A Final Fantasy Commander Will Soon Be The Most Popular In All Of MTG

Y'shtola Will Soon Be The Most Popular Commander In Magic: The Gathering Published Aug 10, 2026, 4:10 PM EDT Niall (pronounced Ny-ul) is a UK-based writer who has been writing about Magic: The Gathering throughout his entire career, with everything from new set breakdowns and individual deck guides to offering his opinions on the state of formats and the general direction of the iconic TCG. Niall also has a rich history covering triple-A releases, sports games, and PC hardware. A Final Fantasy Commander hit a huge milestone over the weekend as Y'shtola, Night's Blessed, passed Edgar Markov to become the second most popular Commander in all of Magic: The Gathering, according to EDHREC. Data for Commander is virtually impossible to gather with the format being predominantly played in-person, so sites like EDHREC are a great way to gauge how popular a card is as players build and register decks using specific cards. The only thing standing in the way of Y'shtola being the most popular in the entire game right now is The Ur-Dragon, which only has a lead of around 200 decks at the time of writing. Universes Beyond Commander Soon To Be Most Popular In All Of Magic Whether or not EDHREC rankings are to be taken as gospel is down to personal preference, but there really isn't a better way of tracking the popularity of specific Commander cards right now. That being said, there is no way to definitively prove that the players building these decks actually own the cards at all. EDHREC is an aggregator, meaning it pulls its data from deckbuilding sites like Moxfield. Having built many a deck at Moxfield myself, I can safely say that it can easily be used as a playground to plan out future decks, as opposed to it being any kind of definitive proof that I own the cards and am actively using the deck. The flip side of this argument is that the popularity rankings often translate into the games people play in the real world. Not all decks are pulled into EDHREC; the deck must be format-legal to validate the legitimacy of the data being pulled. I frequently find myself in games against Edgar Markov, Teval, the Balanced Scale, and The Ur-Dragon while also owning decks built around Y'shtola and Krenko, Mob Boss. These are five of the top ten Commanders right now, so it makes sense that they're as common as they are. Price is also a factor. Y'shtola is a $5 card at most, while Edgar Markov and The Ur-Dragon can cost up to ten times this for the cheapest variation. Deck value is also vastly different, as top-tier Markov and Ur-Dragon decks can cost between $600 and $1,000+ while a competitive Y'shtola deck may only set you back somewhere between $150 and $300. Anything Can Happen With Each New Set While the Y'shtola shift has been coming for some time, the Commander format has undergone major changes with each new set released in 2026. This is down to the sheer volume of Commander precons and new cards being added to the format. This doesn't usually result in huge swings within the top ten, but Y'shtola's momentum has been building over time, and as people recognize how effective the card is even on lower budgets, it's become extremely popular to play. It will take something special to release and crack the three in the same way that Y'shtola has, especially since it all happened in just over a year. It's another big win for Universes Beyond, too, and further backs up the points already made by the likes of Mark Rosewater that it's a small percentage of players who are dissatisfied with the crossover sets, and that the majority of players either enjoy them or don't believe their enjoyment of the game is impacted just because they exist. Will a new, hugely popular Commander arise from the two remaining sets this year? It's very possible, but it's going to take time for them to get anywhere near Y'shtola's level. Franchise Magic: The Gathering Original Release Date August 5, 1993 Publisher Wizards of the Coast Designer(s) Richard Garfield