Every year Magic: the Gathering's Commander format gets a massive influx of new legendaries, all competing to be the most beloved by card gamers across the globe. This year, Y'shtola, Night's Blessed came out on top, utterly stomping the competition as more than 25,000 players built around her.
According to data from EDHREC, currently 28,344 players have made Y'shtola decks and uploaded them to an online deckbuilding site. This makes her both the most popular commander of 2025 and the 10th most popular commander of all time.
Everyone likes top five lists right? Well, the top five commanders of 2025 are…
- Y'shtola, Night's Blessed, with 28,344 decks.
- Vivi Ornitier, with 23,291 decks.
- Teval, the Balanced Scale, with 22,648 decks.
- Kefka, Court Mage, with 17,687 decks.
- Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER, with 17,509 decks.
Final Fantasy commanders absolutely dominate this list, securing four of the top five spots. Since it was the best selling Magic set of all time, this isn't really surprising, but damn, clearly you should never underestimate how much Magic players love RPGs.
There are some important caveats to consider. We've been able to play with all of these fighters from Final Fantasy since June, but the Avatar crossover only released in November. This means that the legends from that set haven't had as much time to become beloved by the community.
Some of the Avatar commanders are quickly climbing in popularity. Firelord Azula currently leads more than 16,000 decks and, at the rapid rate that players are building around her, she seems poised to overtake Sephiroth in the coming months.
The question remains, of the 100+ Final Fantasy commanders out there, why did Y'shtola rise to the top?
If you'll forgive me for including a second numbered list in this article, the way I see it, Y'shtola's popularity can be explained by five key factors…
- She's prominent - As the face commander of the Scions & Spellcraft deck (the commander precon for Final Fantasy XIV) lots of players know that this card exists.
- She's cheap - Even if you don't buy the precon, you can grab a copy of Y'shtola for less than a dollar. Unlike pricier cards like Vivi and Sephiroth, cost won't keep anyone from building around Y'shtola.
- She's unique - Cards that reward you for casting noncreature spells may be a dime a dozen, but Y'shtola encourages you to cast big spells, and to rapidly blast them out. There's a little bit of tension between these goals, but finding a way to achieve them both can take you to some really creative places.
- She's powerful - If you build around Y'shtola correctly, then you can burn away the opposition remarkably quickly while keeping your hand well-supplied with fresh cards.
- She's a cat girl - I know the MTG community, and I love you all, and I say this with absolute affection. Of course, the cat girl (with an anime-inspired alternative art treatment) was going to be incredibly popular. There was never any doubt.
Who was your favorite commander of 2025? Let us know in the Wargamer Discord. You can also have a look at our ranking of the sets of 2025 from worst to best.