year.
REDIRECT ATTENTION
Red also got to have arguably the most popular and anticipated design of the year in Redirect Lighting.
Finally, an alternative to Deflecting Swat that isn’t Bolt Bend, right? Redirect Lightning is huge for all levels of Commander play, from Casual through to cEDH. Redirects are red’s way of doing tempo plays, and I’d argue that they’re better value than playing a counterspell a good proportion of the time. You get to protect your thing and redirect the removal. What’s not to love?
Another two-drop sort-of Grand Arbiter got printed two with Voice of Victory. Again, Voice is huge for high power and cEDH, where it gives aggro and combat based decks much more space and comfort to do their thing against more controlling decks.
LOOK MOM, I’M MILLING
Mill has long been an infamous archetype, popular and frustrating to play against in equal measure. Well, frustrating if you don’t put recursion in your deck, otherwise it often helps you. Mill decks have narrowed a little over the years, with the more viable decks being quite far above the other options.
One problem with mill decks is closing a game quick enough, but with Riverchurn Monument and The Water Crystal added to the roster of Mill tools, that game-win is a lot closer on the horizon than ever before. The exhaust ability on the monument is enough to end a game on the spot when combined with other mill cards, and the Water Crystal is a cost reducer parcelled with milling power.
I’m glad to see that Mill is receiving new toys, as it means Mill decks won’t be quite so “nearly there”, and therefore more fun to play against.
PRECONS ARE SERIOUS BUSINESS
Is anyone else glad to see that Spider-Man and Avatar didn’t have new Precons alongside them? Hopefully we see a few less next year, too. Because at the end of the day, if everything is special then nothing is special. I really do miss looking forward to the yearly Commander precons.
Barring some outliers over the years, Precons were at a somewhat steady powerlevel until more recently. 2025 has cemented the approach to making Precons notably powerful out of the box.
Precon Commander power level has risen so substantially that some Commanders feel at least Bracket 3 out of the box, if not with a handful – and I do mean a handful – of careful inexpensive upgrades. Commanders like Eshki, Temur’s Roar can take over a game at breakneck pace, with the writing on the wall by turn 5-6. Hearthhull is a value engine and win condition in one, and is one of the most popular Precon Commanders of the year. Y’shtola, Night’s Blessed lets you play a more control oriented Esper deck that draws cards, heals itself, and also just kills opponents over the course of the game.
This continued approach to making powerful Precons an entry point to the format shows us where Wizards thinks the entry point to the format is. They don’t want new players picking up cumbersome precons anymore (and they also kinda want people to buy them and not order singles, right?). You could also argue that this year’s continued emphasis on powerful well constructed Precons contributed to the CFP’s decision to retire the wording around the “average” precon for Bracket 2, as it ended up not playing out that way at all.
DOUBLE THE TOKEN, TWICE THE VALUE
Doubling effects, long the tired crutch of design, is easier than ever. Is that a good thing? Who knows, but either way, it’s a mark of where the format is.
Elspeth, Storm Slayer swept into our decks in Tarkir: Dragonstorm, and it turns out she’s the third most popular card of the year being Mistrise Village and Voice of Victory, which enjoy widespread play in cEDH as well as Casual Commander. So, all in all… she’s a pretty important card to discuss. She’s a token doubler, but she does much more than merely double your tokens. She removes a creature, she makes tokens, and she can buff and jump your whole board; not just for your combat, but until your next turn, making them ideal blockers.
Elspeth, like Cursed Mirror, is the epitome of a card that is good in any stage of the game, and satisfies the version of Quadrant Theory that applies to Commander.
None of us expected to be hit with back-to-back token doublers this year, but hey, we got them. Exalted Sunborn is also a card good at many stages of the game, and though not quite the powerhouse that Elspeth is, the warp ability allowing it to come down early to boost your velocity or come down for cheap later in a multi spell turn makes token doubling easier than ever.
We didn’t just see double tokens this year. We also got a lot of things that triggered twice. Legendary Stoneforge Mystic was a card we all wanted, but I don’t think anyone was quite prepared for how powerful it would end up being when we got Cloud, Midgar Mercenary. Power level has indeed been upped. I keep wondering where we go from here.
GAME CHANGERS THAT COULD HAVE BEEN
As the Bracket Beta evolved this year, we saw a change in approach to Game Changers. In Gavin’s update in October, he stressed that the philosophy has moved away from Legends that are just powerful Commanders. I happen to support and agree (and was involved) in this push, and it’s because opting out of playing against a Commander is the easiest thing you can do in pre-game chats.
That said, the card that might have come closest to being classed a GCer – at least in the community’s eyes – was Vivi Ornitier, Bane of Standard. Vivi obnoxious and very pushed, and I feel like warrants a mention here as a card that might have been tracked toward being a GCer under the older approach. There’s still time of course, and never say never, but if any card is a manifestation of that philosophy change, it’s Vivi.
CHASE CARDS, YOU WILL
Chase cards have been a thing for a long time in Magic (and all TCGs, to be fair). That said, The Soul Stone is one of the most blatant examples of printing a Chase card that is both highly collectible and oriented toward Commander players. The One Ring could arguably have been the card to start that trend, but TOR was also popular in Modern and Legacy, where The Soul Stone is categorically for Commander players.
An indestructible rock with a late game mana sink is paint-by-numbers Commander design, and it marks a turning point in how Wizards as the company – rather than the design team – is starting to think about the game.
A WILLINGNESS TO FINISH CYCLES
While monetizing Commander might leave a bad taste in your mouth, it’s only one aspect of this great game, and for every decision like printing The Soul Stone, we have other decisions that are community driven and designed to make people happy.
The willingness to finish outstanding cycles is there, and this year, Gavin told us about how they’re aiming to finish the tango lands and bicycle land cycles in precons going forward. This is both excellent for decks that miss these lands, and for new precons having (slightly) better manabases.
SECRET LAIR IS FOR LIFE, NOT JUST FOR CHRISTMAS
Mechanically unique Secret Lair cards remain controversial, and for good reason. Not being able to access cards because of a monetary barrier is one thing, but not being able to access them due to a FOMO purchasing process is another level completely. I’ve bought fewer Secret Lair products myself as time has gone on, mostly because I can’t be bothered to waste my life waiting for them – and because I know I’ll be able to grab a single, eventually, for a stand out card.
2025 saw a big push toward Universes Beyond products in particular, with Deadpool, Sonic and Sony Playstation being amongst the most popular lairs with the most mechanically unique cards. Deadpool, Knuckles and Jin Sakai have proven extremely popular, and they’re very strong designs. Though you don’t need every card ever printed to build a good deck, it does suck that cool and interesting designs can be locked behind Universes Beyond Secret Lair products at an increasing rate.
END STEP
2025 has been a big year for Magic, and I hope you enjoyed taking a moment to consider the designs and products that marked stand-out moments over the last twelve months. Anything we missed? Let us know.
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.