Magic: The Gathering and Warhammer 40K have created four new Commander decks. Each deck comes with 100 cards that feature some of Warhammer’s most iconic characters and forces. They are also ready to play immediately, letting you dive into a Commander game with your friends instantly. Some of the cards are even acceptable in Legacy and Vintage games!
Each Warhammer Commander deck is built to achieve victory in specific ways. While every Commander deck has its strengths and weaknesses, players want to know which Commander deck is the best out of the four. This guide will cover all four decks, with the last deck on the list being the best. Each Commander deck will also be analyzed based on the cards you get from the box and assuming you don’t switch in/switch out any of the cards.
Magic The Gathering — Best Warhammer Commander deck
Related: The 10 best Commanders from Dominaria United in Magic the Gathering
Tyranid Swarm
The Tyranid Swarm deck is represented by The Swarmlord. As a deck that runs red and green colors, it focuses on bringing powerful creatures into the battlefield, strengthening them, and going in for attacks. Tyranid Swarm has many ways of creating creature tokens to provide additional forces on the battlefield. It can also strengthen these creatures with +1/+1 counters to turn weak creatures into dangerous powerhouses.
This would be a dangerous deck that puts the pressure on in the early game. However, Commander is a format that is known for long games (with decks having 100 cards and each player having 40 life), which means most Commander decks have ways of dealing with aggressive strategies. Tyranid Swarm packs a punch, but you may struggle if players are able to mitigate your creature damage.
Forces of the Imperium
Forces of the Imperium is represented by Inquisitor Greyfax. It focuses on summoning tokens that have a variety of uses. It doesn’t matter if they are creatures or artifacts; they will be put to use by this deck. Thanks to the staying power given by the blue and white colors, Forces of the Imperium will be able to pull out any token strategy they wish at any point in the game.
The only problem is that it is still dependent on creature tokens, which can be dealt with. While you aren’t likely going to see players use their precious removal spells on tokens, they are still subject to being defeated by cards that wipe out the battlefield. There aren’t too many ways to enhance the tokens, meaning you will often work with what you get if you don’t get the right cards.
Necron Dynasties
Necron Dynasties is represented by Szarekh, the Silent King. Unlike the other decks, it was designed to be mono-black, and thus only has one color. Despite that, it focuses on artifact creatures and has the most artifacts out of all the Commander decks. Going with the mono-black theme, even putting cards into the graveyard won’t be enough to remove their effects the battlefield. You can even bring creatures back from the graveyard for one final fight before they are gone forever.
The glaring weakness is the fact that Necron Dynasties relies on the artifact typing. Any Commander deck that is suited to destroying artifacts, or also benefits from artifacts, will be able to deal with Necron Dynasties easily. Exiling cards from graveyards is a common strategy with other blue and black decks, which impairs the effectiveness of Necron Dynasties.
The Ruinous Powers
The Ruinous Powers is represented by Abaddon the Despoiler. Its claim to fame is using the cascade mechanic, which is flipping cards from the top of your deck until you find a card with a lower mana value, then cast it immediately. Any cards that aren’t casted are shuffled back into your deck, allowing for chaotic possibilities and unpredictable surprises that can throw off any player.
Most cards work well with the cascade mechanic, putting the Ruinous Powers as the best out of the Warhammer 40k Commander decks. It’s not hard to get used to it, it’s easy to create powerful combinations, and there’s always a surprise. The disadvantage is that cascade may not always work in your favor, but there are enough cards in the deck to provide a consistently good option.
