The 24 Best Mutant Commanders in Magic Ranked

The Master, Transcendent | Illustration by Javier Charro

Mutants have been at the center of pulp fiction, from B movies to comic books, since we entered the nuclear age. There’s plenty of other ways to make mutants besides a dose of radiation, and once we unlocked the nuclear genie, those started to hit our imaginations, as well.

The X-Men obviously blew the doors off the idea of what limits we could have on mutations, but Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles clamped down a bit on the variety and leaned into a few of our small ooze-bedazzled creatures and their continuing adventures.

Do Donatello and his crew make the cut? Let’s see!

What Are Mutant Commanders in MTG?

Experiment Kraj | Illustration by Mark Tedin

Mutant commanders are legendary creatures that are mutants themselves. There are non-mutant creatures who support the mutant creature type, but those won’t show up on the list proper.

There are just about a hundred of these, but we can easily winnow down to just over 20.

To me, my X-Men!

Honorable Mention: Jenova, Ancient Calamity

Jenova, Ancient Calamity is a card draw engine that makes it own mutants, which honestly feels like a flavor win in the mutant idea space. It’s probably just fine on its own in a black/green +1/+1 counters deck with counter houses like Ouroboroid and Hardened Scales effects, but a few good mutants don’t go amiss, specifically Evolution Witness, Feral Ghoul, or Rampaging Yao Guai.

#24. Mikey & Don, Party Planners

I just think spewing a bunch of cool Simic () mutants off the top is cool. No one is going to take Mikey & Don, Party Planners seriously at first, and it’s going to only take one turn to get a bunch of stuff out with them inviting the whole mutant crew. There’s almost a hundred Simic mutants, and adding the other types just gives you a lot of deckbuilding fun. Is it good enough? Too many Heroic Intervention effects slows the roll but are likely needed to win. I’ll try it and see if I can eke out a surprise victory. That’s the way I like to play casual Commander!

#23. Heroes in a Half Shell

More exciting than good, we suggested swapping this out of its own precon for another commander! When Heroes in a Half Shell pops off, it’s going to be huge, but I just feel like by then the game is usually over, so I’m not a buyer.

#22. Marcus, Mutant Mayor

Simic Hardened Scales? Sure. I’ve tried Marcus, Mutant Mayor, and it slaps against people who aren’t prepared for decks that go wide and tall. But most tables have at least one person just waiting for you to empty your hand to play that one card they’ve been saving for a while….

#21. Super Shredder

This is a meme, yes, but if you slap a Whispersilk Cloak on Super Shredder and drop a Massacre Girl on a crowded board, I mean, that’s just old old-fashioned Hulkamania runnin’ wild!

#20. Dark Leo & Shredder

Likely Dark Leo & Shredder is better sneaking out of your hand in the 99, as there’s no “commander sneak” out of the command zone like Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow has. That said, white has a lot of Whitemane Lion type cards that bounce things back to hand, and the trigger on here for Orzhov () ninjas is pretty nice, especially if this deck is full of cheap creatures and Blood Artist effects. It’s a bit messy to squeeze that all into one deck, but if you can also find a way to companion Lurrus of the Dream-Den, well, I mean, there’s worse ideas!

#19. The Ghoul, Gunslinger

Mono-black zombies isn’t good enough to play The Ghoul, Gunslinger. But there are some cool new cheap mutants like Splinter, the Mentor, and some almost-there older mutants like Hancock, Ghoulish Mayor. Black zombies are good at tokens, making ninjutsu a little easier. I could be convinced.

#18. Raphael, Ninja Destroyer

I think Raphael, Ninja Destroyer is going to supplant a lot of other damage-based red commanders like Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might, Imodane, the Pyrohammer, Solphim, Mayhem Dominus, and the classic in this space, Torbran, Thane of Red Fell. The reason is that the mana that Raph can generate is far more potent than the likes of Ashling, Flame Dancer, which crawled up that list of damage commanders for that reason. For these decks to work, you’ve got to plow through the cards in your deck, and you need mana to do that. I think this is a significant improvement in the archetype.

#17. Agent Frank Horrigan

A good beater that wants more cards with infect or toxic like Venerated Rotpriest or Ichor Rats than mutants, an Agent Frank Horrigan deck is filled with ramp, protection for Frankie, and cards that trigger your table-mates, who might not immediately suspect Frank is here for the poison counters.

#16. Namor the Sub-Mariner

At the time of writing this has been very recently previewed, and it likely is the crest of a wave of mutants in the Marvel sets, but Namor the Sub-Mariner gives me strong Talrand, Sky Summoner vibes, except we don’t fly. Packed with counterspells, this deck gets Namor out earlier than the Talrand deck, which is key as the power and speed of Commander keeps on creeping upwards. I’m not sure this kind of blue deck can survive the hate of the whole table that it can generate, especially with newer players who hate counterspells, but you already have the blue instants, so maybe dive in?

#15. Leonardo, the Balance + Michelangelo, the Heart

Our preferred commanders for upgrading the Turtle Power! Precon, Leonardo, the Balance and Michelangelo, the Heart are the best pairing of the turtles with the “Partner—Character select” ability. If you can keep both on the battlefield for a bit, you really start to power up your go wide tokens. With base colors of green and white, you can always pop in Selesnya () tokens legends you like, say Trostani, Selesnya's Voice, or even some Food token support like Samwise Gamgee.

The best part is that you can use the five colors on Leo to shift the deck to whatever other color spots you want, so Baylen, the Haymaker, Caesar, Legion's Emperor, or even Marneus Calgar, and you can put enough IPs into the deck to become the nightmare of that boomer at your LGS who tells people that Lorwyn Eclipsed is the only “real” Magic set since I don’t know when.

#14. Donatello, Gadget Master

I’m here for mono-blue Donatello, Gadget Master affinity! This is going to be a deck with a lot of variability, but having the ability to copy artifacts in the command zone in a color that gives you access to Aqueous Form effects while you also run things like Whispersilk Cloak gives you a decent chance to copy something insane before they suspect it, especially if you Whir of Invention or Scour for Scrap before the damage step.

#13. Red Death, Shipwrecker

Not the best goad commander, Red Death, Shipwrecker still does quite a bit for you. Mana rocks in the command zone are cool, and the ability to goad things as needed is good disruption until you find what you’re looking for to win.

#12. Indoraptor, the Perfect Hybrid

So are you going full nonsense with Indoraptor, the Perfect Hybrid and things like Pestilence and Pyrohemia? Probably. Otherwise, why do we need a (checks notes) Jund () burn commander?

I know, this is your chance to sleeve up Polyraptor and the other Ixalan block dinos that you want to ping to make them angry!

Yeah, okay, can’t fault you for wanting to do that. No notes. Let’s move on.

#11. Experiment Kraj

Experiment Kraj is a classic by now. Go bonkers with counters and ramp until you can counter up something like Simic Ascendancy and win! “Love” those old school commanders!

#10. Donatello, the Brains + Splinter, the Mentor

We leave Raphael, the Muscle out of the “Partner—Character select” game, but that’s because it’s the worst at synergizing with the others. Maybe on theme, that?

Pairing Donatello, the Brains with Splinter, the Mentor I think immediately makes the best Dimir () artifacts deck at a casual level.

Look, that’s not saying much, but a blizzard of Mutagen tokens has to be better than the slow Golbez, Crystal Collector version of the cEDH Silas Renn, Seeker Adept plus Armix, Filigree Thrasher deck, which does different things. I think affinity is interesting here, as is a Disciple of the Vault, Mirkwood Bats kind of thing.

#9. Indominus Rex, Alpha

Keyword soup cards with Living Death effects? Okay, I’m down for that, especially because a lot of the cards you want for this deck don’t have another good home but are fun to play, like Questing Beast, and also some old favorites that would just rot in my storage boxes, like Gurmag Angler (boomers take note!).

While you’re into the Indominus Rex, Alpha’s Deadpool-like identity theft plan, a lot of the cards you want are relatively cheap and impactful, like Baleful Strix, so you might even live long enough to do the thing.

#8. The Master, Transcendent

The Master, Transcendent is nice little mill engine. It doesn’t really need mutants in the deck, as it’s a bit like Jenova, Ancient Calamity because it makes its own. It likes cards like Syr Konrad, the Grim, Colossal Grave-Reaver, and Teval, the Balanced Scale, and it tends toward Sultai () recursion soup. But in a good way!

#7. Wolverine, Best There Is

Trample, Ram Through things, and fight spells? Berserk your way to an alpha strike? Plus regeneration as an activated ability is always annoying for opponents. Wolverine, Best There Is isn’t quite that, but it’s a fun card to try to make work.

#6. Splinter, Radical Rat

Of course, the ninja to beat is the obnoxious Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow. But if you want to play ninjas while taking down the temp at the table, you could do a lot worse than the also powerful Splinter, Radical Rat. Doubling triggers is always good. Esper () Splinter is also your best bet to use white cards in a ninjas deck, including new cards like Karai, Future of the Foot, Leonardo, Sewer Samurai, Don & Leo, Problem Solvers, Turncoat Kunoichi, and Prehistoric Pet, while still playing your Dimir cards. Also, access to white gives you cheap removal if you want, but also more blink effects, including mass blink like Brago, King Eternal and Eerie Interlude, which plays nicely with a lot of the new ninja cards with ETBs.

#5. Kuja, Genome Sorcerer / Trance Kuja, Fate Defied

So, yeah, Coruscation Mage gone wild. Kuja, Genome Sorcerer seems a bit like a trap to me, but it’s sure a popular thing to try. Would I want to swap Judith, Carnage Connoisseur out of the command zone of my try-hard Rakdos () burn deck for this? I just don’t think so! It feels too slow to sit and make a wizard every turn. If the aim is just to flip it fast, okay, I guess, but that seems pretty fragile, notwithstanding the kind of wizards you’re packing to do that, like Dualcaster Mage. If I can keep Kuja flipped and on the field, that’s better than Judith. So if I’m wrong and that’s feasible, this may decent.

#4. The Wise Mothman

I love, love, love my The Wise Mothman deck, and not just because I’m a Fallout fanatic. The Mothman deck is super fun to play. It blows through tons of cards, fast enough that usually you can even recover from graveyard hate since you can refill so fast (just pack enchantment removal for Rest in Peace). You can pack in Thassa's Oracle wincons if you like, but I find it’s a great shell for other Sultai wincons that are easier to find while you play a control game. I play this when I want combo style finishes in decks that can avoid infinite combos and tutors to avoid getting up into Bracket 4.

#3. Sliver Overlord

The classic slivers commander still has what it takes. Whether you sleeve up Sliver Overlord or the (maybe) better The First Sliver is largely a matter of taste. But both can generate the kind of insane board states you expect from a slivers player.

#2. Storm, Force of Nature

I know Storm, Force of Nature has an attack trigger, but storm is storm is storm. Temur () is awkward, but I imagine this as an Izzet () spellslinger/control deck that also has some green. People are brewing this as bonkers, basically Vintage Cube style combo decks, so I imagine this could be a scary, if slightly glass cannon deck.

#1. Deadpool, Trading Card

There are folks insisting this is a cEDH deck. Could be. Blanking the text on a cEDH commander can really shift a deck off its inevitability. Deadpool, Trading Card is a deck filled with control and nonsense and obnoxiousness, which sounds on flavor. Not a lot of mutants in the deck, but this is best mutant to sleeve up as a commander, if you can get your hands on one, and like the play style that makes you the table target.

Commanding Conclusion

Agent Frank Horrigan | Illustration by Wisnu Tan

The best mutants on this list are wacky good, but there are very few great mutant commanders that play in the mutant typal lord space. That’s likely because the idea of what a mutant is has become a stomping ground for massive creativity, leading to designs that are all over the place in terms of concept and execution.

There are a ton of fun cards on this list, though, and some really interesting commanders to try out. Let us know if we missed a fave in the comments or on the Draftsim Discord, and see you at FNM!

Happy brewing!