Among the dominant archetypes in Magic’s Commander format, Aristocrats is undoubtedly one of the most complex. Every Aristocrats brew is a delicate balance between creature generation, sacrifice outlets, and payoffs, with plenty of moving parts in between to hold it all together. While these decks can be tricky to assemble, the results are well worth the effort in most cases.
If you’re looking to take on the Aristocrats challenge yourself, these are the MTG Commanders we think are best suited to the job.
6 | Shirei, Shizo’s Caretaker
As Aristocrats Commanders go, Shirei, Shizo’s Caretaker is one of the most unique options in the game. By automatically reanimating your low-power creatures each turn, it lets you grind out continuous value with ordinarily mediocre cards like Blood Pet and Bottle Gnomes. Add in some free sacrifice outlets, and cards like Cadaver Imp and Bone Shredder can work wonders here, too.
Shirei’s ability single-handedly solves one of the biggest problems for Aristocrats decks, in that it recycles your fodder to continually fuel your payoffs. This lets you drain the table with cards like Zulaport Cutthroat
Zulaport CutthroatWhenever this creature or another creature you control dies, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. and Blood Artist far faster than usual. When paired with Dictate of Erebos and Grave Pact, Shirei can even lock the entire table down creatures-wise, making such plans insurmountable in some cases.
Add in an infinite turns combo with Coretapper and Magistrate’s Scepter, and Shirei is a formidable force at the Commander table. If you’re looking to try something a little different with your next Aristocrats brew, you can’t go wrong with this one.
5 | Marchesa, the Black Rose
The Dethrone mechanic is a neat political tool for Commander, and Marchesa, the Black Rose is perhaps its most powerful representative. As long as at least one opponent is ahead in life, this gives you an easy way to put counters on your creatures, which in turn lets you abuse that juicy second ability.
At a base level, this ability protects your creatures, including Marchesa itself, from removal and board wipes. It also lets you get a ton of free value out of sacrifice outlets like Goblin Bombardment and Phyrexian Altar, as your creatures will spring right back on death. This lets you re-use value creatures like Ravenous Chupacabra, and get even more bodies out of resilient creatures like Glen Elendra Archmage.
What’s especially great about Marchesa is how open it is in terms of build options. Dethrone can enable a lot of your shenanigans, but you can also use cards like Thran Vigil and Uncivil Unrest to keep your creatures around permanently. There’s even an infinite turns combo here, with Time Sieve and Myr Battlesphere.
Factor in access to blue, a real rarity for Aristocrats decks, and this is a stellar Commander for this classic MTG archetype.
4 | Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
Yawgmoth is arguably the biggest bad that Magic has ever seen lore-wise, and his creature incarnation more than lives up to the hype. Getting a free sacrifice outlet in the command zone is fantastic for Aristocrats, especially when it draws you cards. This keeps things ticking along nicely resource-wise, and lets you access all of your synergies and payoffs on demand.
As if this wasn’t enough to solidify Yawgmoth’s position in Aristocrats, it also gets to dish out -1/-1 counters for each sacrifice. This is great for picking off problem creatures like Birds of Paradise and Esper Sentinel
Esper SentinelWhenever an opponent casts their first noncreature spell each turn, draw a card unless that player pays {X}, where X is this creature's power., but it has proactive applications as well. Bring in a couple of Undying creatures like Butcher Ghoul and Geralf’s Messenger, and you can whip up an infinite loop that kills via any Blood Artist effect.
To top it all off, Yawgmoth even packs a handy discard outlet that lets you Proliferate as well. This lets you easily build a Reanimator sub-theme into your deck by pitching bangers like Razaketh, the Foulblooded
Razaketh, the FoulbloodedFlying, trample
Pay 2 life, Sacrifice another creature: Search your library for a card, put that card into your hand, then shuffle., while also opening the door for other niche packages like Infect. While the mono-black color identity here is restrictive, Yawgmoth is powerful and flexible enough to be well worth running regardless.
3 | Korvold, Fae-Cursed King
Surprising no one, Korvold, one of Magic’s best sacrifice payoffs of all time, is a fantastic Commander for the sacrifice-focused Aristocrats archetype. Getting a free draw for every fodder creature you sacrifice totally transforms the reach of the strategy, letting it play like a Storm deck with cards like Phyrexian Altar. Since Korvold triggers whenever any permanent is sacrificed, it’s especially great with creatures like Ruthless Technomancer that generate Treasures.
With so much built-in draw power, Korvold is brilliant for the more combo-focused Aristocrats decks out there. You can easily assemble the classic Gravecrawler loops the archetype loves, and other great options like Chatterfang, Squirrel General with Pitiless Plunderer. Korvold even enables a few combo lines of its own, netting infinite death triggers with Blood Pet and Mortuary, for instance.
More traditional infinites aside, Korvold’s natural scaling also makes it a very real threat after just a turn or two of solid sacrifices. This lets you crack in for Commander damage wins, or bust out cards like Chandra’s Ignition to potentially wipe out the whole pod. With the card’s color identity opening up some excellent options like Birthing Pod, Korvold is one of the best MTG Aristocrats Commanders overall.
2 | Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER
Much like the character it represents, Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER feels like it was cooked up in a lab, specifically to be the best Aristocrats support piece of all time. Everything the archetype needs is right here: a sacrifice outlet, a card draw engine, and a Blood Artist effect. This makes it trivial for Sephiroth to get its engine going, as it can fill every role itself once flipped.
The front face alone would make Sephiroth a stellar Aristocrats Commander, but the back side takes things to another level. While four deaths sounds tricky at first, Edict effects like Accursed Marauder and Plaguecrafter can flip it in one move. From here, Sephiroth’s Blood Artist effect becomes permanent, making it very difficult for opponents to take you down with damage. Transform it multiple times, and these Emblems can even stack.
Because of its powerful passive, Sephiroth serves as a payoff for many of the best Aristocrats combos, including Gravecrawler loops. It even enables some Forsaken Miner
Forsaken MinerThis creature can't block.
Whenever you commit a crime, you may pay {B}. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield. (Targeting opponents, anything they control, and/or cards in their graveyards is a crime.) lines itself, since its ability targets and therefore commits a Crime. These combos are the cherry on top of a fantastic overall package, and one of the best Aristocrats Commanders MTG has ever seen.
1 | Teysa Karlov
With its first ability alone, Teysa Karlov takes the Aristocrats archetype to a whole new level. In one way or another, the whole strategy revolves around death triggers, whether it’s cards like Pawn of Ulamog making tokens, or Zulaport CutthroatZulaport CutthroatWhenever this creature or another creature you control dies, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. ending the game.
There are countless nasty lines available with Teysa, from converting 1/1 tokens into four cards with Skullclamp, to generating an absurd amount of stats with Elenda, the Dusk Rose. If you want to take things even further, there are some combo lines here, too, such as looping Nim Devourer in and out of the ‘yard with the help of Pitiless Plunderer. Either way, games shouldn’t last too long once Teysa hits the table.
Add in some incidental token buffs that can help you stay in the game against aggressive opponents, and Teysa is a fantastic overall package. While Aristocrats is an evolving archetype, it’s hard to imagine a future where a legend as universally useful as this isn’t the best MTG Commander for it.
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