Best Commanders in EDH [Tier List] Part 1

Commander / EDH* smilodex

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Streets of New Capenna & Baldur's Gate Update 1 —June 21, 2022

Hello everyone,

sorry for the delay, but real life issues had priority (pun not intended) and had to be dealt with before we could take care of the update. Well, here it is:

You might notice, that we had to make some drastic changes. The list had to be split in two parts, because tappedout wouldn't allow us to make a list with more than 1300 items. That's why we now have a list that goes from Tier 0 (Titans) to Tier 6 (Mid Power) and a secondary list that has Tier 7 - 9.

Another thing you might notice is that we swapped a few commanders around. Some got upgraded, some downgraded. As always, please keep in mind that we give our best to be objective, but we are human and will always have some sort of bias, just because of our own personal experiences.

Furthermore, we changed the power rating of different commanders - The following commanders got a promotion:

The following commanders have been downgraded:

Finally, we have not yet included the "Background" Commanders, as they are really hard to assess, there are a ton of them with a ton of different combination and we want to take our time with that and see what brews people come up with in the near future and then, step by step, we'll add the missing commanders and the new commander backgrounds.

Commanders we currently reevaluate:

Thank you, for being patient! smilodex and Eisenherz

Don't forget to leave a like

+1 Upvote to be continued...

Knusperzenk says... #1

Will this list be updated anytime soon?

June 9, 2022 10:51 a.m.

Sephyrias says... #2

Nonary27 There are a lot of competitive/fringe competitive commanders in both sets.

New Capenna

Lagrella, the Magpie serves as Fiend Hunter in the command zone, letting you do sacrifice combos with Karmic Guide. She'll probably end up somewhere close to Saffi Eriksdotter.

Cormela, Glamour Thief combos with reanimator spells like Footsteps of the Goryo as long as you have cost reduction cards like Goblin Electromancer or a sac outlet that generates mana. I think she's pretty strong. Anhelo, the Painter is a grixis version of Kalamax, the Stormsire. Probably the best of the new Grixis commanders. Evelyn, the Covetous is weaker than it looks. I don't think there is an infinite blink/flicker/cloning combo piece that's also a vampire. Probably not better than Vela the Night-Clad, even with the extra color. Lord Xander, the Collector has a big impact on casual tables, but is nowhere near as relevant in competitive play. Would put him somewhere close to Evelyn.

Falco Spara, Pactweaver is an okay value engine, but you have to jump through extra hoops to go infinite with it compared to Elsha of the Infinite, so it will be a few tiers lower than Elsha. Rigo, Streetwise Mentor has to compete with Edric, Spymaster of Trest, they want to do more or less the same thing. I'm not sure if Rigo is better or worse.

Ognis, the Dragon's Lash does the same as Grand Warlord Radha. You get an extra color, but have the restriction regarding haste in exchange. Henzie "Toolbox" Torre is just a bad Grim Haruspex that can serve as pseudo-haste-enabler. Not weak, but also not very strong. Rocco, Cabaretti Caterer is a Wargate for creatures in the command zone. Might be the strongest Naya legend to date, although Marath, Will of the Wild is no joke either. Jolene, the Plunder Queen enables untap combos with Black Market Tycoon, but it just ends up being a much worse version of the Freed from the Real combos that other commanders can do.

None of the others are worth mentioning imo.

Commander Legends 2

Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward is similar to Lagrella, all about Fiend Hunter-type flicker/sacrifice combos. Candlekeep Sage is probably the best background for it. Alaundo the Seer is a simic version of Jhoira of the Ghitu, except that it's slower, but also draws cards. Bhaal, Lord of Murder is more or less an Odric's Outrider in the command zone, but that it only counts for nontoken creatures means you can't combo with Scurry Oak, so it's probably not that great. I think Duke Ulder Ravengard combos with Port Razer?

Gale, Waterdeep Prodigy sort of gives all your instants & sorceries flashback, which is usually very powerful. Not sure how good it ends up being in practice however. Ganax, Astral Hunter is basically just Galazeth Prismari. Kagha, Shadow Archdruid is yet another Golgari recursion commander, which are usually at least decent. Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter goes infinite with Clock of Omens and Liquimetal Coating.

Baba Lysaga, Night Witch, Bane, Lord of Darkness, Dynaheir, Invoker Adept, Gorion, Wise Mentor and Jaheira, Friend of the Forest have a lot of combo potential, but I'm not sure how to break them yet.

June 10, 2022 3:12 p.m.

Nonary27 says... #3

Thanks, Sephyrias, currently I'm thinking about making a Jaheira, Friend of the Forest deck, this card makes many underplayed cards like Gingerbread Cabin become very good, still picking the background, there is no background really impress me, Cloakwood Hermit seems decent but mono green means the fewer option

Also, I'm planning on getting a Captain N'ghathrod deck and making some small change, is there any good cheap cards should put in that deck?

At last, I wonder how is Ganax, Astral Hunter like Galazeth Prismari? I thought Galazeth is more like make artifacts rather than use etb

June 11, 2022 2 a.m.

smilodex says... #4

@Knusperzenk: Yes, we're currently working on an update.

June 11, 2022 8:29 a.m.

dazhaun says... #5

I have a legit complaint about this list: A 5 color deck with no commander at all is most certainly a CEDH deck. Tier 1. So why would Atogatog be low in the list? The same goes for a Grixis list, or even a Dimir list... As long as they have access to Demonic Consultation, Thassa's Oracle, Underworld Breach, dockside, brain freeze, etc, these decks can run without a commander at a CEDH table and do just fine.

June 15, 2022 10:22 p.m.

Eisenherz says... #6

dazhaun

This is not a Commander DECK tier list, but a COMMANDER tier list. Also please read the Tier description. A 5c Commander that provides no value to the deck is not a cEDH viable commander. It's strictly a worse option than other existing 5c commanders, which is not sense of cEDH. It's just meme-ing. Color identity is only one of many aspects when assessing a commander.

June 16, 2022 2:15 p.m.

dazhaun says... #7

I see your point Eisenherz. But it might be good to help people understand how certain decklists or specific cards in general are so high power that they could turn a low-tier commander into a cEDH deck... I've heard lots of arguments from people playing low-tiers with Thassa's oracle and Demonic Consultation saying "But I'm playing Tier 5!!", when this is definitely not true, their decklist is Tier 1. Maybe just a simple explanation of this concept would be helpful.

June 16, 2022 2:25 p.m.

smilodex says... #8

@dazhaun: Next time, please read the description, before you start complaining. We already wrote a comment about exact that problem. Thanks.

June 16, 2022 3:39 p.m.

Eisenherz says... #9

dazhaun

It appears to me that you have no experience with cEDH and thats totally fine, but concerning your argument about Thassas + Consult there is a critical flaw in your assessment: Yes, it is the most compact combo in the format, but it doesn't turn a high powered deck into a highly competitive deck just by itself. That's just not how competitive deck building works. You need a viable commander, a viable strategy, optimal card choices, the draw engines, tutors, ramp, interaction etc. to make a competitive deck. If you compared an "true" cEDH deck to a high powered deck that plays Oracle+Consult, you'd notice the difference in card advangage, resilency, speed, interaction etc.

Also keep in mind that tier lists are highly subjective. We try to be as objective as we can, but there is always a subjective bias, so do not take this list - or any list for that matter - as objective truth.

June 17, 2022 8:47 a.m.

dazhaun says... #10

@smilodex I did respectfully read your description and it was not sufficent to illustrate this point, because you say "This list is rating all the commanders and the best possible decks, which are playable with this particular commander." If you rock a Kenrith list underneath an atogatog, you'll still be running at the very worst a tier 1 deck, and will likely win many cEDH games. Of course while having a Tier 0 titan at the helm would make the deck have a vastly better win rate, this fine-tuned decklist would have a very high win rate at any non-cEDH table. You could expand your description to state this fact, because it is not just my opinion, it is the opinion of many experienced cEDH players. Head over to the cEDH discord if you want proof.

June 17, 2022 9:32 a.m.

smilodex says... #11

We don't rate the decks, we mostly rank the potential and strength of a commander.

"This list seeks to categorize all multiplayer COMMANDERS (we don't rate the decks, we rate the maximum potential of a certain commander)"

And I'm sure you see the difference between Kenrith and AtogAtog, right?

June 19, 2022 2:53 p.m.