The 50 Best Spellslinger Commanders in Magic Ranked

Last updated on March 23, 2026

Niv-Mizzet, Parun | Illustration by Svetlin Velinov

Part of the joy of Magic is its complexity. It gives the game tons of depth and replayability. Of course, it would be hard to parse all that information without deck archetypes, categories that give us a starting point for what a deck wants to do to help narrow down our options.

One of the most iconic archetypes is spellslinger. The idea of hurling as many instants and sorceries at your opponents as possible to bury them beneath a ton of value is fun. Because it’s such a well-known archetype, it has lots of depth and support, with several sub-archetypes spawning from its general plan. But which legendary creatures are the best spellslinger commanders?

Let’s dive in!

What Are Spellslinger Commanders?

Wort, the Raidmother | Illustration by Dave Allsop

Spellslinger commanders are legendary creatures that work well with the spellslinger strategy, extracting maximum value from casting instants and sorceries. This strategy is overwhelmingly within blue-red, where it has the greatest support, and often splashes other colors. Not every spellslinger commander needs to interact with instants and sorceries directly; it’s enough to play well with the strategy’s general play patterns.

Most spellslinger decks fall into three broad categories: quick aggro decks, explosive combo decks, and controlling decks trying to win a long game. Even when spellslinger decks aren’t dedicated combo decks, it’s easy to slip in a combo or two. Blue-red is the color pair of combos, and lots of good spellslinger cards are another card away from winning. For example, Dualcaster Mage is a fine value card for spellslinger. Add in a Heat Shimmer or Ghostly Flicker and suddenly you can go infinite, all with great value cards for this strategy. Sometimes, spellslinger decks combo by accident.

These strategies are powerful ways to build a spellslinger deck, provided you pair the right commander with the right strategy. The spellslinger archetype has plenty of depths, with token decks, burn decks, and storm decks all comfortably falling within the limitations of extracting the most value from your instants and sorceries (with some modern cards including other noncreature spells), so there’s a little something for everybody.

#50. Saruman, the White Hand

Spellslinger decks can struggle with building a board presence, as they play so many instants and sorceries. Saruman, the White Hand gives these decks a honker by amassing a ton. This ability plays well with extra turn spells; Time Warp into Walk the Aeons into Nexus of Fate creates a massive orc with enough combats to eliminate a player from nowhere. Making a single large creature can leave you vulnerable to spot removal, but ward helps.

#49. Urabrask / The Great Work

Storm decks, at least those not reliant on artifacts like Jhoira or Birgi, fall comfortably within the realm of spellslinger. These need two things to succeed: mana to cast a dozen or more spells, and card advantage to find those spells. Urabrask provides both while dealing damage to make winning easier. You need to transform it into The Great Work and have it survive to the third chapter to get the card advantage, but crossing that threshold puts you in a fantastic position to win the game.

#48. Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper

Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper gets your lands into combat. A great way to use these lands is alongside cards like Displacement Wave and Flood of Tears, which return all nonland permanents to their owners’ hands. This often leaves you as the only one with a board presence. Animating your lands can leave you vulnerable; Wrath of God goes from an annoyance to a game-ending threat, so this may not be the ideal commander if your playgroup runs a lot of wraths.

#47. Extus, Oriq Overlord / Awaken the Blood Avatar

Extus, Oriq Overlord breaks away from blue entirely for some Mardu () spellslinging, but has an inherent tension. It wants you to cast instants and sorceries while having plenty of creatures in your graveyard. You can likely set up some powerful loops using Extus alongside cards like Ardent Elementalist to get spells and Ashnod's Altar to send the Elementalist to the graveyard. You even get a big sorcery in Awaken the Blood Avatar that synergizes with sacrifice cards.

#46. Wort, the Raidmother

GRUUL SMASH but sometimes Gruul sling spells too. Any effect that allows you to copy spells without mana has tons of potential. Red excels at creating tokens, giving Wort, the Raidmother plenty of creatures to conspire with. Getting to copy ramp spells generates a potent mana advantage, which you can pour into X-spells like Comet Storm or Bonfire of the Damned to burn your opponents out of the game.

#45. Melek, Izzet Paragon

Melek, Izzet Paragon was once a fearsome Izzet () commander, but power creep catches up with all of us. Melek still offers some power in the command zone. Getting a Future Sight that copies spells you cast from the top of your library isn’t a terrible package. It’s just a little slow compared to its contemporaries. Cards that protect Melek, such as Slip Out the Back or Shore Up, are important so your commander isn’t sent packing before copying anything.

#44. Judith, Carnage Connoisseur 

Tor Wauki the Younger showed us that Rakdos commanders () can also get in on the spellslinger action, and while Judith, Carnage Connoisseur isn’t nearly as strong, it’s fun if you’re looking for a slightly off-color spellslinger. Those imps add up fast, and giving your spells deathtouch and lifelink opens up some incredible lines. Like sure, why not make Blazing Volley a Plague Wind?

#43. Alania, Divergent Storm

Alania, Divergent Storm promises gifts to your opponents in exchange for copies of your spells. The key here is that this otter commander can copy three types of spell per turn. Someone other than you is going to draw a few cards, but that’s no big deal if the effects you’re copying are extra turn spells.

#42. Shiko and Narset, Unified

The best way to break Shiko and Narset, Unified is careful consideration of which spells you want to target with. A control shell seems most natural; lots of removal spells target, as do a surprising number of card draw spells like Deep Analysis. But you could also take a more aggressive route and use this commander to copy combat tricks and even auras—which falls outside the traditional definition of spellslinger, which seems to keep shifting as Wizards prints more cards that broadly care about noncreature spells. This might be a good commander to keep up with the times.

#41. Zada, Hedron Grinder

Zada, Hedron Grinder is a very, very specific spellslinger commander – but that specificity makes them unique. Zada plays well with token-producing cards and magecraft cards that count spells copied as well as cast – especially Storm-Kiln Artist. You’ll win by copying a bunch of combat tricks like Infuriate or Monstrous Rage across a wide board. Don’t forget cantripping spells like Ancestral Anger to draw two or eight cards for 1 mana.

#40. Balmor, Battlemage Captain

Balmor, Battlemage Captain makes for another aggressive spellslinger commander. You’ll want to pair this bird commander with cards that make tokens while casting spells, like Third Path Iconoclast and Saheeli, Sublime Artificer. Once you’ve built up the board, Balmor gives you plenty of damage to win with after you’ve cast a bunch of spells.

#39. Taigam, Ojutai Master

Taigam, Ojutai Master provides value and protection. Making your spells uncounterable gives you a massive edge, especially against other blue decks. Not only do you ensure your haymakers resolve, but your opponents also can’t stop you from countering their spells. Taigam helms a controlling shell quite well, giving you the final say in what happens on the stack while providing plenty of card advantage by giving big draw spells rebound. Even just casting Swords to Plowshares multiple times gives you a huge edge.

#38. Velomachus Lorehold

Velomachus Lorehold forgoes blue in favor of a Boros () spellslinger commander that mostly cares about attacking. This desire makes Velomachus pair incredibly well with all the extra combat spells. World at War, Relentless Assault, and Savage Beating all get you more spells. This commander also plays well with wraths that leave each player with a single creature, like Single Combat or Slash the Ranks, as this 5/5 flying vigilance often ends up as one of the better creatures in play.

#37. Mizzix of the Izmagnus

One of the original experience counter commanders, Mizzix of the Izmagnus used to be a much more popular Izzet commander back when there wasn’t such an endless well of spellslinger commanders to choose from. The potential is still there, but you’re not getting very far with a 4-mana 2/2 that does nothing right away while threatening to do something explosive if it lives. If you get there, it’s pretty easy to build up experience counters and go off with X-spells.

#36. Rionya, Fire Dancer

Rionya, Fire Dancer is one of the more creature-focused spellslinger commanders. You’ll want plenty of cantrips and rituals to get your spell count high, but you’ll funnel those storm points into creatures instead of Grapeshot. You’ll want creatures with powerful ETBs, like Terror of the Peaks or Combustible Gearhulk, or creatures with great attack or damage triggers, like Ancient Copper Dragon and Combat Celebrant.

#35. Anhelo, the Painter

Anhelo, the Painter requires creatures, but doesn’t require nontokens specifically. Grixis () has plenty of ways to make 2-power tokens, like Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia, or the very on-theme Talrand, Sky Summoner. Once you’ve got tokens to sacrifice, you can copy all sorts of big spells to bury your opponents beneath endless value.

#34. Firesong and Sunspeaker

Firesong and Sunspeaker offer a unique twist on spellslinger by making you want to play big spells. Cards like Star of Extinction and Blasphemous Act gain 80-100 life with this pair. The desire for these spells makes this deck perfect for Stuffy Doll and its variants.

#33. Katilda and Lier

Katilda and Liers balance human synergies with flashback for an interesting combination. While copying extra turn spells is always powerful, an aggressive leaning deck such as this can maximize that power by using them to close out the game. Just make sure to run ones like Time Warp and Temporal Manipulation that don’t exile themselves as they resolve.

#32. Zevlor, Elturel Exile

Zevlor, Elturel Exile lets you run powerful spells that aren’t quite good enough for Commander because they only target a single player or permanent. Really fun ones like Sinkhole and Hymn to Tourach.

This commander can do some spicy things; multiple copies of Jeska's Will give you a ton of cards and mana, and you can copy Snap for a surprisingly robust ramp spell. Two mana and tapping is a pretty reasonable cost for two extra copies of powerful spells.

#31. Ovika, Enigma Goliath

Ovika, Enigma Goliath is powerful, but expensive. Ward helps keep it around on the battlefield. If it sticks, you get to do some silly things. You can convoke spells like Meeting of Minds and Transcendent Message to draw tons of cards without going down on goblins. It also makes for an atypical goblin commander, if you want a break from Krenko, Mob Boss.

#30. Sevinne, the Chronoclasm

Sevinne, the Chronoclasm offers free spells if you can cast a few instants and sorceries from your graveyard. Thankfully, flashback is a well-established mechanic to do just that. Copying spells like Devil's Play and Deep Analysis is always welcome. Having such a high concentration of graveyard synergies makes Faithless Looting and Faithful Mending much more appealing. Retrace is another mechanic that triggers Sevinne, a job also accomplished with cards like Torrential Gearhulk.

#29. Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph

Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph doesn’t directly interact with instants and sorceries, but this ability does a lot for spellslinger strategies. One common strategy is running cards such as Thermo-Alchemist, Firebrand Archer, and Ral, Storm Conduit. These deal plenty of damage while you cast spells, but Starn essentially turns every spell you play into a Lava Spike. Throw a Curiosity into the mix, and you have a deck that dishes out lethal damage in no time.

#28. Lord of the Nazgûl

Lord of the Nazgûl has put Talrand, Sky Summoner to rest. There’s an argument to be made for 2/2 fliers being stronger than 3/3 ground creatures, but those arguments are moot with an Overrun-adjacent effect and access to black. This legend is one of the more controlling spellslinger commanders. You want to play Lord as fast as possible, then spend the rest of the game holding up interaction and card draw to ensure nobody else wins while you amass an army of wraiths worthy of Sauron.

#27. Niv-Mizzet, Supreme

Niv-Mizzet, Supreme is a fantastic value engine. You’ll never have to worry about flooding since excess lands can get pitched to spells like Growth Spiral, Bring to Light, or Expressive Iteration. Hexproof from monocolored is worthy protection, too. The biggest choice with this commander will be how you use this value engine: Do you want to assemble some combos or grind the game out?

#26. Queza, Augur of Agonies

Queza, Augur of Agonies is an appealing commander for players interested in exploiting the mass card draw side of the archetype. This octopus advisor can burn out a table surprisingly quickly by copying big draw spells, and the lifegain positions you well for a grindy, controlling deck looking to win a long game.

#25. Ashling, Rekindled / Ashling, Rimebound

Ashling, Rekindled and Ashling, Rimebound don’t need to be a spellslinger commander. Rimebound holds all the power with its mana generation, and it isn’t restricted to instants or sorceries with mana value 4 or greater. That level of mana generation lets you land bombs like Aminatou's Augury, Expropriate, and Sunbird's Invocation well ahead of schedule—or perhaps the mana provides the wiggle room to Fork one of those potent cards.

#24. Lier, Disciple of the Drowned

Making all spells uncounterable can be a downside for a mono-blue deck, as countermagic is their primary form of interaction. Lier, Disciple of the Drowned is more of a protective piece. You’ll play them when you’re ready to win, likely by storming off. Getting to flashback your spells is… well, just think about casting High Tide, then casting it again, then getting to Turnabout twice. Cards like Mental Note and Thought Scour do a fine Ancestral Recall impression with Lier in play, and extra turn spells give you time to dig for a win.

#23. Nekusar, the Mindrazer

Wheel decks are a specific subcategory of spellslinger, and Nekusar, the Mindrazer is one of the strongest wheel commanders. It's a great beginner commander, as the general strategy is simple: Cast a bunch of draw-7s and burn your opponents out with Nekusar and effects that punish your opponents for drawing cards. Punishing draws has been a bit of a theme in the 2020s, and Nekusar has picked up some powerful upgrades in Orcish Bowmasters, Faerie Mastermind, and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse.

#22. Cormela, Glamour Thief

Good, honest ramp in Grixis? Cormela, Glamour Thief helps make all your spellslinger dreams a reality by ramping you into big spells like Cruel Ultimatum and Breach the Multiverse. The death trigger also opens the door to some interesting, convoluted loops involving cards like Saw in Half or Exhume that often generate infinite mana for instants and sorceries.

#21. Zethi, Arcane Blademaster

This whole package was better served under the name Chun-Li, Countless Kicks, where the kicker joke made much more sense. The Universes Within retread does just fine though. Whichever version you’re using, Zethi, Arcane Blademaster can set up some truly busted turns, provided you’re able to stock your graveyard full of instants and get one clean attack in with this Azorius commander. It’s a pretty insurmountable advantage given the right cache of instants, but this is a strategy that folds to a single well-timed Bojuka Bog.

#20. Tor Wauki the Younger

Tor Wauki the Younger is a fantastic burn commander. The deck starts with every damage multiplier you can get your hands on, then comes the burn. You want to hit all your opponents at once, so cards like Bonfire of the Damned and Comet Storm are important finishers.

Don’t be afraid to damage yourself to get efficient burn spells like Price of Progress and Flame Rift. Thanks to Tor Wauki’s lifelink, you’ll come out ahead on the exchange as you’ll damage your opponents faster than yourself.

#19. Veyran, Voice of Duality

There used to be room for Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest on lists like this, but if you’re going the “Voltron spellslinger” route, Veyran, Voice of Duality’s your go-to spellslinging Voltron commander. Doubling up on all spell-based triggers is already strong enough if all you ever consider is prowess, but you have to factor in magecraft abilities on cards like Archmage Emeritus and Storm-Kiln Artist, as well as pinger effects from Coruscation Mage and the like. This commander kills quickly, and it doesn’t take very much to do it.

#18. Sokka, Tenacious Tactician

Sokka, Tenacious Tactician might be the peak of token-aggro spellslinger. Monastery Mentor plus a team-wide prowess buff is just so much stronger than a commander that only offers one benefit or the other. Flood the board with tokens, then force your way through with massive damage. It’s a very fair commander for players who want to emulate a storm deck by casting lots of spells without relying on the mechanic.

#17. Elsha of the Infinite

Elsha of the Infinite is a broad Future Sight that includes artifacts and enchantments for greater versatility. The extra card advantage makes this a powerful option for comboing off. Elsha excels alongside deck manipulation like Mystical Tutor or Sensei's Divining Top. Throw in a Cloud Key with the Top, and you get to draw your entire deck. And if it needs to get itself into a fight, Elsha is also an excellent prowess card.

#16. Kykar, Wind’s Fury

Kykar, Wind's Fury opens up some of the same typal synergies explored with Ovika, Enigma Goliath, such as Mana Echoes and Kindred Discovery. Adding white gives access to strong token doublers, as well as powerful enablers like Jeskai Ascendancy and Whirlwind of Thought. A red-heavy deck easily exploits the mana-production ability to defeat your opponents in a flurry of spells and feathers.

#15. Magnus the Red

There are plenty of commanders that make token creatures when you cast spells, but rarely do they do anything special with those tokens. Magnus the Red puts them to work, making your instants and sorceries cheaper for each creature token you control. Blade of Magnus even spots you a 3/3 token any time Magnus connects in combat. This gets out of hand quickly, turning a simple spell like Dragon Fodder into a Sol Ring on legs.

#14. Kess, Dissident Mage

Another of the many spellslinger commanders that work well with extra turn spells, Kess, Dissident Mage offers incredible value. It plays well with wheels that discard, letting you stock your graveyard. An important rules interaction to understand is that putting a new Kess into play by reanimating or flickering the original gives you another spell. It pairs very well with Displacer Kitten because of this, letting you cast spells from your graveyard until you’ve run out of mana – if you run out of mana.

#13. Y’shtola, Night’s Blessed

Y'shtola, Night's Blessed encourages a more controlling game plan focused around big, expensive spells than most other spellslinger commanders. You don’t even need to focus on copying them. It’s enough just to throw down interaction, control the board, and slowly hit your opponents as they lose life and you draw cards. Keep an eye out for cards like Snuff Out and Dismember that let you pay enough life to trigger Y’shtola.

#12. Bria, Riptide Rogue

Here we’ll see two back-to-back “prowess lords” that each put a spin on spellcasting. Bria, Riptide Rogue is the simpler of the two. It’s not Bria’s fault there’s a better card doing what it does, but the otter legend holds its own quite well, turning all your spells into mass board pumps, similar to Balmor, Battlemage Captain. Bria’s upside is making a creature unblockable with each spell you cast, which ensures that extra damage gets through to your opponents.

#11. Narset, Enlightened Exile

Giving your team prowess adds pressure to the board and provides the spellslinger deck with a clear path to victory. Casting spells for free is also good. Narset, Enlightened Exile would be amazing if it cast spells from just your graveyard, but hitting any graveyard gives this so much more versatility. A few incidental mill spells, like Winds of Rebuke, help this out by stocking your graveyard and guaranteeing you have one spell to cast, while maybe getting some spicy options in your opponents’ graveyards.

#10. Hinata, Dawn-Crowned

Hinata, Dawn-Crowned is another X-spell commander and an obnoxious one to deal with. While you could take an aura or pump spell approach to this Jeskai commander, most decks are full of cards like March of Swirling Mist and Reality Spasm, which can target just about everything for no additional mana thanks to Hinata’s cost reduction. On top of amplifying your X-spells into absurdity, it also randomly hoses your opponents’ targeted spells. Good luck being the aura deck playing against Hinata.

#9. Fire Lord Azula

Fire Lord Azula generally forces players down the spellslinger rabbit hole by only copying spells that you cast during combat. That generally means instants—but it’s far from a crippling restriction!

Azula can be a combo commander that copies Fork variants to trigger magecraft, a storm deck that relies on copying rituals and draw spells, or just a big mana deck that either casts huge instants like Invoke Calamity or uses flash enablers to churn out Breach the Multiverse mid-combat. Its flexibility gives it homes at many power levels, which is perfect for such an iconic character.

#8. Kalamax, the Stormsire

Free copies are good. Kalamax, the Stormsire is restricted to copying one spell a turn, but you can easily get two or three copies a turn cycle since it copies instants. You’ll want a few spells like Citanul Stalwart and Loam Dryad to help tap Kalamax when it can’t attack. Once you get copying, the best choices are ramp spells for a massive mana advantage and card draw so your opponents can’t keep up with you. Doubling counterspells is also fantastic, making it hard for your opponents to counter back without Flusterstorm.

#7. Galazeth Prismari

Making Treasure tokens is practically as easy as making land drops these days, so Galazeth Prismari is a great way to capitalize on those tokens by making them tap for mana instead of sacrificing them. What makes Galazeth truly powerful is the stax build. As with Urza, Lord High Artificer, you can use Galazeth to tap stax pieces such as Winter Orb and Static Orb before your untap step, giving you access to all your mana while denying your opponents.

#6. Codie, Vociferous Codex

Codie, Vociferous Codex makes for a fun and exciting spellslinger deck. Since you can’t play permanents once Codie is in play, any creatures you run should have other abilities. It plays well with cyclers, especially Vizier of Tumbling Sands to untap it. The cascade offers tons of value, and Codie fixes your mana so color isn't much of a restriction.

#5. Narset, Enlightened Master

Once one of the most formidable commanders in all of EDH, Narset, Enlightened Master isn’t nearly as feared as they once were – but hasn’t lost its teeth, either. You’ll typically pair Narset with extra turn spells alongside extra combats so your opponents never have another turn. This deck is all about getting Narset down ASAP and swinging. An evasive element or two, like Aqueous Form or Whispersilk Cloak, helps Narset get in every combat without dying to blockers.

#4. Storm, Force of Nature

Storm is a broken mechanic, though limited to the handful of storm cards that actually exist in the game. Giving storm to anything is breaking a broken mechanic. Storm, Force of Nature sent up immediate red flags when it was revealed, and people have been brewing tons of different deck ideas around it, none of which are fair.

#3. Vivi Ornitier

Oh look, Vivi Ornitier qualified for a list and ended up near the top. Who could have guessed?

Vivi has excelled in numerous formats. It’s simply one of the best spellslinger commanders, especially for a storm-style build. This card’s mana generation is completely unreasonable for a nongreen card. Storm decks often find themselves choked on mana more than raw card advantage, and Vivi handles that nicely. While serving as your win condition. In an era when commanders often do it all, Vivi does more than most.

#2. Niv-Mizzet, Parun

Niv-Mizzet, Parun is a fundamentally broken card, toeing the line between powerful and fun, and miserably overtuned. This commander offers tons of card advantage, board control, and a win condition, just for being in play; it's also one half of Izzet's most famous combo. Once you land Niv-Mizzet, you don’t have to take any extra steps. It’s also incredibly hard to interact with favorably.

#1. Stella Lee, Wild Card

Stella Lee, Wild Card is spellslinging incarnate. For one, this Thunder Junction Izzet commander literally slings spells. That, and the abilities come together for a great, synergistic package. Cast extra spells, draw into more spells, copy those spells. You can do all the usual Kalamax, the Stormsire nonsense loops, but you get incidental card advantage from Stella by just playing the game the way you normally would.

Best Spellslinger Commander Payoffs

The best spellslinger payoffs depend on the route you went with your commander, but there are a few common winners.

Cards that generate value on cast are essential. Niv-Mizzet, Parun, Storm-Kiln Artist, and Archmage Emeritus are such great value engines, any spellslinger deck is happy to have them.

Copying spells is great, especially if your commander leans into casting bigger spells. Dualcaster Mage is a simple piece that opens the door to a bunch of combos, but Galvanic Iteration and Fork have the benefit of being instants and sorceries themselves.

More aggressive spellslinger decks benefit from cards that deal damage whenever you cast your spells. Coruscation Mage and Black Mage's Rod are both powerful since they trigger off all noncreature spells, not just instants and sorceries, but Longshot, Rebel Bowman and Thermo-Alchemist are still perfectly respectable cards.

Cantrips are also very important. Ponder, Preordain, Brainstorm, and Consider are a couple of powerful options. All spellslinger decks want to cast a bunch of spells, so these cheap cards that replace themselves and set up your next couple of draws are essential to firing off the flurry of spells it takes to win.

Mana generation is also extremely important for spellslinger decks, whether they want to cast one big spell a turn or 20 smaller ones. Rituals like Jeska's Will, Dark Ritual, and Rite of Flame are very thematic, but you should balance them with artifact ramp like Talismans and Signets. It’s worth noting that mana rocks grow increasingly stronger as newer spellslinger commanders like Vivi OrnitierSokka, Tenacious Tactician care about noncreature spells in general, not just instants and sorceries.

How Many Creatures Should You Put in a Spellslinger Commander Deck?

I’d generally say less than 20, with 20 pushing it, but this can vary depending on your commander. Elsha of the Infinite and Codie, Vociferous Codex are two examples of commanders that greatly benefit from as few creatures as possible. This desire contrasts sharply with commanders like Rionya, Fire Dancer or Narset, Enlightened Exile, that are interested in some number of creatures to maximize their abilities.

Adventure spells and some MDFCs can be a great middle-ground solution to help your spell-to-creature ratio. Adventures provide an instant or sorcery while also letting you fill your deck with creatures and other types of permanents. Heartflame Duelist, for example, doesn't make you choose between spell or creature for its deck slot. Similarly, some MDFCs are half-creature/half-spell, like Torrent Sculptor / Flamethrower Sonata. You only get to cast one half or the other, but you get some flexibility depending on your needs.

Another thing to consider when adding creatures is what your instants and sorceries do. Do you want to load up on Ghostly Flicker and Waterbender's Restoration and other flicker spells? That requires more creatures than a control deck chock full of board wipes. In general, more aggressive spellslinger decks want more creatures, while combo-oriented or controlling ones use fewer creatures.

Commanding Conclusion

Kalamax, the Stormsire | Illustration by Nicholas Gregory

Spellslinger is an old archetype with a lot of support. Since instants and sorceries have always been part of the game, unlike more contemporary card types like battles and sagas, we have 30 years of powerful instants, sorceries, and cards to help support them.

When picking out a spellslinger commander, consider which sub-archetype you want to play. Are you going for an explosive combo, aggressive tokens, or playing the long game with control elements? Whatever you want to play, there’s a spellslinger commander for you!

What’s your favorite spellslinger commander? Do you like spellslinger, or do you prefer a different archetype? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and keep slinging spells!