1) How about an "un" themed Commander set. Make 4 decks each featuring Commanders and cards from all the "un" sets such as unglued, unstable, etc. Not all 100 cards would need to be "uns". Fill in the blanks with needed reprints
2) Make 5 mono colored decks focused around needed reprints. Make a red deck with needed red reprints. Make a green with needed green reprints. Etc.
3) Why focus on a theme? Why not just have random decks for fun. Maybe another Planeswalker deck along with a tribal, mechanic based(infect/deathtouch), and something else?
1. I dislike the unset idea. The cards aren't commander legal. I think that the cards in the set should be commander legal without any house rules.
2. They didn't mentioned that they would change the amount of decks back to 5. In addition the decks should be playable out of the box. I don't know if this is makeable if they are filled with needed reprints. If the reprints are to desirable by other formats the pricing and availability of the decks will be miserable. A second Teferis Protection would be nice, though. There is modern horizon which could contain some of the commander cards.
3. I don't understand this point. You asking why the deck should be focused by a theme and than you suggest some. The themes of the deck normally differ from each other. They aren't really the same. 2017 was tribal but some of them had additional subthemes like equipment build in. 2018 was enchantments, top matters, lands shenanigans and artifacts. So they do this already.
At best, I'd expect CPWs to be an every other year thing. Which raises the question of what other themes want CPWs. First time, the decks were monocolor, so they needed something flashy. The second time, the decks were all card type themed, so...planeswalkers that care about those card types, I guess? For a third set of CPWs, I imagine something like the planes theme. But yeah, this year likely won't have CPWs.
We might see Experience return, it'd be a great followup to WAR's Proliferate cards. In which case, what would be some good new Experience triggers?
Lifegain at above an arbitrary value?
Artifacts cast?
Enchantments?
Landfall?
Token Generation?
There are a few options they haven't yet used, and there would be nothing wrong with reusing one they already had previously, provided the deck is different enough. Imagine a green/black deck that cared about instants and sorceries.
1) How about an "un" themed Commander set. Make 4 decks each featuring Commanders and cards from all the "un" sets such as unglued, unstable, etc. Not all 100 cards would need to be "uns". Fill in the blanks with needed reprints
2) Make 5 mono colored decks focused around needed reprints. Make a red deck with needed red reprints. Make a green with needed green reprints. Etc.
3) Why focus on a theme? Why not just have random decks for fun. Maybe another Planeswalker deck along with a tribal, mechanic based(infect/deathtouch), and something else?
1) would piss off the 99% of commander play groups that don't allow un-cards, and thus would sell poorly.
2) Also known as: How to drive up the prices of the commander decks to far beyond what the average commander player can afford. Also, most of the decks would end up getting snagged by vintage/legacy players.
3) Themes give consistency and coherence.
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It's about time for the reserved list to die, for the sake of Vintage and Legacy (And Commander).
The previous two commander products were very lackluster. First, there were only 4. Second, they were more expensive than previous years. Lastly, the quality between them and compared to previous years was incredibly lacking. The tribal had a clear order of better to worse (out of the box, at least). The card-type matters theme was also very loose. The "lands matters" deck wasn't anywhere near focused on lands.
In comparison to this last point, Commander 2013 had multiple loose themes that players could build upon after playing enough with them out of the box. For example, Nekusar, the Mindrazer has a light wheeling theme that could've been built upon more with additional cards and Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge was spellslinger. But the deck could've been played out of the box. You could've even built both generals if you wanted to because there were enough support cards for them to get started. Compared to Commander 2018, the gimmick was theme-matters yet the lands-matter deck was hardly dedicated to that theme. The C13 Grixis deck had more support for wheeling than C18 Jund had for lands. And that says a lot.
The problem wasn't WotC running out of ideas and thus changing the formula to try new things or get themselves out of the hole of designer's block. The first commander product was wedge legends because there were hardly any (and they lost a good opportunity to print wedge lairs for the Planar Chaos versions of the 5 dragons which were reprinted in each deck - whose Planeshift versions had shard lairs) and introduced some great multiplayer mechanics. The second actual commander product (C13) introduced command-zone matters mechanics to solidify commander as a bona fide format. Commander 2014 introduced the notion of planeswalker commanders which would then be an intended attraction (and differentiation) to Brawl. Commander 2016, considered by many to be the best of the series, finally gave 4-colored legendary creatures (sorry, nephelim) as well as partner commanders. This ambitious set gave so, so many possibilities for commanders that it was undoubtedly very difficult to top.
Even Commander 2015 was a step up from the mono-colored decks of the previous year (albeit by only a single-color). What was unique about this product was the experience counter mechanic which is great by design standards because it makes the commander's presence felt even while in other zones until you can take advantage from it. The decks were balanced between each other and the themes within them were more solid than Commander 2013, just like they were in Commander 2014. The theme was hinted at in the title but was definitely present when playing the decks right out of the box. The Boros deck was really the only letdown of the bunch but still, the overall set was very well-designed.
Enter Commander 2017. The number of decks reduced by 1. The price increased by $5. The theme wasn't color combination but actually theme (which would make sense from the fact that there is no longer 5 decks). Granted, having a commander deck already dedicated to a theme (tribal, in this case) was a great idea because players tend to build commander decks dedicated to tribal (sliver, goblins, angels, etc.). Their choice for tribes was well-received and the product wasn't as good only when compared to the success of the previous year. Praise aside, it doesn't change the fact that many players complained about the price and 1 less deck. This was a clear indication of the lack of ideas within WotC for commander. They were beginning to break the age-old rule of "if it ain't broken, don't fix it."
If the well of ideas is running dry, the player base is always full of them. Undoubtedly WotC has people scouring social media for opinions from the community and there are plenty of amazing ideas from players of the game (hell, even I started designing a commander-type format where you could use two commanders called Boss & Mini-Boss and a year later partner as a mechanic was a thing). Due to the backlash of the price increase for a smaller product you'd think WotC would at least revert back to 5 decks. Nope. They revealed Commander 2018. It would continue having only 4 decks and the price would increase even more. It would appear that the lesson wasn't learned from the previous year. What about the quality? The theme again wasn't color but theme itself. Strategy matters. That's fine. But the decks were even less designed around this major selling point than the decks from previous years, where the theme was only hinted at. Not only that, but for a higher price, players expected reprints to justify that increase. Nope. Not even that. So this past commander product didn't repeat what made the past products successful, it instead repeated what made the previous product unsuccessful. If you're going to market Commander 2018 as a theme-matters deck, make the theme actually matter; give it support. If you're going to have these decks cost $10 than what players were usually paying for, add more sought after reprints. The printing/packaging/marketing process might increase as time passes. That's true. Inflation, the economy, etc. as well. However, printing a Zombie token costs the same as printing Force of Will. If you're compensating the price for production costs, than produce better cards.
My prediction for a future set is not really a prediction more so than a hope. Here's what I hope they do:
Continue the trend of 5 decks and not 4.
There would be more options to buy from, especially if the cost is $40. I've bought at least one commander deck each year except the past two years. Price was a major factor and decklist was the other. Which brings me to my next point.
If price will not reduce, add more reprints.
If I am going to shell out $40, at least make it worth my money. It's not about adding Zendikar fetches or Mana Crypt, etc.; it's about putting more powerful cards if they're gonna stick to a theme and would be helpful to have a deck out of the box. If I have to invest money in upgrading the deck because I like its theme and the new cards, at least help me save that money that I've also spent in the vanilla product. Which brings me to my next point.
Theme.
Story and lore have been a major selling point recently in sets. As someone who has been playing MtG on/off since Fallen Empires, the lore always attracted me to the game. The theme for the next commander product should definitely be a viable Vorthos. Sagas could be reprinted or new Sagas could be designed. More legendary characters to serve both in flavor as well as mechanically. If 5 decks are made then each highlighted/main commander should be an old character that hasn't yet been printed on a card (no new, unknown characters for the main commanders). Since the point is multiplayer, each deck could contain the antagonists/protagonists of opposing decks. For example, if Ulgrotha is a chosen plane, one deck having Baron Sengir and his allies (even characters that haven't been printed on a card yet) could be in one deck and then other decks could contain his opponents (Reveka, Autumn Willow, Sandruu, and characters that haven't had a card yet). So when you're playing all 5 decks against each other, major characters from major stories could all be on the battlefield either assisting each other or facing off against each other.
Simplified, say for example the 5 planes (I'll choose 4 because I'm betting on there only being 4 decks) are Ulgrotha, Kamigawa, Shadowmoor/Lorwyn, and Tarkir. Then each deck would have a faction from each of those planes. Let's say one of the decks is BUG. It might contain Oona, Baron Sengir, Ravi, Tasigur, etc. and other characters that have yet to receive a card (I know Homelands is on the Reserved List so those characters might get a different card instead of a reprint). Another deck could have their allies and then a different deck could have their enemies. Thus, it's flavor could be 2HG similar to Battlebond. You could have two decks that become 5-colored by having them be BUG and UBR when teamed together and the other two be GWU and RGW. If you're going to be putting out 4 decks, then you might as well allow for not just a 4-player free-for-all, but also two-headed giant.
Mechanics.
I think that every other commander-inspired mechanic should make a comeback. Partner, join forces, eminence, this planeswalker can be your commander, etc.
That's it for my analysis/rant prediction/hopefulness. After two years of subpar commander products when compared to past years I just want WotC to stick to the formula that rang true. Coca-Cola learned that the hard way long before WotC. Surely they'll learn from their mistakes.
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MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
There's a lot of red fliers I would want in the deck, such as Dragons and Boros Angels. Admittedly, I'm going for a bit of a Star Fox vibe with the URW deck, while the RGW deck has a bit of a Zelda vibe. But, I could see the flying matters hero deck being WU to balance the number of dual and tricolor decks.
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MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
DementedKirby: The main problem with last years decks, I feel, was that they were all over the place. Each felt like three decks that had been mushed together. The only bad one of the tribal ones was the wizard one, and it is pretty obvious in hindsight that it was only made because Dominaria had a wizard subtheme.
The 2018 decks, did have some decent reprints, but they were severely lacking in the land department.
Were all nice reprints, and that's just among the rare/mythics. Many peoples primary issue was the lack of rare land reprints and downright *****ty manabases. Some people also complained about the lack of pre-eight edition reprints, and there are a lot of cards there that are not on the reserved list that are in sore need of reprints.
As for the new cards, most of them are good, particularly among the commanders themselves.
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It's about time for the reserved list to die, for the sake of Vintage and Legacy (And Commander).
Also, Wizards are one of the game's most popular tribes. The RWB Vampiric Bloodlust deck was also an obvious plant, for Ixalan's WB Vampires. Come to think of it, most Commander products are synergized with Standard sets:
C13 - Flickering for reusing ETB triggers such as Populate, Detain, and Constellation, lifegain matters for Extort.
C14 - Monocolor plays quite nicely with Theros' Devotion mechanic.
C15 - Enemy color decks, playing with KTK's enemy color cards. Daxos obviously plays well with Theros' enchantment theme, Karlov's use of +1/+1 counters gels well with the Abzan, Mizzix helps out with Strive and plays well in the Jeskai Prowess strategy, Arjun likes repeat spell triggers like Rebound, Meren and Mazirek's focus on sacrificing and resurrecting creatures plays well with Sultai and Silumgar, Kalemne likes high-cost creatures such as Zurgo Helmsmasher and Dragons, and Ezuri likes 2-power Morphers and creature tokens, such as all the Warriors, Zombies, and Snakes produced in KTK block.
C17 - Vampire and Wizard tribal plants for Ixalan and Dominaria, Cat tribal for Amonkhet.
C18 - Planeswalker commanders return just in time for WAR's planeswalker interaction. Saheeli's UR artifacts deck plays nicely with Historic, especially in regards to fellow UR artificer Jhoira. Lord Windgrace interacts with Deserts. Tuvasa the Sunlit plays with Sagas. Varina, Lich Queen plays with Amonkhet's WUB Zombies.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
DementedKirby: The main problem with last years decks, I feel, was that they were all over the place. Each felt like three decks that had been mushed together. The only bad one of the tribal ones was the wizard one, and it is pretty obvious in hindsight that it was only made because Dominaria had a wizard subtheme.
The 2018 decks, did have some decent reprints, but they were severely lacking in the land department.
Were all nice reprints, and that's just among the rare/mythics. Many peoples primary issue was the lack of rare land reprints and downright *****ty manabases. Some people also complained about the lack of pre-eight edition reprints, and there are a lot of cards there that are not on the reserved list that are in sore need of reprints.
As for the new cards, most of them are good, particularly among the commanders themselves.
Totally agree. That was my point exactly. Past decks which had underlying themes that weren't pushed in your face that had way more cohesiveness than the 2018 decks which were supposed actually to have a devoted theme. For the amount of money they cost, they should've been way worth it. The Challenger Decks, on the other hand, are amazing out of the box and well above their value. You can play them in Standard and actually do something in FNM. Why not have that same philosophy for Commander? It's a casual format but if the theme is land-matters, where are all the clutch land-matters cards? They're not even all super expensive. For example, Azusa, Lost but Seeking has been reprinted enough that it's not as expensive, etc.
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The C17 decks MSRP was $34.99, same as the last few years DementedKirby.
I personally hope they stick with 4 decks and loose themes and focus on forging new archetypes, improving on existing archetypes and/or legends for deck that exists but doesn't have a legend yet.
EDIT: I'm also for returning commander mechanics like parter/parter with (my fav), Lieutenant ect. Just no eminence, its way too OP.
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
How about we just get a Troll Lord for our Charnel Troll
Troll Lord could be cool. Not sure how or what they would do aside from hard to kill / graveyard shenanigans in Black/Green, and honestly that's my favorite color pair and deck colors to play, but honestly I'm looking to play something new and exciting.
I would love to see 4 decks that are nothing like what I own already (that's asking a lot) so that way I am both excited and trying something new.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
Also, Wizards are one of the game's most popular tribes. The RWB Vampiric Bloodlust deck was also an obvious plant, for Ixalan's WB Vampires. Come to think of it, most Commander products are synergized with Standard sets:
C13 - Flickering for reusing ETB triggers such as Populate, Detain, and Constellation, lifegain matters for Extort.
C14 - Monocolor plays quite nicely with Theros' Devotion mechanic.
C15 - Enemy color decks, playing with KTK's enemy color cards. Daxos obviously plays well with Theros' enchantment theme, Karlov's use of +1/+1 counters gels well with the Abzan, Mizzix helps out with Strive and plays well in the Jeskai Prowess strategy, Arjun likes repeat spell triggers like Rebound, Meren and Mazirek's focus on sacrificing and resurrecting creatures plays well with Sultai and Silumgar, Kalemne likes high-cost creatures such as Zurgo Helmsmasher and Dragons, and Ezuri likes 2-power Morphers and creature tokens, such as all the Warriors, Zombies, and Snakes produced in KTK block.
C17 - Vampire and Wizard tribal plants for Ixalan and Dominaria, Cat tribal for Amonkhet.
C18 - Planeswalker commanders return just in time for WAR's planeswalker interaction. Saheeli's UR artifacts deck plays nicely with Historic, especially in regards to fellow UR artificer Jhoira. Lord Windgrace interacts with Deserts. Tuvasa the Sunlit plays with Sagas. Varina, Lich Queen plays with Amonkhet's WUB Zombies.
The cards themselves weren't bad, but the deck was poorly put together and neigh unplayable out of the box, unlike the three other tribal decks. Straight out of the box the Vampire deck was the strongest, closely followed by the cat deck, then the dragon deck and distantly followed by the wizard deck. The Aminatou planeswalker deck suffered much the same compared to the others because it tried three different strategies at the same time, but at least it was actually playable and kinda fun.
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It's about time for the reserved list to die, for the sake of Vintage and Legacy (And Commander).
I know we just had an Esper deck last year, but man oh man do I want Sen Triplets to be reprinted. I am mad I traded my copy back in the day... it's 45$ now and needs a reprint.
The reason I mention the Triplets is because that could be a fun archetype we haven't seen yet. Playing your opponent's stuff... mind control effects, etc.
I don't think the Triplets will return this year though... unless they make a 4 or 5 color deck with this theme.
I know we just had an Esper deck last year, but man oh man do I want Sen Triplets to be reprinted. I am mad I traded my copy back in the day... it's 45$ now and needs a reprint.
The reason I mention the Triplets is because that could be a fun archetype we haven't seen yet. Playing your opponent's stuff... mind control effects, etc.
I don't think the Triplets will return this year though... unless they make a 4 or 5 color deck with this theme.
That would be great since WotC experimented with playing with your opponents stuff a lot more with the agents of S.N.E.A.K. in Unstable. MtG has for the longest time been stealing player's permanents (or turns) with red and blue (mostly) and it would be great to continue seeing that. Maybe another 4-colored legend? A nonG legend that facilitates this. Or at least a pair of partners that do. And hopefully some black-bordered effects similar to what was done in Unstable. That's definitely an archetype that's not really that existent or supported yet.
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I know we just had an Esper deck last year, but man oh man do I want Sen Triplets to be reprinted. I am mad I traded my copy back in the day... it's 45$ now and needs a reprint.
The reason I mention the Triplets is because that could be a fun archetype we haven't seen yet. Playing your opponent's stuff... mind control effects, etc.
I don't think the Triplets will return this year though... unless they make a 4 or 5 color deck with this theme.
No offence but this sounds very unlikely. A deck where you get to play my stuff takes away the fun factors of the other decks. I just don't think R&D would ever release this as a precon.
I really hope we do not get more 4-color stuff and I don't expect we will. It's just so unfocussed and lacks multifacetted flavor.
Finishing the 2-color cycle would be cool I guess, although I don't know if another (potentially busted) experience counter cycle would be the way to go.
In terms of what color combinations need it the most, wedges are least populated, especially Jeskai. They somehow never got a legend outside the jeskai commander deck and Kahns block (I'm ignoring partners here).
I'd like to see allied color pair commanders. I know they are the most common, but this could serve as a way to explore the aspects of the color pair that don't get as much attention. This would require there to be five decks again, however, and I'm not sure that that will happen.
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Currently Playing:
Standard - Some kind of control
Modern - UB Mill (casual)
EDH - Meren's Grave Shenanigans
I really hope we do not get more 4-color stuff and I don't expect we will. It's just so unfocussed and lacks multifacetted flavor.
Finishing the 2-color cycle would be cool I guess, although I don't know if another (potentially busted) experience counter cycle would be the way to go.
In terms of what color combinations need it the most, wedges are least populated, especially Jeskai. They somehow never got a legend outside the jeskai commander deck and Kahns block (I'm ignoring partners here).
Another Jeskai colored legend (or three) would be nice to see. But what would they do? Play with instants and sorceries? Shu Yun and Narset got that covered. LD? Numot. Give opponents my stuff for a benefit for me? That's Zendruu. Big beats? Ruhan of the Fomori has that dealt with.
Control? Not really red's forté. Elemental Tribal? Not really white.
Best I can think off right now is equipment/vehicles. And we haven't really had a dedicated vehicle commander deck yet. Red and White already deal with vehicles and equipment the most, and blue deals with artifacts in general. So it could work.
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It's about time for the reserved list to die, for the sake of Vintage and Legacy (And Commander).
On the one hand, having only four decks per year can be immensely frustrating due to uneven cycle issues, but on the other, it does mean saving a bit on cardboard, and it probably frees up budget for other products like Modern Horizons. Personally I think they should be free to make anywhere from 2-5 decks per Commander cycle instead of being locked at a certain number all the time. Some themes want to be done in fives, and others can be done in less. I doubt they'd go below 3 decks per cycle for variety's sake, as even four feels cramped sometimes.
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MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
Yeah I honestly don't feel that 2 decks would be a good fit for the yearly Commander product set. That would be fine if they wanted to do some sort of additional "Commander Duel Decks"-like products for special themes like The Coalition vs. Phyrexia, Zendikar vs The Eldrazi, Urza vs Mishra, etc. But 2 decks for the main product just sounds sort of anemic.
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"Pop in, find a dragon, roast a dragon."
-Chandra Nalaar
At any rate, I could see Partner legends returning, but mostly as monocolor with some dual-color for tricolor decks. It's not impossible that they'll do more four-color decks, which are the sweet spot for Partners as you can then have two color pairs represented between them, but by default the deck color splits will generally be 2-2-3-3, assuming that every color needs to appear in at least two decks. Thus, I could see 4-5 monocolor partners alongside 3-4 multicolor partners. A cycle of five ally partners isn't impossible, but unless color overlap between the two partner legends is allowed (and I imagine they would generally prefer to avoid that), that would require one of the decks to be four-color, which in turn would require the other three decks to use the one color that's absent from the 4C deck. Given the color distribution among decks in C17 and C18, one of these two would be the most likely setup for ally-color partners:
U + RG R + WU G + UB BR + GW
U + RG B + GW G + UB WU + BR
Of course, there is always the possibility that more than one of the decks are four-color, in which case you'd likely see a mix of ally and enemy partners. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing both Experience and Partners return this year, with the face card of each deck using Experience counters and two of the new legends being Partners. Partner reprints are also an option, much like CPW reprints.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
Dunno if it's been mentioned or not yet but it looks like there's another price jump this year. Net price for a set of four looks to be in the 90s, which would put normal MSRP at about $180-190.
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1. I dislike the unset idea. The cards aren't commander legal. I think that the cards in the set should be commander legal without any house rules.
2. They didn't mentioned that they would change the amount of decks back to 5. In addition the decks should be playable out of the box. I don't know if this is makeable if they are filled with needed reprints. If the reprints are to desirable by other formats the pricing and availability of the decks will be miserable. A second Teferis Protection would be nice, though. There is modern horizon which could contain some of the commander cards.
3. I don't understand this point. You asking why the deck should be focused by a theme and than you suggest some. The themes of the deck normally differ from each other. They aren't really the same. 2017 was tribal but some of them had additional subthemes like equipment build in. 2018 was enchantments, top matters, lands shenanigans and artifacts. So they do this already.
Lifegain at above an arbitrary value?
Artifacts cast?
Enchantments?
Landfall?
Token Generation?
There are a few options they haven't yet used, and there would be nothing wrong with reusing one they already had previously, provided the deck is different enough. Imagine a green/black deck that cared about instants and sorceries.
1) would piss off the 99% of commander play groups that don't allow un-cards, and thus would sell poorly.
2) Also known as: How to drive up the prices of the commander decks to far beyond what the average commander player can afford. Also, most of the decks would end up getting snagged by vintage/legacy players.
3) Themes give consistency and coherence.
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Numquam evolutioni obstes. Solum conculceris.
Pascite draconem, evolvite aut morimini.
In comparison to this last point, Commander 2013 had multiple loose themes that players could build upon after playing enough with them out of the box. For example, Nekusar, the Mindrazer has a light wheeling theme that could've been built upon more with additional cards and Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge was spellslinger. But the deck could've been played out of the box. You could've even built both generals if you wanted to because there were enough support cards for them to get started. Compared to Commander 2018, the gimmick was theme-matters yet the lands-matter deck was hardly dedicated to that theme. The C13 Grixis deck had more support for wheeling than C18 Jund had for lands. And that says a lot.
The problem wasn't WotC running out of ideas and thus changing the formula to try new things or get themselves out of the hole of designer's block. The first commander product was wedge legends because there were hardly any (and they lost a good opportunity to print wedge lairs for the Planar Chaos versions of the 5 dragons which were reprinted in each deck - whose Planeshift versions had shard lairs) and introduced some great multiplayer mechanics. The second actual commander product (C13) introduced command-zone matters mechanics to solidify commander as a bona fide format. Commander 2014 introduced the notion of planeswalker commanders which would then be an intended attraction (and differentiation) to Brawl. Commander 2016, considered by many to be the best of the series, finally gave 4-colored legendary creatures (sorry, nephelim) as well as partner commanders. This ambitious set gave so, so many possibilities for commanders that it was undoubtedly very difficult to top.
Even Commander 2015 was a step up from the mono-colored decks of the previous year (albeit by only a single-color). What was unique about this product was the experience counter mechanic which is great by design standards because it makes the commander's presence felt even while in other zones until you can take advantage from it. The decks were balanced between each other and the themes within them were more solid than Commander 2013, just like they were in Commander 2014. The theme was hinted at in the title but was definitely present when playing the decks right out of the box. The Boros deck was really the only letdown of the bunch but still, the overall set was very well-designed.
Enter Commander 2017. The number of decks reduced by 1. The price increased by $5. The theme wasn't color combination but actually theme (which would make sense from the fact that there is no longer 5 decks). Granted, having a commander deck already dedicated to a theme (tribal, in this case) was a great idea because players tend to build commander decks dedicated to tribal (sliver, goblins, angels, etc.). Their choice for tribes was well-received and the product wasn't as good only when compared to the success of the previous year. Praise aside, it doesn't change the fact that many players complained about the price and 1 less deck. This was a clear indication of the lack of ideas within WotC for commander. They were beginning to break the age-old rule of "if it ain't broken, don't fix it."
If the well of ideas is running dry, the player base is always full of them. Undoubtedly WotC has people scouring social media for opinions from the community and there are plenty of amazing ideas from players of the game (hell, even I started designing a commander-type format where you could use two commanders called Boss & Mini-Boss and a year later partner as a mechanic was a thing). Due to the backlash of the price increase for a smaller product you'd think WotC would at least revert back to 5 decks. Nope. They revealed Commander 2018. It would continue having only 4 decks and the price would increase even more. It would appear that the lesson wasn't learned from the previous year. What about the quality? The theme again wasn't color but theme itself. Strategy matters. That's fine. But the decks were even less designed around this major selling point than the decks from previous years, where the theme was only hinted at. Not only that, but for a higher price, players expected reprints to justify that increase. Nope. Not even that. So this past commander product didn't repeat what made the past products successful, it instead repeated what made the previous product unsuccessful. If you're going to market Commander 2018 as a theme-matters deck, make the theme actually matter; give it support. If you're going to have these decks cost $10 than what players were usually paying for, add more sought after reprints. The printing/packaging/marketing process might increase as time passes. That's true. Inflation, the economy, etc. as well. However, printing a Zombie token costs the same as printing Force of Will. If you're compensating the price for production costs, than produce better cards.
My prediction for a future set is not really a prediction more so than a hope. Here's what I hope they do:
Simplified, say for example the 5 planes (I'll choose 4 because I'm betting on there only being 4 decks) are Ulgrotha, Kamigawa, Shadowmoor/Lorwyn, and Tarkir. Then each deck would have a faction from each of those planes. Let's say one of the decks is BUG. It might contain Oona, Baron Sengir, Ravi, Tasigur, etc. and other characters that have yet to receive a card (I know Homelands is on the Reserved List so those characters might get a different card instead of a reprint). Another deck could have their allies and then a different deck could have their enemies. Thus, it's flavor could be 2HG similar to Battlebond. You could have two decks that become 5-colored by having them be BUG and UBR when teamed together and the other two be GWU and RGW. If you're going to be putting out 4 decks, then you might as well allow for not just a 4-player free-for-all, but also two-headed giant.
That's it for my analysis/rant prediction/hopefulness. After two years of subpar commander products when compared to past years I just want WotC to stick to the formula that rang true. Coca-Cola learned that the hard way long before WotC. Surely they'll learn from their mistakes.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
Hero Decks
RGW Equip and Explore
Themes: Equipment, land matters
URW Aerial Expertise
Themes: Flying matters, instants and sorceries matter
Villain Decks
BR Diabolic Dominion
Themes: Creature sacrifice, torture effects
BGU Deadly Evolution
Themes: +1/+1 counters, dead creatures matter
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
I like that idea of heroes and villains. I would make the Jeskai one Azorius instead, so it can mirror the villains one.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
The 2018 decks, did have some decent reprints, but they were severely lacking in the land department.
Were all nice reprints, and that's just among the rare/mythics. Many peoples primary issue was the lack of rare land reprints and downright *****ty manabases. Some people also complained about the lack of pre-eight edition reprints, and there are a lot of cards there that are not on the reserved list that are in sore need of reprints.
As for the new cards, most of them are good, particularly among the commanders themselves.
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Numquam evolutioni obstes. Solum conculceris.
Pascite draconem, evolvite aut morimini.
Also, Wizards are one of the game's most popular tribes. The RWB Vampiric Bloodlust deck was also an obvious plant, for Ixalan's WB Vampires. Come to think of it, most Commander products are synergized with Standard sets:
Commander - Angel and Demon tribal for Avacyn Restored, spell copying for kicked and rebounded spells and creature copying for Ally triggers, cheap creature sacrifice for enabling Morbid and +1/+1 counter removal for reusing Undying.
C13 - Flickering for reusing ETB triggers such as Populate, Detain, and Constellation, lifegain matters for Extort.
C14 - Monocolor plays quite nicely with Theros' Devotion mechanic.
C15 - Enemy color decks, playing with KTK's enemy color cards. Daxos obviously plays well with Theros' enchantment theme, Karlov's use of +1/+1 counters gels well with the Abzan, Mizzix helps out with Strive and plays well in the Jeskai Prowess strategy, Arjun likes repeat spell triggers like Rebound, Meren and Mazirek's focus on sacrificing and resurrecting creatures plays well with Sultai and Silumgar, Kalemne likes high-cost creatures such as Zurgo Helmsmasher and Dragons, and Ezuri likes 2-power Morphers and creature tokens, such as all the Warriors, Zombies, and Snakes produced in KTK block.
C16 - Interaction with Kaladesh artifacts and counters.
C17 - Vampire and Wizard tribal plants for Ixalan and Dominaria, Cat tribal for Amonkhet.
C18 - Planeswalker commanders return just in time for WAR's planeswalker interaction. Saheeli's UR artifacts deck plays nicely with Historic, especially in regards to fellow UR artificer Jhoira. Lord Windgrace interacts with Deserts. Tuvasa the Sunlit plays with Sagas. Varina, Lich Queen plays with Amonkhet's WUB Zombies.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
Totally agree. That was my point exactly. Past decks which had underlying themes that weren't pushed in your face that had way more cohesiveness than the 2018 decks which were supposed actually to have a devoted theme. For the amount of money they cost, they should've been way worth it. The Challenger Decks, on the other hand, are amazing out of the box and well above their value. You can play them in Standard and actually do something in FNM. Why not have that same philosophy for Commander? It's a casual format but if the theme is land-matters, where are all the clutch land-matters cards? They're not even all super expensive. For example, Azusa, Lost but Seeking has been reprinted enough that it's not as expensive, etc.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
I personally hope they stick with 4 decks and loose themes and focus on forging new archetypes, improving on existing archetypes and/or legends for deck that exists but doesn't have a legend yet.
EDIT: I'm also for returning commander mechanics like parter/parter with (my fav), Lieutenant ect. Just no eminence, its way too OP.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Troll Lord could be cool. Not sure how or what they would do aside from hard to kill / graveyard shenanigans in Black/Green, and honestly that's my favorite color pair and deck colors to play, but honestly I'm looking to play something new and exciting.
I would love to see 4 decks that are nothing like what I own already (that's asking a lot) so that way I am both excited and trying something new.
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
The cards themselves weren't bad, but the deck was poorly put together and neigh unplayable out of the box, unlike the three other tribal decks. Straight out of the box the Vampire deck was the strongest, closely followed by the cat deck, then the dragon deck and distantly followed by the wizard deck. The Aminatou planeswalker deck suffered much the same compared to the others because it tried three different strategies at the same time, but at least it was actually playable and kinda fun.
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Numquam evolutioni obstes. Solum conculceris.
Pascite draconem, evolvite aut morimini.
The reason I mention the Triplets is because that could be a fun archetype we haven't seen yet. Playing your opponent's stuff... mind control effects, etc.
I don't think the Triplets will return this year though... unless they make a 4 or 5 color deck with this theme.
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
That would be great since WotC experimented with playing with your opponents stuff a lot more with the agents of S.N.E.A.K. in Unstable. MtG has for the longest time been stealing player's permanents (or turns) with red and blue (mostly) and it would be great to continue seeing that. Maybe another 4-colored legend? A nonG legend that facilitates this. Or at least a pair of partners that do. And hopefully some black-bordered effects similar to what was done in Unstable. That's definitely an archetype that's not really that existent or supported yet.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
No offence but this sounds very unlikely. A deck where you get to play my stuff takes away the fun factors of the other decks. I just don't think R&D would ever release this as a precon.
Finishing the 2-color cycle would be cool I guess, although I don't know if another (potentially busted) experience counter cycle would be the way to go.
In terms of what color combinations need it the most, wedges are least populated, especially Jeskai. They somehow never got a legend outside the jeskai commander deck and Kahns block (I'm ignoring partners here).
UR Mizzix of the Izmagnus ~~~ Build your own win-condition: Finite Spellslinging
UR Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer ~~~ We are the Borg. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own.
WUB Oloro, Ageless Ascetic ~~~ A Guide to dying slowly
UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose ~~~ Marchesa's undying Marionettes
RGW Mayael the Anima ~~~ All Hail the Big Chungus
GWU Chulane, Teller of Tales ~~~ Permanents Only ETB Shenanigans
BGU Sidisi, Brood Tyrant ~~~ Sidisi's Restless Servants
WUBRG The Ur-Dragon ~~~ Dragons eat your face
Standard - Some kind of control
Modern - UB Mill (casual)
EDH - Meren's Grave Shenanigans
Another Jeskai colored legend (or three) would be nice to see. But what would they do? Play with instants and sorceries? Shu Yun and Narset got that covered. LD? Numot. Give opponents my stuff for a benefit for me? That's Zendruu. Big beats? Ruhan of the Fomori has that dealt with.
Control? Not really red's forté. Elemental Tribal? Not really white.
Best I can think off right now is equipment/vehicles. And we haven't really had a dedicated vehicle commander deck yet. Red and White already deal with vehicles and equipment the most, and blue deals with artifacts in general. So it could work.
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Numquam evolutioni obstes. Solum conculceris.
Pascite draconem, evolvite aut morimini.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
-Chandra Nalaar
U + RG
R + WU
G + UB
BR + GW
U + RG
B + GW
G + UB
WU + BR
Of course, there is always the possibility that more than one of the decks are four-color, in which case you'd likely see a mix of ally and enemy partners. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing both Experience and Partners return this year, with the face card of each deck using Experience counters and two of the new legends being Partners. Partner reprints are also an option, much like CPW reprints.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.