The best commanders of 2024

Summary

• Ten exceptional new commanders in Magic: The Gathering in 2024 offer unique gameplay mechanics.

• Jasper Flint effectively steals cards, Captain America throws gear, Caesar sacrifices for buffs.

• Kenway confuses pirates and assassins, Rendmaw runs counters, Wise Mothman introduces council counters.

Magic: The Gathering prints hundreds of new legendary creatures every year. In fact, 340 new ones are being printed in 2024, all vying for a spot at the helm of your next command deck. Some are exciting, some are functional, others are a bit stinky, but the beauty of the format is that everything fits somewhere.

Of the 340 new commanders printed in 2024, ten stand out. Not necessarily because they are the strongest and most overpowered commanders in the game, but because they do something new or breathe life into an old, tired archetype.

10

Laughing Jasper Flint

Stick 'Em Up

Mercenaries weren't a big part of Magic until Outlaws of Thunder Junction came along and really kicked it in the rear, and Laughing Jasper Flint might be the single best way to use them.

Jasper allows you to draw cards from the top of your opponent's library and cast them, making the creatures you cast become mercenaries. If you have enough outlaws in play, you can burn through your opponents' decks incredibly quickly and steal their biggest toys.

Rogues, Warlocks, Mercenaries, Pirates, and Assassins are the five types of creatures that count as Outlaws.

Jasper may work best in a one-on-one Brawl environment, but he still brings a fun and different take on the traditional Rakdos (black/red) thief decks in Commander.

9

Captain America, First Avenger

Amazing

Although Marvel wouldn't get its first complete set until 2025's Universes Beyond: Spider-Man, Captain America was one of the first five characters from the comic book giant released for Magic in the form of Secret Lair.

Cap offers a neat take on gear packs by letting them drop on your opponents instead of building it big with an entire armory like you normally see. Equip him with Kaldra Compleat, or Excalibur, Sword of Eden, and he can dish out massive damage for just three mana.

Of course, the Grab ability means you can stack it and dash if you need to, as it gives you an easy way to cheat expensive equipment costs.

8

Caesar, Emperor of the Legion

That's Kai-Sar, not See-zar

Another commander of Universes Beyond, Caesar is the face of one of the Fallout Commander packs. As befits a slave-trading legion ruler, Caesar lets you sacrifice creatures you control to give you a wide range of abilities.

Caesar's strength lies in how much of a tool it is. Once you have enough chips, you can make tapped and attack chips, draw cards, or punch your opponent in the face. And in Mardu's colors of white, black, and red, you have plenty of ways to profit from death and tokens to help expand Caesar's influence even further.

7

Edward Kenway

Captain Kavka does everything

Pirate Assassin of Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Edward Kenway is a perfect fit as the face of a huge number of packs.

On the one hand, Edward wants you to have Assassins and Pirates, so he's perfect for an outlaw deck. Alternatively, it also takes care of vehicles, turning your vehicles into a way to steal cards from your opponents' top decks.

He's similar in many ways to Laughing Jasper Flint, but with a wider range of colors and more flexibility in how you build him. He's also in the popular Pirate-related colors of blue, black and red, meaning he could easily take on Admiral Becket Brass if you wanted to play Pirates a little differently.

6

Rendmaw, The Creaking Nest

It takes two to tango

Rendmaw offers a playstyle that we haven't seen much before: it depends on several types of cards. Whenever you play a card with at least two types, the entire table spawns spurred 2/2 birds to help spread damage across the board.

The early game is to stack your deck with artifacts or enchantments to make sure you always run Rendmaw. But don't forget that there are Kindred instants, sorceries, and enchantments that you can play as well that will work.

Legendary and Snow are supertypes, so Rendmaw won't trigger. Likewise, subtypes such as Elf, Shrine, Dog, and Saga will not work.

Once you've finished playing all of these types, having them in your graveyard is a great way to build up your delirium count. Rendmaw may not exactly be a master of graveyard affairs, but in green and black there's always something you can do with your basket.

5

Wise Mothman

Radical

Of the many, many commanders that the Fallout decks have introduced, The Wise Mothman is easily the most interesting simply by utilizing the set's most interesting mechanic: council counters.

Rad counters helped make mill decks finally fun for everyone. You'll still be discarding a lot of cards, but when you have chips at your disposal, you'll feel like a mill player is putting in more effort than kicking Maddening Cacophony. Mothman is a commander built around this, granting advice tokens and dealing +1/+1 tokens for each non-land milled card.

In addition to all this, Wise Mothman is based on one of the most amazing cryptids in the world. The Mothman has finally made it to the commander, and even if you're not a huge Fallout fan, it's hard to deny that it's pretty cool.

4

Ygra, the all eater

What is a fee? Eat food? Succulent command food?

Food bosses come in all shapes and sizes, whether it's Gyome, who rewards you for playing non-token creatures, or Rocco, the Street Chef, who plays cards from exile. Ygra takes a much more direct route where you eat everything on the table.

Ygra makes all creatures food in addition to their other types, giving you the option to pay two generic creatures and tap a creature you control to sacrifice it for three life. Importantly, any food that enters any graveyard puts two +1/+1 counters on Ygra.

Drop Ygr and sacrifice your own creatures for a huge buff, or simply punish your opponents by sending their own delicious creatures to the graveyard instead. Targeted removal and boardwiping are great, but throwing a +30/+30 Ygra and forcing your opponent to block is just as good.

3

Arabella, the abandoned doll

Who is Weenie now?

One of the most famous white packs is the White Weenie. His goal is to fill the board with small creatures and flood the opponent under a tidal wave, rather than hitting several larger threats. Arabella takes this broad style and expands it in a huge way.

Whenever Arabella attacks, each of your opponents takes damage equal to the number of creatures you control with power two or less. That's before damage and you don't even have to brandish your little ones – just Arabella.

Throw in a Storm Flock, a Nesting Dove, or even a Wedding Invitation to create a stack of tokens, and Arabella is easily one of the scariest commanders we've seen in a long time.

2

Bristly Bill, Spine Sower

Showdown At The Landfall Corral

Bristly Bill isn't just one of the best commanders of 2024, it's also one of the best mono-green cards we've gotten for the year. Due to its flexibility and cheapness, it has found a home in a number of formats and deck archetypes.

For just two mana, Bill buffs your creature with every land you play. Pay five mana and he doubles every +1/+1 token, ending the game easily. Paired with cards like Caretaker's Talent or Double Season, it can dish out ridiculous amounts of damage before your opponent has a chance to defend.

Landfall decks love him. +1/+1 decks love him. Stomp decks love him. Bristly Bill was the go-to card of Outlaws of Thunder Junction, and for good reason.

1

Soldier, Jaws of the Conclave

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

A standout card from the poorly received Murders at Karl's Manor, Soldier, Jaws of the Conclave has been controversial since it came into play.

Soldier fits nicely into Elven Kin decks, giving each creature +1/+1 counters equal to the number of Elves you control. That on its own would be fine, but adding in the cost of three generics to the ward has tipped it into one of the cards most likely to be hit with a ban this year.

A three-man ward prize could also be hexproof, and when he also took at least one card from you every turn in the process, he was a big bad Wolf of Commander until Nadu came along a few months later.