Just as a suggestion, I would make your deck helmed by Ruric Thar. While he is a removal magnet, I've noticed in a few of the cutthroat metas I've played in that he tends to stop the game for noncreature heavy decks because no one wants to take it to the dome for getting rid of him. Might be worth trying.
Prowling Serpopard is only a buck and could help if you're seeing your stuff get countered a lot.
Dragonlair Spider gives you some incremental advantage against your opponents.
Figures we get something mildly interesting and they nerf it out of the gate. I still don't get how you just forget to put the rest of the text on the card.
I'm never the guy that bashes a set based on early spoilers, but I gotta say barring maybe 4-5 cards everything we've gotten so far feels like DGM leftovers. Not hyped at all so far.
I actually quite like the card, but I don't get to use it very often any more. Back in the day when I first started playing EDH, my card pool was much more limited and everyone in my meta was running Blightsteel Colossus . I liked to run Acquire in my Rafiq deck and proceed to run people over with someone else's Blightsteel.
I think it's a solid budget card, and easily fits within a "steal all the things" type of theme deck too.
Windgrace will take over my lands deck, currently helmed by Kynaios and Tiro, so that I can add in the black "lands" goodies and convert the latter back into enchantress.
Brudiclad is going to take over the Locust God for a while, with LG being in the 99 and modifying the deck to be more focused on token themes. Protip: Shared Animosity and Mana Echoes will still be nuts in the deck.
And Varina is the esper zombie Lord I've been waiting for so long to get. She's not perfect, but I'm still giddy to get it. Being the raging nerd that I am, I'm going to have to find someone to alter her into Sylvanas and finally live that (dumb) dream.
I've bought every commander deck for the last few years, I'll be getting singles this time. For $160, I'm quite sure I can get all the singles I want and still have cash left in hand.
I'm really disappointed that they decided to water these down so much more than last year, which was already weaker than previous years, and then upcharge us to boot. Hopefully everyone is committed to speaking with their wallets and passing these by.
Card effect is neat and really embodies the feel of the EDH mentality of "big mana for big, ridiculous effect". As others have mentioned this spell is going to be nuts when copied.
As a dad I really like the art, even if it feels more modern (I tend to like the old or more high fantasy focused pieces). It gives the character an air of child-like innocence that her walker card doesn't display.
I've used this serval times to stop an alpha strike in it's tracks. Sudden Spoiling is probably better in most situations, but I wouldn't scoff at this one.
I run it in Locust God, so it's even juicier when I get to trade my 1/1 insects for their entire board.
I think it's a good middle-of-the-road counterspell, not the best but far from the worst and is a budget option for those just getting into the format. As someone else mentioned, it's also great in Daxos of Meletis.
It's the type of card that's a solid combo-breaker and it seems like it's always there when you need to survive just one more turn.
I've got a Lord of Riots deck that does pretty much what you think - janky damage dealers, lots of Eldrazi, artifact and colorless creatures. It's fun to play and can be incredibly explosive, but it can fall apart really easily if the table is focusing you which tends to happen a lot when you start free casting Eldrazi titans on turn 4.
It's kind of on the nose, but have you considered replacing them with the clue stones? They're 1 cmc higher across the board but you can at least ditch them to draw a card if need be.
Barrin, Master Wizard and Claws of Gix give you an effect for sacrificing any permanent while Slobad and Bosh give you a repeatable artifact sac outlet.
Throne of Geth could be useful if you're planning to sacrifice a lot of artifacts over the course of the game and Trading Post can be a swiss army knife.
There's a ton out there and they can span the gamut from "punish you for doing anything" to "lock you out of the game completely". Mardu is my favorite punisher color combo, and there's a fair number powerful commanders in the color scheme to fit this archetype. Among them, I'd recommend:
Does he do anything for Alesha? Seems like a place he could still do some work.
I don't see how, once its soulbound its known information, and cant switch to create combat tricks.
The idea being that if he's a recurrable double strike enabler in a deck that cares about combat seems like a good fit, but I have never piloted or faced an Alesha list so I can't speak from personal experience.
Good call, totally forgot about that guy and he's super cheap to boot at only $1.
Prowling Serpopard is only a buck and could help if you're seeing your stuff get countered a lot.
Dragonlair Spider gives you some incremental advantage against your opponents.
Krosan Drover is a great cost reducer.
Decimator of the Provinces can be a decent budget option for Craterhoof.
I'm never the guy that bashes a set based on early spoilers, but I gotta say barring maybe 4-5 cards everything we've gotten so far feels like DGM leftovers. Not hyped at all so far.
I think it's a solid budget card, and easily fits within a "steal all the things" type of theme deck too.
Brudiclad is going to take over the Locust God for a while, with LG being in the 99 and modifying the deck to be more focused on token themes. Protip: Shared Animosity and Mana Echoes will still be nuts in the deck.
And Varina is the esper zombie Lord I've been waiting for so long to get. She's not perfect, but I'm still giddy to get it. Being the raging nerd that I am, I'm going to have to find someone to alter her into Sylvanas and finally live that (dumb) dream.
I'm really disappointed that they decided to water these down so much more than last year, which was already weaker than previous years, and then upcharge us to boot. Hopefully everyone is committed to speaking with their wallets and passing these by.
As a dad I really like the art, even if it feels more modern (I tend to like the old or more high fantasy focused pieces). It gives the character an air of child-like innocence that her walker card doesn't display.
I run it in Locust God, so it's even juicier when I get to trade my 1/1 insects for their entire board.
It's the type of card that's a solid combo-breaker and it seems like it's always there when you need to survive just one more turn.
Barrin, Master Wizard and Claws of Gix give you an effect for sacrificing any permanent while Slobad and Bosh give you a repeatable artifact sac outlet.
Throne of Geth could be useful if you're planning to sacrifice a lot of artifacts over the course of the game and Trading Post can be a swiss army knife.
Ob Nixilis, Unshackled
Painful Quandry
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
Blind Obedience
Blinding Angel
Charging Cinderhorn
Sin Prodder
Kaervek the Merciless
There's a ton out there and they can span the gamut from "punish you for doing anything" to "lock you out of the game completely". Mardu is my favorite punisher color combo, and there's a fair number powerful commanders in the color scheme to fit this archetype. Among them, I'd recommend:
Tariel, Reckoner of Souls
Zurgo Helmsmasher
Tymna the Weaver & Vial Smasher the Fierce
The idea being that if he's a recurrable double strike enabler in a deck that cares about combat seems like a good fit, but I have never piloted or faced an Alesha list so I can't speak from personal experience.