It’s not Universes Beyond, no Magic: The Gathering has gone to outerspace, with Edge of Eternities. A science-fantasy type of set with a take on the Space Opera, it’s a very different set than what we’ve seen in the Magic universe before. As a new set, it means there’s plenty of new options for players, and here we’ll be ranking all the new Edge of Eternities Commander options.
With Edge of Eternities comes a rule change to Commander: any legendary card with power and toughness in the bottom right corner can be your commander. Practically this means that legendary vehicles from past sets (there are none in this set), and legendary spacecrafts in this set are also commander options, along with legendary creatures.
After going over all of the over 150 Legendary Creatures in Final Fantasy Magic: The Gathering, I’m relieved to say that there are a few less legendary options in Edge of Eternities. There are in fact only 22 cards capable of being your Commander in the set, as the high amount of legendaries in Universes Beyond sets has Wizards of the Coast pulling back some on in-universe sets. Unlike the Final Fantasy list, this list is Commander specific, and is not considering other Constructed (like Standard or Modern) or Limited play.
22. Sami, Ship’s Engineer
Someone has to come last, and it’s perhaps no surprise that it’s one of the uncommon legendary creatures. Sami in this form is pricey, undersized, and makes modestly sized tokens if you jump a couple of hoops. While Sami synergizes with vehicles and spacecraft, that isn’t near enough for the cost in commander.
21. Syr Vondam, the Lucent
A 5 Mana go wide leader, Syr Vondam is worse in his role than many other commanders who provide pumps for the team. Clearly designed for limited, this iteration of Syr Vondam will have trouble breaking the 99 in general, but if you need to give deathtouch to your creatures in white and black there are worse options.
20. Haliya, Ascendant Cadet
We continue our stroll through the uncommon legends with Haliya, Ascendant Acolyte. Haliya in this version is clearly aimed at limited play as a 5 mana 3/3 who brings a +1/+1 on enter or attack. Paired with a minor card draw ability, overall this is a card left out of your deck in commander.
19. Alpharael, Dreaming Acolyte
Alpharael, Dreaming Acolyte provides a decent enters card draw, especially for artifact decks, and can load up a graveyard for future turns. The deathtouch on your turn is situationally useful, but Alpharel isn’t that impressive, but in a blinking artifact deck it might have some use.
18. Haliya, Guided by Light
Each of the uncommon legends also has a rare iteration of them later in life, and Haliya is the first of them we’re seeing. Haliya is essentially The Gaffer + a Soul Sister in a creature, but somewhat worse than either. The combination is useful, and card draw is important, but I think this is likely to be in the 99, and only after The Gaffer has made a list.
17. Syr Vondam, Sunstar Exemplar
Probably better in the 99 of aristocrat decks then at the helm of his, but this iteration of Syr Vondam is a payoff for killing your own guys and there are some neat things you can do with ‘scam’ type cards and removing opposing permanents.
16. Dawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnought
As we reach 16, we get our first legendary Spacecraft, and it’s a doozy of a ship. The Dawnsire is undeniably splashy with that potential 20/20 size and 100 damage to creatures, but Its high station count is a challenge. As your Commander, Dawnsire’s colorless identity is another major limitation, but in the 99 of a Spacecraft deck it can be a flashy, if pricey top end.
15. Tannuk, Memorial Ensign
A new Landfall commander, Tannuk isn’t going to challenge the higher tier of landfall commanders, even in its own colors but the damage pinging and card draw will make him an acceptable budget option. In many ways, Tannuk is a color shifted and appropriately weakened take on Tatyova, Benthic Druid. Also he is the first and only legendary Kavu other than his other version (changeling things excluded).
14. The Seriema
With a lower mana cost of 3, and a lower station cost of only 7, the Seriema provides value at all stages. At the start it is a legendary creature tutor and points you in a direction for the deck. Once it gets 7 station points, it’s a 5/5 flying that protects all your other legendary creatures when they are tapped and lets them rule in combat. Still, it feels likely to be better in the 99 of other legendary matters commanders, which is why it’s up here.
13. Xu-Ifit, Osteoharmonist
An odd commander, Xu-ifit wants you to have interesting creatures without abilities or that you can do something else with, as they become skeletons without anything else. This also makes him an interesting leader for a skeleton deck, or a way of taking advantage of creatures with significant downsides.
12. Alpharael, Stonechosen
Alpharael might be a bit undersized, but the ability to chop off half someone’s life on an attack trigger is highly potent, becoming a killer move along with Wound Reflection and others. Ward isn’t hexproof, but a random discard may discourage people from dealing with Alpharael before they have to.
11. Szarel, Genesis Shepherd
Our first card from the Edge of Eternities Commander decks is this jund-colored land and aristocrats bug who’s in competition with Lord Windgrace for fighting over jund land decks. The need to buff his power to get the most does make this a three things to do commander, making it busy and it’s not as novel as you have other cards like The Gitrog Monster that also play around with lands and sacrificing.
10. Hearthhull, the Worldseed
We enter the top 10 with the alternate commander for the RGB (jund) deck, which is a spacecraft. Like Szarel, Hearthhull is a jund-colored land aristocrat’s commander, but it comes down cheaper, albeit with the need to be stationed before you can do much with it. The ability to sacrifice and payoff the land sacrifice in and of itself make it really good, and I think I slightly prefer the spacecraft over the insect.
9. Infinite Guideline Station
A five color Spacecraft commander, that also rewards playing a lot of multicolored permanents. Even before you charge it up, the Infinite Guideline Station will provide you with Robots for your gold board, and then it can give you a lot of cards once it starts firing its lasers.
8. Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam
An interesting +1/+1 counter commander, Dyadrine takes advantage of any and all mana you have to spend on it, avoiding the issue with X costs. Dyadrine wants a friend with counters as well, so that it can make tokens and draw cards for you, though note it can work from get go, not needing to attack itself.
7. Mm’menon, Uthros Exile
The final uncommon commander option makes a run deep into the top 10, as this version of Mm’menon is an interesting commander, because you can grow any of your creatures when you have artifacts enter. It notably lacks any of the restrictions we see sometimes on cards like this like ‘once per turn’ or ‘non-token’ which would stop it from being able to go crazy. Instead the Uthros Exile invites all the treasure craziness, all the artifact shenanigans and everything else for even a potential voltron approach.
6. Inspirit, Flagship Vessel
A strong commander for Spacecrafts, Inspirit lets you put charge counters on other artifacts or grow creatures so they can station (or attack) better. The 3 mana cost is low, and the single point needed to get the base station level up is very little. Later on, it becomes a 5/5 flying protector for all your other artifacts, putting it in play to lead your fleet to victory.
5. Mm’menon, the Right Hand
Starting off our top 5, we have a far fairer example of a blue artifact commander than Urza, Lord High Artificer. Mm’menon lets you cast artifacts from the top of your deck, and use artifacts to fuel casting them from the top, or with other cards from spots other than your hand.
4. Ragost, Deft Gastronaut
A cheap and effective food commander in different colors then we often see food running in (red food decks aren’t common!) Its ability to lob food at opponents, while untapping each turn if you gained life gives it a fair amount of strength. It can fuel off any artifacts you have, letting you make them in many ways and take advantage of various death triggers and other neat tricks in his spicy restaurant.
3. Tannuk, Steadfast Second
As the only character to ever be a legendary Kavu, Tannuk had some pressure to carry, and while his earlier rated uncommon form is serviceable, the Steadfast Second is a very strong card. Granting everything haste is something red already wants to do, and is often willing to pay 3 mana to do that and nothing else, while the Warp ability for any red and artifact cards is just begging for abuse as cost cheating is very powerful.
2. Kilo, Apogee Mind
This kilogram pound robot (that’s why it’s Kilo right?) can do all sorts of crazy things, and while the easiest way to tap is attacking, there are plenty of other ways to do so, and many, many, many payoffs to proliferate that it opens up to be abused and played with. Blue is also the color of untapping, and letting you do this more than once a turn.
1. Sami, Wildcat Captain
I never expected for this list to go full circle, but here we are at number 1, and we’re in a way just back where we started with Sami. While Sami’s uncommon card was highly unimpressive for commander play, the mythic rare version backs quite a wallop. While the body is a touch undersized, the double strike makes up for that, but it’s really the ability after that which is most interesting. Granting all your spells affinity for artifacts is something that is highly breakable, and something with which many an interesting, or distinct thing can be done with across a variety of power levels.
And that’s how I saw the Edge of Eternities Commander options. Some of them have me quite interested to build around or try out different decks, including seeing how spacecrafts play in reality.
Are there any Edge of Eternities commanders that interest you particularly or disagree with a placement on this list? Tell us in the comments below!
