So with the release of Battlebond, we now have access to the Partner mechanic at Uncommon. This is very exciting, as partner is a powerful ability for commanders to have, since it basically means we have access to 9 cards in our opening hand every game.
While I have my favourites already, they all seem to have some potential to offer. I'd like to hear what everyone thinks of these new commanders.
Blaring Captain/Blaring Recruiter: Pure value in generating warriors and pumping them with the Captain seems good. Not sure if there are enough Warriors to make it tribal.
Chakram Retriever/Chakram Slinger: My favourite of the bunch. This is a great colour combo and the Retriever can lead to some pretty broken combos. Slinger is less interesting, but could potentially deal a lot of damage if left unchecked.
Impetuous Protege/Proud Mentor: Probably the weakest pair of the bunch. There aren't many go-tall strategies in this format, and those strategies wouldn't be overly concerned with these commanders, given that they probably have hexproof. At least the Protege could swing back for just as much. Seems situational.
Ley Weaver/Lore Weaver: Great colour combo and the abilities are extremely relevant. Ramping on one and drawing 2 on the other is insane. This will make for a great ramp/control deck.
Soulblade Corrupter/Soulblade Renewer: Also not the best, but at least counters are well supported in green. Corrupter giving deathtouch could also be relevant if going wide with lots of pumped tokens or with a trampler. Seems like they need a lot of building around in order to work.
Not exactly sure what you're idea is for PDH here Upkeep. If, say, Blaring Captain is the commander of the deck, the color identity is black, which means Blaring Recruiter is illegal for the deck. If I'm not mistaken, the same is true for all other combinations.
Another question for this forum though: Now that we have so many legendary creatures available at uncommon rarity, is there really a need to diverge from standard EDH rules? I propose that PDH simply becomes EDH with an uncommon legendary commander and commons only cards in the 99. You can do a similar subset for Tiny Leaders, though there are fewer choices available.
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Well, my reasoning is that since you can play partner cards like Krav, the Unredeemed and Regna, the Redeemer as your commanders (both start in the command zone), the same is true for uncommon creatures with partner with PDH rules, like Blaring Captain and Blaring Recruiter. That seemed to make sense in my head, but maybe not?
As for the question of changing PDH to only legendary commanders: I think it would be possible, but I don't think there is quite enough variety of uncommon legendaries to make an interesting format that everyone would enjoy. Right now the format is rich and interesting because of the sheer number of possible commanders and strategies that revolve around them, some not even being possible in normal EDH. I don't think this change would help to grow PDh, personally.
Well, my reasoning is that since you can play partner cards like Krav, the Unredeemed and Regna, the Redeemer as your commanders (both start in the command zone), the same is true for uncommon creatures with partner with PDH rules, like Blaring Captain and Blaring Recruiter. That seemed to make sense in my head, but maybe not?
That is how Partner works with regular Commander since both are the commander of the deck. It stands to reason that is how it would work here. Your "Blaring" deck would be White/Black.
Another question for this forum though: Now that we have so many legendary creatures available at uncommon rarity, is there really a need to diverge from standard EDH rules? I propose that PDH simply becomes EDH with an uncommon legendary commander and commons only cards in the 99. You can do a similar subset for Tiny Leaders, though there are fewer choices available.
I too actually had this thought initially when Dominaria came out with all the Uncommon legendaries. Obviously, if this was implemented, the Partner mechanic doesn't work since no uncommon legendaries have Partner. However, I am with Upkeep on this one: I don't think there are enough options to make it worthwhile. Tiny Leaders is mentioned (though in a slightly different context) but I think if we take that comparison since it is also a variant of commander, we can see that "normal" Tiny Leaders has 181 options for Commanders (excluding Un-Sets). Whereas PDH, if only using real Legendaries at Uncommon, only has 50 options. And this includes the Commons and Uncommons from Legends and Homelands and the ones from Legends are pretty terrible.
Most likely, there needs to be at least 100 (if not at least 200) options to make the format fun and diverse for players. For comparison, there are over 750 options for normal Commander. At the very least, cutting from around 2500+ options to 50 is likely to not go over well.
While I have my favourites already, they all seem to have some potential to offer. I'd like to hear what everyone thinks of these new commanders.
Blaring Captain/Blaring Recruiter: Pure value in generating warriors and pumping them with the Captain seems good. Not sure if there are enough Warriors to make it tribal.
Chakram Retriever/Chakram Slinger: My favourite of the bunch. This is a great colour combo and the Retriever can lead to some pretty broken combos. Slinger is less interesting, but could potentially deal a lot of damage if left unchecked.
Impetuous Protege/Proud Mentor: Probably the weakest pair of the bunch. There aren't many go-tall strategies in this format, and those strategies wouldn't be overly concerned with these commanders, given that they probably have hexproof. At least the Protege could swing back for just as much. Seems situational.
Ley Weaver/Lore Weaver: Great colour combo and the abilities are extremely relevant. Ramping on one and drawing 2 on the other is insane. This will make for a great ramp/control deck.
Soulblade Corrupter/Soulblade Renewer: Also not the best, but at least counters are well supported in green. Corrupter giving deathtouch could also be relevant if going wide with lots of pumped tokens or with a trampler. Seems like they need a lot of building around in order to work.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
Another question for this forum though: Now that we have so many legendary creatures available at uncommon rarity, is there really a need to diverge from standard EDH rules? I propose that PDH simply becomes EDH with an uncommon legendary commander and commons only cards in the 99. You can do a similar subset for Tiny Leaders, though there are fewer choices available.
A series of seven articles using Magic to explore the very stuff of the Universe!
"At least for those who can play cards, their present incarnation is not quite wasted."
[Click here for the articles!]
As for the question of changing PDH to only legendary commanders: I think it would be possible, but I don't think there is quite enough variety of uncommon legendaries to make an interesting format that everyone would enjoy. Right now the format is rich and interesting because of the sheer number of possible commanders and strategies that revolve around them, some not even being possible in normal EDH. I don't think this change would help to grow PDh, personally.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
I too actually had this thought initially when Dominaria came out with all the Uncommon legendaries. Obviously, if this was implemented, the Partner mechanic doesn't work since no uncommon legendaries have Partner. However, I am with Upkeep on this one: I don't think there are enough options to make it worthwhile. Tiny Leaders is mentioned (though in a slightly different context) but I think if we take that comparison since it is also a variant of commander, we can see that "normal" Tiny Leaders has 181 options for Commanders (excluding Un-Sets). Whereas PDH, if only using real Legendaries at Uncommon, only has 50 options. And this includes the Commons and Uncommons from Legends and Homelands and the ones from Legends are pretty terrible.
Most likely, there needs to be at least 100 (if not at least 200) options to make the format fun and diverse for players. For comparison, there are over 750 options for normal Commander. At the very least, cutting from around 2500+ options to 50 is likely to not go over well.