The 72 Best Legendary Payoff Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on April 29, 2024

Delighted Halfling | Illustration by Livia Prima

The secret’s out: Commander is the primary driving force in modern Magic design. The Great Legendary Explosion of the 2010’s paved the way for countless new legendaries to enter the card pool. Creatures, planeswalkers, sorceries. Legendary status is a core feature of Commander, but why limit yourself to just one legend?

Today isn’t just about the epic tale of a single legendary character. No, we’re exploring an anthology of legends, outlining the payoffs that encourage you to cram as many legends into one deck as possible. If you think there are too many legends being printed, wait until you see how many payoffs there are.

What Are Legendary Payoff Cards in MTG?

Otawara, Soaring City | Illustration by Alayna Danner

Legendary payoffs either offer some benefit to your legendary cards or reward you for prioritizing legends over non-legends. The payoff might be cost reduction, easy tutoring, a pushed anthem effect, or a number of other benefits. These are the answers to the question “why add more legendary cards to my deck?”

Some legendary payoffs scale with the number of legends you have, while others simply need one legend to function. Since your commander is usually a legendary creature, most of these cards already have inherent synergy in your deck. However, some payoffs ask you to commit to the theme and play as many legendary spells as possible.

Legends are a hot commodity in modern Magic design, so there’s no shortage of payoffs.

#72. Animist’s Might

Animist's Might is a “bite” that almost always kills its target. Instants reign supreme in Commander, but this shines in the sorcery-speed removal department. It’s best paired with “heroic” commanders like Gargos, Vicious Watcher and Blanka, Ferocious Friend.

#71. Tyrite Sanctum

Why stop at legendary status when you can be an actual god? Tyrite Sanctum is fine if you can squeeze it into your mana base, but don’t hurt your color requirements for it.

#70. Gold-Forged Thopteryx

Ward is annoying enough to mention Gold-Forged Thopteryx. Its best home is an artifact-themed deck, but the protection it provides is completely generic.

#69. Thalia’s Lancers

This is about as basic as it gets. Thalia's Lancers is respectable on board that lets you grab something useful from your deck. Nothing flashy, nothing bad.

#68. Time of Need

Ok, this is as basic as it gets. The biggest thing holding back Time of Need is the existence of better tutors. It’s a placeholder if you don’t own Demonic Tutor or Worldly Tutor.

#67. Arvad the Cursed

+2/+2 is enough to swing combat in EDH. Unfortunately Arvad the Cursed is cursed to have a frail 5-mana body. It adds to your legend count if you’re going for quantity, but you’ll be better served by something more resilient, like Dictate of Heliod.

#66. Merry, Esquire of Rohan

Merry, Esquire of Rohan is the simplest of legendary payoffs. An extra card on a good attack is a small but welcome bit of value.

#65. Mirror Box

Mirror Box is a more palatable take on Mirror Gallery, though it’s not really intended for Commander. It’s an anthem for legends, but it begs to be built around cards like Rat Colony or Seven Dwarves.

#64. Avacyn’s Memorial

Remember Avacyn, Angel of Hope? Some of Avacyn’s original splendor was lost in translation, since Avacyn's Memorial only affects legendary permanents. OG Avacyn’s price tag might make this a desirable alternative.

#63. General’s Enforcer

Oh, the humanity. General's Enforcer is limited to legendary humans, but those are plentiful. You can keep it in the family with General Kudro of Drannith or Jirina Kudro.

#62. Untaidake, the Cloud Keeper

Imagine a tapped Ancient Tomb that’s restricted to legendary spells. That’s Untaidake, the Cloud Keeper. It demands dedication to the theme, and it can backfire if you’re not all in.

#61. Mirror of Galadriel

Mirror of Galadriel needs to cost between 0-1 mana to activate before it’s worth a slot in your deck. It feels a bit win-more, since activating this on the cheap means you already have a board full of legendary creatures, and you’re probably in a great spot already if that’s the case.

#60. Olivia, Crimson Bride

Olivia, Crimson Bride works perfectly fine without other legends, but it incentivizes you to play a few extras. Olivia’s reanimation persists as long as you control any legendary vampire, so you can keep your precious bloodsuckers when the bride lies down to rest.

#59. Mobilized District

Mobilized District costs less to animate the more legends you control, and the activation cost can even reach zero. I like that this gets cheaper with planeswalkers on board since it’s decent at protecting them.

#58. Lychguard

Lychguard’s ability is expensive but useful. At this cost you’re usually better off casting Living Death, but sometimes you want the cards in your hand instead.

#57. Robaran Mercenaries

If you’re running legends with good activated abilities, Robaran Mercenaries can double the fun. Captain Sisay comes to mind, and you can do some funny things with planeswalkers that become creatures.

#56. Jedit Ojanen, Mercenary

Strange to see a card that spits out forestwalkers, but I guess Jedit Ojanen, Mercenary pays homage to the other Jedit Ojanens in Magic. Bant () legends is interesting territory, even if this payoff isn’t spectacular.

#55. Loran, Disciple of History

Loran, Disciple of History cross-pollinates artifacts and legendary creatures. That archetype has some representation with commanders like Alibou, Ancient Witness and Losheel, Clockwork Scholar.

#54. Kolvori, God of Kinship / The Ringhart Crest

Kolvori, God of Kinship has decent stats on a board of legends, digs for legendaries from your library, and can be cast as The Ringhart Crest for ramp if needed. A fine package of options that’s ultimately just medium.

#53. Great Hall of the Citadel

Throw “legendary” on a card and people go nuts. Great Hall of the Citadel is much tamer than initial reactions would have you believe. The fixing is fine, even in a legends matter deck. It excels in 5-color legendary decks, but those decks already have great fixing, so I don’t see this land doing anything revolutionary.

#52. Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful

Who’s a good boy? Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful, that’s who! You can partner this woofer with whomever you please to good results. It’s great at enabling Mox Amber early, and it’s a 1-mana target to cascade into with Jodah, the Unifier. Sorry, a 1-mana target to fetch.

#51. Hero’s Blade

You can ignore the equip cost on Hero's Blade since you’re intending to auto-equip it anyway. Nothing amazing, but it’s justifiable in Voltron decks or decks that care about high-power creatures.

#50. Nasty End

Legends never die. Unless you sacrifice them. Also, that statement’s patently false in Magic anyway. Nasty End has competition with Village Rites and Deadly Dispute, but it’s an easy draw-3 with commanders that want to die. It pairs well with recursive legendary tokens, like the Cherubael token created by Inquisitor Eisenhorn.

#49. Hero’s Heirloom

The closest comparison to Hero's Heirloom is Sword of Vengeance. Stick with Sword if you intend to equip up any old dork, but try out Heirloom if you’re suiting up your commander.

#48. Ioreth of the Healing House

Creating a copy of Ioreth of the Healing House with something like Irenicus's Vile Duplication creates a loop that lets you untap a third legend in the process. That could be Arcanis the Omnipotent to draw your deck or Merieke Ri Berit to destroy all your opponents’ creatures.

#47. The Circle of Loyalty

The Circle of Loyalty squeezes in some legendary text on what would otherwise be a strict knight payoff. It’s also legendary, so it helps tie the whole theme together.

#46. Faramir, Steward of Gondor

Introducing The Monarch is dangerous unless you have ways to guarantee getting the crown back. The token payoff on Faramir, Steward of Gondor doesn’t seem great, but remember you’re also getting the secret payoff of securing The Monarch for yourself.

#45. Minamo, School at Water’s Edge

Minamo, School at Water's Edge is worth running alongside legends with tap abilities. It doesn’t disrupt your mana base and pairs well with creatures like Grimgrin, Corpse-Born and Alaundo the Seer.

#44. Niambi, Esteemed Speaker

Niambi, Esteemed Speaker puts a legendary spin on Whitemane Lion with bonus incidental lifegain. The activated ability isn’t the focus, but it’s a nice touch.

#43. Confession Dial

Getting escape and letting you replay your legendary creature with the tap of an artifact makes a lot of cards on this list even better. Early in the game, this will be tough to use, but in the late game, and even if you’re behind, the Confession Dial offers a second chance for your key legendary creature.

#42. The Peregrine Dynamo

The Peregrine Dynamo shaves a mana off the activation of Strionic Resonator and works with activated abilities, but it only interacts with legends. I’m not sure why it doesn’t work with commanders, but there are plenty of other targets to choose from.

#41. Loyal Retainers

You could just cast Animate Dead, but can I interest you in Loyal Retainers instead? I’ve got to mention the ridiculous price tag, but if you already own a copy, why not build an entire legends matter deck to justify it?

#40. Hajar, Loyal Bodyguard

Hajar, Loyal Bodyguard shines in Gruul () legends, an archetype almost entirely centered around Bard Class. It’s a natural fit for Hajar, who gives the deck some built-in protection.

#39. Patriar’s Seal

Ditto what I said about Minamo, School at Water's Edge. If your commander cares about tapping, you probably care about Patriar's Seal.

#38. Flowering of the White Tree

Funny story. I had entries written about Konda's Banner and Day of Destiny, then Flowering of the White Tree came up. Assuming the price tag’s not outrageous, grab this instead. The buff-to-cost ratio is one of the best we’ve ever seen.

#37. Éomer, Marshal of Rohan

Éomer, Marshal of Rohan enables extra combats but requires set-up. Your opponents are incentivized to kill Éomer, but doing so during combat procs its ability, so it will likely go unblocked. You can copy Éomer mid-combat with Flamerush Rider and use the legend rule to force the trigger.

#36. Djeru and Hazoret

The Djeru and Hazoret mashup combines the designs of Djeru, With Eyes Open and Hazoret the Fervent to make a beater that sometimes freerolls another legend into play. Sadly, Hazoret lost indestructible, so the overall package trades out resilience for explosive potential.

#35. Champion’s Helm

Champion's Helm offers great protection for your commander, but with only two printings it’s a bit pricey for what it does. Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots are fine stand-ins (get it, shoes?), and Commander's Plate is much stronger at roughly the same price.

#34. Plaza of Heroes

Plaza of Heroes is good mana-fixing for legend-heavy multicolor decks, but it’s not exciting in mono-color or even 2-color decks. That last ability is highly telegraphed and effectively costs four mana, but it can make it difficult for opponents to interact with your legends.

#33. Goryo’s Vengeance

I love Goryo's Vengeance in “big dumb creature” decks. I’m thinking dragon/demon decks, where many of your heavy hitters happen to be legendary. It’s also one of the few cards where “splice onto arcane” will ever happen since it can be spliced onto Kodama's Reach.

#32. The Kenriths’ Royal Funeral

RIP Kenriths, so much for Happily Ever After. The Kenriths' Royal Funeral takes some setup but rewards you royally. It usually refills your hand while sticking around to reduce the cost of your other legends. The trick is finding the highest mana value legend to ditch to your graveyard.

#31. CHK Legendary Lands

• Boseiju, Who Shelters All
• Eiganjo Castle
• Hall of the Bandit Lord
• Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
• Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
• Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• Untaidake, the Cloud Keeper

The Champions of Kamigawa legendary lands have virtually no downside in Commander, as long as you dodge non-basic hate. They’re not game-warping, with the exception of maybe Shizo, Death's Storehouse, but they interact favorably with cards that count legendary permanents. As a rule of thumb, you should consider these when they have natural synergies with your commander.

#30. The Night of the Doctor

This board wipe has such a powerful sequence of plays, The Night of the Doctor is bound to win a few Commander games in short order. Remember to respect vigilance, it’s much stronger when you have two or more opponents.

#29. One Ring to Rule Them All

With a majority of legendary creatures, One Ring to Rule Them All should leave you ahead on board post-wrath, even if it doesn’t catch everything your opponents control. It’s a similar design to Phyrexian Scriptures, though I’d want the Ring-bearer text to matter before I sleeve this up.

#28. Invasion of Fiora / Marchesa, Resolute Monarch

Invasion of Fiora breaks parity on a sweeper in dedicated legendary decks. You can’t expect it to fully Plague Wind your opponents, but it can sweep up utility creatures. Or you can just cast it as a 6-mana Damnation. Marchesa, Resolute Monarch is cool too, sporting a Standard-friendly version of The Monarch.

#27. Heroes’ Podium

Heroes' Podium was a complete dud in Limited, but Commander gave it a much-needed home. The casting cost pushes it down the list, but it can be quite impactful. It’s a mana sink that helps find other legends and sometimes operates like an Overrun for your best creatures.

#26. Moira and Teshar

“Historic” includes legendaries, which makes Moira and Teshar a viable commander for a legendary reanimator deck. Remember what I said about Goryo's Vengeance? Yup, it slots right in here.

#25. Doric, Nature's Warden / Doric, Owlbear Avenger

No disrespect to Doric, Nature's Warden, but we’re here to talk about Doric, Owlbear Avenger. It’s basically Colossal Dreadmaw and Arvad the Cursed all in one. I can’t figure out why the back half has vigilance since it doesn’t really attack on that side. Extra combats, perhaps?

#24. Mithril Coat

Darksteel Plate has never looked better. Flash makes Mithril Coat a strict upgrade to this classic even without the legendary text, which makes it even better. Can’t be too mad about the power creep here; Darksteel Plate had its time in the spotlight.

#23. Shanid, Sleepers’ Scourge

Don’t sleep on Shanid, Sleepers' Scourge. It’s a menace lord for your legends, but more importantly, draws additional cards as you play them. The real draw is that Shanid triggers off playing legendary lands, providing card advantage for very little opportunity cost.

#22. Cadric, Soul Kindler

Cadric, Soul Kindler incorporates the Mirror Gallery ability for tokens. Cadric’s ability maintains legend status for any token copies you control, so they benefit from your other legends matter cards. Adding the Flameshadow Conjuring effect for legends should kindle your imagination.

#21. Dihada, Binder of Wills

Dihada, Binder of Wills can buff a legend or dig for some with its -3, while threatening a super-charged Insurrection at -11. It’s a great planeswalker that plays to the board, fills your graveyard, ramps, and draws cards. Pair with Luxior, Giada's Gift to start targeting Dihada with its own +2 ability.

#20. Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain

Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain is usually built to chain together cheap artifacts for card draw. Nothing’s stopping you from making a legendary-focused version since legends are indeed historic.

#19. Honor-Worn Shaku

I don’t know what a shaku is but I’m here for Honor-Worn Shaku. It’s a mana rock that turns your legendary permanents into mana in a roundabout way. It got a huge boost with the planeswalker update in Ixalan. Planeswalkers were errata’d into legendary permanents, which means they can be tapped to generate mana with Shaku.

#18. Blackblade Reforged

“Equip legendary creature” has only ever appeared on Blackblade Reforged. Targeting a legend cuts the equip cost down by more than half, which is a close approximation of what happens to an opponent’s life total when they take a hit from the equipped creature.

#17. Éowyn, Fearless Knight

Éowyn, Fearless Knight straight-up eats a threat on ETB. It’s not a Banisher Priest either; that creature’s gone for good. Your legends even get some protection for the turn, leaving at least one opponent’s defenses in shambles.

#16. Nashi, Moon’s Legacy

I originally misread Nashi, Moon's Legacy, thinking it let you cast its copies for free. That would be incredibly broken, but one can dream. Nashi’s just a great value creature with the stats and keywords to push through an attack. Whether you go full-on legends or take the rat route is up to you.

#15. Kethis, the Hidden Hand

Kethis, the Hidden Hand must have a third hand, because the other two are in clear sight. It’s an open-ended legendary build-around, providing cost reduction and recursion. You can reanimate legendary value creatures or go for a casual Mindslaver lock. I can’t judge if you tell me not to.

#14. The Ring Goes South

The Ring Goes South is top-tier ramp in legend-themed decks. You need to get on board early with cheap legends, after which this becomes one of the best Explosive Vegetation variants out there. Remember that ring-bearers become legendary, so you can recruit a non-legendary creature to add to the count.

#13. Captain Sisay

All aboard the Weatherlight, this is your Captain Sisay speaking. We’ll be experiencing some turbulence because it’s raining legends!

Alright, the gig’s up. Sisay tutors legends, which is code for “kill on sight or face the consequence.” It only gets better with time as more legends enter the card pool. It’s a great toolbox commander that can fetch wraths (Urza's Ruinous Blast, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon), finishers (Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite) or silver-bullet legends (Arashi, the Sky Asunder, Yasharn, Implacable Earth).

#12. Reki, the History of Kamigawa

Kamigawa has such a rich flavor and history. Just ask Reki, the History of Kamigawa. Or read about it in our breakdown of the Kamigawa story. Simplicity is divine, and the card draw Reki provides is the sweetest form of divinity.

#11. Bard Class

Say what you will about Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, the class enchantments are excellent cards. Bard Class gives you a small bonus on Level 1, but Level 2 nets you a Ragemonger for legends. It ends up paying for itself in the long run, and Level 3 lets you start chaining spells together.

#10. Ratadrabik of Urborg

If token-making were an Olympic sport, Ratadrabik of Urborg would take home gold. As fantastidrabik as it is, it’s annoying to track multiple different zombie tokens at once. That’s a clerical annoyance though, and the card provides powerful pseudo-recursion.

#9. NEO Channel Lands

• Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• Otawara, Soaring City
• Boseiju, Who Endures

The NEO Channel lands are all great by virtue of how free they are to slot into Commander decks. I’m comfortable lumping them together since the “legends matter” part of these lands is more of an afterthought. It’s bonus text on an already fantastic cycle of cards, but it’s not a driving force behind why they’re so good.

#8. Legendary Instants and Sorceries

Since we’re lumping cards together let’s talk about legendary instants and sorceries. Cards like Urza's Ruinous Blast and Karn's Temporal Sundering are powerful but require a legendary creature or planeswalker on board to cast. They’re all good to great and reward you for having a high legendary count.

#7. Gandalf the White

I’ve always been keen on Thran Temporal Gateway as a way to “flash” in legendary creatures, but Gandalf the White puts it to shame. You can’t cheat out expensive cards, but Gandalf adds some super-charged Panharmonicon action to your deck and at minimum gives your commander flash.

#6. Esika, God of the Tree / The Prismatic Bridge

It’s kind of a lie to call Esika, God of the Tree a legends matter card. Yes, the front half turns your legends into mana dorks, but no one ever casts Esika. It’s all about The Prismatic Bridge folks, which is phenomenal, but has nothing to do with legends at all.

#5. Sisay, Weatherlight Captain

O Captain! My Captain! Sorry Captain Sisay, Sisay, Weatherlight Captain is the superior Cap’n. It’s regularly a 3-mana 7/7 with repeatable, instant-speed tutoring, and it opens your deck up to all the usual 5-color shenanigans.

#4. Delighted Halfling

As a casual player, I imagine Delighted Halfling is the best 1-drop mana dork for cEDH, right? It ramps into an uncounterable commander and sticks around to force other legends through countermagic. Take that, blue player!

#3. Relic of Legends

Relic of Legends looked Honor-Worn Shaku in the… uh, shaku, and asked: “What if you made colored mana instead?” You can’t do the planeswalker-mana trick, but you don’t need to. Relic is just great in normal decks, let alone ones where nearly every creature is legendary.

#2. Mox Amber

It’s hyperbole to compare Mox Amber to the original Moxen apples to apples, but it deserves high praise. It pairs well with cheap commanders and artifact legends like Sai, Master Thopterist. It’s also a “cheerio” that facilitates easy loops, like the Displacer Kitten + Teferi, Time Raveler combo.

#1. Jodah, the Unifier

Jodah, the Unifier boasts a “legendary cascade” ability and provides an improved Heroes' Podium buff. This is on my “kill-on-sight” list; once the cascades start rolling, it’s hard to stop.

Legen—wait for it—dary!

Mox Amber | Illustration by Steven Belledin

Wow, what a list. It’s not shocking given how often we see legendary creatures in modern Magic. The explosive popularity of Commander top-down sets full of real-world analogs, and multiple sets with “legends matter” themes have all contributed to a card pool absolutely flooded with legends, and that means just as many payoffs. As the proud owner of a Captain Sisay stax deck, I’m fine with this trend.

I wrote this while looking at previews for the next set which always has interesting legendaries, so hopefully nothing important slipped through. Did I miss any crucial legends matter payoffs? What are your favorites, and who are the legends behind the scenes making it happen? Let me know in the comments below or over in the Draftsim Discord.

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