I decided to take a week off from deck-brewing, especially since I was kind of proud of the breakthrough I had last week with the Sax deck. I was a little frustrated with my inability to settle on something I really was excited about. I want to brew with some Oath of the Gatewatch cards, but I thought it was best to hold off on some of those cards until they were officially previewed. When we see the full spoiler, you know there is a white Eldrazi in particular that has my blood pumping. As soon as that card is officially confirmed, I’m going to be all over it like white on . . . not that card—because it has devoid. I’m sure you all know the card I’m talking about and are just as excited as I am for it to be confirmed. The next few weeks promise to be pretty exciting.

And why not be excited? With a set jammed full of Commander goods and opportunities for Two-Headed Giant games (in honor of the surge mechanic, my local game store is running a 2HG event for this prerelease! That’s the same number they always schedule!), I thought we’d take a break from brewing and take a look back at the commanders from the Commander (2015 Edition) precon decks. With ten new legendary creatures spread across five decks, there are a ton of new decks that can be built. You knew that—I have built quite a few here in this series. While I tend to try to make my decks 75%, not everyone does, and we’re starting to see a few of the commanders edge toward “Rafiq Problem” territory. Some of these decks are bound to receive a little more heat than others, so in the tradition of the other Heat Index articles (part one, part two, part three) and in the name of having some fun before we get down to the srs bsnss of brewing decks in a week or two, let’s look at how much heat some of the Commander (2015 Edition) cards are going to bring down on us.

Transgression: Daxos the Returned Is Your Commander

Commander Heat Index Score: 4/10

Notes: Daxos is a lot of fun for the person playing the deck, but not usually super-annoying for the person trying to murder that person with his or her team. Most people build a pillow-fort-type deck and use the experience counters to crank out a win condition. You can do worse things to your opponents than this.

Transgression: Karlov of the Ghost Council Is Your Commander

Commander Heat Index Score: 6/10

Notes: This is met with a little more suspicion than a Daxos deck despite being roughly at the same power level. Karlov can nuke permanents, and people don’t like that, and it also encourages you to play cards like Exquisite Blood and Debt to the Deathless. If opponents suspect you run the combo of Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond, add a point or two.

Transgression: Mizzix of the Izmagnus Is Your Commander

Commander Heat Index Score: 6/10

Notes: I think the Heat Index is a little too high for what this card actually tends to do in practice. It makes more expensive cards easier to cast, but it doesn’t double them like Melek, Izzet Paragon does. This is a fun card, but it catches residual heat from Melek, something that may go away in time.

Transgression: Arjun, the Shifting Flame Is Your Commander

Commander Heat Index Score: 4/10

Notes: Are people underestimating Arjun? Perhaps. Are you going to be able to disabuse them of that notion with your Arjun deck? Good luck. This is pretty cool in the ninety-nine of some decks so you don’t get stuck with top-decking lands, but it also makes the game take longer. People will grow bored watching you handle your deck every ten seconds; otherwise, this would be a 0.

Transgression: Meren of Clan Nel Toth Is Your Commander

Commander Heat Index Score: 6/10

Notes: This is the most popular deck being built from Commander (2015 Edition), and with good reason. It’s sort of linear to build, and it’s pretty powerful. It also un-gets-rid-of stuff your opponents tried to get rid of. They tend to look upon that with disfavor.

Transgression: Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest Is Your Commander

Commander Heat Index Score: 8.5/10

Notes: This is hated less on its power level and more because it encourages you to do antisocial things. You’re rewarded for making opponents sac stuff. If you cast a big Death Cloud, you are rewarded a lot. Opponents don’t like to sacrifice stuff. They’re going to let you know—with violence.

Transgression: Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas Is Your Commander

Commander Heat Index Score: 3/10

Notes: You’re probably playing some weird hybrid Voltron deck in which you have a lot of big creatures to gain experience counters, but you’re mostly swinging with your commander. It’s a confusing deck to build. People are probably going to underestimate you, something you will struggle to take advantage of. Some clever builds go pure Voltron and eschew experience counters, but most are just aimless, durdle piles that aren’t sure which deck they want to be. If you’re upset by this characterization, send me your decklist. I’d love to be proven wrong.

Transgression: Anya, Merciless Angel Is Your Commander

Commander Heat Index Score: 2/10

Notes: This card is super-underwhelming until your opponents are about to die. Better hope they do it to each other because you’re not doing much with a 4/4 flyer for 5.

Transgression: Ezuri, Claw of Progress Is Your Commander

Commander Heat Index Score: 8/10

Notes: Ezuri’s is a nasty deck. He is triggered easily off good, G/U, utility creatures you want to be playing anyway, such as Coiling Oracle. He puts counters on sweet cards with persist like Aerie Ouphes and Glen Elendra Archmage. He makes creatures big and scary, and he does it every turn. People are 8/10 suspicious of Ezuri. You can make it worse though.

Transgression: You’re Playing Ezuri, and Opponents See a Sage of Hours

Commander Heat Index Score: 11/10

Notes: If they don’t kill it or you this turn, you’ll kill them on one of your “every turn ever,” and the game ends. Prepare for every available heat.

Transgression: Kaseto, Orochi Archmage Is Your Commander

Commander Heat Index Score: 3/10–7/10

Notes: It’s hard to know what to think when you see a Kaseto deck. Durdly, Snake tribal is really fun to build. Spikey, can’t-block-this, MC Hammer–type decks are fun to play. If opponents suspect you’re going to kill them with infect, this could be as high as a 7/10. It actually depends a lot on the last person who played Kaseto against them, if anyone. I’m not here to tell you not to play infect. What I will suggest is that you make like Kaseto and lower your head and serpentine because the heat, it’s a-comin’.

Transgression: You Put a Blade of Selves on Basically Anything

Commander Heat Index Score: 8/10

Notes: Blade of Selves is best used in a deck with a lot of creatures that have abilities that trigger when they enter the battlefield. Unless opponents are taking you to Torpor Town (Torpor Orb), you’re taking them to trigger town. Blade of Selves is a nasty card, and it scales up based on the number of players at the table. An Acidic Slime or Frost Titan can wreak a lot of havoc, so expect a fight if you suit up something nasty and send it to the red zone. This is an expensive card for a reason.

Transgression: Summoning Thief of Blood

Commander Heat Index Score: 0/10–10/10

Notes: Thief of Blood is a card that will cause some decks to shrug while it pulls the pants entirely off other decks. An Ezuri, Claw of Progress or Vorel of the Hull Clade deck will be very upset with you. Superfriends will become your Superenemy. Whatever you do, be prepared to kill your opponent—preferably with your big ol’ Vampire—because the bigger he is, the angrier the people at the table probably are. This card is so inconsistently-scaled across the field it almost doesn’t feel worthy of a main-decked spot. Cards that pants some decks and don’t even scathe others aren’t designed ideally. In fact . . . 

Transgression: Designing Thief of Blood

How That Will Be Interpreted: “I wish you’d worked harder on this card.”

Commander Heat Index Score: 9/10

Notes: I’m not happy with whoever designed such a lopsided card.

There you have it. Commander (2015 Edition) gave us quite a few good new cards, and we’re seeing more and more decks built every day as people received these precons as presents or bought them with money they received over the Holidays. We may see some of these values change as cards break or builds become a little less Spikey on average. No matter what happens, these annual Commander releases aren’t too bad, and I’m having a lot of fun building decks. I’ll be back next week; until then, if you can’t stand the heat, stay away from the kitchen table.