Captain Jean-Luc Picard Luminary Locutus of Borg The One Who Speaks Steadfast Captain Leading by Example

Commander comparison · Star Trek

Which Picard is best for Commander?

Captain Jean-Luc Picard, for most decks. He costs three, he needs only white mana, and every creature you cast after him brings a 2/2 along with it. Take Jean-Luc Picard, Luminary if you want the Picard who leads a precon, and Locutus of Borg if you would rather win by attacking with artifacts.

Art, left to right: Anna Pavleeva, Jason Pastrana, Anton Solovianchyk, Ariel Orea, Mark Spears and Julie Dillon

Star Trek gives Picard six legendary creatures you can put in the command zone: four with his own name, and two as Locutus, the name the Borg gave him. Here is the order I’d pick them in as a commander, and the reason each one sits where it does:

1. Captain Jean-Luc Picard, because no other version does as much on turn three. He pumps your team and turns each creature spell into two bodies.
2. Jean-Luc Picard, Luminary, for card draw in three colours, and because he leads the Federation Fleet precon, so you can buy his deck in one box.
3. Locutus of Borg, for an Esper deck that attacks. Every artifact creature you control copies his token trigger, and so does every token it makes.
4. Locutus, the One Who Speaks, a two-mana artifact lord whose removal mode only works from your hand.
5. Picard, Steadfast Captain, six mana for a 4/4 that hands out counters. It does more as one of the 99.
6. Picard, Leading by Example, which pumps one creature a turn, at sorcery speed.

Every Picard is white, and three are nothing else

Card details as of 28 October 2026. None of the six is legal in Commander until 13 November 2026, the day they release. Until then this ranking reads the cards as printed, with no games behind it.

Left out on purpose: General Picard, Earth Warlord is the Stardates printing of Kenrith, the Returned King. Only the name printed on it is Picard’s. The rules read it as Kenrith, so a deck it leads is a Kenrith deck.

Every one of the six needs white. The three that need nothing else fit any deck with white in it, and the other three also need a commander with their blue, red or black. What separates them as commanders is how much each one does from the command zone, the one test this page applies.

What each one does from the command zone

Captain Jean-Luc Picard turns each creature spell into two bodies

Picard gives your other creatures +1/+1, and each creature or Spacecraft you cast brings a 1/1 Officer token with it, which his own bonus turns into a 2/2. The token is made when the spell is cast, so it is already on the battlefield when that spell resolves. From turn four on, a creature deck under him puts out twice as many bodies as it casts, all of them bigger than printed.

The third ability is the ceiling. Tap seven untapped Officers and he fetches a Spacecraft straight out of your library, already holding seven charge counters. That is enough to make about half the white and colourless ships creatures as they land, and their own arrival triggers still happen. Pinnacle Kill-Ship lands as a 7/7 flier and deals 10 damage to a creature, while the Enterprise-A brings three more Officers and starts out flying with lifelink. Don’t fetch Extinguisher Battleship: its 4 damage to each creature kills every Officer that paid for it, and Picard too.

Seven Officers sounds like a lot, and the count is mostly yours to make. On 28 October only thirteen white or colourless cards had the Officer type, three of them Picards, so nearly every Officer in the deck will be one of his tokens. Maskwood Nexus gives your creatures all creature types at once, so the rest of your board counts as well. The weak spot is the one every mono-white deck shares: the colour draws few cards, and if Picard dies, the bonus goes with him and the tokens drop back to 1/1.

Jean-Luc Picard, Luminary draws, but only off cards costing three or more

This Picard draws a card each time another historic permanent of yours arrives costing three or more: an artifact, a legend or a Saga. Seek out answers the second card you draw in any turn, your own or an opponent’s, with a +1/+1 counter for another creature and two charge counters for a Spacecraft. It is a card advantage engine with a slow start. At four mana across three colours he arrives a turn after Captain Jean-Luc Picard would, and he does nothing for the cheap artifacts that most decks lean on early.

He is second for two reasons. Blue gives him the card draw that mono-white lacks, and he leads the Federation Fleet precon, so he is the only Picard you can play out of a box on release day. Our build for him leans on the Spacecraft half and plays Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the 99.

Locutus of Borg is the one that wants combat

Locutus of Borg costs four and is a 3/3 lifelinker, but the line that matters is a grant. Any artifact creature of yours that hits a player makes a 1/1 Borg artifact creature token. Each Borg token is an artifact creature itself, so it carries the same trigger. A board of artifact creatures that keeps connecting can double in size each turn it gets through.

That makes him the most aggressive Picard by a distance, and the narrowest. Nothing happens unless damage reaches a player, so a deck under him spends its slots on evasion and on enough artifact creatures to start the count. He comes in the We Are the Borg precon, but as one of its 99. The Borg Queen is that deck’s commander. The build we wrote for him is the list I’d start from.

Locutus, the One Who Speaks loses half its text in the command zone

The two-mana Locutus gives your artifact creatures +1/+1, himself included, so he is a 2/2 lord in white and black. His second ability is paid by discarding him: one white and one black mana for 2 damage to a creature and 2 life. A card in the command zone is not in your hand and can’t be discarded, so as a commander he keeps only the lord half.

What’s left is a cheap Orzhov anthem for an artifact creature deck, a fine budget commander and nothing more. He does more in the 99 behind Locutus of Borg, where the anthem pumps every Borg token and the removal mode works from your hand. We Are the Borg already puts the two together, since both Locutus cards are in that box, and our Locutus of Borg build plays him there too.

Picard, Steadfast Captain costs twice as much as the best one

Steadfast Captain is a six-mana 4/4 who hands another of your creatures two +1/+1 counters on arrival and again on every attack. As a card in a white counters deck, that is solid value. As a commander he is a turn-six play with no protection and no card draw, competing with a three-mana version of the same man that has already built a board by then.

Picard, Leading by Example has the least to do

Leading by Example costs two, and for one more mana and a tap he gives another creature +X/+X, where X is his power. That is +2/+2 on a bare card, it costs him his own attack, and it happens at sorcery speed, so blockers see it coming. He gets better with counters on him, which is exactly what Steadfast Captain hands out, but a commander that needs another card to matter is the last pick here.

Two of them belong in Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s 99

Two legends only clash when they share a name, and no two of these do, so several can share a battlefield. Captain Jean-Luc Picard has the most room for the others. Steadfast Captain and Leading by Example are mono-white Human Officers, so each one counts towards the seven Officers he taps, and Steadfast Captain’s counters make Leading by Example’s pump bigger. Jean-Luc Picard, Luminary is an Officer too, but his blue and red keep him out of a mono-white deck. The reverse does work, with Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the 99 behind Luminary. The two Locutus cards are Borg rather than Officers, and the two-mana one belongs behind the four-mana one.

FAQ

What is the best Picard commander in Magic?

Captain Jean-Luc Picard. He costs three, needs only white mana and pumps your other creatures, and every creature or Spacecraft you cast after him comes with a free Officer token. Seven Officers tapped together pull a ship out of your library ready to fight. No other Picard does as much from the command zone that early.

How many Picard cards are there in Magic: The Gathering?

Six that can be your commander as of 27 October 2026, all from the main Star Trek set or its Commander decks, which release on 13 November 2026. Four carry Picard’s name and two are Locutus. There is also an instant, Dathon and Picard at El-Adrel, and a reprint of another card with his name printed on it, covered in the next answer. Star Trek previews were still running on that date, so the count could still grow.

Is General Picard, Earth Warlord its own card?

No. It is the Stardates printing of Kenrith, the Returned King with Star Trek’s name on it. The printed name has no rules meaning, so the card is Kenrith for deckbuilding, for the legend rule and for anything that names a card. A deck led by it is a five-colour Kenrith deck, which is why it isn’t ranked here.

Does Locutus count as a Picard card?

In the story, yes. On the card, no. Both Locutus cards are Borg artifact creatures named Locutus, not Human Officers named Picard, so Captain Jean-Luc Picard can’t tap either one towards his seven Officers. They are on this page because a reader looking for every version of the character expects to find them.

Which Star Trek precon has Picard in it?

Federation Fleet is led by Jean-Luc Picard, Luminary. Locutus of Borg and Locutus, the One Who Speaks are both in We Are the Borg, whose commander is The Borg Queen. Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Picard, Leading by Example are cards from the main Star Trek set. Picard, Steadfast Captain is the face of the white Welcome Deck, Wizards’ 40-card starter for new players, and Leading by Example is in that deck as well.

Can Officers that just entered help Captain Jean-Luc Picard find a Spacecraft?

Yes. Summoning sickness only limits what a new creature does for itself: it can’t attack, and it can’t activate its own abilities that tap it. Tapping it to pay for Picard’s ability is neither, so it is allowed the turn it arrives. Officer tokens made this turn count, and so does Picard on the turn you cast him.