The 30 Best Phyrexian Commanders in Magic Ranked

Last updated on March 19, 2024

Mondrak, Glory Dominus | Illustration by Jason A. Engle

Phyrexians have always been around in MTG, but they were only recently acknowledged as a real creature type. That along with the Phyrexian invasion of the Multiverse has given us tons and tons of new Phyrexian creatures, including new Phyrexian commanders.

There have been almost 80 legendary Phyrexian creatures printed, and today I'm ranking the 30 best Phyrexian commanders across all colors! Phyrexia might have been defeated in the main story, but it’ll remain a real menace at the game table for a long time. Now is the perfect time to pick one out and fight for Phyrexia in EDH.

Which one will you choose? Let’s find out!

What Are Phyrexian Commanders in MTG?

Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa | Illustration by Campbell White

Phyrexian commanders are legendary creatures that have the Phyrexian creature type. These legendary creatures are a natural part of Phyrexia, like the Praetors and the Thanes, or famous legendary creatures that were compleated, like Brimaz, King of Oreskos and Ezuri, Renegade Leader.

Since they’re all part of Phyrexia, Phyrexian creatures usually relate to Phyrexia’s main themes: artifacts, oil counters, proliferate, +1/+1 counters, infect or toxic, and now incubate. The main Phyrexian colors are green, black, and blue, and that reflects in the high number of mono-black and black-based multicolored Phyrexian commanders, usually in Golgari ().

Best White Phyrexian Commanders

#3. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is a massive anthem for your creatures while also giving -2/-2 to your opponent’s creatures. It costs seven mana, so you’d better have a board state prepared before turn 7. But that’s what tribal decks and weenie decks are trying to do anyway, right?

Norn is expensive and has a huge presence on the board, so better protect it as best you can.

#2. Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines

Besides the great vigilance body, the main thing going for Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines as a commander is that it can double all your ETB effects while denying your opponents’, making a lot of your opponents’ cards vanilla. It’s better than Yarok, the Desecrated because it’s easier to cast, but you’re restricted to white in color identity.

This commander shines with ETB card draw effects, and auras like Oblivion Ring that exile two permanents.

#1. Mondrak, Glory Dominus

Mondrak, Glory Dominus is an Anointed Procession on legs, and for the same mana value. Procession already sees play in EDH, so it’s really easy and flexible to build around. Plus, this commander is usually indestructible with lots of tokens hanging around, so it’s harder to remove.

There are lots of different ways to build Mondrak since it doubles any kind of token.

Best Blue Phyrexian Commanders

#4. Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur

Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur costs a whopping 10 mana, so you’ll need lots of mana rocks and cards like High Tide to cast it. Once you do, it draws you seven cards and your opponents won’t have a hand anymore.

Decks built around this commander usually have synergies with card draw or win conditions like Laboratory Maniac and Thassa's Oracle. This version of Jin-Gitaxias protects itself by making your opponents have a maximum hand size of zero (assuming they haven't upped it), so they won’t have cards in hand to play. Just keep in mind that lots of EDH decks already play effects like Reliquary Tower and Thought Vessel that counter Jin’s ability.

#3. Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant

Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant is a 7-mana commander that at least does a decent job of protecting itself by countering spot removal spells pointed at it, or wraths. This version of Jin-Gitaxias benefits twice from ramping because you can cast your commander early and double your next expensive spells.

After you have Jin in play, you want to copy expensive spells like Time Warp and Expropriate, or big artifacts like Myr Battlesphere.

#2. Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus

This is a proliferate commander that benefits from counters among your permanents. Like all the Dominus cycle of commanders, the nice thing about Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus is that you can easily give it indestructible to protect it.

Tekuthal can be built as a blue planeswalker deck, poison and proliferate, or you can mess around with charge counters.

#1. Unctus, Grand Metatect

Unctus, Grand Metatect is a nice artifact commander that has an explosive potential for drawing and discarding a bunch of stuff. There are lots of infinite combos that require tapping and untapping your creature, drawing and discarding every time you do.

You can easily include cards in your deck that combo directly with Unctus, like Tidewater Minion. But you can also build it in casual and fun ways like attacking with blue fliers, reanimator, or having a robot army.

Best Black Phyrexian Commanders

#7. Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon

Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon only needs two hits to take out a player, and we’re not even talking about commander damage. For six mana you can hit a player with a hasty Skithiryx, and there are some ways to increase its power and make this infect dragon an insta-kill, like Hatred.

The downside here is that players are aware of your intentions the moment you reveal your black commander that deals in poison, and it’s usually not fun to be everyone else’s enemy.

#6. Drivnod, Carnage Dominus

Doubling death triggers is a very nice way to build your EDH deck, as Teysa Karlov’s popularity can attest to. Drivnod, Carnage Dominus does exactly that, and you can give it indestructible to protect your engine.

There’s an easy way to build this commander with creatures that have death triggers, but unfortunately you’re restricted to mono-black unlike with Teysa, which limits what you can do.

#5. Sheoldred / The True Scriptures

The new Sheoldred from March of the Machine is a tough pill for everyone else to swallow. By itself it makes every player sacrifice a creature or planeswalker each turn while being a 4/5 body that defends well.

The main thing is the saga that it transforms into. The True Scriptures gets you card advantage and a massive reanimate spell.

#4. Sheoldred, Whispering One

I’m ranking Sheoldred, Whispering One higher than Sheoldred because it’s more of a tried-and-true thing, but I can easily see “just” Sheoldred being better. Both commanders want to self-mill, and both commanders act like a constant edict effect.

This Sheoldred only needs a turn to reanimate a body and be effective, and this is the best aspect of this commander. A free reanimate effect each turn is very good, so you want to fill your deck with value creatures as well as expensive ones, always choosing the better option every turn.

#3. Karumonix, the Rat King

Karumonix, the Rat King is one of the better incentives to fill your EDH deck with rats since you’ll draw a bunch of them and they get toxic 1. It’s a low-cost commander at three, so it’s not a big deal if it dies because you can cast it again and refill your hand with more rats.

#2. K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth

K’rrik, Son of Yawgmoth is a very powerful all-in commander because you'll pay lots of life to generate black mana and win in a big turn. It’s a fragile wincon, but it can be very explosive and effective even in cEDH, and a way to catch your opponents off guard.

The win condition usually involves casting and reanimating cards like Gray Merchant of Asphodel over and over, and they work well with this commander because you can recover the life you’re spending to cast the spells. If it works once, you can do it infinitely.

#1. Sheoldred, the Apocalypse

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse has been a powerhouse in Constructed 60- and 100-card decks, and for good reason. It’s one of the most popular commanders judging by lists posted online, and one of the reasons is that it messes with card draw.

You gain life by drawing cards while your opponents lose life, and it’s a natural win condition by just sitting there since drawing a card happens every turn. This Sheoldred can kill someone out of nowhere with Peer into the Abyss, or relying on other win conditions like Torment of Hailfire.

Best Red Phyrexian Commanders

#3. Slobad, Iron Goblin

Slobad, Iron Goblin is a Johnny commander aimed at combos and recursion. You’ll have a deck that’s mostly artifacts with some red spells that interact with them. Each time you sacrifice an artifact, you generate mana equal to the artifact’s mana value. You need to untap Slobad to repeat the ability, and for that, Thornbite Staff is a nice one.

There are lots of possible combos and interactions with different artifacts. If you like your games to be different each time, Slobad is your man.

#2. Urabrask / The Great Work

Urabrask is a commander that helps storm decks a lot by generating mana and pinging every time you cast an instant or sorcery spell. The real work starts when you flip it to the saga side. The Great Work‘s third chapter allows you to recast all your spells, like a Past in Flames effect, and that applies to any graveyard.

Urabrask is great as a commander, and a nice addition to other spellslinger decks.

#1. Solphim, Mayhem Dominus

Solphim, Mayhem Dominus effectively makes all your burn spells and ping effects deal double damage, so cards like Thermo-Alchemist and Electrostatic Field get much better. If you needed to deal 40 damage to everyone else, now it's 20.

You can even win instantly by having Heartless Hidetsugu in play and tapping it.

Best Green Phyrexian Commanders

#3. Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus

Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus brings the muscle to the table. The best thing about this commander is that you can add the indestructibility effect when it enters just by paying four life. From there every creature you control has double the stats both on offense and defense.

#2. Vorinclex / The Grand Evolution

Vorinclex is a ramp commander aimed at casting large and expensive stuff (think Timmy player profile). Cast it and fetch two lands while having a 5/5 in play. Interesting things start to happen when you reach eight mana.

The Grand Evolution is where this commander shines, letting you mill 10 cards and put two milled creatures on the battlefield. I expect a Vorinclex deck to get at least a 7- or 8-drop this way. Then you can put a lot of counters on them and fight (pretty standard green stuff).

This is also a nice addition in Simic () or Gruul () decks aimed at ramping the biggest creatures possible.

#1. Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider

Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider is a giant monstrous Doubling Season-style card. You’ll have a hasty 6/6 trampler as a commander, and that’s like 10% of the card.

Like Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines, this commander doubles your interactions with counters while denying your opponents. They won’t be able to play sagas effectively, and you’ll significantly weaken their cards that put +1/+1 counters on creatures while reinforcing your own troops.

Best Multicolored Phyrexian Commanders

#10. Glissa, Herald of Predation

Glissa, Herald of Predation gives you a clear route to build around it. You’ll need Phyrexian creatures and effects that incubate. +1/+1 counter synergies are very desirable too, and Doubling Season fits perfectly (although this is true for green EDH decks in general).

I like that Glissa provides everything with its triggered ability. It’s a little one-dimensional, though, and commanders like this usually have a stock list with few variations.

#9. Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer

Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer requires you to have lots of small tokens and a big powerful token so that every little token becomes a copy of the most powerful one.

To get big tokens you can use effects like Quasiduplicate or Metallurgic Summonings to make them. For going wide there’s Saheeli, Sublime Artificer or Whirler Rogue. Mirrex‘s printing gave a nice aspect to this commander because it allows you to easily make an infect token and finish the game with a big infect attack.

#8. Ezuri, Claw of Progress

The original Ezuri, Renegade Leader was a “leader of elf-ball decks,” and this characteristic isn’t lost in Ezuri, Claw of Progress. Most elves are 1- or 2-drops, and that’s what you want to be playing or blinking.

Cards like Elvish Visionary shine in this kind of deck since they give you an Ezuri activation and a draw effect. Ezuri’s activations only get better as the game goes, and the experience counters can be proliferated. In the late game you’ll play a 2-drop and put dozens of +1/+1 counters on a given creature.

#7. Atraxa, Grand Unifier

Atraxa, Grand Unifier costs seven mana and gives you lots of different cards, usually drawing you three to four cards when it ETBs. It’s a big body that you fight and defend yourself with, and you can easily abuse blink effects to draw a bunch of cards. That works nicely with Azorius () cards.

It’s easy to combo off since you’re seeing and drawing so many cards. The big lifelink body lends itself well for beatdown and control.

#6. Omnath, Locus of All

Omnath, Locus of All is a powerful 5-color commander that acts as a mana bank. You can combine it with lots of effects that double the mana production as well as powerful X spells as win conditions. Kruphix, God of Horizons already did that, and now you get the effect on a 5-color commander.

The addition of Jund () colors mean that you can play with land recursion, and that opens new possibilities compared to old Kruphix.

#5. Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos

Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos is a commander flexible enough to take the build in lots of directions. You can mix Phyrexian and artifact creatures in the same deck, and you’ll have proliferate triggers.

Orzhov's () theme in March of the Machine is Phyrexian tribal, so a good start is to mix and match those cards from the collection and see if you want to take a heavier Phyrexian creature approach, or stick with aristocrats/combo.

#4. Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa

Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa looks less like an aggro infect commander, and a more controlling one because you’ll get corrupted bonuses and card advantage each of your turns. You want the corruption to spread equally between your opponents; you’ll get a good amount of card advantage to maintain your position in the long run if one or two of them is corrupted.

#3. Vishgraz, the Doomhive

Vishgraz, the Doomhive is an aggro infect commander in toxic and infect colors. You’ll want to build it with lots of effects that grant your opponents a poison counter as quickly as possible so that your Vishgraz is bigger, like a 5/5 or 6/6. What makes Vishgraz a good “infector” is that it makes three infect tokens, so those get in eventually and increase the poison all around.

#2. Etali, Primal Conqueror / Etali, Primal Sickness

Etali, Primal Conqueror is Etali, Primal Storm on steroids. The original Etali was already a good commander, but this card is something else.

You get four spells for free just for casting it. You get access to green, so that means ramp and expensive green spells to cast. And if it transforms you can resolve the game in a single attack thanks to the poison damage.

#1. Atraxa, Praetors' Voice

The combination of a pushed body in four colors and a guaranteed proliferate every turn makes Atraxa, Praetors' Voice one of the most popular commanders. The most usual way to build an Atraxa deck is with lots of planeswalkers, but you can play creatures with +1/+1 counters, charge counter artifacts, and much more.

You also get access to four colors, which include good ramp cards in Simic colors along with removal spells/sweepers in Orzhov colors.

Best Phyrexian Commander Payoffs

There are a few ways to take advantage of Phyrexian commanders.

Proliferate is flavored as a Phyrexian mechanic, so it has a home in lots of Phyrexian-themed decks. Proliferate works not only with poison counters, but also with other common themes like -1/-1 and +1/+1 counters, loyalty counters, and sagas.

Generic tribal cards like Morophon, the Boundless, Etchings of the Chosen, and Metallic Mimic support your Phyrexian creatures.

The last few sets have printed specific Phyrexian tribal incentives, and we can see it in cards like Tangled Skyline, Essence of Orthodoxy, and Grafted Butcher. The backside of Elesh Norn and Jin-Gitaxias also work well in Phyrexian-heavy decks.

Norn's Inquisitor is nice with the transforming themes from March of the Machine, both with the incubate mechanic and most of the TDFCs.

Phyrexian Censor is a super interesting card to play in Phyrexian-themed decks. The card has little downside for Phyrexian decks while being a Rule of Law and Blind Obedience for everyone else.

Glissa, Herald of Predation and Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos are legendary creatures that can be good Phyrexian commanders, or strong cards in Phyrexian tribal/themed decks.

Wrap Up

Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus | Illustration by Martin de Diego Sadaba

The Phyrexian saga came to an end, but it left many powerful and cool Phyrexian commanders on the way. Those aren’t going anywhere.

We had recently cycles of Phyrexian commanders in all five colors, with the Praetors and the Domini, plus some specific Commander products in Phyrexia: All Will be One and March of the Machine. There are cool Phyrexian colors in all pieces of the color pie, and for all tastes, aggressive and control alike.

What Phyrexian cards are you most excited to build around in EDH, or just to play with? Let me know in the comments below, or join the discussion over in the Draftsim Discord.

Stay safe folks, and keep your total poison counters count below 10!