Ravnica always brings us powerful multicolored cards and this one is no different. You’ll discover new cards to amaze your friends with in your next Commander game. Top 10 Commander Cards in Ravnica Allegiance features amazing commanders and cards you’ll crush your opponents with.
Ravnica Allegiance features the following five guilds:
- Simic {g}{u}
- Azorious {u}{w}
- Orzhov {w}{b}
- Rakdos {b}{r}
- Gruul {r}{g}
As a result multicolored cards will be in those five combinations. Besides them there are plenty of strong mono-colored cards in Ravnica Allegiance. So there is something for every Commander deck.
Top Reprints
Ravnica Allegiance brings a cycle of reprints and what a cycle it is! We’re speaking of shock lands – best dual lands – which are actually affordable. For a price of measly two life these lands come to play untapped when you need them.
Each guild has its own shock land:
Every deck that plays more than one color should have shock lands in them. So if you’ve been waiting for their price to drop – now is the time to get them because the aren’t getting cheaper any time soon.
Top 10 Commander Cards
#10 Ethereal Absolution
Giving your team +1/+1 always comes in handy if you’re playing lots of creatures. Ethereal Absolution is even better since it shrinks your opponent’s creatures. Hope they aren’t playing tokens. π
Add graveyard hate to all of this and you got a card that’s well worth a slot. And don’t forget – the tokens it makes are actually 2/2 flyers, since this powerful enchantment also makes them bigger.
#9 Bedevil
One thing that shouldn’t be underestimated in commander is versatility. This is exactly what a card like Bedevil gives you. You only have so many spots in your deck for a single target removal. That’s why Bedevil is so good – it destroys anything a red-black card is able to destroy. It’s better than Dreadbore, since there are so many important artifacts in Commander.
Therefore Bedevil claims well deserved spot in our Top 10 Commander Cards in Ravnica Allegiance.
#8 Rakdos, the Showstopper
Are you a fan of total chaos? If so – grab Rakdos, the Showstopper, a pile of coins and let the show begin! Or stop, whatever…
Building around his ability shouldn’t be to hard – there are plenty of powerful Demons in Magic the Gathering. Take a look at Archfiend of Depravity or Rune-Scarred Demon for example. If you decide to go full on tribal theme, consider using Liliana’s Contract for an alternate win condition.
#7 Nikya of the Old Ways
Do you like big creatures? I mean really BIG. With Nikya, you can cast all of them! Emrakul, the Promised End or Craterhoof Behemoth – everything is possible with Nikya on the battlefield.
There are two ways you can build with it as your commander. More challenging build with zero noncreature permanents and easier one with them.
Creatures Only
Yes, this build is more challenging since you lose cards like Sol Ring. On the other hand if you’re not the one to shy away from the challenge, this might be more fun for you.
Thankfully, red and green creatures come with so many different effects, that you’ll have all your bases covered:
- Ramp: Llanowar Elves, Sakura-Tribe Elder
- Tutor: Fauna Shaman
- Artifact & Enchantment Removal: Reclamation Sage, Acidic Slime
- Graveyard: Eternal Witness
- Removal: Ravager Wurm, Emrakul, The Promised End
- Card Advantage: Tireless Tracker, Beast Whisperer
- Win-con: Craterhoof Behemoth, End-Raze Forerunners
These are some ideas to help you get started, but you can surely find more great creatures in these colors.
Everything Goes
The easier way – and probably the better one – is to also include noncreature spells.
Cards like Sol Ring will always be great in Nikya’s decks. If you play it before her, it’s great and when you play Nikya after it, you probably won’t need extra mana.
One trick you could use is to tap all your lands, get double mana, sacrifice Nikya and then play your big noncreature spell like Genesis Wave or Primal Surge. To do so you need a good sacrifice outlet. We’d recommend Birthing Pod or Ashnod’s Altar, but there are many more in red-green.
#6 Guardian Project
Do you enjoy drawing cards with Soul of the Harvest or Beast Whisper but your opponents always remove them? Well, enchantments are a harder permanent to deal with.
Commander is a singleton format, hence the restriction on Guardian Project doesn’t really matter. Each of your nontoken creatures basically comes with a free card. Consequently every green deck with lots of creatures will want to play a copy of this powerful enchantment.
Bonus finance tip – if you decide to buy some, pick an extra copy or two. This card will see a lot of Commander play and it’s still fairly cheap. You can expect its price to rise in a couple of years. Then you’ll be able to trade it for another great Commander card. π
#5 Priest of the Forgotten Gods
If your deck features a heavy sacrifice theme, you’ll most certainly want to make space for Priest of Forgotten Ways. You probably want a good sacrifice outlet and Priest is just that. It gives you a great value when you sacrifice two creatures you already wanted to sacrifice.
Deck that plays the Priest most often include cards like Zulaport Cutthroat and Blood Artist. Furthermore Priest combos very nicely with Dictate of Erebos. You sacrifice two creatures, and every opponent has to sacrifice three! Oh, and you also gain some life and mana and draw a card. What’s not to like?
#4 Prime Speaker Vannifar
Birthing Pod comes back, this time in a form of Elf Ooze Wizard. Vannifar is definitely a powerful card and a powerful commander.
Here are some cards you might consider when building a Vannifar deck:
- Fatestitcher and Chakram Retriever to get another use of Vannifar
- Protean Hulk for insane value
- Glen Elendra Archmage to protect Vannifar from nasty noncreature spells
The problem with building a Vannifar might be that the games where it survives could become repetitive – thankfully Commander boards are often so different that there’s always something different you need to tutor for.
To get the best use out of Vannifar you probably want to give him haste so you should use a card like Lightning Greaves.
#3 Rhythm of the Wild
Speaking of giving creatures haste here is a nice way of doing so. Fires of Yavimaya just got a nice upgrade. If your creatures just want to smash, smash, smash, this card will certainly help you do so.
If by some unforeseen disaster you can’t attack, you’ll still be able to make your creatures a bit bigger which always come in handy.
#2 Smothering Tithe
Number two on our Top 10 Commander Cards in Ravnica Allegiance is this strange enchantment with awesome art. First of all you have to be a kind a person who enjoys asking:
“Did you pay two?”
“What about now?”
“Did you pay?”
“Will you pay two?”
You better like it because, you’ll have to do it just about every time your opponents draw a card. π Seriously, though, your opponents usually won’t have enough mana to pay for this. As a result you’ll often have a nice pile of treasures to help you ramp in your white deck.
#1 Teysa Karlov
Finally, on the top of our Top 10 Commander cards in Ravnica Allegiance we have not only a powerful, but also gorgeous card. Magali Villeneuve is one of our favourite artists and you can check her other work on her page.
Your tokens having vigilance and lifelink means that you’ll be able to attack without fear. Teysa works nicely as a token commander or death triggers commander. But the best decks with her at the helm will contain a mix of both.
Here are some suggestions for cards to use with her:
- Hallowed Spiritkeeper and Requiem Angel to get both abilities working nicely
- Grim Haruspex and Skullclamp to make sure you never run out of cards. Remember, each creatures dying with Skullclamp on will draw you 4 cards if you have Teysa in play.
- Ashnod’s Altar is a must-have, serving both as ramp and sacrifice outlet.
- Elenda, the Dusk Rose as a powerful card that works perfectly with all aspects of Teysa
- Anointed Procession – double the tokens, double the fun.
- Dictate of Erebos to make your opponents wonder why are they even playing creatures. π
Anyway, Teysa Karlov gives you nice directions to build around her and very powerful payoff if you manage to get it right.
Honourable Mention: Lavinia, Azorious Renegade
Here’s a card that fell just short of the Top 10. Do your friends always play unfair strategies? Are they ramping like a mad men? Just choose Lavinia for your commander and tell them: “We’re playing nice fair Magic tonight.”
Of course, if you yourself don’t prefer playing nicely, we have a pair of cards you’ll like:
Either one of those two cards makes it so everybody is casting spells without paying their mana cost. Which means that Lavinia counters it. Well, except if it’s your spell. Then, it’s good to go. Because of that no opponents’ spells will be resolved anymore. (That’s barring some fringe cases with cards like Supreme Verdict, which can’t be countered.)
Anyways if you manage to get ahead with Lavinia in play and cast either Pool or Machine, you’ll be the only one casting spells for the rest of the game! Easy win. π
Get Ravnica Allegiance
If you want to try and open some of the cards in boosters you can get a Ravnica Bundle. You’ll get 10 boosters and 80 basic lands all coming in a nice sturdy box.
Better yet, if you want you can also get a whole booster box with a whopping 36 boosters.
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You can also check our guide on how to build better decks or our gift guide to get yourself something nice. In addition, you can also read the List All Commander Precons, so you can find a perfect Commander deck for you.
If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to contact us or leave a comment bellow. Until next time, may you always draw what you need and may your commander live for multiple turns!