Locations
I was going to skip doing this because there are a limited number of new cards to talk about and I would basically have to talk about every new card to give you enough food for thought for the next week, and I didn’t think people would want to read that. However, all of that changed when I realized several huge oversights on my part.
Last week, I wrote an article where I brewed up a White Taigam deck I was pretty proud of. It didn’t occur to me until later that I had omitted a pretty important card that I have been leaving out of my 75% lists rather a lot. I was reminded of the card when I was, of all things, packing up my comic book collection to make it look to people interested in buying my house like the house was inhabited by actual, non-garbage people who tidy their basement on occasion. Between my piles of Magic cards and boxes overflowing with accessories (“Inventory” as I call it when my wife asks about it) and the stray, unboarded comic books, it was only a matter of time before I ran across some forgotten piece of Magic paraphernalia that jogged my imagination. Sure enough, shrink-wrapped to the cover of a comic book about the adventures of the greatest thief in the multiverse I found a card I should have been including in my 75% decks and doubly so in the Taigam rebound deck - Acquire. Shaking my head at how foolish an oversight this was, I was only embarrassed about that exclusion for a few days before I realized an even bigger exclusion. Can you guess what it was?
Oof. What an oversight. This card is not only one of the most 75% cards in Commander 2017, it’s perfect in that Taigam deck and I missed it. Now it isn’t like I haven’t scoured the list of new cards over and over but for whatever reason, when it comes time to brew decks there were still cards I somehow overlooked. I think what I want to do today to make sure that neither you nor I make these kinds of errors in the future is to talk about the kinds of decks that each new card could potentially be included in and what sorts of 75% applications they have. I don’t want to miss another Fractured Identity in an obvious deck because I didn’t take an hour to try and predict where the new cards might end up. Otherwise I’ll spend all day coming across cards like Supplant Form that should have gone in that Taigam deck and feeling sorry for myself. Instead, let’s be proactive and try to imagine where the new Commander 2017 cards will end up.
Alms Collector – I love the idea of building around Dragonlord Dromoka or Gaddock Teeg so any hatebears build would love to jam this card. That said, any deck that wants some extra draws can benefit from this kooky cat. If multiple players have one of these out and I play a Brainstorm, I get to choose who draws the extra card - the political ramifications of this card are enormous in situations like that. Also, never play Brainstorm into Alms Collector . I could see decks like Zedruu the Greathearted running this, too. This is a very fun card.
Balan, Wandering Knight – Sram, Senior Edificer decks immediately get an upgrade with this cat in the mix. Lots of cats go in Sram and this is no exception. I could see also building around Balan. Equipment is a lot of fun whether you’re going big or going wide and the ability to turn into a double-striking murder monster at instant speed for 2 mana is quite a threat. In addition to the Sram jam and his own deck, I think old pumpkin head would make a fine addition to Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith (I mean, obviously, they’re in the same precon).
Curse of Vitality – This seems sort of weak compared to the other curses, but being able to get a lifegain trigger for 0 mana on another player’s turn can be used to your advantage in the right deck. Oloro, Ageless Ascetic, Karlov of the Ghost Council and similar decks can obviously make use of this card and I think there are other commanders that could use the lifegain boost as well as the triggers. Pair with Rhox Faithmender, Ageless Entity or cards like Aetherflux Reservoir and this curse seems a lot less weak.
Fortunate Few – Sort of like a Bizarro Cataclysm, this card lets opponents choose what the players keep. I don’t always like the idea of keeping my worst permanent but if my opponents also keep their worst permanent, this could be a better Cataclysm. If you’re not playing Voltron, this is very good against Voltron decks and if players all decide to let one player be the only one to keep permanents, this can bring the table in line, helping the worst player and hurting the best one. This is a deeply complex and interesting card but I’m not sure I will ever want to jam it.
Kindred Boon – I like the idea of putting counters on the Myojin and if you have a Myojin deck, you’re nuts but also congrats because you got another card that puts rare Divinity counters on your creature. If Myojin of Cleansing Fire is your commander, this lets you wrath all day, every day but you don’t get access to the rest. If you have some card like Child of Alara as your commander, this is pretty bad if you don’t get a Myojin. This might be better served in a tribal deck keeping a few creatures alive – especially if they have shroud or hexproof. I think Slivers are a good choice, for example.
Scalelord Reckoner – This isn’t great outside of a Dragon tribal deck but it’s still not the worst beater imaginable. I would play this in the Dromoka deck I mentioned earlier, for example. The more Dragons you have, the better this gets although you may be fine trading a removal spell for one of their permanents. This seems narrow in most 75% decks but great in Dragons, which is good for that one deck but a little disappointing for the rest of us.
Stalking Leonin – This is a very, very cool card. The idea of secretly choosing a player and deterring the whole table because no one wants to lose the creature is very intriguing and could make other opponents more tempting targets of attack. I want to put this in Roon of the Hidden Realm, Brago, King Eternal, etc. so I can blink this to “reset” it, sometimes choosing a different opponent, sometimes not. Eldrazi Displacer, Mistmeadow Witch, Deadeye Navigator – this card is sometimes better than a Swords to Plowshares, especially if you can use it more than once by bouncing or blinking it. This is one of the coolest cards in the set and it feel right at home in any 75% deck.
Teferi's Protection – This is a very 75% thing to do. Casting SuperFog when someone else thinks they have the game locked up can make them overcommit to a combo and leave you the only player alive to take them down. This doesn’t prevent them from winning with cards like Laboratory Maniac, but it can prevent a lot of ways you might lose the game. I really like this as a 75% card – you can’t always stop them from doing their thing but sometimes you can punish them for overcommitting and this stops certain autowin cards like Triumph of the Hordes or Insurrection right in their tracks. I like it!
Curse of Verbosity – This is a bit of a poor man’s Rhystic Study but it could incentivize opponents to attack someone more than Study and it’s way less annoying than asking people “Are you going to pay 1?” every time they play a spell. You might make some friends playing this you might not otherwise make. I’m in general a fan of curses and I could see myself playing this in a pillowfort deck like my Rubinia Soulsinger Enchantress deck, or Zedruu or something similar.
Galecaster Colossus – I don’t have a Wizard tribal deck and this seems really clunky outside of one, but if all you do is tap this guy to his own ability to bounce something, it seems pretty solid. You can’t bounce your own stuff, which is a bit of a drawback but it’s a better Tradewind Rider once you invest the extra mana. Ultimately I don’t see this getting much traction outside of a Wizards–heavy deck and it seems clunky in that selfsame deck. This may be a good card with no home.
Kindred Discovery – I’m not sure it’s a very 75% thing to do if you choose “insect” and deck yourself with The Locust God and then win with Laboratory Maniac. I mean, I am actually sure, that’s not what we’re about. It’s a way to win, though if you’re not building 75%. I think I prefer jamming this in a deck like Talrand, Sky Summoner where you’re not going to win or lose the game depending on whether your Lab Maniac lives but you will get a ton of card advantage. Talrand sometimes struggles to keep its hand full of quality counterspells and I like this for that purpose, especially if you’re not using it to fuel Forbid. Simic Snakes is another deck that bounces a lot of creatures and could get you a ton of triggers, but even something like Sliver Queen benefits. However, I don’t think you want this in a non–tribal deck.
Magus of the Mind – I am not sure I like forecasting the fact that you’re going to try to storm by having to play this creature the turn before. Mind's Desire is a card that I know sees EDH play, but I’m not a fan of it in a 75% context since I like games to be a bit more interactive and this is a pretty Solitaire card. I’m not saying I don’t think this has utility, but I don’t see a 75% deck that wants this.
Portal Mage – Another spicy gem for Roon–esque decks with Deadeye Navigator or other blink creatures, this is a small effect but can have big consequences for the game. Someone about to take their 21st commander damage suddenly doesn’t. Someone trying to attack you suddenly can’t. This only targets one creature, but being able to represent the ability to blink this makes you the master of combat and people need to ask your permission to even attack the way they want. I love that power. This should go in every blink deck.
Bloodline Necromancer – This card is pretty solid. I like blinking this, potentially in a Wizards deck, but just playing this for advantage seems fine. This is a pretty expensive way to get a creature into play, but if you compare the mana cost to Gravedigger, this isn’t that bad. I think this has some utility, especially in a Wizards deck where you’re more likely to be able to blink and bounce this.
Boneyard Scourge – This seems incredibly narrow. I like Bloodghast shenanigans as much as the next Mage (maybe even more), but I don’t like only being able to trigger this when a dragon dies. This turns it from potential combo card into something that mitigates a little of the disadvantage you get from a big dragon you invested a lot of mana in dying. I could see you getting something going with the tokens from Dragon Broodmother or Wasitora, Nekoru Queen but that seems like a lot of work. I don’t see this fitting in a deck I want to build.
Curse of Disturbance – This seems like the “middle” curse – the White and Blue ones are probably worse and the Red and Green ones are probably better. I am much less upset about my opponents getting Zombies than I am about them drawing cards and I can build around this card meaning I make better use of the tokens than they do. I am sure decks like Prossh, Skyraider of Kher which make a lot of different kinds of tokens and either sacrifice them or use them for Purphoros, God of the Forge triggers can make use of this. I am likely to test this in my Prossh deck.
Kheru Mind-Eater – This is a very, very 75% card! If you play this in a deck with enough colors to have a good shot at playing their spells, you can add this to the list of cards like Daxos of Meletis and Thada Adel, Acquisitor that we love to jam in 75% decks to steal from our opponents. It has evasion, it’s cheap and it lets you steal from opponents? If I had won some sort of EDH Invitational and gotten to design a card, I would have designed something that looked a lot like this. You can’t see it, but I’m pantomiming the Italian finger kissing thing as I describe this card.
Kindred Dominance – You need to have enough tribe members to make paying 7 mana for a Damnation worth it, usually. I play Decree of Pain in almost every black deck, though, so maybe this is just fine. Keeping your creatures alive while theirs die is sort of like drawing a lot of cards, so this could be a Decree of Pain that gets more immediate results. I like this in tribal decks but I also think saving just one big creature may be good enough to justify this in some scenarios. I am going to test this in Prossh and I recommend people try it in Vampire, Sliver and Dragon decks as well. 7 mana may be too much but this could also just be a Black Insurrection.
New Blood – Very, very narrow. I love a Black Control Magic and this goes in my Olivia Voldaren deck (all Tom creatures and deathtouch equipment) but I don’t like that it’s relegated to decks where I have a Vampire to tap. Flavor–wise it makes sense, but that doesn’t make it more playable outside of Vampire decks.
Patron of the Vein – This is another creature that looks cool to blink but I don’t know if I want to pay this much mana for a Shriekmaw. What I do know is that this is pretty bad if you don’t have any Vampires. Put this in Vampire decks. Hooray, aren’t you glad you have me to lend advice?
Vindictive Lich – Yusss, now here’s a creature. I want to make as many copies of this as I can and sac them all. Not being able to use this repeatedly sort of makes it a bad Fleshbag Marauder, but we live in a world where cards like Mimic Vat exist. Rite of Replication, anyone? This is best in a game with 3 opponents, but being able to choose what to do to one person isn’t too shabby. I love this card and I can’t wait to break it. I would put this in decks like Inalla, Archmage Ritualist, obviously, but basically any deck with sac outlets and graveyard involvement can benefit.
Bloodsworn Steward – This has nothing to do with Vampires specifically, which is a welcome relief. This is very good with Partner commanders and red has some very good ones like Vial Smasher the Fierce and Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder. I like this card a lot in partner decks, although any red commander that could use a boost will go well with this. This also has a good power and toughness to casting cost ratio and flying to boot. Hopefully the fact that this is a Knight is also relevant someday. This is a very 75% card and if I don’t include this in the decks that want it, let me hear about it in the comments.
Crimson Honor Guard – Take that, Oloro. I don’t think this is good enough to make the cut in any of my decks, but I do like the idea of punishing players with non-interactive Eminence commanders.
Curse of Opulence – This does a lot of stuff I like. It gives me mana and artifacts at the same time and it encourages players to be aggressive early against the control decks so they can ramp. Putting control decks on the back foot helps the aggro decks compete and I like how this tilts the playing field a bit. I want this in decks like Daretti, Scrap Savant that can make use of spare artifacts later on. This could even help you win with Hellkite Tyrant. This is a curse I can get behind.
Disrupt Decorum – Wrath of Goad is a very powerful spell. It’s not quite Insurrection, but it’s a lot of fun to make everyone beat everyone else up. You should be able to escape mostly unscathed if there are enough players eligible to be attacked making this just a brutal, chaotic card to play. I like this a lot. I want to play this in decks that can benefit from creatures dying in combat and maybe get a few extra attack steps in to really benefit from their creatures being tapped. Narset, Enlightened Master springs to mind, for example. Recasting this with Snapcaster Mage or something seems like even more fun. This should find a home in at least one or two of my decks.
Izzet Chemister – I’m not such a big fan of this. If he dies, you lose access to the spells you exiled, making this super fragile and super slow. Being able to play a ton of spells at once is good and if you have like 5 spells and an Aetherflux Reservoir, you get a lot more life than you might think since the spells would all see each other like when you Scapeshift in a Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle deck. That doesn’t make me want to play this any more.
Kindred Charge – I like this in Goblin decks, any deck with Purphoros, Slivers and Allies and other tribes where each member has ETB triggers and basically a lot of decks. It’s expensive at 6 mana, but if you have a whole pile of ETB triggers, this may just end the game or at least give you the juice to follow up with a lethal alpha strike. This card has a lot of potential, albeit only really in tribal decks. Have you built Krenko, Mob Boss? Maybe you build Krenko.
Shifting Shadow – Another card that benefits from a deck with a lot of creatures with ETB abilities, I recommend putting this on Indestructible creatures. I don’t know what kind of wacky chaos deck wants this, but my Daretti deck would get a kick out of this.
Territorial Hellkite – I like the idea of forcing my opponents to attack each other a lot more than I like the idea of being the one forced to attack. This is a fun creature and I bet an Assault Suit on it would give everyone a headache but I’m not that jazzed at the prospect of running this unless I could blink it, which is a bad two–card combo that just results in a normal dragon.
Curse of Bounty – This benefits your opponents and awful lot but I think if you’re set up to build around this, you’ll benefit so much more that it won’t matter. This card was meant to be paired with cards like Helix Pinnacle. I would run a bunch of mana dorks and mana rocks and just do big things in general. Sword of Feast and Famine and Nature's Will work well with this. Feel free to pair this with Hellkite Charger and 7 mana in non–land permanents to erase the cursed player.
Hungry Lynx – I don’t like this much outside of Cat decks, as flavorful as this is.
Kindred Summons – Don’t let me forget to run this in an Allies or Slivers deck. I mean, Elves, Snakes – any deck that would benefit from doubling the number of creatures on the battlefield could use this. It’s expensive but it’s going to be such a surge in your power level that it will be more than worth it. I can see KOing people in my Nath of the Gilt-Leaf deck with this since I usually have enough tokens that I will inevitably flip a Shaman of the Pack. Token decks want this, provided the tokens are the same variety as the rest of the deck. I still think flipping a huge number of Allies or Slivers is the best use for this, but I bet a ton of tribal decks love this.
Qasali Slingers – I need a pretty compelling reason to run a more expensive Reclamation Sage and this doesn’t appear to be it. If you’re in a cat deck, sure, but who wants to be in a cat deck?
Traverse the Outlands – I’m hard-pressed to think of a deck where this won’t be very good. Omnath, Locus of Rage, Maelstrom Wanderer – any deck with big creatures and a hunger for more mana, basically. This is a card with a lot of overlap with Boundless Realms and playing both seems very appealing.
Arahbo, Roar of the World – I discussed how I would build around this card. I don’t think I want this in the 99 of anything so this is a “build around or don’t” card and I’m electing “don’t” personally.
Edgar Markov – This card seems pretty powerful. There really isn’t a way I want to build around him that isn’t Vampire tribal, though, and that’s pretty boring.
Fractured Identity – I can’t think of a 75% deck in these colors that doesn’t want access to this. There are some cards like Consecrated Sphinx that you may not want to target (or you may) and you’re really sending a message to a player that they’re about to learn what it feels like to be on the receiving end of the permanent you wiped out with this. It steals, it destroys, it copies – this is the most 75% card in the set!
Inalla, Archmage Ritualist – This is obviously a lot of fun built around but this doesn’t go in the 99 of anything. I am sort of bored by the linearity of some of these commanders. They were designed to be built around but don’t give you a ton of flexibility and there appears to be a “right way” to build. I’m not saying I won’t make an Inalla deck, I probably will. It’s just not very interesting for the purposes of this series.
Kess, Dissident Mage – Now this is a card I really like. I like taking extra turns by recasting Time Warp effects, I like replaying cards like Cruel Ultimatum and I like drawing a lot of cards by recasting big card draw spells (not X–cost ones, though). This is a great card and I’m looking forward to breaking it.
Licia, Sanguine Tribune – Eww. A boring Mardu commander that doesn’t do much besides attack and come back when it dies. I find this card pretty boring but making her a big lifelinker may end up worth it. I just wish they could make Mardu commanders that are good at something other than just combat.
Mairsil, the Pretender – I haven’t figured out what I want to be putting cage counters on, but this is a card that has a lot of brewers getting down to business. I’m sure I’ll brew with this soon because it’s so interesting and there are a lot of combo shenanigans we can pull off with this. This is a very interesting card for sure.
Mathas, Fiend Seeker – What was I just saying about a Mardu card that is good at something other than combat? This is a pretty fun commander and you can even dust off your old copies of Bounty Hunter from Tempest. I think this maybe even makes the 99 of some of your other Mardu decks.
Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist – I think this is just as good in the 99 of decks as it is helming its own deck, much like Captain Sisay. This is a very exciting card and I think its abilities are pretty unfair. I can see going around one blocker with a swarm of tokens and hiding comfortably behind a free Crawlspace. I like this card a ton. Decks like Rhys the Redeemed, Sisay and Trostani, Selesnya's Voice are ready to jam this right now.
Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith – I don’t know how good this is in the 99 of other decks because I think you want to cast it reliably and I’m not sure which creature would be an ideal commander for the deck. I don’t like this much and I don’t see a reason not to have Sram or Balan as the commander of your equipment deck, as much as adding green gives you access to . . . Behemoth Sledge?
O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami – I wanted this card to be good, but the design team decided that since this was from the plane of Kamigawa, it had to be disappointing. I don’t want to build around this and it’s not quite good enough to go through the hassle of getting the mana around to summon it. I wish this were better.
Taigam, Ojutai Master – I wrote about this card last week and I still really like it. If I had last week to do all over again, I’d certainly add Acquire and Fractured Identity . Then again, I wouldn’t have been inspired to do this article and I’m glad I was. I caught a few cards I really like that I may have forgotten to put in decks.
Taigam, Sidisi's Hand – I think this is worse as a commander but better in the 99. Sidisi, Brood Tyrant; Damia, Sage of Stone; The Mimeoplasm – lots of Graveyard–based decks want this card. You can get a free top every turn, mill a bit and even get some removal out of your wasted lands. This has a lot of utility and I like it a lot.
The Ur-Dragon – This replaces Scion of the Ur-Dragon I imagine but that’s basically it. It goes in The Ur–Dragon decks and that’s all. It’s a lot, but it’s also all it does. I’m not bored, per se, I just wish there were more really flexible commanders like the Taigams or Mirri that could go in other decks as well as their own.
Wasitora, Nekoru Queen – This is a pretty flexible card. I think I want to try this in Prossh and Shattergang Brothers for starters. A decent beater that creates tokens is nothing to sneeze at and this also triggers them to sac a creature. You want to include cards like Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest if you build around this. I think this is a fun card.
Bloodforged Battle-Axe – I like this ability a lot. You can ramp the creature’s power a lot by continuing to attach the tokens and cards like Anointed Procession make the triggers very powerful. I don’t know if this is going to do anything financially, but if I am playing a deck with equipment, this gets a look if I’m also scaling by the number of artifacts I control.
Hammer of Nazahn – I think this is Darksteel Plate with upside and I’m excited to start jamming this into decks. I think this sees more play than Nazahn does and I’m super OK with that.
Heirloom Blade – I wonder if there is a deck where we can just chain a bunch of ETB triggers together in a turn with this and a sac outlet. You could get every creature in your deck into your graveyard this way. That seems pretty powerful to me. I think this is ready to be abused and I like that.
Herald's Horn – Is the occasional drawn card good enough that you run half of an Urza's Incubator? I’m not sold, but what do I know? I love Lifecrafter's Bestiary.
Mirror of the Forebears – I wish that this didn’t require you to select a tribe but I think there are still some very wacky things you can do. This helps ease some of the pain of EDH being a singleton format. Two Elvish Archdruid? Two Suture Priest? Two Megantic Sliver? There are a lot of ways for this to get really dumb really fast. I like it!
Ramos, Dragon Engine – This is an engine that’s going to power something huge and powerful. I don’t know what yet, but I bet it’s going to do big things in Commander. Surely anyone could use a ton of mana of every color. Getting around the “once per turn” limitation seems doable and putting extra counters on him is also doable. I expect big things from this card.
Path of Ancestry – I think every tribal deck ever wants this. Coming into play tapped sort of hurts but having a second Command Tower that gives you scry triggers more than makes up for it. I think 4 and 5 color decks want this even if they aren’t going to ever scry. This card is going to be in heavy demand and I think it’s easier to reprint than a card like . . . nope, I’m straying into Jim Casale territory. I’ll let you read his excellent recap of the financial implications of this set and I’ll keep finance out of this piece. I’m not saying buy Path of Ancestry in a few weeks when we’re at peak supply for the set, but I am saying someone who cared about finance might tell you to do that and you should listen to them if they say that. Which I’m not.
I like this set a lot. There are a ton of great 75% cards here for us and I think there are quite a few commanders that lend themselves to a 75% build. If I had to pick the 5 cards in the set that best exemplify what we’re trying to do with 75% decks, in case you couldn’t already guess from my write–up, here they are.
Honorable Mentions – Heirloom Blade , Stalking Leonin , Mirror of the Forebears
I like this set a lot and with a combination of saucy new cards and welcome reprints, this is going to be a set where you probably just get all four decks to make sure you don’t miss anything cool. If I forget to jam any of my Top 5 into a deck where you think they should go, make sure and let me know in the comments section. I am really looking forward to attacking with Kheru Mind-Eater as much as possible in the future! That does it for me this week. Do you agree with my Top 5? Am I over– or under–valuing a card or cards? Let me know! I had a blast discovering some hidden gems I overlooked the first time I assessed this set and I’m looking forward to brewing next week. Until next time!
