Commander 2014 Set Review

Good evening, dear readers. I am excited to share with you my thoughts on the new Commander decks about to be released later this week. There are lots of new cards to talk about, so this is probably going to be a multi-part post as are most of my set reviews, but I don't know yet how many posts it'll take to cover everything. For now though, I'm focusing solely on the newly-printed cards. I might talk about some of the higher profile reprints when I do the deck-by-deck posts.

Jumping right in, we'll start with White, sticking with the traditional WUBRGAL order.

White

As you should all know by now, the gimmick for this year's Commander release is a cycle of Planeswalkers you can use as your general/commander/whatever you call it.

This one is one of my favorites, simply because she fits so well into my Aurelia deck, which has a heavy Equipment theme, and needs the recursion and card advantage Nahiri can offer.

In general, though, I am a bit put off by Nahiri's ultra-niche focus, and she doesn't inspire a lot of creativity in the deckbuilding realm. She might be solid, but she doesn't make me want to run out and build Mono-White...

Compares favorably to Mirror Entity. For only one more mana, you get a much bigger body and First Strike, but his ability is situational. Sometimes it'll be much better than Mirror Entity, but a lot of times, I think, it'll be much worse. But, he's also a Legendary Cat Warrior and Ajani's murdered brother, so he's got that going for him as well.

Again, not something I want to rush to build a deck around, but he seems fine as a support card.

Seven mana is a lot to pay for a "catch up" card. Since this is terrible when you already have the most creatures, and best when you're lagging behind, I feel like there are just better things to do with your mana. But, all the same, this can potentially make a crap ton of dudes all at once, so it's not strictly unplayable. It just doesn't compare well to, say, Storm Herd.

See, now this is a card I can get behind. Hoses everything from Craterhoof Behemoth to Bonfire of the Damned to, well, just anything big and scary coming your way. 

Scalable sweepers are always potentially very good. Even the mere chance to make them mostly one-sided is compelling. I'm a huge fan of Toxic Deluge from last year's offering, and while I don't think this measures up to that high standard, I still think this is playable.

The real problem is, someone can counter this by spot-removing the creature you target, and that may wind up being a deal breaker for this card. I'm excited to try it out, but we'll see how it goes...

I really dig the new cycle of Lieutenant creatures, but this one is by far the least exciting. She just doesn't really do all that much, even for her bargain mana cost.

Probably not a terrible card, just terribly unexciting. It'll get tons of play in Angel Tribal decks, though.

Possible Legacy plant. Hoses so many cards - Living Death will be the first think most people think of, and that's definitely a big one. But also, Bribery, Dead Eye Navigator, Ghostway, Sneak Attack, Flash, Rise of the Dark Realms... the list goes on and on. She also shuts down "blink" decks like Roon.

I do like how she has both negative and positive interaction with Mistmeadow Witch - with her out, you can't use Witch on your own guys, but against enemy creatures, the Exile becomes permanent... not a bad tradeoff, I'd say.

I like dudes that leave behind some value after a sweeper or removal spell hits. This one takes a bit of setup and in mono-white at least, there aren't too many ways to engineer such setups, but he seems pretty cool nonetheless. Seems a lock for Karador or other Junk-colored Dredge decks.

 Now we're talking! This is like a Sunblast Angel hopped up on coke. It has flash, and it exiles? For only one more mana than Sunblast Angel? Yeah, I'm gonna love this card, right up until I walk into one.

Sure, passing with seven open isn't every deck's ideal scenario, but for defensive decks, I can't think of many options I'd rather have than this. Wow.

This is the first member of this year's political cycle. Last year it was Tempting Offer, and before that Join Forces - the problem with those abilities was that it required a certain level of cooperation from the other players. Groups that both embrace, and are good at, multi-player politics probably got some decent mileage out of those cards, but in my experience most of those cards were big duds. I think this cycle addresses and at least partially mitigates the issues with those previous attempts.












Blue

Seems fine. Sufficiently generic that it doesn't demand any particularly strategy. That -1 seems like it could be broken in the right deck, but there are lots of fair uses too. Enabling Inspired cards. Untapping lands so you can be proactive and still have countermagic/removal mana open.

This is certainly, at least, a unique and interesting effect for mono-Blue. But, to me, this feels more like a support card in, like, a Wrexial or Mimeoplasm deck or something like that. Lazav. Definitely Lazav material.

I'm just not sure what you'd do with this in mono-Blue...

I think this is our "Dread Cacodemon" of the set. It had potential, but the words "if you cast it from your hand" and "nonblue" are nerfs that, while sensible and understandable, are also major dealbreakers. In a Quest for Oola's Temple deck, this is just a vanilla 9/9. Probably in most cases, this is usually a vanilla 9/9. It could at least have Islandwalk or something.

Well, this kind of makes of for that last one. I already said I liked creatures that give you some sort of post-sweeper value. This just gets bigger and bigger the more it dies. I absolutely love this. 

Feels a tad overcosted, but there are some upsides here that offset that. Howling Mine effects have always been risky in multi-player formats. That this draws you two cards before anyone else can profit from it, and the fact that it draws you two cards to your opponents' one, go a long way to addressing both of the typical arguments against Howling Mine.

You can further break the symmetry by pairing this with Mind's Eye or, even better, Consecrated Sphinx. 

I don't really understand the Morph on this thing, but whatever, I dig it anyway. Sexy art, and a cool, unique effect for a low CMC. Plus this is a perfect card for a new deck idea I've been mulling over few weeks...

See, this is the one they should have led with for their spoiling of the Lieutenant mechanic. Sans your commander, this is just a 5/5 Hexproof, which is not exciting, but is certainly good. But get that commander into play and man, this thing takes off. A 7/7 hexproof will really tempt people to block, and then it rewards you if they do. If not, oh well, you get through for seven!

Again, this can bite you in the ass, as giving an opponent 3 cards for free is not usually a thing you want to do... but there's always that one guy who's been digging for lands and getting screwed, or sitting with a pile of lands in play, no cards in hand, and a miserable look on his face. I don't mind taking the risk to help that guy out of his rut, if it also puts me even further ahead!

OMG, what a crazy effect! I mean, the obvious use is to just borrow some blockers from an opponent when another opponent is attacking you, which is pretty good value already. But you can also GIVE blockers to someone else, if you really need to make an ally or something.

Meh. Bounce six seems good, but it's not an Instant, and it requires six targets before you can even cast it. I'd just rather play Cyclonic Rift, Evacuation or one of the many other big blue bounce spells. But it's cheap enough to attract some players, and will likely get used quite a bit anyway.















Black

Well, the +2 is a little weak, but the -2 is much better. The emblem is worth building toward but not game-breaking. Overall I think this guy is pretty well balanced. But somehow I have trouble getting excited about him. I don't have any decks that really want him in the 99, and Black has no shortage of interesting/powerful generals, so he faces stiff competition.

Overall it feels like WotC is playing it ultra-safe with these 'walker-generals. One one hand, I think that's smart - getting one of these banned while the decks were still in print would be a disaster, and would likely keep them from repeating this experiment. But if they can prove that they can make Planeswalker commanders that don't break the format, they'll be free to do more later, and hopefully, push the envelope just a little more.

I think the main reason I don't like Geralf as general himself, is that I can't pair him up with his sister, Gisa. The interplay between their abilities is great design. Geralf makes one big zombie token, while Gisa turns that into a whole mess of smaller Zombies.

I also like how Gisa turns 5 power worth of something into 10 power worth of zombie. I definitely want a copy of Gisa for Savra.

 Oh, everything got blown up? One mana to get a head-start on rebuilding after a Wrath is pretty compelling. And that's not even taking into account what you can do in a dedicated sacrifice deck. Kresh and Savra decks should definitely be taking notice.

I also like the idea of casting a Phyrexian Rebirth and then following it up with this, getting two huge Horror tokens.

But, on the flip side, this is awfully niche and not likely to be a widely-played staple.

I really want to like this, but I have a feeling it'll be too clunky and slow to really be good. The best case scenario is, you have a ton of Coffers mana ready to go, and can just sac your whole team in response to a Wrath, getting a large token post-Wrath. Or, you could just skip all that work and play the previous card above...

An almost strictly better Duneblast that can be played in way more decks? Sure, sign me up. Oh, and it’s better than Duneblast because instead of killing everything except the best creature you already control, you kill everything except the best creature on the board, period, AND you get to take advantage of any ETBF effects that creature might have.

Another potential Savra card... I say potential because there is a LOT of strong competition at the top-end of the curve in that deck, so any card that costs more than 5 has to really earn it's spot. But this seems ridiculous along side a Grave Pact or a Dictate of Erebos.

Ah, what better follow up to a removal spell than another removal spell... oh wait make that two removal spells. At the same time, I'm not really sold on this for EDH, but I'd love it as a 4x in a 60-card MBC deck.

It can be good in the right deck, but we've seen better utility removal.

 Huh, that's a really odd and unexpected effect. Mass reanimation but can only be used defensively... unless you get creative. Combine with Warstorm Surge to get some offensive power out of those blockers, or just sac 'em to Greater Good for some massive draw. Lots of options, but just straight up ambushing an opponent's attack is good enough too.

Ugh, I really dislike this card. Combine the "attack a player at random" ability which I generally hate, with the "lose half their life" ability, which is fine when used judiciously - see Quietus Spike for instance - but putting them together is like the worst combination ever. I can just foresee lots of awkward, accidental dick-move situations with this guy, when he randomly screws over the person already lagging behind the rest of the table...

Another acceptable entry in the cycle. Base stats are unimpressive, but once the Lieutenant bonus kicks in, he's a lot more compelling. Not my favorite of the cycle, but still better than the Angel.

Ooh, me likely! I feel like this is the one where the apparent symmetry of the effect is the most controllable - i.e. you can cast this at a time when it will be very largely one-sided. I'm definitely excited to see this in action, but I can see where it might not live up to my expectations.
















Well, I think that's all for tonight. Tomorrow night, we'll do the Green, Red, Artifact and Land, and that'll do it for the new cards. Enjoy!

Quick Update

This is just a quick update to let you all know that the Standard Legal EDH experiment is going really well, and I'm about ready to post those lists. I'm going to be running the lists by the forums this week for last-minute improvements and suggestions, but after I make any possible changes based on feedback from the forums, I'll post them ASAP!

Also, we're knee deep in C14 spoilers and they are pretty exciting so I'm eager to start writing about those. As always, though, I will wait until the spoilers are 100% complete because it's extremely hard to judge things accurately in a vacuum. I'm a big-picture kind of guy so I want to have as much context and info as possible before I commit to an opinion (even though at the end of the day pre-lauch set reviews are all theorycraft anyway).

So, just know that I have finally renewed my motivation to build decks, play games and write about it.

See you again real soon!

Khans of Tarkir EDH Set Review, Part 6: The Unaligned

After a bit of an intermission, we're back with the last section of our Khans set review. We've covered all 5 clans but we still have quite a few unaligned cards that are worthy of mention. At the end, I might talk a little bit about the set as a whole, if there's room.

White

A fairly playable card, this will be a Day of Judgement for 5 most of the time, which is pretty bad, but against Equipment-heavy decks, it'll shine.

Also hoses Bestow, not that Bestow was in need of hosing.

Blue

This is quite obviously one of the most universally-playable cards in the set. One of the best clone variants ever printed. Probably even better than Phyrexian Metamorph, though there are specific decks that'd prefer the Metamorph, but honestly, you could run both in most cases and be happy as a clam. This may well be the best blue mythic since Consecrated Sphinx. 

Black

One of the few commons in the set that I'm fairly excited to play. In a vacuum, I don't really like Sign in Blood-type cards in EDH, but when they have just a little upside, they can be pretty playable. Read the Bones from Theros was pretty great. This is a little more narrow... costing 4 instead of 3 kinda hurts, but in decks where putting those two cards into the graveyard really matters, this is almost like drawing four cards for 4 mana and 2 life, which is a great deal.

In a way, this is a lot like a black Foresee, which is not terrible.













Red

So, basically, you're rarely gonna play this face down to start with. The morph cost is too high. You're better off just hard casting it, and then after it dies, it's a race to unmorph it before it can die again. 

Meh. It's a cute design, but not very powerful in EDH. Hope it finds a home somewhere though.

That +1 is a saucy little number, but I'm not sure how good it'll be at getting through in EDH where 5/5 and 6/6 flyers are pretty darn common.




















Green

Obviously goes in Morph.dec.

Obviously, doesn't go in any other decks.



















Multicolor

This guy lacks an immediate "wow" factor. He's not "sexy" the way, say, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad was. But I think he's probably deceptively powerful.

EDH probably isn't the place for this 'Walker to shine, but he's probably not terrible, either. He's likely to be a solid performer but only in the right decks.

There was a time when Simic Sky Swallower was an all-star staple of these colors. Yet I find myself wanting less and less to run him these days.

Here, I think the lack of Flying hurts more than the addition of Morph and a slight cost reduction. In this light, I don't see this guy doing much in the format, but anything with a Morph theme is probably already running worse creatures, so he's got a shot, at least.

I still like Vindicate better, but I'm old-fashioned that way. Really, Instant speed and exile over destroy are both huge incentives to play this over Vindicate, but not being able to kill Cabal Coffers or Gaea's Cradle is a minor downside here.

Honestly, most of the time, I'd try to run both if possible.

Not nearly as awesome as Deflecting Palm, but still a pretty neat combat trick and potential Sunforger target. For when you absolutely, positively have to get that last bit of General Damage through.



















Artifact

The Banners - The banners are strictly better than Alara's Obelisks, and those were playable. However, I still prefer the more versatile mana rocks like Chromatic Lantern, Coalition Relic and Darksteel Ingot, though.

Nice. Can be used as Graveyard hate, or to recycle your own 'yard. It's cheap, but not dirt cheap, though, and I think that hurts it. Also, it self-exiles which really sucks.

It'll do in a pinch, but not the best option out there.

Awfully expensive, at 9 mana to cast, equip and activate it all in a single go, but possibly game-winning if you do. But luckily, you can pay the mana out in installments to make it easier to manage, and if the first activation doesn't get you there, you're free to keep trying!

Seems fun in a deck with lots of little guys and a big General - like maybe a Mardu deck helmed by Zurgo?

Ha ha, actually, this card might be the one and only compelling reason to let Emmara Tandris helm your GW Tokens deck... okay probably not a good enough reason, but still fun to imagine.

With such a minimal opportunity cost, it'll be hard to imagine too many mill decks passing this up. Only trouble is, many of those decks are quite heavy on the non-permanent spells. This is also a ridiculously awful topdeck in the late game.

I like hosing extra turns, but then taking them yourself is awfully hypocritical. Not to mention that this + Prototype Portal + any sac outlet is a really easy infinite turns combo.

On the positive side, in most decks this will be perfectly fair.

But still, it's hard to really imagine jamming this into too many decks, because there seems to be a very high probability it'll  just sit there having zero impact on the game. It'll be a silver bullet for specific metagames but most folks will likely have little use for it.










Land

Seems fine for "mono-Brown" decks like Karn, Silver Golem or Ulamog, to the extent such a deck might or might not care about lifegain. The opportunity cost is minimal, though, so might as well jam it in there.

Actually, between this, the unbanning of Metalworker, and Muzzio being in Conspiracy, I really want to retool my Oloro deck to be much more Artifact-focused that it currently is.















Well, readers, that's it! We've wrapped up or set review of Khans of Tarkir. Overall, I'm pretty excited about this set. While the average power level of cards seems to be a little weaker than we're used to, and there aren't quite so many obvious bombs and future staples, I think that's a good thing! Even if there were quite a few individual cards that I do really wish were a bit stronger, so that they'd have a change to really justify being played, there are nonetheless a high number of cards that I think will add to the format.

New wedge Legends are always a plus. And then, of course, there are the fetch land reprints and the new wedge-colored tri-lands to help with our mana bases. Basically, this set looks like it has a lot of fun cards that might do cool things. Really, what more could we want?

Until next time, enjoy!

Khans of Tarkir EDH Set Review, Part 5: The Abzan Houses

Now we're down to the final clan, but that doesn't mean we're done. There are still quite a few unaligned cards to review after this. But for today, we get to talk about the Abzan.


The Abzan Houses

Finally, something to call the WBG wedge besides "Junk"! Though Abzan will now be the official name for the colors I expect many players will stick with the colloquial they're used to. Anywho, The Abzan dragon aspect is "Endurance".

Wrexial. Damia. Karador. Those are just three of the decks I currently have sleeved up that dread seeing this Legendary dreamwrecking peice of cardboard leading an opponent's deck.

Needless to say, I'm not a fan. The sad thing is, it'll get played, but it'll never be for the first ability, always the second. "I'm not playing this because it does anything cool, I'm playing it because it hoses your deck".

Lame. Shame, too because it had potential.

Good fit for Abzan. Addresses two of the weaknesses I mentioned above. Speeds up the slow Outlast ability a bit, and helps slightly with the folding-to-sweepers problem. Seems fairly playable in a variety of decks.

It's a tough call. If that last mode weren't so weak (usually), the strength of the other two modes would definitely edge out Sultai charm for the top spot. In a way, even despite myself, I do kinda think this might be the best. Exile is king among removal, and instant-speed Sign in Blood is quality.

Really, none of the charms are bad, but this one is pretty special.

Nevermind Abzan for a moment; this seems fun in U/G with a bunch of Evolve and Graft spells, Kraj, or Zegana.
Maybe a Jenara deck, too. But, in it's clan colors, it definitely could make Cathar's Crusade even more sick.

The activated ability is to clunky and slow, leaving this as just a large but generic flyer. A lot of cards in the Abzan do get more appealing when you start throwing cards like Cathar's Crusade and Doubling Season into the mix, and this would be pretty large indeed under those conditions, but it's better to run creatures that don't NEED those helper enchantments to not suck

An extremely nerfed Seedborn Muse with a larger body is not very compelling, when you could just actually run the Muse herself. Not untapping lands is just a huge dealbreaker in my opinion.

This would make a lot more sense if Outlast was useable at Instant speed, but given that it's Sorcery speed only, I find this even harder to understand.

Bearing some similarities to Rhys the Redeemed, I think we can safely say people are going to want to give this a go. Probably especially in Rhys decks. But he lacks a lot of Rhy's charm: namely, that he's not a Legend and therefore much easier to kill and keep killed.

Two ways to look at this. One, you could compare it to Kokusho who clearly trumps this guy, save for the aggro mana cost. Or, two, you can compare it to Loxodon Heirarch, in which case it suddenly looks pretty darn sexy. If anyone is still running Stupid Elephant in their Karador decks at this point, I think it's time to make way for Stupid Rhino instead.

I'm thinking Vish Kal players will be doing merry little dances over this. Probably playable in just about any deck where the general comes into play with or amasses lots of counters. Skullbriar? Ghave? Mimeoplasm? All possibilities.

Obligatory mention of Cathar's Crusade #84...

THE most obligatory must-run for any Abzan deck, but also a tremendously exciting card for those U/G decks I mentioned.

Ghave probably doesn't care too much about 1 extra counter now and then. But Marath, though... this is pretty much the best T1 play a Marath player could wish for.

I'm gonna need a few of these.

I'll admit, I'm a bit of a snob. I tend to turn my nose up at sweepers that cost this much mana, unless they're Decree of Pain. And in most decks that could run this, I'd pick Decree over this almost every time. Failing that, I might pick Rout because it's only 7 if you're doing it at Instant speed which is worth it.

But... this just seems tailor-made for Karador. It just fits so perfectly... kill everything but Karador, begin reanimating immediately. Start by reanimating that Eternal Witness to get this back. Win slowly via general damage 3 points at a time. Oh yeah, baby, let the grindy long game begin!

Could almost see this in Derevi alongside the trusty Gavony Township. But without Township this is probably pretty weak. Jenara, then maybe? Dunno.

Oh, wait, I know! Cathar's Crusade! LOL I'm a genius!