All of that is fine because that’s my job, but I also care about Commander, and when you look at From the Vault: Annihilation, it’s actually not bad for Commander. Not bad at all. I get the feeling quite a few people are going to buy these for sweet foil and art upgrades, and because some previously unaffordable cards will suddenly become affordable. Previous FTV offerings have had all kinds of crazy Commander good stuff: Sensei's Divining Top, Thran Dynamo, Vesuva, and a ton of killer commanders. This set is no exception.

Every Commander writer is probably evaluating this set for Commander, but I want to do mine with a bit of a twist. I won’t be evaluating the cards in terms of Commander impact, and you probably don’t need your hand held that much anyway. Rather, I’ll be taking a look at the contents of FTV: Annihilation and giving a 1 to 5 score (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100%) based on how well each card follows the 75% principles. Some of these cards you’ll be poised to jam in a deck. But should you?

Armageddon

What kind of deck would play it? Avacyn, Angel of Hope

Armageddon is one of my least favorite 75% spells. Our principle dealing with preferring to punish our opponents for doing things rather than preventing them from doing them basically centers around my experiences with this card. If you’re playing an Avacyn, Angel of Hope deck, you basically win the game if you resolve ’Geddon and only you have lands. But you don’t straight-up win the game, you make everyone at the table play an annoying top-deck game while you beat them about the head. If you can’t deal with their boards and therefore can’t just start killing people, you basically just made the game take forever. This is a fine, competitive spell, but it has no place in a 75% deck, and I wouldn’t include it if I were you.

Burning of Xinye

What kind of deck would play it? Oros, the Avenger or Maelstrom Wanderer

This may be better in French Commander because it does a poor impression of a Wildfire in multiplayer, targeting one player. Still, you sometimes want to pants one person in particular. I don’t recommend playing this card for the same reason I don’t recommend Armageddon, but Wildfire and Burning have a bit more utility. They can help you out-tempo opponents and stay in the lead but not make everyone resort to a game of who-has-the-best-top-deck?” Burning is a poor substitute for Wildfire sometimes, but some decks were running this card back when it was a million dollars, so now that it’s cheaper, more people can experiment with it. I don’t like this in 75% Commander necessarily, and my personal Maelstrom Wanderer build doesn’t want this, Destructive Force, or Wildfire, but last week, we talked to a guy who was being three-on-one’d, and maybe this is a tool he wants in his arsenal. Just remember this forces you to choose an opponent, and that’s going to make someone saltier than the last handful of popcorn.

Cataclysm

What kind of deck would play it? Mayael the Anima or Eight-And-A-Half-Tails

This is a pretty big prevent-opponents-from-doing-things card if ever I saw one. This deals with the board better than Armageddon does, and if you have a suited-up Voltron commander left when the dust settles, you can easily start picking people off one at a time. Maybe 25% is charitable, but your opponent can conceivably still be in a decent position. I have survived Cataclysm with a Somberwald Sage, a Thran Dynamo, and a Temple of the False God before, and I won the next turn, but I’ve also been pantsed and played some miserable top-deck games. In the spirit of not letting anecdata steer my decision, I can give this a 25% because that’s still not a very high score. This card is strong enough to be banned in duel Commander. I’m assuming the implication is that in multiplayer, you’re making three or more people angry with you and leaving them a few sticks to beat you with. This is a good card, but I am not jamming these in a 75% deck.

Child of Alara

What kind of deck would play it? Child of Alara likes to play Child of Alara

This is a fine commander for a 75% deck as far as I am concerned. Looping this guy for multiple wipes is a bit of a liability, as you have to let him go to the ’yard rather than the command zone in order to gain value. I see him used as a way to play a five-colored deck as often as not. Five-color good-stuff decks are not exactly bad 75% candidates. Some decks try to bring him back from the ’yard over and over to keep the board clear, but that’s easy to disrupt and not very easy to pull off. It’s also not a win condition. The reason this isn’t 100% is that there is a possibility someone could pull some evil shenanigans, but other than that, in the words of Ford Prefect, this card is “mostly harmless.”

Decree of Annihilation

What kind of deck would play it? Any kind of deck a bad person would play

This has two modes, both of which violate the spirit of 75% as well as a few axioms. Cast for full value, this puts the game far beyond an annoying game of top-deck and into the most annoying possible game of top-deck. If someone played this card in my group, we would tell that person he or she won and then continue the game without that person. You can absolutely play this card in Commander. But should you? The worst part about it is that it’s not a win condition and doesn’t put you ahead. Conceivably, you could play this in a deck full of enchantments, which is rude, but it is a good strategy. In most cases, it’s essentially starting a new subgame with the old life totals, only you start the game with zero cards unless you had enchantments. Don’t play this card in a 75% deck.

Firespout

What kind of deck would play it? None likely would.

Firespout is a bit underpowered in Commander, and I hardly see any lists play it. FTV: Annihilation has a lot of sweet Cube staples, and this is one of them.

Fracturing Gust

What kind of deck would play it? Rhys the Redeemed or any G/W deck really

Fracturing Gust was one of those Modern cards that are from the right era that when it saw a small modicum of sideboard play, people bought out TCGplayer, and the price spiked. With no one willing to sell the cards at a loss, the price is kind of hovering at about twice its pre-spike level, but it’s declining slowly. This should sharpen the decline.

$2 Fracturing Gust suits me fine. This is the kind of spell Commander decks should run, and 75% decks are no exception. Sweepers for noncreatures are generally tolerated better, the life-gain is bound to be significant, and if you’re ready for it by including creatures as a source of mana, you can put yourself ahead on mana. This is a good card to have in the decks that can play it. I have not much to say other than, “This is a good inclusion.”

Living Death

What kind of deck would play it? Iname, Death Aspect

This really should have been Living End. One of them is played in Modern and goes for $10 online, and the other is played in basically Commander and casual games and has been reprinted into powder. This was a real chance for them to do a strategic Modern reprint, and they punted. I’m just a little surprised.

Living Death is a poor man’s Damnation at its worst and a game-changing creature swing at its best. It’s an MVP in my Iname, Death Aspect deck, frequently unearthing twenty Spirits. If I can’t win with Mortal Combat, beating face with a pile of value is the next-best thing. There is nothing inherently not in the spirit of 75% here, and it’s frequently very potent if you are the only one who knows it’s coming. Feel free to empty their ’yards if you can to make sure you just pants everyone with this spell.

Martial Coup

What kind of deck would play it? Elesh Norn, Grand Cennobite

This is a solid Wrath effect. You pay a bit more, and you benefit from it, but if you pay a bit less, it’s a generic token spell. It’s versatile, fair, and just a good inclusion. If you have a deck like Rhys the Redeemed or Elesh Norn, wherein having tokens matters, even better. I love to cast Martial Coup with a Primal Vigor or Parallel Lives in play—or both. I endorse this fun spell in 75% decks. Sweepers are very important.

Rolling Earthquake

What kind of deck would play it? Heartless Hidetsugu

This is a card a lot of Commander players wanted to play forever but couldn’t. The price was simply too high. Stores sold out of these at $160, which is a lot to pay for an Earthquake that hits flyers. With the entire FTV set gettable at well under $100, even on eBay, the price of Rolling Earthquake should drop considerably.

Decks like Heartless Hidetsugu’s and other decks that love to run Furnace of Rath effects may want to jam this, especially since a lot were running regular Earthquake already. This won’t help you against creatures with horsemanship, but that shouldn’t be too much of an issue. I don’t see a problem with this in a 75% context. It’s fair, it’s more versatile than a regular Earthquake, and it is slightly less unaffordable now.

Smokestack

What kind of deck would play it? Sharuum the Hegemon

This is anathema to our axiom regarding preventing our opponents from doing things. It hits you as well, but that’s small consolation to players whose commanders do not fetch back artifacts from the ’yard every turn. I played this in Sharuum the Hegemon and would sacrifice Magister Sphinx and bring it back. I would make a ton of thopters with the Foundry–Sword combo and sac those. I would make everyone miserable. People hating their lives and me wanting to make Sharuum more fun for opponents and failing launched this series. Don’t play Stack in a 75% deck. It’s powerful and easy to build around, but it’s grindy and unfun for opponents.

Terminus

What kind of deck would play it? Oloro Ageless Ascetic

Board sweepers are important in Commander. The reason this isn’t a 100% is that it tucks the opponent’s commander, and that sometimes feels bad. I advise running anti-tuck cards for this situation, and I think tucking commanders is useful and necessary sometimes, but the more casual your group is, the less likely they’ll be able to cope. I would use Terminus to juice a 75% deck for a tougher group. This is a little more nuanced than a card like Wrath of God because you can just laugh at them with a pile of indestructible guys then Terminus everyone’s board but yours as you can with sweepers that destroy creatures.

The miracle aspect can make this happen early, which can be annoying. Oloro, Ageless Ascetic is a particularly nasty commander with Terminus since you can wait to play him after you Terminus to make sure you don’t lose your commander. But you’re a bad person if you play Oloro, and at my house, the Oloro player has to keep track of the life totals as punishment for playing such a noninteractive commander. Control decks where your commander is not as important are a good home for Terminus.

Upheaval

What kind of deck would play it? Illegal ones

Upheaval is banned in Commander—with good reason.

Virtue's Ruin

What kind of deck would play it? Eh

This card is super-narrow. There is nothing that violates an existing 75% axiom, but narrow, color-based cards like this have a tendency to be used because of one specific player, and that’s no way to build a deck. If you need to metagame for your playgroup, fine, but if you’re metagaming for your playgroup, you don’t need a 75% deck. So, absent a way to turn all of the opponents’ creatures white, there is no reason to play a card like this.

Wrath of God

What kind of deck would play it? White ones

I like sweepers in Commander. They’re incredibly useful and absolutely necessary. This is the gold standard for sweepers, and I think it’s fine in Commander. It gets the nod over Day of Judgment in case opponents have creatures that regenerate, but I would probably just jam both to be sure—and, what the hell, a Terminus and a Martial Coup. You want your foils to match, don’t you?

While this FTV wasn’t entirely designed with Commander in mind (they included a banned card, if that’s a hint), Commander is getting a lot of gas, including some cards that were virtually unaffordable before. Some of these cards you might want to avoid including in a 75% deck, and others are totally fine and are downright encouraged. If you have any questions about how I arrived at my scores (very arbitrarily) and want to get in some verbal fisticuffs, or you just want to tell me about your day, or anything in between, leave it below.

Also, keep sending me decklists. Half of our axioms are ones I came up with after seeing a decklist someone sent in. Speaking of axioms, Virtue's Ruin has made me want to do an article about narrow, color-based hoser cards. If you have a deck with which you actually benefit from a card like Virtue's Ruin other than saying, “Dave plays mono-white, and screw Dave,” send me the list this week—please. Maybe you have a way to turn all of the opponents’ lands into Islands and then hit them with a Boil. Maybe you want all of your white creatures to die but not Wrath the board due to some sort of Teysa trickery (I’m grasping at straws, here, clearly). I don’t know. Show me how creative you all are, and hit me with a list. If I can’t find one, I’ll be forced to conclude that color hosers are anathema to 75% and make some categorical statement to that effect.

Thanks for reading, and hit me up if you have any bones to pick.