Seriously, if you're fixing the mistakes of modern (something I strongly approve of) start by adding in every set that isn't on the reserved list. Why the hell should we have Jace but not FoF?
I would call this guy a worse Ghave, but I think that's actually not fair. He barely interacts with counters at all, moving them for three mana a pop seeming really bad to me. I'd rather get a counter lord of some kind (maybe "Creatures get +1/+1 for each counter on them," or just getting High Sentinels of Arashin as a commander) if they wanted to do a "fair" counters general. He seems kinda nuts in limited though.
Shu Yun - 3
I like the voltron plan a good deal, and he's able to pull them off well, but my favorite part of this card is getting a Jeskai general that doesn't draw massive hate (Narset for power, Numot for MLD), pigeonhole you into one deck style (Zedruu group hug-ish), or suck (Ruhan of the Never Winning by Commander Damage). Having a general that is good and cheap means I can build a Jeskai blink deck or something.
Tasigur - 5
This guy seems totally sweet. A political ability that works really well in a control shell. Delve is a sweet ability, and he's in the three best colors in EDH. Intellectually, I think this is the best of the commanders, but I might enjoy a aoltron Shu Yun deck, an aggro Alesha deck, or a stompy Yasova deck more. But the prospect of getting super grind value over dozens of activations seems really sweet. You also get to play the cheap, efficient spot removal spells that are normally not good in Commander because they scale poorly (Yay recursion!).
Alesha - 4
I like attacking with cheap creatures. I like value ETB creatures. I like recursion. The only reason I don't have this as a 5 is because I think Tasigur is better, being in better colors and not pushing aggro in a multi-player format. In Tiny Leaders, this seems likely to be the best of the bunch.
Yasova - 2
I'm more of a fan of this card than the score would suggest, but I don't think it's amazing. About as cool as Shu Yun probably. I like stealing things, and also the prospect of a Gruul deck that can run some blue cards for fun (Shaman of the Great Hunt, anyone?). Her power shoots way up in Tiny Leaders, where she can steal basically anything.
Dromoka - 2
This or Ojutai are the worst of the cycle. I'm giving her the nod as slightly better because she costs five and works kinda well as a voltron general. Green and White are not high in dragons, and lack any way to make their other creatures dragons.
Ojutai - 1
She's expensive, her effect is meh. At least there are a couple of effects in blue that make things that aren't dragons into dragons (gogo Xenograft!). But I still don't want to play this. Grand Arbiter seems like a better general for a lockdown deck.
Silumgar - 3
Xenograft and Conspiracy shine here, letting you wipe out people's boards with a bunch of random tokens. She's not awful, but kinda boring. She also is getting pulled in a bunch of different directions - Hexproof works well alone, but -1/-1 isn't wiping many boards in Commander. Points for killing hornet tokens in standard. Points off for dying to Hornet Queens in standard.
Kolaghan - 5
She wants you to play dragons. In the color with dragons. She wants you to attack with those dragons (the best thing to do with dragons). She has conspiracy to make an army of tokens into dragons. What more do you want? Oh, and you can pull tricks with Dash to avoid removal and the commander tax.
Atarka - 4
This card is badass. It kills you in two hits. With Xenagos, it kills you in one hit. With extra combat steps it kills you in one turn. I like it. Stomping things is fun.
A final note: The Khans (except Yasova) have the Khans of Tarkir abilities where applicable. The Dragons have the Dragons of Tarkir abilities where applicable. Good stuff.
Yes, the "commander tax" applies to casting the card - including alternate casting costs such as Dash. This is why Derevi, Empyrial Tactician's activated ability allows him to ignore the commander tax. It's an activated ability that puts him into play, not a casting cost.
I don't know about a commander (Bolas + Pinging sounds sweet), but frankly an artifact deck in Red and Black that doesn't try this combo seems lacking to me:
1. Play Mycosynth Lattice. Fairly standard stuff for artifact abuse, everything is now an artifact.
2. Play Bludgeon Brawl. Now all those things are equipment.
You could stop now and just beat people down with Bolas wielding Bolas. But we can do more, with the help of two under-appreciated cards from the Original Mirrodin block:
3. Now play Vulshok Battlemaster, attaching everything that isn't a creature to him.
4. Now kill your Battlemaster with Murderous Spoils, gaining control of all equipment attached to it. If you did this the same turn as step 3, that should be every noncreature permanent.
Will this ever happen? Probably not. Is it a good plan? Definitely not. Is it hilarious to pull off? Absolutely.
I drafted a couple times on Cubetutor and I think the bots are underestimating the value of Conspiracies. All the non-Hidden Agenda conspiracies are first picks, and the Hidden Agenda ones (especially Double Stroke, Iterative Analysis and Secrets of Paradise) are good if you have a card they work well with and insane if you get three copies of something. Thoughts?
I'm having an issue with Chrome's display of the MTGS site icon (if that's not clear I'm referring to the stylized color wheel, similar to Wikipedia's W). Basically, Chrome shows the loading wheel in that area and never displays the site icon. This occurs in both normal and incognito modes and does not occur on other sites or on MTGS on Firefox. Any advice for resolving this?
One thing I noted from the C14 decks is that there aren't that many cards that address the fundamental problem (in my mind) or monocolor decks in Commander - there isn't any motivation to stay in one color. Manabases are too good, adding a color can shore up so many weaknesses, and nothing rewards you for being one color. So here are a couple of cards designed to fix that issue:
New Dawn 4WW
Instant
For each Plains you control, return target permanent card with converted mana cost 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Scrying Pool 3UU
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, Scry X, where X is the number of Islands you control. Then draw a card.
Mire Reaping 4BB
Sorcery
Each opponent sacrifices a creature for each Swamp you control.
Volcano's Fury 5RR
Sorcery
Volcano's Fury deals damage equal to the number of Mountains you control to each opponent and each creature those players control.
Woodland Invocation 4GG
Sorcery
Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control for each Forest you control.
Do those seem good enough to push some people to monocolor? Too good in two-color decks? Too good in general?
Seriously, if you're fixing the mistakes of modern (something I strongly approve of) start by adding in every set that isn't on the reserved list. Why the hell should we have Jace but not FoF?
I would call this guy a worse Ghave, but I think that's actually not fair. He barely interacts with counters at all, moving them for three mana a pop seeming really bad to me. I'd rather get a counter lord of some kind (maybe "Creatures get +1/+1 for each counter on them," or just getting High Sentinels of Arashin as a commander) if they wanted to do a "fair" counters general. He seems kinda nuts in limited though.
Shu Yun - 3
I like the voltron plan a good deal, and he's able to pull them off well, but my favorite part of this card is getting a Jeskai general that doesn't draw massive hate (Narset for power, Numot for MLD), pigeonhole you into one deck style (Zedruu group hug-ish), or suck (Ruhan of the Never Winning by Commander Damage). Having a general that is good and cheap means I can build a Jeskai blink deck or something.
Tasigur - 5
This guy seems totally sweet. A political ability that works really well in a control shell. Delve is a sweet ability, and he's in the three best colors in EDH. Intellectually, I think this is the best of the commanders, but I might enjoy a aoltron Shu Yun deck, an aggro Alesha deck, or a stompy Yasova deck more. But the prospect of getting super grind value over dozens of activations seems really sweet. You also get to play the cheap, efficient spot removal spells that are normally not good in Commander because they scale poorly (Yay recursion!).
Alesha - 4
I like attacking with cheap creatures. I like value ETB creatures. I like recursion. The only reason I don't have this as a 5 is because I think Tasigur is better, being in better colors and not pushing aggro in a multi-player format. In Tiny Leaders, this seems likely to be the best of the bunch.
Yasova - 2
I'm more of a fan of this card than the score would suggest, but I don't think it's amazing. About as cool as Shu Yun probably. I like stealing things, and also the prospect of a Gruul deck that can run some blue cards for fun (Shaman of the Great Hunt, anyone?). Her power shoots way up in Tiny Leaders, where she can steal basically anything.
Dromoka - 2
This or Ojutai are the worst of the cycle. I'm giving her the nod as slightly better because she costs five and works kinda well as a voltron general. Green and White are not high in dragons, and lack any way to make their other creatures dragons.
Ojutai - 1
She's expensive, her effect is meh. At least there are a couple of effects in blue that make things that aren't dragons into dragons (gogo Xenograft!). But I still don't want to play this. Grand Arbiter seems like a better general for a lockdown deck.
Silumgar - 3
Xenograft and Conspiracy shine here, letting you wipe out people's boards with a bunch of random tokens. She's not awful, but kinda boring. She also is getting pulled in a bunch of different directions - Hexproof works well alone, but -1/-1 isn't wiping many boards in Commander. Points for killing hornet tokens in standard. Points off for dying to Hornet Queens in standard.
Kolaghan - 5
She wants you to play dragons. In the color with dragons. She wants you to attack with those dragons (the best thing to do with dragons). She has conspiracy to make an army of tokens into dragons. What more do you want? Oh, and you can pull tricks with Dash to avoid removal and the commander tax.
Atarka - 4
This card is badass. It kills you in two hits. With Xenagos, it kills you in one hit. With extra combat steps it kills you in one turn. I like it. Stomping things is fun.
A final note: The Khans (except Yasova) have the Khans of Tarkir abilities where applicable. The Dragons have the Dragons of Tarkir abilities where applicable. Good stuff.
1. Play Mycosynth Lattice. Fairly standard stuff for artifact abuse, everything is now an artifact.
2. Play Bludgeon Brawl. Now all those things are equipment.
You could stop now and just beat people down with Bolas wielding Bolas. But we can do more, with the help of two under-appreciated cards from the Original Mirrodin block:
3. Now play Vulshok Battlemaster, attaching everything that isn't a creature to him.
4. Now kill your Battlemaster with Murderous Spoils, gaining control of all equipment attached to it. If you did this the same turn as step 3, that should be every noncreature permanent.
Will this ever happen? Probably not. Is it a good plan? Definitely not. Is it hilarious to pull off? Absolutely.
And who's going to see it coming?
New Dawn
4WW
Instant
For each Plains you control, return target permanent card with converted mana cost 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Scrying Pool
3UU
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, Scry X, where X is the number of Islands you control. Then draw a card.
Mire Reaping
4BB
Sorcery
Each opponent sacrifices a creature for each Swamp you control.
Volcano's Fury
5RR
Sorcery
Volcano's Fury deals damage equal to the number of Mountains you control to each opponent and each creature those players control.
Woodland Invocation
4GG
Sorcery
Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control for each Forest you control.
Do those seem good enough to push some people to monocolor? Too good in two-color decks? Too good in general?