Every Commander With Eminence In MTG, Ranked

Updated Sep 1, 2026, 6:18 PM EDT Ryan Hay (He/Him) is a freelance writer who loves all games and has written for publications including ScreenRant, DailyEsportsgg, and Upcomer. Send him all your hottest bad game takes on Twitter. Despite the sheer power and popularity of the Eminence mechanic in Magic: The Gathering, two of the game's most popular Commanders bearing it have recently been overtaken by a Final Fantasy card. Eminence is a Commander ability that lets your Commander have an impact on the game even while they're in the Command Zone. Not every Eminence Commander is a game-changer, but they're all powerful in their own right, and two of these Commanders now lead some of the most expensive precons that money can buy. Updated on September 1, 2026, by Niall Walsh: Commanders with Eminence continue to be a rarity in Magic: The Gathering, but two of the precons built around the mechanic are now among the most expensive in the entire game, despite both Commanders being overtaken by a Final Fantasy card in the EDHREC rankings. We've updated this article to reflect those recent trends and changes. 6 Honorable Mention: Oloro, Ageless Ascetic Pre-Eminence, Eminence While Oloro doesn’t have Eminence as a keyword because it didn't exist at the time this card was printed, its final ability functions just the same. If Oloro, Ageless Ascetic is in your command zone, you gain two life at the beginning of your upkeep. This ability also triggers if it is on the battlefield, much like other eminence effects. Oloro came out in the Commander 2013 series, and though it predates the eminence mechanic by about four years, it has the same functional effect. When Oloro is in play, you can also pay one mana to make your opponents lose a life, and you draw a card. Given his built-in abilities, you can build a pretty strong pillow fort deck, with tons of ways to trigger life drain and slowly drain your opponents' life total over the course of the game. 5 Arahbo, Roar Of The World It Won't Stop Meowing From The Command Zone A premier Cat-themed deck Commander, Arahbo, Roar of the World, turns all your little kitties into chunky Cats even if it isn’t in play. When combat starts on your turn, Arahbo gives another Cat you control +3/+3 until the end of the turn, whether it's in play or in the command zone. However, if you do have Arahbo out on the battlefield, you can turn a Cat you control into an even bigger Cat for just three mana. Arahbo gives your deck some versatility. You can, of course, go to a more token-based or kindred-based deck, with a way to go tall with your strongest creature, making one creature stronger than anything else on the battlefield and trample over with equipment and other abilities. While its Eminence ability is strong, we can't help but wonder if it went wider and gave +1/+1 to all Cats until the end of the turn, whether it would see a lot more play in the current Commander scene. 4 Inalla, Archmage Ritualist The Wizard Queen The Wizard-themed eminence commander, Inalla, Archmage Ritualist, rewards you for playing more Wizard creatures by turning them into an army of clones. When any nontoken Wizard enters the battlefield under your control, you can pay one generic mana to make a copy of it with haste. That token gets exiled at the start of the next end step, but it is around long enough for you to do some shenanigans with it. Get enough Wizards out, and you'll be able to start truly dishing out some incredible damage thanks to Inalla's second ability. All you have to do is tap five of your Wizards, and you can smack an opponent for five life, letting you break through stalemates on the board or take an opponent out at the end of another player's turn. Inalla expands on a sub-theme among Wizards in Magic, following other cards like: Galecaster Colossus Azami, Lady of Scrolls Sigil Tracer Supreme Inquisitor 3 Sidar Jabari Of Zhalfir Say Good Knight The Knight Commander, Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir, excels in keeping cards moving through your hand and brings your Knights back for a second round once it's in play. With its Eminence ability, Sidar lets you draw a card and then discard a card when you attack with one or more Knights. With Sidar, you can pitch Knight cards you don’t need or can’t cast right away in exchange for digging through your deck for cards you can make better use of right away. Once Sidar is in play, you can bring back those discarded Knights to the battlefield one by one when he deals combat damage to a player. 2 Edgar Markov Build The Vampire Swarm The premier Vampire Commander, Edgar Markov, creates an army of Vampire tokens for every Vampire spell you cast, turning every creature into a two-for-one value-wise. For each Vampire spell you cast with Edgar Markov as your Commander, you get a 1/1 Vampire creature token. You create a token even if the original spell is countered, meaning you’ll always get value from your spells. As if free creature tokens weren’t enough, Edgar Markov buffs your Vampire army every time it attacks, putting a +1/+1 counter on all Vampires you control. After even just an attack or two, you’ll quickly grow your creatures beyond what most players will be able to handle. Edgar Markov comes loaded with first strike and haste, too, making sure you can pump your team the turn it comes out and, more often than not, be able to attack through most creatures your opponent controls. There's a very strong argument for Edgar Markov being the best Eminence Commander right now, and having played against him multiple times, he can be a real nuisance, but for now, it's still the Dragons that we fear the most. 1 The Ur-Dragon The First Dragon Anyone who has played with or against The Ur-Dragon knows that hitting the required nine mana to cast it is a walk in the park in Commander. Even without casting The Ur-Dragon, it remains one of the most intimidating commanders in the game. While The Ur-Dragon is in the command zone or in play, Dragon spells you cast cost one less generic mana to play. All your Dragon cards can come down at least one turn earlier, putting you above the curve as far as when players should expect your powerful cards to hit the battlefield. Once The Ur-Dragon hits the battlefield, you can trigger its final ability. When any Dragon you control attacks, you get to draw a card for each attacking Dragon and then put a permanent card from your hand into play. This ridiculously powerful ability can accelerate you so far beyond your opponents that, short of an immediate answer, it can be near impossible to come back from. The Ur-Dragon was once the most popular Commander in Magic, but it has since been overtaken by Y'shtola, Night's Blessed from Final Fantasy. At least it can boast leading one of the most expensive precons in all of Magic in the form of its Commander 2017 debut. This just goes to show how powerful both the card and mechanic are, even if it does take quite the budget to build a truly competitive deck. Franchise Magic: The Gathering Original Release Date August 5, 1993 Publisher Wizards of the Coast Player Count 2+ players Age Recommendation 13 years and up Length per Game Variable