10 Best New Normal Commanders in MTG

Mystical, supernatural, and with powers that humans have always revered, birds are also creatures that make up Commander decks. Magic: The Gathering. They may not be as strong as dragons, nor as powerful as the Eldrazi, but there are certainly plenty of birds in Magic and there is strength in numbers.

The way to win with birds is not simply to play more birds. Like the flight keyword itself, getting the most out of these winged creatures requires strategy and cunning. It also takes the right commander to make these birds soar. Read on for the top 10 commanders for Bird type decks.

On November 29, 2924, Ryan Hay wrote: We've updated this guide to improve readability and ensure the accuracy of all information.

13 Gwaihir, Lord of the Winds

lord of eagles

We start with one of the coolest legendary birds ever to appear in Magic. Gwaihir, the Windlord may not be very powerful, but this noble bird provides a very useful bonus to the new armies your Commander deck will produce. Vigilance is a very powerful keyword in Commander that gives you sides of the board, and 4/4 flying vehicles are nothing.

The only trick is to play Gwaihir at a discount by drawing more than one card per turn. Luckily, if you have blue in the mix, drawing multiple cards is easy (brainstorming comes to mind). Blue and white are also the main colors of the bird, and cards like Empyrean Eagle, Watcher of the Spheres, and Soulcatcher's Aerie are available.

12 Sky Watcher Kanji

watch the sky

Is Gwaihir too expensive for you? Don't want to play around with drawing cards to make it cheaper? Then there's Kangee, the Sky Warden, who provides a slightly smaller flying vehicle with vigilance along with some fantastic buffs for your new army. All attacking flying creatures get +2/+0, and all blocking flying creatures get +0/+2.

Timing is everything at Kangee. When it's time to strike, you'll want to play this new wizard to give your army a major boost. It will be helpful to keep a lookout for your flying forces, so if Kangee is your commander, consider putting Gwaihir on the main deck.

11 Radagast, Wizard of the Wild

Radagast the Brown

Radagast loves two things: beasts and birds. Both will have Ward 1 whenever Radagast is around, but we'll focus on Radagast, Wizard of Wilds' new amplification ability.

Radagast offers a somewhat different flavor of bird-themed commander. Without white you lose any bird or flying related buffs, but with green you can replace them with other buffs that don't really care about creature type. To get as many 2/2 bird tokens as possible, you should focus on ramps to cast spells with a mana value of 5 or more.

10 Rising wind, Akim

The birds got hit twice.

There are several ways to create many new tokens. Migratory Route, Emeria Angel, and Battle Screech all come to mind. But Akim doesn't really care what kind of token you create. As long as you create tokens, Akim will continue to create 1/1 white birds. This applies a double strike to all tokens. Win-win with this new dinosaur!

With Akim, you'll focus on creating new tokens and then buffing those tokens enough to have an unstoppable double strike army. Access to red also gives you some interesting options for direct damage.

9 Toymaker Tawnos

Even mechanical birds fly

Yes, Tawnos is technically creating an artifact, but the copies he creates are still birds in addition to being artifacts, so they're still within the theme of the new deck. Whatever buffs you want for your birds will buff your army of mechanical flight tokens.

Tawnos changes his new strategy once again, taking on an artifact-centric flavor. With so many artifacts in play, you can try affinity strategies like Broodstar or harvest toys more directly through something like Combine Chrysalis. Or you could just keep the toy as is and buff it with something like the Vanquisher's Banner.

8 Essior, Wordwing Familiar

Couldn't find a better partner

Thanks to the Partner keyword, Esior is a potential commander suitable for a variety of strategies. No matter who Esior partners with, the mana cost of all spells that target the Commander is increased by 3, giving the Commander some protection.

Oh, and by the way, who will partner with Esior? The obvious choice is Ojutai Dragonspeaker Ishai. But we'll talk more about Yishai later. Jamuraa's Sidar Kondo makes a great combination as he makes the new army difficult to block. Siani, Eye of the Storm is also a good choice, but only blue birds are available. Radiant, Serra Archangel or Ravos, Soultender are good for graveyard recursion. Esior has a variety of options.

7 Gwaihir, the greatest of the eagles

lord of the winds

This massive Bird Noble may seem a bit redundant in Bird decks, but it has some neat versatility that other Bird commanders may lack. Whenever Gwaihir attacks, you can make another attacking creature fly for that turn. If you're in a Bird Kindred deck, you probably won't need this, but it can be helpful for the occasional non-flying creature to take some damage.

If you gain 3 or more life at the start of each turn, Gwaihir creates a new 3/3 creature token. This triggers on each end phase, not just on your own phase, so with the right setup, you can generate three more new tokens before Gwaihir's next turn when he goes out.

6 Ojutai Dragonspeaker Ishai

get that counter

Ishai will be a great partner for Esior, but you can also consider other partners who will make Esior happy. To be honest, you can pair whoever you want with Ishai, as this new monk works well on its own.

In a multiplayer format like Commander, people will cast a lot of spells and all of this will make Yi'shai bigger. Eventually, you'll have a giant flying bird that can take out your opponents with a single swipe of its giant claws. Depending on who Ishai decides to partner with, he can also utilize the +1/+1 counter in more subtle ways.

5 Bird of Prey Keeper Kanji

true lord

Kangee is back. Making his second appearance on this list, he's a great addition to your new army. When he comes into play, pay 2 regular and then pay X. X is the number of feather counters that Kangee comes into play with. Every bird (including Kangee) gets +1/+1 for each feather counter Kangee has.

This Kangee can potentially turn your 1/1 bird squadron into a flying army of destruction. The key here is to have enough mana to cast Kangee at a premium. Decks with Kangee, Aerie Keeper should focus on ramps by playing a lot of mana stones and lands and other ways to generate mana.

4 Castral, Windcrest

birds of a feather

A combat-oriented Bird commander suited to the current era of Magic, Kastral, Windcrested may be a bit more expensive to play than other Bird commanders, but it has some powerful combat tricks to justify it. Whenever one or more birds deal combat damage to a player, they can choose one of the following:

• Take a bird from your hand or graveyard and place it on the battlefield with a final counter.
• Put a +1/+1 counter on each bird you control.
• Draw a card.

Even if you're only swinging at one 1/1 bird each turn, you'll still be generating value each turn through board presence or card draw. Since it's blue and white, it also gives you access to some of the control pieces, giving you the freedom to play however you want.

3 Falco Spara, Fact Weaver

blocked for a few days

Falco is a bird, and it's hard to deal with thanks to its shield counter, and also removing counters from creatures you control lets you look at the top card of your library and cast spells from there. None of this specifically helps birds, but considering all the other benefits Falco provides, who cares?

Falco also brings another very useful ability to new decks. Access to blue, white, and green mana. All of Bant's colors are on the table, so you have access to all the best birds and all the best spells that help them, and these spells will also help Falco. And if you're clever, you can even throw in a subtheme of the token to give Falco something to eat, so he can cast spells from the top of his library.

2 Derebi, Imperial Tactician

combo machine

Derevi has probably been the Magic's best bird for over a decade. Being able to tap and untap any permanent you want for a very low threshold is very powerful, but what's even better is the fact that Derevi doesn't cost more than 4 converted mana to cast thanks to his ability.

With an army of birds at his side, Derevi can shut down a Commander game entirely or untap lands, turning the birds into a potential mana source. With green, blue, and white spells at his disposal, Derevi offers incredible versatility and great power all in one new package. If you want to build a deck that's all about birds, be sure to consider Derevi first.

1 Voice of the Valley Genius

Two Birds for Two Mana

Bird Bards in these three colors come in early and quickly turn the game in your favor. Valley's Voice Zinnia starts small with a 1/3 stat line, but you can quickly watch it grow with the low-power creatures you play. For every creature with base power 1, Zinnia gets +1/+0. Even if you boost the creature's power with a chant effect, its base power doesn't change, so Zinnia continues to grow.

The main reason you'll play Zinnia is because of her secondary ability. This gives every creature 2 mana, and you can make a 1/1 token copy for just 2 more mana. Combine this with a few token activation tools and you can pump out tons of birds in no time.