All 8 Energy Commanders in Magic Ranked

Last updated on August 27, 2025

Satya, Aetherflux Genius | Illustration by Aaron Miller

Energy has been in Magic since Kaladesh in 2016, but we didn’t have a legendary creature who explicitly supported energy until the Fallout precons in 2024. Now that we have the commanders in two EDH precons plus enough support in Modern Horizons 3 to make a competitive Modern energy deck, it's time to rank the options, especially if you didn’t buy the Science! or Creative Energy precons and are looking to build from scratch.

Let's rank all five energy commanders and give you what I consider to be the best Jeskai () energy deck you can run at the moment.

What Is an Energy Commander in MTG?

Saheeli, Radiant Creator | Illustration by Ernanda Souza

An energy commander in MTG is a legendary creature in the command zone of your Commander deck that explicitly references the energy mechanic in its rules text. Introduced in the Kaladesh block but unsupported until the Fallout precons, Modern Horizons 3, and the Modern Horizons 3 precons in 2024, energy is an additional resource in the game, marked by a reserve of energy counters a player gains and uses and which persevere throughout the game until spent.

#8. The Motherlode, Excavator

You generally get a ton of energy when you drop The Motherlode, Excavator later in a Commander game. But being a mono-red commander is a definite downside, as there are about 30 red energy cards. That reduces the depth of your deck just as you’re making enemies by destroying lands. I’ve seen versions of this deck that lean pretty heavily into the land destruction space, which red does support you in, but your friends won’t. This card seems best in the 99.

#7. Pia Nalaar, Chief Mechanic

You want to solidily work with thopters before you promote Pia Nalaar, Chief Mechanic. I like the scalability of the Nalaar Aetherjet, but the engine for producing energy is simply not reliable and needs other cards to really hum.

#6. Saheeli, Radiant Creator

Saheeli, Radiant Creator is in a small group of cards that care about artificers. For the record, there's a substantial group of players that love Saheeli cards, but this is far from the favorite Saheeli in Magic. What I look for are times where the animate ability is especially sweet on artifacts like spacecraft and vehicles.

#5. Nissa, Worldsoul Speaker

Maybe its the magical illustration by Magali Villeneuve, but Nissa, Worldsoul Speaker gives me a sense of classic Magic that makes this card a fascinating include among the Aetherdrift's Commander cards in the Living Energy deck. Landfall is a potent ability word to tie onto energy production and the ability to spend 8 on any permanent is really good. The solely green identity does hamper the desparked planeswalker in terms of energy commander rank.

#4. Rex, Cyber-Hound

Rex, Cyber-Hound is a cool little combo enabler hiding in the Fallout Science! precon. The aging good boi can lead a self-mill deck that works like Agatha's Soul Cauldron in the command zone.

It can be a fun deck that you can power into infinite combo land with classics like Pili-Pala and Grand Architect to copy, Horseshoe Crab to start looping things, etc. The trouble is the whole deck is pretty much about Rex living, since it digs up the bodies and, um, eats them? It’s a little simpler to use an artifact tutor to get a Cauldron if this is the kind of space you want to play in, potentially giving you access to more colors than this Azorius commander does.

This is an energy commander in name only, since there aren’t really energy cards in the deck, except perhaps Aetherworks Marvel.

#3. Liberty Prime, Recharged

When the Science! precon came out, there was a wave of folks who thought that this secondary commander was in fact better than the face commander. Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s a build of Liberty Prime, Recharged yet that’s better than the higher ranking Jeskai commander options.

It’s hard to blame folks for seeing a giant robot and thinking “Voltron commander!” But pump and protection aren’t the primary places where the Jeskai energy suite excels. So decklists using Liberty Prime tend to shrink the energy package in favor of pantsing up with equipment and auras and protection and counterspells. It’s a fun deck, but I think there are better Voltron options out there.

#2. Dr. Madison Li

A couple of the energy precons have a strange artifact-matters synergy that isn’t super useful, but even if you tank all of those cards to put in your Cayth, Famed Mechanist deck, there are still enough artifacts in a Jeskai energy build to mean that Dr. Madison Li still nets you energy if it stays on the board, providing a constant threat of artifact reanimation.

But in an artifact-light build, its first activated ability isn’t usually quite useful enough for an aggro shell. The Doc excels in a long-game value deck that leans on the energy payoffs in the deck to take you over the top. This commander gives you something to use your excess energy on, and if the game goes long, it just draw cards and reanimates artifacts.

#1. Satya, Aetherflux Genius

I had been playing the Dr. Madison Li from the Science! Fallout precon I’d upgraded with some good Kaladesh cards for a few months and really enjoyed it, so much that I assumed the MH3 precon might just give me some additional efficiencies and wincons. I didn’t anticipate liking a commander better than Dr. “Valuetrain” Li, but Satya, Aetherflux Genius is a huge beating.

Just getting something with a useful energy ETB is often enough to really start rolling, as even copying a Conduit Goblin nets you 4 energy. And forget about bombs like Robobrain War Mind. Even better if you're copying something that gives you energy on attack, like Razorfield Ripper. You don’t even need to spend to keep the token, especially if you’re copying enormous hits like Aethertide Whale or Salvation Colossus. If you’re really swimming in energy, getting multiple copies of the Colossus can kill the table.

Best Alternative Energy Commanders

It’s Jeskai or less on legendary creatures that explicitly support an energy strategy. What about all the green cards from Kaladesh block like the once banned Attune with Aether or black for Chthonian Nightmare? We do have a few cards that help us play in other color identities and which people seem to have been building energy decks around before 2023.

I’m not a believer in proliferate as a reasonable way to build around energy, so I’m very skeptical even of the best proliferate cards, including Atraxa, Praetors' Voice, even though Atraxa seems to have been the most popular energy commander until recently. Atraxa is too low impact here, especially without a red pip, giving 1 energy a turn while making you a target by playing the most popular and powerful commander in the game.

But what’s a reasonable option? I’d still rather play a “real” energy commander than any of these, but if you’ve got green and black energy cards burning a hole in your storage boxes, here’s some ideas.

Abdel Adrian, Gorion’s Ward

There are a variety of blink commanders in MTG, but one that has a nice Yorion, Sky Nomad sort of effect is Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward. It's a white commander that can pair with any background to give you any white pairing you’d like. Candlekeep Sage seems the blue card of choice for Adrian, although in this space I think Shameless Charlatan is much better. Agent of the Iron Throne is the best choice for black, although all of them are fine. Street Urchin and Tavern Brawler are good in red, but so are others. And green has many good options, but I prefer Master Chef in a deck that goes wide like this.

Blink is good because a lot of energy cards have good ETBs.

Riku of Two Reflections

If you’re willing to leave powerful white cards like Guide of Souls behind and work with a Temur commander, Riku of Two Reflections gives you an enormous amount of value, doubling almost all of your energy triggers if you have the mana.

Roon of the Hidden Realm

Speaking of blink, old-school Bant commander Roon of the Hidden Realm goes one further, giving access to green with a nice solid repeatable blink ability. You’re still missing red here, which is why I might rather try Aragorn, the Uniter, as those four colors are the best synergistic energy package. There are better ways to take advantage of Aragorn, but it’s pretty decent as an energy commander, even if it feels like the most flavor fail ever.

Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch

You could pick another 5-color commander with minimal synergies, like Kenrith, the Returned King or even Kyodai, Soul of Kamigawa, but Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch can synergize slightly, especially if you keep Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer and the myr subtheme in the Creative Energy precon (which I wouldn’t!).

None of these cards do a ton for you, but Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch allows you to play the Golgari cards left out by the Jeskai ascendancy to energy dominance.

Yarok, the Desecrated

There are just enough energy cards for a Sultai commander to run Yarok, the Desecrated to double ETBs, but you’ll be running some Draft chaff and leaving off the powerful Boros () energy cards. Still, Yarok can play a graveyard recursion game, as well, which works pretty well with the energy cards in these colors.

Decklist: Satya, Aetherflux Genius in Commander

Lightning Runner | Illustration by Raymond Swanland

This is my Satya, Aetherflux Genius deck of choice right now. It slaps. The only thing you might do differently in the year ahead is to cull some of the lower powered energy cards to add more protection spells and countermagic, because players will learn that Satya is a must-kill on sight.

The cheap creatures that ETB turn Satya's attack trigger into a deep mine of resources and simply become card advantage. Those end the turn effects also give you a chance to straight up cheat a hasty token into play. No need for an IQ off the charts to make this artificer's deck work.

How Many Energy Sources Do I Need in My Deck?

All of them?

Seriously, though, the simplest answer to this question is at least 50 for Commander.

Energy decks in Jeskai are propelled by cards that ETB with energy. There are some static sources, but you aren’t going to be able to get enough energy without constant spellcasting. The exception is if you’re doing something to blink Aethertide Whale to run an energy combo with a select subset of cards.

In most cases, I’d have a high level of skepticism about any card that doesn’t give energy unless it can be used for both interaction and doubling, as with Sublime Epiphany. Run Teferi's Protection if you feel better that way, but I’d prefer to just go faster. That seems the energy way.

Commanding Conclusion

Liberty Prime, Recharged | Illustration by Pascal Quidault

I’m one of the true believers who waited years for decent Commander support for energy, so I’m really happy to see the support. The good news is that it’s fun and playable without being busted or OP, at least at the Commander brackets I typically play in. It’s very far from cEDH power, for example, while it can easily beat decently powerful decks.

The one downside I see is that if you randomly selected a dozen energy cards in the deck, you may very well have an infinite combo.

There are a lot of them in the energy space, including some which shipped in the precons! If your playgroup or LGS frowns on infinite combos, they’re literal buzzkills, but it happens, and then maybe these aren’t the droids you’re looking for.

But for everyone else, stay charged, you can do it, it’s electric!

Let me know how Satya works for you in the comments or over at the Draftsim Discord.

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