We have now arrived at the final installment of my Commander 2013 review. Today, we've got Green, and everything else - Artifacts and Lands. There aren't many in the "everything else" category, so it'll be a quick one today.
Kicking things off we've got one hell of a utility dork. Once in play he's painfully vanilla, but that doesn't really matter. As long as you aren't relying to heavily on Artifacts and Enchantments, this should be a must-run staple in virtually any G/x deck.
I initially thought the Red one might be the strongest of these Curses, but while it's probably the most utilitarian, this one is probably just the overall best. Awesome art too. Definitely be playing this one in Edric. Seems like a good Skullbriar inclusion as well.
Ugh. Eight mana for a french vanilla dude that might be huge, or he might be tiny. Seeing a land or two flip over with this guy will seriously sting. If it's not 8/8 at least, it's going to be disappointing, and even that is mediocre. Fine for janky Beast Tribal decks, but I don't foresee this becoming a big hit.
Hey, they made a fixed Dou...
Wait. Where are the words "you control"?
Yeah. It's a nerfed Doubling Season that costs the same as DS but sucks infinitely more. Terrible, except in two cases: Group Hug decks, or if you are the only person in your group that ever plays token decks.
And what's with the art? It looks like an unused Overrun variant, not a DS variant. Shouldn't it show TWO of every creature? This is the biggest failure of the set, and it feels like WotC is intentionally trolling us with this shit.
Well, this is new. Not sure it's actually good or not. Oh sure, it seems like it will be, and I can see a strong case for it to be. But I have this sneaking suspicion it's going to be much worse
in most decks than people anticipate.
I'm certainly intrigued to see how this one plays out.
Jeez, does everything in this set cost 8 mana? I jest, but things do seem a little top-heavy. I can't get behind this one at all - unless I have Academy Rector shenanigans, but then again if I'm going that route there are obviously better end games.
But even through my bitter cynicism, I can easily concede that the prospect of churning out an endless stream of 5/5 Beasts will delight some folks enough, they'll find a way to make this work.
DING! DING! DING! We have a winner. This is by far the one Tempting Offer card where you're most likely to get at least one player to buy into the offer every time. Ironically it's probably the biggest trap of the cycle, too. Unlike the other cards, this one will almost always help you more than anyone else, but at the same time, there will almost always be that one person who's a bit behind and just can't refuse - then everyone else will be eager to jump in, not wanting to be left out. I definitely endorse this card, but don't be surprised if eventually your group catches on and just completely stops taking this offer.
Now
this should be interesting. It's democratic, yet still gives the caster all the power. If the caster doesn't like the way the other player's vote, he can just sit on this forever. Or, it can just be a good way to even the odds across the board.
But at the same time, casting it when you're ahead won't get you very far - your opponents will all just chose to put their doom counters on your things.
Also you can "abstain" by choosing the Eye itself to receive your doom counter.
Also, doom counters. Neat!
Meh. I mean, I get the design, but I don't really like it. I want ramp that's less situational and more reliable. However, in some colors this will likely be a godsend anyway. I'm thinking Boros and Orzhov decks in particular will happily make use of this, but it's a particularly terrible late-game draw, so beware.
Whoa. That's a doozy of a Land. It's not as universal as Command Tower, obviously, but it's great for a LOT of Generals. Rafiq, Thraxi, Edric, Skullbriar... the list goes on. But some Legends won't particularly care, like Savra, Grand Arbiter, etc... but yeah, it's really good.
Well, that about wraps it up for the new cards. I'm not sure what's next - I don't want to review the decks themselves and start modifying and improving them until I've had time to play all of these decks out-of-the-box a few times. But I might do a thing on the reprints - we're getting some Three Kingdoms goodies, for one thing, which is great.
Anyway, we'll see what comes. In the mean time, enjoy!
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