The Top 37 Esper Commanders in Magic Ranked

Last updated on April 17, 2024

Sen Triplets | Illustration by Greg Staples

One of my biggest issues when deciding what commander to choose when I’m building a new deck is color. I find myself picking one color then quickly switch to another, then from that one to another.

Each piece of the Magic color pie has its own unique characteristics and bonuses. No color is too much like the other and they all bring something to the table that you can’t find anywhere else. So how could you choose just one?

The answer is that you don’t have to! Why choose just one color; why not three?

Today I’ll be going over the commander options in my favorite color combination: Esper (). I’ve also got a sample decklist to help you get thinking.

Let’s get straight into the action!

Why Go with an Esper Commander?

Sefris of the Hidden Ways | Illustration by Ryan Pancoast

Esper is the combination of blue, black, and white, and these colors complement each other well. White gets access to true sweepers like Wrath of God, Farewell, or Austere Command, while blue nearly doesn’t have access to removal. Black is the king of spot removal, usually destroying creatures while white exiles them. Blue gets access to counterspells and card draw, which is a weak point of the color white, and so on. Together, these cards can deal with everything, like Vindicate and Void Rend.

Esper EDH decks have access to colorless cards, so you can always play artifacts to ramp or nonbasic lands like Field of Ruin to deal with opponents’ lands. Not all Esper commanders lean towards all three colors equally, so some decks are almost mono-blue with a touch of white and black, while others are very Orzhov () with a touch of blue.

Either way, this color combination tends to produce lots of card advantage and is a real contender in the long game. Most control Commander decks are in Esper, and there are a bunch of viable combos in cEDH that are also Esper based.

But the hardest part is choosing which Esper commander to go with.

#37. Lady Evangela

Legends cards usually make the bottom of any commanders list. Lady Evangela is a 1/2 for three mana, and the best it can do is to prevent some damage while paying two mana and tapping.

#36. Halfdane

Moving on through the bad Legends commanders, Halfdane is a 3/3 that can be a little bit bigger, but it’s totally conditional. It doesn’t gain any abilities, so it’s not even a Clone. I don’t think Halfdane would be a decent commander even if it were a 9/9 most of the time.

#35. Dakkon Blackblade

Next on the Legends list is another vanilla beater. Dakkon Blackblade is a little bit more consistent than Halfdane because it’s at least a 5/5. Interestingly, Dakkon is consistently bigger in green decks with access to ramp. The ceiling for this commander is a vanilla big guy without evasion.

#34. Chromium

Here we have one of the dragons that gave EDH its name. Chromium is the original Esper Elder Dragon Highlander, and it costs a whopping 8 mana for a 7/7 with flying and rampage 2 (it gains +2/+2 for each creature blocking it after the first one). Oh, and you have to spend three mana each in order to keep it alive, so this commander is a just a big flier with downside.

#33. Dromar, the Banisher

And here’s a playable commander. Dromar, the Banisher is a 6/6 flier for six mana with upside. If you hit with Dromar, you can pay and return creatures of the chosen color to their owners' hands.

#32. Chromium, the Mutable

Chromium, the Mutable is more of a surprise in 60-card constructed formats when you cast it from your hand, and it’s at its best in control mirrors. As a commander, Chromium is an efficient flash creature, but it would be better in the 99 of an Esper or 5-color dragon Commander deck.

#31. Nihiloor

Nihiloor is a commander whose strengths have been related to Dimir's () color pie, and that’s the ability to cast spells from your opponents’ libraries or hands. You can steal creatures from your opponents with Control Magic, Thief of Sanity, or Siphon Instinct and use them to attack your opponents and drain them.

The only limitation is that you have to use a creature against its owner. It makes for a nice theme of having your opponents’ creatures betray them. Nihiloor’s ability to use your creatures to steal theirs is harder to activate because you need beefy creatures in Esper colors, so I’d rely on spells to do the job.

#30. Ertai, the Corrupted

Ertai, the Corrupted is a clunky commander as a 3/4 for five mana that doesn’t impact the board immediately. It can sacrifice a creature to counter a spell, so it doubles as a sacrifice outlet, but it’s limited to once per turn. You can sacrifice Ertai in a pinch, though.

The problem is when commander tax makes you pay 9 or 11 mana for Ertai, since it’s only going to be worth it if you have some sacrifice fodder and a way to untap Ertai consistently or give it haste.

#29. Soundwave, Sonic Spy / Soundwave, Superior Captain

The duo of Soundwave, Sonic Spy and Soundwave, Superior Captain from the Transformers Universes Beyond release is certainly a nice card. You can jam it into a deck that’s artifact-themed like Alela, Artful Provocateur or Urza, Chief Artificer, but I don’t think it does much as a commander.

One of the nicest things with this card is to cast it with the More Than Meets the Eye mechanic and generate tokens with the ability while also getting a 5/4. I find the flashback ability on spells too restrictive because you need to match the damage dealt with the mana value of the card in your graveyard. Sometimes you’ll have a 3MV card in your graveyard and will deal 2 damage, effectively doing nothing.

#28. Inquisitor Greyfax

Inquisitor Greyfax is another legendary creature that does little to be a commander. It gives +1/+0 and vigilance to your creatures and has a tap ability that investigates. That said, it’s a nice and powerful card to put into an Esper or 5-color Commander deck that needs a little buff to tokens, is artifact/draw themed, or wants a little more card draw.

#27. The Ever-Changing ‘Dane

The Ever-Changing ‘Dane is a creature I’d rather have in a sacrifice-themed Commander deck than as a commander itself. The card lets you sacrifice another creature to become a copy of the sacrificed creature, keeping the shapeshifting ability. You can mess with a “death triggers” theme, or reanimate a creature and sacrifice it, but there are Esper commanders that do those things much better.

#26. Queza, Augur of Agonies

Queza, Augur of Agonies sits there as a tiny Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, draining life from your opponents, and in Esper colors as opposed to mono black. Or you can think that each time you draw a card, you’ll have a mini-extort trigger.

Queza is well suited to lead a lifegain matters deck, with cards like Ajani's Pridemate that get a little better each time you draw a card or cards like Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose that enhance your draining abilities. Suffice it to say, if you draw your whole deck, you’ll probably kill your opponents in the process.

#25. The Celestial Toymaker

The Celestial Toymaker is a Secret Lair card that encourages your piles of good stuff! Putting cards into piles becomes a very punishing ordeal for opponents when they’ll lose life regardless of their choice. Esper has plenty of options to help the Toymaker attack safely, you’ll just need to draw into some good stuff beyond the popular Fact or Fiction. A hidden trick from this commander is choosing what you’ll draw next by putting only two cards into piles.

Here are cards with repeatable abilities to create pile-grouping effects:
Sphinx of Clear Skies needs to deal combat damage to a player. Jace, Architect of Thought is inconsistent, since it relies on a -2 ability. Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign requires you to put sphinxes into play (good thing you’re in flicker and bounce colors), and likely your most consistent is Fight or Flight which lets you dictate combat and triggers at each opponent’s combat.

#24. Sharuum the Hegemon

Sharuum the Hegemon is your artifact reanimator commander. You basically want expensive artifacts in your graveyard, self-mill, and some ways to blink Sharuum because the ability is on ETB only. Since you’re already going the artifact reanimator route, there are tons of high-power artifacts in the format worth getting into play. Bolas's Citadel, Noxious Gearhulk, and Myr Battlesphere come to mind.

#23. Tawnos, Solemn Survivor

Tawnos, Solemn Survivor is a commander focused on artifact tokens, copying artifact tokens, and reanimating artifact creatures. Its main ability is to pay 2 to copy an artifact token. That can be treasures, 1/1 creatures, or clues among others.

Together with more powerful cards like Saheeli's Artistry or Faerie Artisans, you’ll produce more powerful tokens to copy. Another thing that’s possible is to sacrifice two tokens, ideally treasure tokens you’ve got laying around, to put an big artifact into play from your graveyard, getting powerful cards like Myr Battlesphere or Blightsteel Colossus.

#22. Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir

Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir is one of the only Esper commanders that’s aggressive by nature. Jabari is a knight tribal commander, and it leans on the current Azorius () knights theme in Standard strengthened by March of the Machine.

Throne of Eldraine also had a few knights in Orzhov. Sidar has a very powerful mechanic in eminence (remember Edgar Markov), so you only need to attack with knights to loot. Jabari doesn’t need to be in the battlefield, but it is, you get value each time it hits. One thing to note is that this card’s ability reanimates a knight. There are lots of good ones, but few are expensive to cheat into play.

#21. Saruman of Many Colors

It is really annoying to go up against this version of ward and have to dedicate a second card to actually cast a removal spell, and Saruman of Many Colors does a great job of clearing out your options to stop it. Very few removal options come outside of instants, sorceries and enchantments. The remaining removal are mostly creatures or artifacts, and white and black are adept at handling those.

We haven’t even gotten to the best part, Saruman turns spells back on their owner, though the triggered ability might be inconsistent, it will be powerful the few turns you’ll be able to cast three spells. Rituals like Dark Ritual help you get to your second spell quickly, Clockspinning supports your suspend cards which are another way to cast spells without paying the mana that turn. Then there’s rebound granted by cards like Ojer Pakpatiq, Deepest Epoch which helps you double spell easily.

#20. Elenda and Azor

Elenda and Azor is a vampire knight sphinx, probably the only one in the game. Aside from that, it’s a 6/6 with flying, ward 2, and a bunch of abilities. I like that it does lots of different stuff and that you aren’t limited in a single direction.

You can have Elenda and Azor attacking as a win condition, draw a bunch of cards, make tokens with lifelink, play Anointed Procession to double the tokens, and so on. The biggest challenges are that you’re restricted to tapping out on your turn for the drawing X card ability, and it isn’t great to pay 4 life a turn unless you’re making lots of tokens.

#19. Bane, Lord of Darkness

Bane, Lord of Darkness is a value commander, and its main ability leads you to either draw a card or put a creature into play with equal or lesser toughness to the creature that died.

This commander has huge political implications because you’ll choose which opponent decides what you do with the ability trigger. Bane’s ability can make you put creatures like Mulldrifter or Agent of Treachery into play because they have small bodies but awesome ETB effects.

Bane can also be used as a pseudo Birthing Pod, because you’ll sacrifice a 2/2 and maybe put a good creature like Karmic Guide for free on the battlefield (or draw a card). It works wonders with the evoke mechanic, or cards like Fleshbag Marauder because they produce the so-important death trigger.

#18. Alela, Artful Provocateur

Alela, Artful Provocateur is a nice token commander that benefits from artifacts and enchantments. You can go either route, and you can also buff fliers with cards like Sephara, Sky's Blade and Favorable Winds.

The only bad thing about Alela is that sometimes you’ll cast it and it’s removed without any benefit. If you can untap with it and follow with some artifacts or enchantments that cantrip, you’re in for a good turn.

#17. Urza, Chief Artificer

Everything about the text on Urza, Chief Artificer screams artifact creatures, and that’s the way to go. You’ll give menace to your artifact creatures, and your commander will be cheaper (including commander tax).

Thopter Spy Network is an excellent card for this commander since you’ll have artifact creatures with menace and you’ll easily connect and draw more cards.

#16. Varina, Lich Queen

Varina, Lich Queen gives you a reason to do Zombie tribal in Esper colors, while most of the zombie commanders are Dimir. White gives access to zombies like Ratadrabik of Urborg, Wayward Servant, or Corpse Knight, besides better removal.

Varina incentivizes you to attack with zombies, so you want big and strong zombies for that, preferably with menace. You’ll often loot with Varina, so cards with flashback or graveyard abilities are at their best here. The cards from Amonkhet with embalm or eternalize are interesting, like Adorned Pouncer which you can loot and then cast as a 4/4 with double strike.

The part I like best about this commander is that you can take interesting routes, not just one-dimensional zombie tribal. When you’re looting so much, it becomes easier to find your combos.

#15. Kamiz, Obscura Oculus

Kamiz, Obscura Oculus is a crazy commander that can do so much stuff. Its main ability is that whenever you attack (not your commander), you give unblockability to a creature and maybe double strike to another one. You want some evasive creatures to be able to attack frequently, as well as a minor creature to buff (ideally also evasive).

This mechanic shines with combat-related abilities like combat damage triggers, lifelink, or even infect.

#14. Sefris of the Hidden Ways

Sefris of the Hidden Ways joins this list as one of the most unique commanders, and that’s because it rewards you for venturing and completing a dungeon.

You’ll venture into the dungeon even more when your creatures hit the graveyard. When you complete a dungeon, you get a reanimate effect. This set of abilities usually leads to a self-mill/reanimator commander, but you can also loot to discard the cards and activate Sefris’s venture into the dungeon ability.

#13. Merieke Ri Berit

Merieke Ri Berit only needs an untap effect or a blink effect to become a machine gun. You can have a repeatable ‘’steal and sac” effect if you have a sacrifice outlet to benefit from or simply start destroying creatures all around.

And it’s not even overcosted at three mana. Merieke is probably the best commander from Legends, and you’re not even penalized if it’s removed.

#12. Nevinyrral, Urborg Tyrant

Nevinyrral, Urborg Tyrant is a commander that fits zombie themes and sacrifice themes well. What you want to do is sacrifice a bunch of creatures or zombies and cast your commander afterward, producing lots of zombies.

Sacrificing cards like Gravecrawler is almost free, and there’s the infamous Rooftop Storm + Gravecrawler combo. When it dies, you get a free Nevinyrral's Disk effect if you pay 1, which is some additional insurance that people aren’t that interested in killing it.

One mechanic that fits the theme of the commander perfectly is decayed; you attack with the decayed zombies, they die, then you cast Nevinyrral. Profit.

#11. Oloro, Ageless Ascetic

Oloro, Ageless Ascetic is one of the original commanders from the first Commander set, and it’s still a good and playable commander to this day.

The best thing about Oloro is that like eminence, its abilities work from the command zone, giving you 2 life each turn and offsetting its high MV. That’s awesome for cards like Archangel of Thune, Dawn of Hope, Cleric Class, and so on. You can base an entire deck around lifegain with Oloro, and there are black cards to turn your life gain into life loss for your opponents.

The main thing about this commander is that you’ll gain two life regardless, but if Oloro is in play you can also draw at least an extra card each turn, which progresses your plans and drains your opponents.

#10. Zur, Eternal Schemer

Zur, Eternal Schemer is Sydri, Galvanic Genius for enchantments. Zur can lead an enchantment-based deck or prison/stax deck, but it won’t provide card advantage like Zur, the Enchanter does.

One interesting thing to do with this commander is to play enchantment creatures that have a high mana value, like Archetype of Imagination, a 3/2 flier with a MV of six. Due to Zur’s ability, it becomes a 6/6 flier. The gods from Theros can become creatures if you want to.

As with all enchantment-based decks, you’ll want enchantress-type cards and mechanics like constellation.

#9. Sydri, Galvanic Genius

Sydri, Galvanic Genius is an artifact-based commander whose main ability is to turn “do-nothing artifacts” into creatures. You can give deathtouch and lifelink to artifact tokens, so each 1/1 artifact token you produce is precious.

The combo potential is huge, and one of the main ones is to turn Aetherflux Reservoir into a creature and give it deathtouch and lifelink. You’ll pay 50 life, deal 50 to a player, gain 50 life, and repeat the process. Naturally, it’s easier to achieve 51+ life in EDH because you start with 40 life, and your commander can give lifelink to creatures.

#8. Toluz, Clever Conductor

The way you abuse Toluz, Clever Conductor is to have a bunch of draw and discard effects, which are plenty in blue, or discard abilities in black. Then sacrifice Toluz to have the cards back in your hand. If you cast your wheel effect that allows people to discard their hand and draw 7 cards or Frantic Search effects, you’re just stashing the discarded cards for later.

Each card you cycle is back for more, and there’s a bunch of “Whenever you cycle or discard a card” effects in Dimir to take advantage of. Toluz is also a great commander because it’s easy and very versatile to build a deck around, you don’t need a bunch of expensive staples.

#7. Aminatou, the Fateshifter

Aminatou, the Fateshifter should draw your attention because it’s one of the few planeswalkers that can be a commander. It’s also cheap to cast at 3 MV. Its first ability gives you card selection and sets your future draw, which is nice with miracles and shuffle effects if you want to get rid of something.

Where Aminatou shines is that this commander has a blink effect in the -1 ability and it works on any permanent. Hello, battles. Blink an Invasion of Fiora, perhaps?

Azorius and Orzhov are already good blink archetypes and this commander supports it very well. You can fill your deck with good ETB permanents and cards like Panharmonicon to have a very serviceable Aminatou value deck. Another nice thing is to blink planeswalkers so that they can use -2 or -3 abilities during the same turn and benefit from cards like Oath of Jace or Oath of Teferi.

#6. Sen Triplets

How about not playing your cards, but playing your opponents’ cards instead? Sen Triplets lets you do exactly that. What that also means is that you’re not building the deck around your commander’s abilities (but doubling upkeep triggers helps).

With Sen Triplets, you can play the control game, counter your opponents’ spells, focus on a combo/lock of your own, and win with their cards instead of yours. The only problem is the color of mana you’ll use to cast Gruul () spells from your opponents’ hands, but you can also play their lands.

In this deck, Fellwar Stone shines because you want that effect more than a Dimir Signet that only fixes your colors.

#5. Marneus Calgar

Marneus Calgar is a very strong commander, allowing you to draw cards whenever a token enters the battlefield. It can also turn 6 mana into two tokens and a card at instant speed, no less. Cards that can make or populate tokens draw you cards every time.

The biggest problem with this commander is that aside from it costing 6 mana, your opponents want to take it out so you’ll need to be prepared to protect it. The best part is when you play defense with Marneus, it’s hard to attack into because you can make a 4/4 worth of blockers while drawing cards.

#4. Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign

Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign is one of the funnier commanders from this list. You’ll attack with it and at least draw a card. But look, you can reveal an odd card and cast it for free. Some cards that you can reveal include Void Winnower, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.

You also have Vampiric Tutor to cast after attacking so that you can put the card you need at instant speed on top of your library. That’s not restricted to creatures, so all odd mana value spells work.

#3. Zur, the Enchanter

Zur the Enchanter is among the most played Esper EDH decks. Its attack trigger fetches you any enchantment with MV three or less and puts it onto the battlefield, and the main utility is in prison decks.

You can get enchantments like Ghostly Prison, Aura of Silence, or even removal spells like the new Seal from Existence. Since you need to attack with Zur to get the benefit, you can search for auras like All that Glitters or Steel of the Godhead to Voltron it up.

You can give Zur whatever’s most appropriate for the situation, be it protection, indestructible, double strike, or Curiosity type effects. Even infect with Phyresis!

#2. Tivit, Seller of Secrets

Tivit, Seller of Secrets is a powerful commander that’s focused on voting, a mechanic from the Conspiracy sets. When Tivit ETBs or attacks, each player votes, and the result is that you either get treasure tokens or investigate and make clue tokens. You’re getting cards and mana. What you do with the artifact tokens Tivit creates is up to you, but it’s certain that you’ll get lots of mana and cards.

You can blink Tivit endlessly with Deadeye Navigator and the mana you get from treasures, or you can use Time Sieve to get extra turns. Also, Council's Judgment becomes extra good with more votes, and you’ll get a hell of a lot of votes if you have cards like Brago's Representative.

#1. Raffine, Scheming Seer

Raffine, Scheming Seer has been an awesome creature in Standard in decks like Esper Legends. But what about in Commander? Raffine doesn’t disappoint either as a powerful and versatile commander. Its main ability is that each time a creature attacks, it connives X, where X is the number of creatures attacking.

You can create an arbitrarily large creature, hit with your commander as a 4/7 or 5/8, and give it unblockable among other stuff. All these cards you’re discarding can be reanimated, or you can abuse cards like Bag of Holding or Toluz, Clever Conductor.

Raffine only costs three mana, and it works very well with massive attacks from tokens, unblockable creatures, and infect creatures. The amount of card selection Raffine gives you helps you in whatever kind of deck you want to make.

Bonus: Esper Commander Decks

Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign

Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign | Illustration by Chris Rahn

This Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign EDH deck is a deck focused on odd mana value spells to maximize the power of the commander. There are very powerful targets to cast from Yennett’s attack trigger like Portal to Phyrexia, Kaya, Intangible Slayer, and In Garruk's Wake, and cards that can manipulate the top of the library like The Reality Chip, Brainstorm, and Sensei's Divining Top. The few even mana value cards are mana rocks like signets. To care for your curve, you must have lots of 3-mana spells and some 5-mana spells. Cavalier of Gales is a nice one here because it has a Brainstorm effect when it enters the battlefield, setting up your future Yennett attack.

Tivit, Seller of Secrets

Tivit, Seller of Secrets | Illustration by Chris Rahn

This Tivit, Seller of Secrets EDH deck is a deck focused on slowing things down with removal, counterspells, and stax pieces like Grand Augustin IV and Drannith Magistrate until you can get advantages in the later game with your powerful and expensive spells. Academy Manufactor is strong here because it doubles the tokens Tivit creates, along with Anointed Procession and Mondrak, Glory Dominus.

Fractured Identity is already a nice removal spell with upside, and here it synergizes well with your token doubling. Deadeye Navigator is a one-card combo with the commander. Time Sieve is a nice way to get extra turns from all your artifact tokens. You also have cards that care about voting, like Council's Judgement, Plea of the Planeswalker, and Expropriate, which benefits from the extra vote you get from Tivit and other cards like Brago's Representative.

Aminatou, the Fateshifter

Aminatou, the Fateshifter | Illustration by Seb McKinnon

This Aminatou, the Fateshifter EDH is a little higher in terms of budget, and it’s a superfriends deck, or “planeswalker tribal.” You have 15 planeswalkers in the list, and the obvious synergy is to cast a planeswalker, use the most powerful ability available, and blink it with your commander so that the ability can be activated another time.

Dakkon, Shadow Slayer is an interesting synergy with Aminatou because if you blink Dakkon later in the game, it’ll get extra counters because you’ll have more lands in play. If you have 7 lands, you can blink it and ultimate it every turn without losing the planeswalker.

Felidar Guardian allows an infinite blink combo with your commander that allows for infinite enter and leave the battlefield triggers. Sweepers work very well here since most of them apply to creatures or other permanents like enchantments.

Other cards that work extra well with your planeswalkers and your commander are the Oaths, like Oath of Jace and Oath of Liliana, and The Chain Veil. Spark Double is a Clone variant for planeswalkers, and Deepglow Skate doubles the counters on your planeswalkers already in the battlefield, allowing for some powerful ultimates.

Commanding Conclusion

Alela, Artful Provocateur | Illustration by Grzegorz Rutkowski

There you have it, a solid rundown of the top Esper commanders. I’m a little surprised there were so many viable high-power commanders for a single color combination, but I’ll take it.

What did you think of these rankings? Would you change any around, or possibly remove any altogether? Let me know in the comments down below, or over in the official Draftsim Discord.

Esper not your preferred color trio? Check these out: Abzan, Bant, Grixis, Jeskai, Jund, Mardu, Naya, Sultai, Temur.

Until next time, stay safe and stay healthy!