The 30 Best Dwarf Commanders in Magic Ranked

Magda, Brazen Outlaw | Illustration by DZO

Dwarves are such a staple of fantasy settings that they were a natural inclusion in Magic: The Gathering, but designers have made a point not to overdo them, especially the legends. Sets either have a bunch of dwarf commanders or none at all, and the type’s focus in red leads to plenty of overlapping synergy.

So, which dwarf commanders should you prioritize for which strategies? Which of them are the best overall? And most importantly, how long will this stay relevant before we get more Hobbit spoilers?

What Are Dwarf Commanders in MTG?

The Lady of Otaria | Illustration by Scott Murphy

Dwarf commanders are any legendary dwarf creatures and other eligible permanents that explicitly support dwarves. As of Secrets of Strixhaven, that means The Lady of Otaria, but I’m leaving the door open for a future legendary creature, vehicle, spacecraft, or a planeswalker with “can be your commander” text.

Dwarf commanders feature very heavily in red, with white as a prominent secondary color. There’s more than a few equipment payoffs among them, too.

#30. Irini Sengir

If you played Irini Sengir as your commander sometime before 2010, please let me know how you built it. Because like. There’s no theme here. Unless you’re just running stax and hatebears. Removal bait tribal?

#29. Balthor the Stout

As of Secrets of Strixhaven, there are 34 barbarians you can play in a mono-red Commander deck, including Balthor the Stout. Most of them are of legal drinking age in the United States.

#28. Reveka, Wizard Savant

Mono-blue burn, huh? Maybe Reality Fracture will give Reveka, Wizard Savant some support, but I won’t hold my breath. Oh, and Reveka doesn’t untap until two turns later? Hard pass.

#27. Gimli, Counter of Kills

Gimli, Counter of Kills wants so badly to be a burn commander, but there’s a much better mono-red dwarf commander for that theme.

#26. Barrowin of Clan Undurr

Venture into the dungeon and its cousin the initiative are much stronger when you have consistent ways to advance through your dungeons. Barrowin of Clan Undurr gets you started into a dungeon, but its attack trigger needs you to have completed one already to pay you off. There’s just better commanders for the theme: Sefris of the Hidden Ways does everything Barrowin does and more, Obeka, Splitter of Seconds gives you extra upkeeps for the initiative, and Hama Pashar, Ruin Seeker doubles dungeon triggers. Run literally any of them instead.

#25. Amber Gristle O’Maul

The main problem with Amber Gristle O'Maul is that as players are eliminated, the attack trigger’s ceiling gets tighter like that one trap in Temple of Doom. Even with the flexibility of your choice of background and mechanics like madness and mayhem, I just don’t see how this comes together anywhere other than a casual deck.

#24. Gimli of the Glittering Caves

“Legends matter” and “mono-color” are usually at opposite ends of the deckbuilding spectrum. The “Gimme all the good stuff” archetype wants access to every legal card in Commander. Don’t overthink it. Run Gimli of the Glittering Caves somewhere else.

#23. Glóin, Dwarf Emissary

Glóin, Dwarf Emissary runs into similar issues to Gimli of the Glittering Caves because of mono-color historic, though you have the added possibility of sagas and artifacts and you can trade Treasure to goad creatures. Still, one Treasure per turn in a color without flash enablers doesn’t feel like a winning combo to me.

#22. Krile Baldesion

Is there a Magic slang word for cheap creatures that sacrifice themselves? Stuff like Judge's Familiar, Selfless Spirit, and Siren Stormtamer? Because if so, Krile Baldesion is that in tribal form. The fun part is that the noncreature spell you cast to trigger Krile could be all kinds of stuff. Blink spells, cantrips, combat tricks, removal, extra turn spells…. There’s still too many moving parts, but I appreciate that this dwarf encourages creative brewing.

#21. Rankle and Torbran

is just so color intensive when your primary source of color fixing is Treasure tokens. At least Rankle and Torbran can attack the turn it comes down. The modal combat damage trigger also gives me pause. It’s too tempting to build around all of them at once for a mix of Treasure, sacrifice, and burn. I dunno, this just feels like one of those decks where all the support pieces have better homes. And I don’t just mean Prosper, Tome-Bound.

#20. Reyav, Master Smith

D-tier commander, B-tier support piece. Aura and equipment decks need their aggro enablers, but Reyav, Master Smith only matters once you’re already ready to roll.

#19. Shantotto, Tactician Magician

Izzet () big-mana spellslinger is a niche within a much larger archetype that’s usually fueled by rituals, cantrips, and spell copying to generate a huge storm count. Shantotto, Tactician Magician does have the optionality that you can use it to storm off if you don’t care about the card draw, though my follow-up question is: “Why?” Shantotto buffs itself temporarily, so are you going to attack? Are you going to fling it at someone? This one takes some tinkering and might not be terribly good, but it gives you a home for opus cards from SOS since Shantotto also cares about mana spent rather than mana value.

#18. Giott, King of the Dwarves

Giott, King of the Dwarves gives you an equipment-slanted dwarf typal option. But I don’t like discarding cards unless I have a way to continue to use them as a resource, and this doesn’t seem like a build that does that without bending over backwards.

Sidenote, it has been brought to my attention that there are 6 Seven Dwarves in the average Giott, King of the Dwarves deck as of May, 2026, and I just had to share that with you. On that same note, I just lost The Game.

#17. The Lady of Otaria

The Lady of Otaria is an odd duck of a commander, that’s for sure. An avatar that interacts with dwarves and wants your lands to find their way from the battlefield to the graveyard is very specific in what it wants you to do. While the dwarves are obvious, the land part lets you get creative. It’s an “each end step” trigger, so you’re better off if you can get your lands to die on your opponents’ turns. And I choose “die” explicitly here: Earthbent lands go to your graveyard before the delayed trigger brings them back, after all. There’re land sac options, Crop Rotation, plus fetch lands of many budgets, including the five from Streets of New Capenna.

At the end of the day, with all the diverging themes pulling you in every direction, I have a hard time seeing this above Bracket 2.

#16. Balthor the Defiled

We often make fun of old cards for being utterly unplayable, but that’s not the case with Balthor the Defiled. You still probably won’t play or see this dwarf often in Commander, but its abilities aren’t entirely useless. I could totally see a deck filled with discard effects and edicts that also uses graveyard hate so that Balthor’s activated ability is mostly one-sided.

#15. Tataru Taru

Tataru Taru can draw your deck if you can blink it infinitely, and anyone that accepts the card you offer them during the loop gives you tapped Treasure tokens. There’s some group hup utility too, naturally, but I’m not totally sold on this lil dwarf advisor in the command zone. I’m sure it works fine, but almost any archetype in which I’d want to play it needs another color.

#14. Koll, the Forgemaster

As with most Boros () dwarves, Koll, the Forgemaster is a stronger bit player than build-around. And we shouldn’t be surprised given the number of these that are uncommons.

Koll’s niche is recurring your nontoken creatures and buffing your token ones, as long as they’re enchanted or equipped. It’s the perfect home to deputize your Ornithopter, Memnite, and Kobolds of Kher Keep. Equipment with abilities like for Mirrodin!, living weapon, job select, etc. slot in nicely here, too.

#13. Gimli, Mournful Avenger

Gimli’s best eligible commander won’t knock your socks off. Gimli, Mournful Avenger is at its best surrounded by token generators and sacrifice outlets. Eldrazi Spawns and other creatures that self-sacrifice like Cankerbloom help you to climb Gimli’s trigger ladder, so to speak. Then Ashnod's Altar, Skullclamp, and other staples give you the outlets you need to kill off your tokens, and you can trot out some deeper cuts like Thermopod.

#12. Cadric, Soul Kindler

Boros has a decent number of historic payoffs to run in a Cadric, Soul Kindler deck, and it’s always fun to run cards that evade the legend rule. After that and other legendary payoffs, you need to figure out if you want death triggers, enters triggers, or attack triggers. Cadric is absolutely better in Jodah or Dihada decks, but it holds its own if you want to run it.

#11. Sram, Senior Edificer

Yes, you can play Sram, Senior Edificer as an aura commander. You can run it as an equipment commander. You can even play is as a vehicle commander. And it’ll play each of those roles adequately. But Sram’s strength is in the 99, where it’s a 2-drop that should replace itself and then some. Heck, I run it in like 10 decks.

#10. Papalymo Totolymo

Orzhov () lifeplay, but make it spellslinger. I’m surprised by how few decks there are on EDHREC around a year after Final Fantasy’s release, because Papalymo Totolymo looks like a fun take on this Orzhov theme. Or maybe I have a soft spot for lil guys.

Silverquill in Secrets of Strixhaven gave it some new cards if you plan to use targeting spells. Informed Inkwright adds some board presence, Melancholic Poet provides more life drain, and Stirring Hopesinger buffs your board.

#9. Depala, Pilot Exemplar

Kolodin, Triumph Caster has surpassed Depala, Pilot Exemplar as a pure Boros vehicle commander, but that’s often what happens when we return to a plane. You’ll run both in each other’s decks, but Depala also lets you run a dwarf subtheme. Depala’s tapped trigger can dig your Sram out of your deck, and Duergar Mine-Captain’s untap ability and dwarf typing are thematic. Sadly, dwarves were absent from Aetherdrift, so we don’t have any updated dwarves with vehicle-related abilities.

#8. Magda, the Hoardmaster

Fixed Magda is incredibly tame compared to the original. A tapped Treasure once each turn is the ceiling for the mana generation, though you can trade them in for a Scorpion Dragon token. Glasses of Urza is a repeatable enabler for any crime-based commander, as is Ghost Vacuum. Your win conditions are still likely to be Magda, Brazen Outlaw combos, especially with Reckless Fireweaver on the field.

#7. Hofri Ghostforge

Hofri Ghostforge plays in gravebreak space similar to other Strixhaven and Secrets of Strixhaven cards. It makes for a reanimator build that exiles its own dying creatures to copy them as tokens, then you can reanimate the actual card again once the token has left the battlefield so that each creature death can lead to two “leaves your graveyard” triggers. Its deck is naturally more creature-based than spellslinger gravebreak commanders like Quintorius, Loremaster, so your pick for that theme should be based on your preferred playstyle.

#6. Thorin, Mountain-king

The first dwarf spoiled for The Hobbit is naturally the leader of the whole company, Thorin, Mountain-king. Auto-equip abilities always pique my interest, but Thorin doesn’t have any other colors to let you run additional equipment or artifact payoffs.

Still, I have visions of doing something convoluted that generates a lot of Treasure, uses Gemcutter Buccaneer to turn them into equipment, has Thorin slap them onto a creature along with other stuff like Colossus Hammer, then filters the damage from the second part of Thorin’s trigger through Stuffy Doll to take someone out. It may be blasphemous to suggest this, but if Smaug the Magnificent is that creature, its attack trigger takes someone else out if you have enough Treasure-equipment and/or damage amplifiers, then you can fling it for the final kill.

Yes, I like it when my Magic has some Rube Goldberg vibes to it. What of it?

#5. Bruenor Battlehammer

Bruenor Battlehammer is among the most played Boros equipment commanders, and it’s no slouch. While some commanders give you cost reduction or another payoff, this dwarf gives you both on the same card. The cost reduction only applies to your first equip ability, but that’s huge when it’s something that costs too much to equip otherwise, like Colossus Hammer. Heck, slap one onto Bruenor and it immediately becomes a 17/13 creature. With the right equipment loadout (or a Super State), you’ll one-shot players with commander damage in no time.

#4. Torbran, Thane of Red Fell

Mono-red burn is tougher to do in Commander than other formats because you have to drain your opponents of 120 total life, and that’s if nobody has any lifegain at all. A damage amplifier in the command zone isn’t a bad start, though. Torbran, Thane of Red Fell also has teaching utility to introduce newer players to replacement effects when you overlap Torbran and another damage amplifier.

#3. Cayth, Famed Mechanist

The so-called alternate commander from Modern Horizons 3’s Living Energy precon, Cayth, Famed Mechanist is all about artifacts. The modal activated ability harmonizes perfectly with the fabricate ability that it grants to your nontoken creatures, which are going to be artifact creature lords and token generators, for the most part. Mechanized Production is a great win condition here, though my aggro leanings want to cheat out Graaz, Unstoppable Juggernaut and Krang, Utrom Warlord.

#2. Vihaan, Goldwaker

Conceptually, Vihaan, Goldwaker hits so many good notes for me. A commander that animates your Treasure tokens and acts as an aggro lord for the creature type that it animates them into is just so, so much fun. Seriously, why haven’t I built this deck yet?

There’s also so much flexibility in the supporting pieces you can run here. This game has payoffs for Treasure, outlaws, assassins, artifacts, artifact creatures, tokens, creature deaths… and I haven’t even mentioned Knuckles the Echidna, Revel in Riches, and Hellkite Tyrant as alternate win conditions.

#1. Magda, Brazen Outlaw

You know those typal fixers we get in most sets? Those colorless artifact creature shapeshifters? Magda, Brazen Outlaw and Clock of Omens go infinite with all of them. Universal Automaton. Metallic Mimic. Adaptive Automaton. Barkform Harvester. Three Tree Mascot. Bloodline Pretender. Or just skip the middleman and use Liquimetal Coating to turn Magda into an artifact.

Things get stupid from there. If your first target to grab with Magda’s tutor is Maskwood Nexus, you can tutor for each creature card in your library. You’ll want lots of 1-drop dwarves for early board presence, and dragons like Hellkite Tyrant and Smaug the Magnificent as win conditions.

Magda, Brazen Outlaw is cEDH viable, too, which isn’t something I’d say about most dwarf commanders.

Commanding Conclusion

Koll, the Forgemaster | Illustration by Bram Sels

There’s a lot of overlap among dwarf commanders, but that shouldn’t be such a shock when you consider how central red is to the creature type. A lot of them play well together as a result, though OG Magda is going to be hard to beat unless we get another cEDH candidate.

Expect us to revisit this once we have more information on The Hobbit, but for now, which is your favorite dwarf commander? What do you hope to see from the upcoming dwarves, especially now that we have our first look at the set? Let me know in the comments below or over on the Draftsim Discord.

Until next time, don’t dig too deep, or too greedily!