Magic: The Gathering – The 10 Best Upkeep Effects For Commander

Summary

• Upkeep abilities are severely underrated.
• Cards like Dominus of Fealty and Sheoldred bring game-changing abilities tied to upkeeps, reshaping gameplay.
• Powerful cards like Dark Confidant, Bitterblossom, and others offer powerful upkeep triggers for Commander games.

In the early days of Magic: The Gathering's history, the upkeep step was usually reserved for paying costs associated with the era’s most overpowered cards, such as Stasis and Juzam Djinn. After that, the cumulative upkeep ability debuted, which brought a slew of new cards that cared about this heretofore unexplored portion of a turn.

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A quick search of Scryfall reveals over 850 instances of the text "at the beginning of your upkeep," so there's a plethora of options when producing a Commander deck based around upkeep triggers. While upkeep effects on their own are powerful, with doublers like Obeka, Splitter Of Seconds and Paradox Haze, they can be even more devastating in a Commander pod. Whether you're running an upkeep duplicator or just want some spice at the start of your turn, here's some of the best the game has to offer.

10 Dominus Of Fealty

Stealing Permanents Is Always Fun

Dating back to 2008’s Eventide expansion, this five-mana 4/4 flyer boasts an absolute banger of an upkeep ability to steal your opponents' creatures for a turn.

Nailing this ability to a reasonably costed 4/4 flyer was pretty busted when it debuted, and it still retains a high power level even today. Throw in a free sacrifice outlet to dispose of those stolen critters or permanents, and you will have completely warped the game in one fell swoop.

9 Sheoldred, Whispering One

Sheoldred’s First Printing Packs A Wallop During Upkeeps

The first printing of Sheoldred might lack the utterly maddening qualities of its current-day Standard counterparts (especially the omnipresent Sheoldred, the Apocalypse), but it still features not one, but two hugely powerful upkeep abilities.

The first one allows you to pull a lost creature card from your graveyard straight to the battlefield. A free Dread Return every turn is terrifically strong, especially when combined with the Whispering One’s second upkeep ability that triggers on every opponent’s upkeep: “that player sacrifices a creature.”

That’s roughly a five-for-one right out of the gate, though, at seven mana, you will have to wait a while for this upkeep effect to spring into action.

8 Dark Confidant

A Card Worth Confiding In

Another powerhouse from Magic’s past, Dark Confidant was originally printed in Ravnica: City of Guilds, and it immediately became an integral part of a plethora of decks. Seeing as Commander players start with 40 life, Dark Confidant’s life-sapping abilities are somewhat mitigated, but players should still watch out for taking too much damage.

Even for the baseline ability, nabbing a single extra card per turn for a minor loss of life is usually worth the trade-off, and seeing as the Confidant is usually a removal magnet early, you likely won’t have to worry too much about slipping into the danger zone.

7 Bonehoard Dracosaur

Free Reckless Impulse And Numerous Tokens Every Upkeep

When this card was first introduced during spoiler season for The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, the community was staggered. As a 5/5 with flying and first strike (for only five mana, no less), this creature is able to kill Sheoldred, the Apocalypse as a blocker in one-on-one combat, which is already a positive trade-off for this creature as a blocker.

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However, its upkeep ability is what sets it apart. Every upkeep, you get a free impulsive draw (exiling cards off the top of your library and being able to play them that turn), but then, for each land card you exile, you get a 3/1 dinosaur token, and for each nonland card you exile, you get a Treasure token. That's a totally wild upkeep ability, especially when tacked onto a five-mana 5/5 flyer.

6 Extravagant Replication

It’s Only Extravagant If You Can’t Afford It

I went back and forth about which card to put in this slot, as there are a number of similar cards that produce effects like this on your upkeep (Followed Footsteps, Endless Evil, Progenitor Mimic), but, at the end of the day, the freedom provided by Extravagant Replication was too much to deny.

For one thing, not having to enchant a permanent is huge, as your foe can’t remove it in response, and the ability to duplicate any nonland permanent you have – as opposed to just a creature or artifact – is massively strong.

5 Bitterblossom

This Blossom Is More Bitter For Your Foes

What a sweet card. Featuring terrific Rebecca Guay art (one of MTG’s best), an extremely strong upkeep trigger and a low mana cost, Bitterblossom remains an immensely powerful enchantment years after it debuted in the Morningtide expansion.

Again, much like Dark Confidant, the life loss can certainly add up and must always be paid attention, but these tokens can really get out of hand quickly. 1/1 flying creatures are nothing to sneeze at, and Bitterblossom’s ability to create a ton over the course of a Commander game cannot be ignored.

4 Court Of Ambition

The Best Of The Commander “Court” Cards

One of a series of “Court” cards, all of which deal with the monarch mechanic, this is the one that is likely the most game-breaking for Commander games.

While Court of Ire can deliver seven damage to any target per upkeep if you’re the monarch, Court of Cunning can mill ten cards per upkeep if you’re the monarch and Court of Locthwain can steal the top card of a single player’s library and play it for free if you’re the monarch, Court of Ambition bests them all.

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3 Descent Into Avernus

We’ll See You Soon, Karlach

While this card is symmetrical, meaning it affects all players equally, as long as you’re playing an Obeka deck, it is likely you that will be coming out on top when triggering this ability. While giving your opponents a bunch of treasure tokens might not sound appetizing, just remember that you also get all of those Treasure tokens on your turn and can use them before any other player.

Also, if you duplicate this trigger multiple times, it might knock out the player with the best board state before they’re even able to complete their game plan, leaving you with less competition.

2 Land Tax

One White Mana Can Pack A Punch

The idea of "mana drought" is one that still haunts MTG players to this day. But with Land Tax, if you play this, it's something that you will likely never have to worry about again. Roughly 30 years after it was first printed in the Legends expansion, this upkeep trigger is one that is still immensely powerful.

The ability to thin out your deck at a whopping rate of three basic lands at a time is absolutely massive, especially if you’re on the draw, as you will always – at least for the first five or so turns usually – be able to trigger this upkeep ability. Beyond that, any time your foe doesn’t make their land drop, this can trigger on your upkeep, getting you closer and closer to your mana-intensive bombs.

1 Phyrexian Arena

Another Day In The Arena

Simple but devastatingly effective, Phyrexian Arena has a been a multi-format standout since it was first printed in the Apocalypse set in 2001. One of the most brutally efficient upkeep triggers you can conjure, it was originally printed as a weaker version of cards like Necropotence or Yawgmoth's Bargain, but its consistency is something that makes it eminently strong even today.

Again, just like Dark Confidant and Bitterblossom, you must keep an eye on your life total, but with the amount of card advantage you’re gaining over your opponents, it’s only a matter of time before you out-advantage them and simply win the game on sheer card volume alone.

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