“I’m still cold as the night”
Art:Queen Marchesa
by Kieran Yanner
Politics are a huge part of Commander, and a portion of the game that I don’t feel gets enough love, while it can be hard to get people on your side, making one-sided deals and backstabbing your opponents allows you to manipulate the game and try to put yourself into the best position you can so that you can win. There are a bunch of different commanders that work really well with political play; if you love political play and adding some extra spice to your commander games, these are some commander games you should play! And if you really don’t like politics and want to stay away from deals and truces, these are some commanders you should avoid! Without further ado, let’s get it!
These are in no particular order, just ten commanders I think are great for political play.
#10: Pramikon, Sky Rampart
Just like Zedruu Jeskai is a very nice color combination to be in for a political deck, this is a little bit different as we shake up combat quite a bit, and with access to cards like Ghostly Prison
and Propaganda
we can shake up combat for everyone and really make our opponents not want to attack us, in some cases they cant afford too! There are a ton of opportunities for voting cards within this deck, and they can be great political options as well. This deck is really built for making deals and shaking up the game, Pramikon is a very good asset for our deck and can really shake up the combat and make it so we don’t take much damage.
#9: Gor Muldrak, Amphinologist
This is a beautiful political deck with access to a lot of good tempt cards as well as some voting cards and a bunch of decent political pieces makes this deck pretty good, and then comes the real part, the fact that we populate the board with a ton of salamanders and force our opponents to hit each other with them a bunch. I like this deck with proliferation effects as well so that we can “help” our opponents while they constantly throw salamanders at each other. This deck is really cool, and watching your opponents have salamander wars feels so good.
#8: Breena, the Demagogue
Breena works very well against decks that struggle to draw cards, they will happily attack one of your opponents for that card draw, and we can use that to buff up our board, Orzhov has a lot of very strong and evasive flying attackers so being able to buff them up allows us to get to a point where we can easily one-shot an opponent. Breena is very strong and, while not entirely politically focused, can force your opponents to attack opponents far more than they attack you, which is very strong. Breena is a powerhouse of a deck in combat, so while we incentivize our opponents to attack each other, we can build up a formidable board, and by the time they want to attack us, we have some very strong defenses put up.
#7: Shadrix Silverquill
Another card that gives your opponent oh so many choices, the Politics deck loves nothing more than giving your opponents a ton of choices and getting the most out of these small benefits; giving opponents creatures is great while we rack up commander damage and prepare for a big swing. Shadrix can output a ton of damage, which may put some opponents off on making deals with you, but it is still pretty easy to politic within this deck and gain an advantage, and once we have that advantage or a deal going with some of the players, we can easily strike. Combat Calligrapher
is a card that really shines within this deck and is very strong.
#6: Gluntch, The Bestower
Gluntch is here to cause a little bit of chaos and make our opponents make deals with us. Gluntch is a cool political commander that allows us to give love to all of our opponents; the political aspect comes in by choosing who gets what, this can be based on needs or asking simple questions of opponents like “if I give you the treasures or the counters will you not attack me for two turns” it doesn’t really matter what the deal is as long as we are making deals and staying political. Gluntch is a little different since we are in Selsenya, so combat is one of the only ways we can win; slow-building our board is the best way to do it. I like Gluntch a lot and think this is an underrated political commander.
#5: Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis
Being in four-color allows you to have so many great political cards and some early-game ways to speed up the game and get opponents to be on your side like Tempt with Discovery
and Council's Judgment
. Being able to get opponents on our side makes casting cards like Split Decision
much easier to get the outcome that we want. K and T really rides the line of being a group hug deck and also being a political deck, and being able to fuse the two allows you to get your other opponents on your side while you build up and turn on them all! A true political deck.
#4: Brago, King Eternal
Brago is another card that has a pretty bad reputation but can be a political deck that messes with the board and opponents but isn’t staxy or ridiculously oppressive. We can build Brago more political by basically making him a group hug deck and try to make early deals with our opponents so we can gain some leverage on them, we do pack a punch and can be pretty controlling if needed, so if needed, we can kick it into high gear and hit them pretty hard, but this is mostly a controlling deck that uses our commander’s ability to re-trigger ETB’s like Reflector Mage
or Reality Acid
. Being able to control the board and the game is perfect for a political deck.
#3: Zedruu the Greathearted
An absolute classic within the Political deck theme is Zedruu. This can be built in multiple ways, but I personally like leaning into full politics, and instead of giving my opponents terrible stuff, we give them political pieces. Hithlain Rope
and Puca's Mischief
are both examples of some really cool cards that we can pass around. This is a full politics deck and if an opponent decides to mess with you, I typically will donate them nothing and let them suffer. Zedruu is a really strong politics commanded,r and while it does have a bit of a reputation within the community but you can be political with it and shake up the game and start making deals!
#2: Mathas, Fiend Seeker
Another politics deck that is a little bit different than most political decks but certainly is a political deck. We use our bounty counters as political pieces to entice our opponents to kill the biggest and baddest stuff that our opponents have on the board. We can disguise our deception as letting everyone draw some cards and gain some life, combining this with a punishing Mardu deck that is full of removal and ways to disrupt the board and the game. This is a slow-burn politics deck where we start slow and entice our opponents to kill each other’s things with bounty counters, and then when it hits the mid-late game, we start going hard at disrupting the board. This is a very cool politics deck with a little bit different of a twist.
#1: Queen Marchesa
The monarch is an amazing political tool, and Queen Marchesa really fits the theme of politics and is a great political commander as well; introducing the monarch is always nice for politics, and you can often negotiate that people attack you with a small creature to transfer the monarch which is always very nice for us. Combine that with cards like Ghostly Prison and Disrupt Decorum
, and opponents have a lot of reasons not to attack you. Being able to influence combat with cards like Kardur, Doomscourge
can also influence combat a lot. Since we are in Mardu, we have a ton of sacrifice and removal effects, so Marchesa plays a little bit differently than most political decks where instead of us being nice, they either side with us or get their stuff removed, it’s a great position to be in!