The Best MTG Aristocrats Commanders

Among the dominant archetypes in Magic’s Commander format, Aristocrats is undoubtedly one of the most complex. Every Aristocrats brew is a delicate balance between creature generation, sacrifice outlets, and payoffs, with plenty of moving parts in between to hold it all together. While these decks can be tricky to assemble, the results are well worth the effort in most cases.

If you’re looking to take on the Aristocrats challenge yourself, these are the MTG Commanders we think are best suited to the job.

6 | Shirei, Shizo’s Caretaker

As Aristocrats Commanders go, Shirei, Shizo’s Caretaker is one of the most unique options in the game. By automatically reanimating your low-power creatures each turn, it lets you grind out continuous value with ordinarily mediocre cards like Blood Pet Blood Pet Sacrifice this creature: Add {B}. and Bottle Gnomes Bottle Gnomes Sacrifice this creature: You gain 3 life. . Add in some free sacrifice outlets, and cards like Cadaver Imp Cadaver Imp Flying
When this creature enters, you may return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand. and Bone Shredder Bone Shredder Flying
Echo {2}{B} (At the beginning of your upkeep, if this came under your control since the beginning of your last upkeep, sacrifice it unless you pay its echo cost.)
When this creature enters, destroy target nonartifact, nonblack creature. can work wonders here, too.

Shirei’s ability single-handedly solves one of the biggest problems for Aristocrats decks, in that it recycles your fodder to continually fuel your payoffs. This lets you drain the table with cards like Zulaport Cutthroat Zulaport Cutthroat Whenever this creature or another creature you control dies, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. and Blood Artist Blood Artist Whenever this creature or another creature dies, target player loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. far faster than usual. When paired with Dictate of Erebos Dictate of Erebos Flash
Whenever a creature you control dies, each opponent sacrifices a creature of their choice. and Grave Pact Grave Pact Whenever a creature you control dies, each other player sacrifices a creature of their choice. , Shirei can even lock the entire table down creatures-wise, making such plans insurmountable in some cases.

Add in an infinite turns combo with Coretapper Coretapper {T}: Put a charge counter on target artifact.
Sacrifice this creature: Put two charge counters on target artifact. and Magistrate’s Scepter Magistrate’s Scepter {4}, {T}: Put a charge counter on this artifact.
{T}, Remove three charge counters from this artifact: Take an extra turn after this one. , and Shirei is a formidable force at the Commander table. If you’re looking to try something a little different with your next Aristocrats brew, you can’t go wrong with this one.

5 | Marchesa, the Black Rose

The Dethrone mechanic is a neat political tool for Commander, and Marchesa, the Black Rose is perhaps its most powerful representative. As long as at least one opponent is ahead in life, this gives you an easy way to put counters on your creatures, which in turn lets you abuse that juicy second ability.

At a base level, this ability protects your creatures, including Marchesa itself, from removal and board wipes. It also lets you get a ton of free value out of sacrifice outlets like Goblin Bombardment Goblin Bombardment Sacrifice a creature: This enchantment deals 1 damage to any target. and Phyrexian Altar Phyrexian Altar Sacrifice a creature: Add one mana of any color. , as your creatures will spring right back on death. This lets you re-use value creatures like Ravenous Chupacabra Ravenous Chupacabra When this creature enters, destroy target creature an opponent controls. , and get even more bodies out of resilient creatures like Glen Elendra Archmage Glen Elendra Archmage Flying
{U}, Sacrifice this creature: Counter target noncreature spell.
Persist (When this creature dies, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control with a -1/-1 counter on it.) .

What’s especially great about Marchesa is how open it is in terms of build options. Dethrone can enable a lot of your shenanigans, but you can also use cards like Thran Vigil Thran Vigil Whenever one or more artifact and/or creature cards leave your graveyard during your turn, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control. and Uncivil Unrest Uncivil Unrest Nontoken creatures you control have riot. (They enter with your choice of a +1/+1 counter or haste.)
If a creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it would deal damage to a permanent or player, it deals double that damage instead. to keep your creatures around permanently. There’s even an infinite turns combo here, with Time Sieve Time Sieve {T}, Sacrifice five artifacts: Take an extra turn after this one. and Myr Battlesphere Myr Battlesphere When this creature enters, create four 1/1 colorless Myr artifact creature tokens.
Whenever this creature attacks, you may tap X untapped Myr you control. If you do, this creature gets +X/+0 until end of turn and deals X damage to the player or planeswalker it's attacking. .

Factor in access to blue, a real rarity for Aristocrats decks, and this is a stellar Commander for this classic MTG archetype.

4 | Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

Yawgmoth is arguably the biggest bad that Magic has ever seen lore-wise, and his creature incarnation more than lives up to the hype. Getting a free sacrifice outlet in the command zone is fantastic for Aristocrats, especially when it draws you cards. This keeps things ticking along nicely resource-wise, and lets you access all of your synergies and payoffs on demand.

As if this wasn’t enough to solidify Yawgmoth’s position in Aristocrats, it also gets to dish out -1/-1 counters for each sacrifice. This is great for picking off problem creatures like Birds of Paradise Birds of Paradise Flying
{T}: Add one mana of any color. and Esper Sentinel Esper Sentinel Whenever an opponent casts their first noncreature spell each turn, draw a card unless that player pays {X}, where X is this creature's power. , but it has proactive applications as well. Bring in a couple of Undying creatures like Butcher Ghoul Butcher Ghoul Undying (When this creature dies, if it had no +1/+1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control with a +1/+1 counter on it.) and Geralf’s Messenger Geralf’s Messenger This creature enters tapped.
When this creature enters, target opponent loses 2 life.
Undying (When this creature dies, if it had no +1/+1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control with a +1/+1 counter on it.) , and you can whip up an infinite loop that kills via any Blood Artist Blood Artist Whenever this creature or another creature dies, target player loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. effect.

To top it all off, Yawgmoth even packs a handy discard outlet that lets you Proliferate as well. This lets you easily build a Reanimator sub-theme into your deck by pitching bangers like Razaketh, the Foulblooded Razaketh, the Foulblooded Flying, trample
Pay 2 life, Sacrifice another creature: Search your library for a card, put that card into your hand, then shuffle. , while also opening the door for other niche packages like Infect. While the mono-black color identity here is restrictive, Yawgmoth is powerful and flexible enough to be well worth running regardless.

3 | Korvold, Fae-Cursed King

Surprising no one, Korvold, one of Magic’s best sacrifice payoffs of all time, is a fantastic Commander for the sacrifice-focused Aristocrats archetype. Getting a free draw for every fodder creature you sacrifice totally transforms the reach of the strategy, letting it play like a Storm deck with cards like Phyrexian Altar Phyrexian Altar Sacrifice a creature: Add one mana of any color. . Since Korvold triggers whenever any permanent is sacrificed, it’s especially great with creatures like Ruthless Technomancer Ruthless Technomancer When this creature enters, you may sacrifice another creature you control. If you do, create a number of Treasure tokens equal to that creature's power.
{2}{B}, Sacrifice X artifacts: Return target creature card with power X or less from your graveyard to the battlefield. X can't be 0. that generate Treasures.

With so much built-in draw power, Korvold is brilliant for the more combo-focused Aristocrats decks out there. You can easily assemble the classic Gravecrawler Gravecrawler This creature can't block.
You may cast this card from your graveyard as long as you control a Zombie. loops the archetype loves, and other great options like Chatterfang, Squirrel General Chatterfang, Squirrel General Forestwalk (This creature can't be blocked as long as defending player controls a Forest.)
If one or more tokens would be created under your control, those tokens plus that many 1/1 green Squirrel creature tokens are created instead.
{B}, Sacrifice X Squirrels: Target creature gets +X/-X until end of turn. with Pitiless Plunderer Pitiless Plunderer Whenever another creature you control dies, create a Treasure token. (It's an artifact with "{T}, Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color.") . Korvold even enables a few combo lines of its own, netting infinite death triggers with Blood Pet Blood Pet Sacrifice this creature: Add {B}. and Mortuary Mortuary Whenever a creature is put into your graveyard from the battlefield, put that card on top of your library. , for instance.

More traditional infinites aside, Korvold’s natural scaling also makes it a very real threat after just a turn or two of solid sacrifices. This lets you crack in for Commander damage wins, or bust out cards like Chandra’s Ignition Chandra’s Ignition Target creature you control deals damage equal to its power to each other creature and each opponent. to potentially wipe out the whole pod. With the card’s color identity opening up some excellent options like Birthing Pod Birthing Pod ({G/P} can be paid with either {G} or 2 life.)
{1}{G/P}, {T}, Sacrifice a creature: Search your library for a creature card with mana value equal to 1 plus the sacrificed creature's mana value, put that card onto the battlefield, then shuffle. Activate only as a sorcery. , Korvold is one of the best MTG Aristocrats Commanders overall.

2 | Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER

Much like the character it represents, Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER feels like it was cooked up in a lab, specifically to be the best Aristocrats support piece of all time. Everything the archetype needs is right here: a sacrifice outlet, a card draw engine, and a Blood Artist Blood Artist Whenever this creature or another creature dies, target player loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. effect. This makes it trivial for Sephiroth to get its engine going, as it can fill every role itself once flipped.

The front face alone would make Sephiroth a stellar Aristocrats Commander, but the back side takes things to another level. While four deaths sounds tricky at first, Edict effects like Accursed Marauder Accursed Marauder When this creature enters, each player sacrifices a nontoken creature of their choice. and Plaguecrafter Plaguecrafter When this creature enters, each player sacrifices a creature or planeswalker of their choice. Each player who can't discards a card. can flip it in one move. From here, Sephiroth’s Blood Artist Blood Artist Whenever this creature or another creature dies, target player loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. effect becomes permanent, making it very difficult for opponents to take you down with damage. Transform it multiple times, and these Emblems can even stack.

Because of its powerful passive, Sephiroth serves as a payoff for many of the best Aristocrats combos, including Gravecrawler Gravecrawler This creature can't block.
You may cast this card from your graveyard as long as you control a Zombie. loops. It even enables some Forsaken Miner Forsaken Miner This creature can't block.
Whenever you commit a crime, you may pay {B}. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield. (Targeting opponents, anything they control, and/or cards in their graveyards is a crime.) lines itself, since its ability targets and therefore commits a Crime. These combos are the cherry on top of a fantastic overall package, and one of the best Aristocrats Commanders MTG has ever seen.

1 | Teysa Karlov

With its first ability alone, Teysa Karlov takes the Aristocrats archetype to a whole new level. In one way or another, the whole strategy revolves around death triggers, whether it’s cards like Pawn of Ulamog Pawn of Ulamog Whenever this creature or another nontoken creature you control dies, you may create a 0/1 colorless Eldrazi Spawn creature token. It has "Sacrifice this token: Add {C}." making tokens, or Zulaport Cutthroat Zulaport Cutthroat Whenever this creature or another creature you control dies, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. ending the game.

There are countless nasty lines available with Teysa, from converting 1/1 tokens into four cards with Skullclamp Skullclamp Equipped creature gets +1/-1.
Whenever equipped creature dies, draw two cards.
Equip {1} , to generating an absurd amount of stats with Elenda, the Dusk Rose Elenda, the Dusk Rose Lifelink
Whenever another creature dies, put a +1/+1 counter on Elenda.
When Elenda dies, create X 1/1 white Vampire creature tokens with lifelink, where X is Elenda's power. . If you want to take things even further, there are some combo lines here, too, such as looping Nim Devourer Nim Devourer This creature gets +1/+0 for each artifact you control.
{B}{B}: Return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield, then sacrifice a creature. Activate only during your upkeep. in and out of the ‘yard with the help of Pitiless Plunderer Pitiless Plunderer Whenever another creature you control dies, create a Treasure token. (It's an artifact with "{T}, Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color.") . Either way, games shouldn’t last too long once Teysa hits the table.

Add in some incidental token buffs that can help you stay in the game against aggressive opponents, and Teysa is a fantastic overall package. While Aristocrats is an evolving archetype, it’s hard to imagine a future where a legend as universally useful as this isn’t the best MTG Commander for it.

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