Top 10 Best Wilds of Eldraine Commanders

It is always an exciting time for Magic: The Gathering fans when a new set is released. Each new set brings an entirely different world and a new fresh package of cards which redefine the game's scenery. One of the most captivating and iconic sets to be released in the past few years is Wilds of Eldraine(WOE), which teleports us to a fairy tale kingdom, where fearless knights, mysterious witches and magical creatures live.

One of WOE's most exciting traits are its new legendary creatures. These characters not only enrich the set's narrative, but also offer new opportunities for players to build decks with different commanders. Each one of them has unique abilities which can change the course of a match and inspire the creation of unique and exciting EDH decks.

In this article, we'll explore the exciting Wilds of Eldraine set and dive deep into its newest legendary creatures. I need to remind you that in this ranking we'll only have creatures introduced in Wilds of Eldraine's base set, excluding the cards belonging to the set's Commander package.

For many, many years, the Faerie tribe never had much luck in Commander. Obvious choices, such as Oona, Queen of the Fae, were still inferior to cards such as Morophon, the Boundless when it was time to build your Faerie typal. However, thanks to the addition of Obyra, Dreaming Duelist to the game, we can finally use a legendary creature to create a cohesive deck centered only around Faeries in Commander.

Unfortunately, Obyra, Dreaming Duelist's effect is extremely simple and direct, with very little space to build on: it just brings to the board a swarm of small faeries and prepares itself to yank life points from your opponents. This is a simplicity which makes this commander a lot worse, bringing it very few possibilities.

As said previously at the beginning of this article, we'll focus only on the legendary creatures present in this set, leaving aside the ones present in Commander decks. This way, Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor and Alela, Cunning Conqueror, which have more possibilities and interesting builds, are, unfortunately, out of this debate - but it's worth mentioning them.

I really like Beluna Grandsquall; we even have a deck tech detailing this giant's best traits and discussing the type of deck we can create with her. Yes, type of deck, singular. Unfortunately, to really take part in a Commander table using Beluna, you'll have to resort to a deck which uses the Adventure mechanic.

Like so, we have a creature which is a great commander, perfect to build a deck around or put in another list which accommodates Blue, Red and Green, as long as they use the Adventure mechanic, which badly limits this commander's strategic reach.

Just before the set was released, in Mark Rosewater's teasers, a Draft archetype focused on a type of creature from Alpha was mentioned, and it turned out to be the Rat tribe. So, we also got Totentanz, Swarm Piper.

Totentanz is a rather unique commander for this tribe, with an extremely desired color combination. It creates value in token form and is capable of granting your little rats Deathtouch, XIV century style.

New cards, such as Warehouse Tabby, get together with old ones, such as Pack Rat, creating a good synergy capable of bringing Totentanz, Swarm Piper straight into this list.

Out of the many commanders focused on food tokens, I think Greta, Sweettooth Scourge has a uniquely interesting versatility. It also has a good color combination to deal with the food archetype, providing it +1/+1 counters and cards whenever possible.

This way, it is possible to extract as much value as possible out of cards such as Peregrin Took or Gluttonous Troll, which constantly create food tokens and give it good use in Greta, Sweettooth Scourge's hands. Besides that, cards such as Trail of Crumbs make it possible for each of your food tokens to create an extra value when sacrificed.

And, of course, it is also possible to have one of my favorite synergies: Cauldron Familiar and Witch’s Oven, creating situations from which your opponents will have a hard time escaping.

When you use the Black and Red color combination, it isn't hard to lose your life points. Be it with effects that demand you pay in life points, such as Tavern Swindler, or with spells that deal global damage, such as Price of Progress, it is always possible to take a bit of damage with this color combination. What happens after that is you'll lower the mana cost of all your red and/or black spells for the rest of the turn. With the help of a card such as Sting, the Glinting Dagger, it is possible to untap your Rowan, Scion of War and activate its effect one more time, drastically lowering the cost of your spells.

Cards that are interesting with this ability are Song of Totentanz or Exsanguinate. If a card has X in its cost, such as, for instance, a Crackle with Power, it is possible to extract many benefits from Rowan, Scion of War, unlike her brother, Will, Scion of Peace, which demands constant life gain to become relevant in the match.

Here we have a classic Boros Commander based on auras and equipment, which is everything this color most likes to do. However, in an unexpected turn of events, Kellan, the Fae-Blooded adds very welcomed novelties to this strategy, besides having Double Strike built-in, which exempts you from using a card to grant it this bonus.

The first of them is the possibility of this commander granting power buffs to all other creatures on board, based on the permanents attached to it.

Usually, decks of this type tend to be the famous Voltron decks, with several cards added to favor just one creature, but every once in a while a creature comes on board to help you out. That is even truer nowadays, when we count on creatures which can enchant others and return as creatures, just like equipment-creatures. With that, creatures which remain on board can always be benefitted by Kellan.

However, what stands out about it the most is the ability of tutoring equipment or an aura directly from the deck, providing you with access to the best game piece possible straight from the command zone.

Kellan, the Fae-Blooded is a very strong Wilds of Eldraine addition for Commander, and can be considered high-tier for many red and white decks.

Enchantments in Green and White are a very predictable idea. By the way, as it was with Obyra, Dreaming Duelist, the Wilds of Eldraine Commander deck in these colors has this exact same theme. However, Yenna, Redtooth Regent can scale this strategy really well with a different approach than those decks and other commanders within this category, through the mechanic of creating copies of enchantments on board. And, best of all, if the enchantment copied is an aura, Yenna can be untapped to be used again, as many times as you want to and can pay for with your lands.

With her, we can double enchantments such as Anointed Procession and Doubling Season to have access to many token copies in succession. It is easy to double non-redundant enchantments which grow your board in succession, such as Ghostly Prison for protection, Flowering of the White Tree to grow your creatures and many other options.

The ability to create a huge board with many components which repeat themselves, creating a true fortress, makes Yenna, Redtooth Regent an outstanding commander.

Hylda of the Icy Crown is a commander which gets better at each level it works in. Every time one of your spells or abilities taps an opponent creature, you can pay one mana and trigger an effect out of three excellent effects for any situation, which can easily fit any game state.

Be it creating a big token, sharing several counters or a Scry 2 and a draw, all these abilities are adequate for any game state, and the fact they are consequences for tapping opponent creatures, creating disruption and making your rivals' boards weaker, makes these effects much more attractive.

This way, a simple Plunge into Winter can transform into a three mana, Scry 2, tap the target creature and draw 2, showing how easy it is to hoard value and amplify it with the help of this commander.

Possibly one of the best Red and Green commanders released in a long time, Agatha of the Vile Cauldron can lower the cost of one of the most powerful abilities in the game, the activated abilities. Once your Agatha of the Vile Cauldron is big enough, it is possible, through her, to use card effects such as Magus of the Candelabra or Wildheart Invoker for just one mana.

Creatures such as Gorilla Shaman and Flamewave Invoker, whose abilities are very expensive, become extremely easy to activate, and also become the right choice for Agatha decks, and, as we're discussing decks with Red and Green, increasing your commander's stats isn't hard to achieve on its own - a simple Halana and Alena, Partners or a Court of Garenbrig is capable of scaling Agatha of the Vile Cauldron to the next level, in which each of your creatures will be capable of doing a lot for very little mana. Even a Spawnsire of Ulamog becomes interesting, depending on what your group of players considers to be "from outside the game".

Unquestionably, Eriette of the Charmed Apple is the best commander in this set. Capable of creating a protection effect, preventing your opponent's enchanted creatures from attacking you, and at the end of your turn bringing an extremely strong life drain coming from all directions, Eriette has intense aggressive traits.

A very interesting idea is using cards such as Spirit Link and Vampiric Link, which not only will discourage your opponent from attacking you, but also give you a sort of Lifelink which only benefits you. Besides that, other enchantments such as Ghostly Prison can discourage your opponents from attacking you even more, giving you a lot of time and advantage.

Eriette of the Charmed Apple is undoubtedly the best commander in this set, opening up an array of strategies, interactions and ways to build decks, and using abilities with apparently simple interactions which highly impact games.

As a great fan of the plane of Eldraine, I can say this set made me very happy with its numerous commanders and the possibilities they can bring to the game.

Even better, rare and mythic cards from this set become intriguing commanders, something I haven't seen for a long time. Wilds of Eldraine is an excellent set, and the value it adds to the format reflects this really well.

See you next time!