We can argue all day about what the song of the summer is (though there is only one correct answer), but a much more challenging endeavor is to understand who the Magic: the Gathering commander of the summer would be. Which legendary is the monarch of casual tables while sipping mai tais on the beach? Which creature is so overplayed that every Swords to Plowshares is saved for the moment it his the play mat? We’re here to find out!

For the less initiated, Commander, also known as Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH), is the most popular way to play Magic: the Gathering in 2023 according to the game’s creator and distributor, Wizards of the Coast. Each player has a singleton 100 card deck with one of them, generally a legendary creature, to serve as the deck’s leader both thematically and philosophically, the deck’s general, its “commander.”

Magic players love to love their own commanders and hate on their friends’. So which cards are most-frequently being built for summer play? The team at Cardboard by the Numbers used Google Trends to create a state-by-state map of the United States of America to find the answer, which you can see here:

As is the case whenever a new set releases (particularly when it’s on track to be the best-selling expansion of all time), the trendiest commanders will be the new hotness: in this case, the likes of Sauron, Aragorn, and Tom Bombadil join all-time favorites like Atraxa and Yurkio. So just as drafts on Arena are dominated by the Fellowship and the forces of Sauron this summer, so too are Commander tables across the country. 

There are not so many geographical trends so to speak as one would anticipate from similar maps using Google Trends data, but this is likely due to the sample size we’re working with here. With 30 million active players, the volume of people searching on Google is not representative in the least: the top cards listed here had at most 20,000 associated searches over the last few months across the whole of the United States according to Google Ads Manager.

However, the fact that these results line up fairly well with the top commanders of the past month (according to the most-visited Commander aggregation site EDHRec) shows that this effort was not entirely without merit. What’s more compelling here are actually the exclusions: Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit is ranked third in terms of new decks on EDHRec this month, but does not make a single appearance here — as the face commander of the strongest pre-constructed deck, the people who are interested in playing with him may be less compelled to look up strategies or new cards to add when the deck suits their pilots just fine out of the box. In the same vein, Lord of the Nazgûl is the 6th most popular general on the same site without a blip of representation in the chart. How much Googling do you really need to do if you’re making a Nazgûl-centric deck?

If this were a Presidential election using the electoral college, there would be no clear winner. With 270 electoral votes needed to cinch the presidency, Sauron would be the closest at 204, benefitting from populous states like California, Texas, and New York, but Atraxa wouldn’t be far behind with 179 electors. The decision would then go to the House of Representatives, who would make the right choice and make Guile our president.

Why Guile, you say? He’s one of only six – maybe seven – legendary creatures depicted on a Magic card who meet the other qualifications for the Oval Office: namely being of age 35 or greater and having been born in these United States. Rightfully ignoring the Walking Dead bunch (Rick, Negan, Michonne, and Daryl) leaves us only with Ken )who may or may not be 35 at the time of his depiction), Chief Jim Hopper, and Guile. And I for one, salute you, President Guile.

Only six – maybe seven – legendary creatures depicted on a Magic card meet the qualifications for the Oval Office.

Cardboard by the Numbers

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State	Top Commander, via Google Trends 90 Days (Aug 14)
Alabama	Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow
Alaska	Not enough data
Arizona	Aragorn, the Uniter
Arkansas	Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice
California	Sauron, the Dark Lord
Colorado	Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice
Connecticut	Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow
Delaware	Not enough data
District of Columbia	Not enough data
Florida	Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice
Georgia	Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice
Hawaii	Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow
Idaho	Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice
Illinois	Aragorn, the Uniter
Indiana	Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice
Iowa	Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice
Kansas	Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice
Kentucky	Aragorn, the Uniter
Louisiana	Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice
Maine	Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice
Maryland	Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow
Massachusetts	Sauron, the Dark Lord
Michigan	Sauron, the Dark Lord
Minnesota	Sauron, the Dark Lord
Mississippi	Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice
Missouri	Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm
Montana	Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice
Nebraska	Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice
Nevada	Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow
New Hampshire	Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice
New Jersey	Aragorn, the Uniter
New Mexico	Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice
New York	Sauron, the Dark Lord
North Carolina	Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice
North Dakota	Not enough data
Ohio	Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm
Oklahoma	Tom Bombadil
Oregon	Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice
Pennsylvania	Sauron, the Dark Lord
Rhode Island	Not enough data
South Carolina	Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice
South Dakota	Not enough data
Tennessee	Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice
Texas	Sauron, the Dark Lord
Utah	Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm
Vermont	Not enough data
Virginia	Sauron, the Dark Lord
Washington	Sauron, the Dark Lord
West Virginia	Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice
Wisconsin	Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice
Wyoming	Not enough data