If you’re a two decade veteran of Magic like myself, it’s easy to lose track of how steep the learning curve has become these days, particularly for Magic’s most popular format, Commander (or EDH, as it is also commonly known). I have several friends who are learning to play, and trying to fastrack them to the most beloved multiplayer format is no easy task, especially with the multiple layers of rules it adds on to the base game. I’m asked all the time “whose the best commander for new players”? It’s not a straightforward answer.
The difficulty of getting new players into commander starts with the commander they’re playing itself; is it a control, combo or aggro commander? In this list I will focus on the latter, as the former two archetypes are more difficult for beginners.
I’ll also focus on commanders that are not only more straightforward to play, but also easier on the wallet. No beginner wants to dump a grand on a hobby that they’re probably not sure they’ll even stick to.
We can split the aggro archetype into further niches like voltron (buff your commander with auras and equipment) and tribal (play lots of the same creature type), the former aims to win by going tall, while the latter attempts to win by going wide. Voltron is more vulnerable to spot removal while tribal is more vulnerable to
Table Of Contents
- Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
- Ghalta, Primal Hunger
- Rankle, Master of Pranks
- Charix, The Raging Isle
- Sram, Senior Edificer
- Lathril, Blade of the Elves
- Alela, Artful Provocateur
- Krenko, Mob Boss
- Wilhelt, The Rotcleaver
- Muldrotha, The Gravetide
Without further ado, let’s dive in an explore the best commander for new players:
Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
Torbran the burninator’s simplicity makes him an irresistible choice for new players. What more could a burn player want than to simply burn even harder? He’s even better with spells that hit multiple times like Grapeshot, as his ability adds up really quickly.
Playing mono red gives beginners the chance to be impactful without requiring an in-depth knowledge of the game. It also exposes them to red’s weaknesses like a lack of enchantment removal (aside from Chaos Warp) and difficulty in dealing with big toughness creatures (aside from Blasphemous Act).
A warning for beginners wanting to dive in with Torbran: this card will quickly teach you the role of politics in commander. By playing mono red you’re essentially painting a target on your head that says “kill me first”. Mono red commanders are known as the game’s glass cannons. That is they dish out damage quickly but die quicker if the table turns on them.
Include a few switcharoo spells like Deflecting Swat to mess with your opponents and keep Torbran alive, as he’ll be a removal magnet.
Ghalta, Primal Hunger
We all remember the first time we saw a creature as big as this one and how we audibly gasped in amazement. Enter Ghalta, Primal Hunger. A 12/12, what could possibly stop this!? And it has trample! Well, for veteran players that excitement has long worn off; unless it’s a creature with indestructible or hexproof it won’t last long on the
Nonetheless, there’s something very satisfying about smashing faces with a big stompy dinosaur. Throw in a Bane of Progress and show those players with fancy cards like Jeweled Lotus and Grim Monolith who’s boss. This also a great chance to learn why mono green isn’t viable in more competitive settings, mostly due to its lack of mass creature removal and interaction.
Rankle, Master of Pranks
This cheeky little scoundrel will wreak havoc on your opponent’s hands and creatures if you have the right setup for it. He requires you play some low value, sacrificable creatures before attacking to ensure that you come out on top after his trigger. You could sacrifice something with recursion like Reassembling Skeleton and become even more of a nuisance with a Blood Artist on the
If you play Rankle, Master of Pranks at the right time you may catch an opponent off guard and snipe their commander if they have no other creatures. Playing Rankle also teaches you black’s weaknesses like its very scarce enchantment removal, with Feed the Swarm being the only reliable, albeit painful option. Black has even scarcer artifact removal (Gate to Phyrexia).
On the other hand, mono black comes with its own perks like Cabal Coffers, Corrupt, and Nightmare Lash that reward you for having a cheap mana base.
Charix, The Raging Isle
This crustacean’s not the most competitive commander around but his simplicity is appealing to newcomers, particularly in teaching them the role of algebra in the game. His 0/17 base stats will raise a few eyebrows, and with a few buffs in a voltron deck, he can be quickly ready to one-shot unwary opponents for 21+ commander damage.
Playing mono blue teaches new players why it’s the best color in commander because of its access to counterspells and I Win cards like Cyclonic Rift and Expropriate, as well as its weaknesses like limited access to hard removal and ramp.
Like Rankle, Charix rewards you for having a deck of basic lands. This allows you to avoid costly staples like Cavern of Souls and Ancient Tomb. In turn this lets you to include cards that count the number of Islands you have, like High Tide, and Engulf the Shore.
Sram, Senior Edificer
Well, to be honest if you want to put a new player off of Magic for good then there’s no better way to start them off with a mono white commander deck; it’s known to be the worst color for many reasons (but getting better with Crimson Vow). But to complete the color pie with our first five nominees, we’ll nominate Sram as being the best mono white beginner commander. He doesn’t require much explanation; just load him with auras and equipment, and swing.
Even if spot removal ruins your day (you don’t draw Karametra’s Blessing or Teferi’s Protection when you need it), Sram keeps your hand loaded so you can mitigate white’s worst weakness: card advantage.
Keep your mana base stocked with Plains (and your wallet from crying) and load up on cards that reward your thriftiness like Armored Ascension, and Archaeomancer’s Map.
Lathril, Blade of the Elves
The first multicolor commander on our list, Lathril commands the Elven Empire preconstructed deck, making her an ideal choice for beginners who want to get started with the tribal archetype.
She is a narrow commander in terms of what card types you need to include. However, what makes her interesting is exactly how you build her: voltron or go wide with an elfball strategy? Both are viable and allow players to mix it up and get creative. Protect your elf horde with Golgari Charm and Heroic Intervention, and turn them deadly with Triumph of the Hordes.
Skullclamp wins the award for being the cheapest and most overpowered addition for this deck. Don’t be too overzealous with it though, you need to keep your elf numbers at a level high enough to activate
Lathril. Most advanced upgrades include Seedborn Muse for turbo drainage, and Allosaurus Shepherd, an obscene one-drop albeit with an equally obscene price tag. Lathril makes a strong case as the best commander for new players.
Alela, Artful Provocateur
Our first brawl precon commander, Alela doesn’t leave much room for creativity in terms of what card types you’re going to be mostly filling your deck with (hint: artifacts and enchantments), but new players will enjoy the experience of quickly filling the
The most creative part of building Alela is choosing exactly what artifacts and enchantments you want to include. Hint: they should be low mana value so you can pump out those tokens as fast as possible).
Again, Skullclamp is a no-brainer for this deck.
Krenko, Mob Boss
Do you like goblins? How about goblins with your goblins? If left unchecked, Krenko and his boys will quickly leave your opponents sleeping with the fishes. Buff your goblin tokens with as many of the various goblin lords like Goblin Warchief and Hobgoblin Bandit Lord as you can, and your opponents will be forced to
Sigh, did we mention Skullclamp?
Wilhelt, The Rotcleaver
Got that Cranberries song stuck in your head yet? Our undead friend, Wilhelt, comes with the Undead Unleashed precon and commands a horde of decayed zombies, decayed being a keyword unique to Innistrad: Midnight Hunt. Of course, you can swap out many of the weaker cards the precon comes with with older, stronger zombie staples like Gray Merchant of Asphodel, and newer cards like Headless Rider.
Unfortunately, Zombies are too fat for Skullclamp.
Muldrotha, The Gravetide
For the players who might be tempted to flip the table when their favorite cards get removed and go to the graveyard rather than stick to the battlefield. Muldrotha is very forgiving of common mistakes like dumping your hand too quickly. It’s particularly frustrating to have a permanent removed in commander because you are likely to only have a single copy of it in your deck. Muldrotha offers a near-permanent means of getting it back.
It might be tempting to loop a Fleshbag Marauder every turn by sacking it to Viscera Seer and sacking a token for it to keep enemy commanders off the
