Commander Guides
Best Budget Commanders
A strong commander doesn't have to be an expensive one. Six real commanders, each affordable on its own, with a plan you can build around without chasing a single format staple.
What makes a commander a good budget pick
Price is about the commander, but a budget deck is about the whole ninety-nine. A cheap commander sitting on top of an expensive shell isn't actually a budget deck, so every pick here has a plan the rest of the deck can support with mostly commons and uncommons.
That means favoring engines that reward doing something the deck was already going to do (playing lands, casting creatures, casting spells) over commanders that need a specific expensive piece to function. A landfall payoff or a go-wide plan scales down to a cheap decklist naturally; a combo piece usually doesn't.
Six commanders worth building around
Tatyova, Benthic Druid ↗
Every land you play draws you a card and gains you a life. The plan is simple, the payoff is immediate, and the deck around it is mostly lands and ramp you're already running.
Grumgully, the Generous ↗
Every non-Human creature you cast enters with an extra +1/+1 counter, for free. No activation, no cost, just bigger creatures than the mana you spent on them.
Kykar, Wind's Fury ↗
Every noncreature spell makes a flying token, and those tokens sacrifice for red mana. A spellslinger shell that ramps and goes wide off the same cards.
Feather, the Redeemed ↗
Target Feather herself with an instant or sorcery and get the spell back at end of turn. One commander, and a whole deck of cheap tricks that never leave your hand for good.
Meren of Clan Nel Toth ↗
Sacrifice something small, get an experience counter, bring a bigger creature back at end of turn. The loop repeats every game, and most of the pieces are commons and uncommons.
Krenko, Mob Boss ↗
Tap Krenko, get more Goblins than you had a second ago, attack with all of them. One color, one plan, and the whole deck can be built for under the cost of a single format staple.
Keeping the rest of the deck affordable
The commander is one card out of a hundred, so the real budget discipline happens in the other ninety-nine. Build toward the commander's own plan first, and reach for a format staple only when nothing cheaper does the same job. See budget Commander deckbuilding for the fuller version of this idea, and the card guides for cheap options in every role the deck template calls for.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the best budget commander in Magic?
There's no single answer, since it depends on what kind of game you want. What every good budget pick shares is a plan that doesn't need an expensive card to function: Tatyova draws off lands you're already playing, Krenko wins with commons and uncommons. Look for a commander whose whole engine is cheap, not just the commander itself.
Can a cheap commander actually win games?
Yes. Card price tracks demand and reprint history more than raw power, and plenty of genuinely strong commanders (Tatyova, Meren, Krenko) have simply never needed a chase reprint to be good. A budget deck built around a real plan beats an expensive pile of unrelated staples more often than people expect.
How do I keep the rest of the deck cheap once I've picked a commander?
Build around the commander's own plan rather than adding generically powerful staples. A Tatyova deck wants more lands and land-fetch, most of which are commons; a Krenko deck wants cheap Goblins and go-wide payoffs, not a format-staple wrath. See budget commander deckbuilding for the fuller version of this idea.
Should I upgrade a budget commander deck later?
If you want to, sure, but a lot of these decks don't need it. The point of a budget pick isn't a placeholder for something better, it's a real deck that happens to be affordable. Add cards over time as you find ones that fit the plan, rather than replacing the plan itself.
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