10 Overlooked Commanders from 2025

The Lunar Whale | Art by Fiona Hsieh

Last week I wrote about 2025's best new commanders, going set by set and highlighting the most popular commander and my pick for hidden gem.

But 2025 brought almost 500 new commanders you could potentially build decks around, so this week I'm bringing you ten additional commanders that deserve more attention than they're getting.

Nissa, Worldsoul Speaker

I'm not really excited about the energy mechanic. With each new set that features it, the multicolor decks built around it get better and better. I feel the same about landfall. But for some reason a deck that bridges the two mechanics and narrows the color identity to monogreen feels so much cooler, and so I built a Nissa, Worldsoul Speaker Commander deck and can confirm it's a lot of fun.

If you want to see the decklist you can check it out here. Any deck that can reasonably expect to cast Apex Devastator is going to be a good time!

Structurally the deck plays like a mono-green ramp deck, scaling up your mana to cast big, impactful spells ahead of curve. The energy element of the deck gives you the opportunity to double-spell with expensive spells, or to play a large permanent with energy and hold up your mana for reactive spells or abilities.

Since it's mono-green there are some color-pie related vulnerabilities, which I think is a good counterbalance to its power.

Key cards:

Balthier and Fran

The Final Fantasy set had a ton of new legendary creatures, so it was incredibly easy to overlook the cool card Balthier and Fran. Vehicle decks are fun to build around, letting you add a bunch of extra power and toughness to the battlefield that isn't vulnerable to battlefield sweepers that specifically destroy creatures.

Extra attack steps are incredibly powerful in Commander when you layer in attack triggers or combat damage triggers, and the cost is very easy for a green deck to handle. And since Wizards of the Coast (WotC) is constantly making new Vehicle cards, you can keep updating this deck with the best new ones as they pop up.

I'd want to ensure a good amount of card draw in this deck to make your land drops each turn and replace Vehicles and creatures that get destroyed in the course of the game. Canoptek Spyder and Ohran Frostfang come to mind, and I'd definitely think about Mighty Servant of Leuk-o, which doesn't get nearly the amount of love it deserves!

Key cards:

Alpharael, Stonechosen

People overlook Alpharael, Stonechosen because Commander players typically don't like to play discard effects, but I think this is acceptable because it's something your opponents control - if nobody targets it, then nobody has to discard at random!

That attack trigger if the void condition is met is quite potent, you just have to figure out ways to ensure that your little 3/3 with no evasion doesn't get squished in combat. Outside of playing plenty of ways to satisfy void, you can round the deck out with most of your favorite mono-black cards, along with life drain finishers like Gray Merchant of Asphodel.

Alpharael could use both haste and protection, so I'd definitely want to cram Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots into the deck. I'd also look for cards that make Treasure tokens since sacrificing a Treasure is an easy way to satisfy void - things like Pitiless Plunderer and Warren Soultrader.

Key cards:

Exdeath, Void Warlock

If you're looking for a budget commander, the uncommon Exdeath, Void Warlock can pack a heck of a punch. Getting six or more permanent cards in your graveyard is quite easy for Golgari (), and once Exdeath transforms into Neo Exdeath which has trample, you can seriously threaten excellent death by commander damage over the next couple of turns.

That trample makes power boosting cards like Blackblade Reforged awesome, and if you give it first strike with something like Sword of Vengeance, or double strike with Genji Glove, then its low toughness won't be as much of an issue. I would definitely slam Greater Good in this deck list to let you refuel your hand in the face of removal, and tossing three more cards in the graveyard only increases Exdeath's power later.

I'd be strongly tempted to add Vanille, Cheerful l'Cie and Fang, Fearless l'Cie into the deck for the chance to meld them into Ragnarok, Divine Deliverance, which sounds super-fun even though I'm not at all familiar with the Final Fantasy characters.

Key cards:

Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer

It blows my mind that Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer shows fewer than 600 decks even after being out in the wild almost a full year. Given how many loot effects are available in red, starting with the eponymous Faithless Looting, you can easily set up a big turn by the time you cast Daretti and swap a cheap artifact on the battlefield like Ichor Wellspring for some expensive and impactful artifact you've put in your graveyard.

You can choose incredibly powerful artifacts to bring back like Portal to Phyrexia and The One Ring, or make it goofy and fun like Myr Battlesphere or Triplicate Titan. I have a Feldon of the Third Path deck I've had together for a long, long time that I may retool into a Daretti deck and put Feldon into the 99 because it makes temporary artifact copies of a creature in your graveyard that you could sacrifice to Daretti. Since Daretti's ability triggers on its attack too, you can even jam in extra attack spells like Relentless Assault for more artifacts-jumping-in-and-out-of-the-graveyard shenanigans.

If you were lucky enough to open The Walls of Ba Sing Se this would be an excellent deck to run it!

Key cards:

Combustion Man

Avatar: The Last Airbender hasn't been out long and there are a ton of legendary creatures in the set, so it's understandable that a minor character and uncommon card like Combustion Man might be overlooked. This is another card that gets better with extra attack cards like Karlach, Fury of Avernus, especially if you're able to increase Combustion Man's power.

Pepper in cards like Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar and Fiendish Duo to make Combustion Man's trigger too painful and you'll be blowing up permanents left and right.

I'd look for cards to give Combustion Man haste too - The Fire Crystal even discounts red spells and provides an excellent mana sink later on. Enduring Courage is great too since it provides a +2/+0 bonus to the creature when it enters.

Key cards:

Hydro-Man, Fluid Felon

The design of Hydro-Man, Fluid Felon seems custom-made for mono-blue fans around the world. It's effectively a two-mana ramp spell, with the only drawback being you only get to use that mana outside of your own turn, as if that's even a drawback for mono-blue players who prefer to cast spells on other players' turns.

I'm guessing that distaste for Universes Beyond sets generally and Spider-Man in particular might be keeping people from building decks around Hydro-Man, but the creature type Elemental Villain and even the name (if you squint) can fit into the regular Magic universe. I've been advocating for a "Universes Within Masters" booster product that reprints cards from Universes Beyond sets with in-universe Magic reskins for Magic fans that don't vibe with Universes Beyond. Hydro-Man already has such a reskin in the Magic Arena-only Through the Omenpaths in Belion, the Parched.

Key cards:

Hraesvelgr of the First Brood

How is it that Hraesvelgr of the First Brood only has a smidge over 140 decks built around it, and is only showing up in 0.5% of decks that could include it? This is a 5/5 Elder Dragon for five mana with flying, vigilance, and ward . And when it enters and whenever you cast a noncreature spell target creature gets +1/+0 until the end of the turn and can't be blocked this turn. That's any creature, so if you cast a noncreature spell on an opponent's turn, you can make one of their creatures unblockable if they're attacking another opponent.

I know a lot of Magic players expect higher mana value commanders to have card drawing engines attached, but blue offers plenty of other ways to draw cards, and pushing through combat damage helps ends games. Unless you only want to win with combos, give this card a second look!

The new card Waterbender Ascension could be fun here - casting it will give Hraesvelgr a trigger, and since Hraevelgr has vigilance you could even attack with it and then tap to help pay for waterbend to make it unblockable.

Key cards:

Surrak, Elusive Hunter

If your playgroup runs a lot of interaction, consider building a deck around Surrak, Elusive Hunter and put the card-advantage squeeze on your opponents. While opponents might not be looking to counter your creature spells, you can bet that they are packing targeted removal spells or abilities.

The trick with a Surrak deck is to run lots of "must-kill" creatures that your opponents will be incentivized to target outside of Surrak himself. Things like Tireless Provisioner, Beast Whisperer, and Ohran Frostfang. I'd also pepper in a few instant-speed ways to save targeted creature from removal just to keep opponents on their toes, cards like Tamiyo's Safekeeping and Heroic Intervention.

The Earth King makes a great follow-up the turn after Surrak because you can immediately attack with Surrak and The Earth King will trigger and let you ramp a basic land onto the battlefield.

Key cards:

The Lunar Whale

When Final Fantasy was released, the rule allowing legendary Vehicles to be used as commanders wasn't yet in effect, so I think people may have overlooked The Lunar Whale as a cool option to build a Commander deck around.

Future Sight is a powerful effect to have attached to your commander, and since it's a Vehicle it won't be vulnerable to creature removal until you're ready to crew it and protect it. Keep in mind that blue has plenty of ways to animate artifacts outside of a creature to crew it - cards like The Blackstaff of Waterdeep - so you don't have to play a lot of creature cards and still get to unlock the Whale's attack trigger.

I'd definitely want a Scroll Rack in here to help reset the top of the deck to keep the cards flowing and help get around two lands in a row on the top.

Key cards:

Which new commanders from 2025 do you think aren't being played enough? What's your favorite new commander you've built this year?

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Read More:

The Best New Commanders of 2025

The Best New Commanders From Avatar: The Last Airbender