All 66 Demon Commanders in Magic Ranked

Last updated on August 26, 2026

[REPLACE CARD]Raffine, Scheming Seer[/REPLACE] | Illustration by Veronique Meignaud

Confession time: My inner demon absolutely loves cracking open boosters of sealed Magic cards. You never know what you’re gonna get, like a box of chocolates or something. Most days I have to keep my demon at bay, but others, I unleash it on my local game store… and my bank account.

But you know what? Sometimes you have to partner up with a demon to get things done. There’s got to be like a thousand folk tales, an anime, and at least one Netflix movie about it. All of Magic’s demon commanders are here, ready for your bloody signature on their accursed contracts.

Care to make a pact with a demon?

What Are Demon Commanders in MTG?

[REPLACE CARD]Kuro, Pitlord[/REPLACE] | Illustration by Jon Foster

Demon commanders are legendary creatures with the demon creature type, usually large, expensive black fliers with game-ending abilities. There are a few exceptions: Transform cards like [REPLACE CARD]Elbrus, the Binding Blade[/REPLACE] and [REPLACE CARD]Westvale Abbey[/REPLACE] become demons but aren’t legendary creatures on the front side. As Alchemy exclusives, [REPLACE CARD]Kardum, Patron of Flames[/REPLACE] and [REPLACE CARD]Gutmorn, Pactbound Servant[/REPLACE] can’t be your commander either, at least not outside of Brawl.

Some demons are so legendary that they’ve returned over and over in Magic’s story. Ob Nixilis has at times been a planeswalker, but he’s currently without a spark. Rakdos is so notable that he lends his name to the Rakdos Guild on Ravnica and the overall color pairing in Magic.

The Completionist Section

[REPLACE IMG]Clavileño, First of the Blessed[/REPLACE][REPLACE IMG]Boris Devilboon[/REPLACE]

Most of the commanders on this list are demons themselves, but I’ve included a few non-demons with particular synergies. Granted, not all the commanders that have “demon” in their rules text are here; [REPLACE CARD]Clavileño, First of the Blessed[/REPLACE] turns your vampires into demons, so some demon payoffs can be useful, but that’s a vampire commander at its core. And while [REPLACE CARD]Boris Devilboon[/REPLACE] generates 1/1 [REPLACE CARD]Minor Demon[/REPLACE] tokens, are you really running this guy as your commander?

[REPLACE CARD]Inquisitor Eisenhorn[/REPLACE] investigates, fittingly, and it makes a demon token. But that token is legendary, so this isn’t the demon commander you’re looking for. [REPLACE CARD]Tivash, Gloom Summoner[/REPLACE] is a lifegain commander that makes demon tokens too, but you don’t have enough access to red.

I hesitate about leaving [REPLACE CARD]Tasha, the Witch Queen[/REPLACE] off the main list. You’re in better colors for horrors, but Tasha makes Demon tokens, and it steals your opponents’ cards, a space demons also explore. But the synergies aren’t as direct as [REPLACE CARD]Raphael, Fiendish Savior[/REPLACE] or Kaalia of the Vast, so I’m giving Tasha some words here and moving on.

Unranked: Griselbrand

Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.

[REPLACE CARD]Griselbrand[/REPLACE] is banned in the format, but I include it here in case someone wants to get pedantic with me.

#66. Miss Highwater

Long-time Magic players might recognize the light reference to [REPLACE CARD]Contract from Below[/REPLACE] on [REPLACE CARD]Miss Highwater[/REPLACE], but this demon contains a fraction of the ante card’s power. The concept of killing a player and copying all their permanents is amazing but giving them a fresh grip of seven cards makes that much, much harder to pull off. For once, the demon’s contractors are getting the better end of the deal.

#65. Lady Orca

Yeah, I’m even including the vanilla legend from Legends. Hi, [REPLACE CARD]Lady Orca[/REPLACE]. Bye, [REPLACE CARD]Lady Orca[/REPLACE].

#64. The Balrog of Moria

Exiling your commander doesn’t matter so much, which makes at least half of [REPLACE CARD]The Balrog of Moria[/REPLACE]’s text interesting. You can’t cycle from the command zone, which makes the other half irrelevant. Splat.

#63. The Balrog, Flame of Udûn

Great. Now I have to talk about tucking. In Magic slang, that’s when something gets sent to the bottom of its owner’s library. You’re welcome.

When an opponent’s legendary creature dies, you may want to tuck [REPLACE CARD]The Balrog, Flame of Udûn[/REPLACE] under your library and use [REPLACE CARD]Grenzo, Dungeon Warden[/REPLACE] to get it back. You also have the choice to just put it back in the command zone, which you might want to do if Grenzo’s not around.

#62. Balefang the Unslayable

[REPLACE CARD]Balefang the Unslayable[/REPLACE] is a tricky demon to build around. Red’s very good at rebuying that enters ability with copy effects like [REPLACE CARD]Twinflame[/REPLACE] and spreading chaos around the table, but you need to walk a fine line between giving your opponents [REPLACE CARD]Baneslayer Angel[/REPLACE]s to kill each other with but not so many that they win the race once it’s a 1v1 (they can’t gain life, but five angels win faster than one demon dragon).

#61. Kuro, Pitlord

Listen, not all demons can be winners. [REPLACE CARD]Kuro, Pitlord[/REPLACE] shouldn’t be your commander. It costs 9 mana and taxes you to keep it on the field. The only saving grace is that you can pay life to reduce the power/toughness of an indestructible creature.

#60. Yukora, the Prisoner

If anybody’s using this as their commander, they aren’t saying much about it. [REPLACE CARD]Yukora, the Prisoner[/REPLACE] doesn’t really do a ton. You’re either taking advantage of the mass sacrificing or you’re avoiding it entirely by playing ogres.

#59. Ardyn, the Usurper

[REPLACE CARD]Ardyn, the Usurper[/REPLACE] gives great keyword soup to your demons and makes some really strong demon copies out of trash. It is an expensive noble, and a glorified enchantment that produces demon copies of cards and powers them up. The keywords do great work to improve all your demons, so the ceiling is high, but at eight mana the 4/4 is often irrelevant and the creature card type a liability.

#58. Kyoki, Sanity’s Eclipse

[REPLACE CARD]Kyoki, Sanity's Eclipse[/REPLACE] is a spirit/arcane-focused black commander, but that feels like something that belongs to the Standard format of its time. Kyoki exiles pieces from your opponents’ hands, but it doesn’t let you look at their hand and/or choose the card. No randomness, either. 

#57. Kothophed, Soul Hoarder

[REPLACE CARD]Kothophed, Soul Hoarder[/REPLACE] specifically cares about your opponents’ permanents hitting the graveyard from the battlefield. You get cards and lose life. Sounds fine on the surface, but I can think of a bunch of sacrifice-oriented decks that would just laugh at this. Even tokens hit the graveyard before they disappear, but someone could easily finish you off by starting an infinite ETB/LTB loop or something.

#56. Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis

Voltron the exalted, is it? [REPLACE CARD]Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis[/REPLACE] is a flier that’ll force your opponents to sacrifice creatures when it attacks alone. [REPLACE CARD]Necrogen Communion[/REPLACE] from Phyrexia: All Will Be One is a solid addition to this deck.

#55. Kagemaro, First to Suffer

[REPLACE CARD]Kagemaro, First to Suffer[/REPLACE] has one job, and that’s clearing boards. It’s as big as your hand, which is a good reason to run infinite hand size cards. Black without blue isn’t the most efficient at filling its hand, though.

#54. Shimatsu the Bloodcloaked

Mono-red sacrifice fodder almost instantly means Treasure tokens or goblin tokens. There’s not really much space to develop your [REPLACE CARD]Shimatsu the Bloodcloaked[/REPLACE] otherwise.

#53. Spirit of the Night

[REPLACE CARD]Spirit of the Night[/REPLACE] is, reductively, keyword salad. It’s a battlecruiser that doesn’t do anything besides exist as a big, stronk demon. It’s an option, but you can find commanders that cost less money and can front a better deck. Save this one for a better home in someone’s 99.

#52. Garland, Knight of Cornelia / Chaos, the Endless

[REPLACE IMG]Garland, Knight of Cornelia[/REPLACE][REPLACE IMG]Chaos, the Endless[/REPLACE]

I like [REPLACE CARD]Garland, Knight of Cornelia[/REPLACE] as a graveyard enabler, and occasionally I switch to an inevitable voltron strategy. This 2-drop annoys my opponents, but have I won with the [REPLACE CARD]Chaos, the Endless[/REPLACE] side? Not yet.

#51. Orca, Siege Demon

Nein bitte Orca. Not as my Rakdos commander. [REPLACE CARD]Orca, Siege Demon[/REPLACE] is a creature-death payoff, so it’s at home in a sacrifice deck. Probably best suited as lieutenant or a captain or something.

#50. Razaketh, the Foulblooded

Foul indeed. [REPLACE CARD]Razaketh, the Foulblooded[/REPLACE] is a sacrifice outlet that tutors any card to your hand. Sure, it’s a trampling flier with 8/8 power/toughness, but it also costs 8 to cast.

#49. The Emperor of Palamecia / The Lord Master of Hell

[REPLACE IMG]The Emperor of Palamecia[/REPLACE][REPLACE IMG]The Lord Master of Hell[/REPLACE]

The dork that is [REPLACE CARD]The Emperor of Palamecia[/REPLACE] does not bother me at all. What excites me is [REPLACE CARD]The Lord Master of Hell[/REPLACE] that counts the spells you played, milled, discarded or whatever and puts them into a solid group slug strategy that just needs a method to safely attack.

#48. Shelob, Dread Weaver

I see the cheaper, mono-black Shelob as a support piece. If it’s in the command zone, you need lots of ways to kill your opponents’ creatures and mana to either grow [REPLACE CARD]Shelob, Dread Weaver[/REPLACE] with +1/+1 counters or grow your board using your opponents’ cards.

#47. Orcus, Prince of Undeath

[REPLACE CARD]Orcus, Prince of Undeath[/REPLACE] has a modal ETB, and I’m not totally sold here. Either you’re wiping low toughness creatures or you’re returning some creatures to the battlefield with haste. Kind of opposite ends of the spectrum. Sometimes being multi-talented doesn’t mean you excel at any of them.

#46. Malfegor

I’m not enthused. I guess you could use [REPLACE CARD]Malfegor[/REPLACE] for a discard or madness deck. Your [REPLACE CARD]Bone Miser[/REPLACE] will probably file a grievance with your union and ask to be assigned to a better post.

#45. Ob Nixilis, the Fallen

[REPLACE CARD]Ob Nixilis, the Fallen[/REPLACE] gives you a reason to play mono-black landfall. [REPLACE CARD]Dread Presence[/REPLACE] and [REPLACE CARD]Retreat to Hagra[/REPLACE] are a good start, and [REPLACE CARD]Liliana of the Dark Realms[/REPLACE] is a strong planeswalker here.

#44. Sol'Kanar the Tainted

[REPLACE CARD]Sol'Kanar the Tainted[/REPLACE] does a lot, but there’s not really an obvious shell to build around it. It’s a big, elemental demon with a lot of 5s on it. It has to be around on your end step to give you value. You can focus on that last mode for blink benefits, but I’ve also seen some players lean into a chaos theme.

#43. Rakdos the Defiler

[REPLACE CARD]Rakdos the Defiler[/REPLACE] forces everyone to sacrifice permanents! It’s your tax for attacking with it, and it’s your opponent’s tax for not having an answer to it. Demon typal is the obvious place for this, although I’m wondering when we’re going to get an effect that lets you give “demon” typing to lands. Not holding my breath for it, though.

#42. Savanti Romero, Time’s Exile

Is that…is that [REPLACE CARD]The One Ring[/REPLACE] in the command zone??

[REPLACE CARD]Savanti Romero, Time's Exile[/REPLACE] falls into that funny spot where it’s not a terrible card. The card advantage is valuable and you can get more of it with proliferate or other ways to put counters on Romero. But it’s so slow. This would have been killer in Commander ten years ago, but the format’s evolved and moves faster than it these days.

#41. The Speed Demon

[REPLACE CARD]The Speed Demon[/REPLACE] makes the podium among the best speed payoffs. It can amount to the accelerated life loss from a [REPLACE CARD]Phyrexian Arena[/REPLACE], but it doesn't need to reach max speed so if you're stuck in second gear, you still double up on the staple black enchantment and good card draw.

#40. Demonlord Belzenlok

Mono-black big stuff? [REPLACE CARD]Demonlord Belzenlok[/REPLACE] wants you to drive that lane. At least one of its abilities enables one of the most well-known infinite combos.

#39. Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath

Planeswalkers don’t have creature types, but Ob Nixilis never really stops being a demon, right? [REPLACE CARD]Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath[/REPLACE] can pump out Demon tokens, and it can give you an emblem that plays into the sac outlet role that’s so common with demons.

#38. Ob Nixilis, Unshackled

In Commander, [REPLACE CARD]Ob Nixilis, Unshackled[/REPLACE] “only” chomps on a quarter of your starting life total. I don’t think I’d run this as my commander, though. It’s nice if it resolves, but it also feels like removal bait. Fetch lands alone are a reason to want to see this thing gone. If I were to build around this Ob Nixilis, I’d probably make it a demon deck or one that doesn’t really care about whether its commander is around.

#37. The Beast, Deathless Prince

Oh, look, a demon that cares about playing with your opponents’ creatures. Color me surprised (tone indicator: ironic).

[REPLACE CARD]The Beast, Deathless Prince[/REPLACE] has a casting trigger, which conflicts with commander tax. You need lots of other creature theft effects to untap The Beast and get a card from it, and you don’t even have access to blue.

#36. Sol’kanar the Swamp King

[REPLACE CARD]Sol'kanar the Swamp King[/REPLACE] has the same mana cost [REPLACE CARD]Sol'Kanar the Tainted[/REPLACE], and it’s a lot lighter on the word count. Swampwalk is very situational, but gaining life from your opponents’ black spells is neat.

#35. Kaalia, Zenith Seeker

No matter the incarnation, Kaalia groups a bunch of big fliers under one banner, those being angels, demons, and dragons. As a Mardu commander (), Kaalia gives you access to a wide spread of them. [REPLACE CARD]Kaalia, Zenith Seeker[/REPLACE] gives you an ETB that grabs up to one of each of the relevant creatures to your hand, which is fine and fair. The original Kaalia makes for a far better commander for your beefy fliers. 

#34. Madame Null, Power Broker

Not every commander needs to be flashy to be impactful. Slap [REPLACE CARD]Madame Null, Power Broker[/REPLACE] in the command zone with all the [REPLACE CARD]Vampire Nighthawk[/REPLACE] variants you can find, and go to town walloping your opponents at a profit since they have lifelink.

#33. Rakdos, Patron of Chaos

Any MTG set that features the Ravnica plane needs its Rakdos representation, and Murders at Karlov Manor is no exception. Between card advantage and forcing your opponents to sac their stuff, [REPLACE CARD]Rakdos, Patron of Chaos[/REPLACE]’s end step trigger really embodies that damned if you do, damned if you don’t element of dealing with demons.

#32. Jerren, Corrupted Bishop / Ormendahl, the Corrupter

[REPLACE CARD]Jerren, Corrupted Bishop[/REPLACE] can be a human-centric commander, which is a bit cultish for a demon. [REPLACE CARD]Shadowborn Apostle[/REPLACE] is a human as well as a cleric, but you don’t have to limit yourself to that strategy. There are plenty of humans in mono-black.

#31. Vito, Fanatic of Aclazotz

Reusable sacrifice outlets are key in a [REPLACE CARD]Vito, Fanatic of Aclazotz[/REPLACE] build, since this Orzhov commander rewards you the more that you sacrifice permanents. Any permanent will do, which means there are plenty of avenues to take. You can totally go the creature route, especially since you’re in good colors for white’s token doublers and triplers.

#30. Seizan, Perverter of Truth

[REPLACE CARD]Seizan, Perverter of Truth[/REPLACE] is going to gnaw on everyone’s life totals and libraries. It’s card draw rather than milling or discard, but that just makes it that much more of a fit for a wheels theme.

#29. Vilis, Broker of Blood

Should you choose to accept it, your pact with [REPLACE CARD]Vilis, Broker of Blood[/REPLACE] involves paying life and mana to remove creatures by diminishing their power and toughness (yay for getting around indestructible). Paying life also gets you cards.

[REPLACE CARD]Exsanguinate[/REPLACE] your opponents, and don’t leave home without your faithful Gary ([REPLACE CARD]Gray Merchant of Asphodel[/REPLACE]).

#28. Mortarion, Daemon Primarch

Oh, this could get confusing. Yes, [REPLACE CARD]Mortarion, Daemon Primarch[/REPLACE] is a demon in MTG. Its end step ability gives you a mana sink to help you widen your board with menacing warriors. It depends on the life you’ve lost during your turn, but black has lots of ways to fiddle with your life total.

#27. Taborax, Hope’s Demise

[REPLACE CARD]Taborax, Hope's Demise[/REPLACE] is a demon cleric that cares about your creature deaths. If your clerics are dying, so much the better! Mono-black clerics is the place to bend the singleton rules of Commander with [REPLACE CARD]Shadowborn Apostle[/REPLACE].

#26. Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire

Aren’t demons by their very nature a little roguish? [REPLACE CARD]Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire[/REPLACE]’s boast ability easily enables digging for your combo pieces. You can focus on [REPLACE CARD]Ad Nauseam[/REPLACE] if you want, but you can also build a less single-minded deck by going demon-focused.

#25. Hidetsugu, Devouring Chaos

Be honest, [REPLACE CARD]Hidetsugu, Devouring Chaos[/REPLACE] players: Have you ever won a match and declared it “Game Ogre?” Or perhaps said: “Get Shrek’d?” Shrek Universes Beyond when, by the way?

The first scrying ability on this commander lets you filter toward the second ability. Rakdos colors with a burning sacrifice outlet is a good place to start, no doubt.

#24. Imskir Iron-Eater

Modern Horizons 3’s [REPLACE CARD]Imskir Iron-Eater[/REPLACE] is a Rakdos artifacts commander that benefits from a mix of token and nontoken artifacts. One of its abilities cares about the mana value of artifacts that you sacrifice, which means your tokens and cheerios won’t be of any use. [REPLACE CARD]Treasure[/REPLACE] is great in this deck, since it helps with Imskir’s ETB ability, but you can also use it to pay for the activated ability. You don’t tap Imskir to activate it, meaning you can go more than once in a turn if you have the mana to do so.

#23. Krav, the Unredeemed

[REPLACE CARD]Krav, the Unredeemed[/REPLACE] is trusted partners with [REPLACE CARD]Regna, the Redeemer[/REPLACE] for an Orzhov () commander combo. One’s a sac outlet, the other’s a token generator. Can I make it any more obvious?

#22. Rakdos, the Showstopper

Demons, devils, and imps. Oh my!

[REPLACE CARD]Rakdos, the Showstopper[/REPLACE] clears the board of its adversaries when it enters the battlefield. Red has haste enablers, so it’ll be easy to get a quick 6 damage to someone’s face if you drop this with the right support on the field.

#21. The Balrog, Durin’s Bane

[REPLACE CARD]The Balrog, Durin's Bane[/REPLACE] is your commander if you want a representation of this ancient evil from Lord of the Rings in the command zone. It gets cost reduction based on the number of sacrificed permanents, and there are lots of ways to increase that count. There’s [REPLACE CARD]Treasure[/REPLACE] and other expendable tokens, and there are plenty of other demons with sacrifice outlets built into their text. It can only be blocked by legendary creatures, so it’s more likely to trade with a commander or another big, scary threat. The extra removal when this Balrog dies nearly guarantees that you trade with another commander, or that you nab another as part of the collateral damage.

But since the Balrog is in Moria, goblins and orcs may be a fun way to lean in on the flavor (and use some of those LotR creatures that you may not have another home for).

#20. Gyruda, Doom of Depths

Using [REPLACE CARD]Gyruda, Doom of Depths[/REPLACE] as a commander means that you can’t use it as a companion. That also means that your deck isn’t necessarily restricted, but you probably want to run mostly even-MV creatures for those times you trigger Gyruda’s ETB. Milling opponents and stealing their cards are two of my favorite things to do in Magic, and that’s definitely the demon talking.

#19. Shelob, Child of Ungoliant

“Look who’s climbing up my wall… Black and hairy, not so small.”

[REPLACE CARD]Shelob, Child of Ungoliant[/REPLACE] is the biggest spider commander printed so far. A Golgari commander () is a perfect color identity for spiders; you can run almost any spider ever printed, including [REPLACE CARD]Arasta of the Endless Web[/REPLACE] for some [REPLACE CARD]Spider[/REPLACE] token generation. I just love the flavor of turning your kills into food tokens. Note the phrasing: They lose their other card types, but not their abilities.

Grab all your favorite arachnids from across Magic’s Spider-Verse Multiverse! Just make sure to have a Rule 0 conversation about filling the board with, you know, spiders.

#18. Rakdos, the Muscle

Any time a card has both an outlet and a payoff, it’s worth close inspection. [REPLACE CARD]Rakdos, the Muscle[/REPLACE] cares about sacrificing creatures, naturally, and you benefit when your nontokens go under the axe. There are plenty of self-recurring creatures, ones with good death triggers, that you don't mind tossing away to keep Rakdos alive.

#17. Shilgengar, Sire of Famine

It’s easy to miss that [REPLACE CARD]Shilgengar, Sire of Famine[/REPLACE] is an Orzhov commander when you just skim the ranks of legendary demons. Shilgengar’s sacrifice outlet gets much better when you’re dealing with angels, and once again the Dan Brown/Robert Langdon references write themselves. Blood tokens are an interesting mechanic we don’t see much, and this frankly reminded me that the Rakdos demons that need artifacts to sacrifice could also get [REPLACE CARD]Blood[/REPLACE]-y.

#16. Clive, Ifrit's Dominant / Ifrit, Warden of Inferno

[REPLACE IMG]Clive, Ifrit's Dominant[/REPLACE][REPLACE IMG]Ifrit, Warden of Inferno[/REPLACE]

[REPLACE CARD]Clive, Ifrit's Dominant[/REPLACE] is an interesting card design. You pay for a scalable wheel based on your devotion, then another six to flip into the saga, [REPLACE CARD]Ifrit, Warden of Inferno[/REPLACE] and basically destroy a creature as a 9/9 before ramping up to do it again. Lots you can do here with discard payoffs and a massive commander.

#15. Hidetsugu and Kairi

The team-up commanders from March of the Machine are full of fun and flavor. You get a mashup of abilities and colors and creature types; it’s just great. [REPLACE CARD]Hidetsugu and Kairi[/REPLACE] is no exception. Pairing an ogre with a dragon gives flying to this Dimir commander team. Yikes. Being able to cast instants and sorceries that you exile for free is as good a reason as any to load up on cloning spells.

#14. Magnus the Red

I see lots of potential for [REPLACE CARD]Magnus the Red[/REPLACE]. Its abilities point toward a spellslinger commander; [REPLACE CARD]Young Pyromancer[/REPLACE] can be your early game and [REPLACE CARD]Ovika, Enigma Goliath[/REPLACE] can be your mid-to-late game. An Izzet commander is in good colors for Treasure ([REPLACE CARD]Storm-Kiln Artist[/REPLACE] + [REPLACE CARD]Xorn[/REPLACE]) or for artifact animation ([REPLACE CARD]Rise and Shine[/REPLACE] and [REPLACE CARD]Masterful Replication[/REPLACE] come to mind).

#13. Lord Xander, the Collector

[REPLACE CARD]Lord Xander, the Collector[/REPLACE] represents the life cycle of a creature on the battlefield: It enters, it attacks during your combat phase, and then it dies. And Lord Xander has triggers for each stage of life. You’re likely to attack most, so a mill focused deck is a solid choice. The extreme version of that deck makes use of cloning effects to get a bunch of 6/6s with a milling attack trigger. Just look at that card art. You have to call that a Loki deck, right?

#12. Raphael, Fiendish Savior

Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate’s [REPLACE CARD]Raphael, Fiendish Savior[/REPLACE] cares about more than just demons, but if you want to run as many versions of Rakdos, Ob Nixilis, and the Balrog as possible, this is one of the ways to do it. Demons tend to be big creatures, and occasionally fliers, so giving them lifelink is fantastic. A lot of good Rakdos cards ask you to pay life as part of your deal with these devils, so your demonic attacks are a way for you to get some of your strength back.

#11. Valgavoth, Terror Eater

[REPLACE CARD]Valgavoth, Terror Eater[/REPLACE] requires a lot of ramp and is limited as a mono black commander, but gets brownie points as an incredible reanimation target that many black decks want to get in on. Either way you put this in play is fine. The point it is, even if you lose a bunch of resources along the way, Valgavoth can absolutely take over.

#10. Kardur, Doomscourge

Here’s a demon berserker that gives you lots of potential. [REPLACE CARD]Kardur, Doomscourge[/REPLACE] can be your forced combat commander. You could also run sacrifice fodder that you attack with but sacrifice to other outlets so that they’re guaranteed to die as attackers, enabling lifegain/life drain.

#9. Falco Spara, Pactweaver

[REPLACE CARD]Falco Spara, Pactweaver[/REPLACE] may come in with a shield counter, but it doesn’t care which kind of counter you use to cast cards from the top of your library. Your Bant commander has access to green and white, so +1/+1 counters are almost mandatory. You can also remove -1/-1 counters, like the ones you can put on [REPLACE CARD]Devoted Druid[/REPLACE] to untap it. Yes, that means that you can get an infinite combo with Falco, the Druid, and [REPLACE CARD]Sensei's Divining Top[/REPLACE].

#8. Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin

Holy heck! An Ob Nixilis that’s actually a great demon commander! Thanks, March of the Machine: The Aftermath.

Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin is oddly enough a commander with red in its identity that doesn’t want you to run damage doublers. Pingers are the order of the day, as is a mandatory copy of [REPLACE CARD]All Will Be One[/REPLACE]. [REPLACE CARD]Roiling Vortex[/REPLACE] is also a good source of 1 damage, and it lets you pay to shut down lifegain.

#7. Be’lakor, the Dark Master

Warhammer 40K is a treasure trove for demon lovers. As your commander, [REPLACE CARD]Be'lakor, the Dark Master[/REPLACE] loves its demons, both with its own ETB and when your other demons enter the battlefield. “Dark Master” is an appropriate epithet; there aren’t many better commanders to oversee a bunch of demons.

#6. Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls

To get rid of [REPLACE CARD]Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls[/REPLACE], or leave Duskmourn: House of Horror chances are you need to pay life. The triggered ability is so easy to trigger, your opponents will help you do it. This turns into a huge Valgavoth and a healthy amount of cards to make it a supreme value in Commander.

#5. Rakdos, Lord of Riots

Red and black players look at the casting cost on [REPLACE CARD]Rakdos, Lord of Riots[/REPLACE] and snort. Did you know you can make an infinite ETB/LTB loop if you cast [REPLACE CARD]Ancestral Statue[/REPLACE] during a turn that you’ve claimed 4 life from your opponents? Demon-focused isn’t a bad option, but the cost reduction can let you do red-black good stuff if that’s more your style.

#4. Ziatora, the Incinerator

“Demon Dragon” is a creature type pairing that should strike fear into any planeswalker, whether in lore or among the player base. Ignore all the demon dragons you’ve already read about.

As one of the best Jund commanders, [REPLACE CARD]Ziatora, the Incinerator[/REPLACE] is in great colors to focus on [REPLACE CARD]Treasure[/REPLACE] tokens, between [REPLACE CARD]Revel in Riches[/REPLACE], [REPLACE CARD]Xorn[/REPLACE], [REPLACE CARD]Bootleggers' Stash[/REPLACE], [REPLACE CARD]Old Gnawbone[/REPLACE], and many more. You can also lean into the dragon theme or into sacrificing high-powered creatures.

#3. Raffine, Scheming Seer

The demons that are aligned with the crime families from Streets of New Capenna are each so good. [REPLACE CARD]Raffine, Scheming Seer[/REPLACE], one of the best Esper commanders, costs only 3 mana to get out, which is cheap for a demon. Raffine doesn’t have to be part of your offense to have a target creature connive. You’re in the right colors to dig for cards with a wheels theme, and [REPLACE CARD]Elenda and Azor[/REPLACE] is a good piece to help you get a wider, more “conniving” board. I think the sphinx would tear me apart for that one.

#2. Jetmir, Nexus of Revels

This fat cat (complimentary) encourages you to go wide with pride. As a Naya commander (), [REPLACE CARD]Jetmir, Nexus of Revels[/REPLACE]‘s color identity is perfect for pumping out a bunch of tokens. Stacking power buffs and tossing around keywords are great for a commander to offer, and Jetmir’s fairly cheap for its abilities and power/toughness. Its excellent anthem effect also counts and buffs all your creatures, so there’s really no downside.

#1. Kaalia of the Vast

One of the best Mardu cards in the game, [REPLACE CARD]Kaalia of the Vast[/REPLACE] is among the more popular commanders, and given the creature types it cares about, I can see why. Its attack trigger is far more repeatable than the other Kaalia’s ETB, though Zenith Seeker’s ETB sets up this one’s attack trigger for some nice synergies. Mardu attack triggers make [REPLACE CARD]Isshin, Two Heavens as One[/REPLACE] a superb support piece. And when you’re looking for A) big fliers that, B) have attack triggers, you get your pick of some of the best and flashiest cards to slap onto the table.

Best Demon Commander Payoffs and Synergies

Demons are as old as Magic itself, so there are bound to be some payoffs we're contractually obligated to talk about.

[REPLACE CARD]Liliana's Contract[/REPLACE] is a demons-matter enchantment that gives you an alternate win-con for having differently named demons. They don’t have to be legendary, and you’re playing Commander. See where this goes? [REPLACE CARD]Demonic Counsel[/REPLACE] is a perfect compliment since it is the most accessible tutor for demons, and for today's purpose, every bit as effective as [REPLACE CARD]Demonic Tutor[/REPLACE]. [REPLACE CARD]Unholy Annex[/REPLACE] / [REPLACE CARD]Ritual Chamber[/REPLACE] is a room that makes [REPLACE CARD]Sheoldred, the Apocalypse[/REPLACE] super happy just for keeping a demon around.

[REPLACE CARD]Ob Nixilis, the Adversary[/REPLACE]’s first ability gets a little better if you’ve stuck it in a demon deck. [REPLACE CARD]Herald of Slaanesh[/REPLACE] is a haste enabler and a cost reducer for demons. [REPLACE CARD]Mark of the Oni[/REPLACE] lets you take and keep control of an opponent’s creature if you’ve got ‘em.

[REPLACE CARD]Shadowborn Apostle[/REPLACE]s can take up plenty of slots in your deck so that you can easily pull your demons onto the battlefield.

[REPLACE IMG]Bloodthirster[/REPLACE][REPLACE IMG]Reaper from the Abyss[/REPLACE]

[REPLACE CARD]Bloodthirster[/REPLACE] is a demon built for the Commander format. Whenever it deals combat damage to a player it gives you an extra combat phase. Notice how many of these demons have payoffs that revolve around attacking? [REPLACE CARD]Reaper from the Abyss[/REPLACE] has a morbid ability that lets you reap non-demons.

[REPLACE CARD]Aspiring Champion[/REPLACE] has a combat damage trigger that helps you tutor creatures onto the battlefield. It'll sacrifice itself to start off, giving you a sacrifice and death payoff, then replace itself with a creature. If that’s a demon, it’ll deal damage as it enters the battlefield.

[REPLACE CARD]Canonized in Blood[/REPLACE] rewards you with +1/+1 counters for sending permanent cards to your graveyard (descending) each of your turns, and you can trade in the enchantment for a Demon token. [REPLACE CARD]Ancient Cellarspawn[/REPLACE] is a cost reducer that adds a great bonus of life drain that puts cost reduction on the map. Though mentioned above, [REPLACE CARD]Raphael, Fiendish Savior[/REPLACE] tops it off with lifelink which is a game altering keyword ability, like when the villains get a hold of the good guy's weapons at headquarters, let the devilish grins commence.

Commanding Conclusion

[REPLACE CARD]Ziatora, the Incinerator[/REPLACE] | Illustration by Chris Rahn

Well, that was an adventure. There are quite a few demons I wouldn’t trust in the command zone, but there are nearly just as many I’d happily build around. There’s a lot of sacrificing and burning going on, but Streets of New Capenna and Warhammer 40K gave us demon commanders that splash into other colors and do other things, and Final Fantasy brought quite a handful of demons too.

Which demon do you run as your commander? Do you go all-in on demons or keep them in the command zone as finishers? Let me know in the comments below or over on the Draftsim Discord!

And to close, allow me to butcher a Blur song: “You should cut down on your demon life, mate. Get some exorcise!”