Locations
Welcome back, readers.
In the last few weeks, I have been looking at individual cards from Khans of Tarkir. It's signaled a shift in my sensibilities. During past sets, I brewed for financial reasons—being ahead of tech gives you the financial edge to buy cards such as Thassa, God of the Sea or Master of Waves for their cheap, pre-order prices because not many people saw the potential. I am normally glued to Twitter at this time of year, hoping to see deck brewers hinting at any possible cards they think will impact the metagame. If anything they say coincides with my own brewing, I grow a little bit bolder about picking up more copies.
Lately, though, the only brewing I've cared about is Commander-related. With more and more of Magic finance coming down to up-to-the-minute information exchange and so many stores canceling orders when prices go up, I tend to stay away from speculating on cards from brand-new sets. My brewing time has been dominated by trying to figure out which cards from Khans of Tarkir are likely to make their way into existing Commander decks and which are build-arounds. With the entire set spoiled, I want to highlight a few cards I think are perfect for 75% Commander decks.
Last week, in my article about updating Vorel, redditor /u/ateen1220 wanted to know why there was no Solidarity of Heroes in the list. Well, the answer was simple: I really didn't go deep enough into the Journey into Nyx spoiler to find cards like that. I am sure a few cards will slip through the cracks this time around, but I want to hit as many as I can. Let's find some 75% Commander gold in Khans of Tarkir.
The "Refuge" Cycle
Zendikar brought us the landfall mechanic and with it a cycle of lands that tapped for one of two colors of mana and also gained us 1 life when they came into play. They were good late picks in Limited, helping fix mana a bit and giving a non-trivial bonus to playing the land, giving you 1 life on top of, we could hope, a landfall trigger. Zendikar only gave us five lands in the five friendly color combinations.
Khans has done us one better and given us ten of them! I was perfectly happy to play Guildgates in my two- and three-color Commander decks, and I was super-happy to play all ten Guildgates along with Maze's End in my five-color Reaper King pile. I can't say that I would cut Guildgates to make room for Thornwood Falls or Stiffwater Cliffs, but I will say that I am definitely going to try to make room somehow. These lands are perfectly fine in 75% decks. You're not so concerned with having "perfect" mana that you need to run fetches and Alpha dual lands, and if you're okay with Guildgates, you should be happy with a Guildgate that gives you 1 life.
Foils of these bad boys will be around $1, and if people at my LGS will take $1 cash, I will buy every single one that is opened at my prerelease. This is a financier telling you to buy in cash at retail. When retail websites have foils listed, I am very happy buying foils under $2 and picking up these for free from Draft chaff sitting on tables waiting to be disposed of. These will probably buy-list for a dime in a few years, so they're worth picking up for free now.
The Banner Cycle
I play a lot of R/U/G-colored (I guess we should say Temur now) decks, and those Temur decks all run a card called Darksteel Ingot. Ingot is a staple of most Commander decks—75% decks especially. Ingot fixes mana in all of your colors, it only costs 3, and it has the added caveat that it cannot be destroyed. In deck that run an even deeper artifact theme, I have been known to run Manalith and Astral Cornucopia. (A.C. is a total powerhouse in Vorel of the Hull Clade decks also!) My Sharuum the Hegemon deck even features Obelisk of Esper.
When I saw the Banners cycle, I immediately thought of my Obelisk of Esper and Sharuum with a frown on her Sphinxy face. Non-Esper colors were receiving better Obelisks! Hardly seems fair!
Not only are these better Obelisks, but I am wagering that the incidental advantage you're going to gain from cracking these for a free card is relevant more often than the incidental advantage you gain from Darksteel Ingot being indestructible in a lot of decks. In a 75% build, we were happy with Obelisks and Ingots, and I can't imagine I won't be happy with swapping in Temur Banner for Darksteel Ingot in Maelstrom Wanderer or Riku of Two Reflections decks.
Again, foils of these will be like a buck. Scoop 'em. It's too bad we don't have an Esper Banner because I would love to have one in Sharuum, but for now, let's celebrate our silly banners and how good they are. These are so cheap that you can buy enough for a few bucks when the set is first out such that you can stock like ten of each away in a box for future Commander decks.
The Tri-Land Cycle
Pop quiz, hotshot! How much is a foil Seaside Citadel? Give up?
Members of the tri-land cycle from Shards of Alara were first-pickable in Draft—and with good reason. It's hard to overstate the power of being able to fix your mana so completely or splash quite so readily. Not only were they good cards to snag in Draft, they were good cards to hold onto afterward; a nonfoil Citadel buy-lists for $0.50, and a foil for $1.50. That’s not bad value retention, especially for cards I used to find discarded on tables after Limited events.
More Khans of Tarkir will be opened than was Shards of Alara, but the basic gist is this: The tri-lands are good investments, and Commander is a major reason for that. Why should Bant and Jund have all the fun? Hasn't Temur longed for one of these? I don't care about how prudent a financial investment it is, I'm offering a $5 bounty for every foil Frontier Bivouac people at my LGS come across. If you're not inclined to snag the foils, the nonfoils are going to be very reasonable initially. I'd grab a play set of each of the five wedge lands, and it will be very cheap to do so.
Temur Ascendency
Of the five, two of the Ascendancies seem very good in Commander. Temur is the first. While there is a bit of overlap with Maelstrom Wanderer and Temur Ascendency's first ability—and while Riku may prefer to play smaller, value creatures to big ones capable of triggering the card-draw—I think many Temur-colored decks can find a spot for this card. Functioning as a placeholder for a tucked or expensive (I sometimes make Maelstrom Wanderer uncastable with Food Chain shenanigans) Maelstrom Wanderer and an absolute house in an Animar, Soul of Elements deck, Temur Ascendency rewards you for doing Temur things: playing big dudes and swinging with them. You're going to draw a lot of cards here, and since you have to work for it, people are less likely to groan than when you play Rhystic Study. I like nonfoils at around $1 and foils under $3. I expect the value to drop, so if you can wait, you may as well. Still, I don't hate the pre-order price.
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Sultai Ascendency
I have less experience with playing commanders like The Mimeoplasm, but I can't imagine this card won't be welcome in a deck like that. This does a lot of work in a Sultai-colored deck. A free pseudo-scry and some help filling the ’yard won't go amiss, and with a much lower mana cost than Deadbridge Chant’s, I could see this impacting the game a lot earlier.
I like these at the same price point as Temur Ascendency. I imagine the nonfoils could hit bulk, but I expect foils will be strong investments.
Seek the Horizon
I keep bringing this card up in my financial reviews because foils of this are going to look amazing and be the new "it" foil version to play. I bet these start out dirt cheap.
Hordeling Outburst
Purphoros, God of the Forge decks, Krenko, Mob Boss decks and Wort, the Raidmother decks will all love this card. I expect foils to be affordable initially and look cool as hell. This is a great utilitarian 75% card for a lot of decks, and it is a great upgrade to Krenko's Command.
Ugin's Nexus
Awwww yiss. This card is better than its $3 pre-order price indicates. Taking an extra turn every time you manage to copy this guy, scrap him to Trading Post, or do some other, nastier shenanigans are all possible. This card begs to be abused.
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Dragon Throne of Tarkir
I don't know if you will need to buy this card, as it's being given out for free, but I wouldn't pass up $1.50 on foils pre-ordered. That seems too cheap for a card that turns every beater into Craterhoof Behemoth. The fact that it can go in any deck makes it a card I am interested in snagging a lot of copies of. They gave Goblin Rabblemaster away for free, and that was a $1.50 pre-order, too. Just sayin'.
End Hostilities
Is this going to take the place of Hallowed Burial? I can't say, but as much as I see generic Wrath of God and Day of Judgment run, I think a card like this that is an upgrade for only 1 more mana warrants testing. Nuking Swiftfoot Boots, Swords, or a big, sweaty stack of Auras can really turn the tide of a game.
I am sure some of you have cards you're excited about jamming in one or several of your decks, and I totally missed it! The nerve! Better leave it in the comments section for the world to see.
That does it for me this week! Join me next week, when I may very well have another decklist—or have gotten around to putting every deck on deck-builder like I keep meaning to.
