Top Five Favorite Commander Cards

[Amon Amarth]

These are the cards you love to cast. I've limited it to 5 because, well, I have way more than five reasons to play Commander! In no particular order...

1. Shards Tri-Lands (Jungle Shrine and Friends): I really like how "special" these lands feel and they are excellent (and cheap!) mana fixing. It's my favorite first turn play in my 3 color decks. Not much to say about these.

2. Austere Command: The best sweeper in the format. Every time I've cast Austere Command it has been a blowout. There's almost always a mode that makes it a 6 mana Plague Wind. Super powerful, flexible and it has a picture of an urn on the card. Awesome.

3. Promise of Power: The epitome of a Commander card: expensive, powerful, and splashy. Half the time I cast it to draw 5 to reload but Entwining it is not a rare occurrence. It's a great spell to cast during a war of attrition and a giant Demon helps stabilize your board. Plus it has really cool flavor: giving up life for infernal rewards. That dude is getting high off demonic energy!

4. Wild Research: Tabletop tutors are always awesome, if you can make them work. Wild Research requires quite a bit of effort to break compared to Survival of the Fittest but it's definitely worth it. The randomness is something that's fun and I'm always on edge when discarding. Is it going to be a land or the Spell Crumple I tutored for? I like having access to all my pacifism effects and countermagic in Zedruu. It's always fun to try to break crap rares.

5. Terastodon: I remember when Call of the Herd was a 20 dollar card and this is like... a herd of Call of the Herd tokens! I like blowing up my own extraneous lands and making a pack of pachyderms or occasionally blowing up someone's combo piece and giving them Dumbo as consolation. Seriously, who could be mad at a cute elephant? No one, except cruel, heartless, combo players. :D

Honorable mention goes to sriracha sauce because it is delicious.

[menace13]

Hard to nail it down to just 5. Beside The obvious Necro, Sol Ring/Mana Crypt, Mind Twist, Mana Drain, and Tutors. Also a lot of the French Banlist; Tabernacle, Back to Basics, Intuition, Crucible/Strip Mine, Bitterblossom are all amazing.

The 5 I would go for that could make a case for banning-small case- and are fun to cast ;P

1. Bribery is like a mix between Tinker and a Chord of Calling set to 20 mana.

2. Caged Sun/Mana Reflection, Mirari's Wake. I just went from turn 6 to turn 12 with this when I untap. Not really ban worthy though.

3. Sundering Titan. Wait.... You mean the opponent gets rid of it and loses more lands for doing so?

4. Primeval Titan 2 full turns of ramp for just entering play and if it untaps and triggers again the game is probably over shortly.

5. Hallowed Burial- tucking away a general and an entire board in one play is very good. Another card not ban worthy.

[apistat_commander]

My top 5, in no particular order, are as follows:

Praetor's Grasp - If you know your opponent's decks, this is often just Grim Tutor. I can always something useful to get with it, even if it is just Yawgwill or Mana Crypt. I prefer it to Bribery or Acquire because I would much rather take your Mana Drain to use against you than to grab a dork.

Mana Crypt - I know it is a fairly obvious choice, but I get so much joy out of playing such an unfair card. I think it represents some of the most awesome facets of early game design: unpredictability, raw power, and a complete disregard for balance.

Sylvan Library - Taking 8 a turn to get extra cards is one of the great joys of playing EDH. Having 40 life means that you can just blow through as much as you want every turn without really caring what it means. Honorable mention goes to Necrologia, Necropotence, and Ad Nauseam.

Fact or Fiction - FoF is a card that is just not good enough for Legacy anymore, and it is a shame. Flipping over a pile of 5 that has no good choices is both fun and skill-testing for your opponent. Plus it has pretty big nostalgia value for me as well. I like it because it is both good enough to be worth playing yet also interesting when you resolve it.

Muddle the Mixture - Another card that is just on the edge of being good enough for Legacy. Long games plus a wealth of great 2 CMC cards make Muddle awesome to see in the early and late game.

[Koby]

My favorites:

1. Cabal Coffers - Let's be real, no matter which mono-black general you select, Cabal Coffers is really your general. He's the man in charge and makes you win games. I used to run a The One-eyed to do some heinous things before I got bored wrathing everyone every turn. Still the best role player in mono black.

2. Warp World - Man this one is a doozy. So much fun when your deck is built to take advantage of it. Most of the blue decks don't profit from it, so it's bonus points for quashing blue. My favorite time this resolved it put Valakut into play with about 10 other mountains... ya that was fun :D

3. Rings of Brighthearth - Super-duper card advantage. Works in every deck, and helps every deck ramp with fetchlands. Also really good with some planeswalkers, and pretty much a good all around card.

4. Thawing Glaciers - ya.. it's a bit annoying to shuffle every turn, but it does so well to make sure you win the game later on. Bonus points for using it with Rings above :)

5. Amnesia - Mind Twist for blue. LOL No one expect this one.

[kombatkiwi]

Unfortunately I cant say any green card, so I guess I have to go with
Sol ring
Mana Crypt
Mana Vault
Dtop
Trinket Mage

[TheAardvark]

Leaving off my favorite card of all time, because I've written/talked about it more than is probably healthy over the past ~14 years.

1. Sylvan Library--I was always really aggressive with the card when I played it at 20 life, so playing with it at 40 is like a dream come true.

2. Cloudstone Curio--The things you can do with this are so, so dumb, even in "fair" decks.

3. Diamond Valley--The fact that it doesn't tap for mana is irrelevant. A sac outlet with no additional cost that incidentally gains you life (and sometimes significant chunks of it) is solid.

4. Moat--People really, really hate this. Like, a lot. It shuts down so much stuff, and people tend to play less enchantment removal than they should.

5. Future Sight--Card advantage in a different way than normal, letting you maintain your board presence without depleting your hand, and is easily abused. What's not to like?

[GrdiVrag]

Reassembling Skeleton - my favorite creature in the format. Great blocker, and an even better Skullclamp fodder. I often find myself tutoring for it.

Desolation Angel - Armageddon on a stick, seals the deal after a well timed wrath.

Sun Titan - awesome creature, generates massive CA and can end the game with Angelic Renewal + Blasting Station/Goblin Bombardment.

Aven Mindcesnor - fun times against tutors/ramp.

Coalition Relic - great ramp card, can put you miles ahead after a land wipe.

[Bignasty197]

1. Sun Titan. Card is nuts.
2. Tooth and Nail/Defense of the Heart. I don't need to explain.
3. Praetor's Grasp. You can just blow people out with this.
4. Replenish. I play Uril, so, yeah.
5. Mirari's Wake. You can just follow this up with a bunch of dumb stuff.

Honorable Mention:
Genesis Wave
Eternal Witness
Skullclamp
Debtor's Knell

[Offler]

I am monocolored so my choice will be bit different.

Here will mention only cards which are specifically good in EDH for some reason.

1. Blue Sun's Zenith
Its reshuffling effect gained this position for this card. Repeatable killing condition.
2. Spell Crumple
General hate with reshuffling.
3. Attunement
Recurring nightmare in blue. Most underrated by EDH players here.
4. Counterbalance
Most decks here follow standard mana curves. This punishes them.
5. Back to basics
Many many nonbasic lands around here.

Also I have to mention cards like Azami, Lady of scrolls, Mind Over Matter, Tabernacle at pendrell vale, and Fatestitcher

[Davran]

1. Glissa, the Traitor - She's my general of choice and the gateway to a whole host of fun plays. I love that she forces my opponents to think through their attack steps and other actions due to her triggered ability. I've held off several attacks on the simple premise that no one wanted me to "regrow" a simple Nihil Spellbomb.

2. Massacre Wurm - I was unsure about this guy at first, but he has never been anything less than amazing. Really fun if you're expecting a wrath effect and you sneak him in via Winding Canyons.

3. Winding Canyons - Speaking of...this is one of my favorite lands. It's easy for opponents to forget that you have it, and giving any creature in your deck virtual flash is never a bad thing. Vedalken Orrery is probably better overall, but the land tends to fly a little farther under the radar.

4. Tidespout Tyrant - I've always liked this guy, and his uses are near limitless.

5. Cerebral Vortex - Sometimes this is pretty low-impact...but occasionally you get one of those guys that draws a few too many cards. It's always a satisfying kill, and it never fails to earn cheers from the rest of the table.

[TheAardvark]

Damn, Winding Canyons should probably be in place of Diamond Valley on my list, but fewer people know how great Diamond Valley can be. Canyons is amazing.

[apistat_commander]

I am monocolored so my choice will be bit different.

Here will mention only cards which are specifically good in EDH for some reason.

1. Blue Sun's Zenith
Its reshuffling effect gained this position for this card. Repeatable killing condition.
2. Spell Crumple
General hate with reshuffling.
3. Attunement
Recurring nightmare in blue. Most underrated by EDH players here.
4. Counterbalance
Most decks here follow standard mana curves. This punishes them.
5. Back to basics
Many many nonbasic lands around here.

Also I have to mention cards like Azami, Lady of scrolls, Mind Over Matter, Tabernacle at pendrell vale, and Fatestitcher

Oh, I haven't seen Attunement before. Even though I played during Urza's Block, I still see cards that are completely new to me. That might be worth a shot.

So Counterbalance works well for you? I have considered it a few times, but always had other, better counters to run in its place.

[Offler]

Oh, I haven't seen Attunement before. Even though I played during Urza's Block, I still see cards that are completely new to me. That might be worth a shot.

So Counterbalance works well for you? I have considered it a few times, but always had other, better counters to run in its place.

Attunement is a jewel when it comes to EDH. Single card, repeatable draw/discard.

People miscalculate when they believe that you will discard too many cards. 1 card has been drawn at the draw phase. 3 have been drawn by the Attunement, 4 have been discarded. And you still have to remember, that Attunement will self-bounce to your hand and you have opportunity to discard it via its own effect. Effectively 4 drawn, 4 discarded per turn and thats something... If you are playing combo, or reanimator this is great boost. Ideal situation is that you have 8 cards on hand after draw phase and you dont need to play anything else. Instead of discarding single card from hand you will have 3 new cards, 4 discarded cards and no need to discard at the cleanup phase.

Counterbalance works well for me because of combo with Scroll rack and Senseis Top. Most players in our meta like to play boros white-red goblin theme. And when I say most its up to 70 percent of players who own this kind of deck. the rest follows the idea which says "4 mana CMC is quite much, 6 is extreme and more is not viable". Well Kaalia of the Vast and Eldrazi cards changed this a bit. Before only reanimator decks were able to go around this.

At all most players are willing to destroy both those enchantments. Attunement has bouncing as a cost, so Krosan Grip cannot harm it, and Counterbalance has triggered ability which will still trigger when Krosan Grip is cast. Thats why i keep CMC3 on top of library for most of time. Without checking top of library the Counterbalance has of course only random effect.

[Dreg]

1- Liliana Vess: she does things! This girl is so versatile imho. She is able to disrupt the opponents, she is a recurring tutor, she can ultimate to win games. Screw Lili of the Veil, i love the old version more.

2- Laboratory Maniac: So... many... combos...

3- Worm Harvest: I'm a huge fan of this card, it transforms dead draws in huge board advantage. With an engine like LftL it can be a true killing machine.

4- Entomb\Buried Alive: Imho the best tutors ever. I'm a frenzied graveyard player, and i just love what those two cards do. They dump stuff in my graveyard, and i just have to decide how i can use those to mess up with my opponents. T2 Gitaxias? Sure! Ooze insta-win? Sure!

5- Leyline of the Void: I like being the only one who can play stuff from the grave.

[Admiral_Arzar]

I'll try to skip the really obvious ones here (Survival, Necro, Will, etc.)

Dream Halls - this card allows stupid combos but is symmetrical and thus creates really silly game states in general (Plus a conflux chain - via Ewitness etc. is hilarious). I used to play it in Progenitus.dec (turn 3 Progenitus is AWESOME).

Venser's Journal - Lifegain and a Spellbook effect in one card. Lots of fun in casual games assuming you can threaten dire consequences for blowing it up :).

Sui-Chi + Nim Deathmantle - two cards I know, but this combo is hilarious and nobody ever sees it coming. The Deathmantle is pretty awesome on its own in any deck with sac outlets and 187 creatures.

Lifeline - an old casual favorite of mine. Causes the board state to become completely silly, allows crazy abuse of 187 effects or leaves-play effects, and also allows the dreaded Spore Frog infinite fog lock.

Mystic Remora - I once drew 12 cards in a single round off of this thing. In multiplayer EDH this card is absolutely bonkers, allowing draws that make Necropotence look sad. Combine with Venser's Journal for even more fun.

[emidln]

1) Oath of Druids.

I figured out how to make a single oath activation lethal for 1UG even with the french banned list. As a bonus, mono-colored decks can't beat Oath->Iona.

2) Yawgmoth's Will.

Resolving this card is always a blast.

3) Squandered Resources

This is often the best ritual effect available. You can often buyback all of your mana via Second Sunrise.

4) Doomsday

You can probably guess why I like this.

5) Quicken

I just like resolving this card, and I find a lot of very random uses for it playing combo in 1v1 EDH.

[Aggro_zombies]

For me, they would have to be:

1) Life from the Loam: It's my favorite card in general, and it gets work done in EDH. The fact that people skimp on graveyard hate makes it even better in some ways.

2) Hermit Druid: Oddly, in my experience people often forget that Druid says basic land. I've had Druids survive to my next turn plenty of times because people routinely underestimate what his effect actually does (mill you for bunches) and assume that it's something they can deal with later.

3) Sun Titan: This guy is so good. Even in fair decks, he gets tons of value, and in the unfair one's he's often a solid combo piece of recursion card. Most of the Titans are solid in EDH (with the exception of Prime Time, who is probably too good in "fair" metas), but this one is by far my favorite to use.

4) Victimize: It's nice that this card now insta-wins (Triskelion + Mikaeus), but even before that it was pretty awesome to turn a token or worthless utility guy into two game-changers.

5) Pernicious Deed: Never leave home without it (in BG decks). It's great how well Deed still holds up these days, although not being able to destroy planeswalkers with it is both a blessing and a curse. I like that I can shut down a token player's shenanigans while keeping my high end stuff entirely intact.