The 28 Best MTG Cards for Edgar Markov in Commander

Edgar Markov | Illustration by Volkan Baga

Edgar Markov has long held boogeyman status in Commander thanks to its formidable eminence ability that builds a board state in moments and is nearly impossible to interact with. While time and power creep have seen other monsters rise, the father of Innistrad's vampires still puts in work at Bracket 3 or Bracket 4.

Magic has a frankly overwhelming number of vampires and related spells that could go in an Edgar Markov deck. I’m here with a list of powerful cards that work well with Edgar and related themes to help you get started!

What Kinds of Cards Work Well in an Edgar Markov Deck?

Kindred Dominance | Illustration by Bram Sels

The obvious cards to include in an Edgar Markov deck are vampires and cards that reward you for controlling vampires; while that’s completely true, it’s also a fairly narrow answer.

In addition to the vampires, you need to consider what Edgar does best. Because it goes wide with tokens, it encourages both aggro—especially mass pump and anthems—and sacrifice effects. Edgar also has quite a reputation, so you need to be prepared to field a variety of board wipes.

All together, the best cards for Edgar are vampires, aggressive cards, sacrifice effects, and protection—along with a handful of typal payoffs that reward you for dedicating yourself to creeping in the night.

#28. Arnyn, Deathbloom Botanist

The more sacrifice-themed your Edgar deck gets, the more you want Arnyn, Deathbloom Botanist. A super Blood Artist is a perfect threat to pair with a commander that spews 1/1s. Toss in a Viscera Seer and watch your opponents’ life totals dwindle.

#27. Cultist of the Absolute

While Edgar Markov isn’t a traditional Voltron commander, a cheeky Cultist of the Absolute still puts in work. Edgar makes plenty of sacrifice fodder to fuel the background, and it makes it into a nearly lethal threat; it only takes three hits to take out a player, plus Edgar keeps getting bigger to make the next player fall even faster.

#26. Ascendant Evincar

Though Edgar’s a 3-color commander, odds are your deck will be predominately black because that’s where all the good vampires are. With that in mind, Ascendant Evincar becomes a killer lord that buffs your team while making your opponents’ board weaker. It’s on the more expensive side, but it provides a significant power swing, especially once you start to stack counters.

#25. On Wings of Gold

Edgar Markov doesn’t necessarily interact with gravebreak effects, but On Wings of Gold has incredible potential as a anthem since it gives your tokens a power boost and evasion. It might need a little help from cards like Reanimate and Patriarch's Bidding.

#24. All-Out Assault

All-Out Assault does a lot of things. It’s another anthem, and practically a super-anthem since the extra combat means Edgar spreads more counters around. But I’m most interested in deathtouch. Giving a wide board of creatures deathtouch makes combat miserable for your opponents. Blocking and attacking both get terrible when the 1/1 token that came with your card draw spell can trade with a commander.

#23. Saw in Half

Saw in Half isn’t a recommendation because it works with Edgar directly but because it works with many of the other vampire payoffs you want to use. Doubling up on a lord like Captivating Vampire is a simple path. There are also vampires like Malakir Bloodwitch and Bloodline Necromancer with strong enters effects and cards like Sanctum Seeker that scale very well in multiples.

#22. Dusk Legion Duelist

Dusk Legion Duelist is a great support card for Edgar. You get to play it early for a vampire token, then it benefits handsomely from Edgar’s attack trigger spreading +1/+1 counters around. It could be even better if you want to expand the +1/+1 counter synergies.

#21. Sanguine Evangelist

Having battle cry isn’t as good as being a proper lord, but Sanguine Evangelist is still a tidy 3-drop. Three bodies for one card plus some evasion and a power boost hits pretty hard, especially if you take a sacrifice-heavy route.

#20. Harmonious Archon

You always need to be cautious when adding creatures to a typal deck without the marquee type, but Harmonious Archon makes a pretty good case for its inclusion because of how it interacts with Edgar and other vampire lords: All creatures become 3/3s, but because Edgar spreads counters and the lords provide anthems, your creatures should always be the largest. It’s also effectively a triple anthem since your 1/1s become 3/3s.

#19. Warleader’s Call

While any Impact Tremors variant works well with Edgar Markov, and you probably want multiple, Warleader's Call stands out as the best since it provides additional damage when your tokens enter and when they attack since it has an anthem tucked in. The next best inclusion would be the OG Impact Tremors due to its low cost.

#18. Kirol, Attentive First-Year

Kirol, Attentive First-Year needs two things to function: a host of creatures to tap and plenty of triggered abilities to copy. Edgar has the first requirement covered, and it guarantees you have at least one triggered ability to copy, though you should go bigger and look to copy the triggers of cards like Champion of Dusk and Malakir Bloodwitch.

#17. Caretaker’s Talent

Caretaker's Talent is one of the best token support cards printed in the past five years or so. You get baseline card draw with the first vampire you cast and eventually build up to a powerful anthem. The token copy ability is only okay here, but another 1/1 is pretty fine. You could get real spicy with a Saw in Half or red token copier.

#16. Patriarch’s Bidding + Bloodline Bidding

In an ideal world, your Edgar Markov deck bursts from the gates in a flurry of vampires and tokens and launches a lethal assault that buries your opponents in fangs and blood. In reality, you probably cast a mana rock, two or three vampires, then eat a board wipe. That’s where Patriarch's Bidding and Bloodline Bidding come into play. You can’t always have a protection spell, but these are the next best thing to rebuild after.

#15. Felisa, Fang of Silverquill

Felisa, Fang of Silverquill functions like a pseudo-protection spell when you pair it with Edgar’s counter distribution. It doesn’t actually stop your opponents from destroying your board, but it leaves you with a token presence afterwards. You stack counters pretty quickly, so it’s a great insurance policy.

#14. Attrition

Not every Edgar Markov deck wants to be a dedicated aristocrats deck, but you should run Attrition more often than not. Once this card gets rolling, you have all the removal you could ever need—it practically makes your vampires into Ravenous Chupacabra for an additional . It’s also a fantastic defensive tool; you can block with a token, then sacrifice it to destroy another attacker. Having tools like that is important with a threat-magnet like Edgar.

#13. Sanctum Seeker

Sanctum Seeker fills a roll similar as a lord since it makes your vampires attack for more damage, but it does so on a unique axis. The best part of this “lord” is that your creatures never need to connect to deal damage, so blockers can’t protect your opponents. Heck, that might be another use for Reconnaissance….

#12. Champion of Dusk

Champion of Dusk converts a massive board into a ton of card draw. It’s basically Pact of the Serpent on a stick, except it counts itself. Since it’s a creature, you can get more triggers easily with cards like Bloodline Necromancer to reanimate the Champion or Saw in Half to get way too many triggers.

#11. Kindred Dominance

Kindred Dominance throws a typal board wipe at the wall to stop your opponents from doing anything. This one costs a lot, but it's important to consider that it doubles as a finisher: If your opponents don't have blockers, how can they keep out the vampires?

#10. 1-Mana Vampires

Hyping up 1-mana vampires like Vampire of the Dire Moon, Falkenrath Pit Fighter, and Skymarcher Aspirant might seem strange when so many other vampires have great abilities, but it’s a matter of curve: Edgar Markov is an aggressive commander that needs a wide board, and that starts with cheap vampires. I’d put good money on the most common flaw in Edgar decks being an overly high curve, so don’t skimp on these critical curve savers.

#9. Accursed Duneyard

Two mana is a lot to just regenerate a single vampire, but that’s fine when you get to do it forever. The floor of Accursed Duneyard is a colorless land, which is pretty risky in a 3-color deck but overall worthwhile for the protection.

#8. Indulgent Aristocrat

Indulgent Aristocrat is weaker than a proper lord but still useful. Spreading counters around provides a permanent buff, even if you need to invest a token and mana, plus your Edgar Markov deck is more likely to have too few cheap creatures than too many.

#7. Master of Dark Rites

Master of Dark Rites might be the least skippable vampire for an Edgar Markov deck. The mana advantage is immense, and not only does Edgar provide ample sacrifice fodder, it lets the Master come with a token of its own. It’s also another of those all-important 1-drops to keep the curve healthy.

#6. Olivia’s Wrath

Since your opponents will gun for you as the Edgar Markov player, you need to stop your opponents from attacking you, and there’s nothing better to use than a sweeper in EDH… except you can’t just use Wrath of God since that would destroy your progress as well as your opponents’. Enter Olivia's Wrath, a vampire-themed board wipe that blows your opponents away while leaving your board pristine.

#5. Clever Concealment

Edgar Markov decks need plenty of protection; they’re built around going wide and draw lots of hate from the table. Consider this a stand-in for other cards like And They Shall Know No Fear and Galadriel's Dismissal, but Clever Concealment is pretty much always my go-to because it potentially costs nothing. That’s a little harder in such a black-centric archetype, but even at , you can’t beat phasing as a form of protection that counters all sweepers, from mass destruction to mass bounce.

#4. Pact of the Serpent

Pact of the Serpent is one of the greatest typal payoffs in black, to the point I’d consider it a must-have card in any black typal strategy. You can’t beat the number of cards drawn for the mana cost. It’s on par with Night's Whisper when you have three vampires, but Edgar Markov never just has three vampires—it controls many, many more.

#3. Malakir Bloodwitch

While lords are a great way to turn a wide board into damage, other ways to make them deal damage are useful. That’s where Malakir Bloodwitch comes in, with a powerful enters ability that applies the heat. It’s great at breaking through a board stall; even if it doesn’t outright eliminate an opponent, a massive life swing enables attacks that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. Remember, this card is templated like Gray Merchant of Asphodel, so if you make each opponent lose 5 life, you’ll gain 15.

#2. Vampire Lords

With a commander that spews this many tokens, lords are a must-include to make the wide board threatening. The best one is absolutely Captivating Vampire since Edgar makes more than enough vampires to fuel the theft ability, but Legion Lieutenant’s low mana cost and Stromkirk Captain’s first strike aren’t far behind. Oh, and don’t forget Cordial Vampire or Markov Baron. And you might as well play Bloodline Keeper… yeah, those tokens are hitting hard.

#1. Skullclamp

It’s rather funny that my #1 Edgar Markov card isn’t a vampire, but I can’t imagine building the deck without Skullclamp. The continuous stream of 1/1s that don’t even require investing a card or mana into them might make Edgar the single best Skullclamp commander in the format, which is pretty impressive considering it’s one of the strongest card draw spells ever. Skullclamp is so good in Edgar Markov I’d even consider an Urza's Saga just for a second copy.

Commanding Conclusion

Markov Baron | Illustation by Xiaobotong

Edgar Markov has long been feared in Commander. Even if it’s not quite as devastating a threat in 2026 as 2017, eminence is still cracked and vampires are powerful. If you want a commander that provides a powerful, resilient gameplan, Edgar’s a great choice, and these cards are critical elements of the deck.

Which cards do you run in your Edgar Markov deck? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord. Subscribe to our newsletter for more from us every weekday.

Until next time!