“Magictating” is defined as getting into the zone with your Magic the Gathering collection--thinking, planning, organizing, reminiscing about past games, and imagining future games. It is a combination of hard thinking about the game and calm meditation, reveling in the joy it brings you.

Dominaria Remastered looks to be a fascinating set. I’m here to point out the top common, uncommon, rare, and mythic rare from each color for all my fellow Commander players. This guide will help you target the best cards from this set, and should help you realize which cards are most worth picking up, so you don’t have to parse through the entire set to figure out what singles you’ll be picking up at your LGS. In fact, I’ll even place a short list of them all at the end of the article so you can just copy that part and bring it in with the rest of your “to-buy list”.

White

White is unbelievably deep in all rarities. There’s some close calls between commons, but if we’re not including cards like Momentary Blink and Orim’s Thunder, as they also splash other colors for their kickers, then the best common in the set is definitely Whitemane Lion. Sure there’s other cards that have interesting abilities, but Whitemane Lion is the type of card that slots well in any deck with “enters the battlefield” triggers; nowadays E.T.B. cards are everywhere, and so this thing is a powerhouse. Whitemane Lion can even help you snap up or rescue some other creature you have when someone gets cute with a powerful board wipe effect.

Now, white’s uncommons are also incredibly well stacked, but I’m going to have to go with the easy pick here, despite my long love-affair with Voice of All. That card is obviously Swords to Plowshares. I remember my friend, Andrew, purposely buying twelve of these just so he wouldn’t have to swap them between decks, and that was in the early 2000’s before we had seen reprints of it in sets beyond Ice Age.

Now, as much as I love Wrath of God, the best rare for those Commander players out there is probably the sneaky and often overlooked Glory. This card can completely change the face of a game in a real hurry. It’s a dangerous blocker as no one wants to give you the chance to dump it into the graveyard and let you start shrugging off attacks and swinging in for unblockable damage. Sure, it’s a tick weaker against mono-artifact builds, but white is usually so stacked with artifact hate that you don’t have to overly worry much about those builds anyway.

Now, as for the best mythic pick we have so many interesting choices, but  Lyra Dawnbringer is such a house it’s a bit easy to snap her up if you haven’t gotten your hands on one yet. The other cards are more niche picks at mythic, but Lyra is a card that can slot into so many decks.

Blue

White was deep, and blue is something to make you weep. It has some truly iconic cards lurking at all rarities, and some of them are wonky and awful, while others are cEDH staples. This is more or less an easy color to pick the true winners—as the only truly deep slot is in the mythics. The commons have some great cards in Aquamoeba, Cloud of Faeries, and Man-O-War. However, you can’t ignore the original power of blue in Counterspell. Picking up one of these is an easy choice for commons—no such thing as owning too many Counterspells.

Now, it may seem circular logic might insist that I pick Circular Logic as the uncommon of choice, but with Fact or Fiction lurking in this set at its rightful uncommon rarity we really should be picking this card up if you don’t already own a stack of twenty or so. This card is incredibly powerful and helps to fuel so many graveyard strategies. It is also interactive, and choosing who is going to pick your piles is always a fun time in Commander. Heck, if you and someone else are about to lose to the table’s archenemy it’s not uncommon for them to give you a pile of zero and a pile of five—that’s the type of political alliances that make for great Commander stories.

I might meet some resistance to my pick for rare, though I insist that Opposition is truly an amazing Magic card. This Urza’s Destiny card is so incredibly powerful that I really can’t see a world where you don’t buy this card. It enables so many powerful combos and also just screams blue-control.

Speaking of blue-control, how about we snag ourselves a copy of the card that is synonymous with blue in every format it is allowed — Force of Will. This is the card to buy, and it’s one that has been powerful ever since people first woke up to it back in the days of the Alliance expansion. Yes, yes, I know Urza was reprinted, but really that card is only for Urza decks, and who plays those? Wink, wink.

Black

While blue can bring us to tears, black brings out the fears of your past. If you didn’t play Magic in the 90’s or even early 2000’s then I suppose you might be shaking your head at some of these odd inclusions. Many of these cards were powerful in their day or in a particular format in their time. In Commander, these cards are a bit lackluster—looking at you Flesh Reaver, Phyrexian Scuta, and Chainer’s Edict. Meanwhile, the new art on Hyalopterous Lemure just has me shaking my head in confusion. So, what common is great for us Commander players? It is definitely not Duress, and probably not even Nightscape Familiar. Though familiar is clearly the best common if you’re going Grixis. Really, the stand out common here is actually Phyrexian Rager. This card enables so many strategies and helps buff sacrifice decks and keeps the cards flowing.

Now, the uncommons are full with interesting throwbacks, yet the best of the best for today’s Commander player is a close call between the second best card in Zombie Infestation, and the best uncommon—Dread Return. Infestation enables reanimation and token strategies and even meme style decks. However, Dread Return makes so many things possible. It is a card that gets flashed back for gross effect and usually only ends in pure profits for the player making the “sacrifice” to recast it.

The rares in black offer so many nostalgic options, but as much I love Body Snatcher, Chainer, Dementia Master is the best pick-up for Commander. This guy slots into any reanimation deck, and can also double as graveyard hate against other players as you can target all of your opponents dead creatures as well. Exiling those creatures on Chainer’s exit, so your opponents can’t pull off any of their own graveyard shenanigans is a nice touch.

For mythics I could go with Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, but that’s like picking Urza for blue; I much prefer the No Mercy reprint. Getting to jam this type of combat hate in your deck is a great way to make yourself a bubble fort. Snag this card and you won’t be disappointed.

Red

While black brought back the fears from the past, red is perhaps the simplest to evaluate as it continues to be the most straightforward color of all. Yup, totally gave up on the rhyming scheme there. Red’s commons are fine, but if you don’t already own copies of Empty the Warrens, then now is the time to get them. Storming off in draft is a blast, but using a stormdd style deck in Commander is terrifying for people, because no one is running Flusterstorm. If they are running Flusterstorm, then, hey, they deserve that story moment.

Much like black’s role-player cards, the uncommons bring back cards like Fireblast and and Lightning Rift, but those aren’t the best targets for Commander pickups. The best uncommon here has got to be Valduk, Keeper of the Flame. There are just so many amazing turns and possibilities with a deck built around Valduk. This is a card that makes Commander stories worth telling.

Mythics were easy enough here as Sneak Attack is just such an incredibly fun card, and if you haven’t played with it yet, then please do so. You won’t regret it.

Green

Good god does green have some ridiculous cards printed in this set. So many amazing cards that I really struggled to offer up clear cards for you to pick up. Honestly, this is the time to buy all of these green cards. However, narrowing it down to a few is the goal, and so you should snag yourself an Emerald Charm from the commons section. This is a surprisingly flexible card that you’ll be amazed how often you find yourself making a creature lose flying rather than destroying a powerful enchantment. Having options is good, and that’s what makes Emerald Charm great.

The uncommons are deep as well, but you need to grab yourself a Crop Rotation if you don’t already have five or so. Crop Rotation gives you an extra copy of those amazing utility lands that have become so powerful over the last several years. Being able to tutor up your Rogue’s Passage or even a Maze of Ith at instant speed is a ridiculously exciting Commander play. Also, if you’re into abusing those lands, snag yourself a Krosan Restorer as well.

The rares were actually the easiest for me as I once had a deck built entirely around Arboria. So, you need to do the same thing; no, not build an Arboria deck, but get a copy. This card is amazing when you combine it with cards like Yeva, Nature’s Herald or Vedalkan Orrery. No one gets to attack you as you just play your cards on everyone else’s turns. Seriously, try it out and you won’t be disappointed.

While there are so many heavy-hitters here in the mythic slot you really need to snag yourself a Sylvan Library so you can abuse it. Meanwhile, you’d be nuts not to grab that Nut Collector as well.

Multi-Color and Artifacts and Lands

I’m going to make this quick as these don’t really have the same breakdown as the other main colors. Let’s just go with the top overall cards worth snagging at this time because they are the most exciting to play with.

Multi-Color

This is a tricky thing to pick a best-of for you all, as what color combinations you’re willing to play will factor heavily into the choices you make. I just want to point out that you can actually snag yourself some interesting new art on three old-school legends that also make fun choices as commanders: Xira Arien, Sol-Kanar the Swamp King, and Arcades Sabboth. Sure, the split cards like Fire/Ice are great fun too, but battling with Commanders from the EDH days is always a nice option.

Artifacts

If you haven’t ever built an Eldrazi Cryptic Gateway deck, then I suggest you do so, as it is absolutely gross. My top picks for artifacts include the Gateway and the Urza’s Incubator for all your tribal build needs, and Crawlspace for your controlling and anti-Overrun/Craterhoof Behemoth tactics. You won’t be disappointed in acquiring any of those cards.

Lands

The call-backs to the lair lands are fun and all, and I do enjoy beating down with Nantuko Monastery, but overall the lands to prioritize purchasing are pretty darn clear. You need to grab yourself a Dark Depths at mythic, a Maze of Ith at rare, a Mishra’s Factory at uncommon, and the cycle of Cycling lands at common.

Those are my picks for best Commander cards to snag at each rarity and color. I hope you get a chance to draft, play, crack packs, and pick singles from this set. It is, in many ways, even better than Time Spiral remastered. This reprint set really seems to have something for everyone, as I could easily have done a whole other article all about what cards to pick up for Pauper or Legacy! Here’s the list, and until our next adventure, may the singles and the cards be ever in your favor!