Normally, I would cast doubt that there would be a Ravnica themed deck this year, given how much other Ravnica content there has been/will be recently; but they really seem to be leaning into Ravnica hard with the crossover to D&D, so that actually puts a Ravnica themed commander deck in the possibility column for me.
I am still waiting for my Serra card that was expected last year, and I still have dreams of a Leshrac card.
They really whiffed on some major reprints last year, if they did a Zendikar theme deck, it would give them an opportunity to print Oracle of Mul Daya that ABSOLUTELY should have been in Windgrace's deck. A Zendikar deck would inevitably have land interactions, but that doesn't have to be the focus of the deck, the plane has other things to offer in a whole-plane theme.
Alternatively, I too am still waiting for a proper BGW elf, which could helm either an Elf tribal deck or a Lorwyn/Shadowmoor theme deck. An elf deck is another opportunity for an Oracle reprint as well.
Theros need not be enchantment themed, the block had three distinct mechanical themes, one was enchantments (representing the Gods and their minions), the others where Heroes and Monsters, which were featured in the Duel Deck, and were very prominent in draft and constructed, not a stretch for a theme deck at all.
Most Angels are in White and they are the White iconic creature. So yeah sure there are more legendary Angels than birds. (There are more legendary Dragons than phoenixes, too) No legendary Angel can be played on the level of Derevi, Empyrial Tactician, though.
While Angel are mostly in White there are some in Red (& Boros), Black (& Orzhov), Selesnya, Azorius, Bant, one in Mardu and one 5 Color Angel. But they differ extremely effect wise. Red, Boros Angels are beatdown (Big dump flier). Black, Orzhov while having good Bodies have better enter the battlefield effects or some other effects. Selesnya and Bant Angels are more defensive. Azorius Angel are more specific. They don't go well together. I would say that Mardu or Bant would be the best color combination or just blank Boros if played multicolor.
I would like to have a better Angel tribal Commander but the Commander need to force the theme, because the single creature aren't focues/interesting enough. For example an Boros Angel with Eminence: Whenever you cast another Angel spell, if ~ is in the command zone or on the battlefield, deal X damage to any target, if it is red and gain X life, if it is white. Where X is that creature Power. Or something like that.
If the Angel is mono white it could support a life gain/enchantment theme, feature some new toys and be good. At least white need some help in commander and this product is the right place to release some cards.
I'd love to see a legendary 5/5 WUBRG Angel with flying, first strike, lifelink, vigilance, and "Exalted Domain" (basically, a Domain ability that works like Exalted, giving the creature +1/+1 UEOT for each basic land type you control whenever it attacks alone). Could be a secondary commander in a WUBRG Angel deck.
Perhaps the primary WUBRG Angel commander could be a sort of "Mother" Angel from Innistrad, involved in the creation of Sigarda and her sisters? Once revered as a goddess by Innistrad's people, she eventually created the Four Sisters, then vanished. Once Sorin created Avacyn, she supplanted the Mother Angel as the most divine being in the minds of the Innistradi.
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.
5c colorless Eldrazi (colorless mana matters, exile matters, both?). It could use new versions of the 3 titans that each have devoid and 5color activated abilities such as any of the following:
2WUBRG, T: Cast a colorless creature spell from your hand without playing its mana cost.
Put two cards an opponent owns in exile into that player's graveyard and one of the following costs:
-WW: Counter target enchantment spell.
-UU: Counter target instant spell.
-BB: Counter target artifact spell.
-RR: Counter target sorcery spell.
-GG: Counter target creature spell.
WUBRG: Exile target permanent.
or maybe a static ability like:
You can spend mana produced by Wastes as though it was mana of any color.
these might a few tweaks to make them work, but this kind of deck could open up a chance for a reprint of the likes of Urza lands that didn't get a reprint in UMA or any of the MM sets as well as cards like Expedition Map ect. It could be a cool way to touch on things like the Blind Eternities, processors, and eldrazi that Wizards may or may not want to return to any other way. Furthermore, if they follow the same pattern that they did with 5c Dragons in 2017, they could have the 3 5c (colorless) commanders and then a 3 color commander and a 2 color commander. I would guess that those could be an Abzan commander (since Abzan colors has pretty strong graveyard hate for an exile matters theme and processors is sort of an Orzhov archetype. Plus they could have Ancient Stirrings) and an Izzet commander that gets to utilize abilities like Jump-Start or Crackling Drake-esque abilities.
Here's my next thought: GR Transform. Obviously werewolves is a beloved tribe that just never got the love it deserved. There are a few token werewolves that are pretty awesome, but certainly not enough support (or even a compelling enough commander) to build an entire EDH deck around. However, with two blocks of Innistrad, new cards from Ixalan and RIX, and a "Transform Matters" theme rather than a "Werewolves Tribal" theme, wizards might have enough cards to piece together something. It would only take a couple of transform support cards and some filler bits/staple reprints and voila.
My next idea is a little more generic, but much asked for from the playerbase: Boros "Something other than aggro" theme. Boros is objectively the worst color pair in commander, not to mention the least compelling. Not that turning your creatures sideways and smashing face isn't fun, but it can get pretty old really fast. In the recent past we got Firesong and Sunspeaker, which is a really cool commander, as well as some really good red support. We also can't forget Teferi's Protection. Most recently, Wizards printed Smothering Tithe and Dawn of Hope, which improve white a little bit, but printing some Boros commander totally out of left field could be a chance to redeem the color pair and improve the individual performance of the colors across tons of decks. I really love that idea. However, they could also print a Jeskai deck that has a Boros commander as the non-face commander.
I also like the idea of an Energy deck. If I were to think of the top 3 commanders right now that could pull off an Energy counters theme might be Roon of the Hidden Realm for ETB gets energy effects, Animar for free Artifact creatures that ETB w/counters as well as cheapifying expensive Energy creatures (like Aetherwind Basker or Aethertide Whale), and Atraxa for obvious reasons. Each color could utilize some really great energy pay-offs (that maybe don't currently exist. Wizards would have to print something that uses Energy better than what we have, cuz its pretty low impact in a multiplayer commander setting) as well as effects like Proliferate etc. If I were to have everything I ever wanted, I would like to see a Temur Energy build or maybe a Sultai one.
Another thing to consider about these ideas is that most all of them could also fall under the Planes theme. Energy comes from Kaladesh, Transform from Innistrad, Colorless from Zendikar or even the Blind Eternities, which leaves some flexibility for Boros.
What do you think? I have a couple of other things I would really like to see in commander, but this is a good place to start
Perhaps the primary WUBRG Angel commander could be a sort of "Mother" Angel from Innistrad, involved in the creation of Sigarda and her sisters? Once revered as a goddess by Innistrad's people, she eventually created the Four Sisters, then vanished. Once Sorin created Avacyn, she supplanted the Mother Angel as the most divine being in the minds of the Innistradi.
could even be a combined creature, like a council of the 4 sisters before Avacyn was created. It would have less impact on the lore of the plane and possibly less risk of plotholes/retcons.
Then for it to make sense, it has to be something pretty big and costly a la The Ur-Dragon.
With a secondary commander with white cost and 5-color activated ability coming from Alara and flavoured as an angel coming from Bant, but changed due to the conflux, may be?
Perhaps the primary WUBRG Angel commander could be a sort of "Mother" Angel from Innistrad, involved in the creation of Sigarda and her sisters? Once revered as a goddess by Innistrad's people, she eventually created the Four Sisters, then vanished. Once Sorin created Avacyn, she supplanted the Mother Angel as the most divine being in the minds of the Innistradi.
could even be a combined creature, like a council of the 4 sisters before Avacyn was created. It would have less impact on the lore of the plane and possibly less risk of plotholes/retcons.
Then for it to make sense, it has to be something pretty big and costly a la The Ur-Dragon.
With a secondary commander with white cost and 5-color activated ability coming from Alara and flavoured as an angel coming from Bant, but changed due to the conflux, may be?
I like AtraxianShade suggestion better, because I never heard something about a Mother Angel. Angels are manifestation of mana. The Innistrad Angel Sisters comes from the same source of mana. Some angels are created to answer prayers/wishes from mortals at least in Dominaria. I don't know if we have any information about angel creation on Innistrad. Maybe the system is similar to the of Demons that angels can be 'reborn' as different Angel-beings when killed.
I love angels but I don't see them as a 5 color tribe. Sure there is the 5 colored Maelstrom Angel but nothing else. I wouldn't enjoy a Dragon v2 deck with just Angels instead of Dragons. I prefer to get some missing known Angels. I'm not talking about the 4th sister, because she is relative new. I'm speaking about Feather, Asha, Trine, Rahel and character strongly aligned to angels like Serra, Eskil. I could see Serra as playable Commander Planeswalker in mono white or bant with 'partner with Radiant' a new Radiant in the Boros colors.
I remember that Maro was confident that the 4th sister will get a card most likely some day. But if she is in any way similar to the first printing of the other sisters, than she should be strong enough by her own (not supportive to some tribe). She could fit in other decks supporting a different strategy like revive/sacrifice theme or something like that.
I love angels but I don't see them as a 5 color tribe. Sure there is the 5 colored Maelstrom Angel but nothing else. I wouldn't enjoy a Dragon v2 deck with just Angels instead of Dragons. I prefer to get some missing known Angels. I'm not talking about the 4th sister, because she is relative new. I'm speaking about Feather, Asha, Trine, Rahel and character strongly aligned to angels like Serra, Eskil. I could see Serra as playable Commander Planeswalker in mono white or bant with 'partner with Radiant' a new Radiant in the Boros colors.
I remember that Maro was confident that the 4th sister will get a card most likely some day. But if she is in any way similar to the first printing of the other sisters, than she should be strong enough by her own (not supportive to some tribe). She could fit in other decks supporting a different strategy like revive/sacrifice theme or something like that.
Between all the Bant, Boros, and Orzhov Angels, it looks like a pretty WUBRG tribe to me. There are enough Angels in every color to justify a WUBRG deck. Not to mention Angels are the second most popular iconic after Dragons. If any creature type is going to get a WUBRG deck next, it's going to be Angels. And if you want Feather and Asha in the same deck, you're already looking at RGWU. Might as well add black so we can get the Fourth Sister or a new Selenia while we're at it. And why shouldn't the Fourth Sister debut alongside her sisters in an Angel-tribal deck?
could even be a combined creature, like a council of the 4 sisters before Avacyn was created. It would have less impact on the lore of the plane and possibly less risk of plotholes/retcons.
I like AtraxianShade suggestion better, because I never heard something about a Mother Angel. Angels are manifestation of mana. The Innistrad Angel Sisters comes from the same source of mana. Some angels are created to answer prayers/wishes from mortals at least in Dominaria. I don't know if we have any information about angel creation on Innistrad. Maybe the system is similar to the of Demons that angels can be 'reborn' as different Angel-beings when killed.
You mean like how they revealed there was a Fourth Sister when before all signs pointed to there only being three? Not every piece of a world's lore is going to be revealed in one visit. If the Mother Angel disappeared a long time ago, possibly because her essence split and formed into the Four Sisters, then it's understandable that most everyone on Innistrad has forgotten she even existed.
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.
I think that they decided to introduce the fourth sister in the lore because it kind of completes the cycle and it "makes sense" in a first glance kind of way. At least I know that from the times of Avacyn Restored I would have loved to see an extra WB legendary angel in there, it felt like seeing an empty spot.
A mother angel can make sense in the lore, of course, but might have a much less familiar feeling to it (personal opinions, obviously).
I was going to write a sidenote about angels not having synergy and it being a problem for angel tribal, but looking at the Commander 2017 tribes, apart from generic-tribe spells and the commander themselves, there was actually little tribal support, so... I can tick that off from the list of "problems".
As for a 5-color Alaran angel, well... Paragon of the Amesha, which is Bant flavoured, becomes an angel for WUBRG, so that's not unheard of.
So how many mystic cards need to be in an Angel 5 Colored deck to feel 5 colored? Most of the rare/uncommon options are really blank. Like the Azorius Artefact Angel, the Selesnya rare Angel. I mean the 3 colored Vampire tribal was mostly black, too... I don't know.
Last year sets have 4-6 mystics including the 3 new Commander options so 1-3 Mystic reprints.
The dragon deck had 5 mystic, 3 new ones and 2 reprints (Utvara Hellkite, Scourge of Valkas).
Scourge of Valkas was reprinted as Rare in Iconic Master but was a mystic in the commander set.
If you want to have the 3 sisters in the same set than you already have all mystic reprints -> Bruna, Gisela, Sigarda
If not than Maelstrom Archangel, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, Bruna, Light of Alabaster or Tariel, Reckoner of Souls would be the most obvious one. There is no alternative old Angel commander for a 5 colored deck. Gisela and Bruna were already reprinted, Tariel is an alternate commander from an old deck and well Maeltsorm is the main reason for going 5 colored angel at the moment.
Stoic Angel goes against the boros angels at least the battalion one. Gabriel Angelfire is well a strange one. Filigree Angel wants an artifact heavy environment but Bruna is already more on the aura side. And well Angelic Captain makes no sense.
Leaving: 10 multicolor Angels + 3 mystic rare repringt + 3 new mystic rares
I don't know if they would down shift rarity for the commander set or just add a higher amount of mystic rares. The themes are all over the place.
The Dragon set had 32 creatures and 13 were mono colored (8 red ones), 2 were artifact/colorless and 4 weren't dragons.
Last year everyone was furious about the 'land matters deck'. This looks like a bigger challenge for me.
5c colorless Eldrazi (colorless mana matters, exile matters, both?). It could use new versions of the 3 titans that each have devoid and 5color activated abilities such as any of the following:
2WUBRG, T: Cast a colorless creature spell from your hand without playing its mana cost.
Put two cards an opponent owns in exile into that player's graveyard and one of the following costs:
-WW: Counter target enchantment spell.
-UU: Counter target instant spell.
-BB: Counter target artifact spell.
-RR: Counter target sorcery spell.
-GG: Counter target creature spell.
WUBRG: Exile target permanent.
or maybe a static ability like:
You can spend mana produced by Wastes as though it was mana of any color.
these might a few tweaks to make them work, but this kind of deck could open up a chance for a reprint of the likes of Urza lands that didn't get a reprint in UMA or any of the MM sets as well as cards like Expedition Map ect. It could be a cool way to touch on things like the Blind Eternities, processors, and eldrazi that Wizards may or may not want to return to any other way. Furthermore, if they follow the same pattern that they did with 5c Dragons in 2017, they could have the 3 5c (colorless) commanders and then a 3 color commander and a 2 color commander. I would guess that those could be an Abzan commander (since Abzan colors has pretty strong graveyard hate for an exile matters theme and processors is sort of an Orzhov archetype. Plus they could have Ancient Stirrings) and an Izzet commander that gets to utilize abilities like Jump-Start or Crackling Drake-esque abilities.
Here's my next thought: GR Transform. Obviously werewolves is a beloved tribe that just never got the love it deserved. There are a few token werewolves that are pretty awesome, but certainly not enough support (or even a compelling enough commander) to build an entire EDH deck around. However, with two blocks of Innistrad, new cards from Ixalan and RIX, and a "Transform Matters" theme rather than a "Werewolves Tribal" theme, wizards might have enough cards to piece together something. It would only take a couple of transform support cards and some filler bits/staple reprints and voila.
My next idea is a little more generic, but much asked for from the playerbase: Boros "Something other than aggro" theme. Boros is objectively the worst color pair in commander, not to mention the least compelling. Not that turning your creatures sideways and smashing face isn't fun, but it can get pretty old really fast. In the recent past we got Firesong and Sunspeaker, which is a really cool commander, as well as some really good red support. We also can't forget Teferi's Protection. Most recently, Wizards printed Smothering Tithe and Dawn of Hope, which improve white a little bit, but printing some Boros commander totally out of left field could be a chance to redeem the color pair and improve the individual performance of the colors across tons of decks. I really love that idea. However, they could also print a Jeskai deck that has a Boros commander as the non-face commander.
I also like the idea of an Energy deck. If I were to think of the top 3 commanders right now that could pull off an Energy counters theme might be Roon of the Hidden Realm for ETB gets energy effects, Animar for free Artifact creatures that ETB w/counters as well as cheapifying expensive Energy creatures (like Aetherwind Basker or Aethertide Whale), and Atraxa for obvious reasons. Each color could utilize some really great energy pay-offs (that maybe don't currently exist. Wizards would have to print something that uses Energy better than what we have, cuz its pretty low impact in a multiplayer commander setting) as well as effects like Proliferate etc. If I were to have everything I ever wanted, I would like to see a Temur Energy build or maybe a Sultai one.
Another thing to consider about these ideas is that most all of them could also fall under the Planes theme. Energy comes from Kaladesh, Transform from Innistrad, Colorless from Zendikar or even the Blind Eternities, which leaves some flexibility for Boros.
What do you think? I have a couple of other things I would really like to see in commander, but this is a good place to start
Your on the right track for 5 color devoid eldrazi with loop holing the mana cost
I can tell you it can be a colorless commander without the symbols that saids “you can play cards with devoid in your deck” and “wastes you control have add one mana of any color use this mana to only cast devoid spells or activate abilities of devoid permanents” and both would be a emmenice like ability
Only problem is the commander players would yell about the eldritch moon transform/meld creatures since they can’t get in same can be said about emerge but that could be added
You can always give your creatures vigilance to make Stoic Angel mostly one-sided. And what does a card's rarity have to do with the viability of a deck? You don't need a bunch of mythic rares to build a WUBRG Angel deck.
I'm gonna put together a decklist as a test of concept, leaving room for ~17 new cards:
Although, I will say a WUBRG Human/Angel dual tribal deck could be interesting. Humans would be ideal for filling out the lower half of the curve, while the Angels can fill out the top half. Maybe the face card is a legendary Human who can become an Angel? Like Paragon of the Amesha, but more awesome.
Private Mod Note
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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.
You can always give your creatures vigilance to make Stoic Angel mostly one-sided. And what does a card's rarity have to do with the viability of a deck? You don't need a bunch of mythic rares to build a WUBRG Angel deck.
I'm gonna put together a decklist as a test of concept, leaving room for ~17 new cards:
Although, I will say a WUBRG Human/Angel dual tribal deck could be interesting. Humans would be ideal for filling out the lower half of the curve, while the Angels can fill out the top half. Maybe the face card is a legendary Human who can become an Angel? Like Paragon of the Amesha, but more awesome.
You said that you don't need a bunch of mystics do make them viable but I count like 12ish mystics creatures in your list, from 17. The 3 new Commander creatures will be mystic, too.
Look I don't try to be a douchebag here. I want this to happen but don't put your hopes that high.
They follow a template when building a product like this and the rarity distribution still counts. Look at last Commander products. They could change things but it is not very likely.
You don't need a bunch of mythic rares to build a WUBRG Angel deck.
Then proceeds with a decklist with a whole bunch of mythic angels
Jokes aside, on average the last 3 commander products included 6 mythics (3 of which were the commanders)and over 30 rares per deck. With those numbers it is possible to build a relatively decent angel centered deck (not strictly tribal).
Making a small comparison in terms of mana weighting on the Ur-Dragon preconstructed deck (pretty much counted all the mana symbols on costs and compared the colors) red mana costs accounts for +48% of the mana costs of the deck (64 red costs over the total colored mana costs of 133) making it a primary red deck. I wouldn't mind having a primary white angels deck with other colors splashed inside.
About Stoic Angel, you can go vigilance or makes use of Stoic Angel + Sublime Archangel/Angelic Exaltation effects.
You don't need a bunch of mythic rares to build a WUBRG Angel deck.
Then proceeds with a decklist with a whole bunch of mythic angels
Jokes aside, on average the last 3 commander products included 6 mythics (3 of which were the commanders)and over 30 rares per deck. With those numbers it is possible to build a relatively decent angel centered deck (not strictly tribal).
Making a small comparison in terms of mana weighting on the Ur-Dragon preconstructed deck (pretty much counted all the mana symbols on costs and compared the colors) red mana costs accounts for +48% of the mana costs of the deck (64 red costs over the total colored mana costs of 133) making it a primary red deck. I wouldn't mind having a primary white angels deck with other colors splashed inside.
About Stoic Angel, you can go vigilance or makes use of Stoic Angel + Sublime Archangel/Angelic Exaltation effects.
Yeah there are some ways to get around her effect. Still you need other cards to make it work. I guess you can use her just defensively and be okay. They could add Always Watching which has some Angels in the art.
Well Tarkir had all the dragon tribal stuff going. Innistrad (Avacyn's Restored) does literally nothing for Angel tribal. Half of the dragon tribal cards in the commander deck was Tarkir stuff.
Like the whole Rare Dragon Lord Cycle (5 Dragons), Dragon Tempest, the green siege Enchantment, Savage Ventmaw, Dragonlord's Servant, Crux of Fate and the 2 Dragon Lands. I am sure there are even more cards from Tarkir.
Yeah there are some ways to get around her effect. Still you need other cards to make it work. I guess you can use her just defensively and be okay. They could add Always Watching which has some Angels in the art.
Well Tarkir had all the dragon tribal stuff going. Innistrad (Avacyn's Restored) does literally nothing for Angel tribal. Half of the dragon tribal cards in the commander deck was Tarkir stuff.
Like the whole Rare Dragon Lord Cycle (5 Dragons), Dragon Tempest, the green siege Enchantment, Savage Ventmaw, Dragonlord's Servant, Crux of Fate and the 2 Dragon Lands. I am sure there are even more cards from Tarkir.
True, Tarkir was about dragons, while Avacyn Restored only had a couple Angel-matters card and even cards detrimental to angel tribal (looking at you, restoration angel). On the other hand, cats had almost no tribal support before Amonkhet and even then, the preconstructed deck didn't feature any of the cats-matter cards from that set. Counting cat-token makers there were only 3 new tribal-matter cards and 4 cat-matter reprints that were mostly token makers.
The deck itself was a mix of cat-tribal and equipment-matters.
Well I said you didn't need a bunch of Mythics, not that you couldn't use a bunch. I was just picking some Angels that looked good for the deck, I wasn't paying attention to their rarities. But if most Commander decks have a Mythic limit, then I'll have to revise the list later. I for sure would want the Angel sisters in there. Although, if the Fourth Sister were to be introduced in a WUBRG deck she'd be rare, not mythic, which might bother some fans. Probably better to debut the Fourth Sister as a secondary commander in a WB deck first.
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.
No hard feelings, I hope, I was just poking some fun and in middle response started to wonder how many mythics are there on average in the preconstructed. I was genuinely surprised at how many rares there were.
Agree that if they want to print the fourth sister at mythic, she would probably be printed in a WB deck first (hopefully in some hind of sacrifice or reanimator deck?)
It's probably not going to happen, but do you know what would be really funny? If they based each of the decks around old-school deck archetypes. I am saying Sligh, Mono-blue control, five color green, white weenie, suicide black, stompy old-school. With plenty of reprints of cards not on the reserved list. It would be glorious to see peoples faces when they reprint some of the nonreserved cards from the Ice Age to Urza's Saga era that haven't seen a reprint yet.
As I said, probably not going to happen. But a pretty funny thought.
More serious though, since we "got" deck archetypes last year, we are unlikely to see the same this year. So we will likely have to look for another theme. It is also unlikely we'll get planeswalkers again this year, so we can probably safely discard that notion, unfortunately. That still gives us plenty of potential themes. One possibility I haven't see are decks formed around the seasons: Spring (probably GW or RGW), Summer (RUG), Autumn (BRG), and Winter (WUB). It is a distinct possibility. Another possibility are decks built around specific mechanics, such as for example Exalted or Flashback.
But let us assume for a moment we get four tribal decks, if we do, we can look at the last tribal decks to get a rough idea about what we'll see.
We will get one iconic (dragons last time, probably angels or demons this time, sphinxes and hydras aren't popular enough to justify it IMHO). If angels, I'll expect an Orzhov (WB) deck, with the fourth sister. If Demons, it's either going to be Rakdos (RB) or Grixis (UBR), probably with a sacrifice subtheme.
We will also get one of the characteristic races (we got vampires last time, but we still have four to chose from. White still lacks one. Merfolk, Elves, Goblins, and Zombies). I am thinking either Golgari (GB) or Abzan (GWB) Elves, Jund (BRG) Goblins, or Esper (WUB) or Bant (GWU) Merfolk. I think zombies are unlikely due to the vampires we got last time. Better to space the undead out a bit.
That leaves two tribal decks who are neither Characteristic or Iconic. There are a few fairly popular tribes to consider here, but the most obvious one is Slivers for the token five color deck. Despite WotC stumbling with the neo-slivers, slivers in general are still an immensely popular tribe that people consistently ask for a return of. And to be honest, as long as they actually look like slivers and not alien dogs, I am fine with the neo-slivers. The face legend could even be a reference to the original sliver queen, but with the Verdant Force ability instead of an activated one producing sliver tokens.
As for the final tribe, it could be just about anything, last time we got the wizard tribal that no one really expected (or wanted), it will probably be a tribe that hints at something up coming, just like the wizards did (Dominaria's Wizard subtheme.)
It's probably not going to happen, but do you know what would be really funny? If they based each of the decks around old-school deck archetypes. I am saying Sligh, Mono-blue control, five color green, white weenie, suicide black, stompy old-school. With plenty of reprints of cards not on the reserved list. It would be glorious to see peoples faces when they reprint some of the nonreserved cards from the Ice Age to Urza's Saga era that haven't seen a reprint yet.
As I said, probably not going to happen. But a pretty funny thought.
More serious though, since we "got" deck archetypes last year, we are unlikely to see the same this year. So we will likely have to look for another theme. It is also unlikely we'll get planeswalkers again this year, so we can probably safely discard that notion, unfortunately. That still gives us plenty of potential themes. One possibility I haven't see are decks formed around the seasons: Spring (probably GW or RGW), Summer (RUG), Autumn (BRG), and Winter (WUB). It is a distinct possibility. Another possibility are decks built around specific mechanics, such as for example Exalted or Flashback.
But let us assume for a moment we get four tribal decks, if we do, we can look at the last tribal decks to get a rough idea about what we'll see.
We will get one iconic (dragons last time, probably angels or demons this time, sphinxes and hydras aren't popular enough to justify it IMHO). If angels, I'll expect an Orzhov (WB) deck, with the fourth sister. If Demons, it's either going to be Rakdos (RB) or Grixis (UBR), probably with a sacrifice subtheme.
We will also get one of the characteristic races (we got vampires last time, but we still have four to chose from. White still lacks one. Merfolk, Elves, Goblins, and Zombies). I am thinking either Golgari (GB) or Abzan (GWB) Elves, Jund (BRG) Goblins, or Esper (WUB) or Bant (GBU) Merfolk. I think zombies are unlikely due to the vampires we got last time. Better to space the undead out a bit.
That leaves two tribal decks who are neither Characteristic or Iconic. There are a few fairly popular tribes to consider here, but the most obvious one is Slivers for the token five color deck. Despite WotC stumbling with the neo-slivers, slivers in general are still an immensely popular tribe that people consistently ask for a return of. And to be honest, as long as they actually look like slivers and not alien dogs, I am fine with the neo-slivers. The face legend could even be a reference to the original sliver queen, but with the Verdant Force ability instead of an activated one producing sliver tokens.
As for the final tribe, it could be just about anything, last time we got the wizard tribal that no one really expected (or wanted), it will probably be a tribe that hints at something up coming, just like the wizards did (Dominaria's Wizard subtheme.)
You misprinted Bant the B is suppose to be W and I would smack them in the face if they didn’t do a Bant menfolk tribal legend
Oh and I do agree with you if tribal is a thing again
Will get one iconic and one powerful tribe just last time for 2 out of 4
The iconic will either be angels or demons easily by the way demons not only a sac sub-theme I can see but a devils sub-theme as well and for angels a human sub-theme if 5-color
And dead on on the powerful tribes and a better reason for zombies are out Varina, Lich Queen pretty much already got it covered last year
Oh and I have the candidates for the other 2 covered
I think one will be 5 colored again
Spirits (arcane and legends subthemes)
Slivers
Humans with angel sub theme
Eldrazi with devoid theme (I’m not kidding)
I would say god but that tribe is way to exspensive money wise and too many mythics
And the last one is a surprise deck like the cats
For those I can see
Dinosaur (particually filling in the blanks of what they need to be a powerful tribe)
Knight or soldier
Cleric
Spiders or/and insect
A better snake tribal commander
Minotaur (amonkhet was so close)
Beast
Rogue
Robot (myr/construct/golem)
Spector (discard sub-theme sadly since hated)
And probably the biggest unexpected that probably the most likely is birds
It's probably not going to happen, but do you know what would be really funny? If they based each of the decks around old-school deck archetypes. I am saying Sligh, Mono-blue control, five color green, white weenie, suicide black, stompy old-school. With plenty of reprints of cards not on the reserved list. It would be glorious to see peoples faces when they reprint some of the nonreserved cards from the Ice Age to Urza's Saga era that haven't seen a reprint yet.
As I said, probably not going to happen. But a pretty funny thought.
More serious though, since we "got" deck archetypes last year, we are unlikely to see the same this year. So we will likely have to look for another theme. It is also unlikely we'll get planeswalkers again this year, so we can probably safely discard that notion, unfortunately. That still gives us plenty of potential themes. One possibility I haven't see are decks formed around the seasons: Spring (probably GW or RGW), Summer (RUG), Autumn (BRG), and Winter (WUB). It is a distinct possibility. Another possibility are decks built around specific mechanics, such as for example Exalted or Flashback.
But let us assume for a moment we get four tribal decks, if we do, we can look at the last tribal decks to get a rough idea about what we'll see.
We will get one iconic (dragons last time, probably angels or demons this time, sphinxes and hydras aren't popular enough to justify it IMHO). If angels, I'll expect an Orzhov (WB) deck, with the fourth sister. If Demons, it's either going to be Rakdos (RB) or Grixis (UBR), probably with a sacrifice subtheme.
We will also get one of the characteristic races (we got vampires last time, but we still have four to chose from. White still lacks one. Merfolk, Elves, Goblins, and Zombies). I am thinking either Golgari (GB) or Abzan (GWB) Elves, Jund (BRG) Goblins, or Esper (WUB) or Bant (GBU) Merfolk. I think zombies are unlikely due to the vampires we got last time. Better to space the undead out a bit.
That leaves two tribal decks who are neither Characteristic or Iconic. There are a few fairly popular tribes to consider here, but the most obvious one is Slivers for the token five color deck. Despite WotC stumbling with the neo-slivers, slivers in general are still an immensely popular tribe that people consistently ask for a return of. And to be honest, as long as they actually look like slivers and not alien dogs, I am fine with the neo-slivers. The face legend could even be a reference to the original sliver queen, but with the Verdant Force ability instead of an activated one producing sliver tokens.
As for the final tribe, it could be just about anything, last time we got the wizard tribal that no one really expected (or wanted), it will probably be a tribe that hints at something up coming, just like the wizards did (Dominaria's Wizard subtheme.)
You misprinted Bant the B is suppose to be W and I would smack them in the face if they didn’t do a Bant menfolk tribal legend
Oh and I do agree with you if tribal is a thing again
Will get one iconic and one powerful tribe just last time for 2 out of 4
The iconic will either be angels or demons easily by the way demons not only a sac sub-theme I can see but a devils sub-theme as well and for angels a human sub-theme if 5-color
And dead on on the powerful tribes and a better reason for zombies are out Varina, Lich Queen pretty much already got it covered last year
Oh and I have the candidates for the other 2 covered
I think one will be 5 colored again
Spirits (arcane and legends subthemes)
Slivers
Humans with angel sub theme
Eldrazi with devoid theme (I’m not kidding)
I would say god but that tribe is way to exspensive money wise and too many mythics
And the last one is a surprise deck like the cats
For those I can see
Dinosaur (particually filling in the blanks of what they need to be a powerful tribe)
Knight or soldier
Cleric
Spiders or/and insect
A better snake tribal commander
Minotaur (amonkhet was so close)
Beast
Rogue
Robot (myr/construct/golem)
Spector (discard sub-theme sadly since hated)
And probably the biggest unexpected that probably the most likely is birds
Thanks for catching that Bant error.
The surprise tribe is going to be something closer to Wizards. Completely out of the left field and not particularly popular to plant the seeds for a future set (like Wizards and Dominaria).
As I said, if we get tribes, we get one Iconic (like Dragons), one Characteristic (like Vampires), one popular (that isn't an Iconic or Characteristic, like the cats), and one out of the left field that hints at a future standard set (like the Wizards). If the Iconic is angel or demons, then it won't be five color, which frees up a five color deck slot for the arguably most popular five color tribe ever: Slivers. The final one could be literally anything, but it won't be something popular. If we get Demons, I could see a BW cleric deck take up the final slot (reprint of Edgewalker incoming). I could also see a snake/naga deck that uses batching tech to bring them them together. It would likely be either simic (UG), or Sultai (UGB) in that case.
Knights would need to be either Boros (RW) or Mardu (BWR) and rely heavily on flanking, with a new card for Telim Tor.
WotC has kept failing in giving us a good tribal commander for spiders, and I doubt they'll give us three that would feel both distinct and good. They'd need to be Jund (BRG) if they appeared though.
Dinosaurs are way to popular to be the surprise tribe and "robot" isn't really a tribe. >.<
Minotaurs should be Jeskai (URW), mostly to see peoples faces, but also to give Labyrinth minotaur a chanse to shine. But I could see them going Mardu (BWR) instead with that tribe, as it gives us a chance to play Boros and Theros Minotaurs together.
Beasts have to be Gruul (RG), of course with a Contested Cliffs reprint.
Rogue I could see happening, it would give us three "race" tribal decks, and one "class" tribal deck, like last time. I'd expect a lot of evasion, and possibly a return of Ninjas. Of course, it would need to be UB.
Specters are not going to happen, they are incredibly unfun to play against, even when there is only one or two in the deck, so an entire deck made up of one of the most despised tribes in commander is unlikely.
If they did plane theme, I'd be all for a WB Innistrad deck with Sorin as the CPW and Fourth Sister as a secondary.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
Cool that Serra's getting a card, but I think fans will still want a Serra CPW. Well hey, Saheeli got one, so there's always a chance!
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
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I am still waiting for my Serra card that was expected last year, and I still have dreams of a Leshrac card.
They really whiffed on some major reprints last year, if they did a Zendikar theme deck, it would give them an opportunity to print Oracle of Mul Daya that ABSOLUTELY should have been in Windgrace's deck. A Zendikar deck would inevitably have land interactions, but that doesn't have to be the focus of the deck, the plane has other things to offer in a whole-plane theme.
Alternatively, I too am still waiting for a proper BGW elf, which could helm either an Elf tribal deck or a Lorwyn/Shadowmoor theme deck. An elf deck is another opportunity for an Oracle reprint as well.
Theros need not be enchantment themed, the block had three distinct mechanical themes, one was enchantments (representing the Gods and their minions), the others where Heroes and Monsters, which were featured in the Duel Deck, and were very prominent in draft and constructed, not a stretch for a theme deck at all.
But that could be from the price jump because of the deck
Most Angels are in White and they are the White iconic creature. So yeah sure there are more legendary Angels than birds. (There are more legendary Dragons than phoenixes, too) No legendary Angel can be played on the level of Derevi, Empyrial Tactician, though.
While Angel are mostly in White there are some in Red (& Boros), Black (& Orzhov), Selesnya, Azorius, Bant, one in Mardu and one 5 Color Angel. But they differ extremely effect wise. Red, Boros Angels are beatdown (Big dump flier). Black, Orzhov while having good Bodies have better enter the battlefield effects or some other effects. Selesnya and Bant Angels are more defensive. Azorius Angel are more specific. They don't go well together. I would say that Mardu or Bant would be the best color combination or just blank Boros if played multicolor.
I would like to have a better Angel tribal Commander but the Commander need to force the theme, because the single creature aren't focues/interesting enough. For example an Boros Angel with Eminence: Whenever you cast another Angel spell, if ~ is in the command zone or on the battlefield, deal X damage to any target, if it is red and gain X life, if it is white. Where X is that creature Power. Or something like that.
If the Angel is mono white it could support a life gain/enchantment theme, feature some new toys and be good. At least white need some help in commander and this product is the right place to release some cards.
Perhaps the primary WUBRG Angel commander could be a sort of "Mother" Angel from Innistrad, involved in the creation of Sigarda and her sisters? Once revered as a goddess by Innistrad's people, she eventually created the Four Sisters, then vanished. Once Sorin created Avacyn, she supplanted the Mother Angel as the most divine being in the minds of the Innistradi.
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 would say Mardu is unlikely cause we have a commander in Mardu with Angels, Demons and Dragons.
5c colorless Eldrazi (colorless mana matters, exile matters, both?). It could use new versions of the 3 titans that each have devoid and 5color activated abilities such as any of the following:
2WUBRG, T: Cast a colorless creature spell from your hand without playing its mana cost.
Put two cards an opponent owns in exile into that player's graveyard and one of the following costs:
-WW: Counter target enchantment spell.
-UU: Counter target instant spell.
-BB: Counter target artifact spell.
-RR: Counter target sorcery spell.
-GG: Counter target creature spell.
WUBRG: Exile target permanent.
or maybe a static ability like:
You can spend mana produced by Wastes as though it was mana of any color.
these might a few tweaks to make them work, but this kind of deck could open up a chance for a reprint of the likes of Urza lands that didn't get a reprint in UMA or any of the MM sets as well as cards like Expedition Map ect. It could be a cool way to touch on things like the Blind Eternities, processors, and eldrazi that Wizards may or may not want to return to any other way. Furthermore, if they follow the same pattern that they did with 5c Dragons in 2017, they could have the 3 5c (colorless) commanders and then a 3 color commander and a 2 color commander. I would guess that those could be an Abzan commander (since Abzan colors has pretty strong graveyard hate for an exile matters theme and processors is sort of an Orzhov archetype. Plus they could have Ancient Stirrings) and an Izzet commander that gets to utilize abilities like Jump-Start or Crackling Drake-esque abilities.
Here's my next thought: GR Transform. Obviously werewolves is a beloved tribe that just never got the love it deserved. There are a few token werewolves that are pretty awesome, but certainly not enough support (or even a compelling enough commander) to build an entire EDH deck around. However, with two blocks of Innistrad, new cards from Ixalan and RIX, and a "Transform Matters" theme rather than a "Werewolves Tribal" theme, wizards might have enough cards to piece together something. It would only take a couple of transform support cards and some filler bits/staple reprints and voila.
My next idea is a little more generic, but much asked for from the playerbase: Boros "Something other than aggro" theme. Boros is objectively the worst color pair in commander, not to mention the least compelling. Not that turning your creatures sideways and smashing face isn't fun, but it can get pretty old really fast. In the recent past we got Firesong and Sunspeaker, which is a really cool commander, as well as some really good red support. We also can't forget Teferi's Protection. Most recently, Wizards printed Smothering Tithe and Dawn of Hope, which improve white a little bit, but printing some Boros commander totally out of left field could be a chance to redeem the color pair and improve the individual performance of the colors across tons of decks. I really love that idea. However, they could also print a Jeskai deck that has a Boros commander as the non-face commander.
I also like the idea of an Energy deck. If I were to think of the top 3 commanders right now that could pull off an Energy counters theme might be Roon of the Hidden Realm for ETB gets energy effects, Animar for free Artifact creatures that ETB w/counters as well as cheapifying expensive Energy creatures (like Aetherwind Basker or Aethertide Whale), and Atraxa for obvious reasons. Each color could utilize some really great energy pay-offs (that maybe don't currently exist. Wizards would have to print something that uses Energy better than what we have, cuz its pretty low impact in a multiplayer commander setting) as well as effects like Proliferate etc. If I were to have everything I ever wanted, I would like to see a Temur Energy build or maybe a Sultai one.
Another thing to consider about these ideas is that most all of them could also fall under the Planes theme. Energy comes from Kaladesh, Transform from Innistrad, Colorless from Zendikar or even the Blind Eternities, which leaves some flexibility for Boros.
What do you think? I have a couple of other things I would really like to see in commander, but this is a good place to start
Then for it to make sense, it has to be something pretty big and costly a la The Ur-Dragon.
With a secondary commander with white cost and 5-color activated ability coming from Alara and flavoured as an angel coming from Bant, but changed due to the conflux, may be?
I like AtraxianShade suggestion better, because I never heard something about a Mother Angel. Angels are manifestation of mana. The Innistrad Angel Sisters comes from the same source of mana. Some angels are created to answer prayers/wishes from mortals at least in Dominaria. I don't know if we have any information about angel creation on Innistrad. Maybe the system is similar to the of Demons that angels can be 'reborn' as different Angel-beings when killed.
I love angels but I don't see them as a 5 color tribe. Sure there is the 5 colored Maelstrom Angel but nothing else. I wouldn't enjoy a Dragon v2 deck with just Angels instead of Dragons. I prefer to get some missing known Angels. I'm not talking about the 4th sister, because she is relative new. I'm speaking about Feather, Asha, Trine, Rahel and character strongly aligned to angels like Serra, Eskil. I could see Serra as playable Commander Planeswalker in mono white or bant with 'partner with Radiant' a new Radiant in the Boros colors.
I remember that Maro was confident that the 4th sister will get a card most likely some day. But if she is in any way similar to the first printing of the other sisters, than she should be strong enough by her own (not supportive to some tribe). She could fit in other decks supporting a different strategy like revive/sacrifice theme or something like that.
Between all the Bant, Boros, and Orzhov Angels, it looks like a pretty WUBRG tribe to me. There are enough Angels in every color to justify a WUBRG deck. Not to mention Angels are the second most popular iconic after Dragons. If any creature type is going to get a WUBRG deck next, it's going to be Angels. And if you want Feather and Asha in the same deck, you're already looking at RGWU. Might as well add black so we can get the Fourth Sister or a new Selenia while we're at it. And why shouldn't the Fourth Sister debut alongside her sisters in an Angel-tribal deck?
You mean like how they revealed there was a Fourth Sister when before all signs pointed to there only being three? Not every piece of a world's lore is going to be revealed in one visit. If the Mother Angel disappeared a long time ago, possibly because her essence split and formed into the Four Sisters, then it's understandable that most everyone on Innistrad has forgotten she even existed.
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.
A mother angel can make sense in the lore, of course, but might have a much less familiar feeling to it (personal opinions, obviously).
I was going to write a sidenote about angels not having synergy and it being a problem for angel tribal, but looking at the Commander 2017 tribes, apart from generic-tribe spells and the commander themselves, there was actually little tribal support, so... I can tick that off from the list of "problems".
As for a 5-color Alaran angel, well... Paragon of the Amesha, which is Bant flavoured, becomes an angel for WUBRG, so that's not unheard of.
Bant = 3 Angel -> 2 Mystic, 1 Rare
Selesnya = 3 Angel -> 2 Mystic, 1 Rare
Orzhov = 5 Angel -> 2 Mystic, 3 Rare
Azorius = 4 Angel -> 1 Mystic, 2 rare, 1 Uncommon or Common but on the reserve list
Boros = 10 Angel -> 4 Mystic, 5 Rare, 1 Uncommon
Jeskai = 1 Angel -> Rare
Mardu = 1 Angel -> Mystic
4 Colored(Not Red) = 1 Angel -> Mystic
5 Colored Angel = 1 Angel -> Mystic
So how many mystic cards need to be in an Angel 5 Colored deck to feel 5 colored? Most of the rare/uncommon options are really blank. Like the Azorius Artefact Angel, the Selesnya rare Angel. I mean the 3 colored Vampire tribal was mostly black, too... I don't know.
Last year sets have 4-6 mystics including the 3 new Commander options so 1-3 Mystic reprints.
The dragon deck had 5 mystic, 3 new ones and 2 reprints (Utvara Hellkite, Scourge of Valkas).
Scourge of Valkas was reprinted as Rare in Iconic Master but was a mystic in the commander set.
If you want to have the 3 sisters in the same set than you already have all mystic reprints -> Bruna, Gisela, Sigarda
If not than Maelstrom Archangel, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, Bruna, Light of Alabaster or Tariel, Reckoner of Souls would be the most obvious one. There is no alternative old Angel commander for a 5 colored deck. Gisela and Bruna were already reprinted, Tariel is an alternate commander from an old deck and well Maeltsorm is the main reason for going 5 colored angel at the moment.
Bant 1, Stoic Angel
Orzhov 3, Angel of Despair, Magister of Worth, Selenia, Dark Angel
Selesnya 1, Gabriel Angelfire
Azorius 2, Filigree Angel, Iridescent Angel
Boros 6..., Razia, Boros Archangel, Firemane Avenger, Firemane Angel, Basandra, Battle Seraph, Angelic Captain, Tiana, Ship's Caretaker
Jeskai 1, Lightning Angel
Stoic Angel goes against the boros angels at least the battalion one. Gabriel Angelfire is well a strange one. Filigree Angel wants an artifact heavy environment but Bruna is already more on the aura side. And well Angelic Captain makes no sense.
Leaving: 10 multicolor Angels + 3 mystic rare repringt + 3 new mystic rares
Mono Colored apart of white:
Illusory Angel, Crypt Angel, Desolation Angel, Flameblade Angel, Akroma, Angel of Fury
White Colored with some kind of activate diff color ability
Shalai, Voice of Plenty, Glimmering Angel
Angel tribal stuff:
Bruna, the Fading Light I don't know how feasible she is because of the meld stuff and being a double sided card.
Lyra Dawnbringer I don't think she would be included
Herald of War
I don't know if they would down shift rarity for the commander set or just add a higher amount of mystic rares. The themes are all over the place.
The Dragon set had 32 creatures and 13 were mono colored (8 red ones), 2 were artifact/colorless and 4 weren't dragons.
Last year everyone was furious about the 'land matters deck'. This looks like a bigger challenge for me.
Edit: Well I forgot that there will be some new cards in addition to the new Commanders. The dragon set add 5 new dragons Wasitora, Nekoru Queen, Taigam, Ojutai Master, Territorial Hellkite, Scalelord Reckoner and Boneyard Scourge. Adding ~5 creature to the 16 counted before or replacing some of the bad multicolor ones and add some decent white ones as reprint.
Your on the right track for 5 color devoid eldrazi with loop holing the mana cost
I can tell you it can be a colorless commander without the symbols that saids “you can play cards with devoid in your deck” and “wastes you control have add one mana of any color use this mana to only cast devoid spells or activate abilities of devoid permanents” and both would be a emmenice like ability
Only problem is the commander players would yell about the eldritch moon transform/meld creatures since they can’t get in same can be said about emerge but that could be added
I'm gonna put together a decklist as a test of concept, leaving room for ~17 new cards:
3 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Jenara, Asura of War
4 Firemane Avenger
4 Stoic Angel
4 Lightning Angel
4 Atraxa, Praetors' Voice
5 Lyra Dawnbringer
5 Basandra, Battle Seraph
5 Sigarda, Host of Herons
5 Maelstrom Archangel
6 Bruna, Light of Alabaster
6 Aurelia, the Warleader
7 Platinum Angel
7 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
7 Tariel, Reckoner of Souls
7 Angel of Despair
8 Empyrial Archangel
Artifacts
1 Sol Ring
1 Stoneforge Masterwork
2 Blade of Selves
2 Conqueror's Flail
3 Fist of Suns
3 Herald's Horn
4 Moonsilver Spear
5 Vanquisher's Banner
1 Ethereal Armor
1 Curse of Opulence
1 Burgeoning
2 Luminarch Ascension
2 Spirit Mantle
3 Invocation of Saint Traft
3 Soul Link
4 Angelic Accord
4 Call to the Kindred
4 Growing Ranks
4 Holy Mantle
5 Burning Anger
6 Celestial Mantle
Instants
3 Tempest of Light
3 Crackling Doom
Sorceries
2 Farseek
6 Empyrial Storm
7 Devout Invocation
Land
1 Arcane Sanctum
1 Command Tower
1 Gavony Township
1 Jungle Shrine
1 Mystic Monastery
1 Nomad Outpost
1 Opal Palace
1 Path of Ancestry
1 Sandsteppe Citadel
1 Seaside Citadel
1 Seraph Sanctuary
1 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Unclaimed Territory
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Vivid Crag
1 Vivid Creek
1 Vivid Grove
1 Vivid Marsh
1 Vivid Meadow
6 Plains
3 Island
3 Swamp
3 Mountain
3 Forest
Although, I will say a WUBRG Human/Angel dual tribal deck could be interesting. Humans would be ideal for filling out the lower half of the curve, while the Angels can fill out the top half. Maybe the face card is a legendary Human who can become an Angel? Like Paragon of the Amesha, but more awesome.
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.
You said that you don't need a bunch of mystics do make them viable but I count like 12ish mystics creatures in your list, from 17. The 3 new Commander creatures will be mystic, too.
Look I don't try to be a douchebag here. I want this to happen but don't put your hopes that high.
They follow a template when building a product like this and the rarity distribution still counts. Look at last Commander products. They could change things but it is not very likely.
Jokes aside, on average the last 3 commander products included 6 mythics (3 of which were the commanders)and over 30 rares per deck. With those numbers it is possible to build a relatively decent angel centered deck (not strictly tribal).
Making a small comparison in terms of mana weighting on the Ur-Dragon preconstructed deck (pretty much counted all the mana symbols on costs and compared the colors) red mana costs accounts for +48% of the mana costs of the deck (64 red costs over the total colored mana costs of 133) making it a primary red deck. I wouldn't mind having a primary white angels deck with other colors splashed inside.
About Stoic Angel, you can go vigilance or makes use of Stoic Angel + Sublime Archangel/Angelic Exaltation effects.
Yeah there are some ways to get around her effect. Still you need other cards to make it work. I guess you can use her just defensively and be okay. They could add Always Watching which has some Angels in the art.
Well Tarkir had all the dragon tribal stuff going. Innistrad (Avacyn's Restored) does literally nothing for Angel tribal. Half of the dragon tribal cards in the commander deck was Tarkir stuff.
Like the whole Rare Dragon Lord Cycle (5 Dragons), Dragon Tempest, the green siege Enchantment, Savage Ventmaw, Dragonlord's Servant, Crux of Fate and the 2 Dragon Lands. I am sure there are even more cards from Tarkir.
You can also play Angelic Field Marshal, Serra's Blessing, Serra's Guardian and Akroma's Memorial just to name some of the angel-flavoured ones.
True, Tarkir was about dragons, while Avacyn Restored only had a couple Angel-matters card and even cards detrimental to angel tribal (looking at you, restoration angel). On the other hand, cats had almost no tribal support before Amonkhet and even then, the preconstructed deck didn't feature any of the cats-matter cards from that set. Counting cat-token makers there were only 3 new tribal-matter cards and 4 cat-matter reprints that were mostly token makers.
The deck itself was a mix of cat-tribal and equipment-matters.
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.
Agree that if they want to print the fourth sister at mythic, she would probably be printed in a WB deck first (hopefully in some hind of sacrifice or reanimator deck?)
As I said, probably not going to happen. But a pretty funny thought.
More serious though, since we "got" deck archetypes last year, we are unlikely to see the same this year. So we will likely have to look for another theme. It is also unlikely we'll get planeswalkers again this year, so we can probably safely discard that notion, unfortunately. That still gives us plenty of potential themes. One possibility I haven't see are decks formed around the seasons: Spring (probably GW or RGW), Summer (RUG), Autumn (BRG), and Winter (WUB). It is a distinct possibility. Another possibility are decks built around specific mechanics, such as for example Exalted or Flashback.
But let us assume for a moment we get four tribal decks, if we do, we can look at the last tribal decks to get a rough idea about what we'll see.
We will get one iconic (dragons last time, probably angels or demons this time, sphinxes and hydras aren't popular enough to justify it IMHO). If angels, I'll expect an Orzhov (WB) deck, with the fourth sister. If Demons, it's either going to be Rakdos (RB) or Grixis (UBR), probably with a sacrifice subtheme.
We will also get one of the characteristic races (we got vampires last time, but we still have four to chose from. White still lacks one. Merfolk, Elves, Goblins, and Zombies). I am thinking either Golgari (GB) or Abzan (GWB) Elves, Jund (BRG) Goblins, or Esper (WUB) or Bant (GWU) Merfolk. I think zombies are unlikely due to the vampires we got last time. Better to space the undead out a bit.
That leaves two tribal decks who are neither Characteristic or Iconic. There are a few fairly popular tribes to consider here, but the most obvious one is Slivers for the token five color deck. Despite WotC stumbling with the neo-slivers, slivers in general are still an immensely popular tribe that people consistently ask for a return of. And to be honest, as long as they actually look like slivers and not alien dogs, I am fine with the neo-slivers. The face legend could even be a reference to the original sliver queen, but with the Verdant Force ability instead of an activated one producing sliver tokens.
As for the final tribe, it could be just about anything, last time we got the wizard tribal that no one really expected (or wanted), it will probably be a tribe that hints at something up coming, just like the wizards did (Dominaria's Wizard subtheme.)
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Numquam evolutioni obstes. Solum conculceris.
Pascite draconem, evolvite aut morimini.
You misprinted Bant the B is suppose to be W and I would smack them in the face if they didn’t do a Bant menfolk tribal legend
Oh and I do agree with you if tribal is a thing again
Will get one iconic and one powerful tribe just last time for 2 out of 4
The iconic will either be angels or demons easily by the way demons not only a sac sub-theme I can see but a devils sub-theme as well and for angels a human sub-theme if 5-color
And dead on on the powerful tribes and a better reason for zombies are out Varina, Lich Queen pretty much already got it covered last year
Oh and I have the candidates for the other 2 covered
I think one will be 5 colored again
Spirits (arcane and legends subthemes)
Slivers
Humans with angel sub theme
Eldrazi with devoid theme (I’m not kidding)
I would say god but that tribe is way to exspensive money wise and too many mythics
And the last one is a surprise deck like the cats
For those I can see
Dinosaur (particually filling in the blanks of what they need to be a powerful tribe)
Knight or soldier
Cleric
Spiders or/and insect
A better snake tribal commander
Minotaur (amonkhet was so close)
Beast
Rogue
Robot (myr/construct/golem)
Spector (discard sub-theme sadly since hated)
And probably the biggest unexpected that probably the most likely is birds
The surprise tribe is going to be something closer to Wizards. Completely out of the left field and not particularly popular to plant the seeds for a future set (like Wizards and Dominaria).
As I said, if we get tribes, we get one Iconic (like Dragons), one Characteristic (like Vampires), one popular (that isn't an Iconic or Characteristic, like the cats), and one out of the left field that hints at a future standard set (like the Wizards). If the Iconic is angel or demons, then it won't be five color, which frees up a five color deck slot for the arguably most popular five color tribe ever: Slivers. The final one could be literally anything, but it won't be something popular. If we get Demons, I could see a BW cleric deck take up the final slot (reprint of Edgewalker incoming). I could also see a snake/naga deck that uses batching tech to bring them them together. It would likely be either simic (UG), or Sultai (UGB) in that case.
Knights would need to be either Boros (RW) or Mardu (BWR) and rely heavily on flanking, with a new card for Telim Tor.
WotC has kept failing in giving us a good tribal commander for spiders, and I doubt they'll give us three that would feel both distinct and good. They'd need to be Jund (BRG) if they appeared though.
Dinosaurs are way to popular to be the surprise tribe and "robot" isn't really a tribe. >.<
Minotaurs should be Jeskai (URW), mostly to see peoples faces, but also to give Labyrinth minotaur a chanse to shine. But I could see them going Mardu (BWR) instead with that tribe, as it gives us a chance to play Boros and Theros Minotaurs together.
Beasts have to be Gruul (RG), of course with a Contested Cliffs reprint.
Rogue I could see happening, it would give us three "race" tribal decks, and one "class" tribal deck, like last time. I'd expect a lot of evasion, and possibly a return of Ninjas. Of course, it would need to be UB.
Specters are not going to happen, they are incredibly unfun to play against, even when there is only one or two in the deck, so an entire deck made up of one of the most despised tribes in commander is unlikely.
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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.
Stop
Because that new thing called modern horizons got you covered
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.