Benalish Commander MTG Card

Planar Chaos (PLC)
2007-02-02 - Number 2

Benalish Commander - Time Spiral Remastered (TSR)

Time Spiral Remastered (TSR)
2021-03-19 - Number 8

Card sets	Released in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost	4
Rarity	Rare
Type	Creature — Human Soldier
Abilities	Suspend
Power	*
Toughness	*

Key Takeaways

Generates card advantage and battlefield presence through scalable soldier token creation.
Requires careful hand management due to its discard and white mana casting costs.
Offers combo potential in token-based strategies and tweaks to mana curve versatility.

Text of card

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 Benalish Commander while it's removed from the game, put a 1/1 white Soldier creature token into play.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Benalish Commander’s prowess lies in its scalable power, which culminates in a swarm of Soldier tokens. This ability not only expands your battlefield presence but also translates into card advantage without spending extra resources from your hand.

Resource Acceleration: As a card that thrives on the number of Soldiers under your command, this commander subtly motivates you to invest in creature generation. This strategic direction fosters a form of resource acceleration that’s oriented towards creating a robust army, thereby converting each summon into potential mana-utilization efficiencies.

Instant Speed: Although Benalish Commander itself may not operate at instant speed, it encourages a deck-building strategy that includes instants and flash spells. This ensures you can deploy threats or bolster your defenses on the fly; particularly synergistic in a game state that requires you to adapt quickly to shifts on the board.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Playing Benalish Commander involves a certain level of resource management due to its discard requirement. Each activation demands that a player discard a card, which can deplete your hand and leave you vulnerable, especially if you’re running low on cards to begin with.

Specific Mana Cost: Benalish Commander requires a specific blend of mana to cast – white mana. This can pose a challenge in multicolored decks that may struggle to produce the necessary white mana consistently or in a timely fashion, limiting the card’s flexibility and potential for usage in a variety of deck builds.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a mana cost that’s on the higher end, Benalish Commander’s impact on the game may come into play later than other options. This can be particularly noticeable in fast-paced games where early board presence and lower costing creatures can determine the victor. In these scenarios, you might find other creature cards that provide more immediate benefits or have a lower threshold for entry.

Reasons to Include Benalish Commander in Your Collection

Versatility: Benalish Commander offers flexibility for deck builders with its scalability in mana cost, making it a suitable fit for various stages of the game. Whether you’re casting it early or late, it adjusts to your mana availability.

Combo Potential: With its ability to put soldier tokens onto the battlefield, Benalish Commander synergizes with strategies that capitalize on creature quantity, such as those involving anthems or cards that trigger off summoning creatures.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta that’s creature-heavy or token-friendly, Benalish Commander can shine as a formidable presence, potentially snowballing a small advantage into a sweeping victory with its growing army of soldier tokens.

How to beat

If you’re facing a deck featuring the Benalish Commander, understanding its strengths and weaknesses is key to clinching victory. This card, with strong synergy in soldier-themed decks, grows in power with each turn thanks to its suspend mechanic, ultimately flooding the board with soldier tokens. To disrupt this strategy, prioritize removal spells that can target the Commander while it’s suspended or before it creates a significant token army.

Counterspells are also effective against this card since they can prevent it from ever hitting the battlefield. Mass removal effects can clear the tokens once they’ve been generated, mitigating the Commander’s impact on the game. Additionally, keep an eye on graveyard interactions as the Commander may return if there’s recursion involved. Cards that exile from the graveyard or counter spells that facilitate recursion can eliminate this threat permanently. Flexibility and proactive disruption will be your allies against the Benalish Commander-led assault.

Remember, letting the commander dictate the pace of the game could spell defeat. Instead, seize the initiative with a calculated response to dismantle your opponent’s strategy and safeguard your victory against this powerful card.

Cards like Benalish Commander

Benalish Commander enters the roster of creature cards with a significant advantage: its suspend mechanic. The ability to delay its entrance to the battlefield for a set number of turns in exchange for a potentially lower casting cost can be strategically advantageous. This places it in the same circle as other suspend cards like Epochrasite, which also becomes more powerful the longer it’s suspended. However, unlike Epochrasite, the Benalish Commander gains power from the number of soldiers you control, promoting a strategy built around creature quantity.

Looking at other soldier-centric cards, Precinct Captain exudes a similar vibe, providing a steady stream of soldier tokens whenever it deals combat damage to a player. While it doesn’t have suspend, its straightforward soldier-generating ability makes it a direct choice for soldier tribal decks. Field Marshal is another card that shines in a soldier deck, not by creating tokens but by empowering them with its static buffs. Benalish Commander not only benefits from such boosts but also contributes by increasing the number of soldiers on the field.

Overall, while different in execution, Benalish Commander can be a key player in a soldier token strategy, leveraging delay for a powerful, game-altering payoff when it finally resolves, and coupling well with other cards that enhance and utilize a broad army of soldiers.

Precinct Captain - Return to Ravnica (RTR)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Benalish Commander MTG card by a specific set like Planar Chaos and Time Spiral Remastered, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Benalish Commander and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Benalish Commander Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2007-02-02 and 2021-03-19. Illustrated by Paolo Parente.

#	Release	Name	Code	Symbol	Number	Frame	Layout	Border	Artist
1	2007-02-02	Planar Chaos	PLC		2	2003	normal	black	Paolo Parente
2	2021-03-19	Time Spiral Remastered	TSR		8	2015	normal	black	Paolo Parente

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Benalish Commander has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal
Penny	Legal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Benalish Commander card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date	Text
2021-03-19	As long as Benalish Commander is on the battlefield, its first ability will count itself.
2021-03-19	Because damage remains marked on a creature until the damage is removed as the turn ends, nonlethal damage dealt to Benalish Commander may become lethal if other Soldiers you control leave the battlefield during that turn.
2021-03-19	The ability that defines Benalish Commander’s power and toughness applies in all zones, not just the battlefield.
2021-03-19	When the last time counter is removed from a suspended Benalish Commander, both its triggered ability and the suspend “play this card” triggered ability will trigger. They can be put on the stack in either order.
2021-06-18	A creature cast using suspend will enter the battlefield with haste. It will have haste until another player gains control of it. (In some rare cases, another player may gain control of the creature spell itself. If this happens, the creature won’t enter the battlefield with haste.)
2021-06-18	As the second triggered ability resolves, you must cast the card if able. You must do so even if it requires targets and the only legal targets are ones that you really don’t want to target. Timing permissions based on the card’s type are ignored.
2021-06-18	Cards exiled with suspend are exiled face up.
2021-06-18	Exiling a card with suspend isn’t casting that card. This action doesn’t use the stack and can’t be responded to.
2021-06-18	If an effect refers to a “suspended card,” that means a card that (1) has suspend, (2) is in exile, and (3) has one or more time counters on it.
2021-06-18	If the card has in its mana cost, you must choose 0 as the value of X when casting it without paying its mana cost.
2021-06-18	If the first triggered ability of suspend (the one that removes time counters) is countered, no time counter is removed. The ability will trigger again at the beginning of the card’s owner’s next upkeep.
2021-06-18	If the second triggered ability is countered, the card can’t be cast. It remains exiled with no time counters on it, and it’s no longer suspended.
2021-06-18	If the spell requires any targets, those targets are chosen when the spell is finally cast, not when it’s exiled.
2021-06-18	If this is suspended, then when the last time counter is removed from it, both its triggered ability and the “cast this spell” part of the suspend ability will trigger. They can be put on the stack in either order.
2021-06-18	If you can’t cast the card, perhaps because there are no legal targets available, it remains exiled with no time counters on it, and it’s no longer suspended.
2021-06-18	If you cast a card “without paying its mana cost,” such as with suspend, you can’t choose to cast it for any alternative costs. You can, however, pay additional costs. If the card has any mandatory additional costs, you must pay those if you want to cast the card.
2021-06-18	Suspend is a keyword that represents three abilities. The first is a static ability that allows you to exile the card from your hand with the specified number of time counters (the number before the dash) on it by paying its suspend cost (listed after the dash). The second is a triggered ability that removes a time counter from the suspended card at the beginning of each of your upkeeps. The third is a triggered ability that causes you to cast the card when the last time counter is removed. If you cast a creature spell this way, it gains haste until you lose control of that creature (or, in rare cases, you lose control of the creature spell while it’s on the stack).
2021-06-18	The mana value of a spell cast without paying its mana cost is determined by its mana cost, even though that cost wasn’t paid.
2021-06-18	When the last time counter is removed, the second triggered ability of suspend (the one that lets you cast the card) triggers. It doesn’t matter why the last time counter was removed or what effect removed it.
2021-06-18	You are never forced to activate mana abilities to pay costs, so if there is a mandatory additional mana cost (such as from Thalia, Guardian of Thraben), you can decline to activate mana abilities to pay for it and hence fail to cast the suspended card, leaving it in exile.
2021-06-18	You can exile a card in your hand using suspend any time you could cast that card. Consider its card type, any effects that modify when you could cast it (such as flash) and any other effects that stop you from casting it (such as from Meddling Mage’s ability) to determine if and when you can do this. Whether you could actually complete all steps in casting the card is irrelevant. For example, you can exile a card with suspend that has no mana cost or that requires a target even if no legal targets are available at that time.