Commander has been on a hell of a journey these past few years. From a fun novelty to the most popular way to play Magic: The Gathering, the format is nigh-unrecognizable from where it started. As a result the volume of Commander product has increased year on year, with 2024 having the most yet. Within these releases, 2024 featured some of the best MTG Commanders we’ve ever seen.
The question of the hour is: which are the very best among them? The bar was so high this year that most of the 320 new legends released this year would be valid candidates. That said, we’ve pinned our colors to the mast and locked in five picks that we think represent the very best of this year. From frivolous Frogs to mighty mushrooms, these are our best new MTG Commanders of 2024.
Honorable Mention | Nadu, Winged Wisdom
- Mana Value: 1GU
- Rarity: Rare
- Type: Legendary Creature – Bird Wizard
- Stats: 3/4
- Card Text: Flying. Creatures you control have “Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, reveal the top card of your library. If it’s a land card, put it onto the battlefield. Otherwise, put it into your hand. This ability triggers only twice each turn.”
It was the best of Commanders, it was the worst of Commanders. Before we get into the list proper, we’d be remiss not to mention the most controversial new Commander that 2024 brought into the fold. Nadu’s dominance in Modern was well-documented, to the point where the card eventually received a ban in the format. While less discussed, the card proved just as powerful and divisive in Commander too.
Nadu is famous for generating one-sided non-games, where the Nadu player spends 20 minutes popping off and everyone else sits around checking their phone. This is bad enough in formats like Modern. In Commander, where social interaction and back-and-forth are so important, it’s arguably even more egregious. As a result, Nadu was banned in Commander on September 23rd, roughly one month after the Modern ban.
While Nadu was overshadowed by the three other heavy hitters in the same ban announcement, it was still a very significant move. It’s rare for any card to get banned in Commander, never mind one only a few months old. Nadu was a legendary design mistake, and one that very few players are sad to see gone. You won’t see it on anyone’s ‘favorite Commanders’ list, but it’s impossible to deny its monumental impact.
5 | Delney, Streetwise Lookout
- Mana Value: 2W
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Type: Legendary Creature – Human Scout
- Stats: 2/2
- Card Text: Creatures you control with power 2 or less can’t be blocked by creatures with power 3 or greater. If an ability of a creature you control with power 2 or less triggers, that ability triggers an additional time.
Kicking things off with a cracker from way back in February, Delney, Streetwise Lookout is a wonderfully flexible Mono-White Commander. Her two abilities allow for a range of strategies, running the full gamut from Aggro to Midrange to Combo.
If you like playing classic White Weenie, then the evasion offered by her first ability will serve you well. If you prefer stacking up value, then the Panharmonicon-esque second ability will be more up your alley. Getting both together on one creature lets you mix and match too, building decks that can adjust to different gameplay situations on the fly.
Being just one color may seem limiting, but it actually makes Delney an ideal leader for a budget deck. There are plenty of low-power creatures you can pick up for pennies, and not needing to splash for pricey dual lands keeps costs low.
Put it all together and Delney is clearly one of the best new MTG Commanders from 2024. It may not be from a dedicated Commander product, but it slots into the format perfectly regardless.
4 | Flubs, The Fool
- Mana Value: GUR
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Type: Legendary Creature – Frog Scout
- Stats: 0/5
- Card Text: You may play an additional land on each of your turns. Whenever you play a land or cast a spell, draw a card if you have no cards in hand. Otherwise, discard a card.
Some Commanders serve mainly to complement the decks they lead, while others are self-contained engines that can run games by themselves. Flubs is firmly in the latter camp, with two game-changing abilities that totally change how you build and play.
Drawing a card whenever you play a land or spell is absolutely insane, and creates huge combo turns not unlike those of Nadu. The downside, that you need to be Hellbent in order to use it, is easily mitigated. Especially since you’re forced to discard if you do have cards in hand.
The extra land play a turn helps this along too, getting you into a position where you’re rapid-firing lands and spells fairly early in the game. The result is a playstyle that feels totally distinct, and unlike most other Commanders out there.
You might expect a card like this to exist mainly as a niche novelty, particularly given the meme-tastic art and flavor. Hilariously however, Flubs has actually seen legitimate play in both Commander and cEDH. Turns out having access to that much draw power out of the command zone is a huge boon for combo players. Flubs would have been a contender for this list even if it floundered in mediocrity, but its surprising success really sealed the deal.
3 | Edward Kenway
- Mana Value: 2UBR
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Type: Legendary Creature – Human Assassin Pirate
- Stats: 5/5
- Card Text: At the beginning of your end step, create a Treasure token for each tapped Assassin, Pirate, and/or Vehicle you control. Whenever a Vehicle you control deals combat damage to a player, look at the top card of that player’s library, then exile it face down. You may play that card for as long as it remains exiled.
Assassin’s Creed was a bit of a bizarre set overall. Sitting somewhere between a full-blown release and a set of Commander precons, most players gave it a lukewarm to negative reaction at the time. As the year has worn on, however, some of its cards have garnered dedicated fans. As the protagonist of one of the most popular Assassin’s Creed games, Edward Kenway had a lot to live up to. Thankfully, he did so and then some.
It’s honestly hard to think of a better Pirate Commander than Edward Kenway. He creates Treasures, works well with Vehicles, and even steals cards from your opponents. If you’re looking to hoist the black flag and get down to some role play, he’s your man. On a more serious note, he’s also a typal Commander that doesn’t fall into the usual pitfalls such Commanders do.
Since he works with Pirates, Assassins, and Vehicles, you can pick from a number of lanes when building Kenway out. You can prioritize one, or dip into all three. There’s even potential to run him at the head of a Treasures-matter or Theft deck if you so wish. This flexibility, combined with his Grixis color identity, makes him a great choice for players of all stripes. No wonder he’s the most expensive Assassin’s Creed legend at time of writing.
2 | Baylen, The Haymaker
- Mana Value: RGW
- Rarity: Rare
- Type: Legendary Creature – Rabbit Warrior
- Stats: 4/3
- Card Text: Tap two untapped tokens you control: Add one mana of any color. Tap three untapped tokens you control: Draw a card. Tap four untapped tokens you control: Put three +1/+1 counters on Baylen, the Haymaker. It gains trample until end of turn.
Bloomburrow was a lovely breath of fresh air for MTG this year, and it brought with it a ton of excellent Commanders. From Ygra to Maha to Lumra, there was no shortage of contenders for a spot on this list. In the end though, none could hold a candle to Baylen, the Haymaker.
Whenever you see an ability that doesn’t need mana to activate, the potential for shenanigans is afoot. Doubly so if said ability can be used at instant speed. Baylen has not one but three such abilities, which gives it utility in pretty much every situation. All you need is enough tokens to tap and you’re off to the races.
You can run Baylen at the head of a traditional go-wide token deck, relying on Rabbits or Saprolings to fuel its abilities. The beauty of Baylen is that it doesn’t specifically require creature tokens, however. It works just as well with Food, Clues, and Treasure, all of which are very easy to generate in 2024.
Once it gets going, Baylen can draw you a constant stream of cards and give you the mana to play them. Alternnatively, it can stack up a ton of counters and swing in for a Trample-fueled commander damage win. It’s flexible, it’s powerful: Baylen is clearly one of the best new MTG Commanders of 2024.
1 | Shroofus Sproutsire
- Mana Value: 2G
- Rarity: Rare
- Type: Legendary Creature – Saproling
- Stats: 1/1
- Card Text: Trample. Whenever a Saproling you control deals combat damage to a player, create that many 1/1 green Saproling creature tokens.
In a list packed with so many powerful multicolored Commanders, you may be surprised to see a card like Shroofus Sproutsire sitting at the top. I think there’s a pretty good argument to be made for this friendly Fungus sweeping the charts, however.
First of all, while deceptively simple, Shroofus’ Saproling-generating ability is actually very powerful. Stacking Auras and Equipment on Shroofus lets it swing in for big damage and generate a full board of Saprolings. This combines go-tall and go-wide gameplay in a neat way. The fact that Shroofus comes with Trample built-in is a big advantage for this gameplan too.
That’s just Shroofus himself. His ability triggers whenever any Saproling you control deals damage, so in a dedicated deck it can get out of hand fast. Generate five Saprolings with a Shroofus swing, and each of them could make another Saproling on the next turn. The absence of a ‘one or more’ clause here does a ton of heavy lifting.
Finally, and perhaps most crucially, Shroofus is just a bit of an icon. Wizards has been trying to push Loot as a new mascot for much of this year, but you could easily argue that Shroofus has made more impact in a much shorter span of time. We’ve already seen players recreating him in art, and many online were quick to express their love for his design.
Magic is more than just the sum of its parts. It’s a game, a community, and an aesthetic experience all in one. A card like Shroofus, which delivers on mechanics, art, flavor and power, is the perfect encapsulation of that. For our money, it’s also the best of the new MTG Commanders we saw in 2024.
