All 34 Temur Commanders in Magic Ranked

Last updated on June 16, 2025

Kalamax, the Stormsire | Illustration by Nicholas Gregory

Sometimes you can get too wrapped up in the complexities and intricate synergies of the Commander format. You tunnel vision on new combos, unique interactions, and game plans that are too complicated to offer a consistent way to win the game. I suggest you take a step back and look at the simplistic (yet enjoyable) way to play EDH: good old-fashioned creature-based big-stuff decks.

“Temur Good Stuff” is a strategy as old as time, and one that that the color combination can easily support. It’s powerful, it’s fun to play, and it’s great for players of all skill levels. Today I’d like to introduce you to some of the best Temur () commanders in Magic and offer a sample decklist to get your brain turning and inspire you to start brewing.

Let’s get into it!

Why Go with a Temur Commander?

Animar, Soul of Elements | Illustration by Peter Mohrbacher

Temur is a color wedge of size. Your strategy almost always revolves around doing normal things like playing creatures, casting spells, and taking extra turns, but to an enormous magnitude. Nearly any deck can be described as “big stuff” or “big spells,” but don’t let this apparent simplicity trick you.

You have to carefully construct your deck to take advantage of Temur’s abilities and consistently get the mana and interactions you need to explode. A big part of that is using a commander that empowers this core strategy.

#34. Intet, the Dreamer

First up is the primeval dragon Intet, the Dreamer. Intet promotes a big-mana, big-spell playstyle that aims to generate lots of mana or deal combat damage with your commander to cast gigantic game-threatening spells as early as possible. Instead of the typical Temur strategy of playing many 4-6 mana value creatures consistently to win via combat, this commander wants to cast fewer and larger spells to achieve the same ending with less resources.

#33. Ureni of the Unwritten

If you’re into big, flashy plays and a deck full of dragons, Ureni of the Unwritten might just be your new favorite commander. This 7-mana spirit dragon lets you look at the top eight cards of your library and drop a dragon straight onto the battlefield whenever it enters or attacks. That’s some serious high-rolling value.

Cards like Dragon Tempest or Hellkite Courser are absolute all-stars here. They both give Ureni haste, meaning you don’t have to wait a turn to attack and get that second trigger. That’s double the chance to drop more dragons and apply pressure immediately!

It really shines in ramp-heavy builds with a high density of dragons, turning every trigger into a potential game-swinger.

#32. Eshki, Temur's Roar

Temur decks love creatures with power, and Eshki, Temur's Roar rewards exactly that. It grows with every creature you cast, and if the creature’s power hits 4 or more, you draw a card. At 6 or more, you also start burning your opponents. All for just 3 mana! Sure, it's rather fragile, but the right deck makes it grow quickly while Eshki provides you with the card advantage you need.

#31. Ureni, the Song Unending

Ureni, the Song Unending is a monster of a finisher that rewards you for going wide on lands. When it enters, it deals damage equal to your land count divided among enemy creatures and planeswalkers, often wiping the board. With protection from white and black, flying, and a whopping 10/10 body, this version of Ureni is perfect for ramp-heavy Temur builds. It’s not subtle, but it doesn’t need to be—this kind of card ends games the moment it lands.

#30. Eshki Dragonclaw

For a more tempo-oriented commander, Eshki Dragonclaw brings synergy and stats in equal measure. With vigilance, trample, and ward , it’s hard to kill and great in combat. But the real reward is in spell sequencing—if you cast both a creature and a noncreature spell before combat, Eshki lets you draw a card and gets bigger with two +1/+1 counters. It’s ideal for Temur builds that blend creatures, instants, and artifacts into a balanced midrange engine.

#29. Saheeli, Radiant Creator

If you love artifacts and energy, Saheeli, Radiant Creator turns your deck into a value-generating machine. Casting artifacts or artificers builds up energy, and during combat you can spend that energy to clone any permanent you control into a 5/5 hasty artifact creature. Temur loves flexible value, and this Saheeli rewards you for going wide with tokens, artifacts, and utility permanents.

#28. Pia Nalaar, Chief Mechanic

Pia Nalaar, Chief Mechanic offers a steady energy engine with a sizeable payoff. Any time your artifact creatures hit a player, you get two energy, which you can spend at the end of your turn to create a flying Nalaar Aetherjet token. The more energy you have, the bigger the vehicle gets, making this a snowballing win condition in a go-wide artifact deck.

#27. Flubs, the Fool

One look at Flubs, the Fool and you might think it’s just a goofy little value piece—but don’t be fooled. This frog does some serious brain work. Playing an extra land every turn is already solid, but Flubs really shines in the way it handles your hand. If your hand is empty, Flubs lets you draw a card whenever you play a land or cast a spell, turning topdeck mode into a potential draw engine. But if you're holding cards, it makes you discard instead—so you're encouraged to play fast, stay low to the ground, and keep your momentum going.

In the right build, Flubs, the Fool can become the heart of a degenerate combo machine. Pair it with cards like Azusa, Lost but Seeking to get even more land drops per turn, and suddenly you're cycling through your deck at lightning speed. Add Song of Creation into the mix, and you’ve got a deck that can draw half its library in one go, with Flubs smoothing things out when your hand is empty.

#26. The Swarmlord

The Swarmlord basically starts as a 6-mana 7/7 and only gets stronger from there. This excellent +1/+1 counter commander wants you to recast it from the command zone multiple times, so you’ll definitely need to get some of that Temur ramp going. It also wants to be surrounded by creatures with counters to get the most value from its cunning second ability.

One big thing to look at here is that this commander doesn’t care about +1/+1 counters, just counters in general. You can do powerful things with other counters, like the ability counters from Ikoria and shield counters from Streets of New Capenna. Cards like Titan of Industry and Avian Oddity are interesting inclusions to the deck.

#25. Yasova Dragonclaw

One idea Temur embodies quite well is Survival of the Fittest, the idea that Might Makes Right and the biggest creature reigns supreme. Yasova Dragonclaw embodies this because it uses its triggered ability to dominate the will of smaller creatures and take control of them each combat.

Yasova can make a great Voltron commander. You want to make it bigger to enable its ability anyway, so the two strategies work well together. Slapping a Sword of Fire and Ice or Sword of Feast and Famine on Yasova lets you steal most creatures and sets you up to do a lot of commander damage in one go.

You can also focus on stealing your opponents’ creatures to generate a board advantage. Yasova only lets you keep them until the end of the turn, but you can offset that with cards like Thassa, Deep-Dwelling, or with a Conjurer's Closet that exiles one of your creatures and returns them under your control. Most flicker effects return the exiled creature under its owner’s control, so make sure they specify under your control. You can also use sacrifice outlets to kill your opponent’s creature after stealing them.

#24. Averna, the Chaos Bloom

Averna, the Chaos Bloom is a Temur cascade commander. It’s more of a supporting piece for other cascade synergies thanks to an ability that nets you a land whenever you cascade.

An ideal Averna deck has as many cards with cascade as you can jam into your list. There's plenty of support for the mechanic, with big boosts from the Warhammer 40k decks and Doctor Who. Cascade is already a 2-for-1 mechanic, but Averna's innately powerful because it turns all your cascade cards into 3-for-1s by free-rolling lands off your cascades as well.

#23. Lara Croft, Tomb Raider

Lara Croft, Tomb Raider is quite a legendary treasure as a Secret Lair exclusive, though the ability that creates discovery counters takes an archeologist’s careful attention to pull off well. On the other hand, the raid ability is solid for getting consistent value. There are a few raid cards in Temur that you’d want to play, with Brazen Cannonade among the best.

It’s a great feeling when your commander pays its own way in three attacks. You know WotC is on their flavor game when Collector's Vault is a great synergy piece in a Lara Croft, Tomb Raider deck.

#22. Riku of Many Paths

Riku of Many Paths is a Temur human wizard that leans into the spellslinger, storm, or burn playstyle. Printed in Outlaws of Thunder Junction, Riku of Many Paths is the first MTG card to have text that directly focuses on modal spells. These are spells with a bulleted choice of options, like Rakdos Charm or Cryptic Command.

Modal spells have always been popular for their versatility and include many popular Commander staples. Guild charms like Izzet Charm and Simic Charm are cheap and effective ways to develop advantages. Spells from the Command cycle like Quandrix Command provide much-needed protection and utility.

Riku of Many Paths has a cheap mana value, a massive amount of interactions, and unique text. Don’t sleep on the spree cards from Outlaws like Three Steps Ahead and Great Train Heist.

#21. Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy

As a wedge, Temur is most often associated with massive creatures first and massive spells second. Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy is an interesting card because it’s one of the few artifact-matters commanders Temur has. Gimbal can quickly snowball out of control by making massive Gremlin tokens each turn.

Since you need as many differently named artifact tokens as you can get, you’ll want to load your deck with a variety of ways to make extra tokens. Academy Manufactor is a great addition that works well with the plethora of ways to make Treasure tokens in Temur, but don’t forget a source of Clue and Food tokens like Fae Offering and Wavesifter.

Another strategy to bulk up your artifact token count is to make copies of the nontoken artifacts you control. Drafna, Founder of Lat-Nam and Mechanized Production are just a few options that make token copies of your artifacts. You can also make copies with effects like Irenicus's Vile Duplication if you’re copying creatures that are already artifacts.

#20. Loot, the Pathfinder

Loot, the Pathfinder might not look like much at first glance, but it’s a Swiss Army knife of value. Double strike, vigilance, and haste make it a strong attacker, but its exhaust abilities seal the deal: Tap it with the right mana to draw three cards, ramp with triple mana, or bolt anything. It’s the ultimate toolbox commander for a Temur midrange deck, offering powerful effects on demand from the command zone.

#19. Storm, Force of Nature

Storm, Force of Nature is a cool and flavorful take on Temur spellslinger decks, inspired by the Marvel X-Men character. It has flying and vigilance, so it’s a dependable threat in the air, but what really makes it shine is its ability to give your next instant or sorcery storm whenever it connects in combat. That means even a small cantrip can suddenly copy itself multiple times, leading to explosive turns.

#18. Owen Grady, Raptor Trainer + Blue, Loyal Raptor

The Temur partners of Owen Grady, Raptor Trainer and Blue, Loyal Raptor make for solid commanders of a dinosaur deck. They aren’t the flashiest of the dinosaur commanders like Gishath, Sun's Avatar, but their cheap MV and combo ability can work well.

The key here is to have plenty of strong midrange dinosaurs that can all work together. Once you have a board presence, your commanders can work in sync to give your dinosaurs a ton of useful keywords. The best of these keywords for winning games are probably trample and menace.

#17. Jenny Flint + Madame Vastra

Jenny Flint and Madame Vastra from Doctor Who are a Temur duo that creates tokens and gives +1/+1 counters. The strategy is simple: Create many artifact tokens and transform those into +1/+1 counters. The artifact tokens can be useful in a pinch, but creating big creatures is the main focus.

Also, who doesn’t love the art of these two partners? Back-to-back, fighting off all opponents!

#16. Surrak Dragonclaw

Next we have the former Khan of the Temur clan, Surrak Dragonclaw. Surrak promotes a simple creature-based strategy and helps protect your spells by making them uncounterable and giving trample across the board to further promote combat-based victories.

The name of the game here is simple: Run them over. Decks with this uncounterable commander always want to run a few board-wide buffs and then fill your deck with a wide array of powerful creatures that pose significant threats to your non-creature-based opponents.

#15. Illuna, Apex of Wishes

The mutate mechanic is rather tricky with strange edge cases, but it’s also one of the most engaging mechanics. Illuna, Apex of Wishes gives you a Temur outlet for all those strong mutate synergies, giving you tons of free value.

Play plenty of mutate creatures to get as many permanents from Illuna as possible. Auspicious Starrix basically gives you another version of Illuna. You can get board control with Archipelagore and Gemrazer, while options like Dreamtail Heron and Lore Drakkis give you some card advantage.

#14. Me, the Immortal

Me, the Immortal is getting as close as possible to the digital-only mechanic perpetual, in which the buff stays with the creature as it moves to the graveyard or the command zone. I love that the abilities are good on offense and defense. You could take this Doctor Who card and go the way of the Voltron with built-in growth and recursion and make it a threat that’s tough to beat.

What was intended as a significant downside for replaying this commander from the graveyard can become a huge upside if you build this deck correctly. Madness and discard payoffs are better in black, but still available in Temur colors. Pair Me with Rielle, the Everwise, Surly Badgersaur, and Drake Haven and you’ll be in great shape to run the tables.

#13. Borborygmos and Fblthp

If you want to play with some lands in your Temur deck, Borborygmos and Fblthp came right from March of the Machine to give you a hand. It draws you a card and acts as a discard outlet for your lands while punching through your opponents’ creatures. It even has some protection built-in, so you don’t need to worry about paying the commander tax. Just don't accidently shuffle your commander away.

Pack some ways to recur the lands from your graveyard. Cards like Ramunap Excavator and Titania, Nature's Force can bring the lands you discard back to the battlefield. You can also use cards like Splendid Reclamation and World Shaper to bring your lands back en masse.

#12. Loot, the Key to Everything

Loot, the Key to Everything is, well, the key to everything you want in a Temur commander. The cheap MV ensures you can get Loot on the battlefield often, and the card advantage that it provides is unreal. If you can control the game even a little bit, you can outpace many of your opponents.

To take advantage of Loot’s great ability, you can use cast-from-exile payoffs. Cards like Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius helps cheapen these spells, and cards like The Lost and the Damned and Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald ramp up your board presence massively. And don’t forget an exile gem like Wild-Magic Sorcerer.

#11. Haldan, Avid Arcanist / Pako, Arcane Retriever

Next is the partner combo of Haldan, Avid Arcanist and Pako, Arcane Retriever. This is a very cute combo where Pako steals cards from the top of your opponents' libraries and Haldan lets you play them.

Instead of the typical Temur strategy of “big stuff,” you want to focus on having Pako remain unblocked in combat as often as possible and then win through card advantage supplied by your opponents’ own decks. Anything that gives Pako unblockable or creates more combat steps are must-haves, specifically Seize the Day, Relentless Assault, and anything similar.

#10. Beluna Grandsquall

The noble giant Beluna Grandsquall might be the reason the return trip always feels shorter; it helps your spells cost less after they’ve gone on their adventure? We know that adventure cards are already valuable because they're two spells in one, so the cost reduction here is all upside.

Beluna is a fun EDH build that could go several ways; since the Seek Thrills instant self-mills you, your graveyard recursion effects have more options. The self-mill also makes abilities like delve and craft easier to use.

Another angle is to capitalize on adventures, and with more than two set’s worth of adventures, there are some rockin’ cards like the virtues of WOE. You get damage and card advantage with Lozhan, Dragons' Legacy, Chancellor of Tales, and Lucky Clover. A couple odd cases that go beautifully in the Temur adventure deck are Sage of the Beyond for more cost reduction, and Keeper of Secrets for maximum damage (didn’t I say something about size mattering in Temur?).

#9. Omnath, Locus of the Roil

It's time for big daddy-O, Omnath, Locus of the Roil, possibly the best elemental commander. While Omnath can be a landfall-based deck, it’s an elemental typal commander through and through. There are hundreds of playable elementals but you might not really realize this until you’re like me and have to research an Omnath Commander deck.

Since you’re putting your lot in with a specific creature type you get to enjoy the benefits of the many typal-enabling artifacts and enchantments that bolster your strategy. Reflections of Littjara copies all your creatures and elemental spells which is as good as it gets in terms of maximizing value and threat density. Vanquisher's Banner provides a board-wide anthem and keeps your hand full. Herald's Horn discounts your elementals by (which adds up). And Door of Destinies provides increasingly powerful combat stat buffs as the game progresses.

#8. Riku of Two Reflections

I love Riku of Two Reflections and always have. Being able to copy instants and sorceries and creatures for just 2 mana is just too much fun for me to pass up. I think this commander is absolutely perfect for Temur. After all, what’s better than playing massive and powerful spells? Playing them twice.

Certain cards get better when they’re cast twice, so you want to pick your cards more carefully than if this was just “Temur Big Stuff.” There isn’t much point in duplicating a legendary creature when you can only have one in the first place. Having Riku of Two Reflections in the command zone also means that cards that were otherwise not strong enough to play as a single copy can be extremely worthwhile now that you can duplicate them.

#7. Rashmi and Ragavan

Rashmi and Ragavan wants you to build out a wide board of artifacts so you can start stealing your opponents’ cards for crazy value.

Rashmi is far less restrictive than Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy since it only cares about your quantity of artifacts, not the different names, so going hard on Treasure tokens makes it shine. Xorn and Academy Manufactor greatly increase your token production. You can also get lots of incidental artifact value by adding artifact lands like Seat of the Synod and Silverbluff Bridge to up the artifact count without even playing spells.

This is another commander that works great with some cast-from-exile strategies. Passionate Archaeologist deals a bundle of damage once you’re casting multiple spells from exile. You can also use Wild-Magic Sorcerer to make all those stolen spells cascade through your deck for even more value.

#6. Magus Lucea Kane

Doubling spells is really, really strong. It literally gets you twice the value for your mana. Doubling spells with X in their mana cost scales even harder. Magus Lucea Kane gives Temur a fantastic X spell matters commander that generates a bunch of mana and value at once.

There are plenty of powerful spells and abilities to copy with this effect. First and foremost are burn spells like Comet Storm and the classic Fireball that easily become lethal once you pump a bunch of mana into them and double them. There’s also an abundance of card draw through cards like Blue Sun's Zenith, Silver Scrutiny, and Transcendent Message.

You can also make use of hydras since Lucea copies permanents. Creatures like Hydroid Krasis and Lifeblood Hydra are powerful alone and become so much stronger when they bring a copy into play with them.

#5. Maelstrom Wanderer

Your typical Wanderer list has a very simple game plan: Play Maelstrom Wanderer ASAP. The bonus of having a 7/5 with haste is negligible in comparison to what comes out when you cast it.

Eight mana is extremely steep and many of the most powerful creatures in Magic are at the 7-mana range. But more importantly you can chain your cascade spells to get more than just two creatures or spells from your commander.

What makes Maelstrom Wanderer so great is that it’s the absolute pinnacle of “Temur Good Stuff” as we know it. It’s easy to build, fun to play, and provides a high level of power despite a simple game plan. It’s everything you want in a Temur commander.

#4. Xyris, the Writhing Storm

Xyris, the Writhing Storm is one of the more unique entries on the list as a commander that supports a wheel-based strategy to win. “Wheels” in Magic are spells that cause players to discard their hand and draw new cards. It gets its name from the original Wheel of Fortune.

A Xyris, the Writhing Stormdeck EDH deck revolves around creature advantage generated by your opponents drawing cards, so you want to include as many other effects that continuously support this strategy as possible. Cards like Teferi's Puzzle Box, Magus of the Wheel, Font of Mythos, and Howling Mine are all great options to include. Once you're done wheeling and dealing, it's just a matter of finding a way to turn a board of snake tokens into a lethal swing.

#3. Animar, Soul of Elements

Animar, Soul of Elements is an OG commander in Temur (and Commander in general), and it’s not just because it’s a classic that has over 18,000 total decks posted online. Animar is a run-of-the-mill creature commander that gets increasingly more powerful as the game goes on and it stacks more +1/+1 counters.

This discount can help support Pod decks outside of their usual engines like Survival of the Fittest or Birthing Pod. It also allows you to reach those high mana value creatures like Emrakul, the Promised End or Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre pretty quickly. A pod-based strategy also supports a fairly balanced creature curve which plays nicely into your discounts.

#2. Kalamax, the Stormsire

Kalamax is a spell copy commander similar to Riku of Two Reflections, but it does it for free, at least for the first instant you cast each turn. While this restricts you to instants specifically, you can still cast one for free on each player’s turn. This supports an instant-based deck and theme which is pretty rare for a color wedge so focused on creature-based win conditions.

I really enjoy Kalamax, the Stormsire as a commander. Something about copying a spell upwards of four or five turns just makes me all giggly. You’ll feel like you’re getting away with something when you play Kalamax, especially if you go the infinite combo route, and that’s what defines a great commander to me.

#1. Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm

Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm is the tops because it’s broken. Getting twice as many dragons into play lets you build an overwhelming board state and effectively doubles the value of your mana. The fact that the tokens are non-legendary lets you jam cards like Old Gnawbone without worrying about the legend rule.

There’s no end to the fantastic dragons you can play once you’ve got Miirym out. Baldur’s Gate brought us some excellent options in Ancient Copper Dragon and Ancient Silver Dragon. Utvara Hellkite and Lathliss, Dragon Queen let you keep the token value going, and Tarkir: Dragonstorm had an incredible amount of dragon support to add to a Miirym decklist.

Decklist: Maelstrom Wanderer Cascade in Commander

Maelstrom Wanderer | Illustration by Victor Adame Minguez

I see Maelstrom Wanderer as one of the most fun and beginner-friendly commanders in all of Magic. Despite not being the most powerful, it provides a playstyle and game plan that’s as fun as it is effective, and everyone loves playing huge spells for free.

This deck wants to create cascade chains and extract extreme value whenever you cast a large cascade spell like your commander or Apex Devastator. Once you start this chain, you can continue to cascade into smaller and smaller creatures, ranging from Shardless Agent to Sweet-Gum Recluse. This deck relies on huge cascade cards like Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty, but it can also use discover cards like Trumpeting Carnosaur. Monstrous Vortex is especially nasty in this Commander deck.

Of course, playing huge creatures with cascade can’t be done without appropriate ramp and mana, and you have a wide array of options to choose from. The list includes the typical mana rocks from Sol Ring to Chromatic Lantern plus the most playable mana dorks, like Birds of Paradise and Sylvan Caryatid.

It also packs ramp powerhouses like Selvala, Heart of the Wilds and Somberwald Sage to really speed things up—the Sage in particular can let you slam your commander as early as turn 4. Meanwhile, Temur Battlecrier takes a different approach to ramp. Instead of giving you extra mana, it lowers the cost of all your spells by for each creature you control with power 4 or greater, which adds up fast in this big-stompy deck.

In terms of game finishers, Apex Devastator and Warstorm Surge can usually wipe one or two opponents out altogether. Other heavy hitters like Etali, Primal Conqueror or Hullbreaker Horror basically win the game the moment they touch the battlefield. Etali steals a massive chunk of value from everyone’s deck, while Hullbreaker turns every spell you cast into a bounce spell, locking opponents out of the game if you have enough gas.

Other than that, you usually win with large board states that can’t be contended with. While this strategy is susceptible to board wipes and hard removal, this deck can rebuild really quickly, which makes it much more consistent than other creature-based strategies.

Commanding Conclusion

Intet, the Dreamer | Illustration by Dan Scott

That wraps up the ranking for the top Temur commanders in Magic! I enjoyed putting together the Maelstrom Wanderer decklist. It was nostalgic and reminded me of being absolutely crushed by my friend at age 13.

What did you think of the rankings? Were there any that made your jaw drop to the floor when it wasn’t higher (or lower) on the list? Let me know in the comments down below or over on our official Draftsim Discord.

Temur not your preferred color trio? Check these out: Abzan, Bant, Grixis, Jeskai, Jund, Mardu, Naya, Sultai, and Esper commanders.

Until next time, keep ramping up and stay aggressive!