MTG: Blades of Honor – Top Five Samurai Commanders
While you were busy crafting interaction and fixing your mana base, these five MTG Commanders were studying the blade.
Welcome Planeswalkers and Praetors to our ongoing series about the best casual experience in Magic: Commander.
On the humble plane of Kamigawa, warriors of great skill can earn the coveted title of Samurai. Like Knights or Soldiers on other planes, Samurai are the military arm of Kamigawa’s defense. Whether they’re human, the fox-like Kitsune, or the rodent Nezumi, Samurai come in all shapes and sizes. It takes a canny leader to direct these warriors in battle, and these five Commanders are the perfect generals.
What is Commander?
For the uninitiated, Commander is a semi-casual format for Magic: the Gathering. You use a deck of 100 cards led by a legendary creature, your Commander.
Aside from basic lands, you are only allowed one copy of each card in the deck. Moreover, you can only include cards in your Commander’s “color identity” or artifacts. Each color and color combo has a unique playstyle and a wealth of mighty generals to lead your deck to victory. EDHRec.com is an excellent source for Commander info and can give you ideas on how to build your next Commander deck or tune an existing one.
Isshin, Two Heavens as One
Starting off very strong, we have one of the deadliest warriors on Kamigawa. Isshin is a powerful Mardu Commander, and his ability to double your attack triggers is incredible. Several Samurai creatures have on-attack triggers (you’ll see a few in this list), so Isshin can make your combat phase deadly. Pack this deck full of creatures and Equipment with triggers and send your opponent to both heavens at once.
Raiyuu, Storm’s Edge
Unlike Isshin, who wants you to attack with as many creatures as possible, Raiyuu would prefer you face your opponent one-on-one. This lends itself well to an exalted playstyle. Pack your deck with exalted creatures, then Voltron up your favorite attacker and double up your combats. With luck, you’ll take out your opponents in a single turn.
Takeno, Samurai General
Takeno isn’t the strongest entry on this list, but he’s still a contender. In the original Kamigawa block, many Samurai creatures had the bushido ability, which let them get bigger when blocking or blocked. Takeno took this a step further, buffing your Samurai ahead of time and STILL giving them the bushido boost. He’s a bit expensive for what he does, but still worth building a deck around if you want some beefy warriors.
Kentaro, the Smiling Cat
Kentaro is an odd creature, but his ability is actually insane. He allows you to cast your Samurai for their cost but with no color required. That means you can cast them for any color mana, even colorless! Copy up your Sol Rings and cast everything even faster!
Saskia the Unyielding
Saskia is just a great Commander, hands down. She can absolutely lead an army of Samurai, and her ability lets you knock out multiple players at once. Cast Saskia and go absolutely wild.
What do you think of these Commanders?
