Secrets of Strixhaven is packed with exciting Commander options, including five very obvious standouts that I may cover in a separate article: the Elder Dragons.
The school-founding Elder Dragons all have incredible build-around potential. What I especially love about them is that, while Strixhaven often puts a fresh spin on what each color pair can do, the Elder Dragons still feel like strong representations of what those original pairings are known for. There are plenty of great directions to take them, but for this article, I want to focus on the best non-Elder Dragon commanders in the set.
Best mono-color commanders in Secrets of Strixhaven
There are only two mono-colored commanders in Secrets of Strixhaven, with the rest of the set leaning into two-color pairings. I do not believe there are any commanders in the set with more than two colors, either.
Moseo, Vein's New Dean
Moseo is an interesting mono-black commander that blends lifegain, graveyard recursion, and Pest synergies into one fairly cohesive game plan. Whenever Moseo attacks, he creates a 1/1 Pest that gains you 1 life when it dies, which means he can naturally help enable his own Infusion ability and start bringing creatures back from the graveyard.
If I were building Moseo, I would lean heavily into the Pests that gain life when they die. There are some Pests that reward you for attacking, and those still have a place here, but mono-black gives you far more support for the death-trigger version of the archetype. From there, building around lifegain is fairly straightforward, and the more life you can gain each turn, the better Moseo becomes.
Lifelink creatures are especially valuable in this deck because they can help turn on Infusion through combat whether they are blocked or not. If they do get blocked and die, Moseo can often bring them right back as long as you have gained enough life that turn. Because of that, I would build the deck around a mix of midrange creatures, repeatable lifegain, and cards that care about the graveyard.
Cards like Callous Bloodmage and Sedgemoor Witch fit naturally into that plan by helping create Pest tokens that can later fuel your lifegain engines. Blight Mound makes those tokens more threatening while also helping generate even more bodies, and Arnyn, Deathbloom Botanist is a strong payoff piece that rewards you while punishing opponents whenever a Pest, or any other small creature, dies.
One of my favorite less obvious inclusions here is Arguel’s Blood Fast. It is a card I do not see played nearly enough, and it gives Moseo a sneaky late-game tool. If one of your best creatures is sitting in the graveyard and you are close to losing, you can sacrifice creatures across your board to gain the life needed to bring it back. Since many players tend to forget about the back side once it is on the battlefield, it can make for a surprisingly effective last-ditch play.
Moseo looks like one of the best commanders in the set for players who want to build around Infusion specifically. He gives the mechanic a clear home while still leaving room for a grindy mono-black lifegain deck that can keep recycling its best threats throughout the game.
Mica, Reader of Runes
Mica is a mono-red commander that looks like an artifact deck at first glance, but I think the most exciting way to build him is as a Treasure-fueled burn deck. Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery, Mica lets you sacrifice an artifact to copy that spell, so the deck naturally wants a steady stream of disposable artifacts to keep turning every burn spell into a bigger threat. Since Mica does not care whether the artifact is a token, Treasure tokens are probably the cleanest way to fuel his ability.
Because of that, I would build Mica around artifact generation first, with burn as the payoff. Treasure makers like Unexpected Windfall are especially useful here because they both keep your hand full and give you artifacts to cash in later. Academy Manufactor can help those Treasure makers spiral into even more material, while Crime Novelist rewards you for sacrificing artifacts by giving you extra mana to keep casting spells after Mica copies them.
There is also a very easy ping-damage subtheme to support here. Reckless Fireweaver and Weftstalker Ardent punish opponents whenever your artifacts enter, which means all of those Treasures are doing work before you even sacrifice them. Weapons Manufacturing is another great fit because it gives you repeatable artifact bodies for Mica while also dealing damage when those artifacts are sacrificed. At that point, the deck can chip away at the table through incidental damage while setting up a much larger finishing turn.
That finishing turn is where cards like Crackle with Power become especially scary. Mica turning one huge spell into two can end games out of nowhere, and because he is already asking you to play Treasures, the deck should be capable of generating the kind of mana needed to make those X spells matter. I do think there is a mono-red burn deck here, but the artifact package is what makes Mica feel more distinct than a normal spellslinger commander. Instead of simply copying spells for value, he lets you convert every little Treasure and expendable artifact into more damage, more card advantage, or one enormous game-ending spell.
Best Dual-Color Commanders in Secrets of Strixhaven
This is where this set really thrives in its legendary creatures. The following are the best commanders in the set.
Aziza, Mage Tower Captain
Aziza is a really fun Boros commander because she takes what is usually the least exciting part of a token deck, having a bunch of small creatures sitting around, and turns those bodies into a way to copy your best spells. Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery, Aziza lets you tap three untapped creatures you control to copy it, which means the deck wants to make a wide board first and then turn those extra creatures into explosive spell payoffs later.
If I were building Aziza, I would start with creature tokens. Boros has no shortage of ways to make them, and the various Ajani planeswalkers are especially appealing here because they can keep adding bodies while also playing into the deck’s aggressive game plan. I also think Aziza is a fun place for a small energy subtheme if you want to lean into some of the newer red-white token support, since the deck is already interested in building up extra resources over time before cashing them in for a huge turn.
Grand Crescendo is one of the cards I would be most excited to play with Aziza. It already makes a large number of creature tokens, but if Aziza copies it, the spell scales up dramatically and can give you the board presence needed to keep copying spells for the rest of the game. That is the part of Aziza I like most: the deck can look like a fairly normal token strategy early, then suddenly pivot into a spellslinger finish once it has enough creatures lying around.
For actual win conditions, Hour of Reckoning is a very funny one. Since convoke lets your tokens help cast it, it can clear away opposing boards while leaving your token army untouched. From there, it becomes much easier to swing in for lethal or use the rest of your copied spells to finish off the table. Twinning Staff is also an obvious inclusion because if Aziza is already copying your spells, getting an extra copy on top of that makes every payoff even more threatening.
Aziza feels like a commander for players who enjoy token decks but want them to end the game in a less conventional way. Instead of only going wide and attacking, she lets those same creature tokens become fuel for huge copied spells, making her one of the more creative Boros commanders in Secrets of Strixhaven. There is also a nice amount of flexibility in how you build her, since you can keep the deck focused on creature tokens and copied spells or take it in a Boros Energy direction to give the deck an extra resource engine and a slightly different identity.
Berta, Wise Extrapolarator
Berta is probably the most straightforward of the Quandrix commanders in Secrets of Strixhaven, but that is not a bad thing. She is a clean green-blue build-around for Increment, +1/+1 counters, and X-cost spells, all themes Simic already handles extremely well. Whenever Berta gets one or more +1/+1 counters, she gives you a mana of any color, and once you have enough mana lying around, she can turn it into a Fractal token with her activated ability. That makes her both a payoff for growing creatures and a mana sink once the deck starts doing what it wants to do.
If I were building Berta, I would lean heavily into the Increment cards from this set rather than treating her like just another generic counters commander. Pensive Professor, Cuboid Colony, and Fractal Tender are all natural fits because they want you to keep casting increasingly expensive spells, and Berta rewards that same play pattern by helping refund mana as she grows. The deck almost builds itself from there: ramp early, keep increasing the size of your spells, and let your board scale up along with the amount of mana you are spending each turn.
X-cost spells are especially good with Berta because they give you complete control over how much mana you spend. Early on, they can simply be efficient ways to trigger Increment; later, once Berta and the rest of your board have grown, they become huge payoffs that keep pushing the deck forward. This is where Berta starts to feel like a fun alternate commander for the Quandrix precon. Rather than only caring about counters in the broadest sense, she gives the deck a more specific “mega-ramp into enormous spells” identity that feels very fitting for the college.
Of course, if you are making a ton of mana in blue, Mathemagics is an obvious card to look at. It is exactly the kind of ridiculous X-spell this deck wants to cast, and once X is high enough, it can simply make one player lose on the spot by forcing them to draw more cards than remain in their library. It is not subtle, but Berta is not really asking you to be subtle. She wants you to keep making bigger numbers until one of those numbers ends the game.
Berta may not be the flashiest commander in the set, but she is one of the easiest to understand and one of the cleanest to build around. If you like classic Simic decks that ramp hard, put counters on creatures, and eventually cast spells with unnecessarily large X values, Berta gives that strategy a strong Secrets of Strixhaven home.
Blech, Loafing Pest
Blech is quite literally the best boy, and thankfully, he also happens to be a really fun commander. His ability rewards you whenever you gain life by putting a +1/+1 counter on each Pest, Bat, Insect, Snake, and Spider you control, which gives you one of the most charming creature-type decks in the entire set. Rather than asking you to focus on one tribe, Blech invites you to fill the deck with every creepy crawly you can find and let them all grow together.
If I were building Blech, I would not overcomplicate it. This is a green-black go-wide deck with a light lifegain package, where the real fun comes from jamming together all of the best Pests, Bats, Insects, Snakes, and Spiders available. Blex, Vexing Pest is an obvious inclusion since it is essentially Blech’s predecessor doing a very similar job, while Arasta of the Endless Web keeps creating Spider tokens and Scute Swarm is here because, honestly, how could it not be? Once Blech is on the battlefield, every small bit of life gain turns those otherwise modest bodies into a much more threatening board.
The different creature types also give the deck access to some surprisingly strong payoffs. Ohran Frostfang is a Snake that makes attacking with your growing board much safer by giving your creatures deathtouch and card draw, while Mirkwood Bats gives the token side of the deck another angle by draining opponents whenever your tokens enter or leave the battlefield. That means cards making extra bodies are not just helping Blech go wide; they are also steadily wearing the table down.
Because Blech naturally wants you to flood the battlefield with small creatures, go-wide payoffs become very appealing. Comforting Counsel is a nice fit here, giving the whole board a burst of counters while also triggering Blech if you have gained life that turn. The commander already turns incidental lifegain into permanent board growth, so the deck does not need to be a full lifegain strategy. It just needs enough of it to keep Blech’s army snowballing.
Blech may not be the most competitive commander in Secrets of Strixhaven, but he might be one of the easiest to love. He gives you an excuse to build around a wonderfully weird collection of bayou critters, and if your ideal Commander deck is a pile of Pests, Bats, Insects, Snakes, and Spiders slowly becoming enormous together, Blech is the perfect creature to lead it.
Nita, Forum Conciliator
Nita is one of those commanders that sounds incredibly fun for the person playing it and absolutely miserable for everyone else at the table. She leans into a very thieving style of gameplay, where the goal is not just to remove your opponents’ cards, but to use those cards against them. That gives her a lot of high-power potential because, instead of relying only on your own deck, you are constantly turning the rest of the table into an extension of your hand.
If I were building Nita, I would fully commit to cards that let you exile, steal, or cast spells from your opponents’ libraries and graveyards. Tinybones, the Pickpocket is a great fit because it can start playing cards out of opposing graveyards, which means all the removal, discard, and board wipes happening throughout the game can eventually become resources for you. Gonti, Night Minister pushes that idea even further by encouraging a chaotic table state where everybody starts playing everybody else’s cards, except your deck should be built to take advantage of that better than anyone else.
The key is making sure Nita does not run out of mana while doing all of this. Thieving Varmint fits perfectly because it helps generate mana specifically for casting your opponents’ spells, making it much easier to chain stolen cards together. That kind of support is what can push Nita from a cute theft commander into something genuinely threatening. Once the deck gets rolling, your opponents are not just worried about what is in your hand; they also have to worry about their own best cards being turned against them.
I also like adding cards that punish opponents for interacting with you. Cunning Rhetoric is especially annoying in the best way because it makes attacking you come with a real cost, potentially giving you access to even more of your opponents’ cards. Black Cat, Cunning Thief fits the theme nicely as well, stealing resources while creating card disadvantage for your opponents. The more you can make the table feel like every action benefits you somehow, the more frustrating Nita becomes to play against.
Nita is probably not the commander I would bring to a casual table without warning people first, but that is also part of her appeal. She has a very clear identity, tons of potential, and the ability to create hilarious, messy games where everyone’s cards are fair game. If you like commanders that win through theft, disruption, and turning your opponents’ own strategies against them, Nita is one of the most devious options in Secrets of Strixhaven.
Zaffai and the Tempests
Zaffai and the Tempests might be one of my favorite commanders in Secrets of Strixhaven from a pure deckbuilding standpoint. There is just something immediately fun about building around a band of magical performers, especially if you lean into the idea of music tribal. If you want to open that up a little more, you can treat it more like performers or artist tribal instead, but either way, Zaffai gives the deck a very distinct identity that feels different from a normal Prismari spellslinger list.
What makes Zaffai especially interesting is that she can work as an alternate commander to Prismari Artistry. Instead of only caring about casting big spells the fair way, Zaffai wants you to fill the deck with expensive spells and find ways to play them for free. That gives the deck a very explosive ceiling, but it also means you have to be thoughtful about your win conditions. X-cost spells do not work nearly as well here because if you are casting them for free, X is not going to give you the giant payoff you want. Because of that, I would focus more on high-mana-value spells with powerful printed effects rather than spells that only scale when you pour mana into them.
The performer side of the deck has some really fun options too. Creatures like Bohn, Beguiling Balladeer, Insufferable Balladeer, and Firbolg Flutist all play into the bard theme while giving you strong ways to control the table. That is what makes the deck feel more creative than simply jamming every expensive spell you can find. You can build the deck like a chaotic magical concert, using your performers to throw opponents off balance while your bigger spells create the actual finish.
Improvisation Capstone feels like one of the most exciting cards for this commander. Since it has Paradigm, you can potentially replay it every turn, and if Zaffai lets you cast it for free the first time, it becomes absurd value. That kind of repeated free spell engine is exactly what this deck wants, especially when you are trying to chain together big turns without having to pay full retail for everything.
If you want to push Zaffai in a higher-power direction, Storm is probably the cleanest way to do it. Prismari, the Inspiration becomes a great inclusion if you are trying to storm off, and Dragonstorm is the big flashy payoff that fits the plan perfectly. Cast it for free, find Prismari, and suddenly the deck can start turning one huge spell into a much larger chain of nonsense. It is very Prismari in the best way possible.
Zaffai and the Tempests feels like a commander for players who want their deck to be theatrical, explosive, and a little ridiculous. You can build it as music tribal, performer tribal, free-spell chaos, or a more powerful Storm deck, and all of those directions still feel connected to the same core idea. It is not just another spellslinger commander; it is a full-on magical performance where the encore might accidentally end the game.
Colorless Commander in Secrets of Strixhaven
Yes, this is sort of clickbait. There is technically a new colorless commander in Secrets of Strixhaven, but this is definitely more of a fun rules curiosity than a deck I would confidently recommend building right away.
The Dawning Archaic
The Dawning Archaic is an awesome creature, and I love how strongly it ties into the larger Secrets of Strixhaven story. It feels like the kind of card that should be exciting to build around, especially because colorless commanders already tend to stand out at a Commander table. The problem is that The Dawning Archaic cares about instants and sorceries, which is not traditionally something colorless decks are built to support.
That puts the card in a weird spot. You can build it, but without more colorless instant and sorcery support, it likely becomes less of a unique Dawning Archaic deck and more of a generic colorless artifact or Eldrazi shell with The Dawning Archaic sitting in the command zone. That is not necessarily a bad thing if you just want an excuse to play big colorless threats, mana rocks, and strange utility cards, but it does not really capture what makes the card interesting.
The dream version of this deck would be a true colorless spellslinger strategy, where The Dawning Archaic rewards you for casting instants and sorceries in a way that feels different from the usual artifact-heavy colorless builds. Unfortunately, Commander just does not have enough support for that plan yet. There are some colorless spells you can run, but not enough to make the theme feel consistent or exciting across an entire 100-card deck.
So, while The Dawning Archaic is technically one of the most interesting commanders in Secrets of Strixhaven, it is also one of the hardest to justify building right now. I love the concept, and I hope this is the beginning of more colorless instant and sorcery support in the future, but for now, this feels more like a card to keep an eye on than a commander ready for the spotlight.
Final Thoughts
Secrets of Strixhaven has a surprisingly deep lineup of commanders once you look past the obvious Elder Dragon choices. Some, like Moseo and Berta, give specific mechanics like Infusion and Increment a clear Commander home, while others, like Aziza, Nita, and Zaffai, open the door for more creative builds built around copied spells, theft, free-casting, or even music tribal. Blech may be the easiest to love purely on theme, and The Dawning Archaic is a fascinating colorless option, even if it still needs more support before it becomes a fully realized deck.
Overall, this set feels like a strong one for Commander players who enjoy building around personality as much as power.
For more upcoming Magic: The Gathering releases, our MagicCon coverage, tabletop news, and future Commander breakdowns, be sure to check out our 2026 TCG and Tabletop Gaming Release Calendar and keep an eye on what is coming next.
