As the events of the March of the Machine take place, it’s more important than ever for the inhabitants of the Multiverse to rise up and fight for what’s important. As a war like no other Magic: The Gathering has ever experienced, as it rages across the Plains, those brave enough to heed the call of battle are the powerful forces that will lead them to victory. Requires leadership.
Thankfully, March of the Machines offers many viable options for this role, and a vast range of legendary creatures that can do a great job of wielding your commander deck. Filter their CVs to showcase 10 strong commander candidates.
Ten Sheoldred
Sheoldred’s deadly final form is a powerful option for a mono-black commander. Coming down at a very reasonable 5 mana, she immediately forces each opponent to sacrifice a creature. This is a powerful effect in multiplayer format.
Her turn to The True Scriptures is easy to achieve given the removal-heavy nature of the Black deck.
The saga then culminates in the Rise of the Dark Realms effect and the resurrection of the card’s face, triggering yet another creature sacrifice. Raw value alone can’t beat this mighty praetor.
9 Orcyon, Hero of Lavablink
Allcyon may seem like a “Kiki-Jiki at home” at first glance, but dig a little deeper and you’ll find a legendary creature with much higher ceilings than his goblin counterpart. down one turn earlier. This means that two people can start copying creatures at about the same point in the game.
Additionally, Orthion doesn’t have the non-legendary limitations that Kiki has, which opens up more copy options. If that wasn’t enough, he also has a huge mana his sink ability. Hitting 9 mana will make 5 haste token copies and almost certainly at least he will push one player to the brink of (lava).
8 Talia and the Gitrog Monster
This perfect combination is not only one of the best Legend teamups in March of the Machine, but also one of the best commanders. Nonbasic lands are very common in Commander, and their utility allows Thalia and Gitrog his monsters to reliably slow down opponents in most games.
At the same time, the duo speeds you up by allowing for extra land drops, allowing you to cash in lands you don’t need to draw valuable cards later. Considering the perfect combination, you get an all-around commander all-star.
7 Ayala, widow of the kingdom
Of all the possible candidates for the completion of Phyrexia, the Ice Queen of Eldraine may be one of the most fitting. By sacrificing creatures on her front side and dredging them to fight again on the flip side, she really knows how to get the most out of her devoted servants.
Both forms work very well in an Aristocrat deck like Rakdos Sacrifice, and transforming Ayara is easy enough. Combining efficiency and power, Ayara will happily stand by your side as you watch the rest of the table burn down.
6 Loremaster, Quintorius
A welcome callback to the hallowed halls of Strixhaven, Quintorius allows you to transform spent cards into spirits and back again in an instant. These periodic abilities can range from shredding fair value over the course of the game to essentially “bringing back to life” giant instants and sorceries that have previously milled or discarded your library. There are uses.
It’s worth noting that planeswalkers, artifacts, enchantments, and even brand new combat are all fair game for this ability. This means you don’t have to build your deck in a very specific way to get the most out of Quintorius. Play some good non-creature spells and have a good time.
Five Omnath, all tracks
Omnath is a highly playable incarnation, and his latest form is set to confidently continue that trend. This five-color Omnath, albeit in its rotten black state, serves as a means of sustaining mana across phases and turns, while also serving card draw and mana fixing.
The latter ability is great for accelerating your game plan and avoiding the exorbitant cost of the format’s extremely powerful five-color cards…to a single fireball effect that wipes your opponent off the table.
Either way, Omnath makes everyone in the Commander Pod taste the rainbow.
Four rankle and toublan
While they may not look very similar at first glance, Rankle and Torbran are strong commander choices due to the sneaky inclusion of the word “each” in all three abilities. This turns the duo into a repeatable edict effect across the table, allowing you to pump out treasure and increase damage at the same time.
The former is a bad idea in most scenarios. Because he gets only 1 mana compared to the crowd of opponents where he has 3+ mana. A legitimate threat that your opponent needs to find an answer to.
3 Etari, Primordial Conqueror
Etali’s latest version is a rare high-mana creature worthy of its exorbitant price.
For 7 mana, you can cast a free spell from any player’s deck, including yours. This could constitute a big swing in many scenarios. This is a great start, and it only gets bigger when Etari transforms into her new Phyrexian form.
On the flip side, Etali, an even more expensive proposition at nine mana, becomes a poisonous, indestructible creature with enough power to take down an unprepared opponent with a single hit. He may not be the most interactive commander on this list, but he’s certainly one of the most satisfying.
2 Drana and Linvala
These two domineering divas form an unlikely but productive alliance nonetheless. While Linvala shuts down all of your opponent’s active abilities, Drana siphons them into you, making everything from mana generation to looting to card-her draw available.
This makes Drana and Linvala powerful disruptive tools to further your own game plan. A handy vigilant ability allows two of you to go into battle while using one of her stolen abilities on the same turn. Like the cheaper and more effective Experiment Kraj, we should expect to see more of these two in Commander going forward.
1 Galta and Mavren
Both horizontal and vertical strategies are viable in Commander, and Ghalta and Mavren can do either or both, depending on how the game unfolds. Whenever you attack while a pair is in play, you can draw from your most powerful creature or the number of creatures you have to create one large token or many small tokens.
Importantly, this ability requires you to be attacking, but not Ghalta and Mavren. In other words, it works on the turn it comes into play. Also important is that this duo is a 12/12 trampler for 7 mana. Excellent vanilla rates, even in the hyper-push world of modern Magic.