Veteran Soldier

Rulings

12 official rulings, in the order Wizards published them.

• 2022-06-10

  Once the game begins, your two commanders are tracked separately. If you cast one, you won’t have to pay an additional 2 the first time you cast the other. A player loses the game after having been dealt 21 combat damage from any one of them, not from both of them combined (although your Background won’t usually be a creature anyway).

• 2022-06-10

  If something refers to your commander while you have two commanders, it refers to one of them of your choice. If you are instructed to perform an action on your commander (e.g. put it from the command zone into your hand due to Command Beacon), you choose one of your commanders at the time the effect happens.

• 2022-06-10

  If a card refers to a commander creature you own, a Background won't usually be counted or included for that effect. If another spell or ability causes your Background to become a creature, however, it will be included. Any effect that refers to your commander or a commander you own or control without specifying creature will apply to a Background that is your commander, as appropriate.

• 2022-06-10

  Choose a Background is a variant of the partner ability. You may have two commanders if one of them is a legendary creature with the choose a background ability and the other is a legendary Background enchantment. Backgrounds and cards with choose a Background do not interact with cards which have any other partner ability.

• 2022-06-10

  Veteran Soldier has received an update to its Oracle text to clarify its function. Specifically, a Soldier creature token is created for each opponent of the controller of the attacking commander.

• 2022-06-10

  If your commander loses the choose a Background ability or stops being a Background during the game, as appropriate, it is still your commander.

• 2022-06-10

  You can choose two commanders that are the same color or colors.

• 2022-06-10

  Both commanders start in the command zone, and the remaining 98 cards (or 58 cards in a Commander Draft game) of your deck are shuffled to become your library.

• 2022-06-10

  If you control a Background that grants an ability to commander creatures you own, and you own more than one commander creature, each of them will have that ability.

• 2022-06-10

  An effect that checks whether you control your commander is satisfied if you control one or both of your two commanders.

• 2022-06-10

  If your Commander deck has two commanders, you can include only cards whose own color identities are also found in your commanders’ combined color identities.

• 2022-06-10

  The ability granted by Veteran Soldier is looking to see if any of the attacking player's opponents have a higher life total than that defending player. The attacking player's life total is not included in this comparison.

Rulings are Wizards of the Coast's own, mirrored from Scryfall and refreshed nightly.

In the 99

Every deck whose current list includes Veteran Soldier, whatever its commander.