Commander 2015 Review

Anya, Merciless Angel

Anya fits well into a R/W aggressive shell. I had a Jor Kadeen deck built in the past which I believe would cover the vast majority of the same space as Anya. However, one of the primary problems with him was that if you went vertical and stacked a bunch of equipment onto Jor, he could be removed. Anya having Indestructible prevents a significant amount of the shenanigans that could stop Jor without specific equipment in play. I do wish she came baked in with a Sulfuric Vortex clause, but she's totally fine as is. You can build a voltron deck around her, and it'll be a decent deck. My chief complaint is that we don't need more voltron generals in W/R. I know their standard isn't card advantage, but it would be cool the have a boros deck that isn't just about attacking. Like, Whenever you gain life, impulse draw. This is a fine legend, but is more of the same.

Arjun, the Shifting Flame

Arjun doesn't fit into many decks. His triggered ability is extremely strong, but requires a specific frame to work. As such, I'm expecting him to primarily be played as a Commander. As a Commander, he works well in a Storm/combo shell due to his unparalleled ability to find cards. Mindmoil is already played in certain situations because it actually draws cards. The same is true for Arjun. He'll be closely related to Niv-Mizzet. However, Niv is more direct, and has more combos associated with him specifically. Arjun is the stronger engine, drawing an absurd number of cards over the course of the game. While it would seem that Arjun gets weaker with every card you play, its trivial to put in cards that draw cards, eg Opportunity, to keep your hand size high. One specific use I can see for Arjun is playing him with Dream Halls to turn off mana and use your insane velocity to find combo pieces.

Daxos the Returned.

Daxos is solid. B/W enchantments is a real thing that has generally added blue through Oloro. This is mostly due to the draw of another color and there not being a sufficient reason to stay in B/W. Daxos combines several different potential archetypes. Obviously he works as a Constellation enabler, but he also functions as a way to convert mana into a supply of fairly large creatures. White has many different Anthem effects that provide a boost while in play and pump up your experience counters. Black provides all the card advantage and has a history of cards like Necropotence. Enchantments that provide cards at a cost. Daxos also works in a stax-like shell with resource denial, leaning on his ability to make tokens to stay ahead of the constrictions. Daxos opens up a significant amount of deck building space that was previously unexplored.

Ezuri, Claw of Progress

Ezuri piles up experience counters very quickly. Not having a restriction to nontoken creatures means that casting Deranged Hermit gives you 5 experience counters. Every time after the first casting, Ezuri can just act as a sorcery. He follows a similar axis to Edric without being a retread. He's strong, flexible, and interesting. He lets you build vertically as a reward to building horizontally. That kind of feedback loop makes for strong deck construction. He might even be worth including as part of the 99, given the ease he accumulates counters.

Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas

This is easily the worst of the new legends. Its more R/W voltron, but this just so clearly misses the mark. It only accumulates counters when you cast 5+ mana creatures, meaning that you're not going to get counters quickly. Then, when you jump through the hoops the card asks for, you get +1/+1 for the the general only? If it was an Anthem I'd like it more, but there are just more efficient ways to pump up a general. Sure, the experience counters are more or less permanent, but it just doesn't matter. Kalemne has a set of good abilities, double strike on a Commander is always worth paying attention to, but she isn't surprising anyone. At a base of 4 mana, people are going to be able to react to her. She doesn't protect herself and doesn't have haste. I would love to trade the vigilance or the double strike for haste since that means she could do real damage immediately. I don't think this is a deck worth building, though I do like the direction away from token swarms and toward playing R/W monsters. There are some number of synergies she can exploit with Avacyn or Gisela, but overall this style of deck isn't going to be worthwhile.

Karlov

Karlov is a space that is both new and old. BW life manipulation is not new. See Selena, see the common uses of Vish Kal. However, the theme has never been this explicit and this aggressive. Karlov costing a mere two mana is his largest draw. He also works as a way to transform counters into unconditional removal, which is a big game. It comes at a steep cost, but its not terribly difficult to see situations where giving up the damage is worth handling a threat. Karlov is odd for EDH in that he is far more Spike than traditional commander products. He doesn't reward creativity as much as he does mastering when to use his ability, and he doesn't create memorable moments as much as he is about efficiency. A properly built Karlov is going to be a monster, which is somewhat against the idea of the format.

Kaseto, Orochi Archmage

A snake Tribal commander, Kaseto is decent. He does his thing well, and can even be a legitimate threat with enough mana. I can see him as a role player in other decks, but clearly his place is at the head of the snake. As a commander, Kaseto offers to play nice with on-hit effects. Lots of snakes have an Ophidian-like nature to them so the two dovetail well. Unfortunately, like most of the Commander legends, he was built with a specific need and is somewhat lacking outside of it. I'm certain that once research starts in earnest, there'll be an agreed upon 90 cards that you basically have to play. I like the card, I like that its doing something weird, I just wish it was a bit more open ended.

Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest

What a beating. Maz has a ton of interactions and plays well as a part of the 99 in virtually every g/b deck, while having significant options to build around himself. Imagine him as part of Ghave, now think of him as the Commander for a stax deck. Both are easy to do. Mazirek is best friends with Kothophed, Savra, Smothering Abomination, and that whole continuum of cards. His strength is his flexability and value, his weakness is that for all he does, he is fairly ineffiecient. 6 mana for a 2/2 is abysmal. He gets larger quickly, if he's in a deck that can take advantage of his trigger. Without a specifically capable shell Maz is nothing special, so don't include him without ensuring you can make use out of his ability.

Meren of Clan Nel Toth

Meren, like the other head liners, doesn't have a way to fulfill her own exp condition. However, the others, Daxos, Kalemne, Mizzix, and to a lesser extent Ezuri, all need you to hold onto cards in your hand in order to start to get experience counters. Meren wants you to play stuff out before her so that you can have creatures die once she's in play. Consider turn 2 Elvish Visionary, turn 3 Nantuko Husk, turn 4 Meren, eat them, reanimate Visionary. That's not even trying and lines up well. She also doesn't need exp to generate value. Kolaghan's Command has in recent times shown just how powerful Raise Dead can be, and Meren definitively gives value whenever she's cast. She's also a 3/4, which is of no particular relevance expect that its my favorite power/toughness combination.

Mizzix of the Izmagnus

Another RU general that favors a Storm-esque style. Mizzix can also be used as a powerful Helm of Awakening type card. I can see her being used in the capacity where she is played with tons of cantrips to chain lots of spells together, or to make crazy powerful sorceries much cheaper. Things like an overloaded Mizzix's Mastery or Enter the Infinite.


White

Bastion Protector

An adequate way to protect your Commander. Except someone to attack for 4 with their Siege-Gang Commander.

Dawnbreak Reclaimer

In addition to having absolutely gorgeous art, Dawnbreak Reclaimer is a pretty decent card. Sure, its always reanimating the worst creatures in both graveyards, but that's not the worst thing. It can even be used as a political tool. Regardless, if you have a deck packed full of value creatures, its not going to be exceptionally difficult to always be getting ahead with the Reclaimer.

Grasp of Fate

Grasp if excellent removal. It also has a built in political protection. One person getting something of theirs back might be put on the fence about that decision if they knew that it meant giving back a Sylvan Library to an opponent. This will likely wind up in most White decks that don't have a reason to exclude it.

Kalemne's Captain

This card makes no sense to me. The stats are fine and Vigilance is a huge plus in EDH, but the ability actively works against you. White more than any color relies on artifacts and enchantments. It needs them to either modify the game state or generate card advantage. Wiping out all of your own things is not something that you want to pay 12 mana to do. If mass removal is something you want, there are other cards for that, and the body is not enough to want to make allowances for.

Blue

AEthersnatch

An excellent new trick, that it only costs one less than Commandeer means that you only play this if you are looking for redundancy.

Gigantoplasm

In many ways, this mimics the Mimeoplasm. Its a copy of a creature that is also way larger than it normally would be. You have to spend actual mana to make it large though, so its not as powerful, but being monoblue opens up a significant amount of space where it could be inserted.

Illusory Ambusher

Yahowsa. This is expensive, but when it works you draw 5-10 cards easily. Cashing it in for 3-4 cards and killing an attacker is also totally fine. It works absurdly well in Nin for obvious reasons.

Mirror Match

A fog of the most hilarious variety, Mirror Match also lets you get all the value. You copy all the enter the battlefield effects, you generate lots of bodies for sacrifice outlets, and you kill any creature with power equal to or greater than its toughness. It does cost 6 so its easier to see coming than most tricks, but someone's eventually going to walk into it.

Mystic Confluence

Cryptic Command's cousin, Mystic Confluence functions in several different capacities. Its great at stopping permanents, spells, and digging into your deck. Except this to show up in any deck with blue mana.

Synthetic Destiny

Another way to get maximum value out of creatures, Synthetic Destiny is intended to be played in response to Wraths. I ditch all these things that were going to die anyway, here is my new army. The delay until end of turn makes it difficult to respond to what's going on for your opponents. If you just don't care about the dudes you have in play, its pretty easy to wait till the second main right before your turn to give everyone essentially a hasty surprise.

Black

Corpse Augur

Augur is a solid inclusion. He's risky, but the ability to choose which graveyard helps mitigate the risk of his mandatory trigger. Of course, there's a lot of competition for creatures that draw cards. Having 4 power puts him outside of Reveillark range, but recursion shouldn't be a problem in black. He's also solid anti-wrath technology. Ensure you get a refill as soon as your creatures die.

Daxos's Torment

This card is awful. A four mana 5/5 flying haste enchantment creature demon would have been bordering on ok. This is a couple steps removed from that. Its true that it doesn't die to wrath of god, but that's still relatively not useful. I was hoping there'd be a Constellation card in the deck to make that style worthwhile, but this is not that card. Avoid at all costs.

Deadly Tempest

A Wrath that punishes grow wide strategies, expect this in creature light decks like Oloro, or in metagames with high concentrations of Rhys, Darien, or Kemba.

Deadly Summons

A mill card that gives a strong payoff, this finds an immediate home in Geth and Sidisi. Geth loves the X in the mana cost, since Geth is one of the most powerful big mana decks. Sidisi loves it for the self-mill and extra zombies. It will find other homes as well, Lazav springs to mind.

Scourge of Nel Toth

Oh baby. Scourge is a big threat for little investment. A sacrifice outlet that's active from the graveyard, and a potent creature in play, Scourge does virtually everything that you want for a deck like Jarad, Mimeoplasm, etc. He'll mostly be found in B/G decks that love to have sacrificial food and large dudes, but he also can be found in the more specialized B/X decks such as Grimgrin and Vish Kal.

Thief of Blood

An interesting card, Thief instantly crushes planeswalkers and Ghave. It niche and expensive, but also incredibly powerful at what it does. I wouldn't include this willy nilly, since it does have some significant anti-synergy potential, but if you are in an area with lots of offending cards and need a broad answer to multiple different permanent types, Thief can fulfill that role. Its especially useful if you are running various tutors for creatures, eg Chord of Calling or Birthing Pod.

Wretched Confluence

While not as good as the Blue Confluence, Wretched Confluence is still plenty powerful. At worst its draw three at instant speed, and its also quite adept at saving your creatures from graveyard removal. It can be used to pick off multiple small creatures or go big on killing a large one. It notable that this removes indestructible creatures as well. I do think that this will see less play that the blue version since this has less overall utility, but its an option if you expect to have 5 mana you can leave up on other people's turns.

Red

Awaken the Sky Tyrant

The worst card in the set, Awaken is utterly miserable. Let me rewrite it for you:

Sky Tyrant 3R
Creature - Dragon
Defender, Shroud
When you are dealt damage by a source an opponent controls, Sky Tyrant loses Defender and Shroud.
5/5

That card is awful, and so is Awaken. It doesn't get hit by Wraths, but it also doesn't do anything unless your opponent does something first. Its trying to be a rattlesnake card, but it just doesn't do enough. No Mercy is a rattlesnake card. This is just a poor attempt at an undercosted creature. It also doesn't trigger when attacked, so you can't even block with the 5/5 token.

Dream Pillager

Pillager is an attempt at something new, and I applaud that. It does, I think, cost a bit too much for what it does. It also doesn't work well in conjunction with Haste. I'd like it in Kaalia, except you are just as likely to hit other 7 mana cards that you can't cast. I think there'll be homes for Pillager, I just can't think of any right now that simultaneously want a 7 mana dragon and can cast multiple cards from his trigger.

Magus of the Wheel

Magus set up an expectation of their being a cycle of Magi in the precons, which wasn't followed through. The card itself is quite good. Wheels are powerful in red and this one being recur-able through raise dead effects is certainly strong. That it costs additional mana to active is a bit awkward for me since that essentially changes the amount spent for the effect. Still, this is a good card that will see heavy play with how difficult it can be to get positive on cards in Monored.

Meteor Blast

Fixing the amount of damage and scaling targets is novel. I'm not sure how useful this will end up being. On the one hand, casting this on one target is 4 mana, thus a 4 mana 4 damage spell. Once you get above four targets, it'd probably have been better to cast Molten Disaster or Comet Storm. So its not that this is bad, it just a question of how much mana you want to pay. Obviously, in Mizzix its great since you don't want to kill your own stuff, and the cost reduction applies to X, letting you hit many more things than normal.

Mizzix's Mastery

Past in Flames for free is a powerful effect. Getting to 8 mana is difficult though. This is clearly a knockout for storm, but can also just be played in a deck that expects to get to 5RRR and have a decent number of spells in its graveyard. You can't cheat the Overload through the usual means of alternate costs since overload is itself and alternate cost. However reductions still apply to the overload, so you can get this down to RRR with Mizzix, Helm of Awakening, Ruby Medallion, etc.

Green

Arachnogenesis

Fogs are excellent in Commander, and one that lets you pick off opposing attackers while generating bodies are even better. This is like Mirror Match, but less powerful and cheaper. This fits into Rhys like a glove, and most other decks that want another fog beyond Constant Mists.

Bloodspore Thrinax

Bloodspore is like a monogreen Master Biomancer. It counts counters instead of just power, but its also only one color identity. It useful in Ghave or Marath, and also decent value in other less counter focused decks. It'd still only look to include it in a synergy heavy deck as it not the most efficient way of making your creatures larger.

Centaur Vinecrasher

On the surface Vinecrasher is what a green graveyard deck wants, especially Life From the Loam decks, but there are a number of problems. Mostly the problems are with the creature itself. Being enormous is not in itself useful, see Hammletback Goliath. The trample helps this immensely, but I'm still unsure how useful this is going to be overall. This one of the cards I'll need to play with to give a definitive answer, but I still think you should only include this if you are proactively putting lands in the graveyard for some reason instead of relying on lands to wind in the yard over the course of the game.

Ezuri's Predation

'Green-Wrath', Predation is excellent at catching you up from behind. It's very expensive, and won't solve all of your problems, but it does a good job of dealing with overloaded boards. 8 mana isn't terrible to get to in Green either. Expect this to show up quite a bit in ramp orient green decks that don't do too much while getting over seven mana.


Great Oak Guardian

Listed purely because it says 'Target player', GOG will see play as a political nightmare for the table. It does cost 6, but it can be used offensively, so that not too worrying. I don't think I'd play it often, but its nice for people looking for combat tricks on a budget.

Pathbreaker Ibex

Craterhoof's younger cousin, the goat will be breaking people's faces. It really wants to be combined with haste, so look for this in G/R shells. That's not to say it won't be played elsewhere, because it certainly will be. A lot. In format of 40 life where you have to deal 80-120 damage to win, effects like the Ibex or Crafterhoof are priceless for letting you multiply your damage so high as to win the game in a turn.

Skullwinder

An Eternal Witness that effects two players probably would have been good enough on its own. One that has Deathtouch and costs 2G over 1GG is definitely worthwhile. Skullwinder is great in virtually every deck with green mana as a literal rattlesnake that comes with value. Its worth noting that you can target someone with no cards in their graveyard and it still works, meaning that sometimes this is a true E.Witness.

Verdant Confluence

At worst this is a triple rampant growth. Nissa's Pilgrimage just came out and its seen play, so Verdant Confluence is at least even there. However, instead of gaining 7 life, the confluence gives you other options. Regrowing permanents and +1/+1 counters are useful modes. I expect this to take over the Pilgrimage slots immediately unless triple rampant growth is something a madman wants twice.


Artifacts and lands

Blade of Selves

Blade of Selves is an exciting cards. It provides excellent value with enter or leaves play effects and also enables a number of combos, like Yosei or Kokusho. Its expensive to equip, but its definitely worth it. Imagine it on a Craterhoof or even something as simple as a Man-O-War? If your deck has creatures to attack with, Blade is probably great for you.

Sandstone Oracle

Useful in Red and White decks as a way to catch-up on cards. 7 mana is quite a bit to get to normally, but is mitigated by the enters the battlefield effect not being limited to cast by hand. This means that red's Trash for Treasure effects can recur it and White's reanimate effects can get it back early. I don't think this is worth it in blue, black, or green since they can draw cards more efficiently. The exception might be Sharuum since its an artifact for her enters the battlefield effect.

Thought Vessel

Making Reliquary Tower into a 2 mana artifact is a good move given how many decks play reliquary tower. This will see widespread play and is a solid if unexciting card.

Command Beacon

This is a crazy card. When paired with Crucible/Life From the Loam, its a way to get around the tax indefinitely. You have to jump through enough hoops that its not that big a deal, but having the option to skip the tax is potentially extremely powerful for decks that rely on their commander.