Commander 2016's spoilers came in last week, bringing with them an exciting array of new commander options. For the first time, players have the ability to use commanders with access to four different colors. On top of that, the new partner mechanic provides a ton of flexible options for each color combination, as well as providing new commanders for those players not interested in playing four colors. And to finish things off, there are over thirty other brand-new cards, some featuring the new mechanic "undaunted", and others featuring the returning mechanic basic landcycling. Finally, rounding out each deck are a series of exciting reprint cards, including a handful of rare dual lands!
Taking Command
First and foremost are the brand new commanders. There has only been one cycle of four-color cards printed prior to this, the much-maligned Nephilim cycle in Guildpact. Due to the fact that these were not, in fact, legendary, this has left Commander players with few options for playing a four-color deck. However, for those players who have been forcing Reaper King to take the helm of their four-colored monstrosities, Commander 2016 finally provides relief.
Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder takes the mantle of the "whiteless" configuration. This 5/4 trampling ogre wizard provides an extremely juicy trigger; upon hitting any opponent with combat damage with him, every single spell cast from hand gains cascade this turn. To sweeten the pot even further, granting Yidris double strike or multiple combat steps can cause this ability to stack. A nice entwined Savage Beating, in addition to potentially hitting one player for 20 commander damage, also then gives every future spell cast that turn FOUR instances of cascade. This can quickly spiral out of control and overwhelm your opponents with advantage. There are two extremely powerful ways of making full use of this. The first is to use expensive spells that offer a method of discount such as Delve, Convoke, Alternate Costs, or Affinity, in hopes to cascade into other expensive spells. This is especially potent when paired with deck-stacking tools like Scroll Rack, Sensei's Divining Top, and cards like Mystical Tutor. After all, who wouldn't want to spend two mana on a Dig through Time and cascade into a free Tooth and Nail? The second method is to use low-cost spells. Because they have a significantly smaller pool of cards to hit, you can guarantee a smaller band of effects. Knowing that all of your one-mana cantrips are guaranteed to cascade into Mana Crypt, Mox Opal, Mox Diamond, Chrome Mox, Lotus Petal, or Ancestral Vision really bolsters the power of those cards. Knowing that your two mana spells are guaranteed to cascade into one of the above, your one-mana cantrips, or cards like Dark Ritual, Rite of Flame, or Mystical Tutor is powerful as well. It's very easy to build a deck that can storm off powerfully after a Yidris swing, and he's in the best four colors to do it with.
Saskia the Unyielding helms the "blueless" deck, and she does so as the very archetype of aggressive play. Upon entering, you choose a player, and all combat damage you deal to any player is also dealt to that player with her triggered ability. This means an effective Furnace of Rath if you're running directly into that player's face, but it also means you can blast down the person hiding behind a stack of Propaganda effects just by swinging at others. With haste, Saskia represents a lot of damage that comes out of nowhere, and with vigilance, she does so without leaving your own board undefended. Additionally, she benefits greatly from other Furnace of Rath effects, as her ability double dips on them - first, you double the damage she deals to one player, then that damage is doubled again when it's dealt to the chosen player. This means her mere 3 power means 6 damage to whoever she hits, and then 12 damage to the chosen player. Overall, this allows for some truly aggressive strategies.
Kyanios and Tiro of Meletis are the characters first seen in the flavor text of Guardians of Meletis - lovers from an earlier era of Theros. And their powers reflect love for all, offering a "group hug" style of play for the "blackless" color combination. Effectively, you get a free Explore every turn, while everyone else gets to pick one half of Explore. Perhaps most importantly, however, Kyanios and Tiro offer a color combination that allows all of the popular group hug effects under one banner. Normally, hug players have to choose between Phelddagrif, who misses out on red effects like Mana Flare and Wild Evocation, and Zedruu, the Greathearted, who misses out on green effects like Heartbeat of Spring and Collective Voyage. Kyanios and Tiro let you have it all.
Atraxa, Praetors' Voice is the "redless" commander, offering arguably the best combination of colors - most five-color decks end up running few, if any red cards as it stands. Atraxa herself is a Phryexian monstrosity of evergreen keywords, having flying, vigilance, deathtouch, and lifelink, making her an oppressive combat threat. Additionally, she proliferates at the end of every turn. For anyone looking for a poison general capable of running the vast majority of cards with infect, Atraxa can proliferate those counters to add additional reach. For "superfriends" players who seek to play a lot of planeswalkers, Atraxa provides a solid blocker who also adds additional loyalty.
Finally, Breya, Etherium Shaper heads the "greenless" faction. Breya is herself an artifact, and brings two thopter tokens with her when played. She can then spend a little mana and sac two artifacts to gain life, Lava Spike a player, or Grasp of Darkness a creature. As a legend, she allows players to build an artifact-focused deck that combines the artifact-focused Esper shard of Alara with red's artifact goodies from Magic Origins and Kaladesh, as well as various red artifacts-matter cards from the ages like Daretti, Scrap Savant, Scrap Mastery, Goblin Welder, and others.
Howdy, Partner
Not satisfied with providing only one option for each of the four-color pairs, yet not having enough design space to make a slew of four-colored legends, Wizards came up with an ingenious solution: partner. Partner allows two legends to both be used as your commander, as long as they both have partner. With fifteen options, two of each enemy-colored pair and one of each ally-colored pair, these provide seven options for each of the four-colored pairs.
For example, Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder's colors can be made by combining Tana, the Bloodsower + Silas Renn, Seeker Adept, Vial Smasher, the Fierce + Thrasios, Triton Hero, Vial Smasher + Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix, Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper + Kraum, Ludevic's Opus, Reyhan, Last of the Abzan + Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist, Reyhan + Kraum, or Irka Shidiqi + Ludevic.
While each individual Partner may be fairly low on the power level and complexity scales, using two in tandem can result in some rather powerful and interesting combinations. Silas Renn, Seeker Adept + Akiri, Line-Slinger make for a powerful artifacts-matter combination in Breya's colors if you are seeking an alternative there. Tana, the Bloodsower works well with Ravos, Soultender, who both buffs Tana to allow her to create more saprolings and then also buffs those saprolings. Reyhan, Last of the Abzan and Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker can make for a powerful +1/+1 counters matter deck.
For those people not interested in making four-colored decks, partners can also be used to create two or three colored decks. For example, Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper + Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa can make a powerful toughness-matters deck. And Akiri, Line-Slinger + Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder can helm a red-white Allies deck.
In with the New
Commander 2016 also brings a number of tools for decks of all varieties. The undaunted mechanic discounts spells based on the number of players in the game, resulting in cards like Sublime Exhalation, which ends up being a less white-intensive Sublime Exhalation in a standard four-player game. In larger games, it gets even more discounted. The other undaunted spells are all similarly efficient. Coastal Breach is a Devastation Tide for just , Curtain's Call is a double-Murder for less than a single Murder usually costs, and Seeds of Renewal is a four-mana Restock. Each of these provide already-powerful effects as a great cost.
The other mechanic with new cards is a returning one, basic landcycling. This ability is powerful for providing both early-game mana-fixing and late-game threats. But, while most existing basic landcycling cards are fairly lackluster in the later game, some of the new ones are quite powerful. Ancient Excavation provides a more powerful Laquatus's Creativity, looting a potentially huge number of cards at instant speed. And, even better, due to the wording, if the draws are replaced - say, using Dredge or Abundance - then those cards don't need to be discarded. Grave Upheaval is a powerful haste-granting reanimation spell, Treacherous Terrain provides a potentially game-ending nuke, and Sylvan Reclamation provides an instant-speed double Revoke Existence. Perhaps most interesting, however, is Ash Barrens, which provides an interesting twist on Terramorphic Expanse-type effects. It searches for a land at any time for just one mana, and then the land can be played untapped. While it doesn't interact as well with landfall, it can potentially be more flexible, using a spare mana whenever it is available.
Other than the new mechanics, there are plenty of new, exciting cards in all of the colors. White gets a powerful, flickerable fog in the form of Selfless Squire. Blue gets an enters-the-battlefield Doubling Season in Deepglow Skate, and the ability to abuse each opponent's enters-the-battlefield triggers with Faerie Artisans. Black gets Yawgmoth's Will on a stick with Magus of the Will alongside another powerful, efficient kill spell in Parting Thoughts. Red gets a persistent, any-permanent Threaten effect in Frenzied Fugue as well as a Wheel of Fortune from the graveyard in Runehorn Hellkite. Green gets the towering Stonehoof Chieftain who powers up every attacker with trample and indestructible.
Perhaps most powerful, however, are the artifacts in the set. Crystaline Crawler is a bigger Pentad Prism on legs, which can function as a component for infinites in decks like Marath, Will of the Wild or Ghave, Guru of Spores. Prismatic Geoscope is a powerful alternative to Gilded Lotus. While it doesn't enter untapped, and will produce fewer than three mana if you aren't running a deck with three or more colors, it can provide a combination of different mana colors, and it can produce four or even five total mana in a four or five color deck. Boompile provides a powerful variant on the Nevinyrral's Disk effect, offering a high level of efficiency in exchange for requiring a coinflip. While this randomness seems bad, it's important to note that your opponents do not get to respond after the flip. Normally, the response to activating Oblivion Stone or similar involves squeezing every bit of value out of the board with sacrifice effects. But when it's a coinflip, players have to gamble on potentially missing out on their sacrifice value or potentially sacrificing their board only to find the Boompile not go off.
In with the Old, Too
Each list features a number of exciting reprints.
Entropic Uprising, the non-white list, has Bloodbraid Elf, Consuming Aberration, Guiltfeeder, Nath of the Gilt-Leaf, Wheel of Fate, Past in Flames, Reforge the Soul, Army of the Damned, Sol Ring, Chromatic Lantern, Burgeoning, Waste Not, Command Tower, Reliquary Tower, and Shadowblood Ridge.
Open Hostility, the non-blue list, has Den Protector, Dauntless Escort, Iroas, God of Victory, Mycoloth, Thunderfoot Baloth, Artifact Mutation, Aura Mutation, Boros Charm, Terminate, Skullclamp, Sol Ring, Lightning Greaves, Commander's Sphere, Blind Obedience, Everlasting Torment, Dragonskull Summit, Grand Coliseum, Karplusan Forest, Rootbound Crag, Sunpetal Grove, and Windbrisk Heights.
Stalwart Unity, the non-black list, has Veteran Explorer, Chasm Skulker, Edric, Spymaster of Trest, Windborn Muse, Zedruu, the Greathearted, Progenitor Mimic, Blazing Archon, Collective Voyage, Minds Aglow, Swords to Plowshares, Beast Within, Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, Tempt with Discovery, Blasphemous Act, Sol Ring, Commander's Sphere, Howling Mine, Venser's Journal, Keening Stone, Oath of Druids, Propaganda, Ghostly Prison, Rites of Flourishing, Lurking Predators, Command Tower, Forbidden Orchard, Homeward Path, and Myriad Landscape.
Breed Lethality, the non-red list, has Scavenging Ooze, Master Biomancer, Ghave, Guru of Spores, Kalonian Hydra, Reveillark, Languish, Mirrorweave, Merciless Eviction, Spitting Image, Sol Ring, Commander's Sphere, Cauldron of Souls, Hardened Scales, Cathars' Crusade, Command Tower, Darkwater Catacombs, Murmuring Bosk, Sungrass Prairie, and Underground River.
Invent Superiority, the non-green list, has Baleful Strix, Hanna, Ship's Navigator, Master of Etherium, Solemn Simulacrum, Ethersworn Adjudicator, Sphinx Summoner, Godo, Bandit Warlord, Hellkite Tyrant, Soul of New Phyrexia, Daretti, Scrap Savant, Beacon of Unrest, Skullclamp, Sol Ring, Thopter Foundry, Nevinyrral's Disk, Blinkmoth Urn, Command Tower, and Seat of the Synod.
The complete lists can be found in the Rumor Mill. Pick up your favorite deck when they release next week, and enjoy building Commander decks with these brand-new tools.
We've finally reached the end of the crazy Summer-Fall of releases. Join us at the end of December for the start of Aether Revolt spoilers!
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