Star Trek Scene Box | Illustration by Alexander Gering
It’s time to head to a galaxy far… oh wait, that’s the wrong property. Time to hit the final frontier, and the final set of 2026 as Star Trek warps to our local game stores. Like any Universes Beyond set, this is teeming with legendary creatures as commanders—though it also has legendary spacecraft as possible commanders.
Today, I’m compiled a list of the coolest and strongest commanders introduced in Star Trek and its four precons to inspire your next build!
How Many Commanders Are There in Star Trek?
Georgiou, Terran Emperor | Illustration by Julia Metzger
Star Trek—including the main set, Commander product, and the Stardates bonus sheet—brings 218 eligible commanders to Magic. Of these, only 24 are reprints, and most of those those are confined to the Stardates sheet, which includes high-profile commanders like Kenrith, the Returned King and Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain.
Importantly, Star Trek includes many legendary spacecraft, which can also be your commander! There are 21 spacecraft commanders in the set… though none of them seem as interesting or impactful as offerings from Edge of Eternities like Hearthhull, the Worldseed.
Overall, this feels like a fairly tame set as far as commanders go. 194 new commanders is massive but fairly in line with what we’ve come to expect from large Universes Beyond sets—in fact, it feels tame compared to Marvel Super Heroes‘ 386. It’s in line with Final Fantasy, which had 198.
While there are many commanders, it feels toned down compared to previous sets. Many of these commanders feel safe. There are some interesting commanders, especially janky build-arounds, but nothing (in my opinion) stands out in uniqueness or power like, say, Ashling, the Limitless or Witherbloom, the Balancer from earlier in the year.
#30. Dr. Beverly Crusher
While I suspect that Dr. Beverly Crusher works best in the 99 of commanders like Niv-Mizzet, Ghost Counsel or Betor, Ancestor's Voice, it has merit as a solo commander. White is the core home for lifegain and a doubler in the command zone gives the archetype some oomph. Perhaps an ability doubler makes up for the deficiency of being mono-colored.
#29. Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Captain Jean-Luc Picard keeps things simple, but Oketra's Monument in the command zone can overwhelm the table. Dropping a spacecraft with a bundle of charge counters is cool, but I’d lean into this as an efficient token producer.
#28. Phlox, Unorthodox Doctor
Coastal Piracy—or some riff thereof—in the command zone is exceedingly but also fairly effective, as card draw commanders are always valuable. Selesnya +1/+1 counters is a well-developed archetype, but Phlox, Unorthodox Doctor is even more flexible than that since it cares about all counters, even finality or charge counters. This might be better-suited to pEDH than Commander proper, but it’s still a nice card.
#27. Jurati, Cordial Queen
Jurati, Cordial Queen gets out of hand quickly because it doesn’t have a nontoken clause connected to the sabetour trigger. It’s so easy to make thopters in Azorius () to trigger this, and it’s not particularly hard to make token copies of good artifacts. Whether you keep things aggressive and simply copy construct tokens or mess around with mechanics like token copies from Cackling Counterpart and squad, this causes serious trouble for the opposition.
#26. Korok, Liberated Rage
Korok, Liberated Rage stands out as a decent, simple token commander. Dedicate the 99 to going wide, then land this as a finisher for +3/+3 across the team. This primarily stands out as a great commander for new Magic players attracted by Star Trek: Mono-colored so there aren’t an overwhelming number of options, and tokens are supported well enough in the color to build at a variety of power levels.
#25. U.S.S. Discovery, at Black Alert
U.S.S. Discovery, at Black Alert plays a lot of free cards. Since it discovers when it enters, it feels fairly resilient to removal, especially if you have a ramp-heavy deck so it helps recoup the commander tax. Green also has no trouble providing 6 power to station it, so you can expect to attack the turn after landing it.
#24. Captain Benjamin Sisko
Captain Benjamin Sisko is the expect 5-color commander designed to hold all your favorite Starfleet Officers in case you want to turn Commander into a Block Constructed format. This will be perfect for the dedicated Star Trek fan, and is likely to see lots of play, like Cosmic Spider-Man and Aragorn, the Uniter.
#23. Koloth, Tribble Hunter
Okay, Koloth, Tribble Hunter might be more interesting than good. But just imagine making your opponents beat themselves to death with Tribbles! Since these tokens can’t block, their aren’t any political deals to be made, either. They have to attack and deal damage. Mono-red group slug might be ideal for Bracket 2.
#22. Hugh, First of Many
Though Hugh, First of Many has an extremely high mana requirement to use its replicate ability, that’s still a very strong effect. Artifacts are good at making mana; maybe you land a Thran Dynamo that helps copy a Gilded Lotus, then you have all the mana you could want.
#21. Captain Janeway, Endgame
Captain Janeway, Endgame offers a simple payoff for combat damage. While there aren’t many officers in Magic, I like how Janeway scales. It’s templated such that it makes tokens and draws cards for each opponent you hit, so this is up to three tokens/cards a combat step. With a few other good officer cards like Captain Jean-Luc Picard, I like it.
#20. T’Pring, Never Parted
Fighting on entering is always appealing in Simic () because it has green for big creatures and blue for flicker effects to make it keep happening. T'Pring, Never Parted throws in a dash of card draw to make it really juicy. This feels like a low-bracket commander, but I don’t mind it: It’ll often enter and be a two-for-one since you’ll kill an opposing threat and draw a card.
#19. The Borg Queen
The Borg Queen has a pretty sick anthem for artifact creatures, but I’m almost more interested in the enters ability. It reminds me of Tivit, Seller of Secrets in that I expect flicker decks exploiting the enters ability to be more impactful than decks actually building around the intended theme. This isn’t on the same level, mind you, but that just makes it more appropriate to Bracket 2 or 3.
#18. Scotty, Miracle Worker
Scotty, Miracle Worker looks perfect for a jank storm build. Beam Me Up is markedly worse than flashback since you need creatures to bounce, but cards like Talrand, Sky Summoner and Deekah, Fractal Theorist that make tokens when you play instants and sorceries fulfill that requirement. Look, this is Bracket 3 jank at best, but who doesn’t love brewing around some nonsense in Commander?
#17. Chief Kyle, Transporter Tech
A good flicker commander does one of two things: It has an enters ability worth exploiting (Aang, at the Crossroads comes to mind) or it flickers other creatures. Chief Kyle, Transporter Tech does the latter and I kind of love. I can’t pretend this is in any way novel, but a 0-mana flicker each turn is easy to build around.
#16. Reg Barclay, Fidgety Fantasist
I have a weakness for commanders that copy other things because I just think they’re cool. Reg Barclay, Fidgety Fantasist has an easy-to-meet condition in seek out. What I find particularly exciting is the ability to trigger seek out on other players’ turns with a Brainstorm, which could lead to some interesting combat surprises.
#15. Quark, Humble Proprietor
Few creatures in the game make Treasure as efficiently as Quark; you’ll play it and untap with four additional Treasure each turn cycle… though you can’t sacrifice them. The easiest way around that is sacrificing Quark to a Goblin Bombardment or Infernal Plunge, but don’t be too hasty. Red has plenty of ways to use unspent Treasure, like Reckless Fireweaver and Smaug the Magnificent. All you have to do is budget your threats accordingly.
#14. Q, Your Illustrious Host
If you told me that 2026 would have a 5-color faerie commander, I would have believed you since we returned to Lorwyn at the start. If you had told me it was in Star Trek, well….
As bizarre this Q, Your Illustrious Host is, it’s incredibly fitting for the character, an omnipotent trickster who enjoys nothing more than messing around with the Enterprise. Flavor aside, this is also very powerful. Tapping creatures to get free spells gets out of hand quite quickly. I don’t know that this is better than more focused faerie commanders like Alela, Cunning Conqueror, but it’s certainly fun.
#13. Spock, Voice of Reason
I’m on the fence about Spock, Voice of Reason. I can’t decide if it’s unbearably slow or rather broken. It counts land drops, plus it doesn’t care about the cards being cast, so it’s very easy to set up a situation where you hit your land drop, move to your end step to trigger Thassa, Deep-Dwelling, and draw two cards for 2 mana. Or you could do something absolutely heinous with Displacer Kitten. Maybe use Shrieking Drake, as well. There are so many potential synergies branching from this card, I just can’t decide if they’re actually any good.
#12. Gray and Adira, Forever Joined
Do you know what’s better than getting a good enters ability? Getting it twice! Gray and Adira, Forever Joined plays in a similar space to Rootha, Mastering the Moment, but you get repeated enters triggers rather than big elementals. The first thing that leaps out to me is an infinite turn combo, where casting Time Warp lets the commander copy Archaeomancer each combat, but there’s ample room for fairer play patterns. I like that this commander feels flexible: You could lean into those combos or playing a chiller game copying Mulldrifter and the like.
#11. Dal R’El, Augment Orphan
If you asked me to name the strongest (nonland) card in a landfall strategy, I’d waffle around but probably lean towards Lotus Cobra as an absurd mana engine. Having a multicolored version of that effect in the command zone makes Dal R'El, Augment Orphan at least interesting, and likely quite powerful.
#10. Worf, Defiant Commander
I don’t find Worf, Defiant Commander too stimulating as the latest entry in a line of Mardu token face commanders, but that doesn’t make it a bad card. At the very least, it cantrips since the Klingon Warrior has haste, and it likely draws more than one card. Impulse draws are also nice as that lets you use cast-from-exile payoffs for additional support.
#9. Worf, Still Not Merry
Boros excels at going wide, so Worf, Still Not Merry will have plenty of bodies to benefit from, plus cards like Inspiring Leader and Agate Instigator to make its faeries super effective. This is very much a low bracket commander since its a 5-mana commander that relies on having a board to do anything, but I do enjoy it immensely.
#8. Commander Spock
Commander Spock has a message for all Timmies: Play me! This falls into the general Bant value tab: You’ll play a bunch of land ramp, preferably ones like Open the Way than enable strange new worlds, then drop a bunch of fat beaters into play. Time to break out bombs like Absolute Virtue.
#7. Georgiou, Terran Emperor
Though Star Trek takes place well into the future, Georgiou, Terran Emperor proves that they haven’t forgotten how to design jank. Georgiou is an excellent build-around commander that’s both fragile and flashy, perfect for the lower Brackets. You want to use cards like Wall of Blood and Ad Nauseam to drop your life total to nothing, then reap the benefits of surviving past 0 life, either with Soul Conduit trading that negative life total or using sacrifice outlets on the 10 1/1s Georgiou creates.
#6. Dathon, His Heart Open
First and foremost, making Dathon, His Heart Open a saga commander is deeply flavorful. But this is also a pretty powerful legend; though Dathon is built to use sagas best, this is just a legendary enchantress that draws cards. That’s an excellent baseline because it means that your Wild Growth and Imprisoned in the Moon benefit from Dathon as much as sagas. It’s an incredibly solid starting point.
#5. Gowron, Eager for Battle
Gowron, Eager for Battle becomes a considerable threat since its ability to pick up counters has no restrictions. You can drop an Accursed Marauder and net four counters, or set up a board wipe like Chandra's Ignition. Trample means your opponents can’t chump. I normally ignore Voltron commanders, but this one looks very good because adding power requires little investment beyond what a sacrifice deck wants to do.
#4. Jean-Luc Picard, Luminary
I always enjoy commanders with some flexibility. It’s reasonable to build Jean-Luc Picard, Luminary as designed, to support spacecraft with counters to make them relevant faster, but the historic card draw ability is also worth looking at. Since it has no once-per-turn restriction, you can lean hard into making it an engine. Perhaps with a Displacer Kitten and Basalt Monolith? It’s also worth noting creatures can be historic, so you might draw on Flickering Hound.
#3. Kira Nerys, Firebrand
Kira Nerys, Firebrand has a host of odd interactions. For example, creatures you flash in after blockers get to come in tapped and attacking, but your opponents don’t get an extra blockers step, so it’s free damage! Maybe a lot of free damage if that’s a Restoration Angel to flicker a blocked creature. And I suppose other flicker effects like Cloudshift do the same thing. And what’s that about Sneak Attack being activatable at instant speed? It’s a fascinating little card that’s perfect for brewers looking for a unique buildaround.
#2. Locutus of Borg
Though Locutus of Borg is the backup commander of the Borg precon, I find it much more imposing than The Borg Queen herself. The fear factor comes from the lack of nontoken restriction, so the Borg tokens Locutus makes produce additional Borg tokens. This gets out of control quickly, especially if you pair it with evasive artifact creatures like thopters.
#1. Q, Stacking the Deck
Q, Stacking the Deck has caught the eye and heart of the internet as a bizarre buildaround. Some players want to use its weird text box as a value engine while others are more combo-minded, trying to figure out the best 98-land deck with one card that wins the game when cast over and over (two frontrunners are Glaring Fleshraker and Price of Progress; do you have anything better?). It’s also a flavor win given how convoluted Q is in the show.
Commanding Conclusion
Q, Stacking the Deck | Illustration by Ryan Valle
And that’s a wrap on Star Trek’s coolest commanders, scant as they may be. While Wizards didn’t push the bar much on these commanders, they did a good job sneaking in some interesting buildarounds. Hopefully we’ll see a good balance next year.
Which Star Trek commanders are you planning to build around? Did I overlook any cool spacecraft? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord! If you want more coverage of Star Trek, check out Draftsim’s YouTube channel and newsletter, both called The Daily Upkeep!
Stay safe, and thanks for reading!
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