The Best Commanders In Foundations Jumpstart

Key Takeaways

• Foundations Jumpstart adds new cards and reprints to create exciting commander options.
• Legendary creatures like Gornog and Slinza offer unique abilities for strategic gameplay.
• Classic commanders like Krenko and Vilis bring tried and tested dynamics to the game.

Magic: The Gathering’s Jumpstart sets are not just a great way to learn how to play, they also often combine creative new cards with much-needed reprints. Foundations Jumpstart, the third such set, is no exception to that.

Foundations Jumpstart includes plenty of cards vying for your attention as the head of your next commander deck. Whether it’s an ol’ faithful getting a new printing, or a brand new commander offering up new opportunities, it wouldn’t be Jumpstart without some eyecatching legendary creatures thrown in.

10

Gornog, The Red Reaper

Flee In Terror, Cowards

Cowards have long been a thing in Magic, but Gornog is perhaps the commander that best puts the mechanic to use. By combining it with a Warrior kindred theme, Gornog can turn the board state into one that simply can’t block anything.

There are a huge number of Minotaur Warriors, so Gornog could fit well into other kindred decks, like the original Jumpstart’s Sethron, Hurloon General.

Gornog’s ability triggers per opponent you attack, and so the play here is to amass a large board of Warriors and hit all of your opponents at once. Combine it with cards like Pyrophobia to let your few non-Warriors through, or Kargan Intimidator to make even more creatures unable to block.

9

Slinza, The Spiked Stampede

Go Beast Mode

Beasts are a surprisingly underrated creature type in Magic. Plenty of creatures are Beasts, and there are tons of ways to make Beast tokens, but a lot of the go-to Beast commanders are quite underwhelming. Slinza is here to solve that.

On top of reducing the cost of your Beasts by two, it buffs them with +1/+1 counters and can even use Beasts entering to bite an opponents’ creature’s face off. Getting an Elder Gargaroth out for just three mana is wild enough, but consider dropping a Rampaging Baloth and having Slinza fight every time you play a land. Or just throw down a Craterhoof Behemoth and call it a day.

8

Sai, Master Thopterist

Oh Look, Another Artifact

Foundations Jumpstart has lots of reprints of classic commanders too, like Sai, Master Thopterist. He may look unassuming, but his ability to create 1/1 Thopters makes him a huge threat if he goes unchecked.

Chuck in a Mycosynth Lattice, and Sai will be working overtime pumping out Thopters.

You could build up a huge board as early as turn two, provided you have enough zero-mana artifacts and Sai out in play. From there, it’s as easy as having cards like Inspiring Statuary to use those artifacts to cast just about anything you want, and others like Whir of Invention to search for what you need.

7

Shroofus Sproutsire

Doesn’t Leave Mushroom For Other Creatures

While Shroofus fits nicely in any existing Saproling deck, he also works very well as the commander of his own build, too. He rewards both go-wide and go-tall decks with an explosion of Saprolings, provided you can land enough damage.

Saproling decks tend to swarm your opponent under a wave of 1/1 creatures. Or, you could blend all your Saprolings into a taste +X/+X buff with Nemata, Grove Guardian, only to make them all back when Shooruf connects.

Make sure you’re using cards like Doubling Season and Parallel Lives to double up the number of Saprolings you’re making, while you’re at it. Once you have an infestation, Saproling Symbiosis can be utterly explosive, proving Shroofus is much more dangerous than he looks.

6

Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin

It’s Krenko. It’s Goblins. You Know The Drill.

Krenko is another classic of Commander, fueling nightmarish Goblin decks for many years. Though this isn’t the best Krenko card around (that’d be Krenko, Mob Boss), Tin Street Kingpin can still go incredibly hard with the right build.

He’s kind of like Shroofus in that both turn their power into 1/1 creatures. But Krenko doesn’t need to land any damage – he just makes Goblins when he attacks. You could build him up with +1/+1 counters, buffs, and, of course, Equipment and Auras to help blast out an entire warren of Gobbos all at once.

His ability is terrifying on its own, but then you start putting cards like Impact Tremors, Bravado, and Goblin Bombardment in there to potentially take your opponents out without having to lay a finger on them.

5

Adeline, Resplendent Cathar

Humanity Continues To Be The Biggest Threat

Continuing the trend of making swarms of creatures, Adeline is here to show why Humans are still one of the most powerful creature types in all of Magic.

On the one hand, Adeline can’t make as many tokens as a Shroofus or a Krenko, with her hard limit being equal to the number of opponents you control. But Adeline isn’t just making tokens for the sake of it – each creature you control makes her bigger.

It’s also very easy to protect your Humans with cards like Coppercoat Vanguard, or make them all bigger with a Goldnight Commander or Cathar’s Crusade. They also help trigger card draw through Welcoming Vampire or Mentor of the Meek, or can slip through combat unopposed with an Odric, Master Tactician.

4

Giada, Font Of Hope

Biblically Accurate Commander

Mono-white is feasting in Foundations Jumpstart, with not only one of the best Human commanders in Adeline, but also one of the best Angel commanders in Giada.

Giada takes every Angel you play and makes them progressively more terrifying. Each one enters with a +1/+1 counter for every other Angel you control, meaning the more you play, the bigger they get, and the worse it hurts for your opponents.

On top of that, Giada can tap to help pay for Angels you cast. It could be a Righteous Valkyrie to gain you tons of life, or a Herald of War to reduce the cost even further. When you’re really not messing around, Sephara, Sky’s Blade makes all your other creatures with flying – including Giada – indestructible.

Righteous Valkyrie synergises really nicely with Valkyrie Harbinger, to ensure you have at least a few new Angels entering every turn.

3

Taeko, The Patient Avalanche

Hero In A Half-Shell

A 4/5 for four mana already makes Taeko a beefy boy ready to block lots of threats, but his real strength lies in Ninjas. By bouncing things back to your hand, Taeko can get bigger and filter your library through scrying – and Ninjas often have the Ninjutsu ability to help reliably trigger this.

Once you’ve built Taeko up big enough with bouncing (or even blinking, which is an interesting theme for blue/black commanders), you can simply pay one blue or one black to make him, or anything else, unblockable.

It’s incredibly easy to set up a board state full of creatures, then play a Consuming Tide to get a whole stack of Taeko triggers, before swinging in for lethal commander damage with an unblockable Turtle. You’re playing in black, so a Vorpal Sword could also make it a lot easier to close out the game.

2

Aphelia, Viper Whisperer

Give The Whole Table Ophidiophobia

Any card that has the words “that player loses half their life, rounded up” on it is scary enough, but it’s even scarier when all you need to do is land a hit with one of Magic’s slipperiest creature types.

Aphelia can make 1/1 Snake tokens when she attacks, which is a neat way of preventing crackback. But the real threat is her five-mana ability. Hit with a Gorgon or a Snake, and that player loses half their life. You can’t knock someone out of the game this way, but you can get them dreadfully close and finish off the job with some more slithery creatures.

Hythonia The Cruel is one of the strongest cards for this deck. Just by making her monstrous, you destroy all non-Gorgons – a rare creature type that both Aphelia and Hythonia have – and open the way for you to drain your opponents for all they have.

1

Vilis, Broker Of Blood

Proving Life Is Just Another Resource Since 2019

Griselbrand is one of the most infamously broken in cards in Commander, leading it to being banned many years ago. Vilis is almost like a fixed version of Griselbrand, which is still an utter nightmare for your opponents to deal with.

Whenever you lose life, you draw that many cards. This, effectively, is Griselbrand, albeit without the lifelink to get what you paid back. Simply get any activated ability with a life cost, like Deepwood Ghoul or Doom Whisperer, and you can draw upwards of 39 cards in a single go. Setting up a game-winning combo is easy when you have most of your deck in your hand.

On top of that, Vilis himself has ways to deal with threats, turning life and black mana into -1/-1 on a creature. You could take out that indestructible creature an opponent controls and draw cards all at the same time, proving Vilis is still the king of value.