Wilds of Eldraine is here! Today I would like to highlight six commanders from the set. Some of these cards give old classic archetypes a new spin. Others completely enable new strategies. With each commander, I have prepared a suite of cards worth considering if you were to build this deck. If you decide to build any commanders from Eldraine we would love to check them out in the comments! With that out of the way let’s get started!
Agatha of the Vile Cauldron
Agatha is a fantastic design, with a cheap mana cost, and an ability that can take over the game! For two mana this 1/1 reduces the cost of activated abilities of creatures you control. At the bare minimum reducing abilities by one is great! Her second ability gives your entire board haste, trample, and +1/+1.
Broadly speaking there are two things to focus on with Agahta.
- Powering up Agatha
- Finding good creatures to abuse
Powering Up Agatha
The aim is to give Agatha three more power. This will make her second ability only cost two colored mana. Some of my favorites here are Commander’s Plate and Boar Umbra. Both give us that much-needed +3/+3 while also granting some great protection for the Witch. Blackblade Reforged is another great option, especially if games go long.
Our endgame is to buff up an entire board of creatures. We don’t just want a big Agatha, we want all our creatures to swing in. Boartusk Liege is a strong option. Beastmaster Ascension can often outright kill on a big enough board. Domri, Anarch of Bolas buffs your board. Domri also gives some breathing room versus counterspells.
Creatures to Abuse
There are plenty of powerful activated abilities. Some may be more combo focused while others are clean value. Fertilid fits the value theme down to the ground. Especially if you can put more counters on it. Duskwatch Recruiter can help dig through your deck for more creatures. Walking Ballista is a great mana dump for counters and to ping all kinds of threats. Harbinger of the Hunt, Jade Mage, and Ardoz, Cobbler of War can help clear the board of problematic permanents, or make you an army of tokens!
Agatha’s Soul Cauldron
It would be bad on my part to also not shout out Agatha’s Soul Cauldron. This artifact has a lot of text. The key bit for us is we can exile a card from our grave to put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. Also, creatures with +1/+1 counters have the abilities of all cards exiled with the Cauldron. This can lead to very powerful effects. One that springs to mind is exiling a Pili-Pala, and putting a +1/+1 counter on an Incubation Druid. By exiling Pili-Pala with Cauldron we can put a counter on Incubtation Druid. From here tap the Druid for three mana. Use the ability it gained off Pili-Pala to untap and add another mana. You now have two mana in your pool and an untapped Druid. This grants you infinite mana! From here you can put all that mana into Agatha giving your team lots and lots of power, killing the entire table! You can go in a more combo-oriented direction with the deck. Be sure to brew and share your ideas!
Beluna Grandsquall
Beluna Grandsquall is a commander we all wished we got back in original Eldraine. She is an adventure-focused commander (finally)! This temur legend reduces the cost of permanents you control with adventure by one. She also comes with an adventure “Seek Thrills.” For five mana you mill seven and put all adventures among them into your hand. This is clean and simple. It knows what it wants to do!
In many cases, the adventure side of spells is cheaper than its permanent side. For this commander, the aim will be to cast cards for their adventure cost. This allows us to keep them in exile ready to cast when we are ready. Once we play our commander we can begin casting these spells from exile at a reduced cost.
Epic Adventures
Two-Handed Axe is a cute option for this deck. It turns our commander into a three-turn clock. Brazen Borrower has been a staple in eternal formats for a long time. It works wonders here. It gets rid of a problematic permanent and can be a pesky source of damage when it comes down. Wilds of Eldraine itself brings with it a host of new adventures too! Virtue of Strength can return a creature of land from the grave to our hand. Or if it’s in play it lets our basics tap for triple mana! Galvanic Giant lets us draw cards. Or once it is in plat it puts stun counters on the opponent’s creatures!
Adventure Matters
Our commander isn’t the only card that cares about adventure! Lozhan, Dragon’s Legacy lets us deal damage to any target (except commanders) whenever we cast an adventure. Lucky Clover lets us copy adventure spells. Edgewall Innkeeper lets us draw a card when we cast an adventure. This deck has the potential for mundane spells to grow in power.
Exile Synergy
Adventures also have some fun synergy with exile. Tincalli Hunter was the first card that brought this to my attention. Once per turn it lets you pay zero mana to cast a creature spell from exile! Adventure puts creatures in exile! This makes Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald an excellent inclusion in this deck! Every adventure spells come with a free 2/2 wolf! This also leads the way for Passionate Archaeologist, Nalfeshnee.
Beluna is a commander that offers a wide range of player expression. Given most cards in the deck have two modes you can expect every game to play out different. You will be constantly tweaking your game plan. There are many options on any given turn between cards in hand and exile!
Eriette of the Charmed Apple
Eriette might be my favorite of the bunch. This is a fantastic take on an enchantress commander. Creatures enchanted by auras you control cannot attack you or planeswalkers you control. This turns all your auras into a one-sided pacifism. On top of that, each opponent gets drained for each aura you control is the icing on top.
Eriette lends itself to two strategies in one. You can play your auras on the opponent’s creatures. Force your opponents to battle it out between themselves. Meanwhile, you sit pretty gaining life and draining them out over several turns. If the game ever does go stale, you can strap all the enchantments onto Eriette instead!
Classic Enchantress
We are an enchantment deck first and foremost. Be sure to capitalize on Mesa Enchantress for card draw and Sigil of the Empty Throne to help amass an army of angels. Starfield Mystic is a great way to ramp us up. Enchantments cost one less and can easily let us dump multiple into play.
One new card to consider is Ondu Spiritdancer. It copies our first enchantment every turn! Boon of the Spirit Realm gets a “blessing counter” whenever we play an enchantment. This gives all creatures we control +1/+1 for each blessing counter. Demon of Fate’s design, finally, will let us cast one enchantment each turn by paying life instead of mana. Great for cheating out some more expensive enchantments.
Curses and Hexes
The Impetus cycle of auras is a fantastic choice for this deck. This deck can play Parasitic, Martial, and Ghoulish Impetus. Each grants the enchanted creature a buff and goads them! In a similar vein to the Impetus, we can encourage our opponents to attack using curses. These cards enchant a player. Curse of Vitality and Curse of Disturbance give us and our opponent a boon when the enchanted player is attacked. If you want to go hard on curses there are 22 in this color combination. Curse of Misfortunes in particular will let us tutor for a curse and put it into play every turn!
Abundant Auras
Our commander gets better the more auras we have in play. Try to keep the auras cheap and efficient. All That Glitters, Ethereal Armor, can give a massive buff at a low cost. Phyresis is another nasty option giving the enchanted creature infect. However, be careful with this one as without a way to recur it this could be a bit of a non-starter. The rest of your auras are really down to preference. You may want to prioritize certain keywords, evasion, or buffs. Experiment and see what works for you.
Hylda of the Icy Crown
Hylda does something that only the Commander can do! It gives a weak, and otherwise underwhelming mechanic a new home. Tapping an opponent’s creature in Commander is generally pretty weak and underwhelming. Hylda gives this mechanic a home, and a chance to be powerful. This commander turns your tapping effects into 4/4 tokens, +1/+1 counters or card draw!
Draw Cards To Draw Out The Game
There are a lot of cards that tap down your opponent’s permanents. Hylda’s Crown of Winter is a new one! For three mana you can tap a creature and draw cards equal to the number of tapped creatures your opponents control. Between combat, mana dorks, and your commander, it is very easy for this to draw a whole lot of cards. In a similar vein, Verity Circle is a great way to draw a lot of cards by tapping down the opponent’s board. This card advantage helps keep you ahead and the boards clear of problems. Outside of drawing cards, you can look to Rhoda, Geist Avenger to gain some extra power off a tapping effect.
Individual Target Tap Down
To get all this value you need repeatable ways to tap down the opponent’s board. Retreat to Coralhelm is a great option. Every time you play a land you tap something or Scry 1. Guardian of Tazeem fulfills a similar role. However, it gets even better if you play an Island. You may also want to play classic tap-down effects such as Icy Manipulator. These can certainly be strong in a Hylda deck. With that said, try not to go overboard. These effects are not as strong on their own without your commander in play. If you are playing an effect like Icy Manipulator, try to ensure it has some other utility attached to it.
Tap Down Everything
Sometimes you just need to tap down everything. Cryptic Command is a great option here. A less costly option is Turnabout. This has some extra versatility as you can tap other types of permanents or untap your own. These effects have been common throughout Magic’s history. Sleep is a budget-friendly option that you might even have in your bulk boxes! This may also mitigate your need for pricey staples like Cyclonic Rift.
Similar Commanders
Wilds of Eldraine also brought with it Sharae of Numbing Depths. This slots into the deck offering some great card draw and synergy with Stun counters. Jumping back to Crimson Vow, we received the pairing of Rhoda, Geist Avenger, and Timin, Youthful Geist. This duo cares about tapping down creatures and building up a large creature as a reward. Look to deck techs for these two if Hylda catches your attention.
Imodane, the Pyrohammer
Imodane is one of the most exciting commanders in this set! She enables burn, a classic archetype that has always fallen flat in Commander. She encourages you to keep the board clean with burn spells while also damaging opponents. Burn in Commander suffers a lot. You need to somehow deal 40 damage to three players. Typical burn spells don’t cut it. Imodane hitting all opponents now makes burn possible. For me, this deck needs two key components to work.
- Efficient single-target burn spells
- Stuffy Doll effects
Lightning In A Bottle
Our suite of burn spells should be efficient and powerful. The aim here is to keep the board clear, and incidentally deal damage to face with our commander. Lightning Bolt is a classic option. This is especially true as Commander has become a faster format. Low mana-value commanders and mana dorks make great targets.
As we intend to focus on hitting creatures rather than players, Flame Slash and Abrade can be good options. Flame Slash for its raw damage. Abrade for the versatility. Modern staples such as Unholy Heat also become amazing removal options.
Red has a plethora of burn spells. Depending on how you build your deck some are more attractive than others. The newly printed Stonesplitter Bolt is a great big mana option. Rebel Salvo could be a one-mana deal five if you are into equipment. Shivan Meteor can deal with 13 if you have the patience. I would encourage you to take a good look through the red cards out there that deal direct damage. They are frequently under-looked. Imodane truly enables it to an insane degree.
One last burn spell I would like to discuss is Skred. I think this is going to be the MVP of many decks. For one mana it deals damage to a creature equal to the number of snow permanents you control! If you are willing to shell out a little bit for snow mountains I would highly encourage it! Unlike other spells mentioned prior the deck-building cost to make Skred good is very low. There isn’t a whole lot else snow-related that directly benefits this deck. Tundra Fumarole, and Replicating Ring. However, Skred still stands on its own as a great spell.
Stuffy Doll
Stuffy Doll is like a voodoo doll. Whenever it gets hit, it hits the opponent. Brash Taunter has a similar effect to Stuffy Doll. If you aim your own Lightning Bolt at Stuffy Doll while Imodane is in play, you are now doubling up on damage. This also pairs well with Feldon, Ronom Excavator to turn burn spells into card selection.
These cards pair famously well with red board wipes. Classics such as Blasphemous Act, Star of Extinction, and Chain Reaction. While board wipes won’t synergy with your commander, they are an essential part of any deck.
Conclusion
That brings us to the end of the Wilds of Eldraine commanders we cannot wait to try out! Use this as a guide to get you started! We cannot wait to see what decks the community produces. Please feel free to share your lists with us. We would love to see what creative new decks are coming out of this set.
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