No Universes Beyond project raised more eyebrows at its announcement than Fallout did, but it’s clear thatMagic: The Gatheringhas only gone and pulled it off regardless. In retrospect, it’s not surprising: Fallout is a series that spans six mainline games and nearly three decades, with enough characters and lore to give most fantasy settings a run for their money.
Many of these characters have now been immortalized in cardboard form as legendary creatures, and many of these are excellent candidates for the position of commander in your next deck. Whether you love rolling dice or creatures living twice, there’s a commander for you here in the Wasteland.
10Jason Bright, Glowing Prophet
Fly Your Zombie Hordes First Class
There’s serious competition forZombie type commandersin Magic, so the fact that Jason Bright is a worthy addition to the conversation speaks volumes about his power level. In a single card he gives you a draw engine, a sacrifice outlet, and a means of sneaking key creatures through for combat damage.
His two abilities have excellent synergy with each other and with the Zombie type as a whole, who often do some of their best work from the darkest depths of the graveyard. His mono-blue color identity also forces you to be a bit more creative with your Zombie deck, maybe throwing in some Mutants as well for good measure.
9Three Dog, Galaxy News DJ
Bringing Auras To The People
Since Auras in Magic only affect one creature, they need to be particularly powerful to play, especially in high-power formats like Commander. Three Dog totally changes their dynamic, however, letting you broadcast one Aura from himself to all of your other creatures each turn.
This creates a new go-wide approach for Aura decks, which typically focus on building up one huge creature. Those low-impact Auras suddenly don’t seem so low-impact when your entire board of 1/1 tokens are wearing them, after all. He’s also incredibly affordable and well-statted, meaning he can get the show started as early as turn four.
8The Master, Transcendent
This Will Be The Age Of Mutants!
Magic has seen countless Reanimator effects over the years, some good, and some bad. But none have been quite so efficient as the one offered by The Master, Transcendent. Every turn, for no mana, he can tap to revive any fallen creature in any graveyard. Provided it was milled there this turn, of course.
The two rad counters The Master dishes out help to get the ball rolling on this, but it really shines alongside Mill staples like Millstone and Hedron Crab, which let you set up instant-speed graveyard ambushes during your opponents’ turns. Despite shrinking his revived Mutants down to 3/3 stats, The Master is still one of the best Mill, and Reanimator, commanders we’ve ever seen.
7Arcade Gannon
Man Or Machine? How About Both?
Some commanders are great because they fulfill a specific niche particularly well, while others are great because they provide a wide open canvas for you to explore multiple deckbuilding directions and themes. Arcade Gannon is the latter, packing two simple abilities that can be applied to multiple archetypes.
Card filtering is universally useful, and can neatly set up Humans and artifacts in your graveyard to be recast later via Arcade’s second ability. Whether you’re building aHuman Kindred deckor an Eggs-like Combo deck, Arcade Gannon can lead it with Pride.
6Caesar, Legion’s Emperor
Veni, Vidi, Vici
Flexibility is the name of the game when it comes to Caesar. With three abilities to choose from, and three colors in his identity, he gives you countless possible ways to build the perfectaggressive tokens deck.
The synergy between the first and third abilities here is as obvious as it is powerful, burning your opponents for ever-escalating damage each turn while also generating more tokens you’re able to sacrifice to use his abilities in the first place. The card draw mode is less explosive but more than welcome, letting you recover after the inevitable board wipe comes and routs your well-honed legion.
5Dr. Madison Li
An Outlet For All Your Pent-Up Energy
Although it got a bad reputation due to a few problem cards in the original Kaladesh block, Energy is a great mechanic with many interesting gameplay implications. Dr. Madison Li is the latest of these and, while not broken, she’s certainly one of the best.
Not only does Li give you an easy way to generate Energy, she also gives you an easy way to spend it, with three separate abilities for different occasions. Whether it’s a combat trick, card advantage, or straight-up artifact Reanimation, she gives you a wide range of options, both in and out of dedicated Energy decks.
4James, Wandering Dad
Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost
While James’ adventure half is certainly appealing in Commander, given how well it can play with the ample Ramp and Mana Rocks in the format, the real draw of the card is the activated ability on his creature side. Tapping for two mana is a huge deal, and being restricted to ‘just’ abilities hardly matters at all when you really dig into it.
You can use this mana to fund abilities on creatures, artifacts, lands, and anything else, meaning you’ll always be able to find a good use for it, especially in a dedicated abilities deck. And if all else fails, he can always pay the cost for the Clues he generates with his adventure half.
3Kellogg, Dangerous Mind
Strike Some Deadly Deals
Taking control of enemy creatures is one of the most powerful effects in Magic, resulting in a guaranteed two-for-one swing with the potential for much more beyond. Generally such effects are priced at a premium to compensate, but Kellogg offers one to you at the bargain price of just five Treasures.
At a rate like that, you can consistently seize control of the biggest threat on the board in a Kellogg deck, clearing the way so he can safely attack andgenerate more Treasurewith which to steal more creatures. You have to return the creatures if Kellogg leaves play, but red/black have no shortage of sacrifice effects to stop that happening in a pinch.
2Mr. House, President And CEO
You Feeling Lucky, Punk?
There aren’t a huge number of cards in Magic that let you roll dice to determine their effects, but those that do exist get a lot better with Mr. House in play. Rolling high with this holographic Human in play gives you extra creatures and Treasure, which can then be fed back into his second ability to generate even more.
It’s a nice self-contained value loop, but as soon as you throw in other dice-roll cards things start getting silly. Though it’s a flavor nightmare, the Dungeons and Dragons cards from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms and Baldurs Gate are ideal fits here, especially the ludicrous Ancient Dragon cycle.
1Red Death, Shipwrecker
A Perfect Politician In Crab Form
A two mana 1/3 with an effect that only hits one creature a turn may not seem like a great fit for Commander at first but, as the in-game Red Death can attest, looks can be deceiving. All three of this cunning Crab’s effects can be surprisingly impactful, especially early on in a game.
Forcing your opponents to attack each other is always nice, and the extra card the affected player draws in exchange helps to mitigate any animosity they may have felt about being manipulated. The extra mana you get out of the bargain can also be relevant early game, helping you ramp into ways of untapping Red Death each turn, or even justbig scary red creatures.
