MTG: Sit For a Spell – Top 5 Jeskai Commanders
Creatures are fine and all, but Jeskai Commanders know that Magic’s real power comes from the spells.
Welcome Planeswalkers and Praetors to our ongoing series about the best casual experience in Magic: Commander. For the uninitiated, Commander is a semi-casual format for Magic: the Gathering, where you use a deck of 100 cards led by a legendary creature, your Commander.
Aside from basic lands, you are only allowed one copy of each card in the deck. Moreover, you can only include cards in your Commander’s “color identity” or artifacts. Each color and color combo has a unique playstyle and a wealth of mighty generals to lead your deck to victory. EDHRec.com is a great source for Commander info and can give you ideas to build your next Commander deck or tune an existing one.
Jeskai is the wedge of control and focus, and the spell-heavy color combo lends itself to casting as many spells as possible. The mightiest heroes from this trio leave creatures behind in favor of burn, life gain, or theft. If you want to play your opponent without lifting a sword, give these heroes a try.
Hinata, Dawn-Crowned
Hinata is the top contender, and she’s a surprising piece. Usually, instants and sorceries either have a single target or NO targets. However, Hinata wants you to play spells that SPECIFICALLY target multiple things. The more targets they have, the less they cost. Even better, you can slow down your opponent’s casting by making all their spells cost at least 1 more, if not more. Jeskai is the king of control, and Hinata is one of the best.
Kykar, Wind’s Fury
Kykar immediately proves me wrong by WANTING more creatures on the battlefield. Now, those creatures are immediately used as spell fodder, but that’s not the point. Kykar can make an air force of tokens to overwhelm your opponent or feed them into a massive fireball to burn all the hairs off their face. Either way, this Crane brings the pain.
Narset, Enlightened Master
The most hated Commander in the color wedge, and possibly one of the most hated period, Narset can get obscene surprisingly fast. She has first strike and hexproof, making her hard enough to move. However, her real power comes from her ability to cast spells from the top of your library for free when she attacks. In the colors she’s in, you could run a nasty Voltron build, and turn Narset into a player killer in just a few attacks.
Zedruu the Greathearted
Stealing your opponent’s stuff is all well and good, but what about the reverse? Zedruu loves to give away all your stuff, and gives you a benefit for doing so. While there might not be a lot of permanents you WANT to give away, there’s always a way around it. For one, you can give away all your stuff, get swole, then Aetherflux someone away. This is a weird goatman, but he has his uses.
Elsha of the Infinite
Closing out the group, we have this genie fighter that LOVES punching. Every time you cast a noncreature spell, Elsha gets a little tougher, and Elsha lets you cast ANY noncreature spell from the top of your library as an instant. This goes back to Voltron land, and boy, is Elsha a great candidate.
What do you think of these commanders?
