The Best Commanders In Ravnica Remastered

Magic: The Gathering’s Ravnica is a Plane with no shortage of legends. Be they whispered tales of powerful cards, such as Dark Confidant and Life From the Loam, or literal legends, in the form of the named creatures that head up each Guild, the streets of this colorful city are soaked in 16 years worth of myth-making.

Naturally, this means that many excellent commanders have been released in the seven Ravnica sets we’ve received over the years, with the best of the bunch reprising their roles in Ravnica Remastered. If you’re looking to celebrate Magic’s most beloved Plane by building a deck around one such commander, then you can’t go wrong with one of these classics.

10 Lazav, The Multifarious

A Man Has No Name

Lazav’s role as a manipulative Shapeshifter makes him one of the most flavorful Guild leaders on Ravnica, and also translates very nicely into gameplay. His second incarnation, hailing from Guilds of Ravnica, turns your graveyard into a toolbox, letting you treat self-mill cards as draw spells that increase the number of forms he can take.

Since he won’t trigger enters-the-battlefield triggers when he transforms, Lazav encourages you to include more creatures with activated abilities and dies triggers instead. There are so many options for such a build that no two Lazav decks will look the same, and he’s cheap enough to be relevant at all stages of a game.

9 Krenko, Mob Boss

The Boys Are Back In Town

Many Goblin commanders have come and gone since Krenko made his debut in Core 2013, but none quite capture the brute simplicity of the creature type like he does. Every turn, he taps to double the number of Goblins you have in play: no more, no less.

Even with just a handful of Goblins in play this ability can get out of hand fast, particularly when paired with Anthem effects or sacrifice outlets. You can even combine untap effects and Goblin Bombardment to wipe out an entire table in a single turn, if you don’t mind never being invited back to that playgroup again.

8 Niv-Mizzet Reborn

The Face Of Cross-Guild Collaboration

If you had to pick a single card to represent Ravnica as a whole, it would have to be this one. Niv-Mizzet’s final (for now) form is one of the best five-color commanders out there, letting you draw up to one card from each Guild’s color pair when he enters play, to say nothing of his sizable 6/6 flying body.

In the right deck this is an incredible source of card advantage, especially given you have it on tap in the command zone throughout the game. You do need to include a lot of two-color cards to make this work, but given how powerful such cards tend to be it’s a sacrifice well worth making.

7 Bruvac The Grandiloquent

Grind Your Opponents’ Decks Into Dust

Previously exclusive to Jumpstart, and consequently rather expensive, Ravnica Remastered has made this Mill deck superstar more accessible than ever, for better or worse. Doubling down on Mill effects doesn’t sound particularly powerful, given the archetype’s history of poor performance, but a turn or two with Bruvac will turn you into a true believer.

With Bruvac out, a single Traumatize or Fleet Swallower can Mill a player’s entire deck, to say nothing of how well he works with more incremental Mill effects like Hedron Crab. Just make sure you can protect your Bruvac, since everyone at the table will be gunning for you as soon as you reveal you’re playing him.

6 Tajic, Legion’s Edge

A Positive Role Model For Aggro Decks

Despite the slower overall pace of the format, Aggro decks are still more than viable in Commander. They have their weaknesses, such as a vulnerability to the heavily-played board wipes in the format, but they have a solid niche, and Tajic is an excellent commander to lead the charge in such a deck.

He attacks right away, buffs up your weaker creatures, and protects the rest of your board from noncombat damage, helping to mitigate the board wipe weakness by essentially negating the damage-based ones. He may not look too impactful, but Tajic is a Swiss Army sword of a commander that can take your Boros Legions over the top.

5 Teysa, Orzhov Scion

Victory, At Any Cost

One of the best Aristocrats commanders of all time, Teysa’s first incarnation is both a sacrifice outlet and a Token generator all in one. Trading three white creatures for one of your opponents’ creatures doesn’t sound great at first, even if their creature gets exiled, but when you consider that you can sacrifice the very Spirits she generates with her second ability to do so things get very spicy indeed.

With a deck full of black/white hybrid creatures, you can get double value out of her effects, sacrificing three creatures that then immediately return as Spirits. And once she gets going, it’s hard to overstate the power of repeatable exile-based removal, particularly in a bomb-heavy format like Commander.

4 Tolsimir Wolfblood

Beat Down With The Power Of Friendship

Lord effects are excellent in Commander, given how easily you can go wide in the format, and Tolsimir Wolfblood provides two at the same time: one for green creatures, and one for white. This means that any green/white creatures you have, such as the Voja token he can generate, will receive a chunky +2/+2 while Tolsimir is in play.

This is a sizable boost, and one that allows you to overwhelm weaker opponents easily in the mid to late game. It may not facilitate the most sophisticated strategies, but Tolsimir has enough raw power to help you brute force your way to wins with consistency.

3 Savra, Queen Of The Golgari

Get The Altar Ready: It’s Sacrifice Time

Edict effects, or those that force players to sacrifice creatures they control, have always been popular in Commander, since they get around abilities like hexproof and indestructible with ease. Savra gives you a repeatable Edict effect on a body, making it easy to keep your opponents’ boards empty with the right tools.

Said tools include a steady supply of black creatures and a sacrifice outlet, both of which can be readily supplied by Commander’s vast card pool. Savra can also provide some incidental lifegain if you sacrifice black/green creatures, but the power here is so concentrated in the Edict effect that you really don’t need to build around that.

2 Massacre Girl

Set Off A Deadly Chain Reaction

Board wipes are a necessary evil in Commander, reviled for resetting the game state and slowing things down, but required to prevent aggressive decks from running away with the game early. Massacre Girl is a board wipe you can cast repeatedly from the command zone, making her an excellent choice for any kind of Mono-Black Control list in the format.

Her effect works best against creatures with a wide range of toughness values, since it triggers again each time a creature dies in the turn she’s played, but you can also combine her with sacrifices and spot removal if you need to whittle some large creatures down further.

1 Rakdos, Lord Of Riots

I Predict A Riot, I Predict A Riot

Despite being a Demon himself, Rakdos may just be the best Eldrazi Typal commander in the game. His ability reduces the generic mana cost of your creatures based on the damage your opponents have taken this turn, allowing for some absolutely disgusting early swing turns with the right setup.

Since he counts all opponents, effects that ping ‘each opponent’ work particularly well here, providing chunky discounts for minimal investment. And speaking of, Rakdos himself is incredibly cheap too, and can easily provide another six mana worth of discounts each time he swings in with that flaming scythe of his.