I'd personally fill the deck with as many wraths (martial coup, phyrexian rebirth...), (not severely overcosted) removal spells (ruinous path, aether gale...), and mana rocks as available, then add whatever does CA for cheap and/or benefit from Aminatou's blinking (duplicant, my battlesphere, phyrexian delver... probably even pilgrim's eye). Perhaps with a little artifact subtheme as there is quite a number of interesting artifacts in there (especially steel hellkite and mimic vat in addition to the previously mentioned ones).
There isn't a lot of 1-4CMC interesting creatures in those colors, so you're likely to have a quite heavy curve (hence the ramp and the wraths... also make sure to run enough lands). Fortunately, your opponents aren't much better off than you are and shouldn't get too much of a lead. Hopefully, you'll catch up in the late game.
I'm personally mostly worried about him essentially flashing in anything you want by discarding it at instant speed. I'm not sure how powerful a vedalken orrery (that also makes CA) in the command zone is (if it were to prove problematic, perhaps DJK3654's suggestion could come in handy).
Maybe you meant Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker? Or Seshiro? Or perhaps Toshiro? The only mtg-related Mihiro I could find was a seemingly not extremely well-known japanese player that played in a GP.
Btw, since we're talking about kamigawa, there are a lot of weird legends that I don't see often in those sets, things like sasaya, orochi ascendant, patron of the orochi (I mean, that's basically a seedborn muse in the command zone), sakiko, mother of summer, iname, life aspect (although a spirit tribal in mono-green certainly is challenging), celestial kirin, reki, the history of kamigawa... admittedly a lot of those aren't extremely good and they're all monocolored but I think there certainly are some weird janky decks to build there.
As for phelddagriff, well I don't know, I never played him :/
I'm not sure I'd like this mechanic if the laws all stayed around forever. Enchantments are usually harder to get rid of than creatures, and so far, this mechanic basically is a better way of sticking an ability on a creature (now, your opponent needs an anti-enchantment to get rid of that effect, and you still get to keep the creature if he has one).
I think it'd be more interesting (and probably easier to design at common) if most of those laws had a limited duration. Perhaps they should have a triggered ability that'll end up sacrificing them (e.g. "Whenever a creature attacks, sacrifice this law. If you do, exile that creature.", or "Spells cost 1 more to cast. At the beginning of each end step, if no spells were cast this turn, sacrifice this law.", or simply sacrifice them at the beginning of your next upkeep). Maybe that could help a bit with having a lot of different tokens too (I mean, if most laws disappear after a while, you're less likely to have a lot of multiple different laws at the same time and you don't have to remember what they do for very long).
I don't think I'm a very good critique, but here are my thougts on them:
I think Hamaliel is busted. It may cost seven, but it's very close to a more abusable and indestructible paradox engine in the command zone (actually I'm even tempted to compare it with omniscience). It probably should only trigger when opponents cast spells, perhaps specify nonland permanents, or untap only 2 or 3 permanents.
I like Ambriel's ability. However, be aware that if you choose to have creatures you control become copies, then Ambriel will also become a copy of that creature (and will lose his previous abilities). I'm not sure I like double-strike in esper colors (well, that's not really offcolor since it includes white at least), but I admit it goes nicely with the illustration and the gemini zodiac sign.
Muriel makes me a bit wary as searching a library usually is a time-consuming process, in particular when it's an opponent's in a 99-cards highlander format.
Malahidael seems fine to me, I'm not really sure I understand why he's green, but why not.
I suspect Advachiel can generate way too much mana (compare for instance with grand warlord radha). Those tokens should probably go away once tapped for mana or something.
Barbiel is interesting, but I don't think he should be able to target lands. His ability is also very easy to abuse as you can trigger it yourself (unlike karmic justice), perhaps a bit too much.
Barchiel sounds fine, although I'm not sure I understand why he has flying. His ability is original, and I think you could build something around it, which is nice.
Zuriel is… nuts? Well, for starters, his ability triggers itself which probably isn't intended (you should probably say "casts a spell from his or her hand" or something).(I missed the "after paying its mana cost clause") Even fixed, this looks completely degenerate to me. I mean, with the amount of combos and other broken cards in EDH, I feel like 90% of the time, if that ability would trigger, the last non-active player will win.
Asmodel somewhat makes me think of saskia, except you'll want to attack the chosen player rather than the opposite. His ability seems fine, but a 6/5 haste trample indestructible is already quite strong (perhaps a bit too much for 6 mana), I'm not sure what to think of it.
Cambiel will probably combo out way too fast, same with Hanael. There's a reason why gifts ungiven is banned in commander, anything that can fetch multiple cards with very few restrictions is extremely suspicious.
Verchiel is interesting, quite reminiscent of charisma. If anything perhaps indestructible is too problematic on him though, but that might be one of the fairest cards.
I see that you gave each of them indestructible. While I understand you want them to be "divine" beings, I'm not sure this is a very good decision as they will all be quite hard to deal with (I mean, that's indestructible's point) while they all have extremely powerful abilities on top of that. I'm also a bit disappointed not to see complete color cycles, although 12 admittedly isn't a very convenient number for that.
Otherwise, I like that each of them have fairly simple and short rule text (that's something I often struggle with).
Hi!
If the recently spoiled Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle were to enter the battlefield while there's a blood moon out, does he enters tapped, untapped, or does his controller decide?
I personally think he would enter tapped as he would exist as a non-land creature (with all his abilities) on the battlefield unless the (single) replacement effect stating he enters tapped and with the slumber counters has already been applied to him entering the battlefield. Basically, we'd need to apply it for blood moon to realize our living island actually is a mountain. But I'm not sure... is that reasoning correct?
Thanks in advance!
If I may, I think you (Deedlit) were confusing abilities that care about some specific object (e.g. their source or the card enchanted by their source, c.f. 608.2g), and linked abilities that care about cards put in exile by other linked abilities (c.f. 406.6, or section 607, particularly 607.2a).
Also, I'm surprised about genini2 second post. I thougt that if several cards were somehow imprinted on, say, Prototype Portal (e.g. with a little help from Panharmonicon), X would be the sum of each card's cmc and you'd get a token of each (because of 607.3). In particular, there doesn't seem to be any choice involved (the ability merely looks at objects in the exile zone and find those put there by its twin).
It's unfortunately harder to achieve with Mimic Vat though. Since each triggered ability somewhat "throws the old imprinted cards away", you'd need to make a single triggered ability exile two cards at once for it to work, which is tricky, to say the least. But assuming we achieved it somehow, it should behave the same as Prototype Portal or Elite Arcanist (since they also refer to "the exiled card" and not "the last exiled card" like e.g. Duplicant)
Panharmonicon/Strionic Resonator (gatherer links) gatherer rulings seem to confirm this. But just in case, if someone could confirm that would be great! (basically, consider this post as a follow-up question rather than a real answer)
relevant mentioned gatherer ruling:
3/16/2018 In some cases involving linked abilities, an ability requires information about “the exiled card.” When this happens, the ability gets multiple answers. If these answers are being used to determine the value of a variable, the sum is used. For example, if Elite Arcanist’s enters-the-battlefield ability is copied, two cards are exiled. The value of X in the activation cost of Elite Arcanist’s other ability is the sum of the two cards’ converted mana costs. As the ability resolves, you create copies of both cards and can cast none, one, or both of the copies in any order.
(mentioned rules are taken from the comprehensive rules, July 13th 2018)
[edit: Oh right, melded permanents would work, and the gatherer specifically says you choose one of the two creatures rather than make a copy of both. So it doesn't behave like Elite Arcanist, why is that the case ? ]
If I may ask for a quick hypothetical clarification, even if Scarab God were to remove Erebos' enchantment type (which he actually doesn't, as said before), there wouldn't be any problem with putting an Erebos token without any card type on the battlefield, right?
He'd merely stay around, lurking like the creepy black formless abomination he'd be (his ability could still be activated, and he'd still prevent opponents from gaining life). After all, such a permanent can already be made (c.f. neurok transmuter gatherer rulings for instance) and there's a rule (110.4c) that explicitly says that if a permanent would happen to lose all its types it's still there, and still a permanent. So it would behave in a similar (albeit slightly weirder) way, wouldn't it?
Hello, I recently reread the 601.2h (full text at the end of this post) and realized I didn't know what it really entails.
1) Suppose I control a banisher priest exiling a vanilla creature card I own (perhaps I donated it before playing the priest). I start casting Torgaar, Famine Incarnate, announce my intention to sacrifice 2 creatures, tap my lands for mana, and basically have "2BB, sacrifice 2 creatures" to pay.
Can I pay this cost by sacrificing my priest, immediately bringing back my other exiled creature, then sacrifice that one as well? or must I actually sacrifice two creatures simultaneously as it would count as two "partial payments" of some undivisible "sacrifice 2 creatures" part of the cost?
I'm casting ruthless disposal (targeting two irrelevant creatures an opponent controls).
While paying its cost, I tried to sacrifice a creature (the animated banishing light) before discarding a card, which immediately brought back heightened awareness exiling in turn my hand as it entered the battlefield, preventing me from legally completing the spell's payment. Yet I already sent banishing light to the bottom of my library because of wheel of sun and moon which seems to prevent the sacrifice from being reversed when handling illegal actions (according to 721.1).
Did I already break the rules by not sacrificing a creature and discarding a card simultaneously (c.f. question 1)? Perhaps I did something else wrong? If not, how do I proceed from here?
3) In general, am I allowed to start paying a cost only to change my mind before I complete its payment and undo the whole casting process? If yes, what happens if my already completed payments are somehow irreversible?
(e.g. previous question, or casting invigorate while my opponent controls nefarious lich and sphere of resistance, assuming I "have my opponent gain 3 life" first and change my mind before paying 1)
quoted rules (from battlebond complete rules, June 8, 2018):
601.2h The player pays the total cost in any order. Partial payments are not allowed. Unpayable costs can’t be paid.
Example: You cast Altar’s Reap, which costs 1B and has an additional cost of sacrificing a creature. You sacrifice Thunderscape Familiar, whose effect makes your black spells cost 1 less to cast. Because a spell’s total cost is “locked in” before payments are actually made, you pay B, not 1B, even though you’re sacrificing the Familiar.
721.1. If a player takes an illegal action or starts to take an action but can’t legally complete it, the entire action is reversed and any payments already made are canceled. No abilities trigger and no effects apply as a result of an undone action. If the action was casting a spell, the spell returns to the zone it came from. The player may also reverse any legal mana abilities activated while making the illegal play, unless mana from them or from any triggered mana abilities they triggered was spent on another mana ability that wasn’t reversed. Players may not reverse actions that moved cards to a library, moved cards from a library to any zone other than the stack, caused a library to be shuffled, or caused cards from a library to be revealed.
If I may dump a couple of random (untested) ideas (some of which actually can be found in WizardMN's deck, who certainly knows a lot more than I do since he actually built and played a markov deck):
Mentor of the meek might be a funny draw engine with all those tokens (unfortunately, he isn't a vampire himself), vampiric rites is another possibility with a fitting name, but might be a bit too durdly and mana intensive for one's tastes (and it doesn't do anything on an empty board), asylum visitor could be nice but I don't think it would trigger very often (emptying your own hand sounds risky and might not even be possible if you keep drawing lands), still a cheap vampire though. There's also the usual black enchantments... necropotence (if the 3 black mana aren't too hard on your manabase), phyrexian arena, maybe underworld connections, greed or erebos, god of the dead are all possible draw engines, those might a bit too slow or expensive though (card draw should be fairly expensive after all). Since you play howling mine you may also be interested in temple bell if it's doing great for you. Twilight Prophet is a draw engine embedded on a vampire, it's a bit slow and reveals cards it "draws" you though. Champion of Dusk may draw you a bunch of cards as soon as it enters the battlefield, but is a bit underwhelming on an empty board so he might not the best way to recover from a wrath (well, if you can play a cheap vampire before him, that's still 4 cards thanks to Markov, I've seen a lot worse). Skullclamp looks disgustingly good with those vampire tokens… as long as you don't have anthem effects at least.
drana, liberator of malakir looks pretty strong in a markov commander, I think it's a moderately expensive card though and it has no immediate impact. purphoros, god of the forge could be an interesting win condition, pinging each opponent for 4 whenever you cast a vampire certainly sounds strong. gatekeeper of malakir seems like a pretty good fit, the 3 black pips may be hard on the manabase though legion lieutenant probably is the cheapest vampire lord there is. bloodhusk ritualist can be interesting, it's sad it can't target multiple opponents, but emptying someone's hand is pretty strong and you can choose how much mana you dump into it. forerunner of the legion may help you if you regularly feel the need to fetch a particular vampire (e.g. captivating vampire or butcher of malakir), I'm not sure he's worth it in an agro deck though Falkenrath exterminator looks funny, but I'm not sure it's really worth it, you'd need to give him +1/+1 counters (feasible with markov, his own ability, and perhaps a couple other cards, but not trivial) and dump mana into him rather than playing other vampires... at the very least, it's still a cheap vampire
Also, nameless inversion and crib swap get you vampires! But I'm not sure that's relevant enough to run otherwise questionable spot removal.
In addition to WizardMN's earlier remarks, and while I don't necessarily think those are particularly bad cards, I'm slightly surprised to see darkness, painful quandary and black vise there. I also wonder if the whip is worth it (well, lifelink is nice, and recursion is always interesting, but I'm not sure there are enough creatures with immediate impact for its ability to be worthwhile).
Cryptic Gateway is a card I always find interesting for tribal decks, but I'm not sure it belongs to a Markov commander since you won't get tokens out of it and it may not save that much mana if most of your vampires are relatively cheap (it currently isn't the case though). Never got to test it though, so maybe it's still strong and worth the inclusion (flashing creatures for free certainly is appealing).
I have a a yasova commander (the deck was built with cards lying around so there are some things that are just supposed to fill holes inside, an horrible manabase, and it's not super competitive, but it works well enough), so I thought I'd give my opinion on her.
She doesn't strike me as an extremely build-around commander, quite the opposite actually (so maybe not what you want). I think its strengths lies in its flexibility and variety. Her ability is pretty useful and can be used in a lot of ways (and in particular, what you'll do with her depends a lot on what your opponents are playing), but as you said, it's not something that does enough to build a whole deck around (not to mention you can't predict what you'll steal when you build the deck). It's also worth noting she's relatively cheap to cast with a slightly interesting body for its cost (with innate trample). While it's not big enough on its own to be a threat in all games, +2/+2 or +3/+3 might be all it takes to threaten someone with commander damage and it isn't that hard to pull off even without building a voltron deck (there actually are a lot of lands that can help increase yasova's power, e.g. opal palace or kessig wolf run, and a couple creatures that are reasonably good regardless of the commander, like forgotten ancient or thunderfoot baloth).
Games can go a lot of different ways, which is something I like with her. Sometimes I'll find a way to abuse her ability to a great extent, sometimes I suddenly look like I'm playing voltron, othertimes I'll play her merely to deter attackers and bait removal before setting up some disgusting value engine, or perhaps not play her at all if I have better things to do with my mana. It's not unusual for her to be very discreet until you realize an opponent has just the right thing for you to take hold of the game (I tend to joke about how karador is yasova's best card, and I once permanently stole a kess to play overwhelming stampede twice the turn after, it's certainly a lot funnier way to end the game than a craterhoof).
Basically, I see her as a versatile tool in the command zone rather than a keystone of my strategy.
There are some cute synergies and some good or borderline cards that aren't usually used in conjunction with threaten effects which can do a few slightly surprising or amusing things with her, but that's nowhere near a tel-jilad stylus in a grenzo, dungeon warden deck. For instance, while it might seem obvious to some, I've seen a lot of people not immediately realize you can permanently steal their threatened creatures with a bazaar trader, ghostly flicker, conjurer's closet or deadeye navigator (even commanders!), flamerush rider can also turn into a weird convoluted way to kill legendary creatures that people don't typically expect.
Unfortunately, that also means she tends to be unfocused and err into the tasteless-goodstuff-side. Personally, I play her with a great amount of ETB creatures that are good on their own and add purpose to the occasional blinkers that can trick with yasova, but I'm sure some people would find that unoriginal and boring.
I think it's a great commander, but perhaps not what you're looking for.
Though not in the reminder text of the mechanic, the legendary "partner with" cards that reference each other can, together, be your commanders in the Commander format! We were looking for ways to make these creatures both able to be your commander, and a variant on partner made a ton of sense. They do need to be paired up with each other (for example, Toothy and Pir can be played together; Toothy and Ravos, Soultender can't), and we were able to make some really exciting pairs this way. (And if you've been waiting for traditional monocolored partners, you absolutely will get them someday; the Commander playability is a nice bonus here on top of everything else partner with does.) You've seen one now—stay tuned for the rest!
So I tried it a bit and:
I never drew snapcaster and gearhulk, so I still don't know if they are any good. That said, I got recruiter of the guard multiple times and never felt like searching snapcaster, there were so many better things to search for.
Miraculous recovery actually was pretty useful the one time I drew it (resurrected a reveillark at instant speed to trade with a medium sized flier which enabled me to resurrect recruiter and another dude, 5 for 1, not bad), but that might have just been a fluke. Rally the ancestors was also pretty nice the one time I drew it (someone had just played a wrath, I literally brought all my creatures back to the battlefield or my hand with it)
I got the two miracle spells multiple times, they always were disappointing. Sometimes I can't pay the miracle cost and they stick to my hand. Sometimes entreat the angels show up unexpected and tempts me into tapping out for a couple angels whereas I should keep mana open. Oftentimes, when temporal mastery does get me a free turn, it's "+1 card +2~3 free mana" which is nice indeed but not that great given it's completely random and I don't especially want to play 3 bears on a single turn. And that's assuming it doesn't just get countered because it decided to show up when everyone had mana open and felt like a surprise time walk on my part was pushing it a bit. You can't even recur it since it exiles itself when it resolves (although I doubt I'd play a time warp instead, my opponents would hate me even more if I started an infinite turn combo). You were right, the miracle spells really ought to go.
Maybe I would like the mastery better if I could build a more threatening board though, since it also gives me a free combat step (and help with summoning sickness), but I'll re-think about it once I solve that problem.
I never drew not forgotten, but since the miracle spells are so underwhelming I guess I don't want it anyway
Stunt double was great whenever I drew it (I especially loved copying an attacking brago at instant speed, preventing the trigger and getting myself a brago ready to swing on my turn) Never drew sakashima's student however, so I still don't know (although bouncing an etb dude and having the biggest beater on the board attacking and unblocked sounds pretty nice indeed).
High market (which I mostly included out of curiosity) was pretty useful. It tricked with relic-warder/fiend hunter, helped me making a reveillark leave the battlefield at instant speed, put an etb dude in my graveyard just before a reveillark… It's probably replaceable, but for something that doesn't produce colored mana, I wasn't disappointed.
Terrain generator was less useful in comparison. I didn't draw as many lands as I thought I would. It could stay if I don't have any color problems, but I'd replace it sooner than high market.
Tithe might indeed be useful, I guess it can't hurt to try it.
The absence of swords indeed really shows. I almost never attack, whereas a single sword would have provided the extra body and evasion I need to at least deal consistently 5+ points per turn. So yup, I either need those (which annoys me) or good replacements. Thistledown liege is a good idea. I'd prefer not to add too many combos (I often do and my opponents don't like it), but there's already one (displacer+peregrine drake for infinite mana, which might then be turned into infinite ETB with some other creature or infinite tokens with sacred mesa)
Regarding my manabase, fetchlands (or something like mystic gate) would indeed be far better than cloudcrest lake/thalakos lowlands, but are unfortunately quite expensive so I tend to make do with cheaper options that can help me avoid a color death (I prefer spending my money on neat spells rather than lands, playing a fetchland isn't really exciting after all). That's also the reason why I only included the windswept heath (I have a playset of those) and not the flooded strand (which looks like the obvious first fetchland you would put in a UW deck). Fetchlands do fit in every deck though, and their price isn't likely to drop any time soon so perhaps I should invest in some.
That said, I also forgot about adarkar wastes which isn't that expensive and that I should definitely add.
There isn't a lot of 1-4CMC interesting creatures in those colors, so you're likely to have a quite heavy curve (hence the ramp and the wraths... also make sure to run enough lands). Fortunately, your opponents aren't much better off than you are and shouldn't get too much of a lead. Hopefully, you'll catch up in the late game.
Btw, since we're talking about kamigawa, there are a lot of weird legends that I don't see often in those sets, things like sasaya, orochi ascendant, patron of the orochi (I mean, that's basically a seedborn muse in the command zone), sakiko, mother of summer, iname, life aspect (although a spirit tribal in mono-green certainly is challenging), celestial kirin, reki, the history of kamigawa... admittedly a lot of those aren't extremely good and they're all monocolored but I think there certainly are some weird janky decks to build there.
As for phelddagriff, well I don't know, I never played him :/
I think it'd be more interesting (and probably easier to design at common) if most of those laws had a limited duration. Perhaps they should have a triggered ability that'll end up sacrificing them (e.g. "Whenever a creature attacks, sacrifice this law. If you do, exile that creature.", or "Spells cost 1 more to cast. At the beginning of each end step, if no spells were cast this turn, sacrifice this law.", or simply sacrifice them at the beginning of your next upkeep). Maybe that could help a bit with having a lot of different tokens too (I mean, if most laws disappear after a while, you're less likely to have a lot of multiple different laws at the same time and you don't have to remember what they do for very long).
I think Hamaliel is busted. It may cost seven, but it's very close to a more abusable and indestructible paradox engine in the command zone (actually I'm even tempted to compare it with omniscience). It probably should only trigger when opponents cast spells, perhaps specify nonland permanents, or untap only 2 or 3 permanents.
I like Ambriel's ability. However, be aware that if you choose to have creatures you control become copies, then Ambriel will also become a copy of that creature (and will lose his previous abilities). I'm not sure I like double-strike in esper colors (well, that's not really offcolor since it includes white at least), but I admit it goes nicely with the illustration and the gemini zodiac sign.
Muriel makes me a bit wary as searching a library usually is a time-consuming process, in particular when it's an opponent's in a 99-cards highlander format.
Malahidael seems fine to me, I'm not really sure I understand why he's green, but why not.
I suspect Advachiel can generate way too much mana (compare for instance with grand warlord radha). Those tokens should probably go away once tapped for mana or something.
Barbiel is interesting, but I don't think he should be able to target lands. His ability is also very easy to abuse as you can trigger it yourself (unlike karmic justice), perhaps a bit too much.
Barchiel sounds fine, although I'm not sure I understand why he has flying. His ability is original, and I think you could build something around it, which is nice.
Zuriel is… nuts?
Well, for starters, his ability triggers itself which probably isn't intended (you should probably say "casts a spell from his or her hand" or something).(I missed the "after paying its mana cost clause") Even fixed, this looks completely degenerate to me. I mean, with the amount of combos and other broken cards in EDH, I feel like 90% of the time, if that ability would trigger, the last non-active player will win.Asmodel somewhat makes me think of saskia, except you'll want to attack the chosen player rather than the opposite. His ability seems fine, but a 6/5 haste trample indestructible is already quite strong (perhaps a bit too much for 6 mana), I'm not sure what to think of it.
Cambiel will probably combo out way too fast, same with Hanael. There's a reason why gifts ungiven is banned in commander, anything that can fetch multiple cards with very few restrictions is extremely suspicious.
Verchiel is interesting, quite reminiscent of charisma. If anything perhaps indestructible is too problematic on him though, but that might be one of the fairest cards.
I see that you gave each of them indestructible. While I understand you want them to be "divine" beings, I'm not sure this is a very good decision as they will all be quite hard to deal with (I mean, that's indestructible's point) while they all have extremely powerful abilities on top of that. I'm also a bit disappointed not to see complete color cycles, although 12 admittedly isn't a very convenient number for that.
Otherwise, I like that each of them have fairly simple and short rule text (that's something I often struggle with).
If the recently spoiled Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle were to enter the battlefield while there's a blood moon out, does he enters tapped, untapped, or does his controller decide?
I personally think he would enter tapped as he would exist as a non-land creature (with all his abilities) on the battlefield unless the (single) replacement effect stating he enters tapped and with the slumber counters has already been applied to him entering the battlefield. Basically, we'd need to apply it for blood moon to realize our living island actually is a mountain. But I'm not sure... is that reasoning correct?
Thanks in advance!
Also, I'm surprised about genini2 second post. I thougt that if several cards were somehow imprinted on, say, Prototype Portal (e.g. with a little help from Panharmonicon), X would be the sum of each card's cmc and you'd get a token of each (because of 607.3). In particular, there doesn't seem to be any choice involved (the ability merely looks at objects in the exile zone and find those put there by its twin).
It's unfortunately harder to achieve with Mimic Vat though. Since each triggered ability somewhat "throws the old imprinted cards away", you'd need to make a single triggered ability exile two cards at once for it to work, which is tricky, to say the least. But assuming we achieved it somehow, it should behave the same as Prototype Portal or Elite Arcanist (since they also refer to "the exiled card" and not "the last exiled card" like e.g. Duplicant)
Panharmonicon/Strionic Resonator (gatherer links) gatherer rulings seem to confirm this. But just in case, if someone could confirm that would be great! (basically, consider this post as a follow-up question rather than a real answer)
relevant mentioned gatherer ruling:
[edit: Oh right, melded permanents would work, and the gatherer specifically says you choose one of the two creatures rather than make a copy of both. So it doesn't behave like Elite Arcanist, why is that the case ?
]
He'd merely stay around, lurking like the creepy black formless abomination he'd be (his ability could still be activated, and he'd still prevent opponents from gaining life). After all, such a permanent can already be made (c.f. neurok transmuter gatherer rulings for instance) and there's a rule (110.4c) that explicitly says that if a permanent would happen to lose all its types it's still there, and still a permanent. So it would behave in a similar (albeit slightly weirder) way, wouldn't it?
1) Suppose I control a banisher priest exiling a vanilla creature card I own (perhaps I donated it before playing the priest). I start casting Torgaar, Famine Incarnate, announce my intention to sacrifice 2 creatures, tap my lands for mana, and basically have "2BB, sacrifice 2 creatures" to pay.
Can I pay this cost by sacrificing my priest, immediately bringing back my other exiled creature, then sacrifice that one as well? or must I actually sacrifice two creatures simultaneously as it would count as two "partial payments" of some undivisible "sacrifice 2 creatures" part of the cost?
2) Suppose I control a wheel of sun and moon enchanting myself, a banishing light exiling a heightened awareness I own, and opalescence.
I'm casting ruthless disposal (targeting two irrelevant creatures an opponent controls).
While paying its cost, I tried to sacrifice a creature (the animated banishing light) before discarding a card, which immediately brought back heightened awareness exiling in turn my hand as it entered the battlefield, preventing me from legally completing the spell's payment. Yet I already sent banishing light to the bottom of my library because of wheel of sun and moon which seems to prevent the sacrifice from being reversed when handling illegal actions (according to 721.1).
Did I already break the rules by not sacrificing a creature and discarding a card simultaneously (c.f. question 1)? Perhaps I did something else wrong? If not, how do I proceed from here?
3) In general, am I allowed to start paying a cost only to change my mind before I complete its payment and undo the whole casting process? If yes, what happens if my already completed payments are somehow irreversible?
(e.g. previous question, or casting invigorate while my opponent controls nefarious lich and sphere of resistance, assuming I "have my opponent gain 3 life" first and change my mind before paying 1)
quoted rules (from battlebond complete rules, June 8, 2018):
Mentor of the meek might be a funny draw engine with all those tokens (unfortunately, he isn't a vampire himself), vampiric rites is another possibility with a fitting name, but might be a bit too durdly and mana intensive for one's tastes (and it doesn't do anything on an empty board), asylum visitor could be nice but I don't think it would trigger very often (emptying your own hand sounds risky and might not even be possible if you keep drawing lands), still a cheap vampire though. There's also the usual black enchantments... necropotence (if the 3 black mana aren't too hard on your manabase), phyrexian arena, maybe underworld connections, greed or erebos, god of the dead are all possible draw engines, those might a bit too slow or expensive though (card draw should be fairly expensive after all). Since you play howling mine you may also be interested in temple bell if it's doing great for you. Twilight Prophet is a draw engine embedded on a vampire, it's a bit slow and reveals cards it "draws" you though. Champion of Dusk may draw you a bunch of cards as soon as it enters the battlefield, but is a bit underwhelming on an empty board so he might not the best way to recover from a wrath (well, if you can play a cheap vampire before him, that's still 4 cards thanks to Markov, I've seen a lot worse).
Skullclamp looks disgustingly good with those vampire tokens… as long as you don't have anthem effects at least.
drana, liberator of malakir looks pretty strong in a markov commander, I think it's a moderately expensive card though and it has no immediate impact.
purphoros, god of the forge could be an interesting win condition, pinging each opponent for 4 whenever you cast a vampire certainly sounds strong.
gatekeeper of malakir seems like a pretty good fit, the 3 black pips may be hard on the manabase though
legion lieutenant probably is the cheapest vampire lord there is.
bloodhusk ritualist can be interesting, it's sad it can't target multiple opponents, but emptying someone's hand is pretty strong and you can choose how much mana you dump into it.
forerunner of the legion may help you if you regularly feel the need to fetch a particular vampire (e.g. captivating vampire or butcher of malakir), I'm not sure he's worth it in an agro deck though
Falkenrath exterminator looks funny, but I'm not sure it's really worth it, you'd need to give him +1/+1 counters (feasible with markov, his own ability, and perhaps a couple other cards, but not trivial) and dump mana into him rather than playing other vampires... at the very least, it's still a cheap vampire
Also, nameless inversion and crib swap get you vampires! But I'm not sure that's relevant enough to run otherwise questionable spot removal.
In addition to WizardMN's earlier remarks, and while I don't necessarily think those are particularly bad cards, I'm slightly surprised to see darkness, painful quandary and black vise there. I also wonder if the whip is worth it (well, lifelink is nice, and recursion is always interesting, but I'm not sure there are enough creatures with immediate impact for its ability to be worthwhile).
Cryptic Gateway is a card I always find interesting for tribal decks, but I'm not sure it belongs to a Markov commander since you won't get tokens out of it and it may not save that much mana if most of your vampires are relatively cheap (it currently isn't the case though). Never got to test it though, so maybe it's still strong and worth the inclusion (flashing creatures for free certainly is appealing).
She doesn't strike me as an extremely build-around commander, quite the opposite actually (so maybe not what you want). I think its strengths lies in its flexibility and variety. Her ability is pretty useful and can be used in a lot of ways (and in particular, what you'll do with her depends a lot on what your opponents are playing), but as you said, it's not something that does enough to build a whole deck around (not to mention you can't predict what you'll steal when you build the deck). It's also worth noting she's relatively cheap to cast with a slightly interesting body for its cost (with innate trample). While it's not big enough on its own to be a threat in all games, +2/+2 or +3/+3 might be all it takes to threaten someone with commander damage and it isn't that hard to pull off even without building a voltron deck (there actually are a lot of lands that can help increase yasova's power, e.g. opal palace or kessig wolf run, and a couple creatures that are reasonably good regardless of the commander, like forgotten ancient or thunderfoot baloth).
Games can go a lot of different ways, which is something I like with her. Sometimes I'll find a way to abuse her ability to a great extent, sometimes I suddenly look like I'm playing voltron, othertimes I'll play her merely to deter attackers and bait removal before setting up some disgusting value engine, or perhaps not play her at all if I have better things to do with my mana. It's not unusual for her to be very discreet until you realize an opponent has just the right thing for you to take hold of the game (I tend to joke about how karador is yasova's best card, and I once permanently stole a kess to play overwhelming stampede twice the turn after, it's certainly a lot funnier way to end the game than a craterhoof).
Basically, I see her as a versatile tool in the command zone rather than a keystone of my strategy.
There are some cute synergies and some good or borderline cards that aren't usually used in conjunction with threaten effects which can do a few slightly surprising or amusing things with her, but that's nowhere near a tel-jilad stylus in a grenzo, dungeon warden deck. For instance, while it might seem obvious to some, I've seen a lot of people not immediately realize you can permanently steal their threatened creatures with a bazaar trader, ghostly flicker, conjurer's closet or deadeye navigator (even commanders!), flamerush rider can also turn into a weird convoluted way to kill legendary creatures that people don't typically expect.
Unfortunately, that also means she tends to be unfocused and err into the tasteless-goodstuff-side. Personally, I play her with a great amount of ETB creatures that are good on their own and add purpose to the occasional blinkers that can trick with yasova, but I'm sure some people would find that unoriginal and boring.
I think it's a great commander, but perhaps not what you're looking for.
Well, actually, he can. It's been explicitly stated in this article (Find Your Partner with Battlebond):
I never drew snapcaster and gearhulk, so I still don't know if they are any good. That said, I got recruiter of the guard multiple times and never felt like searching snapcaster, there were so many better things to search for.
Miraculous recovery actually was pretty useful the one time I drew it (resurrected a reveillark at instant speed to trade with a medium sized flier which enabled me to resurrect recruiter and another dude, 5 for 1, not bad), but that might have just been a fluke. Rally the ancestors was also pretty nice the one time I drew it (someone had just played a wrath, I literally brought all my creatures back to the battlefield or my hand with it)
I got the two miracle spells multiple times, they always were disappointing. Sometimes I can't pay the miracle cost and they stick to my hand. Sometimes entreat the angels show up unexpected and tempts me into tapping out for a couple angels whereas I should keep mana open. Oftentimes, when temporal mastery does get me a free turn, it's "+1 card +2~3 free mana" which is nice indeed but not that great given it's completely random and I don't especially want to play 3 bears on a single turn. And that's assuming it doesn't just get countered because it decided to show up when everyone had mana open and felt like a surprise time walk on my part was pushing it a bit. You can't even recur it since it exiles itself when it resolves (although I doubt I'd play a time warp instead, my opponents would hate me even more if I started an infinite turn combo). You were right, the miracle spells really ought to go.
Maybe I would like the mastery better if I could build a more threatening board though, since it also gives me a free combat step (and help with summoning sickness), but I'll re-think about it once I solve that problem.
I never drew not forgotten, but since the miracle spells are so underwhelming I guess I don't want it anyway
Stunt double was great whenever I drew it (I especially loved copying an attacking brago at instant speed, preventing the trigger and getting myself a brago ready to swing on my turn) Never drew sakashima's student however, so I still don't know (although bouncing an etb dude and having the biggest beater on the board attacking and unblocked sounds pretty nice indeed).
High market (which I mostly included out of curiosity) was pretty useful. It tricked with relic-warder/fiend hunter, helped me making a reveillark leave the battlefield at instant speed, put an etb dude in my graveyard just before a reveillark… It's probably replaceable, but for something that doesn't produce colored mana, I wasn't disappointed.
Terrain generator was less useful in comparison. I didn't draw as many lands as I thought I would. It could stay if I don't have any color problems, but I'd replace it sooner than high market.
Tithe might indeed be useful, I guess it can't hurt to try it.
The absence of swords indeed really shows. I almost never attack, whereas a single sword would have provided the extra body and evasion I need to at least deal consistently 5+ points per turn. So yup, I either need those (which annoys me) or good replacements. Thistledown liege is a good idea. I'd prefer not to add too many combos (I often do and my opponents don't like it), but there's already one (displacer+peregrine drake for infinite mana, which might then be turned into infinite ETB with some other creature or infinite tokens with sacred mesa)
Regarding my manabase, fetchlands (or something like mystic gate) would indeed be far better than cloudcrest lake/thalakos lowlands, but are unfortunately quite expensive so I tend to make do with cheaper options that can help me avoid a color death (I prefer spending my money on neat spells rather than lands, playing a fetchland isn't really exciting after all). That's also the reason why I only included the windswept heath (I have a playset of those) and not the flooded strand (which looks like the obvious first fetchland you would put in a UW deck). Fetchlands do fit in every deck though, and their price isn't likely to drop any time soon so perhaps I should invest in some.
That said, I also forgot about adarkar wastes which isn't that expensive and that I should definitely add.