The Best Commanders In Foundations

Key Takeaways

• Aurelia excels in hyper-aggressive plays, her low-cost ability to go infinite can overwhelm opponents.
• Koma offers an uncounterable ability, trample, and triggers to swiftly take down foes.
• Elenda boasts powerful protection and becomes a menacing threat in Vampire decks with life gain.

Commander is one of Magic: The Gathering’s most popular formats, so it makes sense that Foundations, a set meant to serve as a hopping-on point for the game, would be loaded with all sorts of cool new and returning Legendary Creatures.

There are comboing Dragons, Vampires with incredible protection, and Merfolk that accrue so much card advantage that it can be staggering. All these cards and more make up the Legendary Creature suite that you get to pick from when brewing a new Commander deck. If you’re looking for some inspiration, we’ve got all the best cards to pick up from Foundations.

10

Aurelia, The Warleader

The Combat Queen

If you’re looking for a deck that is hyper-aggressive and can close out a game incredibly quickly, then look no further than Aurelia, the Warleader. This reprint comes from 2013’s Gatecrash set, part of the Return to Ravnica block, and has been a staple in Commander since.

There are all sorts of ways to make Aurelia go infinite, giving you all the combat steps you need to take down your opponents. She practically builds herself when it comes to deck design, especially with cards that give you nonlegendary copies, or that blink her, letting you keep attacking multiple times in the same turn.

9

Koma, World-Eater

He’s Hungry

Koma makes a return in Foundations, getting an incredibly powerful creature that can overwhelm your opponents in just a turn or two. This seven-mana creature has a huge stat line at 8/12, and even better, it has trample, which is something large creatures often lack.

With that trample, you get a huge damage trigger, giving you four 3/3 Serpent creature tokens, Koma’s Coils, anytime you deal damage to a player. Even better, this Koma keeps the uncounterable ability that the original has, making this a threat that many players won’t be able to beat.

8

Loot, Exuberant Explorer

Free Creatures

Loot makes a huge return after their debut in Outlaws of Thunder Junction. This time though, they’re mono green. Loot, Exuberant Explorer lets you play an extra land on your turn, helping to ramp you up to use their second ability.

This one costs six mana, but lets you look at the top six cards of your deck, grabbing a creature from among those cards and putting it directly into play. The drawback is that creature has to have a mana cost equal to or lower than the number of lands you have, but that’s super easy to get around in green.

7

Muldrotha, The Gravetide

The Graveyard Is Just Another Hand

Losing a card to the graveyard doesn’t have to be the end of that card when you’re playing a commander like Muldrotha, the Gravetide. This three-color commander lets you replay permanent spells and lands from your graveyard, though only once per permanent.

This type of deck loves a little self-mill to get it going, while also having plenty of ramp to be able to recast those cards. Muldrotha works particularly well with cards that sacrifice themselves for effects and Sagas, which have a built-in time limit until they’re put into the graveyard.

6

Alesha, Who Laughs At Fate

Who Combos At Your Opponents

She can’t stop mocking existential concepts, it’s Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate, coming back in Foundations with a new card. Despite losing a color, Alesha is still a very strong Commander that can do some neat reanimation tricks.

Her ability is a raid trigger now instead of a mana-based one and lets you return a creature with a mana value less than or equal to Alesha’s power from your graveyard to the battlefield. Some immediate creatures you could bring back include Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger, and Blood Artists for maximum value.

5

Zimone, Paradox Sculptor

Get Those Counters

Zimone has been popping up quite a bit in Magic’s recent lore, and Zimone, Paradox Sculptor, takes your counters and upgrades them to heights never before imagined.

At the start of your combat step, Zimone distributes a +1/+1 counter to up to two creatures you control, which is good, but not game breaking. You can then pay two mana and tap her to double the number of counters on up to two creatures and artifacts you control. This is where the shenanigans can spiral out of control, with cards like Millennium Calendar and Champion of Lambholt giving you incredible value.

4

Elenda, Saint Of Dusk

The Saint Of Bloodsuckers

Returning from her awakening on Ixalan, Elenda, Saint of Dusk comes back with a very powerful ability that protects her from most removal spells your opponents will send your way. Elenda has hexproof from instants, giving her protection from your opponents’ spells but letting you target her all day long with yours.

Which is good, since her second ability turns her into a juggernaut on the battlefield. If you have more life than your starting total, she becomes a 5/5 with menace. And if you have ten or more life over your starting value, she becomes a 10/10, which is a huge threat, especially in a Vampire deck.

3

Tatyova, Benthic Druid

Put Those Lands To Work

One of the strongest uncommon Commanders around, Tatyova, Benthic Druid might be a bit on the expensive side, but in Simic that’s no problem at all. For five mana you get a 3/3 Merfolk Druid with a strong landfall ability.

Anytime a land comes into play under your control, you get to draw a card and gain a life, giving you card advantage and sustain all in one. Simic excels in generating tons of value already, making her a powerful addition to the set.

2

Lathril, Blade Of The Elves

One of the most popular Commanders around makes a return in Foundations, and gets a fancy alternate art card for the first time since her debut. Lathril, Blade of the Elves is a kindred Elf commander, generating 1/1 Elf Warrior tokens anytime she deals combat damage to a player.

You can then press your advantage once you have enough Elves out by tapping Lathril and ten of your Elves to drain each of your opponents for ten life while you gain ten. Lathril is an incredibly powerful Commander that can quickly close out a game in just a few turns.

1

Niv-Mizzet, Visionary

Izzet Niv Is Back

Foundations pulls inspiration from all across Magic’s timeline, and Niv-Mizzet is here from his time as the Izzet Guildmaster to combo out once again. With less of a restrictive mana cost, Niv-Mizzet, Visionary removes your handsize limit and gives you a new ability to work with.

Anytime a source of yours deals noncombat damage to an opponent, you get to draw that many cards. The silliest thing about this Niv-Mizzet is that he combos with his older iterations, going infinite with Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind which is bound to be a blast to pull off.