MTG Salvation

In terms of pure speed and aggressiveness, which commander is best?

From my experience, both kaalia of the vast and skithiryx, the blight dragon both kill with disturbing efficiency. Of course there are also other aggressive commanders such as narset, enlightened master and uril, the miststalker that can be equally as deadly.

Rafiq of the Many is a classic Voltron choice. Zurgo Helmsmasher can also be frighteningly fast, for five mana he kills in three swings and comes with haste on top of that.

I've seen Bruna, Light of Alabaster end a game on turn 3, but that requires a lucky hand with artifact mana and Intuition.

A Purphoros token deck can kill the entire table pretty quickly.

Five-color Hermit druid, anyone? That tends to make things wrap up pretty quickly.

Animar dekcs can be pretty fast too

Many decks can quickly take out a whole table with a close-to-ideal hand. Consider qualifying your statement with the caveat of an average non-enabling hand and you might get a better idea of a commander's average performance.

It all depends upon the rest of the deck. In my Gahiji deck, it's all creatures and is therefore quite aggressive (It's the fastest deck I've built), but others I play with can win before turn 5 [mostly combo]. In terms of sheer aggressiveness, a commander with a good p/t ratio and strong stats can easily wipe another player out. Looking at the commander on its own, either Akroma is pretty aggressive, and will kill in 4 hits; Zurgo Helmsmasher, as previously mentioned; pretty much anything with power 7 or greater can be an aggressive commander on its own. Kozilek is ridiculously aggressive, killing in just two swings, and Ulamog/Newlamog is no slouch either.

tldr: I guess a commander that can kill an opponent within 4 swings is highly aggressive.

Atarka, World Render can kill opponents with commander damage very quickly with barely any help from the deck. Put any haste enchantment and Gratuitous Violence on the field and you can kill anyone in one turn. She would also be a good general for tribal Dragons, but I haven't seen this too often. Very underplayed, but so easy to break.

What a bunch of strange answers. None of those decks compare to hermit druid. That deck wins on turn 3 like every game unless it cant fight its way through all the disruption. and its better at fighting through disruption than most. Most of the decks mentioned would lose the game before they were able to cast their general, let alone attack with them.

Quote from rockondon »

What a bunch of strange answers. None of those decks compare to hermit druid. That deck wins on turn 3 like every game unless it cant fight its way through all the disruption. and its better at fighting through disruption than most. Most of the decks mentioned would lose the game before they were able to cast their general, let alone attack with them.

Well he was mainly talking about aggro decks not combo decks

If its raw creature power and general damage you're looking for then I'm going to second Rafiq of the Many. Crazy fast clock.

mm non voltron i might suggest one of the elf ball commanders rhys the one from conspiricy etc.

Quote from rockondon »

What a bunch of strange answers. None of those decks compare to hermit druid. That deck wins on turn 3 like every game unless it cant fight its way through all the disruption. and its better at fighting through disruption than most. Most of the decks mentioned would lose the game before they were able to cast their general, let alone attack with them.

The OP asked, "In terms of pure speed and aggressiveness, which commander is best?"

Is Hermit Druid a commander?

It's like person A is asking for the best Driver (Commander), person B replied, "A Ferrari (Hermit Druid deck) is faster."

The only strange answer is yours, with such obnoxious wording at that.

Quote from cyberium_neo »

The OP asked, "In terms of pure speed and aggressiveness, which commander is best?"

Is Hermit Druid a commander?

Did anyone say it was?
The OP is looking for a fast, aggressive deck and I provided him with one. I'm sorry that confused you. If he had said aggro then I would have given a different answer.

With scion or another 5-color general at the helm, you don't need a great hand to end the game on turn 3. The deck isn't for long, sociable games, it's there to win and win fast. I consider that fast and aggressive.
If you wanted a fast aggro deck, rafiq is a good one.

Quote from rockondon »

Quote from cyberium_neo »

The OP asked, "In terms of pure speed and aggressiveness, which commander is best?"

Is Hermit Druid a commander?

Did anyone say it was?
The OP is looking for a fast, aggressive deck and I provided him with one. I'm sorry that confused you. If he had said aggro then I would have given a different answer.

With scion or another 5-color general at the helm, you don't need a great hand to end the game on turn 3. The deck isn't for long, sociable games, it's there to win and win fast. I consider that fast and aggressive.
If you wanted a fast aggro deck, rafiq is a good one.

I'm pretty certain Packattack98 was wanting to know what commander (general) is the fastest. As in a legendary creature that you can cast multiple times a game from the command zone. I dont think he meant fast commander staples.

kaalia of the vast (followed by an armageddon) generally creates a situation where most people would rather restart the game, so in a weird way, its quite quick
skithiryx, the blight dragon is also pretty quick

another weirdly 'fast' one is nekusar, the mindrazer; give him poison, then prosperity, visions skeins, and other mass-card draw will do it surprisingly quick (though its not really an aggro strategy as such).

Quote from FearDReaper »

Quote from rockondon »

Quote from cyberium_neo »

The OP asked, "In terms of pure speed and aggressiveness, which commander is best?"

Is Hermit Druid a commander?

Did anyone say it was?
The OP is looking for a fast, aggressive deck and I provided him with one. I'm sorry that confused you. If he had said aggro then I would have given a different answer.

With scion or another 5-color general at the helm, you don't need a great hand to end the game on turn 3. The deck isn't for long, sociable games, it's there to win and win fast. I consider that fast and aggressive.
If you wanted a fast aggro deck, rafiq is a good one.

I'm pretty certain Packattack98 was wanting to know what commander (general) is the fastest. As in a legendary creature that you can cast multiple times a game from the command zone. I dont think he meant fast commander staples.

That was pretty much my point, but he misread me the same way he misread the OP, and then obnoxiously telling everyone their answers are 'strange' compare to his. He's the confused one here.

Krenko, Mob Boss can be very fast and devastating if not deal with quickly

Quote from cyberium_neo »

That was pretty much my point, but he misread me the same way he misread the OP, and then obnoxiously telling everyone their answers are 'strange' compare to his. He's the confused one here.

I know, just trying to back you up

Probably not exactly what the OP is looking for, but Zur the Enchanter is fast in the sense that you win with one swing. Get Necropotence off of Zur and then the game is yours to lose.

"Aggressive" is a matter of relativity. Kytheon and Zurgo-R typically do not let up on the pressure until you're dead or they are, and that's a form of aggressiveness. Other times, the mere act of having someone like Hidetsugu, Kaalia, or Wanderer may put pressure enough to prompt people to attack. Then you have typical green ramp decks like Azusa who you watch reach ridiculous heights in terms of mana which could be a certain level of aggressiveness in and of itself.

If you just want someone that kills immediately, there's tons of generals who can end games on T0/T1 but that stuff is fragile. 5c Hermit Druid is probably fastest and most consistent, though I've seen people claim that it lacks resiliency-- but that isn't even remotely the only consistent deck that will win before T6 hits. Zur, Rafiq, and Sidisi-B come to mind.

How has no one mentioned edric? If you let edric get to turn 4 without dealing with the commander, he basically wins every game.