What Are All the 4-Color Commanders in MTG? And What Decks Can You Build?

Last updated on July 16, 2024

Omnath, Locus of Creation | Illustrated by Chris Rahn

I love, love, love Commander. It’s what got me into Magic and keeps me interested in Magic. It’s also one of the most sustained and popular formats over the last several years, so being able to add the 4-color chapter to our growing catalog is awesome.

If this is your first time reading about Commander, (or EDH as my old-school heart likes to call it) there are a couple of things that are good to know, so let’s list them real quick. Commander is played with:

• 100 cards, with only one copy of each card except basic lands;
• Your commander is at the helm in the form of a legendary creature or a few designated planeswalkers;
• Your commander’s color identity determines what color cards you can add to your deck;
• The format supports all cards that are legal in MTG with a few exceptions in the form of banned cards.

Without further ado, let’s jump into the quad-color commanders that are out there for you to tinker around with!

4-Color Commanders, Why So Hard?

Saskia the Unyielding | Illustration by Greg Opalinski

I’m sure you can imagine that creating new cards for MTG is no easy task. Creating multi-colored cards, dubbed “gold cards” because of the gold rim, is a whole other thing altogether. Putting different colors together means that they have to find a synergy between them, while it’s important to set mono-colored cards apart from one another. This is why it’s hard to make 2- and 3-colored cards work and feel well-balanced. Then there’s quad-color.

There’s a reason why there were only five creatures in the whole of MTG that had four colors, at least up until Commander 2016. Those OG quad-color creatures are the Nephilim and they were part of the original Ravnica block set, Guildpact.

Creating something with a 4-color identity can quickly lead to something that can feel “very soup-y,” as Mark Rosewater calls it. There’s a real challenge in creating a card that’s distinct and recognizable and costs four colors. Hence why there had only been the Nephilim cycle for so long.

The 4-Color Commanders

But in 2016, that changed. The Commander product of that year would feature something fans had been asking for a long time: not one but five 4-color commanders would hit the scene. With the return to Zendikar (again), an already-famous legendary would join their ranks. Wizards of the Coast seems content with rarely adding to this pool, even if it takes a Universes Beyond product.

If you don’t already know them, feast your eyes on these beauties:

Implications and Deck Design

Mark Rosewater has said on numerous occasions that “limitations push creative design.” You can imagine that with both 4- and 5-color commanders this becomes a problem because there are barely any limitations. This makes it very difficult to pick a direction for your deck.

In my experience, just throwing a bunch of color-fitting cards into a 100-card pile is far from making a fun or meaningful deck. Quite the opposite, in fact. It makes you not want to pick up the deck because you don’t have a connection with it and it just feels random and, yes, soup-y. Planning what you want your deck to do is important.

That’s why I suggest you come up with a plan when picking your quad-color commander and stick to it. I’ve got a couple of tips on what you can do to put yourself on a creative path for your deck.

These tips are what I use when creating a new deck. It’s a great way to get your creative juices flowing and give you a start to an awesome 4-color deck. You can boost it even further by combining a couple of tips to really push yourself and your deck to new heights.

Play to Their Strengths

Look at what your commander does, and what they’re good at, and play to their strengths. For instance, Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder has cascade, so making that your theme pays attention to each mana value puts you on a great path to an awesome deck that’s fun to play.

Weave Around a Combo

Take Goblin Charbelcher as an example. This has long been a cool combo in Legacy and Vintage. While it doesn’t have to be as cut-throat as those decks, it still gives you a great path to follow to a really fun deck.

Build with an Off-Color Theme

Artifacts are historically linked to blue on the color wheel, so why not push yourself and pick Saskia the Unyielding for your artifact deck instead? Bonus points if you include Stuffy Doll and incorporate both the commander’s strengths and flavor too.

Quad-Color Tribal

Tribal decks are always great and often lead to crazy games. They put you on a clear path of what you can do. Wizards, humans, soldiers, spirits, and elementals are supported by all colors, for instance (hint hint).

Roll with a Playstyle

Think of things like the lands deck in Legacy, or dredge in Vintage, and incorporate that into your deck. These playstyles are different than the strategies that you usually see, so building a deck with a color combo you don’t see very often could really add some flavor to your games. Dibs on Omnath, Locus of Creation.

Build Around Lore

For example, Atraxa, Praetors' Voice was built by the Phyrexian Praetors’ in those colors. It's their voice. Create a deck that emphasizes the Phyrexian mission and go ham.

Media-Flavored Themes

Love World of Warcraft? Dig Family Guy? Into Lord of the Rings? Pick the best quad-color that represents your favorite movie, show, or game and use them as your building blocks.

Non-Specific Themes (Let Me Explain)

Use something other than the physical cards and go deeper. What’s your favorite MTG artist? How many hats are in MTG cards? How much MTG art is there depicting left-handed people? Try an all-ladies art deck or a one-eye-only art deck. Only brown, old, white, or new bordered cards. You see where I’m going with this.

The fun part is how long it’ll take for your opponent to figure out what you’re doing. Bonus points if the lands are included in your theme, too. Having all but one color in your commander enables you to make use of a theme like this wonderfully.

Are Quads the Best Commanders?

The “best” is a word I feel doesn’t fit well in Commander, because it’s not the goal of the format. The goal is to have fun with your deck and your friends. There are definitely great options for certain themes and go-to cards that can go in any of your EDH decks, but the question I try to ask myself along the way is: “Is it fun?” I’ll give you an example.

I don’t like to play counters in EDH because just saying “no” to my opponent’s card isn’t fun to me. There are better ways to hold them off in my opinion. But I have a Nebuchadnezzar deck based on The Matrix with Force of Will, Cryptic Command, and Force of Negation. I’ll tell you why I broke my own code for these cards:

Force of Will

When Morpheus is captured by Agent Smith, he’s bound to a chair and given truth serum to betray the code to Zion. It takes him extreme force of will to resist answering.

Cryptic Command

Neo wakes up in front of his computer to find the text “Wake up, Neo” typed on his computer screen. It continues to talk to him and ends with “Follow the white Rabbit” before foretelling the knock on his door. A cryptic command.

Force of Negation

At the end of the movie, Neo finds himself being “The One.” He realizes this right before he gets shot at by Agents Smith, Brown, and Jones. He says “No” before stopping the bullets with his new force. A force that negates the bullets.

Fun and Flavor

It’s for the amazing fun and flavor’s sake that these cards fit the deck perfectly and why I broke my own rule to put them in. When they’re in my hand my plan is always to counter trivial stuff because the point isn’t the counter itself, but to start a cool conversation with my friends and have fun with it.

That’s why is it important to ask yourself things like “Is it fun?” “Does it fit the theme?” and “Does it fit the Commander?” These are questions you should keep in mind when creating your deck and are also the reason why the “best” isn’t applicable to these 4-color commanders or any other card in EDH.

So, no, these aren’t the best commanders. But are they fun and should you give them a go? Hell yeah!

The Community’s Reaction

Well, I did mention that this is something the community had been asking for a long time. It’s no surprise that the 4-color commanders were met with a lot of cheers and hoots. Finally, there were legendary quad-color creatures that could be used for Commander!

If you’ve been playing long enough, I’m sure you’ve used one of the Nephilim to build an EDH deck. And if you’re a bit like me, it always felt wrong because they’re not legendary. Mark Rosewater himself has said they should’ve been in hindsight. Now that there are more choices for everyone to pick from, it’s no surprise the community has welcomed them with open arms.

I hope Wizards of the Coast will make the effort to create more cards for the various color combos. I’m even going so far as to hope for quad-color planeswalkers that could helm a Commander deck.

Don't Forget About Partner Commanders

I should also mention that you don't need to pick a 4-color commander to build a 4-color deck. You can also mix and match partner commanders to fill out the colors of your choice. For example, if you don't want Atraxa, Praetors' Voice as your commander, but you want a Commander deck with its colors, you can run Thrasios, Triton Hero and Tymna the Weaver as your commanders instead.

Which 4-Color Commander is The Best?

Let’s put the 4-color commander up against each other and see who’s the best, shall we? I don’t believe there’s a “best” for Commander, but there are definitely differences in power level between the “quadmasters.”

Pure Power: Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice

There’s a reason why Atraxa is the most expensive out of the bunch. Magic's best proliferate commander is just plain powerful. Its keywords alone make it insane and proliferate puts it way over the top. It takes the best emblem in terms of power level.

Super Synergy: Omnath, Locus of Creation

When looking at Omnath, you just get inspired to throw as many lands onto the battlefield as possible each turn you get. The colors are perfect for it and the challenge of always being able to trigger all of Omnath’s abilities is a fun one to try to complete without being absolutely oppressive. It’s a great piece of design and this is definitely one of the best terms of synergy.

Artifact Lover: Breya, Etherium Shaper

Breya and artifacts. New artifacts continue to be printed and they keep getting better. Mana rocks are one thing, but colorless ramp, that's something more. Looking to generate more than two artifact tokens, there are lots of options. Want to capitalize on artifacts coming into play, or need some more artifact sacrifice outlets, there is no shortage of ways to build Breya and artifacts.

Need I say more? If you ever wished for an enabler to build the ultimate artifact EDH deck, this is it.

Cascade Commander: Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder

It was hard to imagine a card that would be better than Maelstrom Wanderer to helm a cascade deck. Enter Yidris to contest the throne. An amazingly fun commander that loves chaos. What better form than cascade to fuel its fire? A terribly fun commander and probably the best of its kind.

Group Hug: Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis

Group hug decks are a thing in EDH that should be played more often. They’re just fun to play. It’s cool to see everybody cast giant spells and create completely obscene board states. If this is your jam, then definitely pick up Kynaios and Tiro to helm your deck.

Next level unlocked if you incorporate a strong Zedruu the Greathearted theme. Your greedy friends should love that, right? Whether this is the best group hug commander is to be contested but there’s always room for more hugs, so bring it on.

Unconventional Stomper: Saskia the Unyielding

Saskia is the perfect commander to do something unconventional if you ask me. Its ability is very obvious. Just stomp hard and win quickly. But that makes me want to go a different route, hence my earlier suggestion of creating a weird artifact amalgamation.

I’m sure there are other ways to do completely different things that kind of take Saskia out of the obvious. This is what makes this card and others like it fun to play around with. Of course, if you’re someone who likes stomping hard, then it’s perfect for that, too.

4-Color Decklists

Let’s go over some decklists of what you can do with your quadmander.

Yidris Cascade Mill

I’m kicking things off with a list from my brother who’s got a crazy Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder deck that tries to mill everybody out through cascade triggers. It’s a fun deck both to play and play against. Check it out:

Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis Group Hug

The next decklist is a fun little group hug deck using Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis that has only one win condition. Bonus points when you’ve found it. The deck is all about helping everybody at the table play their spells and draw more cards and creating crazy board states. Here it is:

Omnath Landfall

When you see Omnath, Locus of Creation, you almost have no other choice but to go for a landfall theme and go Omnath-activation crazy. That’s what I found for you here:

Breya Big Artifacts

There’s a time and place to go big or go home, and this Breya, Etherium Shaper list is just that. It’s on the high-end of what a deck costs, but the great thing about investing in these artifacts is that you can stick them in your other EDH decks and get more use out of them. Check this one out and enjoy:

Saskia Angel Tribal

This Saskia the Unyielding deck is something that I like a lot: angel tribal. It’s doing something different than what the commander is usually up to which is a fun surprise for the friends you’re playing with. This makes it feel new every time you pick it up. Here it is:

Atraxa Legendary Superfriends

Even though it’s very tempting to go the Praetor route with Atraxa, Praetors' Voice, I’ve found you something different to sink your teeth into. This deck is a hybrid of superfriends and legendary friends with plenty of spice. Enjoy:

Riding the Quad into the Sunset

Breya, Etherium Shaper | Illustration by Clint Cearley

There you have it, all the wonderful 4-color commanders, complete with tips for how to tackle them and decklists to boot. I had a blast writing this for you and I hope you had as much fun reading. My hope is you take a cool nugget away not only for these commanders but for all your EDH decks. Have fun building and playing with your friends! Comment with the direction you take with a 4-color commander.

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That’s plenty for today. Now grab a glass of water and read the next one!