The 10 Best Spike Commanders

The final psychographic profile in our series is Spike. Spike's the competitive player, Spike plays to win. Spike gets a better dopamine hit from outplaying their opponent than any cigarette can hope to replicate. Several subsets of Spike exist. They include the Innovators, who pride themselves on evaluating new cards, and the Nuts & Bolts, who focus on improving their own gameplay and eliminating mistakes. Though typically relegated to cEDH, Spike Commander decks are probably floating around your casual pod already without you realizing.

At first glance, it might seem like Spike should be philosophically opposed to Commander. We do cEDH discourse almost weekly on Twitter/X these days, isn't their own format enough for them? Why try to map their profile onto the casual version of the format?

The fact of the matter is I (and most likely, you) still have friends that fit into the Spike category that come over for Commander night every other week, and they want to be engaged in the game as well. I'm here to prove that you can build a Spike Commander deck that scratches the competitive itch without becoming a full-blown cEDH deck.

What Are Spike Commanders?

Spike commanders will be any EDH-legal legendary creatures that can lead your Commander Deck. While this might end up very close to a cEDH tier list, I'm going to highlight some of the sub-S-Tier commanders that may not see as much play, but are still a force to be reckoned with.

The best Spike commanders are high-power cards that enable quick and decisive victories. They'll have well-established combos and play patterns that have been tested and proven over and over in competitive environments.

Honorable Mention: Spike, Tournament Grinder

Of course, we can't talk about Spike commanders without at least paying lip service to Spike, Tournament Grinder. Spike's official Unstable legendary creature has a ton of black Phyrexian mana symbols all over, letting you pay life instead of mana to activate its ability.

Pulling any banned or restricted card you own from outside the game is a cute way to use your formerly competitive-grade spells and lands in EDH. It'll only cost you two mana and 10 life to do it, too! In a 40-life format like Commander, this is hardly a drawback that still leaves you ample mana to cast the Timmerian Fiends you fetched.

#10 Tergrid, God of Fright

Where Johnny likes to create a fun puzzle for his opponents to work their way out of, Spike likes that puzzle to be uncompromisingly brutal and destructive. As such, Tergrid, God of Fright makes for an extremely punishing creature to whip out of your command zone.

Tergrid's five-mana CMC makes it too expensive for most cEDH decks, but in a "semi-casual power level 7" pod, it slots right in as the big bad deck at the table. Tergrid's ranked #86 on EDHrec right now and is the absolute saltiest legendary creature of 2023 besides Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger.

#9 Sen Triplets

One of the most frustrating commanders to play against is Sen Triplets. Typically, players hate when they can't cast their spells. They hate it even more when you cast them instead. Sen Triplets makes your opponents' key cards easy to remove by stealing them straight out of their hand. With luck, a few of those combo pieces will match the ones in your deck.

You'd think the best Spike build with Sen Triplets would involve actually taking your opponents' spells, but in actuality the most Spikey move in this deck is the Silence the Triplets puts on your opponent during your turn. Choose the only player with mana up that could interact with your board, then combo off with your Esper good stuff pile.

#8 Edgar Markov

Edgar Markov is possibly the most aggressive Spike commander in the game. With the right build, Edgar decks are impossibly fast Vampire kindred aggro decks that start damaging our opponents turn one. Creating an additional 1/1 creature whenever you cast your Vampires effectively doubles your potential damage output each turn. This further doubles as you put +1/+1 counters on those tokens when Edgar attacks, and that's not even counting that he's a first strike hasty 4/4.

This is my favorite type of Spike deck to play. It's fast, aggressive, and can recover from board wipes fairly well so long as we keep casting Vampires. It's creature-based, and not very control-oriented, but that's not to say it doesn't have access to some of the best removal and tutors in black. The Spiky Edgar Markov build can compete at all power levels in casual pods, but it probably won't see play in any true cEDH circles.

#7 Kess, Dissident Mage

Kess, Dissident Mage is the most consistent way to get access to the instants and sorceries in your graveyard. Because of this, she can be one of the most punishing Spike commanders to play against, running a control game until it can hit a Demonic Consultation into its Laboratory Maniac.

Kess is one of the most-played Spellslinger commanders on EDHrec, falling just short of unseating the king, Niv-Mizzet, Parun, and it's no surprise as to why. A Grixis color identity means Kess can use all of the classic instants and sorceries synergies prevalent in Izzet cards, but access to black means we can also run the powerful black spells we'd otherwise be missing: tutors like Vampiric Tutor and Entomb to tutor up exactly the cards we need to lock down the board.

#6 Kenrith, the Returned King

I'm tired of hearing about Kenrith, the Returned King, but I know not everyone shares the malaise I'm harboring for this once-lost monarch. Kenny sees a tad bit of competitive play at the helm of Dockside Extortionist decks where you'll look to assemble an infinite mana combo as quickly as possible, or go for a longer game with more control elements.

In a more casual environment, Spikes can find fun in a Kenrith, the Returned King command deck by building it around just about any powerful combo, not just the Dockside Extortionist one. With all five colors, you can easily build a Birthing Pod and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker combo deck, running Kenrith as a toolbox for reacting to the game state.

#5 Tivit, Seller of Secrets

Anyone playing Commander since 2008 remembers the scourge that was the Sharuum the Hegemon Esper good stuff deck. Esper has one of the best card pools in the game, and Tivit, Seller of Secrets has earned the right to take up the mantle as the new Spikiest Esper commander.

Tivit is a value bomb as a one-card infinite combo with Time Sieve, a repeatable advantage-generating ability, and a 6/6 flying body that's difficult to remove.

Besides the plethora of combos Tivit, Seller of Secrets enables, it's an interactive card that forces your opponents to make decisions on the type of advantage you'll generate, creating a light challenge for Spike as they try to parse out whether it's worth it to pop their Clues or Treasures first.

#4 Sisay, Weatherlight Captain

Sisay, Weatherlight Captain is a new face on the cEDH block, with two relatively different builds running around the meta right now. While one looks like a traditional cEDH good stuff pile, the other is significantly more legends-focused and plays like a toolbox deck. Sisay's five-color identity means you have access to every spell you could want, and in an eternal format like Commander we'll have no problem generating WUBRG.

Some of Sisay's common toolbox targets include Ertai Resurrected, Lavinia, Azorius Renegade, and Teferi, Time Raveler to lock opponents out with stax effects. Since Sisay is all five colors, we also have access to every other powerful legend on this list! Why not run Kenrith, the Returned King and Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy, too?

#3 Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy

Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy cEDH decks have earned the nickname "Big Flips" due to the swathe of big beater creatures present in most lists. Kinnan moonlights as a Timmy commander, being one of the best mana-rampers and mana outlets in the command zone. Once you've run out a load of huge creatures, like Consecrated Sphinx and Craterhoof Behemoth, Kinnan wraps up the game with any number of infinite combos.

Besides the obvious high-power combos Kinnan can pull off, this Simic bear also makes the perfect commander for a Pod-style Commander deck. Kinnan at the head of a toolbox-style commander deck can power it down just enough to play with Timmy and Johnny while still offering some challenging plays for Spike.

#2 Najeela, the Blade-Blossom

Najeela, the Blade-Blossom is another three-mana commander with a five-color color identity, making her easy to cast but also giving you access to every spell in the game. Najeela decks work similarly to Sisay, Weatherlight Captain, but, without a built-in tutor effect, we'll need to devote significant resources to tutor effects to dig out the various Underworld Breach/Thassa's Oracle combo, or storm off into a Brain Freeze.

Najeela was clearly built to be the head of a Warrior-based kindred deck, and that's still a viable Spike commander build for it. Many of the best creatures in the game are Warriors, and access to every possible creature-type-matters card in the game can turn this deck into quite the beater.

#1 Tymna the Weaver / Kraum, Ludevic's Opus

Tymna the Weaver is a cEDH staple and shows up as the Orzhov half of numerous Spiky commander builds for years on end. Kraum, Ludevic's Opus is its most popular partner on EDHrec by over 1000 decks.

Tymna and Kraum decks effectively rush to complete their Thassa's Oracle combo and draw their deck. This is fairly easy to achieve with two value engines like Tymna and Kraum in your command zone. Each of these creatures can easily draw you three cards per turn, filling your hand with the best stuff your colors have to offer. In cEDH, this means Dockside Extortionist, Orcish Bowmasters, Ad Nauseam/Demonic Consultation, etc.

Tymna and Kraum can easily blow out any casual, "power level 7" pod. If you're looking to close the gap on the advantage your Spike deck generates versus the Timmys and Johnnys, neuter your interaction. Tymna and Kraum decks tend to have a lot of cards in their hand, meaning they often have access to their Force of Will and Fierce Guardianship; running humble Counterspells and Negates will still see your Tymna/Kraum deck dominating the board, just at a more interactable pace.

Best Spike Commander Payoffs

Spike decks are meant to be a relentless assault of spells designed to end the game as quickly as possible. In a cEDH pod, you can expect a significant amount of countermagic to deal with these game-winning combos. The best defense for your fragile combos is, you guessed it, more countermagic. Force of Negation, Force of Will, Archmage's Charm, even Mana Tithe are efficient counterspells in Spike Commander decks.

Wrap Up

Spike shouldn't feel left out from formats like Commander. While the format is undeniably casual by design, that doesn't mean that this isn't a competitive game at its heart where every player should try to win as best they can. With all the discourse flying around about what constitutes a cEDH deck and what power level your casual Commander deck ought to be, I feel it's important to make the case that there are Spike decks that aren't necessarily cEDH. Many of these decks can replicate the feeling of playing a skill-based battle of wits against your opponents without the fear of being called a pubstomper.

But what do you think? Can a Spike truly play EDH without building a cEDH deck? Or should we continue to bully the Spikes into their own formats until we start having pregame discussions at Legacy tournaments? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading!