Magic: The Gathering's newest set, Ikoria is nearly upon us! Based in a plane full of colossal beasts and monsters, the set includes numerous notably potent legendary creatures. This means that as soon as Ikoria is released, players will have a slew of new creatures to brew Commander decks around!
But as is always the case with the Commander format, not all new commander options are equally fit to helm a good Magic deck. Without further delay, here are the 10 most impactful and impressive new legendary creatures from Ikoria.
10 General Kudro Of Drannith
While Ikoria is a set based around enormous monsters, it also features a focus on humans and human-tribal strategies. General Kudro of Drannith is Ikoria's premier human tribal Commander.
A 3/3 for three mana within the Orzhov color identity, General Kudro contributes numerous benefits for a low cost. Providing all other humans with +1/+1, General Kudro can exile a card from an opponents battle whenever it or another human enters the battlefield, helping to combat the numerous graveyard decks in the Commander format. Additionally, General Kudro can repurpose weaker humans, utilizing an ability that allows two humans to be sacrificed to destroy larger creatures.
9 Winota, Joiner Of Forces
Boros commanders tend to get a bad rap due to their inability to draw cards and provide long term benefits. Despite this, Winota, Joiner of Forces is a Boros commander who breaks the mold in this regard.
Synergizing with a pseudo human-tribal strategy, whenever a non-human creature under a Winota player's control attacks, that player may look at the top six cards of their library, putting a human creature from among them directly into play, tapped and attacking. With the right blend of human and non-human creatures, Winota has the potential to cheat numerous creatures into play, allowing them to immediately attack!
8 Zilortha, Strength Incarnate / Godzilla, King Of The Monsters
While numerous cards in Ikoria possess alternate Godzilla incarnations, Ikoria's buy a box promo, Zilortha, Strength Incarnate only appears in its other form: Godzilla, King Of The Monsters. Yes, that Godzilla.
Serving as the offensive alternate to commanders such as Doran, the Siege Tower, Zilortha is a 7/3 who causes lethal damage dealt to creatures under its owners control to be checked against their power, rather than toughness. This is an incredibly unique ability that incentivizes the use of numerous creatures whose massive power is normally offset by their low toughness.
7 Gyruda, Doom of Depths
A new Dimir Commander option, Gyruda is a 6/6 for six mana with an impressive "enter the battlefield" ability. Upon entering play, Gyruda causes each player to mill the top four cards of their library. Then, Gyruda's controller can put any creature with an even converted mana cost from among them directly into play.
This ability has the capacity to cheat notable and impactful cards directly into play, and it can hypothetically be repeated with "flicker" effects.
6 Vadrok, Apex Of Thunder
One of the three-colored legendary mythics found within Ikoria, Vadrok is a unique take on a spell-slinging Jeskai commander.
A 3/3 with flying and first strike for three mana, Vadrok possesses the mutate mechanic, allowing it to effectively combine with another creature. Additionally, Vadrok incentivizes the use of additional mutate cards, as whenever it mutates, its controller may cast an instant or sorcery form their graveyard with a mana cost of three or less without paying its cost.
5 Jegantha, The Wellspring
Jagantha, the Wellspring is perhaps one of the most useful mana producers that can live in a player's command zone.
For five mana, Jegantha is a 5/5 that can be tapped to produce one mana of each color! As far as ramp in the form of a commander is concerned, this ability is incredibly useful, providing the utility of five turns' worth of lands. The only caveat is that this mana cannot be used to pay generic costs, meaning any many cost containing a numeric symbol. While this ability may restrict the cards one may include in their deck, this large sum of mana production should not be undervalued.
4 Nethroi, Apex Of Death
Nethroi, Apex of Death is another of Ikoira's three-color mythics, as well as an excellent new choice for a potential graveyard-based commander.
An Abzan creature possessing the mutate ability, whenever Nethroi mutates, its controller may return any number of target creatures from their graveyard to the battlefield as long as their total power is ten or less. This allows for a great deal of notable utility based creatures with impactful abilities to be reliably recurred from the graveyard.
3 Illuna, Apex Of Wishes
The Temur representative of Ikoria's previously mentioned cycle of three-color mythics, Illuna, Apex of Wishes is an impactful commander bearing similarities to commanders like Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder and Maelstrom Wanderer.
Passing the vanilla test as a 6/6 with flying and trample for five mana, whenever Illuna mutates, it exiles cards from the top of its owner's library until they exile a nonland permanent card. That player can then immediately put that card into play. This ability can get out of hand quite quickly allowing numerous cards to be cast fro free as long as Illuna can keep mutating.
2 Rielle, The Everwise
While relatively straightforward Izzet commander, Rielle, the Everwise's abilities are capable of accruing a great deal of value at a staggering rate.
For three mana, Rielle is a 0/3 for three mana who gets +1/+0 for each instant and sorcery in its owner's graveyard. More importantly is Rielle's second ability which states that whenever its controller discards one or more cards for the first time each turn, they draw that many cards. This ability allows anything as lowly as a cycling effect to draw two cards, or a wheel effect like those found on Windfall to draw upwards or fourteen cards!
1 Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy
Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy is by far the strongest new potential commander printed in Ikoria. For only two mana, Kinnan is a Simic creature that causes any nonland permanent that can produce mana to produce an additional mana. Straight away, for such a low cost, this ability accelerate one's mana base substantially, allowing ceartures and mana rocks alike to produce yet even more value.
As if that weren't enough, Kinnan has a repeatable activated ability that at the cost of seven mana, allows its controller to look at the top five cards of their library, putting a non-human creature from among them directly into play. As this commander allows its respective deck to generate substantial amounts of mana, this ability will ensure that Kinnan will always have a sink into which to pour its massive amount of mana.