The Best White/Black/Red Commanders In MTG

In Magic: The Gathering, mana identities come in all shapes and sizes, and Mardu is the go-to for players who like aggressive strategies that typically revolve around creating a ton of token creatures, sacrificing for personal gain, and generally brute-forcing wins via combat.That being said, as is the complexity of a game that has been around for over 30 years, there are many ways to build any Magic deck, especially in Commander, given that it's a 100-card singleton format. In this guide, we'll take you through the best and most exciting Mardu Commanders, with a little insight into what makes each one so great. Updated on October 28, 2026, by Niall Walsh: It's been a very long time since we updated this list, so we're coming back to take a closer look at the Mardu Commanders we included over a year ago, and add in some more that have been released since, or ones that have jumped in relevance. 19 Mathas, Fiend Seeker Starting Strong A deceptively strong commander, Mathas, Fiend Seeker is a Mardu Vampire that provides political bargaining chips, something that can be quite useful in a multiplayer format like Commander. For the low cost of three mana, at the end of your turn, this 3/3 with menace can put a bounty counter on another creature. When a creature with a bounty counter on it dies, each player except its controller draws a card and gains two life. With this, Mathas can incentivize your opponents to use their removal on threats you want removed, potentially deterring them from using it on cards on your creatures and letting you keep your best cards around a little longer. 18 Kelsien, The Plague Someone Call A Doctor, This Card Is Sick Starting off as a 3/3 Assassin, Kelsien, the Plague gets +1/+1 for each experience counter you have. Earning these counters is easy; just tap it to deal 1 damage to a creature you don't control. When that creature dies, you get an experience counter. You can certainly pick off small creatures with just one toughness with Kelsien, but if you want to start taking care of larger creatures, you'll need to give him Deathtouch. Now that one damage you deal with Deathtouch kills any creature in play, racking up experience counters turn after turn. If you want a more devious way to build Kelsien, slap on him a Thornbite Staff, which lets you untap Kelsien each time a creature goes to the graveyard. This two-card combo lets you keep practically any creature off the board, so you can swing in with a massive Kelsien once you've built up enough counters. 17 Ghen, Arcanum Weaver A Different Sacrifice Strategy A unique option for an enchantment commander that provides access to Mardu colors, Ghen, Arcanum Weaver is a 2/3 Human Wizard for three mana. Once in play, Ghen can be tapped for three mana, sacrificing an enchantment to return another enchantment from your graveyard to the battlefield. With the right setup, this effect can cheat mana-intensive enchantments into play, subverting steep mana costs. You could sacrifice a card like Sentinel's Eyes to bring back a control powerhouse like the oppressive Overwhelming Splendor as early as turn four to shut down your opponent's strategies until it's removed. 16 Jirina Kudro An Upside To Commander Tax (Or Just Blink Her) A Mardu Human-themed commander, Jirina Kudro is a solid choice for those building aggressive Human decks. For four mana, when this 3/3 Human enters the battlefield, you create a number of 1/1 Human tokens equal to the number of times Jirina has been cast. The more you cast Jirina, or blink it with exile-and-return effects, the more tokens you can get from her trigger. While this can add value, Jirina's most notable ability gives all other Humans under your control +2/+0. This added bonus of power can really make a difference, especially when paired with large quantities of tokens to overwhelm your opponents. 15 Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter What's A Game Of Commander Without A Little Chaos On the surface, Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter might look like a token deck, and at its core, it is. You sacrifice an artifact creature to make two Treasure tokens with his first ability and then sacrifice a noncreature artifact to make two 1/1 Construct artifact creature tokens. It's a loop that lets you keep building more and more tokens. With cards like Anointed Procession and Tocasia's Welcome, you'll be making even more tokens and drawing tons of cards. Much of Jan Jansen's strength, though, comes from his potential as an Aristocrats commander. Aristocrat decks care about generating lots of tokens, like creatures and artifacts, and then sacrificing them for multiple effects. Cards like Marionette Master and Disciple of the Vault do this well, making your opponents lose life whenever an artifact goes to the graveyard. Toss in a Mirkwood Bats or Mayhem Devil, and you've got a powerful engine to drain your opponents into oblivion. 14 Trynn, Champion Of Freedom And Silvar, Devourer Of The Free Better Together Another option for Mardu Human-themed decks, Trynn, Champion of Freedom and Silvar, Devourer of the Free are White and Rakdos creatures respectively, each capable of being played together thanks to their partner ability. For four mana, Trynn is a 3/3 Human that can reliably supply more Humans by creating a 1/1 Human token during your end step if you attacked that turn. Meanwhile, Silvar is a 4/2 with menace for five mana that serves as a Human sacrifice outlet, capable of sacrificing Human creatures to gain +1/+1 counters and indestructible until the end of a turn. This can allow the deck to be both aggressive and resistant to removal while allowing it to synergize with aristocrat effects and abilities. 13 Syr Gwyn, Hero Of Ashvale Are You Sure This Isn't A Soulsborne Character? Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale is a commander who functions as both an Equipment-based Voltron general and a Knight-themed commander. A 5/5 Human Knight with vigilance and menace for six mana, whenever an equipped creature under your control attacks, you can draw a card for the low cost of losing one life, potentially allowing several additional cards to be drawn in a single turn. Syr Gwyn works especially well with cheap Equipment cards that have high equip costs, since this commander lets you equip Equipment to Knights for zero mana, ignoring equip costs entirely. If you can set up multiple combat steps, you'll be able to draw tons of cards in a single turn. 12 Dihada, Binder Of Wills Everyone Loves A Planeswalker It's easy to see how Dihada, Binder of Wills can be a powerful commander. Normally, Planeswalkers cannot be your commander, but thanks to a special clause at the bottom of the card, you can build around Dihada for a legendary-themed deck. Dihada's abilities all revolve around legendary creatures and corrupting them to your will. Dihada's first ability gives a legendary creature you control a plethora of keywords until your next turn, making them the perfect defender against your opponent's incoming attacks. If you don't have a legendary creature out or need to refill your hand, you can dig through the top four cards of your deck to take as many legendary cards as you like, and create Treasure tokens for each card you don't take. 11 Kroxa And Kunoros Two Heads Are Better Than One This powerful commander is the legendary team-up of Kroxa and Kunoros, two legends from Theros working together to combo out your opponents. When the duo comes into play or attacks, you can exile five cards from your graveyard to return a creature from your graveyard to play. The combo happens when you sacrifice it to Altar of Dementia, which lets you mill cards equal to its power. Because of the way Kroxa and Kunoros' ability resolves, you can sacrifice it in response to the reanimation clause, sacrificing it to the Altar, to mill six cards and then exile five of them to return Kroxa and Kunoros to play, triggering its ability again in an infinite loop. You can close the game out with Syr Konrad, the Grim, dealing one damage to each of your opponents every time a creature enters your graveyard. 10 Alesha, Who Smiles At Death Does Death Smile Back? Printed in Fate Reforged, Alesha, Who Smiles at Death may be a red card, but because its ability costs Orzhov (white/black), it functions as a Mardu commander. An efficient 3/2 with first strike for three mana; when Alesha attacks, you can pay two mana. If you do, you can return a creature with power two or less from your graveyard to the battlefield, but now it is tapped and attacking. This lets Alesha act as reliable recursion, repeatedly bringing creatures back from the graveyard as long as they have low power. A common target for Alesha is Master of Cruelties, a creature with first strike and a special ability that, if not properly blocked, can knock out an opponent in a single turn.