Ranking the Top 10 Best Commanders of 2026

Last updated on November 13, 2026

Akroma's Will | Illustration by Antonio José Manzanedo

2026 was an interesting year for MTG, to say the very least. We got several polarizing Universes Beyond sets, a couple banger In-Universe sets, and one all-timer in Reality Fracture.

As is ever the trend, the number of legendary creatures continues to grow exponentially. 2026 brought us a staggering 963 new commanders to experiment with. We took a look at the most popular of them and ranked the 10 best of the best for you. I’m going to do my best to consider overall power level balanced with viability in both casual and competitive Commander.

Let’s dive in.

#10. Crystal, Inhuman Princess

It’s easy to see why Crystal is so popular. It’s a flexible mana dork, it’s a flier, and it’s got a Guttersnipe-esque ability, and it can go in the command zone. Since it’s in Ink-Tredder , you get access to all the best Curiosity effects, including the vastly underrated Keen Sense. It’s also had solid tournament results and is well on its way to becoming a force to be reckoned with in cEDH, but I haven’t seen it at too many casual tables.

#9. Tam, The Possibility

Gotta shout out Tam as the new de facto best superfriends commander, and perhaps one of the best proliferate commanders as well. It reduces the costs of all your planeswalkers, but the real value is in the ability to proliferate exponentially as you progress your game plan. It’ll make it so your ‘walkers are harder to take out all while fueling other strategies as well: General +1/+1 counter go wide stuff? WUBRG infect? Helix Pinnacle or The Millenium Calendar shenanigans? Tam can do it all. Proliferate is one of the more notorious keyword actions in MTG, and I predict Tam will continue to rise in popularity throughout the years.

#8. Smaug, the Impenetrable

Treasure, treasure, and more treasure. Smaug’s hoard is staggering. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: 7 mana is a lot for a commander, especially one that will immediately draw the ire of the entire table. This one ranks so highly because it turns staples of the format like Blasphemous Act into gargantuan Seething Song-style rituals. No burn spell is ever a dead card when you’ve got Smaug on the field. Many mass treasure creation effects give you tapped treasures, but not Smaug. As long as you’ve found a way to fill up your hand, or maybe hit a big impulse draw with something like Jeska's Will, Smaug will cause a never-ending inferno of damage and treasure. Feels like a huge flavor win to me.

#7. Bruce Banner // The Incredible Hulk

Bwuce! What an absolute menace of a card. Buddy comes down turn 1 and will start drawing you cards by turn 2. Once your hand is filled with gas, you can flip him into The Incredible Hulk and start trying to take down the table in a single turn. I find Hulk to be so potent because it actively discourages people from blocking, and because it enables its own setup with Bruce’s card draw ability. I’ve witness a turn 1 Bruce into a turn 2 Moonmist into a GG many times, and that Caltrops infinite is way easy to pull off. Temur gives you all the tools you need to take Hulk to the next level: Ramp and pump in green, card draw in blue, and impulse draw and spot removal in red.

#6. Maralen, Fae Ascendant

Raise your hand if you’ve lost your entire library to Maralen this year. Elves are one of the stronger typal builds in the entire game, and when you add blue, black, and faeries into the mix? Things get rough. Maralen gets access to tons of mana generation, top tier removal, and solid control…and it can steal your opponents’ cards and cast them. There are so many different ways to build Maralen, and it’s basically a surefire bet that we’ll be getting more good faeries and elves throughout the years. Already clocking in at the #41 most popular commander on EDHREC, it’s safe to say Maralen is here to stay.

#5. Dack Fayden, Helping Hand

“I cast Dack Fayden, GG.” Dack Fayden can straight up instantly win you the game if you cast it. This helpful human debuted in Reality Fracture’s Multiverse Reforged precon, and, at face value, it appears to be an innocent group hug commander. Cast Dack, flip a couple creatures, get their ETBs, and give them away. However, players quickly discovered that, with the right suite of creatures, you can end the game with a single resolved Dack. It’s quickly rising to the top of the cEDH meta for its extremely efficient game plan, although it does fold to countermagic!

#4. Aerid Konstrari

Do you like ramp? Then you like Aerid Konstrari. Creating an untapped source of mana whenever it enters or dies, and whenever you activate its fantastic pump ability, is absurd. While it is pip-intensive, 4-mana for a 5/4 flier that automatically ramps you is incredible. Gruul is all about generating huge amounts of mana and swinging in with stompy creatures, and Aerid can get you there with ease. It’s also got infinite combo potential with Agatha of the Vile Cauldron. If you can get Agatha’s power up to 5, you can activate Aerid’s ability for a single mana, which means you can then use the Heartwood token you just created to pay for another activation. Throw in a Reckless Fireweaver, which you’d want in the deck already regardless of combo potential, and you’ve got a game winning infinite on your hands.

#3. Kwia Vigorbloom

Yowza, who could’ve expected it. The commander that effectively makes you a Black Lotus when you gain life is absolutely cracked in half, even if it only triggers once each turn. Selesnya has always been a bit of an underdog in commander, and Kwia Vigorbloom completely flips that script. Soul Warden and Essence Warden becoming insane mana engines is something I never thought I’d see, but here we are. 6-mana commanders can feel scary, but an absolutely ridiculous ability stapled to a 6/6 with flying, vigilance, lifelink, and ward 2?! Feels like bait for countermagic, but MAN…this thing perfectly exemplifies power creep in 2026.

#2. Ashling, the Limitless

From the moment Ashling was spoiled, people knew it was going to be a problem. They were absolutely right. The Dance of the Elements precon was packed with power right out of the box, but upgrading this thing easily took it to the next level. By reducing the cost of creatures with something like Animar, Soul of Elements or Urza's Incubator, you can easily create a huge board and out-value your opponents. Champion of the Path can easily help you burn opponents out, Muster the Departed is a budget option that’ll help you double up on evoked elementals, and Twinflame Travelers can help you double up on Ashling triggers. She can quickly take any pile of solid elementals and turn them into an overwhelming army. Being a precon commander, and the face commander of one of the best ever precons at that, Ashling is a threat that you should be ready to deal with whenever you go to a Commander night at your LGS or elsewhere.

#1. Witherbloom, the Balancer

The elder dragons from Secrets of Strixhaven were all certified bangers, and all of them have become popular commanders to varying degrees. However…none of them sent shivers down the spines of Commander players quite like Witherbloom (although Prismari, the Inspiration was close). Affinity for creatures on a Golgari commander is good, and giving your instants and sorceries affinity for creatures is in the running for best text we got on a Commander this year. Golgari is infamous for its ability to easily churn out a ton of creature tokens. It turns an already strong removal spell like Pest Infestation into absolutely visceral cost reduction. It somehow makes excellent finishers like Exsanguinate or Finale of Devastation even better. N Witherbloom is so strong because it turns tons and tons of cards that were once irrelevant into value powerhouses. Even Sprout Swarm can easily go infinite with Witherbloom in the right scenario. 8-mana is prohibitive in a sense, but you’ll almost never be casting this thing for its full cost. It’s an undeniable powerhouse, and it’s our best commander of 2026.

Honorable Mentions

Building around colorless in Commander is definitely a challenge. There isn’t a ton of interaction, and you end up relying heavily on artifacts, which makes you highly susceptible to an overloaded Vandalblast. Ultron, however, has an ability so good that it’s actually worth building around. Creating copies of artifacts at 2-mana is already an excellent rate, but turning them into creatures is where things get insane. Copying a Portal to Phyrexia that can be equipped with Helm of the Host or Blade of Selves is formidable. I wish I could rank this one higher, but I have to keep my pro-colorless bias in check.

Well, there it is. Star Trek gave us the most (for my money) interesting Boros commander ever printed. Casting Secure the Wastes on 8 for an army 2/2 attackers is good, and using Sneak Attack to easily cheat out your biggest beaters as attackers is awesome. We don’t have the data to prove this one’s excellence quite yet, but I suspect it will become one of the most popular commanders in its color pair. There’s just nothing else in the game that has this effect.

With proper deckbuilding, Raph & Mikey are a near unstoppable threat. If you pack your deck with mana rocks to power them out early, and if you stack your deck only with creatures that give you extra combats like Port Razer, it’s fairly easy to chain infinite combats and win the very same turn you cast Raph & Mikey. It’s like a more risky Dack Fayden. However, even without factoring in extremely strict deckbuilding, these guys absolutely fold to removal and countermagic.

Wrap Up

Rules Lawyer| Illustration by Sean Murray

There you have it, our best commanders of 2026. I honestly would’ve loved to write about the top 30, it was so hard to cram everything into just 10. Let us know what you think! Are we on the money, or did we get it completely wrong?

Regardless, 2026 gave us a solid array of new options. Can’t wait to see what 2027 brings.