Top 10 Best Battles For Commander

Introduction

Battle cards are an exciting new feature introduced in March of the Machine. The quality of Battle cards is pretty variable though. Some of them are fantastic, and some of them are forgettable.

There are a few criteria that can be used to determine whether a Battle is good or not.

• 1. How is the effect of its front side costed relative to similar non-battle cards?

Because Battles have the ability to transform, many of them have over costed effects on their front side. For example, Invasion of Eldraine Invasion of Eldraine (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, target opponent discards two cards. costs one additional mana when compared to Mind Rot Mind Rot Target player discards two cards. and Invasion of Xerex Invasion of Xerex (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, return up to one target creature to its owner's hand. is horribly expensive when compared to Unsummon. Typically battles like this are not worth running.

• 2. Is the reward for flipping it worth the effort?

Flipping a battle can be quite a commitment. Every point of damage you deal to one is a point of damage you could instead be aiming at your opponent. As such, the card on the reverse side needs to be worth the effort that you are putting in to get it. Some Battles simply aren’t worth transforming. Winnowing Forces Winnowing Forces (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, destroy target non-Elf creature an opponent controls with power X or less, where X is the number of lands you control. , the reverse side of Invasion of Lorwyn Invasion of Lorwyn (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, destroy target non-Elf creature an opponent controls with power X or less, where X is the number of lands you control. , is just a big beater with absolutely no form of protection or evasion. It’s probably always worth just damaging your opponent, rather than trying to transform cards like this.

• 3. Do both sides of the card synergize with each other?

Most Battles have a game plan in mind and both of their sides work towards achieving that. Others are just two random effects stapled together. The front side of Invasion of Dominaria Invasion of Dominaria (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, you gain 4 life and draw a card. provides a bit of life gain and card draw. The reverse side is a Serra Angel Serra Angel Flying
Vigilance (Attacking doesn't cause this creature to tap.) with a different name. Although both of these effects are useful, there’s no real synergy between them, beyond the fact that they are both vaguely Control focussed effects. Although this is possibly the least essential of the criteria, it is good when both halves of a Battle come together as something greater than the sum of their parts.

With these criteria in mind, let’s go through a list of the top 10 battles to put into your Commander decks.

10. Invasion of Gobakhan

Invasion of Gobakhan Invasion of Gobakhan (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, look at target opponent's hand. You may exile a nonland card from it. For as long as that card remains exiled, its owner may play it. A spell cast this way costs {2} more to cast. is a card with a decent front face, but an amazing back face. Invasion of Gobakhan Invasion of Gobakhan (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, look at target opponent's hand. You may exile a nonland card from it. For as long as that card remains exiled, its owner may play it. A spell cast this way costs {2} more to cast. provides the exact same hand-exiling effect as Soul Partition Soul Partition Exile target nonland permanent. For as long as that card remains exiled, its owner may play it. A spell cast by an opponent this way costs {2} more to cast. , for the exact same cost. This effect is also present on Creatures like Elite Spellbinder Elite Spellbinder Flying
When this creature enters, look at target opponent's hand. You may exile a nonland card from it. For as long as that card remains exiled, its owner may play it. A spell cast this way costs {2} more to cast. and Anointed Peacekeeper Anointed Peacekeeper Vigilance
As this creature enters, look at an opponent's hand, then choose any card name.
Spells your opponents cast with the chosen name cost {2} more to cast.
Activated abilities of sources with the chosen name cost {2} more to activate unless they're mana abilities. . This is a decent disruption effect in formats like Standard, but isn’t amazing in Commander as it only penalizes a single opponent.

Fortunately, Invasion of Gobakhan is very easy to transform, with only three defense, and its reverse side is a lot more useful. Lightshield Array Lightshield Array (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, look at target opponent's hand. You may exile a nonland card from it. For as long as that card remains exiled, its owner may play it. A spell cast this way costs {2} more to cast. puts a +1/+1 counter on each of its controller’s creatures during the end step of a turn in which they attacked. The array can also be sacrificed to grant all of its controller’s creatures Hexproof and Indestructible. Decks that want to flood the board with creatures benefit from running Invasion of Gobakhan Invasion of Gobakhan (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, look at target opponent's hand. You may exile a nonland card from it. For as long as that card remains exiled, its owner may play it. A spell cast this way costs {2} more to cast. . They will find it easy to flip this card and the buff and protection effects that it provides will be more useful when spread out over a larger number of Creatures.

9. Invasion of Ixalan

For two mana, Invasion of Ixalan Invasion of Ixalan (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a permanent card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. provides a nice cheap way of grabbing a useful card from amongst the top five cards of your deck. Once transformed, it becomes Belligerent Regisaur Belligerent Regisaur (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a permanent card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. a 4/3 Trampler that’s hard to remove, as it can make itself Indestructible. While Invasion of Ixalan is not as exciting as some of the cards higher up on this list, it gets its job done nicely and is a useful and functional card.

8. Invasion of Fiora

Although rather costly, at six mana, Invasion of Fiora Invasion of Fiora (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, choose one or both —
• Destroy all legendary creatures.
• Destroy all nonlegendary creatures. serves as a pretty good board wipe in Legendary tribal decks like Sisay, Weatherlight Captain or Dihada, Binder of Wills Dihada, Binder of Wills +2: Up to one target legendary creature gains vigilance, lifelink, and indestructible until your next turn.
−3: Reveal the top four cards of your library. Put any number of legendary cards from among them into your hand and the rest into your graveyard. Create a Treasure token for each card put into your graveyard this way.
−11: Gain control of all nonland permanents until end of turn. Untap them. They gain haste until end of turn.
Dihada, Binder of Wills can be your commander. . When Invasion of Fiora is cast, it can either be used to destroy all of the Legendary Creatures in play, or all of the non-Legendary Creatures. In Dihada decks since you will be running few, if any, Creatures that are not Legendary your board will be spared whilst most of your opponents’ creatures (save for their Commanders and any other Legendaries they may be running) will be destroyed. The fact that this board wipe has two modes to choose from makes it more useful. In an emergency situation, if your opponents all have their Commanders out and they are all going off, the “destroy all Legendary Creatures” effect of this card can be activated to disrupt their plans.

The transformed version of this card, Marchesa, Resolute Monarch Marchesa, Resolute Monarch (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, choose one or both —
• Destroy all legendary creatures.
• Destroy all nonlegendary creatures. is also pretty impressive. A 3/6 with Menace and Deathtouch that can draw you cards and remove counters from permanents, enabling you to transform any other Battles in your deck easily.

7. Invasion of Ravnica

Colorless removal spells are very useful, hence Invasion of Ravnica’s placement on this list. Blue and Green can struggle to unconditionally remove opponent’s Creatures, outside of effects like Beast Within Beast Within Destroy target permanent. Its controller creates a 3/3 green Beast creature token. and Pongify Pongify Destroy target creature. It can't be regenerated. Its controller creates a 3/3 green Ape creature token. so Simic decks may appreciate having this card in their arsenal. Invasion of Ravnica’s inability to target dual-colored Creatures is frustrating but not a deal breaker, and this card will typically be more useful than Introducion to Annihilation as it does not provide the opponent with card draw.

Once flipped, Invasion of Ravnica becomes Guildpact Paragon Guildpact Paragon (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, exile target nonland permanent an opponent controls that isn't exactly two colors. a 5/5 Artifact Creature that allows its controller to dig through the top six cards of their deck for a two-color card whenever they play a two-color card. This card works great when you’re playing a dual-color deck, and also, appropriately enough, when your Commander is Niv-Mizzet Reborn Niv-Mizzet Reborn Flying
When Niv-Mizzet enters, reveal the top ten cards of your library. For each color pair, choose a card that's exactly those colors from among them. Put the chosen cards into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. .

6. Invasion of Segovia

Invasion of Segovia Invasion of Segovia (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, create two 1/1 blue Kraken creature tokens with trample. is another battle that really needs to transform for you to get the most out of it. It has a very mediocre front side, generating two 1/1s for three mana. Once it has been transformed into Caetus, Sea Tyrant of Segovia Caetus, Sea Tyrant of Segovia (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, create two 1/1 blue Kraken creature tokens with trample. , however, it becomes very powerful. Caetus grants all non-creature spells in its controller’s deck Convoke and untaps up to four creatures during each of its controller’s end steps. This provides a huge discount on powerful late-game spells like Expropriate Expropriate Council's dilemma — Starting with you, each player votes for time or money. For each time vote, take an extra turn after this one. For each money vote, choose a permanent owned by the voter and gain control of it. Exile Expropriate. and Cyclonic Rift Cyclonic Rift Return target nonland permanent you don't control to its owner's hand.
Overload {6}{U} (You may cast this spell for its overload cost. If you do, change "target" in its text to "each.") .

The power of this card can be difficult to see by examining it in a vacuum, but in practice, it is incredibly strong. Effects that make it possible to cheat around MTG’s mana system are typically very good.

5. Invasion of Tarkir

Invasion of Tarkir Invasion of Tarkir (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, reveal any number of Dragon cards from your hand. When you do, this Siege deals X plus 2 damage to any other target, where X is the number of cards revealed this way. (X can be 0.) is a card you only really want in Dragon Tribal decks, but it’s so good in those decks that it deserves a place on this list.

This card’s front side is a burn spell that grows stronger the more Dragons you have in your hand. The value of this ability really depends on when it is drawn. In the early game, when your hand will be loaded full of Dragons as you won’t have enough mana to play them yet, this card can deal a lot of damage for only two mana. Later on, this effect gets gradually less and less useful. All the same, the ability to deal out a bit of damage is always nice.

Defiant Thundermaw Defiant Thundermaw (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, reveal any number of Dragon cards from your hand. When you do, this Siege deals X plus 2 damage to any other target, where X is the number of cards revealed this way. (X can be 0.) , the reverse side of this card, is where the real value is. Defiant Thundermaw is a 4/4 flying trampler that causes all attacking Dragons to deal two damage to any target whenever they attack. This is a really powerful effect, especially considering that the damage can be targeted anywhere. You can burn down your opponents’ blockers, or deal the last few points of damage to someone that is barely holding on.

Whether your Commander is Lathliss, Dragon Queen Lathliss, Dragon Queen Flying
Whenever another nontoken Dragon you control enters, create a 5/5 red Dragon creature token with flying.
{1}{R}: Dragons you control get +1/+0 until end of turn. , or The Ur-Dragon The Ur-Dragon Eminence — As long as The Ur-Dragon is in the command zone or on the battlefield, other Dragon spells you cast cost {1} less to cast.
Flying
Whenever one or more Dragons you control attack, draw that many cards, then you may put a permanent card from your hand onto the battlefield. , Invasion of Tarkir is definitely a card worth considering.

4. Invasion of Theros

Tutors are always very powerful cards. Invasion of Theros Invasion of Theros (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, search your library for an Aura, God, or Demigod card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle. is a slightly niche tutor, but one . For three mana, Invasion of Theros allows its controller to search their deck for an Aura, a God, or a Demi-God. There are several decks that might want this effect. Aura and Enchantment focussed decks are naturally the perfect home for it, alongside God tribal decks built around effects like The World Tree The World Tree This land enters tapped.
{T}: Add {G}.
As long as you control six or more lands, lands you control have "{T}: Add one mana of any color."
{W}{W}{U}{U}{B}{B}{R}{R}{G}{G}, {T}, Sacrifice this land: Search your library for any number of God cards, put them onto the battlefield, then shuffle. . Decks looking to abuse the infinite combo of Heliod, Sun Crowned Heliod, Sun Crowned Indestructible
As long as your devotion to white is less than five, Heliod isn't a creature.
Whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature or enchantment you control.
{1}{W}: Another target creature gains lifelink until end of turn. , and Walking Ballista Walking Ballista This creature enters with X +1/+1 counters on it.
{4}: Put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
Remove a +1/+1 counter from this creature: It deals 1 damage to any target. can use this card to fetch one of the two combo pieces.

Ephara, Ever-Sheltering Ephara, Ever-Sheltering (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, search your library for an Aura, God, or Demigod card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle. , the reverse side of this card, is a very powerful addition to Enchantment focussed decks. Ephara provides card draw whenever new Enchantments are played and gains Indestructible and Lifelink whenever at least three other Enchantments are in play.

3. Invasion of Ikoria

As mentioned above, tutors are really good cards. This is especially true when they bring the card they are searching for directly into play, rather than into the hand. Invasion of Ikoria allows its controller to find any non-human Creature from their deck and bring it straight into play, by adding two additional Green mana on top of the card’s regular cost. This is a great way of finding combo pieces, or just grabbing massive threats in the late game.

Once Invasion of Ikoria transforms into Zilortha, Apex of Ikoria Zilortha, Apex of Ikoria (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, search your library and/or graveyard for a non-Human creature card with mana value X or less and put it onto the battlefield. If you search your library this way, shuffle. any big creatures obtained with its first effect will become even more threatening as they will gain Thorn Elemental’s ability to deal their damage directly to an opponent even when they get blocked. Zilortha, Apex of Ikoria is also an 8/8 themselves, making them one of the biggest Creatures attached to a battle, especially as Invasion of Ikoria can be cast for as low as three mana.

2. Invasion of Alara

In terms of raw power, Invasion of Alara Invasion of Alara When this Siege enters, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile two nonland cards with mana value 4 or less. You may cast one of those two cards without paying its mana cost. Put one of them into your hand. Then put the other cards exiled this way on the bottom of your library in a random order. is absolutely the strongest Battle card out there. The fact that it can only go in five color decks is the only thing keeping it from the top spot on this list. Invasion of Alara has a slightly better version of the Cascade mechanic. It exiles cards from the top of your library until you find two cards with a mana value of four or fewer. One of these cards then goes straight into play, while the other goes to your hand. While Invasion of Alara does then need to take a pretty significant amount of damage before it will transform, once it does it provides a massive dose of good stuff.

Awaken the Maelstrom Awaken the Maelstrom When this Siege enters, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile two nonland cards with mana value 4 or less. You may cast one of those two cards without paying its mana cost. Put one of them into your hand. Then put the other cards exiled this way on the bottom of your library in a random order. , the effect on the reverse side of Invasion of Alara is absolutely great. You get to draw two cards, play an Artifact for free, copy one of your permanents, spread three +1/+1 counters over your creatures, and destroy one of your opponents’ cards. If you’ve got a five-color good stuff deck, perhaps headed by Kenrith, the Returned King Kenrith, the Returned King {R}: All creatures gain trample and haste until end of turn.
{1}{G}: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
{2}{W}: Target player gains 5 life.
{3}{U}: Target player draws a card.
{4}{B}: Put target creature card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under its owner's control. , or Garth One-Eye, then Invasion of Alara is certainly a spicy card to include.

1. Invasion of New Phyrexia

Invasion of New Phyrexia is a hugely powerful card. Finale of Glory Finale of Glory Create X 2/2 white Soldier creature tokens with vigilance. If X is 10 or more, also create X 4/4 white Angel creature tokens with flying and vigilance. and White Sun’s Zenith White Sun’s Zenith Create X 2/2 white Cat creature tokens. Shuffle White Sun's Zenith into its owner's library. are both pretty strong cards, but In Azorius decks, Invasion of New Phyrexia puts them both to shame. Not only do the tokens generated by Invasion of New Phyrexia have Vigilance, but it also has the ability to transform into a really good Planeswalker. Although this battle has six defense, the huge army of Knights you will have created as you play it should have no trouble tearing it down.

Teferi Akosa of Zhalfir, the time mage tucked away underneath Invasion of New Phyrexia, provides not only several strong effects, but also synergizes with all of the Knights generated by the first part of this card. On top of a card draw effect, this new Teferi can generate an emblem that buffs all of his controller’s Knights and has a removal effect that can force opponents to shuffle away their best creatures.

Conclusion

While it is easy to determine what the weakest battles are (nobody will be playing Invasion of Kamigawa outside of Limited any time soon) deciding on the top 10 best Battles is quite tricky. We had to miss out some strong cards like Invasion of Strixhaven and Invasion of Kaldheim. With time and experimentation, the value of these Battle cards will be determined, and some of them may rise to the top as others fade into obscurity. This is a new frontier, and it’s always exciting to test out new card types.

Read more: Analysing the 5 Double-Sided Compleated Commanders