2022 has been a banner year for Magic: The Gathering players. It’s the 30th Anniversary of Magic, there have been tons of new products released for players to enjoy, and Commander has seen more decks than players know what to do with. Magic has gone to new universes with Dungeons & Dragons and the grim future of Warhammer 40,000.
A total of 24 Commander decks have been released in 2022 with a wide variety of themes and colors and all sorts of new cards for players to brew around. While some incredibly powerful cards have been printed in this year's Commander product, some were much better than others. We rounded up all the Commander decks released this year and brought them together.
24 Grave Danger (Starter Commander Decks)
Gisa and Geralf headline this Zombie tribal Commander deck. Meant to be a starting point for new players to get into Commander, the power of this deck is pretty low but still can pull out some surprising victories. Look out for cards like Havengul Lich and Cemetery Reaper to power up your Zombies and become the best undead legion you can.
23 Chaos Incarnate (Starter Commander Decks)
This Rakdos deck is all about causing chaos. The main commander is Kardur, Doomscourge, a demon who forces all your opponents to attack a player other than you. Capitalizing on the chaos of the battlefield, this Commander deck punishes your opponents while accruing card advantage later in the game.
22 First Flight (Starter Commander Decks)
First Flight is a soft control deck with some board wipes and a handful of counterspells. Almost every creature in the deck has flying, something that its Commander Isperia, Supreme Judge shares.
Isperia discourages players from attacking you and your planeswalkers since it draws you a card for each attacking creature. You can easily upgrade First Flight with a few more flying tribal creatures and some more efficient counterspells.
21 Draconic Destruction (Starter Commander Decks)
Loaded with expensive Dragons and powerful spells, Draconic Destruction is one of the best Starter Commander decks you can find. With Atarka, World Render at the head of the deck, your dragons all gain doublestrike when they attack. Draconic Destruction leaves plenty of space to upgrade the deck, coming with a good number of essential dragon cards to build around.
20 Token Triumph (Starter Commander Decks)
This Selesnya Commander deck goes all in on creating tokens. With Emmara, Soul of the Accord as the commander, every time it is tapped you get to create a 1/1 token with lifelink.
Tapping doesn’t just mean attacking either; sometimes you can tap your Commander to pay for various costs and still gain that extra creature.
19 Buckle Up (Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty)
A deck specially built for players looking to crew their own vehicles, the Buckle Up deck comes with some powerful cards to crew. Vehicles like Parhelion II, Skysovereign, Consul Flagship, and Weatherlight exist as a great jumping-off point for players trying to take their Commander decks to the next level.
18 Mind Flayarrrs (Commander Legends: Battle For Baldur's Gate)
This is a fairly niche Commander deck with the tribal Horror Commander Captain N'ghathrod coming up from the depths to take over the seas. With a mill secondary theme to the deck, there are plenty of ways to start putting your opponent's cards in the graveyard. It requires a few changes to help along the mill strategy like Maddening Cacophony, Mind Grind, and Tasha’s Hideous Laughter.
17 Upgrades Unleashed (Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty)
Based around Chishiro, the Shattered Blade, the Upgrades Unleashed deck encourages you to modify your creatures any way you can to help them grow even stronger. It comes with a few powerful cards like Silkguard to protect your modified creatures and the cards modifying them. Upgrades Unleashed would benefit from a few upgrades to help move it along but is a good place to start for players who want some good red and green creatures.
16 Draconic Dissent (Commander Legends: Battle For Baldur's Gate)
There’s a lot going on in the Draconic Dissent Commander deck, and it mostly comes together despite some conflicting design choices. Some of Magic’s best goad cards are printed in this deck. There is also a mini Dragon tribal theme in the deck with some board disruption spells to destabilize your opponents. The inclusion of Rowan Kenrith and Will Kenrith gives you a strong planeswalker package to build from as well.
15 Bedecked Brokers (Streets Of New Capenna)
With a focus on putting a wide variety of counters on creatures you control, Bedecked Brokers buffs your team while making them more imposing over time. The Commander, Perrie, the Pulverizer, gives one of your creatures a huge upgrade when they attack and is supplemented with a pretty good suite of combat tricks.
The deck has a fairly low curve to it, allowing you to reliably play your spells with few difficulties. With so many counter-based strategies in Commander, it wouldn’t take much to upgrade this deck to a higher power level.
14 Exit From Exile (Commander Legends: Battle For Baldur's Gate)
The Exit from Exile deck has an emphasis on playing cards from exile to gain incremental board presence in the form of tokens. Cards like Etali, Primal Storm help get some free spells while building a board. The deck has a slightly higher mana curve than what is recommended so be careful not to get stuck with not enough mana for your spells.
13 Riveteers Rampage (Streets Of New Capenna)
With Henzie "Toolbox" Torre in play, all your creatures with a mana value greater than 4 gain Blitz. While they die at the end of combat, you get to draw a card to try and replace it with something new. The entire Riveteers Rampage Commander deck has an emphasis on creatures with strong enter the battlefield effects like Avenger of Zendikar and Woodfall Primus. Keep adding strong creatures with powerful enter abilities and the deck will blossom.
12 Maestros Massacre (Streets Of New Capenna)
If you’re looking to get double the value out of your cards, then the Maestros Massacre Commander deck is perfect for you. With Anhelo, the Painter you get to sacrifice a creature to cast a second copy of an instant or sorcery. You’ll find plenty of powerful spells like Army of the Damned, Dig Through Time, and Chain Reaction to copy.
Make sure you add plenty of creature token generators to keep your resources plentiful, and you'll have plenty of opportunities to copy your spells.
11 Party Time (Commander Legends: Battle For Baldur's Gate)
The Party Time deck is a little limited in scope but makes up for it with some powerful cards. Since the deck is built around the party mechanic, which involves gathering creatures with four different creature types, most of what you can play is restricted to those cards. However, between the Black Market Connections enchantment and a few other powerful cards, it makes up for the design limitation.
10 Obscura Operation (Streets Of New Capenna)
This is an Esper control deck with tons of card draw, board control, and efficient creatures. The Obscura Operation comes with two powerful alternate Commanders, giving you a few options to customize your deck. While it lacks some consistency with card selection the overall power of the deck is higher than many other Commander precon decks.
9 Painbow (Dominaria United)
Painbow is the type of Commander deck that rewards you for jamming whatever cards you want in your deck. Your five-color planeswalker Commander helps create tokens to fill the board and can bring back your multicolored cards from the graveyard. While not the strongest Commander Jared is fairly flexible and allows you to play any cards you’d like.
8 Cabaretti Cacophony (Streets Of New Capenna)
This Naya Commander deck brings with it a number of high-power cards, particularly from the enchantments. Beastmaster Ascension turns every creature you own into a threat, while Felidar Retreat rewards your land drops with more creatures.
The Cabaretti Cacophony deck has another powerful alternate Commander with Phabine, Boss's Confidant who gives your tokens haste while forming more of a group hug deck.
7 Legends' Legacy (Dominaria United)
The common theme in Legend’s Legacy is legendary creatures, and it goes hard on them. All 28 creatures in the deck are legendary and provide a ton of value for players looking to experiment with new Commanders. The planeswalker Commander Dihada, Binder of Wills buffs your legendary creatures until you can steal everyone's permanents for a powerful victory.
6 The Ruinous Powers (Warhammer 40,000 Commander Decks)
Chaos reigns in this Warhammer 40,000 Commander deck thanks to the high number of cards that rely on random effects. The demon subtheme is a little difficult to get to mesh well but between the powerful enchantments and cascade effects, there’s plenty to enjoy. With some relatively low-cost upgrades, The Ruinous Powers turns into a cascade-focused deck that turns every card into a two-for-one.
5 Tyranid Swarm (Warhammer 40,000 Commander Decks)
The only Temur deck to come out in 2022 is built around the Tyranids. With a new mechanic in the form of ravenous and an emphasis on counters, the Tyranids will quickly grow out of control if left uninterrupted. There are plenty of high-power cards included in this deck including Shadow in the Warp and Toxicrene to help cast your larger creatures.