Y’shtola, Night’s Blessed might have taken The Ur-Dragon’s crown as the most built Commander, but she’s far from the most popular Legendary Creatures in the format. Today we look at which Legends are the highest played, and why.
THE TOP LEGENDARY CREATURES IN COMMANDER
We kick things off with Selvala, Heart of the Wilds. Selvala has been a highly popular Legend to play with ever since her first printing in Conspiracy: Take the Crown. Owing to the fact she’s a mana dork that can produce boatloads of mana – and the fact she has a little card draw stapled on, as a treat – she’s found a home in all sorts of builds. She can naturally fit well in big stompy green, Gruul or Simic decks, and in Elf decks, but she also is a part of countless combos. From Temur Sabretooth to Aggravated Assault; Monk Gyatso to Staff of Domination, Freed from the Real to Jumbo Cactuar, Selvala is a win condition in countless decks.
It helps that stompy green decks and Elf decks are enduringly popular.
More popular than Selvala is Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff, which is impressive considering he locks you into more restricted colors. Lotho has one of the strongest “when an opponent does a thing” triggers in the format, granting you a treasure whenever any player casts their second spell in a turn. These effects are very popular in casual Commander, but they’re way more relevant in cEDH, where Lotho fits in the 99 of decks and even as the Commander of low to the ground decks, often with a Lurrus Companion.
This versatility is what gives Lotho such a high play rate. He’s in Frodo and Sam food decks, Orzhov death and taxes, aristocrats, and a bunch of cEDH decks. He’s one of the best two-drops in the format, and as such has a home in my Isshin attack triggers deck.
GREAT CARDS WITH GREAT AVAILABILITY
If there’s one thing better than generating the mana to cast your spells, it’s protecting your big turn from outside influence. Kutzil is just one of a number of creatures that can prevent incoming interaction on your turn and finds a home alongside Grand Abolisher and Voice of Victory. Part of the reason Kutzil is so popular is because it also has a card draw ability tacked onto it – adding even more value.
You can also explain Kutzil’s popularity by looking at the decks where it can be found most often; Rin and Seri Cats & Dogs and Jodah or Sisay legends are highly popular builds, and seeing a lot of play in Ms. Bumbleflower pushes this Selesnya hatebear up the list.
While it’s pretty available as an uncommon from Lost Caverns of Ixalan, it is steadily creeping up in price.
A similarly available card (with two Commander deck reprintings, a Special Guest printing, and even a Spongebob treatment) is Toski, Bearer of Secrets. It’s a green Coastal Piracy, and it’s also Indestructible. What more could you want?
Toski leads a respectable amount of Commander decks, sitting within the Top 1000 Commanders. It’s as a card in the 99 that it really puts the work in, though – with Squirrels decks leading the charge, obviously. Chatterfang alone has over 27,000 decks on EDHRec, with that number swelled by Hazel of the Rootbloom, Camellia, the Seedmiser, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, and soon Meatsqueak from Mystery Booster Commander Edition.
Toski sees play beyond Squirrels, in Legend decks, go-wide tokens decks, and more. It’s just a solid dependable card draw engine, which is why it’s so heavily played.
Another Legend reprinted in two Commander decks already since her debut in 2022’s The Brother’s War, Loran also had a FINAL FANTASY reskin as Garnet Til Alexandros 17th. Unwieldy reskin names aside, Loran is very much a bread-and-butter kind of card, which is why she sees extensive play in the format.
Loran was white’s first official Reclamation Sage (at the same cost, that hits both card types on EtB), and because she’s Legendary, she also gets Vigilance and a little card draw ability, too. Seeing a few extra cards while bribing the table is great in white decks that don’t get quite as much card draw as other colors, which why she sees consistent play.
Beyond being solid in Human and Legendary typal decks, she sees a lot of play as a flicker target or reanimation target, in tap/untap decks, and can be tutored with Recruiter of the Guard and Imperial Recruiter. Vigilance as a keyword means she can attack and block well, especially with buffs like +1/+1 counters or equipment.
As much as she can fit in basically any white deck, it’s telling to see her most popular decks as Ms. Bumbleflower, Queen Marchesa and Brago, with special shout out to Terra, who is just one reanimator deck that loves to play with this card.
CLASSIC FOR A REASON
Azusa, Lost but Seeking is a Commander classic, legal since the format’s inception (owing to her first printing in 2004’s Champions of Kamigawa). Since then, she’s had eight reprints, in everything from Core Sets to Secret Lair Drop. She kinda needs them, as she has a home in basically any Landfall deck, and a whole lot of green decks besides – not to mention seeing a decent amount of play as a Commander herself, at #368 at time of publishing.
Landfall decks are among the most popular in the format, with Hearthhull, Flubs the Fool, Omnath (and his many guises), Aesi and Tifa Lockhart amongst the most popular – but classics like Lord Windgrace, the Gitrog Monster, Tatyova, Benthic Druid, Yarok and Muldrotha all featuring our lost lady.
Speaking of universally played cards, Etali, Primal Storm is the most played generalist red Legend, because, well, she’s Etali. She allows you to cast up to four spells for free when she attacks, which is kinda nuts. She’s also been reprinted into the ground, making her extremely available to anyone building anything from Isshin to Pantlaza to, well, Etali as a Commander.
It’s these many many reprints – in plenty of Commander precons – that cement Etali’s usage rate. That and her efficient attack trigger, which few cards really hold a candle to.
The aforementioned Isshin and Pantlaza are popular decks to stick Etali in, but you’ve also got Gishath, Fire Lord Azula, Henzie, Prosper, Tannuk, Bello… the list goes on. It’s just a fantastic and fun top end card.
PEAK PERFORMANCE
Braids, Arisen Nightmare sees a lot of play in no small part because of how excited people were to play Braids again. This particular Braids released while the other Braids was banned (and only recently has been unbanned). Braids is a great draw engine for black decks, and chances are, you’re going to be drawing two to three cards a turn with this, while slowly chipping away opponent’s life totals.
Being a three-drop, Braids is a pretty popular Commander option, but her real use is in the 99 of black-based decks as a draw engine. A big part of her use is in Hearthull, as a way to guarantee draw against opponents who don’t want to sacrifice their lands. She is usually played in other decks using that same axis of attack; tokens decks sacrificing creatures, treasures decks to sacrifice artifacts, and so on.
We’re moving on to the two most played Legends in the format now, and one of them makes a whole lotta sense if you’ve ever played cEDH: Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer. Ragavan might be one of the best one-drops in the format, and the only one mana creatures played more extensively are mana dorks, Esper Sentinel, and Viscera Seer.
Ragavan comes in immediately starts creating value, at minimum giving you treasure, and at best, sneaking a great spell from an opponent’s library to cast that turn. What makes the cards so good (and much more playable) is that Dash cost. You can throw him into the red zone when it’s safe, and then safely return him to hand.
Outside of cEDH, Ragavan finds plenty of homes – mostly in Pirates decks, but in other aggressive builds too.
And that brings us neatly to the most played Legendary Creature in the format, featuring in close to 400,000 decks on EDHRec: Syr Konrad, the Grim. That’s well on the way toward being in nearly 8% of all decks the platform picks up.
Why Syr Konrad? Well, for starters, he’s in five Commander precons, Jumpstart, and Secret Lair drops, and is an uncommon; that’s a readily available card if ever I’ve seen one.
As for the rest? Syr Konrad is combo-tastic. Once he hits the table, the writing is on the wall. Life totals are coming down one way or another. Seeing play in everything from The Wise Mothman and Teval at the highest through to classics like Sidisi, Brood Tyrant and Shirei, Shizo’s Caretaker, Syr Konrad is a timeless way for B/x decks to close games.
END STEP
These are the most played Legenday Creatures in the Commander format. Have one that you put in all of your decks? 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.