If you’re planning on making a seasonal horror EDH deck – or just a deck that gives you the creeps at any other time – you’re going to need to start by looking at the right commander. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of options out there for you, so it can be hard to choose.
We’ve done a little brainstorming and came up with this pared-down list of best commanders for a horror-themed EDH deck in MTG. We tried to choose a group that’s good in terms of power and, of course, in spooky flavor.
Keep reading to see who we picked and why.
Best Commanders for a Horror-Themed EDH Deck
Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice
First off on our list of thrilling commanders is the legendary (in more ways than one!) Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice. As soon as your group sees her in your deck, they will instantly be on guard because she’s good all-around.
The first half of her text by itself makes her powerful. Flying, vigilance, deathtouch, and lifelink? You bet opponents won’t want to block her when she comes flying at them.
But it’s the second half of her text that makes her most popular. With proliferate, she multiplies counters on permanents or players. This includes things such as +1/+1 counters, planeswalker loyalty counters, and perhaps most infamously, poison counters.
Great Strategies for Atraxa:
- Super friends (planeswalker-based decks)
- Infect
- +1/+1 Counters or -1/-1 Counters
- Hydra tribal
- Stax
- Pod
- Lifegain
- Horror tribal
Edgar Markov
Looking for one of the best vampire commanders out there? Edgar Markov is a solid pick, because he’s designed to make your battlefield positively swarm with vampires in no time.
Plus, because of his eminence trait, he’s effective even if he’s not on the battlefield. As long as he’s in the command zone or on the battlefield, he creates a vampire creature token every time you cast another vampire spell.
See what we mean? It’s like spreading a vampiric plague. Your opponents will rapidly be drowning in vampires.
Great Strategies for Edgar:
- Vampire tribal
- +1/+1 counters
- Madness
- Lifegain
- Aristocrats (sacrificing creatures for effects)
If you need some help getting vampires to use alongside of Edgar, consider taking a look at our list of the best MTG sets for vampires.
Reaper King
There’s nothing quite as creepy as a scarecrow. Maybe it’s the concept of the uncanny valley, but something about the way they sit there in the middle of a field, staring vacantly into the distance, gives us the chills.
That’s what makes the Reaper King perfect for horror-themed decks. You won’t exactly find an abundance of scarecrow commanders, after all.
Scarecrows aren’t the most prolific tribe in Magic, but they’re still pretty noteworthy for cards like Painter’s Servant and, of course, Reaper King. So if you’re looking for a way to make scarecrow tribal work, Reaper King is your best bet.
Great Strategies for Reaper King:
- Scarecrow tribal
- Shapeshifter tribal
- Land destruction (Note: this is a brutal strategy, so you may want to be make sure your play group is okay with it first.)
Aminatou, the Fateshifter
Aminatou made a shudder-worthy appearance in our list of the creepiest planeswalkers in MTG, so it’s not exactly surprising we’re throwing her in here, too.
Planeswalkers in general are powerful cards. Aminatou demonstrates that well, and with a decidedly chilling flair.
For one thing, she lets you draw cards. For another, her second ability, the -1, lets you flicker permanents, which is great if they have an enter the battlefield effect.
Her last ability is a little tricky, but if you can bounce all of your permanents, you can potentially give the next player nothing while you get control of someone else’s permanents in addition to your own.
Note: the link we provided is to an oversized commander version of the card, not the standard size.
Great Strategies for Aminatou:
- Blink
- Stax (Note: This is another type of strategy you may want to avoid using, unless your group is comfortable with it.)
- Super friends
- Bounce
Karador, Ghost Chieftain
We would be remiss if we didn’t put Karador, Ghost Chieftain on this list. Come on – his name is Ghost Chieftain, so he’s a shoo-in.
As if that weren’t enough, true to his name, he lets you interact with your graveyard. The second half of his text lets you bring creatures back from beyond the grave.
But the first half of his ability isn’t useless, either. Keeping creatures in your graveyard will lower his cost, which includes the commander tax penalty you have to otherwise pay every time you cast him.
Note: the links also go to an oversized version of him rather than the standard card size.
Great Strategies for Karador:
- Sacrifice
- Reanimator
- Dredge
- Aristocrats
Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
Grimgrin is like an all-in-one package. As long as you have creatures you’re willing to sacrifice to him, he will continue to be a thorn in your opponents’ sides.
He’s especially powerful in a zombie tribal deck, where you’ll usually have worthless zombies to sacrifice to him. With those sacrifices, Grimgrin will continuously grow even stronger like an evil god and steamroll other players.
Great Strategies for Grimgrin:
- Zombie tribal
- Zombie tokens
- Graveyard
- Aristocrats
Rakdos, Lord of Riots
Whereas Karador, Ghost Chieftain reduces his own cost, Rakdos, Lord of Riots allows you to reduce the cost of your other creatures. All you need to do is inflict damage on your opponents’ life total to get a nice cost reduction to your creatures that turn.
If you’re playing black and red, you probably have plenty of ways of dealing consistent damage to other players. That translates to consistent cost reduction from Rakdos, of course.
He’s particularly good with artifacts and Eldrazi. They tend to cost just colorless mana, so if you get your reduction high enough, you can cast them for free.
Rakdos, Lord of Riots can get broken if you have something that allows you to repeatedly cast a spell, like through bouncing cards to your hand. That’s because his lovely cost reduction lasts for your entire turn.
Great Strategies for Rakdos:
- Demon tribal
- Eldrazi tribal
Skullbriar, the Walking Grave
Skullbriar, the Walking Grave has something that sets it apart: it can keep counters on it wherever it goes, provided it doesn’t enter your hand or your library. In many ways, it’s truly like a zombie returning from the dead.
When Skullbriar comes out, your opponents can’t simply destroy it. They need to bounce it or somehow force it into your library. This isn’t always easy to do depending on the colors they’re playing.
If they can’t bounce it or push it into your library somehow, they’re forced to deal with the fact that you have a creature with a veritable tower of +1/+1 counters on it. Consider pairing it with something that proliferates to make it even deadlier.
Great Strategies for Skullbriar:
- +1/+1 Counters
- Voltron (equipping as many beneficial artifacts to one creature as possible)
- Zombie tribal
Ghoulcaller Gisa
Ghoulcaller Gisa is the queen of zombies. Seriously, she’ll potentially double (or even more) the amount of zombies you have on the battlefield.
All you need to do is find a creature to sacrifice. The higher its power, the more zombie tokens you’ll get. And if you don’t have any beefy creatures to sacrifice to the almighty Gisa, zombie tokens from previous sacrifices will do just fine.
If you’re looking for a deck that mimics what might happen in a zombie apocalypse, go with Ghoulcaller Gisa.
Great Strategies for Ghoulcaller Gisa:
- Zombie tribal
- Zombie tokens
- Aristocrats
How to Choose the Best Commander for Your Creepy Deck
So, from the positively disturbing commanders we showed to you today, how do you decide which one should helm your horror-themed EDH deck? Well, we think there are at least five factors you should consider:
- Price
- Color
- Theme/Flavor
- Playability
- Your Meta
Price
We know as well as anyone that Magic cards can get crazily expensive. It’s not always feasible to buy a particular card, especially if you’re on a budget.
There’s absolutely no shame in building affordable commander decks and choosing a commander accordingly. In fact, a couple people on our team take pride in building some of the cheapest decks possible. We have someone who managed to make an entire deck for approximately $8, including the cost of the commander.
In other words, don’t be afraid to choose a commander that better suits your budget. You just need to get a little more creative with it.
Color
Color is always an important consideration when you’re building any deck – not just a commander one. Whether you like it or not, each color plays a little differently.
Green, for instance, is excellent for ramping and big creatures. Red is good for dealing damage directly to other players or their creatures.
The good thing about EDH is that, once you choose a commander, the colors for your deck are chosen, as well. However, color might influence your choice in commander, especially if there’s a particular playstyle you enjoy that’s associated with one of the colors.
Theme/Flavor
If you’re looking at this post, there’s a chance you’ve decided horror is a theme you’re interested in. But even within that category alone, there are multiple subcategories.
For example, Ghoulcaller Gisa is fantastic for a zombie deck. If you’re into zombies, you would do well to choose her. But if you’re more intrigued by the idea of scarecrows, then Reaper King is obviously going to be the better choice for you.
Don’t feel frivolous for stopping to think about the aesthetic of your deck. With the massive number of Magic cards available, you can easily make a deck for any horror subgenre.
Playability
We made sure that all the cards we chose for this list are very playable. They could all be used to make a strong commander deck.
But let’s take a closer look at the concept of playability for any of the beginners out there reading this post. Why did we choose the commanders on this list?
A lot of that comes down their mana cost. If a commander costs, say, ten total mana to cast, you’re going to need to find some faster ways to get it out on the battlefield, otherwise you’re not going to benefit from it very much. That’s because you’d have to wait up to ten turns before you’d even be able to cast it.
Another thing we personally considered for playability is the card’s general power level. How much of an impact do they make when they come out to play? Or, put another way, how much do they affect the game? The greater the impact they have, the more powerful they are, as a rule of thumb.
Your Meta
Finally, you should think about your particular play group’s environment. If you play with a certain group of people more often, step back and examine the trends in your games.
As an example, we’ll talk about our play group. Our group tends to focus heavily on graveyard interaction and combos. Thus, a powerful counter to many of the decks used in our games would be one that utilizes graveyard hate cards or is capable of interrupting combos.
Try to think of strategies you can use to counter trends in your play group, as well as the individual commanders that support those strategies. However, you should also think about what would be acceptable in your group. Just because you can doesn’t always mean that you should.
Some strategies are strictly off the table in certain groups. As an example, infect and land destruction, while perfectly viable strategies, are banned in some casual games simply because they’re not fun to play against.
Wrap Up
Normally, we’d recommend one thing over all the others in the list in our conclusion. However, we’re not going to recommend one particular card here just because we think they are all fun commanders.
What we will do is ask if any of them are your favorites. Let us know in the comments below if one of these commanders caught your eye and why. Otherwise, feel free to let us know, too, if we missed any that you think deserve to be here.
Maybe we could always do a part two, after all.