My Top 10 Nonlegendary Humans for Commander
Author’s note: This isn’t an article about Humans that have synergies with other Humans. This list is focused on the most powerful creatures that happen to be Humans.
Humans are the most common creatures in all of Magic, with over 3,500 different cards bearing this creature type. Humans are also unique in the fact that they’re considered one of the characteristic creature types for a color—Humans for white, Merfolk for blue, Zombies for black, Goblins for red, and Elves for green—but they still have a high number of cards appearing in every other color as well. This means that there’s probably a great Human or two out there for basically any deck that you’re trying to build.
It would have been almost too easy to include legendary creatures in a list like this one, but it probably wouldn’t have been as interesting. Everyone already knows that commanders such as Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy and Tymna the Weaver are incredibly powerful. Humans have plenty of powerful staple cards for Commander that are suitable for the 99. You’ve probably seen most of cards on this list—and you might not agree with my final ranking, but I think that we can all agree that these are powerful cards!
10. Hermit Druid
Older cards in Magic usually do at least one of three things: they get power crept by newer cards, they’re such a design mistake that we never see another similar card, or they benefit from future card designs and become more powerful. In the case of Hermit Druid, it definitely leans more on the last two. It’s so easy to build a mana base with little or no basic lands nowadays that you can quickly fill up your graveyard with tons of value or even empty the entire thing to win with a card like Thassa’s Oracle.
9. Recruiter of the Guard
I was torn on the ranking of this one because it’s so similar to the card that comes right after it on this list. It ultimately came down to the fact that I believe tutoring for a creature with toughness two or less is the slightly worse effect because of a few specific cards. That said, if you’re playing a white deck that has a bunch of powerful effects on small creatures. Recruiter of the Guard is a perfect fit. This is especially true if you have ways to use its ETB trigger more than once such as flicker or reanimation.
8. Imperial Recruiter
This card focuses on the power of the creature that you’re tutoring, but is otherwise extremely similar to the previous card aside from being red instead of white. This is likely due to its first appearance being in Portal Three Kingdoms, well before white became the de facto color when it comes to small creature synergies. I felt like this card comes out on top because there are a few powerhouse cards that it can tutor for that Recruiter of the Guard can’t, including one of the later entries on this list.
7. Dualcaster Mage
Three mana to copy an instant or sorcery on ETB is a pretty good deal, especially when it doesn’t have to be a spell you control. Red isn’t known for having a ton of great interaction, so this card can come in clutch when your opponent casts a spell that you also need. Dualcaster Mage further benefits from a whole host of spells such as Twinflame, Ghostly Flicker, and Molten Duplication that can allow it to create infinite mana, infinite ETBs, or infinite copies of itself with haste in order to win the game.
6. Opposition Agent
Tutors are powerful in a 100-card singleton format, so a card that stops them can be extremely powerful. Being able to steal a card whenever an opponent tutors is even better. Obviously, this can be very oppressive when your opponent is cracking a fetchland or casting something like Cultivate, but you usually won’t use Opposition Agent to stop something like that. It has flash, so it’s a perfect response to that Demonic Tutor or Eldritch Evolution, allowing you to steal whatever you need and ruin your opponent’s plans.
5. Ranger-Captain of Eos
We’ve seen multiple Humans that tutor for other creatures, but they typically don’t do anything after their ETB triggers have resolved. This card lets you find a creature with mana value 1 or less, which offers you a variety of relevant options in Commander.. After you tutor for something, you have the option to sacrifice Ranger-Captain of Eos to prevent opponents from casting noncreature spells. This can be used to stop an opponent or as a way to protect your own win attempt.
4. Spellseeker
Gavin Verhey says that this card was inspired by Imperial Recruiter and Recruiter of the Guard, and it’s easy to see that once you stop and think about it. Blue doesn’t typically care about creatures, so Spellseeker lets you find an instant or sorcery instead. Many of the best spells come with a mana value of two or less. You can also flicker or reanimate it if you’re looking to get extra value. There’s even a combo in Inalla, Archmage Ritualist decks built around using Spellseeker a whole bunch of times!
3. Drannith Magistrate
This is the card that I was talking about earlier when I mentioned tutor targets for Imperial Recruiter. Arguably the best hatebear in all of Commander, Drannith Magistrate stops opponents from casting spells from anywhere other than their hands. This includes casting commanders from the command zone! In addition to painting a huge target on your back, it puts a stop to cascade, flashback, and a whole bunch of other shenanigans. Be prepared to get aggro from pretty much everyone when you cast this Human.
2. Grand Abolisher
If you just want to do things during your turn, this is the card for you. Grand Abolisher is a card that really shines in multiplayer formats like Commander. More opponents means more chances for someone to mess up your plans with a timely removal spell or counterspell. This card is extremely powerful if you’re looking to win with a combo or you know that an opponent is holding back something like Cyclonic Rift to mess up your plans after you’ve gone all-in on combat.
1. Esper Sentinel
A one-drop Human that can draw you cards if your opponents are casting noncreature spells without paying the toll is powerful, even though it’s capped at one card draw per opponent per turn. You can even find ways to increase Esper Sentinel’s power to make it harder to pay the tax and prevent you from drawing cards. This card has become a go-to card draw spell for decks including white and is always my first tutor target when I cast the aforementioned Ranger-Captain of Eos.
Conclusion
There were plenty of other powerful Humans to choose from. While they don’t quite make my top 10, I did want to give a shout-out to Magus of the Moon and Containment Priest as cards that do some serious work in the right decks. It would be easy to go on all day about more great Humans to play in Commander, but I think that I’ll save it for a future article. In the meanwhile, I’ll be looking forward to seeing new cards from Foundations in the coming days. It’s the final set release of 2024!
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