Tuvasa the Sunlit: This is pretty much what Bant enchantment players have been dreaming of for years. Low mana cost, card advantage and late game win condition. Also a relevant tribal type, there will be a few players that will want to build Bant Merfolk decks and this will be the commander for that.
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow: Evading the commander tax is a big deal and will certainly be something many players are interested in. A lot of the Kamigawa die hards along with general fans of ninjas and the ninjutsu mechanic will be all over this one. It is a unique Dimir commander that will excite many flavors.
Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign: She cheats cards into play for free sometimes which can be very powerful when used in tandem with top library manipulation. Even if you don't play up the odds shtick, Yennett still is a reliable constant source of card advantage in the command zone which makes her a strong candidate for midrange and conrtol decks. Additionally, she is the only WUB legendary sphinx, so tribal sphinx fans will certainly build decks around her. I also anticipate a lot of Oloro, Ageless Ascetic players trading in for Yennet because there hasn't be a WUB commander that reliability provides card advantage in a long time.
Least popular predictions:
Thantis, the Warweaver: It's a legendary spider, but probably inferior to [[Ishkanah, Grafwidow]] for spider tribal decks. Otherwise while the forced combat is potentially exciting, it has a high converted mana cost and a weak triggered ability that I don't anticipate will excite many players.
Gyrus, Walker of Corpses: Interesting at first glance, but extremely conditional reanimation when there are so many better and more interesting reanimation commanders doesn't seem like it would entice many players. You would think players would make him the default Hydra tribal Jund commander, but his triggered ability is a nonbo with Hyrda's with X based power.
Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice: It's not that he's not good or interesting, it's just there are so many artifact matters commanders now, many that are more flashy and unique than Tawnos, I can't see many players gravitating around Tawnos. The players that specifically wanted a UR artifact themed commander are already playing Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain or will play Saheeli, the Gifted instead.
Note: For what it's worth, according to Scryfall, the most expensive legendary creatures are Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow ($14.66), Kestia, the Cultivator ($5.99) and Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign ($5.11). The least expensive legendary creatures are: Arimethes, Slumbering Isle ($1.99), Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor ($1.99) and Xantcha, Sleeper Agent ($1.99)
Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice and Tuvasa the Sunlit seem breakable and have acceptable CMCs, so I can see them getting some attention. A friend of mine is particularly interested in Tawnos. I could see EDHRec doing a Tuvasa vs Uril deck tech article in the future.
Having played a few of the commanders as proxied thus far, I've seen a few Yuriko decks already, so I think she will be popular - at least initially. I've heard of at least one person building Esper zombies at my LGS, and I'm considering porting Gisa and Geralf over to do the same. I've heard a lot about Bantstow, but I prefer Estrid as a more rounded package that will be a decent build. Brudiclad has been degenerately quick to play against, disappointingly. He will be stupidly easy to break.
On the other side, Gyrus is weak. I can't see a lot of decks running him, Xantcha is a pretty corner case build too.
Most popular? Tuvasa the Sunlit. Enchantress has always been a popular theme, and there was never a definitive enchantress Commander before. Now, there is, and it itself is an enchantress to boot, so I expect to see lots of it from here on out.
Least popular? Thantis, the Warweaver. It's a generic Jund card that doesn't pull you in any one particular direction. It's generically good, but there's very little one can do to make this the centerpiece of a deck.
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Yuriko likely will be the most loved because of ways to abuse her ninjutsu, while Gyrus will be the least liked due to his effect requiring exile.
Thanitis will not be popular, but I want a viper's nest deck base around him, using Fog effect to keep myself safe and make use of his +1/+1 counter for stuff like Retribution of the Ancients.
But first, I need to build a Aminatou-Morph/Manifest deck.
I honestly can't imagine wanting to run Gyrus as a general. I suppose if someone is looking for a challenge and trying to make a good deck with a bad general, then he might be appealing.
Most Popular: Tuvasa the Sunlit, Varina, Lich Queen and Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer. Tuvasa is pretty self-explainitory because people have been after an enchantress commander for years. Varina gets the nod because never underestimate the appeal of tribal. Finally, Brudiclad just seems pretty degenerate somehow. I'm not sure exactly how, but I think he's the strongest new commander on just raw power.
Least Popular: Gyrus, Waker of Corpses, Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle and Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor. They all just seem weaker than they needed to be. Like did Gyrus really need to both exile the original creature AND the token he makes? That just seems like overkill. Arixmethes just leaves me scratching my head. And Varchild just doesn't seem particularly well suited to helm a mono-red deck.
Most Popular: Tuvasa the Sunlit, Varina, Lich Queen and Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer. Tuvasa is pretty self-explainitory because people have been after an enchantress commander for years. Varina gets the nod because never underestimate the appeal of tribal. Finally, Brudiclad just seems pretty degenerate somehow. I'm not sure exactly how, but I think he's the strongest new commander on just raw power.
Least Popular: Gyrus, Waker of Corpses, Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle and Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor. They all just seem weaker than they needed to be. Like did Gyrus really need to both exile the original creature AND the token he makes? That just seems like overkill. Arixmethes just leaves me scratching my head. And Varchild just doesn't seem particularly well suited to helm a mono-red deck.
I think arixmethes will be the most commonly played, but not as a commander, instead being stuffed in the 99 of many blue/green/x as a ramp spell
Top actually in the command zone will be tuvasa. Bant is a very common and new-player friendly color combination, and this effect in the command zone is going to be good.
Bottom will be anything with the jund color combination.
Top 3:
Yuriko
Tuvasa
tough call between Brudiclad and Yennett
Bottom 3:
Varchild
Tawnos
I'll go out on a limb and say Aminatou
Yuriko has a lot of ways to build her, she's a ninja, she evades taxes, and is just a really cool card. Even I'm excited to build her.
Tuvasa is a bant enchantress commander and she does the things. She's not interesting imo, but people like really obvious straightforward build arounds so they can feel smart when they put a bunch of cards with the same type in a deck. dunno why people are hyping the merfolk part though - with multiple great merfolk commanders in 2c, why would you use one with no tribal synergy and crap stats just to include the relative small number of G or W merfolk? Don't make sense. Pick sygg or kumena and live with it.
brudiclad and yennett both seem fairly busted. My money is probably on Yennett, but I could believe brudclad. Or maybe the novelty of PWs will make them popular, but honestly none of them seem overly exciting. The bant one is good for a combo build but otherwise looks like it requires a really specific deck to be good, not a generic "play a bunch of enchantments" like tuvasa. Saheeli seems like a lot of work to make good too, you really need to be getting value from the second ability which means lots of low cmc artifacts and some big bombs, and even then you're probably only saving a couple mana if you're trying to do both the same turn.
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Varchild is hilarious and I love the design, but mono-red has lots of competition and the build-around is pretty vague imo. I suspect she'll see the least play.
Tawnos just looks lame compared to, say, kurkesh, even if he does gain blue. Also requires a pretty specific build. Might be some cEDH build (?) but doesn't seem like it'll appeal to the masses.
Aminatou is a bit of a stretch since she is the face of arguably the most interesting deck, but planeswalkers are tough to play in multiplayer and her abilities do essentially nothing to protect her, or even do ANYTHING without build-around support from multiple angles. Do you go blink? Do you go topdeck control? Do you do some weird donation scheme for her ult? I think she's a really interesting design but I think she's a pretty weak card and will be easily overshadowed by other more sensible commanders. How's she going to top brago for a blink deck? How's she going to get enough value from her +1 to justify herself as the commander? I think in practice she'll be almost useless as a commander without a very specific build, and even then I suspect there will be better options.
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The non-pw jund commanders I suspect will play better than they look. They probably won't appeal to super competitive players, but I think they'll do a good job at casual tables. Gyrus especially is getting way more hate than he deserves imo - being able to rip etb effects from the grave for free every turn is not a bad ability, at all. In terms of the actual value he'll generate in a generic goodstuff etb jund deck, I think he'll be quite strong for a beginning deckbuilder.
I must be in the minority. I loveGyrus, waker of corpses. There is not a reanimation engine Commander in Jund, and while he certainly has his drawbacks, he’s incredibly versatile. Synergy with tokens is always welcome, and in those colors you are sac’ing and recurring for profit anyways. I don’t think the perma-Exile will be all that big of a deal when you are reanimating utility and finishers right into the red zone.
That is my prediction at least. I would have picked one of the bant commanders to be in the most / least played but honestly I don't know if I have a prediction as of right now which ones will be played the most. I think we will probably see some of each of them which might push each of them to be a little middle of the pack in popularity.
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Tuvasa the Sunlit - Bant-chantress is a popular archetype already, and an enchantress in the command zone for just 3 CMC is really good. Bonus points for being a Bant merfolk. Easily the most popular, and the one most likely to eclipse the deck's planeswalker as that archetype's commander of choice. Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow - People loooove Kamigawa (on MTGS and EDHRecs at least). People love ninjas. People love saboteur effects that synergize with fat eldrazi monsters. People love cheating on the commander tax. Yuriko is gonna be a big star. Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer - I think he's going to be like Mirri last year; very popular as a "myr tribal" commander, reasonably popular as an "artifacts matter" commander (although probably not more popular than Saheeli or Jhoira), very popular as a more competitive "token swarm wombo combo" commander, and often found in the 99 of Artifact and Token decks to boot.
Least Popular: Xantcha, Sleeper Agent - She'll be popular with old vets who want a challenge or old Vorthoses who love the character, but I think the average player is going to see her as too hard to use and too unreliable, and I also think once everyone tests her she's going to be a lot less powerful and a lot more straightforward than she first appears. Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice - Tawnos is a slow gimmicky commander competing against Saheeli, the Gifted, Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain, and to a much lesser extent Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer for the role of "Izzet artifact commander". I expect him to be extremely unpopular and unseen since he's not even necessarily good in the 99 of those decks. Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor - Monored got some sweet goodies this year, but this is still a super average beatdown/chaos commander in a color that ain't hurting for them. I suspect she'll see next to no play even among diehard lovers of lore.
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Commander - Currently Playing: RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G) RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B) WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
I must be in the minority. I loveGyrus, waker of corpses. There is not a reanimation engine Commander in Jund, and while he certainly has his drawbacks, he’s incredibly versatile. Synergy with tokens is always welcome, and in those colors you are sac’ing and recurring for profit anyways. I don’t think the perma-Exile will be all that big of a deal when you are reanimating utility and finishers right into the red zone.
Its not that its bad or that people won't build it. Its more that its a very open ended commander that doesn't seem like it has a lot of focus. There are clearly some crazy good cards you could play and the commander could be very solid. I just kind of get a Jund goodstuff ETB vibe from it and I have a feeling it might not be the go to options of players who are picking up some of these new commanders.
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I must be in the minority. I loveGyrus, waker of corpses. There is not a reanimation engine Commander in Jund, and while he certainly has his drawbacks, he’s incredibly versatile. Synergy with tokens is always welcome, and in those colors you are sac’ing and recurring for profit anyways. I don’t think the perma-Exile will be all that big of a deal when you are reanimating utility and finishers right into the red zone.
Its not that its bad or that people won't build it. Its more that its a very open ended commander that doesn't seem like it has a lot of focus. There are clearly some crazy good cards you could play and the commander could be very solid. I just kind of get a Jund goodstuff ETB vibe from it and I have a feeling it might not be the go to options of players who are picking up some of these new commanders.
I think people were disappointed in Jund legends, which includes Thantis the Warweaver, because unlike legends in other decks they're not related to the (loosely based) land-matter theme, though as you pointed out their open-endedness is a blessing for different directions. Both Thantis threads mentioned the possibility of -1/-1 counters route, for one.
Given all those powerful options, it just doesn't seem to me that people will be champing at the bit to start Arixmethes in their Command Zone. He doesn't do anything particularly unique or cool. He's really just a Ranger's Path that lives in your Command Zone and maybe eventually becomes a 12/12 with no abilities other than being a mana dork. That's not bad, but it doesn't sound interesting or make me to want to build him as a general. And as I only have my own opinion as to which new commanders will be popular, I think he'll be one of the least popular.
Given all those powerful options, it just doesn't seem to me that people will be champing at the bit to start Arixmethes in their Command Zone. He doesn't do anything particularly unique or cool. He's really just a Ranger's Path that lives in your Command Zone and maybe eventually becomes a 12/12 with no abilities other than being a mana dork. That's not bad, but it doesn't sound interesting or make me to want to build him as a general. And as I only have my own opinion as to which new commanders will be popular, I think he'll be one of the least popular.
I think most people are looking at him for the 99 anyway, though. Even then, I think those decks have better options, so I agree. For me it's all about flavor and top-down design, so I don't look at him from the context of being a solid general or pitted against other Simic generals, or even strategically at all, really. I'm sure people will find better legends for the 99, but for me, he's perfect - my only gripe is the lack of Hexproof or gaining Trample on awakening. Keywords are fun.
I must be in the minority. I loveGyrus, waker of corpses. There is not a reanimation engine Commander in Jund, and while he certainly has his drawbacks, he’s incredibly versatile. Synergy with tokens is always welcome, and in those colors you are sac’ing and recurring for profit anyways. I don’t think the perma-Exile will be all that big of a deal when you are reanimating utility and finishers right into the red zone.
Its not that its bad or that people won't build it. Its more that its a very open ended commander that doesn't seem like it has a lot of focus. There are clearly some crazy good cards you could play and the commander could be very solid. I just kind of get a Jund goodstuff ETB vibe from it and I have a feeling it might not be the go to options of players who are picking up some of these new commanders.
Eh, I just loved my Alesha build so much that I already knew I was going to build him with that ability. The thing about these types of recursion engines is that it really makes cards that are virtually unplayable due to being too high cost, too restricted, or a removal magnet, truly shine. Jund is far and away my most favorite shard, and outside of Prossh, there isn’t much allure to the other general choices. Gyrus is definelty a jack of all trades, aster of none, but those excite me the most.
Casting essentially a triple land drop on T4 seems like one of the best things you can do in EDH. UG has a ton of strong things to do without needing to rely on a commander ability, so simply "get more mana" seems very powerful for enabling any deck.
In contrary to much of this thread he also seems to me one of the more interesting UG legends, as his competition is powerful but that is different from being an interesting deck. Due to the ability to enable pretty much any deck direction you like, the choices made for turning on or leaving as a land, and his ability to be a 2 hit commander kill (which requires setup) as a primary or backup plan for the deck, I find him far more interesting than "tutortoolboxcombo.dec" or the other commanders that often just build themselves. I feel they absolutely nailed his design and I expect him to get more popular than this place seems to suggest.
Tawnos will be popular because he is absurdly broken. He is a tremendously powerful artefact enabler on an optimized low cost haste body. I'm very surprised to see anybody rating him low, because there are plenty of players around who are after strong generals, and artefacts are strong, blue is strong, and he is very effective at doing blue artefact things.
but for me, he's perfect - my only gripe is the lack of Hexproof or gaining Trample on awakening. Keywords are fun.
I love him the way he is. Hexproof is incredibly boring and easy to use, whereas his slumber mechanic is a form of protection that requires strategic consideration and is more interesting. Likewise he's too easy to turn on to give you a 12/12 trampler - I think a 12/12 no evasion is right on the money.
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EDH RRGrenzo plays your deck, GGYeva's mono green control, WW9-tails trys desperately for monowhite not to suck RWBUTymna and Kraum's saboteur tribal, UWG Kestia's Enchantress Aggro, RUB Jeleva casts big dumb spells, RGB Vaevictis' big critters can kill your critters hard
Yeah, I'm really surprised by people raking Tawnos so low. I mean, Paradox Engine is a thing, and even if you don't want to "break" him in that way, there are still a large number of other strong abilities to copy. Put it on a cheap card that can have an instant impact later on thanks to the haste, and you've got a great commander.
Yeah, I'm really surprised by people raking Tawnos so low. I mean, Paradox Engine is a thing, and even if you don't want to "break" him in that way, there are still a large number of other strong abilities to copy. Put it on a cheap card that can have an instant impact later on thanks to the haste, and you've got a great commander.
I think Tawnos will be played a fair bit. His copying ability is a bit more pricey than that of Kurkesh, and a slight bit more difficult to use repeatedly since it's a tap ability, but a) blue and artifacts have lots of untap effects and b) Paradox Engine, duh. Plus we just got a reprint of Magistrate's Scepter, which might as well be called Tawnos' Favorite Toy for purposes of this deck. Include blue's many ways of tutoring for and interacting in interesting ways with artifacts and I expect he will be pretty popular. If I didn't already have a Kurkesh deck, I might well make a Tawnos deck. Heck, I might still make a Tawnos deck and just include Kurkesh among the 99, which I expect most Tawnos players will do anyhow. At very least I will probably include Tawnos in my Jhoira artifacts deck.
It is very likely that the planeswalker face cards will lead the front in the popularity contest, but what about the alternate creature commanders?
1. Which three new creature commanders do you anticipate will be the most popular in terms of building a commander deck around? Why?
2. Which three new creature commanders do you anticipate will be the least popular in terms of building a commander deck around? Why?
UBRKess, Dissident MageUBR - Controlling Dissidents
GRhonas the IndomitableG - Indomitable Four Drops
WUBOloro, Ageless AsceticWUB - Loot & Renanimate
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow: Evading the commander tax is a big deal and will certainly be something many players are interested in. A lot of the Kamigawa die hards along with general fans of ninjas and the ninjutsu mechanic will be all over this one. It is a unique Dimir commander that will excite many flavors.
Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign: She cheats cards into play for free sometimes which can be very powerful when used in tandem with top library manipulation. Even if you don't play up the odds shtick, Yennett still is a reliable constant source of card advantage in the command zone which makes her a strong candidate for midrange and conrtol decks. Additionally, she is the only WUB legendary sphinx, so tribal sphinx fans will certainly build decks around her. I also anticipate a lot of Oloro, Ageless Ascetic players trading in for Yennet because there hasn't be a WUB commander that reliability provides card advantage in a long time.
Least popular predictions:
Gyrus, Walker of Corpses: Interesting at first glance, but extremely conditional reanimation when there are so many better and more interesting reanimation commanders doesn't seem like it would entice many players. You would think players would make him the default Hydra tribal Jund commander, but his triggered ability is a nonbo with Hyrda's with X based power.
Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice: It's not that he's not good or interesting, it's just there are so many artifact matters commanders now, many that are more flashy and unique than Tawnos, I can't see many players gravitating around Tawnos. The players that specifically wanted a UR artifact themed commander are already playing Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain or will play Saheeli, the Gifted instead.
Note: For what it's worth, according to Scryfall, the most expensive legendary creatures are Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow ($14.66), Kestia, the Cultivator ($5.99) and Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign ($5.11). The least expensive legendary creatures are: Arimethes, Slumbering Isle ($1.99), Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor ($1.99) and Xantcha, Sleeper Agent ($1.99)
UBRKess, Dissident MageUBR - Controlling Dissidents
GRhonas the IndomitableG - Indomitable Four Drops
WUBOloro, Ageless AsceticWUB - Loot & Renanimate
On the other side, Gyrus is weak. I can't see a lot of decks running him, Xantcha is a pretty corner case build too.
Least popular? Thantis, the Warweaver. It's a generic Jund card that doesn't pull you in any one particular direction. It's generically good, but there's very little one can do to make this the centerpiece of a deck.
Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
Thanitis will not be popular, but I want a viper's nest deck base around him, using Fog effect to keep myself safe and make use of his +1/+1 counter for stuff like Retribution of the Ancients.
But first, I need to build a Aminatou-Morph/Manifest deck.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
Least popular - Gyrus
My favorite - guess
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
As for least popular. Tawnos. There are far better UR artifact themed legends. Two of which are being released with tawnos.
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
Least Popular: Gyrus, Waker of Corpses, Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle and Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor. They all just seem weaker than they needed to be. Like did Gyrus really need to both exile the original creature AND the token he makes? That just seems like overkill. Arixmethes just leaves me scratching my head. And Varchild just doesn't seem particularly well suited to helm a mono-red deck.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
Top actually in the command zone will be tuvasa. Bant is a very common and new-player friendly color combination, and this effect in the command zone is going to be good.
Bottom will be anything with the jund color combination.
Links to my most current deck lists;
Primary EDH; Rakka Mar Token Perfection, Crosis Mnemonic Betrayal, Cromat Villainous, Judith Gravestorm, Rakdos Empty Storm, Exava Artifacts, Bant Trash, & Fumiko Voltron!
EDH kept at home; Ruzzian Isset & Rakdos LoR!
EDH (nostalgic/pimp/retired) in storage;
Latulla Burns, Akroma Smash, Jeska Voltron, Rakdos Storm, Bladewing Darghans, Lyzolda Worldgorger, Xantcha Steals your Heart, Jori Storm, Wydwen Permission, Gwendlyn Paradox, Jeleva Warps, & Sigarda Brick!
Legacy Showanimator and High Tide!
Yuriko
Tuvasa
tough call between Brudiclad and Yennett
Bottom 3:
Varchild
Tawnos
I'll go out on a limb and say Aminatou
Yuriko has a lot of ways to build her, she's a ninja, she evades taxes, and is just a really cool card. Even I'm excited to build her.
Tuvasa is a bant enchantress commander and she does the things. She's not interesting imo, but people like really obvious straightforward build arounds so they can feel smart when they put a bunch of cards with the same type in a deck. dunno why people are hyping the merfolk part though - with multiple great merfolk commanders in 2c, why would you use one with no tribal synergy and crap stats just to include the relative small number of G or W merfolk? Don't make sense. Pick sygg or kumena and live with it.
brudiclad and yennett both seem fairly busted. My money is probably on Yennett, but I could believe brudclad. Or maybe the novelty of PWs will make them popular, but honestly none of them seem overly exciting. The bant one is good for a combo build but otherwise looks like it requires a really specific deck to be good, not a generic "play a bunch of enchantments" like tuvasa. Saheeli seems like a lot of work to make good too, you really need to be getting value from the second ability which means lots of low cmc artifacts and some big bombs, and even then you're probably only saving a couple mana if you're trying to do both the same turn.
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Varchild is hilarious and I love the design, but mono-red has lots of competition and the build-around is pretty vague imo. I suspect she'll see the least play.
Tawnos just looks lame compared to, say, kurkesh, even if he does gain blue. Also requires a pretty specific build. Might be some cEDH build (?) but doesn't seem like it'll appeal to the masses.
Aminatou is a bit of a stretch since she is the face of arguably the most interesting deck, but planeswalkers are tough to play in multiplayer and her abilities do essentially nothing to protect her, or even do ANYTHING without build-around support from multiple angles. Do you go blink? Do you go topdeck control? Do you do some weird donation scheme for her ult? I think she's a really interesting design but I think she's a pretty weak card and will be easily overshadowed by other more sensible commanders. How's she going to top brago for a blink deck? How's she going to get enough value from her +1 to justify herself as the commander? I think in practice she'll be almost useless as a commander without a very specific build, and even then I suspect there will be better options.
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The non-pw jund commanders I suspect will play better than they look. They probably won't appeal to super competitive players, but I think they'll do a good job at casual tables. Gyrus especially is getting way more hate than he deserves imo - being able to rip etb effects from the grave for free every turn is not a bad ability, at all. In terms of the actual value he'll generate in a generic goodstuff etb jund deck, I think he'll be quite strong for a beginning deckbuilder.
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
Least Popular Prediction:
That is my prediction at least. I would have picked one of the bant commanders to be in the most / least played but honestly I don't know if I have a prediction as of right now which ones will be played the most. I think we will probably see some of each of them which might push each of them to be a little middle of the pack in popularity.
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
Tuvasa the Sunlit - Bant-chantress is a popular archetype already, and an enchantress in the command zone for just 3 CMC is really good. Bonus points for being a Bant merfolk. Easily the most popular, and the one most likely to eclipse the deck's planeswalker as that archetype's commander of choice.
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow - People loooove Kamigawa (on MTGS and EDHRecs at least). People love ninjas. People love saboteur effects that synergize with fat eldrazi monsters. People love cheating on the commander tax. Yuriko is gonna be a big star.
Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer - I think he's going to be like Mirri last year; very popular as a "myr tribal" commander, reasonably popular as an "artifacts matter" commander (although probably not more popular than Saheeli or Jhoira), very popular as a more competitive "token swarm wombo combo" commander, and often found in the 99 of Artifact and Token decks to boot.
Least Popular:
Xantcha, Sleeper Agent - She'll be popular with old vets who want a challenge or old Vorthoses who love the character, but I think the average player is going to see her as too hard to use and too unreliable, and I also think once everyone tests her she's going to be a lot less powerful and a lot more straightforward than she first appears.
Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice - Tawnos is a slow gimmicky commander competing against Saheeli, the Gifted, Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain, and to a much lesser extent Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer for the role of "Izzet artifact commander". I expect him to be extremely unpopular and unseen since he's not even necessarily good in the 99 of those decks.
Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor - Monored got some sweet goodies this year, but this is still a super average beatdown/chaos commander in a color that ain't hurting for them. I suspect she'll see next to no play even among diehard lovers of lore.
RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR
WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG
GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG
GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G)
RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW
UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B)
WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
Its not that its bad or that people won't build it. Its more that its a very open ended commander that doesn't seem like it has a lot of focus. There are clearly some crazy good cards you could play and the commander could be very solid. I just kind of get a Jund goodstuff ETB vibe from it and I have a feeling it might not be the go to options of players who are picking up some of these new commanders.
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
I think people were disappointed in Jund legends, which includes Thantis the Warweaver, because unlike legends in other decks they're not related to the (loosely based) land-matter theme, though as you pointed out their open-endedness is a blessing for different directions. Both Thantis threads mentioned the possibility of -1/-1 counters route, for one.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
Given all those powerful options, it just doesn't seem to me that people will be champing at the bit to start Arixmethes in their Command Zone. He doesn't do anything particularly unique or cool. He's really just a Ranger's Path that lives in your Command Zone and maybe eventually becomes a 12/12 with no abilities other than being a mana dork. That's not bad, but it doesn't sound interesting or make me to want to build him as a general. And as I only have my own opinion as to which new commanders will be popular, I think he'll be one of the least popular.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
Eh, I just loved my Alesha build so much that I already knew I was going to build him with that ability. The thing about these types of recursion engines is that it really makes cards that are virtually unplayable due to being too high cost, too restricted, or a removal magnet, truly shine. Jund is far and away my most favorite shard, and outside of Prossh, there isn’t much allure to the other general choices. Gyrus is definelty a jack of all trades, aster of none, but those excite me the most.
Casting essentially a triple land drop on T4 seems like one of the best things you can do in EDH. UG has a ton of strong things to do without needing to rely on a commander ability, so simply "get more mana" seems very powerful for enabling any deck.
In contrary to much of this thread he also seems to me one of the more interesting UG legends, as his competition is powerful but that is different from being an interesting deck. Due to the ability to enable pretty much any deck direction you like, the choices made for turning on or leaving as a land, and his ability to be a 2 hit commander kill (which requires setup) as a primary or backup plan for the deck, I find him far more interesting than "tutortoolboxcombo.dec" or the other commanders that often just build themselves. I feel they absolutely nailed his design and I expect him to get more popular than this place seems to suggest.
Tawnos will be popular because he is absurdly broken. He is a tremendously powerful artefact enabler on an optimized low cost haste body. I'm very surprised to see anybody rating him low, because there are plenty of players around who are after strong generals, and artefacts are strong, blue is strong, and he is very effective at doing blue artefact things.
I love him the way he is. Hexproof is incredibly boring and easy to use, whereas his slumber mechanic is a form of protection that requires strategic consideration and is more interesting. Likewise he's too easy to turn on to give you a 12/12 trampler - I think a 12/12 no evasion is right on the money.
RRGrenzo plays your deck, GGYeva's mono green control, WW9-tails trys desperately for monowhite not to suck
RWBUTymna and Kraum's saboteur tribal, UWG Kestia's Enchantress Aggro, RUB Jeleva casts big dumb spells, RGB Vaevictis' big critters can kill your critters hard
Arena Standard
UUUU Tempo, since before it was cool
Various Wx decks running Fountain of Renewal and Day of Glory
Anything I can cram Chaos Wand in to
It's because he has to compete with Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain which gives draws for playing artifact spells. He's good as one of the cards to run in the deck with Illusionist's Bracers and Mycosynth Lattice.