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Introduction
The commander is the most important card in any commander deck. You'll rarely pick a commander just for their colors, and not their abilities.
This legendary figure can be a creature or a planeswalker, and, in the game, is like a "general" for your army of cards. They often interact with all the other 99 cards in your deck, and win many matches for you.
Having a commander on the board can be great for many reasons, after all, some draw you cards, others ramp mana, remove other cards, and a few others even get cards for you from your deck. But that's not all!
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In Magic: The Gathering, some spells actively benefit from your commander - for instance, they may let you cast them for free, or activate their effects more than once.
In this article, we listed the 10 best spells that are better when your commander is in play, so you can upgrade your Commander deck. Let's see them!
What Are Spells That Benefit From Your Commander?
In this article, we'll consider spells that are better when your commander is in play those that:
For the second case, I'll stress that your opponent can't remove your commander after you cast your spell to force you to pay the spell's mana cost. What counts is if your commander was on the board when you cast the spell in question.
Furthermore, if you have two commanders in your deck, you can cast these cards for free when you control either of them.
Top 10 Spells that Benefit From Your Commander
10. Sakashima’s Will
Sakashima's Will is part of an incredibly strong spell cycle in Commander. All cards in this cycle are better when your commander is on the board.
You can cast this spell and pick one of its two modes, but, if your commander is on the board, you can automatically pick both modes. This means you only have to cast it once, and thus pay for its cost once, to use both effects.
This card references Sakashima of a Thousand Faces, known for appearing in other spells that copy creatures, like Sakashima the Impostor, Sakashima's Student, and Sakashima's Protege.
When you cast this spell with your commander on the board, you get to take control over target enemy creature and turn into a copy of another creature under your control, alongside the rest of your board.
Depending on the game, you can use this card in many ways to get ahead.
9. Szat's Will
Szat's Will is in the same cycle as Sakashima's Will and some other spells we'll show you throughout this article.
This instant forces your opponents to sacrifice a creature they control with the greatest power, and, next, also exiles all cards in their graveyards. As if that weren't enough, Szat's Will also creates 0/1 Thrull tokens. The number of tokens you'll create depends on how many cards you exiled this way.
So, if your opponent has one creature in their graveyard, and its power is bigger than the power of the creatures sacrificed by this spell, you can also target that card, as it was exiled from the graveyard with Szat's Will. (???)
Cards that depend on your opponents' boards usually don't make it into Top 10s, but this one earned its spot because it controls enemy boards while filling yours.
8. Obscuring Haze
Obscuring Haze is part of another spell cycle, this time the cycle of cards that are free as long as you control a commander.
If you want to use Fog in your deck, but always forget to save some mana to cast it, this is a viable option.
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The coolest thing about this card when we compare it to other versions of Fog is that it prevents all damage that would be dealt this turn by creatures your opponents control, be that combat damage or burn.
7. Drown in Dreams
Drown in Dreams is a great card for anyone who likes mill strategies, but doesn't want to give up disrupting their opponents and getting some extra value in the process.
With Drown in Dreams, you get to fill your hand and force another person to fill their graveyard with cards straight from their deck.
Depending on the deck, you can use this card to force another player to draw, or even mill your own cards from your deck. It depends on the strategy you want at that moment.
6. Flawless Maneuver
Protection is always welcome, particularly if they're free.
Flawless Maneuver is the answer you want in your hand when your opponent uses a Blasphemous Act or something similar. Your creatures will get indestructible until the end of the turn, and, on top of it all, this is an instant spell.
5. Akroma's Will
If you've never seen someone win the game after they cast this spell, it's time to find a slot for it in your deck and be that person.
Akroma's Will might not be free, but it gives your creatures many interesting keywords and gives you an absurd amount of evasion, as it gives you protection from each color until the end of the turn. Furthermore, this instant prevents your opponents from blocking your creatures' attacks, as they'll have flying, double strike, and vigilance.
4. Deadly Rollick
If having one free protection just for controlling a commander is already great, how about being able to exile a problematic creature on your opponent's board?
Deadly Rollick is an instant spell that lets you get rid of a potential threat or protects you against a powerful creature. This is the card you'll want in your hand, particularly if it's free.
And, the best of all, it will probably also catch your opponent off-guard.
3. Deflecting Swat
Occasionally, during a match, someone will say something like, "wow, how I wish I was drawing cards or getting lands like you". Or they see you use an ability and think, "that would be great for me right now...".
Well, with Deflecting Swat, you can draw cards, get lands, and/or use that opponent's ability as much as you want!
This instant lets you pick new targets for the target spell or ability, and doesn't restrict that effect in any way. You can thus use this card to protect yourself, or even disrupt your opponents, for instance, by swapping the target of the removal they played with one of the permanents they control.
Imagine casting Deflecting Swat for free and changing the target of a Time Stretch your opponent just cast, which cost everything they had? Success!
2. Fierce Guardianship
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The rules are clear: any time you're facing an opponent that uses blue 
mana, you have to check if that person has two mana available before you cast any spell that can be easily countered with a Counterspell.
And, maybe as a result, Fierce Guardianship is such an evil card to your opponents: it is a free Negate, as long as you control your commander.
Just like Deflecting Swat, you can use this card in several situations, which may range from disrupting your opponent to protecting a spell you don't want them to counter.
1. Jeska's will
Decks that interact with the exile are more popular by the hour in Commander. If you need proof, just look at the over 30 thousand registered decks with this theme in EDHRec, and the popularity of precon decks like Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald and Prosper, Tome-Bound.
And, even if your deck doesn't interact with the exile at all, if it is a 
red deck, you can benefit from Jeska's Will impulse draws.
Eventually, you'll notice that even its first ability, which creates mana for you according to how many cards your opponent has in hand, can be helpful. For instance, you can use it to set up an explosive turn with a card you wouldn't be able to cast with only your lands!
This card got second place on another one of our lists, Top 10 Best Red Card Draw
, but on this list it earned, finally, its well-deserved first place!
Final Words
This article was quite challenging to write, but we tried to bring the most generic options that best fit all types of decks.
We hope you enjoyed reading this article and found some great cards to upgrade your Commander deck.
If you enjoy this type of content, check out our Top 10 Best Card Draw series:
- Top 10 Best Colorless Card Draw
See you next time!
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