The 21 Best Common Legendary Creatures and Commanders in Magic Ranked

Last updated on July 2, 2026

Spider-Gwen, Free Spirit | Illustration by Lie Setiawan

Universes Beyond sets have returned to a design concept we haven’t seen much since the days of the classic frame: common commanders. As Magic’s designers pack UB sets with legendary creatures to represent important, popular, or beloved characters, sometimes at multiple points in their journey, it’s only natural to use the game’s rarity system to its fullest. If we ever get Star Wars, watch for a Willrow Hood common legend in a Jumpstart product or something.

Even Pauper Commander allows you to run uncommons in the command zone, but what kind of gameplay can we expect from common commanders? I’ve gone through everything we have as of Marvel’s Super Heroes to bring you my picks for the best among them.

If there ever were a day to grade on a curve, it’s today.

What Is a Common Commander in MTG?

Bushmaster, Coiled Henchman | Illustration by Milivoj Ceran

Common commanders are any legendary creatures, vehicles, and spacecraft that have been printed at the common rarity. I’ll discuss the common backgrounds from Baldur's Gate separately because none of the creatures that can choose a background are commons.

While these commanders may fair better in Pauper Commander, I’m considering them as though you have access to the whole Commander card pool, not just commons.

Honorable Mentions: The Prismatic Piper + Faceless One

Don’t let the color of the set symbol fool you: The Prismatic Piper and Faceless One are printed at the “special” rarity, and therefore technically aren’t commons. They’re necessary in Commander Draft and Sealed formats to expand your color identity; like volunteers at music festivals, I salute them for their service.

Honorable Mentions: Masters Edition III Downshifts

While these commanders were never printed at common in paper, they were printed at common in Masters Edition III, a 2009 set exclusive to MTGO. They’re commons by pure technicality, so let’s move on.

#21. Chandler + Joven

Chandler’s and Joven’s flavor text tells a story of despicable magpies (and led me down a rabbit hole in which I learned that there are characters named Reyhan on more than one plane).

One of these thieves snipes artifact creatures, while the other snipes noncreature artifacts. Like two peas in a pod. They aren’t good by any stretch of the imagination, but they were our first paper common commanders for a very long time.

#20. Spider-Gwen, Free Spirit

Not gonna lie, I’m including Spider-Gwen, Free Spirit because I like that you can rummage if you tap it to crew vehicles. It was either this, or gushing about how Happy Hogan, Dauntless Driver has great crewing stats befitting a pilot creature.

#19. The Howling Commandos

Given the number of token generators that make soldiers, you can make a deck that goes rather wide. The activated ability on The Howling Commandos is a bit expensive, but we’re rating commons.

#18. Spider-Man, Brooklyn Visionary

A commander with Rampant Growth as its enters trigger is at least something. You can use mana dorks to get the cost reduction from Spider-Man, Brooklyn Visionary’s web-slinging, but this doesn’t offer any particular direction aside from maybe landfall triggers.

#17. Wolfsbane, Highland Hero

A trampling bear with a once-per turn firebreathing ability is alright, if nothing special. You can copy the activated ability with a few cards available to mono-green like The Peregrine Dynamo, Rings of Brighthearth, or Abstruse Archaic, but you’re more likely to slap a bunch of auras or equipment onto it. Or, you can pack some ramp and pump spells you can sink mana into.

#16. Swarm, Being of Bees

You won’t take advantage of the mayhem ability, but flash and flying make Swarm, Being of Bees a potential extra chump blocker; an open means your opponent has to consider the potential for a Dark Ritual that you chain into a Swarm. This commander doesn’t lead you in any particular direction, so it’s as close to a blank canvas as you can get before you go totally vanilla like Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff.

#15. Mockingbird, Bobbi Morse

Mockingbird, Bobbi Morse is like a common Anti-Venom, Horrifying Healer: There’s no damage prevention, and the counters don’t keep up with the amount of damage. It’s another deck in which you can run Caltrops as a free way to grow your commander.

#14. April O’Neil, Kunoichi Trainee

April O'Neil, Kunoichi Trainee slips past bigger blockers with ease. Even if your opponents kill it, every enters trigger lets you scry 2 to set up your next draws.

#13. Doc Ock, Sinister Scientist

Doc Ock, Sinister Scientist has the makings of a commander damage win condition, though it takes a lot of moving parts. If you set things up, Doc Ock can at least protect and buff itself, but it has no evasion. But there’s lots of ways to get around that, including Pym Particles, Winged Boots, or Brotherhood Regalia.

#12. Bebop, Warthog Warrior + Rocksteady, Crash Courser

I refuse to separate these two. Any Rule 0 Conversation that doesn’t allow you to play Bebop, Warthog Warrior and Rocksteady, Crash Courser together, especially after you’ve gone through the effort to brew and assemble it, is just a wet blanket. Sure, these two make each other unblockable, as you know if you played TMNT Limited. But after that, the build is wide open, besides the ramp you'll need to afford these two chonky boys. At 5 and 7 power respectively, they each can be commander damage threats, so a Voltron build is more consistent than a typal mix of boars and rhinos.

#11. Black Tom Cassidy

You can draw on many green mutants if you want to play Black Tom Cassidy as a typal commander. There’s the other legends from its Jumpstart theme, there’s a bunch of Michelangelo cards from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Watchful Radstag and other Fallout cards, and scattered in-universe mutants like Renegade Krasis and Hauntwoods Shrieker. There’s something here. While a turn-2 mana dork in the command zone isn’t the most explosive use of that space, it sure is consistent.

#10. Chase Stein, Runaway

Discard and impulse draw are two of red’s core themes, and Chase Stein, Runaway is like a defanged Harnfel, Horn of Bounty. Conspiracy Theorist and Containment Construct can help you to bring back the cards you discard.

#9. Raphael, Tough Turtle

Raphael, Tough Turtle is the cheapest Impact Tremors effect you can run in the command zone, though you’d be better off with Purphoros, God of the Forge, of course. All you need are token generators and damage multipliers, and you’re off to the races.

#8. Skoa, Embermage

There’s quite a few ways to make token copies of a specific creature in mono-red, like Orthion, Hero of Lavabrink, Mirage Phalanx, or Jaxis, the Troublemaker. You don’t care about the legend rule, because all you want is Skoa, Embermage’s enters trigger. Impact Tremors, damage doublers, and Panharmonicon are all good support pieces here.

#7. Spider-Rex, Daring Dino

You can run a power-crept Colossal Dreadmaw in the command zone. That’s the whole appeal here. Ward helps to protect Spider-Rex, Daring Dino for a turn around the table, and reach means you don’t have to rely on removal spells to deal with fliers.

#6. Leonardo, Big Brother

Leonardo, Big Brother can be a finisher in a go-wide deck, but the problem is that you lose the element of surprise if you run it in the command zone. Mono-white token decks lose so many good cards and payoffs, but you’ve still got Anointed Procession, Horn of Valhalla, and Moonshaker Cavalry. Just hold onto your Dawn's Truce for the inevitable sweeper that wants to wreck your fun.

#5. Boomerang, Blade Flinger

A 2-mana creature like Boomerang, Blade Flinger that drains your opponents each time it attacks is a fantastic common. Mono-black is a good color to play around with everyone’s life totals, and you’re in the colors for Sanguine Bond/Exquisite Blood combos. You can build diverse flavors of Voltron, whether you want to buff up Boomerang or focus on making it unblockable and adding combat damage triggers like Gonti, Night Minister or Rev, Tithe Extractor.

#4. MACH-1, Swooping Scoundrel

In mono-black, surveil can set up reanimator loops, and the fact that you need to gain life to surveil with MACH-1, Swooping Scoundrel means that you have a natural incentive to run infinite life combos.

#3. Page, Loose Leaf

While most common commanders with cycling-similar abilities are tougher to use, Page, Loose Leaf at least comes with the upside of Ornithopter of Paradise in the command zone, although with colorless mana. As a colorless artifact, you’ve got access to all the cost reducers you’d use in Eldrazi or artifact decks.

#2. Bushmaster, Coiled Henchman

Bushmaster, Coiled Henchman wants you to surround it with creatures that you stack with +1/+1 counters, and there’s lots of ways to get there. My preference? I want the Ivy Lane Denizen/Scurry Oak combo and Fynn, the Fangbearer. There’s no shortage of other ways to do mono-green counters, like Mutagen tokens, monstrosity, evolve, or hydras, so you have some freedom to express yourself here.

#1. Songbird, Sonic Screamer

A free, repeatable discard outlet is a perfect start to your reanimator build. Sure, Songbird, Sonic Screamer dies to a stiff breeze, but it’s also cheap enough to bring back from either the graveyard or the command zone. Mono-black reanimator has a lot of good creatures to discard and bring back, plus you’ve got a few mayhem and madness cards to consider.

Best Common Commander Payoffs

There are no explicit payoffs for common commanders. Due to the different rarities of different printings of an individual card, you can’t really design a card that buffs a common creature, or that tutors a common card.

To support your common commander, look at its colors, its type line, and its rules text, and look for payoffs that fit those traits. For example, many recent common commanders are mono-color, so devotion cards that fit your commander’s color identity can play supporting roles. The classic is Gray Merchant of Asphodel, a black devotion card that can be a finisher in the right situation.

What Are the Best Backgrounds as Commanders?

#5. Flaming Fist

Flaming Fist wants you to pair it with aggressive commanders, so Wilson, Refined Grizzly and Karlach, Fury of Avernus are the obvious picks. Boros () extra combats is well-trodden territory, while Selesnya () aggro has counter-, equipment-, and aura-based ways to pump up a commander… in this deck, an attacking Wilson would have… vigilance, reach, trample, double strike, and ward . Ow.

#4. Candlekeep Sage

Candlekeep Sage is the best background to pair with Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward for a classic Azorius () blink deck. The other CLB commanders that let you choose a background don’t flicker, bounce, or reanimate themselves, so Candlekeep Sage just represents extra cards and access to blue there. It’s really good in that one deck, and mediocre elsewhere.

#3. Scion of Halaster

Scion of Halaster gives your creature commander an ability that turns your first draw into a draw/surveil mix. It’s perfect to set up instants and sorceries for Gale, Waterdeep Prodigy, or you can stick some lands in there for Erinis, Gloom Stalker. The ability is very close to mill, so you could use it with Zellix, Sanity Flayer as an alternative to Haunted One.

#2. Tavern Brawler

Every time we get sets that reward you for running higher mana values or casting cards from exile, Tavern Brawler becomes a little bit better. It’s used most often with Wilson, Refined Grizzly and Karlach, Fury of Avernus, two commanders that can get into combat well, while Vhal, Candlekeep Researcher and Gale, Waterdeep Prodigy give you options for a cast-from-exile deck.

#1. Master Chef

If you know you’ll have your commander out reliably, Master Chef can be a budget Tribute to the World Tree. As a commander itself, its +1/+1 counters pair most obviously with Lae'zel, Vlaakith's Champion, then Shadowheart, Dark Justiciar. Some of the other CLB commanders also pair adequately, both in terms of abilities and color identities.

Can I Play Commander with Only Commons?

Yes! If you want to play Commander with only commons, Pauper Commander may be for you. In Pauper Commander, any uncommon creature (legendary or not) can be your commander, and the 99 is built up entirely of cards that were printed at common at least once. As long as you check with your play group or an event’s rule set, you may be able to run a common legendary creature in the command zone, too.

Lots of Magic’s staples have been printed at common, like Counterspell, Nature's Lore, and Dark Ritual, so the floor on a common-only singleton deck is a lot higher than you might expect.

Commanding Conclusion

Raphael, Tough Turtle | Illustration by Nathaniel Himawan

Common commanders aren’t the most powerful, but many of these make for more viable commanders than plenty of uncommons and rares. Even the less powerful commanders are all good if you aim to build low-powered beginner decks, kind of like home-brewed welcome decks to teach new players.

Which common commanders do you or would you run? Do you want to keep seeing them in new sets? Let me know in the comments below or over on the Draftsim Discord. For more from us, subscribe to our YouTube channel, The Daily Upkeep.

Until next time, stay safe!