Cracked Final Fantasy Commander Becomes #5 Most Popular

Last updated on February 26, 2026

Y'shtola, Night's Blessed | Illustration by Magalli Villeneuve

It's old news by now that Final Fantasy is one of the most pivotal Magic sets in history. Besides being the absolute best-selling MTG set ever, it's broken a ton of records… and it shows no signs of stopping.

According to EDHREC’s Top Commanders list, Y'shtola, Night's Blessed has officially reached the Top #5 most popular commanders in the last two years, a spot that’s been pretty “old guard” for a long time: Now all commanders ahead of her were printed at least ten years ago, while Y'shtola has been out for less than one.

And, judging by her current momentum, she could become #4 in a matter of weeks… and top #3 in just a few months.

Y'Shtola's Race to the Top

Kaalia of the Vast – Illustration by Scott M. Fischer

Y'shtola, Night's Blessed has always shown a knack for climbing fast. In June last year, she cracked the Top 200 even before she was released, just by the sheer amount of theorycrafted decks:

That was certainly not a fluke: Two months later, in August last year, she had broken into the Top #40. And since then she has never paused to catch her breath: Today, she has joined the top row among the most popular commanders in Magic, outpacing former fifth Kaalia of the Vast by the narrowest of margins: five decks.

Source: EDHREC

The rest of the top remains the usual suspects: The Ur-Dragon (#1), Edgar Markov (#2), Atraxa, Praetors' Voice (#3), and Krenko, Mob Boss (#4)…

… and, when looking at the most recent numbers, none of those four should be too sure they'll keep their spot.

The Past Month List Says This Isn’t a Fluke

If you check EDHREC's top commanders for the past month, Y'shtola, Night's Blessed is also #5, with 5,723 decks built in that window.

The commanders ahead of her are a completely different bunch, though. The Top #4 last month are all from Lorwyn Eclipsed, which is par for the course after every release: everyone is brewing with the shiny new toys first. Ashling, the Limitless, Maralen, Fae Ascendant, Auntie Ool, Cursewretch, and High Perfect Morcant.

But here’s the spicy part: Y’shtola outpaced the rest of the “two-year Top 5” competition over the last month, and by a good margin at that:

Source: EDHREC – Most popular commanders last month

In particular, Krenko, Mob Boss doesn't even crack the Top #2 last month: the goblin sits at #12 with 4,301 decks, meaning Y’shtola gained 1,422 more decks than Krenko in the last month alone.

Now compare that to the two-year gap: Krenko leads Y’shtola 36,402 to 34,152, a difference of 2,250 decks. If the last-month pace held perfectly Y’shtola could realistically threaten #4 in something like 6–7 weeks. And the difference in monthly gain is even bigger when compared with Atraxa, Praetors' Voice.

Universes Beyond Now Has 5 Commanders in EDHREC’s Top 25

In August last year, UB commanders had a 20% share among the Top 100 commanders. With the recent push, they have now grabbed the same share of the Top 25: there are five Universes Beyond commanders sitting there:

• #5 — Y'shtola, Night's Blessed
• #8 — Sauron, the Dark Lord
• #11 — The Wise Mothman
• #17 — Vivi Ornitier
• #25 — Fire Lord Azula

What's more: They absolutely crush their rankings of their respective color identity: Y'shtola, Night's Blessed is the #1 Esper Commander Esper, The Wise Mothman is at the top in Sultai, Vivi Ornitier rules Izzet, and Sauron, the Dark Lord is the top Grixis commander.

Fire Lord Azula would be the only exception. But that's because Azula is a Grixis commander, too, and is trailing behind Sauron, the Dark Lord.

Interestingly, though, these may be the most popular Universes Beyond commanders…

… but arguably not the strongest.

Universes Beyond's Boss

Kefka, Court Mage – Illustration by Yoshitaka Amano

Y'shtola, Night's Blessed became the most popular Final Fantasy commander almost instantly, but everybody pointed at Vivi Ornitier as the strongest card as soon as the little mage was revealed.

And everybody was mostly right: Vivi Ornitier soon became a cEDH powerhouse, and made such a mess in Standard that he had to be banned.

But, as it turns out, when you look at the strongest of the strong among Commanders, the real boss is Kefka, Court Mage: the Top #8 among the most-played commanders in cEDH in the last 6 months.

Source: EDHTop16

Vivi is the only other commander from last year to break into the Top #10 in the cEDH metagame. And Y'shtola, Night's Blessed appears much further down, around #30… although that still shows she's not just casually popular.

Atraxa, Praetors' Voice and Krenko, Mob Boss better get their lazy toughness moving. The new kids are coming!