<p style="text-align: right;"><em><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Joven" href="#" target="_blank">Joven</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> | Art by <a href="https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CDouglas+Shuler%E2%80%9D&amp;unique=art" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Douglas Shuler</a> | <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Leonardo, Big Brother" href="#" target="_blank">Leonardo, Big Brother</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> | Art by <a href="https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CInHyuk+Lee%E2%80%9D&amp;unique=art" target="_blank" rel="noopener">InHyuk Lee</a></em></p>
<p>In the year 2024, <a href="https://edhrec.com/sets/mh3" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Modern Horizons 3</em></a> hit shelves and featured a true oddity. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Skoa, Embermage" href="#" target="_blank">Skoa, Embermage</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, a six-mana Goblin Wizard that enters play and deals four damage to any target, while also having an activated ability to deal another four damage, providing you're willing to sacrifice lands and discard another copy of this card.</p>
<p>On its face, this is a pretty unremarkable legendary creature, except for one key quality: it's a common.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Skoa, Embermage"></div></div>
<p>Legends at lower rarity have been popping up more and more over the years, but primarily at the uncommon level. In the modern era, we started to consistently get these possible commanders with silver set symbols in <em><a href="https://edhrec.com/sets/thb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Theros: Beyond Death</a></em>, leading into a major uptick of them in the first <a href="https://edhrec.com/sets/cmr"><em>Commander Legends</em></a>. They are now a mainstay of recent <em>Magic</em> sets, usually acting as signpost cards for draft archetypes.</p>
<p><em>Common</em> legendary creatures are a different story.</p>
<h2>Strange Beginnings for Common Legends</h2>
<p>It all began here, with these two renowned artifact haters.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Chandler"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Joven"></div></div>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Chandler" href="#" target="_blank">Chandler</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Joven" href="#" target="_blank">Joven</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> graced the packs of <a href="https://edhrec.com/sets/hml" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Homelands</em></a>, and for the longest time, they held the distinction of being the only common legendary creatures in the game. Some sources out there may try to list cards like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ramirez DePietro" href="#" target="_blank">Ramirez DePietro</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Tobias Andrion" href="#" target="_blank">Tobias Andrion</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> from <em><a href="https://edhrec.com/sets/leg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Legends</a></em> as commons, however they only officially hold that rarity in the online exclusive set <a href="https://scryfall.com/sets/me3" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Masters Edition III</em></a>.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="The Prismatic Piper"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Faceless One"></div></div>
<p>While we would get a few draft supporting common legendary creatures with <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="The Prismatic Piper" href="#" target="_blank">The Prismatic Piper</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and later <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Faceless One" href="#" target="_blank">Faceless One</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, it wasn't until the aforementioned <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Skoa, Embermage" href="#" target="_blank">Skoa, Embermage</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> hit the scene that we got a standalone return of this peculiar type and rarity pairing.</p>
<p>But there was something on the horizon that would place a lot more cards like Skoa, Chandler, and Joven into booster packs: <a href="https://edhrec.com/sets/spm" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Marvel's Spider-Man</em></a>.</p>
<h2>The Universes Beyond Effect</h2>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Spider-Man, Web-Slinger"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Spider-Gwen, Free Spirit"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Spider-Man, Brooklyn Visionary"></div></div>
<p>With the release of <em>Spider-Man</em>, we suddenly had ten new common legends swing into the format! Each one featured a well-known character from the Spider-Man multiverse, and typically worked well with one of the main mechanics from the set. While these weren't the strongest designs imaginable, they were merely there to help bolster the limited environment, and not necessarily sit in the command zone.</p>
<p>The most built commander out of the bunch is <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Spider-Rex, Daring Dino" href="#" target="_blank">Spider-Rex, Daring Dino</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, which has 184 decks to its name.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Leonardo, Big Brother"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Donatello, Turtle Techie"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Michelangelo, Game Master"></div></div>
<p>Not to be outdone, the <a href="https://edhrec.com/sets/tmt" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles</em></a> (TMNT) set hit the scene, and brought with it eleven common legendary creatures. Most of them fit a similar mold as <em>Spider-Man</em>, providing assistance with enhancing games of limited, including a cycle of creatures like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Bebop, Warthog Warrior" href="#" target="_blank">Bebop, Warthog Warrior</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rocksteady, Crash Courser" href="#" target="_blank">Rocksteady, Crash Courser</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> who can help with color fixing.</p>
<p>However, hidden in this list is a problem, which Wizards themselves knows about...</p>
<h2>What's Wrong with Common Legends?</h2>
<p>The problematic card in question is <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="April O&#039;Neil, Kunoichi Trainee" href="#" target="_blank">April O&#039;Neil, Kunoichi Trainee</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="April O&#039;Neil, Kunoichi Trainee"></div></div>
<p>A two-mana common legendary creature that scries two on entry and offers up some evasion to bolster your sneak effects. Both the Boros <span class="mana-container-container"><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-w" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-r" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span></span> and Orzhov <span class="mana-container-container"><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-w" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-b" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span></span> draft archetypes wanted this card in their ranks, but there's a problem: the legend rule. Having two Aprils on the field as early as turn three was totally doable, but many players had to limit themselves from casting their second copies, slowing down their game plans.</p>
<p>In a recent <a href="https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/sneak-into-design-with-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article on Wizards' site</a>, one of the designers of the TMNT set Eric Engelhard goes into detail on how this version of April was created. In it, he stated:</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>"The most awkward part of this card (and we know it) is her being a two-mana common legend. Most legends at common are four or more mana to lessen legend rule problems, but this slot needed to cost two or three mana to be a good sneak enabler."</em></p>
<p>Now I know what some of you may be thinking: this article is on <a href="https://edhrec.com/articles/author/tyler-bucks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">EDHREC</a>, why should the legend rule concern Commander players? Well, you may be right, something that's an issue for 60-card formats usually isn't a problem for us (unless we're cloning). The concern that many players, myself included, have with these designs is that the term "legendary" and "common" don't tend to mix.</p>
<p>In that same article from Wizards, Eric went on to list the three qualities that have coalesced to make up the legendary supertype:</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>"1. You can't have more than one copy of a legendary creature on the battlefield.<br />
2. </em><em>If a card includes the name of a specific character, it has to be legendary.<br />
</em><em>3. </em><em>A legendary creature can be a commander and lead a Commander deck.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>For the record, Mark </em>[Rosewater]<em> and I both favor either removing the second rule (so we could put a common Leonardo in a set and have him not be legendary, as the commons generally don't make for exciting commanders anyway) or creating a new term or symbol that means 'I'm a specific character and can lead a Commander deck, but I don't trigger the legend rule.' Our quest continues..."</em></p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Jarl of the Forsaken"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Glint-Eye Nephilim"></div></div>
<p>I agree that if a character is named, it should be legendary. <em>Magic</em> players are so accustomed to that formatting that even cards like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Jarl of the Forsaken" href="#" target="_blank">Jarl of the Forsaken</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> have been mistaken as a possible commander in the past, since Jarl seemed like this creature's name (it actually means Norse chief).</p>
<p>Another classic example of a line of cards that have made people ask the question "why isn't this legendary?" are the Nephilim from the original <a href="https://edhrec.com/sets/gpt" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Ravnica</em></a> block, which look and feel like they should be in the command zone. However, I do think there is a way to feature characters we know, without using the legendary supertype.</p>
<h2>Starting Off Small</h2>
<p>If we're capturing a well-known character at a common level, they should be at a point in their life where they're on the cusp of greatness. Featuring someone who is striving to become something more can be done with card design, and to showcase this, here's an example I put together:</p>
<p><a href="https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/April-still-had-a-lot-to-learn.-2.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-177913" src="https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/April-still-had-a-lot-to-learn.-2-300x167.png" alt="" width="895" height="498" srcset="https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/April-still-had-a-lot-to-learn.-2-300x167.png 300w, https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/April-still-had-a-lot-to-learn.-2-1024x570.png 1024w, https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/April-still-had-a-lot-to-learn.-2-768x428.png 768w, https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/April-still-had-a-lot-to-learn.-2.png 1280w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 895px) 100vw, 895px" /></a></p>
<p>Here we have the same legendary April card, but now we see her at a point where she is working on stepping up to the next level of her development. Notice that the name of the character could be featured in flavor text to drive the point home that this <em>is</em> in fact the character we know. Fans of different universes may appreciate these flashbacks, where they get to see popular heroes and villains as they're on the rise.</p>
<p>Now, I'll admit, this isn't a perfect fix. In this case especially, I would put April at a point where she is starting off as a journalist, to place her even further back in the story. Plus, I also know that there isn't always room for flavor text, so adding the character's name may be harder in some places. However, I would much prefer seeing people represented in this way, versus seeing versions of them relegated to a common level, and cause all the issues we've already covered.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Insectoid Exterminator"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Putrid Pals"></div></div>
<p>This is also something that was mentioned in that Wizards article, where Eric said they had to turn some characters like Scumbug into <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Insectoid Exterminator" href="#" target="_blank">Insectoid Exterminator</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, and they even combined Muckman and Joe Eyeball into <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Putrid Pals" href="#" target="_blank">Putrid Pals</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. Both of these feel great as commons, and show that the TMNT universe has more depth, and even if the characters have names, they don't always have to be in the title of the card.</p>
<p>Much like how Dock/Xu/Bushi became <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Merchant of Many Hats" href="#" target="_blank">Merchant of Many Hats</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> in the <a href="https://edhrec.com/sets/tla" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Avatar</em></a> set, while still making reference to those names in the flavor text.</p>
<h2>We've Seen Cards Like This Before</h2>
<p>For years, there's been a debate in the Magic community on whether <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Stoneforge Mystic" href="#" target="_blank">Stoneforge Mystic</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is actually a non-planeswalker version of Nahiri.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Stoneforge Mystic"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Nahiri, the Lithomancer"></div></div>
<p>While there isn't a definitive answer on that (I looked for a very long time and couldn't find an official statement) it's a fun detail that keeps people engaged with the game. Theorizing on characters at different points in their lives makes them feel more three dimensional.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Firebending Student"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Azula, Ruthless Firebender"></div></div>
<p>When I brought this topic up to people in my own playgroup, my partner Taryn mentioned how they originally assumed that <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Firebending Student" href="#" target="_blank">Firebending Student</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> was just a younger (pre-blue fire) version of Azula. I think a lot of players have these small head canons, seeing a card that reminds them of someone else, and associating them with each other.</p>
<p>It helps us blend things together, and build connections between our game pieces.</p>
<h2>My Final Thoughts on Common Legends</h2>
<p>I want to make myself clear as I wrap things up today: I don't think we should <em>never</em> have common legendary creatures, I just think they should be rare (pun kind of intended...) As many of you know, I write about the best commons and uncommons from every new set in my article series <a href="https://edhrec.com/articles/the-best-commons-and-uncommons-in-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Bulk Up</em></a>, and something I've learned from doing that is just how important the cards in those slots are for a set's success.</p>
<p>They are the foundation that supports the bigger themes and mechanics that make an expansion special.</p>
<p>Common creatures are typically used to highlight the smaller parts of a world, helping things feel more alive and authentic. Like you're walking down a street, surrounded by everyday people, catching glimpses of greatness, but not noticing it outright. In those cards we see individuals with dreams to become more than they are, to rise ranks, ascend rarity, and eventually, become legendary.</p>


https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Commons-arent-rare.png

common

Common Legendary Creatures Are No Longer Rare