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By: Leviathan, Mike Morales
May 19 2011 8:34am
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INTRODUCTION:  "GAME OVER MAN!"

So the Phyrexians won, which I guess surprised no one.  But along with our new oil slicked overlords come a bunch of Aliens influenced (language warning on that link) cards that can bring the pain.  Some of these cards are powerful and grief-tastic so expect to see them as soon as they become available.  Or course, if you play these cards you are going to be taking on the wrath of the table as well.  I guess it all really comes down to my old motto:  Be prepared!

All right, enough warnings.  Let's take a look at the new stuff we are getting online soon!

NEW LEGENDS

Lots of new Legends to play around with, as each color acquires someone new.  All of the Praetors are pretty powerful, so expect to see them get played.

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite - She was the first Praetor spoiled, and she isn't bad at all.  Although she costs 7 mana, that isn't unheard of as a Commander.  In exchange, she kills anything small and pumps your guys up.  Vigilance works well on defense, and with a Sword she can bring the hurt.  Obviously she does well with token strategies, and does a good job of squishing the tokens of your opponents.  However, is she that much better than Crovax, Ascendant Hero?  Crovax's pump ability isn't as big as Norn's, but he has the ability to bounce himself.  Meanwhile, I can't imagine that you would be able to replay Norn more than once or maybe twice a game.  You will definitely see her played, though.

As a regular creature in your deck, she works great as another anthem effect.  So you will probably see her as a top end creature in Rhys and Hazezon Tamar decks.  She is a big body and will be able to hurt your opponents out of nowhere.

Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur - 10 mana is a crapton, and usually you expect to play an Eldrazi for that amount.  However, you can Flash him out whenever you want, and he gives you a ton of draw.  Just include Reliquary Tower, Venser's Journal, or even Spellbook and you won't have to worry about discarding.  He also loves Psychosis Crawler.  However, the aspect that will tick off your opponents the most is the loss of their hand.  Unless they have another way of increasing their hand size, they won't be able to keep any cards in hand after their turn.  And there is nothing that ticks off opponents more than not being able to have options during a game, and taking away their hand does exactly that.  If you use this guy as your Commander, be prepared for an extreme amount of hate.

As a regular creature, he works well in any sort of reanimation deck, as he allows you to dump a bunch of cards in the yard.  In addition, Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind would love to have this guy in his deck as well.  Again, the casting cost is a bit of a concern, but if people can play Eldrazi they can play the Core Augur.

Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer - The only new multi-colored Commander, he isn't really that impressive at first glance.  First, you need to achieve Metalcraft.  This isn't that hard to do, but it does mean playing a lot of artifacts.  After you achieve Metalcraft you are going to have to create and get creatures into play.  Again, with any sort of pump effect a token strategy works well.  So I assume you would want artifacts that help create tokens.  Heck, you could even add Elesh Norn into your deck.  I know that I have seen token strategies using Agrus Kos, Wojek Veteran as their Commander, so I assume that Jor Kadeen would be a similar deck.

I don't think that this guy does all that well unless he has a deck built around him.  You probably won't be seeing him as a creature in a deck.

Melira, Sylvok Outcast - Melira doesn't seem to be that impressive a Commander at first glance.  Sure, you do go up against the occasional infect deck every once in a while, but not enough to use a sub-par Commander.  However, her ability does prevent your creatures from gaining persist counters.  As such, having her out with Woodfall Primus and a sac outlet means that you can potentially wipe the board of everything except creatures.  Unfortunately there aren't really any other Green persist creatures, and one combo, although good, does not make a deck.  You could use Cauldron of Souls as well, but even that isn't likely enough.

However, stick her in as a regular creature in a multi-colored build, and you get a whole bunch of new stuff going on.  With creatures like Murderous Redcap and Kitchen Finks and a sac outlet like Altar of Dementia, you can gain a ton of life or hand out a lot of damage.  She definitely has possibilities.

Sheoldred, Whispering One - So a combination of The Abyss for opponents, plus Debtors' Knell for you.  All of this on a Swampwalking body that can push through Commander damage.  Holy cow.  Luckily, she costs 7 mana, but we all know that in mono-Black that isn't much of a problem.  Sheoldred is my pick for the best new Commander out there.

Even as a random creature in your deck, she is very good.  Heck, you can combine her with Geth to make sure that you keep having juicy targets in the graveyard to pick from.  And with the amount of recursion available to Black, you can just bring her back to play again and again.  I definitely heart Sheoldred.

Urabrask the Hidden - I really like this guy.  Even though traditionally Red has been considered the weakest of the colors for Commander, this guy can help even things up.  First, he is the most reasonably costed Praetor available.  Second, he along with all your other creatures has haste.  No more paying extra just to make sure your guys can attack the turn they come into play.  Finally, he is a Kismet for opposing creatures.   Not only does this mean that your guys will have an extra shot of attacking, it also means that your opponents' creatures lose haste.  No more worrying about the guy playing Rafiq equipping him with Lightning Greaves and beating for a lot.  Just sick.

This guy will go into any creature based beatdown deck that has Red in it.  Kresh will like this guy, Stonebrow will like this guy, even Oros will like him.  Just a solid dude.

Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger - This one costs a lot, but in exchange you basically get Mana Reflection and a Winter Orb-ish effect for opponents.  He costs a lot, but he will put you way ahead.  On top of that he tramples, so he can push through damage quickly.  However, I can see how people playing this guy as a Commander would automatically get hated.  No one wants to have to worry about how they tap their mana in Commander games.  Vorinclex players will feel the wrath of the table similar to Jhoira players.  And Vorinclex doesn't come out nearly as fast.  You have been warned.

As a regular beater, he can fit in both control and beatdown decks.  Anything that speeds up your mana production while slowing down your opponents is going to be good.  But the fact that he costs 8 mana means that you should already be doing well in the mana department by the time you play him.  But who doesn't like more mana?

CREATURES AND PLANESWALKER

Some pretty big and powerful beasts here.  A lot of the older creatures are just getting straight up outclassed with these guys.

 Brutalizer Exarch - Sort of a creature version of Primal Command with this guy you can either get the choice of Sylvan Tutor or removing a problem permanent from the table.  On top of that, Green has a bunch of recursion, so you will likely have the ability to use him over and over.  Just a solid guy.

 Chancellor of the Annex - If you like Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, you will like this Chancellor.  Taxing early plays means slowing things down so you can set up.  Once she is in play, it might not matter as much.  Then again, I see a ton of players not paying the Rhystic Study tax, so maybe this will slow things down.  Not my favorite card.

 Chancellor of the Dross - Just solid.  Even without the reveal ability it is a solid creature.  Then, increasing your life total by 9 before the game even starts isn't something minor.  This will probably be the most popular of the Chancellors.

 Chancellor of the Forge - Turn 1 Raging Goblin is not that impressive.  However, the creature doubling ability is sweet, especially in token decks.  I could definitely see this guy being played in Wort and Ulasht decks.

 Chancellor of the Spires - Milling isn't a very popular mechanic in Commander, for good reason.  But if you like stealing stuff from your opponents' graveyards, this guy will be right up your alley.  Memory Plunder on a stick isn't bad at all.

 Chancellor of the Tangle - Probably the worst of the bunch for Commander purposes.  The reveal ability is ok, as sometimes you can play a signet on turn 1.  But a one time shot of extra mana only on turn 1 isn't that great.  Plus, when you play the guy he doesn't have any great "enters the battlefield" ability.  Oh well.

 Deceiver Exarch - Wow, another creature for Kiki-Jiki to combo with.  Another Tooth and Nail target for you Intet players out there.

 Etched Monstrosity - I kind of like this guy.  Although he doesn't have trample, the ability to draw cards is nice, plus he is huge.  Good times.

 Hex Parasite - Obviously good at killing planeswalkers, as well as getting rid of any infect counters your creatures may have picked up.  It also can speed up your Dark Depths.  It seems fairly narrow though, so I doubt it will see a ton of play.

 Karn Liberated - First, the good news.  This gives all decks another way to deal with problem permanents.  While Spine of Ish Sah is available to all decks, Karn actually exiles the problem card.  If he doesn't get blown up first, you may be able to get rid of 2 permanents.  Now the bad news.  If you are able to pull of the ultimate, you are extending the time of games that already last pretty long.  I can imagine that if he ever does pull off his ultimate, you can expect a bunch of concessions.  Compare him to Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker though.  I have never actually gotten Bolas to ultimate, and as such you can expect Karn to experience the same amount of hate.  However, he is a boon to mono-Red and Black decks, and to a lesser extent Green decks, that have hard times with enchantments, artifacts and creatures.

 Moltensteel Dragon - Basically a dragon with Hatred built in.  I played with Hatred a couple times in the past, and it can really leave you vulnerable.  So unless you run some life gain, this guy may not be the best for your deck.

 Phyrexian Ingester - In a comparison to Duplicant, the Ingester is just a little bit better.  Of course, you have to play Blue to use the Ingester, but that's not a problem for many decks.  He also costs one more mana, but that isn't horrible either.  He is going to be a staple, so expect to see him a lot.

 Phyrexian Metamorph - Clone 2.0.  There are always nice artifacts out there, so even if there isn't a creature you want to copy you should have some target for the metamorph.  I can see this card being a staple as well.

 Phyrexian Obliterator - So you are playing a mono-Black deck, and want a creature that can push through damage while hurting your opponent for blocking.  Have I got a creature for you!  He is pretty solid, but still vulnerable to Terminate/Wrath of God etc.  He also does a good job of keeping people from attacking you if held back on defense.

 Puresteel Paladin - The card draw is pretty sweet.  There are a lot of decks out there that are equipment based, and this will make sure that you can keep up the pressure.  And the best part is that with a couple of pieces of equipment, equip costs are free.  Sweet.

 Shattered Angel - Lifegift on a flying body.  Lifegift is actually pretty good and doesn't see much play.  Players are always ramping up their land, making sure that they hit their drops, and the life gain this guy can provide will add up over time.  However I have a feeling that this guy will be underplayed as well.

 Suture Priest - If you have ever used Essence Warden in a deck, you know that the life gain can quickly add up.  The Blood Seeker ability isn't bad either.  I think this guy is an auto-include in token decks.

 Viral Drake - I haven't really talked much about proliferate cards, but this one bears special mention.  There is no tapping necessary to proliferate with this guy, all you need is mana.  There are plenty of ways to make a large amount of mana, so this guy can get out of hand quickly.

ARTIFACTS AND ENCHANTMENTS

Yay colored artifacts!

 Batterskull - A pretty solid piece of equipment and the ability to save itself isn't to be taken lightly.  5 mana for a 4/4 vigilant lifelinker isn't bad, and sticking it on something that has trample or double strike makes it that much better.  The equip cost is pretty high though.

 Birthing Pod - I guess that being able to use the ability at instant speed would make it too good.  But if you have some form of recursion, or even if you don't, being able to ramp up your creatures is pretty sweet.  And with 100 card decks, you should be able to put in several silver bullets to help you out for any situation you need.

 Caged Sun - Another Gauntlet variant, this will not only go into mono-colored decks but a likely a lot of dual-colored decks as well.  Pretty much a Commander staple.

 Exclusion Ritual - I really wanted to use this to banish Commanders, but since they use the Command Zone it won't work.  Oh well.

 Norn's Annex - Different from Ghostly Prison and Propaganda, in that it requires White mana or life loss.  This hurts a lot more, and will definitely slow people down more.  Not a bad defensive card.

 Omen Machine - Group hug decks will love this card.  Could be a lot of fun.  Watch out for Blue players though, because if they get Teferi out no one else will be able to cast their "free" spells.

 Phyrexian Unlife - A card that combos nicely with Melira.  I'm sure that there are other ways to abuse this thing.  Any Combo players out there want to tell us how?

 Psychic Surgery - This will hurt a lot of decks out there, as there is often a lot of tutoring in Commander games.  This card will make you very unpopular if you play it.

 Soul Conduit - Similar to Reverse the Sands but not quite as powerful, this can come in handy to take out an overly threatening opponent, while benefitting an ally.  Good stuff.

 Sword of War and Peace - The last of the Swords, this one can hit people very hard.  Opponents can draw into some truly large hands, and this will hurt them a ton.  Unfortunately, if they have that many cards they probably also have an answer as well.  Still better than Sword of Body and Mind though.

 Torpor Orb - A lot of players, me included, really like using creatures that have effects to act as spells, so that you can have a body afterward to beat down with.  That's why Woodfall Primus and Duplicant are so popular.  This orb shuts those abilities down.  If you play a deck with a lot of creatures with drawbacks, or no "enters the battlefield" abilities, this card can be good at hurting opponents.  However, it doesn't actively do anything by itself, so you have to weigh your options.

INSTANTS AND SORCERIES

With all the great creatures and artifacts, the sorceries and instants ended up being watered down.  But there is still some good stuff left.

 Beast Within - Vindicate, or mini-Terastodon.  Everyone knows how good this card is in Commander.  A staple of the set.

 Fresh Meat - Great for token decks to recover from Wrath effects, it doesn't have the "non-token" clause that most similar spells do.  Better than Caller of the Claw.

 Life's Finale - If you are playing with Teneb or Debtors' Knell or have Beacon of Unrest in hand, this card can be killer.  Just search up a big beast and throw it in the graveyard so that you can reanimate it later.  Can also be useful for getting rid of creature based combo pieces.

 Praetor's Grasp - Even if you aren't playing the same colors as the opponent, you can grab an artifact or even a land for your own use.  And if you are playing the same colors, this card becomes that much more useful.  Certainly fun, but not overly powerful.

 Triumph of the Hordes - Hey look, Overrun but much more killer.  Expect this to go into elf and token decks, or basically any Green deck that can put out a decent amount of creatures.  And don't think that your high life total will keep you alive as long as it used to.

CONCLUSION

So here are my top staples from this set in no particular order:

I will probably also be picking up Puresteel Paladin, Praetor's Grasp, Birthing Pod, Shattered Angel and the rest of the legends.  However, keep in mind that this is a pretty grief-tastic set.  There are a lot of cards that don't really work toward moving their controller's game plan along, instead all they do is try to impede yours (examples being Psychic Surgery and Torpor Orb).  On top of that some of the creatures are just plain swingy and do a good job of ticking people off (I'm looking at you, Mr. Core Augur).

And on top of all that, there are a bunch more infect cards to play with as well.  So you may see a resurgence of infect decks based around Vorosh, or other random Commanders.  Good times.

I don't think that you will see Karn get banned.  Unless you have Doubling Season out when you cast him or go nuts with proliferate, it will be at least 2 more turns before he goes ultimate.  2 turns when going up against 3 opponents is usually a lot of time to deal with a problem permanent.  Granted, planeswalkers are harder to kill than most other permanents, but it can be done.  Of course, when Karn does go ultimate you can expect that people would rather concede than start all over.  Is that really how you would want to win?  Up to you I guess.

I hope you enjoyed this overview.  Let me know if I missed anything.  Until next time!

Leviathan, aka Tarasco on MTGO
mrmorale32 at yahoo dot com

CONQUEROR & COMMANDER ARCHIVE

20 Comments

Good review. A few things: 1- by Lord Erman at Thu, 05/19/2011 - 09:21
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5

Good review. A few things:

1- You asked for other Phyrexian Unlife combos and one is Ad Nauseam. Basically once you have Phyrexian Unlife out, you can draw your entire deck with Ad Nauseam. Surely any Black tutor can get those for you but I also heard that there is a general who can get enchantments that cost 3 or less directly onto the battlefield. Hmm... And what then? You have your entire deck in hand now. Uhm, Repay in Kind? Dream Halls? High Tide + Palinchron and then Exsanguinate?

2- Melira doesn't work with persist tokens.

3- Lashwrithe is going to be awesome in Mono Black. A 10/10 (or bigger) for 4?! Yes please.

4- The Shrines are all very interesting and playable; especially the Blue, Red and the Black ones. And the White one will go in all W/x token decks.

5- I never tried a colorless Karn deck before, but I can assume that Unwinding Clock would be great in there.

Just some thoughts.

LE

You know I hadn't really by bogtrog at Thu, 05/19/2011 - 09:53
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You know I hadn't really thought about it, but you are right, this is a very grieftastic set. Looking at the list of cards I want, half of them are earmaked for my meanest deck. This should have an interesting effect on the format.

In particular most of the praetors scare me. I might need to mix in some more targeted kill spells to keep them of the table.

Rule by smack8001 at Thu, 05/19/2011 - 10:00
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Rule 112.6h
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/1...

"This new addition to the list of rules explaining where abilities work says that if an object has an ability that says counters can't be placed on it, that ability functions while the object is entering the battlefield. "Placed" carries double duty, meaning adding counters while an object is on the battlefield and also having an object entering the battlefield with counters."

Melira does work with persist, for the same reason that Doubling Season also doubles planeswalker, persist, and +1 counters.

I just sac'ed a Kitchen Finks by Lord Erman at Thu, 05/19/2011 - 10:12
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I just sac'ed a Kitchen Finks to Bloodthrone Vampire on the beta server (while Melira is out) and the Finks came back as a 2/1.

Just saying.

LE

Ah, good to know. Sounds like by smack8001 at Thu, 05/19/2011 - 10:23
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Ah, good to know. Sounds like a bug report.

Thats a bug then, melira by this isnt the n... at Thu, 05/19/2011 - 17:21
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Thats a bug then, melira stops persist counters, it has been mentioned in articles on the magic website.

Melira is a good replacement (or addition) to the old (project x?) deck with juniper order, greater gargadon, and redcap.

I'm not entirely impressed by Leviathan at Thu, 05/19/2011 - 16:07
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I'm not entirely impressed with the shrines. They remind me too much of the "verse counter" cycle from Saga, and no one plays those. I think that people will play them because they are new and that's about it. The green will probably have some legs though.

I assume they will fix the persist issue with Melira but you never know.

I just completely missed putting Lashwrithe on the list. Solid mono black card. Does MBC need this though. Not sure. My feeling is yes, but I've always been more of an aggro guy. And I didn't even know Unwinding Clock existed until now. It would also probably work in Sharuum decks.

Lots of griefer cards coming to games near you. You cannot expect to try and pull of your plans unimpeded any more. More removal is going to be necessary from now on.

This set looks like it will by this isnt the n... at Thu, 05/19/2011 - 17:27
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This set looks like it will be making commander much more boring. All the cards are either griefer cards (praetors), or reprints (caged sun). vorinclex and jin are going to cause a lot of concessions, and karn is just stupid, he will not be hard to ultimate, and will be played in almost every deck.they wont reprint shaharazad but they will make a planeswalker with it? Lame

Difference by Lythand at Thu, 05/19/2011 - 18:08
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The difference between Shaharazad and Karn is, Shaharazad starts a new subgame. Once that game is played out, you continue the original game. With Karn, you restart the current game and the person who started the game will be starting with an advantage. This should spead the game up some.

I was hoping that you would by themonkey at Thu, 05/19/2011 - 17:54
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I was hoping that you would do a set review for Commander. I wasn't disappointed, good stuff in here.

I can't believe you didn't rate Praetor's Grasp higher. I just about fell off my chair when I saw this card. For 1 colorless than a Diabolic Tutor you get to basically tutor an opponent's deck. You will ALWAYS find something useful with this card. Early game pull out a Sol Ring or Mana Vault to accelerate. Grab their Mind's Eye to help draw. Get their Blightsteel Colossus to end the game. The best part is the card remains exiled until you need to use it (meaning it will be out of reach of Jin-Gitaxias, maybe you should look for an Brittle Effigy!). It gets even better if you're up against another black player. Grab their Cabal Coffers and then Demonic Tutor yours up for double the mana. I don't see how a black deck could not run this card.

The other card that blew me away was Triumph of the Hordes. This card will mean "game over" for at least one player and probably for all three opponents. If there is a card that will result in and increase in the number of poison counters needed to off someone in Commander, this is it.

And don't forget about the Deceiver Exarch/Splinter Twin (or Kiki-Jiki) combo. It's good enough to be played in Standard, it will surely be seen in Commander too.

Aliens by Lythand at Thu, 05/19/2011 - 18:05
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5

Interesting. Someone else besides myself noticed the Alien resemblance to the new phyrexians. Even more interesting, this weeks Mark Rosewater article mentions that Parasitic Implant was inspired by the first movies famous baby alien birth scene.

Elesh Norn has to be my favorite general. Simply beause she doesnt seem as griefiest(?), and she reminds me of Lady Gaga.

I am mixed on Karn. He hass been my favorite charater of the series. His ultimate will probably get people to concede, but it shouldnt be long and painful if the cards exiled where the right cards.

Omen Machine does not belong in a group hug deck. A true group hug deck works to help people out with no intention of winning. Now in a group chaos deck, where randomess insues, I can see it.

There are so many good cards in this deck, it's just a shame most of them are griefer cards.

Stuff by Elbinac at Fri, 05/20/2011 - 00:05
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Omen Machine will be an auto include in the decks with Teferi as the commander.

I personally am more concerned with building to deal with that than worrying about Jin-Gitaxias.
Jin leaves you the possibility to topdeck something.

As for removal, I'll be happy to not have to remove the removal I always put in out of habit from dealing with Emrakul.
Saves me on deck building time heh xD

Any word yet from WoTC when by Paul Leicht at Fri, 05/20/2011 - 01:37
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5

Any word yet from WoTC when they are going to finally code in the correct rules for commander (it's been like 8 months since the announcement)? Kind of sick to see off color lands in decks just because they have an appealing trigger. Monowhite for instance should not have bog available or Nihil Spellbomb for that matter. Let them have to play claws and relics instead.

I haven't heard anything. I by Leviathan at Fri, 05/20/2011 - 02:05
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I haven't heard anything. I guessed that they were going to try and do it by the time those new Commander precons came out, but that's coming up quick. I have a feeling that things won't get updated for a while, but hopefully I am wrong.

Maybe we need to put some by Paul Leicht at Fri, 05/20/2011 - 04:35
Paul Leicht's picture

Maybe we need to put some pressure on them to get things in gear by bringing it up on the mothership? Seems a shame to announce something like that and then it never appears to happen.

Familiar by cocheese at Fri, 05/20/2011 - 07:32
cocheese's picture

Hmm that sounds a lot like leagues...

Except they gave an excuse by Paul Leicht at Fri, 05/20/2011 - 08:16
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Except they gave an excuse (no matter how lame) for that...this...no excuse...no nothing. Or is that Know Nothing??? At this point I am not sure.

I'm totally with you there. by protocol_7 at Fri, 05/20/2011 - 05:57
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I'm totally with you there. I'm SO sick of seeing azusa with bojuka bog + karoo lands exiling library each turn. When I point out that it's illegal, they go "how come it doesn't stop me then".

Online Commander is different by themonkey at Fri, 05/20/2011 - 08:32
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Online Commander is different than paper EDH so I don't mind if there are different rules. It would be nice for them to code for the mana symbols on cards, but I don't think it's that big of a deal.

I like the fact that Commanders aren't subject to the Legend Rule like in paper EDH. When you join a game you never know what commanders are going to be played, it sucks if you find out someone is playing the same commander. Although maybe it would lead to more obscure commanders being used. More diversity isn't a bad thing.

99% of the time it isn't. But by protocol_7 at Sun, 05/22/2011 - 01:05
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99% of the time it isn't. But some people tend to exploit the hindsight. Normally saying that wotc has the last say in rules make sense in most formats. But commander was made by the community first so I think it's wotc's interest to update them regularly to match paper's rules.