The crux of any Commander deck is the Commander itself. When a new set comes out, one of the first things that players should do is look at the new Legendary creatures. Not only does this display some of the intended flavor of the set, but you can see the future metagame of your playgroup. People always want to try out new things, and when they're given the option of creating new decks with their new toys, they'll take that chance.

The way I feel about Legendary creatures is that they come in three classes. The first category will make good Commanders. If you want to separate them out into tiers of how strong and powerful they are (like Uril and Teferi vs. Kemba), go ahead and argue; I'm not going to do that today. The second classification is Legendary creatures that are good in Commander, just not in the Commander position—either their abilities are too narrow and other colors could benefit from them, or they're just not powerful enough to be Commanders. Ironically, plenty of Legendary creatures from Kamigawa fit here. The third grouping is basically the Legendary creatures that are useless in Commander. They might see play in decks, but most likely won't.

Ever since the creation of the mythic rare, Legendary creatures have been split up between rare and mythic. It seems the decision for the rarity comes from a story/Vorthos reason (though power level does have something to do it as well). As for NPH, there are seven Legends: five mythics (one for each color) and two rares (including another multicolored one). The chances of getting one of the main Legendary creatures this time around will be a little bit slimmer, since they're mythic, but more mythics are Legendary creatures, which means if you do pull a mythic, it may be your new Commander.

Each of the mythic Legendary creatures follow a simple pattern: color bonus keyword, bonus for you, hurt your opponents in the opposite way. They will affect the board once they're in play—don't let anybody tell you different. You have to get rid of these, or they will destroy you. As for the rare Legends—well, that's a different story.

But enough introduction. You want me to talk about the new main attractions. Fine, have it your way.

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

With some of the best art in the set, she can be pretty intimidating. Looking like an extra from a Guillermo Del Toro film, she does strike fear in your opponent's creatures. The Vigilance is a little funny (though somewhat relevant); the key here is the power/toughness boosts and the way she kills creatures. Yes, the -2/-2 is huge; gets rids of tokens, makes your opponent's Titans 4/4, and suddenly shuts down your opponent's attacking game. Add to that the +2/+2 bonus she gives your creatures, and suddenly your token army is huge, with a 4-point power/toughness swing.

But . . . I'm not impressed by her.

(Dodges fruit being thrown at him.)

There is one more Commander who does almost the same thing, but I feel he's a better deal overall.

Smaller butt and smaller power/toughness bonus effects, but I feel he is better in two ways. First, he costs 6 instead of 7, which is important when you're worried about a token attack. But the big benefit that Crovax, Ascendant Hero has is the pay-2-life ability to return him to your hand. This helps prevent many awkward situations, from it being stolen to Wrath effects. The fact that I can pay Crovax's 6 mana over and over again instead of the increasing mana that Commanders face when they're usually killed is a huge advantage.

If I'm going to classify Elesh Norn (I know that some of you are on pins and needles for this), I feel that she's a very passable Commander. The swing of 4 power/toughness is huge and game-breaking, but if I'm going to play a Commander like her, I'll play Crovax. I'd still want a foil (or even better, a Phyrexian language foil) for that Crovax deck—very beautiful art.

Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur

10 mana is a ton of mana to cast. The 5/4 body is strong enough to last a number of burn spells or require at least two activations of something, giving you even more card advantage. The Flash helps, but it's not these two things that cause—him? her? it? Help me out, Vorthos—to cost that absurd amount of mana. Making your opponents' hands shrink by seven cards is huge, and almost seems Black in a way (but I assure you, it still can be Blue). You can Flash it at the end of the opponent's end step and still make him discard down to whatever.

When you have no hand size limit, it doesn't matter that you lose seven cards. Infinity minus seven is still infinity.

Drawing seven cards at the end of the turn is very good, but no one needs to tell you that. If you have cards like Psychosis Crawler, that works well if you want a killable combo. There's always Mind Over Matter, which you can abuse for a ton of mana. Drawing seven cards to refuel your hand without any combos work just as well. You don't need to be all tricky with it; you're in Blue.

The most common Commander you'd compare this to is Teferi—maybe because of the Flash, maybe because of the game-altering ability that's beneficial to you and screws over your opponent. Teferi comes out earlier in the game (obviously), but both would be fine as either Commanders or just Legends in each other's decks.

Sheoldred, Whispering One

If you went to the prerelease, this was the foil mythic that you received (while supplies lasted). Personally, I prefer the non-promo art, but either one will work; what matters is the card text. Swampwalk (with Urborg) helps beat for 6, which actually makes this a pretty powerful beater in four turns. But that's not why you chose her as your Commander.

The obvious choice would be to turn this into a Black Reya Dawnbringer. Black has more sacrifice outlets with benefits and more powerful creatures that you want back. There's nothing wrong with that, and I'm sure that plenty of people will have something they want to come back over and over again.

However, it's the making-opponents-sacrifice-creatures that will make people really hate her. In slow, drawn-out games, this will make everyone point the creatures they have left at you. If you combine this with Butcher of Malakir and Grave Pact when you're sacrificing your creatures to whatever effect, you can completely clean the table.

If you're not using her as a Commander (for which she's perfectly suited), Thraximundar will love her completely—though the mixture of Reya, Sheoldred, and Debtors' Knell will completely drive opponents insane, especially when they bring each other back from the graveyard.

Urabrask the Hidden

This might be the first one I feel is completely better as a role-player than a Commander. Yes, it's cute to put it into play and attack with it (Urabrask has Haste itself because it doesn't say "other creatures"), but the real benefit is the Kismet effect for creatures. It doesn't stop token creatures from being created at the end of the turn and swinging in the next, but it does stop such devastating effects as Convoke and Cryptic Gateway from being too degenerate.

But this is a great role-player only because there are so many off-color cards that can benefit from it. Have an opponent who plays a ton of Legends? Arena of the Ancients can keep them tapped after he plays them. Theft of Dreams draws you cards. Sunblast Angel kills them after Planar Guide blinks them from existence.

Using Urabrask as a Commander means changing things up. I wouldn't recommend putting in Hasty creatures, because you will have Hasty creatures anyway. You want to throw in fatties with drawbacks like Cosmic Larva. By doing something like this, you can create a modern Fires of Yavimaya–style deck (only with Red). I think it's an interesting idea, and I challenge you to build that style of deck.

Melira, Sylvok Outcast

Ugh.

She fits in the block story line, but she doesn't really work well as a Commander. The best use of her is to prevent -1/-1 counters on creatures. We're ignoring the anti-Infect portions of this card, because unless your metagame is filled with Skittles, the Blight Dragon, she's of no help.

Besides Infect, the best mechanic with which you can abuse her is Persist. Those creatures will continually keep coming back with no -1/-1 counters on them, because they can't be placed on the creatures. Cauldron of Souls seem like an obvious choice, but there are a few "infinite" combos you should be aware of if you're not going to use them yourself.

Sacrifice outlet + Melira + Murderous Redcap = "infinite" damage

Sacrifice outlet + Melira + Kitchen Finks = "infinite" life

Sacrifice outlet + Melira + Woodfall Primus = kills all noncreature permanents

And if that sacrifice outlet turns out to be Blasting Station, you can deal damage as well (making the Woodfall Primus possible in a mono-Green deck). And these are just the combos that don't require mana. Search up Persist at MagicCards.info to see what other cards and combos you can come up with.

But no, really, she's a horrible Commander.

Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger

There's nothing wrong with a one-sided Mana Flare, but at 8 mana, this one will seem a little late to get full use. Ignoring all Magic Christmasland scenarios (where the deck operates the best it can for the first few turns), it will take several turns to see him on the battlefield. If you're running Vorinclex, you're also running Heartbeat of Spring, Gauntlet of Power, Caged Sun, Vernal Bloom, etc.

You've got so much mana-ramp to get out your Commander that when you do, it seems like you're just piling it on. There are ways to use that Forest that taps for , but when you get there, it just seems like the final part of a puzzle to get finished than just another piece, like with the other mana accelerants.

I do want you to note that it does say "any land," not just "basic land." So if you happen to play him in other colors, you can abuse those lands as well. You can tap a Vivid land with no counters to get the base color than one more of any color since it could produce it.

The 7/6 body is a healthy one—you shouldn't feel too bad sending it into the red zone, especially with Trample. It's going to take plenty to take it down.

Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer

Points for having it be multicolored, but minus points for it being so lackluster. I see why it was designed, something to give Metalcraft decks a leader, but the power increase doesn't make it that much more appealing. It doesn't stop Elesh Norn from killing your army, nor does it stop a timely placed Black Sun's Zenith.

The other issue I have is with Metalcraft. Red wants to destroy artifacts, and White doesn't mind them. Neither of these two colors have the affinity to artifacts that Blue does, but that's a topic for mtgcolorpie.com, not here. I don't think you'll get the consistency of artifacts that you want to keep the Metalcraft active. Darksteel Relic is a horrible play in Commander (imagining drawing it late game; you really think that will save you?). I feel that you'll have to play suboptimal cards just to get Metalcraft, and that's no fun for everyone.

Some might argue that you have Sol Ring and Sensei's Divining Top, which will account for two of the three artifacts for Metalcraft. Adding in Whispersilk Cloak will make him an 8/4 First Strike, Unblockable, Shroud Commander that takes three hits to kill. Now that I think about it, adding in Stoneforge Mystic and Enlightened Tutor might not be that bad. If you ignore the army and focus on him to make the kill, could Jor Kadeen be a good Commander?

Sorry, got too excited there. Maybe I was dealing with Magical Christmasland, but those are the types of things that Commander is built for. Dream the big dream. Take the bull by the horns and see where it takes you. You can dream, but that doesn't always win you games.

We wind up with seven new Commanders, one for each color and a multicolored one. Everyone got a new toy to play with, which will be good. Create new decks, and I hope I've given you some starting points for your new Commanders. Just reminding you again that if you went to the prerelease, your NPH cards are legal now, so go show them off to your friends. Throw your comments or questions down below if you think I missed anything.

Next week will be one of the most different pieces of Magic writing you may have read.