About Partners and Companions

Why you should play two Commanders

How Companions and Partners Can Improve Your Gameplay Experience

Author: Ben Guilfoyle

Your Commander deck is led by a powerful general. The reason you built the deck. A unique, legendary creature that ties everything together. But what if you could have two? Two great tacticians working together to bring your deck to victory! Today we are looking at partners, companions, and all the other similar mechanics that Magic offers, I hope you’ll join me as we explore the why and how you can take advantage of these mechanics.

What Mechanics Let Me Use Multiple Commanders?

As of this article, five mechanics give you access to more than one Commander. There are:

Partner

Partner With

Choose a Background

Doctor’s Companion

Friends Forever

Partner / Partner With

Partner first showed up in Commander 2016. Fifteen legends made their way into the format with partner. That’s 105 possible combinations! They were all two color legends. This means we now had access to many new three and four-color options for Commander. Before this set, there were no four-color Commanders besides the C16 face commanders.

Partner is the simplest and most powerful version of this mechanic. It simply lets you play any two cards as your commander as long as both have partner. Commander Masters brought with it 41 new mono-colored legends with partner. These could all be paired with the initial 15 two-color partners. This gives us 56 legends with partner.

A grand total of 1540 commander combinations!

Partner is a great mechanic to switch up your decks with different options. You could run Alena, Kessig Trapper, and Halana, Kessig Ranger. Maybe that doesn’t work, try Gilarna, Caller of Wirewood instead. The sheer number of partners is a blessing and a curse.

From a balance perspective, trying to account for all these combinations must be a nightmare Partner With attempts to keep the idea of two commanders without adding hundreds of new combinations. Partner With will name a specific card that can be paired with it.

For example, Zndrsplt, Eye of Wisdom, and Okaun, Eye of Chaos. This means both can be your commander. Partner With also comes with one more rule. When a card with Partner With enters the battlefield, target player can search their deck for the missing partner. This can be useful if you are playing Yusri, Fortune’s Flame as your commander instead. That way when you cast Okaun you can search for Zndrsplt.

This mechanic came about in Battlebond. A set designed for 2 vs 2 games. If I was playing a red-black deck with Okaun and you were playing a green-blue deck with Zndrsplt we could help each other out. I cast Okaun and let you search for Zndrsplt.

Okaun, Eye of Chaos SLD
Yusri Fortunes Flame MH2

We have not seen another Battlebond set since then. But, the Partner With mechanic has lived on. It has been particularly popular in Magic‘s crossover sets. Frodo partnering with Sam in Lord of the Rings, or Jenny Flint and Madame Vastra from Doctor Who for example.

Partner With tells a story, it ties characters together. Whether it’s couples, teammates, or a pet and owner, Partner With serves a flavorful purpose that a generic partner does not. There are 38 cards with Partner With. That gives us 19 options altogether.

Choose a Background, Friends Forever, and Doctor’s Companion

I am grouping these next three together. Reception to Partner and Partner With is mixed. Partner is very broad. It makes designing multicolor partners hard as it could throw off balance or turn everything into four/five five-color good-stuff decks. On the other hand, Partner With is very narrow. You only have one pair you can make. And sometimes that pair is not a color you enjoy, or one of the commanders is underwhelming.

The next three mechanics attempt to address these concerns. It does so by limiting the pool of potential partners to more than just one, but less than the 56 we saw previously.

Choose a Background came about in the Baldur’s Gate Commander set. 32 legendary creatures feature this keyword. You can have a Background be your second commander. Background is an enchantment subtype. All the backgrounds and corresponding creatures in the set were mono-colored. This meant you could avoid the emphasis on multi-color decks. 32 legends and 30 backgrounds that provided players 960 new options to explore.

Friends Forever works identically to partner, except under a new name. Kind of like how flying and horsemanship are basically the same thing. Two legends can be your commander as long as both of them have Friends Forever. This was originally exclusive to a Secret Lair collaboration with the Stranger Things TV series. All of these cards have since received Magic equivalents.

There are seven cards in this set. That gives 21 combinations. All of them are two colors except for Cecily who is Grixis. This gives access to all four color combinations except for Witch-Maw (Green White Blue Black). There is also a new five-color option thanks to Cecily and Othelm. The legends here are less generically powerful than the C16 partners. These cards require a bit more of a build-around. Many of them vaguely care about clues or artifacts. This bunch is very subdued and fair.

Finally, Doctor’s Companion is another riff on Choose a Background. Two cards be your commander as long as one of them has Doctor’s Companion and the other one is a doctor. This gives us a narrow pool of cards to choose from. 27 companions and 18 doctors. That’s 486 combinations.

All the companions are mono-color. Most doctors are two colors. The only exception is The Fourteenth Doctor. They were printed in Ink-Treader (Red Green White Blue). This means a five-color deck is possible if you pair him with Vislor Turlough or Clara Oswald.

We see through all of these Partner variants a restraint when making four-color commanders.

Clara Oswald WHO

So far, we have shown a lot of potential combinations for two commanders. This can actually make finding resources for a given deck quite difficult. Sure, some pairs are very well-researched, such as Thrasios and Tymna. But, not many people are playing Sengir, the Dark Baron, and Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh.

With that in mind, let’s look at some additional rules for Partner, and begin discussing how you can choose the best pairing from the thousands of options.

The Fourteenth Doctor SLD

Extra Rules to Remember

These mechanics all give you access to a second commander. Remember, your commander deck should still only be 100 cards. i.e.: 98 main board cards + 2 commanders.

The specific rules about Partner can be found in section 702.124 of the Comprehensive Rules. But, here’s the summary:

  1. Effects that refer to your commander’s color identity now refer to your combined color identity. E.g. If Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and Thrasios, Triton Hero">Thrasios, Triton Hero are your commands, Commander’s Plate will offer protection from black.

  2. Commander damage and commander tax are tracked separately for each commander.

  3. If an effect refers to your commander while you have both in play at once it refers to either. If an effect causes you to perform an action on your commander and it could affect both of them, you choose which commander it refers to. For example, Command Beacon lets you put your commander directly into your hand. This can be used to put one commander into your hand, not both.

  4. If a card ever has more than one instance of Partner or other similar mechanics they will not stack. You can only ever have two commanders. For example, Amy Pond has Partner with Rory Williams and Doctor’s Companion. This means she can be a partner with any of the 18 doctors, or Rory Williams. She cannot Partner with Rory and The Eleventh Doctor at the same time.

Prosperous Partnership NCC

One last note, going forward I will be referring to all of these partner-like mechanics as partner. Choose a Background, Doctor’s Companion, etc., it’s all just going to be called Partner from this point on.

Got it? Great! Let’s get into why you should build partners, and how to decide which ones are right for you!

Why Play Two Commanders?

Playing two commanders has a lot of advantages, some bigger than others. The most minuscule advantage is your deck is now smaller. Technically speaking, at 98 cards instead of 99 your odds of drawing that one card you need is higher. But, let’s be honest, that’s pretty negligible.

Color Variety

Partners give you access to more options in a given color combination. Abzan and Temur have around 20 commanders each. Meanwhile, Naya has 50! Partners are a great way to expand the number of possible commanders in a given color combo. If you are struggling to find the perfect commander, try searching for some partners!

Naya Charm ALA

Name # Commanders

Naya 50

Grixis 48

Esper 40

Bant 37

Jeskai 34

Jund 33

Mardu 29

Sultai 26

Temur 22

Abzan 19

Curve Out Consistently

Two commanders give your deck consistency. I love having a cheap commander to play early. It gives my turns structure. In my The War Doctor deck, I play Susan Foreman as the second commander. This lets me consistently cast Susan turn 2, and follow up with the Doctor turn 3. They can even free up some space in my deck. Susan in the Command Zone lets me reduce the overall number of ramp spells in the deck. I do not need a Gruul Signet in my opening hand when Susan is available.

There are so many combinations, you are bound to find something. I took this concept to the extreme with my Volo, Itinerant Scholar deck. I build a Jumpstart-style Commander deck. Here I built five mini decks. Each uses a different background to pair with Volo.

The Backgrounds give me consistency in setting up my plays, despite the chaotic idea of smashing decks together. I always have a two-mana background, and a three-mana commander to follow up. Check out the deck on Moxfield:

Supplementary Colors & Effects

In some cases, you might have an idea for a deck, but you just cannot find the right commander. Perhaps you want an aggressive Jeskai artifact deck. Akiri, Line-Slinger paired with Esior, Wardwing Familiar can make this happen. You have a beatdown plan with protection. Or use Glacian, Powerstone Engineer to give yourself a late-game card advantage engine.

Partners can enable new angles where a previous commander did not exist.

Companions

Companions ask a little bit more than partners. A companion has a condition you must meet. If you do, they start the game in your sideboard. You can add a companion to your hand by paying three mana. Unlike your commander, if a companion dies, it is dead for good.

Additionally, companions must be less than or equal to your commander’s color identity. Lurrus cannot be your companion in a Lazav deck.

Finally, your commander must also not conflict with the companion condition. You cannot run Toxril as your commander and Gyruda as your companion even if every card in your main deck has an even mana cost.

With all that out of the way, I adore companions in Commander. They offer two things: a deck-building challenge, and consistency. These two ideas are somewhat counterintuitive, but I will explain.

The deck-building restraint is real. All the companions will bring some variance to your deck due to their restrictions. You cannot run Counterspell in a Jegantha, the Wellspring deck. You cannot play Sol Ring with Keruga, the Macrosage. Conversely, with clever deck building, you can mitigate this downside.

Now that you have a companion, you have something you can build around, and give yourself reliable plays. Similar to partners, a companion can help bridge the gaps in your curve. Some of these cards ask a lot of you. Zirda, the Dawnwaker demands every card in your deck have an activated ability. However, the payoff is huge! Zirda can combo with so many cards! Basalt Monolith and Grim Monolith come to mind.

Lurrus is such a powerful option it was banned in Vintage for a time! The little kitten requires all permanents in your deck have a mana value of two or less. I have had great success with Lurrus in Voltron strategies. I have used Amalia, Benavides Aguirre to great effect as a commander here. Lurrus’s lifelink works nicely with Amalia. On top of that, Lurrus gives us redundancy. If Amalia dies with an aura attached to her, we can simply recast it with Lurrus! Or with Amalia’s explore trigger, we can put powerful cards into the graveyard for our kitten to recur later on. This deck packs a punch. It is low to the ground and aggressive. But, Lurrus and Amalia’s life-gain synergy prevents us from getting out-muscled by other aggro decks.

Painbow Precon DMU

If you want to try out a companion but want to keep the deck building easy I suggest picking up the Painbow” precon from Dominaria United. This does not contain a companion out of the box. But, the deck is 99% compatible with Jegantha, the Wellspring! The only card that you need to remove is Time Wipe. Swap it out for Last One Standing or Pernicious Deed to keep Jegantha happy, and add to the deck’s existing multi-color theme! From here you have a functional companion deck to get a feel for the mechanic.

To get you started, Scryfall has prepared queries to help find compatible cards! You can find it under “Related Searches” when you look for any companion.

Companions are perfect for brewers who love to give themselves a challenge. If you are sick of building decks with the same staples over and over again, try building with a companion! They let you flex your deck-building muscles, while also building for a powerful payoff.

How Many Options Are There?

I hope I have convinced you to give partners a try. Before I sign off let’s crunch some numbers! How many possible combinations of Partners/Friends Forever etc. are there?

Partners

  • Partner With: 19
  • Partner: 1,540
  • Friends Forever: 21
  • Doctor’s Companion: 486
  • Choose a Background: 960

Total: 3,026

Self-expression is a vital part of Commander. Make your deck unique, try out a commander and companion. If deck-building allows it, try to put a companion in there too. You could be onto something truly unique!

Closing Thoughts

Partners are a popular choice in high power CEDH decks but they also have a home in casual play.

The myriad of options available excite me to build something new and powerful. Supplement your decks with a companion for something incredibly unique.

Let us know in the comments what you think of partners! There is always a new combination out there waiting for someone to try!

About the Author

Ben Guilfoyle started playing Magic in 2015. They love to research the design of Magic. Why was this card banned? Could this silver border card actually see play? Cards that push the limits of design is what excites them. You can usually find them playing cube. This ties into their second passion: numbers. With a background in physics and statistics, they love to get in the weeds when building decks. Crunching numbers is their specialty.

Ben Guilfoyle

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