An incredible Mono-Blue Partner commander, Sakashima of a Thousand Faces is a 3/1 for four mana that can enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature, effectively functioning as a clone spell. However, regardless of what Sakashima copies, it states that its controller ignores the “Legend Rule.” This means that this commander’s controller is able to control several copies of a single legendary creature. Lastly, while it requires a steep loyalty investment, Szat’s -10 ability allows its controller to gain control of each player’s commander, even gaining control of those within their respective Command Zones.
There’s nothing more boring than combo decks that only have to do one or two things for the combo to trigger. It doesn’t feel like the player earned that win by protecting their permanents and building a perfect line of effects that allows them to win. It just feels like they cheated and ended the game for no reason. The good thing about hybrid mana cards is that your playgroup might let you run some even if they don’t technically fit your deck’s color identity, especially in mono-colored decks. Maybe you’re building a mono-black horror tribal deck but you’re lacking some cards. You can talk to your group and see if they’ll let you play something like Cryptborn Horror.
Partner Commanders
I was a bit surprised to see Pir and Toothy this low on the list, if I’m honest. The premiere Partner With pairing out of Battlebond, Pir and Toothy have been a couple of friends worth paying attention to in the pregame for six years now. Pir giving you Hardened Scales in the command zone would be good enough, but everything about Toothy has always been pushed. Combine that with an easy mana cost and the ability to choose whatever other color you want to find combos, and everything you could ever want in a Partner is right here. Partner debuted in Commander 2016, still the only four-color-focused set in the history of Magic, and that history colors the mechanic to this day. Wizards told us that Commander Legends would include 41 new legendary creatures with Partner.
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Without a doubt, one or more combination will stand out above the others, probably in a degenerate way. This risk bodes unwell for the health of Commander in general. We have seen in recent years that Wizards is willing and able to print overpowered cards that make a format unfun for a period of time. Ban lists get modified depending on what’s agreed on during the group talks proposed by Rule 0, and land destruction and infinite combo pieces usually get added to the banned lists.
This means using the standardized London mulligan rule which has players draw seven cards and then put one card in the bottom of their library for each time they mulligan-ed. The first mulligan is also “free,” meaning that the first time you mulligan you don’t have to put cards on the bottom of your library. Both its color and color identity are green, red, and black. This means that it can’t be played in decks that use only two of those three colors. In the case of double-faced cards, the color identity for your deck is a combination of both faces if the front and back have different colors in their abilities or casting costs.
The colour identity is right, it’s a pirate, and it helps to create Treasures. The best partner for Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker would be Jeska, Thrice Reborn. The fiery Planeswalker has a unique ability to triple the combat damage dealt by one of your Creatures (like Ishai). But since there haven’t been that many Commander Partners designed and made (some decent combos from 2020’s Commander Legends), it can be hard to find the absolute best pairings currently out there. Tap & Sac brings out the best of Magic the Gathering and helps players with objective reviews, beginner-friendly strategy articles, and nail-biting pack openings.
With classic partner commanders like Reyhan, Last of the Abzan and Alharu, Solemn Ritualist you can combine them with each other or any of the other commanders with the keyword partner. Both cards are considered to be your commander and can be cast independently of one another. As this ability doesn’t require Thrasios to be tapped when paired with an infinite mana generating combo, Thrasios can be used to put each land in your deck into play while drawing each card in your deck as well. Known for its power in competitive Commander circles, Thrasios, Triton Hero is a Simic Partner commander for the low cost of two mana.
For five mana, this 2/2 flying Human Cleric provides all creatures you control with +1/+1, meaning that it can elevate the quality of decks capable of amassing sizable board states of creatures. As some Partner commanders are mono-colored and others are dual-colored, through the use of Partner commanders, you can create a deck of anywhere from one to four colors. So today, we’re going to examine the Partner commanders of Magic and see which are the strongest. In other words, it is how many times have you done the act of “casting your commander from the command zone”. If the game drags into a long one with your Sakashima of a Thousand Faces already out, it’s a good time to start copying some of your powerful Legendary Permanents. Sakashima will allow all of them to coexist thanks to its unique ability.
Sadly, this isn’t a great payoff for a 9-mana investment that, to begin with, requires your opponents to have targetable creatures for you to tap down. Worse yet, tapping down creatures doesn’t remove the actual threat – tapping down a Zulaport Cutthroat still leaves you open to their aristocrats effects, for example. There are a lot of possibilities and directions to build decks. With so many combinations of partners, it is hard to say what combo is best. I think the best partner combo is subjective but some of the partner commanders outshine the others. Here is my opinion on the best partners in no particular order.
Thrasios, Triton Hero
But there are plenty of graveyard-focused decks that find it advantageous to put their own commanders in the graveyard. With various double-faced cards existing, you can “cheat” different cards into your command zone. The Magic Origins set lets you have creatures as your commander that turn into planeswalkers under certain circumstances. We got something even more original in Strixhaven with Extus, Oriq Overlord. One of them is your commander, who starts the game in the command zone, and the other 99 make up the bulk of your deck. Commander is a singleton format, which means you can only have a single copy of any card that isn’t a basic land.
Not everyone likes being led by the hand the way this pairing seems to be doing. While we haven’t gotten to the two-color, OG Partners yet, it’s still not much of a surprise to see Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools on our list. Everything you could want in a planeswalker, Tevesh Szat protects himself with Thrull blockers, draws cards by sacrificing them, and has an ultimate that will go a long way to winning the game.
This modifies the original Paris mulligan, which consisted of returning your entire hand to your library, shuffling, and then drawing a new hand with one less card. There are no official rules regarding who goes first in Commander. Most groups have each player roll a die and whoever gets the highest number is either forced to go first combos edh or gets to choose if they want to start. Regardless of who plays first, the turns proceed clockwise.
Okaun and Zndrsplt are the best coin-flip commanders, hands down. We met the Eldraine twins for the first time in Battlebond, where they appeared as planeswalker commanders that partnered with each other. They’re both fairly expensive as 6-mana planeswalkers that only enter with 4 loyalty each, but at least Will Kenrith can make casting Rowan Kenrith a little easier if you tick Will down. I applaud Wizards for expanding the design space around tapper effects in blue and white, but they’re often just not strong enough to justify an entire deck themed around them. Rhoda, Geist Avenger looks to generate +1/+1 counters off of Timin, Youthful Geist’s free tap-down each combat phase.
