You’ve already seen the impressive numbers of how many cards were released in 2022: 2,120, to be exact. That number offers Commander players quite some variety to choose from when filling out the 99 of a deck or picking a new commander to build around. I’m going to offer what I see as the best, most interesting, and in some cases, dare I say powerful cards that came out in 2022.
There were quite a few sets to pore through in order to cull the cards that I like the most. Unlike Rachel, Jimmy, and Josh at The Command Zone podcast, I don’t really consider Innistrad: Double Feature a set in its own right, since it was just putting Midnight Hunt and Crimson Vow together in a Draft environment. The first set of the year then was Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, with its companion, Neon Dynasty Commander. Then I went to Streets of New Capenna, New Capenna Commander, Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate, Dominaria United, Dominaria United Commander, Unfinity, Warhammer 40,000, The Brothers’ War, Brothers’ War Commander, and finally Jumpstart 2022.
That’s thirteen sets, which means there might be one or even two that don’t have a card in the Top 22. Then again, we’re talking about barely over one percent of the cards made during the year. There will be lots of very good cards left off this list.
How I Chose the Cards
My first cut, just doing a quick run through the sets, left me with over a hundred cards to look at. Decisions had to be made, and some excellent pieces of cardboard didn’t make the final cut. Also remember that I tend to settle in at a mid- or battlecruiser-level of play, which will affect how I evaluate cards.
Interestingly, there were cards whose stock rose over the year or status improved after seeing them in action. It would have been a little cheaty to just go pick my number ones from all the set reviews; I really wanted to make sure that I considered not just what I thought the cards might do, but what they actually had done. It turns out that sometimes I’m cool on a card that ends up slapping, or hot on one that fizzles. Here we go.
22. Brazen Cannonade
I have yet to play with it, but I saw someone else on a stream running it. I realized it deserved an upgrade from my initial Jumpstart 2022 review. It rewards us for being aggressive. One of my favorite lines of play is to drop a sufficient number of creatures onto the battlefield that cards like Blood Artist or Rage Thrower give opponents a no-win choice. They either take damage from the creatures or take damage from killing the creatures. Unlike those other two cards, Brazen Cannonade is an enchantment, so it doesn’t die to the first Wrath of God that comes along. That also means its raid ability can trigger on creatures that weren’t around when Brazen Cannonade showed up.
21. Shadowheart, Dark Justiciar
I love sacrifice outlets because sometimes people get grabby with our creatures. Alternately, they’re going to die in combat, generally after blocking but sometimes after a combat trick. Shadowheart is there to rescue us by giving us the creature’s power in replacement cards. Of course, when we’re playing things like Dictate of Erebos, Martyr’s Bond, or Stalking Vengeance, the value of sacrificing our creatures is even greater.
20. Satoru Umezawa
Turning every creature in our hand into a Ninja is good times already (well, it doesn’t change its creature type, just gives it the ninjutsu ability). Adding a bonus on activating ninjutsu abilities makes the party memorable. It’s a build-around commander that doesn’t point in any particular direction, although it doesn’t hurt to have a few actual Ninjas around just in case.
19. Displacer Kitten
Remember when we talked earlier about blinking stuff? Displacer Kitten is the perfect tool to use offensively and aggressively. It’s also an excellent defensive card, helping us to save permanents from targeted removal. It’s not a build-around so much as a great tool in the right deck—but in that right deck, it shines.
18. Kros, Defense Contractor
The New Capenna Commander card which piqued my interest right away, I ended up building it as an alternative win condition (alt-wincon) deck. You can check it out here. It can work as one of the 99, but I like the reliability of it coming out of the command zone. The beautiful genius of the card is giving trample to whatever it’s goaded. Chump blocking goes off the table, enhancing the amount of damage that gets done.
17. Jaheira’s Respite
Ramp tacked onto Fog has to be one of my favorite combination of abilities ever stapled together. The question isn’t whether the card will be valuable, but when the right time to cast it will be. Most often, we reserve Fogs to save us from a (nearly-) lethal attack. In the case of Jaheira’s Respite, a mid-game attack that nets five or six lands might be the better long-term play, even if the damage it prevents is lower.
16. Resurrection Orb
Alternately, lifelink and Angelic Renewal might be my favorite combo. The equip cost is a reasonable payment for the long-term value. The only time we’re particularly vulnerable is during the equip activation (and obviously, exile abilities like Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile don’t make us too happy). After that, we can just bash without too much risk—just the way I like to play.
15. Malanthrope
Graveyard control isn’t the strong suit of Simic, so getting Malanthrope in those colors is either a big win or a bad example of the format’s best two-color combination getting more than it needs. It’s on-color pie enough for me to not have too much heartburn about it. If we fully lean into the card, being in blue means that blink and bounce are on the table, meaning we have a repeatable effect. Sure, we lose the counters from the previous time, but getting rid of a graveyard is often way more important than some extra points of damage.
14. Candlekeep Sage
I’m happy with the fact that a common card made the list. Candlekeep Sage as one of the 99 provides a great deal of value—which we’ve found with any number of the Backgrounds. This one offers card draw when our commander enters and leaves the battlefield, which will happen during a game. Candlekeep Sage shines when we have partner commanders, doubling our number of chances for the trigger to be relevant. Since the trigger is on leaving as opposed to dying, blink and bounce are also on the table here.
13. Jetmir, Nexus of Revels
Still the deck I’ve yet to build (mostly because other sets keep coming at us at light speed), Jetmir, Nexus of Revels is an offensive powerhouse that doesn’t take too much to get rolling. The three abilities don’t say “other” creatures, meaning Jetmir applies to the total. Just two more creatures and we have a 6/4 vigilance commander that we paid only four mana for. Add three more after that and it’s 7/4 adding trample. Nine creatures might often be a stretch, but once we’re there, bodies are hitting the floor.
12. Kodama of the West Tree
At first, I wondered if Kodama of the West tree could live up to the promise of its cousin, Kodama of the East Tree. While it can’t lead to the kind of busted turns that its East Coast friend can, the Western version has nothing to be embarrassed about. The two abilities combined, both focused on modified creatures, make it a game-changer. The simple act of giving trample to anything that’s modified will make those things lethal. Voltron commanders are the first to come to mind, but anything that’s been equipped now pushes aside chump blockers. After that, thinning our deck of lands—frequently multiple incidences in a single combat—provides the fuel for casting some extremely large spells in short order.
11. Unquenchable Fury
The downside of Auras is that they go away once the creature does. Unquenchable Fury grows from the seed originally planted by Rancor and comes back to our hand when it is put into the graveyard—whether that’s because it got Disenchanted or it no longer had a creature to enchant. Because its ability isn’t tied to the power of the creature, we can put it on anything that attacks. Once there, it’ll start doming someone every time we swing. The times I’ve had it on the battlefield, it’s always dealt plenty of damage. In more than one case, that damage has been lethal.
10. Archivist of Oghma
There are more idle searches of libraries in Commander games than we think. It’s just an action that happens as a second thought, what with all the ramping and fetching going on. When it happens, Archivist of Oghma is there to draw cards. The lifegain is nice, but the card is really all about the sweet additions to the hand. We don’t even need to cast things which force our opponents to search for it to be valuable. It’ll happen enough quite naturally.
9. Smuggler’s Share
Players like to draw extra cards and put extra lands onto the battlefield, so Smuggler’s Share is going to find more than its fair share of times to trigger. As with Archivist of Oghma, it’s really about the card draw, which can reasonably happen two or three times each turn cycle. The Treasures are a decent bonus, but the liquid those Raccoons are pumping is definitely making our hand larger.
8. Shigeki, Jukai Visionary
If I hadn’t played with Shigeki, Jukai Visionary so often over the course of the year, it might not have ended up so high on the list. The practical has turned out to be even better than the theoretical. Playing it in my Old Stickfingers deck has increased its value, as the ability also feeds the graveyard (and makes me want to jam it into any Karador, Ghost Chieftain deck). Later in the game, it’ll help get back to hand some of those noncreature things that it might have put into the graveyard earlier.
7. Toxicrene
There are so many very good lands in Commander for Toxicrene to turn off that it will never want for utility. From Cabal Coffers to Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth to Academy Ruins to Reliquary Tower, someone’s stuff is getting shut down. In my personal group, it’s well known that fellow RC member Scott Larabee is overly fond of Maze of Ith, so it becomes a strong metagame choice. It’s already an MVP.
6. Black Market Connections
Another one whose stock rose once we saw it in action, Black Market Connections is worth every life we pay into it. The most expensive ability, to create the 3/2 Shapeshifter, is the one that’s easiest to skip when we’re getting low on life. Getting the cards and Treasures, which fuel casting what we’ve drawn, might simply be enough. If we play it with some lifegain to offset the payments, those Black Market Connections will make us quite rich.
5. Swift Reconfiguration
Not that white needed another one-mana removal spell, but we can still appreciate what Swift Reconfiguration can do for us. At its simplest, it removes a creature from combat and gives it an onerous cost (crew 5) to get it back in on future turns. For a more complicated plan (which involves first turning a planeswalker into a creature), if we can get it attached to a planeswalker, we’ll still be able to activate its loyalty abilities. Moreover, it can’t be attacked and damage dealt to it won’t remove loyalty counters. Swift Reconfiguration is a slick card with slick possibilities.
4. Rootpath Purifier
The biggest part of Rootpath Purifier is that our searches for basic lands can now find any land we want. Terramorphic Expanse now becomes more valuable than Wooded Foothills. Farhaven Elf searches up Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. Then, once they’re on the battlefield, those lands are immune to nonbasic land hate. Wasteland and Boseiju, Who Endures (which was a strong candidate for this Top 22 list) can’t get rid of our Cabal Coffers. Note that it affects only the battlefield and library, but not the graveyard, so we don’t have any extra Planar Birth tricks to do. The card is straightforward but strong. I wouldn’t mind seeing them explore the design space a little further.
3. The First Tyrannic War
What gets me about The First Tyrannic War is that it pays benefits right away. When we drop it on Turn 4 or 5, we’re likely to still have a big creature in our hand, which we just plop onto the battlefield. Even if we haven’t built around the X ability, that’s some large upside. Of course, we’ll want to have done that building or something with counters in mind, because Chapters II and III double up on counters. A perfect fit for our Hydra decks, it’ll also play nicely with cards like Prime Speaker Zegana and Forgotten Ancient.
2. Saw in Half
Who would have ever imagined an Unfinity card being near the top of any lists? We generally don’t care much about power and toughness when we’re giving ourselves two copies of something. Saw in Half does silly things when we target our own Kokusho, the Evening Star or Pirated Copy (a card that nearly made this list). Any card with a Clone effect is great. Enters-the-battlefield triggers, like on Duplicant or Woodfall Primus, have great value, the latter because we also get the persist trigger. Saw in Half does so much with the kinds of cards I like to play that its place high on this list was secured the first time we saw it.
1. Isshin, Two Heavens as One
The fact that I physically assembled not one, but two Isshin, Two Heavens as One decks probably tells you everything you need to know about how I feel about the card. I’m a real sucker for combat-triggered abilities, so it means that I get to play favorite cards like Emberwilde Captain, Hellrider, and Sun Titan. Archon of Cruelty becomes a real back-breaker. The extremely popular Winota, Joiner of Forces goes from ridiculous to absurd. Of course, it doesn’t just double the triggers of our own creatures attacking; it’ll provide an extra version on personal favorite Breena, the Demagogue.
It’s also not limited to the triggered abilities of creatures. The aforementioned Unquenchable Fury applies, as does a Level 3 Paladin class. While there are particular things that I like to do within Isshin’s wheelhouse, it’s the fact that he’s open to a great deal of what other people like to do as well which catapults the card to the top of my list.
Close By
There really were so many great cards produced in 2022 that there’s no shame in something not making this list. I would have loved to find room to talk about Kibo, Uktabi Prince; Body Count; or Professional Face-Breaker, just to name a few. There were the Praetors, like Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant and the Dragons, like Junji, the Midnight Sky. The not-Triomes deserve special mention. I could have gotten into the meld cards, which ended with Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia or Titania, Gaea Incarnate. The short version is that there was something and more for every flavor of Commander player in the past year. There’s every reason to suspect that 2023 will show us the same.
Always remember, we have a channel on the Commander RC Discord server dedicated to discussing my articles. If your favorite card(s) didn’t make the list, drop on by to talk about them. Join nearly 9,000 friends for discussion of not just this piece, but on a wide variety of topics—both Commander-related and not. See you there soon.
Visit my Decklist Database to see my Signature Decks, the Chromatic Project, and more!
