MTG Salvation

Okay, Toggo made me laugh. The whole first half setting up for "Equipment named Rock" is pure genius, and the fact this "Weaponsmith" is an Artificer just makes it better.

It's also a very good Uncommon Partner too. Sure the Rocks are kinda useless but it's still a plentiful supply of Artifacts for all kinds of shenanigans.

Quote from 5colors »

He seems really fun just not sure who'd I wanna partner with him.

Well Thrasios, Triton Hero is the obvious one if you don't mind paying 40 bucks for a Commander that comes with a free target attached to it.

I love this so much. Get 2 Myth Unbounds (via Mirrormade / Clever Impersonator / Estrid's Invocation etc.) and any sac outlet and go to combotown baby.

Quote from Silent Wind »

The white monarch enchantment is thrash, well... where's the surprise right?

I honestly think this is the best one so far though. Self mill and damaging opponents doesn't hold a candle to actual card advantage and generating an army with evasion is the easiest way to maintain the monarchy. As mentioned above, White also has the best tools for pillowforting and is also the color that wants a source of continuous card draw the most.

Quote from Zero_Origin720 »

A token/toughness matters/life gain deck? Sounds janky on paper, but I actually like where this is going. As far as potential partners go, Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper really stands out. This could allow you to run Doran, the Siege Tower instead of High Alert. Also, if Prava of the Steel Legion is the only way you buff the actual power of your tokens, you could also run Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa in the 99 to sneak that combat damage in. Then include some lifegain payoffs such as Sanguine Bond and call it a day.

Adding B also gives you all the benefits of Zombie tribal, which often deals with 2/2 tokens too. Just imagine resolving an Army of the Damned with Prava and Angelic Chorus. Sure, lifegain doesn't wins games, but gaining 78 life in one fell swoop sure does helps.
Overall, don't think it's a super powerful Commander, but as I said, of all the Uncommon Partners, so far this is one of my favorites.

This is interesting. At the very least, it's a Glorious Anthem for tokens, with the drawback of only being during your own turn and the upside of having a mana sink attached. If you have no synergies to work with, it's fine, but unexciting.

Getting a massive butt during your own turn is only marginally useful, so the real question is, "how can I abuse this toughness boost?". High Alert, Huatli, the Sun's Heart and Assault Formation are the obvious choice, and suddenly dropping an army of 5/5s should not be underestimated. Loxodon Lifechanter and Angelic Chorus can skyrocket your life total to massive numbers. Dropping Towering Titan on a decently sized board can make a Giant big enough to one-shot players.
Problem is... I don't think there are quite enough payoffs to make this work. I think that as far as Uncommon Commander Partners goes, this one is actually one of the most interesting ones, but we still need more Toughness matters cards to get there.

I love how Amphin are basically MTG's equivalent of mole men or reptilians at this point.

As for the card itself... it's okay. It's a shame it has less to do with Salamanders and more to do with pillowforting though. It's also a real shame that the two things you'd want to do with him the most (keep a low creature count to get a Salamander yourself, and control the number of creatures on board to ensure multiple players get a Salamander) are the two things that UG isn't good at.

Quote from CatParty »

Salamanders earned their association with fire and flames due to the fact that people harvesting wood for fireplaces in the winter would often find salamanders scurrying out of their fireplace after adding another log. It was thought that salamanders originated in the flames of fireplaces. People didn't realize that they were just living in the damp logs harvested from the woods.

To elaborate even further, the "Salamanders as fire spirits" trope comes from the theories of the alchemist Paracelsus, which defined the four spirits as Sylph, Gnome, Undine and Salamander, each one of those mythological creatures associated with one element, which ended up defining "elementals" in fantasy. Sure old myths had stuff like Dryads and Nymphs and Fire Giants but those beings were byproducts of their ambient, it was Paracelsus's Four Elements theory that really defined the idea of a being embodying an element of nature.

Maelstrom Colossus is very nice. Many important cards for Colorless EDH are on the six or seven mana range. It costing 8 seems like the perfect spot for those decks so I can see this seeing play, if only because Colorless has a limited card pool.

Quote from CatParty »

Just curious - what is an "etched foil"? I see this card got the clear textbox and white-font treatment that many set promos have received in recent years, but what is "etched"?

The foiling has a heavy texture to it and it's applied to the border instead of the art. It should feel the same as any other card but the foiling does makes the border "pop" while giving the impression of the art being lower than usual by contrast so that's probably why they called it "etched". See here.

Yup, both pretty boring. Wyleth at least is a nice option for Voltron shenanigans for the color combo but as mentioned above he would be much more exciting if we literally didn't just get Akiri.
As for the other cards... the Kraken is a nice tool for Landfall decks and the White aura will be Sram's BFF but other than that they are also pretty lukewarm.

I don't mind WotC toning down the power level of Commander precons - I don't want every Commander related product to be packed with Fierce Guardianships - but those are just... meh. Hopefully the reprints will make up for it.

Quote from 5ColorsEDH »

There was a leak of a Grixis legendary with the ability: End the Turn.

Yup, but that hint can't be alluding to that one though, that legend has way more than 4 words of rules text and the Time Stop reminder text for "ending the turn" falls short with only 37 words total.

It could also be something akin to Maelstrom Wanderer, since Cascade reminder text is actually pretty lenghty, but that would feel wrong because... well, Maelstrom Wanderer already exists, and there's not much design space in 4 words with one of them being "Cascade".

• A creature with four words of rules text and fifty-two words of reminder text

Oooh, now that sounds exciting. Seems we'll be doing with "end the turn" and "you control target opponent" levels of shenanigans here. And it's likely to be a static ability too - not sure if MaRo would pull a "well technically mana costs aren't text" on us but at the very least it's impossible for it to be an ETB/Dies effect.
If I had to guess, this could be "All players share graveyards". Would be a reasonable static effect for a creature, lots of zany Commander applications and would require a LOT of reminder text to explain the nuances of the effect.

• “You and permanents you control have protection from Salamanders”

So it's finally time for Amphins to be a thing? Either that or it's a reference to Paracelsus' Four Elemental Spirits. Either way, sounds cool.

• Legendary Creature – Rabbit Wizard

Interesting. Currently we have no planes with anthropomorphic rabbits (well, technically Kamigawa but those aren't typed as "Rabbits"), so I'd guess this is either a plant for future sets or some Eldraine wizard that got afflicted by some witch's curse.

Real missed opportunity to not have Tamiyo with her kids in one of the cards. Other than that, solid drop for a great cause.

It would be weird to get two sets of overlapping mono-gods in Standard, so wouldn't be surprised to get 2c gods in Kaldheim. Speaking of, Alrund is totally Odin, while Reidane seems to be some hybrid goddess. Her visual motif seems to evoke the Valkyries, which in turn are closely related to Freyja, but her title comes from Tyr and in her belt I think I can see a blue horn thing which could be a Gjallarhorn stand-in.

The Shapeshifters are the most curious of the bunch imo. Their wings, staff and masks seem to have a heavy raven motif, which in Norse myths are symbols of Odin, but on the other hand shapeshifting has always been something associated with Loki. I doubt they'd combine Odin and Loki in a single god, so no idea what's the deal here.

Quote from Decadent_Creed »

You control your opponents during each of their upkeeps would be a boring incarnation.

Can't be that one cuz controlling an opponent means you can tap all their lands and let the unspent mana go away. If you control their upkeep, you lock them out of playing anything Sorcery speed.

Clue #3 seems interesting. What kind of drawback could balance a Worst Fears for all opponents and in a permanent's Continuous effect? My first thought would be something like Underworld Breach, aka. a permanent with a spell-like effect that sacs itself after a while, but maybe it's something super narrow, like "You control your opponents while X is being targeted by a spell" or something.