The 37 Best Bant Commanders in Magic Ranked

Last updated on January 12, 2026

Chulane, Teller of Tales | Illustration by Victor Adame Minguez

Greetings planeswalkers! If I could describe Commander in one statement, I’d probably wager as follows: Commander is a format of choice.

You choose your color(s), you choose your commander(s), you choose your theme… you’ll always have many important and often unexpectedly difficult decisions, which every EDH player has to go through when building a new deck. If you’re like many of us here at Draftsim and build a new one every week (albeit online, for the mercy of my wallet), you’ve perhaps been around many color identities more than once.

Today, we focus on the best commanders from one of my favorite color trios, Bant (). Bant is an efficient and often proactive shard that many blue and green players enjoy. I’ll be covering their strongest and most popular Bant commanders, with a bonus decklist thrown in for good measure.

Let’s get started!

Why Go with a Bant Commander?

Tuvasa the Sunlit | Illustration by Eric Deschamps

One of the primary reasons to pick any color trio is that you can get the best of what each individual color has to offer in one deck. With Bant, you’re allowed access to:

• White removal, particularly invaluable spot removal spells like Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile.
• Blue counterspells, which are excellent cards for protecting threats and controlling the pace of the game.
• Green mana ramp, with the safe efficient options for developing a mana advantage like Cultivate and Skyshroud Claim.

There are many different Bant commanders available, but they can all draw from the same exceptional supporting pool of spells.

Honorable Mention: Arcades Sabboth

I’d be remiss not to mention the creature that started it all, Arcades Sabboth. Though obviously beyond embarrassing by 2024 EDH standards, this was the first Bant creature ever printed, and it even led to a beloved “remaster” in Arcades, the Strategist. That earns it at least a dear mention, as every other Bant commander owes their existence to Arcades Sabboth!

#37. Jenara, Asura of War

Jenara, Asura of War is another old card that hasn’t aged well, though it’s practically a Black Lotus when compared to old Arcades Sabboth. Strong art, cool flavor text, and a decent flier that can grow itself are about all you’re really getting with Jenara, Asura of War, so it has the unfortunate combination of being somewhat underpowered and also incredibly plain.

Its ability to grow best suggests a Voltron theme, but it’s quite outclassed by more traditional Voltron commanders like Rafiq of the Many and Galea, Kindler of Hope. If I had to pick a theme that only Jenara, Asura of War can do, I think “Bant angels” is your best bet. It’s the only legendary angel in these three colors, so it’d be a great choice to helm a deck full of powerful angels like Sigarda, Host of Herons, Archangel Avacyn, and Errant and Giada. You’d also have access to the excellent support cards in Bant colors, which can help you keep more angels on the board.

#36. Angus Mackenzie

We've got another old-school commander in Angus Mackenzie. Its repeatable Fog ability makes it a great commander for a pillow fort deck focusing on planeswalkers as a win condition. While this fogging is definitely expensive enough to not be broken, there has yet to be another commander with “repeatable Fog” like this.

Cards like Seedborn Muse and Village Bell-Ringer help get multiple activations from Angus each turn cycle. You can back Angus’s defensive desires up with classic pillow fort cards like Ghostly Prison and Sphere of Safety.

Bant is a great superfriends shard as it’s got some of the best planeswalkers of all time. You can play Oko, Thief of Crowns, Nissa, Who Shakes the World, and Teferi, Time Raveler, plus other great options, alongside a little superfriends support from cards like Oath of Nissa and Ichormoon Gauntlet.

#35. Tocasia, Dig Site Mentor

Tocasia, Dig Site Mentor is a rare Bant commander that cares about the graveyard and artifacts that aren’t equipment or creatures. It lets you fill your graveyard by tapping your creatures, an effect you can embellish with cards like Seedborn Muse, Drumbellower, Enhanced Surveillance, and Mesmeric Orb.

You'll need artifacts to get back. Tocasia limits what comes back, so focusing on small, high-impact artifacts works best. This leads to everybody’s favorite archetype: stax! You can get lots of value from using Tocasia to reanimate lots of artifacts like Winter Orb, Ensnaring Bridge, and Cursed Totem. All the milling gives you time to see what you need and some selectiveness.

Once you're ready to win, you can use Toscia to get a few large artifacts, like Portal to Phyrexia and Darksteel Reactor that can close out the game. A few ways to get Tocasia itself into the graveyard, like Perilous Research and Angelic Purge, are also important.

#34. Peter Parker / Amazing Spider-Man

Sorry Peter Parker, but I mainly think of the Amazing Spider-Man as a 4-mana commander as there are so few reasons to need to play the mono-white side. The web-slinging cost of can be a vast reduction on legendary spells. This takes careful building to get right, but the payoffs are well, amazing.

#33. Storvald, Frost Giant Jarl

Storvald, Frost Giant Jarl is a massive commander for the Bant players embracing their inner Timmy. Giving your team protection is huge, and there are several things you can do to make use of the attack trigger.

Effects like Strionic Resonator or extra turn spells to get repeated instances of this ability are necessary. Once you're doing this multiple times you can maximize making your creatures 7/7s with creatures balanced around being small like Cold-Eyed Selkie, Kami of Whispered Hopes, and Wild Beastmaster. It can even be a great infect commander alongside Blighted Agent and friends if you’re feeling cheeky.

The second choice is great against your opponent’s creatures. You can use it alongside effects like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and Crovax, Ascendant Hero to kill your opponent’s threats while skirting problematic keywords like indestructible.

#32. Rubinia Soulsinger

Stealing your opponents' creatures is a great way to deprive your opponent of threats while expanding your own armies. It’s even better in Commander. You can steal opposing commanders to “remove” them without them changing zones, forcing your opponents to use their removal to take out their own commander.

Rubinia Soulsinger is a great commander for this strategy. You'll need a bunch of protective spells for Rubina. Bant has incredible options. Tamiyo's Safekeeping, Loran's Escape, and Slip Out the Back are just a few options that blank spot removal and wraths for maximum protection.

You'll want to double up on Rubina's ability as much as possible. Cards like Strionic Resonator and Rings of Brighthearth are great. You can also copy Rubina with cards like Spark Double, Double Major, and Irenicus's Vile Duplication to steal multiple creatures and make your opponents have as many answers.

#31. Rigo, Streetwise Mentor

Rigo, Streetwise Mentor is an unassuming commander that generates insane card advantage. It works well alongside small unblockable creatures like Slither Blade, Invisible Stalker, and Triton Shorestalker to get ample card draw.

Tokens are also great with Rigo, especially flying tokens like those created by Spectral Procession and Battle Screech. You can go for a minor flying subtheme with cards like Kangee, Sky Warden, which don’t buff your creatures until after they’ve attacked and triggered Rigo.

Buffing after attacks is important to get in damage and card draw. Instants that buff your team, like Rally of Wings and Pride of Conquerors, are solid for this deck, as are creatures like Raff, Weatherlight Stalwart with activated abilities you can use after attacking.

This is one of the better budget commanders on this list, too, as Rigo and many of its staples are available for near bulk prices!

#30. Kestia, the Cultivator

Kestia, the Cultivator is an enchantment commander that wants you to get aggressive and rewards you with one of the best game actions in Magic: drawing cards!

An abundance of enchantment creatures like Eidolon of Blossoms and Destiny Spinner help this deck out, as do powerful auras like Rancor and Ancestral Mask. You'll also want plenty of protective spells to protect these pieces. You have lots of support for this theme.

Bant is full of enchantresses like Mesa Enchantress and Argothian Enchantress for more card draw, but cards like Winds of Rath and Brilliant Restoration give the deck lots of resiliency in a long game.

You’ll also want to be sure to include just about every playable creature in these colors with bestow, though you’ll probably end up leaving out some cards that were clearly aimed at Limited like Ghostblade Eidolon. It’d be higher on this list, but there are other, arguably superior options for Bant enchantments.

#29. Mr. Foxglove

The absolutely dashing Mr. Foxglove makes for a pretty decent fox commander. It’s probably carried more by its amazing art than anything else though, as it’s slow and kind of expensive, and its ability doesn’t suggest a clear theme. Your best is probably including ways to protect/give it haste (i.e. Swiftfoot Boots), plus quickly dumping your hand to maximize the card draw.

Alternatively, you could include huge fatties like Koma, World-Eater and Sire of Seven Deaths, as you’ll have the option to dump them into play by attacking a player with fewer cards in hand than you. I’d probably try an in-between of both approaches, building a “Mr. Foxglove and friends” style deck, with “friends” including all sorts of 7+ mana monstrosities.

#28. Perrie, the Pulverizer

An alternative to Falco Spara, Pactweaver, Perrie, the Pulverizer is clearly the more aggressive of the duo. This rhino soldier really likes laying on the beats and has more of a Voltron approach than Spara does. You’ll clearly want lots of +1/+1 counter synergies to go with this one, and you’re usually trying to build up to a massive monster that can just one-shot whoever looks at you the wrong way. The shield counters and protection spells like Counterspell, Heroic Intervention, and Inspiring Call can go a long way towards making this plan succeed.

#27. Amareth, the Lustrous

Amareth, the Lustrous is another commander that benefits from abundant ETBs but also wants you to manipulate the top card of your library, so let’s focus on that aspect.

Making sure you have a high creature count increases the odds you'll find a hit. It also lets you play cards like Augur of Autumn and Vizier of the Menagerie alongside Courser of Kruphix and Oracle of Mul Daya to play most of your cards right off the top of your library.

You also get top deck manipulation from cards like Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Sensei's Divining Top. Amareth’s ability can also offset the tempo of cards like Worldly Tutor and Enlightened Tutor, letting you get cards the same turn you tutor for them.

#26. Kros, Defense Contractor

Kros, Defense Contractor is a unique spin on a counters commander that wants you to give your opponents counters for a group hug strategy. It works well alongside mechanics like support and backup that let you give counters to anything.

There’s plenty of group hug support for this strategy with cards like Generous Patron and Skyboon Evangelist that want you to spread counters everywhere. Goading off Kros’s triggers ensures that things will happen all game, just to other players.

This deck also benefits from proliferate cards like Thrummingbird and Flux Channeler. Once you've got one counter on your opponents’ best creatures, you can proliferate again and again to keep goading that creature while spreading more counters. Before long, nothing can attack you.

#25. Katilda and Lier

Katila and Lier mixes and matches two themes you usually wouldn’t see with each other: humans and spellslinging. Think of it kind of like having Snapcaster Mage in the command zone! The best cards are those that play directly off humans (Katilda, Dawnhart Prime, Heronblade Elite), and staple spells like Swords to Plowshares and Cultivate. This deck also loves that excellent creatures like Eternal Witness, Archmage Emeritus, and Chulane, Teller of Tales already happen to be humans! You can also use flash humans like Cathar Commando to rebuy Counterspells, as otherwise you’ll be limited to flashing back at sorcery speed.

#24. Katara, the Fearless

I didn't see Katara, the Fearless and Ty Lee, Chi Blocker teaming up, but they make an all-star combination. The triggered abilities on allies certainly leans on a lot of cards from Avatar: The Last Airbender, but outside of those some great cards to include are Talus Paladin, Turntimber Ranger, Seascape Aerialist.

#23. Gorion, Wise Mentor

The ill-fated Gorion, Wise Mentor is a strong build-around Bant commander that clearly wants you to focus on adventure cards. Doubling spells is never something to sneeze at, so Gorion, Wise Mentor properly rewards you for this. This commander received a nice boost from Wilds of Eldraine, as it’s great with adventure cards from that Magic set like Twining Twins, Horned Loch-Whale, and Virtue of Loyalty.

You can double up on Gorion’s doubling ability with cards like Twinning Staff, Lucky Clover, and Swarm Intelligence. All this copying of instants and sorceries is fantastic alongside magecraft cards like Archmage Emeritus and Deekah, Fractal Theorist.

Of course, you need the adventure cards. Brazen Borrower and Sword Coast Serpent give you board control while you get some stack control from Hypnotic Sprite and Sapphire Dragon. There are tokens to be made with Flaxen Intruder and Horn of Valhalla.

This only brushes the surface of where your adventures can take you!

#22. Isu the Abominable

Isu the Abominable is a cool Bant commander that’s one of the only available options for a snow commander. Jorn, God of Winter / Kaldring, the Rimestaff is its main competition, and the comparison between the two is interesting. Outside of their different third colors, they also do different things; Isu is a powerful card advantage engine, while Jorn, God of Winter can basically double your mana each turn if you build your mana base for it. I’d probably give the edge to Jorn overall on power level, but there’s still no shame in giving this yeti its due.

Make sure to include all the best snow cards like Search for Glory, Ice-Fang Coatl, and On Thin Ice. You’ll also want lots of basic snow lands and ways to search them up, as having a high density of snow cards is obviously key!

#21. Shanna, Purifying Blade

Shanna, Purifying Blade is a lifegain commander that benefits from steady lifegain. Cards like Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant ensure you'll always gain a little life each turn so you can spend a little mana to draw cards.

You can increase your lifegain with cards like Cleric Class and Alhammarret's Archive and get paid off for gaining so much life with Blossoming Bogbeast and Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn. You'll have access to so many cards that effects like Reliquary Tower and Thought Vessel are critical.

Your commander synergizes particularly well with Accomplished Alchemist since you'll always pay X in full. I also love including Mana Drain if you have a copy. While you can’t dump the mana into its end step ability, the discount can still give you more mana to spend later.

One last interesting thing to note about Shanna, Purifying Blade is that being forced to spend at end step often tells the table what kind of Counterspells you’re leaving open. As such, the best reactive cards for Shanna are often free counterspells like Flawless Maneuver, Fierce Guardianship, and Force of Will.

#20. Phelddagrif

Everyone’s favorite purple winged hippo occupies the halfway point in our rankings! This is one of the first group hug commanders, a strategy that revolves around giving everyone (including you) plenty of resources which not only supplies you with your own combo pieces and threats but prevents you from becoming too big of a threat.

Phelddagrif doesn't do any one thing particularly well, but it's more about the incentives it can offer other people that can be used as bargaining chips to ward off attacks and removal.

#19. Sophia, Dogged Detective

Jinkies! Sophia, Dogged Detective is a cute Scooby-Doo reference and an even cuter dog commander. It mixes two pretty rare themes (clues and dogs) into one neat package, though it probably isn’t turning any heads on raw power level. Dogs are at least better than they used to be, as powerful dogs like Generous Pup, Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd, and Tanuki Transplanter didn’t exist when Rin and Seri, Inseparable was first printed.

You’ll still probably be scrapping the bulk bin for Limited common dogs like Mushroom Watchdogs and Floodhound, but such is life when you have a narrow theme like this. The rest of the deck should include clue staples like Tireless Tracker and Tangletrove Kelp. Either way, if you’re into dogs and eclectic aggro decks, give Sophia a try.

#18. Aang, at the Crossroads / Aang, Destined Savior

Aang, at the Crossroads loves a little top deck manipulation to get amazing value upon ETB. It's trivially easy to trigger the transformation into Aang, Destined Savior and I have a thing for cards that want to attack, yet have vigilance and a tap ability so the every-turn earthbending is a beautiful compliment to a solid card.

#17. Choco, Seeker of Paradise

The flock of birds surrounding Choco, Seeker of Paradise reaches far back into the creature types of early Magic. You gotta love that the first ability triggers upon attack, before blockers can be declared. It fills your hand and your graveyard and represents a great chance to drop multiple lands in a turn.

#16. Aang and Katara

Aang and Katara may be expensive and one dimensional, but that's it on weaknesses. There are a ton of allies to pull in and lots of creatures and artifacts to tap in order for this to be nearly a board doubler right away. With stations, waterbending, convoke and good old mana dorks (among many other options for tapping your permanents) you overwhelm opponents with creatures, just remember a few anthems.

#15. Tidus, Yuna's Guardian

Tidus, Yuna's Guardian is a free and consistent mover of your counters. Bant cards have plenty of ways to ensure saboteur damage gets through, then the slick bonus of card draw and proliferate kick in. With some weird counters you borrow from those Atraxa decklists, the proliferate can be far better than drawing a card.

#14. Estrid, the Masked

Estrid, the Masked is another enchantment-based Bant commander that focuses on auras. Estrid is also the only planeswalker on this list, which makes it a unique candidate for an aura-based commander.

But don’t let that fool you; Estrid’s secondary ability creates a Mask that protects your permanent from one attempt at removal, which in turn also saves all the other auras on it. One of the biggest downsides of aura strategies is that you sometimes put all your eggs in one basket only to be Doom Bladed, resulting in you losing your enchantments. Totem (umbra) armor prevents that (and sweepers) and makes you much more resilient to removal.

Enchantments and enchantress effects are a top priority and not something to be skipped out on whatsoever as an aura deck. I mean cards like Enchantress's Presence, Verduran Enchantress, Eidolon of Blossoms, Mesa Enchantress, Sythis, Harvest's Hand, and Setessan Champion.

As for the auras themselves there are quite a few. Snake Umbra gives you another chance to keep your board alive with umbra armor and provides a nice card advantage bonus for combat damage. Ancestral Mask is also an absolute game-ender if you can swing with it and a dozen or so other enchantments. You have a lot of wiggle room and area for personal choice with the rest of the auras, but I recommend Righteous Authority, Ethereal Armor, and Mirrormade.

#13. Rafiq of the Many

Next up is Rafiq of the Many, a classic commander from all the way back in Shards of Alara that’s most often used in exalted-based decks. Exalted is a keyword that gives a creature attacking alone +1/+1 until end of turn. Rafiq doubles down on this directly by giving out double strike to your exalted creature, too! This makes for one the format’s most venerated Voltron commanders, capable of one-shotting many opponents.

Bant has access to lots of powerful cards with exalted, most notably Noble Hierarch which has seen play across a multitude of Magic formats. Exalted is a mechanic that starts to add up on its own and can turn mediocre attackers like Silent Arbiter into powerful synergistic cards. Rafiq’s double strike bonus also plays a big role in this deck’s success. Dealing double damage is incredible as you can imagine, even more so when you start taking commander damage into account.

Since you’re running a straightforward exalted theme most of your creature base will be whatever creatures have exalted and seem playable. You usually want to attack with your commander anyway, but you can make anything into a threat with enough exalted stacks. There are also tons of auras and enchantments you can play since you’re already trying to swing in with one mega attacker. Steel of the Godhead, Mantle of the Ancients, and Rancor are great examples but there are plenty for you to choose from.

#12. Roon of the Hidden Realm

A classic flicker commander, Roon of the Hidden Realm enables tons of shenanigans.

You'll want to support it first and foremost with cards like Drumbellower and Seedborn Muse that get as many activations from Roon as you can get. This gets further enhanced by cards like Biomancer's Familiar and Training Grounds that reduce the cost of Roon’s ability.

While Roon can be a great value commander, it also works as a combo enabler. Intruder Alarm has plenty of combos and works well with Roon. It becomes laughably easy to generate infinite mana to pump into something like Walking Ballista when you pair Roon with something that produces mana when it enters the battlefield, like Peregrine Drake or Palinchron.

#11. Morska, Undersea Sleuth

Morska, Undersea Sleuth is a neat commander with a clear theme around clues, similar to Sophia, Dogged Detective. Morska seems a fair bit more popular online than Sophia, though. My guess is this is due to a mix of raw power level and slimmer deck building requirements. Rather than forcing you to play and connect with a bunch of dogs, Morska is incredibly straightforward; if it sticks around, you’ll have lots of Clues tokens. You can then pop these Clues at your convenience, and Morska grows very large in a fairly short order. If this sounds like your cup of tea, try to pair it with other clue cards (Tireless Tracker, Erdwal Illuminator) and stuff that plays off amassing artifacts (i.e., Inspiring Statuary). I’d also recommend Brotherhood Regalia if you have it, as Morska hits hard but has no innate evasion whatsoever.

#10. Yuna, Grand Summoner

Yuna, Grand Summoner is like Sylvan Caryatid, Grumgully, the Generous, and The Ozolith all spun up into one cool cleric. Modular is a powerful ability that keeps all the momentum of your +1/+1 counters and commander Yuna basically grants it to all your permanents.

#9. Falco Spara, Pactweaver

Falco Spara, Pactweaver gives you a counters commander that wants to remove counters for card advantage. It’s an interesting take on the archetype. While Falco works with many traditional counters synergies, several work well with this one.

Creatures that get counters as a downside love Falco. You can ramp a bunch with Devoted Druid (ignoring all the infinites with this card) and get some much value from persist cards like Glen Elendra Archmage and Aerie Ouphes it should be illegal.

Falco is another commander that gets lots of value from cards like Sensei's Divining Top and Jace, the Mind Sculptor that manipulate the top of your deck, so you're always casting the most relevant spells. It gets even better backup from Vega, the Watcher and Sage of the Beyond that reward you for casting spells from zones other than your hand.

Overall, combining those kinds of cards with the usual +1/+1 counter fare (Gyre Sage, Fathom Mage, Brokers Ascendancy, etc) is highly rewarding with Falco!

#8. Tuvasa the Sunlit

Tuvasa the Sunlit makes your first enchantment each turn card neutral at least and gets +1/+1 for each enchantment you control.

Selesnya () is a very enchantment-heavy color combination, and there are lots of powerful ones in blue that make Bant an optimal tri-color for enchantment-based strategies. Just think about Propaganda, Rhystic Study, or Mirrormade in your run-of-the-mill Selesnya enchantress deck. That is what you get to play with when you have Tuvasa in the command zone.

#7. Brenard, Ginger Sculptor

Brenard is a powerful Bant commander with two very powerful abilities. While the first line suggests a food/golem strategy, most of its strength actually comes from its second ability, which gives you copies of existing creatures as Food tokens. This means that most popular builds of Brenard are token-focused, leveraging cards like Adrix and Nev, Twincasters, Mondrak, Glory Dominus, and Nesting Dovehawk to great effect. I’d also heartily recommend playing many of the “Splicer” cycle, as they’ll not only have golem synergy but are also ETB creatures for Brenard’s second ability. Brenard, Ginger Sculptor is ultimately a great choice if you like token synergies and resilient beatdown decks.

#6. Galea, Kindler of Hope

Galea, Kindler of Hope (nope, not Gaea), is a strong equipment commander. The equip cost is often a balancing knob for equipment, as it limits how quickly you can have them up and running. Being able to reliably remove this from your command zone opens up all kinds of avenues and dramatically improves certain cards.

An obvious example is something like Colossus Hammer, which is now just a 1-mana +10/+10. Holy Avenger also gets much stronger since you can get it plus an extra aura equipped for just . And the value isn’t restricted to just huge artifacts. Cheaper equipment like Basilisk Collar and Winged Boots also become great.

Although Galea also works with auras, you’d be better off focusing on equipment. There are stronger enchantment-focused Bant commanders, and Galea’s equipment reduction is truly unique. I don’t mind including a couple of staple auras like Wild Growth, Fertile Ground, and Kenrith's Transformation, but your big payoffs are better off as cards like Argentum Armor and Belt of Giant Strength.

#5. Galadriel, Light of Valinor

Galadriel, Light of Valinor is an excellent value commander that asks little of you other than “play creatures.” This lets it support a wide variety of themes, from Bant elves to +1/+1 counters to a “good stuff” strategy (usually featuring lots of LotR cards for flavor). Galadriel can also go infinite with Emiel the Blessed and Spark Double, as you can repeatedly alternate blinking it and its copy to add three . This gives you infinite “enters” and “leaves” triggers, so all it takes is a Soul Warden of sorts for this to be an infinite life combo. The combo is more of a curiosity than a Plan A though, as Galadriel is a fair card first and foremost.

#4. Ms. Bumbleflower

This group hug commander from Bloomburrow Commander is hugely popular, both for flavor and power level reasons. There’s just something wonderful about a kind rabbit citizen with a penchant for massive flying attacks and free cards! Most Ms. Bumbleflower decks I see are built around group hug, +1/+1 counter synergies, or both. Cards that punish your opponent for drawing cards like Scrawling Crawler are quite popular.

#3. Arcades, the Strategist

The souped-up version of Arcades Sabboth, Arcades, the Strategist promotes a unique defender based strategy. It’s pretty much the durdlefort commander, and Arcades lists tend to live or die by their commander.

Keep in mind that cards with defender are inherently designed not to attack! This means that if you can flip them into “0/X” attackers, they’re usually quite oversized for their cost (and often come with other upsides). What other strategy can supply 2-mana 4/4s that give your other creatures haste like Crashing Drawbridge does?

Some of the best walls to include are cards that see play in no other decks like Wall of Junk and Shield Sphere. I’m also a huge fan of including cantrips like Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Omens, and Carven Caryatid, as extra card advantage is always appreciated.

The main advice I’ll give you when building or playing a defender/wall-based deck is to include ample protection for your commander. This deck doesn’t do much without Arcades, the Strategist, so include counterspells, Ranger's Guile effects, and the like. You can also supplement Arcades with redundancy from other “butt blast” effects like Assault Formation and High Alert. That way you can still keep the pressure on even if Arcades has already died several times (and trust me, it’ll be a target).

#2. Derevi, Empyrial Tactician

Derevi, Empyrial Tactician is a classic stax commander. If you enjoy seeing your opponents get visibly frustrated and say things like “I can’t play the game” or “why would any happy person do this?” you’ve found your Bant card.

Winter Orb and Static Orb are must-haves to keep their mana down. You have Esper Sentinel, Mystic Remora, and Rhystic Study to keep your hands full while disincentivizing their own cards. Finally, you want to include Cyclonic Rift, Trinisphere, Meekstone, and Sphere of Resistance to make their life a living hell.

You want to include as many untap and mana effects as possible that keep you out of the line of sight of these stax pieces. Seedborn Muse, Circle of Dreams Druid, and mana dorks like Fyndhorn Elves come in clutch here. You also want single-card game-enders that provide enough power to overcome whatever your opponents manage to get out before being shut down if resolved. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is great for this since it’s hard to remove, makes your commander a 4/5 flier, wipes out most of your opponents’ mana dorks, and makes your dorks actual threats.

If you love Derevi, Empyrial Tactician but don’t want to make your friends miserable, there are plenty of weaker themes you can try with it! Bird typal, wizard typal, novel synergies with tappers (that aren’t Winter Orb), and more are all options if you tire of stax shenanigans.

#1. Chulane, Teller of Tales

Chulane, Teller of Tales is a pretty busted value creature with a high amount of customizability and power. There are many, many different takes on this Bant commander, as it’s easy to use but powerful abilities lend well to a long list of strategies including pod, bounce, a few typal decks, blink, landfall, and more.

Chulane, Teller of Tales‘ most powerful quality is that it incentivizes you to do already powerful things! “Play a bunch of good enters creatures” is hardly a controversial task in MTG, so having a commander that just pays you off for that is filthy.

Commander Decklist: Ms. Bumbleflower Group Hug

Ms. Bumbleflower | Illustration by Marta Nael

The list I’ve chosen to showcase is borrowed from our guide to upgrading Bloomburrow’s Peace Offering Commander precon, helmed by Ms. Bumbleflower. I elected for this commander because it’s fun, powerful, and affordable; all of the things you could want from EDH, really! The former game changer, Trouble in Pairs does nice work gaining you cards. It doesn’t take too much dough to upgrade its Peace Offering Commander precon, as it contains much of what you’d already want for that style of deck to begin with.

You get a ton of sizing, damage, and cards from Ms. Bumbleflower. Feeding your opponent’s cards is also useful for playing politics and building “relationships” with other players, as you’ll often have opportunities for “scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” style plays. If you look outside this list for on-theme cards, the gift mechanic like on Wear Down and attacking inhibitors like Promise of Loyalty, are just sweet.

Commanding Conclusion

Kestia, the Cultivator | Illustration by Zezhou Chen

And with that, we’ve wrapped up the best Bant commanders in Magic! Bant is one of my favorite color trios, as green really appreciates the quality interaction that blue and white bring to the table. Now I even want to put together my own Chulane, Teller of Tales deck!

But I want to know what you think. Are there any rankings specifically you think are off, or even spot on? Let me know down in the comments or over on our official Draftsim Discord. And don’t forget to follow Draftsim for awesome articles and set updates.

Bant not your preferred EDH color trio? Check these out: Abzan, Esper, Grixis, Jeskai, Jund, Mardu, Naya, Sultai, Temur.

Until next time, may your Commander brews always turn out exactly how you want them to!

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