Still a little confused. If you look at Inalla her wording specifically references the commander zone, which is important to clarify exactly how it works.
Inalla, Archmage Ritualist
Eminence — Whenever another nontoken Wizard enters the battlefield under your control, if Inalla, Archmage Ritualist is in the command zone or on the battlefield
Did you mean the same thing if I changes the text to? ..
Leader of the Meek 1WW
Legendary Creature - Human Coward
Mastery — If Leader of the Meek is your commander, you may include creature cards with power 2 or less of any color identity in your deck. You may spend mana as though it were mana of any type to cast creature spells with power 2 or less, if Leader of the Meek is in the command zone or on the battlefield.
Whenever a creature with power 2 or less enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on Leader of the Meek.
1/2
This is a super powerful ability, but probably within the realms being balance enough. I could see a hate-bears deck that could be more competitive. My friends Gaddock Teeg hate-bears deck is pretty good, but quite slow. The thing is that Leader of the Meek is trading for a really fixed mana base, for actually do anything. The example with Gaddock Teeg is that you can gain a really great ability (opponents locked out of casting a lot of cards) if you feel you can be satisfied with your mana base. The more money you spend on it the smoother games are. So I think this is a great design.
I'd say it is a design space that can be explored much like the command zone - there certainly are times when you felt your "wants you to play a narrow card type" general was the wrong colours.
Though the same kind of effect can be reached with Tazri-style effects, it might be tricky to create flavorful abilities that are good but don't require you to play five-color. Restricting your "five-colorness" to a certain type of card could prove interesting.
I'd definitely be down for a blue merfolk legendary that allowed me to 'splash' (heh) the other merfolk colors, but only for merfolk spells, for example.
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Yeah, ask yourself why they don't that? Because no one would play that *****.
Right now in this section there is a thread talking about noncreature commanders. Some people want more planeswalker as commander and some other even want instants. Ask yourself why they don't make their own custom format instead of trying to warp edh.
Because such a custom format woul be solved in five minutes and no one would play that after a couple of months That's what happened to tiny leaders. So they think it's better to jump on the edh bandwagon, since it's so popular, and warp it.
Oh come on, why would noncreature or CI-breaking commanders necessarily be more problematic? COULD they be problematic? Sure. So could totally normal seemingly-fine commanders. I mean freaking Tazri is arguably the most powerful commander in the format and he looks super fair.
Don't get me wrong: wotc could totally screw it up and making horrible miserable commanders that are artifacts or planeswalkers or break CI or whatever. But they could also do that with just regular creature commanders, because they do it all the time.
The biggest problem is "You may use any mana as if it were any color." That's something five-color doesn't normally allow you to do. I can count the cards which can do that (and cost three mana or less) on one hand, and none can be a Commander.
Five-color has another side of it: If you want to play your dupes and trips (cards which cost two or three mana of one color), your mana base is going to look weird. You can't just say "I'm going to play Sol Ring into Chromatic Lantern on turn 1." because frankly, I'm just as likely to draw Aura Shards or Ingot Chewer as you are to draw Chromatic Lantern, and you're not at all likely to draw both of them on turn 1.
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
I would personally love a way to add a color to a commander's color identity in a balanced way, to give existing decks more options too. Perhaps in the form of commanders with a partner ability that let's them partner with non-partner commanders but have some for of negative ability - perhaps even in eminance form - to compensate.
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The secret to enjoyable Commander games is not winning first, but losing last.
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I would love to play with more partners. The existing ones are pretty sweet, but having more would be better. Something like The Gitrog Monster + Omnath, Locus of Rage just makes me salivate...
I'm sure there would be a few really broken combinations, but honestly, Thrasios, Triton Hero + Tymna the Weaver is already super good. Thrasios basically warped the entire format, so I would love to have more options.
Overall, the partner mechanic is super sweet and I would love to have it explored more. I mean, all the commander product gimmicks are pretty cool. Experience counters, planeswalker commanders, tempting offer, command zone matters, eminence etc.
I do think that the main limitation for this idea is just how to present it to people in a packaged product. Cards like these could not be printed in a regular set, so they would have to be in the dedicated command sets, but then they would have to be the flagship cards of that set. For example, if you are going to have a Commander that can use off-colour Curses, you are going to want to include some of them in the deck, but then you have these cards that cannot be used with any other legendary creatures in the deck.
I think this would work for some cool lesser known theme cards, like the Curses, or some smaller, spread-out tribes, but a single cycle or two of these commanders would be all that you need. It is not a lot of design space, but you could make some interesting commanders out of it.
I'd argue it defeats the point of commander, half the fun and challenge is making a deck with the limitations of your commander.
I enjoy making decks that fit the commander's playstyle. And while color restrictions do have a part in getting creative sometimes, color is not the main point of the deck: the commander is. So being able to stretch that somewhat does not defeat the purpose of the format imo.
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The secret to enjoyable Commander games is not winning first, but losing last.
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I'm not saying it can't be done right, but balancing abilities like this seems problematic.
As I see it, there are two very likely outcomes without much middle ground:
1) Too open - enabling you to play whatever you want without much need to worry about colors/mana. This would lead to goodstuff combo without much of a theme. (Yes, some people enjoy this, but they're doing fine already with existing options, no need to specifically desing new stuff here imo)
2) Too narrow - only usefull for a very specific subset of cards, which makes for limited deckbuilding options and be ultimately quite boring.
However, if they gave it a shot and if they'd manage to make it exiting and flavorful while not broken, I'd love to see the outcome - but I'm very sceptical.
Inalla, Archmage Ritualist
Eminence — Whenever another nontoken Wizard enters the battlefield under your control, if Inalla, Archmage Ritualist is in the command zone or on the battlefield
Did you mean the same thing if I changes the text to? ..
Leader of the Meek 1WW
Legendary Creature - Human Coward
Mastery — If Leader of the Meek is your commander, you may include creature cards with power 2 or less of any color identity in your deck. You may spend mana as though it were mana of any type to cast creature spells with power 2 or less, if Leader of the Meek is in the command zone or on the battlefield.
Whenever a creature with power 2 or less enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on Leader of the Meek.
1/2
This is a super powerful ability, but probably within the realms being balance enough. I could see a hate-bears deck that could be more competitive. My friends Gaddock Teeg hate-bears deck is pretty good, but quite slow. The thing is that Leader of the Meek is trading for a really fixed mana base, for actually do anything. The example with Gaddock Teeg is that you can gain a really great ability (opponents locked out of casting a lot of cards) if you feel you can be satisfied with your mana base. The more money you spend on it the smoother games are. So I think this is a great design.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
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-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Though the same kind of effect can be reached with Tazri-style effects, it might be tricky to create flavorful abilities that are good but don't require you to play five-color. Restricting your "five-colorness" to a certain type of card could prove interesting.
I'd definitely be down for a blue merfolk legendary that allowed me to 'splash' (heh) the other merfolk colors, but only for merfolk spells, for example.
Don't get me wrong: wotc could totally screw it up and making horrible miserable commanders that are artifacts or planeswalkers or break CI or whatever. But they could also do that with just regular creature commanders, because they do it all the time.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
Five-color has another side of it: If you want to play your dupes and trips (cards which cost two or three mana of one color), your mana base is going to look weird. You can't just say "I'm going to play Sol Ring into Chromatic Lantern on turn 1." because frankly, I'm just as likely to draw Aura Shards or Ingot Chewer as you are to draw Chromatic Lantern, and you're not at all likely to draw both of them on turn 1.
On phasing:
Why do you think combo should be less viable?
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
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I'm sure there would be a few really broken combinations, but honestly, Thrasios, Triton Hero + Tymna the Weaver is already super good. Thrasios basically warped the entire format, so I would love to have more options.
Now I'm thinking of Xenagos, God of Revels + Kozilek, Butcher of Truth...
Overall, the partner mechanic is super sweet and I would love to have it explored more. I mean, all the commander product gimmicks are pretty cool. Experience counters, planeswalker commanders, tempting offer, command zone matters, eminence etc.
Mr Barrin this Cube is on Fire!! - http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/80149
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I do think that the main limitation for this idea is just how to present it to people in a packaged product. Cards like these could not be printed in a regular set, so they would have to be in the dedicated command sets, but then they would have to be the flagship cards of that set. For example, if you are going to have a Commander that can use off-colour Curses, you are going to want to include some of them in the deck, but then you have these cards that cannot be used with any other legendary creatures in the deck.
I think this would work for some cool lesser known theme cards, like the Curses, or some smaller, spread-out tribes, but a single cycle or two of these commanders would be all that you need. It is not a lot of design space, but you could make some interesting commanders out of it.
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
As I see it, there are two very likely outcomes without much middle ground:
1) Too open - enabling you to play whatever you want without much need to worry about colors/mana. This would lead to goodstuff combo without much of a theme. (Yes, some people enjoy this, but they're doing fine already with existing options, no need to specifically desing new stuff here imo)
2) Too narrow - only usefull for a very specific subset of cards, which makes for limited deckbuilding options and be ultimately quite boring.
However, if they gave it a shot and if they'd manage to make it exiting and flavorful while not broken, I'd love to see the outcome - but I'm very sceptical.
W(W/U)U Ephara - Flash & Taxes W(W/U)U || B(B/G)G Meren - Circle of Life B(B/G)G
RGW Marath - Ever shifting Wilds RGW || (U/R)C(W/B) Breya - Artificial Dominion (U/R)C(W/B)
UBR Becket Brass - take what you can, give nothing back UBR