Magic: The Gathering isn’t exactly a cheap hobby, and anyone who’s been playing it for basically over six months is likely to have a collection of cards so expensive that no loved one will ever find out the true cost.
It doesn’t have to be that way, at least not in some formats. So, to help you start a nice cheap deck, we’ve picked out some of the best commanders you can buy for under a dollar.
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10 amazing commanders for under a dollar
Now, with this being a price-based list, it’s important to note that these cards will probably change in price, so we’re doing our best here, but we don’t control the market. If we did, do you really think we’d have stacks of cards just staring at us every second of every day?
With that in mind, each of these cards has a printing that’s worth less than a dollar, so we’re going to jump in about what makes them such a cool commander.
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10 – Xyris, the Writhing Storm
This is a cool one because it’s likely not one you’ve ever played. Xyris, the Writing Storm is a five mana Green, Blue, and Red 3/5 with flying. Whenever it hits an opponent, you and that player both get to draw that many cards.
Plus, whenever an opponent draws a card except for the first one they draw in their draw steps, you get to create a 1/1 Snake token. You can combine this with wheels and something like The Locust God to just make loads of tokens, or you could commit to messing around with Snakes and make it a tribal deck.
9 – Oona, Queen of the Fae
For X and one Blue or Black, you choose a color, then an opponent exiles X cards from the top of their library. You then get to create a 1/1 Blue and Black flying Faerie Rogue for each card of the chosen color exiled that way. Building Oona as a mill deck is a lot of fun, and generally not all that pricey to do either.
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8 – Daxos of Meletis
For three mana, one of which is White, one of which is Blue, you too can have a Daxos of Meletis that is a 2/2 that can’t be blocked by Creatures with three power or more. Also, it allows you to steal your opponent’s cards and use them because of the second paragraph of text.
“Whenever Daxos of Meletis deals combat damage to a player, exile the top card of that player’s library. You gain life equal to that card’s mana value. Until end of turn, you may cast that card, and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any color to cast that spell.” See, that’s cool as hell; what more do you need to know?
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7 – Danitha Capashen, Paragon
Sometimes you don’t want a strategy outside of playing your commander and turning them sideways, and Danitha Capashen, Paragon is incredibly good at that. She costs three mana and is a White 2/2 with first strike, vigilance, and lifelink, all of which are great keywords.
The power in this deck comes from her second ability though, which makes Aura and Equipment spells cost one less to cast. Just fill your deck with Equipment and Aura cards, make sure you’ve got Sigarda’s Aid in there, and then you should find yourself winning the game pretty quickly.
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6 – Ghired, Conclave Exile
The key thing with Ghired is making sure that you can protect him, but also that you have a couple of really good tokens to copy and bring in attacking. There are more than enough options out there for both aspects of this deck; you just have to make sure you can have fun with it too.
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5 – Sisay, Weatherlight Captain
Legendary tribal can be a bit expensive, but it is a lot of fun, and sometimes you just need the right commander to make it work. Well, Sisay, Weatherlight Captain, is quite possibly that commander. She’s a three mana White 2/2 that gets +1/+1 for each color among other legendary permanents you control.
On top of that, you can pay one of each mana to find a legendary in your deck with a mana value less than her power and put it straight into play. This takes very little work to make obnoxious, and you only have to get a couple of cards out or a buff or two to make this ability very absurd indeed.
4 – Talrand, Sky Summoner
The strategy here isn’t all that complicated, just cast Talrand and make sure your deck is filled with counterspells, bounce spells, and draw spells, and you’ll win the game pretty quickly with an army of Drake tokens by your side.
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3 – Brago, King Eternal
We can’t believe that Brago, King Eternal is less than a dollar, but thanks to the Kaldheim Commander decks, that’s the case. Brago is a four mana Blue and White 2/4 with flying. When he deals damage to a player, you can flicker any number of nonland permanents you control.
Just make sure you’ve got a Reflector Mage in your deck, and you’ll be one of the most annoying people in the game, but easily one of the most powerful too. What more could you possibly want for a dollar?
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2 – Jeleva, Nephalia’s Scourge
Now, this one is used a lot as a competitive commander because of the colors, but Jeleva, Nephalia’s Scourge is incredibly powerful even if you’re not playing obnoxious combos. For four mana, you get a Blue, Black, and Red 1/3 with flying. When she enters the battlefield, everyone exiles the top X cards of their library, where X is the amount of mana spent on her.
From that point on, whenever you attack with her, you can cast an Instant or Sorcery she has exiled for free. You can manipulate your own deck to make sure you’re hitting the best possible cards for this, but it’s also just good fun using your opponent’s cards against them too.
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1 – Alesha, Who Smiles at Death
Can we all just take a moment to admire the pure badassery of Alesha’s title? Who Smiles at Death has to be one of the coolest titles in MTG, and she’s got an ability that backs it up too. For three mana, you get a Red 3/2 with first strike.
Then, whenever Alesha, Who Smiles at Death attacks you can pay two Black or White to bring a Creature card with two power or less back from your graveyard tapped and attacking. There are definitely specific ways that this tends to be built, but even if you’re not rocking Master of Cruelties, there’s a huge amount of fun to be had with Alesha at the helm of your commander deck.
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