Summary
If you want a fun time with yourMagic: The GatheringCommander games, you should probably aim to sleeve up a Bracket 1 Commander deck. These decks leave behind many of the high-powered cards you find at higher-end games, opting for more unique and creative cards.
With all the thousands of legendary creatures at your disposal, it might feel a little daunting to pick just one, so we dove into the Magic legendarium to find all the most fun commanders you can bust out at your next game.
10Mr. Orfeo, The Boulder
An Unmovable Rock
Just because a commander in Bracket 1 is intended to be more casual it doesn’t mean you can’t have a ton of fun with it. Mr. Orfeo, the Boulder is a beefy boy, doubling the power of one of your creatures whenever you attack. Since you’re in Jund colors, you have access to a few more spells and creatures that let you increase the power of your creatures when you attack, letting you put your opponents on the ropes.
There are lots of very silly cards you can work with in this deck. Cards like:
You could basically just build a Fling deck if you want a theme to build around which would give your deck a neat twist.
9Mayael The Anima
Stack Your Deck
Some of the fun you can have with a Bracket 1 deck is building your deck with an intent in mind. Mayael the Anima can let you do just that, lending her ability to build a deck around creatures that have a power 5 or more. With Mayael, you can pay six mana to take a look at the top five cards of your deck, taking a creature with a power of five or more and putting it directly into play.
A ‘power 5’ themed deck could take a twist of just running creatures that meet that criteria, with cards like:
8Arna Kennerud, Skycaptain
Master At Arms
The Human Knight Esper Arna Kennerud, Skycaptain is an absolute powerhouse thatdoesn’t require any fancy combos or game changer cards, instead, you may just beat face with a very strong creature and a ton of auras and equipment.
When Arna Kennerud or any other modified creature attacks you get to double the number of each kind of counter on them, as well as make a duplicate copy of each nontoken permanent attached to it.
Modified creatures are those with either some type of counter on them or have an aura or equipment attached.
Arna comes with some protection as well, with a ward trigger that requires your opponents to discard a card to be able to target her. Even with one or two auras or equipment attached to her can start taking your opponents out from Commander damage in a turn or two.
7The Mindskinner
Mill Monster
An unblockable commander makes for a unique problem for your opponents, coupled with the fact that The Mindskinner has a unique ability and that most of their deck is going to end upmilled in their graveyard, making it a neat casual commander to bring out.
The Mindskinner makes it so if an opponent would be dealt damage by one of your sources, all that damage is prevented and instead each opponent mills that many cards. On the surface, milling ten cards in a turn for each of your opponents might not seem like much, but add in a few other unblockable creatures and maybe a few effects that let you steal your opponent’s high powered creatures to attack with, and suddenly everyone is milling tons of cards each turn.
6Talrand, Sky Summoner
Free Drakes
If you’re not looking to play a lot of creatures, all you have to do is get a commander that lets you maximize your instants and sorceries. Talrand, Sky Summoner is just that commander, giving you a 2/2 Drake token with flying every time you cast an instant or sorcery spell.
All you have to do is jam in a bunch of counterspells, draw effects, and stall effects to keep your opponents on the backstep and focused on each other. Once you’ve cast a few spells and have an army of Drakes on your side, you can take to the offensive and whittle down their life totals.
5Ratadrabik Of Urborg
Rise From The Grave
Legendary creatures get a huge upgrade in a Ratadrabik of Urborg deck, forgoing the need for the stronger game changer cards and many of the combo pieces that you would find at higher bracket decks.
Anytime another legendary creature you control would die, you get to make a token copy of it except it’s now a Zombie and no longer legendary. It gets to keep all the special abilities and effects they have though, letting you have extra copies of them out and about. Toss in a few token doublers and you’ll have an overwhelming board in a lower bracket.
4Morska, Undersea Sleuth
Find The Victory
I hope you like drawing cards ‘cause that’s the name of the game with Morska, Undersea Sleuth out as your commander. For just three mana, one of each of the Bant colors, Morska comes down quickly, potentially as early as your second turn, and at the top of each of your turns you investigate, giving you a Clue token which you can use to draw a card in exchange for two mana.
Drawing a second card each turn gives Morska two +1/+1 counters, and the best part is that you can trigger this on your opponent’s turn as well, giving you lots of opportunities to draw tons of cards and have an unstoppable commander.
3Yargle And Multani
Plain But Not Bland
The basis of the deck is to utilize the high power of Yargle and Multani to do some shenanigans. There are a few ways of doing it, but the main ones are:
Since you have access to black mana you get plenty of reanimation cards to keep bringing back the duo commander to the battlefield turn after turn instead of having to pay for that Commander Tax.
2Gargos, Vicious Watcher
Kindred Disaster
Kindred decks tend to lend themselvesto be pretty casual, with lots of cards included to give specific creature types a boost in power to help match more varied decks. With Gargos, Vicious Watcher, you have a huge creature as your commander that makes all your other Hydras much easier to play.
Plenty of the deck will be dedicated to ramping up to six mana so you can play Gargos as quickly as possible. Once the Hydra is in play your other Hydras cost four generic mana less, which is huge, especially since you can apply that four generic mana to any X cost creatures.
1Etali, Primal Conqueror
Play Every Deck
If you’re not content with having just one deck, you’re able to always start playing your opponents as well with a commander like Etali, Primal Conqueror. Having Etali enter the battlefield lets you exile the top card of each player’s deck until they find a nonland card. You then get to play that card for free.
If you want you can transform Etali into the Primal Sickness, giving it indestructible and trample and upgrading it to an 11/11. You also get to dish out poison counters when it deals damage, which can close out a game very quickly. You don’t need tutors with this deck since you can play up to four free spells in a turn with every time you have Etali come into play.
