Top Commander Pairings for Cavalier of Gales' Effect

Cavalier of Gales card art by Viktor Titov

Image courtesy of Scryfall.com

Top Commanders to Amplify Cavalier of Gales’ ETB Engine

Blue mana, flight, and a one-two punch of card advantage—Cavalier of Gales is the kind of rare moment you build around in Commander: a five-mana creature that floods your hand with options the moment it lands, then teaches you how to end a turn with more gas than you started. With its 5/5 body, you’re not just getting a beaming top-deck machine; you’re getting a gateway to stacked draws, strategic hand selection, and a death-trigger that nudges your next draw step in a very deliberate direction. The set it came from, Core Set 2020, gave us a mythic that embodies blue’s love of control and knowledge. Its enter-the-battlefield ability draws three cards, then puts two from your hand on top of your library in any order, while its death trigger shuffles it back into the library and scries two—creating a subtle, repeatable cycle of planning and execution. That’s a powerful engine in Commander, and pairing it with the right commander can tilt the game toward your favored cadence 🧙‍♂️🔥💎.

In practice, Cavalier’s ETB is a springboard for two major angles: maximize card advantage through repeated entry effects, and sculpt your library to a precise rhythm so you can chain into your combo or decisive finish. The trick is choosing commanders that either amplify those enters, give you repeatable access to those enters, or protect and extend the deck’s ability to draw, scry, and sequence. Below are five top pick pairings that realign the battlefield around Cavalier’s core strengths, while keeping the joy and nostalgia of blue’s spellcraft and tempo intact 🎨🎲.

Brago, King Eternal — the blink-minded blue classic

Mono-blue elegance with a blink-focused backbone, Brago enables you to bounce Cavalier of Gales back to the battlefield for another round of its enter-the-battlefield trigger. Each recast re-fires the draw-3 and the top-of-library manipulation, letting you set up a multi-turn draw engine from a single card in hand. You’ll exploit Brago’s common pairing with other ETB effects to weave a sequence of value plays, tilting the neutrality of interaction into a controlled tempo where you can filter, draw, and pressure your table with the same smooth efficiency that blue players adore 🧙‍♂️.

Kess, Dissident Mage — spell recursion on a grand blue stage

Kess brings a masterclass in spell recurrence to Cavalier’s engine. By running Kess, you gain the ability to recast instants and sorceries from your graveyard, turning Cavalier’s early advantage into a longer, corrosive plan. The initial ETB draw is just the opening act; with Kess, you keep the gas flowing, answering threats and reusing your best spell-packed interactions as the game unfolds. It’s a blue-black symmetry that thrives on calculated risk, where each draw step you cash in with a well-timed spell becomes another layer of inevitability 🔥.

Derevi, Imperial Trickster — blink tempo with strategic disruption

Derevi’s quiet trickery is the perfect companion to Cavalier’s library choreography. Derevi enables you to blink Cavalier to re-enter the battlefield on demand, triggering the ETB again and again if you sequence your turns carefully. The blue-white pairing also adds a touch of stasis-control, letting you stall threats while your own deck alignment hums along. With Derevi on the field, Cavalier’s draw-on-entry becomes a repeatable tempo engine, letting you out-value opponents in a way that feels both elegant and deliciously retro 🧭⚔️.

Baral, Chief of Compliance — the cost-reducing counter-mage

Baral is the quintessential control engine for a blue-heavy Cavalier shell. By slashing the cost of your spells and enabling on-time counterplay, Baral keeps the table honest while you assemble your next draw sequence. The interplay isn’t just about protection; it’s about ensuring you can cast a meaningful suite of draw and tutor spells to keep Cavalier’s engine online. The result is a deck that scratches for answers, then ramps into a second or third draw-spell chain, with Cavalier quietly fueling the library as you go 💎.

Azami, Lady of Scrolls — wizardly draw density and strategy

Azami anchors a wizard-focused blue shell that revels in card draw and board control. While Cavalier of Gales provides raw advantage on entry, Azami’s support for wizard-centric draw lines helps you chain into more resources faster and with surgical precision. This pairing thrives on sequencing and careful timing—each spell you cast becomes a step toward refilling your grip, while Cavalier’s own death-scry keeps your next topdecks imminently predictable. It’s a cerebral, elegant synergy that many players adore, especially those who enjoy calculating the exact tempo of each turn 🧙‍♂️🎨.

Beyond the mechanics, Cavalier of Gales invites a broader conversation about deck design and collector’s mindset. It’s a mythic that sits at intersection of “instant speed sequencing” and “library manipulation,” a duality that makes it a cherished pickup in any blue-leaning EDH deck. The card’s value isn’t merely in its power—the art by Viktor Titov, its M20 core-set origins, and its rarity as a mythic all contribute to its story on the table. Its price hovering around a modest threshold and foil versions attaining more excitement echoes what many players already know: great EDH cards are about the experiences they unlock, not just the numbers on a price guide. And if you’re building around this engine, you’ll notice how well it fits into broader blue strategies: control, tempo, and layered card draw that rewards careful planning as you sculpt your own mythic moment ❤🧿.

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Card data and flavor notes drawn from Cavalier of Gales (Core Set 2020). Artwork by Viktor Titov. Rarity: Mythic. Set: M20. Mana cost: 2UUU. Power/Toughness: 5/5. Abilities: Flying; enter-the-battlefield draw three, then top-two-order; death: shuffle into its owner’s library, scry 2. Legal in EDH/Commander.