The 29 Best Azorius Commanders Ranked

Last updated on April 17, 2024

Brago, King Eternal | Illustration by Karla Ortiz

Choosing your commander can be tough. There are so many options, so many colors, and so many themes to try. It can get overwhelming, which is why today I’m going to make it easy on you and showcase the Ravnica guild of Azorius (). Azorius is the control player’s dream color combination and one of my favorites in all of Magic.

To try and convince you that Azorius is the way to go I’m going to go over why Azorius is so strong, the best commanders and how to use them, and attempt to inspire you with an excellent Ephara, God of the Polis EDH deck.

Let’s get started!

Why Go with an Azorius Commander?

Millicent, Restless Revenant | Illustration by Denman Rooke

Azorius is all about tempo. Interaction is the most important part of any control deck and Azorius has some of the best. Having the right answer to combo, wiping the board and starting fresh, and filling your deck with great enter the battlefield creatures are all hallmarks of the guild.

If you’re like me and you love those long Commander games where anyone who can overcome the next board wipe wins then you’ll love Azorius.

#29. Geist of Saint Traft

In the last spot is one of my all-time favorite cards in Magic, Geist of Saint Traft. The Geist has seen less and less play as time goes on. It’s natural for older cards, but it’s still kicking and a great aggressive commander.

Since Geist’s entire livelihood revolves around attacking and making a beefy token you’re best off building its deck with cheap auras in mind. Not only will they protect your commander, but they also make it much scarier for your opponents. Auras like Spirit Mantle and Hyena Umbra go a long way towards protecting your commander.

#28. Raff, Weatherlight Stalwart

Raff, Weatherlight Stalwart is one of the more unassuming creatures on the list as a measly 1/3 for but offers plenty of card advantage and a mana sink in the command zone.

You’ll want a wide board to make the most of Raff’s ability. The ultimate goal is to get all of Azorius’s excellent interactive spells, like Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, and Dovin's Veto, even better by drawing a card with Raff’s ability. While a wide board and a bunch of instants and sorceries may seem anathema, the trick is to lean into white spells that make creatures.

Cards like Secure the Wastes, Raise the Alarm, and Martial Coup make a ton of creature tokens to tap to Raff ability while triggering it themselves once you have some creatures in play. A bunch of tokens are also great with Raff’s activated ability to finish the game.

#27. Daxos of Meletis

I love playing with my opponent’s cards, and Daxos of Meletis lets me do just that. It’s a reverse Dark Confidant of sorts, drawing cards and gaining life. Thanks to its evasive ability, Daxos also works as a Voltron commander.

You’ll want to enchant Daxos with the powerful auras white and blue get. Cards like Staggering Insight and Curious Obsession let Daxos draw even more cards while you can use Eel Umbra and Spirit Mantle for additional protection.

White has some of the best Aura support in the game, including cards like Open the Armory and Enlightened Tutor to find the best Aura for the job and enchantress effects like Mesa Enchantress and Kor Spiritdancer to draw even more cards as you beat your opponents down with a massive commander.

#26. Sygg, River Guide

Sygg, River Guide is the only merfolk commander to appear on the list today. In addition to having islandwalk, a very great keyword given the prevalence of blue in Commander, Sygg gives any merfolk protection from a color for just . This is amazing since it works as a fantastic shield against any kind of removal, blocker, or attacker. Just don’t forget to leave mana up.

There are great tribal artifacts to run in any merfolk deck in Commander. I’d recommend running at least Door of Destinies and Vanquisher's Banner, but you can go heavier with things like Coat of Arms if you want. There are also plenty of merfolk lords to play, like Merfolk Sovereign, Master of the Pearl Trident, and Merrow Reejerey.

#25. Tameshi, Reality Architect

This next commander is from Neon Dynasty, Tameshi, Reality Architect. Tameshi loves returning permanents to people’s hands, so much so that it gives you a card whenever it happens.

Its second ability is also wonderful. For and returning a land to your hand (which draws you a card!) you can return any artifact or enchantment with mana value X or less to the battlefield. This helps protect some of your more potent permanents, like Ghirapur Orrery, or return saga cards like Elspeth Conquers Death for more value.

#24. Errant and Giada

Errant and Giada is a typal commander all about flash and flying. A Future Sight in the command zone is a powerful ability that generates tons of card draw, even one as limited as this.

You’ll want to lean harder on flying cards than flash. There are tons of great cards to buff flying creatures like Favorable Winds, Thunderclap Drake, and Kangee, Sky Warden, as well as cost reducers like Watcher of the Spheres and Warden of Evos Isle.

The emphasis on flying doesn't mean you'll wholly ignore flash cards. There are some excellent options, especially interactive ones, like Cathar Commando, Cast Down, and Dress Down that make for delightful surprises off the top of your deck.

#23. Dragonlord Ojutai

It wouldn’t be a proper list of Azorius commanders without an appearance from Dragonlord Ojutai. Ojutai was one of the more merciful authoritarian dragons from Tarkir, but that mercy won’t be present when dealing with your opponents as your commander.

Dragonlord Ojutai has hexproof when it’s untapped and practically lets you Brainstorm whenever it does combat damage to a player. Brainstorm is one of the best cards in Magic for a reason and you want to get in for damage as much as possible with Ojutai.

Since you’re already hellbent on swinging in the air with one flier it makes sense to build the deck around a general fliers theme. There are plenty of great fliers in the Azorius colors with the best being Consecrated Sphinx, Mulldrifter, and Medomai the Ageless. Just make sure to include Gravitational Shift or Always Watching to keep things up in the air.

#22. Abdel Adrian, Gorion’s Ward + Candlekeep Sage

The background pairing of Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward and Candlekeep Sage makes for a powerful flicker Commander deck. Abdel is great in decks that use ETB abilities. You can use it to flicker those cards if you can flicker Abdel.

Abdel Adrian also functions as board protection. These decks can be vulnerable to board wipes, so putting all your creatures beneath Abdel protects you. All this flickering lets Candlekeep Sage draw tons of cards.

The real benefit to this combination is Abdel’s utility as a combo piece. It’s got amazing combos in black, but you can go infinite with Abdel, a flicker spell like Essence Flux or Ephemerate, and another creature that flickers Abdel like Restoration Angel or Felidar Guardian. You’ll get an infinite loop that makes endless soldiers and infinite triggers of whatever other ETB creatures you have laying around.

#21. Raff Capashen, Ship’s Mage

Playing the game at instant speed gives you far more flexibility than your opponents stuck playing with timing restrictions. Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage, lets you play all your historic spells whenever you’d like for a devious commander with lots of tricks up its sleeve.

You can benefit from playing spells on your opponent’s turns with cards like Wavebreak Hippocampus and Naiad of Hidden Coves. As for spells to flash in, you can do so much with a surprise Narset, Parter of Veils in response to a Brainstorm, an unexpected Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite when an opponent swings out at you, or a sudden The One Ring when somebody tries to take you out.

If you want to get obnoxious, Raff plays well with Rule of Law effects like Arcane Laboratory and Deafening Silence since you can always play your spells on your opponents turns for four spells a turn cycle while they’ll often be stuck at one, maybe two.

#20. Vega, the Watcher

The cube-class bird spirit, Vega, the Watcher is up next, which means we’re about halfway through today's rankings! Vega is a nice and simple commander that loves it when you cast cards from places other than your hand. So much so that it actually gives you a card each time you do it.

Foretell is one of the main mechanics that can supply you with reasonable Vega triggers. The mechanic is pretty great in Commander because your opponents have much less info as to what the foretold cards can be, and it makes the strategy far better than you think.

#19. Faramir, Prince of Ithilien

Faramir, Prince of Ithilien makes your table discussions very interesting by having you choose an opponent each round. Maybe you've made an ally and agreed to not kill any of their attackers, or you work with them and your refreshed army and take on a shared enemy.

There is little drawback to having this commander on the battlefield, because even if the game comes down to you and one opponent, Faramir helps you when you're playing defense by drawing extra cards, and if you're on the offensive, the three fresh tokens will be able to attack quickly since they basically were flashed in at your opponent's end step.

#18. Bruna, Light of Alabaster

Up next comes Bruna, Light of Alabaster, a 5/5 angel with flying and vigilance that’s all about auras. Whenever Bruna attacks it becomes a magnet for any auras on the battlefield (even your opponents’!), the graveyard, and your hand. Not having to play the auras directly beforehand makes it incredible and incentivizes you to get it in play and attacking as early as possible.

There are tons of powerful auras in white and having just one or two of the best defensive ones can make your commander pods a shut case. Spirit Mantle is great for defending against creatures, Indestructibility is an obvious one, Curator's Ward defends from Path to Exile, and the totem armor from Hyena Umbra lets Bruna survive a board wipe.

#17. Taigam, Ojutai Master

Taigam, Ojutai Master gives your spells rebound as long as it attacked this turn. Rebound exiles spells when you cast them and lets you cast them again for free on your next upkeep. This is very powerful because you’re essentially doubling your best spells.

You might think about all the card draw or value spells you can duplicate, like Ponder, Preordain, or Dig Through Time. These are all fine and dandy, but you should set your sights higher. Extra turns are going to be the absolute best ones here. They essentially all give you two extra turns, which is exponentially worse for your opponents.

#16. Urza, Lord Protector

While Urza, Lord Protector reduces the cost of instants and sorceries, we’re primarily interested in this commander as an enabler for a wicked artifact deck and an essential combo piece.

There are plenty of combos that use Sensei's Divining Top, a cost reducer, and a way to play it off the top of your library, like Mystic Forge to draw your entire deck and rack up a near-infinite storm count. Urza gives you one of those combo pieces right in the combo zone.

Once you’ve established a combo, you can easily win with Thassa's Oracle after drawing your deck or Aetherflux Reservoir with all the storm you’ve accumulated. You can use a bunch of powerful stax pieces like Esper Sentinel, Rhystic Study, and Ghostly Prison to slow the game down until you assemble a combo with all the artifact tutors available in Azorius.

#15. Zethi, Arcane Blademaster / Chun-Li, Thousand Kicks

Zethi, Arcane Blademaster (or Chun-Li, Thousand Kicks from Street Fighter) gives you a commander that copies endless spells for an incredible value. Because its ability uses the multikicker cost, you’ll want cards like Whitemane Lion and Niambi, Esteemed Speaker that return Zethi to your hand so you can cast it at multiple points in the game.

As for the spells you’ll want to copy, removal and card draw are easily at the top of the list. Repeated instances of Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Brainstorm, and Commence the Endgame close things out quickly. Spells like Shadow Rift and Loran's Escape are vital to attack into any board state.

There are some ways to benefit from all these copies. Twinning Staff and Strontic Resonator double up on all the spells you’ll cast off Zethi’s ability while cards like Sentinel Tower, Aetherflux Reservoir, and Sphinx-Bone Wand abuse the fact that these copies are cast.

#14. Elminster

Elminster is one of the few planeswalkers that can be your commander, and it gives Azorius a great, big-spells commander. Its static ability offers an incredible cost reduction that’s easily abused while creating a fleet of 1/1s to finish the game. It works so well because you get two ways to utilize your big spells: you can reduce their costs to make casting them much more manageable or you can exile them to build an instant board presence.

Top deck manipulation is important here. You’ll obviously want cards that allow you to scry repeatedly, like Gandalf, White Rider, Jace, Mirror Mage, and The Temporal Anchor, but ways to get big spells on top of your library for exiling like Brainstorm and Mystical Tutor are also essential.

As for the big spells, the first thing I’d turn to is extra turn spells. Cards like Alrund's Epiphany, Karn's Temporal Sundering, and Temporal Mastery are amazing in this deck. They’re great to cast at a discount, great to exile to make a bunch of tokens, and fantastic with a bunch of tokens in play since you can use them to get a bunch of extra combat steps to attack a player down. X spells are also great with cost reduction.

#13. Kotori, Pilot Prodigy

Kotori, Pilot Prodigy is a vehicles commander from Neon Dynasty Commander. It’s about time Azorius got an artifact commander, and what better way to start that off than with vehicles tribal.

Vehicles have been around for some time now which means there are enough pilot creatures, synergistic spells, and actual vehicles to fill up a Commander deck. The precon that its commander came out with has some pretty sweet vehicles you’d want to pick up, like Parhelion II and Weatherlight, but don’t miss out on some older classics like Heart of Kiran and Silent Submersible.

#12. Lavinia, Foil to Conspiracy

If you're playing Commander only on your turn, you're severely hampered.

The clause of only getting to ramp on your opponent's turn is a minor drawback considering how many flash enablers and instants in white and blue you should already be playing. Add in repeatable card advantage with investigations and you have the recipe for a solid commander.

Did I mention that ramp for white and blue is among the worst despite getting better in recent years? I'm excited to pull Lavinia, Foil to Conspiracy after a Ravnica: Clue Edition game and put it into a wooden deck box for commander night.

#11. Ephara, God of the Polis

Next up is a favorite of mine, Ephara, God of the Polis. Ephara is an O.G. god from original Theros block whose entire kit revolves around flickering your creatures to generate card advantage. Azorius loves bouncing creatures and returning them to the battlefield so you’ll always be able to get that extra card per turn.

There are more ways to bounce creatures than I can count so I want to focus on what you’ll actually be flickering. A lot of players new to the strategy get tunnel vision looking at creatures like Solitude, Reveillark, and Peregrine Drake and overlook the smaller ones that generate huge amounts of value in the long run. Charming Prince, Wall of Omens, and Elite Guardmage should all be included and flickered as much as possible.

#10. Kwain, Itinerant Meddler

Kwain, Itinerant Meddler, a 1/3 wizard rabbit commander that can tap and draw every player a card. Kwain is a great wheels commander, meaning it wants to be in a deck full of ways to draw cards and benefit from those draw triggers.

Blue has some great ways to win by just drawing cards. Triskaidekaphile, Laboratory Maniac, Thassa's Oracle, and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries all get the job done on their own. On the other hand, Narset, Parter of Veils can inadvertently win you the game when paired with a wheel effect from something like Windfall.

#9. Hylda of the Icy Crown

In Limited, Hylda of the Icy Crown was really hard to work with. In Commander, it's a whole different story and Hylda can take over easily. The interaction you get with Court Street Denizen, Minister of Impediments, and Sleep becomes incredible. White is stacked with tappers like Master of Diversion and Gideon's Lawkeeper. In blue, you gain access to repeating tappers such as Narcolepsy and Ghostly Touch.

Remember to make sure you can pay the for Hylda's triggered ability to make your board incredibly tough to deal with.

#8. Lavinia, Azorius Renegade

Lavinia, Azorius Renegade is a 2/2 human soldier for that restricts your opponents’ casting of noncreature spells to those with mana values less than or equal to the number of lands they control. In short it invalidates mana rocks while also countering free spells.

Lavinia is, as you can imagine, a stax and hate bear commander all the way. It’s practically asking for you to include Aven Mindcensor, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, and Grand Arbiter Augustin IV in your deck. Just don’t forget a win condition or two. Approach of the Second Sun works great if your opponents are as locked out as you’re hoping they’ll be.

#7. Yorion, Sky Nomad

Yorion, Sky Nomad luckily doesn’t dominate EDH to the extent of other formats, but it’s actually the greatest commander of all the companions. Yorion has an enter-the-battlefield effect that flickers any number of nonland permanents you control which becomes incredible if you build your deck correctly.

You’re basically throwing 30 creatures with ETB effects, some ways to flicker them, and some lands into a list and calling it a day. Teleportation Circle, Eerie Interlude, and Momentary Blink can help you get some value out of creatures before you slam Yorion, and there are plenty of creatures to choose from.

One thing I’ll mention is not to overlook playing your commander with only one or two creatures if you know you can play more and flicker it again. Yorion itself is the ultimate flicker target and is a strong one as long as you have two or three things to target with it.

#6. Will, Scion of Peace

Yes, your lifegain-turned ramp dream comes true thanks to Will, Scion of Peace. Will says that the soul sisters are welcome in this peaceful deck along with Pristine Talisman, Angel of Vitality, and the Nyx-Fleece Ram.

It's oddly limiting that you must tap to get your ramp, but thankfully vigilance helps mitigate this. If you're running some lifelink you have access to some big chunks of ramp, so be sure to bring in the X spells to really put an end to the game.

#5. Heliod, the Radiant Dawn

Heliod, the Radiant Dawn is kind of a silly commander. Take everything great I’ve said about Raff, Weatherlight Captain allowing you to play the game at instant speed, and all the benefits of Elminster’s cost reduction and staple them to the backside of this card.

The goal is simple: cast and flip Heliod, the Radiant Dawn into Heliod, the Warped Eclipse as soon as possible. On your opponent’s turns, you want to start casting wheels like Windfall and Timetwister. One wheel that makes your opponents draw seven cards each reduces the cost of your spells by a whooping 21 mana.

There’s much to do with this mana reduction. You can play the lock combo of Karn, the Greater Creator and Mycosynth Lattice for free, drop crazy stax pieces like God-Pharaoh's Statue or Wandering Archaic, or keep it simple by casting free Eldrazi like Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth.

#4. Millicent, Restless Revenant

Millicent, Restless Revenant is up next. Millicent is by far the strongest spirit tribal commander. It supplies you with plenty of Spirit tokens to push more damage, overrun what blockers your opponents do have, and contribute towards triggers from cards like Mausoleum Wanderer.

Tribal decks are some of the strongest in Commander mostly because of how much support there is in the utility artifacts department. There are a lot of must-haves that take your deck's power level to the next level regardless of what creature type your deck is built around. These cards are Coat of Arms, Vanquisher's Banner, Herald's Horn, and Urza's Incubator. The mana cost reductions and board-wide buffs are to die for. Don’t miss out.

#3. Grand Arbiter Augustin IV

Here is a favorite of mine and one of the all-time popular commanders in Azorius, Grand Arbiter Augustin IV. Grand Arbiter is the grandfather of stax, a strategy that aims to lock players out of the game through stax pieces and other hate bears.

Most of your stax pieces will be in white regardless of how you build your deck. The best of the best that you can’t really skip out on are Vryn Wingmare, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Strict Proctor, and Wandering Archaic. These are by far the most powerful cards and lock your opponents out the hardest.

Blue makes up for not being great at stax by giving you great counterspells, card draw, and tutors. Mana Drain, Swan Song, and hyper-efficient counterspells like Force of Will and Force of Negation make sure that nothing slips through the cracks.

#2. Brago, King Eternal

Near the best of the best, we have Brago, King Eternal. Brago is another commander that loves to flicker any number of nonland permanents you control whenever it does combat damage to a player. You can imagine the strength in Brago Commander decks with having Yorion, Sky Nomad on a stick.

Having the ability to flicker everything you control is incredible and becomes unbeatable in the later stages of the game when you have plenty of permanents in play. Just imagine having Omen of the Sea, Peregrine Drake, Mulldrifter, Cloudblazer, and ten other ETB cards in play. That’s more value than your opponents can handle and I promise it’s as fun to play as it seems.

#1. Shorikai, Genesis Engine

Shorikai, Genesis Engine is the most-played Azorius commander by a mile. This commander offers value for decks that want cheap card draw and token production.

Shorikai is easily the best vehicle commander. This color combination gives you access to artifact support like Etherium Sculptor and Whir of Invention to start. Shorikai’s tokens make cards like Parhelion II, Skysovereign, Consul Flagship, and Reaver Titan even easier to crew.

Perhaps Shorikai’s greatest strength comes from its utility as a combo piece. These decks finish things off quickly with the Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter combo to generate infinite mana and draw their entire deck to win with cards like Thassa's Oracle or Walking Ballista, giving this deck a reasonable midrange gameplan around its vehicles and a powerful combo finish.

Decklist: Ephara, God of the Polis in EDH

Ephara, God of the Polis | Illustration by Eric Deschamps

Despite having come in towards the middle of the list, I decided to showcase an Ephara, God of the Polis Commander deck. This is a midrange budget list that wins by grinding out opponents through the value generated by its commander.

Ephara generates card advantage by having creatures enter the battlefield, which means most of your creature base are creatures with ETB effects and ways to flicker them. You have some incredible creatures you love to flicker like Solitude, Yorion, Sky Nomad, and Restoration Angel.

As for ways to actually flicker them, there are plenty of options in Azorius. Deadeye Navigator is a great way to get consistent triggers and has plenty of combo potential. Eldrazi Displacer flickers as long as you have a colorless land out to cast it. Last are plenty of creatures that flicker or return other creatures to your hand when they enter the battlefield, which means you can chain some abilities and really get things moving.

Get Better at Playing Control

If you are the controlling type of Azorius mage, I recommend checking out this course by Pro Tour expert Corey Burkhart. It goes incredibly in depth about every aspect of playing control decks – from card selection to in-game decision making.

Commanding Conclusion

Ranar the Ever-Watchful | Illustration by Kieran Yanner

That concludes everything I have for you today regarding Azorius commanders! I love Azorius and I’ve had so much fun playing around with Ephara, God of the Polis at my local game store. It’s an incredible deck that rewards timing and thinking through your turns in advance.

But what do you think of the rankings? Were they about what you expected or were you shocked by any of my placements? Feel free to let me know in the comments or over in the official Draftsim Discord.

Until next time, stay safe and stay healthy!