Hello all! I hope your day is going kicking well! Today I want to look at my top ten cards from Commander 2021. This will focus on the kitchen table so cards that are better in formats like Commander, multiplayer, and such are going to better than a card that plays nicely in Legacy or Vintage, like Flusterstorm.

Ready for the article? All right! Let's get this party started!

Honorable Mention #1. Scholarship Sponsor

Check out this fun card! It's group hug to the max! I really enjoy the power and majesty of Scholarship Sponsor as it feels like a dying Veteran Explorer save that the person with the most lands doesn't get anything. Is a foe mana screwed sitting at two lands? Are you sitting on five lands when a foe has ramped to eight? Is one of your foes at six lands? No problem! Cast the Sponsor! You'll get three basics, the mana screwed guy gets six, and the one at six gets a pair. Everyone is now at 8 and everyone can play the game. In one card you end mana issues. You just need four mana to cast it.

Honorable Mention #2. Battlemage's Bracers AND Fractal Harness

Look at these Gruul pieces of equipment! Love them! Battlemage's Bracers are better than Illusionist's Bracers in some builds as they give haste and equip for one fewer in exchange for taking a mana to use when you copy each iteration, but that's worth it given the two bonuses. I've used them in a build already around Osgir. I've also used Fractal Harness in one of my builds as well - this time around Elder Dragon Tanazir Quandrix. The Harness can be used to make a nice big Fractal but doubling +1/+1 counters each attack is just downright nasty in builds that care. It's just two mana to equip making it a deal. What do you think about this duo?

Honorable Mention #3. Sly Instigator

I love goading in Commander and multiplayer! It screws up defenses, it forces the game to resolve, and it comes down in your favor. Getting a reusable form of goading is awesome! I love that it also makes this unblockable so one of your foes will be punched. I can't wait to use this on a Commander that's big to encourage (or force) a Commander kill. I love it a lot. The problem is that it's an easy to answer creature which drops it here on my list. Make it an artifact that taps? Or an Aura? Then it'd would have been higher in my countdown.

10. Inkshield

Have you seen this fun instant? It's an awesome Fog variant in Orzhov colors where Holy Day and Darkness were moved in the expansion Legends from Fog in the first set. You prevent all combat damage to yourself - note that damage to your creatures is not prevented. Then you take that damage, and you turn it into game winning 2/1 flyers for each damage prevented this way. Fog into win-con! It's pretty saucy and I really like it. I have used it in a deck around Killian, Ink Duelist - which you can check out here.

9. Guardian Augmenter

Our highest-scoring Mono-Green card is this Troll Wizard! Forget about that ward thing! Your Commanders? They have hexproof! This also includes planewalkers Commanders like Rowan Kenrith and Will Kenrith. Pretty good. And then your dorks will get a nice +2/+2 boost to their power and toughness respectively. But did you miss it? This has flash! I know! You can cast this in response to targeted removal to your Commander (very common) you then counter the effect by making your dear leader hexproof which will counter said targeted removal. You can also cast this as an instant as a combat trick to kill something that attacked you or that blocked your attack or to save your leader from combat damage. This card has three dials that work really nicely together.

8. Monologue Tax

This is no Smothering Tithe, but it's not trying to be. Folks at Commander nights cast a lot of spells and they aren't going to stop casting their stuff to keep you from netting a Treasure token on their second spell, so in a four-player game this is likely to trigger once or twice each go around the table. That's a pretty reliable amount of ramp. This is cheaper than Tithe and doesn't have an escape valve where people can spend to keep you from Treasuring up either, this is a must. But despite that Smothering Tithe is a better class of card as folks aren't usually wanting to spend two mana to keep you from getting one temporary mana. They prefer to keep it in house. Don't sleep on it!

7. Osgir, the Reconstructor

The first of two artifact heavy cards in a row, the penultimate scoring White card, the penultimate scoring Red card, the penultimate Commander 2021 deck leader, and arguably the most popular Commander in either set with 1194 decks built around him already over at EDHREC.com and growing. As of today, Osgir is the... third most-popular Boros leader ever and #2, Winota, Joiner of Forces, is at 1305 and in range of Osgir after just a few weeks. After that only Feather, the Redeemed is running ahead. I built a Commander deck and did a deep dive into Osgir for you already - you can check out the article here. Enjoy!

6. Digsite Engineer

White loves artifacts almost as much as Blue does! Have you seen this Dwarf Artificer? She's pretty good. In any artifact Commander deck that includes White - Azorius, Esper, Boros, and everything but Green - she's a powerful addition. As you cast those artifacts you can spend another pair of generic mana to make an X/X token where X is your artifact count. Note that they'll always be 1/1 as they'll count themselves, but they could easily be 4/4 or 6/6 in a dedicated artifact build with everything else from Sol Ring to Darksteel Citadel to Solemn Simulacrum to artifact creature tokens and tokens like Treasures and Clues. Note that this is also a cast trigger, so it'll fire off and resolve even if the Digsite Engineer is countered. This is our highest scoring White card, including gold cards and mono-colored.

Ready for the top five?

5. Marshland Bloodcaster

Wow. I wish this was a legendary so you could build around it. For five mana you net a 3/5 flyer a bit on a small power front and a tap ability for two mana that lets you cast any spell from your hand for a lot of life. That's pretty good in a 40-life format like Commander. You can cast big nasty cards in your color like In Garruk's Wake or cards like Insurrection and Expropriate. Nasty! It's not my top card because it's smaller, costs five mana, and taps so it has to last a turn or you must give it haste to use it and that requires other cards or gives sorcery speed removal or a tapped out for a chance to answer. But I really enjoy the power of this card!

4. Revival Experiment

Our third highest-scoring gold card and highest scoring instant/sorcery is this bad boy! I love it. A lot. A lot lot! Let's see why! Do you have a typical deck with a about 6-15 of each permanent type from planeswalkers like Sorin Markov and Jace, the Mind Sculptor and artifacts like Sol Ring and Commander's Sphere and enchantments like Phyrexian Arena and Sylvan Library and creatures like Solemn Simulacrum and Ravenous Chupacabra and lands like Maze of Ith and Volrath's Stronghold? Great! Then I have the card for you! Cast this and you can bring back one of each permanent type from your graveyard to the battlefield. In most Commander decks this is easily a reanimation of 3 or 4-for-1 and you likely can get the holy quintet for all five. Now you'll love it a lot!

3. Adrix and Nev, Twincasters

Our highest charting Commander Deck leader are these twins. They are here for one reason - their cheap casting cost! You can drop them early and then again and again as they head back to the Command Zone. Kidding! They are actually here for their final ability. All tokens you make? Double them. It's the token half of Doubling Season on legs that are legendary in two colors that love tokens. It's this pretty saucy, right?

2. Veyran, Voice of Duality

The Spellslinger style of deck-building is one of the most iconic in Izzet decks. According to EDHREC.com there are 4983 Spellslinger archetypes and this is the 14th most-popular archetype of all. The most common Izzet Spellslinger Commander includes a number of dorks without a true winner. This spell archetype has a big footprint casually. It features many spells like Lightning Bolt and Ponder and many triggers like Guttersnipe and Young Pyromancer. It's pretty nifty. Is Veyran the best Spellslinger option? Let's look. As you can see, they have a trigger for casting and copying spells but it's just a pump of +1/+1 which won't be enough to kill. But if your casting triggers something off a permanent then it will trigger again! You win with your triggers. Two Guttersnipes! Two Talrand, Sky Summoners! It's pretty strong, right? Right!

1. Cunning Rhetoric

Let's finish things off with this three-mana enchantment. Look at this great card. Actually, look at Koskun Falls as well. Did you know that the first taxing effect like Ghostly Prison or Propaganda was in Black? It sure was! But it moved out quickly. Now look at a different take on the taxing effect you'll see elsewhere. Did a mean ol' foe attack you or a friend? Sad! Now you can cast the top spell of their library and use your mana for it even if it's off-color. Will they want to risk giving you card advantage which feels worse than just some taxing of mana. Love this enchantment. Welcome back to Black, baby.

And there's my list! So, what did you think about it? Did I miss anything? Just let me know!