How would this affect the game? Since they changed the name from Elder Dragon to Commander, it makes more sense that planeswalkers could fit that title. It seems like it would be balanced as most players with deep pockets could just make a 5 color deck with one of those legends and it would still be more powerful than the planewalker commander as they are limited to 2 colors at most (3 with Nicol), and the more powerful walkers are mono colored. I think having Koth as a possible commander might strengthen mono red as a viable edh deck as well. Walkers as commanders may also make general beatdown more viable as that is the easiest way to get rid of them.
I will list all the planeswalkers currently and maybe you all can tell me which ones would be a problem and why.
After putting them all up there, you notice the black walkers seem pretty strong, and Gideon is the only one that could win with general damage.
There are very few cards that concern me with planeswalkers. One of them is Doubling Season, but if you notice, the only planeswalker commanders that can use it are pretty bad at abusing it. Nissa, Garruk, and Sarkhan Vol. Garruk would be neat coming in with 6 loyalty and getting 2 3/3 beasts for a -1, but it's not broken by any means. Nissa doesn't even get close to her ult even with Doubling Season and even at that, you would need haste to pull the win out of it (probably not too hard). Sarkhan Vol could put 10 4/4 dragons into play with it, but they would need haste as well.
Wrath cards might become more popular, in turn making white more popular.
Overall, it doesn't seem too abusable, and at the same time it could make the two most underplayed colors more popular.
I can see Sorin, but JTMS is not even CLOSE to being too strong as a commander. Would you pay 6 for a brainstorm? How about 8? He is entirely too easy to kill, especially if you are limited to mono blue. Plus, if things happen as I predict they would, there would be a few dudes on the table by the time he hits making it even easier. There are already more powerful generals than JTMS would be. Captain Sisay tutors for the the same cost and seems harder to kill.
Sorin wouldn't be as powerful as you guys think. He's still be pretty solid though and by far superior over all the other non blue, non black planeswalkers.
The problem with making planeswalkers generals is that Tezzeret 1.0 is an SS tier general, and Tezzeret 2.0 and Jace 2.0 aren't too far behind. So instead of trying to make the two most unpopular colors more popular (red and white), you just exacerbate one of the main problems in EDH.
Sorin wouldn't be as powerful as you guys think. He's still be pretty solid though and by far superior over all the other non blue, non black planeswalkers.
The problem with making planeswalkers generals is that Tezzeret 1.0 is an SS tier general, and Tezzeret 2.0 and Jace 2.0 aren't too far behind. So instead of trying to make the two most unpopular colors more popular (red and white), you just exacerbate one of the main problems in EDH.
I'd say that yes, Sorin would not be a problem, but the fact that he would be guaranteed to knock a player out would be extremely unfriendly. As for Tezz 1 andbig daddy jace I feel like they wouldn't play too differently from Arcum Dagsson and Vendilion Clique respectively. And on top of that they are weaker to aggro strategies. So all in all to sum up my thoughts I would have to say every one of them would be fine with me. But Sorin is pretty DB-esque and I wouldn't be sad to see him go in the case of planeswalker generals.
Another drawback to the Planeswalker commander idea is that they can't be used multiple times in a turn. Someone like Arcum Dagsson or Captain Sisay can be untapped and used again and again.
I seriously think people aren't analyzing the implications enough. The gut reaction is to the planeswalkers that are amazing as planeswalkers, but as generals, they are fair I think. Azami and Arcanis seem better than Jace 2 most of the time. If you can get Jace 2's ultimate off on ONE player, you deserve to beat that ONE player. As far as I can tell, not one of these planeswalkers can initiate an infinite combo.
And I honestly think, as a commander, that Koth is the most powerful. A 4/4 haste the turn he comes out? GG JTMS. A personal mana flare for a turn? Have this Myojin on turn 5, or sooner with other cards, or more cards with multiple flare effects. All my mountains forever tap to deal 1 damage? No creature will ever stay in play, and GG, I guess I win the long game.
I agree that Sorin, both Tezz, and Jace 2.0 would be pretty dominant, but even Lilliana seems like she'd destroy all the others. Setting up your draw every turn seems really good.
The head count is far too small, when we have 40 or 60 Planeswalkers then we could start considering them as generals (The rate wizards is going it'll might be within the next 5 years or less if there's a Planeswalkers Set)
JTMS and other's would be much too easy to protect. Between Manlands, bounce, counters, and small critters it's far too easy to control the game until he goes ultimate and kills someone.. just like clique.
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This thread seems to pop up about every couple of months or so but it never gets very far, probably because of how limited the amount of viable "generals" would be. Surging Chaos is right about there being an incredibly skewed hierarchy with Tezz 1.0 and Jace 2.0 comprising the S-tier. The tiers fall off pretty dramatically beyond that though there are a number of strong alternatives to the busted blue guys. My playgroup tried this actually (about 10 of us made decks). I made Tezz to make a statement to show how imbalanced the format was and I never came close to losing a single game. Tezz is just far and away too consistent at setting up Time Vault shenanigans super early and effectively locking everyone out with permission to back him up (think Arcum on crack without having to run the non-impactful fuel cards). Sorin is not nearly as dangerous as you would think and the red walkers (namely Koth and to a lesser extent Chandra 1.0) are drastically underrated. It is really nice when all of the burn that Red has at its disposal doubles as incredibly efficient 'Walker removal. We found out rather quickly that Pulse of the Forge is probably one of the strongest spells in the format and that Pithing Needle is too much for many decks to handle.
Maybe you guys misunderstand. I do not mean walkers instead of legends, I mean in addition to. I fail to see how JTMS is "so easy to protect" if Sisay is not, and Sisay has a more powerful ability. And as Risk said, it is really easy to kill planeswalkers, moreso than even creatures imo. You cant attack creatures. Gaddock Teeg would be broken as a general as he would prevent other generals from even being played.
I just thought the idea seemed decent at balancing the colors, but it seems everyone is so stigmatized by the blue planeswalkers in sanctioned formats that they fail to see that they are not nearly as strong in this hypothetical situation.
Tezz would be good, but not the best. JTMS would be poop as there are about 3 better mono blue generals, maybe more. Mono red with Koth would be amazing and burn being more useful would make red a much more viable choice. I think tezz 2 would be really powerful. Knight-Errant may be the best white general available if this were considered.
Also, Time Vault is banned.
All in all, the only colors that would get more powerful than they already are would be red and white. The others would just open up more variation and by correlation to them being playable, further make red more playable. A great bonus to white is all the wrath effect that wouldn't effect the general. I can see Gideon being super powerful in that situation. "Wrath, attack you for 6 general"
Obviously there is not much direct damage played. That is a fallacious argument. Direct damage WOULD be played if the rules allowed PW to be generals. Spot removal is also fairly limited, but there are a lot of creature played that can attack a PW.
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I will list all the planeswalkers currently and maybe you all can tell me which ones would be a problem and why.
2 Ajani Vengeant
3 Chandra Ablaze
4 Chandra Nalaar
5 Elspeth Tirel
6 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
7 Garruk Wildspeaker
8 Gideon Jura (the only one that could win with general damage!)
9 Jace Beleren
10 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
11 Koth of the Hammer
12 Liliana Vess
13 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
14 Nissa Revane
15 Sarkhan the Mad
16 Sarkhan Vol
17 Sorin Markov (Probably too powerful)
18 Tezzeret the Seeker
19 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
20 Venser, the Sojourner
After putting them all up there, you notice the black walkers seem pretty strong, and Gideon is the only one that could win with general damage.
There are very few cards that concern me with planeswalkers. One of them is Doubling Season, but if you notice, the only planeswalker commanders that can use it are pretty bad at abusing it. Nissa, Garruk, and Sarkhan Vol. Garruk would be neat coming in with 6 loyalty and getting 2 3/3 beasts for a -1, but it's not broken by any means. Nissa doesn't even get close to her ult even with Doubling Season and even at that, you would need haste to pull the win out of it (probably not too hard). Sarkhan Vol could put 10 4/4 dragons into play with it, but they would need haste as well.
Wrath cards might become more popular, in turn making white more popular.
Overall, it doesn't seem too abusable, and at the same time it could make the two most underplayed colors more popular.
What are your thoughts?
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The problem with making planeswalkers generals is that Tezzeret 1.0 is an SS tier general, and Tezzeret 2.0 and Jace 2.0 aren't too far behind. So instead of trying to make the two most unpopular colors more popular (red and white), you just exacerbate one of the main problems in EDH.
I'd say that yes, Sorin would not be a problem, but the fact that he would be guaranteed to knock a player out would be extremely unfriendly. As for Tezz 1 andbig daddy jace I feel like they wouldn't play too differently from Arcum Dagsson and Vendilion Clique respectively. And on top of that they are weaker to aggro strategies. So all in all to sum up my thoughts I would have to say every one of them would be fine with me. But Sorin is pretty DB-esque and I wouldn't be sad to see him go in the case of planeswalker generals.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=307453
I seriously think people aren't analyzing the implications enough. The gut reaction is to the planeswalkers that are amazing as planeswalkers, but as generals, they are fair I think. Azami and Arcanis seem better than Jace 2 most of the time. If you can get Jace 2's ultimate off on ONE player, you deserve to beat that ONE player. As far as I can tell, not one of these planeswalkers can initiate an infinite combo.
And I honestly think, as a commander, that Koth is the most powerful. A 4/4 haste the turn he comes out? GG JTMS. A personal mana flare for a turn? Have this Myojin on turn 5, or sooner with other cards, or more cards with multiple flare effects. All my mountains forever tap to deal 1 damage? No creature will ever stay in play, and GG, I guess I win the long game.
EDH:
W Eight-and-a-Half-Tails
GB Nath of the Gilt-Leaf
In his Second 100 days - Yawgmoth's Bargain is unrestricted in Vintage.
What is going to happen in the Next 100 days!!!
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Current EDH Decks:
G Multani, Maro-Sorcerer
B Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
GU Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
I just thought the idea seemed decent at balancing the colors, but it seems everyone is so stigmatized by the blue planeswalkers in sanctioned formats that they fail to see that they are not nearly as strong in this hypothetical situation.
Tezz would be good, but not the best. JTMS would be poop as there are about 3 better mono blue generals, maybe more. Mono red with Koth would be amazing and burn being more useful would make red a much more viable choice. I think tezz 2 would be really powerful. Knight-Errant may be the best white general available if this were considered.
Also, Time Vault is banned.
All in all, the only colors that would get more powerful than they already are would be red and white. The others would just open up more variation and by correlation to them being playable, further make red more playable. A great bonus to white is all the wrath effect that wouldn't effect the general. I can see Gideon being super powerful in that situation. "Wrath, attack you for 6 general"