The 40 Best Universes Beyond Commanders in Magic Ranked

Last updated on March 30, 2026

Eivor, Wolf-Kissed | Illustration by Justyna Dura

Love them or hate them, Universes Beyond products are here to stay. They’ve made huge impacts in all formats, but Commander has especially received lots of care and attention, in no small part because many UB sets were Commander products. But it’s also because legendary creatures are the perfect way to showcase iconic characters from the games or TV franchises that these sets represent.

The average player’s most likely to see a UB commander than experience the products anywhere else—after all, the number of eligible commanders from UB products has exceeded 500. A crazy thought, eh? Let’s check out the best of them!

What Are Universes Beyond Commanders in MTG?

Caesar, Legion's Emperor | Illustration by Alexander Gering

Universes Beyond commanders are legendary creatures printed in Universes Beyond sets—sets that adapt non-Magic IPs, including Final Fantasy, Doctor Who, The Lord of the Rings, and Warhammer 40,000, to name but a few. These cards are easily distinguishable by the triangular stamp at the bottom of their frame.

This list considers only UB-exclusive cards. That means no reskins, like the Hatsune Miku Azusa, Lost but Seeking or the Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow reprinted in FIN’s Through the Ages bonus sheet. I’m also grading these cards exclusively on their power and utility as commanders rather than how flavorfully they capture the character depicted.

#40. Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant

Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant is the perfect dream commander—one with a win condition that’s so unlikely to hit, you want to throw a celebration when you do! If you reach the magic number, this card should win the game on the spot. If you don’t, at least Abzan () is a great color combination for lifegain decks.

#39. Henry Wu, InGen Scientist

Henry Wu, InGen Scientist offers sacrifice decks one of their most valuable resources: a sacrifice outlet. It also comes with a unique deckbuilding challenge because it requires a careful balance of human and non-human creatures to ensure you have the right ratios of sacrifice fodder and outlets. Toss in its utility as a sacrifice payoff, and you have something interesting.

#38. Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff

Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff is an admittedly niche commander, with its primary feature being its cost: It’s one of the few commanders that lets you companion Lurrus of the Dream-Den.

Lotho’s still a strong card in its own right. It produces quite a bit of Treasure for an Orzhov card (), and you can never have enough mana. Lotho decks often lean into aristocratic goodness to get the most value from its colors and companion.

#37. Lord of the Nazgûl

Lord of the Nazgûl powers up Talrand, Sky Summoner by creating larger tokens and adding black to the mix. You could make a fair argument for an army of 2/2 flying tokens being better than 3/3s given how much harder they are to block, but you more than make up for any power lost in the tokens when you add another color; Talrand’s biggest weakness is its mono-colored identity, and this covers for that nicely.

#36. Sergeant John Benton

Toeing the line between group hug and group slug, Sergeant John Benton spices up any Commander table as your opponents are forced to quantify just how much life they’re willing to pay for cards. Selesnya () excels at pumping creatures, so John always hits hard. Who benefits the most remains up in the air, however.

#35. Y’shtola Rhul

While Y'shtola Rhul is pretty costly, it’s also pretty unique: No other card gives you additional end steps, with which you can exploit powerful effects like Agent of Treachery and Primordial Mist. While the end step shenanigans might feel scant, you can easily fill out the deck with flicker-based effects to make use of Y’shtola’s other synergy.

#34. Cloud, Midgar Mercenary

Another unique entry from Final Fantasy, Cloud, Midgar Mercenary stands alone in allowing you to double up the triggers from equipment you control. Toss in a powerful equipment tutor, and you get a cheap yet powerful Voltron commander that exploits some of Magic’s strongest equipment like Sword of Forge and Frontier and Umezawa's Jitte.

#33. Eivor, Wolf-Kissed

Sagas have seen a surge of support in recent years—most enchantress commanders have been geared towards sagas recently. Eivor, Wolf-Kissed takes a particularly aggressive stance on the archetype with its saboteur ability.

Recurring sagas that have concluded their story or starting a new one with the trigger gives it lots of options. It looks enticing with the slew of powerful summon sagas introduced in Final Fantasy like Summon: Bahamut and Summon: Knights of Round.

#32. The Celestial Toymaker

The Celestial Toymaker gets huge bonus points for its unique design: Basically no commanders care about cards like Fact or Fiction and Sauron's Ransom; at least, not like this.

That comes with a cost, as TCT decks often look quite similar because they have a relatively small pool of cards to draw upon. But a card that references games in our game is a funny little mind-bender that I really like, and it gives your Esper () control deck some extra flavor.

#31. Rose Tyler + The Tenth Doctor

I could go very deep into the doctor and doctor’s companion cards, but this pairing is by far the most common, and one of the strongest. The Tenth Doctor enables more than a few powerful combo wins while Rose Tyler grows large enough to threaten a fairer win. Toss in an excellent late game thanks to suspend cards that give you a strong advantage after a few turns, and you have a winning brew.

#30. Ian Malcolm, Chaotician

Theft cards are often interesting, but Ian Malcolm, Chaotician escalates the mechanic by letting all players steal from one another. It distinguishes itself by doing something nothing else in the game really does, and it’s a brilliant design for it. The decks often pack Howling Mine effects to trigger Ian and cast-from-exile payoffs like Passionate Archaeologist to exploit it further.

#29. Captain America, First Avenger

The first wave of Marvel Universes Beyond products included commanders for some of the most iconic heroes in the franchise, including Captain America, First Avenger. It’s a pretty neat equipment commander that manages to be flavorful and powerful without being game-warping. If I have any critique, it’s that this isn’t particularly exciting compared to other equipment commanders besides adding blue to a traditionally Boros () archetype.

#28. The Master, Multiplied

The Master, Multiplied wins the game by itself if your opponents don’t interact with the myriad copies, but that’s a rarity. It’s more often used to keep around the temporary tokens generated by red cards like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Urabrask's Forge, and Feldon of the Third Path. It’s rather niche, but an exceptionally interesting card.

#27. Magus Lucea Kane

Magus Lucea Kane is a wildly powerful commander that exploits X-spells by doubling them, which gets crazy when you think about it for a moment. Chord of Calling, but twice? Unleashing Crackle with Power on double the targets? Not to mention how much mana this card adds to the board. It’s a value engine that grinds everybody out with enough time.

#26. Anrakyr the Traveller

At no point in the history of Magic has paying life instead of mana costs been a fair trade, and I doubt we’ll see that turn around in the future.

Anrakyr the Traveller exploits this powerful effect by reanimating artifacts. You know, those trinkets generally considered to be Magic’s best card type? You can reconstruct all sorts of heinous contraptions like Bolas's Citadel, Portal to Phyrexia, and The One Ring with a simple attack trigger! This is made even easier with entomb effects that drop those bombs into the ‘yard for Anrakyr to conveniently discover.

#25. Aragorn, King of Gondor

Aragorn, King of Gondor is a fine monarch card, if you’re into that sort of thing; you see it in traditional EDH from time to time as such. But it’s made a much bigger splash in Duel Commander, where it leads powerful midrange decks that exploit cheap creatures and interaction to victory based on how game-warpingly unfair the monarch becomes in a 1v1 setting.

#24. Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER

Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER gives you tons of rewards for equipping creatures. I appreciate that it encourages you to go wide and tall with its ability; you need some equipment on Cloud to get the Treasure, but going full Voltron and only equippuing Cloud significantly hampers your card advantage.

That gives it an interesting flavor compared to most equipment commanders—and we must respect the powerful double whammy of card advantage and mana production in the command zone, which is never bad and often broken.

#23. Will the Wise + Lucas the Sharpshooter

One of the more potent friends forever combinations, Will the Wise and Lucas the Sharpshooter play very well together thanks to the innate synergy between one commander that produces Clues and the other that uses them. There are many ways to build this deck, from the combo-centric decks that use Will the Wise to kill the table to more honest decks that win by turning their Clues into creatures with cards like Rise and Shine.

#22. Dogmeat, Ever Loyal

Dogmeat, Ever Loyal is the goodest boy.

If that’s not enough of a reason to brew around it, consider the power: Dogmeat cantrips the turn it comes into play and provides further card advantage by fetching Junk tokens whenever you attack with equipped or enchanted creatures. Naya () is a great color combination for equipment and auras, so it has plenty of synergies to draw on. You can even flicker Dogmeat over and over for more and more cards. I’m impressed by how much card advantage this commander generates despite not being blue.

#21. Éowyn, Shieldmaiden

Éowyn, Shieldmaiden hits incredibly hard and looks stylish while doing it. It takes little effort to flood the board with humans between Éowyn’s ability, the tenancy of human cards to create humans, and Jeskai’s (’s) abundant token doublers. This card snowballs games quickly and generates card advantage along the way to enhance your pressure.

#20. Ezio Auditore da Firenze

Prior to the Assassin’s Creed set, assassins were a rather niche creature type concentrated in black, with a few Dimir commanders () like Ramses, Assassin Lord and Etrata, Deadly Fugitive. But ACR changed all that when it introduced a slew of new assassins that included Ezio Auditore da Firenze, who has become the assassin commander.

And it makes sense. The activated ability gives Ezio access to all the juicy new assassins ACR gave us as well as the old classics, not to mention an ability that lets you deal 25% less damage to your opponents to win. Toss in a little cost reduction, and you have a great card!

#19. Tom Bombadil

If you want to have a jolly good time with sagas, you can draw on Tom Bombadil to access all the best stories you can think of. Allowing your dying sagas to become fresh sagas chains value for days, and Tom Bombadil’s built-in protection makes it hard for your opponents to stop it.

#18. Dr. Madison Li

Dr. Madison Li has the distinction of being one of the most popular energy commanders—a relatively recent development as there weren’t enough energy cards to make a proper Commander deck before Fallout breathed new life into the archetype. The combination of artifact synergies and energy lets Li do some pretty impressive things, not the least of which is provide a steady stream of card advantage.

#17. Tidus, Yuna’s Guardian

Tidus, Yuna's Guardian is one of the latest entries in the deep ranks of Bant () good stuff, this time themed around +1/+1 counters. Bant is probably the best color combination for counters, as Simic () and Selesnya () have the most counter support; the combination of both gives you the best payoffs for the archetype. I also like how well this works with ability counters and shield counters, adding a touch more diversity to the deck. Altogether, Tidus is a powerful counters commander, even if it never really goes beyond being another counters commander.

#16. Emet-Selch, Unsundered / Hades, Sorcerer of Eld

Emet-Selch, Unsundered is a fine card, but this commander’s value lies squarely in Hades, Sorcerer of Eld. It’s just Yawgmoth's Will on a stick! A well-built Hades deck ought to win the turn it flips, or at least aim for it. This commander absolutely goes down as one of the strongest in the UB sets.

#15. Mr. House, President and CEO

Mr. House, President and CEO has cornered the market on dice-rolling mechanics. They’re fairly uncommon and largely regulated to the D&D sets, but Mr. House provides a convincing win condition. It often produces multiple Robot tokens a turn to overwhelm your opponents, and you can cash in Treasure—from Mr. House or many other Mardu cards—to sway the odds in your favor.

#14. Marneus Calgar

If you want to support an archetype without much fuss, give them card draw. That’s the approach Marneus Calgar takes, to great success. This commander sets up ugly board states where you have a Bitterblossom trigger in your upkeep, some planeswalkers that make something during your main phase, a Veteran Soldier in combat, and you’re suddenly drawing 10 cards a turn while presenting a lethal strike force. Oh, and it has no shortage of combos with cards like Nadir Kraken. It takes very little effort for this to dominate a game.

#13. The Wandering Minstrel

The trick to building The Wandering Minstrel well is to ignore three-fourths of the card. Building around towns doesn’t give you anything because the synergies within are so scant. But building around an Amulet of Vigor in your opening hand every game? That’s where this card’s power lies: You can exploit bounce lands like an Amulet Titan deck. It could even be a good gates commander since the archetype’s biggest weakness is 80% of its mana base enters tapped.

#12. Storm, Force of Nature

Wizards took a literal approach when they brought Storm, Force of Nature to Magic, but it’s pretty cool. Giving storm to cards that weren’t supposed to have storm sets up wild turns unlike anything else. I really appreciate how well Storm sets itself up; you can use one turn to fire off cards like Escape to the Wilds or Growth Spiral to set up the turn you actually win with Lightning Bolt or whatever.

#11. Iron Man, Titan of Innovation

Iron Man, Titan of Innovation gives artifacts the Birthing Pod treatment, which is a great way to embody the idea of invention and technological prowess. But this card has more than flavor; it has genuine power. You always start with something since Iron Man makes a Treasure, which you can often transmute into a Sol Ring. But it goes much further, and you can construct powerful pod lines with a little work.

#10. Y’shtola, Night’s Blessed

If you’re building a control deck, you really want card advantage out of the command zone, which Y'shtola, Night's Blessed provides in spades. You can draw cards off the life loss triggers, but it’s far more effective to enchant it with Curiosity or one of its many variants to draw cards whenever you poke your opponents. The combination of pressure and card draw gives you all the tools you could need to win a drawn-out game of EDH.

#9. Alexios + Slicer

Alexios, Deimos of Kosmos and Slicer, Hired Muscle are incredibly similar cards: They’re some of the best aggressive commanders in the game. They’re ranked together despite being slightly different because they exploit the same mechanic. These commanders excel because they can attack four times a turn cycle, providing far more pressure than the most suited up Voltron commander in other colors. A pod that isn’t ready to handle aggressive decks like these can be quite overwhelmed.

I’m quite impressed at Wizards’ ability to capture the spirit of Red Deck Wins in a format naturally hostile to aggro decks.

#8. Aragorn, the Uniter

Aragorn, the Uniter is one of the most popular and powerful LTR commanders because everybody loves a multicolor good-stuff pile, and this card does it better than most. It takes very little for this 4-color commander to snowball away with a game. It even threatens quick, commander-damage based wins if you pair its insane power boost with cards like Temur Battle Rage and Berserk.

#7. Caesar, Legion’s Emperor

Caesar, Legion's Emperor combines aristocrats and tokens into a delightfully aggressive shell. It does a little of everything: You get a sacrifice outlet, token creation, card draw, and a finisher packaged into a single, efficient legend.

#6. Deadpool, Trading Card

And the award for the most unique Universes Beyond commander goes to… Deadpool, Trading Card! No other card comes close to this absurd yet fitting effect, and I doubt we’ll see it in the future.

It plays best with red’s many copy effects to create clones of Deadpool that permanently rob your opponents of relevant text boxes and replace them with memes and shattered dreams. I really like the chaotic feel without resorting to true chaos cards that randomize everything in a game.

#5. Be’lakor, the Dark Master

Be'lakor, the Dark Master boasts incredible power. This captures the idea of demons very well: It’s a massive creature that wins the game quite easily without a dash of holy water. It often lends itself to a demonic flicker deck, both to exploit the enters ability and to burn your opponents out. A reanimation subtheme serves this commander well since demons are often expensive—but cards like Rakdos, the Showstopper and Vilis, Broker of Blood have the abilities to warrant their costs.

#4. The Wise Mothman

The Wise Mothman takes an intriguing approach to Sultai () counters, incorporating black into the traditionally Simic archetype by tying your counter production to self-mill. Its ability isn’t restricted to your turn or once a turn either, so you can reap incredible rewards with the help of cards like Mesmeric Orb and rad counters to mill your opponents on their turns. You aren’t even restricted to putting counters on your creatures, so you can politic! It’s no wonder that this flexible threat has become one of the most popular Sultai commanders.

#3. Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph

Izzet decks () have loved pingers for years—cards like Firebrand Archer and Thermo-Alchemist that produce damage when you sling spells. But those effects need a little oomph to handle the high life totals in Commander, which is where Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph comes onto the scene. It greatly increases your damage output and combos well with cards like Curiosity, Sigil of Sleep, and Basilisk Collar to exploit Starn’s consistent damage.

#2. Galadriel, Light of Valinor

Galadriel, Light of Valinor offers disguising value just for playing creatures. Have you ever turned Shrieking Drake into Dark Ritual? What about Preordain? And putting counters across the team has to be worth at least 2 mana. All of that sounds powerful enough, but don’t forget that flickering Galadriel resets the alliance ability, which allows you to get all three modes over and over.

#1. Vivi Ornitier

Vivi Ornitier is an astoundingly powerful commander. It deals plenty of damage, but the mana production is far more alluring. I’ve mentioned Curiosity a lot, but Vivi’s another commander that takes advantage of it and variants like Ophidian Eye and Tandem Lookout.

In addition to those cards, you can exploit the power-based ramp with combat tricks like Wild Ride and Monstrous Rage that become rituals in Vivi’s hands. Since the activated ability requires no tapping, Displacer Kitten comes in clutch to get multiple activations for complex turns that reward you with a win.

Are There Too Many Commanders in Universes Beyond?

I don’t think so. Legendary creatures have always been a way for Magic’s designers to highlight prominent characters within the story, like Thalia, Niv-Mizzet, and Jhoira. It makes perfect sense to apply that treatment to the characters within adapted properties to highlight them just the same.

It’s fan service, yes, but I struggle to see that it matters. These sets would have X number of cards anyway; I’ve yet to see evidence that them being legendary creatures or not meaningfully impacts them. Though product fatigue is a very real issue for Magic players, that has more to do with the sheer volume of sets shoveled at us rather than the ever-increasing numbers of legends.

Commanding Conclusion

Aragorn, King of Gondor | Illustration by Yongjae Choi

Universes Beyond sets have ingrained themselves in Magic, especially Commander: Some of the most popular, unique, and/or powerful legends have come from UB sets, and that trend looks set to continue in the foreseeable future.

Do you like UB sets? Do you wish they had fewer commanders? Let me know in the comments below or in the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!