I've said it before and I'll say it again; banning cards just for the sake of taking off the top of the totem and shaking up the format is no way to handle the game. It hasn't worked for Yu-Gi-Oh, and there's no reason to think it'll work for Magic. All it does is cause the player base to lose trust in the format as a whole. After all, why invest your money in the best deck if it's just going to be banned in a couple months?
It's my least favorite general to play against for a lot of reasons. I know there are generals that are worse and can win games much faster, but for some reason I just hate MW more than anybody else. It's probably because I feel like there's no way to effectively stop him; and there really isn't. See, if he were just UR then he would be powerful but fair. But when you add G to the mix it just becomes too much to deal with. With G you now have access to a powerful ramp package and the ability to destroy almost any answers your opponents might have for him.
But even if you ignore all that he's still a 7/5 beatstick that grants all your guys haste. He's also pointless to kill because then he'll just come back next turn or the turn after and restore all the board presence you just took the time to destroy. Oh, and your counterspells? Those are useless now, by the way. The only cards I've found that slow him down are MLD spells and cards like Meddling Mage, but both have their own set of problems. The former is hugely hated by most of the community and just causes headaches to everyone at the table, and the latter is extremely niche and pretty easy to bounce so they can cast him. And even after you waste all your resources to stopping the general itself, you still have the rest of their deck to fight against, and URG is no slouch in commander.
When you separate all these problems it's not so bad. But altogether it's just....ugh.
Of the spell lands, Mortuary Mire is the only decent one for commander. Even a single-shot Volrath's Stronghold is good enough to go into most black decks.
So far BFZ has a couple cards I'm considering for my Jenara build:
Canopy Vista and Prairie Stream are shoe-ins, obviously. Even better for me since I don't have the ABUR duals yet but even if I did I'd probably still put them in.
I'm debating on Kiora, Master of the Depths. Right now in my testing she's replacing Solemn Simulacrum and she's doing very well. Being able to give Jenara or any other creature to protect her pseudo-vigilance is really good, and she untaps a land that you might have used to give Jenara a +1/+1 counter or equip a sword. I've also consistently been able to get 2 cards off of her -2 ability whenever I use it. The major downside to her (like all planeswalkers) is she's harder to search for and recur. But so far I'm pretty impressed.
When I first saw Greenwarden of Murasa, I thought it was pretty much an auto-include, but now I'm not so sure. One of the advantages of Eternal Witness is that because she's so cheap to cast, you often get to use the card you just got back after you play her. She's also able to be recurred by both Reveillark AND Sun Titan, and when you 'clamp her you get to draw 2 cards immediately. None of those criteria fit with the greenwarden. It's still awesome and I'm definitely going to test it more, but I'm on the fence about it as of now.
Definitely putting the lands in. Basic land types with potential to come in untapped is great and, not having original duals, I have the room.
I think Kiora is good. She provides card advantage or Pseudo-ramp. The creature untap doesn't do much without tap abilities (although it can be nice) and the fight mechanic doesn't do much, although your 3 9/9 tokens get to fight as they enter the battlefield, which is a bit of self-synergy giving you "destroy 3 target creatures and get 3 9/9 tokens, which on its own would be pretty decent. Later in the game when you are playing bombs, the fight could matter, but I'd never count on getting to ult with her. She's the kind of card that I think would flourish in this list as she does most all the things you want: Ramp, Card Advantage, and Card Quality via her creature/land search. I'm hesitant to replace Solemn Simulacrum for her though as he is guaranteed actual ramp, a card draw cantrip, and can be abused via Lark, Sun Titan, Academy Ruins, Birthing Pod, and tutored with Tezzeret, which is sometimes relevant. My biggest issue is while I love Kiora, I don't know what I'd put in for her, making adding her a bit challenging.
I'm pretty much in the same boat with the Warden. His body isn't that great at 6 mana (DEN is better, even), although his effect is great. You can't abuse him too much, so you might as well take the exile trigger when he dies. I'd always tutor E-Wit first and don't think using a 6 mana on a potential double E-Wit effect (with limited sac outlets, it becomes more unreliable) is worth a premium 6 drop slot in the list. He's definitely worth consideration to some degree and is a good card at the top of the curve if anyone was unhappy with what they currently had there. Leaves the battlefield value can be beneficial in letting him get through though, being fair. It's more a personal preference than anything, but I don't think he makes the grade for me.
Great topics though, these were the cards that I was most interested in from the set as well. Lumbering Falls also seems like an include just because manlands are pretty valuable for clutch situations and since I run 3 swords, his hexproof can be pretty relevant for him getting in for a trigger.
Yeah I'm hesitant to replace sad robot too, but I'm running out of things to replace in my list lol. Although one thing I've noticed in your list that I took out a while ago was Farhaven Elf. More often than not it's just a worse card that I was drawing late in the game when I really didn't need the mana, and I feel like the package of Solemn Simulacrum/Wood Elves/Sakura-Tribe Elder is more than enough. Although you run more high mana cards than I do so that may be reason enough.
And I totally forgot about Lumbering Falls. 4 mana is at the top of what you want to spend for man-lands, but hexproof is really that broken. I'll definitely test it.
One equipment I've been having a lot of success with lately is Umezawa's Jitte. It does pretty much everything; it deters attackers, it can kill weenies to stop Skullclamp, it can make Jenara go for lethal very easily, it gains you life, and if you can keep 2 counters on it it can almost lock some low toughness generals out of the game unless they deal with it (Kaalia, Riku, Norin, Edric, Arcum, and Animar just to name a few).
So far BFZ has a couple cards I'm considering for my Jenara build:
Canopy Vista and Prairie Stream are shoe-ins, obviously. Even better for me since I don't have the ABUR duals yet but even if I did I'd probably still put them in.
I'm debating on Kiora, Master of the Depths. Right now in my testing she's replacing Solemn Simulacrum and she's doing very well. Being able to give Jenara or any other creature to protect her pseudo-vigilance is really good, and she untaps a land that you might have used to give Jenara a +1/+1 counter or equip a sword. I've also consistently been able to get 2 cards off of her -2 ability whenever I use it. The major downside to her (like all planeswalkers) is she's harder to search for and recur. But so far I'm pretty impressed.
When I first saw Greenwarden of Murasa, I thought it was pretty much an auto-include, but now I'm not so sure. One of the advantages of Eternal Witness is that because she's so cheap to cast, you often get to use the card you just got back after you play her. She's also able to be recurred by both Reveillark AND Sun Titan, and when you 'clamp her you get to draw 2 cards immediately. None of those criteria fit with the greenwarden. It's still awesome and I'm definitely going to test it more, but I'm on the fence about it as of now.
Wow 2 blue rares in the same night that are absolutely horrible. And they both have the same exact mana cost too. What is going on, man? Are they really THAT afraid to print good constructed blue cards anymore?
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy was just printed. Blue gets a couple of terrible rares every set, but so does every other color. It is not inaccurate to say that the rares spoiled thus far have not been amazing outside of the utility stuff and gideon- seriously, the best rares/mythics in the set so far are gideon, lands, and removal spells. That doesn't mean that there aren't any goodies still hiding out.
Yeah I know I'm probably overreacting. I don't play that much constructed anyways so I don't have that much to complain about. I would just hate opening this in a pack lol.
Wow 2 blue rares in the same night that are absolutely horrible. And they both have the same exact mana cost too. What is going on, man? Are they really THAT afraid to print good constructed blue cards anymore?
My friends and I consistently joke that "In commander you technically have 98 cards to work with; your deck starts with your general, and Sol Ring".
Sol Ring is one of the few cards that I could care less if it was banned, despite how much I use it and how many I have (coming up on 5 of them). While it's legal there's absolutely no reason for any deck to not run it. The games where you have it in your opening hand versus those you don't are like night and day. It's practically the whole reason why Trinket Mage is run in almost every blue deck, and why Thada Adel, Acquisitor can even be considered in the 99. I know it will never happen, but banning Sol Ring IMO would be healthier for the format overall. It would open up many slots in many decks.
If that artifact is real with its supposed wording, it's very silly. I'd expect to see that effect on a 5 or 6 drop, but on a colorless 4-drop? I'm going to hold my excitement until they officially reveal it, but if it's real it's going to go into sooooo many of my decks.
Here's my take on the (recently) spoiled cards thus far:
Desolation Twin is silly in Trostani, but I would put it in any token-themed deck tbh. It's unfortunate that it has to be cast to get the token but I can see how copying it and reanimating it would get dumb very quickly.
Conduit of Ruin will be an auto-include in any colorless deck, and I could definitely see an argument for putting it in mono-green decks with enough targets.
Bring to Light I'm on the fence with. It's bad in anything less than 3 colors and even then it's not that fantastic. While it's true that for 3cmc you can get a lot of good stuff, you could get most of that stuff with cheaper tutors like Mystical Tutor, Green Sun's Zenith, Eladamri's Call, etc. The fact that you cast the card also leaves them open to being countered. Maybe if it grabbed any nonland permanent or if it was an instant I'd be more impressed with it, but as is I don't think I'd recommend it.
Undergrowth Champion is cute, but that's about it. In a world full of mass removal and giant creatures he fails to impress. And even if those didn't exist he's basically just a vanilla creature that's hard to kill in combat and doesn't kill much stuff himself. Pass.
Ob Nixilis Reignited is awesome. He's either drawing you a card every turn, or he's killing the best creature on the board. And that ultimate is basically "target player loses the game". He's fairly close to an auto-include in any deck with black in it.
Kiora, Master of the Depths is also awesome, and better in almost every way than her previous incarnation. In her colors you're almost always going to get 2 card off of her second ability, and untapping a creature and/or mana for a counterspell to protect her is sick. The only downside to her is, like all PW's, they're hard to recur and most people want to kill them ASAP as soon as they hit the board. Netting you potentially 2 extra cards a turn is no joke though. I might just have to find room for her in my Jenara deck.
wait? i thought spending 3 Blue and 2 Green will make you search CMC 5(i thought the wording suggested "no you can't ramp with your sol ring"), or is it like sunburst?
Yeah it's pretty much like Sunburst. It tracks the total types of mana spent to cast it, so the highest CMC card you could ever get from it is 5 (i.e, you spent WUBRG to cast it).
I would be sad to see Derevi go, but I wouldn't be surprised if she got the axe at some point. I don't use her in an oppressive deck (mostly just swords and some etb/tap creatures) but I've seen some of the optimized lists at work and they can be really scary. And now that tuck is no longer a thing stax decks with her might make a resurgence in my meta again.
After seeing what WOTC is doing to Modern, I think Commander will be my go-to format from now on. I can't build a deck there without worrying if WOTC is going to rip the rug right from under me. Those poor pod players...
It's my least favorite general to play against for a lot of reasons. I know there are generals that are worse and can win games much faster, but for some reason I just hate MW more than anybody else. It's probably because I feel like there's no way to effectively stop him; and there really isn't. See, if he were just UR then he would be powerful but fair. But when you add G to the mix it just becomes too much to deal with. With G you now have access to a powerful ramp package and the ability to destroy almost any answers your opponents might have for him.
But even if you ignore all that he's still a 7/5 beatstick that grants all your guys haste. He's also pointless to kill because then he'll just come back next turn or the turn after and restore all the board presence you just took the time to destroy. Oh, and your counterspells? Those are useless now, by the way. The only cards I've found that slow him down are MLD spells and cards like Meddling Mage, but both have their own set of problems. The former is hugely hated by most of the community and just causes headaches to everyone at the table, and the latter is extremely niche and pretty easy to bounce so they can cast him. And even after you waste all your resources to stopping the general itself, you still have the rest of their deck to fight against, and URG is no slouch in commander.
When you separate all these problems it's not so bad. But altogether it's just....ugh.
Yeah I'm hesitant to replace sad robot too, but I'm running out of things to replace in my list lol. Although one thing I've noticed in your list that I took out a while ago was Farhaven Elf. More often than not it's just a worse card that I was drawing late in the game when I really didn't need the mana, and I feel like the package of Solemn Simulacrum/Wood Elves/Sakura-Tribe Elder is more than enough. Although you run more high mana cards than I do so that may be reason enough.
And I totally forgot about Lumbering Falls. 4 mana is at the top of what you want to spend for man-lands, but hexproof is really that broken. I'll definitely test it.
One equipment I've been having a lot of success with lately is Umezawa's Jitte. It does pretty much everything; it deters attackers, it can kill weenies to stop Skullclamp, it can make Jenara go for lethal very easily, it gains you life, and if you can keep 2 counters on it it can almost lock some low toughness generals out of the game unless they deal with it (Kaalia, Riku, Norin, Edric, Arcum, and Animar just to name a few).
Canopy Vista and Prairie Stream are shoe-ins, obviously. Even better for me since I don't have the ABUR duals yet but even if I did I'd probably still put them in.
I'm debating on Kiora, Master of the Depths. Right now in my testing she's replacing Solemn Simulacrum and she's doing very well. Being able to give Jenara or any other creature to protect her pseudo-vigilance is really good, and she untaps a land that you might have used to give Jenara a +1/+1 counter or equip a sword. I've also consistently been able to get 2 cards off of her -2 ability whenever I use it. The major downside to her (like all planeswalkers) is she's harder to search for and recur. But so far I'm pretty impressed.
When I first saw Greenwarden of Murasa, I thought it was pretty much an auto-include, but now I'm not so sure. One of the advantages of Eternal Witness is that because she's so cheap to cast, you often get to use the card you just got back after you play her. She's also able to be recurred by both Reveillark AND Sun Titan, and when you 'clamp her you get to draw 2 cards immediately. None of those criteria fit with the greenwarden. It's still awesome and I'm definitely going to test it more, but I'm on the fence about it as of now.
Yeah I know I'm probably overreacting. I don't play that much constructed anyways so I don't have that much to complain about. I would just hate opening this in a pack lol.
Sol Ring is one of the few cards that I could care less if it was banned, despite how much I use it and how many I have (coming up on 5 of them). While it's legal there's absolutely no reason for any deck to not run it. The games where you have it in your opening hand versus those you don't are like night and day. It's practically the whole reason why Trinket Mage is run in almost every blue deck, and why Thada Adel, Acquisitor can even be considered in the 99. I know it will never happen, but banning Sol Ring IMO would be healthier for the format overall. It would open up many slots in many decks.
Just my 2 cents.
Desolation Twin is silly in Trostani, but I would put it in any token-themed deck tbh. It's unfortunate that it has to be cast to get the token but I can see how copying it and reanimating it would get dumb very quickly.
Conduit of Ruin will be an auto-include in any colorless deck, and I could definitely see an argument for putting it in mono-green decks with enough targets.
Bring to Light I'm on the fence with. It's bad in anything less than 3 colors and even then it's not that fantastic. While it's true that for 3cmc you can get a lot of good stuff, you could get most of that stuff with cheaper tutors like Mystical Tutor, Green Sun's Zenith, Eladamri's Call, etc. The fact that you cast the card also leaves them open to being countered. Maybe if it grabbed any nonland permanent or if it was an instant I'd be more impressed with it, but as is I don't think I'd recommend it.
Undergrowth Champion is cute, but that's about it. In a world full of mass removal and giant creatures he fails to impress. And even if those didn't exist he's basically just a vanilla creature that's hard to kill in combat and doesn't kill much stuff himself. Pass.
Ob Nixilis Reignited is awesome. He's either drawing you a card every turn, or he's killing the best creature on the board. And that ultimate is basically "target player loses the game". He's fairly close to an auto-include in any deck with black in it.
Kiora, Master of the Depths is also awesome, and better in almost every way than her previous incarnation. In her colors you're almost always going to get 2 card off of her second ability, and untapping a creature and/or mana for a counterspell to protect her is sick. The only downside to her is, like all PW's, they're hard to recur and most people want to kill them ASAP as soon as they hit the board. Netting you potentially 2 extra cards a turn is no joke though. I might just have to find room for her in my Jenara deck.
Yeah it's pretty much like Sunburst. It tracks the total types of mana spent to cast it, so the highest CMC card you could ever get from it is 5 (i.e, you spent WUBRG to cast it).
After seeing what WOTC is doing to Modern, I think Commander will be my go-to format from now on. I can't build a deck there without worrying if WOTC is going to rip the rug right from under me. Those poor pod players...