The iconics in each color occasionally pick up other colors, usually alongside their main color. You therefore miss out on a lot of cool creatures in those colors with anything short of a five-color tribal commander. For example, Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign as commander makes you miss out on the Esper and Azorius sphinxes and Arjun.
I thought it might be fun to have some commanders that bend the color identity rules for certain tribes. Rather than break down the restriction of color identity that is so important to Commander, this encourages niche decks without allowing them to get broad access to the mechanics in their off colors.
Here's a concept:
Angel loving personWW
Legendary Creature - Human Cleric (R)
If Angel loving person is your commander, your deck can have Angel cards of any color identity.
You may spend white mana as though it were mana of any color to cast Angel spells and activate the abilities of Angel permanents.
Whenever an Angel enters the battlefield under your control, bolster 1.
2/2
I'm not sure if there is a way to actually just wash the mana symbols of all your Angel cards to W elegantly. I guess it needs to be an eminence-type ability and work from command zone as well.
For extra abilities, sphinxes probably scry or something, demons maybe draw for life, dragons probably throw some damage around and hydras maybe the base guy just makes a bunch of mana for hydras.
I suppose you could do this for the characteristic races or whatever but that somehow seems more dangerous since there are a lot more of them.
Yeah this is pretty good buuuut works much better with some types than others. For example, there are a decent number of monoblack and quite a few monored Angels besides the regular multicolor ones, and Dragons are obviously in every color because cycles and stuff, but what are you gonna get outside of U/x for Sphinxes? Petra Sphinx?
Well it lets you run Sharuum and Isperia and so on in a mono-blue deck with only blue sources, is the intent. Of course it would also work for mono off-color when those exist.
It's fairly common for tribes not to have a commander that has both a Tribal effect AND covers all the color identities you might want to get all the good members of that tribe.
Color fixing is kind of out of pie in various ways for everybody but green but I'm pretty sure it's a reasonable bend to allow it for a strongly color-associated race.
Incidentally, there aren't any green Sphinxes at all barring changeling from what I saw, so that's a cool four-color idea too but might as well future-proof.
So needless to say, I like the idea. I suspect WotC is going to stick with the Tazri approach though, just because it's so much cleaner with the game rules.
Surprising to see that the Commander forums are overwhelmingly against the idea, thanks for that link (btw I run Mardu curses with Oros or Marchesa :)).
It's slightly clunky but I do still think that this sort of design is more in the spirit of the format than Tazri et al - if Allies decks were forced to stick with white for their non-Ally cards that would be a lot different than seeing them all jam Rite of Replication and the like. Like I want to expand the..."deck identity"? into other colors without actually giving the other colors to just throw all sorts of goodstuff in.
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I thought it might be fun to have some commanders that bend the color identity rules for certain tribes. Rather than break down the restriction of color identity that is so important to Commander, this encourages niche decks without allowing them to get broad access to the mechanics in their off colors.
Here's a concept:
Angel loving person WW
Legendary Creature - Human Cleric (R)
If Angel loving person is your commander, your deck can have Angel cards of any color identity.
You may spend white mana as though it were mana of any color to cast Angel spells and activate the abilities of Angel permanents.
Whenever an Angel enters the battlefield under your control, bolster 1.
2/2
I'm not sure if there is a way to actually just wash the mana symbols of all your Angel cards to W elegantly. I guess it needs to be an eminence-type ability and work from command zone as well.
For extra abilities, sphinxes probably scry or something, demons maybe draw for life, dragons probably throw some damage around and hydras maybe the base guy just makes a bunch of mana for hydras.
I suppose you could do this for the characteristic races or whatever but that somehow seems more dangerous since there are a lot more of them.
Yeah this is pretty good buuuut works much better with some types than others. For example, there are a decent number of monoblack and quite a few monored Angels besides the regular multicolor ones, and Dragons are obviously in every color because cycles and stuff, but what are you gonna get outside of U/x for Sphinxes? Petra Sphinx?
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
It's fairly common for tribes not to have a commander that has both a Tribal effect AND covers all the color identities you might want to get all the good members of that tribe.
Color fixing is kind of out of pie in various ways for everybody but green but I'm pretty sure it's a reasonable bend to allow it for a strongly color-associated race.
Incidentally, there aren't any green Sphinxes at all barring changeling from what I saw, so that's a cool four-color idea too but might as well future-proof.
Some of the tribal stuff with changing also get a bit odd when available to the other colors (Mono-red or green Crib Swap.)
So needless to say, I like the idea. I suspect WotC is going to stick with the Tazri approach though, just because it's so much cleaner with the game rules.
- Rabid Wombat
It's slightly clunky but I do still think that this sort of design is more in the spirit of the format than Tazri et al - if Allies decks were forced to stick with white for their non-Ally cards that would be a lot different than seeing them all jam Rite of Replication and the like. Like I want to expand the..."deck identity"? into other colors without actually giving the other colors to just throw all sorts of goodstuff in.