Best New Commanders from Star Trek

U.S.S. Enterprise-D, Galaxy-Class | Illustrated by Pablo Mendoza

Star Trek previews have recently concluded, and as par for the course from Universes Beyond sets there are a ton of brand new legendary creatures to consider: 100 in the main set and 97 from the Commander decks. It takes time to digest and ponder all their possible uses.

I'm here to help with that! I've got over 30 years experience playing multiplayer Magic and 18 years playing and writing about EDH/Commander. I combed through both lists and leveraged my expertise to highlight new legends that stand head and shoulders above the rest in terms of power, fun, or both.

Okay, let's engage, starting with the base set legends, followed by the legends from the precons, in no particular order.

Dr. Beverly Crusher

Wizards of the Coast (WotC) has printed a ton of "life gain matters" cards and support in recent years, so I wouldn't say Dr. Beverly Crusher is breaking entirely new ground, but doubling up on lifegain triggers is pretty spiffy, and if you want to build a mono-white lifegain deck, Dr. Crusher is a solid choice. Plus, she'll accumulate +1/+1 counters quickly and become a sizeable combat threat. Fair warning: tracking lifegain triggers can get to be overwhelming with enough permanents on the battlefield, so tracking them all twice can be incredibly tedious outside of Magic Arena.

Captain Kathryn Janeway

Path of Discovery is a surprisingly powerful enchantment, so attaching it to a legendary creature you can put in the command zone is quite nifty. Captain Kathryn Janeway costs the same as Path, has a 2/3 body, and allows you to play an additional land on each of your turns: say, that's a free Exploration for your troubles! That has incredibly nice synergy when roughly 40% of your explore triggers will resolve with putting a land in your hand. This is obviously going to be quite powerful leading a landfall deck, but I've got to point out that Janeway's trigger works with token creatures too, so if you've got a way to make a bunch of token creatures, each one will trigger explore.

Q, Stacking the Deck

It's quite flavorful for Q, Stacking the Deck to be the newest "meme deck" commander where you only play one nonland card in the deck that you'll always exile when Q enters. What card should that be? I'll leave it up to the meme deck lovers out there, but I'm sure there will be some interesting choices. Outside of the meme, building a Q deck with ways to blink, copy, or bounce Q can develop a "hand in exile" of cards you can cast if you don't have something else to do with your mana. I'm looking forward to seeing what sort of "utility Q" decks people draw up.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard

Oh Captain, my Captain! So sad about the recent passing of Patrick Stewart, I think he would have gotten a kick out of seeing people playing Magic: The Gathering with cards of his iconic role, like Captain Jean-Luc Picard. If you're looking to make a mono-white Star Trek-themed deck stuffed with Officers and Spacecraft, Picard is a great commander to lead the way, which is very appropriate! Entering with seven charge counters unlocks at least one ability on many Starships, particularly The Seriema. You can take advantage of some of white's token synergy cards, too, if you have them.

Quark, Humble Proprietor

The design of Quark, Humble Proprietor is a flavor home run. Of course Quark would be an incredible Treasure-generator but would not allow you to spend his Treasure. While some folks are planning on eventually sacrificing Quark to unlock the Treasures, keep in mind there are plenty of artifact synergy cards you can take advantage of the Treasures just sitting around and being artifacts. How about Depthshaker Titan and Improvised Arsenal?

Have you heard the good news about Goblin Welder with Quark on the battlefield? If you target a Treasure and an artifact in the graveyard, the ability will resolve as much as it can which means you get that artifact and get to keep the Treasure. Leave it to Quark to figure out such a lucrative loophole!

Khan, Vengeful Heart

Much like lifegain, WotC has pumped out a bunch of cards that care about sacrificing creatures in recent years, and Khan, Vengeful Heart is quite a potent one. Step aside Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER or The Sackville-Bagginses, Khan is here to draw two cards when it enters and you sacrifice another creature or artifact! While he's probably better in the 99 of Aristocrats-style decks, that last paragraph ability is very interesting: you may cast this card from exile. You could bring him back from the graveyard with Whip of Erebos (drawing more cards), and exiling him at the end step is just a brief pit stop on his way back to the battlefield. Altar of Bhaal is another card with an exile activation you can really leverage Khan's coziness with the exile zone.

Lwaxana Troi, Charming Guest

Lwaxana Troi, Charming Guest is another card I'll see people slotting into the 99 to juice up their commander's triggered ability, but I think she'd also make a fun commander to build a deck around, chock full of creatures with triggered abilities. This is the kind of deck that will continuously evolve as new creatures are printed with nifty triggered abilities you'd want to copy.

Lieutenant Commander Data

I imagine Lieutenant Commander Data will be stronger the more your opponents are playing higher power Commander with lots of noncreature spells. You can certainly surround Data with artifact creatures that add +1/+1 counters to artifact creatures, like Steel Overseer.

Scotty, Miracle Worker

A deck built around Scotty, Miracle Worker is going to want to be split between instant and sorcery spells and creatures with enters or leaves the battlefield abilities that you don't mind returning to your hand to pay that beam me up cost. Watcher for Tomorrow seems like the perfect value creature for this.

H.M.S. Bounty, Unlikely Timeship

Now that legendary Vehicles and Spacecraft can be commanders, a set like Star Trek gives more options than we'd normally expect. H.M.S. Bounty, Unlikely Timeship suggests a neat build-around with some silver-bullet Whale creatures. There's Horned Loch-Whale, Colossal Whale, Pursued Whale, and the new Humpback Whales and Cetacean Ops. You can even dip into creatures with changeling, like Omni-Changeling. The payoff, of course, is the free Time Walk ability attached to the Spacecraft if you control a Whale, but thankfully it's very carefully worded to only work once, even if you've replayed your commander. Still, a free Time Walk is a free Time Walk, and this one is likely not going to get opponents as grumpy as playing a sorcery spell that does the same thing like Time Warp or Nexus of Fate.

The Caretaker

WotC has made "modal spells or abilities matter" by using the key phrase "if you faced a dilemma this turn." The Caretaker is a neat commander that utilizes it to do fun stuff, like exiling cards from the top of target opponent's library until they exile a nonland card, and then you get to cast it for no mana. This happens at the beginning of each end step, but since Caretaker costs a whopping six mana to cast they gave it ward 2 to give it a chance to survive until your next untap step. Playing decks that play with cards from opponents' decks are fun because each game is going to be wildly different depending on your opponents' deck choices and what random spells you hit.

Gowron, Eager for Battle

If you're interested in building a Klingon deck, Gowron, Eager for Battle makes for a solid commander to lead it. He can quickly grow in size as any creature dies, and you can sacrifice another Klingon to give Gowron trample and you draw a card. What more could you need?

Nog, Ambitious Cadet

Nog, Ambitious Cadet is the latest in a long line of creatures that "level up" with mana investment over time. For one mana he becomes a 3/4 Ferengi Scout and gains "Whenever Nog becomes tapped, surveil 2." You can tap Nog by attacking of course, or more flavorfully you can tap him to station a Spaceship, or to crew a Vehicle, or even saddle a Mount. All fine things to do, and you'll get that nice surveil trigger to fill your graveyard with goodies to plunder. Once you've done the first level, you can spend three mana to have Nog become a Ferengi Officer and gains two very cool abilities letting you play lands from your graveyard and play an additional land each turn.

Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy

I look at Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy as a juiced-up Eternal Witness that you can run in the command zone. The flash ability makes the card really nifty: either flash him in at an opponent's end step to snag a non-Doctor permanent from your graveyard to your hand, or you can preemptively set up a reanimate for a creature that's going to die this turn. Notably, you can target a creature an opponent controls if you want to dabble in a little politics.

Gwyndala, the Progeny

Gwyndala, the Progeny is going to get up to some very interesting Equipment shenanigans. Copying Colossus Hammer is going to be the scary big play, but I could see things like Leyline Axe and Genji Glove getting copied. You'd certainly want Bloodforged Battle-Axe in the deck to generate more Equipment tokens.

Rok-Tahk, Budding Scientist

Rok-Tahk, Budding Scientist is a wild card. First off, if you have three other creatures on the battlefield when you cast Rok-Tahk, you've basically recouped its six-mana cost immediately. If you're a heavy creature card deck, or a heavy creature token deck, this is going to give you a huge bump of green mana. But then there's that other ability: when it enters you create a legendary 0/1 Ooze Slug with indestructible. How funny is that? I feel like you'd want to have creatures with mutate in the deck to mutate on that little indestructible dude.

The Borg Queen

Okay, now we pivot to the Star Trek Commander cards, kicking off with The Borg Queen, which makes for an incredibly powerful and scary leader of your horde of Borg creatures. If you need to, you can round out your roster with other artifact creatures; might I suggest Necrons from the Warhammer 40,000 set?

One, Borg Evolved

One, Borg Evolved could also lead a Borg army, but I see One as more of just an artifact creature commander. It's almost like it has a good chuck of Akroma's Will built in as a static effect; with enough artifact creatures on the battlefield when you play this, the game might just end!

Hugh, First of Many

Another fascinating legendary Borg is Hugh, First of Many, which gives artifact spells you control replicate. This is a wide open ability that lets you get as degenerate or as silly as you might want to get. Replicate Sol Ring, Skullclamp, or Coveted Jewel!

Benjamin Sisko, Besieged

I'm not the biggest fan of Oracle of Mul Daya due to the information it relays to your opponents over time, but there's no denying its power. Benjamin Sisko, Besieged kicks that up a notch by trading playing extra lands each turn for playing creature spells from the top of your deck in addition to lands. This is another card that will usually take a full turn after you cast it to fully realize the power, when you'll have full mana to cast creature spells you find on the top of your library.

Commander William Riker

If you don't mind politics in Commander, Commander William Riker offers a pretty cool ability to let you and target opponent each draw two cards. Add that to a 3/3 creature with vigilance and haste and you've got a solid package of abilities for just three mana.

Kurn, Son of Mogh

Kurn, Son of Mogh is a solid leader for an aggressive mono-black creature deck, with a potent card draw built into his attack to refuel your hand. Since he has deathtouch you can attack into an opponent that only has a single blocker that they don't want to lose.

Sulu, Heroic Helmsman

The text box for Sulu, Heroic Helmsman is wild: "Sulu stations Spacecraft and crews Vehicles as though his power were tripled." Tripled! If nothing else, Sulu's two power counts as six, but there are all sorts of ways you boost Sulu's power, whether it's Equipment, Auras, or +1/+1 counters.

Which of these cards are you most excited to build new Commander decks around? Are there any other legends not mentioned here you find fun or powerful?

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Read more:

Star Trek Deck Tech: Borg Queen, Perfection Manifest

Darkhold Destiny Deck Tech: Gargantos, the Endbringer