MTG Best Tribal Commanders

Humans are MTGs most common creature type. They exist across every slice of Magic: the Gathering’s color pie, though they are centered in White.

On the plane of Innistrad, Humans are primarily printed in the colors White and Green, and it’s from this horrifying world where we get our first Human tribal Commander: Kyler, Sigardian Emissary.

Kyler gets a +1/+1 counter whenever you play another Human and buffs every Human you control for every counter on him. Fill the board with low-cost Humans, and play into Kyler’s +1/+1 counter theme to ensure that even your smallest 1/1 Human tokens pack a punch.

Our next Human tribal Commanders of choice are a partner pair: Trynn, Champion of Freedom and Silvar, Devourer of the Free. Hailing from Ikoria, this champion and her menacing pet are a killer combination. Trynn gives you a 1/1 Human token at the end of every turn, and Silvar can sacrifice Humans in order to become indestructible and gain a +1/+1 counter. Trynn and Silvar offer you a novel sacrifice-themed Human deck. Silvar provides you with a wide selection of Black and Red sacrifice effects, whilst Trynn lets you access all of the Humans available in White.

Finally, we come to [Tooltips]Adeline, Resplendent Cathar[/Tooltips]. As a mono-white Commander, Adeline keeps things simple. Adeline has four toughness and power equal to the number of creatures you control. She helps give you more creatures by giving you 1/1 Human tokens whenever you attack, equal to the number of opponents you have. In a typical four-player game, Adeline will be giving you three Human tokens every turn. Adeline can go very wide very quickly, as well as being a potent threat in her own right.

Merfolk are Blue’s primary tribe. Lorwyn and Shadowmoor gave us access to Merfolk in Black and White, whilst Ixalan pushed the tribe into Green.

The most popular Merfolk Commander is Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca. Kumena shows off everything that Ixalan’s Merfolk have to offer. He allows you to tap down another Merfolk to make himself unblockable, three Merfolk to draw a card, and five Merfolk to put a +1/+1 counter on every Merfolk you control. Kumena is useful because his first two effects help you to get in some early Commander damage and draw into your threats in the early game. In the late game, Kumena can keep your amphibious army loaded up with +1/+1 counters. The card Intruder Alarm works wonderfully with Kumena, as it lets you use him to spread +1/+1 counters around multiple times in a turn.

Finally, there’s Emperor Mihail II, who was printed as a supplemental card alongside the set Dominaria United. Mihail lets you look at the top card of your library at any time and cast if it’s a Merfolk. Mihail also enables you to generate a 1/1 Merfolk token whenever you cast a Merfolk spell by paying an additional mana. Of the three options presented here, Mihail has the fewest decks to his name on EDHREC. Don’t underestimate this aquatic emperor though! He’s the newest of the three and still has plenty of time to grow. No Commander can fill the board with Merfolk faster than Mihail.

Everyone’s favorite brain-eating baddies, Zombies, appear primarily in Black but have also seen significant support in Blue. A small handful of them exists in other colors, particularly White, thanks to Amonkhet.

Prior to Wilhelt’s debut, The Scarab God was the undisputed king of Zombie tribal. A 5/5 God for five mana, The Scarab God deals X damage to each opponent at the start of each of your turns and allows you to draw X cards where X is the number of zombies you control. The Scarab God also enables you to pay four mana in order to exile a card from any graveyard and bring it into play as a 4/4 Zombie under your control. This combines graveyard hate with powerful token generation. Finally, The Scarab God lets you cheat around paying Commander Tax by giving you the option of returning it to your hand rather than the Command Zone. This card is a truly terrifying, if somewhat pricey, alternative to Wilhelt for Dimir Zombie decks.

For those who would prefer to keep things mono-black, Ghoulcaller Gisa is a great choice. As a five-mana 3/4, Gisa makes up for her less than impressive statline with her excellent ability. If you tap Gisa and pay one black mana, you can sacrifice a creature you control to create X Zombie tokens where X is that creature’s power. Even in a worst case scenario, this can be used to turn one Zombie into two, which is pretty useful. Gisa can turn your 7/6 Rotting Regisaur into 14/14 worth of stats spread over seven different tokens. Combine this with cards like Dictate of Erebos, which punish your opponents whenever you sacrifice a creature, and Gisa quickly gets scary.