Last updated on April 19, 2024
Okaun, Eye of Chaos | Illustration by Alexis Ziritt
It was an exciting day back in 2016 when Wizards legitimized the “two commanders” concept and gave us our first peak at commanders with the partner mechanic. This was widely seen as a mistake, and since then WotC has been much more careful when printing partner commanders, instead focusing lately on cards that can only be “Partners With” one other specific creature.
While the Partners With commanders limit the overall variety of deck building, they can still pack a wallop and lead to some interesting play patterns. Today, we’re taking a look at all “Partners With” legendary pairs to see which are the best!
What Are Partner With Commanders?
Krav, the Unredeemed | Illustration by Randy Vargas
“Partner With” commanders are any of the legendary creatures that “partner with” one specific other creature. They’re notably different from commanders with plain old “partner,” which allows them to team up with any other card with partner in your command zone.
Partner With legends can be included in the 99 of your Commander deck, in which case they act just like normal partner with cards, allowing you to search up their partner card and add it to your hand.
Notably, partner with commanders are different from the new Doctor Who doctor’s companion cards, which can be partnered with any of the doctor-type legends from that Magic expansion, instead of one other specific creature.
I’m ranking the partner with commanders both by how useful they are alone, and how powerful they become when combined.
#18. Blue, Loyal Raptor + Owen Grady, Raptor Trainer
The newest partner commanders, Blue, Loyal Raptor and Owen Grady, Raptor Trainer are a pair of Jurassic World creatures that combine into a Temur commander pair built around dinosaurs. Owen Grady taps to put one of four ability counters on a dinosaur, and Blue makes other dinos you control enter with the same counters that it has. Their 3- and 4-mana costs make them a great play into one another; dropping Owen one turn, then following up with Blue and putting a haste counter on it is a pretty good one-two punch.
Menace, trample, reach, and haste are fine mechanics to pass out to dinosaurs. Though many of the best already have trample, putting haste on every creature you play from that moment on can really crank up the heat on your opponents.
Owen and Blue aren’t really playable without the other present. By itself, Owen Grady operates like a Viashino Lashclaw and Blue is just a 5/4 for 4 mana.
#17. Khorvath Brightflame + Sylvia Brightspear
Khorvath Brightflame and Sylvia Brightspear are a dragon and a knight that give knight creatures flying and haste and give dragon creatures double strike, respectively. They’re meant to lead the combined charge of a knights and dragons typal deck. There aren’t many other commander pairings out there that can run a typal deck for two different creature types simultaneously, making Khorvath and Sylvia unique in that regard.
Sadly, we don’t see many two-type-typal decks because it's kind of difficult to balance them out. Let me put it this way: If you built a Marwyn, the Nurturer elves deck, every non-elf creature you draw would feel like dead weight in your hand. Now, try to fight that variability when the deck is split down the middle. There seems like there’d be too many instances of having Sylvia Brightspear on the field and a hand of knights, or Khorvath Brightflame on the field with a field full of dragons (that's rarely a bad thing, but I think I’ve made my point).
On the other hand, restriction breeds creativity. Finding that balance between knight and dragon cards could be part of the fun for building these two!
#16. Kamber, the Plunderer + Laurine, the Diversion
Crimson Vow’s Commander decks featured the partners Kamber, the Plunderer and Laurine, the Diversion. This pair of rogues work together as a Rakdos commander to goad your opponents’ creatures into unfavorable attacks while gaining life and generating Blood tokens whenever they die.
Laurine and Kamber are just alright. Laurine’s activated ability is twice as expensive as it should be, and Kamber’s lack of a drain effect on your opponents means it won’t win you the game alone. They’ll need the other staple aristocrats cards to really come online, but they’ll have to focus on the ones that hit opponents' creatures; Blood Artist, Massacre Wurm, and The Meathook Massacre are all household names, but Blade of the Bloodchief, Mari, the Killing Quill, and Slaughter Specialist can also find a home in a Kamber and Laurine deck.
#15. Krav, the Unredeemed + Regna, the Redeemer
Krav, the Unredeemed and Regna, the Redeemer are the most expensive paired partners to cast, and it hurts their playability. Their abilities really play together well, but at 5 and 6 mana each, they suffer from being hard to stick to the field consistently. Once they’re there, Regna and Krav’s abilities guarantee you at least two card draws, 2 life, and two more Warrior tokens each turn that you activate Krav’s ability, but this is a middling payoff for what’s at least 12 mana worth of set up.
#14. Rhoda, Geist Avenger + Timin, Youthful Geist
I applaud Wizards for expanding the design space around tapper effects in blue and white, but they're often just not strong enough to justify an entire deck themed around them. Rhoda, Geist Avenger looks to generate +1/+1 counters off of Timin, Youthful Geist’s free tap-down each combat phase. Sadly, this isn’t a great payoff for a 9-mana investment that, to begin with, requires your opponents to have targetable creatures for you to tap down. Worse yet, tapping down creatures doesn’t remove the actual threat – tapping down a Zulaport Cutthroat still leaves you open to their aristocrats effects, for example.
#13. Jenny Flint + Madame Vastra
Jenny Flint and Madame Vastra are a set of paired commander partners from the Doctor Who Commander decks. They play as a two-creature attack combo where you’ll attack with both and trigger Jenny’s training ability. Then, with some careful planning, a creature will be forced to block Vastra and be destroyed, creating a Clue and a Food. You follow up by sacrificing the tokens, putting counters on Vastra, and do the whole thing over again. It’s an eloquent design with an easy play pattern, and their Temur color identity means you have access to a lot of fun tools.
Lonis, Cryptozoologist is one of the better choices for this deck since it gives you a free sacrifice outlet for your Clues. Of course, you can always double up on those tokens with Primal Vigor and Adrix and Nev, Twincasters.
#12. Rowan Kenrith + Will Kenrith
We met the Eldraine twins for the first time in Battlebond, where they appeared as planeswalker commanders that partnered with each other. They’re both fairly expensive as 6-mana planeswalkers that only enter with 4 loyalty each, but at least Will Kenrith can make casting Rowan Kenrith a little easier if you tick Will down.
This Izzet commander pairing clearly want to play in some sort of halfway build between being spellslinger and superfriends, as each of their ultimate abilities let you copy any instants and sorceries or activated abilities (which includes loyalty abilities).
They can always use the suite of planeswalker-synergy cards available in the format, though. The Chain Veil, Ichormoon Gauntlet, Rowan's Talent, and Teferi's Talent can all be useful for Rowan and Will, plus any of the proliferate effects we’ve seen on instants and sorceries like Experimental Augury and Vivisurgeon's Insight.
#11. Gorm the Great + Virtus the Veiled
Gorm and Virtus are one of the first “partner with” legendary pairs from the Battlebond set. Gorm the Great holds blockers’ attention while Virtus the Veiled sneaks by to cut an opponent’s life total in half. These two can form the basis for an interesting Golgari deck that makes use of all the “forced block” cards like Lure, Hunt Down, and Irresistible Prey. Stack a Wound Reflection on top of that damage from Virtus and you’re looking at a one-turn kill.
While Gorm tends to sputter out without another attacking creature to provide cover for, Virtus can function on its own with a little bit of utility with ease. With things like Rogue's Passage and Whispersilk Cloak so easily accessible in Commander, Virtus can sneak right by creatures even without Gorm’s help.
#10. Cazur, Ruthless Stalker + Ukkima, Stalking Shadow
Cazur, Ruthless Stalker and Ukkima, Stalking Shadow want to be the really cool Sultai +1/+1 counter commanders you’ve dreamed of, but they fall short. Besides being a bit overcosted (Cazur could easily be a 2/2 for 3), they just don’t seem to intuitively work together. While Cazur provides a great source of counters for the unblockable Ukkima, Ukkima’s second ability implies that you want to sacrifice or bounce/blink it for full value. Except that removes all of Ukkima’s +1/+1 counters, and you have to start all over again powering it up.
In most Commander games, if you have a consistent way to hit your opponents over and over for progressively more damage, why bother removing your own creature? I guess that the extra damage from Ukkima, Stalking Shadow’s death could be enough to finish off an opponent, but if that doesn’t end the game right there, I’d rather keep my buffed up Ukkima on the field.
I suppose the actual play for Ukkima would be to protect it from targeted removal with Ghostly Flicker-type effects, but I personally hate a strategy that relies on my opponents interacting with my board.
#9. Amy Pond + Rory Williams
The Doctor Who decks gave us two pairs of partnered commanders; Amy Pond and Rory Williams head up the suspend-themed deck. Together, this duo works as a Jeskai commander that can hit the ground running by casting (suspending, really) Rory Williams early and then using Amy Pond to remove its time counters.
Rory is good value for a legendary creature, coming in as a 3/3 with not one but two relevant mechanics for just 2 mana, but Amy is the real star of this team. Removing time counters early means you’re playing things like Greater Gargadon for 1 mana and your Aeon Chronicler is drawing you a mountain of cards before it hits the field.
This doesn’t even cover how well these two synergize with Jhoira of the Ghitu. Remember, because Amy’s ability says, “that many time counters,” you can buff its power with something as simple as Dragon Mantle to great effect.
#8. Pir, Imaginative Rascal + Toothy, Imaginary Friend
Pir, Imaginative Rascal is one of the few counters-multiplier legendary creatures. Besides the obvious synergy with Toothy, Imaginary Friend’s +1/+1 counters and card draw, Pir can really increase the effectiveness of planeswalkers, oil counters, and vanishing creatures.
These two work best with cards that let you dump all that extra mana that green cards make into draw spells like Prosperity and Blue Sun's Zenith. Double down on this strategy with Chasm Skulker and Fathom Mage, then use Herald of Secret Streams to clean up.
#7. Merry, Warden of Isengard + Pippin, Warden of Isengard
The actual stars of The Lord of The Rings are featured on a pair of partners in the same deck as Frodo and Sam. Merry, Warden of Isengard makes a Soldier token once per turn when you make an artifact, and Pippin, Warden of Isengard can make and break Food tokens to great effect. Any haste-enabler outside of red is an exciting prospect in my book, and Merry and Pippin' Abzan commander color identity gives you access to a lot of lifegain, tokens, and creature synergy.
Sanguine Bond is an underrated card in Food decks. This deck also benefits from Mirkwood Bats and similar effects, and a Disciple of the Vault wouldn’t hurt either.
#6. Brallin, Skyshark Rider + Shabraz, the Skyshark
Brallin, Skyshark Rider and Shabraz, the Skyshark hail from Commander 2020’s cycling-themed deck. They both start as 3/3s that get +1/+1 counters whenever you discard a card or draw a card, respectively.
Anyone who’s seen a wheel deck before knows how out of hand this playstyle can get. All it takes is a full hand and a Flux and suddenly you’re looking at two 10/10s with built-in evasion.
Brallin and Shabraz are both playable absent their other half, as well. Brallin is a little less useful generally than Shabraz; sharks are a less popular creature type than humans so it follows that it’ll have less targets for its activated ability, but it's still a pinger for whenever you cycle or discard a card.
#5. Haldan, Avid Arcanist + Pako, Arcane Retriever
Haldan, Avid Arcanist and his dog Pako, Arcane Retriever are a fun Temur-aligned partner pair with a “steal your opponents' stuff” theme. Sometimes seen in cEDH, Pako and Haldan can accumulate a crazy amount of value in just a few short turns.
Pako hits the field running with haste for 5 mana and can get up to a 7/7 after its first attack trigger. Haldan is basically useless until Pako can exile cards and put fetch counters on them. Together, these two are quite a force to be reckoned with.
Since the fetch counters remain on the exiled cards, and having those is the only requirement to cast them with Haldan, the spells from Pako hang out indefinitely until you’re ready to cast them, even after Pako/Haldan have been removed and recast several times.
Don’t forget that Haldan benefits from having extra land drops so Explorations and Explores are excellent includes to snag your opponents’ lands along with their spells.
With a little top deck manipulation, you can even steal the spells your opponents have already cast. Consign to Dream, Expel from Orazca, Primal Command, and Memory Lapse can all return cards to their owner’s library, ready for you to fetch with Pako.
#4. Okaun, Eye of Chaos + Zndrsplt, Eye of Wisdom
Okaun, Eye of Chaos and Zndrsplt, Eye of Wisdom are a hoot to play or play against. As the unofficial kings of the chaos deck archetype, Okaun and Zndrsplt will have you flipping more coins than any other cards in Magic: The Gathering.
Their designs are rather simple. Both are 5-mana creatures that instruct you to flip coins at the beginning of your combat until you lose a flip. Okaun’s power is doubled each time a player wins a coin flip, and Zndrsplt draws you a card for each successful flip.
Things take off from there. There are so many Magic cards that revolve around coin flips that never see the light of day by virtue of being too swingy that now have a home in Okaun and Zndrsplt decks. Fiery Gambit, Krark, the Thumbless and Krark's Thumb, and Stitch in Time are just the beginning. Tavern Scoundrel, Yusri, Fortune's Flame, and Chance Encounter each go nuts in this deck. Okaun and Zndrsplt are the best coin-flip commanders, hands down.
#3. Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit + Sam, Loyal Attendant
Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit and his ever-loving friend are a Food token’s dream. Frodo and Sam play really well into each other: Sam, Loyal Attendant makes free Food every turn and reduces the cost to sacrifice them down to 1 generic mana. Frodo, on the other hand, needs that 3 life from a Food to trigger its Ring-tempting ability. Once Frodo’s been tempted two or more times, you’ll draw a card with every attack.
Together, these two form a goofy little combo where Sam preps meals for Frodo on their long journey. With access to Abzan colors, you can build a ferocious deck that makes use of Sanguine Bond (which turns those Food tokens into Lightning Helix), Banquet Guests, Experimental Confectioner, and other Food- and artifact-related synergies.
#2. Nikara, Lair Scavenger + Yannik, Scavenging Sentinel
Nikara and Yannik are another Abzan pairing with a lot of interesting design space between them. Yannik, Scavenging Sentinel exiles a creature you control until Yannik leaves the battlefield, distributing +1/+1 counters while Nikara, Lair Scavenger draws you cards for any creature you control leaving the battlefield with counters on it.
There’s a number of ways you can build around this cleric–beast duo, which makes them one of my favorites on the list. Since Yannik’s ability triggers on ETB, you can lean into blink effects like Ephemerate and Conjurer's Closet, while at the same time using Cathars' Crusade to put more counters on your creatures whenever Yannik enters and leaves. You can lean into a sacrifice theme, running the Scam cards from Modern decks like Fake Your Own Death and Undying Evil to return cards sacrificed for value with Ashnod's Altar (or similar cards).
#1. Silvar, Devourer of the Free + Trynn, Champion of Freedom
Talk about environmental storytelling. Trynn, Champion of Freedom leads its army of Soldier tokens out onto the battlefield, where they’re promptly eaten by Silvar, Devourer of the Free. At 4 and 5 mana each, Trynn and Silvar aren’t easy to get up and running, but once they are, they’re hard to stop. Silvar’s activated ability to buff itself while granting indestructible costs no mana to activate, making it a commander-sized Carrion Feeder. So long as Silvar keeps attacking, Trynn keeps pumping out tokens for it to devour, and the circle of life continues.
These two are my favorite of the bunch of partner with commanders. It’s another elegant design with a clear play pattern with a very high ceiling on its power level. Once you run these alongside some real token-making machines like Adeline, Resplendent Cathar and Commanding Presence, Silvar becomes a real threat to the continued survival of your opponents.
Best Partner With Commander Payoffs
Casting both of your commanders and sticking them to the field can be the hardest part of running a pair of legends in your command zone. With a little forethought, though, you can turn that into an advantage.
You need to cast two creatures to get your commanders’ full effect on the field, and you can synergize that extra commander-cast with cards like Captain Vargus Wrath and Genesis Storm. The Swarmlord hits the field as a 9/9 after you’ve played both commanders, and Jirina Kudro was basically designed to play alongside Silvar, Devourer of the Free/Trynn, Champion of Freedom.
Can I Use One “Partner With” Commander as My Commander and the Other in the 99-Card Deck?
Yes, you can always choose to just run one half of the paired commanders in the command zone and the other in the 99 of your Commander deck… if the second commander matches the first’s color identity. Unfortunately, there are zero “partner with” commanders that share a color identity, so this is actually a moot question.
Should they print a “partner with” pair that meets this criteria, when you cast the partner commander from your command zone, you’ll have the option to search your library for the other partner and put it into your hand.
Can I Use “Partner With” Commanders With Other Regular Commanders?
You can’t use the “partner with” commanders with any other commander besides the one they’re paired with. This means you couldn’t run Silvar, Devourer of the Free alongside Talrand, Sky Summoner.
“Partner With” commanders don’t need to share a color identity. Like a single commander, they determine the identity of your deck, not the other way around. Most “partner with” commanders have different color identities so that the combined deck has a broader identity.
Can I Have More Than Two Commanders in a “Partner With” Deck?
No. The “partner with” commanders allow you to have exactly two commanders, if they’re the two exact partner cards. You couldn’t run Amy Pond, Rory Williams, and The Fifth Doctor all at once. You’d choose whether to use their doctor’s companion pairing or their “partner with” pairing, but not both.
Are “Partner With” Commanders Legal in Commander Variants?
The short answer is yes; unless specifically stated, partner with commanders are legal in most Commander variants. If you’re playing something hyper-specific like Kamigawa-block Pauper Tiny Leaders Commander, sure, you’ll have to brew something else.
How Do “Partner With” Commanders Compare with Doctor's Companions?
The “partner with” commanders have a much narrower play pattern than the doctor’s companion cards. The Doctor Who set introduced a new partner-style mechanic where creatures with “doctor’s companion” can partner up with any of the doctor-type cards from the set to be your paired commanders.
Commanding Conclusion
Regna, the Redeemer | Illustration by Randy Vargas
The original Commander 2016 partner commanders are some of the strongest and most popular legendary creatures in the format, mostly due to the great variability and access to four colors that they provide. The “partner with…” mechanic is seen by some as a dumbed-down version of the original partner mechanic, but I don’t think that’s true. Instead, the partner with pairs allows WotC to dig into a design space that’s too specific to be broadly applied on a card that could partner with anything, and it lets them test out very specific play patterns.
Which of the partner with pairings is your favorite? Do you like them more or less than the legendary team-up cards from March of the Machine? Let me know in the comments, or over on Draftsim’s X.
Thanks for reading! Make sure you’ve got a friend to watch your back out there!
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