Every New Commander in Edge of Eternities, Ranked

Edge of Eternities features 22 new commander options which may sound like a lot, but by modern standards is actually pretty modest! So let’s see what this space opera set has to offer!

• We’re going to rank them in classic internet tier style according to their power level, synergy and versatility:
• Top Tier – strongest commander in the set
• Build arounds – not the most powerful, but good build around options, especially when used as your commander
• Great in the 99 – the opposite of the tier above: maybe not the best commanders, but solid additions to decks with the 99
• Niche or experimental – cards with potential, but only in very specific strategies and those that need a lot of support to make work. Slightly underpowered but solid budget options

Let’s go and see what options we have in Edge of Eternities Commander!

Top Tier – Format-Changers with Immediate Impact

• Hearthhull, the Worldseed – I’ll admit, I’m a sucker for lands decks (hello The Gitrog Monster), but even personal biases aside, this is very strong. Jund colours provide great options, from the previously mentioned giant frog to Wrenn and Six. It’s a sac outlet to trigger lands-going-to-graveyard effects, it’s a draw engine, a massive flying body, and a win con with drain – what can’t it do!
• Kilo, Apogee Mind – Kilo is one scary robot! It can do some truly crazy things if left unchecked. In a Jeskai counter/combo deck, you can use Kilo to infinitely proliferate with a few simple pieces, creating a giant creature to attack with or even poison your opponent to death. There are many simple ways to tap creatures, like Inspirit, Flagship Vessel we’ll talk about later, so it doesn’t take too much to get this robot rolling. Be warned though, people will see this guy as a combo commander, and may come after you accordingly! It’s kill on sight, for sure
• Mm'menon, the Right Hand – this may be in fact a tier below, however I’m excited about what this guy can do. We’re certainly in mono blue artifacts here, but there’s a tonne of support in that colour. With a little library manipulation, you can go nuts casting (ideally low cost) artifacts from the top of your library, maybe ones that also make tokens, which then provide mana to cast even more. You’re going to rattle-through your deck in no time and build up a huge board while you are at it
• The Seriema – The Seriema is going here for one reason – it’s a tutor in the Command Zone. At just three mana, when it enters, you can search your library for a legendary creature card and put it in your hand. This could be a combo piece, or part of a toolbox (e.g. artifact removal), whatever you need at that moment. Add in the fact you can recast from the Command Zone and blink, you can keep tutoring up more and more legends, which, thanks to The Seriema’s static ability, you can also tap to make them indestructible. I can imagine it would lead to some pretty repetitive gameplay once the best combination of cards to play have been found, but at first glance it’s a really cool card  

Strong Command Zone Picks – Worth Building Around

• Infinite Guideline Station – a fun five colour option that cares about multicolour permanents, proving a strong draw engine so long as you can make your board full of permanents. It also creates an army to help station it, although weirdly those creatures are colourless. It’s a strong and fun option for the multicolour permanents matter archetype, but not perhaps among the most powerful options in the set
• Inspirit, Flagship Vessel – I love the flexibility of this commander, it comes down early, and doesn’t take much to get rolling, and then has a good interaction with either +1/+1 or charge counters, for whichever direction you want to take the deck in. Again, I don’t think this is top tier powerlevel wise, but I love the possibilities with this as a commander
• Ragost, Deft Gastronaut – costing only two mana, we need to take this guy seriously. We’re talking Boros artifacts/food, which can do some crazy stuff with sac’ing artifacts (low cost or tokens), dealing damage, untapping and doing it again. It feels like you can do a lot with this lobster chef!
• Sami, Wildcat Captain – a Boros beater that can go crazy by providing affinity for artifacts to your spells. You need lots of artifacts, but that’s ok in a Boros deck that could go in a ‘storm’ direction, maybe with some cheap equipment too to get even more out of the double strike. A fair yet dangerous choice, although it does cost six, so you’ll need some of those artifacts to add mana
• Syr Vondam, Sunstar Exemplar – a powerful ability on a creature that costs just two who is right at home in a blink or aristocrats style deck. You can take the route of making it huge, or reuse the ‘destroy target nonland permanent’ ability. It does require some work to make it happen, but within well established blink or aristocrats shells it should do just fine
• Szarel, Genesis Shepherd – Szarel is a powerful option, but one that needs quite a few pieces to make work. It costs five mana, which is steep, but works amazingly well with lands that you want to sacrifice, either fetch lands if you’re being friendly, or stripmine or wasteland if you’re not! And then when you do it, you get to put counters according to its power on a creature
• Tannuk, Steadfast Second – I love Tannuk because it reminds me of one of my favourite cards of all time: Sneak Attack. It’s not as good, as it’s on a vulnerable creature body and takes three mana to warp it, but you can drop some pretty scary creatures pretty early on, which have haste thanks to Tannuk. Then, better than Sneak Attack, you can also cast them for their casting cost later once it's been warped. I think I’d still prefer Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded, but it’s another option

Great in the 99 – Supportive and Flexible Options

• Alpharael, Stonechosen – a relatively high ceiling in terms of taking huge chucks of life which you could pair with cards like Bloodletter of Aclazotz. The ward ability is also not nice for your opponents and you’d imagine they’d want to avoid targeting altogether. It just needs a lot of support to help the modest body of 3/3 attack while also ensuring void is activated, plus at the high cost of five mana, it’s not hugely appealing but could work well within the 99
• Dawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnought – a really fun option that wants to ‘one shot’ an opponent with cards like Stuffy Doll. It really wants more options within other colours, so I’m saying it’s best in the 99 and not as a colourless commander option, just so there’s access to more cards. Also being a 20/20 when it’s online, it only needs one extra power to ‘one shot’ opponents as it is via commander damage
• Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam – what’s nice with this commander is that the commander tax adds to the number of +1/+1 counters when you recast it, adding to its resiliency, however there’s not quite enough to lead an army here within GW counters – there are just stronger options, like Hamza, Guardian of Arashin
• Haliya, Ascendant Cadet – another nice +1/+1 counter option, with a built in draw engine as well as generating counters itself. Again, however, at five mana, there’s just not enough power here to lead an army, so it’s better in the 99  
• Haliya, Guided by Light – a gain life mono white commander, giving us a legendary ‘soul sister’ with card draw built-in. It’s a hero in the 99 of a life gain deck, but with it drawing just one card a turn, it doesn’t work as hard as other options
• Tannuk, Memorial Ensign – I think this is a 99er (mainly because I’d rather it as part of a Jund deck with the other land options on this list), but for some it could also be a strong commander option. Land decks can sometimes struggle to convert all the land drops and mana into an actual win… this guy helps that, providing an aristocrats style ping for each land drop, with a bit of card draw thrown in too! Surely a must for any Jund land decks
• Xu-Ifit, Osteoharmonist – Xu-Ifit is another that maybe could be bumped up a tier if you really wanted. For just a tap, you can bring any creature back from your graveyard. The catch? It loses all abilities. This means I think there’s two ways to go: in an aristocrat style build where you don’t care about abilities and just want a body to sacrifice and a way to keep bringing it back, or you just want to bring back a big bodied beast that’s all about the stats. The latter is difficult as it won’t have trample or evasion, unless you have a way to grant it, and even with aristocrats this is a little slow (it cost three mana, works by tapping so you have to wait a turn, at sorcery speed only making it less tricky…). Still though, a cool option that I can see finding a home

Niche or Experimental Commanders

• Alpharael, Dreaming Acolyte – the fact this is an uncommon should be a clue to it’s power level, it’s just a little underwhelming. It feels at home in a deck that wants to blink it to keep getting value within an artifact shell, possibly with a reanimation subtheme, in which it could be part of a good engine. It just doesn’t offer a lot for three mana
• Mm'menon, Uthros Exile – Another uncommon commander which has a home in many artifact decks, especially with thopters to pump, but it’s pretty underwhelming. A good budget option, but outside of budget constraints I can’t see it making the final cut
• Sami, Ship's Engineer – we’re seeing a theme: uncommon legends are underwhelming! It costs a lot, for a pretty small payoff of creating 2/2s. I can’t see this having a home at all unless you’re looking for cheap (£) options
• Syr Vondam, the Lucent – another option to not really be taken seriously outside of budgetary reasons. The pump-your-team with deathtouch is quite nice for token strategies where you’d be happy to trade any of your creatures, but it’s just not that strong for five mana

Tips for Evaluating New Commanders

As you’ll see above, there are a few key factors in evaluating what makes a strong commander:

• The mana cost – how expensive is it? Cheaper is obviously better, especially when you consider it’s likely to get killed. How many times can you likely replay it? Can it protect itself somehow to make it worth the investment?
• Colour identity – does it give you access to all the colours you need for your deck? If not, may best be part of the 99
• Instant impact – does it offer something as soon as you play it, e.g. with an enter the battlefield effect? If so, it has a level of built in resilience, offering value even if its quickly removed
• Engine/card-advantage – does the commander provide card advantage? This could be literally in the form of drawing cards, or other card advantage, either by removing permanents or bringing them back from the graveyard for example. If these effects can be repeated as part of an engine by synergising with other cards, even better
• Win-con – can this card win the game? If so, it’s a real bonus, meaning you have access to a game-ender whenever you need

Aside from these factors you can ask yourself, is this a card I want access to in every game? Does it facilitate all the things my deck wants to do? If so, it’s the sign of a good commander.  

Find Your Commander Build at Magic Madhouse

If you’re keen to get building with any of these legends, or add them to your existing 99s, everything you need is right here on Magic Madhouse, from Edge of Eternities singles to full Commander decks, and gameplay accessories.