Esper is one of Magic's most popular color combinations.

Esper is known as one of the Shards,and this color identity is made up of the colors White, Blue, and Black. Its strategies revolve around amassing advantages, whether that be through drawing cards, denying your opponents resources, or exploiting other synergies.

As a long-time Esper player, primarily in Standard, I've always focused on the Control strategies of Esper - building decks that seeked to slowly dismantle my opponents, only to eventually outpower them in terms of resources.

Moving into Commander, a lot of what I loved about Esper all those years ago is still reflected in some of its most fun Commanders to build around.

Y'shtola, Night's Blessed

Y'shtola, Night's Blessed was the Commander that got me back into EDH.

Y'shtola focuses on casting noncreature spells; every time you cast one that has a converted mana cost higher than three, you ping your opponents for two damage while also gaining two life in the process So, if you don't want your entire deck focused on Creatures and attacking, this is the Commander for you.

Besides Y'shtola just being a threat on her own by giving you incremental points of damage and lifegain, her second ability amasses card advantage. Every end step on a turn where a player lost four or more life, you benefit.

Keep in mind that this counts you as well, so if you cast a Snuff Out for its alternate cost, you get a free card.

Y'shtola is such a great Esper Commander to build around because the barrier for entry is low. What I mean by this is that you can customize your Y'shtola decks a number of different ways, all while staying within theme.

You can have a more Creature-focused build, utilizing the various Final Fantasy Creatures included in her precon, Scions and Spellcraft. Creatures like Papalymo Totolymo, Emet-Selch of the Third Seat, Lyse Hext, and partners Alisaie Leveilleur and Alphinaud Leveilleur all naturally play into Y'shtola's strategy.

My favorite option would be Alisaie Leveilleur and Lyse Hext since they discount your noncreature spells helping you trigger your Y'shtola twice in a turn.

On the flipside, you could build a Y'shtola deck that doesn't focus on this Creature package at all, and you can win the game through alternate conditions, whether that's by dealing enough damage with Y'shtola herself or casting cards like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, Bloodchief Ascension, or a personal pet card, Approach of the Second Sun.

You can balance these spells out with ways to reset the board state, like Farewell and Ultima, making sure you don't fall too far behind your opponents.

One Esper Commander that's been around for quite some time, Oloro, Ageless Ascetic, is actually not a bad inclusion in a Y'shtola deck. Oloro is definitely a bit of an older Commander, as his precon came out almost 13 years ago, and while you can definitely build a lifegain strategy around him, I actually like that you can include him in various other Esper decks.

In the case of Y'shtola, Night's Blessed, Oloro can provide some additional life gain and some extra cards every time you get Y'shtola's trigger when casting a noncreature spell with mana value three or higher.

Sidar Jafar of Zhalfir

On the flip side, if attacking is your thing then I cannot recommend anybody more than Sidar Jafar of Zhalfir. Funny enough, Knights were central to my first-ever Constructed deck.

I utilized cards like Student of Warfare and Kinsbaile Cavalier, in coordination with multiple copies of Knight Exemplar to amass an indestructible army - the kids at my local library's play group didn't stand a chance.

Sidar Jafar not only prioritizes attacking, but with its ability you can reanimate powerful Knight cards once it deals combat damage to one of your opponents. Since Sidar has First Strike this means you can do something as crazy as reanimate a Moonshaker Calvary before the regular damage step and pump your whole team up for some serious life point swings!

You can reanimate other crazy value cards like Summon: Knights of Round and Summon: Primal Odin, all while keeping up the pressure with smaller Creatures such as Ayara's Oathsworn and Corpse Knight.

While I think a Commander like Sidar Jafar of Zhalfir is a little more constricting in terms of deck design compared to a Commander like Y'shtola, Night's Blessed, I do really like all the intricate synergies you can include in a Sidar deck

You also have multiple ways to protect your board state from sweeper effects, like Knights' Charge and Guardian of Faith. There's also Reach in multiple ways to damage your opponents with cards like Smitten Swordmaster and Locthwain Lancer.

Knights is a Creature-centric strategy, but I do really like the surprise factor Sidar Jafar of Zhalfir incorporates with its reanimate ability, making for some nasty game swings with each powerful Knight you resurrect in combat.

Aminatou, Veil Piercer

Aminatou, Veil Piercer is another powerful Commander that seeks to gain advantage by casting powerful Enchantment cards for cheap. Aminatou helps you gain advantage by fixing your draw step every turn with a Surveil 2, but also by discounting your next Enchantment spell, giving it the Miracle ability and reducing its cost by .

Some of these high-powered Enchantments include Shark Typhoon, One with the Multiverse, Extravagant Replication, and Sigil of the Empty Throne.

Aminatou, Veil Piercer is all about amassing a larger and larger advantage as you build up your Enchantments on the battlefield - you need to have ways to discount their casting cost, protect them, and return them to play if met with removal or a mass Enchantment sweeper effect.

You can discount your Enchantment spells with cards like Starfield Mystic and Inquisitive Glimmer - this also helps discount your Miracle cost if you have Aminatou in play! You can protect your in-play Enchantments with cards like Greater Auramancy and Teferi's Protection.

If you run into any sweepers, you can reanimate all your Enchantments from your graveyard with cards like Replenish, Brilliant Restoration, Open the Vaults, and Redress Fate.

Aminatou is fun to build around due to how customizable you can make your deck. You can definitely have something even more powerful by including Game Changers like Rhystic Study and various tutor effects.

However, you can also make a "pillow fort" type strategy with cards like Ghostly Prison, Sphere of Safety, and Propaganda.

Exquisite Blood makes for a nice lifegain supply while you aren't being attacked too! I think what makes this deck fun to build around is the snowballing advantage that comes with multiple standalone cards just having ways to win the game on their own.

Hallowed Haunting, Ondu Spiritdancer, Starfield of Nyx, and even Zur, Eternal Schemer, can all be game-ending threats in their own right, and as long as you keep playing Enchantments you can keep amassing advantage in different shapes and forms.

While Aminatou requires you to lean into the Enchantment theme, you have a plethora of cards to choose from in Magic's history.

Hashaton, Scarab's Fist

Leaning into the Eternalize mechanic first introduced in the set Hour of Devastation, Hashaton, Scarab's Fist is a Commander that revolves around "reanimating" high-powered Creatures through various ways.

Hashaton's ability lets you make 4/4 copies of Creatures you discard, multiple times a turn if you so wish. This means you can make Instant-speed copies of various haymakers such as Armaggon, Future Shark, Archon of Cruelty, and Valgavoth, Terror-Eater.

To do this though, you need to find various ways to actually discard these menacing threats. You can utilize various discard outlets like Tortured Existence, Cryptbreaker, and old-fashioned Undertaker.

Some Creatures you can play are already discard outlets, such as Angel of the Ruins and Archfiend of Ifnir.

Rhet-Tomb Mystic, one of the cards included in the Hashaton, Scarab's Fist Commander precon, give your Creatures Cycling for , giving you an inexpensive way to fill your graveyard, while also drawing cards in the process.

Hashaton feels like Animatou in that you're ultimately trying to cheat powerful cards into play and use them to amass an advantage. For example, if you play a Tortured Existence on turn one and your Hashaton, Scarab's Fist on turn three, you can potentially put an Archangel Avacyn or a Sheoldred, Whispering One into play on turn four!

The creativity in building a Hashaton, Scarab's Fist Esper EDH deck comes in figuring out how you discard these cards, what payoffs you get, and ultimately what large threats you're trying to sneak into play.

This also means you can incorporate discard synergy cards into your deck, since they play into your inherent theme. You can play cards like Monument to Endurance, Drake Haven, and Lazotep Chancellor.

There's also a subtle Zombie theme you can include in these decks, if you choose to do so, meaning you can play cards like, Temmet, Naktamun's Will, Renewed Solidarity, and Gleaming Overseer.

I also like including one or two big ways to mass-reanimate your whole graveyard, like Rise of the Dark Realms or Living Death. Granted, you may run into graveyard hate of some kind during your games, but it's important to have one big power play to completely turn a game around in your favor.

Honorable Mentions

While I couldn't include every Esper Commander in this article, there are a handful of other Commanders I think are worth checking out and building around.

Tivit, Seller of Secrets

Tivit, Seller of Secrets is a prime example of a really unique Commander because it's one of the few that deal with The Council's Dilemma mechanic. While there aren't too many cards that deal with the voting mechanic, the inherent politics make for interesting games of EDH.

This type of Esper deck can help you make the most out of a niche type of Magic card, aiming to control the votes of your opponents with cards like Expropriate, Council's Judgement, Plea for Power, and Capital Punishment.

Sen Triplets

An oldie but a goodie, Sen Triplets is another one of these unique Esper Commanders. While it may have a pretty high mana cost and not be as powerful as the other options, its unique effect leads to interesting gameplay decisions.

While playing with your own cards is fun, there's something to be said about the absolute joy of casting a card like Bribery and stealing your opponent's best haymaker and using it to your advantage. This is also one of the best Commander decks to play one of the best Dimir Planeswalker cards, Tasha, the Witch Queen.

However, an ability like Sen Triplets makes it a prime target for your opponent's malice, making me think that you won't get to keep it in play as often as you think.

Artifact Strategies

If you like Artifact strategies then Urza, Chief Artificer and Noctis, Prince of Lucis are solid Commanders. These EDH decks, however, err on the side of being more Colorless and Blue-focused rather than pure Esper, given that both are Artifact-centric.

Urza is definitely the more powerful of the two, given that you can "cheat" Urza out faster with Ethereum Sculptor and Foundry Inspector. Urza also can win the game on its own given you can continually make Construct tokens.

You can amass an army of large tokens fast also just by playing the common Artifact Land cycle of Ancient Den, Seat of the Synod, and Vault of Whispers.

Urza, Chief Artificer is also a great Commander because while your deck is mainly focused on Colorless Artifact spells, you can also just play other Esper Commanders like Noctis, Prince of Lucis, Alela, Artful Provocateur, and Sharuum, the Hedgemon.

Conclusion

Esper has a plethora of unique Commanders to choose from. If you like amassing cards, sneaking into play powerful Creatures, Artifacts, and Enchantments, or just controlling the board state, White/Bue/Black is the color combination for you.

I hope this article helps you find an Esper Commander you think you'd resonate with and inspires you to search for some nasty card combos to include in your Esper EDH deck!