Kirsin Koch

Growing a Commander Playgroup

Kirsin Koch

I recently moved about 200 miles from my previous local game store and wanted to find another place to play Commander. In early March 2014, I scouted online for pictures of different nearby shops to gauge size, cleanliness, and player feedback. My search dug up Cybertek Games near Louisville, KY. The store looked nice and unlike its competitors, staff was extremely responsive to my questions through Facebook. That weekend, I headed out early on Friday to try to luck into some Commander pick-up games.

I walked in as a complete stranger and of course immediately began scoping out the store’s sale binders next to another player named Zack. Zack was buying cards and, after introducing myself, I offered up some suggestions. I found out he was interested in Standard and Commander and I offered to see if there were any improvements he could make using his existing collection.

Quick Note About Me

It’s been my long-term personal policy to donate bulk commons and uncommons to a Magic club at a local library instead of recycling them back through a retailer (true, it’s a bit of a personal financial loss versus bulking them out to a local game store, but I feel it helps generate more interest in the game which to me is worth it). To be fair, I typically keep obviously valuable commons and uncommons back for trade and personal use. I stockpile particularly relevant budget Commander cards like [card]Scroll Thief[/card], [card]Stealer of Secrets[/card], [card]Krosan Tusker[/card], [card]Cultivate[/card], guildgates, cycling lands, and [card]Armillary Sphere[/card]. I find these are great budget deck cards and having mass quantities of them is extremely handy. Also, between my girfriend and I, we own 32 Commander decks with various power levels. It’s extremely useful to have some of these cards readily available when building something new. (I share Jason Alt’s assessment that Commander players simply do not rip their decks apart. I also epitomize this trend and have the collection to back it up. Consider this when getting into Magic finance.)

And How I Got There

During my first visit to Cybertek, I brought my box of Commander commons and uncommons with me. In Zack’s case, I was able to give him some utility cards that allowed him to customize his Eternal Bargain precon even further. As we went over his build, I got a feel of what he likes about [card]Oloro, Ageless Ascetic[/card], what he wanted out of the deck and theme, and what he likes to play with. This in turn helped me assist him with deck building suggestions and properly judge what deck I own that would avoid breaking the social contract. Later on, we shuffled up, played, and had a great time.

Since that first meeting with Zack and later Jake, Cameron, Corey, Ricky, and others, I’ve somehow become a Commander ambassador at Cybertek games. Other existing Commander players have since asked to sit down and game with us. While I’m there, other players ask me for deck-building advice. They ask me to play certain decks to work within certain power levels. Now at Friday Night Magic, I can expect to see anywhere between three and six other Commander players with various styles and deck power levels with which to explore the social contract.

My policy on Commander commons is well-known, but no one asks for free cards or attempts to take advantage of it. I’ve even had some other players offer to trade for the random commons and uncommons in Theros block relevant to Commander just because they know my overall level of disinterest in the set. Offering up these cards and deck building advice has also managed to pull at least three players away from Standard Friday Night Magic to play Commander instead. A few weeks ago, Zack brought in a new player and I was able to build a rather competitive Raka deck for him. (He noted that being able to use cards he was very familiar with was very helpful for him. This was something I had not considered before since I’ve been playing for so long.) Even Mike, the employee responsible for Magic at the store, has tasked with me building “the most annoying deck ever” using [card]Child of Alara[/card]. (I think he actually wants to play Archenemy instead of Commander, but I’m fine with letting him see how long he can outlast the table. I think the other players will be as well. It’s like Horde Magic, but you’re trying to beat the store instead.) Mike has also been very receptive to new ideas to getting a better organized selection for the Commander singles in order to garner more money for the store and improve access to card stocks for the Commander players.

At the End of the Day

Sure, Standard, Modern, and Draft all have their places at Friday Night Magic. However, there are a lot of casual players out there that are still looking for something else. If you’re a Commander player, consider looking for those players and reach out for a game. If you can afford it, take some of those extra commons and uncommons from drafting that still work well in Commander and make sure the non-drafters who play Commander have them. Of course, you can buy a pack by turning in one thousand commons, but how many [card]Archetype of Courage[/card], [card]Banishing Light[/card], [card]Dawn to Dusk[/card], [card]Nyx-Fleece Ram[/card], [card]Revoke Existence[/card], [card]Dissolve[/card], [card]Divination[/card], [card]Hour of Need[/card], [card]Interpret the Signs[/card], [card]Mnemonic Wall[/card], [card]Omenspeaker[/card], and others do you really need to hold onto?

Also, consider taking those extra commons and uncommons and building a budget Commander deck. If you bring that deck with you, you can potentially loan it out without fear to that guy that says, “Well, I don’t have a Commander deck…” Sure, it may not be as snazzy as the 2013 preconstructed decks, but a communal deck like that can have some unexpected gravitas. (I played at a shop where every card in one player’s deck had been a donation and he insisted each donor sign the card. It was awesome to see what people had been willing to give up.)

Lastly, maintain the social contract for your group. Granted, many of the players in my group are beginning a bit of a nuclear arms race, but generally each of them really stops to consider and attempt to adhere to the social contract. If your deck isn’t on the same power level as the rest, you’re risking driving others away. And Commander isn’t nearly as much fun just playing a goldfish.

Have comments or suggestions on growing a Commander playgroup? Please share below!

Funning For Your Playgroup: Silver-Bordered Cards in Gold and Artifacts Appropriate for Commander

Kirsin Koch

This article is the final part in the Funning For Your Playgroup series, which explores silver-bordered cards appropriate for Commander. Un- cards offer a lot to a casual Commander playgroup with a strong social contract. Unfortunately, there is only one multicolored card suitable for a rules update in the Un- sets. There are quite a few more artifacts that are far more interesting though.

Multicolored

[card]”Ach! Hans, Run!”[/card] 2RRGG
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may name a creature card, search your library for the named card, and reveal it. If you do, put that card onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library. That creature gains haste until end of turn. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step.

With mana ramp being the abusive mechanic in Commander, [card]“Ach! Hans, Run!”[/card] may fit the Rules Committee’s banning heuristic for failing to create “variable interactive and epic multiplayer games.” With the ability to repeatedly [card]Tooth and Nail[/card] that will enable “ubiquitous, frequently overwhelming, and repetitive” gameplay, this card should probably not be included in Commander.

Artifact

[card]Giant Fan[/card] 4
Artifact
2, T: Move a counter from one target nontoken permanent to another target nontoken permanent. If the second nontoken permanent’s rules text refers to any type of counters, the moved counter becomes one of those counters. Otherwise, it becomes a +1/+1 counter.

Quite possibly one of the most desirable of effects for casual players is the ability to generate or move around counters. [card]Giant Fan[/card] fits this perfectly without unbalancing a game state effectively functioning as a second [card]Coretapper[/card] in a counter-generating deck.

[card]Jack-in-the-Mox[/card] 0
Artifact
T: Roll a six-sided die. If you roll a 1, sacrifice Jack-in-the-Mox and you lose 5 life. Otherwise, Jack-in-the-Mox one of the following effects:
2 — Add W to your mana pool.
3 — Add U to your mana pool.
4 — Add B to your mana pool.
5 — Add R to your mana pool.
6 — Add G to your mana pool.

The Moxen are banned in Commander, but [card]Mana Crypt[/card] is legal in multiplayer Commander for reasons unclear. (This is possibly because [card]Mana Crypt[/card] is banned, legal only in Vintage and casual play. It should also be noted that [card]Mana Crypt[/card] is banned in the French one-on-one Commander deck building rules.) Since this is a Mox with randomness, fails utterly 17% of the time, and has a five-color color identity, it may be closer to the [card]Mana Crypt[/card] example than the Moxen example and merits inclusion in Commander. Playgroups will have to test and see if it is unbalancing in their environments.

[card]Jack-in-the-Mox[/card] is one of the other marque cards from Unglued and is a collector and fan favorite. Despite the difficulties in acquiring them through trading, they’re readily available online for purchase and are particularly cheap through eBay.

[card]Mana Screw[/card] 1
Artifact
1: Flip a coin. If you win the flip, add 2 to your mana pool. Activate this ability only any time you could cast an instant.

Coin flipping or chaos decks will love this card.

[card]Paper Tiger[/card] 4
Artifact Creature – Cat
Rock Lobsters can’t attack or block.
4/3

[card]Rock Lobster[/card] 4
Artifact Creature – Crab
Scissors Lizards can’t attack or block.
4/3

[card]Rod of Spanking[/card] 1
Artifact
2, T: Rod of Spanking deals 1 damage to target player.

This card is just a better [card]Telim’Tor’s Darts[/card] without the verbal mechanic some might find uncomfortable or embarrassing.

[card]Scissors Lizard[/card] 4
Artifact Creature – Lizard
Paper Tigers can’t attack or block.
4/3

[card]Spatula of the Ages[/card] 4
Artifact
4, T, Sacrifice Spatula of the Ages: Put an artifact, creature, enchantment, or land originally printed in the Unglued expansion from your hand onto the battlefield.

[card]Time Machine[/card] 5
Artifact
T: Exile Time Machine and target nontoken creature you own. At the beginning of your your turn X of the next game you play with the same opponent, where X is the exiled creature’s converted mana cost, put all cards exiled this way onto the battlefield. (Time Machine and the creature stay exiled between games with that same opponent.)

Very much like the Double cards, [card]Time Machine[/card] is strategically interesting in that it can create a tension for the next game that again cares not for what happens between games, which includes changing to a different deck. Mechanically, despite being a [card]Quicksilver Amulet[/card]-type ability, [card]Time Machine[/card] doesn’t exactly ramp the creature into play, just makes it consistently show up on a particular turn semi-appropriate for its mana cost.

[card]Togglodyte[/card] 3
Artifact Creature – Golem
Togglodyte enters the battlefield with an on counter.
Whenever a player casts a spell, if Togglodyte has an on counter, remove that counter.
Whenever a player casts a spell, if Togglodyte does not have an on counter, put an on counter on it.
If Togglodyte does not have an on counter, it can’t attack or block and prevent all damage it would deal.
4/4

[card]Urza’s Contact Lenses[/card] 0
Artifact
Urza’s Contact Lenses enters the battlefield tapped and does not untap during its controller’s untap step.
As long as Urza’s Contact Lenses is untapped, all players play with their hands revealed.
0: Tap or untap Urza’s Contact Lenses.

[card]Basalt Monolith[/card] isn’t banned with [card]Mesmeric Orb[/card] in the format, so it’s logical to assume the [card]Urza’s Contact Lenses[/card] can be allowed into Commander as a [card]Telepathy[/card] variant.

[card]Urza’s Hot Tub[/card] 2
Artifact
2, Discard a card: Search your library for a card that has the same name as the discarded card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.

This may have a place in a [card]Mishra, Artificer Prodigy[/card] that wants to do weird rules shenanigans, but generally it will be “unusable in Commander” like [card]Squadron Hawk[/card], [card]Skyshroud Sentinel[/card], and other similar cards.

[card]Urza’s Science Fair Project[/card] 6
Artifact Creature – Construct
2: Roll a six-sided die. Urza’s Science Fair Project has one of the following effects:
1 — Urza’s Science Fair Project gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
2 — Urza’s Science Fair Project deals no combat damage this turn.
3 — Urza’s Science Fair Project gains vigilance until end of turn.
4 — Urza’s Science Fair Project gains first strike until end of turn.
5 — Urza’s Science Fair Project gains flying until end of turn.
6 — Urza’s Science Fair Project gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
4/4

With a 33% chance to have a negative effect and plenty of better artifact creatures available at the six-mana slot in Commander, [card]Urza’s Science Fair Project[/card] will only see play in chaos-themed decks.

[card]Water Gun Balloon Game[/card] 2
Artifact
Whenever a player casts a spell, that player gets a pop! counter.
Whenever a player has five pop! counters, that player puts a 5/5 colorless Giant Teddy Bear creature token onto the battlefield and remove all pop! counters from all players.

[card]Water Gun Balloon Game[/card] is extremely powerful in decks like [card]Talrand, Sky Summoner[/card], as yet another way to generate creature tokens by playing lots of cheap spells. Unfortunately, since pink isn’t an officially recognized color in Magic, it’s best to make the Giant Teddy Bear tokens colorless under modern design templating.

[card]World-Bottling Kit[/card] 5
Artifact
5, Sacrifice World-Bottling Kit: Choose a Magic expansion. Exile all permanents originally printed in that expansion, except for basic lands. (Token creatures and counters created by that expansion’s cards are not removed.)

Similar to [card]Apocalypse Chime[/card], [card]World-Bottling Kit[/card] is an expensive way to get rid of pesky non-commander permanents with hexproof or shroud. However, the ability to consistently gain card or resource advantage for ten mana in an Eternal-based singleton format by nailing more than one permanent from the same expansion is unlikely. As such, it is most likely still better to just build around sacrifice effects or cards such as [card]All Is Dust[/card] and other board wipes.

And Then There Was Un-

Since it is unlikely that Wizards of the Coast will ever need to standardize the Un- sets tournament legality, here is a .pdf file of the Oraclized Un- Set Visual Spoiler. This is simply a quick reference guide for anyone interested—it is not intended to be used as actual cards. Instead, it serves as an electronic file to be easily accessible on a portable device by interested parties in conjunction with the Commander social contract.

It is clear that the Un- cards will ask a playgroup to make some adjustments. However, the vast majority of playable Un- cards add enough to the game to merit their inclusion. With a proper social contract in place, newer players can find very interesting and potentially powerful effects for their decks at budget prices. Older players who have these Un- cards just sitting in their collections for years would finally have an opportunity and excuse to sleeve up and play. Despite the Commander Rules Committee’s stance on the sets, give the Un- cards a try and see how they play. If there are any comments, feedback, or personal experiences, please add them below.

Funning For Your Playgroup: Silver-Bordered Cards in Red and Green Appropriate for Commander

Kirsin Koch

This article is the third part in the Funning For Your Playgroup series, which explores silver-bordered cards appropriate for Commander. Like with previous colors, red and green Un- cards offer a lot to a casual Commander playgroup with a strong social contract.

Red

[card]Blast from the Past[/card] 2R
Instant
Madness R, cycling 1R, kicker 2R, flashback 3R, buyback 4R
Blast from the Past deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
If Blast from the Past was kicked, put a 1/1 red Goblin creature token onto the battlefield.

This is possibly the marquee card for proponents of silver-bordered cards in Commander. It’s card advantage for red, very flavorful, extremely complex yet not hard to understand, and very flexible.

[card]Burning Cinder Fury of Crimson Chaos Fire[/card] 3R
Enchantment
Whenever any player taps a nontoken permanent, target opponent gains control of that permanent at end of turn.
At the end of each player’s turn, if that player has not tapped any nonland, nontoken permanents during his or her turn, Burning Cinder Fury of Crimson Chaos Fire deals 3 damage to that player.

The original text on this card is a clear sign of its age. Like improperly templated cards before it, once it’s templated correctly, the mechanics become much clearer. This card is made for chaos, group slug, and [card]Zedruu the Greathearted[/card] players alike.

[card]Chicken Egg[/card] 1R
Creature — Bird
At the beginning of your upkeep, roll a six-sided die. If you roll a 6, sacrifice Chicken Egg and put 4/4 red Bird creature token named Chicken onto the battlefield.
0/1

[card]Curse of the Fire Penguin[/card] 4RR
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
When Curse of the Fire Penguin enters the battlefield, flip it and put the overlay on top of the text box of the creature it enchants.
//
Creature — Bird
Trample
When this creature dies, return CARDNAME from your graveyard to the battlefield.
6/5

If the modern templated card text above still doesn’t explain what [card]Curse of the Fire Penguin[/card] does, then look up the card on the Unhinged FAQTIWDAWCC.

[card]Double Deal[/card] 4R
Sorcery
Double Deal deals 3 damage to another target player. At the beginning of the next game with that player, Double Deal deals 3 damage to that player. (Do this after each player has kept their opening hand.)

[card]Goblin Bookie[/card] R
Creature — Goblin
R, T: Reflip a coin or reroll a die.
1/1

There’s a rules headache here on how this is similar to the use of “retroactively” that was removed from older Magic cards. If someone is playing with this card, its intent is clear and doesn’t need to be “oraclized.”

[card]Goblin Bowling Team[/card] 3R
Creature — Goblin
Whenever Goblin Bowling Team deals damage to a creature or player, roll a six-sided die. Goblin Bowling Team deals damage equal to the die roll to that creature or player.
1/1

[card]Goblin Secret Agent[/card] 2R
Creature — Goblin Rogue
First strike
At the beginning of your upkeep, reveal a card from your hand at random.
2/2

[card]Goblin Tutor[/card] 1R
Instant
When you cast Goblin Tutor, roll a six-sided die. If you roll a 1, Goblin Tutor has no effect. Otherwise, search your library for the indicated card type, reveal that card, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
2 — Any Goblin Tutor
3 — Any artifact
4 — Any creature
5 — Any enchantment
6 — Any instant or sorcery

[card]Goblin Tutor[/card] is a card that fits well in a chaos deck and ports extremely well into a casual playgroup. Interestingly, in Commander, [card]Goblin Tutor[/card] does nothing 33% of the time (when you roll a 1 or a 2).

[card]Krazy Kow[/card] 3R
Creature – Cow
At the beginning of your upkeep, roll a six-sided die. If you roll a 1, sacrifice Krazy Kow and it deals 3 damage to each creature and player.
3/3

[card]Mons’s Goblin Waiters[/card] R
Creature – Goblin Carrier
Sacrifice any combination of two creatures and/or lands: Add R to your mana pool.
1/1

Another card that uses the ½ mechanic and is easily simplified by combining two activations into one. A goblin tribal token deck could take advantage of this card as another [card]Ashnod’s Altar[/card] or [card]Phyrexian Altar[/card] variant.

[card]Ricochet[/card] R
Enchantment
Whenever a spell is put onto the stack, if it targets a single player, reselect its target at random. (Select from among all legal targets.)

The original design for this card is very thematic, but very time-consuming. The modern template philosophy shortens this up considerably with the same end result.

[card]Rocket-Powered Turbo Slug[/card] 3R
Creature – Slug
At the beginning of your declare attackers step, you may put Rocket-Powered Turbo Slug into play tapped and attacking. At the end of your next turn, pay 3R. If you don’t, you lose the game.
3/1

[card]Rocket-Powered Turbo Slug[/card] was the original inspiration for the Future Sight Pact cycle.

[card]Six-y Beast[/card] 3R
Creature – Beast
If Six-y Beast would enter the battlefield, secretly choose a number up to six. Six-y Beast enters the battlefield with that many counters. An opponent guesses the number of counters. If that player guesses correctly, sacrifice Six-y Beast.
0/0

There are exactly two cards in all of Magic that use the word “secretly.” The other is the tournament-legal [card]Menacing Ogre[/card].

[card]Strategy, Schmategy[/card] 1R
Sorcery
When you cast Strategy, Schmategy, roll a six-sided die. If you roll a 1, Strategy, Schmategy has no effect. Otherwise, Strategy, Schmategy has one of the following effects:
2 — Destroy all artifacts.
3 — Destroy all lands.
4 — Each player discards his or her hand and draws seven cards.
5 — Strategy, Schmategy deals 3 damage to each creature and player.
6 — Roll six-sided dice twice and apply the effects based on the rolls. (On a 1, Strategy, Schmategy has no effect and no further rolls.)

[card]Nekusar, the Mindrazer[/card] decks might look forward to playing this card as yet another possible supplemental [card]Wheel of Fortune[/card]-type card.

[card]The Ultimate Nightmare of Wizards of the Coast® Customer Service[/card] XYRR
Sorcery
The Ultimate Nightmare of Wizards of the Coast® Customer Service deals X damage to Y target creatures and/or players.

This card is unfortunately strictly worse than [card]Rolling Thunder[/card], so it’s very unlikely anyone will actually want to play it. Otherwise, the card is very easy to understand and obviously red.

[card]Yet Another Æther Vortex[/card] 3RR
Enchantment
All creatures have haste.
Players play with the top card of their libraries revealed. Noninstant, nonsorcery cards revealed this way are on the battlefield under their owner’s control in addition to being in that library.

This card is extremely strong for chaos and mono-red decks. The ability to use non-planeswalker permanents on top of your deck as if they were in play is mechanically viable and great card advantage for decks prepared to use it. (Planeswalkers revealed this way would have zero loyalty counters and immediately be put into the graveyard as a state-based effect.) It’s also mildly humorous to see tapped permanents on top of a player’s library.

Green

[card]B-I-N-G-O[/card] 1G
Creature – Hound
Trample
Whenever a player casts a spell, you may put a chip counter on B-I-N-G-O on that spell’s converted mana cost.
B-I-N-G-O gets +9/+9 for each set of three numbers in a row with chip counters on them.
1/1

[card]Double Play[/card] 3GG
Sorcery
Choose another player. Search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library. At the beginning of the next game with that player, search your library for a basic land card, and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library. (Do this after each player has kept their opening hand.)

This is possibly the most dangerous of all the Double cards in the cycle. If a player can incur multiple delayed triggers in a prior game so as to ramp out immediately ahead of everyone else with a deck prepared to do so in the next game can be easily ruin an entire match. [card]Double Play[/card] is also in green, the ramp and recursion effect color, making seeing the delayed trigger multiple times very likely. Playgroups that allow this card will want to seriously discuss the social contract beforehand.

[card]Elvish Impersonators[/card] 3G
Creature – Elf
When you cast Elvish Impersonators, roll a six-sided die twice. Elvish Impersonators enters the battlefield with power equal to the first roll and toughness equal to the second roll.
*/*

[card]Flock of Rabid Sheep[/card] XGG
Sorcery
Flip a coin X times. For each flip you win, put a 2/2 green Sheep creature token named Rabid Sheep onto the battlefield.

This is actually a very fair card and compares unfavorably to other token generating spells such as [card]Bestial Menace[/card], [card]Howl of the Night Pack[/card], [card]Raised by Wolves[/card], and [card]Wolfbriar Elemental[/card]. However, it’s the only other card to use those Sheep tokens besides [card]Ovinomancer[/card].

[card]Form of the Squirrel[/card] G
Enchantment
As Form of the Squirrel comes into play, put a 1/1 green Squirrel creature token onto the battlefield. When this token leaves the battlefield, you lose the game.
Creatures can’t attack you.
You have shroud.
You can’t play spells.

[card]Free-Range Chicken[/card] 3G
Creature – Bird
1G: Roll two six-sided dice. If both rolls are the same, Free-Range Chicken gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number rolled. Otherwise, if the total rolled is equal to any other total rolled this turn for Free-Range Chicken, sacrifice Free-Range Chicken.
3/3

[card]Gerrymandering[/card] 2G
Sorcery
Exile all lands and shuffle them together face down. Starting with you, randomly deal to each player one land for each land that player controlled. Each player puts those lands onto the battlefield. (Count the number of lands each player controls before exiling them.)

It is advised that everyone be using different colored sleeves for this effect.

[card]Ghazbán Ogress[/card] G
Creature – Ogre
When Ghazbán Ogress enters the battlefield, the player who has won the most Magic games that day gains control of it. If more than one player has won the same number of games, you retain control of Ghazbán Ogress.
2/2

[card]Growth Spurt[/card] 1G
Instant
Roll a six-sided die. Target creature gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is equal to the die roll.

[card]Gus[/card] 2G
Creature – Horror
Gus enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter for each game of Magic you’ve lost to target opponent since you last won a Magic game against him or her.
2/2

[card]Hungry Hungry Heifer[/card] 2G
Creature – Cow
At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a counter from a nontoken permanent you control or sacrifice Hungry Hungry Heifer.
3/3

Another way to slowly remove ice counters from [card]Dark Depths[/card], age counters from cumulative upkeep, or -1/-1 counters from persist creatures.

[card]Incoming![/card] 4GGGG
Sorcery
Each player searches his or her library for any number of artifacts, creatures, enchantments, and lands and puts those cards onto the battlefield. Then each player shuffles his or her library.

The sheer amount of potential entering the battlefield triggers and to immediately end the game necessitate this card should probably not be included in Commander. There’s always that one player that will want to play it just once to see it go off though.

[card]Land Aid ’04[/card] GG
Sorcery
Search your library for a basic land card and put that card onto the battlefield tapped. Then shuffle your library and you may untap that land.

Without the singing, this card is just a [card]Rampant Growth[/card] variant with a more restrictive casting cost.

[card]Mine, Mine, Mine![/card] 4GG
Enchantment
When Mine, Mine, Mine! enters the battlefield, each player draws cards equal to the number of cards in his or her library.
Each player has no maximum hand size and can’t lose as a result of being unable to draw a card.
Each player can’t cast more than one spell each turn.
If Mine, Mine, Mine! leaves play, each player shuffles his or her hand and graveyard into his or her library.

This immediately hearkens back to [card]Enter the Infinite[/card], but is really just a way to mix Commander with the old Type-4 format. Many deck builders will swoon over the first line of text but miss the “Each player can’t cast more than one spell each turn” line. The player that casts [card]Mine, Mine, Mine![/card] will not be able to react to any spells or cast any further spells on his or her turn.

[card]Team Spirit[/card] 2G
Instant
Creatures target player and his or her teammates control get +1/+1 until end of turn.

[card]Timmy, Power Gamer[/card] 2GG
Legendary Creature – Human
4: You may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield.
1/1

This card seems pretty abusive, but it’s pretty par for the course with cards like [card]Sneak Attack[/card], [card]Elvish Piper[/card], [card]Garruk, Caller of Beasts[/card], [card]Norwood Priestess[/card], [card]Kaalia of the Vast[/card], [card]Dragon Arch[/card], and [card]Quicksilver Amulet[/card] already available in black-border.

[card]Uktabi Kong[/card] 5GGG
Creature – Ape
Trample
When Uktabi Kong enters the battlefield, destroy all artifacts.
Tap two untapped Apes you control: Put a 1/1 green Ape creature token onto the battlefield.
8/8

This is semi-comparable to [card]Bane of Progress[/card] with the [card]Creeping Corrosion[/card] effect, but much more expensive. Without crafting a deck built around changing creature types, [card]Uktabi Kong[/card] is a weak token generator as only [card]Ravenous Baboons[/card], [card]Uktabi Orangutan[/card], and a handful of changelings are really playable in Commander.

Only One More

Red brings some very strong chaos effects in addition to some interesting control effects through the Un- cards. [card]Blast from the Past[/card] is almost every red value player’s dream is very much in the same vein as many cards from Time Spiral. Green gets mana ramp and a few ways to dump more creatures directly into play, but generally isn’t improved nearly as much as the other colors have. Even the signature Timmy card, [card]Timmy, Power Gamer[/card], has many other variants already played in various casual formats.

In the final installment of this series, multi-color and artifact cards will be discussed. Have comments on the series so far? Please share below!

Funning For Your Playgroup: Silver-Bordered Cards in Blue and Black Appropriate for Commander

Kirsin Koch

This article is the second part in the Funning For Your Playgroup series, which explores silver-bordered cards appropriate for Commander. Like white, blue and black Un- cards offer a lot to a casual Commander playgroup with a strong social contract.

Blue

[card]Carnivorous Death-Parrot[/card] 1U
Creature — Bird
Flying
2/2

[card]Checks and Balances[/card] 2U
Enchantment
Whenever a player casts a spell, each of that player’s opponents may discard a card. If each opponent does, counter that spell.
You can’t cast Checks and Balances unless there are three or more players in the game.

This card is perfectly political for a Commander game and is one of the cards forming the basis for this article. There is the potential downside that no player will ever be able to cast their commander. However, this could simply bring an entirely new dynamic to the social contract worthy of exploration.

[card]Chicken à la King[/card] 1UU
Creature — Bird
Whenever a 6 is rolled on a six-sided die, put a +1/+1 counter on each Bird creature.
Tap a Bird you control: Roll a six-sided die.
2/2

Another creature lord for a [card]Derevi, Empyrial Tactician[/card] or [card]Kangee, Aerie Keeper[/card] tribal bird deck.

[card]Clam-I-Am[/card] 2U
Creature — Clamfolk
Whenever you would roll a 3 on a six-sided die, you may reroll that die instead.
2/2

[card]Clambassadors[/card] 3U
Creature — Clamfolk
If Clambassadors damages a player, choose an artifact, creature, or land you control. That player gains control of that artifact, creature, or land you control.
4/4

Another [card]Donate[/card] effect for a [card]Zedruu the Greathearted[/card] deck.

[card]Common Courtesy[/card] 2UU
Enchantment
Sacrifice Common Courtesy: Counter target spell.

[card]Denied![/card] U
Instant
Name a card. Target player reveals his or her hand. If the named card is in the player’s hand, counter target spell controlled by that player.

This card is blue’s counterspell version of [card]Cabal Therapy[/card]. The concept could easily see print in Magic one day, as the procedure for playing it is very clear under modern templating. If a version of [card]Denied![/card] is ever printed, it has potential to see play in Legacy alongside [card]Gitaxian Probe[/card] and [card]Thoughtseize[/card].

[card]Double Take[/card] 3UU
Instant
Choose another player and draw two cards. At the beginning of the next game with that player, draw two cards. (Do this after each player has kept their opening hand.)

[card]Fowl Play[/card] 2U
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature loses all abilities and becomes a 1/1 Bird. (Its color does not change.)

[card]Free-for-All[/card] 3U
Enchantment
When Free-for-All enters the battlefield, exile all creatures face down.
For as long as any of those cards remain exiled, at the beginning of each player’s upkeep, that player chooses a card exiled by Free-for-All at random and reveals it. If it is a creature card, that player puts it onto the battlefield.
If Free-for-All leaves play, each player puts all creature cards he or she exiled this way into its owner’s graveyard. (Noncreature cards remain exiled face down.)

[card]Free-for-All[/card] functions as a chaotic board wipe for blue at a very affordable mana cost. Chaos-style or [card]Zedruu the Greathearted[/card] decks will be interested in including this along with [card]Homeward Path[/card]. Also note that with the original text, permanents animated as creatures will not be put onto the battlefield and remain exiled face down. Magic Rules Manager Matt Tabak concurred with this interpretation.

[card]Johnny, Combo Player[/card] 2UU
Legendary Creature — Human
4: Search your library for a card and put that card into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
1/1

A repeatable tutor is way too easily abused (especially with infinite mana) and probably should not be included in any Commander playgroup.

[card]Mise[/card] U
Instant
Name a nonland card, then reveal the top card of your library. If that card is the named card, draw three cards.

With [card]Sensei’s Divining Top[/card] or any number of deck manipulation cards, [card]Mise[/card] is too easily abused, making it functionally identical to [card]Ancestral Recall[/card], which is banned in Commander. While easily portable into Commander, it is probably not a good idea.

[card]Moniker Mage[/card] 2U
Creature — Human Wizard
U: Moniker Mage gains flying until end of turn.
U: Moniker Mage gains shroud until end of turn.
2/2

[card]Psychic Network[/card] U
Enchantment
Any player may look at the top card of an opponent’s library at any time.

[card]Smart Ass[/card] 2U
Creature — Donkey Wizard
Whenever Smart Ass attacks, defending player may reveal his or her hand. If that player doesn’t, Smart Ass can’t be blocked this turn.
2/1

[card]Topsy Turvy[/card] 2U
Enchantment
The phases of each player’s turn are reversed. (The phases in reverse order are ending, postcombat main, combat, precombat main, and beginning.)
If there are more than two players in the game, the turn order is reversed.

If ever there was a Johnny card, [card]Topsy Turvy[/card] is it. The ability to punish players that draw extra cards outside of their turn by checking maximum hand size will be quite a kicker. Hoping to topdeck into an answer or land drop diminishes greatly. The [card]Topsy Turvy[/card] player will have to run effective vigilance creatures like [card]Sun Titan[/card] or untapping effects as aggressive creature strategies with tapping creatures are only be able to attack every other turn. [card]Seedborn Muse[/card], [card]Murkfiend Liege[/card], and [card]Prophet of Kruphix[/card] get even more backbreaking by essentially moving the untap step back to “the beginning of the turn” to any player in control of one while everyone else is still hamstrung. Lastly, it functions as a pseudo-[card]Time Walk[/card] for the first and second players behind the [card]Topsy Turvy[/card] player when the turn order reverses as well. It is also important to note that “end of turn” triggers remain mostly unchanged with [card]Topsy Turvy[/card] on the battlefield as the net result is that at the beginning of the next player’s turn, they’ll play out their ending phase and all end of turn triggers will happen at that point.

[card]Damia, Sage of Stone[/card] would a great commander to run with [card]Topsy Turvy[/card]. The Damia player could play his or her general with [card]Topsy Turvy[/card] and presumably a [card]Seedborn Muse[/card] effect on the table, untap, refill his or her hand, and pass the turn. Damia players have a great chance to protect Damia and empty their hands as their games progress. The deck can be further strengthened by spells with alternative, non-mana casting costs like [card]Force of Will[/card].

Black

[card]B.F.M. (Big Furry Monster)[/card] BBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
Creature — Beast
As an additional cost for B.F.M. (Big Furry Monster) to enter the battlefield, you must have both halves in the same zone.
B.F.M. (Big Furry Monster) can’t be blocked except by three or more creatures.
(While B.F.M. (Big Furry Monster) is on the battlefield, it is single creature. If either half of B.F.M. (Big Furry Monster) leaves the battlefield, sacrifice the other half.)
99/99

An obvious question not answered by the original text of [card]B.F.M. (Big Furry Monster)[/card] is what happens if a spell or ability attempts to move it from a zone, like the graveyard or hand, to the battlefield. However, there’s an old Fifth Edition ruling from Stephen D’Angelo that answers the question: “You can put the BFM [onto the battlefield] using [card]Living Death[/card]…or any other effect that puts…multiple creature cards [onto the battlefield] at once (if both halves are present). You cannot put it [onto the battlefield] with [card]Animate Dead[/card], [card]Eureka[/card], [card]Spatula of the Ages[/card], or any other effect which only puts one creature card [onto the battlefield].” If a spell or ability puts all creatures from a zone onto the battlefield, then it’s like a fused split card counting as one spell. If a spell or ability puts a single creature card onto the battlefield, then [card]B.F.M. (Big Furry Monster)[/card] goes to the graveyard instead. Obviously this creature is big. Really, really big. No, bigger than that. Even bigger. Keep going. More. No, more. Look, we’re talking krakens and dreadnoughts for jewelry. It is big!

Also note that both halves of [card]B.F.M. (Big Furry Monster)[/card] are considered to each have a converted mana cost of {15} when not on the battlefield.

[card]B.F.M. (Big Furry Monster)[/card] has possibly the highest secondary-market value of any of the Un- cards. Recent eBay auctions of [card]B.F.M. (Big Furry Monster)[/card] for both halves together sell for a wide range between $7.50 and $25.00 (for Buy It Now). Retail stores average around $14.00 for both halves together, but those same stores don’t always have both halves in stock at the same time. The result is that [card]B.F.M. (Big Furry Monster)[/card] appears to have the highest casual appeal of a non-tournament legal set, followed by the Un- basic lands, creature tokens, [card]Blacker Lotus[/card], [card]Jack-in-the-Mox[/card], and a few others.

[card]Bad Ass[/card] 2BB
Creature — Donkey Zombie
1B: Regenerate Bad Ass.
3/1

[card]Double Cross[/card] 3BB
Sorcery
Look at another target player’s hand and choose a card from it. That player discards that card. At the beginning of the next game with that player, look at that player’s hand and choose a card from it. That player discards that card. (Do this after each player has kept their opening hand.)

[card]The Fallen Apart[/card] 2BB
Creature — Zombie
The Fallen Apart enters the battlefield with two arm counters and two leg counters.
Whenever damage is dealt to The Fallen Apart, remove an arm or leg counter.
The Fallen Apart can’t attack if it has no leg counters and can’t block if it has no arm counters.
4/4

[card]Infernal Spawn of Evil[/card] 6BBB
Creature — Beast
Flying, first strike
Forecast — 1B, Reveal Infernal Spawn of Evil from your hand: Infernal Spawn of Evil deals 1 damage to target opponent. (Activate this ability only during your upkeep and only once each turn.)
7/7

The biggest rules question about this card is what creature type does it have? Demon is crossed out and replaced with beast as an obvious nod to creature type practices at the time, but the next card on the list has the opposite as another nod to the change of creature type assignment post-Onslaught. In light of the release date of the card and [card]Infernal Spawn of Infernal Spawn of Evil[/card]’s creature type, [card]Infernal Spawn of Evil[/card] should probably be a beast.

[card]Infernal Spawn of Evil[/card] has the same price discrepancy that [card]B.F.M. (Big Furry Monster)[/card] does. [card]Infernal Spawn of Evil[/card] can sell for as high as $5.00 or so on eBay, but goes for a fraction of that price in retail stores.

[card]Infernal Spawn of Infernal Spawn of Evil[/card] 8BB
Creature — Demon
Flying, first strike, trample
While you’re searching your library, you may pay 1B and reveal Infernal Spawn of Infernal Spawn of Evil. If you do, Infernal Spawn of Infernal Spawn of Evil deals 2 damage to target player. Use this ability only once each turn.
8/8

An 8/8 flying, first striking, trampling demon that provides a mana sink to deal 2 damage for each search through the library is something [card]Kaalia of the Vast[/card] decks might want.

[card]Jumbo Imp[/card] 2B
Creature — Imp
Flying
When you cast Jumbo Imp, roll a six-sided die. Jumbo Imp enters the battlefield with that many +1/+1 counters.
At the beginning of your upkeep, roll a six-sided die. Put that many +1/+1 counters on Jumbo Imp.
At the beginning of your end step, roll a six-sided die. Remove that many +1/+1 counters from Jumbo Imp.
0/0

[card]Jumbo Imp[/card] could have a place in [card]Corpsejack Menace[/card]/[card]Doubling Season[/card]/[card]Primal Vigor[/card]-synergy decks, but risks being too inconsistent to see any real play.

[card]Necro-Impotence[/card] BBB
Enchantment
Skip your untap step.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay X life. If you do, untap X permanents.
Pay 1 life: Exile the top two cards of your library face down. Put those cards into your hand at the beginning of your next end step.

One of the few ½ cards that is easily ported into modern templating philosophy by simply combining two instances of the activated ability into one. Unfortunately, this card is not as good as [card]Necropotence[/card] and requires crafting the deck to support a lot of life gain. Paying a minimum of X (where X equals the number of tapped mana generating permanents you control), every turn will be a very steep cost, even in a 40 life format, just to have a much more efficient [card]Necropotence[/card] effect.

[card]Organ Harvest[/card] B
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast Organ Harvest, you and each of your teammates may sacrifice any number of creatures.
For each creature sacrificed this way, add BB to your mana pool.

This sacrifice outlet is slightly reminiscent of the maligned join forces mechanic from Commander 2011. However, in a team-oriented format such as Emperor, the ability to ask your teammates to join forces to fuel a potentially game-ending spell may be strategically useful. It’s possible that Wizards may move this effect into the tempting offer mechanic on a future card and keep the effect similar. Until then, it is an additional one-shot [card]Ashnod’s Altar[/card] for black decks.

[card]Poultrygeist[/card] 2B
Creature — Bird Spirit
Flying
Whenever a creature dies, you may roll a six-sided die. If you roll a 1, sacrifice Poultrygeist. Otherwise, put a +1/+1 counter on Poultrygeist.
1/1

[card]Temp of the Damned[/card] 2B
Creature- Zombie
Fading 0
When you cast Temp of the Damned, roll a six-sided die. Temp of the Damned enters the battlefield with a number of fading counters equal to the die roll.
3/3

That’s All for Today

In summation, like white, blue Un- cards offer a lot to the casual Commander playgroup, especially for control players. [card]Checks and Balances[/card] is a great cooperative control card to keep “that player” in check along with [card]Free-for-All[/card]. [card]Common Courtesy[/card] works well as a [card]Counterspell[/card] version of the Seal of cycle. [card]Topsy Turvy[/card] alters the game substantially and veritably creates an entirely new control archetype.

Meanwhile, black has some interesting and very situationally strategic creatures, but unfortunately, only one enchantment to try to build anything around, and one not nearly as risky fun as something like [card]Lich[/card]. Timmy players will greatly enjoy the expanded large creature options at least.

Red and green will be covered in the next article in this series. Look forward to seeing one of the most modal spells ever designed.

Funning For Your Playgroup: Silver-Bordered Cards in White Appropriate for Commander

Kirsin Koch

In an interview on CommanderCast #137, during a rapid-fire question-and-answer session, the hosts asked Sheldon Menery, “Would [the Rules Committee] ever consider making the Un- sets legal?” Sheldon’s answer was an expectedly simple, “No.” Sheldon’s justification behind the answer was not explored, but it can be easily intuited. Mainly, many of the silver-bordered cards require an additional physical or verbal interaction for purposes of humor that many players would not expect or desire even in social situations such as their local game stores. This forced level of interaction can be uncomfortable for some people and reduce or eliminate fun from the game, thus breaking the social contract. Breaking the social contract is the exact opposite of what is intended for the Commander casual format. Alternatively, to specifically allow only a certain subset of Un- cards into the format via the Rules Committee would be exhausting to maintain. Instead, the Rules Committee has always stood by the idea that each playgroup plays to make its own social contract work.

However, Wizards of the Coast is aware that the silver-bordered sets contain playable cards and ideas and has mined ideas from these sets in the past. For instance, Mark Rosewater described his failed attempt to include [card]The Cheese Stands Alone[/card] in Tenth Edition. Elsewhere, Rosewater noted if not for a “change in global templating philosophy,” [card]The Cheese Stands Alone[/card] and [card]Barren Glory[/card] would be identical. With the physically and verbally interactive silver-bordered set cards and mechanics removed from the silver-bordered card pool, many of them are playable if generally underpowered and not game-breaking by New World Order design precepts. In some cases, silver-bordered cards are actually quite good and the mechanics are easy to port into an amenable Commander playgroup. For example, dice rolling cards function like any coin flipping cards and is a mechanic that Wizards has yet to include in tournament-legal Magic. Point of fact: many players use dice in place of coin flips by having the chosen player pick even or odd (it’s the same fifty-fifty chance of heads or tails) and are less likely to accidentally go flying off the table. So dice are usually readily available to work with Un- cards in any play environment. Another point of fact: the use of teammates has been found on black-bordered cards (see [card]Imperial Mask[/card]). Lastly, “super haste” on [card]Rocket-Powered Turbo Slug[/card] inspired the Pact cycle of cards.

Silver-bordered cards, such as the Double cycle from Unglued, are quite interesting for Commander and are the basis for advocating silver-bordered card inclusion for willing Commander playgroups. For a playgroup wanting to explore Un- cards without physical or verbal impact on the game, “oraclizing” the cards is an attractive option. Unfortunately, Wizards has neglected to update any silver-bordered cards in Gatherer to match modern templating philosophy. It is this article’s intention to make these cards attractive to the more casual Commander players and add more variety to playgroups by providing a solid rules spoiler under the modern templating philosophy. All of the rules wordings here are subject to some measure of debate, but should be as close to correct as possible thanks to some assistance from Matt Tabak.

Additionally, silver-bordered cards that port well into black-bordered environments can give a Commander deck more uniquity and customization options. They can also function as a way to depower the playgroup’s arms race or direct the power level in a different direction. Lastly, these cards have some effects that simply do not exist anywhere else in Magic yet.

Another reason to explore Un- cards is their dubious financial status in the midst of constant speculative fluctuation. Most silver-bordered cards receive little financial attention or value aside from some marquee cards like [card]Blacker Lotus[/card], [card]Jack-in-the-Mox[/card], [card]B.F.M. (Big Furry Monster)[/card], the full art basic lands, and a few others. This fact makes picking up many of the silver-bordered cards an attractive option for budget players who are in playgroups that allow the cards.

In this article’s “oraclization” of a selection of silver-bordered cards, cards that require a physical, non-die rolling component have been glossed over. This means this spoiler will not contain contact cards like [card]Charm School[/card] or [card]Volrath’s Motion Sensor[/card]. Cards with a verbal mechanic have been simplified to remove the verbal mechanic entirely where appropriate. Notably, without the verbal mechanic, many Un- cards remain relatively unimpressive. Cards referencing ½ or artists are similarly ignored, or in a few cases, appropriately modified. (It is this author’s opinion that playgroups willing to play with the physical and verbal impacting silver-bordered cards are already on the cutting edge of social contract technology and this article is not nearly as applicable to them.) Creature types have been updated where obvious (i.e. chicken to bird). For example, [card]Atinlay Igpay[/card] without the verbal mechanic becomes a straightforward 3/3 double strike boar for 5W. We’ll begin the first part of this article series with white.

In the spoiler below, flavor text has been ignored for brevity. Suggestions for deck construction, strategy, or finance are included after some cards.

White

[card]Atinlay Igpay[/card] 5W
Creature — Boar
Double strike
3/3

[card]AWOL[/card] 2W
Instant
Exile target attacking creature. This creature cannot be returned to the game for any reason.

This card is specifically effective against [card]Riftsweeper[/card] under narrow circumstances. It is not effective against commanders because the return to the command zone is a replacement effect.

[card]The Cheese Stands Alone[/card] 4WW
Enchantment
If you control no nontoken permanents other than The Cheese Stands Alone and have no cards in hand, you win the game.

This obviously combos with [card]Forbidden Ritual[/card] and any number of hand discarding effects in an Orzhov deck for an instant win. Additionally, it functions as a secondary copy of [card]Barren Glory[/card] in those types of combo decks. Remember, [card]The Cheese Stands Alone[/card] is state-based effect and not a triggered one.

[card]Double Dip[/card] 4W
Instant
Choose another player and gain 5 life. At the beginning of the next game with that player, gain 5 life. (Do this after each player has kept their opening hand.)

One of the challenges of applying modern templating to the Double cycle was determining when the delayed trigger would take place for the reminder text. In order to make [card]Double Cross[/card] work effectively, the delayed trigger needs to happen at the same time the Leyline cards would trigger. This is why all the Double cards should have reminder text to trigger after each player has kept their opening hand.

All the Double cards are strategically interesting in that they can create multiple delayed triggers for the next game that care not for what happens between games, which most importantly includes changing to a different deck (and potentially format if the playgroup’s social contract works that way). For example, someone might play a white-green deck with multiple [card]Regrowth[/card] effects to replay [card]Double Dip[/card] two or more games and then lose the game. The next game, depending on the social contract, that player might choose to switch to his or her [card]Erebos, God of the Dead[/card] deck and begin the game with even more life with which to draw cards. If this type of tactic becomes common under a particular social contract, the playgroup may possibly evolve and react. It is this type of social interaction which may be of interest for that playgroup and provide validity to Un- cards. While there’s potential for abuse here—particularly with [card]Double Play[/card]—there’s also possibility for additional strategic complexity. Whether these cards will work for a given playgroup will depend heavily on the social contract and metagame.

[card]Emcee[/card] 2W
Creature — Human Rogue
Whenever another creature enters the battlefield, you may put a +1/+1 counter on that creature.
0/1

A potentially political version of [card]Juniper Order Ranger[/card] for players looking to play more group hug/slug.

[card]I’m Rubber, You’re Glue[/card] WW
Enchantment
0: Change the target of target spell or ability that targets only you. The new target must be a player.

[card]I’m Rubber, You’re Glue[/card] is possibly undercosted, but it’s very similar to [card]Leyline of Sanctity[/card], [card]Solitary Confinement[/card], and [card]True Believer[/card] which aren’t banned.

[card]Knight of the Hokey Pokey[/card] WW
Creature — Human Knight
First strike
1W: The next time a source of your choice would deal damage to Knight of the Hokey Pokey this turn, prevent that damage.
2/2

[card]Look at Me, I’m the DCI[/card] 5WW
Sorcery
Name a card other than a basic land card. Exile all cards with that name. Search each player’s graveyard, hand, and library for any number of cards with that name and exile them. Then that player shuffles his or her library.

“Yes, your commander is definitely going back to the command zone.” [card]Look at Me, I’m the DCI[/card] is also the only card in Magic that allows someone to search through each player’s deck, giving an expensive method to peek through everyone’s deck in the late game after naming the card to see what tricks are left. It also allows for someone to dig their commander out of their deck and put it back into the command zone.

[card]Mesa Chicken[/card] WW
Creature — Bird
0: Mesa Chicken gains flying until end of turn.
2/2

[card]Miss Demeanor[/card] 3W
Creature — Angel
Flying, first strike
3/1

[card]Once More with Feeling[/card] WWWW
Sorcery
Exile all nontoken permanents and all cards from each player’s graveyard. Restart the game. Each player’s life total becomes 10. Exile Once More with Feeling. (Token permanents stay on the battlefield. Each player shuffles his or her current hand into their deck. Players draw a new hand of seven cards. Players may take mulligans. You start the game.)

[card]Sway of the Stars[/card] is banned in Commander, so this card should probably not be included in Commander despite the excellent Terese Nielsen artwork.

[card]Sex Appeal[/card] W
Instant
Prevent the next 3 damage that would be dealt this turn to any number of target creatures and/or players, divided as you choose.

[card]Staying Power[/card] 2W
Enchantment
Change the text of each spell or ability by removing all instances of “until end of turn” and “this turn” from them. (These effects end at end of turn if Staying Power leaves the battlefield.)

This card has no equivalent in current Magic to provide a modern templating philosophy analogue. The overload mechanic is possibly the closest mechanic with which to compare it. However, [card]Staying Power[/card] may be just too complicated to maintain an accurate game state and avoid trashing the social contract for cute interactions.

Until Next Time

With this list, it’s clear that white brings some useful tools to Commander decks. Combo gains redundancy with [card]The Cheese Stands Alone[/card]. Johnny players get to really mess with the game with [card]Staying Power[/card]. Aggressive token generating and political decks can use [card]Emcee[/card].

Blue and black will be covered in the next article in this series and even more tricks will be brought to the kitchen table.

Standard Commander Gatecrash Archetypes and Example Decks (Part 2)

Kirsin Koch

Author’s note: Since this article series was started, Born of the Gods has been released. Its addition altered the Dimir, Simic, and Gruul decks enough to warrant a revision of the example deck lists.

For the Standard Commander format including Return to Ravnica block and Theros block, the addition of the Born of the Gods set does bring some interesting inclusions, particularly for Dimir and Gruul decks. Also, with the release of Born of the Gods, [card]Sylvan Primordial[/card] has been banned in the eternal Commander card pool. The Simic and Gruul decks in this article will reflect this in order to make the decks as compatible as possible with an unfamiliar playgroup.

Dimir

Dimir is defined in this Standard Commander format, specifically in Return to Ravnica and Theros Limited, primarily by its slow milling abilities. [card]Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker[/card] might have been an appropriately thematic commander, but [card]Phenax, God of Deception[/card] really put a light onto a possible Standard Commander milling strategy. The main issue with Phenax is a heavy reliance on having multiple, non-attacking, and resilient creatures in play to tap. Alternatively, self-untapping creatures are possible inclusions. Phenax is also a prime candidate for a deck based on the inspired mechanic. Unfortunately, there are too few defensive inspired creatures in blue and black in the Standard card pool worth attempting to play in a Phenax deck outside of [card]Pain Seer[/card] and some others that fit the above criteria.

So with Born of the Gods failing to offer support for a substantial commander to a Dimir deck pilot, [card]Lazav, Dimir Mastermind[/card] is still best as the general. The Lazav player will need to play politically while protecting Lazav and capitalizing on milling effects and control elements. In true Dimir spirit, the player will direct attention elsewhere while setting up to stab someone in the back.

[deck title=Lazav Standard Commander]

[Creatures]
1 Clone
1 Diluvian Primordial
1 Wight of Precinct Six
1 Nighthowler
1 Lazav, Dimir Mastermind
[/Creatures]

[Deck milling]
1 Jace’s Mindseeker
1 Psychic Spiral
1 Jace, Memory Adept
1 Traumatize
1 Balustrade Spy
1 Returned Centaur
1 Lord of the Void
1 Consuming Aberration
1 Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker
1 Phenax, God of Deception
1 Psychic Strike
1 Mind Grind
[/Deck milling]

[Creature removal]
1 Baleful Eidolon
1 Doom Blade
1 Asphyxiate
1 Hero’s Downfall
1 Gild
1 Grisly Spectacle
1 Far / Away
[/Creature removal]

[Card draw]
1 Thassa’s Emissary
1 Prognostic Sphinx
1 Thassa, God of the Sea
1 Opportunity
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Read the Bones
1 Notion Thief
1 Pilfered Plans
[/Card draw]

[Board wipe]
1 AEtherize
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Curse of Swine
1 Whelming Wave
1 Bile Blight
[/Board wipe]

[Counterspells]
1 Annul
1 Swan Song
1 Negate
1 Nullify
1 Cancel
1 Dissolve
1 Scatter Arc
[/Counterspells]

[Recursion]
1 Meletis Charlatan
1 Achaeomancer
1 Elite Arcanist
1 Mnemonic Wall
1 Sepulchral Primordial
1 Rise of the Dark Realms
[/Recursion]

[Life gain]
1 Servant of Tymaret
[/Life gain]

[Tutors]
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Ring of Three Wishes
[/Tutors]

[Mana acceleration]
1 Crypt Ghast
1 Astral Cornucopia
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Dimir Cluestone
1 Dimir Keyrune
1 Burnished Hart
[/Mana acceleration]

[Lands]
1 Dimir Guildgate
1 Encroaching Wastes
18 Island
1 Mutavault
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Rogue’s Passage
14 Swamp
1 Temple of Deceit
1 Watery Grave
[/Lands]
[/deck]

This deck does not include [card]Duskmantle Seer[/card] as a possible damage condition. With the amount of decks running [card]Erebos, God of the Dead[/card], this may be a mistake, but there’s also a worse possibility of a tenuous board state thanks to [card]Duskmantle Seer[/card] itself.

Simic

Blue and green will quite possibly be the strongest color combination in a Standard Commander format. With mana acceleration to power card draw followed by speedy recovery after an opponent’s board wipe. The downside of the Simic color combination is the lack of quality creature removal.

Picking a Simic general is also going to result in quite different builds. [card]Vorel of the Hull Clade[/card] is going to allow the deck pilot to focus on evolve, monstrosity, charge counters, and hydras. Timmy/Johnny players will find Vorel to be the most engaging. However, Spike players will enjoy the raw power that [card]Prime Speaker Zegana[/card] brings to the table. In some games, just playing Zegana alone to draw two cards will be enough to pull ahead.

[deck title=Zegana Standard Commander]

[Creatures]
1 Clone
1 Diluvian Primordial
1 Stolen Identity
1 Witchstalker
1 Kalonian Hydra
1 Arbor Colossus
1 Progenitor Mimic
[/Creatures]

[Creature buff]
1 Archetype of Imagination
1 Crowned Ceratok
1 Nylea, God of the Hunt
1 Primeval Bounty
1 Bow of Nylea
1 Master Biomancer
1 Prophet of Kruphix
1 Vorel of the Hull Clade
[/Creature buff]

[Creature removal]
1 Polukranos, World Eater
[/Creature removal]

[Board wipes]
1 Blustersquall
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 AEtherize
1 Curse of the Swine
1 Whelming Wave
[/Board wipes]

[Counterspells]
1 Annul
1 Swan Song
1 Negate
1 Nullify
1 Cancel
1 Dissolve
1 Scatter Arc
1 Plasm Capture
1 Mystic Genesis
[/Counterspells]

[Noncreature removal]
1 Unravel the Æther
1 Artisan’s Sorrow
1 Fade into Antiquity
1 Bramblecrush
[/Noncreature removal]

[Card draw]
1 Thassa, God of the Sea
1 Garruk, Caller of Beasts
1 Zameck Guildmage
1 Fathom Mage
1 Prime Speaker Zegana
1 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
1 Unexpected Results
1 Urban Evolution
[/Card draw]

[Recursion]
1 Elite Arcanist
1 Archaeomancer
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Strionic Resonator
[/Recursion]

[Graveyard hate]
1 Scavenging Ooze
[/Graveyard hate]

[Life gain]
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Horizon Chimera
[/Life gain]

[Tutors]
1 Ring of Three Wishes
[/Tutors]

[Mana acceleration]
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Gyre Sage
1 Manaweft Sliver
1 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Voyaging Satyr
1 Karametra’s Acolyte
1 Into the Wilds
1 Ordeal of Nylea
1 Peregrination
1 Astral Cornucopia
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Simic Keyrune
[/Mana acceleration]

[Lands]
1 Breeding Pool
1 Encroaching Wastes
16 Forest
14 Island
1 Mutavault
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Rogue’s Passage
1 Simic Guildgate
1 Temple of Mystery
[/Lands]
[/deck]

Gruul

Gruul deck pilots will get to pick from [card]Borborygmos Enraged[/card], [card]Ruric Thar, the Unbowed[/card], and [card]Xenagos, God of Revels[/card]. [card]Seek the Horizon[/card] as the only enabler and a lack of card draw eliminates Borborygmos. A reliance on Standard Commander creatures without extremely strong and/or fun creature combos eliminates Ruric Thar. Luckily, Born of the Gods brings Xenagos to the game, giving repeatable creature buff each combat. However, with Xenagos, trample becomes incredibly necessary to ensure the damage gets over chump blockers.

[deck title=Xenagos Standard Commander]

[Creatures]
1 Satyr Rambler
1 Pyrewild Shaman
1 Ember Swallower
1 Fanatic of Mogis
1 Ogre Battledriver
1 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Molten Primordial
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
1 Charging Badger
1 Mistcutter Hydra
1 Spire Tracer
1 Kalonian Hydra
1 Savageborn Hydra
1 Ghor-Clan Rampager
1 Polis Crusher
1 Rubblebelt Raiders
[/Creatures]

[Creature buff]
1 Legion Loyalist
1 Archetype of Aggression
1 Hammer of Purphoros
1 Boon Satyr
1 Nylea, God of the Hunt
1 Primeval Bounty
1 Bow of Nylea
1 Skarrg Guildmage
1 Xenagos, God of Revels
1 Prowler’s Helm
[/Creature buff]

[Creature removal]
1 Forgestoker Dragon
1 Five-Alarm Fire
1 Deadly Recluse
1 Arbor Colossus
1 Clan Defiance
[/Creature removal]

[Board wipes]
1 Street Spasm
1 Mizzium Mortars
[/Board wipes]

[Noncreature removal]
1 Reckless Reveler
1 Batterhorn
1 Wild Celebrants
1 Unravel the Æther
1 Artisan’s Sorrow
1 Fade into Antiquity
1 Bramblecrush
[/Noncreature removal]

[Card draw]
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Garruk’s Horde
1 Garruk, Caller of Beasts
1 Warriors’ Lesson
1 Domri Rade
[/Card draw]

[Recursion]
1 Strionic Resonator
[/Recursion]

[Graveyard hate]
1 Scavenging Ooze
[/Graveyard hate]

[Life gain]
1 Courser of Kruphix
[/Life gain]

[Damage magnifier]
1 Burning Earth
[/Damage magnifier]

[Tutors]
1 Ring of Three Wishes
[/Tutors]

[Mana acceleration]
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Gyre Sage
1 Manaweft Sliver
1 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Voyaging Satyr
1 Karametra’s Acolyte
1 Into the Wilds
1 Ordeal of Nylea
1 Burning-Tree Emmissary
1 Zhur-Taa Druid
1 Xenagos, the Reveler
1 Gruul Keyrune
1 Burnished Hart
[/Mana acceleration]

[Lands]
1 Encroaching Wastes
17 Forest
1 Gruul Guildgate
13 Mountain
1 Mutavault
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Rogue’s Passage
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple of Abandon
[/Lands]
[/deck]

The Xenagos deck will suffer greatly from being an aggro deck without access to horizontal threat creation and global pump effects. The deck’s pilot will need to take out key enchantment threats such as opposing gods and use politics to encourage the group to gang up on the strongest player.

With the conclusion of the Gatecrash guild decks, this author has hoped to inspire some of the Standard players out there to consider an expanded use for their collections. With more than fifteen decks explored here, there’s certainly enough variety to play in a diverse environment. If there’s any serious criticism that can be leveled at a Standard Commander format, it’s the distinct lack of combo and the spells associated with that play style. Standard Commander will focus heavily on mid-range aggro and aggro-control strategies and encourages battlecruiser-style play. Fortunately, Standard Commander still has all the rest of Magic’s archetypes and can provide a continuously interactive game state for all active players. If a playgroup experiments with Standard Commander, any constructive feedback would be welcome.

Standard Commander Gatecrash Archetypes and Example Decks, Part 1

Kirsin Koch

Author’s note: Since this article series was started, Born of the Gods has been released. Its addition alters the Dimir, Simic, and Gruul decks enough to warrant a revision of the example deck lists. Those lists will be included in part two of this article.

For a Standard Commander format, Gatecrash guilds are going to get an ever-so-slight advantage over the Return to Ravnica guilds when it comes to deck building. This is because Theros came with scry lands for all five of the Gatecrash guilds. However, Boros and Gruul do not have blue or black for card advantage options available in the Standard Commander card pool. This will make it more difficult for those guilds to perform smoothly.

Orzhov

Orzhov got two very interesting teaser creatures in Magic 2014 that combo with Theros‘s enchantment themes: [card]Ajani’s Chosen[/card] and [card]Blightcaster[/card]. This thematic control build focuses on maximizing casting enchantment creatures, board-controlling enchantments, and auras. With this in mind, the Orzhov deck is best served by using [card]Obzedat, Ghost Council[/card] as its commander. The repeated incremental life gain will help keep the deck pilot alive while politically chipping away at the most threatening opponent.

[deck title=Obzedat Standard Commander]
[Creatures]
1 Celestial Archon
1 Gideon, Champion of Justice
1 Nighthowler
1 Erebos’s Emissary
1 Fate Unraveler
[/Creatures]

[Token creature generators]
1 Ajani’s Chosen
1 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
1 Heliod, God of the Sun
1 Angelic Accord
1 Murder Investigation
1 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
[/Token creature generators]

[Creature buff]
1 Archetype of Courage
1 Path of Bravery
1 Ethereal Armor
1 Holy Mantle
1 Herald of Torment
1 Archetype of Finality
1 Whip of Erebos
1 Mark of the Vampire
1 Gift of Orzhova
[/Creature buff]

[Card draw]
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Dark Prophecy
1 Underworld Connections
1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
1 Sanguimancy
[/Card draw]

[Creature removal]
1 Spear of Heliod
1 Pacifism
1 Arrest
1 Baleful Eidolon
1 Blightcaster
1 Viper’s Kiss
1 Bile Blight
1 Hero’s Downfall
1 One Thousand Lashes
1 Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts
[/Creature removal]

[General removal]
1 Martial Law
1 Ashen Rider
[/General removal]

[Noncreature removal]
1 Revoke Existence
[/Noncreature removal]

[Graveyard hate]
1 Rest in Peace
[/Graveyard hate]

[Board wipe]
1 Fated Retribution
1 Planar Cleansing
1 Merciless Eviction
[/Board wipe]

[Life gain]
1 Sanguine Bond
1 Vizkopa Guildmage
1 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
1 Obzedat, Ghost Council
1 Debt to the Deathless
[/Life gain]

[Control]
1 Blind Obedience
1 Sphere of Safety
[/Control]

[Recursion]
1 Silent Sentinel
1 Treasury Thrull
1 Immortal Servitude
1 Obzedat’s Aid
[/Recursion]

[Tutors]
1 Plea for Guidance
1 Diabolic Tutor
[/Tutors]

[Mana ramp]
1 Astral Cornucopia
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Orzhov Cluestone
1 Orzhov Keyrune
[/Mana ramp]

[Lands]
1 Encroaching Wastes
1 Godless Shrine
1 Mutavault
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Orzhov Guildgate
19 Plains
1 Rogue’s Passage
12 Swamp
1 Temple of Silence
[/Lands]
[/deck]

The Orzhov player will most often seek to find and play [card]Sphere of Safety[/card] or [card]Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts[/card], to defend his life total while playing key threats such as [card]Blood Baron of Vizkopa[/card] or [card]Obzedat, Ghost Council[/card]. The production of creature tokens will further assist in holding back opponents while working toward large life swings with [card]Sanguine Bond[/card] or [card]Vizkopa Guildmage[/card] on the back of a [card]Blood Baron of Vizkopa[/card] or [card]Debt to the Deathless[/card].

Boros

A Standard Commander Boros deck is heavily saddled with some of the weakest mechanics for Commander: battalion, heroic, and, now, inspired. Separately, these mechanics require building a deck that is fast enough to kill opponents before they can interact with the board state. This strategy comes with clear disadvantages in a singleton format. Together, these mechanics require risking overextension into a board wipe, often for minimal damage gain. Furthermore, Boros decks are complicated by the greatest lack of card draw of any of the guild color combinations. Therefore, Boros is forced to handle its inherent weaknesses with the possibility of a voltron army strategy with [card]Anax and Cymede[/card] or pseudo-damage doubling with [card]Aurelia, the Warleader[/card]. [card]Tajic, Blade of the Legion[/card], could also be a voltron strategy, but there are not quite enough tricks in the Standard Commander format (i.e. [card]Worldslayer[/card]) to ensure that Tajic gets to 21 commander damage consistently. These deck-building themes will probably lead to unsatisfying gameplay. Instead, a Boros deck could focus on having some of the best token creation in the format to gain resource advantage while hoarding cards in hand to recover. With this in mind, a semi-competitive Standard Commander Boros deck could look like this:

[deck title=Aurelia Standard Commander]

[Creatures]
1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
1 Frontline Medic
1 Seraph of the Sword
1 Gideon, Champion of Justice
1 Boros Reckoner
1 Tajic, Blade of the Legion
[/Creatures]

[Token creature generators]
1 Precinct Captain
1 Evangel of Heliod
1 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
1 Heliod, God of the Sun
1 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
1 Assemble the Legion
1 Trading Post
[/Token creature generators]

[Creature buff]
1 Archetype of Courage
1 Frontline Medic
1 Phantom General
1 Archangel of Thune
1 Angelic Skirmisher
1 Path of Bravery
1 Spear of Heliod
1 Rootborn Defenses
1 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
1 Legion Loyalist
1 Archetype of Aggression
1 Pyrewild Shaman
1 Ogre Battledriver
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
1 Hammer of Purphoros
1 Legion’s Initiative
1 Gleam of Battle
1 Boros Charm
[/Creature buff]

[Additional combat steps]
1 Aurelia, the Warleader
[/Additional combat steps]

[Card draw]
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
[/Card draw]

[Creature removal]
1 Angelic Edict
1 Arrest
1 Banisher Priest
1 Chained to the Rocks
1 Five-Alarm Fire
1 Molten Primordial
1 Boros Battleshaper
1 Firemane Angel
1 Foundry Champion
1 Warleader’s Helix
[/Creature removal]

[Noncreature removal]
1 Solemn Offering
1 Revoke Existence
1 Wear/Tear
[/Noncreature removal]

[Artifact removal]
1 Batterhorn
1 Vandalblast
1 Wild Celebrants
1 Shattering Blow
[/Artifact removal]

[Enchantment removal]
1 Keening Apparition
1 Ray of Dissolution
[/Enchantment removal]

[Board wipe]
1 Angel of Serenity
1 Luminate Primordial
1 Mizzium Mortars
1 Street Spasm
[/Board wipe]

[Mana acceleration]
1 Boros Cluestone
1 Boros Keyrune
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Burnished Hart
1 Opaline Unicorn
[/Mana acceleration]

[Tutor]
1 Plea for Guidance
1 Ring of Three Wishes
[/Tutor]

[Lands]
1 Encroaching Wastes
13 Mountain
1 Mutavault
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
20 Plains
1 Rogue’s Passage
1 Temple of Triumph
[/Lands]
[/deck]

There’s certainly at least one Commander player who will still want to try a Heroic deck with [card]Anax and Cymede[/card] at the helm for a voltron win. However ill-advised it may be under competitive stratagems and deck building precepts, [card]Anax and Cymede[/card] could still win, fits a tighter budget, and improves its odds in a one-on-one Standard Commander format:

[deck title=Anax and Cymede Standard Commander]

[Double strike creatures]
1 Fencing Ace
1 Ghostblade Eidolon
1 Bonescythe Sliver
1 Two-Headed Cerberus
[/Double strike creatures]

[Heroic creatures]
1 Favored Hoplite
1 Fabled Hero
1 Phalanx Leader
1 Vanguard of Brimaz
1 Hero of Iroas
1 Akroan Crusader
1 Arena Athlete
1 Anax and Cymede
[/Heroic creatures]

[Token creature generators]
1 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
1 Heliod, God of the Sun
1 Murder Investigation
1 Assemble the Legion
[/Token creature generators]

[Creature buff]
1 Archetype of Courage
1 Frontline Medic
1 Archangel of Thune
1 Angelic Skirmisher
1 Path of Bravery
1 Spear of Heliod
1 Brave the Elements
1 Rootborn Defenses
1 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
1 Legion Loyalist
1 Pyrewild Shaman
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
1 Aurelia, the Warleader
1 Legion’s Initiative
[/Creature buff]

[Auras]
1 Nyxborn Shieldmate
1 Hopeful Eidolon
1 Eidolon of Countless Battles
1 Observant Alseid
1 Ethereal Armor
1 Ordeal of Heliod
1 Gift of Immortality
1 Holy Mantle
1 Indestructibility
1 Nyxborn Rollicker
1 Everflame Eidolon
1 Spearpoint Oread
1 Purphoros’s Emissary
1 Lightning Talons
1 Madcap Skills
1 Ordeal of Purphoros
1 Shiv’s Embrace
[/Auras]

[Equipment]
1 Prowler’s Helm
[/Equipment]

[Instants]
1 Aerial Maneuver
1 Dauntless Onslaught
1 Gods Willing
1 Coordinated Assault
1 Titan’s Strength
1 Boros Charm
1 Martial Glory
[/Instants]

[Creature removal]
1 Five-Alarm Fire
[/Creature removal]

[Card draw]
1 Chosen by Heliod
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Dragon Mantle
[/Card draw]

[Recursion]
1 Silent Sentinel
1 Strionic Resonator
[/Recursion]

[Mana acceleration]
1 Boros Cluestone
1 Boros Keyrune
[/Mana acceleration]

[Lands]
1 Boros Guildgate
1 Encroaching Wastes
12 Mountain
1 Mutavault
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
17 Plains
1 Rogue’s Passage
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Temple of Triumph
[/Lands]
[/deck]

This deck quite literally goes all-in on playing a heroic creature or two and relying on heroic triggers from auras and instants. Each aura in this list either draws a card, replaces itself in the event the aura recipient dies (via bestow), or causes some sort of recursion/resilience for its voltron target. Instants either scry, target multiple heroic or double strike creatures (twelve total including the general), or bump power by two or more. [card]Five-Alarm Fire[/card] functions similarly to [card]Umezawa’s Jitte[/card], but with a slower activation cost. [card]Elspeth, Sun’s Champion[/card], has even been cut to streamline the deck’s mana curve while [card]Silent Sentinel[/card] has stayed in order to recur enchantments if possible.

It is important to note that plays such as [card]Madcap Skills[/card] followed by a [card]Boros Charm[/card] after a turn three [card]Anax and Cymede[/card] deals 14 points of general damage. The opponent has to be able to successfully eliminate [card]Anax and Cymede[/card] on the next turn or be able to prevent further general damage to avoid losing quickly.

Once this particular deck enters topdeck mode, it will have an extremely difficult time winning if any other player takes the lead. Additionally, this deck has very weak removal. In this format, white and red are already short on ways to draw into cards that can handle indestructible gods. Without [card]Angelic Edict[/card], [card]Trostani’s Judgment[/card], or [card]Revoke Existence[/card], this deck simply is unable to deal with these threats.

Thanks for reading today! Please share any comments below.

Standard Commander: Return to Ravnica Analysis

Kirsin Koch

This article is a continued exploration of what a Return to Ravnica/Gatecrash/Dragon’s Maze/M14/Theros Commander format might look like. Previous articles in this series covered basic deck design principles available in the format and what each of the mono-colored decks might contain. When [card]Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord[/card] was spoiled as a set preview in the Izzet vs. Golgari Duel Deck, many Golgari fans anticipated using this extremely strong guild leader. When Return to Ravnica was fully spoiled, all the guild leaders seemed to be strong contenders for Commander. Later, Dragon’s Maze and Theros would add further options. Despite having a Standard-only card pool, these legendary creatures still represent some interesting deck construction possibilities.

Azorius

A white-blue Standard Commander appears to best be served by adhering to its stereotypical control archetype by playing a singular, but effective, threat and protecting it with removal, counterspells, and board wipes. The best generals for this strategy are [card]Medomai the Ageless[/card] and [card]Isperia, Supreme Judge[/card]. [card]Lavinia of the Tenth[/card] is a weak choice because there are no flicker effects in the environment with which to repeatedly detain the lower-costed permanents on the board.

With control and card draw in mind, the deck build below runs no fewer than four [card]Ophidian[/card]-type creatures in addition to [card]Bident of Thassa[/card]. If possible, play an [card]Ophidian[/card] creature early and hit an undefended opponent repeatedly to draw into counter magic. Counterspells should be used to stop gods, primordials, board wipes that negatively impact your board state, and any other game-changing spells. An [card]Elite Arcanist[/card] imprinted with a counterspell that sticks will be a powerful play that only [card]Supreme Verdict[/card] can easily handle. [card]Dismiss into Dream[/card] with [card]Elite Arcanist[/card] imprinted with any spell will similarly be a very strong synergy if opponents are unable to remove either half.

[deck title=Azorius Standard Commander]

[Creatures]
*1 Celestial Archon
*1 Clone
*1 AEtherling
*1 Stolen Identity
*1 Medomai the Ageless
[/Creatures]

[Creature Token Generators]
*1 Heliod, God of the Sun
*1 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
*1 Master of Waves
[/Creature Token Generators]

[Card Draw]
*1 Scroll Thief
*1 Stealer of Secrets
*1 Thassa, God of the Sea
*1 Thassa’s Emissary
*1 Prognostic Sphinx
*1 Bident of Thassa
*1 Opportunity
*1 Jace, Memory Adept
*1 Daxos of Meletis
*1 Isperia, Supreme Judge
*1 Righteous Authority
*1 Sphinx’s Revelation
[/card draw]

[Counterspells]
*1 Annul
*1 Swan Song
*1 Essence Scatter
*1 Negate
*1 Cancel
*1 Dissolve
*1 Scatter Arc
*1 Render Silent
*1 Fall of the Gavel
[/counterspells]

[Creature Removal]
*1 Banisher Priest
*1 Spear of Heliod
*1 Angelic Edict
*1 Voidwielder
*1 Dismiss into Dream
*1 New Prahv Guildmage
*1 Azorius Charm
[/creature removal]

[Board Wipes]
*1 Angel of Serenity
*1 Luminate Primordial
*1 Planar Cleansing
*1 Cyclonic Rift
*1 AEtherize
*1 Restore the Peace
*1 Supreme Verdict
[/Board Wipes]

[Noncreature Removal]
*1 Solemn Offering
[/noncreature removal]

[General Removal]
*1 Detention Sphere
[/general removal]

[Control]
*1 Blind Obedience
*1 Council of the Absolute
[/control]

[Recursion]
*1 ArchAEomancer
*1 Elite Arcanist
*1 Mnemonic Wall
*1 Diluvian Primordial
[/recursion]

[Life Gain]
*1 Congregate

[/life gain]

[Mana Acceleration]
*1 Burnished Hart
*1 Azorious Cluestone
*1 Azorious Keyrune
*1 Chromatic Lantern
*1 Darksteel Ingot
[/mana acceleration]

[Lands]
*1 Azorious Guildgate
*1 Encroaching Wastes
*1 Hallowed Fountain
*21 Island
*1 Mutavault
*1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
*12 Plains
*1 Rogue’s Passage
[/lands]
[/deck]

Alternatively, a [card]Daxos of Meletis[/card] voltron deck is possible, but it loses a lot of power with the large amount of creature token generation in a Standard Commander environment. The lack of extremely strong equipment to significantly boost attack power discourages this route as well. [card]Daxos of Meletis[/card] is much stronger in an Eternal Commander card pool. A player looking for an unusual alternate win condition should consider [card]Azor’s Elocutors[/card]. Unfortunately, the current Standard environment is missing the proliferate mechanic to really break the card.

Selesnya

Unfortunately, Selesnya only has one real choice for its commander, but it’s not an awful one: [card]Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice[/card]. Trostani really encourages going all-in on a token creature theme, but risks being severely hampered by every black deck playing [card]Erebos, God of the Dead[/card]. A Selesnya deck is going to have to rely on [card]Angelic Edict[/card], [card]Trostani’s Judgment[/card], [card]Selesnya Charm[/card], and [card]Fade into Antiquity[/card] to stop an Erebos. Sadly, Selesnya decks have some of the weakest card draw available in a Standard Commander format. With this in mind, a Selesnya deck might look like this:

[deck title=Trostani Standard Commander]

[Creatures]
*1 Voracious Wurm
*1 Miming Slime
*1 Armada Wurm
*1 Advent of the Wurm
[/Creatures]

[Creature Token Generators]
*1 Heliod, God of the Sun
*1 Scion of Vitu-Ghazi
*1 Angelic Accord
*1 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
*1 Devout Invocation
*1 Sporemound
*1 Giant Adephage
*1 Primeval Bounty
*1 Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage
*1 Voice of Resurgence
*1 Wayfaring Temple
*1 Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice
*1 Trostani’s Summoner
[/Creature Token Generators]

[Creature Buffs]
*1 Frontline Medic
*1 Phantom General
*1 Archangel of Thune
*1 Angelic Skirmisher
*1 Path of Bravery
*1 Spear of Heliod
*1 Rootborn Defenses
*1 Oak Street Innkeeper
*1 Bow of Nylea
*1 Emmara Tandris
*1 Collective Blessing
[/Creature Buffs]

[Card Draw]
*1 Nylea’s Presence
*1 Warriors’ Lesson
[/Card Draw]

[Creature Removal]
*1 Banisher Priest
*1 Trostani’s Judgment
*1 Angelic Edict
*1 Selesnya Charm
[/Creature Removal]

[Noncreature Removal]
*1 Solemn Offering
*1 Fade into Antiquity
*1 Sundering Growth
[/Noncreature Removal]

[Board Wipe]
*1 Angel of Serenity
*1 Luminate Primordial
*1 Planar Cleansing
[/Board Wipe]

[Graveyard Hate]
*1 Scavenging Ooze
[/Graveyard Hate]

[Combat Tricks]
*1 Druid’s Deliverance
[/Combat Tricks]

[Life Gain]
*1 Blind Obedience
*1 Riot Control
[/Life Gain]

[Mana Acceleration]
*1 Elvish Mystic
*1 Gyre Sage
*1 Manaweft Sliver
*1 Sylvan Caryatid
*1 Voyaging Satyr
*1 Karametra’s Acolyte
*1 Into the Wilds
*1 Ordeal of Nylea
*1 Chromatic Lantern
*1 Darksteel Ingot
*1 Selesnya Cluestone
*1 Selesnya Keyrune
*1 Burnished Hart
[/Mana Acceleration]

[Recursion]
*1 Codex Shredder
*1 Illusionist’s Bracers
[/Recursion]

[Lands]
*1 Encroaching Wastes
*19 Forest
*1 Grove of the Guardian
*1 Mutavault
*1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
*18 Plains
*1 Rogue’s Passage
*1 Selesnya Guildgate
*1 Temple Garden
[/Lands]
[/deck]

It’s true that this deck is running a significant amount of lands coupled with mana acceleration. However, the populate mechanic is going to be key in shoring up Selesnya’s lack of card draw. Unfortunately, there’s a finite amount of room in the deck and hoping to add the [card]Trading Post[/card] / [card]Prophetic Prism[/card] combo without any ability to tutor is a waste of two slots. Additionally, the Selesnya player is going to want to have plenty of mana to cast end-of-turn spells in addition to the expected “end of turn, populate target token” activation.

Izzet

An Izzet deck will be lead by either [card]Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius[/card] or [card]Melek, Izzet Paragon[/card]. The deck concept below intends for either legendary creature to serve as the commander. There’s a wealth of instants and sorceries combined with cards that allow for synergies with these card types. In both cases, the intends to play few or no early threats, but instead concentrate on building mana and dealing reactively with threats. When there’s enough mana to successfully play and protect [card]Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius[/card] or [card]Melek, Izzet Paragon[/card], then this Izzet deck can begin either drawing cards or doubling instant and sorcery spells. This deck build may be familiar to “pillow fort” players.

[deck title=Izzet Standard Commander]

[Creatures]
*1 Stolen Identity
*1 Young Pyromancer
*1 Guttersnipe
*1 Lobber Crew
*1 Stormbreath Dragon
*1 Act of Treason
*1 Goblin Rally
*1 Nivmagus Elemental
*1 Nivix Guildmage
*1 Spellheart Chimera
*1 Hypersonic Dragon
[/Creatures]

[Card draw]
*1 Thassa, God of the Sea
*1 Prescient Chimera
*1 Opportunity
*1 Jace, Memory Adept
*1 Divination
*1 Mercurial Chemister
*1 Melek, Izzet Paragon
*1 Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
*1 Steam Augury
*1 Thoughtflare
*1 Blast of Genius
[/Card draw]

[Counterspells]
*1 Annul
*1 Mizzium Skin
*1 Swan Song
*1 Essence Scatter
*1 Negate
*1 Dissolve
*1 Scatter Arc
*1 Izzet Charm
*1 Counterflux
*1 Essence Backlash
[/Counterspells]

[Creature removal]
*1 Inaction Injunction
*1 Voyage’s End
*1 Volcanic Geyser
*1 Izzet Staticaster
*1 Turn – Burn
*1 Ral Zarek
[/Creature removal]

[Board wipes]
*1 Blustersquall
*1 Cyclonic Rift
*1 AEtherize
*1 Curse of the Swine
*1 Street Spasm
*1 Homing Lightning
*1 Mizzium Mortars
*1 Anger of the Gods
[/Board wipes]

[Noncreature removal]
*1 Disperse
*1 Vandalblast
[/Noncreature removal]

[Mana acceleration]
*1 Goblin Electromancer
*1 Chromatic Lantern
*1 Darksteel Ingot
*1 Izzet Cluestone
*1 Izzet Keyrune
*1 Burnished Hart
[/Mana acceleration]

[Recursion]
*1 Meletis Charlatan
*1 Archaeomancer
*1 Elite Arcanist
*1 Mnemonic Wall
*1 Diluvian Primordial
[/Recursion]

[Tutors]
*1 Firemind’s Foresight
[/Tutors]

[Lands]
*1 Encroaching Wastes
*21 Island
*1 Izzet Guildgate
*13 Mountain
*1 Mutavault
*1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
*1 Rogue’s Passage
*1 Steam Vents
[/Lands]
[/deck]

Some readers may note that [card]Epic Experiment[/card] is absent from this list as well as [card]Dragonshift[/card]. Unfortunately, [card]Epic Experiment[/card] is best when cast for 8 or higher, but Standard just does not have the artifact mana to power that level of spell or the tutors to seek it out. Also, this build focuses on having many counterspells, making Experiment much more likely to have no effect. The creature base is inherently too varied for [card]Dragonshift[/card] to be an effective win condition. A [card]Young Pyromancer[/card] is just not likely to stay a threat long enough to successfully build an army worthy of becoming dragons for a turn.

Rakdos

Rakdos colors have three different available commanders, two of which have definite possibility. [card]Rakdos, Lord of Riots[/card] can be a very speedy general to build around with large creatures being nearly free after a successful turn-five attack. [card]Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch[/card] is really designed to be an efficient beater in regular Standard and the unleash mechanic does not do enough to unleashed creatures to make them viable even in a Standard Commander format. Most interestingly though, with [card]Tymaret, the Murder King[/card] as commander, a Rakdos deck can run a semi-combo deck built around [card]Shadowborn Apostle[/card] to tutor out must-answer threats such as [card]Lord of the Void[/card], [card]Master of Cruelties[/card], [card]Rakdos, Lord of Riots[/card], and [card]Sire of Insanity[/card]. This presents a very fun engine to build around as every sixth [card]Shadowborn Apostle[/card] in play can search out a serious threat at instant speed.

[deck title=Standard Demons and Apostles]

[Creatures]
*38 Shadowborn Apostle
*1 Shadowborn Demon
*1 Abhorrent Overlord
*1 Lord of the Void
*1 Rakdos, Lord of Riots
*1 Master of Cruelties
*1 Sire of Insanity
[/Creatures]

[Sacrifice Engine]
*1 Tymaret, the Murder King
[/Sacrifice Engine]

[Token Creature Generation]
*1 Xathrid Necromancer
*1 Ogre Slumlord
[/Token Creature Generation]

[Creature Buff]
*1 Whip of Erebos
*1 Titan of Eternal Fire
*1 Hammer of Purphoros
*1 Door of Destinies
[/Creature Buff]

[Card Draw]
*1 Erebos, God of the Dead
*1 Dark Prophecy
[/Card Draw]

[Creature Removal]
*1 Doom Blade
*1 Ultimate Price
*1 Hero’s Downfall
*1 Launch Party
*1 Dreadbore
[/Creature Removal]

[Board Wipes]
*1 Mizzium Mortars
[/Board Wipes]

[Mana Acceleration]
*1 Crypt Ghast
*1 Chromatic Lantern
[/Mana Acceleration]

[Recursion]
*1 Rise of the Dark Realms
*1 Underworld Cerberus
[/Recursion]

[Tutors]
*1 Diabolic Tutor
[/Tutors]

[Lands]
*1 Blood Crypt
*1 Encroaching Wastes
*7 Mountain
*1 Mutavault
*1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
*1 Rakdos Guildgate
*1 Rogue’s Passage
*23 Swamp
[/Lands]
[/deck]

The [card]Shadowborn Apostle[/card]s should most often first search out [card]Sire of Insanity[/card] to put each opponent into topdeck mode, followed by [card]Lord of the Void[/card] or [card]Shadowborn Demon[/card] depending on the board state. The token generation from [card]Ogre Slumlord[/card] and [card]Xathrid Necromancer[/card], as well as the tribal synergies of the [card]Shadowborn Apostle[/card]s with [card]Titan of Eternal Fire[/card] and [card]Door of Destinies[/card] may help with this. [card]Underworld Cerberus[/card] and [card]Rise of the Dark Realms[/card] both recycle the [card]Shadowborn Apostle[/card]s to repeat searching out a demon. Alternatively, once can just win with an army of clerics buffed by [card]Door of Destinies[/card]. [card]Diabolic Tutor[/card] will be key for getting [card]Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx[/card] in order to power [card]Titan of Eternal Fire[/card]’s ability. In the later game or when stuck in topdeck mode, unnecessary [card]Shadowborn Apostle[/card]s function as fodder for Tymaret’s ability.

This approach is somewhat akin to a [card]Kaalia of the Vast[/card] deck, meaning that it’s very much a glass cannon-style deck and may lack resiliency without more [card]Shadowborn Apostle[/card]s and [card]Thrumming Stone[/card]s. The appropriate number of [card]Shadowborn Apostle[/card]s in this deck needs to be tested as well. Cards such as [card]Elixir of Immortality[/card], [card]Darksteel Ingot[/card], [card]Rakdos Cluestone[/card], and [card]Rakdos Keyrune[/card] have been cut to add seven more [card]Shadowborn Apostle[/card] to the list, giving an average of 2.68 [card]Shadowborn Apostle[/card]s in each opening hand, with a 38% chance of drawing another on turn one. That chance naturally increases incrementally with each draw. The weakest part of this deck concept is going to be the potential for useless late-game draws if you lose your big threats, which is only minorly assisted with [card]Tymaret, the Murder King[/card]’s sacrifice ability. However this deck does it, when it wins, the deck will win spectacularly off the back of working-class clerics.

Golgari

Golgari has two possible commanders in [card]Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord[/card] and [card]Varolz the Scar-Striped[/card]. As with Eternal Commander, a Golgari Standard Commander deck is a potent color combination focusing on quickly assembling a strong, creature-based board presence. When those creatures die, there are recursive elements to bring them back for minimal mana cost. With Jarad, there are some obvious and very strong synergies making him the go-to general for a Golgari Standard Commander deck. The deck is even able to run a possible repeatable removal, life gain, and opponent life loss engine.

[deck title=Standard Jarad]

[Creatures]
*1 Wight of Precinct Six
*1 Nighthowler
*1 Lord of the Void
*1 Nemesis of Mortals
[/Creatures]

[Token creature generation]
*1 Ogre Slumlord
*1 Primeval Bounty
[/Token creature generation]

[Sacrifice outlet]
*1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
[/Sacrifice outlet]

[Card draw]
*1 Blood Scrivener
*1 Erebos, God of the Dead
*1 Dark Prophecy
*1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
*1 Read the Bones
*1 Garruk, Caller of Beasts
*1 Reaper of the Wilds
[/Card draw]

[Creature removal engine]
*1 Festering Newt
*1 Bogbrew Witch
*1 Bow of Nylea
*1 Bubbling Cauldron
[/Creature removal engine]

[Creature removal]
*1 Slum Reaper
*1 Shadowborn Demon
*1 Doom Blade
*1 Ultimate Price
*1 Hero’s Downfall
*1 Launch Party
*1 Liturgy of Blood
*1 Putrefy
[/Creature removal]

[Noncreature removal]
*1 Sylvan Primordial
*1 Fade into Antiquity
[/Noncreature removal]

[General removal]
*1 Vraska the Unseen
[/General removal]

[Discard/milling effects]
*1 Pack Rat
*1 Grisly Spectacle
*1 Commune with the Gods
*1 Rot Farm Skeleton
*1 Grisly Salvage
*1 Codex Shredder
[/Discard/milling effects]

[Recursion]
*1 Corpse Hauler
*1 Tenacious Dead
*1 Sepulchral Primordial
*1 Whip of Erebos
*1 Grave Betrayal
*1 Rescue from the Underworld
*1 Rise of the Dark Realms
*1 Pharika’s Mender
*1 Deadbridge Chant
*1 Down – Dirty
*1 Illusionist’s Bracers
[/Recursion]

[Board wipe]
*1 Hythonia the Cruel
*1 Gaze of the Gorgon
*1 Volatile Rig
[/Board wipe]

[Graveyard hate]
*1 Scavenging Ooze
*1 Deathrite Shaman
[/Graveyard hate]

[Mana acceleration]
*1 Crypt Ghast
*1 Elvish Mystic
*1 Manaweft Sliver
*1 Sylvan Caryatid
*1 Axebane Guardian
*1 Karametra’s Acolyte
*1 Into the Wilds
*1 Darksteel Ingot
*1 Golgari Cluestone
*1 Golgari Keyrune
*1 Burnished Hart
[/Mana acceleration]

[Tutors]
*1 Diabolic Tutor
*1 Jarad’s Orders
[/Tutors]

[Lands]
*14 Forest
*1 Golgari Guildgate
*1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
*1 Overgrown Tomb
*21 Swamp
[/Lands]
[/deck]

With a light deck-milling theme, [card]Nighthowler[/card], [card]Wight of Precinct Six[/card], and Jarad can become very credible combat threats. At some point in the final stages of the game, it may be possible to cast [card]Nighthowler[/card] or [card]Erebos’s Emissary[/card] with bestow, sacrifice the enchanted creature with Jarad and then sacrifice the [card]Nighthowler[/card] to finish off the entire table. [card]Nemesis of Mortals[/card] fills a similar role by being a possibly cheap, large creature to sacrifice to Jarad, but it could be replaced by [card]Gyre Sage[/card] if necessary. [card]Garruk, Caller of Beasts[/card] may be sub-optimal for his -3 ability, but drawing additional threats is still very relevant.

The removal engine consists of assembling an active [card]Bogbrew Witch[/card] and [card]Bow of Nylea[/card] on the battlefield. Once this is accomplished, spending 4G at instant speed results in -4/-4 to target creature until end of turn, each opponent losing four life, the Jarad player gaining life equal to the total life lost in this way, and up to four cards being shuffled from the Jarad player’s graveyard back into his library.

Golgari also still has [card]Varolz, the Scar-Striped[/card] with which to build a voltron strategy based around +1/+1 counters. This idea has too much possibility not to explore in this article, so here is a second bonus Golgari deck list. This deck almost built itself:

[deck title=Standard Varolz]

[Creatures]
*1 Lifebane Zombie
*1 Liliana’s Reaver
*1 Lord of the Void
*1 Arbor Colossus
*1 Boon Satyr
*1 Brush Strider
*1 Kalonian Hydra
*1 Kalonian Tusker
*1 Mistcutter Hydra
*1 Ooze Flux
*1 Vastwood Hydra
*1 Witchstalker
*1 Dreg Mangler
*1 Varolz, the Scar-Striped
[/Creatures]

[Creature buff]
*1 Necropolis Regent
*1 Bow of Nylea
*1 Crowned Ceratok
*1 Death’s Presence
*1 Nylea, God of the Hunt
*1 Primeval Bounty
*1 Slaughterhorn
*1 Corpsejack Menace
[/Creature buff]

[Sacrifice outlet]
*1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
*1 Korozda Guildmage
[/Sacrifice outlet]

[Card draw]
*1 Blood Scrivener
*1 Erebos, God of the Dead
*1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
*1 Garruk, Caller of Beasts
*1 Reaper of the Wilds
[/Card draw]

[Creature removal]
*1 Desecration Demon
*1 Doom Blade
*1 Grisly Spectacle
*1 Hero’s Downfall
*1 Launch Party
*1 Liturgy of Blood
*1 Shadowborn Demon
*1 Slum Reaper
*1 Ultimate Price
*1 Hunt the Weak
*1 Polukranos, World Eater
*1 Putrefy
[/Creature removal]

[Board wipe]
*1 Hythonia the Cruel
*1 Gaze of Granite
[/Board wipe]

[Noncreature removal]
*1 Fade into Antiquity
*1 Bramblecrush
*1 Sylvan Primordial
[/Noncreature removal]

[General removal]
*1 Vraska the Unseen
[/General removal]

[Graveyard Hate]
*1 Scavenging Ooze
[/Graveyard Hate]

[Mana acceleration]
*1 Crypt Ghast
*1 Elvish Mystic
*1 Gyre Sage
*1 Manaweft Sliver
*1 Ordeal of Nylea
*1 Burnished Hart
*1 Darksteel Ingot
*1 Golgari Cluestone
*1 Golgari Keyrune
[/Mana acceleration]

[Recursion]
*1 Grave Betrayal
*1 Sepulchral Primordial
*1 Deadbridge Chant
*1 Down – Dirty
*1 Rot Farm Skeleton
[/Recursion]

[Tutors]
*1 Diabolic Tutor
*1 Jarad’s Orders
[/Tutors]

[Lands]
*16 Forest
*1 Golgari Guildgate
*1 Mutavault
*1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
*1 Overgrown Tomb
*1 Rogue’s Passage
*16 Swamp
[/Lands]
[/deck]

[card]Death’s Presence[/card], [card]Primeval Bounty[/card], [card]Corpsejack Menace[/card], [card]Korozda Guildmage[/card], and [card]Rot Farm Skeleton[/card] make a potentially solid basis for repeatedly large threats. Additionally, the deck runs almost every creature in black and green with power equal to or greater than its converted mana cost, allowing the pilot to utilize scavenge to maximum effect. [card]Witchstalker[/card] and [card]Reaper of the Wilds[/card] are going to be possibly the most effective threats to scavenge onto due to hexproof. [card]Gladecover Scout[/card] is the only other green creature with hexproof available in Standard currently and may fit in this deck. However, making space for [card]Gladecover Scout[/card] is difficult without cutting a land. [card]Mutavault[/card] is another prime scavenge target because the counters stay even when the land is not a creature.

Notably, [card]Abrupt Decay[/card] is absent from both of these Golgari lists. This may be a mistake, but with so many of the major threats in a Standard Commander format being indestructible gods or having a converted mana cost of four or greater, [card]Abrupt Decay[/card] does not seem to be an optimal choice, even in a Golgari deck. If a Golgari deck pilot determines his environment has enough targets to warrant including [card]Abrupt Decay[/card], [card]Liturgy of Blood[/card] is possibly the card to cut from either deck list.

Of all the Return to Ravnica guilds, the Azorius and Izzet decks will likely be the strongest thanks to the blue card draw component. Golgari is most likely a tier-1.5 archetype due to black shoring up a lack of reactivity. The rest of the guilds are definitely tier-two decks. Rakdos will satisfy the Johnny player while Selesnya satisfies the Timmy player.

Next time, we’ll cover the Gatecrash guilds. Please comment below!

Standard Commander: Mono-Colored Analysis

Kirsin Koch

Previously, this article series has covered the basic considerations for a Standard-only Commander card pool consisting of Return to Ravnica, Gatecrash, Dragon’s Maze, Magic 2014, and Theros. This second part will cover the eight mono-colored legendary creatures provided by Theros and their possible inclusion in mono-colored decks. These legendary creatures are a good start for exploring a Standard-only Commander format by exemplifying the best resources available to each singular color. By combining typical deck building concepts such as card advantage, mana acceleration, tutoring, and removal, interactive decks are still very possible even with a narrower card pool. All the example decks below will attempt to maximize the key themes Wizards of the Coast has implemented in each color under the New World Order design philosophy. In a Standard Commander format, do not automatically discount a mono-colored deck pilot despite his lack of color flexibility. Instead, these decks will capitalize on their steady mana bases to bring their strength to the fore.

Mono-White

[card]Heliod, God of the Sun[/card] naturally has white gravitating towards a vigilant token creature theme, but doesn’t have much in the way of cheap, non-narrow creature removal. What white does have are ways to wipe the board of creatures and start over with Heliod: [card]Angel of Serenity[/card], [card]Elspeth, Sun’s Champion[/card], [card]Luminate Primordial[/card], and [card]Planar Cleansing[/card]. A deck built around Heliod might work to get board states consisting of a populated token army with pump effects or protected by [card]Rootborn Defenses[/card] followed by a board wipe. Alternatively, [card]Gideon, Champion of Justice[/card] is a semi-indestructible threat that continually gets larger. White also has access to an inordinate amount of life gain. By buffing the player’s life total, a [card]Heliod, God of the Sun[/card] deck can recover from an opponent’s board wipe and have enough life buffer to rebuild its army. Such a deck might look like this:

[deck title=Heliod Commander]
[Creature token generators:]
*1 Precinct Captain
*1 Heliod, God of the Sun
*1 Evangel of Heliod
*1 Scion of Vitu-Ghazi
*1 Urbis Protector
*1 Angelic Accord
*1 Murder Investigation
*1 Rootborn Defenses
*1 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
*1 Devout Invocation
*1 Strionic Resonator
*1 Trading Post
*1 Akroan Horse
[/Creature token generators:]

[Creature buffs:]
*1 Frontline Medic
*1 Phantom General
*1 Archangel of Thune
*1 Angelic Skirmisher
*1 Path of Bravery
*1 Spear of Heliod
*1 Fortify
*1 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
*1 Righteous Charge
*1 Haunted Plate Mail
[/Creature buffs:]

[Creature removal:]
*1 Banisher Priest
*1 Court Street Denizen
*1 Haazda Snare Squad
*1 Master of Diversion
*1 Heliod’s Emissary
*1 Martial Law
*1 Pacifism
*1 Divine Verdict
*1 Trostani’s Judgment
*1 Gideon, Champion of Justice
*1 Angelic Edict
*1 Vanquish the Foul
[/Creature removal:]

[Board wipes:]
*1 Angel of Serenity
*1 Luminate Primordial
*1 Planar Cleansing
*1 Ratchet Bomb
*1 Volatile Rig
[/Board wipes:]

[General removal:]
*1 Soul Tithe
*1 Renounce the Guilds
[/General removal:]

[Enchantment removal:]
*1 Keening Apparition
*1 Ray of Dissolution
*1 Solemn Offering
[/Enchantment removal:]

[Graveyard hate:]
*1 Rest in Peace
[/Graveyard hate:]

[Control:]
*1 Pithing Needle
[/Control:]

[Life gain:]
*1 Soldier of the Pantheon
*1 Dawnstrike Paladin
*1 Riot Control
*1 Congregate
*1 Elixir of Immortality
*1 Bubbling Cauldron
*1 Staff of the Sun Magus
[/Life gain:]

[Recursion:]
*1 Codex Shredder
*1 Illusionist’s Bracers
[/Recursion:]

[Tutor:]
*1 Traveler’s Amulet
*1 Ring of Three Wishes
[/Tutor:]

[Mana acceleration:]
*1 Chromatic Lantern
*1 Darksteel Ingot
*1 Burnished Hart
[/Mana acceleration:]

[Lands:]
*1 Encroaching Wastes
*1 Mutavault
*1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
36 Plains
*1 Rogue’s Passage
[/Lands:]
[/deck]

This deck may also want [card]Fiendslayer Paladin[/card] as an early threat with life gain and semi-protection. However, it can be a dead draw later in the game given a lack of synergy with the token theme and without a variety of efficient equipment normally available to white to increase its combat survivability. [card]Riot Gear[/card] may also be something that a Heliod player might want to consider because it pumps a creature out of first strike damage range and can be moved around after combat. +1/+2 on any key creature may be enough to keep it on the table and be a continued threat in many scenarios. Lastly, [card]Vial of Poison[/card] has potential to combo with [card]Trading Post[/card] and the token theme of the deck.

Mono-Blue

[card]Thassa, God of the Sea[/card] easily fills the expected classic blue control, draw-go build despite the focus of the color in Standard on milling a single opponent. A blue Thassa deck will be able to draw into more answers consistently than other mono-colored decks and lay down singular threats while simultaneously protecting them. The downside of blue is going to be lack of multiple large threats to quickly eliminate opponents. The blue player will possibly need to lean heavily on the social contract and deal-making to avoid being stereotypically eliminated first before attempting to take control and win the game. Playing a kingmaker role to remain in second place and waiting to bounce the entire board with a well-timed [card]Ætherize[/card] or [card]Cyclonic Rift[/card] may be a heavily-treaded strategy used by this deck’s pilot.

[deck title=Thassa Commander]
[Creatures:]
*1 Clone
*1 Master of Waves
*1 AEtherling
*1 Stolen Identity
*1 Trading Post
*1 Haunted Plate Mail
[/Creatures:]

[Card draw:]
*1 Scroll Thief
*1 Stealer of Secrets
*1 Thassa, God of the Sea
*1 Thassa’s Emissary
*1 Messenger Drake
*1 Prescient Chimera
*1 Prognostic Sphinx
*1 Horizon Scholar
*1 Windreader Sphinx
*1 Bident of Thassa
*1 Divination
*1 Inspiration
*1 Opportunity
*1 Jace, Architect of Thought
*1 Jace, Memory Adept
*1 Thassa’s Bounty
[/Card draw:]

[Counterspells:]
*1 Annul
*1 Mizzium Skin
*1 Spell Blast
*1 Swan Song
*1 Essence Scatter
*1 Negate
*1 Cancel
*1 Dissolve
*1 Scatter Arc
[/Counterspells:]

[Board wipe:]
*1 Shipbreaker Kraken
*1 Cyclonic Rift
*1 AEtherize
*1 Curse of Swine
*1 Ratchet Bomb
[/Board wipe:]

[Creature removal/bounce:]
*1 Tidebinder Mage
*1 Voidwielder
*1 Colossal Whale
*1 Blustersquall
*1 Gridlock
*1 Rapid Hybridization
*1 Griptide
*1 Voyage’s End
*1 Inaction Injunction
*1 Vial of Poison
[/Creature removal/bounce:]

[Bounce permanent:]
*1 Disperse
*1 Totally Lost
[/Bounce permanent:]

[Recursion:]
*1 Meletis Charlatan
*1 Archaeomancer
*1 Elite Arcanist
*1 Mnemonic Wall
*1 Jace’s Mindseeker
*1 Diluvian Primordial
*1 Strionic Resonator
[/Recursion:]

[Tutors:]
*1 Traveler’s Amulet
*1 Ring of Three Wishes
[/Tutors:]

[Mana acceleration:]
*1 Chromatic Lantern
*1 Darksteel Ingot
*1 Burnished Hart
[/Mana acceleration:]

[Lands:]
*1 Encroaching Wastes
36 Island
*1 Mutavault
*1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
*1 Rogue’s Passage
[/Lands:]
[/deck]

[card]Annul[/card] may seem an odd counterspell inclusion, but it has real strength as one of the singular ways to preemptively deal with the Theros Gods. [card]Clone[/card] is a card that will have tremendous power in this type of environment given it’s flexibility and very reasonable casting cost. For Johnny-type players, [card]Conjured Currency[/card] may be a card to consider. It’s a very slow [card]Switcheroo[/card] that can create some unexpected, possibly advantageous board states as it makes its way around the table. Additionally, the possibility of taking control of key god creatures is one of blue’s limited ways to deal with the troublesome permanents.

Mono-Black

A mono-black Commander deck has two options for its general, but a deck lead by [card]Erebos, God of the Dead[/card] has a strong draw engine that will compare with Standard Commander [card]Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius[/card] or [card]Prime Speaker Zegana[/card] decks with the added benefit of a low casting cost and indestructibility. Despite black’s inability to deal with non-creature permanents, black has some strong synergies and has potential to hold its own against the dual-colored decks possible in a current Standard card pool. Black also has a Johnny player’s type of deck when combining [card]Shadowborn Apostle[/card] with [card]Abhorrent Overlord[/card], [card]Desecration Demon[/card], [card]Lord of the Void[/card], and [card]Shadowborn Demon[/card].

[deck title=Erebos Commander]
[Creatures:]
*1 Tenacious Dead
*1 Thrull Parasite
*1 Pack Rat
*1 Wight of Precinct Six
*1 Lifebane Zombie
*1 Mogis’s Marauder
*1 Nighthowler
*1 Desecration Demon
*1 Returned Centaur
*1 Necropolis Regent
*1 Nightmare
*1 Pontiff of Blight
*1 Lord of the Void
[/Creatures:]

[Creature token generation:]
*1 Xathrid Necromancer
*1 Liliana’s Reaver
*1 Ogre Slumlord
[/Creature token generation:]

[Card draw:]
*1 Blood Scrivener
*1 Erebos, God of the Dead
*1 Dark Prophecy
*1 Underworld Connections
*1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
*1 Read the Bones
*1 March of the Returned
[/Card draw:]

[Sacrifice outlet:]
*1 Gnawing Zombie
*1 Vampire Warlord
*1 Abhorrent Overlord
*1 Altar’s Reap
*1 Rescue from the Underworld
*1 Bubbling Cauldron
[/Sacrifice outlet:]

[Creature removal:]
*1 Festering Newt
*1 Slum Reaper
*1 Keepsake Gorgon
*1 Shadowborn Demon
*1 Quag Sickness
*1 Devour Flesh
*1 Doom Blade
*1 Ultimate Price
*1 Hero’s Downfall
*1 Grisly Spectacle
*1 Launch Party
*1 Liturgy of Blood
*1 Corrupt
[/Creature removal:]

[Board wipe:]
*1 Hythonia the Cruel
*1 Ratchet Bomb
[/Board wipe:]

[Recursion:]
*1 Corpse Hauler
*1 Sepulchral Primordial
*1 Whip of Erebos
*1 Grave Betrayal
*1 Grim Return
*1 Rise of the Dark Realms
[/Recursion:]

[Graveyard hate:]
*1 Cremate
*1 Vile Rebirth
*1 Crypt Incursion
[/Graveyard hate:]

[Life gain:]
*1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
[/Life gain:]

[Mana acceleration:]
*1 Crypt Ghast
*1 Darksteel Ingot
*1 Burnished Hart
[/Mana acceleration:]

[Tutors:]
*1 Diabolic Tutor
*1 Traveler’s Amulet
*1 Ring of Three Wishes
[/Tutors:]

[Lands:]
*1 Encroaching Wastes
*1 Mutavault
*1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
*1 Rogue’s Passage
36 Swamp
[/Lands:]
[/deck]

Mono-Red

[card]Purphoros, God of the Forge[/card] obviously needs to have multiple creatures come into play as often as possible to utilize its trigger. Unfortunately, a Standard Commander deck has limited options to make tokens repeatedly or en masse: [card]Goblin Rally[/card], [card]Hammer of Purphoros[/card], [card]Molten Birth[/card], [card]Utvara Hellkite[/card], [card]Young Pyromancer[/card], [card]Akroan Horse[/card], and [card]Trading Post[/card]. Given the small amount of feasible red instants and sorceries in Standard for Commander, [card]Young Pyromancer[/card] and [card]Molten Birth[/card] really fail to fit in this deck.

An idea to work with this limitation is to explore additional themes unexpectedly found in red Standard Commander: Cheating large creatures into play and playing all the dragons available with [card]Utvara Hellkite[/card]. Red has the ability to cheat creatures into play with [card]Guild Feud[/card] and [card]Possibility Storm[/card]. The important detail about Guild Feud is, “If no creatures or only one creature is put onto the battlefield this way, no fight happens.” Unfortunately, with only 25 creatures in the deck, this is a risky deckbuilding strategy, but will appeal to Johnny-type Magic players. (There is a finite number of red or artifact creatures in Standard currently with both high power and toughness with which to utilize with [card]Guild Feud[/card].) Accelerating straight into a [card]Furnace Whelp[/card] from a [card]Dragon Egg[/card] is fun too. [card]Possibility Storm[/card] acts as a secondary and even perhaps better alternative to [card]Guild Feud[/card]. The difference between the two is that [card]Guild Feud[/card] allows you to consider trying minor group politics while [card]Possibility Storm[/card] risks accelerating your opponents far beyond your own board state.

Second, if a Purphoros player can land an unanswered [card]Utvara Hellkite[/card], it can quickly take over a battlefield within a few turns. [card]Hellkite Tyrant[/card] offers another way to cheat large threats onto the table by stealing key artifact acceleration with the side benefit of taking away opponents’ Theros artifact enchantments. [card]Hellkite Tyrant[/card] will probably never win Purphoros the game, but has potential for serious card advantage with permanent theft of opponent’s resources.

Humorously, [card]Guild Feud[/card] works on a very Vorthos level to demonstrate red’s attempt at politics: “You’re in the lead and you want a put a creature into play? Fine, I’ll try to kill it and you’ve milled three cards. Hey, look! My guy is meaner than yours too!” This is also aided by [card]Akroan Horse[/card]: “Give that weaker player over there a blocker. I get an army for doing so? Imagine that…” Just don’t attack the [card]Akroan Horse[/card]’s controller with a [card]Hellkite Tyrant[/card].

[deck title=Purphoros Commander]
[Creatures:]
*1 Fanatic of Mogis
*1 Ill-Tempered Cyclops
*1 Stoneshock Giant
*1 Wrecking Ogre
*1 Chaos Imps
*1 Ripscale Predator
*1 Guardian of the Ages
*1 Colossus of Akros
[/Creatures:]

[Dragons:]
*1 Dragon Egg
*1 Scourge of Valkas
*1 Stormbreath Dragon
*1 Hellkite Tyrant
*1 Shivan Dragon
*1 Utvara Hellkite
[/Dragons:]

[Token creature generation:]
*1 Goblin Rally
*1 Trading Post
*1 Akroan Horse
[/Token creature generation:]

[Creature buff:]
*1 Legion Loyalist
*1 Pyrewild Shaman
*1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
*1 Ogre Battledriver
*1 Hammer of Purphoros
*1 Skyblinder Staff
*1 Fireshrieker
*1 Fleetfeather Sandals
*1 Prowler’s Helm
*1 Riot Gear
[/Creature buff :]

[Sacrifice outlet:]
*1 Barrage of Expendables
*1 Bubbling Cauldron
[/Sacrifice outlet:]

[Card draw:]
*1 Dragon Mantle
*1 Chandra, Pyromaster
*1 Wild Guess
[/Card draw:]

[Creature removal:]
*1 Fleshpulper Giant
*1 Molten Primordial
*1 Five-Alarm Fire
*1 Ordeal of Purphoros
*1 Volcanic Geyser
*1 Vial of Poison
*1 Rod of Ruin
[/Creature removal:]

[Land destruction:]
*1 Ember Swallower
[/Land destruction:]

[Artifact removal:]
*1 Batterhorn
*1 Wild Celebrants
*1 Vandalblast
[/Artifact removal:]

[Board wipe:]
*1 Street Spasm
*1 Homing Lightning
*1 Mizzium Mortars
*1 Anger of the Gods
*1 Ratchet Bomb
*1 Volatile Rig
[/Board wipe:]

[Recursion:]
*1 Codex Shredder
*1 Strionic Resonator
*1 Trading Post
[/Recursion:]

[Control:]
*1 Pithing Needle
[/Control:]

[Mana acceleration:]
*1 Guild Feud
*1 Chromatic Lantern
*1 Darksteel Ingot
*1 Burnished Hart
*1 Opaline Unicorn
[/Mana acceleration:]

[Tutor:]
*1 Traveler’s Amulet
*1 Ring of Three Wishes
[/Tutor:]

[Lands:]
*1 Encroaching Wastes
36 Mountain
*1 Mutavault
*1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
*1 Rogue’s Passage
[/Lands:]
[/deck]

Mono-Green

[card]Anthousa, Setessan Hero[/card], [card]Nylea, God of the Hunt[/card], or [card]Polukranos, World Eater[/card], despite having access to almost all of the mana acceleration available in Standard, will all have a very difficult time facing off against other Commander decks. The color has extremely limited and narrow card draw, few board wipes with limited effectiveness, and minimal fight-based creature removal. Additionally, Anthousa requires a deck built around the Heroic mechanic, but without recursive spells. This makes her a poor choice. Nylea herself does not have trample and is considered by eternal Commander players to be a less effective [card]Kamahl, Fist of Krosa[/card]. Polukranos provides some effective removal with its cheap cost, but that benefit will dwindle over time as its command zone cost continually rises with multiple deaths. Timmy-type Magic players could possibly be interested in this archetype for a while due to its potentially large creatures, but it lacks resiliency and will frequently get stuck in topdeck mode. Eternal mono-green players may find this color to be a little frustrating to play.

[deck title=Nylea Commander]
[Creatures:]
*1 Arbor Colossus
*1 Giant Adephage
*1 Howl of the Night Pack
*1 Kalonian Hydra
*1 Miming Slime
*1 Mistcutter Hydra
*1 Nemesis of Mortals
*1 Sporemound
*1 Colossus of Akros
*1 Haunted Plate Mail
[/Creatures:]

[Creature buff:]
*1 Boon Satyr
*1 Bow of Nylea
*1 Crowned Ceratok
*1 Death’s Presence
*1 Ivy Lane Denizen
*1 Nylea, God of the Hunt
*1 Oak Street Innkeeper
*1 Primeval Bounty
*1 Wild Beastmaster
*1 Fireshrieker
[/Creature buff:]

[Card draw:]
*1 Garruk’s Horde
*1 Nylea’s Presence
*1 Warriors’ Lesson
*1 Garruk, Caller of Beasts
*1 Witches’ Eye
[/Card draw:]

[Creature removal:]
*1 Deadly Recluse
*1 Polukranos, World Eater
*1 Time to Feed
*1 Hunt the Weak
*1 Vial of Poison
[/Creature removal:]

[Noncreature removal:]
*1 Rust Scarab
*1 Sylvan Primordial
*1 Naturalize
*1 Artisan’s Sorrow
*1 Fade into Antiquity
*1 Bramblecrush
[/Noncreature removal:]

[Board wipe:]
*1 Windstorm
*1 Ratchet Bomb
*1 Volatile Rig
[/Board wipe:]

[Graveyard hate:]
*1 Scavenging Ooze
*1 Serene Remembrance
[/Graveyard hate:]

[Control:]
*1 Pithing Needle
[/Control:]

[Life gain:]
*1 Nylea’s Disciple
*1 Bubbling Cauldron
*1 Staff of the Wild Magus
[/Life gain:]

[Mana acceleration:]
*1 Elvish Mystic
*1 Gyre Sage
*1 Voyaging Satyr
*1 Karametra’s Acolyte
*1 Into the Wilds
*1 Ordeal of Nylea
*1 Burnished Hart
[/Mana acceleration:]

[Recursion:]
*1 Wildwood Rebirth
*1 Codex Shredder
*1 Elixir of Immortality
*1 Strionic Resonator
*1 Illusionist’s Bracers
[/Recursion:]

[Tutors:]
*1 Gatecreeper Vine
*1 Lay of the Land
*1 Seek the Horizon
*1 Traveler’s Amulet
*1 Ring of Three Wishes
[/Tutors:]

[Lands:]
*1 Encroaching Wastes
34 Forest
*1 Mutavault
*1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
*1 Rogue’s Passage
[/Lands:]
[/deck]

With this deck, Nylea is the optimal commander and the cards work together to capitalize on making large creatures with trample. The Nylea player should be careful about overextending into removal and may want to help the table keep the focus on another threat by actually holding back attacking frequently. When the opportunity arises to hit the player that everyone fears the most, the green player will swing with an impressive force. As always, the green player will need to hold removal spells to remove key flyers found in blue and enable trample as frequently as possible to deal with tokens and pump effects.

Mono-Colored Summary

With a single commander (except for black) and a limited card pool available for mono-colored decks, a Standard Commander deck may appear obvious for optimized builds when compared to guild-colored decks. Mono-colored deck builders will have to trade a set of color weaknesses for a consistent mana base and a potentially more dedicated theme.

This format will no doubt be exciting. Each color on its own appears to have deckbuilding highlights that can be fresh, interactive, and interesting to play in a multiplayer game with red players possibly having the most fun. The red players trying the build found in this article are going to be most likely to understand the Joker metaphor presented in one of Adam Styborski’s articles: “Just shooting Batman holds no appeal for the Joker. He must die by a laser mounted on the moon instead.” Those specific games will be memorable long after the Return to Ravnica/Gatecrash/Dragon’s Maze/Magic 2014/Theros Standard Commander card pool has rotated out and faded away.

Kirsin Koch – When Nukes Hit the Commander Playgroup: The Standard Commander Challenge

Kirsin Koch

It is entirely likely that many a Commander playgroup is approaching the final stretch of the arms race to build increasingly powerful decks full of format staples. And why not? Thanks to Eternal players and speculators seeking to offload extra pieces of the Mind Seize deck, there is a massive influx of Commander 2013 product. [card]Command Tower[/card] and [card]Sol Ring[/card] are currently affordable format staples for Commander players. However, as everyone knows, the glory of Magic is the flexibility of its deck building possibilities. As Mark Rosewater so often says, “Restriction breeds creativity.”

Earlier this year, Redditor 956Wulfe asked for deck-building advice regarding a local game store hosting a Standard Commander Challenge. The idea of a limited Commander card pool has been explored in the past. Cassidy Silver last dealt with this type of deck-building challenge when Scars of Mirrodin block was legal, building a Glissa the Traitor deck. Sheldon Menery completely dismissed the Standard Commander format as it lacks long-forgotten cards he likes to play and he feels it’s those cards that are the point of Commander. However, Sheldon’s conclusions are—quite frankly—very wrong. A Standard Commander format is an interesting challenge to all player types and inspires worthy exploration and innovation.

A playgroup may wish to try Standard Commander format for any number of reasons. First, Cassidy Silver previously noted that Standard Commander decks are a good way to depower any gaming group that has “launched the nukes.” Second, the limited Standard card pool allows deeper exploration of lesser-played card interactions. Standard Commander decks may generate some of the same surprise factor that Limited players enjoy. Third is the financial factor. If a playgroup is trying to incorporate players who are newer, lack older cards, or scale down card purchasing, Standard Commander encourages a more level footing between the various players in the group. It’s very difficult to be priced out of a format when everyone only needs one of a card and is able to play the same set of cards. Finally, a Standard Commander format also has about the same power level as the Commander 2013 product, encouraging interaction between the two. It is very easy for a player to build a Standard Commander deck out of his draft winnings/table leftovers, a Return to Ravnica-block intro deck, and the local game store’s bulk rare box. A deck like this would be competitive with the decks of players opening brand new Commander 2013 decks.

This four-part series will first cover deck-building highlights such as key cards available for typical strategies. Subsequent articles will discuss sample mono-colored deck lists and highlights, Return to Ravnica guild-colored decklists and highlights, and finally the Gatecrash guilds will be given the same treatment. There will also be some financial suggestions for the Standard player as to cards they may come across while building these decks.

Deck Building Considerations

Tutors

There are a few notable observations to make regarding the current Standard card pool. First, the current Standard Commander format, like many New World Order-designed Standard environments, has a minimal number of tutors, reducing the consistency that Eternal Commander can engender. Of all the available tutors, only black’s [card]Diabolic Tutor[/card] is completely unconditional. If a combo deck actually existed in Standard, the lack of tutors in a singleton format like Commander would make combo decks even more unlikely and aggro, control, and midrange strategies the de facto archetypes. The available tutors currently in Standard are:

Black:
[card]Diabolic Tutor[/card]

The only unconditional tutor. Orzhov, Dimir, Rakdos, Golgari, and mono-black decks will all run this card.

Green:
[card]Gatecreeper Vine[/card]
[card]Lay of the Land[/card]
[card]Seek the Horizon[/card]

Each of green’s tutors are functionally counterable basic landcycling and fairly mediocre with the amount of color fixing and mana ramp available in the format.

Izzet:
[card]Firemind’s Foresight[/card]

[card]Firemind’s Foresight[/card] may cost 5UR, but it gets a combination of cards like [card]Dissolve[/card], [card]Cyclonic Rift[/card], and [card]Blustersquall[/card]. Thanks to the overload mechanic, this is an excellent card for Izzet decks.

Golgari:
[card]Jarad’s Orders[/card]

The ability to both [card]Entomb[/card] and [card]Eladamri’s Call[/card] at the same time will work very well for Golgari.

Artifact:
[card]Ring of Three Wishes[/card]
[card]Traveler’s Amulet[/card]

Any player building for a Standard Commander challenge in today’s Standard should presume that each opponent will be running [card]Ring of Three Wishes[/card]. It’s comparable to a slightly-more-expensive [card]Jayemdae Tome[/card] for decks lacking card draw and is an obvious, extremely-strong multiple-use tutor, especially for control and ramp decks. Lastly, [card]Traveler’s Amulet[/card] functions as a basic landcycling spell for all decks.

Mana Acceleration

Ramp decks must have a strong green component. Outside of [card]Chromatic Lantern[/card], [card]Darksteel Ingot[/card], guild Cluestones, guild Keyrunes, and [card]Opaline Unicorn[/card], non-green Standard Commander decks have few options. Green decks can utilize up to twelve additional mana accelerants and/or mana fixers which include:

[card]Axebane Guardian[/card]
[card]Elvish Mystic[/card]
[card]Gyre Sage[/card]
[card]Into the Wilds[/card]
[card]Karametra’s Acolyte[/card]
[card]Mana Bloom[/card]
[card]Manaweft Sliver[/card]
[card]Ordeal of Nylea[/card]
[card]Sylvan Caryatid[/card]
[card]Verdant Haven[/card]
[card]Voyaging Satyr[/card]
[card]Deathrite Shaman[/card]

Obviously Nylea, Selesnya, Simic, Golgari, and Gruul decks will have a very specific advantage over other Standard Commander decks. In addition to these available green cards, don’t be surprised if every deck runs a copy of [card]Burnished Hart[/card] as a colorless substitute for [card]Ranger’s Path[/card] to accelerate or fix mana. Most mono-colored decks will also try to squeeze in [card]Chromatic Lantern[/card] and [card]Darksteel Ingot[/card] for additional mana ramp. All the guild-colored decks will most likely run the appropriate guild Cluestone and Keyrune for additional card draw and battlefield body. Some players will happily note that [card]Deathrite Shaman[/card] has some difficulty maintaining its normal mana ramp effectiveness in this format due to lack of fetchlands and mass land destruction.

Financially, [card]Chromatic Lantern[/card] is an excellent foil to pick up for Commander. The card’s relevance despite its comparison to [card]Coalition Relic[/card] is undisputed and will be a staple for years. [card]Burnished Hart[/card] in foil is another card to keep an eye on as a possible Commander staple. The ability to recur [card]Burnished Hart[/card] and immediately fetch out two more lands is very appealing to graveyard recursion decks such as [card]Karador, Ghost Chieftain[/card] or Golgari decks such as [card]Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord[/card].

Card Advantage

Most importantly, card draw is heavily concentrated in blue, black, and green, putting white, red, and Boros decks at quite a disadvantage. Izzet has a superior amount of card draw with [card]Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius[/card] as a Commander and [card]Mercurial Chemister[/card] in the deck. [card]Mercurial Chemister[/card] is a creature that has been showing up more often in Grixis Eternal Commander decks and has proven its worth to both repeatedly draw cards and remove creatures. Simic similarly has lots of options for card draw with [card]Prime Speaker Zegana[/card] being a Commander, but is less abusable than [card]Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius[/card]. (Red is not included on the below list because none of the cards offer consistently pure card advantage.)

Blue:
[card]Bident of Thassa[/card]
[card]Divination[/card]
[card]Inspiration[/card]
[card]Jace, Architect of Thought[/card]
[card]Jace, Memory Adept[/card]
[card]Opportunity[/card]
[card]Ordeal of Thassa[/card]
[card]Prescient Sphinx[/card]
[card]Prognostic Sphinx[/card]
[card]Scroll Thief[/card]
[card]Stealer of Secrets[/card]
[card]Thassa’s Emissary[/card]
[card]Thassa, God of the Sea[/card]
[card]Windreader Sphinx[/card]

As expected, blue will have vanilla draw spells, repeatable draw triggers, and repeatable scrying to find key cards and refill the hand.

Black:
[card]Liliana of the Dark Realms[/card]
[card]Altar’s Reap[/card]
[card]Blood Scrivener[/card]
[card]Dark Prophecy[/card]
[card]Erebos, God of the Dead[/card]
[card]Read the Bones[/card]
[card]Underworld Connections[/card]

Black will have to deal with sacrificing creatures or paying life to draw cards. The trade-off will be frequently worth it. Financially, it may be worth it to try and pick up foil [card]Read the Bones[/card] as a throw-in on trades. The card has been discussed by Vintage players as very playable and is an excellent utility staple for Eternal Commander players.

Green:
[card]Garruk’s Horde[/card]
[card]Garruk, Caller of Beasts[/card]
[card]Nylea’s Presence[/card]
[card]Seek the Horizon[/card]
[card]Warriors’ Lesson[/card]

If green needs to put creatures or lands into hand or is able to do damage with creatures, these are the cards to expect.

Azorious:
[card]Isperia, Supreme Judge[/card]
[card]Righteous Authority[/card]
[card]Sphinx’s Revelation[/card]

Orzhov:
[card]Triad of Fates[/card]

Conditional and slow, [card]Triad of Fates[/card] is a terrible draw engine that opponents can probably dismiss. It’s only included on this list for completeness.

Dimir:
[card]Bane Alley Broker[/card]
[card]Coerced Confession[/card]
[card]Notion Thief[/card]
[card]Pilfered Plans[/card]
[card]Soul Ransom[/card]
[card]Whispering Madness[/card]

For blue and black, most of the Dimir cards are less noteworthy than the straight mono-blue or mono-black cards available. [card]Notion Thief[/card], [card]Pilfered Plans[/card], and [card]Whispering Madness[/card] are the exceptions.

Izzet:
[card]Blast of Genius[/card]
[card]Mercurial Chemister[/card]
[card]Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius[/card]
[card]Steam Augury[/card]
[card]Thoughtflare[/card]

Simic:
[card]Bred for the Hunt[/card]
[card]Give // Take[/card]
[card]Prime Speaker Zegana[/card]
[card]Unexpected Results[/card]
[card]Urban Evolution[/card]
[card]Zameck Guildmage[/card]

Most of the Simic draw spells are conditional on +1/+1 counters or functionally work as cycling. [card]Prime Speaker Zegana[/card] and [card]Urban Evolution[/card] are the exceptions. Both of these cards are excellent pick-ups in foil.

Golgari (repeatable, conditional scrying):
[card]Reaper of the Wilds[/card]

This card’s effect is very unique in Magic, particularly for Golgari colors, and picking up some foil copies as trade throw-ins may be a good idea.

Artifact (repeatable scrying):
[card]Witches’ Eye[/card]

[card]Witches’ Eye[/card] is possibly one of the most interestingly innocuous cards available to a Standard Commander deck. For the sorcery speed cost of {2} and tapping a creature, any deck can scry repeatedly regardless of color. This is as close to [card]Crystal Ball[/card] as a deck builder will find in this environment outside of [card]Thassa, God of the Sea[/card]. Since [card]Crystal Ball[/card] is often called a “budget player’s [card]Sensei’s Divining Top[/card]” by Commander players, this card may have its place in the environment.

Creature Removal

Lastly, creature removal will most likely be one of the most difficult aspects of a Standard Commander challenge. This format is missing many of the more-efficient, non-conditional, flexible, and instant-speed staples and board wipes available in the Eternal card pool. Mass creature removal is mostly the domain of white and blue, making Azorious the most obvious creature and board control guild. Due to the power of the Theros gods, cards that can exile a creature should probably be given “staple” status. A list of possible removal and board wipes in Standard Commander looks like this, but is not a conclusive list:

White:
[card]Angelic Edict[/card]
[card]Angel of Serenity[/card]
[card]Banisher Priest[/card]
[card]Celestial Flare[/card]
[card]Elspeth, Sun’s Champion[/card]
[card]Luminate Primordial[/card]
[card]Spear of Heliod[/card]
[card]Planar Cleansing[/card]
[card]Trostani’s Judgment[/card]

Blue:
[card]Ætherize[/card]
[card]Colossal Whale[/card]
[card]Curse of Swine[/card]
[card]Cyclonic Rift[/card]
[card]Rapid Hybridization[/card]
[card]Sea God’s Revenge[/card]
[card]Voyage’s End[/card]

Black:
[card]Assassin’s Strike[/card]
[card]Doom Blade[/card]
[card]Grisly Spectacle[/card]
[card]Hero’s Downfall[/card]
[card]Keepsake Gorgon[/card]
[card]Launch Party[/card]
[card]Liturgy of Blood[/card]
[card]Shadowborn Demon[/card]
[card]Sip of Hemlock[/card]
[card]Ultimate Price[/card]

Red:
[card]Anger of the Gods[/card]

Azorious:
[card]Azorious Charm[/card]
[card]Detention Sphere[/card]
[card]Supreme Verdict[/card]

Orzhov:
[card]Ashen Rider[/card]
[card]High Priest of Penance[/card]
[card]Merciless Eviction[/card]
[card]Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts[/card]
[card]Triad of Fates[/card]

Boros:
[card]Chained to the Rocks[/card]

Selesnya:
[card]Selesnya Charm[/card]

Dimir:
[card]Far/Away[/card]

Simic:
[card]Simic Charm[/card]

Rakdos:
[card]Dreadbore[/card]

Golgari:
[card]Gaze of Granite[/card]
[card]Putrefy[/card]
[card]Vraska the Unseen[/card]

Colorless:
[card]Ratchet Bomb[/card]
[card]Volatile Rig[/card]

The Mana Base

Decks in a Standard Commander format are quite limited in the number of utility lands and dual lands available. Two of the three types of dual lands (the ten guild Gates and five scrying Temples) must enter the battlefield tapped, further reducing the speed of non-green decks. The third type, shocklands, allow the expected flexibility with loss of life, but have no stereotypical fetchlands to pair with them. The remaining utility lands that are applicable to the format are:

[card]Encroaching Wastes[/card]
[card]Grove of the Guardian[/card]
[card]Mutavault[/card]
[card]Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx[/card]
[card]Rogue’s Passage[/card]
[card]Shimmering Grotto[/card]
[card]Thespian’s Stage[/card]
[card]Transguild Promenade[/card]
[card]Unknown Shores[/card]

A player using [card]Encroaching Wastes[/card] has the possibility to knock an opponent out of a crucial color or utility land at the right time. It is reasonable to assume every deck will be running [card]Encroaching Wastes[/card]. Due to this safe presumption, Standard Commander brewers will probably want avoid running [card]Shimmering Grotto[/card], [card]Thespian’s Stage[/card], [card]Transguild Promenade[/card], and [card]Unknown Shores[/card]. Additionally, [card]Shimmering Grotto[/card] and [card]Unknown Shores[/card] are simply inefficient to use and are unfetchable with [card]Burnished Hart[/card], making them even less desirable. Basic lands are less flexible, but they’re much less complicated in this narrow card pool.

Summation

Notably, Standard Commander is currently missing many stereotypical “enters the battlefield” creatures, exceptionally strong Equipment, and graveyard value recursion. For instance, there is currently no cheap, targeted instant speed removal for white (e.g. [card]Swords to Plowshares[/card], [card]Path to Exile[/card]), blue hard counterspells that cost less than 3 or have “draw a card” text, and flexible noncreature removal (e.g. [card]Acidic Slime[/card]) for green. The Gatecrash Primordial cycle should also have an even larger impact on longer games than they already do in Eternal Commander due to slower game development and lack of efficient board control cards. Additionally, the mana base of each deck will be impacted with the limitation of dual lands and decks run an increased risk of mana issues.

One of the issues that Standard Commander players—particularly players that power down from Eternal or Modern Standard to this format—will notice is how noncreature cards are more problematic or impactful without the ability to answer those threats. The Theros indestructible gods will be glaring for players’ inability to react outside of [card]Angelic Edict[/card], [card]Trostani’s Judgment[/card], [card]Fade into Antiquity[/card], [card]Council of the Absolute[/card], [card]Merciless Eviction[/card], or counterspells. Once a Theros god enters the battlefield, the legendary permanent will continually impact the game until it is over.

Interestingly, this Standard Commander card pool has some startling synergies that will be quite entertaining for Johnny-type players and, as previously mentioned, hearken back to Limited drafting strategies and give them extended life. For instance, [card]Trading Post[/card] allows you to recycle [card]Vial of Poison[/card] and [card]Prophetic Prism[/card]. [card]Bubbling Cauldron[/card] turns your creatures into 4/4 Angels with [card]Angelic Accord[/card]. [card]Shadowborn Apostle[/card] tutors for demons. It’s this aspect that make for a very potentially interactive and refreshing format between players that should energize playgroups willing to sleeve up a Standard Commander deck.

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