The Best Cycling Commanders In MTG

Summary

• Cycling commanders offer unique strategies, like generating mana or copying creatures for advantages.
• Powerful cycling pairs like Zirda and Brallin/Shabraz offer discounted costs and enhanced combat abilities.
• Sefris and Gavi excel in reanimating and discounting cycling costs, making them ideal for cycling-themed decks.

Cycling is a very old mechanic in Magic: The Gathering, first introduced all the way back in 1998’s Urza’s Saga set. With how old the mechanic is, there have been a ton of cards released with the ability.

The prevalence extends to Commander, with a ton of cards released that help bolster up the archetype in that format. There are a lot of cards that make for fantastic cycling commanders if you want to build a deck built around the mechanic, whether they call out cycling by name or just pair well with the mechanic. These commanders make for a great choice to lead your decks.

10

Queza, Augur Of Agonies

Turn Cycling Into Pain

The cycling mechanic discards a card in your hand with cycling to discard a card (with some minor exceptions that tutor for a specific card instead). As such, each time you cycle a card you’ll trigger Queza, Augur of Agonies’ effect. Though the burn and life gain is small on its own, with how much cycling you’ll do, this adds up quickly.

Thanks to Queza’s Esper (white/blue/black) color identity, you have access to many of the best cycling support cards, namely in white and blue, which have a lot of options to choose from when it comes to filling your deck with cycling cards.

9

Rielle, The Everwise

Double Draw

A notable strength of cycling is that you can get rid of weaker cards to draw into cards that are stronger. Rielle, the Everwise makes this even better, as the first time you discard a card (which you do through cycling) you’ll draw an extra card. This means one card getting cycled will draw you two cards instead of one.

You can cycle at instant speed, allowing you to trigger Rielle on your opponents’ turns as well. A lot of instant and sorcery cards have cycling as well, making it trivial to boost up Rielle’s attack to make it a threat.

8

Toluz, Clever Conductor

Cycle And Bring Them Back

Normally, once you cycle a card away you aren’t getting it back. This is something Toluz, Clever Conductor changes as it instead exiles it, and brings it back to your hand whenever Toluz dies (be it in combat or by sacrificing it yourself for an effect).

Toluz allows you to bring all the cards you cycled into your graveyard back into your hand to then start the process all over again. This is especially strong with cards that can cycle themselves for free. The one downside is that the cards won’t return to your hand if Toluz gets exiled instead of dying.

7

Hashaton, Scarab’s Fist

Zombified Cycling

Hashaton, Scarab’s Fist can make a token copy of whatever creature you cycle so long as you pay three mana to do so. A lot of powerful creatures only require one mana to cycle, letting you keep the rest of your mana generators for Hashaton’s effect to make sure you copy it.

The one downside to Hashaton is that when it comes to more expensive cycling cards, it costs almost as much mana to make a copy as it does to cast the spell itself. You have to be careful with what you’re copying, as you don’t want to waste mana on creating a copy instead of casting the permanent.

6

Ellie And Alan, Paleontologists

Discover Through Cycling

Ellie and Alan, Paleontologists pair very well with all the creature cards that have cycling (and there are a lot of them). The idea is to cycle a creature into your graveyard to then exile with Ellie and Alan, discovering into a new spell.

The creature cards that have cycling often have high mana values, which work perfectly with Ellie and Alan. There are a lot of fantastic hits you can get off of Ellie and Alan, potentially casting a giant spell without ever spending mana to actually cast it (just the mana used to cycle the creature in the first place).

5

Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix//Ravos, Soultender

Partner To Cycle

As far as the generic partner commanders go, Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix and Ravos, Soultender is the best pairing for it. You get access to all colors except red, giving you the opportunity to play with most of Magic’s cycling cards.

Kydele is a great way to generate mana, as each card you cycle gives a colorless mana that Kydele can generate, either to cycle more or to cast spells. Ravos’ stat boost is nice, but what makes it great for cycling is you can return a creature from the graveyard to your hand to get back a card with cycling so you can always be cycling.

4

Zirda, The Dawnwalker

Discounted Cycling

Zirda, the Dawnwalker is a solid companion (that’s even banned in Legacy), but makes for a fantastic cycling commander. It makes all abilities cost two less mana to activate, which is great for discounting cards with more expensive cycling costs.

Boros (white/red) is one of the best color combinations when it comes to cycling, allowing Zirda to play with many of the strongest cycling support cards. The effect to make a creature unblockable comes up as well when combined with cards that grow in stats when you cycle a card.

3

Brallin, Skyshark Rider // Shabraz, The Skyshark

Opposites Attract

Brallin, Skyshark Rider and Shabraz, the Skyshark partner with each other, and both have a similar but different effect. Brallin deals burn damage and grows in stats while Shabraz gains you life. Their activated abilities on both make the other more threatening in combat, either by making it more guaranteed to get damage in, or making one of them more evasive.

Whenever you cycle a card, you’ll be triggering both of the partners, as the discard activates Brallin, and the card draw triggers Shabraz. There are a lot of cards that can cycle for just one mana (and in some cases, for free), letting you deal a lot of burst damage together.

2

Sefris Of The Hidden Ways

Cycle Through The Dungeon

Sefris of the Hidden Ways is one of the easiest ways to venture through dungeons. It triggers whenever a creature card goes to the graveyard, so cycling a creature is a great way to trigger Sefris. While the effect only triggers once per turn, since cycling can be done at instant speed, you can get four triggers of it in one turn cycle.

Once you complete a dungeon, you can reanimate any creature from the graveyard. This can be used to either bring back a powerful creature you put there earlier to reanimate, or to bring back a card with cycling that has a great ability.

1

Gavi, Nest Warden

The Built-For Cycling Commander

Gavi, Nest Warden is the face commander of the Timeless Wisdom preconstructed Commander deck, of which was built around the cycling mechanic. As such, Gavi is to go-to cycling commander if you’re looking for the most “pure” build of cycling.

Being able to discount a cycling cost to zero is fantastic, and lets you easily make the 2/2 token on each turn. Jeskai (blue/red/white) has the most cycling support cards out of any other color, making Gavi’s color identity the perfect one for a cycling deck. With the discounted cycling cost, it’s trivial to dig through your deck on your opponents’ turns to get to your best cards faster.