Commander Review: Commander 2017 Part 2 (Green, Colorless, Multicolor, Lands)
Welcome back to the Commander 2017 review! We pick up where left off from Part 1, reviewing the new cards in Green, Colorless, Multicolor, and Lands. Let's get started!
GREEN
Curse of Bounty
Of all the new curses, Curse of Bounty seems like the most powerful if built around. As Paradox Engine has shown us, untapping all your nonland permanents can be incredibly powerful, even if Curse of Bounty's combat trigger makes it FAR less abusable (thankfully!). If you're running nonland ramp cards, from Llanowar Elves to Gruul Signet, you can end up netting a ton of extra mana to work with during your post-combat main phase. If you're generating 5 mana from such sources, you could potentially go infinite with Aggravated Assault, untapping your mana sources after each combat to keep taking extra combat steps. Or in an Elfball deck under Ezuri, Renegade Leader, you can attack with your army, untap them, and then tap your mana dorks to pay for Ezuri's Overrun ability. I expect Curse of Bounty to see the most play in such Elfball decks and possibly other archetypes as well.
Hungry Lynx
Hungry Lynx is one of my favorite new cards from a design point of view. It's so much better than a generic Tribal lord that gives your tribe +1/+1 and some throwaway evergreen keyword. This feels like a uniquely Cat lord! It catches Rats and feeds them to your Cats, growing them! Awesome.
From a power point of view, hell yeah, Hungry Lynx is powerful! Those 1/1 Rat tokens have deathtouch, making them powerful blockers, and often you can make deals or alliances with the person you gift them to. They can't block your Cats, of course, so you never need to worry about how you'll get around them, and when they die, your Cats get bigger! This is just for 2 mana! Yeah, instant staple in any Cat Tribal deck!
Kindred Summons
Initially I wasn't thrilled with Kindred Summons, but I've since warmed up to it. This 7 cmc spell doesn't do squat unless you already have an impressive board state, and generally I want my 7 cmc spells to have an impact regardless of my board state. This is a Green card, however, and we have Green Tribes that are all about dropping tons of creatures on the board, pooping out mana, and want a big spell just like this to close out the game. In Elfball decks, such as Ezuri, Renegade Leader, you're running all the mana dorks like Llanowar Elves, so it's not hard to believe you'd get 5+ elves on the board and be ready to cast Kindred Summons by turn 4 or so for massive value. Similarly, Druid Tribal under Seton, Krosan Protector does similar shenanigans.
Even in other tribes, Kindred Summons isn't a bad finisher. Yes, it costs a lot, and yes it requires you to have a good board state already so it's kind of a "Win-More" card, but it's an instant which means you can catch your opponents by surprise casting it right before the start of your turn to set up a lethal army. Not terrible in any Tribe. I could see it played in Wort, the Raidmother, General Tazri, Sliver Queen, and other tribes as a surprise finisher.
Traverse the Outlands
Traverse the Outlands is a somewhat risky "ramp" card that can net a huge payoff if all goes well. You want a big creature on the battlefield, and it needs to not die to a Doom Blade while Traverse the Outlands is on the stack. You also need to put it in a deck that specifically wants to land ramp hard with a 5cmc spell, which is a different niche compared to your standard Green ramp like Rampant Growth or Cultivate.
Decks that want to play Traverse the Outlands want lots of basic lands in play. Omnath, Locus of Rage is such a deck, since Traverse can drop 5+ lands into play, which means 5+ landfall triggers. Even better, Karametra, God of Harvests can be a big, indestructible 6/7 creature that survives most removal, perfect for setting up Traverse, and often runs cards that love big land ramp, like Avenger of Zendikar.
Qasali Slingers
Cat Tribal just got a Cat Aura Shards. I dig it! Aura Shards is still superior to it, but hey, why not run both? In Commander, there's no shortage of enchantments/artifacts to blow up. This is good interaction for a tribe that is lacking in that department.
COLORLESS
Bloodforged Battle-Axe
I haven't been this excited for an equipment in a long time. Bloodforged Battle-Axe is bonkers, creating copies of itself that can create copies of themselves, leading to an exponential amount of axes that can quickly get out of control. This is hilariously broken with Puresteel Paladin, which draws you cards like crazy and gets around the equip cost. Similarly, Balan, Wandering Knight makes for a purrfect pairing, as double strike means double the axe copies and she can also get around the equip costs. If you really want to go down the rabbit hole of abusing Bloodforged Battle-Axe, you can double the tokens with Anointed Procession, tap them for mana with Inspiring Statuary ... you get the idea.
I consider Bloodforged Battle-Axe one of the best new cards for the Equipment archetype. The card is nuts with the right support.
Hammer of Nazahn
Hammer of Nazahn is another sweet staple for the Equipment deck. Indestructible is a coveted keyword, as Darksteel Plate's popularity/price suggests, since creature removal (both targeted and global) is so common in Commander games. Saving on equip costs is also great, letting you spend that mana elsewhere and do more things per turn. I can personally attest to how much I love Sigarda's Aid for similar reasons. Run it, love it!
Heirloom Blade
In a Tribal deck, Heirloom Blade is a steady source of extra damage and card advantage for a fair price; not bad at all. Things get more interesting when you can sacrifice the equipped creature on demand to fetch up specific threats. For example, equipping Heirloom Blade to an eldrazi token you made with Awakening Zone and sacrificing it to fetch up Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre is some spicy synergy I can get behind! Maybe throw in Deathrender for good measure to put it immediately into play, why not?
Herald's Horn
Herald's Horn is like a cross between Descendant's Path and Urza's Incubator, and the end result is something I quite like: it ramps a little bit and gives you a little bit of card advantage for a fair price of 3 mana. The chances of drawing cards off it greatly improve if your deck is running library manipulation such as Sylvan Library, Sensei's Divining Top, and Cream of the Crop. Herald's Horn is a decent inclusion in just about any Tribal deck, and quite good in decks running topdeck manipulation.
Mirror of the Forebears
I love Mirage Mirror quite a bit. Mirror of the Forebears only works in Tribal decks, and only with your creatures, making it a great deal more restrictive, but it's also cheaper to play and activate. I'm sure it will be easy to get value from this card, copying Priest of Titania when you need extra mana, or turn it into a keyword-laden Sliver, it's all good. I'm not super excited with this card from just eyeballing it but I'm sure I'll like it more once I see it in play.
Ramos, Dragon Engine
Rarely do we get new 5C commanders, and thankfully this one is AMAZING! Ramos, Dragon Engine is probably the commander I'm most hyped for and one of my favorite cards in the entire set. Ramos encourages you to play multicolor spells and rewards you with a HUGE amount of mana generation -- or you can just one-shot people with a giant flying commander, if that's what you're into I guess. But I definitely want to do silly things with all that mana.
There is an archetype I love which is basically 5C Multicolor Spellslinger, where you run multicolor cards and payoff cards like Cloven Casting. A fun variant of this archetype I've enjoyed running in the past is called Lucky Charms, where you run most of the charms in Magic (e.g. Bant Charm) and basically have a creative answer for any situation. This archetype has never had a proper commander ... until now! I can't wait to play all the charms, use Ramos' mana to cast Conflux and other enormous spells, and maybe end the game with a Door to Nothingness!
MULTICOLOR
Arahbo, Roar of the World
We've never had a Cat lord that can sit in the command zone before until now. Arahbo, Roar of the World fills that niche perfectly, offering great support both on and off the battlefield. Handing out a free Giant Growth each turn, even from the command zone, works great with Cats, especially the ones with double strike (e.g. Balan, Wandering Knight). Arahbo gets even better when it hits the battlefield, however, because that activated ability is massive! Even a lowly Skyhunter Skirmisher can turn into an 8/8 double strike attacker (16 damage!) for just a measely 3 mana.
Arahbo, Roar of the World turns all your cats into legitimate threats. Its activated ability works best with double strikers and bigger cats, but also with any ability that increases your Cat's powers, from Regal Caracal to Become Immense. This is your best Cat commander if you don't care about any specific subtheme.
Edgar Markov
Like all the Eminence commanders, Edgar Markov is a terrific leader both on and off the battlefield. Getting FREE Vampire tokens each time you cast a Vampire is amazing, as you can tap them to use cards like New Blood or Captivating Vampire, sacrifice them to Indulgent Aristocrat, or just buff them into real threats with Vampire lords like Rakish Heir. There are tons of Vampire synergies that your free 1/1 can tap into, while setting up your board for lethal damage.
When Edgar Markov decides to join the battle, he comes out the gates swinging, immediately attacking for 5 and buffing your Vampire army in the process -- the perfect follow-up to all the free tokens he's been adding to your army. Your opponents will need an answer to him or he will grant you victory within a few turns.
Another notable benefit of running Edgar is that he's the first Vampire lord that gives you access to White. While there aren't many decent Vampires in White yet, it does open the door to future inclusions. The immediate benefit, however, is that you have access to White's unparalleled removal spells, especially enchantment removal that traditional Red/Black Vampire decks can't easily deal with; Return to Dust and Austere Command are Commander staples for a reason! Oh, plus Anguished Unmaking, Vindicate, Utter End, so many goodies!
The only issue with Edgar Markov is his casting cost; 6 cmc is a lot of mana, to the point where you can't expect to recast him more than a few times. The good news is that he still contributes a lot from the command zone thanks to eminence, so all in all, I believe he's the new best Vampire commander.
Fractured Identity
Fractured Identity is another sweet Politics card that the majority of people will skip over the moment they realize they're helping other players, but then a minority of people including myself will be drooling over the possibilities. The quickest response to this card throughout the internet was "build an Esper deck so I can copy my own Phage the Untouchable and everyone else loses the game!" That's what I'm talking about, people! Embrace the jank! If you want to break the symmetry of this card, another easy way is to run this in a Bant deck with token doublers, Anointed Procession, Doubling Season, Parallel Lives, and even populate cards like Rootborn Defenses if the token is a creature.
Inalla, Archmage Ritualist
Inalla, Archmage Ritualist is in my opinion the most poorly designed of the eminence cycle because you don't need to cast her to have access to the vast majority of her power; creating tokens is her main draw, while her tap ability is just an extra finisher. I hate commanders that do too much without ever being played, a complaint many people have of Oloro, Ageless Ascetic.
As for the card itself, Inalla is a powerful build-around-me commander restricted to the Wizard tribe, which means that every deck built around her is going to look the same -- not a criticism, just a fact. You want to run Wizards that either have an ETB trigger (Bloodline Necromancer) or an activated ability (Magus of the Will) that you can take advantage of by making a token copy. You should also pair her with Panharmonicon and Paradox Engine for maximum shenanigans.
There's also an easy infinite combo with Wanderwine Prophets where you cast it, copy it, and champion the original version. The copy attacks, you sacrifice it for an extra turn, the original returns, and you copy it again. Rinse repeat. It costs a good deal of mana (9 on the first turn) but it's essentially a 1-card combo because you can do it with Inalla, Archmage Ritualist in the command zone -- see why I don't like this card's design?
Anyhoo, Inalla, Archmage Ritualist is a powerful card. I'm pooping on it solely because I personally don't like it, as opposed to it being a bad card. If I wanted a Grixis deck focused on creatures with ETB/sacrifice triggers, however, I'd still prefer Marchesa, the Black Rose.
Kess, Dissidant Mage
Kess, Dissident Mage is a fine Spellslinger general, able to turn your graveyard into an extension of your hand, choosing the best instant/sorcery for the situation. Unlike the flashback mechanic to cast spells from graveyards, such as with Past in Flames or Dralnu, Lich Lord, the way Kess casts spells is not itself an alternative cost, so you can pay alternative costs for your spells with her (Cyclonic Rift). Also unlike flashback, if you pay the buyback cost of a spell (Capsize) it will return to your hand instead of being exiled.
Kess is fairly costed for what she does and is more powerful than she looks. Does that make her the best Grixis Spellslinger, beating Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge? Or the best Spellslinger that interacts with the graveyard, such as Dralnu, Lich Lord, or Jace, Vryn's Prodigy? It's hard to say. I think she's on par with the others, but most importantly she has different strengths and weaknesses and a slightly different playstyle, which I personally love from a design point of view.
Licia, Sanguine Tribune
I'm not sure where Licia, Sanguine Tribune wants to be played. She's a vampire, so she can go in the 99 of a Edgar Markov deck, but unless your deck is a Lifegain deck she won't be worth running. You can run her as a commander at the head of a Lifegain deck, but even if she's always a 3cmc 4/4 first strike lifelink commander that can grow steadily, I'm still not super thrilled when we have Karlov of the Ghost Council who fulfills a similar role but so much better. She does grant access to Red, but there are no good Lifegain cards in Red -- no, Brightflame and Searing Meditation aren't good cards.
You could build a Lifegain + Burn deck around Licia, keeping your life total high with staple Lifegain cards and then using Red's burn spells such as Earthquake to nuke the board until you're the last one standing? That's unique, I guess?
Mairsil, the Pretender
Mairsil, the Pretender is probably the most talked about card from Commander 2017, and for good reason: his ability is powerful and completely open-ended! I'm having a blast researching all the neat things Mairsil can do, all the zany brews people are coming up with, all the jank obscure cards that suddenly may see some play due to this guy's weird ability. I LOVE THIS CARD!
One neat trick people brought up so far is caging Quicksilver Elemental, which bypases the "once each turn" restriction Mairsil usually has. You can also cage Nevinyrral's Disk and Soul of New Phyrexia / Aetherling to wipe the board on demand, or just equip him with Darksteel Plate to make sure he survives. Maybe take infinite turns with Sage of Hours and Anthroplasm? There's jank to be had here! I want to hear your combos!
Marthas, Fiend Seeker
Mathas, Fiend Seeker is a new sweet Politics commander! It's Group Hug in the sense that you're helping out most opponents, but Mathas helps alleviate the "kingmaker" problem of Group Hug that by giving everyone free resources, one person will end up running away with the game. Mathas can say nah, everyone let's kill the creatures of the guy that's ahead, and I'll give us more cards so we can catch up!
Personally, I wouldn't even build Mathas as Group Hug. Politic is more my style. I'd run a deck with him as the commander, my favorite Offerings (e.g. Volcanic Offering), Tempting Offers (e.g. Tempt with Immortality), and maybe a run a "Bounty Hunter" themed deck with cards like Royal Assassin to snag the bounties myself. Speaking of bounty hunters, there's an actual card called Bounty Hunter and it's an awesome synergy with Mathas, Fiend Seeker! Unfortunately, the way Mathas is worded is that only counters placed by his ability will trigger the card draw, but Bounty Hunter can still snipe any creature with a bounty counter including the ones placed by Mathas!
Mathas is also a great fit as part of the 99 of Queen Marchesa, Long May She Reign. I love playing her Politics, and Mathas will fit right in!
Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist
Mirri gets a far more exciting second printing with Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist. For just 3 mana you have pseudo-evasion on the offense which promotes Go Wide strategies as your opponents can only block one of your things, plus a one-sided Crawlspace on the defense. That's a lot of value for the mana cost. Probably the best fit with her is Nacatl War-Pride, which plays into the Go Wide strategy while also making it impossible for your opponents to block them all.
Mirri seems like a great addition to Cat Tribal and as a commander in her own right.
Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith
When Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith was first spoiled, a lot of people came to me with this combo: cast Nazahn, fetch Blade of Selves, equip and attack with him, use the copies' ETB triggers to fetch Helm of Kaldra, Sword of Kaldra, and Shield of Kaldra. Bam, easy Kaldra assembly. I approve.
Outside of this neat trick, Nazahn is a solid Equipment commander or support in the 99. 6 mana is a lot for a glorified Steelshaper's Gift, but the mana cost is more bearable if you wanted to fetch Hammer of Nazahn with him, and he does tap down potential blockers as well. You can also bounce him / blink him / reanimate him to keep fetching equipment. Nazahn isn't busted by any means, but he's solid, and Equipment decks will enjoy his inclusion.
Or at least, some Equipment decks? Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith should have been a Mono White card. There's not a shred of Green in his card. Fetching an equipment? That's clearly White, as shown on Steelshaper's Gift, Stoneforge Mystic, Open the Armory, and so much more -- in fact, there's not a single Green card out there before C17 that benefited from having Equipment, only destroying them (Acid Web Spider). "But he's a 5/4! He's big, so he's Green!" Oh really? Baneslayer Angel would like to have a word with you. Heck, Brimaz, King of Oreskos is a Mono White Cat and is a 3/4 for 3. Nope. Not Green at all. And this sucks, because that means the real Equipment decks that would've loved to add Nazahn into their lists can't, because of that pesky Green color identity.
O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami
O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami is a rattlesnake card that threatens to blow up your opponent's stuff if they dare attack you. It's also a respectable 6/6 flying trampler for 6 mana. The idea here is that you can attack with your big beater and nobody will attack you while you're vulnerable or else you'll swing back with O-Kagachi and exile something. The problem is that O-Kagachi has no defense against removal, so while he might buy you a turn or two of not being attacked, he'll swiftly be taken out by removal and you won't have much to show for it.
O-Kagachi is in this weird spot where there's much better beaters at 6 mana (heck, Territorial Hellkite is a better beater at 4) and there's much better rattlesnakes at much less mana, such as Karmic Guide, Soul Snare, even Seal of Primordium. I don't think the end result makes for good card. That's a shame, because O-Kagachi was huge lore character and depicted with so much power (Final Judgment) while his card representation is underwhelming.
Taigam, Ojutai Master
Taigam, Ojutai Master is "tribal support" by making your Dragon spells uncounterable, but he really doesn't want to be there. All this Taigam wants to do is cast instants and sorceries. He's really easy to build around. Just follow these easy steps:
- Give Taigam evasion with cards like Distortion Strike and Taigam's Strike so he can attack safely.
- Cast all the Time Warp cards you can find. All of them.
- Win any way you like after taking multiple extra turns.
Easy! At first glance, Taigam seems like a weaker Narset, Enlightened Master who does the exact same tricks, unfortunately.
Oh, there are some cute synergies though: for example, you could lock your opponents under Dovescape, while your own spell can't be countered!
Taigam, Ojutai Master is fun. He's a good card. I do think he's unfortunately so similar to Narset, and the deck is just begging to take extra turns forever.
Taigam, Sidisi's Hand
Taigam, Sidisi's Hand is an excellent Graveyard enabler as you keep one of the top three cards and chuck the other two into your graveyard. Taigam is already facing steep competition in that department, however, with powerhouse Graveyard commanders like Sidisi, Brood Tyrant and Tasigur, the Golden Fang, among many others. So how does Taigam stand out?
What excites me the most about this card is actually "skip your draw step" part; since we're already replacing our regular draw step with Taigam's card filtering, running cards like Necropotence gets even better since we're already skipping our draw step. If you want to be really cruel, run Possessed Portal! Or how about Null Profusion, Psychic Possession, Zur's Weirding? I think we have a really cool deck on our hands, folks!
The Ur-Dragon
The ultimate Timmy Battlecruiser card has arrived! The Ur-Dragon just oozes epicness, with giant stats, a blowout triggered ability, and a rockstar name. Its eminence ability is well-needed, as the Dragon tribe has a very high average cmc and can use the mana reduction. Once you have the whopping 9 mana to cast this monstrosity things truly get silly as you draw tons of cards and cheat giant spells into play. Everything about this card is appropriately big and flashy, which I like.
So, is The Ur-Dragon the best Dragon Tribal leader? Well, "yes" and "no," I think. In terms of raw power, Scion of the Ur-Dragon is still the most competitive choice, as you can quickly combo out a win any number of ways, while The Ur-Dragon is playing a fair game of Magic. But "fair" is exactly why I like The Ur-Dragon so much; we have a competitive choice with Scion, but you can't bring Scion to a casual game of Commander, while the Ur-Dragon fits there perfectly. So the choice between these two depends on your playgroup and what playstyle you want. Do you want to play a competitive combo deck? Play Scion of the Ur-Dragon. Do you want to play a fair game of battlecruiser Magic? Play The Ur-Dragon.
Wasitora, Nekoru Queen
Wasitora, Nekoru Queen is loaded with value. 5/4 flying trample and forces defending players to sacrifice a creature or you make a 3/3 flying token, for only 5 mana? That's amazing. Wasitora is a great aggressive card. There's nothing busted about her, no crazy combos, just a solid card with solid results. I prefer her as part of the 99 of a Dragon Tribal deck, but she's also fine as a commander, especially if you build a Token / Sacrifice subtheme with her and cards like Parallel Lives.
LANDS
Path of Ancestry
Path of Ancestry looks like a new staple in pretty much all Tribal decks. A free Scry every time you cast a creature of the deck's tribe is just amazing, and Path of Ancestry is excellent mana-fixing to boot! Yes, it comes into tapped, and it doesn't have a basic land type so it doesn't work with fetchlands or other cards that care about that, but it's still worth it. I'd run it in Mono Color Tribal decks just for the scry, and obviously multicolored decks will find it exceptionally good.
My Favorite Cards
People love reading a top 10 list, so here you go. A quick disclaimer: this isn't a definitive top 10 "best" new cards from Commander 2017, just a loose list of cards that I'm personally most excited about:
- Teferi's Protection
- Ramos, Dragon Engine
- Mairsil, the Pretender
- Kindred Discovery
- Edgar Markov
- Bloodforged Battle-Axe
- Curse of Verbosity
- The Ur-Dragon
- New Blood
- Path of Ancestry
Next Up: Precon $20 Upgrades!
Just like each previous year, I'll be breaking down each Commander 2017 preconstructed deck, explaining why you should buy it, and how to upgrade it with a budget of $20. Expect them all to show up on the site within the next week!
