Commander is arguably Magic's best format for deck customization. With so many different Legendary Creatures across multiple color combinations to choose from, it can be difficult to pin down what the best Commander might be for a certain color pair.

Two-color Commanders are popular to build around since you not only get to pull cards from two different colors, but you have a consistent mana-base and theme to build around. With these decks you can build a consistent mana base of around 34-37 Lands, with multiple two-color Dual Lands to choose from.

Top Two-Color Commanders

Here are the best Commanders for each two-color pair in Magic:

• Azorius: Brago, King Eternal
• Boros: Arabella, Abandoned Doll
• Dimir: Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow
• Golgari: Lathril, Blade of the Elves
• Gruul: Bello, Bard of the Brambles
• Izzet: Vivi Ornitier
• Orzhov: Teysa Karlov
• Rakdos: Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls
• Selesnya: Sythis, Harvest's Hand
• Simic: Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy

Let's take a look at what makes each of them top-of-the-line for their pair.

Azorius: Brago, King Eternal

Brago, King Eternal might not be the most popular Azorius Commander, but he's the best and most notable for a few key reasons.

With Brago, you get to build a deck focused on exiling your permanents and bringing them back into play, known in Magic as "blinking." Your deck revolves around finding cards that have strong effects that trigger when they enter the battlefield and using various ways to blink them and trigger their ability multiple times.

What makes Brago, King Eternal the best for Blue-White is how customizable your deck can be. If you can continuously blink your permanents and you have ways of doubling your triggers with cards like Panharmonicon, you can get so much value.

Cards like Riptide Gearhulk can keep removing threats, while you can amass an army with cards like Harmonious Archon.

Agent of Treachery is probably one of the best options, as you can continuously steal your opponents cards, including their Lands.

Overall, Brago, King Eternal isn't the most powerful Commander on its own, but with the right tools you can set up some nasty combos. Brago is a strong engine card to build around, which makes him the top choice for this two-color pair.

Boros: Arabella, Abandoned Doll

Since her release in Duskmourn, Arabella, Abandoned Doll has proven to be the best Boros Commander, thanks to her reputation for ending games quickly.

Arabella focuses on attacking your opponents, while also putting multiple Creatures into play with power two or less. Because she costs only two mana, you can easily deploy Arabella from the Command Zone multiple times over the course of the game.

With Arabella, Abandoned Doll, you'll want to include a high number of low-cost, low-power Creatures. For example, cards like Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon can be a reliable token generator in a deck like this.

Cards like Agate Instigator can be huge sources of damage to whittle down your opponents' life totals, and card draw from Welcoming Vampire can make sure you're continuously playing Creatures to feed to Arabella's triggered ability.

Since this is an attack trigger, you can rely on cards like Delney, Streetwise Lookout to ensure she gets to attack freely. Delney is one of the best cards for this strategy as they allow you to trigger your Commander's ability an extra time.

Arabella is so potent due to how fast she can come online and deal continuous damage.

Dimir: Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow

The best Dimir Commander is none other than Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow. Yuriko is a unique Commander due to the fact she is the only Legendary Creature with the "Commander Ninjutsu" ability.

This means that any time Yuriko is in the Command Zone, you can use her ability to return an unblocked attacker you control to put her directly into play, attacking your opponent.

Yuriko is the best Blue-Black Commander for this reason alone. Since the Commander Tax doesn't apply to this ability, you basically get to cheat her out repeatedly for just two mana. On top of that, you can play multiple high-cost cards and set up turns where you deal large amounts of damage since you're not losing mana to the Commander tax.

With cards like Brainstorm, you can put strong cards on top of your library like Temporal Trespass and Shadow of Mortality. If you can amass a board of multiple Ninjas, you can find ways of making them unblockable, triggering Yuriko repeatedly.

Golgari: Lathril, Blade of the Elves

For the best Golgari Commander, we have Lathril, Blade of the Elves. Lathril is probably the most prominent Elf Commander, and her activated ability can win the game on the spot.

Lathril Commander decks have two focuses: putting into play as many Elves as possible and using those Elves to deal massive amounts of damage.

For example, Ezuri, Renegade Leader can buff up your team multiple times over. When it comes to ways to sneak in damage, you can use cards like Shaman of the Pack to get in a lot of direct life damage.

Lathril costs , which may seem expensive, but with multiple one-drop Elves that tap for Green, like Llanowar Elves and Elvish Mystic, you can deploy her quickly. Lahtril is such a threat because you can repeatedly play her from the Command Zone and threaten your opponents with huge amounts of damage if left unchecked.

Gruul: Bello, Bard of the Brambles

Bello, Bard of the Brambles. Bello is such a strong Gruul Commander, because every combat he can turn your non-Equipment Artifacts and non-Aura Enchantments into Indestructible attacking 4/4s.

This means that you can just play multiple Artifacts and Enchantments, have them sit in play, and whenever Bello successfully sticks around for a combat phase, you can get in some nasty attacks with little risk.

Bello, Bard of the Brambles is a bit of a glass cannon, since you need to have him in play to turn your Artifacts and Enchantments into attacking Creatures. Because of this, you want to amass a decent amount of these card types that can give a big boost to your team when you attack.

Berserkers' Onslaught and Gratuitous Violence are two of the best cards for this. Garruk's Uprising is also potent, since it's a non-Aura Enchantment for that gives arguably the most important keyword to your support cards: Trample.

Bello is a risky Commander, since he'll always have a huge target on his back if you have a lot of solid Enchantments and Artifacts in play. However, he's such a powerful two-color Commander due to how fast you can win games with him.

Izzet: Vivi Ornitier

It's no surprise that the best Izzet Commander is none other than Vivi Ornitier. Vivi has already been hit by the ban hammer in Standard, because if left unchecked, this Legendary Creature can be a one-card win condition.

Izzet Commander decks built around Vivi Ornitier focus on casting a large amount of Instant and Sorcery spells to amass an advantage.

Vivi is so strong as a two-color Commander due to his two abilities. Every time you cast a qualifying spell you put a +1/+1 counter on Vivi, and he deals one damage to each opponent. You can also add an amount of Blue and Red mana in any combination equal to the amount of +1/+1 counters on him. While this might not seem that threatening, the fact that Vivi can amass huge amounts of mana each turn is what makes this Commander so strong.

You can utilize a bunch of cheap Instants and Sorceries to buff up Vivi, like Pym Particles. Cards like Frantic Search are essentially free, since they untap your Lands, while also adding to Vivi's Instant and Sorcery count. With enough mana generated from Vivi's ability, you can ramp into cards like Prismari, the Inspiration and start to really go off.

Ultimately, you can treat Vivi like a Modern Izzet Storm deck. This means you want to build to a single turn where you can cast numerous spells, Flash them back with cards like Past in Flames, and ultimately deal lethal damage to your opponents with cards like Grapeshot.

It's helpful that Vivi helps you build to these turns by generating large amounts of mana and continuously hitting your opponents for one damage multiple times. This is what makes Vivi Ornitier the strongest two-color Commander for Blue-Red.

Orzhov: Teysa Karlov

In Orzhov, the best Black-White Commander you can build around is none other than Teysa Karlov.

Teysa is undoubtedly one of the most notable Commanders in the game, let alone the color pair, and for good reason. Her static ability gives you an additional death trigger every time one of your Creatures hits the graveyard, allowing you to build around a theme of self-sacrifice.

Teysa Karlov focuses on ways of hitting your opponents for multiple points of damage through repeatable sources. However, you'll need to include both ways to repeatedly generate tokens, as well as cards that can activate as sacrifice outlets.

Cards like Black Market Connections and Pawn of Ulamog are great ways to put multiple tokens into play turn after turn.

Viscera Seer can act as a cheap sacrifice outlet as well. Overall, you want to amass these various pieces of the puzzle together to ultimately create repeatable ways to ping your opponents' life total down to zero.

Teysa Karlov isn't the fastest Commander in Magic, but she is very resilient.

Additionally, cards like Athreos, God of Passage and Raise the Past can give you some insurance against Wrath effects. Overall, Teysa Karlov is the best Orzhov Commander for her static ability and resilience against threats and removal spells.

Rakdos: Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls

The best Rakdos Commander is Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls, originally printed in Duskmourn's Commander precon. Valgavoth is a threat with built-in protection with its Ward ability, but its real strength comes in its static ability. While this ability will only trigger once per opponent's turn, Valgavoth gets a +1/+1 counter and you draw a card the first time an opponent loses life during their own turn.

This means in a four-player game, you can get up to three cards and three +1/+1 counters on Valgavoth per turn cycle. Notably, if your opponent tries to target Valgavoth during their turn, his Ward ability will get you a card.

Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls benefits greatly from ways you can repeatedly have your opponents lose life on their turns. Cards like Persistent Constrictor and Fate Unraveler are your key players here, which can trigger Valgavoth every turn.

If your opponent is playing Lifegain effects, you can use Rampaging Ferocidon and Roiling Vortex to shut them down.

Overall, Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls is a win condition in his own right. While your deck can have a ton of built-in ways to pressure your opponents' life totals, Valgavoth can also swing for tons of damage. This is what makes him the best Commander for Black-Red.

Selesnya: Sythis, Harvest's Hand

While Selesnya is a two-color pair that doesn't necessarily have lots of ways to pressure life totals with repeatable damage effects, Sythis, Harvest's Hand is the perfect Commander for gaining an advantage with Enchantments.

Sythis isn't much of a win condition on its own, but rather an engine that allows you to draw cards and to gain life whenever you cast Enchantments.

Sythis cares about putting multiple cards into play that will piece together your overall strategy. Cards like Starfield Mystic and Jukai Naturalist act as ramp, to make your Enchantments cost less mana.

Cards like Sterling Grove can grant you protection against targeted removal and counter magic, allowing you to provide a buffer against your opponents' card interactions.

Where Sythis really shines a Commander is when you're able to cast multiple Enchantments for cheap while also drawing cards. Ultimately, you want to get into a position where your Enchantments are overpowering your opponents in value, relying on cards like Sigil of the Empty Throne to keep churning out threats.

You can also build your deck to include more Auras, like Daybreak Coronet to win through Commander damage.

You can customize Sythis based on your playstyle, and with so many powerful Enchantments in MTG to choose from, you'll have no issue finding various ways to win games or accrue advantages with this Selesnya Commander.

Simic: Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy

Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy is the premier Commander for Simic . Kinnan is a Commander focused on ramp, and you can put out some big haymakers early on in a game with him.

With Creatures like Delighted Halfling and Birds of Paradise, you can generate a ton of mana easily.

With Kinnan's activated ability you can look at the top five cards of your library and put a big Creature from among them directly into play. With this ability you can easily cheat in some powerful and hard to deal with threats, such as Koma, Cosmos Serpent and Hullbreaker Horror.

If left unchecked, you can use these haymakers to take control of a game quickly.

Kinnan is another one of these two-color Commanders that act as an engine rather than a win condition on its own. With so much mana at your fingertips, you can accelerate getting cards that can end the game on the spot, like Finale of Devastation.

This is what makes Kinnan so potent as a Simic Commander; he's easy to cast, has a static ability that can snowball the game in your favor fast, and has an activated ability that can provide a lot of value.

Conclusion

Overall, while there are numerous two-color pair Commanders to choose from, this list of ten is arguably the best for each two-color combination. Many of these Commanders are so powerful due to how fast they can accrue an advantage over your opponents.

Whether it's casting multiple Instants and Sorceries in a single turn or amassing a board of Elves, the underlying theme of these Commanders is an inherently powerful effect that can win games on their own.