Thank You

This will likely be my last post, here on this little project I have been doing for the past few months. The truth is that I had a bunch of articles ready in the pipeline, but I decided to go ahead and publish them all right away. If you are curious to read them, they include:

I feel like there is some kind of increasing melancholy throughout these four articles. And I have a feeling this is likely due to where my mind is at, at the moment.

I have recently moved to a different job position in my current company. It’s a position I have studied and worked hard to get to, but a part of me is slowly realizing that this may not really be what I was hoping for, content-wise. I like what I do, I love being a Management Engineer, but the topics I deal with are not things I am passionate about. I love coordinating, organizing, managing. But the things I am currently managing do not excite me. To put it simply: when I wake up every morning, I don’t feel excited about what is waiting for me at work.

I feel there is a huge degree of uncertainty in my life at the moment, content-wise, despite a relatively stable job. I have a wonderful life, a family and a girlfriend I love and friends I really care about, but this odd situation is draining most of my mental energies.

A part of me has started reconsidering some of my choices in life, especially dreams and hopes I had. That part of me has always dreamed to one day have a career revolving around writing, Magic and its Community, or, even better, all of the above. Few years ago, I submitted my resume to Wizards of the Coast for a position as Community Manager here in Italy, but I ended up not being the person they were looking for.

When I won Gathering Magic’s Ironroot Chef in 2016 a part of me felt like I was close to accomplish something, but, probably, I was not able to capitalize on that. I wrote some articles for MTGAssist and I must confess it felt extremely rewarding, but I was obviously not able to sustain myself with that.

Writing about Magic and keeping up with the Community has been a personal passion throughout most of my adult years. But now, with where my mind’s at, I am afraid I can’t really keep up with these articles. It’s very unfortunate and quite saddening, because I would love to be able to be part of the Community full time. But I currently can’t keep up with it with the intensity I want. And the intensity I think it deserves.

Thank you all for ready this and any of my previous posts. I am extremely thankful for all the people I had a chance to meet, within this wonderful Community. I am not stepping out of it completely, but there’s a part of me that feels like drowning in uncertainty, at the moment. If I am ready and able to dive back in it with all my strength and willpower, I am sure I will come back to you all.

Until then, thanks again. From the bottom of my heart.

Narratives and the People behind Decks

“You are a Planeswalker”

The core principle of Magic’s lore is that you, the player, are a Planeswalker. A powerful being wielding magic in its purest forms, casting spells from your own personal archive. Your deck represents your magical knowledge, your abilities and all the tricks you may have up your sleeve. You can travel between worlds, seeking allies, gather even more knowledge and craft your very toolbox of spells. All of this to battle against other, similarly powerful beings.

While this is a quite successful marketing gimmick, I have always been puzzled by the repercussions of this very idea. The concept feels extremely solid for new players, who enthusiastically assemble their very first deck with the best cards they can find, the most awesome spells they have access to and the Lands of their choice.

But what happens when that player, eventually, decides to build a new deck? Hopefully for Wizards, this is an event that is going to occur quite often as part of every player’s life. The adrenaline rush of building and tuning a new deck is something that many players still feel, despite the countless hours of games under their belt.

Who are these people, at this point?

Are they still the same Planeswalkers they were when they started? Have they now become more knowledgeable and powerful, wielding more and more spells with ease? And if so, have they chosen to segregate their vast knowledge into clusters, each disconnected from the others? Do they store their books in different libraries, each separated from the other? How can the lore explain the fact that these players own multiple decks in real life, but are unable to switch between them during a fight?

My very first serious Magic deck, back in 2003, was an Affinity deck. I was fourteen. So, back then, I would have been a fourteen-year-old Planeswalker, a prodigy in the creation of life from sheer metal.

Over the course of the following years, I explored so many other aspects of the game, building a Modern Mill deck between 2007 and 2009, followed by a Legacy Burn deck in 2010. In other words, my own journey was leading me to become a mind mage when I was almost twenty, only to then morph into a fiery Red mage a couple of month after my twenty-first birthday.

In the years that followed I discovered Commander, which is now my primary way of playing Magic. And even though, at first, I had forced myself to only build a single deck, the creative spark ignited again and again, pushing me to build more decks, to explore more playstyles, to indulge in new strategies. The very concept of Commander as a format was a continuous source of inspiration, leading me to build something new over and over again.

I just loved the very idea of a Legendary Creature at the helm of an entire deck, whether it was a general leading an army, a tyrant ruling countless minions, a mage and their followers. A part of me, however, kept asking itself who, if any, was behind those decks, from a lore standpoint.

If Grimgrin, Corpse-Born was leading my very first Commander deck, who was his master? Who had collected the Mirrodin swords for Grimgrin to wield in battle? Who had made a deal with Sheoldred, so that she would fight alongside a Glen Elendra Archmage from Lorwyn? Was it supposed to still be me, a powerful Planeswalker, scouring the Multiverse in search for loyal allies, ancient relics and powerful spells?

Search for Tomorrow, art by Randy Gallegos

Who was I, back then? And who am I now?

Am I still that young Planeswalker who loved shaping metal into Frogmites? I still own that deck, so I guess I could still be that person. But I have also expanded my horizons, I have discovered new spells and I have crafted new strategies, much like thousands of other players. I have built other decks and learned other tricks.

Have we, the players, become more powerful? Or do different versions of each of us exist, each with knowledge and skills uniquely tied to the decks we play?

You are you

If I haven’t lost you already, I want to thank you. If you are not a fan of Magic’s lore and you “only play the game”, you probably never asked yourself the same questions I am asking right now. And this is fine. I believe Magic is the best game in the world because everyone can enjoy different aspects of it.

The hardcore Spikes probably never read a single piece of Magic’s story in their life. And this has had absolutely no impact on their appreciation for the game. The casual folks may have read something here and there, but they have never questioned their own identity within the game’s lore. Again, this is absolutely great.

But I’d like to believe there is a small niche of players who love to ask themselves these questions. At least for the fun of it. Maybe, not unlike myself, they come from years of RPGs and they are used to playing a character. Maybe there is a fraction of their brains urging them to also play Magic in character, to live their decks as they play them. Beyond the physical act of shuffling, beyond the strategy and beyond the metagame around their card choices.

Beyond all of this, there are Planeswalkers and the spells they wield. There is each of us, asking ourselves who is behind each of our decks, imagining personalities, characters and stories.

We are us

The way I managed to answer these questions is not far from what happens with most roleplaying games. Like every other Dungeons & Dragons player, I have created and impersonated many different characters. And like many other players, I have one or two characters that truly defined my entire experience with RPGs.

There’s the brave Paladin from the North, secretive and inquisitive. There’s the wandering Bard, self-serving and sometimes a bit mischievous. But there is also a plethora of other characters I have impersonated and thoroughly enjoyed. And I think I have brought with me something from those characters, whenever I approached Magic.

The result is that I often find myself thinking about characters behind decks. Different individuals existing within and around the decks I have built, each of them possessing different skills, a different knowledge of magic and different capabilities, as part of the vast lore of Magic’s Multiverse.

Much like my most beloved Dungeons & Dragons characters, some of these are not far from hypothetical versions of myself within Magic’s lore. Having more or less subconsciously built some of my decks to represent my own approach to the game, the result is that I project a lot of my own identify within my deck choices.

This Johnny part of me uses deckbuilding as a form of self-expression. After all, decks are the primary ways many Magic players first meet and introduce each other, so I have always felt the need to feel adequately presented by my decks of choice.

Circular Logic, art by Anthony S. Waters

The result, in the end, is a self-fulfilling cycle: I put more and more of myself in my favourite decks, which progressively transform more and more into forms of self-expression and lead me to ask myself how they exist inside Magic’s lore.

This circular logic is likely fuelled by the fact that I primarily identify as a Johnny and a Vorthos. On one side, I seek self-expression within my decks. On the other, I care a lot about the lore and the aesthetics of the decks I build. So, while I end up pouring myself into my favourite decks, I also end wandering who, in the end, is really doing so.

He is him

Liam Veyrin was born on Ravnica in 4532 AR. The Guild system swallowed him whole and before his twentieth birthday he found himself in the clutches of House Dimir. A lowlife nobody like him was perfect cannon fodder for the House: he was enlisted as a Dimir Informant and trained in the basic arts of secrecy and deception. Much like the other pawns of the House, he was largely expendable: a Steal of Secrets to dispose of, were he ever to come across information too dangerous to be known by a commoner.

Risultati immagini per disinformation campaign mtg — Disinformation Campaign, art by Anthony Palumbo

Unfortunately for him, Liam was a very ambitious young man, often sticking his nose where he shouldn’t be. His hope was to one day come across something big, something that could prove him worthy of a higher rank within the House. He started spying on other Guilds, growing a peculiar interest in talents within opposing factions.

In his investigations, he found himself involved in a scuffle with a young and fierce shaman from the Gruul Clan, one of the protégés of Borborygmos himself. His audacious attempt at infiltrating the Clan did not go unnoticed to the defiant girl, who, at the time, was surveilling the territories controlled by her master, aided by her unnaturally keen sense.

Caught red handed, Liam retreated and turned his attentions elsewhere. He would have loved to keep investigating on the unnatural sixth sense of the Gruul shaman, but chose the safe rout and moved on with his search. He soon came across another interesting target: a talented diviner from the Izzet League, which displayed the gift of precognition, but was unable to control his visions.

Erratic Visionary (WAR) — Erratic Visionary, art by Randy Vargas

Liam befriended the man and employed his deceitful techniques to gather as much information as possible about the inner workings of the League. He spent months growing familiar with the man, exploiting his erratic mind and learning the most interesting techniques the Izzet mages prided themselves with.

When he reported his findings to his superiors, he was met with an alarmed and overwhelmingly negative response: he had breached the House’s protocols, exposed himself to two other Guilds with no prior authorization and potentially compromised his position as a Dimir Informant.

The punishment was beyond severe: a team of Dimir Guildmages apprehended him and began a deadly procedure that would culminate in Liam’s complete undoing. Moments before his consciousness was shattered, the sheer fear caused him to black out. His Spark ignited in that very moment. It was 4559 AR.

Liam’s first, unwilling journey across the Multiverse took him to Innistrad, in the province of Nephalia. Still shaken from the near death experience, but imbued with a new an unexpected power, he spent the following weeks recovering in relative confinement. Once he felt ready to explore the new surroundings, he began meeting with the local stitchers and studied their arts. He made sure to keep himself apart from the conflict that ignited with the liberation of Avacyn and Griselbrand from the Helvault.

Liam found himself partially involved in the battle between the army of Thraben, led by Thalia, and Geralf’s Zombies. While he made sure not to take and active role in the fight itself, he quickly discovered the advantages of simply scavenging what would be left on the battlefield in the aftermath of the conflict. The world of Innistrad was teaching him a valuable lesson: that sifting through battlegrounds and collecting the spoils of war would be more rewarding than getting himself involved in sticky situations.

In the following months, his connection to the sticher community of Nephalia kept strengthening, and he became a quasi-famous figure in the local scene. He had taken under his own protection some of the Zombies that had survived the battle of Thraben and soon he was regarded as a quite proficient scavenger and a cunning collector of remainders from the Planes’ major conflicts.

A little under a year after his first journey through the Multiverse, his new home on Innistrad was starting to feel too small for his ambition and his desire for more power and knowledge to seize.

The experience on Innistrad had opened his eyes to how the Multiverse was indeed a treasure trove of possibilities, only waiting for people smart enough to seize such a vast pool of opportunities. While the following years saw the establishment of the Gatewatch and the sparking of conflicts among the major players of the Multiverse, Liam would rather scour through the Multiverse to seize new forms of power, rather than finding himself tied to any major party.

On New Phyrexia, he collected the remnants of the Mirran civilizations and made deals with one of the Praetors. On Dominaria, he studied the history of the Plane and attempted to gather some of its long-lost knowledge. He infiltrated the schools of Kamigawa and paid homage to the powerful entities of Tarkir and Theros, learning spells from the local mages.

He expanded on what the stitchers from Innistrad had thought him, fascinated by the concepts of death and undeath. Whenever he had a chance to return to Innistrad, he took the opportunity to perfect his craft, becoming more and more proficient in the signature arts of Nephalia and making a name for himself as a respectable stitcher.

Liam, the Seizer

Liam is the person I imagined being behind my Grimgrin, Corpse-Born deck. His journey across the Multiverse ties together the main themes of the deck, most of the card choices and the overall feeling the deck incorporates. It’s a deck that doesn’t take place on a single Plane or with a specific set of limitations. Mostly, it gathers some of the most powerful spells it can, in order to support its main strategy. Much like Liam himself, the deck seizes power from the Multiverse.

Having a character behind the deck always provides me with an additional layer of enjoyment whenever I play the it or make any update. Each new card coming in the deck is, potentially, a new experience for Liam, a new Plane he visited, a new person he met. Last year, for example, he visited Valor’s Reach to scout out the most proficient mages of Kylem.

And as an additional layer of enjoyment, I could potentially entwine the lives of Liam and the other characters I imagined, linking together all my Commander decks into a single, larger story. Do you remember the Gruul Shaman and the Izzet visionary I mentioned?

Risultati immagini per parallel lives — Parallel Lives, art by Steve Prescott

Naal was later buried alive as part of a Gruul rite of passage. Her Spark ignited when her fear of death was replaced by a sudden instance of higher consciousness the moment she realized she could somehow perceive the very life-force of Nature itself. This later filled her with an unexpected urge to explore the Multiverse, seeking new worlds and finding a new purpose in the pursue of harmony with Nature. Her brutal upbringing was still a key part o her own identity, but she progressively discovered the pleasures of growing and building, instead of destroying.

The diviner’s visions became more and more erratic and violent, leading him to progressively lose his very self-consciousness, his mind blurred by visions he could not comprehend. Some of which seemed to even originate from other worlds. He distanced himself from the rest of the League, his family and friends. For months he kept shifting in and out of dreams, until what was left of his mind gave way. Giving himself fully to his visions, his Spark ignited and he was flung across the Multiverse, jumping from one Plane to another, his memory vanished. After years of erratic journeys, he finally reached a place where he made a name for himself as a vizier, until the return of an ancient god finally provided him with a sense of purpose. Servitude, in the end, was better than constant and painful confusion.

Risultati immagini per hieroglyphic illumination — Hieroglyphic Illumination, art by Raoul Vitale

Naal and the visionary are the characters behind my Borborygmos Enraged and my Locust God decks. Their respective journeys through the Multiverse brought them to many different worlds, discovering knowledge in different forms. And sometimes their paths kept crossing.

You are them

This article is something I have wanted to write for quite a while, now. It is a quite challenging topic, as I expect the audience for this to be quite small. Many Vorthos players usually work the opposite way around, building a deck around a theme and selecting their cards based on the overall flavour behind it.

This approach actually works the other way around: the story of each deck is warped by the card choices, to the point of warping the narrative behind each deck to accommodate for specific card choices. To me, it felt like and extremely organic and spontaneous approach, but I can fully understand how anyone wanting to build a themed deck would prefer the traditional Vorthos experience.

If, on the other hand, you already have established a deck list and you’re curious about how it could exist in the context of Magic’s lore, you could really build on your very card choices and shape an entire story behind it. It is not unlike building a Dungeons & Dragons character’s background starting from the class, race and characteristics you have on your sheet.

Of course, none of these imaginary aspects of deckbuilding and lore shaping made me a better player. I did not improve my playstyle in any shape or form, nor I have sharpened my metagaming abilities. But I learned to enjoy a new aspect of my own decks and, to be quite honest, I think this is always a good thing.

So, if this is anything you would be interested in trying, go for it! The more fun you have with your characters, the easier it is to build entire narratives around them. And, once you have imagined one or two characters, you can start intertwine their lives into a bigger story.

All the Promises I Broke in Commander

“Keep you like an Oath”

If you have been into Commander as a format for many years, there is a good chance you have been evolving a lot as a player. While competitive formats require players to adapt to new cards and a shifting metagame, Commander does not necessarily demand players to keep up. So, while it is absolutely paramount for committed Standard players to completely change decks every few months, Commander does not dictate any such change.

Even non-rotating competitive formats, such as Modern and Legacy, still demand players to at least be aware of the changes impacting the format. You can be a Burn player your entire life, but if you are aiming for good tournament results, you probably need to at least be aware of the metagame and the main techs you need to implement within your strategy.

With no intrinsic competition, no automatic format rotation and, fortunately, a relatively stable ban list, most Commander players can live their entire gaming life with a single, immutable deck. The implicit randomness of Commander game provides a lot of variety, resulting in many players feeling at home with a small roster of decks, without ever getting bored by their favourite cards.

However, the creative bug sometimes comes and bites you when you least expect it. At some point of their gaming life, many Commander players feel the need to change something in their playstyle, maybe explore new deck building possibilities or completely revamp their entire roster.

Change is mostly good and expanding your horizons allows you to experience something more, enriching your knowledge and improving as a player and, sometimes, as a person. However, sometimes changing means breaking your own self-imposed rules. Moving outside of your comfort zone is never easily, especially when you had established some ground rules for yourself to follow.

So, in this article I wanted to look back at my personal Commander experience and think about some of the self-imposed rules I broke in the past years. Some of the destructive actions I have taken have been quite beneficial and, all thing considered, I think they helped me grow as a player. Other times I completely shook up my preconception and, maybe, I willingly fell into a rabbit hole of gaming awfulness.

“I only need one deck”

The first and, to this day, biggest promise I broke in Commander was the self-imposed limitation of only building one deck, period. A little bit of context is probably necessary, here.

Much like many other players, before I joined the amazing world of Commander I was primarily a Limited and Modern player. I was in no way a good competitive player, but I liked building decks. When I approached Commander, I soon realized how much room for creativity the format offered. The size of decks alone triggered my deck building fantasies. A hundred cards seemed like an insane amount of space to brew, tune, refine and explore.

Much like most Commander players, I soon realized a hundred cards are actually not that many. Soon every cut became tough, every choice painful. I started stacking piles of cards that were good, but not that good, hoping to one day find a place for them.

But every time I thought about building a new deck, the prospect of having to start from scratch was daunting. I was still at the beginning of my journey and, somehow, I was convinced every new deck would have been way too similar to everything I had already built.

Sure any new future deck would have had to include a Sol Ring, a Command Tower a Solemn Simulacrum, a Skullclamp, a Mana Vault, an Oblivion Stone and so many other staples. Those cards were just extremely good in my Grimgrin deck, I simply could not imagine building a new deck without all those format staples.

Sol Ring (C18) — Sol Ring, art by Mike Bierek

Then it hit me. After for years of playing Commander with a single deck in my roster, I realized I did not have to build the same thing again and again.

It may sound silly and obvious, now. But, back then, I did not have a stable playgroup and most of my Commander games were played against borderline competitive players. There was no building around a theme or building with limitations. Every deck I was facing was as focused as possible, leading to repetitive games filled with well-established staples.

A part of me wanted to break free from that patterns, so I built my Diaochan Chaos deck. The purpose was simple: crafting something that would feel as different as possible from my previous experiences. So little to no staples, no defined strategy and, in the end, no real intention of winning.

Needless to say, the deck was a beautiful disaster. It was losing constantly, but every game was a wacky mess of inconsistent effects that completely warped existing play patterns. It was a tragedy directed by a fool. And I loved every second of it.

At that point, the gates were open and ideas started flooding. Provided I could find a new theme or strategy to focus on, I could keep building deck, without having to rehash the same play patterns and cards over and over. Soon came my Bruna deck, a first attempt at building around a strict Tribal theme. For the first time, I started building two decks in parallel and with Bruna came my Kozilek deck. The first iteration of the deck actually featured Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger as the Legendary Creature at the helm, but I later switched it in favour of Kozilek, Butcher of Truth.

Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, art by Michael Komarck

Less than a year later I wanted to build around Lands, as that was a card type I had rarely focused on, up to that point. I built my Borborygmos deck during the summer of 2017. It was something so new, to me, that some of my friends made fun of me for suddenly giving in to playing Green, a colour I was never a fan of.

2018 was the year of The Locust God, a list designed to play as much as possible as a Blue Draw-Go deck, with no Creatures. The initial idea was to only include cards that feature the word “draw” in their name or text box, but I guess I quickly broke that rule, as well.

During the same year I built a Karona Enchantress deck, as part of a challenge with my now established playgroup. As a personal twist, I decided the deck was going to feature no Artifact whatsoever, as they did not feel on theme with the vaguely druidic vibe of the deck.

Between 2018 and 2019 I finally gave in and built a Saskia Infect deck. No real limitation this time around, just the will to try something very new, at least to me.

So, after four years of self-limitations and five years of building whatever I wanted, I can look back at my journey so far. And, all in all, I believe breaking that one deck only rule was a very good idea.

“I’m not playing Counterspells”

I am a Blue player at heart. It is my favourite colour in Magic and I love playing Blue-based decks in Commander. There is something amazing in feeling like you are outsmarting your opponents, either by having more cards in hand or more answers to their threats.

For a long time, however, I had advocated an approach to Commander that was all about sharing fun, even at the expense of games’ balance. So, for years, I had been a strong advocate of “counter-less control”, essentially an approach to traditional control strategies that featured no Counterspell.

The idea behind this approach was that everyone was entitled to play their cards. I was simply going to deal with problematic spells after they had resolved, essentially addressing whatever board state was left in their wake.

The principle was certainly noble, but too often I found myself outmatched by the most basic threats my opponents would deploy. I was systematically defenceless against any combo, any removal was going to easily take out any of my threats and I was outright powerless against traditionally problematic permanents.

Once that Mirari’s Wake had hit the board, my Grimgrin deck could only stare at it and wait for the generate follow ups.

It took me some time to indulge in a Counterspell or two, but soon I realized that their inclusion in Blue-based strategies was often beneficial. Not just for me, but for the entire table. Having each and every combo going unchecked led to non-interactive games in which I was but a spectator.

Playing a handful of Counterspells gave me the leverage I needed to protect my board, prevent unwanted combos and, in general, make sure the games could be kept in check.

As of today, I still think an excessive use of Counterspells is detrimental to most strategies. Playing more than a dozen leads to deck feeling extremely defensive and even too reactive. And while the table can appreciate a timely Force of Will stopping a game-ending combo, having someone systematically negating every play becomes boring very soon.

As of today, I like playing eight Counterspells in my Grimgrin deck and eleven in my Locust God deck. Even better if they are flexible and can provide additional effects to their standard mode.

“I’m not playing Rhystic Study”

On a similar vein of being a fairly atypical Blue player, I spent years of my life stubbornly refusing to include Rhystic Study in any of my decks. While I fully recognized the power of the card, I did not want to indulge in such an oppressive and potentially frustrating Enchantment.

Little did it help that one of my friends kept insisting on me playing the card. We both ended entangled in a weird self-fueling loop of him recommending the card and me refusing to include it. It a certain point, it became one of the recurring jokes of the local game store.

Despite his best intentions, Rhystic Study‘s recurring trigger scared me. Mostly, I felt like the card was going to provide me with an unparalleled engine of unwanted hate. Sure, the potential card advantage was beyond impressive, but was it really worth all the attention I was going to get?

The short answer is: yes.

I tried including a copy of Rhystic Study in my Grimgrin deck, just to see how good it actually was. Purely out of curiosity, I tested it in a couple of games, pushed by the willingness to include one or two additional card draw engines in the deck. I had just acquired a copy of Necropotence and Rhystic Study felt like a good card to play alongside it.

Was it good? It was insane.

Not only was the card great, but I soon realized how wickedly pleasing asking “did you pay one for that?” was. The thing that scared me the most turned out to be one that I was enjoying with all my heart, when playing with my friends. While I have never been a fan of Grand Arbiter Augustin IV and its many taxing tools, there was something magical with Rhystic Study.

The card was not really imposing a tax per se, as each opponent was free to ignore it and just allow me to draw cards. I was not demanding anyone to pay more for their spells. It was their choice. And what a choice it was.

Even though I knew Rhystic Study was not the most welcome card in my playgroup, I soon started sliding it in all the decks that could feature it. Excluding colourless cards, it is currently the most played card across all my decks, alongside Cyclonic Rift. It is overtly powerful, so it obviously have a home in Grimgrin. It is on theme with drawing cards, so of course The Locust God wants it. But it is also an Enchantment, so Karona wants one, too!

Karona, False God (SCG) — Karona, False God, art by Matthew D. Wilson

Never had I imagined that a card I was so vocal and adamant about would become one of my favourite in the entire game.

“I’m not playing Partners” and more promises I am likely to break

With Commander encouraging so many experiences and so much self-discovery, many more promises and self-imposed rules are likely to be broken in the future. I always try and stick to my principles, but, sometimes, rules are indeed meant to be broken.

Although nothing is set in stone at the moment, one more rule I think I am very likely to break is my self-imposed limitation against Partners. As I have mentioned before, I truly enjoyed Battlebond Partners, while, in turn, I was never a fan of their original version in Commander 2016.

That being sad, I am currently thinking about building a four colour Historic-themed deck. Flavour-wise, it is meant to represent the court of Queen Marchesa, while also featuring her Black Rose version. Since Breya, Etherium Shaper feels very out of place leading such deck, I will probably be falling back on a Partner pair featuring White, Blue, Black and Red. It may be more of a necessity, but it will result in me breaking a rule I have had for almost three years.

One more card I must confess I have thought about a lot is Bribery. It is a card I genuinely hate and I have vowed to never ever play it. While I am absolutely fine with Treachery and Clone effects, I absolutely despise the very concept of Bribery, pulling a Creature from its owner’s library like it’s no big deal.

Of course, I am not the most righteous man. While I am in no way considering adding the card to any of my decks, I can easily picture one particular factor that would actually convince me to do so. I am a man of simple tastes and I must confess the Judge Gift version of the card is just stunning.

Have you seen Cynthia Sheppard’s art? How the blues harmonize perfectly with the card’s frame? How the eerie light from the wizard’s flame brightens his face, twisted in a subtle grin of contention?

To be fully transparent, I am currently not planning to buy the card. Not even remotely. But if a Judge Gift Bribery were ever to come into my possession, I would be really tempted by the idea of sliding it into one of my decks. I really enjoy trading cards with vendors whenever I attend a big Magic tournament and you never know what treasures you may come across, there.

“May nothing but Death do us part“

While I am certainly an oath breaker in the context of deck building Commander, there is one closing thought I wanted to share. Breaking some promises can lead you to improve as a Magic player. Other times you discover something you did not know about yourself.

However, don’t break deals and promises when you are playing a game. In-game politics are some of the most fascinating aspects of the game and very rarely breaking a verbal contract will improve your play experience. Have I done it? Once or twice. Do I regret it? Yes. To this day, I still do.

Taking your Time: Slow Aggro in Commander

Aggro and Tribal decks in Commander

Commander is a challenging environment for Aggro decks. While competitive two-player formats have their fair share of aggressive decks, the higher life totals and the increased player count make Commander a tough pill to swallow for Aggro decks.

Though there is surely room for plenty of Aggro decks in the format, they often struggle with the amount of card advantage, recursion and, in general, value that other decks can play with. If the stereotypical fundamental of Aggro is to sacrifice consistency and late-game inevitability in the name of quick, explosive plays, maintaining pressure against three opponents with inflated life totals can be a daunting task.

That said, not all Aggro decks feel the need to dive head first into crowded boards without an exit strategy. Many successful Aggro decks in Commander manage to complement their Creature-based strategy with instances of card advantage, recursion and other value engines. Edric, Spymaster of Trest features some built-in card advantage, while also introducing a strong political component. Marchesa, the Black Rose provides a very powerful recursion effect. Ezuri, Renegade Leader supports an already very powerful Tribe with repeatable Regeneration and Overrun effects.

Ezuri, Renegade Leader, art by Karl Kopinski

Speaking of Ezuri, going Tribal can also be a good choice for Aggro decks, as it allows to complement a clear-cut Creature-based strategy with in-built synergies. Of course, not all Tribes are as consistent as Elves, but Magic is full of interesting Creature Types to build around.

Even some Commander preconstructed decks have provided us with de facto perfect Legendary Creatures for Tribal decks, such as Varina, Lich Queen. Other times you may have to be a bit more creative: EDHRec.com will tell you that, at the time of writing, there are nineteen Hound Tribal decks tracked on the site. They are all good dogs, but Wizards has not exactly supported the Tribe, thus far.

Mapping Aggro decks in Commander

Between established and borderline Tribes, the possibilities are numerous. In fact, we can easily plot some sample Aggro decks on a two-by-two matrix, to understand how different Aggro strategies approach games, based on speed and late-game consistency.

A sample of Aggro decks in Commander based on their speed and consistency

While the placement of each deck can be largely subjective and dependant on how each deck is built, we can try and identify some main areas within the spectrum of Aggro decks in Commander:

Hyper-functional decks are often the best of the breed; they combine fast-paced gameplay with consistent late-game capabilities, easily pivoting between beatdown and value-oriented strategies; their Commanders usually provide one of more ways to repeatedly execute advantageous moves; good examples, here, include Edric, Spymaster of Trest and Ezuri, Renegade Leader
“Fast Aggro” decks are the most direct translations of aggressive strategies from competitive Magic to the Commander environment; these decks attempt to overrun the opponents as quickly as possible, often sacrificing long-term consistency in the name of a swift victory; think about Saskia, the Unyielding: she is fast and straight to the point, but she may have problems deploying a successful late-game battleplan
“Slow Aggro” decks fall on the opposite side of the matrix: despite being primarily Creature-based, they tend to prefer a slower approach to the game, favouring consistent value over reckless assaults; as a result, they are relatively close to Control decks in terms of pacing, aiming at reaching the late-game to fully set their engines in motion; Varina, Lich Queen is a good example of these, mostly due to the fact that Zombie Tribal often lacks explosive starts, but it is quite proficient in late-game recursion
Themed decks lack both consistency and speed; these decks are usually built around an unpopular Tribe or a relatively unsupported theme; I am never blaming someone for building a Takeno, Samurai General deck, but I hope nobody is expecting it to break the format

Takeno, Samurai General, art by Matt Cavotta

The curse of being Aggro in White

A lot has already been said on Aggro decks. Not only is the archetype considered as quite disadvantaged in Commander, but it is also primarily centred around colours that, historically, have not shined in the format. Boros has traditionally been the Aggro Guild and its colours have often been ranked a notch below the others, in terms of power level.

While Red has certainly improved in the past few years, White is only now starting to adjust. Legendary Creatures like Etali, prima Storm have proven that Red’s impulsive draw is a very powerful form of card advantage, especially in a colour that has historically struggled to keep up with Blue’s and Black’s drawing prowess.

White has been recently blessed with Smothering Tithe, which is certainly a step in the right direction to provide the colour with much needed ramping. Unfortunately, card draw is still something White is struggling with, having to default to colourless options to try and catch up with Blue, Black and even Green.

All in all, the current situation for White is still quite dire. The colour’s greatest strengths in other formats, such as the availability of cheap aggressive threats and efficient spot removals, do not necessarily translate well in Commander. Sure, the availability of multiple board wipes is a strong suit for White, but its shortage of strong proactive cards and value engines can be quite problematic. I already went over the importance of kills switches and win conditions and, unfortunately, these are not necessarily White’s forte.

Swords to Plowshares, art by Terese Nielsen

Let’s put things into perspective. At the time of writing, among the one hundred most played cards according to EDHRec.com, only nine are Mono-White. Of these, six are defensive or reactive cards: Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Wrath of God, Return to Dust, Ghostly Prison and Oblivion Ring.

Enlightened Tutor and Elspeth, Sun’s Champion are good cards that do not lend themselves to any specific strategy, but often work as standalone powerful cards. The only White Creature in the list is Sun Titan, which also works very well in Aggro, control, midrange and combo strategies, thanks to its raw power.

It is also worth noting that the only two other Creatures featuring White as one of their colours in the list are Gisela, Blade of Goldnight and Aurelia, the Warleader. Both Boros and both usually leading Voltron, rather than pure Aggro strategies.

If we circle back to the matrix we just plotted, it becomes suddenly very evident that the hyper-functional quadrant features no deck primarily focused in White. So, while we wait for Wizards of the Coast to release a hyper-functional White Legendary Creature, is there anything we can do to play White Aggro in Commander?

What is Slow Aggro?

Let’s be practical, now, and see if we can find a solution. Let’s say you want to build an Aggro deck, but you don’t want to build yet another Edric, Spymaster of Trest list. Let’s say you really want a challenge and you want to go for a White Creature-based deck.

One approach I would like to recommend is going for the Slow Aggro build. While it is far from being the only, the best or the optimal deck building philosophy, I think it is an approach worth exploring. If nothing else, for how it tries and make the best of the limited tools White Aggro has.

Limited Resources, art by Keith Parkinson

The main principle of Slow Aggro decks in Commander lies in the willingness to sacrifice most of your typical speed in favour or increased consistency. While the deck is still primarily Creature-based, it is not interested in jamming its Creatures into crowded boards, nor is it aiming for a swift victory in the first turns of the game.

Instead, the deck aims at leveraging on its early game Creatures to reach the late game, when it can either assemble a consistent value engine, or it can start pushing the advantage with a slow, but impactful battleplan. You can easily envision the result as an Aggro deck that plays big instead of fast, meaning that the critical mass of Mana it demands to set its gear in motion is closer to fifteen, rather than five.

While achieving such a notable Mana output is quite easy in other colours, White is not famous for steady and reliable ramping, but it can compensate with other tools at its disposal. As we have noted already, White’s best cards in Commander operate mainly as defensive resources. A shift from its traditional Aggro paradigm of cheap Creatures towards larger, value-filled threats can be easily accommodated not via consistent ramping, but by taking a defensive stance during the first five to ten turns of the game.

As White is extremely proficient in resetting the board, staving off attacks and avoiding unnecessary wastes of resources, a Slow Aggro strategy is shaped not to present a consistent wave of attackers, but to resist the currents and turn the tide only after the other Aggro decks at the table have exhausted their resources. The only thing we need is a consistent and reliable way to shift gears when the time is ripe.

Yomiji, Who Bars the Way, art by Hideaki Takamura

The Flight of Annihilation

I would like to frame the next paragraphs around my Bruna, the Fading Light deck. While it is nowhere near the best White Legendary Creature in the format, I found it quite effective in the leading role of a Slow Aggro strategy. Moreover, the card proportions within the deck are what I would recommend starting from, should you want to try and build a deck like this.

Having to pivot between different play patterns at different stages of the game, a Slow Aggro deck needs to carefully balance its critical components. While traditional Aggro decks can be excused for having north of forty Creatures, Slow Aggro cannot be as indulgent with its picks. Personally, I have quite enjoyed the following rates:

Roughly fifteen mass removals: while this is way above average, the deck’s plan is to consistently and repeatedly clear the board during the first turns of the games; as the deck is not traditionally Aggro, it can have a hard time catching up with faster decks, so it is crucial to have at least one mass removal in the opening hand
Three to four spot removals: these mainly complement your board wipes and primarily aim at spot removing problematic permanents; again, the plan is not to Swords to Plowshares any random creature, but to consistently clear the board and only use spot removals for the pesky permanents that just refuse to die
Six to ten ramp cards: this may be below average, but it is important to bear in mind that the deck is fine taking its time to ensure the opponents have exhausted most of their resources; this deck does not want to get there first as much as it wants to get there eventually; moreover, as the deck’s plan is to consistently clear the board off of problematic permanents, so I strongly recommend to only include ramp cards that either replace themselves, such as Mind Stone, or that increase your Land count, such as Wayfarer’s Bauble
Ten card advantage cards: these include both card draw spells and tutors; with White being fairly limited in its options, you will likely have to settle for Mind’s Eye and Staff of Nin; don’t forget to also take into consideration the more Mana intensive tutors, such as Ring of Three Wishes and Planar Portal
Twenty Creatures: these are the essence of your deck and it’s important to make the most of them; more specifically, I recommend splitting them in categories:
1. Fifteen to twenty toolbox Creatures: these relatively cheap Creatures feature powerful effect that you may want to reuse throughout the game; their purpose is not to win the game, but to serve as stopgaps for your opponents’ strategies; Angel of Finality is a great example, as it throws a wrench in the gears of Graveyard strategies, while also carrying a very decent body
2. Three to five kill switches; these Creatures are supposed to lock critical opponents out of the game, pack a significant punch in terms of raw power or set up a game-winning engine that is sure to win you the game if left unchecked; my favourite examples, here, are Iona, Shield of Emeria, Avacyn, Angel of Hope and Emeria Shepherd

Emeria Shepherd, art by Cynthia Sheppard

Leading the deck is a primarily value-focused Commander. In my case, Bruna, the Fading Light. She fits the deck’s strategy perfectly, as she can reanimate one of your key Creatures the moment she is cast, even if she gets countered. Additionally, she comes with a very respectable power and toughness combination and she can double down as a kill switch when she melds with Gisela, the Broken Blade.

How to play the deck

The deck’s main play patterns are quite straightforward. The first few turns of the game are expected to focus entirely on containing the opponents’ more problematic plays, as well as setting up for a change of pace in the later turns. At this state of the game, it is not uncommon to focus most efforts on ensuring Land drops are not missed. In all honesty, I have wasted my fair share of Ring of Three Wishes just to find some Plains.

The trick to remember, here, is that the deck actively wants to Hour of Revelation the board every two or three turns, so overextending your board presence with key permanents is rarely a good idea.

Once it has become clear that your opponents have wasted the majority of their resources, the deck can pull the trigger and move to its aggressive phase, either by reanimating key Creatures with Bruna or by hard casting them.

Iona, Shield of Emeria, art by Jason Chan

While this may feel like a typical play pattern for control decks, it is worth mentioning that you are not really encouraged to simply deploy a single threat and ride it to victory. Instead, the later turns of the game should be dedicated to a continuous deployment of hard-hitting Creatures. At this stage of the game, having Bruna dying is actually beneficial for the deck’s strategy, as this can result in another reanimation trigger.

Quite intuitively, the deck’s main weaknesses come with its core colour limitations. A White Slow Aggro deck has very little in the way of Counterspells, so reacting to combo decks can be quite challenging. Similarly, most of the deck’s strategy bets on your opponents exhausting their resources through trades that can be advantageous for you. A well timed Cleansing Nova potentially means you are down a card against your opponents’ entire board, but hyper-functional decks like Edric, Spymaster of Trest can simply catch up quite effectively to your mass removals.

Still, the fact that you are even trying to keep up with one of the most powerful Legendary Creatures in the format with your White Aggro deck is worthy of applause.

Act of Heroism, art by Magali Villeneuve

Moving on with other options

Bruna, the Fading Light is a Commander I have learned to really enjoy and appreciate, thanks to her mix of power, flavour and Tribal prowess. Nevertheless, there is plenty of other options to choose from, should you want to attempt a White Slow Aggro.

Reya Dawnbringer is extremely similar to Bruna herself, trading off her speed of activation for a larger scope. You are not restricted to Angels and Humans in your deck building, but you really need to protect her for an entire turn cycle to make sure she delivers on her powerful ability.

If a focus on Legendary Creatures is what you are looking for, Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle and Yomiji, Who Bars the Way come with very powerful recursion effects, although they require specific deck choices to take full advantage of their abilities.

Darien, King of Kjeldor is great if you want to focus more on the defensive side of the strategy, although his board-filling ability does not really complement a strategy focused on multiple board wipes.

Darien, King of Kjeldor, art by Michael Philippi

If you want to safely clear the board and you don’t want to worry about your Commander’s safety, Heliod, God of the Sun and Oketra, the True are absolutely great. Their late-game advantage does not come with Graveyard recursion, but, instead, with a potent Mana sink to steadily refill the board.

As a side note, do not get fooled by Myojin of Cleansing Fire. It is great at clearing the board itself and it plays amazingly in primarily control decks, but its lack of a card advantage or recursion engine means that you will have to leverage on your other cards to setup the counterattack an eight-Mana Commander is expected to deliver.

Finally, I would be at fault if I did not mention Linn Sivvi, Defiant Hero: if all you want is a card advantage engine, she is great at finding Rebels and, of course, Shapeshifters.

On top of these, Akroma, Angel of Wrath and Avacyn, Angel of Hope herself can easily fit Voltron-focused builds, if this is what you are in the mood for.

Avacyn, Angel of Hope, art by Jason Chan

As always, inspiration in Commander can come from the weirdest cards. Personally, I had never imagined that White could lend itself so well to a satisfying value-oriented strategy. And while I am nowhere near saying that Bruna, the Fading Light is a strong or competitive Legendary Creature, compared to the all-stars of the format, the fact that she can play so interestingly in a Colour that is traditionally neglected has really surprised me.

As always, the best aspect of Commander is that it has something for everyone. The more of it you explore, the more it can surprise you.

Thoughts on War of the Spark and Character’s Death

Previewing War of the Spark

The much-anticipated War of the Spark set has been rolled out with what I think was one of the most successful preview seasons in recent history. Knowing full well the Community was going to be extremely invested in this story, Wizards of the Coast decided to reveal the cards from the set as part of three main narrative acts, each depicting the build-up, the culmination and the final moments of the much-anticipated showdown between Nicol Bolas, the Gatewatch and their respective allies.

This was quite possibly one of the best ideas for a preview season Wizards of the Coast has had in years. By adhering to a strict three-week preview season, most of the cards were revealed in a very organic way, which made it easy for players to follow-up with what was happening. This is even more impressive if you consider that no Magic Story article was published alongside the cards’ reveals.

Dreadhorde Invasion, art by Stanton Feng

Long gone were the days of Shadows Over Innistrad, when Anguished Unmaking was revealed way before the Story had time to catch up with Avacyn’s tragic demise. With War of the Spark, the cards themselves were telling the Story.

Blake Rasmussen surely wasn’t lying when he announced that War of the Spark preview season itself was going to tell us the most of the story for the set. In this context, Greg Weisman’s novel was intended to be a complementary and more in-depth narration of the events depicted on the cards themselves.

Put it simply, War of the Spark preview season worked extremely well. Keeping up with the narrative flow was easy, even for players who do not habitually read Magic Story contents. At the same time, the set was filled to the brim with pivotal moments, so even the simplest of commons could bear the weight of an instantly iconic moment.

The problem, to me, came not in the way the story was presented, but in some of its contents. More specifically, in how its resolution took away the gravitas this set was supposed to be imbued with. In this article I am not going in the details of Greg Weisman’s novel, as many other content creators have already expressed their opinions on the book. Instead, I want to briefly touch on some of the story aspects that, personally, I was not happy with.

Please bear in mind that what follows is just a summary of my personal opinions and, in this sense, the following paragraphs are but a personal critique of War of the Spark’s narrative arc.

The weight of death

It is not secret that many long-lasting franchises try to use death as least as possible. Killing off an important character can result in many fans feeling alienated or losing interest in the media, so many writers prefer to avoid permanent deaths.

Major comic publishers, such as Marvel Comics and DC Comics are famous for having killed major characters multiple times across the decades, only to bring them back in a few months. While not all characters have had the luxury of a trip to a Lazarus Pit, most of the fans quickly become aware that major superheroes rarely stay dead for more than a couple of years. Resurrections, doppelgangers, twins and clones are narrative devices that can have their convincing role in decade-long franchises, but the result is that, in the end, nothing really feels permanent.

On the other hand, some franchises have proven that death can be used to keep the fans interested, especially when the story is meant to be finite and not a continuous, decades-long franchise. A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin and its HBO adaptation Game of Thrones are excellent examples. The trick, here, is that the story is meant to end at some point, so there is no interest in continuously killing and resurrecting the same characters over and over, just to sell a periodic comic book. Seven books, eight seasons and that’s it.

Hopefully, Magic is currently not meant to have an ending. As a result, there is often no real push towards killing major characters. And when that happens, we are often given clues that those deaths are not necessarily permanent.

This however poses a different challenge: in a game that is mostly based on conflicts and battles, having all major characters systematically survive every fight leads to the feeling that nothing is ever really at stake. Before War of the Spark, the last permanent death of a Planeswalker happened in Scars of Mirrodin, more than eight years ago. Sure, a lot of villains died and notable non-Planeswalker characters were also killed, but the core characters mostly left every battle unscathed.

Survive the Night, art by Svetlin Velinov

While never stated officially by Wizards of the Coast, many players, myself included, started speculating on who was going to bite the bullet in War of the Spark. With an unprecedented number of Planeswalkers involved and a much-anticipated climatic battle on the horizon, it felt natural to expect some major characters’ deaths.

Unfortunately, we overestimated the amount of deaths we were supposed to expect. By a lot.

The Casualties of War

Three named Planeswalkers died as part of the War of the Spark story. Domri was killed when his Spark was harvested, as depicted in the namesake card. Dack Fayden was then taken down by an unspecified Eternal, as revealed in the trailer, which takes place almost at the end of the battle itself. Finally, as the name suggests, Gideon’s Sacrifice showcases the demise of Gideon, which saved Liliana’s life, only moments after the trailer ends.

Nicol Bolas was apprehended by Bontu and confined by Ugin within the newly renamed Prison Realm.

Three deaths and one exile. That’s mostly what we got.

On one hand, Magic’s nature as an ongoing franchise does not necessarily require major characters’ deaths to keep the player’s attention. On the other, the unique nature of War of the Spark was setting it up to be a pivotal moment in the overall narrative. Many players were speculating on multiple major casualties, others were predicting a new Mending, with multiple Planeswalkers losing their Sparks and the survivors strongly re-defining their role in the Multiverse.

While we surely lost some major characters, it is my belief that the impact of the set’s story on the overall narrative was not nearly enough.

An inconsequential victory?

Most of the main characters in War of the Spark left the battlefield unchanged, with little to no character progression or evolution. Sure, we had one major death among the ranks of the Gatewatch and two secondary characters falling victim to the conflict.

Liliana is now free of her contract, while Jace and Vraska reconnected after the Ixalan arc. Kaya is now at the helm of the Orzhov Syndicate. So, yes, something did happen.

On the other hand, a lot of fan-favourite characters had little to impact on the story. At the same time, the story had little to no impact on them. Chandra was involved in a very personal fight with Dovin, but has she progressed as a character?

I fully understand how juggling more than 30 Planeswalkers can be a narrative nightmare, but what did Karn really do, aside for bashing skulls? What evenrole did Sarkhan really play? Was Kiora even involved in the fight? She was apparently leading one or more leviathans into battle, but what is up with her, now?

To me, the problem boils down to the fact that it feels like most of the Planeswalkers were introduced in the set more for marketing purposes, rather than for story reasons. Sure, having 36 new Planeswalker cards was an unprecedented event, but I personally felt like the story was not able to keep up with this ambitious design idea.

Now that Bolas has been defeated and the majority of the Gatewatch has left the battlefield victorious, what does this victory lead to?

A future too bright?

If I could summarize my problem with War of the Spark’s storyline I would put it as follows: most of the survivors are now free to leave with little to no repercussion. For most of the 36 Planeswalkers in the set, nothing has changed during the war. Sure, they may have taken part in a huge fight, but what has really changed for them?

I guess Karn still wants to go and defeat the Phyrexians on what was once Mirrodin. Ajani is probably looking forward to returning to Theros to rescue Elspeth. Teferi will probably return to Dominaria to see if he can ever reconnect to the long-lost home he himself phased out of existence.

Sure, we will mourn the death of Gideon for some time. And maybe Liliana will have some kind of tonal shift in her character towards a more selfless behaviour, now that she is free of her contract.

That said, with the main villain having survived the conflict, the door is always open for a potential return. Meaning that even the few things that have been accomplished in this story could be later rectified, to a certain extent. Sure, one could argue that, to Bolas, losing the Spark is even worse than death. But we have already seen characters lose and regain a Spark.

Knowing Bolas, there is a solid chance his new plan will now revolve around acquiring a new Spark and regaining his former powers. After all, he has shown to be capable of influencing countless Planeswalkers across the Multiverse. How soon before any of them provides him with a chance at revenge?

All things considered

While War of the Spark showcased one of the best preview seasons in the history of Magic, it pains to say that this amazing build-up, to me, did not end up living to the intended hype. I firmly believe the way the story was presented was astounding, but its content was not as convincing.

I really hope the upcoming preview seasons keep this story-based approach alive, as it really provides an amazing way to convey the story. At the same time, I really wish for the story to take more risks and, maybe, shake things up a bit more.

I know it’s not easy, but it surely feels a bit disheartening to approach the final showdown of a multi-year conflict with a death bingo card and end up with just this.

Kill Switches and the Importance of Winning

Putting the “fun” in fundamentals: winning in Commander

Commander is primarily devoted to fun. While cEDH exists as a competitive variant of the format, most of Commander games across the World are played in the name of fun. Between social contracts, politicking, negotiations and weird deckbuilding themes, games usually focus more on the fun players are having, rather than the end results.

Much like many other Commander players, I have lost amazing, funny and well-fought games, as well as won boring and uninspired games. Many of the games I have fond memories of ended in a defeat on my part. But the journeys to get to those endgames were amazing. If competitive Magic is all about the result, Commander is largely about the journey to get there.

Competitive players are often at their happiest when the decks they chose for a specific tournament turn out to be way more powerful than everyone else’s. Breaking a format is something every competitive Magic player dreams of. Commander players, on the other hand, thrive in balance and tend to prefer games were all decks are more or less at the same power level. Bringing a competitive Teferi, Temporal Archmage deck to a table of Minotaur Tribal Neheb, the Worthy decks is going to be a satisfying experience only if you truly hate your playgroup.

That, however, does not mean that victory is an irrelevant aspect of Commander deckbuilding. While many Commander players quench their inner Timmy or Tammy thirst with big and impactful spells, Johnny and Jenny want to express their creativity with interesting and unexpected builds. Some decks may be devoted entirely to fun, but everyone enjoys winning, from time to time.

The way players balance their separate needs for fun and victory defines their degree of competitiveness. Hardcore Vintage players may be shifted entirely towards their competitive instincts, while Commander palyers may be more interested in fun. Still, it is important to remember that very rarely are Commander players devoted exclusively to fun, as they are often keeping an eye on victory and, more specifically, win conditions.

In the end, winning a game is still a very awesome feeling, especially as the culmination of a well fought battle between all the players. Despite their best attempts, however, some players can fall short on their victory intentions and may end missing the mark, when it comes to setting themselves up for a win. This may be due to poor in-game tactics or, quite often, to suboptimal deckbuilding choices.

Putting the “fun” in dysfunction: unfocused and midrange decks

Commander lends itself to an extremely vast number of deckbuilding approaches, between control, combo, midrange, ramp, Graveyard-centred, Tribal, group hug, chaos, Voltron and many, many others. Among this plethora of options, some of the most problematic decks are built around an unfocused and semi-midrange approach.

These decks are not bad or weak per se, but they often run the risk of simply cobbling together multiple different cards, strategies and engines, with no clear battle plan. Featuring powerful spells within a relatively unfocused frame, midrange good stuff decks can end up feeling as a meeting point between other, more dedicated strategies.

With a bit of control, a bit of Aggro, a bit of ramping, maybe one combo or two, the average midrange deck often tries to pivot between its various souls, shifting gears depending on board state, game development, opponents’ strategies and other external factors. This can also be a natural consequence of Commander as a format: with relatively unreliable singleton decks of a hundred cards, being flexible is often a necessity.

While this midrange and good stuff approach can prove quite effective in the face of unforeseeable games, these decks may often end up lacking the focus and precision a more dedicated strategy can sport. The result is that consistency is sacrificed in the name of flexibility.

On the contrary, trading off flexibility for consistency, dedicated and clear-cut decks can often feel more coherent in their game plan. Knowing from the get-go what the main plan is going to be maximizes the chances to deploy a pre-determined strategy. The approach may lack flexibility, but the identification of clear win conditions is ensured.

Just to provide an example: ramp decks aim for redundancy of their Rampant Growth effects, control decks often want at least a dozen Counterspells. Both end up playing multiple copies of similar effects, circumventing as much as possible the random nature of the format to be as consistent as possible. Due to their need for redundancy and consistency, these decks need to dedicate notable portions of their lists to their enablers, missing the flexibility that’s typical a more midrange-y deck. Again, what they gain is a more consistent and coherent battle plan.

Then, these focused decks build towards a single, very specific goal, which usually corresponds to a shortlist of specific payoffs cards. Aggro decks may build towards a Craterhoof Behemoth victory, control decks may win with a Laboratory Maniac trigger, Graveyard-focused decks may go for a Victimize-enabled kill.

Usually, all these decks feature at least one kill switch card, which, if left unchecked, leads to victory within a relatively short amount of time. The concept of a kill switch, as the name suggests, only applies to those card that directly lead to victory. It is quite important to understand what, in a list, qualifies as a kill switch and what doesn’t.

For instance, the aforementioned Craterhoof Behemoth is an excellent example, as it is meant to win the game on the spot the moment it hits the battlefield. On the other hand, Sol Ring is not a kill switch: despite being among the most powerful cards in the format, it does not itself win the game, although its impact is rarely irrelevant.

Keeping in mind this concept of a kill switch, let’s look back at midrange decks. They often tend to focus the entirety of their strategy on long, attrition-based games. Most of their plays during the game revolve around advancing their board state, generating value or stopping opponents’ game plans. In other words, their playing style feels very similar to a powerful Limited or Cube deck, with each card being more or less self-consistent and providing board-impacting advantage.

The result is that midrange decks can fall prone to the lack of a defined kill switch. While constant attrition and value generation are ensured by the general deck building mentality, these decks can fall short against focused strategies, which devote most of their card slots to a single specific purpose and sacrifice flexibility for consistency. Sure, sometimes flexibility can be the key to victory, but the lack of a pre-determined path and a pre-defined shortlist of kill switches can lead midrange decks to find themselves trapped into disjointed game states, with no clear plan to move forward in the gane.

The good news is that a solution is already at hand. The nature of the Commander format itself, with one Legendary Creature always available in each player’s Commander Zone, ensures that midrange decks can, at worst, fall back to their Commanders to look for a victory condition. On the other hand, not all midrange decks are sufficiently Commander-focused. Some may choose to use their leading Legendary Creature as an additional element of value and support, rather than a victory condition.

Just to provide an example, think about Tatyova, Benthic Druid: an extremely powerful value engine, but not necessarily a card that is going to win the game by herself. Sure, the sheer amount of card advantage she generates can be enough to win games, but the quality of those cards is what determines whether or not victory can be achieved.

Risultati immagini per champion victory mtg — Champion’s Victory, art by Hong Yan

Putting the “fun” in malfunctions: the need for kill switches

When the Commander itself cannot play as a reliable win condition, the problem with these dysfunctional midrange decks needs to be addressed with the inclusion of a subset of kill switches as part of the ninety-nine. These are meant to ensure that, when the time is ripe, a game winning play can be made. The additional layer of complexity, here, is that these cards may not necessarily feel aligned with the rest of the deck, as they instead would inside a more focused list.

Just to provide an example: a ramp deck would perceive Avenger of Zendikar as a natural curve topper in its list and the card itself would perform amazingly in the deck. By focusing its whole strategy around the manipulation and management of Lands, the deck would be able to exploit Avenger of Zendikar’s landfall trigger very consistently.

With the average midrange deck lacking the focus and peculiarity it needs to identify its most suitable kill switch, the result is that the supposed finishers of a midrange deck can sometimes feel extremely disjointed, or not fully exploited by the deck’s inner dynamics.

Think about Meren of Clan Nel Toth. She is quite possibly one of the best Golgari Legendary Creatures in the format and most of her versions focus on a stax-esque strategy, slowly clearing the board and grinding away card advantage. But how is she really winning the game?

Some Meren decks may focus on a Reanimate-based win condition and, at some point, go for the kill with a Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Triskelion finish. Here, this is a perfect example of a kill switch, as the play, if unanswered, wins the game on the spot.

Other Meren lists, unfortunately, focus more on Plaguecrafter loops and they may find themselves short on ways to actually pull the trigger on the table. The result is a lengthy and grindy game, where minimal advantage is traded back and forth, but no kill switch is ever deployed, for the frustration of everyone involved.

Risultati immagini per plaguecrafter mtg — Plaguecrafter, art by Anna Steinbauer

Another great example can be found in the infamous Narset, Enlightened Master. Most Narset decks aim at looping multiple extra turns or set in motion an advantageous Armageddon effect to secure victory. If this is something that can be perceived by many as unfunny, there are also versions that do not have ways to end the game on the spot or generate an infinite loop. As a result, these decks simply cast a random Armageddon with no follow-up kill switch, leading to hours of empty turns.

Despite playing very differently, what these decks have in common is the fact that they spend most of their resources towards the assembly of a very powerful engine, but may then be unable to consistently close the game, once they have established the advantage they were seeking in the first place. Whether they qualify as midrange, value-oriented lists, or they try and play with some fancy combat-based triggers, the lack of a kill switch can be the cause of bad feelings across the board.

‘Putting the “fun” in funnel: and, by that, I mean Cyclonic Rift

Before we move forward, I think it is important to mention one additional problem with kill switches. An interesting phenomenon can manifest when potential kill switches are used not to propel the game towards its conclusion, but as a defensive tool that actually sets the game back. Probably the best example, here, comes in the form of Cyclonic Rift. The card is rightfully considered among the strongest in the entire format, not just for its impact, but also for its flexibility.

It is an amazing way to clear the board and go for the alpha strike when the board is clogged with cards and the game is stalled. However, it can also be a crucial defensive tool against opposing alpha strikes, playing as both an amazing Fog and an Instant speed, one-sided Upheaval that does not hit Lands.

So, even though the card is absolutely amazing, many times its usage as a defensive, rather than offensive tool results in games taking way longer to reach competion and, more importantly, in decks losing one of their potential kill switches to save themselves from a lethal attack, rather than to win a game.

Of course, I would never blame anyone for saving themselves from an alpha strike with Cyclonic Rift. At the same time, though, it is worth mentioning that its potential usage as a win condition is ironically tamed by its flexibility as a very powerful defensive tool.

Putting the “fun” in funky: balancing value and win conditions

So, where is all this taking us? Personally, I wanted to share some considerations on midrange Commander decks and win conditions to address a specific issue that may occur when building decks. I know it happened to me a couple of times, so I wanted to provide some inputs to anyone who may be encountering similar problems.

First and foremost: building midrange decks is not as easy as it may seem. Most notably, the fairly straightforward approach of just jamming value-oriented cards in a deck and hoping for victory is often going to end in a mishmash of random games. Each of them filled with powerful cards, but not necessarily focused through a coherent strategy.

Sure, you are probably going to bury your opponents under a ton of card advantage with your random Necropotence. But how many of those cards are going to ensure your victory? Have you built your deck to make sure that at least some of the cards you are drawing off of Necropotence are indeed going to win you the game?

An easy solution, as we mentioned, comes with the usage of your own Commander to fulfil the need for a reliable win condition. This is, personally, one of my favourite methods of deckbuilding, should you choose to go down the path of midrange. By mixing the value-oriented card selection of a typical midrange strategy with an effective Voltron shell, it is easy to end up with a rather reliable battle plan.

To provide a bit of a personal note, here, this is how my Grimgrin, Corpse Born deck was conceived and how it evolved over time. Most of its cards are either meant to support Grimgrin as a Voltron win condition or are self-consistent value engines.

Of course, the deck will lack the focus of a more dedicated strategy, but the added flexibility can provide an advantage against trickier decks. In my opinion, the approach can be pushed even further, to the point of collapsing Voltron decks and midrange decks into a sort of super-category of decks.

Putting the “fun” in functionality: the two deckbuilding paradigms

As we mntioned, provided that Voltron lists have the intrinsic advantage of having their own win condition always available and automatically recurrable, the entirety of the list can therefore play a support role, focusing on powerful value generation engines. This is a common route many Voltron players may choose to take, but it is far from being the only pursuable approach.

Commander deckbuilding is often based on two potential approaches or philosophies: decks that support their Commander and decks that are supported by their Commander. Knowing which of the two you are building can make the difference between an effective list and a disjointed collection of powerful standalone cards.

In the context of kill switches, the first approach lends itself the best to the Commander playing as the main deck’s win condition. With full support from the rest of the deck, having a board-impacting Legendary Creature at the helm of the deck means that a reliable aggressive strategy can be set in motion. This is where traditional Voltron lists usually find themselves.

The second approach, on the other hand, flips the concept upside down with the Commander playing as an enabler of a larger, often more complex strategy. The Commander itself does not define the overall decks’ strategy, but it can provide precious card advantage, ramping, protection or other forms of synergy and advantage.

My favourite examples here, are Damia, Sage of Stone and The Mimeoplasm. Both Commanders are in Sultai colours, a wedge typically associated with strong value generation and midrange-y strategies. Both are from the original Commander supplementary product. But while the former lends itself tosupporting and enabling any kind of value-focused strategy, the latter needs to be supported and enabled, becoming itself the payoff of a focused deck construction.

In the context of Commanders supporting decks, forcing a subset of win conditions in the list becomes paramount, balancing as a result value-oriented cards with brute force kill switches. The intrinsic problem with this approach is that these win conditions need to either be extremely reliable and resilient, or they require a critical density to ensure victory can be achieved in the face of opposing countermeasures.

If the entire plan is to resolve an Avenger of Zendikar as the primary deck’s win condition, what happens when a player takes it down with a Day of Judgement, alongside its Plant Tokens? Is the deck capable of recurring the Avenger to present another threat to the board? What happens if the win condition is exiled, instead of destroyed? Is this midrange deck packing a random Pull from Eternity, just in case?

To put things into perspective and using our Sultai example: The Mimeoplasm would probably not need much in terms of backup win conditions, using itself as the main kill switch, even in value-oriented decks. Damia, Sage of Stone, on the other hand, needs the deck to feature at least a couple of ways to win the game, whether via a well-protected combo, an impactful spell or a game-warping effect.

Putting the “fun” in hyperfunction: the crux of the matter

Whether you are building a focused control deck, you are trying to win with a kicked Rite of Replication on your own Gray Merchant of Asphodel or you are aiming for a grindy game led by Queen Marchesa, make sure you are always packing kill switches in your deck. While most Creatures in Magic could potentially be a win condition under the right circumstances, not all of them guarantee a satisfying victory.

If you are a fan of Derevi, Empyrial Tactician and you want to stax your way to victory, make sure you are also packing at least a Shalai, Voice of Plenty or a Sun Titan. Or both. There is nothing wrong with playing stax lists, but few things in Commander are as miserable as a Derevi deck desperately chipping away two points of damage every turn with only its Commander leading the assault.

Derevi, Empyrial Tactician, art by Michael Komarck

Kill switches may not be the most enticing, fascinating or elegant aspect of a deck, but they are necessary. Commander games are all about fun, but, at some point, they need to end. And while a non-interactive combo may be quite anticlimactic, it is often way better than a static game of cat and mouse around minimal advantage points.

Even if you are playing a defensive deck, such as a pillowfort list or a stax list, make sure you are still coming to the table with a proactive strategy. It does not need to be the primary focus of your deck, but it is really beneficial for the whole playgroup’s experience if, at some point, you are able to at least present a threat.

Personally, I have learned that even in my Karona, False God deck, which is a mix of defensive pillowfort and value-focused Enchantress strategies, you want to clog the board with flights of Angels and, hopefully, win the game, at a certain point.

My Top Ten War of the Spark Favourite Cards

War never changes

The complete preview for War of the Spark was released last Friday, April 19^th, and we finally have the full picture of what this much-anticipated set has in store for us.

There is a lot to unpack in the set, between an unprecedented number of Planeswalkers, coloured Vehicles, fan favourite characters finally getting a card, new takes on existing characters, powerful mechanics making a splashing return and much, much more. The story itself is the culmination of years of conflicts. Almost everyone is here for the grand finale and an unprecedented number of heroes and villains have come to join the fight.

With so much content available in the set, I am sure everyone can find something they like, here. So, while professional players and content creators provide their respective take on the set, I wanted to list my own ten favourite War of the Spark cards.

That said, this article will not focus on the story of War of the Spark per se. While many of the cards give away important plot details, the story itself deserves its own space and I think I would not do it justice by cramming everything together in a single article.

So, brace yourselves, because these are my ten favourite War of the Spark cards and I will be cheating a lot with this list.

Number 10: Ob Nixilis’s Cruelty (and other commons)

Let’s start softly, shall we? Ob Nixilis’s Cruelty is a very simple and splashable common removal that I am sure will be quite potent in War of the Spark Limited. Exiling most of the Creatures for three Mana is no joke by today’s standards, but what I truly like about this card is its potential application in Pauper Cube.

The “format” has some pretty well defined benchmarks for Black Instant speed spot removals: two Mana will get you a conditional removal, while three will give you a splashable quasi-unconditional removal. Ob Nixilis’s Cruelty compares quite well with cards like Rend Flesh and I am really interested to see if the card can sneak in the already stacked section of Black removals.

Ob Nixilis’s Cruelty, art by Igor Kieryluk

The set also features another interesting spot removal in Jaya’s Greeting. The card is another take on Searing Spear, trading off the chance to hit players for a certainly not unwelcome Scry 1 effect. Is it better than Incinerate? Probably not, but it still looks like a very solid card for anyone looking to expand on their Red removal section.

And let’s not forget War of the Spark features more than just aggressively costed common removal. Spark Reaper is a very solid draw engine at common. Aven Eternal is very reminiscent of Eldrazi Skyspawner, a very solid card from Battle for Zendikar. Invading Manticore is a bit slow for my tastes, but I am sure Pauper Cube players looking for a big Red Creature can be happy with this new card.

While I am slightly on the fence about some of these for my Cube, I am certain many Pauper Cube players will be looking at War of the Spark and find new, interesting toys.

Number 9: Tibalt, Rakish Instigator (and his fellow Red Planeswalkers)

I like Tibalt. I really do. On paper, he is an insanely interesting and cool character. A master of pain that turned himself into a half-Demon and now wanders the Multiverse as the herald of torture? The character himself is terrifying, but, unfortunately, his name has become synonym with disappointment.

To me, Tibalt has always been the Magic equivalent of Star Wars’ Darth Maul. On paper, an amazingly menacing villain with a terrifying aesthetic and a lot of potential. In practice, a short-lived low-level boss that had minimal impact on the overall saga.

Risultati immagini per darth maul episode 1 — Darth Maul from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)

Fortunately for Darth Maul, his character was largely expanded in the now noncanonical comic books. Tibalt, on the other hand, was not so lucky. His debut in card form was very underwhelming, to the point of becoming a joke among players. Unfortunately, we also had no chance to touch base with him after the Innistrad block, so not much was known about the character and his journey across the Multiverse.

But now Tibalt, Rakish Instigator is back and he is… Not bad? The card is nowhere near the game-breaking bombs we occasionally get, but he is finally very respectable. His static ability can be occasionally powerful and his activated ability can play as a repeatable Token generator for at least a couple of turns.

Is he the new Bitterblossom? Almost definitely not. But he is finally featured on a card that can be played unironically and this, to me, is a step in the right direction.

Tibalt, Rakish Instigator, art by Chase Stone

On top of Tibalt, Rakish Instigator being a relatively fine card, I am also very excited by his fellow Red Planeswalkers. For some reason I have decided to include every Red Planeswalker inside my Diaochan Chaos deck and this set is providing me with four new interesting additions to the deck: Tibalt, Rakish Instigator, Chandra, Fire Artisan, Sarkhan the Masterless and Jaya, Venerated Firemage. Are some of them borderline mediocre? Absolutely, but so is the deck.

Number 8: Roalesk, Apex Hybrid (and Merfolk Skydiver)

War of the Spark features the return of Proliferate, a non-evergreen mechanic first introduced in Scars of Mirrodin. Last time we saw it, the mechanic was fairly well received, thanks to the number of applications and effects it could have on Creatures, permanents and players. It is no secret that Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice is among the most powerful and popular Legendary Creatures in Commander, thanks to her repeatable and automatic Proliferate activation, as well as the deck building options she provides.

Roalesk, Apex Hybrid is no Atraxa, but it is still a card I am extremely interested in. He falls into the sweet five Mana spot that makes me dream of including him in my Kruphix Creatures deck, simply to have a play sequence of Prime Speaker Vannifar, followed by Roalesk on the next turn, only to immediately sacrifice him with Vannifar to go get Prime Speaker Zegana from the deck and put her into play. All the flavours of Simic.

Roalesk, Apex Hybrid, art by Svetlin Velinov

Speaking of my Kruphix deck, I am a huge fan of cheap Creatures providing good Mana sinks and Merfolk Skydiver is a great example of what uncommon cards can do with Proliferate. With Kruphix, God of Horizons storing all of my unused Mana, this Mana sink is certainly a welcome tool in the deck. Especially in light of the fact that the deck features a strong +1/+1 counter theme and is entirely Creature-focused.

Number 7: Karn’s Bastion (and Blast Zone)

If you like repeatable Proliferate activations, how about featuring the ability on a card that cannot be countered? Karn’s Bastion is here to power all your Planeswalkers up and, ironically, to spread poison counters across you opponents.

I must confess I find the card’s flavour a bit odd. I understand Karn wanting to protect his fellow Planeswalkers and how this translates into the proliferation of loyalty counters. But the fact that the card could be used to spread -1/-1 counters among opposing Creatures feels quite strange. Not to mention the implications inside an Infect strategy, towards which Karn probably has some very strong opinions.

That said, I also understand that redesigning the card to only affect loyalty counters would only complicate its wording, so let’s just silently agree that we like it as it is. And then promptly use it to kill our opponents by spreading poison counters.

Speaking of interesting effects on Lands, Blast Zone echoes Ratchet Bomb and it is certainly an impressive tool for all decks that can afford one colourless Land slot and may be able to hastily increase its charge counters. It is also worth noting that Blast Zone itself comes into play with a charge counter already up and running. And I don’t think I need to remind anyone that Proliferate is in the set. Set it off and have fun!

Number 6: Ashiok, Dream Render

Ashiok is back! I have been a fan of the character since the first appearance on Theros, thanks to the mysterious and nightmare-inducing aura Ashiok is imbued with. Many Vorthos players were speculating that the character could make an appearance in the Amonkhet block, as Ashiok’s clothes seemed to be vaguely Ancient Egypt-inspired.

Unfortunately, that turned out to not be the case and many fans have been clamouring for a return of the Nightmare Weaver for years. But now Ashiok is back and many Modern players are wondering how much of an impact the card is going to have.

Ashiok, Dream Render, art by Cynthia Sheppard

Personally, I have happily featured a single copy of Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver in the sideboard of my Modern Mill deck. The card is excellent in slower matchups, grinding away cards from the opponent’s library and occasionally spawning a key value Creature.

Ashiok, Dream Render, however, is a whole different beast. I am almost sure the card’s combination of a very good static ability and a consistent Mill engine makes it worthy of main deck usage in Modern Mill strategies. However, its strengths conflict heavily with two other powerful cards typically employed within that same strategy.

Archive Trap becomes almost unusable with Ashiok, Dream Render on the board. Unless prompted by a Path to Exile effect, the opponents cannot search their library on their own, meaning that a couple of Archive Traps may end up stranded in your hand. Sure, this could mean you are also blocking all their precious Fetchlands, but, unfortunately, this is not the only wrench Ashiok is throwing in your milling workings.

Visions of Beyond is another extremely powerful tool for Modern Mill decks, often playing as an Ancestral Recall in a format where even Ponder is banned. Visions of Beyond shines exclusively as part of Mill strategies, but its design conflicts heavily with Ashiok, Dream Render’s ability. While removing your opponent’s Graveyard is rarely a downside, the trade-off between the two cards is quite awkward.

I fully expect Ashiok, Dream Render to end up in my Modern Mill deck, but the hardest part will be to decide if the card is worthy of main deck play or just of sideboard slots.

Number 5: Nissa’s Triumph

War of the Spark promised us Planeswalkers, great story moments and dire conflicts. One thing that I was certainly not expecting was a Land tutor that could either work as a smaller Seek the Horizon or, potentially, a way better Sylvan Scrying.

Enter Nissa’s Triumph, an unexpected, but certainly welcome new tool for any Land-based Commander deck. If you are playing at least one Nissa, there is a chance this card is going to be extremely powerful in your deck, possibly fetching three key Lands, such as Dark Depths, Thespian’s Stage, Inkmoth Nexus, Kessig Wolf Run or Glacial Chasm.

If you are not playing any Nissa Planeswalkers, you are still in for an unconditional Green Tithe, finding two Forests for just two Mana. Still not a bad deal, all in all.

I am quite sure the card will be extensively tested in my Borborygmos deck, which, coincidentally, already features a copy of Nissa, Vital Force. While I am sure most of the times I will be referring to Nissa’s Triumph as just a Green Divination, the occasional chance to three-for-one and get some key Lands is definitely an interesting feat.

Number 4: Ugin, the Ineffable (and Mana rocks)

First things first: when the card was first revealed, I read it as “Ugin the Inflatable” and this is how I’m going to call it in all my future games. I just can’t shake off the idea of a giant inflatable Ugin balloon parading as part of Macy’s Thanksgiving celebrations.

Risultati immagini per macy parade dragon — Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon at Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, photo by Julio Cortez (2014)

That said, no matter how you call it, the card itself is fantastic. Picture him inside any colourless or Artifact-based Commander deck: his static ability is a cost reduction for many of your cards, his +1 ability is a play on Manifest that somehow provides card advantage and his -3 ability is a form of almost unconditional removal.

Sure, his rate is not excellent, costing six Mana and entering the battlefield with only four loyalty counters, but with abilities like these, I am all in favour of risking a little bit with some relatively unconvincing numbers. Even if he dies shortly after the activation of his second ability, you’ll have traded six Mana for any coloured permanent. Not too bad, especially if you are in colour combinations that struggle with permanent removal.

I can only dream of what the card is going to do inside my Kozilek deck. Ramping into Ugin, the Ineffable before the fourth turn of the game, only to unlock an even more explosive follow-up fifth turn is going to be amazing.

Speaking colourless cards, the new Mana Geode and Firemind Vessel are also worth mentioning. If you are looking for Mana fixing or you just jam every Mana rock you can in your deck, don’t let these cards fly under your radar. While I am not sure I will be sliding both in my Kozilek deck, I wanted to point out Firemind Vessel is very similar to a card I had theorized in a recent article. I understand the design space around Mana rocks is fairly limited, but what an amusing coincidence!

Number 3: Living Twister

It’s not always that we get a card that just fits perfectly inside existing an Commander strategy. And I am not talking about generically powerful cards that just play well in any deck that can run them. Those are fine, but they don’t feel thatunique.

Sometimes a set features a card that is just meant to flawlessly slide inside one of your Commander decks, supporting or enriching a very specific strategy you were already focusing on. Enter Living Twister, the answer to a question I was probably the only one asking: can I get another Mina and Denn, Wildborn, but cheaper?

Living Twister is so good in Land-based strategies that I am almost sure it was originally pitched as a new version of Borborygmos Enraged. While I can only hope The M-Files for War of the Spark feature a bit more background and insights on how this card was conceived and fine-tuned, I am beyond thrilled to include it in my Borborygmos deck.

With Borborygmos Enraged out, Living Twister works as one of your best engines to convert Green Mana into Lightning Bolts at a staggering rate. Without Borborygmos Enraged out, it really makes a good impression, filling in for your Commander with a very similar play pattern. For more information on Borborygmos and how you can play a ramp deck in Commander without going for the big and overused Creature payoffs, feel free to check this analysis on resource transformation and Land management.

Number 2: the trailer

Ok, I am cheating, here. This is not a card, but I really wanted to mention how good the War of the Spark trailer was. It is by far the best trailer we have had in Magic so far. Both the animation and the music were absolutely perfect. Rarely do we get a game trailer that so effectively pulls you into the story without feeling cheesy or on-the-nose.

Let’s be honest. If you had told me beforehand that the trailer was going to feature an ominous cover of Linking Park’s “In the End”, I would have expected nothing more than an early 2000s Dragon Ball Z AMV. Instead, we got a cinematic, well directed and emotionally impactful trailer that delivered the feelsbeyond my best expectations.

Somehow Wizards had the audacity of killing Dack Fayden in the trailer and it still managed to not be the highlight of the two-minute video. The moments when Liliana witnesses the death of a little girl trying to protect her brother, remembers her oath and turns against Bolas are all truly phenomenal. You could really see every single one of Liliana’s conflicted thoughts, feelings and emotions, thanks to a superb animation.

Risultati immagini per war of the spark trailer — Liliana in the War of the Spark trailer (2019)

This is now the new gold standard for Magic trailers and if we can expect something at this level for every upcoming set, I am beyond hyped for what the future has in store.

Number 1: Evolution Sage (and Grateful Apparition)

My favourite card from the set is an uncommon. Not a Mythic Planeswalker, not an insane Vehicle, not a Multiverse-breaking Sorcery. A simple 3/2 for three Mana with just one simple triggered ability: whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, proliferate.

Evolution Sage is just awesome. The raw power of this effect is simply absurd. Do you have a Fetchland? Your opponents get two poison counters, you put two additional +1/+1 counters on all your creatures that already carry them, your Planeswalkers get two additional loyalty counters.

You also increase the -1/-1 counter count on your opponents’ creatures if they already have them, you get experience counters if you care about them, your Azor’s Elocutors get additional filibuster counters, you power up your Lux Cannon, you flip your Treasure Map and you speed up your Ascensions. I love me an active Luminarch Ascension and Evolution Sage allows you to get there just by playing Lands.

This card is stunning and I can’t wait to play it in my Saskia Infect deck. Is the board becoming too crowded for an effective assault? Let’s just lay back, play some Lands and kill some opponents.

On a similar vein, I also wanted to mention Grateful Apparition as another very interesting new tool for Infect decks in Commander. This new card is almost exactly a colour-shifted version of Thrummingbird, with the additional bonus of triggering when it hits Planeswalkers. While not as impressive as Evolution Sage, I think it is still worthy of an inclusion in most Infect or Planeswalker-themed decks, especially those that do not already have access to Blue and to Thrummingbird specifically.

Bonus round: best art and flavour text

Preferences in art and flavour are obviously subjective. Although we can all agree that some Magic illustrations are objectively astonishing, most of our appreciation towards pieces of art is dictated by personal tastes and preferences. After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Nevertheless, I really wanted to mention my favourite pieces of art and flavour text from the set. Again, I am no art critic, nor a literature expert, so I am sure a more erudite player would be able to provide a way better assessment. Still, this is what I like.

So, in my very humble opinion, the best piece of art in the entire set belongs to Noah Bradley and his illustration for Commence the Endgame.

Risultati immagini per commence the endgame noah bradley — Art for Commence the Endgame, by Noah Bradley

I can see why this may feel like an easy or fairly obvious pick, with the art itself prominently used to promote the whole set since the first days of preview season. But the composition, the level of detail and the pathos this art emanates are beautiful. While the set features a number of truly great pieces of art, I’d like to think Noah Bradley’s Commence the Endgame is what War of the Spark should be remembered for, art-wise.

Just to make sure we don’t leave two other great pieces of art unmentioned, I must also confess the illustrations for Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor and Narset, Parter of Veils equally deserve a spot near the top, to me. Magali Villeneuve has been one of the most consistent and appreciated artists in recent Magic history and these pieces are no exception. The fluidity of the robes and hair are simply spectacular.

Arts for Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor and Narset, parter of Veils, by Magali Villeneuve

Now, flavour texts are a completely different beast. I’ll start by addressing the elephant in the room. The flavour text for Commence the Endgame is also spectacular. It is so perfectly villainous, so deeply Nicol Bolas. It is what the ideal tagline for a War of the Spark movie poster should be. “Even gods shall kneel“. You can hear him say it!

However, in the midst of all this hubris, with everything that is happening on Ravnica, with so much flavour text focusing on battles and things that people should and should not do, a specific piece of flavour text resonated particularly well with me. Not the tongue-in-cheek jokes, nor the many lines about how important this battle is. Not the lines about defiance and duty. But a simple paragraph on what true heroism is. My favourite flavour text in the set belongs to Ignite the Beacon.

Commence the Endgame, art by Noah Bradley and Ignite the Beacon, art by Slawomir Maniak

“If you can’t save yourself, you fight to give someone else a chance“. Rarely has Ajani been my favourite character in a story arc, but this line is just perfect. I like how simple and natural it is, how there is no rhetoric in his words. This is not a cheesy line from a random action hero. As if it were the most spontaneous thing imaginable, once all hope is lost for him, all he can think of is giving someone else a chance to fight. It’s perfect.

Number 0: whatever you like

As always, each Magic sets comes with a number of amazing new cards that each player can enjoy in their own way. War of the Spark is especially rich of interesting cards, thanks to its plethora or Planeswalkers, amazing story moments and great mechanics.

I have narrowed down my personal list to ten cards that really caught my attention, but I am sure most players would have a completely different and equally awesome list. Actually, my list features something like fifteen cards and a trailer, but you get the point. Of course, there is a lot more that intrigued me, but I had to leave out something.

For example, I am still very on the fence regarding Soul Diviner. Either it’s an insanely good draw engine for my Grimgrin deck, or I am going to not find any room for it and it will remain on the cutting room floor, simply due to the lack of available slots.

Similarly, Casualties of War is an insanely interesting and flexible card, but the relevant Mana cost and the fact that it is a Sorcery still make me wonder whether or not I should include it in my Saskia Infect deck. The card itself is great, but the deck is leaning towards a very aggressive strategy and, at the moment, I am not sure Casualties of War will actually make the cut.

Jace, Wielder of Mysteries features and extremely interesting design and Liliana, Dreadhorde General carries a truly impressive set of abilities. The Wanderer certainly bring a lot of mystery along and who can ignore Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God‘s absurd static ability, gathering onto himself all loyalty abilities from every other Planeswalker in play?

The set will also be remembered for finally giving us Fblthp, the Lost, Massacre Girl and Feather, the Redeemed in card form, after years of appearances in arts, stories and flavour texts. Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves is also back, this time with a set of abilities that make me feel like Thragtusk is back in Standard. Not to mention Niv-Mizzet Reborn is the dream of any Commander player looking for a new interesting take on multicolour.

And let’s not forget this is the first time Magic is featuring coloured Vehicles. Parhelion II is especially awesome, with its strong Final Fantasy and Last Exile vibe.

Risultati immagini per last exile anatoray — Anatorey battle ships from Last Exile (2003)

Liliana’s Triumph is probably the best Diabolic Edict we have ever seen in Modern, which really makes me think that True-Name Nemesis may be soon featured in Modern Horizons, finally becoming Modern playable.

As always, to each their own! I am sure War of the Spark will be remembered as a very rich set in terms of density of interesting contents. And, very likely, most of you reading my review have already found something that tickles your deck building fantasies.

As always, enjoy this set the way you like it! There is plenty of interesting new tools to quench your thirst for deck building… At least until Modern Horizons comes out!

An Introduction to the Reserved List in Commander

What is the Reserved List?

First introduced in 1996, the Reserved List is a list of Magic cards that Wizards of the Coast has explicitly promised not to reprint in paper form, with the goal of preserving stability within the secondary market and protecting the interests of collectors. At the time of writing, the list accounts for roughly 700 cards originally printed between Alpha and Urza’s Legacy.

The quality and power of the cards included in the Reserved List varies greatly, from all-time classics like Ancestral Recall to niche gems like Dwarven Armorer. Whether they are powerful Vintage staples or borderline playable Creatures, neither these, nor any functional reprint can be issued in any future paper-based set.

Because of this self-imposed contract, not only are Reserved List cards retaining most of their value, but they are often increasing steadily in price. Most of the original Dual Lands are currently priced in the hundreds of dollars, while the coveted Power Nine can occasionally reach six-figure price tags.

While this can contribute to turn Legacy and Vintage into very inaccessible formats, some level of repercussion is also perceived in Commander. Players hoping to acquire an Underground Sea would be faced with a 300 $ price tag, while Timetwister demands at least 2000 $. Other famous cards, like Mox Sapphire, have been banned altogether since the very birth of the format.

In our latest article on Mana rocks I advanced the hypothesis that the original Moxen cycle would be relatively acceptable, power-wise, in Commander. They would definitely be powerful cards, but their power level, in my opinion, would not be excessive in a format where Mana Crypt is legal and Sol Ring is simply ubiquitous.

The real problem would not be the power of the cards themselves, but their availability. With most Commander players unwilling to spend thousands of dollars for a Mox Sapphire , making it suddenly legal would be little more than a publicity stunt in most playgroups. And with Wizards of the Coast having no chance to reprint any of the original Moxen, their availability can only decrease over time.

The Battlebond Precedence

Battlebond has proven that, taking full advantage of the multiplayer nature of Two Headed Giant, pseudo-Dual Lands can be easily reprinted in non-Standard legal sets. As a result, Commander and casual players can be provided with new, quasi-Reserved List powerful cards, while other Eternal formats remain virtually unscathed. Morphic Pool, for example, plays almost like Underground Sea in Commander, while Legacy and Vintage hardly even noticed.

Prior to the Battlebond Lands, Command Tower was the gold standard for extremely powerful Commander cards that, by design, could not really be played elsewhere.

This, I think, is a design space largely worth exploring for future non-Standard legal sets. In our latest Article on Mana rocks we already toyed with the idea of Commander legal Moxen. But, personally, I wanted to push the discussion even further.

A few weeks ago, I asked the Commander community on Twitter what they thought about a Commander legal Black Lotus and the response was surprisingly balanced.

March 5th Twitter poll: could Black Lotus be legal in Commander?

Black Lotus in Commander?

While some immediately argued that the card was simply too powerful for the format, other raised concerns not towards the card’s power, but towards its potential abuse in a format that already encourages recursion. If Black Lotus is mostly a one-shot Mana boost in Vintage, Commander would lend itself to cycling the card over and over, likely generating consistent Mana advantage over the course of the game.

But what if we could fix this? What if we could introduce a Commander version of Black Lotus that could not be continuously recurred, but that functioned as the card was likely intended to play in the early days of Magic?

Ephemeral Lotus, art from the WikiMedia Commons library

To be completely honest, I think it could also be possible to envision a less powerful version of the card that only generated colourless Mana, but this would make it harder to code it into a Commander-specific restriction.

So, would this Ephemeral Lotus be too good for Commander purposes?

As it is, the card compares quite favourably with Dark Ritual, playing as a free Sorcery speed version of the same card, with an increased output colour flexibility. To put things into perspective, at the time of writing Dark Ritual is played in a little over 15’000 decks on EDHRec.com, while Gilded Lotus, with the same Mana output, but a permanent nature and an increased Mana cost, is played in almost 50’000 decks.

Personally, this leads me to believe that a slightly adjusted Black Lotus, like the proposed Ephemeral Lotus from above, would be a powerful, but fairly acceptable card in Commander.

The real issue with a card like that, in my opinion, would not be its power level, as the card is not too far from the permanent value generated by cards like Mana Crypt and Sol Ring. The problem, I think, would be the impact a critical mass of Vintage-esque cards could have on the format. If the five Moxen and a Black Lotus would individually be fine, compared to the existing Mana rocks of the format, the problem would rise with all of these Reserved List-esque cards becoming legal alongside the existing Mana rocks of the format.

In other words, if the occasional turn 1 Sol Ring can be easily overcome in a multiplayer format, the consistency and redundancy provided by Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Mox Diamond, Mox Opal, Chrome Mox, a Commander legal version of the five original Moxen and Ephemeral Lotus would probably affect negatively the quality of the format. It would not be in the individual cards, but in the sheer number of options a deck could end up having on turn 1, even as a one-shot boost.

If consistent and redundant fast Mana is the problem, we can set aside any attempt at revisiting the most egregious Mana rocks in the Revised List and turn our attention to other cards that could indeed be pseudo-reprinted, provided they are carefully adapted.

Playing it safe: the Magus Treatment

Bazaar of Baghdad is currently legal in Commander, but its thousand-dollar price tag has largely prevented it from showing up in most playgroups. Any attempt at reprinting a close equivalent of the card would risk shaking the fundamentals of the Vintage format, where Bazaar of Baghdad is a key component of Dredge and Survival of the Fittest decks.

The safe solution Wizards of the Coast has already experimented with is to reissue the card’s effect by stapling it onto a creature. This slows down its activation and makes it more vulnerable to opponents’ removals.

Not only is Magus of the Bazaar a safe card to be printed in Eternal formats, but its power is so contained that it ends up seeing only fringe play in Commander, with EDHRec.com reporting the card in a little over 500 decks.

Applying the Magus treatment to Reserved list cards is a good starting point to increase availability of powerful effects in Commander, without risking major shakeups in competitive Eternal formats. Not only that, but Commander lends itself particularly well to importing these iconic effects on Creatures, especially if they are Legendary.

Just to start with an example, a card I would personally love to see brought into Commander is Drop of Honey, a sideboard staple in many Legacy Lands decks. Currently priced around 700 $, the card is largely beyond most Commander’s player reach, showing up in only 64 decks on EDHRec.com.

Nevertheless, I think a greater and more reliable presence of a board-impacting effect like Drop of Honey’s would be great in Commander, encouraging aggressive strategies focused on large Creatures. So, what if the effect was reprinted in the form of a Legendary Creature, too vulnerable and expensive to break Legacy and in a colour combination that is not within Legacy Land’s traditional scope?

Ylla, Mage of Honey, art from “The Dryad” by Evelyn de Morgan

Quite intuitively, this Magus treatment lends itself to revisiting many more powerful effects. If we look away from the most expensive cards on the Reserved List, we can find a lot of Commander legal gems that, however, Wizards cannot reprint in any future preconstructed deck. As a result, their availability for the average Commander player is very limited.

Transmute Artifact, for instance, comes with an almost 100 $ price tag and, as a result, sees play in only a little over 2’000 EDHRec.com decks. On top of being an interesting design, the recent printing of Prime Speaker Vannifar is a nice confirmation that Wizards of the Coast is not afraid to reissue powerful tutoring effects on Legendary Creatures. Sure, constant deck shuffling can be a pain in Commander games, but the card’s effect is not as unmanageable as one may think.

For simpler designs, static effects like City of Solitude could be thrown in the mix as well. Compared to other cards on the Reserved List, City of Solitude is relatively cheap, costing in the range of the ten dollars and currently seeing play in almost 1’300 decks on EDHRec.com. The card is a powerful staple in many Cubes, occasionally shutting down entire strategies and potentially serving as a nice form of protection in Green decks. It even sees play in Legacy Enchantress deck, where its card type synergies effectively with Argothian Enchantress’ namesake effect.

Eell and Marinen, art from “The Forging of the Sampo” by Gallen Kallela and Nael of the Solitude, art from “Oberon and the Mermaid” by Joseph Noel Paton

Applying the Battlebond Treatment to the Reserved List

The Magus treatment is an easy way to approach and rethink Reserved List effects, turning them into printable cards in Eternal format. However, when simply stapling existing effects on a Magi card is not a viable option, a lot of nuance comes into play.

I already mentioned how I think the Battlebond Lands are an extremely good example of adaptation of an existing design to take advantage of the very characteristics of a format. A lot more can be done with the core aspects of Commander, once we have realized it lays its foundations in being:

A multiplayer format
A singleton format
A format with mandatory Commanders and a command zone
A format with players starting at 40 life points
A format with implicit colour restrictions

Morphic Pool is a card that plays amazingly based on the first aspects of the format. While not specifically printed for Commander, Guardian Project also applies perfectly to the format, thanks to the second principle. The already mentioned Command Tower largely benefits from the third principle, as it explicitly takes advantage of the existence of Commanders to build on existing mechanics, such as Mana generation.

On the opposite site of the spectrum, Serra Ascendant and Felidar Sovereign suffer from the repercussions of the fourth principle. With an inflated starting life total, not everything translates smoothly to Commander as a format.

Playing with these core aspects ensures that a lot of design space can be expanded upon, creating and finetuning cards with an implicit guarantee that they are not going to wreck other formats. In essence, sky is the limit.

Colourless Mana, Efficiency and New Cards

Going Colourless

It is no secret that many Commander decks live and die by their colourless Mana rocks. To the surprise of nobody, Sol Ring is by far the most played card in Commander, according to EDHRec.com. Wizards itself has crowned it the poster child of the format, reprinting it as part of every single pre-constructed deck.

While many have advocated the banning of the card due to the supposed unfair advantage it provides, Sol Ring has largely become the gentlemen agreement of the format, a card that is admittedly very powerful, but which is also too strongly imbued in the very soul of Commander to be kicked out. We could draw an easy parallel with Brainstorm in Legacy: likely the strongest and definitely the most played card in the format, it glues whole decks together and it essentially shapes the entire Legacy metagame.

The accessibility of colourless Mana rocks turns them into flexible tools for every deck in need of a ramping boost. And while many Green decks may frown upon the relatively mediocre ramping of Ur Golem’s Eye, decks with limited access to Land ramping may be looking at colourless Mana ramp to pursue a high level of ramping efficiency.

For the sake of this article, we will be only looking at colourless Mana rocks. While in the previous article we focused on coloured Mana, colour fixing is now out of the equation. The goal is to get more Mana, its colour does not necessarily matter. As a result, monocoloured and two-colour decks are likely to be the most impacted by this analysis. Taking things to the extreme, you can look at my Kozilek, Butcher of Truth deck, where efficient and consistent generation of Mana is the only goal of its many Mana rocks.

Risultati immagini per kozilek butcher of truth — Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, art by Michael Komarck

Colourless Mana rock benchmarks

Just like we did in our previous article, let’s start by understanding what are the realistic efficiency levels that can be expected for colourless Mana roc generation:

Mana Crypt is the true outlier of the format, providing a two Mana output for no Mana investment, only taxing the player’s life total for an average of 1.5 life each turn; unsurprisingly, the card is considered among the most powerful Mana rocks in the format and it has been sometimes mentioned as worthy of a ban
3.0 is among the highest efficiency rates in the format, achieved only by Mana Vault and at the cost of the card not untapping on the following turn; having an untap cost greater than its Mana output, this qualifies mostly as a one-shot output during the first turns of the game
2.0 is the almost unparalleled level of efficiency provided by Sol Ring; while this sets a strong precedence for what can be done in the Commander, it really is a one-of case, as there is no other card in the format with a similar ratio and with no downside whatsoever; an hypothetical double Sol Ring, costing two mana and generating four would likely be too powerful for any Magic format we know
1.5 is the efficiency level represented by Grim Monolith, although the card suffers from the doesn’t untap clause we have already seen in Mana Vault; this time, however, the cost of untapping can be paid at any time; as a result, the card easily lends itself to Power Artifact shenanigans
1.0 is the ratio that can be achieved by Basalt Monolith, which joins the club of cards that don’t untap without a Mana investment and which, much like the aforementioned Grim Monolith, easily combos off with Power Artifact
0.75 is the efficiency rate achievable by Thran Dynamo; the card is extremely simple in its design and it provides a quite unique rate, which is found in no other colourless Mana rock in the format
0.67 is the efficiency level achieved by Worn Powerstone, at the cost of having the card entering the battlefield tapped; while this is a common downside for coloured Mana rocks, it is relatively rare among the most played colourless Mana rocks in the format
0.5 is close to the relatively fair ratio of cards like Mind Stone, Hedron Archive and Dreamstone Hedron; as mentioned in our previous article, the effect of converting the Mana rock itself into one or more cards is an additional bonus that slightly skews the efficiency rate; nevertheless, it’s interesting to note how the principle of diminishing returns results in Mind Stone being very beloved in the format, while Dreamstone Hedron sees play only in specific decks

Much like we did last time, we can place each of these cards in a scaled graph and identify the “fine” line, to the right of which we tend to only find unexciting efficiency ratios.

The graph has also been enriched with a couple areas, encompassing mentioned Mana rocks that do not autonomously untap and famously “problematic” cards – by which I only mean the trifecta of Sol Ring, Mana Crypt and Mana Vault, although I am not implying any of these are actually worthy of a ban, in my opinion.

What is missing

If we compare the above graph to what we drafted for coloured Mana rocks, we find out the efficiency ratios here are way more diverse. This is good for the purposes of our analysis, as we have way more milestones and benchmarks to play around.

First and foremost, we have a number of missing intersections that could be easily filled. Among them, the very intuitive intersection of one Mana cost and one Mana output would represent a less powerful version of Sol Ring. Having to withstand such a tough comparison, it would be safe to assume that a card like this, with no additional effect, would be more than safe in our format, albeit unexciting.

Borrowing inspiration from Mind Stone, the card could also feature a self-replacement ability, maybe with an adjusted activation cost to compensate for the cheaper casting cost. Something like the following would likely be an interesting new card for the format.

Light Ring, art from the WikiMedia Commons library

Another intersection that is largely untouched falls between the two Mana cost and two Mana output. Here the situation is a bit trickier, as Sol Ring is again a very hard benchmark to be compared to. On the other hand, Magic has established that the cost for two additional colourless Mana is between three and four generic Mana, thanks to non-problematic cards like Worn Powerstone and Hedron Archive.

As a thought experiment, I’d like to come up with something closer and more aligned to Worn Powerstone and Hedron Archive, rather than Sol Ring. This simply because coming up with a two Mana Sol Ring would just be a lazy design. Safe for the format and not as powerful as the original, but close to another ubiquitous card that most decks would be happy to play.

Let’s instead focus on how Worn Powerstone could be edited to fill the existing gap. Mixing a bit of what we saw from surrounding areas of the scaled graph, the reduced Mana cost of this new card could be easily balanced by having the Artifact being unable to untap on its own. Of course, the cost of untapping the Artifact would have to be at least equal to its Mana output, to prevent self-fuelling infinite engines.

Having the card also entering the battlefield tapped, like the original Worn Powerstone, would at this point turn it into a worse Ur Golem’s Eye, potentially coming into play untapped, if paid for immediately. This because, as we have established, the untapping cost would necessarily be at least two Mana.

All thing considered, removing the enter the battlefield tapped clause would probably be relatively safe. Not only that, but it would lead to a card not unlike Basalt Monolith, which would fall right into place in an untouched slot and would likely result in a relatively clean design.

Sunscorched Jewel, art from the WikiMedia Commons library

Interestingly, we could now theorize a linear “basalt” line, encompassing Basalt Monolith, Sunscorched Jewel and all other potential combinations of equal integer values of Mana cost and Mana output. Sure, a Basalt Monolith costing one Mana, generating one Mana and untapping for one Mana would compare very unfavourably with Sol Ring. But, in the end, what doesn’t?

The complete picture

If we try and merge everything together, from the coloured Mana rocks of our previous article to the colourless staples of the format, passing through the mock cards we have theorized, we end up with a quite dense graph.

Some interesting phenomena can be noted. First and foremost, Magic has often used the enters the battlefield tapped clause to balance Mana availability at its most critical stages of the game. This tool is often used in the middle of our graph, where Artifacts cost between two and three Mana and generate between one and two. Design-wise, this is really a space worth exploring, as it may allow to print aggressively costed version of existing cards, with just the added downside of entering the battlefield tapped:

Would a four Mana Gilded Lotus entering the battlefield tapped be too good in Commander? On one side, it would lead to a turn four that has not impacted the board; on the other, that same turn would be followed by a turn five with eight available Mana, which would be quite a spectacle
What if we introduced a new Sol Ring entering the battlefield tapped? Would it lead to a too unbalanced format, with decks effectively having access to two Sol Rings?

The top-left corner of our graph is empty, but surrounded by cards. Any Magic player knows that’s where the coveted Black Lotus would fit. Or, more correctly, that’s where a persisting, non-self-sacrificing Black Lotus would fit. Needless to say, this is largely an uncharted territory that I believe Magic is not ready to explore. Thran Dynamo and Gilded Lotus have established that the cost of three immediate Mana, with no downside, is between four and five Mana, depending on the output’s colour. We could try and theorize what a realistic downside for a permanent Black Lotus would be, but even adding the dreaded “at the beginning of your next end step, you lose the game” clause would probably result in a bad Commander card and an immediately restricted Vintage card.

Moving downwards and linking back to our previous article, it is interesting to note how the Moxen available in Commander see relatively small play, despite their colourless nature. None of the legal Moxen are among the one hundred most played cards of the format, according to EDHRec.com. Between their relatively limited availability and the quite notable downsides, the legal Moxen often end up being not worth the effort.

Quite frankly, this leads me to believe that, were they legal, the original Moxen would be relatively fine in a multiplayer format like Commander. Sure, Mox Ruby would be an extremely powerful card in Commander, but would it really be too much in a format with Mana Crypt or Sol Ring? Of course, most Commander players would not be willing to spend hundreds of dollars for a Vintage staple, but what if we borrowed inspiration from the Battlebond Lands and ended up with something like this?

Essence Mox, art from the WikiMedia Commons library

Where this leads us

I hope I managed to paint a complete and orderly picture of the most notable Mana rocks in Commander, in terms of efficiency. It is my belief that designing new cards is a process that could really benefit from a complete understanding of the missing pieces we currently have in the format. Some efficiency ratios are yet to be explored and others can probably be finetuned into new designs.

This leads us to asking ourselves: how many of the Eternal staples can and should we have in our format? How can we adapt existing cards into new designs, making sure they become good, but not excessively powerful Commander cards? How do we make sure we do not warp other Eternal formats due to a lack of foresight in card design?

The Battlebond Lands have proven to be a huge success in Commander, so what more can we expect from sets focused on multiplayer action? Until then, I’ll be in the corner, hoarding Mana rocks for my Kozilek, Butcher of Truth deck.

Mana Rocks and Missing Pieces

The cost of ramping

A couple of weeks ago we estimated how Land ramping in Magic has an intrinsic average efficiency of 0,5. In other words, having one additional Mana available on the next turn usually costs two Mana during the current turn.

Our analysis was focused exclusively on Land-based ramping, which, especially in Commander, is considered among the most reliable ways to accelerate your battleplan. Lands are in fact among the most resilient permanents the game has to offer. The means to destroy them are way scarcer than, for instance, Creature removal options.

To put things into perspective: at the time of writing, Strip Mine is played in roughly 33’000 decks on EDHREC.com, while Swords to Plowshares happens to be in almost 66’000 EDHREC.com decks, despite its colour restriction of being White instead of Colourless. To be fair, it is worth mentioning that Swords to Plowshares has a far higher reprint count than Strip Mine.

That said, Green is really the only colour capable of such a redundant and consistent ramp, with most of the non-Green decks forced to rely on rocks for colourless or coloured Mana acceleration. The higher accessibility of Mana rocks is, quite intuitively, balanced by a lower level of resilience, compared to Land ramp. Although one could expect to also see a decrease in efficiency when moving from Land ramp to Mana rocks, it is interesting to note that this is not always the case.

Rampant Growth, the benchmark for Land ramping, guarantees access to an additional Mana of any colour during the following turn. An immediate comparison comes in the form of Coldsteel Heart, which provides the same level of efficiency over the same turn span. Of course, Land-related and Artifact-related synergies may lead players to pick one alternative over the other. Aside for that, the greater vulnerability of Artifacts is usually the main aspect that gets brought to the table when selecting between the two.

Darksteel Ingot, art by Martina Pilcerova

I would like to separate further analysis between coloured and colourless Mana rocks, as they present rather different levels of efficiency based on the desired output. Once we have identified some notable benchmarks, we can try and see if any trend or direct correlation exists.

Coloured Mana rocks benchmarks

As exemplified by the already mentioned Coldsteel Heart, the easier comparison between Land ramp and Mana rocks comes with the analysis of Artifacts providing coloured Mana. Just for the sake of clarity, here we’re grouping all Mana rocks providing Mana of one or more colours. These include both cards providing Mana of a single colour, like Fire Diamond, and cards providing Mana of any colour, like Darksteel Ingot.

We can find some examples of defined efficiency ratios among the most played cards in Commander, which will serve as benchmarks for further discussions:

0.5 is the already mentioned efficiency level set for coloured Mana on the following turn; again, Coldsteel Heart is the perfect example; as anticipated, this is aligned with the Land ramping efficiency we identified in our previous article on the topic
0.33 is close to the efficiency level set for an additional coloured Mana available on the same turn; this is not the exact efficiency level that can be achieved for this effect, as a card like Manalith sees little to no play in the format, getting instead overshadowed by equivalents that add something more to the equation; the aforementioned Darksteel Ingot includes the benefit of being indestructible, cards like Dimir Locket can turn themselves into actual card advantage, and so on
0.6 is the efficiency level that can be achieved when economies of scale kick in, as exemplified by Gilded Lotus; while this seems to be a true outlier for ramping efficiency purposes, it is worth mentioning how additional Mana in the later turns of the game tends to lose value, compared to the first, key turns; to put things in Magic terms, ramping from two to four Mana tends to be way more crucial than ramping from six to eight; for an economic explanation of this concept, I strongly suggest to check out the concept of diminishing returns

Having defined these main benchmarks for coloured Mana rocks, there is a couple of further outliers that are probably worth mentioning. Again, I’d like to frame these in the context of their Mana efficiency to understand where they fit in the economy of Commander:

0.67 is a coloured Mana efficiency that can be achieved every other turn by Coalition Relic, a card that, to this day, I have troubles understanding; its effect is quite interesting, design-wise, as it either functions as a pseudo Manalith, or it stores its Mana for a turn, doubling its output for the following; because of its unique nature, it is quite challenging to really consider it a three-Mana-for-two-Mana rock, but I thought it was worth mentioning it, at least for the sake of completeness
0.5 is a level of coloured Mana efficiency that can be achieved on the same turn by Coveted Jewel, another interesting card that is very hard to frame in terms of pure Mana efficiency; as a coloured Mana generator it is quite impressive, even when keeping in mind the concept of diminishing returns; the fact that it also draws three cards upon entering the battlefield is an incredible upside, balanced by the very critical aspect of having it losing consistency due to its unique downside
0.2 is an efficiency level that is usually deemed too low for Commander purposes, unless coupled with very strong additional effects; while Meteorite sees little to no play in the format, Pyromancer’s Goggles and Tome of the Guildpact can see play when the additional effect makes the card worthy of a slot in the deck
Moving to the opposite side, we encounter the egregious slot of the Moxen: Mox Opal, Chrome Mox and Mox Diamond; these cards balance a free one Mana output with a more or less restrictive clause, such as discarding a Land card, exiling a coloured card or needing two more Artifacts to be powered up

One side note is due, before we move forward: the Moxen indeed possess the highest efficiency ratio of all the card we mentioned so far. On the other hand, their conditional usage or downside make them harder to frame in the context of this analysis; therefore, we will elaborate on their role in Commander in subsequent articles.

The coloured Mana “fine” line

Having established average ratios, we can easily map them on a scaled graph.

First and foremost, it is interesting to note how we can identify a “fine” line, connecting two of the examples of powerful coloured Mana rocks. For the purposes of this plotting, we are excluding Coldsteel Heart from our analysis, as its enters the battlefield tapped nature skews its Mana output of a turn, compared to Darksteel Ingot and Gilded Lotus. Again, for the purposes of this analysis we will be considering Darksteel Ingot as the benchmark for three-Mana-for-one-Mana rocks, without factoring in the additional effects or abilities these cards may have.

Assuming the curve linking these two benchmarks together is indeed a straight line, we can determine its equation to be something like:

Coloured Mana output = Mana input – 2

While at first glance this looks like a solid assumption, a couple of additional conditions are to be noted:

The line is valid only for integer values of both coloured Mana output and coloured Mana input; Magic as a game only operates on integer values – aside, of course, for Just Desserts and the other Un-cards
While the line itself is not necessarily limited to specific ranges, it indeed ceases to make sense below the three Mana value of Darksteel Ingot and its equivalents; past that point we would get into a two mana investment for a zero Mana output, which would be pointless; decreasing further, we would get into negative values of Mana, which, again, do not exist in Magic

Having defined this line, we can see how most of the available coloured Mana rocks to its right can be considered somehow underwhelming, if not for their added properties. While I would never question anyone’s choice of running Pyromancer’s Goggles or Tome of the Guildpact in their Commander decks, I would expect this to be mostly due to the cards’ additional effects and not to the Mana output alone.

Missing pieces

Assuming we can use this line for predictive purposes, we can theorize mock versions of potential new cards that would be safely printable in Commander and, maybe, draw parallels with existing Magic cards from outside of the sole Mana rock environment.

Along the “fine” line we identified, we easily meet the integer values crossing of a four Mana investment for a two coloured Mana output. And that would easily translate into a card like the following.

Flower of Fecundity, art from the WikiMedia Commons library

Not only would the above mock card be in line with existing effects seeing print, but, linking back to our parallel with Land ramping, it would also echo the effect of Explosive Vegetation, a card that sees plenty of Commander play, but which has never proven to be too powerful. On top of that, we would be looking at a coloured – and arguably more powerful – version of Sisay’s Ring, which, as a card, has itself been overshadowed by Hedron Archive.

Jumping a little bit ahead of ourselves, we can draw some parallels between colourless and coloured Mana rocks, to frame exactly where a card like Flower of Fecundity would fit. Hedron Archive sets a very strong precedence, sanctioning how a 0.5 efficiency rate for colourless Mana is not necessarily enough to make a good Mana rock. An additional effect is demanded to make the card worth playing. In fact, players can have easy access to a 0.67 colourless Mana efficiency rate via Thran Dynamo at the four Mana cost mark.

On the other hand, we have established quite intuitively that the ability to convert a Mana rock into a new card is often used as a relevant add-up to existing and relatively underplayed cards. In other words, Manalith sees very little Commander play, while Dimir Locket is an unexciting, but relatively playable card in Blue-Black decks.

By pseudo-reverse engineering the most played Mana rocks costing three to four Mana, I would say it’s safe to assume that trading off the efficiency of Thran Dynamo for a coloured Mana output would be relatively safe in a format where Explosive Vegetation has already been established as a very safe and balanced card.

On the other hand, should we be concerned by the idea of allowing all colours to have their own untapped Explosive Vegetation, we could introduce one of the limitations we have already seen for coloured Mana rocks.

Where I think this new tapped version of the card fails is in its positioning on the scaled graph we introduced. By placing it in the four-mana-for-two-Mana intersection, we may be led to believe that another “tapped line” exists, linking together Coldsteel Heart and Flower of Fecundity. This seems to be a relatively reasonable trade-off, as it moves from the two-Mana-for-one-Mana intersection of Coldsteel Heart and builds upwards.

The coloured Mana rocks and the possible “tapped line”

By simply looking at the graph, we can theorize the following equation to be reasonable for Mana rocks in Commander:

Coloured Mana output (tapped) = 0.5 x Mana input

By plotting this straight line towards higher Mana costs, we would be tempted to guess that a linear progression is indeed to be expected. In other words, that a card like the following would be reasonable for printing and quite acceptable for Commander purposes.

Nightshade Violet, art from the WikiMedia Commons library

And before we move forward, it is obvious to see how unfavourably a card like this would compare to Gilded Lotus. Either due to the phenomenon of diminishing returns, either because the line we plotted is simply unrealistic, Nightshade Violet is a card that just compares poorly to most of the other options we have in Commander.

We could move things forward and theorize a nonlinear link between Mana input and tapped coloured Mana output. However, we seem to simply have too few points to perform a realistic plotting.

Moving forward

While the introduction of parabolas would be an excellent subject for a future article, I’d like to first focus on the missing part of all this analysis: colourless Mana rocks.

These are the joy and the bane of the format, depending on who you talk to. Sol Ring is either the most ban-worthy and the most iconic card of the format. And sometimes it’s both. Join me in the next article on Mana rocks, where we will be looking at efficiency and trends of colourless Mana.

And, finally, we will also attempt some colourless-to-coloured comparison for Mana rocks’ output.