As the events of March of the Machine come to pass, it has never been more important for the denizens of the Multiverse to stand and fight for what they hold dear. As a war bigger than any Magic: The Gathering has seen before rages on across the Planes, those brave enough to heed the call of combat will require strong leadership to guide them to victory.
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Thankfully, March of the Machine offers many viable options for this role, with a huge range of legendary creatures who can do a sterling job of helming your Commander decks. We’ve filtered through their CVs to bring you ten strong commander candidates, for your consideration.
10Sheoldred
Sheoldred’s frightful final form is a fittingly powerful choice for a mono-black commander. Coming down for a very reasonable five mana, she immediately causes each opponent to sacrifice a creature, a powerful effect in a multiplayer format.
Once she flips into The True Scriptures, something that’s easy to achieve given the removal-heavy nature of black decks, she proceeds to wreak further pod-encompassing havoc on your opponent’s hands and boards.
The Saga then culminates in a Rise of the Dark Realms effect and the return of the card’s front face, which triggers yet another creature sacrifice. For raw value alone, it’s hard to topthis powerful Praetor.
9Orthion, Hero Of Lavabrink
While ol’ Orthion may look like a ‘Kiki-Jiki at home’ at first glance, dig a little deeper and you’ll find a legendary creature with a much higher ceiling than his Goblin counterpart. He lacks haste, but he comes down one turn earlier, meaning that the two can start copying creatures at around the same point in the game.
In addition, Orthion doesn’t have the non-legendary restriction Kiki does, opening up more copy options. If that wasn’t enough, he also has a huge mana sink ability if you manage to reach nine mana, which creates five hasty token copies that will almost certainly push at least one player over the (Lava)brink of defeat.
8Thalia And The Gitrog Monster
This perfect pairing is not only one of the best legendary team-ups from March of the Machine, but one of its best commanders too. Nonbasic lands are very common in Commander, owing to their utility, which means that Thalia and the Gitrog Monster will be able to reliably slow down your opponents in the majority of games.
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At the same time, the duo will speed you up by enabling extra land drops and letting you cash in those you don’t need for precious card draw later on. Factor in a deadly combination of first strike and deathtouch, and you have an all-round Commander all-star.
7Ayara, Widow Of The Realm
Of all the possible candidates for Phyrexian compleation, theice queen of Eldrainemay just be one of the most fitting. Sacrificing creatures for value on her front side, then dredging them back up to fight again on her back side, she truly knows how to get the most out of her devoted servants.
Both forms play extremely well in Aristocrats decks like Rakdos Sacrifice, and it’s easy enough to transform Ayara as well, given that the only condition is ‘have five mana to spend.’ A winning combination of efficiency and power, Ayara will gladly stand by your side as you watch the rest of the table burn.
6Quintorius, Loremaster
A welcome callback to the hallowed halls of Strixhaven, Quintorius lets you transform your used-up cards into Spirits, then back again at the drop of a hat. These cyclical abilities have a variety of uses, from grinding out fair value over the course of a game, to essentially ‘reanimating’ huge instants and sorceries you milled or discarded previously.
It’s worth noting that planeswalkers, artifacts, enchantments, and even brand-new battles are all fair game for this ability as well, meaning you don’t need to build your deck in a highly specific way to get the most out of Quintorius. Just play some good non-creature spells, and let the good times roll.
5Omnath, Locus Of All
Omnath is no stranger to extremely playable incarnations, and his latest form looks set to continue that trend with aplomb. Serving as a means of preserving your mana across phases and turns, albeit in a corrupted black state, This five-colour Omnath also provides card draw and mana-fixing services at the same time.
The latter abilities are great for accelerating your gameplan, and getting around the prohibitive costs of the extremely powerful five-colour cards in the format, while the former owe themselves more to a Combo approach, wherein you amass vast amounts of mana which you then channel into a single Fireball effect to wipe an opponent off the table.
In either case, Omnath will ensure that everyone in your Commander pod tastes the rainbow.
4Rankle And Torbran
While they may not look like much at first glance, Rankle and Torbran are powerful commander options due to the sneaky inclusion of the word ‘each’ in all three of their abilities. This turns the duo into a repeatable Edict effect for the whole table, with the option to pump out Treasures and pump up damage at the same time.
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The former is likely a bad idea in most scenarios since you’re only getting one mana compared to your opponents’ collective three or more, but the latter can easily end a game with a wide board in play, turning even the tiniest of Tokens into legitimate threats your opponents will need to find an answer for.
3Etali, Primal Conqueror
Etali’s updated version is the rare high-mana creature that actually lives up to its outrageous price tag.
For seven mana you can cast a free spell from the deck of every player including yourself, which can constitute a significant swing in many scenarios. This is a great start, and it only gets greater when Etali transforms into itsfresh Phyrexian form.
Once flipped over, an even more pricey proposition at nine mana, Etali becomes a poisonous indestructible creature, with enough power to take an unprepared opponent out in a single hit. It may not be the most interactive commander on this list, but it’s certainly one of the most satisfying.
2Drana And Linvala
These two domineering divas make an unlikely alliance, but a productive one nonetheless. While Linvala shuts down all of your opponent’s activated abilities, Drana siphons them over to you, letting you take advantage of everything from mana generation to looting, to card draw.
This makes Drana and Linvala a powerful disruption tool that also furthers your own gameplan, with their handy vigilance ability letting the pair engage in combat while still using one of their stolen abilities in the same turn. Like a cheaper, more effective Experiment Kraj, you should expect to see a lot of these two at your Commander tables going forward.
1Ghalta And Mavren
Going wide and going tall are both viable strategies in Commander, and Ghalta and Mavren let you do either, or both, depending on how the game pans out. Whenever you attack while the pair are in play, you can either create one big token or many small tokens, drawing from either your most powerful creature or the number of creatures you have.
Crucially, while the ability does require you to be attacking, it doesn’t require Ghalta and Mavren to be attacking, which means it will work the turn they come into play. What’s also crucial is the duo’s12/12 trampling bodyfor seven mana: a good vanilla rate, even in the hyper-pushed world of modern Magic.
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