Building a deck with a specific theme or strategy is arguably the most crucial aspect of MtG. However, with so many cards available, it can be hard to pin down which cards and strategy will suit your gameplay best. Regardless, some cards often rise in the meta and become a common choice for most players. One of the most popular themes in the game is the use of White-Black commanders, which typically offer a combination of control, life gain, and board presence, making them powerful and versatile options for any player. If you are interested in forming a deck using White-Black commanders and looking for the best ones, we’ve listed 10 of them below.
Related: Top 10 Best Mono Green Commanders in MTG
The best White Black Commanders in Magic the Gathering
Alesha, Who Smiles at Death
Alesha fits the bill when you are looking to build a deck around sacrificing and recurring creatures for value or on aggressive strategies that take advantage of Alesha’s first-strike ability. She is a 3 mana Mardu-colored creature with 3 power and 2 toughness.
Athreos, God of Passage
Often used in decks that focus on sacrificing creatures for various benefits, such as triggering death effects or gaining life, Athreos is a legendary enchantment creature with a casting cost of 1 colorless, 1 white, and 1 black mana. It can return creatures from the graveyard to their owner’s hand whenever a creature dies, provided its owner pays 3 life. Additionally, Athreos can return itself to the owner’s hand if it ever dies.
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
The priestess of the Ghost Council, Ayli, is a Cleric creature that can sacrifice another creature to gain life equal to that creature’s toughness. She has a toughness of 3, a power of 2, and a mana cost of 1 white and 1 black. Additionally, Ayli can also spend 1 white and 1 black mana to exile a creature, which can help remove an opponent’s creature from the game.
Daxos the Returned
Daxos is a powerful commander that excels in enchantment-based strategies. His ability to create spirit tokens upon casting enchantments makes him an excellent choice for players who want to control the board and build up their army. Whenever a creature you control enters the battlefield, you get a +1/+1 counter on Daxos. Furthermore, casting an enchantment spell will create a white spirit creature token with flying ability.
Kambal, Consul of Allocation
You’ll often need to disrupt an opponent’s game plan by forcing them to lose life or removing key nonland permanents from the board. This is where Kambal comes into play. His ability to drain life from opponents whenever they cast a spell makes him a formidable opponent, whereas his lifelink ability ensures that he will remain a potent threat on the battlefield.
Karlov of the Ghost Council
For commander format decks, particularly those centered on life gain, Karlov of the Ghost Council is a popular choice. If the player is able to gain life continually, it can grow swiftly into a formidable creature. Its ability to exile target creatures can also be a valuable tool for dealing with troublesome creatures on the battlefield.
Lurrus of the Dream
As a commander, Lurrus’ abilities are particularly potent in combination with various low-cost creatures and artifacts, such as cheap sacrifice outlets and creatures with enter-the-battlefield abilities. With its lifelink ability, Lurrus can also provide valuable life gain to help keep the player in the game.
However, it is worth noting that Lurrus’ companion ability cannot be used in Commander as it is a singleton format where only one copy of each card is allowed, including the Commander.
Ravos, Soultender
Depending on your plan and the format you’re playing in, you can deploy Ravos in various ways. He can strike and block as usual because of his vigilance and flight skills, but he can also stop creatures by flying without tapping. At the beginning of your upkeep, you can return a target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
Teysa Karlov
The primary ability of Teysa Karlov increases the number of triggers produced by any of your creatures that die. Therefore, if you sacrifice a creature with an ability that triggers when it dies, that ability will trigger twice instead of once. This can be very powerful in decks that revolve around sacrificing creatures for value, such as Aristocrats-style decks. However, keep in mind that Teysa Karlov only affects triggered abilities, not activated ones. For example, sacrificing a creature to activate a card like Viscera Seer will not generate an additional trigger from Teysa’s ability.
Tymna the Weaver
Tymna is a black and white human cleric with a mana cost of 2 colorless, 1 black, and 1 white. Her abilities center around card advantage, allowing her controller to draw additional cards when they deal combat damage to their opponents with creatures. Needless to say, she is a powerful manipulator that focuses on aggressive strategies or generating many creatures.
