Surge in Legendary Support Pushes Handful of Cards to New Heights

Last updated on July 6, 2026

Sisay, Weatherlight Captain | Illustration by Anna Steinbauer

Modern Magic design has fully embraced Universes Beyond and cares deeply about designing for Commander. A side effect of this is a major increase in the number of legendary cards being printed, a point made by Marvel Super Heroes having more legends than any set by a wide margin.

The legendary card type was introduced in Legends to emphasize characters, relics, and locations of unique importance to lore, so it’s not surprising to see it used so broadly—it would be stranger to see Captain America be a regular human.

But the super type does more than provide flavor; it has genuine gameplay implications as some cards care about legendary permanents. These cards can only get better as more legends are printed—here are some of the biggest winners.

Plaza of Heroes

Plaza of Heroes always had potential in Commander because 99% of decks have a minimum of one legendary creature worth giving hexproof and indestructible. It didn’t reach staple status because not every deck could run a land that mostly tapped for colorless mana. But every time you can cut Selfless Spirit for Boromir, Warden of the Tower or make other, similar swaps, the card improves just a little more.

Relic of Legends

Relic of Legends, and its lesser cousin Honor-Worn Shaku, similarly improve as the critical mass of legendary creatures expands. Three-mana rocks don’t need to do too much more than tap for more than 1 mana to be relevant; Relic of Legends generally taps for 2 if you aren’t attacking with your commander, and easily taps for 3-4 a turn.

Legendary Support

I often find Hajar, Loyal Bodyguard slipping into random decks as I realize most of the creatures are legendary. Sometimes a legendary subtheme comes about by accident; you build Naya counters, then realize your distribution (Bristly Bill, Spine Sower), counter doublers (Pir, Imaginative Rascal, Michelangelo, Weirdness to 11), and payoffs (Shalai and Hallar, Kodama of the West Tree) all happen to be legendary. It happens more often than you'd think.

Jodah, the Unifier

Looking towards commanders, Jodah, the Unifier benefits handsomely from the twin forces of Universes Beyond and power creep. Every time we get a simple utility effect stapled to a creature—say, Jennifer Walters subbing in for Grand Abolisher—Jodah becomes more well-rounded because it doesn’t need to compromise on protection or another legend.

Power creep and legendary synergies are also somewhat intertwined. Wizards can use the legend rule as a balancing mechanism to make a creature stronger than would be acceptable if a player could control multiple copies of it. \

Take Thalia, Guardian of Thraben: A cheap first strike creature with a tax would be back-breaking in multiples. But one? One is threatening but manageable. Designing for Commander further compounds this. With three opponents at 40 life each, cards need to be very impactful for their mana costs; pushing cards to reach this point often breaks them. Nadu, Winged Wisdom was explicitly pushed for Commander, which led to bans in multiple formats. Including Commander. While Nadu is an extreme outlier, it’s not the only card to get juiced up. The more of these Jodah gets, the stronger it becomes.

Sisay, Weatherlight Captain

The biggest winner as far as legendary commanders go, is Sisay, Weatherlight Captain because its tutor gets a deep, powerful toolbox to draw on (this applies equally to other legendary tutors like Hour of Need, The Seriema, and Captain Sisay) .

Toolbox decks work by drawing on silver bullets to answer specific matchups or threats. At this point, there’s basically a legend for everything. Do you need a Torpor Orb? Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines has you covered. Ertai Resurrected operates as a counterspell, stifle effect, and removal spell at once. You can ditch Reclamation Sage for Loran of the Third Path, Charcoal Diamond for The Soul Stone, Anointed Procession for Mondrak, Glory Dominus.

So long as every set prints new legendary permanents, there will less and less reason to run non-legendary versions and cards like Sisay, Weatherlight Captain or anything else that cares about legendary permanents grow stronger.