Anikthea, Hand of ErebosAnikthea, Hand of Erebos | Art by Magali Villenueve

Hey, everyone! Marvel Super Heroes is just a month away, which is kind of wild, given how long we've known it's coming.

While we await this next Universes Beyond release, I'm going back in time and bringing you the most played cards from past sets. In the past two weeks, I wrote about Doctor Who and Wilds of Eldraine. Do you which set came out before those two?

It's Commander Masters, the draftable Commander Limited product and spiritual successor to Commander Legends! While the booster set comprised all reprints (as Masters sets do), each of the four preconstructed decks, which focused on planeswalkers, Eldrazi, enchantments, and Slivers, respectively came with ten brand new cards.

Listing the precon themes serves as a little bit of a caveat here — Most if not all the cards on this list have a pretty strong affinity for one of the decks' game plans.

Now, let's dive into those sweet, sweet cards!

10. Desecrate RealityDesecrate Reality - 38,757 decks

Reality bites for opponents with important permanents with even mana values. Even lands aren't safe from being desecrated. Likewise, if you're putting this in your deck, you've surely built it to activate the adamant clause every time, making this a potential four-for-one if everything goes your way.

Seven mana is a lot, sure, but again, you're probably playing this in a deck primed to hit the high notes. A lot of colorless and/or Eldrazi commanders fit the bill, from a 7/4 you'll read about below to Ulalek, Fused AtrocityUlalek, Fused Atrocity and Ultima, Origin of OblivionUltima, Origin of Oblivion.

I also appreciate the callback to an minor Eldrazi mechanical theme: odd/even shenanigans, first seen on Void WinnowerVoid Winnower.

9. Composer of SpringComposer of Spring - 40,321 decks

Such is my midrange obsession that I read this and immediately thought about building my own Growth SpiralGrowth Spiral engine with enchantments that draw cards when they enter, like The Spirit OasisThe Spirit Oasis and Kenrith's TransformationKenrith's Transformation, or with the various "enchantress" creatures: Mesa EnchantressMesa Enchantress or Entity TrackerEntity Tracker, for example.

Composer is actually meant for much greater crescendos than just a few extra lands in play. For one thing, it combos with Cloudstone CurioCloudstone Curio to generate infinite enters triggers with six enchantments in play and a useful enchantment creature in hand:

Even without Curio, it lets you chain constellation triggers by putting enchantment creatures into play. Because these decks are so good at drawing cards, you can easily dump your whole hand and a lot of your deck onto the battlefield, and this is before you have an Enchanted EveningEnchanted Evening in play, turning a bounceland like Selesnya SanctuarySelesnya Sanctuary into infinite landfall triggers. Not bad for a two-drop!

8. Skittering CicadaSkittering Cicada - 45,200 decks

Mechanically, cheaper Eldrazi creatures tend to either make it easier for you to cast expensive monsters, like Herald of KozilekHerald of Kozilek, It That Heralds the EndIt That Heralds the End, and heck, even Conduit of RuinConduit of Ruin do, or, like Eldrazi MimicEldrazi Mimic, they hit play early then get big as a payoff.

Cicada does a little of both, gaining significant stats and trample when you cast colorless spells and letting you cast your Eldrazi at instant speed. While deck builders should be sure that they're playing enough cheap mana sources like Shimmer MyrShimmer Myr and Thran DynamoThran Dynamo, this is still a cool card that keeps opponents on their toes.

7. Demon of Fate's DesignDemon of Fate's Design - 49,003 decks

Unsurprisingly, this was printed in the Enduring Enchantments precon deck, led by Anikthea, Hand of ErebosAnikthea, Hand of Erebos or Narci, Fable SingerNarci, Fable Singer. It's a fun twist on the typical Selesnya () enchantress deck: draw a bunch of cards and get a ton of value off casting enchantments, but make them relevant in the graveyard and the way there, too!

Like Cicada above, Demon was likely designed to act as both an enabler and payoff for enchantment strategies dipping into black.

The first ability lets you generate a ton of mana as long as you have enough life points. The pretty obvious yet powerful play pattern here is to cast this as early as possible and use it to power out a busted, expensive enchantment on the same turn.

Then, once your Binding the Old GodsBinding the Old Gods or The Eldest RebornThe Eldest Reborn has gotten you enough value, you can sac it to Demon's second ability to threaten a lot of damage in the air.

6. Flayer of LoyaltiesFlayer of Loyalties - 49,729 decks

Another Eldrazi-themed card, another unnerving ability that messes with opponents' stuff. You'd think Ulalek, Ultima, and Kozilek, the Great DistortionKozilek, the Great Distortion decks would have access to enough finishers without running a gigantic Act of TreasonAct of Treason, but I think the juice is well worth the squeeze here.

You can gain control of one opponent's best creature, use it to deplete another's board, and you might even be able to generate a bigger advantage by sacrificing your ThreatenThreatened captive.

If the rest of the table makes it out of that combat, they still might get absolutely flayed by this thing's annihilator trigger. Disgusting!

5. Ghoulish ImpetusGhoulish Impetus - 51,984 decks

I haven't played much with or against this card, but it looks like an interesting and tricky mix of removal spell and political play. That is, of course, what other goad enchantments and cards with variant effects like Vow of MaliceVow of Malice play like, but this card can also wear the hat of an expensive, sorcery-speed Malakir RebirthMalakir Rebirth or Undying MaliceUndying Malice to recur your own stuff.

Yes, you're going to use it to avoid getting attacked by something most of the time, especially in decks like this Killian, Decisive Mentor build by Kurohitsuki, but I love it when cards have the potential to work in corner cases. and desperate times. At the end of the day, it's still an Aura you can slot in to achieve critical mass for Eriette of the Charmed AppleEriette of the Charmed Apple.

4. Zhulodok, Void GorgerZhulodok, Void Gorger - 33,283 decks, 20,689 as commander

Frequent readers will know know that Zhulodok has come up a few times in my articles. That's just what happens when you have card that is both very popular (they're currently the 50th most popular commander on EDHREC) and very parasitic (meaning you tend to want to play a lot of the same cards together to make the deck work). So, what cards do you want to surround Zhulodok with?

You should probably start with a ton of mana producers like Hedron ArchiveHedron Archive, Thought VesselThought Vessel, and Dreamstone HedronDreamstone Hedron, because you want to go from setting your mana up to "Cascade, cascade" every turn as quickly as possible.

Once your enabler slots are sorted, well, you can go absolutely wild with expensive colorless cards like Kozilek, the Great DistortionKozilek, the Great Distortion, Flayer, It That BetraysIt That Betrays, Artisan of KozilekArtisan of Kozilek, and more.

3. Darksteel MonolithDarksteel Monolith - 62,302 decks

Eight is a pretty steep cost for what is essentially a mana rock, but this absolutely pays you off. The same pattern with Demon of Fate's Design I wrote about applies here.

Just imagine the totally achievable curve of Thought VesselThought Vessel on turn 2, Thran DynamoThran Dynamo on 3, Monolith on 4, then Ulamog, the Ceaseless HungerUlamog, the Ceaseless Hunger or Emrakul, the World AnewEmrakul, the World Anew on the same turn.

This also works really well with Skittering CicadaSkittering Cicada, letting you cast a free spell on each player's turn. It can also help you set up expensive combos like this land denial and lockout engine relying on Darksteel ForgeDarksteel Forge:

2. Rise of the EldraziRise of the Eldrazi - 67,759 decks

Call me corny, but cards named after sets will never cease to delight me, especially when they're also flavor home runs. Not only does this cost three pips of colorless mana, symbolizing the three Eldrazi titans that materialized to terrorize Zendikar; the spell's effect also recreates the cast triggers of Ulamog, the Infinite GyreUlamog, the Infinite Gyre, Kozilek, Butcher of TruthKozilek, Butcher of Truth, and Emrakul, the Aeons TornEmrakul, the Aeons Torn. That's awesome!

It's also just a really fantastic card in decks that can cast it reliably, from Zhulodok or Ulalek, Fused AtrocityUlalek, Fused Atrocity piles to, shall we say, more creative builds that cheat to cast expensive cards, like The Infamous CruelclawThe Infamous Cruelclaw, Narset, Enlightened MasterNarset, Enlightened Master, or Jodah, Archmage EternalJodah, Archmage Eternal.

You can even take infinite turns with Panoptic MirrorPanoptic Mirror:

1. Ondu SpiritdancerOndu Spiritdancer - 90,564 decks

We're covering splashy new cards out of precons here, so we were never going to see a removal spell or utility card in first place. Instead, we get one of those cards that makes it an absolute breeze to build an infinite combo. Just browse Spiritdancer's Commander Spellbook entry to find any number of two- and three-card combos that tend to give you infinite creatures to swing out with.

There really aren't many "auto-include" cards in Commander, and that's fantastic, but I'd say this is as close as possible to something that nearly every enchantment deck could justify making room for, whether it's Aminatou, Veil PiercerAminatou, Veil Piercer or Terra, Magical AdeptTerra, Magical Adept.

All Stories Eventually Come to an EndAll Stories Eventually Come to an End

Like Commander Masters and its predecessor Commander Legends, this list was kind of a spiritual successor to my Modern Horizons 3 article. That one had a lot of Eldrazi in it, too. Not even our webpages are safe from their domination!

But, unlike then, I chose to give each Eldrazi card its own entry, because this set is a pretty small one anyway. How do you think I should handle future lists with a lot of the same family or type of card in the top 10? Separate entries, card diversity be damned, or do I discuss them together and let a couple lesser-known cards shine? Let me know what you think!