MTG Salvation

The responses to the CAG are interesting, but the first thing that I thought of hasn't been brought up yet; I figured that this was a way for the RC to groom their successors. By giving them real-wold exposure to Commander players, giving them access to how the RC does things, and giving the RC hands-on experience with the CAG members, they can make sure that the next generation of the EDH Rules Committee is ready when it is time for some of the more senior members to step aside.

And I think that there is nothing wrong with them being content providers. They are already public figures and a familiar face to certain segments of the Commander community, they have a built-in forum for disseminating information or opinions, and they have access to lots of player feedback as part of what they do. Seems to me like these would be the kinds of people who you can go to not just hear their own opinions, but that they would also have a hand on the pulse of their audience.

Total off-the-wall guess:

- The deck colors will be UWR Jeskai, UBG Sultai , BW Orzhov, and RG Gruul. These are all combination that haven't been done in C17 or C18, gives us an even distribution of colors, and gives us colors in most need of some new options for generals.

- WUR Jeskai will be aggro spellslinger, utilizing Young Pyromancer and Monastery Mentor type cards in combination with removal and control spells to get all aggro-control. Maybe they include a few Commander-oriented Prowess or Replicate effects.

- UBG Sultai will be midrange, utilizing the graveyard as a resource somehow maybe with a couple new Delve spells or Cycling Matters cards that are EDH-oriented.

- BW Orzhov will be board control, with Wraths, Life Drain effects, and some reanimation with a couple new Extort cards

- RG Gruul will be Werewolves or Hydras and plenty of reasons to want to either play multiple spells a turn or X-spell matters themed.

I think the biggest thing is going to be deciding which theme to concentrate on for each guild. Some guilds are pretty much set; Selesnya's mechanics of Convoke, Populate, and Convoke again are prime for going down a tokens theme route, and Simic is almost mandatory that it be a +1/+1 counter deck with Graft, Evolve, and Adapt. Differentiating Boros from Rakdos is also going to be hard given that they are kinds in all-out attack mode.

Anyway, I think that once you start looking at all the various 10-card cycles that permeate through the various Ravnica blocks, you will see cards that will become auto-includes for each deck. For example, each guild was given an artifact and a land with a guild-colored activation cost in the original Ravnica block, and all of those cards are very "in-tune" with what those guilds are all about.

Geriatic Druid GG
Creature - Elder Elf Druid
Geriatric Druid enters the battlefield tapped and does not uptap during your untap step.
Whenever an Elf enters the battlefield, untap Geriatric Druid.
, return Geriatric Druid to your hand: Add GGGG to your mana pool.
Slow and steady wins the race, but extremely slow and extremely steady wins the war.

Granite-Hewer Shaman 2RG
Creature - Elder Shaman
When Granite-Hewer Shaman enters the battlefield, sacrifice a Forest or sacrifice Granite-Hewer Shaman.
Whenever Granite-Hewer Shaman deals damage to an opponent, destroy target land that player controls. If you do, search your library for a basic land and put it onto the battlefield tapped.
3/3
We must clear the land before we can mine its possibilities.

What I'm going to be most interested in is how WotC balances putting cool reprints that might have a higher secondary market value in a Commander product, but still try to maintain some sort of price point for the product given that they just announced that they are no longer providing an MSRP for their products.

For a product like this, I can see different places valuing the product differently and there being some big discrepancies between retailers as people try to find the right price point to sell these at. Perhaps (and I hope) most shops will just list them at the old MSRP of $40 in the US and prices will fluctuate up and down based on demand, but if you stick in something like Three Visits (currently $100 on TCG Player; $80 on SCG and CFB) will it drive up the price of the deck that it is in? And if so, by how much?

I'm hoping that what happened with Imperial Recruiter is the norm, where the P3K version is still $150 but the Masters 25 version is only $28 and Masters 25 didn't jump up way in price because it was in the set (although there is a big difference between it being included as a Mythic Rare in a set versus one being included in every deck...)

I guess we'll see in about 6 months....

I've been running Simic Ascendancy in my Vorel deck, and I will have to say that the card is really only dangerous when it lands early. Yes, it can get silly with Doubling Season, Vorel of the Hull Clade, Deepglow Skate, etc. that double up on counter production, but I really just like having the ability to put a +1/+1 counter on anything that needs it for a reasonable cost. Yes, there will be games where somebody goes drops Doubling Season then Kalonian Hydra then activates Vorel on the Hydra and ends up with 32 counters on the Ascendancy in the blink of an eye, but I don't see that being too problematic.

Putting my Spike hat on, if I were playing hyper-competitively I would abuse the heck out of this by running as few as 8 basic lands and maybe 14 lands total and using the ability to basically hit all my land drops until I get to the point where I have no need for land anymore and I just want to draw pure gas.

If you want specific cards that might be more effective, Goblin Charbelcher gets a lot better by not needing something to filter out your lands like Mana Severance; it would be like running 2-land Belcher in Vintage. You could also run all-in Storm combo, where your Mind's Desire and Draw7's hit nothing but gas. I think combo would just gain too much advantage from this.

Of course, this assumes that you are playing against a bunch of other players who are playing decks with normal land ratios. Worst case scenario is that everyone built their deck with the assumption that someone was going to play lands normally, and everyone sits down and passes turn after turn because nobody has any lands and anybody who draws them doesn't want to play them.... God forbid cards like Aven Mindcensor, Leonin Arbiter, Mindlock Orb, or Stranglehold becomes a thing. I think that at that point, people would just stop trying to abuse it and play normally, but who knows.

On a funny note, I would expect Rainbow Vale to spike in price....

While I applaud the out-of-the-box thinking and the willingness to reach out to players to see what kinds of things may be able to be done, I think that this kind of answer to the problem would have to be more along the lines that the player has to be two or maybe even three lands behind in order to achieve the intent and to prevent abuse.

Open Vale G
Enchantment
Tap an untapped creature you control: You may play an additional land this turn.


Overture of the Whispering Willow 1GG
Sorcery
Draw a card for each creature you control, then discard three cards.

The Great Hedron 4
Legendary Artifact
, discard X cards: Add X+2 . Colorless spells played with this mana cannot be countered.


Next - Thraximundar

Elder Soul of Llanowar 1GG
Legendary Creature - Elf Druid Elder
: Add equal to your devotion to green.
1/1
"I have seen and heard much, but only by doing have I truly lived"

Edge of Yesterday 2U
Tribal Enchantment - Elder
Sacrifice four Elder permanents you control: Take an extra turn after this one.
"Only by letting go of yesterday can we look forward to a brighter tomorrow."

Ailaak, Temple Mistress 2UBR
Legendary Creature - Angel
Flying
Whenever a white creature enters the battlefield, each opponent loses one life.
As long as you control a Cleric, Ailaak gets +2/+2 and gains Deathtouch.
Partner with Clerics (You can have two Commanders as long as the other one is a Cleric)
3/4

Next - A Commander that steals lands, but gives them back at end of turn.

Tezzeret, Tidehollow Scrapper 3U
Legendary Creature - Human Rogue
Whenever a creature you control dies, you may gain control of target artifact with equal or lesser converted mana cost than that creature.
3U: Target permanent becomes an artifact in addition to its other card types until end of turn.
2/3
His peers gave him the nickname Tezzeret, which in Tidehollow slang meant 'the improvised weapon'.

Next - Partner commanders for a pair of people that appear on the same Legendary Creature card like Pia and Kiran Nalaar, Tibor and Lumia, Anax and Cymede, Gisa and Geralf, Firesong and Sunspeaker, Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis, or Mina and Denn, Wildborn.

I had been wondering this same question myself. One of my oldest decks is a Niv-Mzzet, the Firemind deck that I have had since 2008. The Locust God was a natural inclusion in the deck when it came out, but I never thought of replacing Niv-Mizzet as the Commander. Niv-Mizzet, the Parun however is definitely better than the original with +1/+1 added to the stats, uncounterability, and the ability to generate several draws in a turn AND still be able to attack. The only reason I have resisted making the change to The Parun is that wicked casting cost of UUURRR, which in the grand scheme of things shouldn't be a big deal but I run so many colorless/artifact sources of mana that I fear not being able to cast it whenever I really need it.

In the end, I decided that making the transition to Niv-Mizzet, the Parun as the Commander and moving Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind to the 99 makes the most sense. This has forced me to clean up some of the mana and move towards running more colored sources (specifically, getting rid of Mikokoro, Center of the Sea, Desolate Lighthouse, Blighted Cataract, and Temple of the False God for another Fetchland and 3 more basics, and switching up my artifact mana to include Commander's Sphere, Chromatic Lantern, and Izzet Locket in lieu of Grim Monolith, Mana Vault, and Voltaic Key).

I think that if you have the mana base to support it, Niv-Mizzet, the Parun is the way to go. It is definitely the most powerful of the options for decks that want to take advantage of drawing tons of cards and doling out damage for something that you typically want to do anyway.

Quote from void_nothing »

Quote from Gashnaw »

Commander/EDH has always used Legendary Creatures. The planeswalkers were pretty much a one time thing (With the exception of the Kenrith twins) So you have 7 planewalkers that can be your ocmmander.

Twelve. Kenrith Twins and two cycles.

It's actually only 11. One of the cycles only had four given that they switched from 5 decks per year to 4.

What Boros really needs is better ways to ramp mana and draw cards.

Boros Commander 1WR
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier
First Strike
Whenever a Mountain enters the battlefield under your control, exile the top card of your library. Until end of turn, you may play that card as if it were in your hand.
Whenever a Plains enters the battlefield under your control, if an opponent has more lands in play than you you may search your library for a Plains and put it into play tapped.
3/3

You can otherwise get really crazy with one or the other

Boros Freewheeler 2WR
Legendary Creature - Human Renegade
Haste
When Boros Freewheeler enters the battlefield, each player discards their hand and draws seven cards.
4/3

Boros Freemason 1WR
Legendary Creature - Human Shaman
Vigilance
When Boros Freemason enters the battlefield, choose an opponent;

• If that opponent has one or more lands in play than you, search your library for a Plains, put it onto the battlefield, and shuffle your library.
• If that opponent has three or more lands in play than you, you may search your library for two lands instead.
• If that opponent has five or more lands in play than you, you may search your library for three lands instead and destroy target non-basic land that player controls.

2/3

I think that would be the kinds of lengths you would need to go to in order to "solve" R/W's problems in EDH. The issue really isn't that RW hasn't been getting some powerful effects in its Commanders, it is more that the commanders with the powerful effects just cost so much damn mana.