It’s a bit early to make this call, but Tarkir Dragonstorm could be the sweetest Magic: The Gathering product of 2025. So why wouldn’t you want to grab a mighty dragon or character from your favorite clan to base a new Commander deck around?
With five Commander precons and plenty more legendary creatures in the main set, there are lots of options to choose between. We’ve scoured all 26 MTG commanders in Tarkir Dragonstorm to bring you nine of the strongest and most interesting deckbuilding options
Taigam, Master Opportunist
Starting off with something mono-color, but by no means simple. Being only blue limits Taigam’s potential a little, but this is a really fun and brainbending commander. Mix in lots of little cantrips with some big spells, and you can basically guarantee a never-ending action queue of incoming threats that your opponents will have a nightmare of a time keeping track of.
This deck would always have been great, but thanks to the Doctor Who UB set, there are lots of cards available now that can manipulate time counters, ensuring the right cards come online just when you need them. If you want to feel like a grand mastermind playing 4D chess, this is the new commander for you.
Betor, Kin to All
Betor likes big butts! This one’s a pretty simple toughness matters Commander, but it should be trivial to ensure a free card every turn, which is a decent start. If you can reach 40 you can close out the game in short order. The twin Trees of Perdition and Redemption seem particularly fab in this deck.
The only problem with this strategy is I can see it folding hard to removal. If your pod has no qualms about taking out commanders and brings down your Betor before you’ve gained much value from it, you could be left with a board of useless fatties. It’s still a great commander, but some of the other options on this list are even be-tor.
Kotis, the Fangkeeper
The version of Kotis from the main MTG set (as opposed to the precons) Kotis, The Fangkeeper pairs two popular EDH deck themes: stealing cards and Voltron. Your commander has built-in indestructibility, which is great because his effect (Villainous Wealth on a body) is strong enough to make him an immediate target.
You just need to find reliable ways to pump Kotis up and guarantee a hit on an opponent, and you unlock a goldmine of free cards. It requires some set up, but the reward is well worth it.
Betor, Ancestor’s Voice
While this version of Betor seems less fitting than the other for the toughness-matters commander deck its found in, its effect is extremely cool. It lets you resurrect creatures from the graveyard based on the amount of life you lost in a turn, and throw +1/+1 counters around based on the amount of life you gained. What’s fun about this guy is you can choose to lean more into one side of the effect or the other, or attempt to maintain a perfect Yin-Yang balance.
You’ll almost certainly want to have at least a bit of both, however, As life gain effects will naturally allow you to pay life more recklessly, bringing even bigger creatures back from the grave. The reanimation seems like the really grabby, powerful part of this card, but why not include big creatures that have some way to gain life?
Zurgo Stormrender
An aggressive commander like this is exactly what we’d expect from Mardu. If you’re like me and love tokens but don’t like having huge complicated boardstates, then here’s a good solution: throw them to their deaths for value.
What’s fun about Zurgo is when you’re barrelling down with a small horde of token critters, he leaves your opponents with no great options. They can take the damage and try and deal with your army later, in which case they’ll both get hit and take the life loss when the tokens perish. Or they can block and give you free card draw.
Eshki, Temur’s Roar
Eshki just does everything you need from a commander. She’s cheap, draws you cards, and then if she sticks around she gets huge and starts thwacking everyone for chunks of non-combat damage.
This seems like a really good ‘first commander’: you could seriously just stuff all your favorite Temur creatures into a decklist, along with some removal and ramp spells, and you’d have a solid deck.
Teval, the Balanced Scale
Tevol the Balanced Scale does great work for a Sultai graveyard strategy. This card brings lands out of your grave, mills you, and makes zombie druid tokens whenever anything leaves the yard. It’s a super efficient enabler for a very popular gameplay style, and is certain to be one of the most popular commanders in the set. Also its name is a pun, so I’m immediately on board.
He’s also probably the commander of the set for those who love combos, as it’s not too difficult to produce an infinite number of zombies with this card. There are also some great niche druid cards that go bananas in a Tevol deck.
In fact, if you’re playing a more casual version of Tevol and aren’t expecting to win the game by chain casting Gravecrawler or stealing everyone’s lands with Gilt-Leaf Archdruid, you should probably let your table know so they don’t Path to Exile your commander on sight.
Elsha, Three-fold Master
Probably the most aggressive commander in the entire set, Elsha, Three-fold Master is the deck to pull out when you’ve only got 40 minutes before your LGS closes. This is a spell-slinging deck that wants you to play as many cantrips as humanly possible. You’ll use these to pump up your commander as you attack, then create an army of monk tokens that also get stronger with each non-creature spell you cast.
Part of me thinks this deck would work best (and be funniest) with no other creatures at all, but cards like Bria, Riptide Rogue that give prowess and essentially double your damage output are also key considerations.
Ureni of the Unwritten
Find a dragon, place a dragon. Ureni represents the other side of Temur, the side that just wants to play enormous creatures and watch the world burn. And who doesn’t enjoy cheating out giant dragons? While very solid, this is not as strong as Miirym, and that’s probably no bad thing – sometimes the best commander isn’t literally the strongest, it’s the one that allows everyone at the table to have a good time.
And that’s your lot! If you didn’t see anything you liked then a) you’re very picky, and b) you really should check out our guide to the best Magic: The Gathering commanders. You might also find our guide to the MTG release schedule and best MTG Arena decks handy.
Source: Wargamer
