Commander: The 12 Most Popular Cards in 2025

The end of the year is always the best time to rewind and go through everything that happened in the past 365 days or so. We, Magic: The Gathering players, have our work cut out for us today, as there's a lot to review.

We started our 2025 journey by racing through Aetherdrift, then visited old friends in Dragons of Tarkir and explored the universe with Edge of Eternities. Next, we travelled through different worlds with Final Fantasy, explored New York with Marvel's Spider-Man, and finally learned how to bend the elements with Avatar: The Last Airbender.

There were so many new sets, mechanics, and products that nearly all of us upgraded our Commander lists at least once in 2025, or build entirely new ones. The new releases, in particular, affected casual Commander and made decks a lot more diverse.

In this article, let's go over the 12 most popular Commander cards in 2025, according to EDHRec Rank. But, we won't go over any reprints, just the actual new cards that came out this year.

Our goal is to highlight cool spells and creatures that came out during the year, but we can't ignore the useful lands we got either.

After all, considering how long Commander matches are and how critical mana is in them, lands play an essential role. They make sure each deck is consistent and works properly.

Some of the best lands released this year were:

1. Voice of Victory

Let's start with a bard whose songs bring dread and sorrow to any opponent.

Voice of Victory, a weaker version of Grand Abolisher, prevents the opponents from casting spells on your turn. Furthermore, thanks to mobilize, when he attacks, you'll create 2 1/1 tapped, attacking Warriors. The only downside is that you'll have to sacrifice them at your next end step.

This card changes the course of the game just by being in your deck. After all, your opponents will have to prepare themselves to play around it.

2. Elspeth, Storm Slayer

There is a reason why token players always go for Anointed Procession, and that same reason also put Elspeth, Storm Slayer under their radar. If they can't use Anointed Procession, you'll bet they'll use Elspeth, or even use both together.

Besides doubling the number of tokens you create, Elspeth does a lot more: she creates 1/1 Soldiers, put counters on your creatures and gives them flying, and also removes a creature that costs three or more mana under your opponent's control.

With this card in your deck, your board will be full of creature tokens at all times.

3. Icetill Explorer

Landfall players also got a great gift this year: Icetill Explorer.

This friendly-looking Insect lets you play one extra land every turn and play lands from the graveyard. It's a mixture of Ramunap Excavator and Oracle of Mul Daya, but without the "top of the deck" part.

Still, it does its job well. It makes decks more consistent, as it gives you recursion, and fits many Landfall commanders really well.

4. Monument to Endurance

As for decks that use many discard effects, like Celes, Rune Knight lists, they got a nearly indispensable addition:

With this artifact, you can draw a card, create a treasure, or force each opponent to lose 3 life whenever you discard cards.

There are many discard decks around that create value with cards like Bone Miser, so this card was great.

5. The Earth Crystal

Green is known for its great interactions with counters. The Earth Crystal combines that with discounting the cost of green spells, which is rather convenient. It also has an extra ability that puts +1/+1 counters on your creatures.

6. Nature's Rhythm

Creature tutors are always welcome.

With Nature's Rhythm, you'll pay X, get a creature with a mana value that is equal or less than that X from your deck, and put it in play.

Afterward, you can cast Nature's Rhythm itself from your graveyard for its Harmonize cost, which you can also discount if you tap a creature by generic mana equal to that creature's power.

7. Buster Sword

One of the most iconic weapons in the Final Fantasy franchise also conquered space in MTG and became one of our most fun cards this year.

Besides buffing creatures, this equipment card draws when the creature it is equipped to deals damage to a player. It also lets you play, for free, a spell with mana value equal or less than the damage that creature dealt.

8. The Fire Crystal

Cards that give haste to your creatures are always a must.

The Fire Crystal does that, discounts costs, and also copies creatures. All in one card.

9. Herd Heirloom

A mana rock with an extra ability? We didn't ask for it, but we'll certainly take it!

Herd Heirloom creates a mana of any color, but you can only use it to cast creature spells. If you don't want to use this effect, you can also tap this artifact to give a target with 4 or more power trample and the ability to draw cards when it deals damage to a player.

10. The Wind Crystal

In Monowhite lists, gaining life is like breathing: you don't need to focus too much on it to do it.

The Wind Crystal discounts costs and doubles any amount of life you gain. You can also use it to give your creatures flying and lifelink until the end of the turn.

11. Terrasymbiosis

You might deckout and lose because of this enchantment if you're not careful.

Even if you only trigger its ability once every turn, Terrasymbiosis is extremely strong in counter lists. It will also fill your hand very easily.

12. Vivi Ornitier

Beloved by noncreature (spells and artifacts) players, and very scary to everyone who doesn't play him, Vivi Ornitier also deserved a spot in this article.

This little wizard changed many formats, including Commander, when he came along.

Vivi fits any noncreature list and is in Izzet colors, which means he fits spellslinger lists and artifact decks rather perfectly. Its zero-cost activated ability creates a lot of mana and lets you use it for any spell you want to cast.

Commander players must admit 2025 was a great year for the format.

We basically got useful cards for any situation we can imagine, as we got diverse spells that are great in lots of decks. They might cost something different in terms of investment if you're looking for an upgrade, but they were definitely incredible.

Unfortunately, with so many products and sets releasing close together, it got harder and harder to keep our decks casual. Upgrading our lists whenever a new card came out was very tempting.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!