Melee MTG: How It Works, Every Melee Card and an $83 Adriana Deck (2026)

Melee is a Magic: The Gathering keyword built for multiplayer. Whenever a creature with melee attacks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each opponent you attacked with a creature this combat. In a one-on-one game that is a small +1/+1. At a four-player Commander table, if you send at least one creature at every opponent, it is +3/+3 on every melee creature, every turn.

Melee debuted in Conspiracy: Take the Crown (26 August 2016), the same multiplayer set that introduced the monarch. Only 14 cards have it or give it, and most cost less than 40 cents. The reason it matters in Commander is three cards: Adriana, Captain of the Guard, Titania, Proud Pummeler and Skyhunter Strike Force each give melee to every other creature you control, and melee is one of the rare keywords where extra copies stack. With all three out, a 1/1 Wings of the Guard attacks as a 13/13 flier.

This guide covers how melee works (including the two rulings most players get wrong), every melee card ranked by real Commander play, how stacking and extra combats multiply it, legality in every format and an $83.40 budget Adriana deck.

What is melee in MTG?

Melee is rule 702.121 of the Comprehensive Rules. Rule 702.121a defines it as a triggered ability: “Melee” means “Whenever this creature attacks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each opponent you attacked with a creature this combat.” Rule 702.121b adds the line that makes it a Commander mechanic: “If a creature has multiple instances of melee, each triggers separately.”

Conspiracy: Take the Crown printed seven melee cards, including Adriana. Since then Wizards has added it only in Commander products: Wulfgar of Icewind Dale (Forgotten Realms Commander, 2021), Drogskol Reinforcements (Crimson Vow Commander, 2021), Vivien’s Stampede (New Capenna Commander, 2022), Skyhunter Strike Force (Phyrexia: All Will Be One Commander, 2023), Tifa, Martial Artist (Final Fantasy Commander, 2025), Depthshaker Titan (Edge of Eternities Commander, 2025) and Titania, Proud Pummeler (Marvel Super Heroes Commander, 2026). That makes 14 cards with melee: 12 creatures with the keyword and two cards that grant it without having it.

Two more cards have “Melee” in the name and nothing to do with the keyword: Redcap Melee ({R}, 4 damage to a creature or planeswalker) and Marvelous Melee ({4}{R}, 6 damage to a creature). If you searched for either, they are burn spells.

How melee works

The keyword is one line, but it counts something specific: opponents you attacked, not creatures you attacked with. These are the situations that come up, with the source for each.

The fourth row is the one that catches people. Token makers like Hero of Bladehold, Hanweir Garrison and Skyknight Vanguard put their tokens onto the battlefield tapped and attacking. Those tokens have melee if Adriana is out, but they never trigger it, and they don’t make an opponent “attacked” for anyone else’s melee either. Tokens made before attackers are declared, like Legion Warboss’s Goblin at the beginning of combat, are declared as attackers normally and work fine.

How big does melee get?

Melee scales with the number of opponents, so it is weak in one-on-one games and strong in a pod. These are the maximums per instance of melee, assuming you attack every opponent with at least one creature.

That makes melee in a four-player game a bigger pump than almost anything else in its colours. We counted every Commander-legal card on Scryfall that says “attacking creatures you control get”: there are 19. The biggest static bonus among them is +2/+0 (Nobilis of War); the ones that scale higher are one-shot spells (Tears of Rage, Hit // Run) or an activated ability that costs five mana each time (Jazal Goldmane). Adriana gives every attacker +3/+3, toughness included, every turn, from the command zone.

The cost is political. To get the full bonus you must attack all three opponents every turn, which makes everyone your enemy at once. In practice that is the deck’s plan, not a drawback: send one evasive creature (Wings of the Guard, Skyhunter Strike Force, Signal Pest) at each of the two opponents you don’t want to fight, and the big attack at the third.

Every melee card, ranked by Commander play

All 14 cards, ordered by the number of Commander decks on EDHREC that run them. Prices are the cheapest regular (non-promo) printing on Scryfall, 22 October 2026.

The top two aren’t played for melee

The two most-played cards on the list are there for other reasons. Depthshaker Titan (40,306 decks) is an artifact-deck finisher: it turns your Signets and Treasures into 3/3 hasty attackers for a turn, and melee is one of three keywords it hands out. Tifa, Martial Artist is in 36,545 decks, and 8,007 of them lead with her as commander. Those are Naya voltron and big-creature decks chasing her untap-and-extra-combat trigger at power 7.

The real melee cards are the three that give it to your whole team. Skyhunter Strike Force is the most played card on the list and the easiest to fit: three mana, a flier, and as long as your commander is on the battlefield, every other creature you control has melee. It goes in any white aggro deck. Adriana and Titania do the same thing without the commander condition, at five and four mana.

Melee stacks: the math

Because each instance of melee triggers separately (CR 702.121b), every card that grants melee to your team adds a full extra bonus to every creature that already has it. Here is a single Wings of the Guard, a 1/1 flier with printed melee, attacking in a four-player game where you attacked all three opponents.

A creature without printed melee gets one instance fewer. Adriana herself has her own melee plus one from each other granter. The point is not that you will assemble all four pieces often; it is that any two of them turn every creature on your board into a +6/+6 attacker, which is more damage than most Boros decks get from their whole anthem package.

Extra combats are the other multiplier. Melee bonuses last until end of turn, and melee triggers again in each new combat. With Adriana out and three opponents attacked, Aurelia, the Warleader’s second combat gives every untapped attacker another +3/+3 on top of the first. Five cards in the deck below make an extra combat: Aurelia, Combat Celebrant, Relentless Assault, Seize the Day and Great Train Heist.

The best melee payoffs and partners

Melee wants three things: many declared attackers, a reason to hit every opponent, and protection for the board that it will make enormous. These are the cards that do the most with it, all of them in the deck below except Wulfgar.

Two cheap red cards outside the deck also reward hitting every opponent: Rose, Cutthroat Raider makes a Junk token for each opponent you attacked, and Fast Forward costs {1} less per opponent you attacked this turn. Goad works the other way round: goaded creatures must attack someone other than you, which keeps your opponents’ blockers tapped on your turn.

Melee commanders

Four legendary creatures have melee. Only two of them build around it.

Adriana is the obvious melee commander, and she is oddly unpopular: 413 decks lead with her, while 32,297 run her in the 99. Most of those are Boros tokens and Knights decks that use her as an anthem. Titania, released in June 2026, does the same job in mono-red and is still in 18 commander decks; she pairs naturally with Adriana as a second copy of the effect.

Is melee legal in Standard, Pioneer and Commander?

All 14 melee cards are legal in Commander, and none is banned or a Game Changer. None has ever been printed in a Standard-legal set, so melee doesn’t exist in Standard, Pioneer or Modern. Legality from Scryfall, 22 October 2026:

Budget Adriana melee deck ($83.40)

This is a 100-card Commander deck built around Adriana, Captain of the Guard. It runs Titania and Skyhunter Strike Force as backup melee granters, Windcrag Siege to double the triggers, five extra-combat cards, and a low curve of creatures that are declared as attackers, so every one of them triggers melee. We checked every card against Scryfall: 100 cards, singleton, all inside red and white, all Commander-legal, 36 lands. The price is the cheapest regular printing of each card on 22 October 2026.

The plan: turns one to three, mana rocks and cheap creatures (Legion Loyalist, Swiftblade Vindicator, Legion Warboss, Skyhunter Strike Force). Turn four or five, Adriana. From then on, attack every opponent every turn with at least one creature each, and keep the bulk of the team pointed at whoever is most dangerous. Each creature gets +3/+3 per melee instance, so even a board of 1/1 Goblins hits like a board of 4/4s.

A few lines worth knowing:

• Spread first, then stack. Declare one evasive attacker at each player you don’t want to fight. Fliers like Wings of the Guard and Skyhunter Strike Force, or Signal Pest (only fliers and reach can block it), are hard to stop, and they make the bonus +3 for the whole army.
• Battle cry and melee add up. Accorder Paladin, Hero of Oxid Ridge and Signal Pest give each other attacker +1/+0 on top of melee. Order doesn’t matter; all the bonuses last until end of turn.
• Know which tokens count. Legion Warboss, Goblin Rabblemaster, Loyal Apprentice and Assemble the Legion make tokens before attacks, so they are declared and trigger melee. Hero of Bladehold, Hanweir Garrison, Skyknight Vanguard and Kari Zev make tokens that enter attacking: extra damage, but no melee trigger.
• Protect the alpha strike. A melee board dies to one wipe. Hold Boros Charm, Unbreakable Formation or Make a Stand for the turn you go wide, and use Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot Boots on Adriana.

The “view” link above opens a community Aurelia, the Warleader deck on KrakenTheMeta that plays the same extra-combat Boros game. The deck above is 32 creatures, 10 artifacts, 8 enchantments, 12 instants, 2 sorceries and 36 lands. These ten cards are just over half its price:

Upgrades, in order: Iroas, God of Victory for Make a Stand (menace for the team and damage prevention for your attackers); Warleader’s Call for Goblin Oriflamme; Smothering Tithe and Jeska’s Will for card and mana advantage; Sacred Foundry and Inspiring Vantage for two Mountains. Paste the list into the KTM deck analyzer to check the curve and land count, or look up any card’s current price in the KTM card finder.

Melee vs exalted, dethrone, myriad and other multiplayer attack keywords

Melee belongs to a small family of keywords that care about who you attack. Exalted is its mirror image: it rewards attacking with exactly one creature, while melee rewards spreading attackers across the table. Dethrone rewards attacking one specific player, the one with the most life, so the two pull in opposite directions; with melee you attack everyone anyway, so dethrone creatures always find a target. Myriad copies an attacker at each other opponent, but the copies enter attacking, so they don’t count as opponents attacked for melee: send a real creature at each player first. And mobilize Warriors enter attacking too, so the same limit applies to them.

Frequently asked questions

What does melee do in MTG?

Whenever a creature with melee attacks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each opponent you attacked with a creature this combat. In a four-player game where you attack all three opponents, that is +3/+3.

Does melee count creatures or opponents?

Opponents. One creature attacking an opponent is enough to count that opponent, and attacking one opponent with five creatures still counts once.

Does attacking a planeswalker count for melee?

No. Melee still triggers when the creature attacks a planeswalker or battle, but only opponents you attacked directly add to the bonus.

Does melee stack?

Yes. Each instance of melee triggers separately (CR 702.121b). A creature with melee that Adriana and Titania also give melee to has three instances, which is +9/+9 in a four-player game.

Do tokens that enter attacking trigger melee?

No. Tokens from Hero of Bladehold, myriad, mobilize and similar effects were never declared as attackers, so their melee doesn’t trigger and they don’t count as attacking an opponent for anyone else’s melee.

Does melee trigger in extra combat phases?

Yes. It triggers each time the creature attacks, and the bonuses last until end of turn, so a second combat adds a second bonus on top of the first.

Is melee good in one-on-one games?

Not really. With one opponent it is +1/+1 on attack, about as strong as bushido 1. It was designed for Conspiracy’s multiplayer drafts, and it is at its best in four-player Commander.

What is the best melee commander?

For a melee deck, Adriana, Captain of the Guard: she gives melee to every other creature you control. Tifa, Martial Artist has the most decks (8,007), but those decks are built around her power-7 untap trigger, not melee.

What set is melee from?

Conspiracy: Take the Crown, released 26 August 2016. Every melee card since then has come from a Commander product, the latest being Titania, Proud Pummeler in Marvel Super Heroes Commander (2026).

Is Redcap Melee a melee card?

No. Redcap Melee and Marvelous Melee only have the word in their names. Both are red damage spells, and neither has the melee keyword.