MtG: 15 Best Innistrad Crimson Vow Cards for Commander

All five tribes from Innistrad Midnight Hunt make their way back to the newest Magic: The Gathering set Innistrad Crimson Vow. But this time the set revolves mostly around vampires that produce special blood tokens.

There is also a new Cleave mechanic that provides players with some degree of flexibility. Humans tribe has the Training mechanic that allows them to gain more power and toughness when attacking bigger creatures, and Zombies allow you to Exploit them for certain advantages.

All these mechanics and more are going to make a difference in the EDH community, so check out this selection of the best MtG cards from Innistrad Crimson Vow for commander format.

Wash Away

Commander has plenty of ways to cast spells from anywhere besides your hand, which makes the new Wash Away counterspell an instant bomb in the format.

Of course, it's not as effective as Force of Negation, which can be cast for free, but paying one mana for a solid counterspell is a really good deal nonetheless.

It can easily stop any of the Underworld Breach shenanigans early on, as well as exile zone or tutor strategies. Pair it up with a few other solid counterspells, and you won't have to worry much.

Hullbreaker Horror

If you were looking for a card that could disrupt a whole chain of your opponent's plays, then this is the one that should fit all your needs.

The high cost of Hullbreaker Horror won't matter much in Tasigur, the Golden Fang decks, where you can use Neoform or similar spells to put Hullbreaker Horror on the board and trigger its return abilities one after another with a series of spells.

This thing can even target uncounterable spells, unless your opponent plays Veil of Summer.

Odric, Blood-Cursed

EDH community has been circling around this card for some time, as it offers some amazing infinite mana combo that goes like this:

1. Cast Eldrazi Displacer
2. Cast Krark-Clan Ironworks
3. Cast Battlefield Raptor (or any other similar creature)
4. Cast Odric, Blood-Cursed, creating two blood tokens
5. Sacrifice two blood tokens to Krark-Clan Ironworks, generating 4 mana
6. Use 3 mana for Eldrazi Displacer's blink ability on Odric, Blood-Cursed
7. When Odric, Blood-Cursed returns, he creates two more blood tokens
8. Rinse and repeat steps 5-7 for infinite mana

Eruth, Tormented Prophet

The ability and the color scheme of this card suggests a strong support for storm decks in commander.

It's basically a draw engine that generates twice as many cards per trigger, which then could be cast from the exile zone, and that is just a perfect plan for storm decks.

Spells like Brainstorm can really make this card fly, even if it's not your commander but a part of 99. In either case, it doesn't require too much set up and can be easily played on turn three.

Change of Fortune

This effect is by no means new, as Tolarian Winds and Collective Defiance already exist in the format, but if cast after these spells you can draw way more cards than your typical hand size.

It will go into decks that run Rielle, the Everwise, Bone Miser (or any other Shadow Bag strategies), Wheel of Fortune, and many others.

The infinite draw engine can also be achieved with the help of Anje Falkenrath commander. The possibilities are many!

Alchemist's Retrieval

Here is another impactful 1-mana blue spell that will make rounds in certain commander decks this season.

First, it's a great addition to Orvar, the All-Form lists that want these targeted types of effects in as many copies as possible.

Then, it can be a recurring effect for Dockside Extortionist, or a protective spell for Codie, Vociferous Codex.

In all these cases, Alchemist's Retrieval can be used to a great effect. And if you need to get rid of the opponent's threats, then paying two mana for Cleave effect won't feel like a robbery.

Consuming Tide

There are only a few cards that can be compared to Cyclonic Rift, a commander staple. But here is another contender from Innistrad Crimson Vow. It's only a sorcery and not an instant, but it needs only four mana, while most other similar cards are much more expensive.

Consuming Tide won't break the format or anything like that, and many players will find sorcery speed ineffective, but in certain decks that run Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain this could be an excellent additional effect for playing your free mana rocks to draw more cards.

Manaform Hellkite

We've seen plenty of token producers in the past, but tokens generated by Manaform Hellkite have haste, and this changes everything.

You can easily combo off with a series of cheap spells to produce lots of hasty attackers and win the game on the spot.

It can be a potential finisher in commander partner deck that runs Krark, the Thumbless alongside Sakashima of a Thousand Faces. In that case Sakashima culd copy Manaform Hellkite, and Krark could produce extra spells for all those tokens.

Cemetery Illuminator

The wording of the textbox on this card is a bit uneven, but this card actually has a lot of flexibility.

You need to start with the ability that you can look at the top of your library any time, and then you can decide which card to exile from which graveyard. This means that it gets even more interesting in multiplayer commander, where you have access to more than two graveyards.

In that sense, Cemetery Illuminator would be an excellent addition to God Eternal Kefnet decks and similar.

Welcoming Vampire

Here is a nice companion to Heliod, God of the Sun commander that can generate toekns to trigger Welcoming Vampire.

The best part about this card is that it can trigger on opponent's turn..

It is also recommended to pair it up with Flash creatures that can enter battlefield any time you need to draw more. In this way you can bring the number of draws to a maximum.

Edgar, Charmed Groom

The new vampire commander from Crimson Vow could also be a potential card draw generator for Welcoming Vampire, as when it transforms, it creates tokens that trigger her ability.

It's also good even if you play it as a simple vampire lord, because he can keep Welcoming Vampire out of the Lightning Bolt range.

Combine these two in a commander vampire tribal list and you'll get one seriously pushed deck.

Toxrill, the Corrosive

It's evident that Toxrill, the Corrosive is a slow card, but its high power makes you want to play it no matter what. All that you need to do is find a way to speed up its counter effect and token production.

In this case players will need a consistent Porliferate engine, such as Yawgmoth, Thran Physician or similar, in order to increase the number of counters. You may also need to make a copy of Toxrill himself to double the speed further on.

Regardless of your strategy here, Toxrill is a solid commander card.

Cultivator Colossus

The first thing that immediately pops up in combination with Cultivator Colossus is the Abundance enchantment from Urza's Saga. Abundance can help you filter out all the lands and turn Cultivator Colossus into a grotesque monster in a single turn.

You can also use Scouting Trek to put all your land cards on top of your library for a similar effect.

If you want to make things even spicier, add Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle to the equation for all that extra damage.

Geralf, Visionary Stitcher

If you feel that zombies in your The Scarab God deck are not powerful enough, then you can give all of them Flying with the help of Geralf, Visionary Stitcher.

If you feel that The Scarab God is too expensive for you, then you can make Geralf, Visionary Stitcher your commander instead and go for a budget version of the zombies tribal deck.

Finally, you can use Geralf's second ability to sacrifice Charix, the Raging Isle and get a 17/17 flying zombie, which is terrifying and probably game winning.

Necroduality

Zombie tribal players will have a real treat playing Necroduality. It simply doubles the power of their decks for free, and that should never be ignored.

But there is also a cool little infinite tokens combo associated with this enchantment as well:

1. Cast Phyrexian Altar
2. Cast Necroduality
3. Cast Gravecrawler, making another copy with Necroduality
4. Sacrifice Gravecrawler with Phyrexian Altar, generating one black mana
5. Spend this one black mana to cast Gravecrawler from your graveyard
6. Rinse and repeat steps 3-5 for infinite zombie tokens

That's all for the best 15 cards in MtG's Innistrad: Crimson Vow set. In addition to this list of the best Innistrad: Crimson Vow cards for commander, be sure to check out our other MtG guides and card lists here.