The top 5 new Magic: The Gathering cards for Commander in 2022 you should consider

2022 is finally coming to an end, and it is the time I can finally sit down and reflect on the new Magic: The Gathering cards that were released in 2022.

Wizards of the Coast has inundated players with an incredible amount of reprints and new cards this year, and Magic Date Science on Twitter has the stats to show for it:

That’s truly staggering, and there truly has never been more options for Commander players than the present day.

This end-of-year review shall focus on new cards from each of Magic: The Gathering colours (in the classic WURBG sequence) for the Commander format.

Disclaimer: I prefer to play Commander at the highest power level, but the cards mentioned below ought to be considered for pods of all levels too.

Best White Card: Archivist of Oghma

White cards in Magic: The Gathering have been getting a lot more love in the last few years, and rightly so.

White has always been considered the weakest out of all 5 colours and it is easy to see why: card draw and mana ramping–all important things for playing Magic: The Gathering, have always been a problem for white.

However, with the release of Archivist of Oghma in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate (a Dungeons and Dragons crossover set), players who play white now get an additional card draw option.

For one generic and one white mana, you can flash Archivist of Oghma in at instant speed whenever someone is searching their library, meaning that you instantly get a card draw trigger and well, a 2/2 body on the battlefield.

Archivist of Oghma can potentially draw you a few cards each game, especially if your opponents play fetch lands (even those like Evolving Wilds or Terramorphic Expanse which seem to be included in every precon Commander decks),

Archivist of Oghma is probably one of the better card draw options for white at the moment.

Best Blue Card: An Offer You Can’t Refuse

Blue has the best counterspells in the game–that has always been the core identity of blue, and Streets of New Capenna dropped an extremely intriguing counterspell this year.

An Offer You Can’t Refuse, for one blue mana, counters any noncreature spell. Its only downside is that your opponent gets two Treasures in return.

There are a few other excellent one mana value counterspells in blue, namely Flusterstorm, Spell Pierce and Swan Song.

However, these spells are rather conditional. Flusterstorm only counters instants or sorceries, Swan Song only does all of that and enchantments too (and creates a 2/2 bird that is definitely swinging your way), while Spell Pierce does not work when your opponents have mana up.

An Offer You Can’t Refuse essentially negates (ha!) all of the downside the cards mentioned above have; it just counters any noncreature spells including artifact and Planeswalker spells without any other restrictive conditions.

I have watched this card in play (against me), and tried it in my decks, too. The two Treasures you give to your opponent really do not matter if you’re trying to protect your winning combo, or you’re stopping another player from winning the game.

It is definitely going into most of my blue decks, and I highly recommend all of you who haven’t considered this card to not refuse this offer.

Best Red Card: Professional Face-Breaker

Besides giving us what I think is the best blue card for 2022, Streets of New Capenna has also produced the best red card too.

For two generic and one red mana, Professional Face-Breaker is a 2/3 creature with Menace. It also generates you a Treasure token as long as one of your creatures has successfully dealt combat damage to your opponent.

This is not the most difficult thing to do because Professional Face-Breaker has some evasion (Menace), or you can simply get other creatures to do the job.

In this current meta where you are guaranteed to see Treasures in almost every game, Professional Face-Breaker also provides some card advantage with Treasures you don’t intend to use.

You can sacrifice a Treasure to exile the top card of your library at instant speed (and as many times as you have Treasures to sacrifice), and cast any of the cards exiled this way this turn.

This can be extremely valuable when you have a lot of Treasures but you need to find better spells to play, or when you know what is the top card of your library and you need to get rid of it because it’s a dead card.

Professional Face-Breaker does quite a lot by itself, and it's an excellent value engine for decks that have red in it.

Best Black Card: Black Market Connections

Printed in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur Gate, Black Market Connections is hands down the best black card printed this year for Commander in 2022.

For two generic and one black mana, Black Market Connections is an enchantment which can give you either a Treasure, card draw or a 3/2 body at the beginning of your precombat main phase.

That is some insane value, because the next best black enchantment card which costs three that I can think of is Phyrexian Arena, and it does not even come close.

Black Market Connections gives you other options besides card draw (which Phyrexian Arena can only provide).

Do you need some mana? Have a Treasure! Want a body to block something coming your way later instead? Have a 3/2 Shapeshifter with changeling (and this can be extremely useful in tribal decks too)!

The only downside is losing some life, but losing life has always been a black thing, and if you like playing black (or for the matter, Magic: The Gathering), remember: life is also a resource!

This card is most definitely a new black staple, and this is evident considering the increase in the card’s price ever since it was released.

Best Green Card: Boseiju, Who Endures

Last, and arguably what I think is the best new release in 2022, is the card Boseiju, Who Endures from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty.

Admittedly, lands in Magic: The Gathering do not have any colour identity, so I might be cheating a little here.

However, the Channel ability requires at the minimum a green mana to activate, so I am considering this as a “green” card.

Why Boseiju, Who Endures then? At its worst, it's a legendary land which produces green mana.

At its best, it can remove any artifact, enchantment or nonbasic land at instant speed for one green mana (as long as your Commander or any other legendary creature is on the battlefield).

Its Channel ability is extremely strong because it is an activated ability, not a spell — that means it is almost uncounterable by counterspells, and it can play through stax pieces like Eidolon of Rhetoric or Rule of Law.

The next best green card which can remove any artifact or enchantment at instant speed and only costs one green mana, is Nature’s Claim.

However, Nature’s Claim doesn’t hit nonbasic lands like Boseiju, Who Endures does, and it can potentially be countered or hindered by stax pieces.

The sheer versatility and ceiling for Boseiju, Who Endures is incredible, and this is definitely my top green card for the year 2022.

With that, it is time to look forward to 2023. It seems like March of the Machines will herald some major changes to Magic: The Gathering in 2023, and as a Magic fan, I cannot wait for what that entails!

Jay Chan plays a lot of Dota 2 and MTG. He's terrible in Dota 2 and a scrub in MTG, and maybe spends too much money on both games.

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