5 Insanely Busted Partner Pairs for LGS Pride Month Events

Last updated on February 17, 2026

Drana and Linvala | Illustration by Raluca Marinescu

Wizards has announced a rerun of Magic Presents: Pride for 2026, running June 5-14 at participating stores. The celebratory event lets players can run any two commanders in the command zone—effectively, all legal commanders get partner.

In addition to special game play, participants can get a lovely Gilded Lotus promo with art featuring the Gruulfriends Chandra and Nissa:

Source: wizards.com

With so many possible pairings, things can feel overwhelming, so I have a few ideas to kickstart your brewing.

Saheeli, the Sun's Brilliance + Huatli, Poet of Unity

This pairing ranks high on flavor with one of Magic’s canon queer couples leading the charge, and they work together very well. Artifact mana mashes with green ramp, including Roar of the Fifth People, to power out giant dinosaurs faster than is reasonable—and blue protects them with countermagic.

The fun starts after landing marquee dinosaurs like Etali, Primal Conqueror and Zacama, Primal Calamity. Blue does an excellent job copying them. Saheeli, the Sun's Brillaince does this herself, but we can also lean on clones—especially ones that ignore the legend rule, like Spark Double and The Clone Saga. One threat becomes many, and the table falls to artifice and fangs.

Otharri, Suns’ Glory + Ezuri, Claw of Progress

This pairing exploits the Pride rules for a uniquely synergstic build. Both commanders produce experience counters and build off each other. While other experience counter pairings exist—for example, Ezuri plus Kelsien the Plague for 5-color nonsense—none of them work together like these two.

The trick is simple: When Otharri attacks and creates Rebels, the tokens trigger Ezuri since they have two power. Access to blue and green improves Otharri further by introducing good proliferate cards like Evolution Sage and Thrummingbird plus additional protection spells and countermagic to keep the phoenix safe.

Urza, Lord High Artificer + Karn, Legacy Reforged

One could argue this is a vanilla pairing since Karn, Legacy Reforged can just go into an Urza, Lord High Artificer deck, but the consistency! The pairing is also very flavorful, as Urza created Karn to help with time travel experiments. As for their relationship…let’s just say that the play pattern of Urza swiping the mana Karn produces and pouring it into his own projects rings true, mechanically and flavorfully.

The draw here is high mana generation. Between Urza and Karn, every artifact you control potentially produces two additional mana. Urza even provides a mana sink! Thus, the power of the deck lies in ramping out Magic’s biggest and best artifacts (in mono-blue), like Portal to Phyrexia, Spine of Ish Sah, and so on. It easily becomes a combo deck with Urza serving as an infinite mana outlet. And don’t forget Winter Orb!

I didn’t say the pairings would be nice.

Ajani, Nacatl Pariah + Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER

Having one commander is pretty busted. Because you always have one card in your opening hand, you can sculpt your deck around playing it on curve. Having two commanders magnifies that further, which is the foundation of this pairing. This deck ignores flavor for functionality, like a gym bro chomping on boiled chicken breast. Ajani on turn 2, then Sephiroth on turn 3. Sacrifice the Cat Warrior, flip Ajani, then create another token and have two creatures to protect the planeswalker.

This command zone has card draw, sacrifice fodder, a sacrifice outlet, and a sacrifice payoff in the opening hand. Simply enhance them with cards like Zulaport Cutthroat, Ocelot Pride, and Skullclamp. Also, plenty of protection and removal—once your opponent realize what’s up, they’ll Go for the Throat.

Borborygmos Enraged + The Gitrog Monster

Urza/Karn and Ajani/Sephiroth are great examples of extremely synergistic commanders, but Borborygmos Enraged and The Gitrog Monster verges into true combo territory with two star-crossed textboxes.

Imagine if the cost of Lightning Bolt was just cycling a land for free! Then imagine more. Life from the Loam gets back three lands to burn an opponent for nine, and you can dredge it to keep the chain going. for nine damage and draw two cards sounds okay. Speaking of dredge, Dakmor Salvage just ends the game since you can infinitely dredge then discard it. If you want to go hard into combo, this is your deck.