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Commander: Top 8 Cards from Warhammer 40,000 for cEDH

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A top 8 of the strongest cards in the Warhammer 40k decks for Competitive Commander, with comments on which decks they can see play.

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revised by Tabata Marques

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Introduction

Here's a top 8 of the new cards released in Warhammer 40,000link outside website decks for Competitive Commander. I've separated the cards that, I think, will see more play on cEDH.

Top8

8th — Epistolary Librarian

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A good alternative to Esper decks like Tymna/Malcolm, which generate value with combat, allowing you to cast spells quickly, especially since these decks already run a reasonable number of creatures.

A curiosity is that its ability, Veil of Time, activates the effect when you attack, so your spell (be it instant, sorcery, creature or whatever) must be cast during the attack. Note that the text says you may cast, so the spell cast as a result of the ability can still be countered, just like any other.

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It's not impossible to have enough creatures for it to allow you to cast a Tutor or even an Ad Nauseam from your hand for free, giving you more resources to protect yourself or ensure victory. This creature is definitely worth the test, especially if your tables tend to take a long time due to stax pieces.

7th — Vexilus Praetor

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This creature is a good option, but it depends on the commander. For 4 mana with flash, it can guarantee protection from everything for your commanders, that's a lot of mana for the purpose — but it's also very efficient.

Unfortunately, being a creature, it only makes the opponent need a second removal or a counter if the spell is on the stack. However, it is still an additional protection and will counter a removal, requiring two more to remove it and the commander.

Also, it's a good possibility in decks with a longer beatdown line, making your commander "unblockable".

6th — Celestine, the Living Saint

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Celestine is a powerful value and recursion tool for decks with white, enabling a strong Board Control beatdown line, granting you life while growing your field with creatures from the graveyard.

This can be included in Winota, Joiner of Forces as a source for triggers while returning smaller creatures, human and otherwise, from your graveyard to the battlefield, including protections and stax pieces.

As it is a higher cost creature, so it will hardly enter the battlefield at a time when there are no targets for it in your graveyard.

5th — Chaos Mutation

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Chaos Mutation is one more redundancy for Polymorph that could find its way into decks like Thrasios/Rograkh.

This effect has received plenty of redundancies lately, making it easier for these decks to have even more consistency, in addition to gaining more space in the competitive.

Because it's an Izzet card, it doesn't go into Shorikai and Urza, but it's still a good option for Temur Kraken.

4th — Magnus the Red

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An Izzet commander focused on cost reduction like Mizzix of the Izmagnus, but focused on creature tokens to reduce the cost of spells. He turns out to be interesting as a possible commander for storm lines using Young Pyromancer and Empty the Warrens as massive cost reducers.

This is something that was much more complicated to achieve with Mizzix as you had to go up the cost, which with Vadrik, Astral Archmage was easy, but only for one turn, since it needs pumps to reduce the cost.

3rd — Imotekh the Stormlord

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This commander brings a new possibility for Mono-Black decks to utilize artifact loops.

I don't think it will be more efficient than the Mono White version, but there is certainly room to test using cards that have ETB to return artifacts from the graveyard to the hand. This gives you two tokens to sacrifice to a Krark-Clan Ironworks, giving you 6 mana per creature and costing you 5-6 mana for the loop.

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However, it still needs a payoff, which could be a spell or Disciple of the Vault, becoming rather difficult to assemble, but it still improves the situation Mono Black finds itself in.

2nd — Magus Lucea Kane

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This creature is my favorite, but I don't like her body. 1/1 for 4 mana is very fragile — but her first effect tries to correct this by giving +1/+1 counters at the start of combat.

That's not what makes this commander great, but her second ability, which generates two colorless mana and doubles spells and abilities with x cost. This allows us to use creature tutors like Chord of Calling, Finale of Devastation to fetch a combo with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and any of the creatures that cost less than it and combo with our little boy in Temur colors.

For 7 or 8 mana you will bring the two pieces of the combo to the board at once, and it still reduces the cost of the spell, as it generates two colorless mana, allowing an almost one-card combo.

1st — Marneus Calgar

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The best card in the set for cEDH, being a commander with good body and Double Strike, which makes it easy to trade if necessary. There are also its two abilities that make it a great, as when any token enters the battlefield, you draw cards.

This synergizes with Smothering Tithe, Grim Hireling, Shorikai, Genesis Engine and Smuggler's Share that play in Esper-colored decks — and with this commander, they are even stronger, guaranteeing extra cards in hand.

In addition, it also works as an infinite mana "sync" with its last ability, giving you two 2/2 tokens, and onde draw per activation, granting more resources or an insta-win.

Honorable Mentions

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Trazyn the Infinite have dozens of combos waiting for him in the graveyard. Some of them are already in our infinite combo search herelink outside website. While Biotransference will help dig for any creature while using artifact tutors like Transmute Artifact and probably will do more shenanigans.

Conclusion

These cards are the ones that caught my attention the most and that, I believe, should be tested in decks. If you have other cards to suggest, I'm available in the comments below!

Thanks for reading!