10 Fun Cards You Should Try! | Commander's Herald

Dance with Calamity | Illustrated by Fajareka Setiawan

Apex Devastator | Illustrated by Svetlin Velinov

Hey, nerds! For this week's article, I wanted to share 10 of the most fun cards from my playgroup. Players often want to find the most powerful or busted card, but Commander is a casual format, so I like to prioritize having fun instead of winning. These are only cards that go into the 99 of decks, so no commanders here. However, I will give you some suggested commanders for these cards. Alright, let's get into it.

Last Stand

This five-color sorcery can be found in my Jared Carthalion Domain deck. I found this card on Scryfall while searching for cards that cared about land types. It doesn't see much play, probably because it has only been printed three times and is five-colors, but combining this with effects like Prismatic Omen, Leyline of the Guildpact, and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove have been some of the most fun I've had playing a five-color deck. You can even cast the card from your deck with Bring to Light.

Cultural Exchange

I found this card sitting in a binder at my LGS. I've flipped past it about a dozen times throughout the year. The art is cute, but couldn't figure out the best home for it. That was until I realized how great it would be in my Commodore Guff deck. Now, you might be wondering why I'd want this effect in a planeswalker deck. This deck makes tokens to help keep the planeswalker safe, but what if we swapped those tokens for something better, like someone's commander? We could force two players to swap commanders to disrupt their plan or to earn political favor. And the best part? This card doesn't target the creatures, so it gets around hexproof, shroud, and ward.

Recommended Commanders: Commodore Guff, Brenard, Ginger Sculptor, Marchesa, the Black Rose

Exchange of Words

I was surprised when this card was suggested by a friend. At first glance, it sounds like an acorn card, but nope, we can play it. The obvious play pattern of swapping the textbox of, let's say a Crab, with Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, but I'd rather turn planeswalkers or artifacts into creatures and swap the planeswalker's ability with one of my creatures. Then, I can blink the planeswalker so I have two copies of the same card. Exchange of Words will still be in effect until it leaves play, not the creatures it targeted. Be warned: this card is a rules nightmare, so you might want to do a rules deep-dive before playing it.

Recommended Commanders: Muldrotha, the Gravetide, Orvar, the All-Form, Zur, Eternal Schemer

Fractured Identity

This is one of my favorite removal spells in Commander and Vintage Cube. It is five-mana and sorcery speed, which isn't great, but the upside of getting a copy of whatever you removed is worth it. Unless your other opponents can benefit from whatever you're removing. The other option is giving your opponents mean cards to disrupt their game plan or cause them to lose. For example, giving everyone a Phage the Untouchable to win immediately or an Immortal Coil for a slow burn. I love the versatility of this card, allowing it to act as removal or a combo piece, depending on how you've built your deck.

Blade of Selves

The first time I saw Blade of Selves I knew I wanted to play it in every deck possible. Myriad is such a fun mechanic, especially paired with powerful enters triggers from creatures like Thragtusk. Okay, maybe Thragtusk is a little outdated, but you get the idea. The first proper home I found for this card was Ratadrabik of Urborg. If you can attack with Ratadrabik one time while equipped, you end up with four copies of him. Then if you attack again, you end up with 12. I think the math is (N * 2) + 2, where N is the number of Ratadrabiks you have. If that doesn't sound fun, then put it on Craterhoof Behemoth or Baleful Strix. Also, if you have in play Sundial of the Infinite you can keep the token copies.

Recommended Commanders: Ratadrabik of Urborg, Roxanne, Starfall Savant, Cadric, Soul Kindler

Nalfeshnee

In recent years, red has been given card advantage by casting spells from exile, and every time we get a new impulse effect, Nalfeshnee gets that much better. Cheating on mana is arguably the most broken thing to do in Magic, and copying spells is basically that, so having a creature that can give you six or eight mana worth of free spells is no joke. Six mana can be a lot, but red has no shortage of rituals or Treasure tokens to get this out early, and while you can't cascade from copies of spells, you can discover if you cast cards like Trumpeting Carnosaur or Hit the Mother Lode, which then gives you more copies.

Recommended Commanders: Omnath, Locus of All, Maelstrom Wanderer, Witch-king, Sky Scourge

Apex Devastator

Speaking of cascade, Apex Devastator gives you cascade four times. Granted, this creature is ten mana, but still! Cascade, in addition to being powerful, is one of the most fun mechanics in Commander. The large deck sizes make this mechanic harder to abuse than in 60-card formats, and the randomness can lead to some funny turns. The Timmy inside of me is hoping to get a discover variant of this card, but that would probably be too good. It costing ten mana can be looked at as an upside actually as here are some of the dumb spells you can cheat into play, like Maelstrom Wanderer, Call Forth the Tempest, Emergent Ultimatum, Eerie Ultimatum, and Last March of the Ents.

Recommended Commanders: Gwenna, Eyes of Gaea, Jodah, Archmage Eternal, Nikya of the Old Ways

Fiery Gambit

Do you like flipping coins? Do you like RNG in Magic? Well, do I have the card for you. Fiery Gambit has incredible upside, giving you nine cards and untapping all your lands all for three mana. But that will only happen roughly 12.5% of the time. Otherwise, you can either bolt a creature, deal damage to everyone, or just spend three mana to fumble a flip. But it is that exact kind of randomness that appeals to me. You don't need to just play it in coin-flipping decks. If you want to increase your odds, try it in Krark, the Thumbless, or maybe the new Storm, Force of Nature, to get multiple copies of it. And if you really want to lean into it, grab Krark's Thumb.

The Deck of Many Things

If Fiery Gambit is too risky for you, try The Deck of Many Things. Well, okay this is still risky, but much less so! The odds of discarding your hand if you have a full grip is only 35%, which isn't awful, but think about the other 65% of the time where you get to draw two cards or return something to your hand. I run this in my Mikaeus, the Unhallowed. Discarding my hand can be an upside in that deck, and the other modes are card advantage. If you want to mitigate some of the downside, you could add Barbarian Class, Wyll, Blade of Frontiers, and Pixie Guide. There is also the silver border Krark's Other Thumb, which you could rule zero in, and because it's colorless, you can put it in all your decks! Trust me, try cutting Sol Ring for this in one deck. You won't be sorry!

Dance with Calamity

If you're looking for real fun, try hitting 13 with Dance with Calamity. Do you go for one more card when you're at ten? Maybe you risk it for the biscuit, then hit a four-drop and cry. Notably, you can combo this with Thassa's Oracle since it doesn't stop if you go over 13. But I'm not interested in that; I just want to get as many free spells as possible. Also, it works great in decks with some of the cards mentioned above, like Apex Devastator and Nalfeshnee. I can't wait to give it storm with Storm, Force of Nature. Plus, it doesn't worry about timing restrictions, so give it flash with Borne Upon a Wind for maximum fun.

I'd love to hear what fun cards you think I missed down below, and stay tuned for my fun rankings for Foundations and Jump Start 2025 coming soon. Alrighty, nerds, I'll see you in the next one.

Dance with Calamity | Illustrated by Fajareka Setiawan

Apex Devastator | Illustrated by Svetlin Velinov

Benjamin Levin

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