Benalish Commander
Creature — Human Soldier
Benalish Commander's power and toughness are each equal to the number of Soldiers you control.
Suspend X—
. X can't be 0.
Whenever a time counter is removed from this card while it's exiled, create a 1/1 white Soldier creature token.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Planar Chaos
- Price
- $0.54
- EDHREC rank
- #15383
Benalish Commander enters as a threat that scales with every Soldier already on board, then keeps scaling as you build out your army — the pump is permanent, not a one-shot anthem. Commander Mustard decks run it because a five-mana 1/1 that immediately becomes a 4/4 or larger in a populated board is exactly the kind of stat-dense, synergy-native threat that archetype wants.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Commander Mustard
Commander Mustard is the premier home for Benalish Commander — Mustard builds go wide with Soldiers naturally, so Benalish Commander enters with a substantial power and toughness boost already baked in, then turns every subsequent Soldier into a permanent anthem stacked on top of the existing pile.
Myrel, Shield of Argive
Myrel, Shield of Argive floods the board with Soldier tokens on your turn, which means Benalish Commander lands into an army mid-game rather than an empty board — Myrel's token generation and Benalish Commander's cumulative pump reinforce each other in a tight feedback loop.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Benalish Commander earns its keep — in a 100-card Soldier tribal shell, the enters-the-battlefield pump clause frequently represents four or more counters, and the card compounds value as the game goes long. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but competes with a card-quality ceiling it can't approach; no competitive Soldier shell there reaches for it. Modern follows the same logic — the effect is fair in a format that punishes fair. Benalish Commander is a Commander-format card, full stop, and specifically a creature-dense Soldier tribal Commander-format card.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.54 bulk tier
At $0.54, Benalish Commander is bulk, which is accurate — it's a niche tribal payoff with a ceiling that tops out at casual Commander tables. Bulk rare pricing tends to be stable rather than ascending for cards like this, so pick it up for its effect, not any expectation of movement.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.