Commander 2014: The Complete Set Guide

Five planeswalkers walk into a Commander game. That's not the setup to a joke - it's the core premise of Commander 2014, the product that changed what Commander preconstructed decks could be. Released on November 7, 2014, Commander 2014 (set code C14) was the third annual entry in Wizards of the Coast's dedicated Commander product line, following Commander 2013. It was first announced at the Magic panel at San Diego Comic-Con on July 26, 2014.

The set contains 337 cards across five mono-coloured preconstructed decks, and its biggest swing - planeswalkers as commanders - left a mark on the format that's still felt today.

The five Commander 2014 decks

Unlike its predecessors, which leaned into two- and three-colour combinations, Commander 2014 went back to basics: one deck for each of Magic's five colours, each built around a mono-coloured identity.

| Deck Name | Colours | Commander | |---|---|---| | Forged in Stone | White ({W}) | Nahiri, the Lithomancer | | Peer Through Time | Blue ({U}) | Teferi, Temporal Archmage | | Sworn to Darkness | Black ({B}) | Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath | | Built from Scratch | Red ({R}) | Daretti, Scrap Savant | | Guided by Nature | Green ({G}) | Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury |

Each deck comes with 100 cards, including the planeswalker commander, a selection of reprints, and new cards designed specifically for Commander gameplay.

The headline mechanic: planeswalkers as commanders

This is the one. Commander 2014 introduced five new planeswalkers - one per deck - each printed with rules text explicitly allowing them to be used as a commander. That text reads something like "[Name] can be your commander."

Up to this point, the Commander rules allowed only legendary creatures as commanders. Planeswalkers were powerful, but they sat in the 99 like everyone else. Commander 2014 cracked that door open for the first time, and the Commander Rules Committee followed the lead by officially updating the rules to allow any planeswalker with that designation to serve as a commander.

Rules note: The ability to use a planeswalker as a commander doesn't come from the planeswalker type itself - it's granted by that specific line of rules text printed on the card. Not every planeswalker can be your commander, only those explicitly printed with that permission (or later granted it by other means).

The five commanders each capture something essential about their colour's identity:

• Nahiri, the Lithomancer leans into White's equipment and soldier tribal themes
• Teferi, Temporal Archmage enables elaborate Blue untap and combo lines
• Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath drains life and generates Demon tokens
• Daretti, Scrap Savant turns Red's love of artifacts and chaos into a recurring engine
• Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury ramps, removes artifacts and enchantments, and floods the board with Elves

In my opinion, Daretti, Scrap Savant and Teferi, Temporal Archmage aged particularly well. Daretti became the go-to commander for artifact recursion strategies in mono-red, a colour that doesn't have many other homes for that kind of value engine. Teferi's ability to untap permanents opened up genuinely complex combo lines that the competitive Commander community explored for years.

What else is in the set

Beyond the planeswalker commanders, Commander 2014 introduced a wave of new cards designed specifically for the format, alongside reprints of Commander staples.

Format check: All cards in C14 are legal in Commander (and Legacy, Vintage) by default, but individual cards may have their own format legality. Always check Scryfall for the current legal status of a specific card.

The new cards ranged from mono-coloured utility pieces that fit neatly into each deck's theme to more broadly playable Commander staples that quickly found homes in decks of all colours. The reprints helped bring some previously expensive Commander staples back into circulation - always welcome in a format where card access can be a barrier.

Limited and draft

Commander 2014 is not a draftable set in the traditional sense. It's a preconstructed product, and the cards weren't sold in booster packs. If you've seen people draft Commander precon sets, that's a home-brew experience players have created themselves, not a supported Wizards product.

Lore and setting

The five commanders in Commander 2014 are established characters from Magic's lore rather than new faces. Teferi and Freyalise, in particular, carry a lot of story weight - both are planeswalkers who have been part of Magic's history since the early days of the game's fiction.

Lore aside: Freyalise's presence here is especially poignant given her story. She sacrificed herself to collapse the Skyshroud Forest during the events of the Apocalypse storyline, making her return in Commander 2014 a notable moment for longtime fans of the lore.

Nahiri, Ob Nixilis, Daretti, and Teferi each come with flavour text and card design that reflects their personalities and histories, even if Commander 2014 itself isn't tied to a specific story arc or plane.

Set legacy

Commander 2014 is, honestly, one of the most consequential Commander products Wizards ever released - and it has nothing to do with the card count or the reprints.

Planeswalkers as commanders changed Commander forever. That single design decision opened a category of deck-building that didn't exist before. It also set a precedent: the rules could evolve to accommodate new design space. Later products would expand on this idea, and eventually the Commander Rules Committee made it easier to grant planeswalkers commander status through other means.

The individual commanders have had lasting impacts too. Teferi, Temporal Archmage became the engine of a well-known competitive Commander (cEDH) combo deck. Daretti, Scrap Savant remains one of the most popular mono-red commanders for artifact strategies. Freyalise is a perennial favourite for Elf tribal builds.

For a product released in 2014, Commander 2014 holds up remarkably well as a milestone. It's the set that proved planeswalker commanders weren't just a gimmick - they were a genuine and lasting addition to the format's vocabulary. ✨