Hi folks! We've got another Top 10 list here for you! I'm gonna be highlighting some of Magic's best Wizards! This time, we're tackling the top 10 in regular Commander!

I did a top 10 in cEDH recently, you can find it here!

For this list, we're specifically not using any of the Wizards in the cEDH list, so that we can highlight some of the best ones for all the other brackets! Most of my lists that I put out here on CSI are Bracket 3 lists, so this list will mostly focus there. Let's get into it!

I also want to take this time to have a moment of silence for the best wizard currently banned, Prophet of Kruphix (not Nadu, Winged Wisdom, that bird is the worst). If you've ever had the chance to play this card, then you know that it honestly belongs here. Being able to untap each turn like a Seedborn Muse and also being able to cast creatures as if they had flash is no joke. One day, our Prophet may return. We can only hope!

Honorable Mentions!

Just like the cEDH list, we've got 3 honorable mentions. Narrowing down here was hard, for sure, and if you've got different ideas, you should reach out and let me know!

HM#1 - Emry, Lurker of the Loch

First up, we've got Emry, Lurker of the Loch! Emry is a 3-mana 1/2 Merfolk Wizard that has Affinity for Artifacts, so you can cast it for as low as a single Blue mana! Like lots of other cards from Eldraine, this card is a reference to some story, the Lady of the Lake specifically. When she enters you mill 4, and you can tap her to cast a target artifact in your graveyard. At first, Emry was one of the strongest Mono-Blue legends printed, but she's fallen out of favor since cards like Urza, Lord High Artificer came into our world. She still has utility, but I think she's better off in the 99 of Blue-based artifact decks.

HM#2 - Zur the Enchanter

Ah, yes, Zur. Zur used to be the big bad of Commander. Back in the day, if you sat in a pod and one of the players had Zur the Enchanter, it immediately became an Archenemy game against them. Nowadays, it's not so bad, people have started playing removal, and lots of Legends prevalent nowadays have a comparable speed to Zur. Still he's still quite strong and worth trying out, and even in the top 100 of Commanders on EDHREC. Watch out for cards like Diplomatic Immunity and Grasp of Fate, they're great with Zur!

HM#3 - Glen Elendra Archmage

Our final wizard in the HM's is Glen Elendra Archmage! One of my favorite Birthing Pod targets, this Faerie Wizard is great for dealing with multiple noncreature threats. That can be nice in a pod to keep a pesky control player at bay while maintaining board presence, but it doesn't do much to further what you're doing; you're mostly just stopping someone else. It also doesn't foster too much creativity; it's just a reusable counterspell. For that reason, it's an HM.

#10 - Jhoira of the Ghitu

First up in the list is Jhoira of the Ghitu! Along with Zur, Jhoira is one of the original big baddies of the Commander format! There are lots of ways to use (and abuse) Jhoira, but no matter what, she promotes good deck-building and rewards careful planning. She lets you suspend any nonland card from your hand and will cast it in 4 turns. There are ways to make that go by faster, but you won't always have that. You need to make sure that you plan out when your cards are being cast and also not flood your deck with massive cards that rely on your Commander, because you may not always have Jhoira either. As far as Wizards go, she fits the bill well in her colors and with what she does.

#9 - Azami, Lady of Scrolls

Arguably the very first good Wizard Commander, Azami, Lady of Scrolls started terrorizing tables immediately as soon as people saw how powerful it is to have a tap ability you can use without needing haste! Azami lets you tap any untapped Wizard you control to draw a card, including herself. Having the ability to do that with all of your wizards is so powerful, and ensures that you have a never-ending supply of cards. Her infamous combo is with Mind Over Matter, letting you effectively loot your entire deck to find exactly which card you need. She also slots well into the 99 of any Wizard deck too, so she earns the spot in the list!

#8 - Vedalken Aethermage

Next up is Vedalken Aethermage! This 2-mana Wizard can be flashed in to bounce a Sliver to its owner's hand. You're never going to do this because its real ability is the fact that it has Wizardcycling 3, making it effectively another copy of any wizard in your deck. I'd argue this is more of an auto-include in Blue-based wizard decks than Azami, because of its utility to be anything (including Azami herself). This future-shifted common does so much and is worth playing, try it out!

#7 - Kuja, Genome Sorcerer

One of two non-Blue entries in our list, we have Kuja, Genome Sorcerer! Kuja, a Mutant in Final Fantasy IX from an alternate planet called Terra, is a powerful Wizard that was instrumental in the creation of Black Wizards, which have translated well into Magic! Our Kuja is a 4-mana 3/4 that creates tapped Black pinging wizards at your end step, and then can transform into his Trance form, Trance Kuja, Fate Defied, if you have 4 or more wizards! His back side has it so that your wizards are dealing double damage to permanents and players, which include the tokens he's created! This pairs well with wizards that ping for damage, like Black Waltz No. 3 and Coruscation Mage. Kuja makes the list for being a rather popular Commander for how short he's been around, sitting at #103 on EDHREC since just last year.

#6 - Jodah, the Unifer/Jodah, Archmage Eternal

The first of the multi-card entries on this list, we've paired up the Jodahs because they both fit the same niche, 5-color spellcasting Commanders! Jodah, Archmage Eternal lets you pay for any spells, including ones that cost more than 5, so you can basically think of him as a pseudo-ramp spell in a big spells deck. Jodah, the Unifier is a legends-matter commander that pumps your legends while also giving you a legendary version of Cascade! During the Deck the Halls sale last month, I put together a Legendary deck, take a look here if you want to check it out!

#5 - Snapcaster Mage

Wizards find themselves on the Magic Invitational Cards often, Snapcaster Mage being the most recent of them! Along with others like Dark Confidant, Meddling Mage, Shadowmage Infiltrator, these cards have been playable in competitive formats throughout Magic's history! Snapcaster Mage has been strong in Commander as well, letting you rebuy any instant or sorcery in your graveyard for just 2 mana! It has massive flexibility because of the fact that it has flash and because its cost is relatively easy, sitting at . It works well in any deck with instants and sorceries that you just want to play more than once, such as spellslinger decks, or big spell Green decks with ramp spells.

#4 - Transit/Treasure/Tribute/Trinket/Trophy Mage

The tutor mages! These five 3-mana wizards all search for artifacts in your deck with different mana costs, and are all useful in artifact decks, searching any artifact with the appropriate cost! Scryfall has a neat little tag of "Trinket-Mage" that you can use to find them here.

Here are a few options that each one can search:

Trinket Mage - Esper Sentinel, Sensei's Divining Top, Shadowspear

Tribute Mage - The Soul Stone, Arcane Signet, Grinding Station

Trophy Mage - Buster Sword, Extraplanar Lens, Simularcum Synthesizer

Transit Mage - The One Ring, Roaming Throne, Iron Man, Titan of Innovation

Tribute Mage - The Great Henge, Knowledge Pool, The Immortal Sun

#3 - Harmonic Prodigy

Harmonic Prodigy! This card is the other non-Blue Wizard here, and it has so much versatility. This little guy has prowess, and doubles the triggers of other Shamans or Wizards that you control. From doubling ETB's like Kefka, Court Mage's trigger to doubling cast triggers like the Black Wizards from Kuja, Genome Sorcerer, this guy does it all! Even just doubling Vivi Ornitier's cast trigger is such a game changer because you're doing it twice as fast. Its versatility and low number of prints have earned it its spot here in the list! (I'm totally just trying to highlight its existence so it gets reprinted more!)

#2 - Inalla, Archmage Ritualist

Inalla, one of the cards printed with Eminence, was able to solidify its position as the Wizard Kindred commander! Eminence works in the Command Zone, meaning that you don't even need to have Inalla in play for her ability. Inalla copies wizards that enter for a single mana. These wizards have haste and are exiled at the beginning of the next end step, so you only get them for the turn, but many wizards have strong ETB's, from Bloodline Necromancer to Archaeomancer, making the extra token so useful! Cards like Puppeteer Clique and Venser, Shaper Savant can all give you great utility, amongst so many others. Inalla is also 3-colors, giving you the main three wizard colors, so she's earned the penultimate spot here.

#1 - Niv-Mizzets!

There are four Niv-Mizzets printed in Magic that are also wizards! Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius, Niv-Mizzet, Parun, Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, and Niv-Mizzet, Visionary! Each of these dragons have an ability that relates to drawing cards in some way. Dracogenius and Visionary draw cards when damage is dealt, and Parun and Firemind deal damage when card is drawn. There are many combos involving them and cards like Curiosity/Ophidian Eye or even themselves. They are iconic in Magic's history while also being relevant to its story, from being the leader of the Izzet on Ravnica, to being Ravnica's Guildpact, succeeding Jace, the Living Guildpact. They all are the embodiment of what a wizard should aspire to be, and are great in the command zone or the 99!

Thanks for reading, see you all for the next list!