The Best Commander For Each Three-Color Combination In MTG

We argue that three-colors is the sweet spot for a deck in Magic: The Gathering's Commander format. You're not too limited by having only one or two card pools to draw from, but you're also not overwhelmed, as can happen with some WUBRG Commander deck builds. That's not to say that building mono, dual, 4C, or WUBRG decks is a bad idea, but for most players, three colors is the sweet spot. So, with that in mind, we're going to look at the single best Commander in all of MTG right now for each three-color combination with no restrictions, meaning Partner Commanders and Universes Beyond cards are included. Updated on Friday, November 6, 2026, by Niall Walsh: This article was over two years old, so we've dived back in and brought it up to date with new selections for virtually every mana combination. 10 Esper - Y'shtola, Night's Blessed It's Not Even Close... Esper holds the prestige of having the most popular Commander in all of Magic: The Gathering right now. Y'shtola, Night's Blessed has more than double the total decks created of the next most popular Esper Commander, according to EDHREC, and while Hashaton, Scarab's Fist is a great card, it requires a bit more nuance to play around. Y'shtola, Night's Blessed is a four-mana 2/4 with Vigilance, and if any player has lost four or more life at the end of each turn, you draw a card. Then, whenever you cast a noncreature spell with a mana value of three or greater, Y'shtola deals two damage to each player, and you gain two life. This means most Y'shtola decks will be mostly noncreature spells, with just a few creatures to support the strategy and protect you from more aggressive players. We've seen a lot of complaints about Y'shtola, from the fact that she's a Final Fantasy / Universes Beyond card or the fact that the abilities and structure of the card are just so straightforward that it makes it very easy to play around, but ultimately, all that matters is that this card is hugely popular and by far and away the best Esper Commander in the game right now. 9 Grixis - Sauron, The Dark Lord It'll Take More Than Tricksy Hobbits To Take This Card Down From one Universes Beyond Commander to another, Sauron, the Dark Lord is a six-mana Grixis Commander who enters play as a 7/6. He also has a Ward that requires opponents to sacrifice a legendary artifact or legendary creature in order to target him with spells. Whenever an opponent casts a spell, you Amass Orcs 1, and whenever an Army you control deals combat damage to a player, the Ring tempts you. Finally, whenever the Ring tempts you, you may discard your hand, and if you do, you draw four cards. It's safe to say that there is a damn good reason why Sauron is a hugely popular card right now, and the Commander precon he leads is among the most expensive on the market that isn't in some way limited in availability. While he may be a little limited in that you're going to want to predominantly build LotR and The Hobbit cards around it to get the most out of Sauron, he's still fun to play with. The gap between first and second for Grixis Commanders is much smaller; however, with yet another Universes Beyond card, Fire Lord Azula, sitting in second place, we could see this Avatar card overtaking Sauron before long. 8 Jund - Hearthhull, The Worldseed A Spacecraft Commander?! Spacecrafts have just come back around again thanks to Star Trek, but if you're looking for the best Jund Commander right now, it's Hearthhull, the Worldseed. When this four-mana Spacecraft reaches Station 2+, you ca pay one mana and tap it to sacrifice a land and draw two cards, but you may then play an additional land this turn. When it reaches 8+ Station counters, it becomes a 6/7 with Flying, Vigilance, and Haste, and whenever you sacrifice a land, each opponent loses two life. This card has a ton of value for only four mana, but most players get caught out by how quickly you can station it to become a creature and use both abilities. If you can crack that code and understand that Spacecrafts don't suffer from any kind of summoning sickness when still an artifact, that should help you plan your tactics, and the Haste Hearthhull gains at 8+ counters removes any requirement to wait to attack with it, too. 7 Naya - Pantlaza, Sun-Favored Watch Out For Those Dinos Up next is Pantlaza, Sun-Favored, the current leader of all Naya Commanders, although the top five Commander options for this color combination are closer than in any other category. Pantlaza is a five-mana 4/4, and the card states that whenever Pantlaza or another Dinosaur enters the battlefield under your control, you may Discover X, where X is that creature's toughness. However, you can only do this once per turn. Discovery is a mechanic that lets you exile cards off the top of your library until you exile a nonland card with that mana value or less, which in this case is X (the creature's toughness), and you can cast that nonland card for free or put it into your hand while the other cards go on the bottom of your library in a random order. Dino decks are extremely dangerous and feature a ton of high-power creatures that can often enter with Trample, and even if they don't, there are countless ways to grant it. There's still a lot of love for big stompy decks, and this dino Commander is head and shoulders above the rest right now. 6 Bant - Ms. Bumbleflower Group Hug Group hug decks are back in fashion, and one of the main drivers behind this is Ms. Bumbleflower, a four-mana Bant Commander who enters play as a 1/5 with Vigilance. Whenever you cast a spell, target opponent draws a card. You then put a +1/+1 counter on target creature, and it gains flying until the end of the turn. If this is the second time the ability has resolved in a turn, you then draw two cards. You're going to be pretty political when playing with Ms. Bumbleflower, as you negotiate with players who get the added card draw while you steadily build up your board presence. When the time is right, you can turn on a dime and start swinging tall and wide with creatures to try and finish off your opponents, who have hopefully been focusing on each other while you built your creatures up. You'll want plenty of protection spells to maintain your board presence, and plenty of instant spells to punish players who break any agreements at the table. While it's a very meme-y Commander, you can still pull off some solid strategies with Ms. Bumbleflower that are really fun to play. 5 Abzan - Frodo & Sam (Partner Commanders) Food For Thought Food & Fellowship is one of the best Commander precons around right now, and it won't cost you an arm and a leg. It's led by Sam, Loyal Attendant, and Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit, and together they are the best Abzan Commander in the game right now, thanks to the Partner With mechanic. Together, you'll create a ton of food tokens, all of which have their redemption cost reduced to just one colorless mana thanks to Sam, while Frodo works to tempt the Ring, letting you take free shots at other players and loot your deck with card draw and discarding. There are so many fun and exciting ways to win with the Food & Fellowship Commander precon, and building a custom deck around Frodo and Sam is fun too, whether you stay within the Middle-earth theme or branch out into the Multiverse. 4 Jeskai - Kilo, Apogee Mind Counters On Counters On Counters On Counters Kilo, Apogee Mind is about the most straightforward Commander on this list. A three-mana Jeskai Commander that enters as a 3/3 with Haste, Kilo is all about counters. Not the rejection kind, the +1/+1 and tracking kind. Whenever Kilo becomes tapped, you Proliferate. This means you may put an extra counter on any creature, enchantment, or artifact of the same kind that it already has (meaning you can't use Proliferate to put a counter on something that doesn't already have a counter). Find ways to tap and untap Kilo at will, while dishing out +1/+1 counters to your creatures and other counters for your artifacts, and you'll soon find yourself winning games with ease. This is a hugely frustrating Commander to play against, but the best way to stop it is to play it yourself! 3 Sultai - Teval, The Balanced Scale Did Somebody Say, Zombies? Backup Commander for the hugely popular Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander precon, Sultai Arisen, Teval is a token-making machine that, similar to Kilo, can be hugely frustrating to play against. Teval is a four-mana 4/4 with Flying, and whenever it attacks, you mill three cards. You may then return a land card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped. Then, whenever one or more cards leave your graveyard, you create a 2/2 black Zombie Druid creature token. The card synergies out there for Teval can move cards in and out of your battlefield at will, and create armies and armies of tokens that can easily withstand a few board wipes. 2 Mardu - Edgar Markov Eminence Is Pretty Good Edgar Markov is Mardu's best commander and still one of the best Commanders of all time. Eminence gives you an ability even if Edgar isn't on the battlefield, giving you a 1/1 Vampire for every Vampire cast. The Vampire doesn't even need to hit the battlefield to get the token. You can build a deck around cheap Vampires (both monetarily and mana-wise) and still perform great because it's so easyto flood the battlefield. Edgar Markov is amazing because it does a ton without ever needing to cast it; its attacking ability is just a bonus. 1 Temur - Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm Double Your Dragons The crown of best Temur Commander goes to Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm. It essentially doubles up on all your Dragon creatures when they enter the battlefield. Some cards can also double the number of tokens generated, giving you even more Dragon tokens. Miirym only works with Dragons, but its built-in protection keeps it safe and harder to remove. The strongest Dragons are in Temur colors, letting you play the best ones, and if Miirym is on the battlefield, it even lets you get more than one copy. Franchise Magic: The Gathering Original Release Date August 5, 1993 Publisher Wizards of the Coast Designer(s) Richard Garfield