Hello folks! I hope you are having a safe and fun day today! Let's turn now to Commander 2020 and its arrival on the back of some cool cards. Are you ready for the new injection of cards in what Wizards has branded the Year of Commander? What do you think of the Year thus far?

Today I want to look at combos that leapt out at me as I reviewed the spoiler.

10. Avenging Huntbonder and Player Killers

There are a few creatures out there that are cheap and grow quickly to a big, fat size. Take Mortivore as a good example. In any typical multiplayer game with a load of Wrath of God (as one style of mass removal) and self-milling and targeted removal, Mortivore is likely a 10/10 by turn five or 6 and it grows quickly from there. These are often known as player killers in 20-life formats where one hit with a Mortivore can kill, in but in Commander where you have twice the starting life, an 11/11 Mortivore is just annoying. But what happens when it gets a double strike counter and can punch twice each combat? Now suddenly it can kill in one attack step by smashing people for a large amount of damage twice. They regain their cachet with double strike. Unlike an aura or equipment, the counter cannot be answered, so you have to go after the creature as your only answer. (Hence one of the good values from Mortivore as it'll have regeneration to protect it.) Other examples of PKs that would love a double strike counter include Serra Avatar and Lord of Extinction.

9. Avenging Huntbonder and Sneak Attack

One of the big issues with Avenging Huntbonder is that it's slow and has to swing to get in a counter. What if you dropped it with Sneak Attack? Drop another dork too, like Serra Avatar from above, and give it double strike and you can kill someone in one hit so long as their life total is no more than twice yours! It's a great way to deal with someone out of nowhere.

8. Herald of the Forgotten and Cycling Lands

Herald of the Forgotten is a fun way to recur some early cycled permanents. You might initially consider creatures like Krosan Tusker and similar powerhouses that are fun! Sure thing. But I think lands are the most reliable way to abuse it. Most modern Commander decks have a few cycling lands like Ash Barrens running around. We have a big amount of cycling love that you can lean into as well, such as one-mana cyclers and two-mana makers like Sheltered Thicket. We have a big enough cache of cyclers that we really should be looking to cycle lands for the Herald! Even a mono-white deck has three white cyclers plus two colorless (and needs the card flow they offer).

7. Glademuse and Teferis

At first I looked at Glademuse confused. Why is this card in Green? It rewards the casting of spells during other turns. It's the direct opposite of Heartwood Storyteller, a classic green card that punished people playing anything other than dorks by rewarding their foes with cards whenever they cast them. Other turns seem like a hard thing to do in a color that loves creatures. Your foes will be outdrawing you massively.

That is, unless they cannot play spells on other turns! Enter Teferi, and we have two options for Teferi fun times that will shut down opposing spells outside of sorceries. Original Teferi will help because you can cast your dorks with flash, which helps a lot for green! You can also find cards like Yeva, Nature's Herald that play into a similar space and keep it green. Enjoy it!

6. Twinning Staff and Mirari

The first time I saw Twinning Staff, I wasn't impressed. What decks would want it? Would it actually be useful to duplicate my duplication effects? And then I realized - any deck that wants Mirari wants this too! And it really wants them out at the same time as well! The copies for Mirari will trigger Twinning Staff, so you'll get two copies for each instant or sorcery you cast with a Mirari fork without any additional mana needed beyond the Mirari trigger. Enjoy the Fork'ing.

5. Cryptic Trilobite and Rasputin Dreamweaver

Similarly, the various decks that need a lot of colorless mana from Rasputin Dreamweaver are going to love Cryptic Trilobite! The Trilobite is a great card as you can essentially tap it for a colorless mana if it has at least two counters. Remove a counter to make 2 mana, and then tap and spend one to put it back on. It'll die if it had one counter before you began. You will get your initial investment of XX back later, just in a different form that requires activated abilities, such as Staff of Domination or Retrofitter Foundry. Each of these makes a ton of mana that can be harnessed well!

4. Sanctuary Blade and Damage-Based Removal

I love Sanctuary Blade! You can flexibly give protection to a creature, and there are a lot of reasons to do that. You can use it to save one in your color. Take White! If all your removal effects are variants of Wave of Reckoning, you can keep someone safe by preventing the damage with a protection from White Sanctuary Blade. The same is true for Red's damage-based removal like Rolling Earthquake and black's effects like Famine and Thrashing Wumpus that play into that space. Thrashing Wumpus, Pestilence Demon, Crypt Rats and similar dorks that sweep can be great with this as they'll stick around if you've given them a protection from black Sanctuary Blade.

3. Sanctuary Blade and Diaochan, Artful Beauty

I have a mono-Red build this will slide right into, Diaochan, Artful Beauty. In this deck, she can tap and destroy a creature of my choice, but only at the cost of losing one of my own. They can choose to kill Diaochan herself, so in order to help reduce that possibility, I put equipment on her like Lightning Greaves that prevents targeting. This is another card in that oeuvre, as I can equip her, call out Red, and never have to worry about her targeting herslf (or a key friend in my deck if I have another piece of equipment that copies it like Whispersilk Cloak). Enjoy the Diaochan!

2. Selective Adaptation and Mwonvuli Beast Tracker

Selective Adaptation is a great card and it will work in any deck with a dense slate of keywords. Digging seven and tossing one onto the battlefield and drawing a bunch more is great. Green has a few cards that care about keywords, such as Majestic Myriarch that enjoys the same space. The Beast Tracker plays into the same deck as it will fetch the best dork for the situation with four potential keyword options for your consideration. I've gotten Acidic Slime with it more than once. But the synergy is not the only combo here. By casting it prior to the Selective Adaptation, you can search up the perfect card to toss onto the battlefield with its effect! It turns a revealing effect into half of a Show and Tell. Pretty nice! Other in-color combos like Worldly Tutor and Sylvan Tutor also exist.

1a. Xyris, the Writhing Storm and Temple Bell

The great thing about Xyris is that you can turn Commander's love of people drawing cards into 1/1s. You turn that opposing card drawing into 1/1 Snakes. However, you may want to accelerate this with a Temple Bell or similar effect. Each tap of the Temple Bell draws a card for you and makes you a good number of Snakes. You could easily get three or for Snakes in one normal multiplayer matchup!

1b. Draw-Sevens

Wanna really make some creatures? I hear you! Why not invest in a traditional everyone draws-seven effect, and then you are going to get a ton of Snakes just weeping on the table. The next turn, you can use one of these. Also note that it's in Red and Blue, so most draw-sevens are there. As it costs 5 mana, you could easily have a draw-seven effect like Wheel of Fortune or Time Reversal. Reforge the Soul! Memory Jar! You've got this! You could easily get enough Snakes in one draw-seven to win the game. And you probably drew another if you have enough in your deck. And you are in the colors of haste and Time Walks to untap and swing, so you can easily turn a big number of Snakes into an instant kill.

And there you are! Anything in here that I missed or that you'd suggest? Anything inspire you? Just let me know!