We’re nearing the end of 2026, which means it’s time for my final best commanders list of the year. If there’s one thing I’ve come to expect from Universes Beyond, it’s a ton of new commanders. The command zone is where I think these crossovers are at their best, and Star Trek gives us plenty to work with.
I wasn’t all that excited for a Star Trek set at first. Then Edge of Eternities came along and made me a sci-fi Magic fan. Part of me feels like that set was a soft launch for Star Trek, and honestly, I’m fine with it. After playing at prerelease and sitting down to brew a few decks, I’m already looking for excuses to build around Spacecraft again. So without further ado, here are my picks for the best commanders from Star Trek.
Note from the author. I’m working on full deck-building guides and example decklists for each of these commanders, generally in Brackets 2 and 3. I’ll link them here as they go live.
Best Mono-Color Commanders From Star Trek
I tried to keep this to one commander per color. White and blue ruined that plan pretty quickly. Both colors gave me two commanders I wanted to build for completely different reasons, so I kept all four. Pick whichever sounds like more fun to you.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Of course Picard makes the list. Captain Jean-Luc Picard is a three-mana 2/3 who gives your creatures +1/+1 and makes a 1/1 Officer whenever you cast a creature or Spacecraft spell. He can also put a Spacecraft straight onto the battlefield from your library with seven charge counters, which gives it a pretty good head start.
White already has some of my favorite Spacecraft, including The Seriema, so Picard gives me an excuse to dig back into Edge of Eternities. I’d start with the Star Trek Officers that want to help you Station, then grab my favorite ships from both sets. Picard keeps the crew coming, and every extra Officer gives you somebody else to put to work.
Dr. Beverly Crusher
Dr. Beverly Crusher is closer to what I’d usually expect from a mono-white commander. She makes abilities that trigger when you gain life trigger an additional time, and that includes her own ability (I know, duh). Every time you gain life, she gets two +1/+1 counters out of it.
I’d build around gaining small amounts of life as often as possible. A bunch of individual lifegain triggers will do more for Crusher than one big burst, and there’s plenty of room to build around the counters she picks up along the way. She’s also an easy fit in the 99 of another lifegain deck. I’ll probably find a spot for her in my Betor, Ancestor’s Voice deck either way.
Lieutenant Commander Data
Lieutenant Commander Data gets a +1/+1 counter whenever you cast a noncreature spell, and he can turn three counters from among creatures you control and one mana into card draw. My first instinct was to build spellslinger, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to try mono-blue Voltron.
Equipment and Auras do double duty here. Casting them grows Data, and once they’re on him, they can help him connect. I’d also look for other creatures that pick up counters so I can draw cards without shrinking my commander every time I need to refill my hand.
Scotty, Miracle Worker
Scotty, Miracle Worker gives each card in your graveyard Beam Me Up. They really had to give that one to Scotty, didn’t they?
I’d load this deck up with surveil so I can pitch cards I don’t need right away and get them back when they’re useful. I also want a bunch of creatures with good enters abilities. Returning one of those creatures to my hand means I get to cast it and use that ability again. With Scotty around, I’d be just as interested in what’s in my graveyard as what’s in my hand.
Gul Dukat, Colonial Prefect
Gul Dukat, Colonial Prefect might be the most Vampire-coded non-Vampire in Magic. At the beginning of each end step, each opponent loses life equal to how much life they already lost that turn, and you gain life equal to the total they lose this way.
The words “each end step” are what sold me. If I can chip away at the table on everyone’s turn, I get a lot more out of Dukat than I would by saving all my damage for my own turn. Sanguine Bond is an easy include, too. After Dukat drains the table, I can use all that life I gained to hit one opponent again.
Q, Stacking the Deck
Q, Stacking the Deck gets his very own creature type, Q. That already made me want to build him, and then I started thinking about how funny it would be to sleeve up waaaaay too many lands on purpose.
I’d pick a compact combo, run a handful of spells that help pull it off, and fill an unreasonable amount of the deck with lands. That gives me the mana to cast Q and makes it easier to part with the lands in my hand when he enters. A way to blink him gives me another shot at setting up the deck. This is probably the jankiest brew on the list, and I’d love to see the table’s reaction the first time it actually works.
Dr. Joseph M’Benga
My green pick came down to Dr. Joseph M’Benga and Captain Kathryn Janeway. I’d happily play Janeway in the 99 of a landfall deck, but M’Benga is the one I want in the command zone. He gives you the counter-doubling part of Doubling Season for your creatures and gives those creatures hexproof as long as they have counters on them.
The fun part is seeing what you can do with counters besides +1/+1 counters. Shield counters and deathtouch counters work here, too. I’d still run plenty of ways to make my creatures bigger because, well, it’s mono-green. I’d also make room for some of the weirder counters when they can pull double duty by turning on hexproof.
Best Multicolor Commanders From Star Trek
There are plenty of two-color commanders to brew around here. I would’ve liked a few more three-color options since that’s a sweet spot for a lot of casual decks, but I still found plenty I wanted to build. And yes, there’s a five-color pick for anyone who wants to play “Oops, All Star Trek.”
Kira Nerys, Firebrand
Kira Nerys, Firebrand is exactly the sort of Boros commander I want to play. She lets creatures that enter during combat come in tapped and attacking, and she gives creatures you control +1/+1 for the turn as they enter.
I’d start with attacks that make tokens and creatures I can cast with flash. Those let me put more pressure on the table once combat is already underway. I’d also run a few creatures with haste so I can play them before combat and take advantage of that extra point of power right away. Attack first, ask questions later.
Hemmer, Fixing What Is Broken
I like Picard for an Officers-and-Spacecraft deck, but if I want to go all in on ships, I’m picking Hemmer, Fixing What Is Broken. He’s a signpost uncommon for the Spacecraft deck in Draft, and the same things that make him good there are what I want out of him in Commander.
Hemmer protects your Spacecraft and helps you draw cards when you tap him, so I’m putting him to work on Station whenever I can. Getting a ship closer to coming online and drawing a card in the process is exactly what I want my commander doing while I get set up.
Gowron, Eager for Battle
Rakdos loves to sacrifice creatures and swing hard, so of course a Klingon fits right in. Gowron, Eager for Battle gets a +1/+1 counter whenever another creature dies, including creatures your opponents control. He can also sacrifice a creature to gain trample for the turn. If you sacrifice a Klingon, you draw a card and lose one life.
I’d mix Klingons with cheap fodder and removal so Gowron can keep growing even when I’m short on creatures to sacrifice. Once he’s big enough to threaten commander damage, giving him trample makes it a lot harder for somebody to buy another turn with a spare token.
The Traveler
Strange New Worlds rewards you for playing differently named lands, which is a fun thing to build around in a singleton format. The Traveler made the list because I wanted to try that mechanic in Commander, and Simic is where I’d want to do it.
The Traveler’s power scales with the number of differently named lands you control. My plan is to play just about every land I can get my hands on, then use the rest of the deck to keep my commander protected and give them a way through blockers. Simic Voltron sounds a little goofy, which is part of why I want to see how hard this thing can hit.
Gray and Adira, Forever Joined
There’s always a spellslinger commander that catches my eye, and this time it’s Gray and Adira, Forever Joined. Casting a noncreature spell helps set up an extra attacker, and the copy gets around the legend rule. I’d use that as an excuse to play creatures I’d be excited to see twice in the same combat.
Cheap instants and artifacts are where I’d start. I want to be able to cast a noncreature spell on the turns I’m attacking, even if I’ve already spent most of my mana getting a good creature onto the battlefield. The cheaper the spell that gets me there, the more mana I have left for the creatures I actually want to copy.
Sarek, Federation Ambassador
Sarek, Federation Ambassador draws a card at the beginning of combat on your turn for every five creature types among your non-Borg creatures. If you draw three or more cards this way, you put two +1/+1 counters on each creature you control.
My favorite part is that Sarek gives me a reason to dig through my collection for creatures I rarely get to play. I’d look for cards with several creature types and try to avoid too much overlap. Fifteen distinct types is a real deck-building goal, and getting there means the weird little creatures that helped me draw three cards are suddenly a lot scarier in combat.
Dathon, His Heart Open
Dathon, His Heart Open is the commander I’m most excited to build. He draws you a card whenever you cast an enchantment spell, and if it’s a Saga, he also deals two damage to each opponent. For two mana, he can move a counter between permanents that share a card type.
Moving lore counters around is what makes me want to brew this deck. I can set up a Saga to repeat my favorite chapter or get a transforming Saga closer to flipping. I already know I’ll spend way too much time deciding which Sagas I want to play, and that’s usually a good sign for a commander deck.
Captain Benjamin Sisko
Captain Benjamin Sisko is my “Oops, All Star Trek” commander. He gives you access to all five colors, so you can throw your favorite captains, Officers, and Spacecraft into the same deck. He also cares about Dilemmas, which gives you somewhere to start if you’d like the deck to have a theme beyond the franchise itself.
Personally, I’d start with the cards I was most excited to open at prerelease and build from there. Half the fun of a five-color Universes Beyond deck is getting to play the cards you liked but couldn’t fit anywhere else.
Final Thoughts
I went into prerelease mostly wondering what Star Trek would add to my Edge of Eternities decks. Now I’ve got a Dathon Saga deck to build, two different excuses to pull out my Spacecraft, and a Q brew that might send me digging through my bulk lands. Dathon is first in line, but I’ll admit I’m tempted to see how many lands I can get away with in Q before my pod starts asking questions.
If you’re heading to a Draft Night at your local game store or looking to host your own, check out my Star Trek Limited Guide!
