Summary
Three’s a crowd. Three’s the charm. Three is a Magic Number. There’s a lot going on with three, and that extends intoMagic: The Gatheringtoo, where three-mana commanders have quite a bit to prove. Unlike their one- and two-mana brethren, three’s the point on the curve where decks start to feel a little cluttered.
When players talk about ‘cheap commanders,’ they’re usually referring to legends that cost less than four mana, which makes the three-mana options some of the most pivotal. They’re on the high end of ‘cheap’ but come down at a point where players are often still developing their boards. Some commanders in that category just don’t know how to play fair.
Partner and background commanders weren’t considered, since they’re skirting their mana cost a bit by having potentially cheaper or more expensive alternate commanders.
An Original That Holds Up
Animar was one of the original showstopper commanders, released as part of the first wave of Commander precons in 2011. There’s so much more competition these days that Animar had to take a backseat eventually, but it still packs a punch when it does show up.
There are so many ways to build an Animar deck, from combo tomorphs, and the card’s generically strong without any explicit synergies. Theduo-protection helps a ton, letting Animar dodge single-target removal from two of the most removal-heavy colors in Commander.
Lurrus Of The Dream-Den
No Companions Here!
Some players will bend their deck structure to support Lurrus of the Dream-Denas a companion, but this cool Cat excels out of the command zone, too. You’ll still keep your mana value in mind with Lurrus at the helm, but you need not warp your deck around the companion restriction if Lurrus is the commander.
Lurrus is one of those’graveyard as a second hand' commanders, allowing you to loop creatures and other permanents. That includes pestersome creatures and permanent-based forms of protection that Lurrus can rebuy to keep itself safe.
Najeela, The Blade-Blossom
Death Is Just An Activation Away
The floor on Najeela is a decent combat-oriented commander that creates a compounding army of Warriors, and Najeela doesn’t even have to risk herself in combat to start making those tokens. Just cast a few Warriors early on, cast Najeela on three, and start jamming with your early plays.
Then there’s the activated ability, which makes Najeelaa five-color commanderdue to color identity rules. That means you can play whatever spread of creatures and interaction you’d like. The ability also gives you an inevitable combo-kill if you havethe right combination of mana dorksin play.
Stella Lee, Wild Card
A Stellar Spellslinger Payoff
Stella Lee is a fantastic card advantage engine; it won’t contribute much to combat, but it offers you up to one extra card and a copy of a spell each turn. That’s all locked behind the prerequisite ofcasting multiple spellseach turn, but you’re able to build the deck with that restriction in mind.
This Wild Card can be both fun and challenging to play, since it requires the correct sequencing of your spells to get full value. Sometimes the first trigger will reveal something that changes the way you plan on playing your turn.
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
Magic’s Most Persistent Bird
Derevi came about from Commander 2013’s follow-ups to the original precons. Each of these commanders featured some sort of gimmick that specifically interacted with the command zone. In Derevi’s case, that was being able to ‘cheat’ Derevi out of the command zone without paying commander tax.
Derevi lends itself to a wide range of strategies, withstax decksat the very pinnacle of what this commander’s capable of. Derevi can break parity on lock-down pieces like Winter Orb and Hokori, Dust Drinker, keeping your opponents from untapping permanents while your commander untaps yours with its combat damage trigger.
Derevi’s ability to fly in from the command zone is an activated ability, and doesn’t count as casting it. It dodges traditional counterspells, making it hard to prevent Derevi from entering.
Henzie “Toolbox” Torre
A Toolbox Full Of Hammers
Henzie’s a powerful commander that rewards you for filling your deck full ofhigh-power, impactful creatures. Ideally you’re looking for creatures with great enter-the-battlefield effects or attack triggers, or a suite of sacrifice effects to put the bodies to use before they blitz themselves away.
Blitz scales well with larger creatures, sincehaste is something you’re actively looking foron your top-end beaters. Keep in mind that Henzie also offers cost reduction to those creatures, and that always starts with at least one mana off if Henzie’s already on board.
Sisay, Weatherlight Captain
Steering A Five-Color Ship
The superior of the two Sisays, the five-color Weatherlight Captain isa legends-matter creaturethat can be built around in countless different ways. With the ever-increasing influx of legendary cards in Magic, there’s no shortage of targets for Sisay to search up.
Sisay works well as the basis for typal decks, combo decks, attrition strategies, or just high-power five-color ‘good-stuff.’ It gets truly out of hand once you hit ten mana, after which you’re able to double-tutor every turn and close the game out quickly. That’s all without accounting for the fact that Sisay’s usually a three-mana 7/7.
Yuriko, The Tiger’s Shadow
Dimir’s Premier Ninja Commander
Yuriko isthe most popular blue-black commander, just above a bunch of other typal legends, including Satoru Umezawa (we get it, Ninjas are cool). Yuriko captures the imaginations of players with its unique Commander Ninjutsu ability, which lets it sidestep commander tax.
Yuriko also presents a challenging deckbuilding puzzle: It incentivizes you to play high mana value spells, but you also need a supporting cast of cheap and evasive creatures to trigger Yuriko. That means you’ll have to balance your curve, and find clever ways to manipulate the top of your library for maximum damage.
Selvala, Heart Of The Wilds
Unprecedented Mana Generation
Mono-green decks are no stranger tomassive mana ramp, and that’s usually closely associated withElf creatureslike Selvala, Heart of the Wilds. The typical play pattern for Selvala is to play it, see if it lives, then untap and cascade out of control with the amount of mana you’ll be generating.
With just one other medium-sized or large creature on board, Selvala can produce the mana for some explosive turns. There’s also a card draw ability tied to the highest-power creature, though that’s a universal effect–it’ll draw your opponents cards if they play the biggest creatures.
Nadu, Winged Wisdom
A Broken Commander By Design
Nadu is a completely unreasonable card, carrying on the Modern Horizons tradition of printing obscenely silly cards that break formats wide open. The formats in question?Modern, as intended, but this Bird caught wind in Commander the second it was spoiled.
Nadu has pushed stats, evasion, and a card draw ability that goes absolutely wild with and against any amount of targeted spells and abilities. If your opponent tries to remove a creature you control, you’ll draw a card, and you can facilitate drawing an absurd number of cards by just targeting your own creatures.
Nadu gives its ability to each creature you control as a separate instance of that ability. That means you’re able to draw up to two cards per creature each turn.
