Thanks for the advice! Which cuts would you make? I could always use more recursion, but I get trigger shy with making cuts. it took me weeks to get the final list together, which is why there is so much in the maybe board
Anafenza loves to hate at any cost. Try to keep this deck fully stocked with all of the right answers so it can obviously hate its way to victory. The deck just tries to restrict what others can do, and win through more incremental advantages. Anafenza, the Foremost is a great General that places us firmly in the Abzan color range. Abzan has the absolute best selection of hate cards. I have been a blue mage my whole life, still am in other formats, but in Commander WBG have the greatest access to format staples.
This list will push your threat assessment skills to the brink. But those who are up for the challenge will find out how many different approaches to winning are contained within. is a perfect general because she herself is a hate bear! We are not looking to tailor our deck to match our meta, the goal is to beat the meta. Hate Bears introduces a sense of parity, we're looking to play trump cards and totally annihilate any of their win conditions. The amount of Hate Bears is staggering, So many alternatives exist that it would be almost impossible to list them all. Being in Abzan allows us near limitless access to all of the good ones. When customizing a deck like Hate Bears it is important to keep your eye on the prize: we want to win. Warping just around hating out problematic cards is fine, as long as our game remains proactive. Having a board full of 2/1 fliers that don't do anything isn't how we achieve victory. We win by making it extremely difficult for a vast majority of archetypes to develop and board AND THEN hit them with a board full of 2/1 fliers.
Please understand that my list will not, and probably should not, be your list. Playing Hate Bears is extremely meta dependent, without knowing exactly what your playgroup looks like - or what you're most likely to encounter - I won't be able to best protect you from every possible deck. Even the Strategy section may be very helpful for some and completely useless for others. In this writing I've done the best I can to make sure that every hate cards highlights which archetypes it is good against. This is best used as a skeleton for filling out your own Hate Bears deck.
[Primer] status achieved 11/28/15! This is a wonderful time in my life as I've obtained my second MTGS Commander primer! This deck has special meaning to me of course because it was quite a labor intensive process to build and test the list, going through so many iterations and various configurations. It was also the first that would eventually become my preferred graphical layout for future deck techs, the first to incorporate set reviews and is really the culmination of all of my experience with this format.
Hate Bear \heit bea(r)\ n. A creature with an ability that is disruptive. Usually Hate Bear refers to a 2/2 creature (a bear) with an ability, but not always. Some examples of Hate Bears are Gaddock Teeg, Ethersworn Canonist.
It is important to know that this list is part of my closed EDH meta. Giving advice and taking advice is difficult in the context of the other decks: some obvious auto-includes are well...not included. Sometimes strictly worse versions of cards are included in this deck because of balancing. Specific Meta Adjustments are discussed here.
You want to punish your opponents. It's the most obvious reason. You get joy and satisfaction out of seeing people not be able to play their cards.
You don't always have to win! Sometimes Commander can be about fun, enjoyment, politics. Having fun is a core tenant of Multiplayer games.
You like some variance to your games. Games play out differently from each other. Maybe some games your opponents view you as a powerful ally, some games you're the bane of their existence. It really does depend on the situation.
You are impatient. This deck requires a high attention to detail. Correctly tapping lands for colored mana, paying attention to how to sequence the stack, a vast rules knowledge and near encyclopedic knowledge of every Magic card. Since we're reacting to what opponents are casting, we're trying to predict how valuable that card is for them and reacting appropriately. The list is very mana hungry, our lands need to be activated for the correct mana leaving what we need for several turns down the line. This deck should not be played by people looking for a silly casual deck.
You hate playing control lists. This is one of those. This deck utilizes small creatures that grow in order to overwhelm opponents. The equipment package allows for more versatility and resiliency. The control elements are different than traditional "draw-go" lists that work off inevitability and contains no counter spells.
Daghatar the Adamant: This is for a different type of deck completely. Not even entirely sold on him being a Commander, more of "in the 99" type. We just don't want to play to its strengths - we don't want anything with this card whatsoever.
Doran, the Siege Tower: This is more of a build around me than Daghatar. This is in a lot of Treefolk decks with creatures that have big butts. The concept of this card is outstanding for those wishing to build around a Treefolk tribal Commander deck!
Ghave, Guru of Spores: This is another build-around-me from the Commander 2011 pre-cons. That set sure influenced the way Commander is played from then on. Ghave is a righteous card, but not a leader of Hate Bears. This is for another deck entirely. Those interested in building the "counter manipulation" Commander deck need to look into this. I already have a token deck that works on the same principles.
Karador, Ghost Chieftain: This card was in my 99 as a powerful recursion engine that can certainly be swapped into the leadership role of this deck, no problem. Sometimes depending on how many games don't go my way - Karador does grab the reins for a game. The small converted mana cost Hate Bears are as fragile as they are annoying. You want to bring them back whenever possible.
Teneb, the Harvester: I hate cards that require dealing Combat Damage to trigger anything. I absolutely hate it. I will likely never built around any commander who's only effect is not controllable or accessible when I need it. Teneb is a no go.
This card will effect your opponents,
if not devastate them.
Aven Mindcensor: Tutors are in mostly every single deck to get consistency. Even something like Path to Exile becomes stronger because you're no longer giving away tempo to your opponents. Fetch Lands become inconsistent. Survival of the Fittest can turn into sheer card disadvantage for our opponents. It is important to know that this only effects our opponents. This may be the only card we need to beat a all-in turn 3 combo deck that cannot assemble their pieces at all.
Best Against:Any deck that runs Tutors, Combo, Control, Pillowfort, Ramp, Reanimator, Toolbox/Blink
Dragonlord Dromoka: This protects our creatures from instant speed removal and end step Vampiric Tutor, but it's large mana cost probably pushes it out of range from when you're likely to see those spells. Being that Dromoka is a creature, it makes it more susceptible to board wipes and removal. The way this deck is built currently we have a focused on creature recursion, and protection swords. Unlike Dosan the Falling Leaf, it is not a double edged sword in the sense that you'll be helpless to flash in creatures or remove permanents on your opponents turns. This will allow them to just go off unless you can Sacrifice it in time. Dromoka is a big battleship that can turn sideways.
Best Against:Aggro, Combo, Control, Lifegain, Ramp, Storm, Tokens, Toolbox/Blink, Voltron
Eidolon of Rhetoric / Ethersworn Canonist: Our Rule of Law effects are pretty universally successful in stopping nearly all strategies. Narset, Enlightened Master wins by playing a million free spells, these cards prevent that. Canonist will allow them to play mana rocks and whatever sort of Artifact combos they want. Overall these two creatures are more annoying than they are a complete hindrance. Canonist falls victim to both Creature AND Artifact removal. Eidolon falls victim to both Creature AND Enchantment removal.
Best Against:Aggro, Combo, Control, Ramp, Storm, Tokens, Toolbox/Blink, Voltron
The absolute best Hatebear, hands down.
Gaddock Teeg: This is worth building around just by itself. GW is nothing to spend for being able to shut off nearly every archetype. Since it does so much, it most likely to be shut down quickly, suiting him up with sword then Lightning Greaves is necessary. We want it to be a tutor target for us and a way to win after we've stabilized. This protects us greatly from board wipes, besides nearly all of them being over 4 CMC (Wrath of God ), our boardwipe Toxic Deluge comes in under it.
Hallowed Moonlight: Following my Magic Origins set review, Moonlight is another Containment Priest that also shuts down tokens. Degenerate Prossh decks that take advantage of the infinite combo with Food Chain are quickly shut down. Mostly any reanimator deck and spells are going to be negated (Toolbox/Blink decks too are going to be weakened greatly. Karmic Guide is one of the most played creatures according to EDHREC. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Triskelion? Gone. Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + anything? Done-zo. With these 2 card combos being so prevalent in the format we'd be foolish to not play Hallowed Moonlight.
Best Against:Any deck that cheats things into play, Reanimator, Tokens, Toolbox/Blink
The most important card in Commander
Hushwing Gryff / Torpor Orb: Right around the time of Commander formats rise to the top we started seeing more and more creatures with spells stapled onto them. Suddenly most creatures with “enters the battlefield” effects generate card advantage. These creatures were also easy to abuse with bounce, blink, and reanimation. They are easy to tutor, so many older cards that weren't good because creatures weren't good became unbelievable With Wizard's R&D pushing creatures so far how do we deal with them? Well we've got to assume that anything that hoses EtB effects is going to be powerful in its own right. Hushwing Gryff may be more fragile than Torpor Orb, casting it in response to an EtB creature allows you to beat their card advantage and future abuse. Does it shut us down? Yes. But we areally running a very low number of EtB creatureses. But it is a flier that holds a sword, and is vital in our war against value decks of all varieties. If Primeval Titan or Sylvan Primordial were unbanned tomorrow, we have the answer.
Best Against:Aggro, Combo, Control, Lifegain, Ramp, Reanimator, Tokens, Toolbox/Blink
Linvala, Keeper of Silence: Unlike Hushwing Gryff, kitchen table favorite and birthing pod outcast Linvala effect is not symmetrical, so it does not prevent our creatures from having access to their abilities, all while turning off opposing Level-up creatures and any Mana Dorks (like Elves). This turns off MANY of the cards in Roon, Sedris and Zedruu completely. It does not stop Unearth though, because it is not an activated ability of a creature on the battlefield, it is an activated ability of a card in their graveyard. Since we run Mana Dorks now, we can run more aggressive artifact hate.
Best Against:Aggro, Ramp, Reanimator, Toolbox/Blink, Voltron
Solid anti-discard technology
Nephalia Academy:Library of Leng in the form of a land. It really protects against decks trying to target our hands to disrupt combo pieces or remove our hate bears. The constant wheel effects found in Nekusar, the Mindrazer decks are nullified simply out of our land drop.
Best Against:Combo, Control, Stax
Peacekeeper: This is especially harmful to creature based and token decks. 1W during out upkeep prevents creature, flying, trample, double strike or anything else, doesn't matter. Peacekeeper protects our life total and it is a creature for reanimation purposes.
Best Against:Aggro, Tokens, Reanimator, Voltron
Sanctum Prelate: This is the missing piece of a creature-heavy deck that focuses on punishing decks that don't rely creatures. But the big question still lingers: Is Sanctum Prelate really Chalice of the Void that can hold a sword? Firstly, Prelate only deals in the realm of non-creature spells. This lets us play around it in particular, the same way we play around Gaddock Teeg. It gets Recursion with our package. However Chalice of the Void is an artifact, and is better geared at shutting down decks in Legacy and Vintage. What separates them is that Sanctum Prelate for 1WW you simply choose a number, instead of needed the required mana to pay for xx. The ability to just choose an integer reduces the mana intensity by a degree that makes it highly playable. Also, Chalice of the Voidcounters the spell, Sanctum Prelate, like Nevermore, prevents it from being cast at all. All of that adds up to a complete victory and a necessary inclusion. Checks all of the boxes. This is best against every type of deck.
Scavenging Ooze: Anti-Graveyard all-star Scavenging Ooze makes its long awaited appearance instead of Night Soil, Necrogenesis, Withered Wretch or Nezumi Graverobber. The Ooze is very good, but not overpowered, tech we're looking to include in our meta. The G activation cost keeps us honest, makes us carefully consider when to activate it and how much mana to leave open. Withered Wretch is the better version of this effect as it has a 1 activation cost. The lifegain on Scavenging Ooze is minimal, the fact that it grows can be extremely helpful.
Best Against:Reanimator, Storm
Finisher and great sword holder
Sigarda, Host of Herons: Totally blanks Cataclysm. Tells Butcher of Malakir and Grave Pact to take a hike. Smokestack? More like Do-nothing-stack! The anthology of Hate Bears is so vast that generally speaking; Something exists for what ails you. Sacrifice is entering the format more and more often as a way to get around Hexproof/Shroud and Indestructibility. Many cards are selected over more efficient versions because of the Sacrifice clause. This is piece for building a wall between us and our opponents ability to answer us.
Best Against:Control, Stax
Spirit of the Labyrinth: Having problems with Azami, Lady of Scrolls drawing their entire deck before casting Laboratory Maniac for the easy win? These cards are designed to stop that. Really, any deck that is drawing far more than their fair share of cards *cough*Consecrated Sphinx*cough*. I implore anyone, beg in fact, please consider using these cards in your deck before "banning" any cards from your play group. It is so easy to be reactionary and ban things, but just being able to answer them effectively gets them looking elsewhere for options. Meta gaming is part of playing Magic, I think house banning deprives players of an aspect of that they're meant to experience.
Best Against:Aggro, Combo, Control, Pillowfort, Ramp, Stax, Storm, Toolbox/Blink
Welcome to my house.
Baby, pay the tax now.
Aura of Silence: This card was in the 99 for a very, very long time. The ability to Disenchant later as goes on is great. It also really slows down any decks trying suit up their commander with a million enchantments. For those concerned by a relative inability to counteract Voltron commanders this takes away their efficient Auras. I don't think it's that oppressive and can be included in any W deck, even if you aren't going to build around it.
Best Against:Control, Lifegain, Pillowfort, Ramp, Stax, Voltron
Leonin Arbiter: Arbiter is a stronger effect than Aven Mindcensor but the drawback is it gives your opponents the option. Giving your opponents an option is generally not good because based on the situation any opponent can pick what benefits them the most. But 2 is not a trivial amount of mana. On the positive side it requires mana to pay for it (instead of Life).
Option Against:Combo, Reanimator, Stax
Sphere of Resistance: This just taxes everything right off the bat. Unlike Thalia, Guardian of Thraben/Vryn Wingmare this just taxes everything large or small. This added value means that in the earliest phases of everyone is pushed back 1 turn - and as goes long it starts to mean less but is still annoying. That makes this card valuable against all strategies really, everyone uses mana to cast spells so lets tax it. In combination with our other mana increasers we get a nice board stall going for awhile until we can find our finishers.
Best Against:Aggro, Combo, Control, Pillowfort, Ramp, Stax, Storm, Toolbox/Blink, Volton
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben / Vryn Wingmare / Thorn of Amethyst: Taxing opponents is very good at early portions of . It is difficult to justify the mana expense when you cannot. The problem with taxing is ultimately it doesn't STOP them from casting anything. Is it super important for them to resolve? Well they will pay it. We're really punishing decks that hope to resolve multiple spells per turn to Storm kill you or Combo into a total victory. I do like how these creatures only effect non-creature spells so it does not hurt us as greatly, and all but Thorn of Amethyst can attack.
Best Against:Combo, Control, Storm, Tokens, Toolbox/Blink, Voltron
Balancing the meta: The savior incarnate.
Abrupt Decay: Auto-include in just about any Hate deck if you're in a semi-competitive meta like mine. It hits most major threats in the format (Food Chain), it has a reasonable cost, and it can't be countered. Given that 2 new decks have been entered into my meta, and that both of them run counters - Abrupt Decay is a necessary and often looked upon as a group savior.
Anguished Unmaking: This card has also permeated my WB builds. It is an instant speed version of Vindicate sans lands. The fact that it does not hit lands is arguable made up for in the fact that it is instant speed. Unlike Vindicate it also exiles. Since this was spoiled in Shadows of Innistrad I knew it would be valued monetarily and simply brilliant in Commander. I do prefer it to Return to Dust because of the flexibility. While hitting 2 targets would be nice, hitting creatures or planeswalkers is the added value. It is clear I have assigned a high value on this card and see it as being an important piece of technology. These cards are lumped together because they represent similar versions of the same effect. Hitting lands does give an edge to Vindicate if I was up against the wall and 1 card had to go.
Living Death: When paired with our general Anafenza, the Foremost this can be a one-sided affair. Living Death also serves an interaction with Eternal Witness and a sac outlet. It's drawbacks are negated by Hushwing Gryff or a timely Containment Priest. Those little interactions actually put Living Death beyond the threshold of cute card interactions to desirable card interactions. There are several situations where Living Death may be bad, but usually forced sacrifice is preferable to destroy and less desirable than exile. It is cheap and as stated previously, can be manipulated for our benefit.
Maelstrom Pulse: This is our protection from tokens insurance policy. To be completely honest, one of the reasons I converted this from Mono-WLinvala, Keeper of Silence to WBGAnafenza, the Foremost is because of this card. I absolutely love it. Sorcery speed hurts it somewhat but we're getting a Severe the Bloodlines that hits practically anything. The elegance of playing Maelstrom Pulse along side Vindicate is why I play Abzan. This also doubles as a hate card.
Best Against:Aggro, Tokens
Path to Exile / Swords to Plowshares: I lumped these two efficient removal spells together because they've been talked about in my Oloro deck tech and eventually my Roon deck tech. When the deck size restriction begins to manifest itself, slowly the more narrow cards begin to disappear. Those decisions all start with Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares as auto-includes and trickle down. W instant speed removal that exiles threats is just too good to pass up. Maybe targeted removal in Commander isn't the best, but we're not talking about either of these cards. If you only run 2 targeted removal spells in white, these are them.
Hidden gem for bears decks.
Retribution of the Meek: Wrath effects and sweeper spells are very, very useful tools for controlling boards and making sure that one player doesn’t get out of hand. A typical Commander game will have a few terrifying monsters that need to be killed. Retribution in this deck is beneficial because we run so many low power creatures for incremental advantage. The only time this really backfires is when Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is on the battlefield because she buffs them into range of being blown up, and she's over 4 power. If you think of it as being a sweeper like Wrath of God she wouldn't survive it anyway.
Recommended by Honor Basquiat. Best Against:Aggro, Tokens
Toxic Deluge: The ability to destroy Indestructible or Hexproof/Shroud creatures, no matter how large or numerous, for 3 cmc is very above the curve. It's better than mostly all of its contemporaries in the mana cost department. This scales like nothing else in the sense that it can be a hail mary at the end of , or a tailor made board wipe you drop right before a finish.
Best Against:Aggro, Tokens
True Combo enabler.
Demonic Tutor: With tutors we are trading card advantage for card selection. We are trading 1 card for another card. Being able to find the cards we want to based entirely on when it is equitable for us to do so is desirable. Despite the regular charges of ruining the "intent" of the format being a 99-card card random and "chaotic" we're not actually violating those principles exactly. What removing tutors does is actually just let every game be based on when cards go live. Having no control of our own destiny or ability to answer opponents means that we're nothing but helpless onlookers to powerful top decks that our opponents or us have no responsibility in creating. Tutors are as important as playing free creatures or stomping someones lights out as part of the gears that allow to work. Cutting out a necessary comeback function or a way to win is just that, cutting something out.
Eldritch Evolution: This is a "modern" version of Natural Order that is superior in some ways because it can fetch any color creature. While it may not change your Birds of Paradise into a Woodfall Primus, it does allow added flexibility over something like Birthing Pod which can only get you the X+1, Eldritch Evolution can get you X+2 or less. Putting it onto the battlefield is huge, especially in creature heavy decks. One downside I see overlooked often is the exile Eldritch Evolution. Recursion is a powerful tool, and being able to reuse it is important part of the format. But converting Gaddock Teeg into a Linvala, Keeper of Silence in order to stick Living Plane (because Gaddock Teeg prevents casting it) for the win. Super powerful tutor that turns Arbor Elf and co. into more oppressive tax or hate pieces. Recommended by uberlegen.
"True power is achieved through blood and sweat
...But mostly blood.
Vampiric Tutor / Worldly Tutor / Imperial Seal: With our Instant Speed tutors finally coming in here we've completed the cycle of the best tutors. These can be used on our opponents endstep to find what we're going to get on our draw step. These are the fastest tutors in and have plenty of practical purposes. Vampiric Tutor can find equipment, our enchantment/artifact hate bears or recursion engine, very often Phyrexian Arena to begin drawing extra cards. They are very important tools to running such a tightly monitored hate machine. Imperial Seal is the worst of the lot because it is sorcery speed.
Stoneforge Mystic:Death and Taxes stalwart Stoneforge Mystic is a equipment dynamo able to not only find the equipment, but cheat it's mana cost. We have less reasons to care about the 2nd ability as it makes swords1 less which may be desirable but not the true reason we're running it. It primarily functions as a tutor that can hold a sword. Since we're not running Batterskull we're really missing out on the 1Wt flash in a blocker trick. Edit: Due to the edition of so many Tax pieces, her activated ability is extremely helpful to keep equipment costs down.
Survival of the Fittest: The key to all tool box decks. Survival is fast and powerful tutor for a deck with lots of Recursion. The ability to find the pieces we want, whenever we want, for card parity is a tool we need to employ aggressively. Also remember that the card you pitch to Survival of the Fittest should be, on-average, worse than the card you're trying to find with it. A good way to identify weak cards is to take notice of what you're throwing away often and what types of cards you're trying to find.
Synergies well with our lil guys.
Athreos, God of Passage: The first thing that springs to mind here is Wrath protection. Against non-control decks the trigger acts like pseudo-Vigilance by allowing you to replay the creature. If your opponent has a blocker, Athreos allows you to continue forcing damage through even if some of your creatures suicide. This deck has many low power creatures with hate abilities, Athreos allows you to get those back. We play enough lands and mana dorks to recast many of these creatures. The downside of Athreos' mandatory trigger. My reanimation engines can lose a lot of their power when my dead creatures keep ending up in my hand.
Eternal Witness:Regrowth on a 2/1 that can hold a sword and receive buffs from Cathars' Crusade is soemthing we're looking for. It creates a fun interaction with Living Death and makes our important answers like Nature's Claim available to us once more. Although it isn't exactly a hate bear and generally just "good stuff" it is not a dead draw at any point and will routinely get us back the best thing of our choice when the time is right, no restrictions on targets.
Immortal Servitude: This gives us much needed recursion for our low CMC Hate Bears. Return to the Ranks eventually turns out to cost more mana overall, and only hits 2 CMC creatures. I think Immortal Servitude because it hits multiple tiers of converted mana cost, and has hybrid mana costs to make it a touch easier to deal with. Our creatures are incredibly weak to boardwipes and our creatures are most often not able to stand up to combat. Breathing a second life into them is imperative.
Meren of Clan Nel Toth: This slots into our deck perfectly by becoming a recursion machine which outclasses Karador and Sheoldred, possibly Deadbridge Chant. This actually makes Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest more compelling by opening it up to having us care about sacrificing creatures because we will be bringing them back. It is not difficult to imagine making Meren grant all of our creatures recursion and is in most ways more powerful than Karador. A 3/4 body for 4 isn't bad at all. We're always looking for a recursion engine and Meren cares about whenever another creature we control dies, and experience counters cannot be tampered with.
Sword of Light and Shadow:Protection from white and from black is the real prize here, but the triggered effect for combat damage is not something to underestimate. Being able to return 1 creature card from our graveyard to our hand combined with our evasive army of flying creatures of all types keeps us fully stocked with answers at all times. By carefully manipulating which of our creatures holds the sword during our opponents turn we're better positioned to abuse it's effects.
Volrath's Stronghold: Value Town is a theoretical place where you are able to put a creature card from our graveyard and put it on top of our library. From the land spot this is an insanely useful ability to have for a deck that runs Skullclamp. In conjunction with steady card draw like Dark Confidant and Phyrexian Arena we keep the engines going.
Yawgmoth's Will: Value. All day. It's the best way to recur a bunch of things late game and with such low mana cost in the deck we can play a lot of creatures off it. It acts as Eternal Witness 2 and Immortal Servitude-lite. Yawgmoth's Win has a reputation in combo decks, but it's also simply one of the great recursion cards that is splashable in any deck playing black.
Birds of Paradise: Tapping for any color and flying isn't something that should be overlooked. It can hold swords and even finish under Linvala, Keeper of Silence + Living Plane. Birds is also a piece of Magic history, from the first appearance in Alpha to EDH today, it is splended such fine a creature exists.
Bloom Tender: Amongst mana dorks there is a point of attrition when basically tapping for W on turn 20 isn't exactly a killer plan, but Bloom Tender can tap for WBG which is a pretty serious amount, enough to cast almost every spell in the deck, whereas an Elvish Mystic or something is sort of book keeping.
Carpet of Flowers: When formulating a list of good mana dorks you plateau at a certain point. In other words, after exhausting every possible beneficial mana dork I came to the conclusion of basically: Creatures better than Birds of Paradise do not exist. So why make a huge deal about my 6th mana dork? I'm running absolutely every single good one, so the difference between our 6th Mana Dork is the same for our future 7th, and 8th and 9th. In steps: Carpet of Flowers, worth running even if it only generates one mana per main phase, because it is basically giving us any colored mana and for cheap, and can be explosive later in . Having an outlet for the mana become more of a problem, which is a good problem.
The Death in Deathblade.
Deathrite Shaman: More graveyard hate than mana dork it does have a major edge over mana rocks. You cannot replay mana rocks with our recursion package and they can still activated abilities under Linvala, Keeper of Silence. It is great as a way to exploit our opponents graveyards to feed our own purposes and acts as a hoser. It can ping around some damage, gain a wee bit of life and generate some mana. It just does so much in such a tiny package.
Sword of Feast and Famine:Protection from black and from green and Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, that player discards a card and you untap all lands you control. combine for an explosive turns where we can tap out, attack with a flying creature, and be ready on subsequent turns with available mana. This is the sword to run if you are intending on running any piece of equipment at all.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite: I knew one day I would have to write about Elesh Norn, and I didn't know if I would take a super analytical approach or just leave it up to the intuitions of my audience. She really has nothing to hide. All of her abilities are printed clear as day and we know what her purpose is. We've probably been seeing her hit the table since 2012, and that is unlikely to end any time soon.
Lightning Greaves: I don't really prefer the Shroud to the Hexproof on its younger sibling. The 1 activation cost to equip on Swiftfoot Boots is a none starter. While we are running other pieces of equipment that target, we can expect to gain the benefit of shifting this effortlessly between creatures after suiting them up. It is most annoying when Dack Fayden steals it and goes to town on us with it. We don't have many targeted abilities so we're pretty safe to run this without having to incur the additional costs of Swiftfoot Boots.
Forcing our opponents to play a dangerous game.
Living Plane: The choice to include the Living Plane lock wasn't as entirely straight forward as it may seem. Yes with Linvala, Keeper of Silence on the battlefield, our opponents cannot activate their mana abilities. That is a tough headlock to get out of. With Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite their lands die and mine can swing in for the kill. But Living Plane is more than that. It makes board sweepers bad for everyone. It adds parity to the board state by introducing M.A.D (Mutually Assured Destruction). Being soft to wipes is a problem our deck has, this basically acts like a Karmic Justice that can also be a win condition. Kormus Bell has a more favorable mana cost, but only punishes Swamps, so needing the extra piece (Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth) muddles the combo up.
Phyrexian Arena: This is almost always my first Tutor target. It doesn't require any special conditions, activation costs or any rely on any other cards to be effective. You simply just drop it onto the battlefield and start drawing cards during the upkeep. One extra card is a sizable advantage, unfortunately it does not serve a dual role in the deck (neither a sac engine nor a token generator) which is a slight negative against it.
Sensei's Divining Top: Incredibly resilient and a great way to smooth out draws. Sensei's Top benefits greatly from multiple shuffling effects as the first time you "spin the top" you're looking at three unknown cards, and then moving the two you don't want lower in the pile. Every subsequent time you spin, you're paying 1 to technically only see one new card each time. We have only a couple of ways to shuffle including Fetchlands and Survival of the Fittest but that alone just adds to the value produced by The Top.
Most powerful draw spell ever.
Skullclamp: If you have access to more cards than your opponent, you can do more things, and are therefore more likely to win. That is a simple explaination of Card Advantage. Skullclamp gives us access to a huge number of cards with a low mana investment. It slots right into the deck and doesn't have to be built around. It makes most of our Mana Dorks and Hatebears read " 1: Draw two cards. "
Sword of Fire and Ice: The real winner here is protection from R and from U. Drawing a card is pleasant, even dealing 2 damage to the face or a creature is good. We really wanted to round out our equipment suite by hitting all 5 colors in the greatest way possible. The alternative for protection from blue is Sword of Body and Mind which mills 10 cards and poops out a token. By doing that we double up on protection from G and no R. Which leaves us dropping either Sword of Feast and Famine (BG) or Sword of Light and Shadow (WB) for Sword of War and Peace (RW). This was a no-go in my opinion because practically the only reason to run swords in the first place is to use Feast and Famine and Light and Shadow. Fear not, Fire and Ice is a great option even thought it is overshadowed by its contemporaries.
Tymna the Weaver: Overall, I think Tymna packs easy card advantage and low cost to make her one of the best partner commanders. Cards like Coastal Piracy are good if you're leaning on creatures/tokens with evasion and therefore needs to be built around. I am not a huge fan of cards that only do things when we deal combat damage, I need to play cards that progress the board and not incentivize creating enemies. It's my personal preferred play style, so I lean more on cards that trigger during phases or when things enter the battlefield. Quite frankly this deck needs far more ways to draw cards then it needs other things at the moment. Drawing cards is crucial when using a bunch of small creatures that are largely disposable, and it plays to our go-wide strategy it's worth a slot in the deck until something better comes along.
The "no downside" Lands
Bayou / Savannah / Scrubland: Dual lands with no downsides are something Wizards WILL NOT do again. There is a strict policy, and rightfully so, against printing duals that are better than basics. When Richard Garfield invented he could not have had any idea how problematic these lands would become in the future. There are no downsides to running these. They enter untapped and have basic land types. rules currently support no better version of dual lands. These wouldn't be made today, and they'll never be reprinted. Now lets put them in context of Commander. Are they going to break a deck? No. It is the definition of indulgence given the price tag. What will they do? They make your mana better, they won't decrease in value and they're a piece of Magic: the Gathering history.
Brushland / Caves of Koilos: Pain Lands are about the last acceptable Dual Lands for Commander. They create C and cost 1 life per mana use. If I had to rank all of the lands it would be #1 - Fetch Lands. #2 - ABUR Lands. #3 - Shock Lands. #4 - Filter Lands. #5 - Check Lands. #6 - Pain Lands. Last is Scry Lands. In later stages of , tapping for C isn't bad at all, and if you ABSOLUTELY need W or G we can get it. They almost make you want to take the drawback of a tapped Scry Land since it is temporary and lasts the rest of . Or even playing a Fast Land.
Command Tower: I think this card is a mistake, and that is why every deck plays it. It is just too good, too soon. If Wizards could go back I think they would not have designed such a mind numbing auto-include. It just does everything. Enters untapped, taps for 5 colors, only usable in this format. I do like how it gives players at all different budget levels access to powerful mana fixing since the ABUR lands are so out of reach. I am typically against such powerful cards being printed. I think part of deck building involves playing and testing and weighing the pros and cons between which lands to include, cards too. Reflecting Pool vs. Exotic Orchard, City of Brass vs. Grand Coliseum. Command Tower really doesn't give us many options....play it. If you run 2+ colors include it. It doesn't have a drawback (if you consider not being fetchable a draw back, but 90% of the lands in have that "drawback".)
Exotic Orchard / Reflecting Pool: In terms of the numerous multi-color lands on offer, I find Reflecting Pool to be among the greatest, with Exotic Orchard coming up behind. With Command Tower on the battlefield? It is a Command Tower. It doesn't enter tapped, doesn't require the payment of life to activate and doesn't utilize counters. Sure there are some narrow instances where it purely does nothing, but those a so minuet they're not worth considering for all of the upside that is present.
Converting mana into our most needed color.
Fetid Heath / Wooded Bastion: Playing Filter Lands allow us to convert any colored mana into whatever combination of 2 color mana we want. We're mostly playing these because of the WW. The deck is very mana symbol intensive and we need to be able to convert it whenever possible. Even turning an abundance of W into GG or BB. It also enters the battlefield untapped and generates C at all times without damage. It is a definitive mana fixer.
Godless Shrine / Overgrown Tomb / Temple Garden: The Shock Lands must be included in nearly every multi color build. They're about $10 a piece. In a format with 40 life, taking 6 total points of damage from these will not likely be the cause of death, but it could be the difference between winning. We need so many colored mana sources that the 2 life lost is a small price to pay to unlock more cards. The can be found with fetch lands. For whatever it is worth, they're just as good as ABUR Lands, cost 1/15th of the price and it is just 1 land - I would focus on upgrading some of the other aspects of the deck before investing heavily in lands.
Isolated Chapel / Sunpetal Grove / Woodland Cemetery: 52% of the Lands in this deck (19 of 36) have a Basic Land type. So odds are if we've got a land in hand, that land will also turn on these Check Lands. So we've got better than a coin toss chance that these enter the battlefield untapped, and once we've got one untapped we likely turn on the others when we happen to draw them. Worst case scenario? It's a Guildgate. They're WAY better than the #HaveLands. Doing a quick Hypergeometric probability calculation we've got a 27% chance of turning them on if we see 20 cards from the deck. Very low, even if they do have Basic Land types.
Mana Confluence: Sometimes you have to be able to cast your spells, at any cost. If 1 life is keeping you from winning then you aren't going to win. Being that having 5 colors available to 1 land is insane, there must be an additional drawback, in this instance we have Mana Confluence and City of Brass. Mana Confluence is subtly better in the sense that if Rishadan Port taps it you do not lose life, but that's about the only difference. The 5-color options have been exhausted so we've gotta look towards the bottom end of available options. Things like Cavern of Souls, Unclaimed Territory and Rupture Spire are not playable due to them being tied to Tribes.
The best lands you can have.
Marsh Flats / Verdant Catacombs / Windswept Heath: I have fetchlands ranked first in terms of lands I think are best in the format. I even rank them above ABUR lands. They fix mana and are virtually always going to be good. The idea of deck thinning is negligible, but there is so much for them to find that it becomes completely worth it to run them. Fixing mana, or finding the extra color you need to cast spells in hand is worth the 1 life. Finding Shock Lands and ABUR Lands is great too. If you spend any money to break the budget, getting Fetchlands is the key. You can play 9 out of 10 of them in a 3-color deck anyways, some of the enemy colored ones are expensive. Being on-color is beneficial, but playing these at all is a must.
Sandsteppe Citadel: Having access to WBG is always good, but we do not want to include too many of these cards. There is a close race between this and Murmuring Bosk. Bosk has a basic land type (Forest) but always damages us for using the other colors. Both are guaranteed to come into the battlefield tapped. While Bosk is fetchable, it doesn't make it worth the added dangers. Forest is fetchable too and doesn't damage us for using it. Since we've consigned ourselves to playing a land that enters tapped, Sandsteppe Citadel is the better option in my opinion.
Sungrass Prairie: This gives us a redundant copy of Selesnya Signet, and that converts C mana into GW. The mana base and choice of mana rocks all conspire to keep the colored mana symbols coming with minimal slow down. Cards like this and Fetid Heath and Orzhov Signet create a network of mana altering and figuring out what to leave tapped or untapped, or what you might need, ect ect. It can get complicated, but it is also necessary. I love the ability to tap lands that don't generate any colored mana and convert it to gas.
These are optional includes for your personal Meta. They serve different functions than I am looking for in mine. I have the luxury of defining my own meta, but that does not mean things are static. All of these cards here are in my MAYBE board. Since we as a playgroup vote on what is included, and what isn't often times as many as 2-3 maybe board cards cycle in depending on what else was voted in. If you have a playgroup that is severally warped around a certain deck or strategy (mainly Stax/Resource denial) then these can fill in some of the holes that less useful cards are blocking. The reason we're looking for creatures instead of Enchantments is the ways we have to recur them, and their ability to deal damage by holding Swords.
Crowded out by better choices.
Abzan Charm:Exile target creature with power 3 or greater. the sort of Commander approved version of Abrupt Decay/Smite the Monstrous. It gains exile which is always something we look for when selecting cards. Many of the cards we care about in the format are indeed above 3 power. You draw two cards and you lose 2 life. We're always looking to draw cards whenever possible. The flexibility of Abzan Charm to be able to cycle for 2 cards is a fantastic mode that will always be useful to us. Distribute two +1/+1 counters among one or two target creatures. This is obviously the least useful mode on this card, but it is not as though it is useless. It can in a pinch save Kitchen Finks for one more go with Greater Good. Modal cards are difficult to judge completely because so many of the modes just make sense. When we're picking our 99 being able to choose 3 weaker effects stapled together creates one very compelling option.
Aegis of the Gods / Leyline of Sanctity: There are a multitude of reasons one would not want to be a legal target of spells or abilities. Maybe single target isn't prevalent in Commander, it does exist on enough popular cards and win conditions (like Blood Artist) to be worth running at least one of the Hexproof effects (Aegis of the Gods is another option).
Best Against:Combo, Control, Mill, Storm, Toolbox/Blink
Arcane Lighthouse: This is a really effective way to deal with the universally uninteractive mechanic Shroud/Hexproof. Hating on decks using these cards is vital. Indeed board wipes being the most popular form of removal in makes these creatures slightly easier to deal with due to its proliferation between many, many decks. It has been deemed by me worthy enough to worry about, especially with Voltron commanders, specifically the Infect versions.
Best Against:Any deck using Shroud/Hexproof, Aggro, Voltron
Good, but not the best anti-wipe tech
Asceticism: This extends a fair bit of survivability to our creatures. Giving them Hexproof and being able to regenerate them for 1G. Targeted removal isn't in everyones meta, it happens to be all over mine. It does at least make it slightly more difficult to answer our creatures, but board wipes still cut their way through it, and many have anti-regenerate clauses because for whatever reason Wizards absolutely hosed regenerate on nearly every destroy spell for years and years.
Best Against:Control, Pillowfort, Stax, Toolbox/Blink
Angel of Jubilation: Is among the greatest answers to Prossh, Skyraider of Kher or combo decks that create Infinite Persist creatures. Your opponents are unable to activate their sacrifice outlets, which destroys any engine working on that. Hermit Druid combo is ruined because they cannot use Dread Return. They can kill Angel of Jubilation with Targeted removal, or just the counter spell suite they have to protect their combos, but if this can stick then they're ruined. My problem is basically this is harder to cast, it just simply doesn't come down early enough, and is probably worse than Containment Priest and Hallowed Moonlight. If you need redudancy in those spells than Angel is an easy include.
Anowon, the Ruin Sage / Call to the Grave / Magus of the Abyss / The Abyss: While on the surface these appear to be great cards to include, but lets go a little deeper. We're only removing 1 non-vampire/artifact/zombie creature per upkeep. We're not playing our own vampire/artifact/zombie creatures, so playing this has us warping our deck around them. How are we stopping Token decks? How are we stopping cards cast after their upkeep? The simple answer is we aren't exactly. This spot is bettter served for a Board wipe rather than this.
Blind Obedience / Imposing Sovereign / Kismet / Loxodon Gatekeeper:Kismet effects are not, and never have, been my favorites. It creates tempo, yes, and that slows down degenerate artifact combo decks that count on their pieces. If those are a problem for you than by all means jam as many of these as you can into the deck! They aren't for me and not worth running even for the tempo increase. Commander games can be long and grueling. Being able to force opponents Lands to come into play tapped is alluring, use your own digression to include these cards. They do reliably slow down haste creatures.
Option Against:Combo (Artifact based), Ramp
Blood Seeker / Suture Priest: For those really looking to punish Token and Blink decks need to look no further than this low costed tandem of destroyers. The reason I am not running them in my list is because Commander has a 100 card limit, and I feel (for the time being) that my card selection is the best it can be at this very moment. These cards are also complete wiffs when drawn late in . They also throw up a big red flag that says "kill this thing now". Since they're lacking flash it prevents them from "getting" your opponent.
Best Against:Aggro, Tokens, Toolbox/Blink
When your lands double as hosers.
Bojuka Bog: Practically uncounterable (Stifle, Voidslime and Trickbind do exist) and once it has used it's effect it basically is just a Swamp. Once they can do something about it, it is already too late. It may be narrow in it's approach, it does enter the battlefield tapped, and it does only tap for B. The flexibility allows it to function as a mana source for those occasions we aren't facing Graveyard based strategies. I am always trying to include flexible cards in an attempt to "optimize" my builds, I want things that pull double duty. the draw back of coming into play tapped is not ideal, but when can you really find a mana source that also hates graveyards? The graveyard hate is very uncreative in terms of compelling cards. You either play Leyline, Rest in Peace or Nihil Spellbomb.
Best Against:Combo, Reanimator
Bygone Bishop / Tireless Tracker: Before the printing of Bygone Bishop, Mentor of the Meek was for it's money one of the best draw engines for white based decks. Clue Stones are overall better because you can crack them when you want, whenever you've got excess mana or wanna keep the shields up. Mentor requires you pay the 1 when that creature enters the battlefield. More restrictive, but cheaper in the long run. Bishop only triggers when you cast a creature spell, so no drawing off blinking creatures unfortunately. The stats by themselves make it bigger than Mentor of the Meek and has flying. It creates a different line of play: You can cast cards on-curve without holding up mana, opponents can't respond by casting a kill spell or countering it to prevent the trigger from happening, and 3CMC or less covers most every power 2 or less except it also gets around any anthem effect that would buff a creature out of Mentor of the Meek territory. Everything that is true about Tireless Tracker is true here. 24 creatures trigger Bishop vs. 20 that trigger Mentor. Tireless Tracker also has the potential to grow quite large and be a viable finisher (even though the possibility is remote) it helps keep cards in hand, even though it is basically just Landfall without the keyword. Keeping Lands valuable in later portions of is something lots of decks have trouble with - and being able to activate them whenever you need more gas is great.
Chains of Mephistopheles / Spirit of the Labyrinth: Having problems with Azami, Lady of Scrolls drawing their entire deck before casting Laboratory Maniac for the easy win? These cards are designed to stop that. Really, any deck that is drawing far more than their fair share of cards *cough*Consecrated Sphinx*cough*. I am not a fan of these cards, not proactive enough for me. But I implore anyone, beg in fact, please consider using these cards in your deck before "banning" any cards from your play group. It is so easy to be reactionary and ban things, but just being able to answer them effectively gets them looking elsewhere for options. Meta gaming is part of playing Magic, I think house banning deprives players of an aspect of that they're meant to experience.
Chromatic Lantern: This allows us to turn off our brains from all the complex and careful mana tapping math we've been trying to get perfect because our deck is so hungry for mana symbols. This instantly fixes every land so nothing is ever out of reach. This is an important not just because it reduces pilot error but also to open up the full potential of each and every card. 3 is really nothing to pay for such a luxury and itself taps for mana.
Future proof removal.
Council's Judgment:Conspiracy ushered in one of the finest mechanics for multiplayer interaction ever, and the top of the mark is Council's Judgment. It exiles. It chooses, not targets. It can hit more than one target. It will never blow up in our face, because it excludes our permanents. It may be sorcery speed and not allow us to immediately disrupt a combo piece, it is the cream of the crop for removal. It is an enduring removal spell that will still be good 20 years from now. No matter how hard they push creatures, save for cannot be exiled being a thing, will render including Council's Judgment obsolete.
Dosan the Falling Leaf / City of Solitude / Hall of Gemstone : Nemesis of Prophet and Teferi. 1GG is cheap enough and protects our creatures from instant speed removal and end step Vampiric Tutor. Being that Dosan is a creature, it makes it more susceptible to board wipes and removal. City of Solitude is a stronger option for those who must have this effect. The way this deck is built currently we have a focused on creature recursion, and protection swords. It is really a double edged sword in the sense that you'll be helpless to flash in creatures or remove permanents on your opponents turns. This will allow them to just go off unless you can Sacrifice it in time.
Best Against:Aggro, Combo, Control, Lifegain, Ramp, Storm, Tokens, Toolbox/Blink, Voltron
Elspeth, Sun's Champion:+1: Put three 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens onto the battlefield. This ability would be useful to provide sac fodder for Skullclamp or Evolutionary Leap. They provide expendable pressure and hold swords. -3: Destroy all creatures with power 4 or greater.Elspeth may cost slightly more than our average board wipe but those cards hit 2/* hate bears. We really enjoy this card for it's ability to switch roles seamlessly between win condition and control measure. -7: You get an emblem with "Creatures you control get +2/+2 and have flying." This is a bit of a pipe dream but does help us nonetheless. The +2/+2 boosts our creatures so we can net positive card advantage from Greater Good. The emblem cannot be dealt with so it makes our hate bears permanently stronger and grants them evasion.
Fracturing Gust: Instant speed sweepers are rare to come by, this one is all upside and relatively low CMC. While we do run a lot of enchantments and artifacts ourselves, Stax runs so many that we can't even play if we don't get rid of them. Prossh wins pretty easily with only 1 or 2 enchantments. The life gain is only a slight upside. Calming Verse will protect our valuable enchantments at the cost of being sorcery speed and having to tap out to do it.
Best Against:Lifegain, Pillowfort, Stax, Voltron
Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury / Garruk Wildspeaker: She ramps, she's removal, and she's card draw. Really she symbolizes what Commander is all about. She can make it to her {-6} after only two turns of using her first ability - super helpful Elf Druids. A Planeswalker providing mana ramp and threat removal at the same time is something that our deck has been looking for. Garruk Wildspeaker is without a doubt the most versatile Garruks and I've had better results with him compared to other Green walkers. The tokens are strong enough to block most utility creatures. The extra mana is really helpful, although we'd truly benefit from untapping Gaea's Cradle, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx or Cabal Coffers, but 2 lands nonetheless. He also packs a game finishing Overrun.
Gaea's Herald / Prowling Serpopard: Green creature based decks now have more tools at their disposal. In a meta full of U counterspells these creature a suite (along with Carpet of Flowers) that takes them off their gameplan and punishes them for playing permission.
Best Against:Control
Ghostly Prison: This is especially harmful to creature based and token decks. 2 per attacking creature, flying, trample, double strike or anything else, doesn't matter. Ghostly Prison protects our life total and pushes attacks towards our opponents.
Best Against:Aggro, Tokens, Reanimator, Voltron
Grim Haruspex: with introducing a ton of small Dorks and Skullclamp we now have a lot more sacrificing going on, and with that a new toy. Athreos turns sac fodder into Bolts, triggering Meren of Clan Nel Toth. Grim Haruspex benefits more from a deck that goes infinite with sacrifice, but helps give some upside to board wipes to refuel. Being able to cast it for 3 incase our mana isn't perfect yet, but it is splashable anyway so that is a corner benefit.
The definitive Graveyard hater.
Ground Seal / Leyline of the Void / Rest in Peace / Samurai of the Pale Curtain / Dryad Militant : The void is an incredible answer to degenerate graveyard decks. The answer is almost too powerful, which is why I don't play it. Sedris vs. Nekusar plays out of the graveyard and can't really answer this card effectively, and it's a huge punishment to those decks for basically doing nothing wrong. Additionally, we're guilty as charged by trying to play out of our graveyards, this hoses us incidentally. Really Anafenza,the Foremost is our Graveyard hate, and if we were going to add something it would be Samurai of the Pale Curtain because it is a creature - but cards in hand and on the stack are not "permanents" until they hit the battlefield. Ground Seal cantrips, which is nice for those times you're not playing against Reanimator. Dryad Militant hoses instants and sorceries so it could be a huge boon if it hits tables early.
Option Against:Anyone playing out of their Graveyard, Reanimator.
Hokori, Dust Drinker: Our ultimate problem with Hokori is our not being able to control it's effect. We can't play landless, and it hurts us far too much. Blink decks can control Hokori so it doesn't hurt them during their turns. Stax decks prefer playing this type of game, and we have little reason to want to help them. Even certain Storm decks have such a low mana curve that they could ultimately not care about this restriction until the find an answer.
Kataki, War's Wage:THE MOST PLAYED CARD IN COMMANDER and a number of other mana rocks run rampant in Commander. We make it so they have to spend the mana upfront to keep their mana rocks alive. For example: Under Kataki, War's Wage Sol Ring taps for a virtual 1. Thran Dynamo a virtual 2 and so on and so forth. We're making them spend mana so they can use their mana rocks to make more mana. That all equals nonsense. Yhe problem is mostly this is brutally effective in super far metas that use mana rocks, and low land counts.
Best Against:Just about anyone playing Artifacts, Pillowfort, Ramp, Storm
Magus of the Tabernacle: This is for taxing tokens and token base decks. I will not beat around the bush though, I hate this card. Spending countless nights and energy figuring out what exactly we should be running instead. Taxing effects are fine, taxing effects that cost mana are preferred to life (since we all start with 40 life). Magus only taxes during their upkeep - so if they put out a crap ton of tokens the turn before it is effective. With Anger in the bin this doesn't do anything to prevent them from swining. Even worse is a Prossh deck that uses Coat of Arms could potentially have gigantic tokens worth saving and some worth sacrificing. As it stands, I believe this is the best version of any anti-Token tech: Lightmine Field can be worked around, so instead they can send 4 6/6's instead of 6. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Illness in the Ranks, Massacre Wurm, Night of Soul's Betrayal, Virulent Plague all lose effectiveness as our opponents play more anthem effects. Same as Bile Blight, Drown in Sorrow and Echoing Decay. We have the perfect answer in Hallowed Moonlight but that effect doesn't exist on any other cards (Containment Priest is non-tokens). Maybe I'm making too a big of a deal about it, but we're running few board sweepers and can easily be blown out by tokens if we cannot respond at instant speed.
Best Against:Aggro, Lifegain, Ramp, Tokens, Toolbox/Blink
Mentor of the Meek: Before the printing of Tireless Tracker, this was for it's money one of the best draw engines for white based decks. Clue Stones are overall better because you can crack them when you want, whenever you've got excess mana or wanna keep the shields up. Mentor requires you pay the 1 when that creature enters the battlefield. More restrictive, but cheaper in the long run. But the comparison ends there because Mentor deals in the realm of creatures, and Tracker Landfall. 20 creatures in the deck trigger Mentor of the Meek.
Modal Justice
Merciless Eviction:Choose one - OK. Exile all artifacts. Yeah, I'll take that. Exile all creatures. Seriously? Yeah, yeah that one. Exile all enchantments. Is this a joke? Of course! The choice is obvious! Exile all planeswalkers. Ok, the joke is over. What is the next mode? Win ? Merciless Eviction packs 4 powerful modes into 1 single card. All 4 of these modes are indeed desirable based on the situation at hand. This is also a hate card that flexibly fills whatever role you need it to.
Nevermore / Phyrexian Revoker: The definitive answer to that ONE card you cannot manage to beat. This works amazingly against Prossh decks that rely so heavily on casting their commander. Enchantments are difficult to deal with for 3 out of the 5 colors, basically impossible for red, this can be a savior. Too narrow for my tastes. Revoker on the other hand is more susceptible to all but Black removal.
Null Rod / Cursed Totem: These cards all help place Azami, Lady of Scrolls on the "pay no mind" list. What they also do is effect EVERYONE. Our deck wants to play activated abilities, and sometimes of creatures we control. Linvala, Keeper of Silence only cares about Creatures, but it is our opponents creatures. If you simply cannot beat Azami or Roon of the Hidden Realm you cannot include these cards quickly enough.
Ob Nixilis, Unshackled: Mr. Nixilis is routinely in flux in this version of my deck. He is a finisher and a tutor hoser all in one. . I always look to include this, especially if I'm tilting a bit from losing to a Tutor combo. The punishment for searching your library is real, 10 life is 1/4 of a Commander decks starting life total and it only cares about our opponents. In this revised version of the deck the importance off his contributions have been a bit overshadowed.
Best Against:Combo, Ramp, Reanimator, Storm, Toolbox/Blink.
Planar Birth / Sacred Ground / Terra Eternal : Those of you terrified of Mass Land Destruction fret not! Being in white and green give us plenty of options against the Stax decks that move to deny our mana. Warping our deck around including these cards blanks our opponents entirely.
Option Against:Stax
Stony Silence: Mostly every deck in Commander/EDH uses some kind of artifact: Artifact Lands, Artifact acceleration, Equipment, and creatures. Preventing them from doing anything is the type of hate we're talking about. Very few discussions about hate cards do not include Stony Silence near the top of the list. Does it hurt our strategy? Kinda. It hurts our 3 equipment cards, but we get all of our mana acceleration from Mana Dorks, even though they're slower they can play around Suppression Field and Stony Silence.
Best Against:Aggro, Combo, Control, Pillowfort, Ramp, Stax, Storm, Toolbox/Blink
Sun Titan: I've just simply tired of Sun Titan, for reasons of vanity, I've been playing with it for 7+ years. I'm upset it costs 4WW, but it just recurs so much and has Vigilance. Triggers twice in 1 turn with Lightning Greaves. It gets every single land back as well as: Aven Mindcensor, Containment Priest, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Ethersworn Canonist, Gaddock Teeg, Grand Abolisher, Hushwing Gryff, Leonin Arbiter, Sanctum Prelate, Scavenging Ooze, Spirit of the Labyrinth, Stony Silence, Aura of Silence, Peacekeeper, Ghostly Prison, Vampire Hexmage, Sphere of Resistance, Damping Sphere, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Thorn of Amethyst, Vryn Wingmare, Stoneforge Mystic, Survival of the Fittest, Athreos, God of Passage, Eternal Witness, Sword of Light and Shadow, Avacyn's Pilgrim, Birds of Paradise, Bloom Tender, Deathrite Shaman, Shaman of Forgotten Ways, Sword of Feast and Famine, Dark Confidant, Lightning Greaves, Phyrexian Arena, Sword of Fire and Ice, Sensei's Divining Top and Tireless Tracker. What an exhaustive list, would be easier to name the 7 or 8 cards he won't put back on the battlefield.
Thief of Blood / Æther Snap / Vampire Hexmage: These cards devastate planeswalkers, awakens Marit Lage and tons more. This is also a hate card! Look it hoses counters, and we all know how much Wizards has been pushing counters in recent years (Evolve, Scavenge, Unleash, Tribute, Heroic, Monstrous, Outlast, Megamorph, ect.) and even in this set alone the amount of things that produce counters. Going forward I think it is going to be extremely necessary to be able to destroy these counters and decks that rely on them. Commander 2016 brought on a new, fearsome, widely played commander named Atraxa, Praetors' Voice. In metas filled with this beast, running Thief of Blood or Æther Snap is a blowout. Running hexmage as kind of like an uncounterable Planeswalkers killer that can sacrifice to trigger Athreos, God of Passage and Meren of Clan Nel Toth. Having a toughness of 1 means Skullclamp works just great, and if she's buffed from Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite. Hexmage can sacrifice herself for cards.
Trinisphere: A somewhat confusing card but remember that it basically makes most strategies bad due to their reliance on cheap and efficient cards. Of all the Taxing pieces I'm using, this is the most experimental. While it does hurt cheap spells badly, they're not the most common type of spells played in the format. In cutthroat metas and fast combo environments, 3 might come down 1 turn too late, but will hurt greatly once it does hit the battlefield. It is fringe playable and could be cut for more different taxing in the future.
Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter: This card can do it's fair share of heavy lifting. It is important for me to make sure that each and every selection serves a dual role in the deck. With 99 cards every single spot has to be maximized, which brings us to Vish Kal. This serves the function first and foremost as a sacrifice outlet to enable a persist combo but also as targeted removal for indestructible creatures. The most interesting part of the card is that it is always a 5/5 lifelink flier. Very capable of an alpha strike or staying back on defense just the same.
Hate Bears in Magic are usually Wx disruptive/resource-denial strategy. plan is place our opponents into a board position where they can't successfully play their win conditions, and then we win with our cards. Multiplayer games have a tendency to be much larger and difficult to manage with Hate Bears compared to other formats (like Legacy: Death and Taxes). Because of the multiplayer aspect we must expand our reach with these creatures. When piloted well, Hate Bears can often beat many types of both fair and unfair decks; its use of flexible disruptive cards gives us the ability to attack multiple opposing game plans. This is going to be taxing on your threat assessment skills. All Commanders can be problematic, plan against the most difficult. People talk a lot about "kill on sight" Commanders, but you can't kill everything on sight.
When playing this deck it is important to understand our role in at hand. Commander has a political sub-game that happens when alliances are formed and broken. It is a feature of the format and one that makes it endearing to so many. As s deck we're expected to fun police, but we also want to win. Knowing the deck list by heart is extremely important because you don't want to run Hallowed Moonlight into a Counterspell with Talrand, Sky Summoner on the battlefield and no decent follow-up play. The better strategy is to stick a Eidolon of Rhetoric then try the Hallowed Moonlight angle. The more the deck is played the more you realize people are playing around you too, we can use this to our advantage as we start to fine tune the list.
The main advantages of the deck are:
Our cards are good in many matchups.Gaddock Teeg almost always does something oppressive, practically every deck has something that's weakened by Aven Mindcensor, and our ability to deny Enter the Battlefield Effects and Artifact/Enchantment win conditions.
Our disruption doubles as board presence and offensive pressure. Even though they may look small, and each player in Commander has 40 life, those 2/* creatures add up quickly. They're also so cheap that we can keep recurring them and leave mana open for flash creatures. A suite of Swords to add resiliency and advantages for attacking with creatures.
We have a lot of action in this deck. A very low curve and a bunch of creatures that DO stuff helps make all of our draws better. The list can be tailored so that we have an abundance of redundant effects that can answer a problem deck card for card in order to win.
The main disadvantages of the deck are:
Difficulty. This is not a deck that occasional Commander players can pick up and have success with. Playing the wrong disruptive card, tapping out for a sword, or misusing spot removal can all spell disaster for us. You want to have solid familiarity with as many other archetypes as possible, in order to know how best to attack them. Winning with the deck requires an understanding not only of the disruption options it has available, but also of plans of each of the decks you'll see around the table.
Board Wipes hurt. It could be said of many decks, but especially ours. Board Sweepers are the most commonly played removal in Commander. Getting 1-for-6'd isn't optimal, we're trying our best to generate advantages with our creatures so when we lose them we got value. Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle and Athreos, God of Passage to survive devastation. Being the format it is, most decks are effected equally by board wipes and therefore are mostly all weakened by having to use them. We cannot panic during these moments or get upset.
Dependence on colored mana. Abzan is hungry for mana symbols. W appears on around 50% of these cards. Double mana symbols, colored activation costs and everything in between. Tapping our lands correctly is such an important aspect to piloting this deck that sometimes failure to do so can mean we could just outright lose. Our sequencing abilities must be nearly perfect or we risk losing a lot of what we worked hard to build. Also it is very important to not give away the information about what is in our hand. Planning many, many turns and rotations ahead while leaving up the correct mana for the correct sequence is a very grueling aspect of running this deck properly.
Our opening hand is very much subjective in this list compared to my others. You really want an opening hand based around who you are playing. Our good matchups are combo decks, but not so much so that we couldn't be blown out. Against Combo we're looking for things low on our curve that restrict speed: Eidolon of Rhetoric or Ethersworn Canonist or a bunch of fast mana dorks. As we see, those cards plus Gaddock Teeg and Grand Abolisher work against Control. Your opening hand should be crafted around your biggest weakness. There is an old adage that states "no use playing around a blowout if it was going to blow you out anyway". Your opponents should also be thinking of it like that also, do not overestimate your opponents abilities, or overestimate your own. If your meta has a turn 3 combo deck, aggressively mulligan to find your hate cards. A great opening hand consists of (3) Lands:Marsh Flats, Plains, Temple Garden and (4) Hate Cards geared toward which decks you're facing:Gaddock Teeg, Hallowed Moonlight and Grand Abolisher.
Below is a couple of real draws I captured and analyzed for what types of opening hands I would keep. They're real scenarios so I don't have any influence or knowledge of what I'll draw next. Due to the length and sometimes wild swings of Commander - your draws aren't terrifyingly important but should not be ignored. You can Playtest the deck here.
Early game is around turns 1-6. This is the potion of where we really want to start slowing things down for our opponents. At this point we should have good knowledge of what they're on. We want to expend the maximum amount of resources here to stabilize. Stabilizing here makes it easier for us to finish. In this small band of creatures are enough answers for nearly every creature or spell based archetype. Sure some narrow hosers are in this deck, you can't account for EVERYTHING, but you can sure get close.
This constitutes turns 6-11. About this phase you should be looking to lock up the rest of . We want to be getting some of our lost souls back with Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle, targeting others win conditions and generally just playing our game. In all the time I've been playing this deck the Mid-Game has been more generous to me. With Wordly Tutor, Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor rocking and rolling, we're bound to have some sort of engine on line at this point. Outright winning from this position is difficult, but we're building an army here.
These pieces should be all we need to secure a win, and they're helpful on their own. Try to keep to keep some reactive cards in hand incase some of the more mid-range decks start getting their game plans going.
There is no "oops all creatures" in this deck, it is basically staying the course. With that being said, things can and do go sideways at this portion of . The good news is we have some mid-range drops and spells of our own. Check in with the Alternative Options if you're struggling.
When we reach the Late Phase of we're hopefully playing lock down Magic. We're smacking people with Sigarda, Host of Herons and there is nothing they can do to stop us! Yep, things are really going bad for them huh? You'd almost feel bad if it weren't such a difficult and trying journey to get here. I want to use this section to talk a little bit about our finishers.
No list is perfect, some cards are bad draws at this point. Hopefully we've got enough hate to have finished strong.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite makes all of our hate bears more powerful, while practically destroying most tokens and most little guys. Elesh Norn herself is more of a general than a fighter, but having Vigilance is amazing, it means she's never tapped out on our off turns.
Some tips and tricks to look for when playing the deck include:
Anafenza’s last ability cares only what the card would be in the zone it’s moving from, not what it would be in the graveyard. For example, if a land card you control becomes a creature due to Living Plane and then dies, the land card will be exiled. But if a creature card with bestow is an Aura when it would be put into the graveyard, it ends up in the graveyard.
If the nonland permanent becomes an illegal target, Anguished Unmaking is countered. You won’t lose 3 life.
You are a creature’s owner if the card representing it began in your deck, or if it’s a token that entered the battlefield under your control.
Aven Mindcensor’s search works exactly the same as normal except that the opponent doing the searching sees only the top four cards of that library. He or she can’t look at the other cards in that library at all. Cards not in the top four cards of the library can’t be found in the search, even if they’re identifiable in some manner.
If Containment Priest enters the battlefield without being cast, it won’t exile itself. If Containment Priest enters the battlefield at the same time as other creatures, its ability won’t affect those creatures.
Eidolon of Rhetoric will look at the entire turn to see if a player has cast a spell yet that turn, even if Eidolon of Rhetoric wasn’t on the battlefield when that spell was cast. Specifically, you can’t cast Eidolon of Rhetoric and then cast another spell that turn.
A creature’s converted mana cost is determined solely by the mana symbols printed in its upper right corner (unless that creature is the back face of a double-faced card, a melded card, or is copying something else; see below). If the mana cost includes x, X is considered to be 0. If it’s a single-faced card with no mana symbols in its upper right corner (because it’s an animated land, for example), its converted mana cost is 0. Ignore any alternative costs or additional costs (such as kicker) paid when the creature was cast.
A token that isn’t a copy of another permanent has a converted mana cost of 0. A token that is a copy or a creature that has become a copy of another permanent has the converted mana cost of what it’s copying.
The converted mana cost of a permanent that’s a double-faced card with its back face up is the converted mana cost of its front face. The converted mana cost of a melded permanent is the sum of the converted mana costs of its front faces. A creature that’s a copy of either has a converted mana cost of 0.
If a card in a library has x in its mana cost, X is considered to be 0. If you find such a card this way, you won’t have an opportunity to spend mana on x.
Ethersworn Canonist counts all nonartifact spells that are cast, even those that are countered.
Exotic Orchard and Reflecting Pool checks the effects of all mana-producing abilities of lands your opponents control, but it doesn’t check their costs. For example, Vivid Crag has the ability “ t, Remove a charge counter from Vivid Crag: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.” If an opponent//you control Vivid Crag and you control Exotic Orchard//Reflecting Pool, you can add any color of mana. It doesn’t matter whether Vivid Crag has a charge counter on it, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s untapped.
If one half of a split card has a converted mana cost of 3 or less and doesn’t have an x in its mana cost, Gaddock Teeg lets you cast that half.
Grand Abolisher doesn’t stop your opponents from activating abilities of artifact, creature, or enchantment cards in zones other than the battlefield (like cycling abilities, for example). Grand Abolisher doesn’t affect triggered abilities or static abilities.
After Hallowed Moonlight resolves, if a creature token would be put onto the battlefield, it’s put into exile instead and then ceases to exist. Creature tokens are never cast, even if the spell that created them was.
Living Death can becomes a one sided boardwipe with on the battlefield, as she can exile creatures and deny them fuel.
Sigarda, Host of Herons if a spell or ability an opponent controls instructs you to perform an action unless you sacrifice a permanent (as Ogre Marauder does), you can't choose to sacrifice a permanent. You must perform the action. On the other hand, if a spell or ability an opponent controls instructs you to sacrifice a permanent unless you perform an action (as Rishadan Brigand does), you can choose whether or not to perform the action. If you don't perform the action, nothing happens, since you can't sacrifice any permanents.
Lands don’t have a subtype just because they can produce mana of the corresponding color. Fortified Village / Sunpetal Grove itself is neither a Forest nor a Plains, even though it produces green and white mana, so you can’t reveal one to satisfy the ability of the other.
If you draw a card, and then Spirit of the Labyrinth enters the battlefield, you won’t be able to draw more cards that turn.
If an effect says “You may search your library . . . If you do, shuffle your library,” and you haven’t paid 2 , you can’t choose to search, so you won’t shuffle.
If an effect says “Search your library . . . Then shuffle your library,” and you haven’t paid 2 , the search effect fails, but you will still have to shuffle.
If a player pays 2 , that enables only him or her to ignore Leonin Arbiter’s effect that turn. Each other player is still affected by it.
Living Death can becomes a one sided boardwipe with Anafenza on the battlefield, as she can exile creatures and deny them fuel.
Triggered abilities use the word “when,” “whenever,” or “at.” They’re often written as “[Trigger condition], [effect].” Hushwing Gryff / Tocatli Honor Guard cares about Trigger abilities. It is important to familiarize yourself with the differences.
Activated abilities contain a colon. They're generally written "[Cost]: [Effect]." Some keywords are activated abilities and will have colons in their reminder texts. Linvala, Keeper of Silence. Suppression Field and Stony Silence care about Activated abilities. It is important to familiarize yourself with the differences.
A noncreature permanent that turns into a creature is subject to the “summoning sickness” rule: It can only attack, and its t abilities can only be activated, if its controller has continuously controlled that permanent since the beginning of his or her most recent turn.
When determining a spell’s total cost, effects that increase the cost are applied before effects that reduce the cost. Abilities that affect the total cost of each noncreature spell, it doesn’t change that spell’s mana cost or converted mana cost.
Some of these may be really obvious for the more experienced players, but if you have any good tips I missed give me a shout and I'll add it in.
Dragons of Tarkir is when I first started assembling this deck. This set has a special meaning so I felt it necessary to go back in time and review this set in hindsight. While it closer to the blockbuster that was Magic Origins than the current bust Battle for Zendikar is (at this early date), it was still a good set overall. This deck started as a Linvala deck and morphed into what it is today because of Dragons of Tarkir.
Bolstergeist
, Kin-Tree Spirit: She is a very efficient source of +1/+1 counters. Her casting cost is cheap and she is an Anafenza! She is an upgrade over Melira, Sylvok Outcast for enabling and abusing persist. She also has the ability to strengthen my weak Hate Bears when the combo isn't set up. Bolstergeist is a godsend for removing dead weight, narrow, and basically useless Melira (unless you're facing an Infect deck, then she is a great hoser) and has a triggered ability that does not cost any mana.
Collected Company: This can put out 2 creatures with CMC 3 or less onto the battlefield at INSTANT SPEED! That is unbelievable. A whopping 74% of the creatures in this deck are below 3 CMC. I guess what prevents me from playing Collected Company is a lack of play testing and desire. Most decks would be unable or unwilling to play this card, but it plays to our strengths. I like this more than Woodland Bellower for all the shenanigans it can create due to it being Instant speed.
Den Protector: The lack of a enters the battlefield trigger keeps him in the shadow of his older sister. Regrowth effects are good none the less, and for some decks this type of powerful recursion is needed. You could do worse than Den Protector, but not before you consider Eternal Witness, Regrowth and Obzedat's Aid.
The most fearsome of Hatelords
Dragonlord Dromoka: Redundancy can be the name of sometimes in Commander. A beefy version of Grand Abolisher and Dosan, it is good against a counter heavy meta. City of Solitude and Hall of Gemstone are viable options as well. This escapes the problems of allowing your opponents to go off unanswered.
Hedonist's Trove: In this format, 99% of decks out there are trying to use their graveyard to some effect. The problem has always seemed to be that their aren't many elegant graveyard hosers. The best ones simply just exile their graveyard, and you get no bonus. Nihil Spellbomb has the decency to draw you a card for , but even that isn't awe inspiring. Hedonist's Trove is a haters paradise, it is a completely controllable graveyard hoser that does something awesome and new. Problem is, as you could guess, the mana cost. Boy is that steep. Hopefully Wizards of the Coast borrows heavily from this card and in the future produces a more playable version.
Profound Journey: Like Obzedat's Aid it has the flexibility of bringing back more than just creatures. The rebound is a nice touch also. It really is not that bad considering. As explained earlier, so many decks play out of their graveyards. The converted mana cost is high, but you are getting something for that, a repeatable reanimator for decks that play a lot of permanents.
Magic Origins brings a plethora of hate cards into the open arms of Anafenza, the Foremost. With so many options, where does one begin? Well still to this day many of these cards are options for inclusion. This set was plenty generous to , so I have decided to go back in time and write a review for it.
One of the strongest forces in this deck.
Evolutionary Leap: Evolutionary Leap can double as a Sac engine in a pinch, and can trigger off tokens. Also it converts boardwipes, Bloodghast and chump blocks into more creatures. It ensures that a deck can grind against any table packing 10-15 removal spells. I was fortunate enough to snag a Pre-release stamped version of the card. It took a little bit for folks to warm up to this card. I am more than pleased with the results. Comparing it to Survival of the Fittest is wrong, they do different things.
Archangel of Tithes: We get a Ghostly Prison and War Cadence. Decks that are more dedicated to building a pillowfort might want this card. Triple is also a concern for sure. I have passed on it for the above reasions - I don't need it. When this rotates it might become cheaper for those budget players out there, until then it doesn't warrant the price tag currently.
Hallowed Moonlight: Commander prides itself on being able to cheat creatures into play: reanimate them with Sedris, the Traitor King, cheat them into play using Kaalia of the Vast, or the staples like Bribery/Rite of Replication. Tooth and Nail, Roon of the Hidden Realm, Sneak Attack so on and so forth. Because cards like this are so common, and the format is really warped around them resolving, I think this card is almost always going to be worth running. It costs only 2 mana, so it isn't a strain to keep it up. Worst case scenario it cycles. The hardest part is actually finding room for it in my deck. It doesn't hold a sword like Containment Priest but Priest doesn't stop Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker due to its non-token clause.
Vryn Wingmare: A flying Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, it can hold a sword. The problem with not including it currently is that I don't really have a deck to hose with it. It does set back Zedruu Voltron which is the most non-creature deck in the meta,, but I think it is probably worse than Aura of Silence at punishing Prossh and Zedruu. The Wingmare certainly remains on my list of potential includes based on future degeneracy.
Woodland Bellower: Bellower is a large body tutor that pulls Deathrite Shaman, Scavenging Ooze, Eternal Witness and Kitchen Finks out of my library and puts them directly onto the battlefield. It is value. I waffle on including this card often, but I just sort of feel like this isn't the deck for it and the non-legendary clause really misses some key targets in the deck. Collected Company just hits far more in my opinion, and that too isn't in the deck.
I want to start by saying I don't think Battle for Zendikar is a very good set for this deck. I am not a fan of Landfall or Rally in a deck that can't reliably do either. This isn't a land deck that cares about ramping into big creatures, so the Eldrazi are mostly all excluded. Also restricted are narrow combat tricks or cards that are well...worse than other cards in my deck. I had originally set out to review 10 cards from this set as my inaugural set review, and as reading further will show - I came up short. With such a rigid deck built on hating out other decks, very little room is left available for 'cute' stuff that I generally enjoy playing. My other decks in the meta will be getting their own set reviews shortly, but as of this writing NO NEW CARDS FROM BATTLE FOR ZENDIKAR will be in this deck.
A powerfull ALLY, get it? Ally..of Zendikar
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar: The new version of Gideon (like many of these cards) looks great in other decks. I don't make Tokens anymore, I don't want to spend a card for an anthem effect exactly (although it'd be nice) and although many decks can use a 5/5 indestructible beater - I don't see the importance. You might be wondering "but you play Elspeth, Sun's Champion". She also acts as a board wipe as well as Skullclamp fodder. There is barely room in the deck for 1 card that does that, 2 would be impossible.
Canopy Vista: These 'tango lands' (#HaveLands) are similar to the Check lands except they have basic land types. They're probably better because of that, but they're not really good for this deck by any means. My 3 on-color fetchlands have 6 targets (ABUR and Shock Lands). These may potentially displace Pain Lands one day, I don't have the other enemy colored set and quite frankly I don't mind that all that much.
Mortuary Mire: Probably a worse version of Volrath's Stronghold. I included this card here just to have more cards to talk about. I'm not in love with it, but it does kind of remind me to "find room for Volrath's Stronghold" in my main deck. Recursion spells like this are powerful, especially being uncounterable. Producing is a positive, coming into play tapped is a big draw back.
Ob Nixilis Reignited: For around the same mana cost, Ob Nixilis has a better {+1} than Vraska. Ob's {-3} is far more narrow. It is a toss up in this spot, both Ultimate abilities on these planeswalkers are win conditions. It certainly stands to reason that after several weeks of mental anguish and careful consideration that this card may end up in the deck. Drawing cards is insanely potent and I can find room for both Vraska and Mr. Nixilis in time. The real hangup is that I have to think about Ob Nixilis Reignited as a 3BB Draw 1 card, lose 1 life. If I cannot reliably expect him to make it around the table alive than I cannot justify the cost. If I am at a point where I have stabilized? Well I don't need to draw 1 card hopefully.
Shambling Vent: The new manlands are much weaker than their older siblings, and this one in particular is probably just worse than Vault of the Archangel in my estimation. To be fair, there is not much they could have done outside of not letting this come into play tapped to make it worth of inclusion. Manlands are always good after board wipes, but again - tight mana restrictions in this deck make them prohibitive.
Void Attendant: This creates a 2-card combo with our General Anafenza, the Foremost. It does go infinite provided we generated infinite . While this interaction benefits us as a long as we control , I just don't love it. I guess there are worse ways to win a game. As it stands currently I would need to build around this card to make it effective and I just don't see that happening. The Scion mana rocks would be cool though.
Void Winnower: Hey, its a hate card! This one is so cute, I can't even. Ugh. Anyway, if I'm spending 9 mana I'm probably interested in either Iona or Angelic Arbiter for less. It's not that Void Winnower is a bad card, I just don't want to be up near that high of mana. I do expect to see this card appearing in Commander decks around the world very soon, fortunately it dies to mostly all the removal in my deck as it stands now.
Oath of the Gatewatch isn't exactly a great expansion for us. The new keywords aren't making it happen and the new Eldrazi aren't tearing it up for us either. At this point and moving forward it is going to be tough to find upgrades and includes because of the nature of the deck. Hatebears cannot be expected to appear in every set and the ones that do aren't always suitable. We do have a couple of interesting cards to highlight, and one in particular that I'm on the fence about. NO NEW CARDS FROM OATH OF THE GATEWATCH will be in this deck.
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim: Colored mana activation costs are a bit of a problem in this deck, or any deck. The exile ability is nice and could come in handy but requires lots of open mana and 10 more life than our starting life total. It isn't impossible but it is not really our gameplan. As a sacrifice Engine the mana cost to activate puts it out of functional reach.
Baloth Null:4BG is probably a lot to spend on a bad/better Pharika's Mender. I am not terribly in love returning creatures to my hand. I just wanted to highlight the multicolored creatures in our colors.
Bonds of Mortality: This is a hate card, it cantrips and also removes Indestructibility - something Arcane Lighthouse just cannot do. The colored activation cost is bad so I am not sure how I feel about this just yet. Hosing indestructibility is something that does sound alluring.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet: Although this could be a great addition and possible replacement for Anafenza, it does say the creature has to die and contains a non-token clause. Anafenza says a creature card put into a graveyard from anywhere, there is a huge difference between them. While it is a hate card it's confusing as to which type of deck this is meant to beat,
Mirrorpool: Mirrorpool is a cool card because it does a lot of things as a land. What isn't good about it is that it doesn't produce any colored mana. There may be a place for it, but the high amount of colored mana symbols and relatively low amount of utility lands make Mirrorpool a luxury we cannot afford.
Stone Haven Outfitter: This effectively shuts off Skullclamp, a card we do not want to shut off. So this isn't a card we're going to be including. We don't need the effect, and Stoneforge Mystic is the best at it.
Thought-Knot Seer: I love this card except for the C activation cost, it is not something we can reliably come up with and we can't blink it for value. It is probably worse than Thoughtseize and even Thoughtseize is limited in a multiplayer enviroment. I like it being attached to a creature.
Shadows over Innistrad is a return to the dark plane in turmoil, and gives us cool on-theme artwork and plenty of creepy crawlies to admire, but does it do anything for us? Somewhat, but that "what" is rather suspect. There is a pretty decisive upgrade to be had, and at one time had a record 4 includes.
Anguished Unmaking: There is not much to write about this card that isn't apparent. Yes, it's better than Utter End, the 3 life isn't the end of the world. Is it better than Vindicate? Probably not? It all depends. Being able to hit lands adds so much utility to Vindicate - something that the Exile clause is trying to overcome, and being Instant speed comes so close to putting it over. But really, why debate? Just run both. Sorry Utter End
Behold the Beyond: Getting to Demonic Tutor 3 times is no laughing matter. I don't even generally have a problem with its mana cost, considering by the time you had 5BB you would wish you had 3 Demonic Tutors in your hand. It has potential to win , if you're a deck that could find 3 pieces to win (like we have to in this deck). I just think that the reason Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor ect ect work so well is the fact that they don't cost 7. There is a case for this in a true combo deck, although I suspect they hope to stick the combo much sooner than turn 8 (7 mana, next turn cast your stuff).
Bygone Bishop: This is the second new version of Mentor of the Meek in this set alone. This lets you pay the mana cost to draw cards later. Bishop only triggers when you cast a creature spell, so no drawing off blinking creatures unfortunately. The stats by themselves make it bigger than Mentor of the Meek and has flying. It creates a different line of play: You can cast cards on-curve without holding up mana, opponents can't respond by casting a kill spell or countering it to prevent the trigger from happening, and 3CMC or less covers most every power 2 or less. It also gets around any anthem effect that would buff a creature out of Mentor of the Meek territory.
Clip Wings: One-sided Edicts have potential to lead to blowouts, it gets around hexproof, indestructible and all the fancy stuff. The potential is there to destroy their gigantic flying Voltron Commander. While I'm a fan of narrowing the effect to only fliers, it does present the same problems as Innocent Blood and the likes, it allows the opponent to choose. Whenever you give the people across the table from you the option - they always pick whats best for them.
Cryptolith Rite: This has kind of been presented as a Chromatic Lantern for creatures or Earthcraft. We don't necessarily run enough creatures to take great advantage of this, but I'm wondering if perhaps a combo exists to take advantage of repeated Enter the Battlefield effects from Kitchen Finks, but granting haste to everything is a bit of a challenge that I don't want to conquer. This is better in token decks, like Prossh.
Borin, Bland Nemesis
Fortified Village: Having 43 W symbols (50% of all colored mana symbols) means I have to have access to more white mana on an average turn than black. These lands aren't terrible, they have potential to enter untapped as long as you give away a little secret information about what is in our hand.
The Gitrog Monster: All hail the Gitrog Monster! This is an engine in it's own right that nets you 1 card a turn at minimum. This is great to build around, as it doesn't care how the land enters the graveyard. That takes advantage of Fetchlands, Life from the Loam or anything else that destroys all lands. Crucible of Worlds makes sure the Gitrog Monster has sustenance forever. Gitrog Monster is such a powerful presence that it begs to be the focus of a deck, and warping mine around it is difficult to imagine.
Sigarda, Heron's Grace: Sort of fills the role of Asceticism and Leyline of the Sanctity, but far more squishy as a creature. I have no real love for this version of Sigarda, I hope that others can find a good place for her in perhaps a Token deck or something.
Sorin, Grim Nemesis: The new Sorin is not a finisher. The +1 ability is just that, +1 loyalty. Its not likely to hit anything devastating, it's probably better than Ob Nixilis Reignited for 1. I just don't think the +1 will win in a deck with a curve this low, I'm just not seeing it. Sorin's effect is big, and fairly costed - but doesn't make an immediate enough impact to be worth considering.
Tireless Tracker: Unlike Mentor of the Meek, it plays around Hushwing Gryff. It also plays around Spirit of the Labyrith by spacing out our ability to draw cards by cracking Clues on opponents turns. Tireless Tracker also has the potential to grow quite large and be a viable finisher (even though the possibility is remote) it helps keep cards in hand, even though it is basically just Landfall without the keyword. Keeping Lands valuable in later portions of is something lots of decks have trouble with - and being able to activate them whenever you need more gas is great.
Eldritch Moon is our final set based on the Return to Innistrad. The set is a bizarre mix of interesting things and strange happenings. The big baddie Emrakul has revealed herself and brought some playables along. Let us carefully tread into the night.
A wonderful hate card, but hard to get to
Campaign of Vengeance: I decided that from now on I'll just review the enemy colored card in my set reviews, and since this deck has 2 enemies it shares BG in common with PROSSHDAQ. So I'll let that deck review Grim Flayer, in order to reduce overlap in having to review similar cards that I won't be playing anyway. So after getting that out of the way Campaign of Vengeance costs too much mana and the effect isn't good.
Collected Effort: It takes very little to make Collected Effort a great card. Think about how often you'd tap your worst creature to Destroy target enchantment? Killing a threat and removing an enchantment is just value from 1 card. This will make its rounds in Commander for sure, and this type of flexibility means it could displace 2 such cards that hogging spots currently. As for now? I can't find room for it.
Eldritch Evolution: This is a "modern" version of Natural Order that is superior in some ways because it can fetch any color creature. While it may not change your Birds of Paradise into a Woodfall Primus, it does allow added flexibility over something like Birthing Pod which can only get you the X+1, Eldritch Evolution can get you X+2 or less. Putting it onto the battlefield is huge, especially in creature heavy decks. One downside I see overlooked often is the exile Eldritch Evolution. Recursion is a powerful tool, and being able to reuse it is important part of the format. So if you asked me if I thought it was better than Green Sun's Zenith i'd be hesistent to say "no".
Gisela, the Broken Blade / Bruna, the Fading Light: I love the potential lock down capabilities of Gaddock Teeg and Brisela, Voice of Nightmares, and individually Gisela and Bruna are strong enough to be in the 99 of a deck that benefits Angel tribe or strategies that go-wide. Hate Bears does not benefit from Angels without oppressive abilities, even if they do form one that does.
Planeswalkers have to be able to do something drastic or protect themselves when they hit the board. Elspeth, Sun's Champion can wipe the board or make 3 blockers. Vraska the Unseen can destroy a permanent, even an opposing Planeswalker. What does Liliana, the Last Hope do for 1BB? If you had a modal card that read: Choose One - Up to one target creature gets -2/-1 until your next turn or Put the top two cards of your library into your graveyard, then you may return a creature card from your graveyard to your hand, would you play that card? She comes with very little starting loyalty, and needs to make it around the entire table before ticking up again. I think she will see play in Standard constructed format, but that is about it.
Nephalia Academy: This is a bona-fide hate card that helps us. Magic has had a dirge of elegant discard hosers. Cards like Library of Leng and whatnot help everyone and always seem like a total waste of a card in the grand scheme of thngs. While it is a C land at the end of the day, and we need all the W we can get - we can use some anti-Nekusar tech.
Sigarda's Aid: While we are no longer the equipment deck of old, this card would have been an obvious auto-include. Being sneaky with equipment and auras creates an entire different angle from which to attack our opponents from making them into combat tricks and reactionary protection (i.e Lightning Greaves) or removal (i.e Song of the Dryads). I don't think it's powerful enough to spawn it's own archetype but is quite a boon for Voltron commanders alike.
Thalia, Heretic Cathar:Kismet effects (i.e Loxodon Gatekeeper, Blind Obedience) are not very aggressive options in my opinion. While creature versions of the effect can act as damage dealers, they're not very efficient at what they do. If you're going super deep on the resource-denial strategies, Kismet effects along with Winter Orb / Static Orb all work well together. But for me and my needs, i need my cards to do more.
The doors to the inventor's fair are open! We are ready to explore the innovation and imagination of the citizens of Kaladesh. The set does not offer much in the way of Hate, but does have many creative things to explore.
Authority of the Consuls: I'm pretty sick and tired of creating new ways to explain why I don't like these effects. So I'll borrow my review of Thalia, Heretic Cathar from last set: "Kismet effects (i.e Loxodon Gatekeeper, Blind Obedience) are not very aggressive options in my opinion. While creature versions of the effect can act as damage dealers, they're not very efficient at what they do. If you're going super deep on the resource-denial strategies, Kismet effects along with Winter Orb / Static Orb all work well together. But for me and my needs, i need my cards to do more."
Cataclysmic Gearhulk: The Gearhulks are great, and this probably has the most impact on the board. Like every board sweeper: We benefits from the fact that we know the effect and our opponents don't. Putting that knowledge to good use is the problem - We don't want to lose our own board to Cataclysm, and we can recur it when we need to, but then we can't do it again. Overall I can't really find a place for it.
Demon of Dark Schemes: The concept of an EtB E isn't there yet. I do have a place in my heart for Massacre Wurm, and it only hits our opponents. Having it be symmetrical means we kill our mana dorks and our hatebears. I think this is the type of card that fits better in Sedris vs. Nekusar as it has a little reanimation clause in it too.
The most interesting of Kaladesh offerings.
Foundry Inspector: A colorless Etherium Sculptor, has a home in a more artifact focused deck. We're relatively light on costly Artifacts and not really in need of creature that doesn't hate out another decks. It's good include in a more artifact heavy build, like perhaps one with mana rocks instead.
Kambal, Consul of Allocation: Kambal in my opinion is just a form of taxation similar to Glowrider. He's a creature spell so he avoids taxation, but it doesn’t help that our opponents have complete control over whether or not he triggers. It has a place in a more 'life gain matters' type of deck, but will be in our sideboard for such occasions we need to swap it in.
Noxious Gearhulk: Unlike a number of other black creature destruction spells and abilities, this one lets you destroy a black/artifact creature. That alone is worth looking at. Again, we're in W, we have no lack of creature destruction capabilities. For mono-B or Bx decks this is important to look at, and reanimator should be interested as well.
Restoration Gearsmith: This is a cool WB of Eternal Witness that I think has been overlooked somewhat. The difficulty including this is that we're WBG - we can play the genuine article. Orzhov decks should consider this for sure.
In the follow-up to Kaladesh, "It's Time to Take the Power Back" with Aether Revolt. Ingenuity will only get you so far when the revolt comes. Aether Revolt brings some very interesting cards that really challenge me to consider tinkering with the deck and experiment with some creative cards.
Planeswalker overdrive.
Ajani Unyielding: One part card advantage, one part Swords to Plowshares. Ajani Unyielding's first ability is basically {+2} to draw two non-land cards, by the time you can spend 4GW is just OK. The {-2} has value because exiling a big beater (especially indestructible creatures and things you don't want reanimator to torment you with) is superior to most removal. Ajani doesn't want you to play instants or sorceries and benefits from some topdeck manipulation (i.e Sensei's Divining Top) but doesnt really serve our needs in a Hatebears deck.
Ajani, Valiant Protector: He doesn't have the potential to draw 3 cards per turn like Ajani Unyielding but the tradeoff is he ALWAYS draws us at least one creature card. Two +1/+1 counters per turn is just OK, but not for 6 mana. My estimation is he's pretty much always worse than Ajani, Mentor of Heroes. Better Ajani's are overshadowing this Ajani.
Hidden Stockpile: Unspectacular but solid in a low curve graveyard recursion deck. Athreos, God of Passage is probably the best fit for this card, but you have to be able to take advantage of both abilities in order to go this deep to find a sacrifice engine.
Lifecrafter's Bestiary: We get a new Mentor of the Meek that is better and worse in some pretty significant ways: Lifecrafter's Bestiary says all you need to do is cast a creature to trigger the ability, there is no restriction on the creature's size and scrying is a nice bonus also. The one downside is the colored activation cost: G vs. 1. It needs more testing but could displace Mentor of the Meek in time. In some ways entering the battlefield is preferable with cards like Immortal Servitude or Meren of Clan Nel Toth involved.
The king of Kaladesh block.
Paradox Engine: This is probably the most hyped card out of the entire set, and without a doubt: Paradox Engine is incredible! Any time you can repetitively untap multiple permanents - some kind of crazy infinite combo is waiting: Like Isochron Scepter imprinting something and any non-land that taps to add CC + (Sol Ring). For any deck that runs a lot of mana rocks this leads to enormous mana ramp. Mana Vault, Grim Monolith, and Basalt Monolith all just got way better - even though they're busted to begin with. Our mana dorks or Prossh'sEarthcraft / Cryptolith Rite that turn all their creatures into dorks get a lot better with this. Captain Sisay and Selvala, Explorer Returned are auto-includes in a deck running Paradox Engine and those colors.
The desert oasis of Amonkhet forges warriors. You have trained your entire life for a chance to face the Trials of the Five Gods and join the elite ranks of the Worthy. Using your strength, speed, and cunning, overcome deadly challenges and rise above the competition to claim an honored place in the Afterlife! Amonkhet provides many boarderline cards, and some that entice a return to an older version of the deck. So far, NO NEW CARDS FROM AMONKHET will be in this deck.
Cast Out: Expensive but instant speed removal for nearly everything, with the downside of being removed itself. Not being able to target your own things for shenanigans, with the upside of cycling it away if it isn't helping or you need a card. So, do you need another Banishing light? There is more premium removal available but you can certainly do worse. It will see play in Enchantment based decks.
Dusk // Dawn: It is a less flexible version of Austere Command, with the upside of part Retribution of the Meek and Immortal Servitude. 23/32 benefit from both halves, but I don't know how much better it is than just those spells individually. 9 times out of 10 modal spells are better than individual spells, but flipping this to Dark Confidant pounds us for 9, each mode is expensive with Taxation and its only a lot better than Immortal Servitude in it's cheaper, hits more, doesn't go under Gaddock Teeg and doesn't scale. Retribution of the Meek is better than the "Dusk". I will be playtesting it for sure as a replacement for Immortal Servitude. The first mode is worse than Retribution of the Meek and will be factored in, we are a boarderline weenie deck anyway.
Liliana, Death's Majesty: This Liliana isn't overpowered, and that may be the thing working in her favor. I don't see too many people swinging in and trying to kill her, but who can know? All 3 abilities are relevant and geared towards Zombie decks, but since it comes down turn 5 I will pass, there are better token producers for cheaper in WBG. You've gotta really benefit from putting cards in the graveyard because that is what you'll spend most time doing. Planeswalkers are weaker overall in Commander since you have to protect them from multiple opponents, but Tribal Zombie lists must include her in order to stay on theme and will likely have the means to protect her.
Nest of Scarabs: Really solid for a deck using the Persist Loop, and makes a solid case for running Black Sun's Zenith, because why not? It's cheap and efficient, but I don't run enough -1/-1 counters to ever really make use of it. For decks going deep on -1/-1 counter production can get a little army in a box.
Oketra's Monument: When originally previewing this card I may have jumped the gun. I saw it was a white ramp card that made dudes with Vigilance! The best keyword in multiplayer is Vigilance (Myriad not withstanding. I've come to a new conclusion and it's that Okretra's Monument is very narrow. The tokens it produces are quite good but it does not overcome the lack of impact.
Prowling Serpopard: Green gets another above curve beater that triggers Bygone Bishop, this time it displaces Gaea's Herald in metas flush with permission. Upgrading your old Great Sable Stag into a Snake Cat seems like a lateral move but getting an unconditional Spellbreaker Behemoth stapled onto it sounds lovely. Definitely include this in a permission rich environment. It is a good replacement for Dosan the Falling Leaf.
1 mana too much, almost a staple.
Pyramid of the Pantheon: If you draw it in your opening hand, you still need to set yourself behind by 1 for four turns before you can do anything good. Hot garbage. It is not Gilded Lotus.
Scattered Groves: The toast of the town (momentarily) are the "Bicycle" lands. I am not certain I'd ever run this despite it producing W. Coming into play tapped is a big draw back, lands can still be valuable in the late game. Sandsteppe Citadel gives us 100% of our colors so it's worth it and we aren't playing any "land types" matter cards so the subtypes aren't an crucial. Whenever a land Enters the battlefield, Tireless Tracker has a pseudo-cycling. Overall they're likely not going in my deck: we've got better fetch targets and I'll probably always spend the 2 to cycle it. I'd sooner consider Scry lands, a 5-color land or even Murmuring Bosk.
Vizier of the Menagerie: Converted Mana Cost: 4. It's the one thing keeping it from ubiquitous, must have green staple. Knowing the top card of your library can be extremely valuable, alongside Sensei's Divining Top, Tutors, fetchlands and other cards that can manipulate the top of your deck. Spending mana as if it were any color fixes everything, makes C producing lands spit out W. It plays around Blood Moon / Back to Basics. It virtually extends our hand and fixes everything while hiding creature on top. It's just the casting cost...if it were 2G it would displace Chromatic Lantern.
Driven // Despair: Forcing a defending opponent into a lose-lose scenario is (or should be) part of every Commander decks aims. This rewards go-wide strategies into profitable attacks that also accelerate games and allows for a rematch. It is very reasonably priced and I do one day want to find room for something like this, because I do think it is that good, but it sort of seems situational at times or winmore-y.
Hour of Revelation: This is likely the new go-to staple boardwipe card in Commander (besides Toxic Deluge). It displaces Planar Cleansing and hits absolutely every non-land for WWW. That type of card will be played often, and even with the caveat that "... costs 3 less to cast if there are ten or more nonland permanents on the battlefield" it can still be cast turn 3 depending on the number of opponents and how aggressively they commit to the board. I would be compelled to include it if not for the 6 CMC, because Dark Confidant hurts just the same.
Overwhelming Splendor:Humility and an improved version of Damping Matrix combine to bring us one costly Curse. . It's too expensive to see play, especially in this deck with Dark Confidant, but it also isn't a colossal enough hay-maker to seriously impact the board. Bitterheart Witch is the sort of budget Academy Rector that would enable a play like this, and may appear in more casual decks.
Ramunap Excavator:Crucible of Worlds is a wildly ubiquitous Commander staple that is far outside the reaches of a lot of players due to price, but they've thrown everyone a bone in the form of Ramunap Excavator. In this deck, Magus of the Crucible is arguable better than Crucible of Worlds since it is far easier to tutor up with Survival of the Fittest, Worldly Tutor or Eldritch Evolution. At the time of this writing, I tried desperately to include this in my build but kept running into removing too many good pieces to make it happen to my satisfaction. But work has just begun and can foresee this in my future plans.
A Big Mana finisher
Scavenger Grounds: This is a difficult one to evaluate simply because we have access to Bojuka Bog. This does not enter the battlefield tapped and produces C. Being colorless allows all decks to hate on graveyard strategies, and being an activated ability has an edge over Bojuka Bog. Overall it's a pretty good card, but I wish there were more playable Deserts to also add to the repeatability and flexibility of this card.
Solemnity: This is the most hyped card in the set, and I am of two minds about it. First it breaks Dark Depths wide open, makes sure no 'age' counters ever go on Glacial Chasm, and no poison from Phyrexian Unlife and it also hates on popular commanders like Atraxa, Praetors' Voice. However it blanks Meren of Clan Nel Toth. Also sometimes it is difficult to justify giving my opponents the tools with which to destroy us, but with the exception of Decree of Silence and Mystic Remora it doesn't break too much open and we benefit from it. We needed another wincon, and this one doubles as a hate piece.
Uncage the Menagerie: There has been a great deal of buzz around this card, but I'm not certain it is something we should be looking for. Uncage the Menagerie puts the creatures in our hand, not on the battlefield (like Eldritch Evolution), which makes it feel worse when compared to Tooth and Nail or Chord of Calling. I generally do not prefer to spend a ton of mana, at sorcery speed, that has no affect on the board (since we're not running many EtB creatures). But it also adds to the Birthing Pod problem, as in: every creature they print from here on out makes it better. So for the time being it is not making the cut - but could one day be a gigantic player and EDH staple.
Ahoy, mateys! Set sail on the Ixalan set review! This is a story about desire. It is desire for power, desire for companionship, desire for approval, desire for discovery, and everyone is racing to get what they want first. For centuries, the untamed jungles of Ixalan have hidden a coveted secret: Orazca, the city of gold, which houses a mysterious artifact, the Immortal Sun. But no secret can remain undiscovered, and no treasure can be taken uncontested. The dinosaur riding warriors of the Sun Empire and the merfolk shamans of the rival River Heralds are met by the vampire conquistadores of the Legion of Dusk and the pirates of the Brazen Coalition. Ixalan offers some intriguing options but doesn't exactly deliver the goods. Arrrrrrr! NO NEW CARDS FROM IXALAN.
Bishop of Rebirth: While it may cost less than Sun Titan it is infact worse/ it only cares about creatures. But it is better than Order of Whiteclay. In a format built around redundancy this is useful for sure for some deck out there, like a Blink deck that wants ANOTHER cheap knockoff of Sun Titan.
Ruin Raider: While this won't be replacing Dark Confidant any time soon, despite being a controllable source of card flow, it has some advantages. It is often compared to Dark Tutelage but it has some advantages to it. One, the Raid trigger is not difficult to obtain. Two, you can not trigger it in order to protect your life total. While it is more susceptible to board wipes it can returned to the battlefield with Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle or another Recursion cards. It can carry a sword and do some work if necessary. It will remain on my radar as cards with draw capability normally do.
Not impactful enough and not a finisher.
Tocatli Honor Guard: Having another Torpor Orb / Hushwing Gryff is becoming increasingly important as creatures are pushed more and more with powerful Enters the Battlefield triggers. Animar, Soul of Elements (Recently reprinted in Masters 25) is a powerful combo deck utilizing EtB triggers. My Prossh deck is based entirely on things happening when creatures come into play. Marchesa, the Black Rose, Brago, King Eternal and the most notorious finisher Craterhoof Behemoth are all neutered. While it lacks the blowout potential of Hushwing Gryff, it has a very weak body aswell, but should be in the deck if I can manage it.
Vona, Butcher of Magan: Vona's abilities synergies very well with each other, it is the type of thing that should be build around a little more for maximum value. Repeatable Vindicate is going to be playable in those dedicated life gain decks to give them an outlet for their life surplus. Hatebears is not that deck unfortunately.
Vraska, Relic Seeker: What about this is worth 6 mana? It is expensive for a token generator, since Elspeth, Sun's Champion is better for the same price. It is also inferior to the original Vraska. The ultimate isn't a great finisher and it is a shame. Being that Planeswalkers aren't very good in multiplayer anyways - it is important that at least expensive ones need to impact the board.
The legendary city of Orazca has been found, but it will not be claimed without a fight. Now, you must outpace, outwit, and overpower your rivals as you vie for control of this ancient metropolis. Succeed, and you will wield the greatest power of the plane.
The trappiest trap card to ever trap
Arch of Orazca:Ascend is a difficult mechanic to evaluate in Commander. How good in general are cards that have no impact on the board unless you hit late game? Achieving city’s blessing is not a guarantee and could actually prevent you from making it to the late game (by not advancing your board). You also have to think about what the payoff even is. Is it worth it for us to run a land that produces C in an attempt to draw 1 card for 5 when we should be focusing on winning? Probably not.
Azor's Gateway // Sanctum of the Sun: The bait is set, it is called flipping Azor’s Gateway into Sanctum of the Sun. I think almost everyone will try to jam this card at least once, and WR players are desperate for some kind of card draw, but the trap isn’t going to work on me. The deck isn’t built around dropping huge x spells and the mana curve is not wide enough to satisfy the condition to flip it. It will likely also draw all of the attention of everyone of your opponents.
Elenda, the Dusk Rose: Elenda needs to be built around more than most cards I ever consider playable. For a deck running a Persist loop that can grow her to an unimaginable size and gives you wrath protection, of course she has to die – which means she has to go to the graveyard to benefit from her death trigger. In a deck like this one she simply doesn’t do enough to be considered for inclusion.
Journey to Eternity // Atzal, Cave of Eternity: I actually think this is probably playable since Atzal, Cave of Eternity taps for any color. It can help in an extremely grindy game with its unattractive “ 3BG,t: Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.” Flipping it probably won’t be a problem because of Skullclamp but outside of that we have few ways to sacrifice anything with the intention of getting a multi-colored land.
Hate card, mana accelerator, anthem and card draw in one.
Path of Discovery: This offers a lot of value for a token decks. This is probably the hidden gem in this set as far as I can tell. It is already added to my Prossh deck and is overachieving.
The Immortal Sun: Being this is a bunch of disperate abilities stapled together I think it is important to break them down. Ultimately I feel as though if you’re spending 6 you ought to take advantage of at least 3 of its abilities for it to be worthy. Players can't activate planeswalkers' loyalty abilities: It seems like decent Superfriends hate, if you’re facing that type of deck often. Given that there are few ways in general to deal with Planeswalkers, it is difficult to evaluate if this is even a good thing. But Atraxa Superfriends is a popular deck so maybe it’s time to give your friends their comeuppance. At the beginning of your draw step, draw an additional card: This is virtually a gimme, every deck wants something like this. Since this is practically Phyrexian Arena that costs twice as much the other abilities have to be worthy of the extra 3. Spells you cast cost 1 less to cast: I did the cost reduction analysis on Oketra's Monument and I will cover it again quickly but this time it is way worse:
1. If you cast one spell a turn, The Immortal Sun is worse than Worn Powerstone.
2. If you cast two spells a turn, The Immortal Sun is worse than Worn Powerstone.
3. If you cast three spells a turn, The Immortal Sun is worse than Worn Powerstone.
Ect. Ect. Alright if you want to discount The Immortal Sun by 3 mana because “Hey, I’m getting Phyrexian Arena” OK, it becomes as good after 2 spells and better after 3. Creatures you control get +1/+1: And finally we land on Glorious Anthem. If you fall into that category of people who play a token deck that can use the cost reduction and the anthem effect (and obviously card draw) then you’re getting a very expensive but good card to add to the 99.
Twilight Prophet: As I said in my Arch of Orazca review - Ascend is a difficult mechanic to evaluate in Commander. The Sorin, Grim Nemesis card flipping ability is alluring, our ability to get the city's blessing is suspect. I think it would do much better in a token deck (specifically Edgar Markov) since it basically a weak 2/4 flier that doesn't do anything until our late game. It will be pitched to Survival of the Fittest 99% of the time and almost never be online.
Undoubted autoinclude
Damping Sphere: We're playing this. No doubt about it. It hurts greedy big mana decks and the newest addition to my meta: a Shu Yun spellslinger deck. Check back when Dominaria is released for the official deck changes.
Set Name: Dominaria Number of Cards: 269 Magic Open House: April 14-15, 2018 Prerelease Weekend: April 21-22, 2018 Release Date: April 27, 2018 Draft Weekend: April 28-29, 2018 Magic League Begins: April 30, 2018 Standard Showdown Begins: May 5, 2018 Game Day Weekend: May 23-24, 2018 Magic Online Launch: April 23, 2018 On Sale in Magic Online: April 27, 2018 Official Three-Letter Code: DOM Twitter Hashtag:#MTGDOM Languages Available: English, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish MSRP: $3.99 *Applies to U.S. Only
Commander 2015 brings us an unprecedented wealth of new and interesting multiplayer oriented cards. Finally we have 2 enemy colored paired decks from which to source: BGPlunder the Graves and WB Call the Spirits. But how many of these cards are hate cards? Not many. Some adjustments still do need to be made to account for all of the goodies others will be using to beat us with, at an average converted mana cost of 4.3 the new cards that are troublesome cost so much. I've mentioned it elsewhere, running a tight deck that requires mostly everything to be dual purpose, many cards do not fit my criteria. I am happy to see cool new mechanics, and I'm excited to see all of the new players this product will infuse into the Commander community. Overall I'm not thrilled by the cards this set offers to our deck. For any given set being able to walk away with at least 1 new addition is pretty uncommon. Wizards has to design a lot of decks for a lot of players, sometimes hate bears isn't the top of the list.
A clever card that may get old quick.
Dawnbreak Reclaimer: Giving opponents the option is never really a good decision. They're always going to pick what works best for them. This card has an interesting caveat in that it basically asks that we politic. Making allies and coming to an agreement, and the "MAY" clause protects us against backstabbers. It does provide a fun alternative to Sun Titan for the same CMC and creature recursion engine. I don't know if it is better than Infernal Offering, but they may just be too different. I just don't see getting a ton of value off this ever, I also imagine it's relative inconsistency and how easy it is to be held hostage makes Dawnbreak Reclaimer get old quickly.
Daxos the Returned: We're not an enchantment based deck. Daxos does make cool, scalable tokens with evasion, but we've got nothing for him to do in this deck. I'm afraid that this one misses the mark for us pretty badly - through no fault of it's own.
Deadly Tempest: A rather generic board wipe that strangely hurts us in the process too. I don't even like it as much as Life's Finale. The additional effect probably isn't worth the extra mana over Damnation and isn't really going to kill our opponents unless they have 100's of tokens on the battlefield.
Ezuri's Predation: The trap card from this set is in the form of a green boardwipe? Lots of mana, lots of potential to miss, lot more potential to just not be enough. We're fortunately in the board wipe color (W) so we don't generally have to trouble ourselves with such janky non-sense. It doesn't target, but it is the equivalent of "deals 4 damage to all opponents creatures" which can sometimes be enough.
Misleading but not unplayable.
Grasp of Fate: A cheaper and better-er Quarantine Field and a multiplayer variant of Banishing Light. This is cool right here for decks that are interested in temporary exile / Oblivion Ring cards. They are really robust and do actually protect our own things from Fracturing Gust and other enchantment removal, allowing us to return our things to the battlefield after destroying everyone elses. This deck does not run these effects, but they are good for the decks that want them. If the time or need arises for such effects - this is the version I'd choose.
Kalemne's Captain: This is sort of our first hate bear. It is EXTREMELY costly to both play and activate this creature, but it does exile at instant speed for a heinous 5WW. This is far too costly for us to run, but I do expect to be seeing it hit the table for our opponents. Due to the popularity of god cards, exiling becomes essential when available. A mana investment of 8WWWW is ludicrous.
Karlov of the Ghost Council: The first thing that popped into my mind when I first saw this card was "WE CAN PLAY THIS!!!" My enthusiasm quickly turned into the realization that we cannot actually play this. For starters, only 1 card in our deck really gains us life - Kitchen Finks. It is the same reason we don't run Archangel of Thune anymore. Having a machine gun that exiles creatures is alluring, but it is not worth bending the deck around including more life gain creatures or cards that care about gaining life.
Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest: Comps include Ivy Lane Denizen and , Kin-Tree Spirit but with Cathars' Crusade counter disperal. It is a persist combo enable rbut that is where it's function ends. It is not a sacrifice outlet, and only cares about sacrifice. Bolstergeist and Crusade care about creatures entering the battlefield. Since our sacrifice outlets are the only way to trigger Mazirek is by having one of them, we limit what we can actually do with the card. It is a no go for the time being. It seems like a flying Cathars' Crusade but isn't, and is much easier to get rid of.
The best Commander in my opinion.
Meren of Clan Nel Toth: Ding-ding-ding. We found a winner and my vote for the best Commander in Commander 2015. This slots into our deck perfectly by becoming a recursion machine which outclasses Karador and Sheoldred, and of course Deadbridge Chant. This actually makes Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest more compelling by opening it up to having us care about sacrificing creatures because we will be bringing them back. It is not difficult to imagine making Meren grant all of our creatures recursion and is in most ways more powerful than Karador. A 3/4 body for 4 isn't bad at all. Look forward to Meren joining Anafenza's Hate Bears.
Righteous Confluence:Choose three. You may choose the same mode more than once. Ok. You've got my attention. Put a 2/2 white Knight creature token with vigilance onto the battlefield. Eh, maybe. What else do ya got? Exile target enchantment. I like exiling, maybe I will use this mode. You gain 5 life. Noooo thank you. Choosing 15 life might sound appealing, maybe even exiling 3 enchantments. How does that compare to Return to Dust? Sorcery speed and 1 more really make this lackluster in comparison. Modal spells make them more playable, but I'm not yet feeling this one right here. The Confluence cycle are very slow. The modes are decent, choosing 3 is great, but they just cost too much mana and are sorcery speed.
Thief of Blood: This new flying Æther Snap is the talk of the Commander world. It devastates planeswalkers, awakens Marit Lage and tons more. This is also a hate card! Look it hoses counters, and we all know how much Wizards has been pushing counters in recent years (Evolve, Scavenge, Unleash, Tribute, Heroic, Monstrous, Outlast, Megamorph, ect.) and even in this set alone the amount of things that produce counters. Going forward I think it is going to be extremely necessary to be able to destroy these counters and decks that rely on them. Thief of Blood is in testing as far as joining this deck because it could be a gigantic beater that also destroys planeswalkers.
Update: Commander 2016 brought on a new, fearsome, widely played commander named Atraxa, Praetors' Voice. In metas filled with this beast, running Thief of Blood is a blowout.
Verdant Confluence: We're playing this game again. Hoping for better results. Put two +1/+1 counters on target creature. Errrmmm nope. Return target permanent card from your graveyard to your hand. Oooh ok. I likey. Returning a permanent? I do love this mode. Search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library. We do not run too many basics, so I can't expect to be choosing this mode more than once. So for 4GG we get 3 Regrowths, or 3 Rampant Growths or 6 +1/+1 counters. Really not a bad haul. It is just very slow. Slow in a way that makes me not want to play it.
Wretched Confluence: The final and arguably best of the Confluences. It is instant speed: Target player draws a card and loses 1 life.3BB is a lot to spend to draw a card, if you spend all 3 modes a net of 3 cards for 6 mana isn't efficient. Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn. This isn't a poor mode but just like the first - if you spend 3BB you give -6/-6 to target creature. That of course is not bad, I'd say a huge majority of creatures fall below */6. Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand. By returning it to hand we do get to reuse our weaker, low cmc Hate Bears. Verdant Confluence has 3 great modes that refer to 3 great cards, Wretched Confluence has 3 "nice" modes but none standout. Instant speed makes it quite a bit more playable.
We are back to the magical multiplayer world setting of Conspiracy: Take the Crown. These are the special type of set that comes out and really furthers the eternal format of . Standard has power level problems, sometimes things are too strong to be unleashed upon the world. Eternal Masters and Modern Masters focus entirely on reprints, and are extremely price prohibited. So based on the success of Conspiracy, we get a set that just focuses on what is good for the set. Powerlevel is skirted somewhat in favor of good drafting. The multiplayer aspects take it even further, as cards that are normally kingmakers (ie. Show and Tell) can easily be dealt with by a table full of aggressors. I could not praise the mechanic of Council's dilemma any more, only wishing they'd made more playable cards with it. I love introducing that political aspect into , and having everyone play a role in the changing the landscape that is the board state. Conspiracy: Take the Crown also provided a ton of much needed reprints, and powerful cards for casuals to finally be able to acquire. Conspiracy: Take the Crown is an absolute gem and I cannot wait to see what they have in store for us in the future.
How does someone begin to evaluate this?
Capital Punishment: I figured I'd start out by reviewing a Council's dilemma card, and I don't particularly find it all that playable. Part of the problem is they overvalued how much this could miss your opponents, and how likely they are to just vote whichever way benefits them most. Don't get me wrong, I love multiplayer cards that at least shake up the status quo at the table, but 4BB is a lot for asymmetrical discard or Edict. I expect to at least choose my own outcome, and sorcery speed hurts it badly. I don't think it would even see much play at 3B, it would just make you a villain at the table without the benefits of completely wiping the board.
Custodi Soulcaller: This minature Sun Titan really rewards strategies that go-wide. Something like a token deck or an equipment deck would get some nice creature recursion ability, it rewards attacking and it get stronger. Melee is a fine, if uninspired, multiplayer mechanic that could only exist in a set like this, I'm happy to see them embrace more multiplayer mechanics and disappointed to see Monstrosity again considering it's not much a of a multiplayer mechanic besides being a version of Multi-kicker.
Kaya, Ghost Assassin: Some sets more than other contain enemy colored cards to review. Kaya is not my favorite, and I'm at a loss for which type of deck would want this. The idea that you can tap out to play her, then blink her so you can use the abilities when shields are back up is interesting. I just feel like she's too easy to kill, probably won't see play in Legacy, isn't legal in Standard or Modern so we've got a card flooding the secondary market and I've got trouble seeing who will absorb them all. With all that being said, her {-2} is card advantage and the best version of that effect on offer for a Planeswalker.
Knights of the Black Rose: Our first Monarch matters card, and it just so happens to be enemy colored. I like Monarch, it gives incentives to attack and make quicker. It pushes you toward attacking a particular opponent, and rewards offense and defense. What don't I like about Become the Monarch? The cards it's on. I can't really get behind playing any of them, outside of maybe Queen Marchesa.
My pick for Best in Set
Recruiter of the Guard: This is quite the masterpiece for Commander, specifically Toolbox decks. I am torn because while I'm not playing all of the powerful tutors like Eladamri's Call or Green Sun's Zenith, I am playing a narrow one in Stoneforge Mystic. As of right now: Recruiter of the Guard is going into my Roon of the Hidden Realm deck. It can get more value out of it by blinking her. I'm also trying the best I can to only have to buy 1 copy of any given card, so each deck has unique access to incredible staples. But if you are not like me, and don't put the same creative restraints on yourself - run out and get copy! It can very easily find all of s you want or need and gets some serious recursion in a deck with a decent package.
Sanctum Prelate: This is the missing piece of a creature-heavy deck that focuses on punishing decks that don't rely creatures. But the big question still lingers: Is Sanctum Prelate really Chalice of the Void that can hold a sword? Firstly, Prelate only deals in the realm of non-creature spells. This lets us play around it in particular, the same way we play around Gaddock Teeg. It gets Recursion with our package. However Chalice of the Void is an artifact, and is better geared at shutting down decks in Legacy and Vintage. What separates them is that Sanctum Prelate for 1WW you simply choose a number, instead of needing the required mana to pay for xx. The ability to just choose an integer reduces the mana intensity by a degree that makes it highly playable. Also, Chalice of the Voidcounters the spell, Sanctum Prelate, like Nevermore, prevents it from being cast at all. All of that adds up to a complete victory and a necessary inclusion. Checks all of the boxes.
Commander 2016 is less loaded with multiplayer oriented cards of previous installments but makes up for it with over 120 possible Partner combinations. There are a bunch of enemy colored cards to choose from, but I'm not convinced we ditch Anafenza. The question is always :how many of these cards are hate cards?" Not many, again. Overall I'm not thrilled by the cards this set offers to our deck, or really any of the decks in my meta.
Conqueror's Flail: Not worth a spot in the deck, even though it has a clause we like. Grand Abolisher is only worth playing because the text reads "Opponents can't cast spells or activate abilities during your turn" on a 2/2 body that could hold a sword. Dragonlord Dromoka is better because she has a body and you can grab it with Green Sun's Zenith, Survival of the Fittest and other tutors.
Cruel Entertainment: This is the card is pretty emblematic of the idealistic vision of the format. Its the kind of card I would expect an outsider to the format to have designed. Cast it and chaos ensues? It is likely strategic suicide, but is it worth the fun it will generate? Maybe a couple of times. I'm sure choosing yourself as one of the targets is good, especially if you can manage to kill the other player. It is really difficult to judge this card because of its subjective value. It is also hard to make yourself Mindslaver-proof so if you don't manage to kill your opponent you open yourself up to counter-attack.
Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa:Sidar is the only creature with Flanking I can remember since Time Spiral block. I am really not seeing how this card is any good, but even worse than bad; it is confusing. This ability is super clunky to explain to someone new and/or inexperienced. The table is in need of constant monitoring. There are going to be lots of cases where illegal blocks happen somewhere and you realize it the next turn because, the ability is too wordy, and have to go back and undo everything or risk damaging some feels. Memory issues aside: It encourages players to attack other players but it isn't like a pillowfort. If we are Player A with Sidar Kondo out, and Player B attacks Player C with a bunch of 2 power creatures, Player C can only block with flying or reach. But what if our opponents aren't playing with those creatures? I'm getting dizzy.
Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper: This Commander that can gain you quite a bit of life as long as you’re able to hit your opponents with some big butt creatures. Better suited as one of the 99 in a Doran, the Siege Tower, and we're not that type of deck.
Tymna the Weaver: Overall, I think Tymna packs easy card advantage and low cost to make her one of the best partner commanders, but only as a partner. Cards like Coastal Piracy are good if you're leaning on creatures/tokens with evasion and therefore needs to be built around. I am not a huge fan of cards that only do things when we deal combat damage, I need to play cards that progress the board and not incentivize creating enemies. It's my personal preferred play style, so I lean more on cards that trigger during phases or when things enter the battlefield. But drawing cards is becoming increasingly difficult to find, and it does get recursion sooo...
Reyhan, Last of the Abzan: The biggest weakness of the +1/+1 counter aggro decks and hatebears are board wipes. She is useless when all your creatures die at once. So since she doesn't solve a problem, Reyhan really doesn't do much for us. PROSSHDAQ on the other hand could make pretty good use of her: all of that counter distribution gets us more value out of Primal Vigor and Doubling Season. I've also heard of a combo involving an Commander Damage alpha-strike with Blade of Selves: with Three opponents - 3 Reyhan triggers = 2 dead Reyhans (Legendary Rule) = 3 counters = +18/+18, immediately boosting one Reyhan to 21/21.
Ravos, Soultender: This isn't Meren of Clan Nel Toth at all. He has to survive a full table rotation until our upkeep to get free card. Getting the benefit the turn the card is played is infinitely better. He’s more expensive, He’s smaller, He will never reanimate. While I think it could have a place in the late game because of the anthem effect and maybe in conjunction with another partner, but overall it isn't really a worthy inclusion to an Abzan deck with access to better cards.
Orzhov Advokist: For all the diligent readers (wherever you are) know that helping opponents is no-go territory. This effect is just a bad pillowfort effect that allows our "smarter" opponents to take the counters in order to build up their army: Then decline for a turn so they can kill us. It is just a horrible idea.
Sylvan Reclamation: I feel like this is going to be one of the most-played cards of the set. It is miles better than Relic Crush, but I'm not entirely sure its actually better than Return to Dust - but it does always exile two things at instant speed. There’s not much to say. A double Naturalize that exiles with the flexibility of fetching up a basic is pretty amazing. This will probably be a staple in this format for some time.
Commander 2017 consists of 4 new decks based on a tribal theme. There are not a ton of cards to draw from this year due to the nature of the theme, we don't run a tribal deck so it is difficult to access all that is available. Even given my struggles to find even 4 cards to write about one of these cards is going into the deck.
Mirri makes attacking profitable, perfect for what we need
Alms Collector: This is not Notion Thief and very far from it. While the stats are good and Flash makes us able to deploy it in block situations - the two or more cards thing is not going to work at all. Should we talk about that Nekusar, the Mindrazer deck that plays every wheel ever printed? This barely prevents them from having fun, and is also by my estimation, worse than the Anti-Discard cards like Nephalia Academy.
Fortunate Few: I think Eye of Doom/Tragic Arrogance/Cataclysm are fine for the most part. You will always end up getting to keep your worst permanent, which is fine if your opponents also keep their worst permanent. In some instances it can make it better than the others similar spells I mentioned. But that isn't a certainty and this version is extremely political which restricts it. Group Hug type decks like gambling. The reason I included it here was because I needed something to write about that wasn't a Tribal card. Unfortunately we will not be playing this.
Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist: This is a wonderful addition to any EDH deck that hopes to "go wide" by being able to hide behind a Crawlspace. While it does incentivize attacking in order to get the Dueling Grounds protection, it benefits from our recursion package, Teshar-able, can wear a sword and it has got a low CMC. One of the ways this deck can win is by attacking and this clears a huge lane for us to turn stuff sideways and win.
Teferi’s Protection: I don't often see people playing Fog effects, let alone Super Mega Fog, but maybe in a super competitive cutthroat meta where a player with an all-in combo goes off and leave you the only player alive to take them down. It doesn't prevent Laboratory Maniac however, but will help survive an Insurrection. It also can be used to protect a winning boardstate. I don't personally see this getting played too often due to the fact it doesn't stop an opponent with a strong board presence from killing you next turn - and it doesn't dismantle their board.
Welcome to Battlebond, where competitors battle in pairs. Recruit a trusted partner and fight shoulder-to-shoulder, hand-in-hand, or back-to-back for glory and the roar of the crowd! Forge an unbreakable bond with your combat companion and claim your place in the pantheon of champions!
Set Name: Battlebond Number of Cards: 254 Release Date: June 8, 2018 Official Three-Letter Code: BBD Twitter Hashtag:#MTGBattle Languages Available: English, Chinese Simplified, Japanese MSRP: $3.99 *Applies to U.S. Only
Set Name: Core Set 2019 Release Date: July 13, 2018 Number of Cards: 280 Magic Open House: June 30–July 1, 2018 Prerelease Weekend: July 7-8, 2018 Draft Weekend: July 14-15, 2018 Store Championship: September 15-16, 2018 Magic Online Launch: July 16, 2018 On Sale in Magic Online: July 20, 2018 Official Three-Letter Code: M19 Twitter Hashtag:#MTGM19 Languages Available: English, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish MSRP: $3.99 *Applies to U.S. Only
Choose your commander and carve your path to victory in this unique multiplayer Magic format. Call on powerful planeswalkers and deploy their signature strategies to make sure you're the last player standing.
Set Name: Commander 2018 Number of Cards: 400 Release Date: August 10, 2018 Official Three-Letter Code: C18 Twitter Hashtag:#MTGC18 Languages Available: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish MSRP: $39.99 *Applies to U.S. Only
I first heard about this format right about the time of Magic 2012. The very first Commander deck was an Illusion Tribal. I believe most people when they first get into this format build a Tribal deck, unless they buy a pre-con. My second deck was my highly experimental and not-all-that-good Esper Dromar (which is detailed here.) As my obsession continued I leaned more toward Build-around-me, synergistic Commanders like Roon of the Hidden Realm and Sedris, the Traitor King.
I had the problem of having friends that just weren't keeping up anymore and not following the new cards and new decks. So that's when the idea hit me: build my own meta, use my own cards and design my own "fun". It isn't easy, there are some balancing issues of course, but it is a great way to loan decks to my buddies to use while we drink and enjoy without any of the unnecessary expense on behalf of people who aren't into it as much as I am.
The concept of this Hate Bears extends from my Legacy enthusiasm. Sometime back around the time I was building my first Commander Deck, everyone was starting to play a deck called Maverick; which itself was an evolution of GW Hate Bears. Maverick was a combination of Zoo and Jund that in its heyday was absolutely punishing U decks and especially those using Brainstorm. Eventually Maverick split off into Death and Taxes where Linvala, Keeper of Hate Bears was born. This was my first mono-white deck Commander deck I ever built. It was also the only pre-con I ever bought. I've got a rather large and extensive collection from when I began playing during Odyssey. Knowing better I usually just buy singles instead, but I needed some cards I did not have, and some exclusives only included in the Commander 2014: Forged in Stone. I thought that including a Hate Bears to police some of the more powerful decks in the Meta would be required going forward.
After the overhaul I used the Persist loop as a win condition, but I found that my Roon of the Hidden Realm and Prossh, Skyraider of Kher were essentially doing the same things. In commander some overlap will happen because there are few winning strategies, but having 3 decks doing the same thing always felt strange. What was even more strange is that while it's organic for the Roon of the Hidden Realm deck to fool around with Saffi Eriksdotter and Karmic Guide and whatnot, because they have Enter the Battlefield effects. Prossh, Skyraider of Kher is a sacrifice engine in its own right, and creates a billion tokens that can be sacrificed for currency, it's a logical progression to get to that point. Anafenza, the Foremost is about hatebears and restricting what you can do...then suddenly it combos out to win? It was rather incongruous. So it switched into a light taxing version instead, that can restrict resources and win with Living Plane + Linvala, Keeper of Silence. Aesthetics are very important to me and I try my best not to just make Goodstuff.dek's all day and call it a meta. I'm in the process of slowly combing through every deck and removing redundancy. Magic has thousands of cards, there are few reasons 5 decks should share the same number of ubiquitous staples.
Sacrifice the persister, the scry will go on the stack.
Persist triggers from the graveyard, it resolves and returns the creature to play with a -1/-1 counter.
, Persisters ETB and Bolster trigger. Target the persister with the Bolster trigger, the +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters will cancel each other out when state based actions are checked. Scry resolves and one repetition of the loop is complete.
CRUSADE, Persisters ETB and every creature gets a +1/+1 counter, the +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters will cancel each other out when state based actions are checked. Scry resolves and one repetition of the loop is complete.
Repeat as many times as you need and scry your whole deck to whatever card you want to draw next. With Abzan Ascendancy you get a ridiculous flying army that won't get blown out by Rakdos Charm
I'd like to preface this whole section with saying I am not a great budget builder, as will become apparent shortly. What I lack in budget brewing I make up for in card knowledge. So first on the docket is my $60 Hatebears Brew.
The inferior card selection inflated the mana costs.
The mana base isn't as explosive. Part of most people's gripes with MTG in general is mana screw/flood, so optimization of mana bases become extremely important.
This breakdown comes exclusively from cobblepott_mtgs famous Boonweaver Combo. He did a wonderful job explaining it so I'm going to borrow the following section explaining the combo. All of the necessary pieces have remained in place. The Boonweaver combo goes as follows:
Sac Karmic and then Reveillark to return both Karmic and Fiend Hunter.
Use Karmic to return Boonweaver and Fiend Hunter to exile Karmic.
Sac Boonweaver to go get anything.
Sac Fiend Hunter to return Karmic, which returns Reveillark.
Repeat
This sequence nets one creature from the library each cycle and can put all creatures from your library into play and win on the spot. The combo wins through any combination of Reveillark and Friends with Blood Artist, Acidic Slime, or Altar of Dementia. Note that the order and pieces involved have some flexibility. For instance, Saffi Eriksdotter can be substituted in place of Fiend Hunter if he gets stuck in your yard or hand prior to the combo. Also, you don't need to go through the entire combo depending on your board state. If, for example, your sac outlet is Altar of Dementia you can stop once you have Karmic Guide and Fiend Hunter/Saffi Eriksdotter since you can just mill everyone with those pieces alone. Make sure to call out your triggers during each step to give each player opportunities to respond and to be convinced that the combo actually works. Some people will be suspicious if you just say, "Boonweaver, I win." Given there's so many moving pieces to the combo and it will probably be something your opponents haven't seen before, it's important that you show them all the steps so everyone can be satisfied.
Boonweaver Giant isn't actually the way you win your games. He's just a very reliable accelerator for assembling the combo pieces that do so. In almost every case, Boonweaver's job will be to call up a Reveillark and Friends combo pair. Reveillark and Friends are a family of creatures that combine in many combinations into infinitely recursive pairs when you have a free sac outlet on the board. Putting an infinite pair together with a win con is your number one focus.
Better than Melira and does the same thing. The mana cost is a bit more of a stretch, but it helps "bolster" those tiny hateful creatures of mine, whereas Melira didn't do anything but combo with 2 cards...
Bitter Ordeal does really punish sweepers very harshly, it was also a Wincon with a fully functional Persist combo in full effect. But it didn't seem very...how do you put it? Natural? The deck plays a fairly natural progression of trying to control the boardstates and remove tools from my opponents then it just causes a blowout? This will be revisited later and has joined Maybe Board status.
Archangel really only ever trigger off the Persist combo, and only 1 half of the Persist combo (Kitchen Finks ) so it made sense to replace it with an identical CMC card that triggered all of the time, even some synergy with Abzan Ascendancy.
This combo is a bit easier to pull off and more beneficial than Deathrender+Greater Good. RenderGood gets me to cycle through my deck and toss out creatures, the +2/+2 from Render offsets the discard 3, somewhat. Clamp + Bloodghast draws me 2 cards cheaper, and converts my less aggressive creatures to draw more action. The potential for using fetchlands to draw 4 more. I can think of very few times I want Deathrender on the battlefield opposed to Skullclamp but I might want it more than Sword of Fire and Ice. Mentor of the Meek is slightly more resource intensive than Skullclamp, and doesn't trigger off everything. At very least Skullclamp can go on my biggest threat creature before the end of turn - if it gets killed at least I get 2 out of it. Now, is Bloodghast a better creature? No. Is the potential interaction greater than having a Meek? I'd say similar if not the same. Over the course of Skullclamp draws me EV+ for my mana.
Karador is a powerful recursion engine, and I basically need a 3cmc creature like I needed another hole in my head. Mentor is a great creature for a low-CMC non-creature deck - which this is not. Monastery Mentor ends up being good stuff at the end of the day.
Shaman is slllloooowwww. It also like Survival of the Fittest requires you have a creature card in hand, and that the creature card be worth less than what you'd pitch to find. But when you realize that Fauna Shaman is that card you'd pitch to Survival of the Fittest you begin to look for alternstives. I like Evolutionary Leap more because it's a Sac engine, works on tokens and doesn't require cards in hand to make it work. It just does more of what I need it to do. I prefer it to Survival of the Fittest as of this moment.
Vindicate is an Aura of Silence and more. I love the taxing ability on Aura of Silence, and the ability to destroy artifacts or enchantments just by sacrificing it is wonderful. Vindicate is just so good though...
The first thing that springs to mind here is Wrath protection. Against non-control decks the trigger acts like pseudo-Vigilance. If your opponent has a blocker, Athreos allows you to continue forcing damage through even if some of your creatures suicide. This deck has many low power creatures with hate abilities, Athreos allows you to get those back. It plays enough lands and mana rocks to recast many of these creatures. Using Evolutionary Leap to convert creatures into MORE creature cards, and then get the sacrificed creature back again is wonderful. Athreos’ mandatory trigger makes it so that my opponents can easily disrupt my card drawing engines by sending them back to my hand. Also it makes Karador worse. My reanimation engines lose a lot of their power when my dead creatures keep ending up in my hand instead of back in my yard, like Bloodghast being paired with Skullclamp.
With the introduction of a new Prossh deck into my closed meta, it was time to also introduce something that can stop Food Chain. Which deck is better for that than the hate deck?
I decided to embrace the "hate" aspect of this deck more. Few ways existed to hose Hexproof and Shroud, making target player sacrifice leaves them the option to sac a token or something insignificant.
I love the deck so much I want to have access to faster mana. The Temples are great, and they smooth out my next draw steps by shipping less desirable cards. Coming into play tapped is rather problematic, I need this deck to have at least 3 mana open at most times to cast hate cards (with flash). I am investing as much as I can monetarily to make this deck great to play.
Upon further analysis it wasn't exactly fair to completely blank 2 Win Conditions in 5RRRInsurrection in Prossh and 7BBRise of the Dark Realms from Sedris vs. Nekusar. It was a lazy attempt to just not have to try other things before being able to have an uncounterable hoser that took care of it. I should be casting Anafenza, the Foremost instead.
Pridemage is already in my Roon Toolbox, and it isn't a hatebear. The Exalted Trigger doesn't actually come up that often and Scavenging Ooze is a hatebear. Plain and simple.
The homage to Death and Taxes is complete with one of the finest cheating cards of recent memory. Turning our creatures without flash into "gotcha" moments. Our curve is so low for creatures, we need to only turn this up to 2 counters to cheat 44% of our creatures into play. It gets around our tough colored mana requirements. Scroll Rack on the other hand is well...good stuff.
Suggested by Honor Basquiat, who is a great inspiration for the original form of this deck. I love this card far more than I had any love for Asceticism, Asceticism is for another type of deck. Infact, Asceticism is probably worse than Cauldron of Souls for surviving board wipes or targeted removal.
Finding a recursion engine at 4 CMC, and isn't Sun Titan is worth exploring. Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter is a fortress in himself, and he does act as a sacrifice outlet. This change is indeed tentative. Meren of Clan Nel Toth is too good to ignore and does many things we want it to do (besides not dying to a boardwipe). Karador, Ghost Chieftain has to stay because it allows creature casting on either first or second main phase, and flash creatures. It is also an alternative to Anafenza, the Foremost. Athreos, God of Passage stays because it is difficult to get rid of. It does leave Dragonlord Dromoka as the only real finisher left, Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter was able to clear the path and go on a rampage. I'm not sure how many finishers I need, or want.
This is just a value switch, get the same card minus 1 and the cost of 3 life. Is the 1 worth 3 life? The pros outweigh the cons. If Utter End is an effect you always want access to, then you'd get access to it sooner if it cost less. The 3 life really only hurts at the very end of if it's a tight race.
After the overhaul I used the Persist loop as a win condition, but I found that my Roon of the Hidden Realm and Prossh, Skyraider of Kher were essentially doing the same things. In commander some overlap will happen because there are few winning strategies, but having 3 decks doing the same thing always felt strange. What was even more strange is that while it's organic for the Roon of the Hidden Realm deck to fool around with Saffi Eriksdotter and Karmic Guide and whatnot, because they have Enter the Battlefield effects. Prossh, Skyraider of Kher is a sacrifice engine in its own right, and creates a billion tokens that can be sacrificed for currency, it's a logical progression to get to that point. Anafenza, the Foremost is about hatebears and restricting what you can do...then suddenly it combos out to win? It was rather incongruous. So it switched into a light taxing version instead, that can restrict resources and win with Living Plane + Linvala, Keeper of Silence. Aesthetics are very important to me and I try my best not to just make Goodstuff.dek's all day and call it a meta. I'm in the process of slowly combing through every deck and removing redundancy. Magic has thousands of cards, there are few reasons 5 decks should share the same number of ubiquitous staples.
Being able to deter a creature heavy meta from attacking us is likely always going to be better than pissing them all off by exiling stuff. Basically we need this moreso than we need another piece of removal, and Council's Judgment unfairly hits Zedruu when fully suited for 1WW. It's totally possible it can come back in, considering Zedruu, the great hearted has lots of counter magic available to it and should use it against Council's Judgment to avoid a blowout.
Prossh and Sedris/Nekusar both already run Urborg, and both need it more. Also, given as I'm trying to rid redundancy between decks Nephalia Academy presented itself at the right time to make the change.
Sanctum Prelate was an absolute must include, a no-doubt-about-it type of card that rarely comes along, it forced its way into the deck long before it ever needed it. With that being said, Trinisphere was ALWAYS on shaky ground. In my card review I wrote "...While it does hurt cheap spells badly, they're not the most common type of spells played in the format. In cutthroat metas and fast combo environments, 3 might come down 1 turn too late, but will hurt greatly once it does hit the battlefield. It is fringe playable and could be cut for more different taxing in the future." and I still stand by that. I does hurt Zedruu the most of all, because of its reliance on cheap auras, but with Sanctum I can just call out "1" and be done with it.
A conversation broke out on the MTG Reddit with an ensuing discussion that I'd always been trying to convey. It is Planeswalker durability. Planeswalkers whenever reviewed always, always, always have to have a relevant + ability in ratio to their mana cost, or else they are not worth including. Liliana of the Veil works because at very least an asymmetrical discard could be worth 1BB. And Vraska too survives this test, since a 3BG isn't just outright terrible for a bad Vindicate. What Freyalise does that Vraska doesn't, is make chumps and generate mana. The ability to Naturalize is important too. So for the time being, Freyalise wins out.
Trying to get Mentor of the Meek to work is not very beneficial since trying to leave the extra mana open for Mentor's ability really hurt the flow of this decks. So not only is the body much better, but we can keep emptying our hand and then later draw cards to keep the pressure on, or get around Spirit of the Labyrinth. The most significant drawback: can't abuse it with tokens, doesn't effect us whatsoever. I'm experimenting with this one for now, Lifecrafter's Bestiary is also in contention for different reasons because of the scry, but runs into the Mentor of the Meek conundrum.
One of my favorite cards returns at the behest of uberlegen. It is often important to have big bodies to put in front of troublesome creatures. It is also important to not lock the table out of being able to prevent a Boonweaver Giant combo or Voltron commanders from suiting up.
This was primarily done because Ob Nixilis, Unshackled was the last vestiges of the Persist version of the deck that grew to massive proportions when the combo was working at its best. Now that those days are over I switched to a more marquee card in Leonin Arbiter that is both hate and taxation that represents the new look of the deck. I'm patiently waiting for a better "cannot search libraries" card, but that may take awhile.
When I was playtesting them the {+2} was not terribly relevant. Being at 5 mana already, and not having much over 6 cmc it ended up making 1/1's that would be helpful sparingly. The {-2} is also obviously useful, having another Naturalize is cool. I'm not impressed by her Ult because you essentially pay 3GG and 3 table rotations to draw a handful of cards. Garruk Wildspeaker is in now, but may become a Lotus Cobra if necessary.
Hunting Ground is dead weight as a top deck. If you can manage 7 cards in your graveyard by turn 5 or 6 it is worth it but we're not a deck that is not playing Life from the Loam, or casting things like Mulch or Grisly Salvage to fill our yard early.
I want to add more 1-drops and lower the curve on everything in general. Might cut Garruk Wildspeaker already for Elves of Deep Shadow or something else. Karador, Ghost Chieftain has been on my radar too, no more so now that Dark Confidant joined the ranks. He's great as a Commander because you can keep casting him out of the Command Zone for cheap, and you always get something out of him. In the 99, you get your card the first turn you play him, but sometimes nothing else. I was torn between a few: But Sun Titan won out because I was able to get one from another deck, so one card didn't appear in multiple decks.
I just need more Mana Dorks and lower my curve overall. It is important to me to keep the cost of every non-creature spell low in order to get under taxation and avoid Dark Confidant beats. Garruk is really good, but my only genuine need is to untapped 2 lands, and I'm not running any enhanced lands worth untapping.
I just needed more lands to hit more colors. Pretty plain and simple. Getting dinged for 1 is worth being able to cast whatever I need, and Chromatic Lantern smooths it out.
The influence of Dark Confidant strikes again,
And this time it involves a total savings of 2. Although it may not stop activated infinite abilities it is still worth it to lower my costs overall due to taxation.
It was fun while it lasted but it's not nearly the font of wealth Carpet can, and often is. Sylvan Caryatid was likely the best of the Tier 2 mana dorks available after Tier 1 and top of Tier 2 have already been taken.
The deck has slowly and deliberately lowering the mana cost of everything while simultaneously trying to become faster to account for that lower mana cost. Many of these changes have been a long time coming and I'm attempting to incorporate far more synergies and make every card more valuable. I will at some point have to introduce a new set, or sets of additional win conditions, but for the moment I am going to more extensively testing this quicker list. I needed more draw ability, the deck had a tendency to run out of gas. Also had to remove some of the slower sorcery speed, single target removal. This is not meant to be a super-competitive tier 1 list,
so I'm focusing more on multiplayer, and future changes should be expected - but so far I am pleased by the changes.
In my Meta, Kataki is downright bad. Usually games go long and there are few true artifact heavy decks. In 3 recent games I did the following: Play Kataki, Skullclamp immediately. You might say "well you drew 2 cards", but then Kataki could be anything. It is reserved for Lightning fast metas that play multiple rocks a turn and low land counts. Most tables won't care about Kataki as much as I dif, glorified Clamp fodder.
Since moving away from the Persist loops, I've been searching for a win condition. Linvala, Keeper of Silence + Living Plane was it...or hit people with things. Solemnity allows for the counters to fall of Dark Depths, it also hoses our opponents that rely on counters. In this day and age where every mechanic: Amplify, Awaken, Bloodthirst, Dethrone, Devour, Evolve, Fabricate, Graft, Modular, Outlast, Reinforce, Scavenge, Sunburst, Undying, Unleash, Bolster, Monstrosity, Support, Converge, Heroic all are commonplace in and useless because of it. In order to make more room for the some of the recent changes - Ghostly Prison moved over to Ishai and Kydele. That deck wants it more, and so we need to make some cuts.
I need better, and more broad access to enchantment removal with the introduction of Ishai and Kydele. Little talked about is the fact that Aura Shards pushes the action in a game, it makes all of your creatures better by turning them into Disenchant and committing more to the board. It gets answered instantly by everyone else, but if left alone is a blowout.
When Sanctum Prelate was first spoiled I felt it was a homerun. It was the ticket we needed to be able to finish games against desperate combo decks and silence board wipes. But it is so often difficult to guess right. The times you guess wrong feel real bad and you never quite know if you made the right decision. Mirri on the other hand is has pseudo-evasion that helps our Go Wide strategy and a 1 sided Crawlspace.
When disassembling my Roon of the Realm I found myself with a spare Gaea's Cradle. It would be a shame to let it go to waste. Here is it is, it doubles up our Mana dorks and let's us play more spells.
The replacement for Roon - Ishai and Kydele Enchantress is a deck focusing on Enchantments, and any deck focusing on enchantments needs to have some of the best possible at its disposal. Also the Abundance + Sylvan Library interaction is too much to pass up.
The replacement for Roon - Ishai and Kydele Enchantress is a deck focusing on Enchantments, and any deck focusing on enchantments needs to have some of the best possible at its disposal. Also the Abundance + Sylvan Library interaction is too much to pass up.
I was getting tired of playing Sun Titan and Teshar is kind of like Sun Titan. I think the lower casting cost and multiple triggers per turn is worth losing access to other types of permanents. This is a temporary adjustment pending more testing.
I never got the vibe that Dark Depths + Solemnity was ever any good. For a long time I kept the cards in the deck because it was a 2 card interaction that didn't really water down the deck. But after some discussion and some suggestions from readers I decided to axe it finally. Torpor Orb triggers Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle so that is a positive.
Quite frankly this deck needs far more ways to draw cards then it needs other things at the moment. Drawing cards is crucial when using a bunch of small creatures that are largely disposable. Vampire Hexmage was cool when we run the Dark Depths variation for a while, and it is a solid hate card for getting rid of the tons of counters on everything - but drawing cards is crucial.
Ishai and Kydele is the Enchantment deck in my meta, and given there are around 11,000+ Magic cards, and Commander is allowed to play mostly all of them - why not eliminate some overlap? Enlightened Tutor can arguably be better in this deck than Enchantress, but it belongs in that deck holistically.
The new hotness from Guilds of Ravnica has touched down in the deck and everyone is excited. Although I've stopped writing set reviews I will be updating the deck periodically as new toys arrive. I'm not certain about this and it may become Anguished Unmaking.
I did some cleaning of my binder lately and found some things to trade for a judge foil Imperial Seal from a friend. So I put it in instead. I wish there were a better explanation.
I'm excited for whatevers next. I'm kind of surprised you retired the Oloro Stax deck. I run Oloro Stax in a competitive group and he always has a shot at winning.
I kept it for a good while but found that it was underwhelming with the blue cards so I changed it to green
I can understand that. I've been thinking of converting to Mardu running Zurgo Helmsmasher. Red has so many sweet staxy cards.
I'm excited for whatevers next. I'm kind of surprised you retired the Oloro Stax deck. I run Oloro Stax in a competitive group and he always has a shot at winning.
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield, destroy it.
The player activating the ability skips their next turn. So basically creates a Tempo swing or all creatures are destroyed when they enter the battlefield.
A bit costly for what it is. I know it'd not be good with Alesha in play, I just can't spend $11 on it, especially with the fact I'm missing better fixing.
Yeah. It's lots of fun in random pods or with friends. It's the opposite of group hug, group punishment! Some cards are pretty weak, and will be upgraded as the budget allows. But overall its been one of my more fun deck I've created over the years.
The others being an Izzet coin-flip deck - every card has a coin flipping action. I have a 5-color Modal spell deck too. This one so far is the better of the 3 theme decks. I'm a spike by nature, but I like building decks like this because it seems so natural for the format.
Mogis, God of Slaughter: This deck is a multiplayer punisher deck. The goal of the deck is to punish your opponents by making them pay life to reduce your board advantage. The elements of this deck also creates a political element. Not only are you free to build your board in some games, you can also be a nagging distraction for your opponents in others. The deck may not be a power house, but it is enjoyable to pilot.
Deck History
The deck has very humble origins, one card: Choice of Damnations. I was up late one night trying to figure out if Splice onto Arcane.dek was playable (hint: it isn't). After vetting several Arcane spells I happened upon Choice of Damnations. It was that moment immediately that a multitude of Punisher cards came back to me. What if I just jammed them all? 5-color.
After careful consideration ( and a quick look at my bank account), I decided 5-colors might not be worth the hassle (or the mana fixing). So I built a Grixis Punisher style deck so I could have access to Fact or Fiction. I quickly borrowed cards from my Sedris, the Traitor King deck and began testing phases. It was fine, it was fun, but it wasn't totally awesome. I wanted to use Tribute cards, and Will of the Council cards, and I really, really wanted Council's Judgment.
Mardu was the way to go. Around this time Alesha, Who Smiles at Death was spoiled. I was totally in. This Punisher deck is more of a mid-game/late game slumbering giant. You get spotty control of the board throughout the game, enough spells to disrupt some shenanigans, its good for the occasional boardwipe, it really shines later on in the game. All of the incremental damage that players have accrued from Shocklands, Fetchlands, Pain Lands, fighting each other, those little pings start to eat mean much more. Slowly but surely they're asked to pay life, sacrifice permanents, discard cards, pay mana; and you'll find yourself behind the drivers seat.
Mogis, God of Slaughter is a great General that places us firmly in the Rakdos color range. Rakdos has some of the absolute best selection of punisher spells. Mogis is also a terrifying beater that has a very relevant punisher ability himself.
You want to punish your opponents. It's the most obvious reason. Punisher style Commander decks are difficult to come by, but it does provide a fun play style that will often times baffle your opponents as often as it makes you the target.
You don't always have to win! Sometimes Commander can be about fun, enjoyment, politics. Having fun is a core tenant of Multiplayer games.
You like some variance to your games. As mentioned above, this deck is about trying to have fun. Games play out differently from each other. Maybe some games your opponents pay Tribute, some they don't. Some may view you as a powerful ally, some games you're the bane of their existence. It really does depend on the situation. All I can say is that this is fun in a random pod at your LGS, or at the kitchen table with good friends.
You prefer winning at all times. There isn't a 2-card combo or an Ad Nauseam solitaire combo at the end of this list. It is straight forward. Tap mana, play something people hate, see if they try to get rid of it or see if it stays.
You enjoy playing elaborate combo decks. This is not one of those. It's a gimmick deck that can be fun to play. Not to say the deck is on autopilot, there are difficult decisions to be had for sure. But it's not likely you'll be spending much time in the tank trying to pilot this right here.
Other options for commanders:
Alesha, Who Smiles at Death: Previous commander general Alesha served as a great leader for this deck. However, as time wore on - and certain costly cards from this deck (namely the lands) needed for my Anafenza deck, I realized I don't really need to be running white at the moment. It was actually actively bad for me to be doing so. With the exception of 2 white cards it was very unnecessary. Those 2 cards found a home and all the expensive lands found new home.
Kaalia of the Vast: While she is an extremely powerful commander - it does nothing for us here. Kaalia decks tend to build themselves, and really none of those elements exist here. To further confound issues, she is quite hated. Entering a pod against players you're not familiar with can lead to an early exit if they even THINK you're going to cheat big creatures onto the battlefield. Better to stay away.
Oros, the Avenger: While it's in Mardu colors, it too doesn't do much in the way of helping our strategy. I guess the AoE damage can be effective for controlling the field, that isn't what we're looking for. While I do tend to enjoy the more subtly political moments these Dragon's have (Dromar, the Banisher in particular) this one is a miss.
Tariel, Reckoner of Souls: Here is the closest competition that Alesha has in terms of potential Generals. I love the randomness of getting a creature back from an opponent's graveyard. It was indeed a toss-up between them, but I feel Alesha is easier to cast, does more for the deck and isn't as much of a target.
Zurgo Helmsmasher: Yikes! Zurgo might smash helms, but he doesn't do anything we need. He's a straight up aggro monster that swings every turn and accrues Commander damage. Not something we need to be doing, but great for those decks that play to his strengths.
Somberwald Sage restricts how you spend the mana also. Look at something like Hornet Queen (adds 5 to Gaea's Cradle) or Trostani's Summoner. They very easily get you there with Shaman on the field, and changing your opponents life total to like...7 or 8 worst case scenario, if they're a Voltron deck 1 or 2. Then swing. Its not likely, but after doing some thinking it's not a pipe dream either. I think the 1 less mana from Somberwald gives you a better body, and not an impossible wincon considering if it ever happens once in your life it was probably worth it.
I can understand that. I've been thinking of converting to Mardu running Zurgo Helmsmasher. Red has so many sweet staxy cards.
The player activating the ability skips their next turn. So basically creates a Tempo swing or all creatures are destroyed when they enter the battlefield.
I just noticed how high my mana curve is. can anyone think of any creative ways to ramp my mana? Cabal Coffers or something more creative?
The others being an Izzet coin-flip deck - every card has a coin flipping action. I have a 5-color Modal spell deck too. This one so far is the better of the 3 theme decks. I'm a spike by nature, but I like building decks like this because it seems so natural for the format.
Choice of Damnations is my inspiration for the entire deck.