MTG: River Raiders – Top Five Merfolk Commanders
If Aquaman existed in the MTG universe, he would definitely be friends with these five undersea Commanders.
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. You use a deck of 100 cards led by a legendary creature, aka, 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 an excellent source for Commander info and can give you ideas to build your next Commander deck or tune an existing one.
Merfolk are an interesting bunch; they aren’t especially powerful, and their abilities usually revolve around control rather than power. The Merrow of Lorwyn was the first to really push them into the spotlight, and they’ve been getting progressively stronger ever since. Ixalan was the real game changer for them, and the most recent return to that plane pushed them even further into the limelight.
While they still aren’t the strongest type around, they’ve certainly carved out a niche of powerful decks that even topped the charts for a few weeks.
Hakbal of the Surging Soul
Mer-cules himself, the king of the fish and one of the most powerful Merfolk ever, it’s no surprise Hakbal is at the top. His field-wide ability to buff your board of fishfolk and then give you a card or land advantage whenever he attacks is insane. He can turn a mediocre board state into an unstoppable army in no time, and he’s no slouch in combat himself.
Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca
The fish king BEFORE Hakbal, Kumena had a stranglehold on the top Merfolk spot for a long time, and for good reason. His tap ability can give you free Commander damage, card advantage, or a field buff, depending on what you need. Plus, since a lot of Merfolk abilities trigger off tapping or untapping, he can generate a lot of nastiness in a short amount of time.
Svyelun of Sea and Sky
Svyelun doesn’t have the outright damage as the first two Commanders, but she is a pretty fabulous support piece. She gives your Merfolk ward, making them harder to deal with, and she gives you card advantage whenever she attacks. The best part of this is that, so long as you have two other Merfolk out, she can’t die, so you can attack with impunity. Sometimes damage isn’t the only way to win.
Emperor Mihail II
Emperor Mihail is the perfect monoblue Merfolk commander, able to get all your fish warriors out even faster. He lets you semi-scry, and you can pull Merfolk right off the top of your library if they don’t make it to your hand. Best of all, whenever you cast said Merfolk, if you happen to have extra mana, you can get ANOTHER Merfolk onto the field. Watch the oceanic army multiply in no time and bury your enemies in a tidal wave
Sygg, River Guide
If Hakbal and Kumena are swords, Sygg is a shield or at least a very slippery suit of armor. He has islandwalk, which isn’t something to count out even if you’re the only blue deck. There are SO many ways to turn lands into Islands, so getting him through is no problem. His coolest ability, however, is his last one, which can dish out protection to any Merfolk, provided you have open mana. That can save you from a targeted spell or a mass damage spell (sorry, still not immune to Wrath effects) and can help you get even more damage in. Sygg doesn’t hit hard, but he does make sure you hit.
What do you think of these Commanders?
