Partner in MTG: Complete Mechanic Guide
One commander is a defining choice. Two commanders is a conversation. Partner is the keyword ability that makes that possible - letting you bring two legendary cards to the command zone at once and dramatically expand the colour identities, strategies, and threats your deck can contain.
First printed in Commander 2016, Partner has since grown into a whole family of related mechanics, each with its own rules and flavour. If you've been curious about how it all works - or you're trying to build a Partner commander deck and want to get the rules right - you're in the right place.
What is Partner?
Partner is a keyword ability that modifies Commander deck construction. Normally, you choose a single legendary card as your commander. Partner changes that rule: if both of your chosen commanders have Partner, you may designate two legendary cards as your commanders instead.
Both commanders begin the game in the command zone, and your deck still contains exactly 100 cards - which means your library starts with only 98, since two slots are taken up by your commanders.
The core appeal is flexibility. Two commanders means two colour identities combined into one, two sets of abilities, and two threats your opponents have to track. A deck built around Akiri, Line-Slinger and a blue Partner commander can run white and blue (and whatever other colours the second commander brings), opening up card pools that a single-colour commander simply can't access.
Rules
The basics of playing with Partner
The rules for Partner are detailed in CR 702.124, and they're worth knowing if you want to avoid common table disputes.
Your two commanders are treated independently for almost everything. That means:
- The commander tax (the additional {2} for each time you've cast a commander from the command zone) is tracked separately for each commander. Casting one doesn't raise the cost of the other.
- Combat damage is tracked separately too. A player loses if they've been dealt 21 or more combat damage by the same commander over the course of the game - each commander's damage total is its own.
- If either commander leaves the battlefield, you may return that one to the command zone. They're independent.
The exception is colour identity. Your deck's colour identity is the combined colour identities of both commanders. That's the whole reason running two commanders is so powerful - you get the full union of both colour pies.
Rules note: If an effect says "your commander," it refers to either one of your two commanders. If it would have you perform an action on your commander and both are eligible, you choose which one it applies to at the time the effect resolves (CR 702.124e).
Mixing Partner variants - you can't
The different Partner abilities are distinct from one another and cannot be combined. You can't pair a card that has plain "partner" with a card that has "partner with [name]". Both commanders must use the same partner ability - and that ability must be satisfied by both cards (CR 702.124f).
If a legendary card somehow has more than one partner ability, you choose which one to use when designating your commanders. No combination of partner abilities can ever give you more than two commanders (CR 702.124g).
The singleton rule still applies
A card with Partner technically has no rule preventing it from partnering with itself, but the singleton rule of Commander does - you can only have one copy of any card in your deck (and the command zone), so this is a non-issue in practice.
Partner variants
The Partner keyword has expanded into a whole family of related abilities since 2016. Here's how each one works.
Partner
The original. "Partner" simply means both commanders must have the partner keyword, and any two cards that do can be paired together freely. This is the open-ended version - any partner pairs with any other partner, which is exactly what made it so powerful and eventually led to more restricted designs.
Akiri, Line-Slinger is a good example: a {1}{R}{W} Legendary Creature with the simple line Partner (You can have two commanders if both have partner.)
This variant was heavily featured in Commander Legends (2020), where it appeared on 40 mono-coloured (and one colourless) legendary creatures and planeswalkers, creating a huge pool of mix-and-match pairings.
Partner with [name]
Introduced in Battlebond (2018) for Two-Headed Giant play, "Partner with [name]" is more restrictive - a card can only be partnered with the specific other card named on it.
But it actually does double duty. It represents two abilities:
- You may designate two legendary cards as your commanders if each has a "partner with" ability naming the other.
- When this permanent enters the battlefield, target player may search their library for the named card, reveal it, put it into their hand, then shuffle.
That second ability - the tutor trigger - is what makes this variant relevant outside of Commander too. Even in a regular game or Two-Headed Giant, a Partner with card can dig for its counterpart the moment it enters play.
Lore aside: Cards with "partner with" always appear alongside their counterpart in booster packs, which is a lovely design touch - you're rarely left holding one without the other.
Format check: Non-legendary "partner with" pairs can't be commanders, but they can still be included together in the same Commander deck (as long as both fit the colour identity) or split across two teammates' decks in team formats.
Friends forever
Friends forever is functionally a renamed version of plain Partner, introduced in the Stranger Things Secret Lair (2021) for flavour reasons. Seven legendary creatures were printed with this ability.
The key rule: friends forever and partner are not compatible with each other. You can't pair a "friends forever" card with a "partner" card - they're separate abilities, and CR 702.124f keeps them apart.
Choose a Background
Introduced in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate (2022), "Choose a Background" is a Partner variant built around a new card type: Background enchantments.
A commander with "choose a Background" can be paired with a legendary Background enchantment card as your second commander. Backgrounds are legendary enchantments that exist primarily to grant abilities to your commander - they have limited utility on their own, which is an intentional design constraint to keep the power level in check.
Thirty Backgrounds were printed alongside thirty-two legendary creatures that can choose them.
Rules note (CR 702.124m): A legendary Background enchantment cannot be your commander unless you've also designated a commander with "choose a Background". They're only legal as commanders in that specific pairing.
Doctor's companion
Introduced in the Doctor Who Commander set (2023), "Doctor's companion" lets you pair a companion card with a legendary Time Lord Doctor creature - specifically, a creature with the type line "Time Lord Doctor" and no other creature types.
This is the most restrictive Partner variant: the "Doctor" side of the pair has a very precise definition. One card, Amy Pond, has both Doctor's companion and Partner with Rory Williams - but she can only use one ability at a time. She cannot have both partners as co-commanders simultaneously.
Partner - [text] (Father & Son / Survivors)
A more recent addition: "Partner - [text]" allows two commanders if each has the same partner - [text] ability. The currently existing versions are "partner - Father & son" and "partner - Survivors". Think of this as a flavour-specific pairing requirement that sits between generic Partner and named Partner With.
Strategy
Why run Partner at all?
The most obvious reason: more colours. Pairing two mono-coloured commanders can give you access to a full two-colour (or three-, four-, or five-colour) identity. But the strategic depth goes further than just colour pie access.
Two commanders means two consistent threats. In Commander, card advantage and consistency are kings. Having a second commander in the zone means you can usually recover from a single commander being locked down, tucked, or exhausted by tax. Opponents have to answer both or accept that at least one will stick.
The commander tax problem is halved. Because tax is tracked individually, you can often alternate between commanders in a pinch. If one becomes prohibitively expensive to recast, pivot to the other.
Deck-building with Partner commanders
When you sit down to build a Partner deck, the first question is which of the two commanders you actually want to cast most turns, and which is the backup or support piece.
Some Partner pairings are built around one commander doing most of the heavy lifting while the second provides an enabling ability - a buff, a keyword, or a colour splash. Others are true 50/50 engines where both commanders are expected to be on the battlefield at the same time.
Think carefully about your mana base. Running two commanders with different colour identities means you need to hit both colour requirements reliably. A {R}{W} commander paired with a {B}{G} commander has a demanding four-colour mana base to support.
Playing against Partner
The biggest challenge opposing a Partner deck is threat density. Removal that handles one commander leaves the other untouched. Prioritise interaction that exiles (removing cards from the command zone entirely) or prevents casting (like a lock piece) rather than simple destroy effects, which are trivially answered by returning to the command zone.
Also watch the combined colour identity carefully. A Partner deck with access to five colours has no real deckbuilding restrictions - treat it accordingly.
Partner with: the tutor angle
For "partner with" pairs, the enter-the-battlefield tutor is often more relevant in Commander than the co-commander option. Casting one card and immediately fetching the other creates a two-for-one effect the moment it resolves. In non-Commander formats, this tutoring is the only relevant text on the ability.
Notable cards
Akiri, Line-Slinger
Akiri, Line-Slinger is one of the defining early examples of plain Partner. A {1}{R}{W} first striker and vigilance creature that pumps for each artifact you control, she pairs naturally with blue or black Partners to build an artifact-matters Commander deck in three or four colours. She's small but her Partner text is what makes her genuinely interesting to build around.
Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder
Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder gives double strike and lifelink to a creature you control whenever he enters or attacks - and his Partner keyword means you can pair him with a green or blue creature, getting that keyword soup into a broader colour identity. He's a strong enabler for combat-focused Partner decks.
Ley Weaver and Lore Weaver
Ley Weaver and her counterpart illustrate the "partner with" tutoring interaction cleanly. Ley Weaver untaps two target lands - already strong ramp - but her enter-the-battlefield trigger lets you go find Lore Weaver from your library immediately. The two together form a mana generation and card draw engine, and seeing them enter and trigger in sequence is a great lesson in how this variant works.
Will Kenrith and Rowan Kenrith
The mythic planeswalker pair from Battlebond was a landmark moment for "partner with" - the first time two planeswalkers were paired this way. Each has abilities that complement the other, and each tutors for the other on entry. They remain a popular co-commander pairing in blue-red spellslinger builds.
Impetuous Protege
Impetuous Protege is a clean example of a non-legendary "partner with" card - it can't be your commander, but the enter-the-battlefield tutor for Proud Mentor is the relevant text. In formats like Two-Headed Giant, splitting the pair across decks is a real play pattern.
History and evolution of Partner
Partner debuted in Commander 2016 as an experiment in open-ended deck construction. The intent was to give Commander players more flexibility, and by most accounts it worked - perhaps a little too well.
By the time Commander Legends (2020) arrived and printed 40+ legendary creatures with plain Partner, the design team had already identified a fundamental tension: every new Partner card you add to the game powers up every existing Partner card. The open-ended pool grows combinatorially, and there comes a point where the power ceiling can't be managed without banning cards.
Mark Rosewater has noted publicly that R&D doesn't expect to print many more generic Partner cards for this reason. The future of the mechanic lies in self-contained pairings: "partner with [name]" for named pairs, "friends forever" for flavour-specific variants, and constrained mechanics like "choose a Background" and "Doctor's companion" that limit the pairing pool by design.
Battlebond (2018) was the first to introduce the workaround with "partner with", and it also opened the mechanic up to non-Commander formats for the first time - specifically Two-Headed Giant. The approach of designing pairs as complete units (always appearing together in booster packs, tutoring for each other on entry) has become the model for how Partner grows from here.
"Friends forever" (Stranger Things Secret Lair, 2021), "choose a Background" (Battle for Baldur's Gate, 2022), and "Doctor's companion" (Doctor Who, 2023) each represent a further step toward this self-contained design philosophy: Partner-like flexibility, but with guardrails built into the card text itself.
The mechanic is now arguably a family of mechanics rather than a single keyword - united by the shared goal of letting two legendary cards share the command zone, but each with its own flavour and restrictions.
