I know we just had an Esper deck last year, but man oh man do I want Sen Triplets to be reprinted. I am mad I traded my copy back in the day... it's 45$ now and needs a reprint.
The reason I mention the Triplets is because that could be a fun archetype we haven't seen yet. Playing your opponent's stuff... mind control effects, etc.
I don't think the Triplets will return this year though... unless they make a 4 or 5 color deck with this theme.
That would be great since WotC experimented with playing with your opponents stuff a lot more with the agents of S.N.E.A.K. in Unstable. MtG has for the longest time been stealing player's permanents (or turns) with red and blue (mostly) and it would be great to continue seeing that. Maybe another 4-colored legend? A nonG legend that facilitates this. Or at least a pair of partners that do. And hopefully some black-bordered effects similar to what was done in Unstable. That's definitely an archetype that's not really that existent or supported yet.
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DementedKirby: The main problem with last years decks, I feel, was that they were all over the place. Each felt like three decks that had been mushed together. The only bad one of the tribal ones was the wizard one, and it is pretty obvious in hindsight that it was only made because Dominaria had a wizard subtheme.
The 2018 decks, did have some decent reprints, but they were severely lacking in the land department.
Were all nice reprints, and that's just among the rare/mythics. Many peoples primary issue was the lack of rare land reprints and downright *****ty manabases. Some people also complained about the lack of pre-eight edition reprints, and there are a lot of cards there that are not on the reserved list that are in sore need of reprints.
As for the new cards, most of them are good, particularly among the commanders themselves.
Totally agree. That was my point exactly. Past decks which had underlying themes that weren't pushed in your face that had way more cohesiveness than the 2018 decks which were supposed actually to have a devoted theme. For the amount of money they cost, they should've been way worth it. The Challenger Decks, on the other hand, are amazing out of the box and well above their value. You can play them in Standard and actually do something in FNM. Why not have that same philosophy for Commander? It's a casual format but if the theme is land-matters, where are all the clutch land-matters cards? They're not even all super expensive. For example, Azusa, Lost but Seeking has been reprinted enough that it's not as expensive, etc.
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
The previous two commander products were very lackluster. First, there were only 4. Second, they were more expensive than previous years. Lastly, the quality between them and compared to previous years was incredibly lacking. The tribal had a clear order of better to worse (out of the box, at least). The card-type matters theme was also very loose. The "lands matters" deck wasn't anywhere near focused on lands.
In comparison to this last point, Commander 2013 had multiple loose themes that players could build upon after playing enough with them out of the box. For example, Nekusar, the Mindrazer has a light wheeling theme that could've been built upon more with additional cards and Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge was spellslinger. But the deck could've been played out of the box. You could've even built both generals if you wanted to because there were enough support cards for them to get started. Compared to Commander 2018, the gimmick was theme-matters yet the lands-matter deck was hardly dedicated to that theme. The C13 Grixis deck had more support for wheeling than C18 Jund had for lands. And that says a lot.
The problem wasn't WotC running out of ideas and thus changing the formula to try new things or get themselves out of the hole of designer's block. The first commander product was wedge legends because there were hardly any (and they lost a good opportunity to print wedge lairs for the Planar Chaos versions of the 5 dragons which were reprinted in each deck - whose Planeshift versions had shard lairs) and introduced some great multiplayer mechanics. The second actual commander product (C13) introduced command-zone matters mechanics to solidify commander as a bona fide format. Commander 2014 introduced the notion of planeswalker commanders which would then be an intended attraction (and differentiation) to Brawl. Commander 2016, considered by many to be the best of the series, finally gave 4-colored legendary creatures (sorry, nephelim) as well as partner commanders. This ambitious set gave so, so many possibilities for commanders that it was undoubtedly very difficult to top.
Even Commander 2015 was a step up from the mono-colored decks of the previous year (albeit by only a single-color). What was unique about this product was the experience counter mechanic which is great by design standards because it makes the commander's presence felt even while in other zones until you can take advantage from it. The decks were balanced between each other and the themes within them were more solid than Commander 2013, just like they were in Commander 2014. The theme was hinted at in the title but was definitely present when playing the decks right out of the box. The Boros deck was really the only letdown of the bunch but still, the overall set was very well-designed.
Enter Commander 2017. The number of decks reduced by 1. The price increased by $5. The theme wasn't color combination but actually theme (which would make sense from the fact that there is no longer 5 decks). Granted, having a commander deck already dedicated to a theme (tribal, in this case) was a great idea because players tend to build commander decks dedicated to tribal (sliver, goblins, angels, etc.). Their choice for tribes was well-received and the product wasn't as good only when compared to the success of the previous year. Praise aside, it doesn't change the fact that many players complained about the price and 1 less deck. This was a clear indication of the lack of ideas within WotC for commander. They were beginning to break the age-old rule of "if it ain't broken, don't fix it."
If the well of ideas is running dry, the player base is always full of them. Undoubtedly WotC has people scouring social media for opinions from the community and there are plenty of amazing ideas from players of the game (hell, even I started designing a commander-type format where you could use two commanders called Boss & Mini-Boss and a year later partner as a mechanic was a thing). Due to the backlash of the price increase for a smaller product you'd think WotC would at least revert back to 5 decks. Nope. They revealed Commander 2018. It would continue having only 4 decks and the price would increase even more. It would appear that the lesson wasn't learned from the previous year. What about the quality? The theme again wasn't color but theme itself. Strategy matters. That's fine. But the decks were even less designed around this major selling point than the decks from previous years, where the theme was only hinted at. Not only that, but for a higher price, players expected reprints to justify that increase. Nope. Not even that. So this past commander product didn't repeat what made the past products successful, it instead repeated what made the previous product unsuccessful. If you're going to market Commander 2018 as a theme-matters deck, make the theme actually matter; give it support. If you're going to have these decks cost $10 than what players were usually paying for, add more sought after reprints. The printing/packaging/marketing process might increase as time passes. That's true. Inflation, the economy, etc. as well. However, printing a Zombie token costs the same as printing Force of Will. If you're compensating the price for production costs, than produce better cards.
My prediction for a future set is not really a prediction more so than a hope. Here's what I hope they do:
Continue the trend of 5 decks and not 4.
There would be more options to buy from, especially if the cost is $40. I've bought at least one commander deck each year except the past two years. Price was a major factor and decklist was the other. Which brings me to my next point.
If price will not reduce, add more reprints.
If I am going to shell out $40, at least make it worth my money. It's not about adding Zendikar fetches or Mana Crypt, etc.; it's about putting more powerful cards if they're gonna stick to a theme and would be helpful to have a deck out of the box. If I have to invest money in upgrading the deck because I like its theme and the new cards, at least help me save that money that I've also spent in the vanilla product. Which brings me to my next point.
Theme.
Story and lore have been a major selling point recently in sets. As someone who has been playing MtG on/off since Fallen Empires, the lore always attracted me to the game. The theme for the next commander product should definitely be a viable Vorthos. Sagas could be reprinted or new Sagas could be designed. More legendary characters to serve both in flavor as well as mechanically. If 5 decks are made then each highlighted/main commander should be an old character that hasn't yet been printed on a card (no new, unknown characters for the main commanders). Since the point is multiplayer, each deck could contain the antagonists/protagonists of opposing decks. For example, if Ulgrotha is a chosen plane, one deck having Baron Sengir and his allies (even characters that haven't been printed on a card yet) could be in one deck and then other decks could contain his opponents (Reveka, Autumn Willow, Sandruu, and characters that haven't had a card yet). So when you're playing all 5 decks against each other, major characters from major stories could all be on the battlefield either assisting each other or facing off against each other.
Simplified, say for example the 5 planes (I'll choose 4 because I'm betting on there only being 4 decks) are Ulgrotha, Kamigawa, Shadowmoor/Lorwyn, and Tarkir. Then each deck would have a faction from each of those planes. Let's say one of the decks is BUG. It might contain Oona, Baron Sengir, Ravi, Tasigur, etc. and other characters that have yet to receive a card (I know Homelands is on the Reserved List so those characters might get a different card instead of a reprint). Another deck could have their allies and then a different deck could have their enemies. Thus, it's flavor could be 2HG similar to Battlebond. You could have two decks that become 5-colored by having them be BUG and UBR when teamed together and the other two be GWU and RGW. If you're going to be putting out 4 decks, then you might as well allow for not just a 4-player free-for-all, but also two-headed giant.
Mechanics.
I think that every other commander-inspired mechanic should make a comeback. Partner, join forces, eminence, this planeswalker can be your commander, etc.
That's it for my analysis/rant prediction/hopefulness. After two years of subpar commander products when compared to past years I just want WotC to stick to the formula that rang true. Coca-Cola learned that the hard way long before WotC. Surely they'll learn from their mistakes.
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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!
I could see them making a Bant colored Serra eventually, you know to cover her time outside of her realm, specifically during her marriage to Feroz.
Bonus points if she has "partner with" a Feroz planeswalker card. And they should both have some sort of synergistic ultimate ability. After all, together they took down Taysir who is individually more powerful than either of them.
I second that.
From the lore Feroz looks more like a mono-blue walker, tho, so I'm not sure where the green could come from. I don't think that pulling another Tamiyo, Field Researcher (shoehorning in 1 or 2 colors because of balance) would be a good idea.
Serra outside of her realm was always depicted as someone who used both green, white, and blue mana. Indeed, the first set that referred to her as a planeswalker directly was Homelands, and there she was associated with those three colors. As for Feroz, he should either be UR because of him being an elementalist, or WUB, to go with the Wizards' School he founded. Either way it would make the pair of them four colored together.
Indeed, I was pretty sad that Serra wasn't Bant colored in her first iteration, but since people closely associate her with her realm and the angels, I understand why they did it.
I wonder if we'll be getting a "Serra's Wedding Ring" legendary artifact...
Still, there are plenty of named old-walkers to pick from should WotC decide to go that route again this year (which, let's be honest, is unlikely), I mean, how many people here remember Manatarqua, Geyadrone Dihada, or Worzel? How about Ravi, Terrent Amese, or Sandruu? And those aren't even the most obscure named ones. Heck, for some of them, we have little more than a name.
I still think that if they repeat a theme this year, then tribal will be it, but I think it more likely we'll get another theme, such as planes (two old, two "new", one of which we will visit in the near future).
It'd be great to have two shard-colored planeswalker partners to have another 4-colored deck between Serra and Feroz. It'd also be cool to have a 5C deck with 5 different Taysir's - one for each color, that when assembled wins you the game on upkeep or end of turn (like Biovisionary).
Slowly but surely we're getting the 9 titans printed. We had Freyalise, Lord Windgrace, and Urza (his head, at least). Maybe at trickle speed but we could probably get Commodore Guff, Daria, Bo Levar, Tevesh Szat, and Kristina, as well. If they do Taysir I still think it'd be epic to have each of his 5 monocolored versions as a seperate planeswalker card. And when you control all 5 you win the game.
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
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That would be great since WotC experimented with playing with your opponents stuff a lot more with the agents of S.N.E.A.K. in Unstable. MtG has for the longest time been stealing player's permanents (or turns) with red and blue (mostly) and it would be great to continue seeing that. Maybe another 4-colored legend? A nonG legend that facilitates this. Or at least a pair of partners that do. And hopefully some black-bordered effects similar to what was done in Unstable. That's definitely an archetype that's not really that existent or supported yet.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
Totally agree. That was my point exactly. Past decks which had underlying themes that weren't pushed in your face that had way more cohesiveness than the 2018 decks which were supposed actually to have a devoted theme. For the amount of money they cost, they should've been way worth it. The Challenger Decks, on the other hand, are amazing out of the box and well above their value. You can play them in Standard and actually do something in FNM. Why not have that same philosophy for Commander? It's a casual format but if the theme is land-matters, where are all the clutch land-matters cards? They're not even all super expensive. For example, Azusa, Lost but Seeking has been reprinted enough that it's not as expensive, etc.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
I like that idea of heroes and villains. I would make the Jeskai one Azorius instead, so it can mirror the villains one.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
In comparison to this last point, Commander 2013 had multiple loose themes that players could build upon after playing enough with them out of the box. For example, Nekusar, the Mindrazer has a light wheeling theme that could've been built upon more with additional cards and Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge was spellslinger. But the deck could've been played out of the box. You could've even built both generals if you wanted to because there were enough support cards for them to get started. Compared to Commander 2018, the gimmick was theme-matters yet the lands-matter deck was hardly dedicated to that theme. The C13 Grixis deck had more support for wheeling than C18 Jund had for lands. And that says a lot.
The problem wasn't WotC running out of ideas and thus changing the formula to try new things or get themselves out of the hole of designer's block. The first commander product was wedge legends because there were hardly any (and they lost a good opportunity to print wedge lairs for the Planar Chaos versions of the 5 dragons which were reprinted in each deck - whose Planeshift versions had shard lairs) and introduced some great multiplayer mechanics. The second actual commander product (C13) introduced command-zone matters mechanics to solidify commander as a bona fide format. Commander 2014 introduced the notion of planeswalker commanders which would then be an intended attraction (and differentiation) to Brawl. Commander 2016, considered by many to be the best of the series, finally gave 4-colored legendary creatures (sorry, nephelim) as well as partner commanders. This ambitious set gave so, so many possibilities for commanders that it was undoubtedly very difficult to top.
Even Commander 2015 was a step up from the mono-colored decks of the previous year (albeit by only a single-color). What was unique about this product was the experience counter mechanic which is great by design standards because it makes the commander's presence felt even while in other zones until you can take advantage from it. The decks were balanced between each other and the themes within them were more solid than Commander 2013, just like they were in Commander 2014. The theme was hinted at in the title but was definitely present when playing the decks right out of the box. The Boros deck was really the only letdown of the bunch but still, the overall set was very well-designed.
Enter Commander 2017. The number of decks reduced by 1. The price increased by $5. The theme wasn't color combination but actually theme (which would make sense from the fact that there is no longer 5 decks). Granted, having a commander deck already dedicated to a theme (tribal, in this case) was a great idea because players tend to build commander decks dedicated to tribal (sliver, goblins, angels, etc.). Their choice for tribes was well-received and the product wasn't as good only when compared to the success of the previous year. Praise aside, it doesn't change the fact that many players complained about the price and 1 less deck. This was a clear indication of the lack of ideas within WotC for commander. They were beginning to break the age-old rule of "if it ain't broken, don't fix it."
If the well of ideas is running dry, the player base is always full of them. Undoubtedly WotC has people scouring social media for opinions from the community and there are plenty of amazing ideas from players of the game (hell, even I started designing a commander-type format where you could use two commanders called Boss & Mini-Boss and a year later partner as a mechanic was a thing). Due to the backlash of the price increase for a smaller product you'd think WotC would at least revert back to 5 decks. Nope. They revealed Commander 2018. It would continue having only 4 decks and the price would increase even more. It would appear that the lesson wasn't learned from the previous year. What about the quality? The theme again wasn't color but theme itself. Strategy matters. That's fine. But the decks were even less designed around this major selling point than the decks from previous years, where the theme was only hinted at. Not only that, but for a higher price, players expected reprints to justify that increase. Nope. Not even that. So this past commander product didn't repeat what made the past products successful, it instead repeated what made the previous product unsuccessful. If you're going to market Commander 2018 as a theme-matters deck, make the theme actually matter; give it support. If you're going to have these decks cost $10 than what players were usually paying for, add more sought after reprints. The printing/packaging/marketing process might increase as time passes. That's true. Inflation, the economy, etc. as well. However, printing a Zombie token costs the same as printing Force of Will. If you're compensating the price for production costs, than produce better cards.
My prediction for a future set is not really a prediction more so than a hope. Here's what I hope they do:
Simplified, say for example the 5 planes (I'll choose 4 because I'm betting on there only being 4 decks) are Ulgrotha, Kamigawa, Shadowmoor/Lorwyn, and Tarkir. Then each deck would have a faction from each of those planes. Let's say one of the decks is BUG. It might contain Oona, Baron Sengir, Ravi, Tasigur, etc. and other characters that have yet to receive a card (I know Homelands is on the Reserved List so those characters might get a different card instead of a reprint). Another deck could have their allies and then a different deck could have their enemies. Thus, it's flavor could be 2HG similar to Battlebond. You could have two decks that become 5-colored by having them be BUG and UBR when teamed together and the other two be GWU and RGW. If you're going to be putting out 4 decks, then you might as well allow for not just a 4-player free-for-all, but also two-headed giant.
That's it for my analysis/rant prediction/hopefulness. After two years of subpar commander products when compared to past years I just want WotC to stick to the formula that rang true. Coca-Cola learned that the hard way long before WotC. Surely they'll learn from their mistakes.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
It'd be great to have two shard-colored planeswalker partners to have another 4-colored deck between Serra and Feroz. It'd also be cool to have a 5C deck with 5 different Taysir's - one for each color, that when assembled wins you the game on upkeep or end of turn (like Biovisionary).
Slowly but surely we're getting the 9 titans printed. We had Freyalise, Lord Windgrace, and Urza (his head, at least). Maybe at trickle speed but we could probably get Commodore Guff, Daria, Bo Levar, Tevesh Szat, and Kristina, as well. If they do Taysir I still think it'd be epic to have each of his 5 monocolored versions as a seperate planeswalker card. And when you control all 5 you win the game.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!