At the game's beginning, we had Samite Healer.

Oh, how far we've come.

With roots in classic fantasy, it's no surprise Magic would feature the Class cleric, a staple of many a Dungeons and Dragons party. Someone's gotta heal those wounds. In the realm of cardboard, clerics worked along similar lines, preventing damage or gaining life. As the game evolved, so too have the applications. We now have clerics versed in the demonic arts (Shadowborn Apostle), banking systems (Orzhov Pontiff), vampiric conquest (Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose), and the fine art of combat (Blade Historian). They're also plenty proficient at fighting the undead (Undead Slayer), despite the fact that some of them are undead (Pontiff of Blight). I imagine that makes for awkward annual meetings.

Clerics may not have the popularity of Elves or Goblins, but they're still one of Magic's most prominent creature types at nearly six hundred strong. That's a lot of options for Commander, so today will zoom in on five MVP's. These are the lucky few who get a fancy plaque at the aforementioned annual meeting. The ones whose power level stands mighty even in the power-crept age of 2024. But before we start our rankings, let's break down some typal mainstays you those looking to build a Cleric Commander deck.

Cleric Staples for Commander

Edgewalker: Every Commander deck needs ramp, and Edgewalker offers a seldom-seen variety, especially in Orzhov. Most cost-reduction effects reduce only colorless mana, but this cloaked figure focuses on the white and black costs, making popular generals like Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim and Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim free to cast.

Starlit Sanctum: Clerics excel at Aristocrat strategies, which look to sacrifice creatures for profit. Starlit Sanctum provides two versions of effect without even eating up a spell slot. Clerics already have multiple payoffs for gaining life (Cleric Class, Righteous Valkyrie), synergizing with the first mode. Once you're able to grow a big enough Voice of the Blessed or Doubtless One, the second mode acts as a finisher.

Rotlung Reanimator: Aristocrat engines want as many creatures as possible to use as fuel. Creatures that can replace themselves are highly valued. Rotlung Reanimator applies that concept to the whole team, ensuring each cleric provides a free zombie on their way out. Mass-removal also looks a lot less appealing to an opponent when an undead army might be headed their way once the dust settles.

Weathered Wayfarer: An efficient 1-drop that smooths out mana issues, Weathered Wayfarer not only keeps your land drops consistent, but can find any land. Not just basics. You might just miss land drops on purpose so you can fetch up useful tools like Bojuka Bog. Need more Swamps to get the most out of your Cabal Coffers? Search for Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. He can even activate his ability at Instant-speed, tutoring up Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire if an attacker charges your way.

Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose: Clerics excel at life gain, and once Vito shows up, they'll excel at life loss, too. Even without a large board presence, Vito can still be a nightmare, doubling up the lethality of already dangerous cards like Exsanguinate and Debt to the Deathless. And if you do have a large army, the extra spell won't even be necessary. Granting mass-Lifelink to the team effectively turns them all into vampires, draining enemy life totals as yours rises.

Mother of Runes: A classic, Mother or Runes shields your creatures (herself, included) from spot removal, makes for invincible blockers, and helps sneak in an attackers. The newer Giver of Runes may not be able to protect herself, but her ability now extends to colorless sources, ensuring artifacts and Eldrazi don't ruin your day. Both may be big targets for removal, but as 1-drops, you really can't ask for more.

Orah, Skyclave Hierophant: There are plenty of popular Cleric commanders for life gain and Aristocrat strategies, but if you're specifically in the market for a cleric typal deck, Orah, Skyclave Hierophant is currently the most popular, according to EDHREC. It's not hard to see why, as not only does his recursive ability make your army more resilient, but also gets way more mileage out of sacrifice effects (Priest of Forgotten Gods, Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, etc.). Couple that with the ample recursion spells Orzhov already wields, and none of your clerics are likely to stay dead for long.

With that covered, onto the list!

The Top 5 Clerics in Commander

Number 5 - Academy Rector and Arena Rector: Tutor-effects are incredibly powerful in Commander. There's a reason Demon Tutor is so sought after. The ability to fetch up the best card for a given situation, be it offensive or defensive, turns your deck into a veritable spellbook of options. Academy Rector and Arena Rector allow you to search for only one type of permanent, but make up for it in spades by putting the permanent directly into play. No casting cost required. They're already fantastic 'blockers', as no opponent would dare send an attacker your way with a Rector in play. Even better, Clerics tend to have plenty of sacrifice-outlets to ensure combat isn't even necessary.

For four mana and a sacrifice outlet, Academy Rector and Arena Rector carry some scary-expensive cards into play. Want to win via combat? Tutor up Legion Loyalty, Eldrazi Conscription, or City on Fire. If control is more your thing, go for Overwhelming Splendor, Decree of Silence, Omniscience, or One with the Multiverse. But even big mana costs aside, let's not forget some of the biggest staples - Smothering Tithe, Rhystic Study, Sylvan Library - are all enchantments. Switching over to Planeswalkers, we could consult the Elder Dragon duo Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. Or fire up the hunt with Garruk, Apex Predator and Nissa, Ascended Animist. If you're feeling really ambitious, Karn, Liberated might even restart the game!

As future sets are printed, even more big, splashy options will become available for the Rectors to tutor for.

Number 4 - Soul Warden (Plus Soul's Attendant and Essence Warden): On its own, life gain is fine, but not game winning. Especially when it only arrives in 1-point increments, right? When it comes to Soul Warden and her sisters, those repeated instances enable synergies that quickly scale out of control. For this entry, we're giving the nod to Soul Warden, as she was the original, but a slew of new clerical recruits keep getting printed with extra bonuses like recursion (Lunarch Veteran), Protection (Auriok Champion), Energy (Guide of Souls, stat boosts (Cleric of Life's Blood, and even life loss (Suture Priest, Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim). Most of these only trigger off our own troops, but Soul Warden also sees opposing creatures, not only gaining us more life, but pouring more fuel into the engine she helps assemble.

With Darien, King of Kjeldor at the helm, any damage taken will immediately be paid back with an equivalent number of 1/1 tokens, which Soul Warden then pays back for in life. That'll keep us plenty safe, but if we want to vanquish opponents, look to drain-effects like Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose, Dina, Soul Steeper, and Sanguine Bond. While Clerics aren't typically renowned for brute strength, plenty of +1/+1 counters are had when running Trelasarra, Moon Dancer, Karlov of the Ghost Council, or Heliod, Sun-Crowned. Look deeper into the '99, and you'll find many other threats-in-the-making like Nykthos Paragon, Voice of the Blessed, Cleric Class, Ajani's Pridemate, Bloodthirsty Aerialist, and Archangel of Thune.

Quite the resume for a humble 1/1.

Number 3 - Vizier of Remedies: True to her occupation, this card is all about protecting your creatures from harm. But it's her unique form of medicine that makes Vizier of Remedies stand out. Most creature-saving clerics do so via preventing damage or granting Protection, but this card blocks out -1/-1 counters. A niche defense against opponents, but when applied to our own strategy, the door to a hundred combos opens up. The Vizier will just as happily remove -1/-1 counters we've placed onto our own creatures as she would those given out by opponents.

Want to erase all cards out of enemy hands? Simply pair Vizier of Remedies with Cinderhaze Witch. Each time you untap the Witch via it's -1/-1 counter activation cost, the Vizier will remove the counter, letting you rinse and repeat until everyone's hand is discarded. Feel like never taking damage again? Introduce the Vizier to Barrenton Medic, who'll extend his healing powers to both you and your entire army. Or simply generate infinite mana off Devoted Druid.

Speaking of infinite mana, we can also pair Vizier of Remedies with a sacrifice outlet and any creature with Persist (Ex. Lesser Masticore) to continually loop the creature back and forth from the graveyard. Because the -1/-1 counter never sticks, our Persist creature will keep coming back each time it's sacrificed, enabling everything from infinite mana (Ashnod's Altar), death triggers (Bastion of Remembrance), life gain (Kitchen Finks), card draw (River Kelpie), mill (Altar of Dementia, or +1/+1 counters (Blade of the Bloodchief, Carrion Feeder) to run away with the game.

Vizier of Remedies may not look threatening, but make no mistake: If you see her on the other side of the table, some form of infinite-shenanigans are about to ensue.

Number 2 - Yawgmoth, Thran Physician: If there were ever a doctor who never heard of the Hippocratic Oath, it's this guy. Long before the Praetors or Mirrodin, Yawgmoth ruled Old Phyrexia, the plane responsible for the original Dominaria invasion. This hellscape architect performed virulent experiments on countless civilizations before going the route of demigod, equal parts maniacal and mechanical. There are literal novels devoted to this guy and his twisted hunger for power.

The Father of Machines, indeed.

As a card, Yawgmoth is just as nefarious, spreading infectious influence as creatures die and cards are drawn at their expense. He's everything one could ask for in an AristocratsCommander: Sacrifice Outlet, Card Advantage, and a way to kill opposing threats. Pair Yawg up with any form of repeatable token generation (Nest of Scarabs, Great Unclean One, Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder), and you'll be able to sacrifice them all for card draw at no mana cost. You'll also hand out -1/-1 counters, easily Proliferated via Yawgmoth's second ability. Deploy two creatures with the Undying mechanic (Butcher Ghoul, Hancock, Ghoulish Mayor, etc.), and you can set up a loop similar to that of Vizier of Remedies. By adding a -1/-1 counter onto an Undying creature after it's returned to play, you'll remove the +1/+1 counter Undying gives them, allowing you to sacrifice them for value all over again. Add a second Undying creature (or give it to everyone via Mikaeus, the Unhallowed), and the process turns into a chain reaction.

Then all you'll need is a damage engine (Syr Konrad, the Grim) or board control (Grave Pact) to take over the game. Any life spent to pay for Yawgmoth's ability is easily recouped by a myriad of life drain effects that already synergize with your deck (Zulaport Cutthroat, Vindictive Vampire, Blood Artist, etc.), and the cards you'll be drawing along the way further fuel your already mana-free engine.

In thematic fashion, it only takes a few resources for Yawgmoth's influence to grow into a world- (or game-) ending threat.

Number 1 - Tymna the Weaver + Anyone with Partner: If you removed the Partner ability from Tymna the Weaver, she'd still be an excellent Commander. Card advantage is king, and Orzhov has multiple ways to make copious and/or evasive creatures to ensure you'll draw multiple cards with each attack. The bites of life loss almost negligible, as not only does this color combo have tons of ways to recoup lost life, but Tymna herself has Lifelink, negating most if not all of the life lost from her ability. This is all great stuff on its own, especially on a three-mana general.

And then we get to add a whole other Commander.

There's a reason Tymna the Weaver is so dang popular in cEDH. The Partner mechanic opens up an entire world of deckbuilding possibilities, giving Tymna access to the entire color pie. What's more, many Partner commanders directly synergize with her card-drawing ability. Tymna's desire to spread out damage works well with Tana, the Bloodsower, who'll generate an army of Saprolings to ensure all opponents are hit. Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix rewards us with more mana for drawing all those extra cards. Or we could simply duplicate Tymna via Sakashima of a Thousand Faces, doubling the draws. Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa grants our attackers, who'll often come in the form of smaller tokens, evasion to push through combat damage. Or we could further increase our card draw by introducing Tymna to Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist, who'll also incentivize opponents to attack each other.

The combination of card draw and incredible deck building flexibility earn Tymna the Weaver the top spot on our list. You can bet we'll see new legendary creatures with the Partner ability in the future, so who knows what crazy Tymna decks lie just over the horizon?

I hope today's adventures into maces and healing potions has given you some brewing ideas for your next Commander deck! Whether you're smiting evil with a holy warhammer or joining the dark side to summon a lich, clerics will likely be involved. And these are some of the best the format has to offer.

Thanks for reading, and may your party always contain an experienced healer!

-Matthew Lotti-

@Intrepid_tautog