Best Pauper Commanders In Foundations

There are a ton of uncommon creatures in Magic: The Gathering’s Foundations set, and with that comes toys for the Pauper Commander format to play with. In Pauper Commander, any uncommon creature can be used as a commander (it does not need to be legendary), and the 99 other cards must be common.

Unlike traditional Commander, in Pauper Commander you start with 30 life and only need 16 commander damage to lose that way; everything else is exactly like Commander. In Foundations, there are over 100 Pauper Commanders players can use (some new and some old). They all vary in power, but some stand out from the rest as the strongest available in the set.

10

Cat Collector

Lifegaining Kitties

Cat Collector is a straightforward commander. With your first instance of lifegain on your turn, you’ll get a 1/1 Cat token to go with it. While this does only trigger on your turn, it is easy to flood the battlefield with Cats as the game goes on.

A Cat Collector deck would be one based around lifegain. There are a ton of common cards that gain you life when a creature enters the battlefield, so you can get a ton of triggers off of just one Cat Collector trigger. The lower life totals for Pauper Commander make lifegain stronger and Cat Collector a stronger commander than others.

9

Needletooth Pack

Removal Into Counters

Needletooth Pack is a unique commander that acts perfectly as one focused on +1/+1 counters. The morbid ability triggers off any creature dying, not just your own, so you can utilize fight spells as a way to ensure a creature will die, and Needletooth Pack’s ability will go off.

There are a few different ways to build a Needletooh Pack deck. You can opt for a more Voltron build (loading it with Auras, Equipment, and +1/+1 counters) or a more generic counters deck spreading +1/+1 counters to multiple different creatures to go wide.

8

Mischievous Mystic

Drawing For Faeries

Mischievous Mystic is a great commander choice if you love drawing cards. There is no shortage of ways to draw your second card a turn in blue, which will create a 1/1 Faerie with flying when you do. Mischievous Mystic triggers on every turn, so if you have a lot of ways to draw cards at instant speed, you can potentially get three triggers before your turn comes back around.

Mischievous Mystic is all about keeping your hand full of cards while slowly building up an army of flying Faeries. Although it has to be a mono blue deck, this restriction isn’t too hard since the best card draw spells are in blue anyway.

7

Clinquant Skymage

Drawing With Voltron

Clinquant Skymage is a different take on Voltron, wanting you to draw as many cards as you can, as each card draw will give it a +1/+1 counter. This includes your draw per turn, so Clinquant Skymage will gain at least one +1/+1 every turn cycle.

All you need is a few protection spells to make it harder, if not impossible, to target Clinquant Skymage, many of which are available in blue. It is a bit slower, but once Clinquant Skymage hits the battlefield, it can very quickly snowball.

6

Vampire Gourmand

Unblockable Sacrifice

Vampire Gourmand is an interesting commander, as you want it to be your main source of damage. You can give it stat boosts and Equipment to make sure it can deal a ton of damage. Surrounding it, you want other creatures to sacrifice to make sure it connects for damage while also drawing you cards.

A Vampire Gourmand Pauper Commander deck wants both ways to grow Vampire Gourmand’s stats and a way to generate a lot of sacrifice fodder. It works especially well with other sacrifice payoffs that can deal damage when a creature dies.

5

Wardens Of The Cycle

Death For Advantage

Wardens of the Cycle rewards you for having a creature die by either gaining you a bit of life or getting you a card into your hand at the end step. Golgari (black/green) is one of the best color combinations for removal and ensuring a creature dies, so triggering the morbid ability is rather easy.

Wardens of the Cycle works best as a commander that helps build advantage rather than being the main source of damage. It’s a great value engine, while the other 99 cards handle more of the heavy lifting to close out games.

4

Perforating Artist

Attack And Burn

Raid is a great ability as it triggers whenever you attack, not just when the creature with it attacks. That’s what makes Perforating Artist so good. Once it’s on the battlefield, you never have to put it in danger in combat. The raid can quickly drain your opponents, as the lower life totals make the three burn damage dangerous in the later stages of the game.

Perforating Artist has deathtouch as well, deterring your opponents from attacking their best creatures into you since you can offer a trade so long as Perforating Artist deals one damage to whatever it blocks. The deck benefits from not needing its commander; it just makes closing out games easier.

3

Fiendish Panda

Grow With Life

Fiendish Panda is an interesting commander as it can be played either as a focus on lifegain with its first effect or reanimate with its second effect. Often, it is better to focus on lifegain and growing Fiendish Panda’s stats. In general, a reanimator is much weaker in Pauper Commander.

Orzhov (white/black) is one of the best color combinations you can ask for when it comes to lifegian, so it is easy to ensure you’re always gaining life. If you have multiple instances of lifegain happening, each one will give a +1/+1 counter to Fiendish Panda individually to grow it quickly.

2

Vengeful Bloodwitch

Death To Life

Vengeful Bloodwitch is not just one of the best Pauper Commanders, it’s one of the best cards in Foundations period. It can quickly burn out opponents while gaining you life, triggering off of any creature you control dies. Black is the primary color of sacrifice, so it is trivial to sacrifice your creature for value while gaining life and burning opponents with Vengeful Bloodwitch.

With the lower life totals in Pauper Commander, the life total alterations Vengeful Bloodwitch offers are fantastic, as it’s a way to ensure you stay in the game while your opponents start to struggle.

1

Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen

Grows Elves, Gain Life

There are a ton of powerful Elves available in Pauper Commander, and Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen gives them all a minor stat boost. The main attraction comes from gaining life for every attacking Elf when Dwynen attacks. Elves are known for flooding the battlefield, so you’ll often be gaining a ton of life with Dwynen.

Even though Dwynen may die in combat when it attacks since it’s only a 3/4, Elves can easily generate a ton of mana, making it trivial to recast Dwynen. The amount of life you gain is incredibly high, making it much harder to be taken out of the game short of commander damage.