I'm thinking ahead to C20 next year, about what deck colors and themes we're likely to get. Since color pairs and trios are the primary focus of 4DC decks, these are the pairs and trios we have left:
WU UB RG WB BG RW GU WBG GUR
These past few years have pumped out a lot of tricolor decks, leaving us with a lot of pairs and few trios to revisit. Next year most likely will have WBG and GUR decks, which means RG, WB, BG, and GU are unlikely to get decks. WU would be likely, but its logical counterpart, BR, just got a deck, so that leaves UB and RW as the most likely other two.
I think next year's theme will be tribal. There are still a lot of tribes to visit in Commander, so it's reasonable to expect that tribal will be a regular theme every few years. Working with the four color combinations I listed, these are the tribes I would choose:
UB Rogues
Of all the legendary Rogues that have existed, only one has actually been just UB, the color pair most strongly associated with this tribe (it's amazing Dimir has yet to put out any legendary Rogues, considering half their guild are Rogues). Gwendlyn di Corci is a UBR Rogue legend, but she's from Legends, an old, old set, and it just so happens she's on the reserved list. Red also has a lot of Rogues, but I'm assuming they want to give UB a shot before revisiting UBR.
A Rogue deck is going to focus a lot on evasion, card draw, and theft. I can picture it including a lot of artifacts geared towards stealth, like Infiltration Lens, Rogue's Gloves, and Skeleton Key.
RW Warriors
Normally I'd pick Angels for this pair as after Dragons they're the second most popular iconic and one of the most popular creature types overall. However, an Angel deck is going to lean heavily towards white, and Angels already have plenty of RW legends to choose from while Warriors have two. Warriors also offer far more diverse mana costs, sizes, and creature types, and being a class makes them easy to overlap with the next two tribes I'm going to list.
A Warrior deck is obviously going to lean towards aggro. Warriors love Equipment, and Auras and other enchantments can also help pump them up.
WBG Elves
GW and BG are by far the two most common Elf pairs, and as of right now the only legendary WBG Elf is Kethis, the Hidden Hand, who isn't exactly the kind of legend a WBG Elf tribal deck wants.
A WBG Elf deck is going to focus a lot on +1/+1 counters, creature tokens (namely, all the Elf Warrior and Elf Knight tokens we've seen, plus the odd Elf Druid), and lifegain. Normally ramp would be part of the package, but that's mainly a green thing with some black. Lifegain feels like the best third subtheme for this deck, as Elves are certainly no strangers to gaining life.
GUR Elementals
When talking about GUR tribes, Elementals are by far the most prolific. It's hard to find another creature type as characteristic to this color combo as Elementals. And that makes sense; GUR is the trio most closely associated with the base four elements of earth, fire, water, and air.
An Elemental deck is going to focus a lot on land, ramp, and spellslinging.
Thoughts? Speculation? Ideas?
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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.
We don't know if they are okay with releasing a 4 colored deck or the next 5 color deck. This could change some things up.
Abzan and Temur are very likely, though.
I would love an Orzhov Deck with a Cleric early game and Demon/Angel late game style. This would open the door for the 4th Sister of the Innistrads archangels, which could have some kind of strange payoff for playing demons or a separate payoff for playing black or white cards. The problem is that white and black already have their mono colored legendary.
The same is true for boros, though. Only green and blue are missing their legendary. So Dimir is more likely than boros. If they release a Temur and Abzan deck, than all 3 colored color combinations would be done. So maybe they move to 4 colored decks before repeating the 3 colored ones.
UB WBG GUR
Some deck with at least WR maybe WUBR without artifact focus? Maybe with a flying focus -> Birds, Fairies, Phoenixes, Spirits, Demons, Sphinxes, Dragons and Angels.
Are there other less explored tribes in those color combinations that could get a nice boost?
Iwould rather see that than more +more for existing tribes.
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Been a member here for over a dozen years. Playing since '95 just got lost in the twitch shuffle.
Give me Orzhov Rebels deck, or give me a mountain of salt & disappointment.
With the six black Rebels that exist?
I'm kinda surprised there are no red Rebels, myself. Maybe we should eventually get a world where a Rebel alliance battles a corrupt empire?
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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.
Give me Orzhov Rebels deck, or give me a mountain of salt & disappointment.
With the six black Rebels that exist?
I'm kinda surprised there are no red Rebels, myself. Maybe we should eventually get a world where a Rebel alliance battles a corrupt empire?
Hey now, Rebel Informer is legit. Though to be honest a Mardu rebels deck would be my ideal scenario, but I don’t see a Mardu Commander precon deck in the near future with Edgar being in relatively recent memory.
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My List of Current Decks: -Modern- WMartyrProcB BBurnR -Commander-
Legit or no, there are hardly enough black Rebels to justify making a WB Rebel tribal deck. I mean, the Vampire deck did have as many WB Vampire reprints to choose from at the time C17 came out (and the deck itself only reprinted two), and I guess you could shove Changelings in there to help balance the colors, but what is it exactly about WB Rebels that appeals to you so? The tribe in Masques revolved mostly around tutoring, and repeat tutors are something Wizards is loathe to push in modern Magic on account of reduced variance of play and prolonged play time owing to excessive shuffling. I'd rather see Rebels come back first with a new mechanical identity, like Revolt. And I'd see them come back as a RW, maybe RGW tribe.
We don't know if they are okay with releasing a 4 colored deck or the next 5 color deck. This could change some things up.
Abzan and Temur are very likely, though.
I would love an Orzhov Deck with a Cleric early game and Demon/Angel late game style. This would open the door for the 4th Sister of the Innistrads archangels, which could have some kind of strange payoff for playing demons or a separate payoff for playing black or white cards. The problem is that white and black already have their mono colored legendary.
The same is true for boros, though. Only green and blue are missing their legendary. So Dimir is more likely than boros. If they release a Temur and Abzan deck, than all 3 colored color combinations would be done. So maybe they move to 4 colored decks before repeating the 3 colored ones.
UB WBG GUR
Some deck with at least WR maybe WUBR without artifact focus? Maybe with a flying focus -> Birds, Fairies, Phoenixes, Spirits, Demons, Sphinxes, Dragons and Angels.
Four color will be very difficult to work into 4DC. WUBRG has been done before, so it's certainly possible it will be done again. In which case, my pick would be WUBRG Angels.
Green and blue can get their monocolored legends in the WBG or GUR and UB decks. We can have another monored or monowhite legend, perhaps start a new megacycle.
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.
Yea 4-color decks need to be considered just because they are super hard deosn’t mean we won’t get them
If we get a 5-color tribe again there’s no other choice but spirit in my opinion
Sliver too many legends already and I’m willing to bet they are too scared to touch a competitive tribe in a deck for new players
Dragons, elementals, scarecrows, ally and warriors all have a perfectly good 5-color legend already
Avatar is too little support
Angels don’t have enough UG angels I know they only want 5-color angels because of Maelstrom Archangel
The only other legend that needs a better legendary tribe is atog and that’s a sticky tribe
And spirits are in all 5 colors and do have tribal support you can do tons of themes with spirits
Heck lots of spirit legendaries none of the ones with a spirit tribal ability are perfect simply due to not enough colors witch-maw is the correct color combo for a perfect spirit legend but red may be weak but it does infact have a few high power spirits
And Glitterfang for the spirts that have a cast trigger and whenever a spirit ETB
Finally Earthshaker if a vast majority of your spirits are flyers or/and enough enchantment/artifact that gives your team flying as static
And ofcoarse the biggest reason of them all O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami needs a way way way better card it doesn’t match the strength according to the lore and final judgement and he could have atleast gotten a spirit tribal syngery/lord or whatever ability for that tribe
Okay, let's say we have one four color deck. Let's say it's WUBR. That means the other three decks all need to have green. BG, GU, RGW. Now let's say we have two four color decks. WUBR and RGWU. That means both of the other two decks need to have black and green. WBG and BRG, let's just say. Now let's say you for some reason want three of the decks to be four color. WUBR, BRGW, and RGWU. That means the third deck needs to be BGU. Four color in the current 4DC format isn't impossible, but it comes with strict requirements.
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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.
I really wish they would return to 5 decks per commander set. It would definitely open up the potential of decks we could get. Nowadays it just feels like we are getting robbed, especially with higher prices.
Yea 4-color decks need to be considered just because they are super hard deosn’t mean we won’t get them
If we get a 5-color tribe again there’s no other choice but spirit in my opinion
Sliver too many legends already and I’m willing to bet they are too scared to touch a competitive tribe in a deck for new players
Dragons, elementals, scarecrows, ally and warriors all have a perfectly good 5-color legend already
Avatar is too little support
Angels don’t have enough UG angels I know they only want 5-color angels because of Maelstrom Archangel
The only other legend that needs a better legendary tribe is atog and that’s a sticky tribe
And spirits are in all 5 colors and do have tribal support you can do tons of themes with spirits
Heck lots of spirit legendaries none of the ones with a spirit tribal ability are perfect simply due to not enough colors witch-maw is the correct color combo for a perfect spirit legend but red may be weak but it does infact have a few high power spirits
And Glitterfang for the spirts that have a cast trigger and whenever a spirit ETB
Finally Earthshaker if a vast majority of your spirits are flyers or/and enough enchantment/artifact that gives your team flying as static
And ofcoarse the biggest reason of them all O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami needs a way way way better card it doesn’t match the strength according to the lore and final judgement and he could have atleast gotten a spirit tribal syngery/lord or whatever ability for that tribe
Well I mean if you look at the dragon precon deck and focus on the creature section, you can see that most of them are mono red or have red in the mana cost (no mono green or blue dragon) or the vampire deck that is almost mono black.
I think that angel have other problems. There isn't any synergy around the tribal in any other color than white and even in white the synergies are lackluster. When I play an angel 'tribal' deck I focus on life gain or enchantment or both to get those angel tokens in addition to some good angels like Archangel of Thune or Resplendent Angel. I actually would love if this is the route for mono white angels. And the last additions weren't shabby with Angel of Vitality and Bishop of Wings.
But well cats weren't super synergistic either. The commander with the Eminence ability was what make the deck come together.
Furthermore Angels have some representation in green and blue. There are a few Bant Angels form Alara and some Azorious Angels in addition to one mono blue Angel and I think 3 Selesyna Angels, if you count Shalai.
The next problem with Angels is, that most of the multi color Angels are in mythic rarity. They usually don't go higher than 6 mythic a deck.
One of the main reason why people want to play 5 color angels is that the tribal is very popular. Maelstrom Angel was the only alternative. The 4 Archangel Sisters of Innistrad could be a motivation, too. I would love to see at least Asha and the missing Sister.
Okay, let's say we have one four color deck. Let's say it's WUBR. That means the other three decks all need to have green. BG, GU, RGW. Now let's say we have two four color decks. WUBR and RGWU. That means both of the other two decks need to have black and green. WBG and BRG, let's just say. Now let's say you for some reason want three of the decks to be four color. WUBR, BRGW, and RGWU. That means the third deck needs to be BGU. Four color in the current 4DC format isn't impossible, but it comes with strict requirements.
This isn't the case for the pattern they have used in the pasts sets. Colors have to be present in at least 2 decks and won't be present in all 4. SO Green has to be in 2 other decks if one deck is WUBR. In addition the two missing 3 colored decks have green (Temur and Abzan). So it would be possible.
Past year precons:
2017: 3 Red, 2 Green, 3 White, 3 Black, 2 Blue
2018: 2 Red, 2 Green, 2 White, 2 Black, 3 Blue
2019: 3 Red, 2 Green, 2 White, 2 Black, 2 Blue
Keep in mind that Green has received about the same amount of new cards than the other colors and that they could have balanced it this year instead of printing 3 red decks again.
This isn't the case for the pattern they have used in the pasts sets. Colors have to be present in at least 2 decks and won't be present in all 4. SO Green has to be in 2 other decks if one deck is WUBR. In addition the two missing 3 colored decks have green (Temur and Abzan). So it would be possible.
Past year precons:
2017: 3 Red, 2 Green, 3 White, 3 Black, 2 Blue
2018: 2 Red, 2 Green, 2 White, 2 Black, 3 Blue
2019: 3 Red, 2 Green, 2 White, 2 Black, 2 Blue
Keep in mind that Green has received about the same amount of new cards than the other colors and that they could have balanced it this year instead of printing 3 red decks again.
And if the fourth deck doesn't have green, then it's just using a subset of the WUBR deck's colors. With a WUBRG deck that's inevitable, but with any other color combo, I imagine they don't want one deck eclipsing another in the same product (which is why we're unlikely to see more monocolor Commander precons anytime soon). You yourself basically pointed out that up to three decks can share a color, so if they do a WUBR deck in 4DC the other three decks are all but guaranteed to be part green. And looking at those numbers, next year is likely to have three green decks.
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’m like the idea for a return to tribal and can see them doing tribal decks for 2020. However I could also see them revisit the idea of decks based on a mechanic or theme, like they did this year. For instance I’d find a pre-con mill deck made for commander to be very interesting, not only because multiplayer mill cards are somewhat rare (most mill is targeted), but also because I’d like to see how they’d design a mill deck that had to mill out 99 card decks rather than 60 card decks.
Other mechanics I feel would be neat to see them build decks around:
Curses (with maybe enchantments matter subthemes)
Cycling (Astral slide/Astral Drift decks with maybe a few new cycling matters effects)
Transform (this could also fit into a tribal commander set if they ever get around to building the werewolf deck players have been asking for)
Chaotic effect (I would enjoy seeing a pre-con built around casting as many random effects as possible, with maybe a few cards like Krark’s Thumb to tip the balance in your favor)
Maybe even an Un-deck made up of a majority of the more playable un-set cards that people like to play.
A deck themed around luck and chance does sound kinda fun. I only wish die rolling was black border, that was my favorite part of Unstable. Honestly, I'd enjoy die rolling more than coin-flipping, especially if they can make use of D4, D8, D10, D12, and D20 in addition to D6. If they ever do a D&D inspired setting, that'd be the perfect place for it. There are also a lot of different ways to use dice; you can have three possible results equating to hit, critical, and miss, or a Catan-inspired mechanic where you roll for resource production using a D6 or D12. Of course Planechase does make use of a planar die, so die rolling already is black border to some extent.
Hey, maybe they can come up with Commanders themed around die rolling? Kinda like they did with Experience counters? To keep it simple, each Commander uses a D6 with special symbols on them. Each symbol has a different effect (similar to the Hedronize mechanic tested for BFZ). A couple examples:
UB
Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, roll the D6.
Book - Draw a card.
Coin - Create a Treasure token.
Chest - Exile the top card of that player's library. You may play the exiled card for as long as it remains exiled.
Dagger - That player discards a card.
Poison Vial - That player gets that many poison counters.
Skull - The player loses half their life, rounded up.
RW
Whenever a creature you control attacks, roll the D6.
Sword - The attacking creature gains first strike until end of turn.
Shield - Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to the attacking creature this turn.
Heart - The attacking creature gains lifelink until end of turn.
Hammer - The attacking creature gains trample until end of turn.
Horned Helmet - The attacking creature gains menace until end of turn.
Double Sword - The attacking creature gains double strike until end of turn.
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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.
well the ikoria decks are getting them but they are commander and those decks are gonna be commander 2020 decks essentially so minor bad news the decks are gonna be themed around ikoria but good news is they going back to 5 decks
(ofcoarse its almost a lock one of the 5 will be kaiju tribal or whatever the creature type will be called in ikoria)
and zendikar rising is throwing in 2 more
and a commander focused set called "commmander legends" for next year that has 70 new legends for commander 2 of them is new version of Baron Sengir and jeska (pre-Phage the Untouchable)
and that set brings yet another 2 commander decks
we are getting 9 commander decks for commander 2020 ladies and gentlemen plus 70 legendaries in a set
Jeska is wearing Kamahl, Fist of Krosa cloak. So possibly her being a Gruul or Jund planeswalker if she still has her dormant Phage powers. Could be just reading too hard into this and she is actually just mono-red or Rakdos.
Though looking at her art again, her armor on the upper half of her body is reminiscent of Phage the Untouchable. The armor has reds and browns with accents of greens specifically for the chest armor and bracers.
If I had to take a guess, the four bones in her hair represent Keld, Yavimaya, Madara, and Otaria. However they also resemble Phage's fingers as they are pointy and blackened. Another new addition is the hair decorations that are a mix of green and black, which I have no idea if they are just a fashion statement or have any lore tie.
Maybe she will be something like
+1: Deal 1 damage to any target.
-?: [green ability]
0: [Jeska becomes a creature and has Phage abilities]
[can be your commander text]
Jeska is wearing Kamahl, Fist of Krosa cloak. So possibly her being a Gruul or Jund planeswalker if she still has her dormant Phage powers. Could be just reading too hard into this and she is actually just mono-red or Rakdos.
Though looking at her art again, her armor on the upper half of her body is reminiscent of Phage the Untouchable. The armor has reds and browns with accents of greens specifically for the chest armor and bracers.
If I had to take a guess, the four bones in her hair represent Keld, Yavimaya, Madara, and Otaria. However they also resemble Phage's fingers as they are pointy and blackened. Another new addition is the hair decorations that are a mix of green and black, which I have no idea if they are just a fashion statement or have any lore tie.
Maybe she will be something like
+1: Deal 1 damage to any target.
-?: [green ability]
0: [Jeska becomes a creature and has Phage abilities]
[can be your commander text]
Realised another thing for her head, likely the intended version, for the symbolism. as I was wondering "what about her as Karona?" well its stylised after Karona's helm.
As this image is Karona's slight reimagining from years ago in MODO. To understand why 'slight', you need to look between the twin points going upward and notice the hair-like grooves of the helm. Which is what Jeska has in her new artwork. Speaking of each point, they go in the same directions with similar bends just like the horns.
Now what about the six short braids of hair the Commander 2020 version has? Well notice in the Karona art how there are six suspended orbs on the helmet? There you go.
So to recap: Hair is styled after Karona's helm, her cape is her brother Kamahl's cape when he was a druid, her armor resembles Phage's armor, the two objects she holds are her iconic weapons from her time spent as Jeska (pre-phage). Which makes sense as she is Jeska, Thrice Touched by Infinity.
Only things I haven't figured out so far: The gold-looking metal belt, the mismatched leggings (one of spikes, the other appearing like a cast as though when a leg gets broken).
While all of this is not pertinent to 2020 itself, its more about the clever nods and remixing of her outfit from her past.
EDIT: Added an attachment featuring a clean visual version of what I mean.
WU
UB
RG
WB
BG
RW
GU
WBG
GUR
These past few years have pumped out a lot of tricolor decks, leaving us with a lot of pairs and few trios to revisit. Next year most likely will have WBG and GUR decks, which means RG, WB, BG, and GU are unlikely to get decks. WU would be likely, but its logical counterpart, BR, just got a deck, so that leaves UB and RW as the most likely other two.
I think next year's theme will be tribal. There are still a lot of tribes to visit in Commander, so it's reasonable to expect that tribal will be a regular theme every few years. Working with the four color combinations I listed, these are the tribes I would choose:
Of all the legendary Rogues that have existed, only one has actually been just UB, the color pair most strongly associated with this tribe (it's amazing Dimir has yet to put out any legendary Rogues, considering half their guild are Rogues). Gwendlyn di Corci is a UBR Rogue legend, but she's from Legends, an old, old set, and it just so happens she's on the reserved list. Red also has a lot of Rogues, but I'm assuming they want to give UB a shot before revisiting UBR.
A Rogue deck is going to focus a lot on evasion, card draw, and theft. I can picture it including a lot of artifacts geared towards stealth, like Infiltration Lens, Rogue's Gloves, and Skeleton Key.
RW Warriors
Normally I'd pick Angels for this pair as after Dragons they're the second most popular iconic and one of the most popular creature types overall. However, an Angel deck is going to lean heavily towards white, and Angels already have plenty of RW legends to choose from while Warriors have two. Warriors also offer far more diverse mana costs, sizes, and creature types, and being a class makes them easy to overlap with the next two tribes I'm going to list.
A Warrior deck is obviously going to lean towards aggro. Warriors love Equipment, and Auras and other enchantments can also help pump them up.
WBG Elves
GW and BG are by far the two most common Elf pairs, and as of right now the only legendary WBG Elf is Kethis, the Hidden Hand, who isn't exactly the kind of legend a WBG Elf tribal deck wants.
A WBG Elf deck is going to focus a lot on +1/+1 counters, creature tokens (namely, all the Elf Warrior and Elf Knight tokens we've seen, plus the odd Elf Druid), and lifegain. Normally ramp would be part of the package, but that's mainly a green thing with some black. Lifegain feels like the best third subtheme for this deck, as Elves are certainly no strangers to gaining life.
GUR Elementals
When talking about GUR tribes, Elementals are by far the most prolific. It's hard to find another creature type as characteristic to this color combo as Elementals. And that makes sense; GUR is the trio most closely associated with the base four elements of earth, fire, water, and air.
An Elemental deck is going to focus a lot on land, ramp, and spellslinging.
Thoughts? Speculation? Ideas?
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.
Abzan and Temur are very likely, though.
I would love an Orzhov Deck with a Cleric early game and Demon/Angel late game style. This would open the door for the 4th Sister of the Innistrads archangels, which could have some kind of strange payoff for playing demons or a separate payoff for playing black or white cards. The problem is that white and black already have their mono colored legendary.
The same is true for boros, though. Only green and blue are missing their legendary. So Dimir is more likely than boros. If they release a Temur and Abzan deck, than all 3 colored color combinations would be done. So maybe they move to 4 colored decks before repeating the 3 colored ones.
UB
WBG
GUR
Some deck with at least WR maybe WUBR without artifact focus? Maybe with a flying focus -> Birds, Fairies, Phoenixes, Spirits, Demons, Sphinxes, Dragons and Angels.
But abzan and temur are like locks before next year even happens
I think dimir and boros is the other 2 based off maros statement on color balance
Because Izzet was last year and Azorius can’t happen because the other color combo is rakdos and that’s this year
So logically the color combo and for tribes if that’s what they are doing again
Abzan elves
Dimir rouges or fairies (but I heard fairies is getting a new color in eldraine) or and zombies
Boros would be soilder or angels (I say knight but that’s mardu needed and throne of eldraine is probably gonna take care of that requested tribe)
temur there’s no other choice but elemental perfect colors most temur legends are elementals
But bare in mind 4-color and 5 color could happen and those could be color balance
If 5 color happens again my god please give us a proper spirit tribal legend
-Modern-
WMartyrProcB
BBurnR
-Commander-
Iwould rather see that than more +more for existing tribes.
With the six black Rebels that exist?
I'm kinda surprised there are no red Rebels, myself. Maybe we should eventually get a world where a Rebel alliance battles a corrupt empire?
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.
Hey now, Rebel Informer is legit. Though to be honest a Mardu rebels deck would be my ideal scenario, but I don’t see a Mardu Commander precon deck in the near future with Edgar being in relatively recent memory.
-Modern-
WMartyrProcB
BBurnR
-Commander-
Green and blue can get their monocolored legends in the WBG or GUR and UB decks. We can have another monored or monowhite legend, perhaps start a new megacycle.
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.
If we get a 5-color tribe again there’s no other choice but spirit in my opinion
Sliver too many legends already and I’m willing to bet they are too scared to touch a competitive tribe in a deck for new players
Dragons, elementals, scarecrows, ally and warriors all have a perfectly good 5-color legend already
Avatar is too little support
Angels don’t have enough UG angels I know they only want 5-color angels because of Maelstrom Archangel
The only other legend that needs a better legendary tribe is atog and that’s a sticky tribe
And spirits are in all 5 colors and do have tribal support you can do tons of themes with spirits
Heck lots of spirit legendaries none of the ones with a spirit tribal ability are perfect simply due to not enough colors witch-maw is the correct color combo for a perfect spirit legend but red may be weak but it does infact have a few high power spirits
And Glitterfang for the spirts that have a cast trigger and whenever a spirit ETB
Finally Earthshaker if a vast majority of your spirits are flyers or/and enough enchantment/artifact that gives your team flying as static
And ofcoarse the biggest reason of them all O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami needs a way way way better card it doesn’t match the strength according to the lore and final judgement and he could have atleast gotten a spirit tribal syngery/lord or whatever ability for that tribe
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.
Well I mean if you look at the dragon precon deck and focus on the creature section, you can see that most of them are mono red or have red in the mana cost (no mono green or blue dragon) or the vampire deck that is almost mono black.
I think that angel have other problems. There isn't any synergy around the tribal in any other color than white and even in white the synergies are lackluster. When I play an angel 'tribal' deck I focus on life gain or enchantment or both to get those angel tokens in addition to some good angels like Archangel of Thune or Resplendent Angel. I actually would love if this is the route for mono white angels. And the last additions weren't shabby with Angel of Vitality and Bishop of Wings.
But well cats weren't super synergistic either. The commander with the Eminence ability was what make the deck come together.
Furthermore Angels have some representation in green and blue. There are a few Bant Angels form Alara and some Azorious Angels in addition to one mono blue Angel and I think 3 Selesyna Angels, if you count Shalai.
The next problem with Angels is, that most of the multi color Angels are in mythic rarity. They usually don't go higher than 6 mythic a deck.
One of the main reason why people want to play 5 color angels is that the tribal is very popular. Maelstrom Angel was the only alternative. The 4 Archangel Sisters of Innistrad could be a motivation, too. I would love to see at least Asha and the missing Sister.
This isn't the case for the pattern they have used in the pasts sets. Colors have to be present in at least 2 decks and won't be present in all 4. SO Green has to be in 2 other decks if one deck is WUBR. In addition the two missing 3 colored decks have green (Temur and Abzan). So it would be possible.
Past year precons:
2017: 3 Red, 2 Green, 3 White, 3 Black, 2 Blue
2018: 2 Red, 2 Green, 2 White, 2 Black, 3 Blue
2019: 3 Red, 2 Green, 2 White, 2 Black, 2 Blue
Keep in mind that Green has received about the same amount of new cards than the other colors and that they could have balanced it this year instead of printing 3 red decks again.
And if the fourth deck doesn't have green, then it's just using a subset of the WUBR deck's colors. With a WUBRG deck that's inevitable, but with any other color combo, I imagine they don't want one deck eclipsing another in the same product (which is why we're unlikely to see more monocolor Commander precons anytime soon). You yourself basically pointed out that up to three decks can share a color, so if they do a WUBR deck in 4DC the other three decks are all but guaranteed to be part green. And looking at those numbers, next year is likely to have three green decks.
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.
Other mechanics I feel would be neat to see them build decks around:
Curses (with maybe enchantments matter subthemes)
Cycling (Astral slide/Astral Drift decks with maybe a few new cycling matters effects)
Transform (this could also fit into a tribal commander set if they ever get around to building the werewolf deck players have been asking for)
Chaotic effect (I would enjoy seeing a pre-con built around casting as many random effects as possible, with maybe a few cards like Krark’s Thumb to tip the balance in your favor)
Maybe even an Un-deck made up of a majority of the more playable un-set cards that people like to play.
Hey, maybe they can come up with Commanders themed around die rolling? Kinda like they did with Experience counters? To keep it simple, each Commander uses a D6 with special symbols on them. Each symbol has a different effect (similar to the Hedronize mechanic tested for BFZ). A couple examples:
UB
Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, roll the D6.
Book - Draw a card.
Coin - Create a Treasure token.
Chest - Exile the top card of that player's library. You may play the exiled card for as long as it remains exiled.
Dagger - That player discards a card.
Poison Vial - That player gets that many poison counters.
Skull - The player loses half their life, rounded up.
RW
Whenever a creature you control attacks, roll the D6.
Sword - The attacking creature gains first strike until end of turn.
Shield - Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to the attacking creature this turn.
Heart - The attacking creature gains lifelink until end of turn.
Hammer - The attacking creature gains trample until end of turn.
Horned Helmet - The attacking creature gains menace until end of turn.
Double Sword - The attacking creature gains double strike until end of turn.
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.
he said in the video
you know the brawl decks?
well the ikoria decks are getting them but they are commander and those decks are gonna be commander 2020 decks essentially so minor bad news the decks are gonna be themed around ikoria but good news is they going back to 5 decks
(ofcoarse its almost a lock one of the 5 will be kaiju tribal or whatever the creature type will be called in ikoria)
and zendikar rising is throwing in 2 more
and a commander focused set called "commmander legends" for next year that has 70 new legends for commander 2 of them is new version of Baron Sengir and jeska (pre-Phage the Untouchable)
and that set brings yet another 2 commander decks
we are getting 9 commander decks for commander 2020 ladies and gentlemen plus 70 legendaries in a set
Though looking at her art again, her armor on the upper half of her body is reminiscent of Phage the Untouchable. The armor has reds and browns with accents of greens specifically for the chest armor and bracers.
If I had to take a guess, the four bones in her hair represent Keld, Yavimaya, Madara, and Otaria. However they also resemble Phage's fingers as they are pointy and blackened. Another new addition is the hair decorations that are a mix of green and black, which I have no idea if they are just a fashion statement or have any lore tie.
Maybe she will be something like
+1: Deal 1 damage to any target.
-?: [green ability]
0: [Jeska becomes a creature and has Phage abilities]
[can be your commander text]
I know you are already looking at me like I am going crazy. But hold, I have a visual helper: https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/mtgsalvation_gamepedia/9/9c/Karona.jpg
Also here is the Commander 2020 artwork, forgot to post it when babbling about this: https://i.imgur.com/Sl11nfR.png
As this image is Karona's slight reimagining from years ago in MODO. To understand why 'slight', you need to look between the twin points going upward and notice the hair-like grooves of the helm. Which is what Jeska has in her new artwork. Speaking of each point, they go in the same directions with similar bends just like the horns.
Now what about the six short braids of hair the Commander 2020 version has? Well notice in the Karona art how there are six suspended orbs on the helmet? There you go.
So to recap: Hair is styled after Karona's helm, her cape is her brother Kamahl's cape when he was a druid, her armor resembles Phage's armor, the two objects she holds are her iconic weapons from her time spent as Jeska (pre-phage). Which makes sense as she is Jeska, Thrice Touched by Infinity.
Only things I haven't figured out so far: The gold-looking metal belt, the mismatched leggings (one of spikes, the other appearing like a cast as though when a leg gets broken).
While all of this is not pertinent to 2020 itself, its more about the clever nods and remixing of her outfit from her past.
EDIT: Added an attachment featuring a clean visual version of what I mean.