Hello folks! I hope that you are having a great day today and keeping yourself safe in our modern COVID-19 world!

Have you felt that Commander has become a little overplayed in your playgroup? I know a lot of fans and friends have mentioned to me that they are looking for something new. Maybe a new break for a few weeks and then a return to the format we all love. Or maybe they are looking for a longer-term commitment with a new best friend. Whichever you are, that is where the Beyond Commander series steps in.

The goal of this series is to spend time in my Tuesday article going over a new format for your consideration and taking a deep dive therein. I was dedicating my October to this series, but I found another way of playing the game while researching the article that I wanted to explore in this week. Next week we'll move to Commander Legends spoiler action after they have really hit the fence (I submit this a week early so as I write this only five cards are spoiled).

Today we'll be looking at Blitzkrieg and it's both a variant and a format. What's the difference? Great question!

Variant - A variant is a differently way of playing the game with a new set of rules. A popular variant for multiplayer is Emperor composed of two teams of three players each where the team that defeats the Emperor first wins, and with a different set of rules as you have a range for your spells and attacks. The goal is to be on the winning team. These come with new rules to play.

Format - A format, on the other hand, is a set of rules that must be followed for deck creation. Standard is a format that restricts what cards you can use to certain recently released sets. Pauper is a format that only allows commons to be used. Deck construction rules are in a format.

You can combine these. You could play Commander Emperor which tells you your deck and your play rules. You could also play Modern Emperor as well!

This series is focused on formats, not variants. And at the end of the article you'll find a list of my previous articles with a quick set of rules and links for more info.

But Blitzkrieg breaks this as it has both rules for play and rules for deck construction. Let's take those one at a time.

Blitzkrieg Game Play Rules

1. During your Draw Phase, draw until you have seven cards in your hand. (Note: this means that both players will not draw on their first turn, unless you have dropped lands as per rule #4 below.)
2. During your Main Phase you may play up to two lands.
3. During your Discard Phase, if you have any cards left in your hand you must discard between one and four cards.
4. At the start of the game each player may put two basic lands in play untapped.

And there you have it! Note that the up to seven cards drawn will really help you to dump your hand and thus encourages cheaper builds. You also get two free lands and two lands on your first turn running up to four lands by turn one, which can put you straight into the mid-game. As such a four- drop has the reliability of a one-drop.

Another way to keep up the card flow is to dump up to 4 cards in your discard step, and thus will draw more cards in your draw step letting you see more cards overall. Even if you have fewer than seven in your grip you still have to discard at least one card.

Note that these changes mean that the format rewards proactive play not reactive. If you dump much of your hand on your turn with permanents and then discard the rest, you'll draw a full 7 cards next turn, whereas a reactive deck that relies on counters or targeted removal may wind up not drawing as many cards. And a control deck doesn't want to be outdrawn by an aggro deck. That makes this a fun format to try out if control has taken over your Commander metagame and you are looking for a break.

Blitzkrieg Deck Construction Rules

1. Each deck must contain at least 80 cards.
2. Each deck may contain up to 5 copies of any card that is not restricted or banned. (Note: this includes each copy of a basic land) Any card that is banned or restricted in Vintage is banned in Blitzkrieg.
3. Each deck may have no more than five artifacts total across all cards.

And there we have it!

Your massive cards drawn will be tethered by the larger deck size, but you also have to run at least 80 cards if not more, which serves as brake on the format. You cannot run more than 5 Swamps, 5 Forests, and such, and only basics get the free "beginning of the game" drop so you are likely to want to play more colors in order to manage that aspect of the rules. Note that you could run 15 basics in a mono colored deck with Island, Wastes, and Snow-Covered Island.

Note that you can only run up to five artifacts total, so if you ran five Solemn Simulacrums, then that would maximize your artifact count. Cards banned or restricted in Vintage, like Sol Ring, Ponder, and Demonic Tutor are all banned.

Try out the format and then massage it as you see things that may need changed. Maybe you want to slide to a max of 4 copies of each card including basics. Or perhaps you want to ban more cards. Maybe you'll want to add in the Legacy or Modern and Standard lists as well. Maybe you'll want to make this Pauper or Singleton. Play around with it to check it out!

Now some decks to see what you can unearth!

Decks

Let's look at a pair of decks!

Orzhov Tokens | Blitzkrieg | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (8)
• 3 Teysa Karlov
• 5 Angel of Invention

• Planeswalkers (16)
• 2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
• 3 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
• 3 Liliana, Dreadhorde General
• 5 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

• Sorceries (18)
• 3 Conqueror's Pledge
• 5 Lingering Souls
• 5 Spectral Procession
• 5 Vindicate

• Enchantments (6)
• 1 Divine Visitation
• 5 Intangible Virtue

• Lands (32)
• 5 Plains
• 5 Swamp
• 5 Snow-Covered Plains
• 5 Snow-Covered Swamp
• 2 Temple of Silence
• 5 Caves of Koilos
• 5 Godless Shrine

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40% of the deck is lands and that's where I aimed to be in this build and would be my starting level in other builds. I emphasized basics for the ability to have two in the first grip.

Think about Orzhov Basilica in this format. If you run it, then you can drop both the Basilica and the land you bounced, which seems like a good deal, right? But I suspect that if you are drawing cards at enough of a clip that the spurious land drop of the bounced land would set you back a card and you want to empty your hand. Thus, no Karoo lands are here.

I have a bunch of planeswalkers that make tokens in here as well as the best, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad which can kill himself for his emblem ability. I am running five of him as he'll die regularly. I have fewer of the others. I love the power of cards like Lingering Souls, Spectral Procession and Intangible Virtue.

I enjoy Divine Visitation but more than one can't help so I only have one copy of it here. I have Angel of Invention that can make two dorks on arrival and serves as a backup Glorious Anthem effect to Intangible Virtue and Sorin, Lord of Innistrad's emblem. Vindicate is here as an emergency answer to anything that needs to be broken.

And there we go!

Next?

Mono-Red Sligh | Blitzkrieg | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (30)
• 2 Embereth Shieldbreaker
• 3 Anger
• 3 Purphoros, God of the Forge
• 3 Zurgo Bellstriker
• 4 Bonecrusher Giant
• 5 Eidolon of the Great Revel
• 5 Goblin Guide
• 5 Mogg Fanatic

• Planeswalkers (7)
• 2 Koth of the Hammer
• 5 Chandra, Torch of Defiance

• Instants (10)
• 5 Incinerate
• 5 Lightning Bolt

• Sorceries (10)
• 5 Light Up the Stage
• 5 Mizzium Mortars

• Lands (28)
• 5 Mountain
• 5 Wastes
• 5 Snow-Covered Mountain
• 2 Smoldering Crater
• 3 Myriad Landscape
• 3 Wasteland
• 5 Forgotten Cave

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I went with a smaller number of lands here as we don't need that many with the smaller casting costs of my folks. I tossed in 7 cycling lands as well since you can cycle them if they are unneeded for other things. I emphasized the cheaper cycler of Forgotten Cave. I wanted to build a mono-colored deck as a challenge in this build.

Goblin Guide is great in this format as it'll clog up their hand and they'll draw one fewer if it hits a land. (It's also not a may effect, either). Anger can be discarded at the end of your turn for free no matter what your hand count is and is thus a guaranteed haste effect for your club.

My removal is mainly burn for dorks and planeswalkers and players. I have added in a pair of Embereth Shieldbreakers to potentially answer artifact and I have Wastelands for nonbasics, covering everything but enchantments.

What do you think of Blitzkrieg? Have you heard of it? Are you looking forward to trying it out? Any formats that you would recommend? Just let me know and have an awesome day! Keep yourself safe!

Appendix - Beyond Commander Articles

Here are my articles that explore other formats in the Beyond Commander series thus far.

1. Beyond Commander - Five Color - This alternate format has at least 300 cards, at least 25 of each color, gold cards count for only one color, and it has its own Banned and Restricted list. You can check it out here!
2. Beyond Commander - Rainbow Stairwell - In this format you must have 24 basic lands and 36 other cards. Those 36 cards must be in each color and colorless artifacts. They must have converted casting costs of 1 - 6. You can check it out here!
3. Beyond Commander - Chameleon - In this format you must have at least 60 cards, and no card other than any lands and gold cards. You can check it out here!
4. Beyond Commander - Alphabet Soup - In this format, every card other than basic lands must begin with the same letter as your given name. If you have a rare letter like "X" from "Xavier" you can use your family name instead, and if that is also rare (such as the name "Xavier O'Conner") then you can use your middle name instead. Check it out!