What we know so far

Commander 2019 is the eleventh paper-based supplementary product to be released by Wizards of the Coast as part of their EDH themed series. It is the eighth iteration of the preconstructed deck series, which started back in 2011 with the first batch of decks, simply titled Commander.

Over the course of their history, Commander preconstructed decks have explored almost every possible colour combination, progressively abandoning the formula of five symmetrical decks per set and expanding freely on themes, tribes, concepts and ideas. If the first sets were all wedges, shards, single colours and colour pairs, the most recent decks have featured Cats, Lands and Dragons and Top of the Library as their core themes.

Much like the previous two iterations of the product, Commander 2019 will feature four decks instead of five, likely balanced by themes and concepts, rather than colours. The decrease in deck count is justified by the format’s nature itself, which, despite being open to any number of players, best lends itself to tables of four.

Not much more is known so far, though we can probably look at the most recent sets to see what, if anything, Wizards may want to course correct with this upcoming release.

Commander 2018 was received with very mixed reviews by the community. While these preconstructed decks tend to always be greeted with at least moderate appreciation, many players noted how the 14% price bump was not really backed up by any increase in average card value for secondary market purposes. Jim Casale published a very good summary for CoolStuffInc.com, which I strongly encourage you to read.

Even though Wizards justified this price increase as a way to legitimize powerful reprints, these were in fact few and far between. Enchantress Presence was a very welcome reprint, but that alone was not enough to justify the increased price tag.

Moreover, a lot of complaints were directed at the very unexciting Mana base of each of the four deck. Krosan Verge is always a nice card to see in a preconstructed deck, but it’s not exactly a card that builds hype and desire towards a set. Even the Jund Land-themed deck had a surprisingly humble Mana base, with a number of disappointing cards thrown in to fill an implicit nonbasic Land quota. Of course, nobody was expecting three Fetchlands and three Shocklands per deck, but even just one Wooded Foothills would have been appreciated.

Setting aside this negative aspect, it is worth mentioning how the decks had a surprising number of cards created specifically to fill existing gaps. Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow had limited use in the deck she was printed in, but she embodied the much-needed Ninja Commander many players had been clamouring for over the past years.

Tuvasa, the Sunlit was a bit of a compromise between the need for a powerful Enchantress and the need for a Bant Legendary Merfolk. While Merfolk players up to that point had to compromise between the Azorius Merfolks of Sygg, River Guide and the Simic Merfolks from Ixalan, Tuvasa, the Sunlit could easily fill the Bant gap, despite missing any relevant Merfolk text aside for her Creature type. Sure, the result is an Enchantress ability that feel a bit tacked on, but as an Enchantress player, I am not complaining.

Varina, Lich Queen was printed with almost the same principle in mind. Innistrad Zombies were traditionally in Dimir colours, while Amonkhet Zombies were mostly Orzhov. Do you want to play both in your Zombie Tribal Commander deck? Here, have this. Yennet, Cryptic Sovereign and Thantis, the Warweaver built on the same principle, becoming the default Commanders for Sphinxes and Spiders, respectively.

It is obvious that Wizards’ Commander design team is keeping a very keen eye on what is missing in the format and what players are hoping to see the most. And considering that these missing pieces have been among the most well received cards from the last set, I would expect this trend to continue.

What Commander doesn’t need (right now)

Both Commander 2014 and Commander 2018 featured Planeswalkers as their centre stage cards. And while they made for very interesting design choices, I am not sure a new cycle of Planeswalker Commanders is on its way. I am fine with the concept itself, but I do not think the format needs a yearly injection of four new Planeswalkers.

The crux of the matter boils down to the fact that Planeswalkers tend to slow multiplayer games down quite significantly, introducing Commanders that are not capable of dealing damage on their own and that, in turn, demand to be attacked to be dealt with, removing pressure from players’ life totals. They surely generate interesting subgames, but they don’t necessarily improve a format that does not actually need to be improved.

Is it a mechanic worth revisiting? Probably. Right now? Probably not.

Partner is another mechanic that I must confess I am very on the fence about. First introduced in Commander 2016, the mechanic was revisited in Battlebond, where it was adjusted to limit its possible combinations. And if, on one hand, I like the Battlebond Partner mechanic, on the other I must confess its original iteration in Commander 2016 still feels extremely messy. To explain why, I’d like to frame it around Metcalfe’s Law.

The original version of Partner was interesting in the self-contained context of Commander 2016, where the number of combinations was large, but finite. Unfortunately, any new Partner that comes afterwards increases the number of combinations exponentially. This, unfortunately, is what throws a wrench into the works.

Adapting Metcalfe’s Law, it is intuitive how each new Partner introduces a number of new connections equal to the number of previously existing Partners. To put it simply, each new individual Partner card requires thorough testing with each of the existing ones, to ensure the newly introduced pair does not generate odd or overpowered interactions.

We currently have 15 original Partner cards, for a total of 105 possible combinations. If we introduced just eight new Partners, meaning only two per each Commander 2019 deck, we would be adding 148 new combinations. This may tickle your deckbuilding fantasies, but think of how much playtesting would be needed to ensure none of the 253 resulting pairs accidentally breaks the whole format. Sure, most pairs may be intuitive to analyse, but the sheer impact of just eight new non-exclusive Partners would be huge.

What Commander needs

Commander right now does not need major improvements. As a format, it is very balanced and hardly including problematic cards. Sure, we have the occasional complaints against Cyclonic Rift, Expropriate, Tooth and Nails and other very powerful cards. But we also have had no ban in almost two years, after the departure of Leovold, Emissary of Trest. And the format is still thriving.

Rather than needing cards to be removed from the format, Commander probably needs key archetypes to be better supported or expanded upon. Aggro decks in the format tend to be weaker than Control strategies, mainly due to players’ increased life totals and the higher number of opponents to take down.

Unfortunately, Boros has been the de facto colour pair for pure Aggro strategies and this has limited its effectiveness and power quite significantly within the context of Commander. Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice has seen a lot of Standard play, but it is far from being a great Commander.

Firesong and Sunspeeker were a step in the right direction, providing a new twist on Boros that still managed to feel flavourful. Unfortunately, the card alone was not enough to restore players’ faith into the Legion. Not only that, but Firesong and Sunspeeker were a Buy a Box promo and many players did not have access to them.

The fundamental problem with Boros is not the lack of powerful cards, but the fact that it has to rely on inefficient colourless options to provide for the key components it is missing: ramp, card draw and recursion. Even alone, all other colours can do at least one of these excellently, while Boros struggles with some and completely neglects others.

To be completely fair, Red has improved quite significantly over the past years, with cards like Stolen Strategy filling in for much needed card advantage effects. White, on the other hand, has only recently started to catch up, thanks to the very recent printing of Smothering Tithe. What is still missing, however, is a Boros Commander that doesn’t necessarily need to be turned sideways to win games.

What I’d like to see in Commander 2019

First and foremost, I hope we get a new Boros Commander, either in a dedicated two-colour deck, or within a three-colour deck, where it just plays as one of the ninety-nine. We already have a plethora or big and aggressive Boros Legendary Creatures, so what I really hope to see is something in the vein of the followings.

I know the effects may lean a bit too much towards Black. But these proposals are nothing but general ideas, rather than actual designs that I hope to see printed. My hope is to finally see Boros get cheap, reliable Legendary engines that still play with the Legion’s signature Creature-based theme. Either by providing recurring card selection, or by introducing something not too distant from the impulsive draw effects we have already seen in Red.

I know this would not help Boros with its other weak points, such as ramping and recursion. But Boros itself is not necessarily a colour pair devoted to generating Mana or reanimating Creatures. At worse, these two new Commanders could play Smothering Tithe to ramp and Emeria Shepherd for recursion purposes. But, at least, we would have a starting point to build something new with Boros that isn’t just Aggro.

What you may be asking yourselves is: why now? Boros has historically been a problematic colour pair in Commander. Why should this be the year we get anything new for the Legion? Long story short: because the problem has become universally accepted, to the point of becoming a joke. Both Commanderin’ and The Command Zone podcasts have mentioned it time and time again. Gavin Verhey himself in a recent Commanderin’ episode has mentioned how Wizards is keeping an eye on Commander, with the goal of improving the most problematic and lacking colours in the format.

Another colour combination we have never seen represented in Commander preconstructed decks is colourless. Truth been told, the closest thing we have had was the Commander 2014 Daretti, Scrap Savant preconstructed deck, which was mostly Artifact-based. Support to this quite unique deck type has been minimal in recent Commander history and we have lived almost three years of Magic without a single mention to the Eldrazi. The Eldrazi fatigue we were all suffering between 2015 and 2016 is now long gone.

Commander 2019 could be a great opportunity to print a fully colourless deck, either themed around a Legendary Artifact Creature, someone related to the Eldrazi, or even Ugin himself. What if Commander 2019 was the set that gave us a transforming version of Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, not unlike the treatment Bolas received in 2018 with Nicol Bolas, the Ravager? And no, this would not go against my no Planeswalker in Commander 2019 prediction, because the frontman of the deck would be Ugin in its pre-ignited Creature form.

Assuming Boros and Colourless are really going to be showcased as two of the four Commander 2019 preconstructed decks, the two remaining decks could feature some of the colour combinations we are yet to see in this type of product. Azorius, Dimir, Rakdos and Gruul have never been showcased in a preconstructed Commander deck, so far, and I think this is where we could start looking at.

It is also no secret that a lot of Commander preconstructed decks have been at least inspired by the current Standard environment, providing an easy access to Commander for Standard players wanting to play their cards in a non-rotating format. This is why, for instance, the Edgar Markov preconstructed deck was printed alongside the Ixalan block, or why Varina, Lich Queen came to us only one year after the Amonkhet block.

This year the Standards sets were all about Ravnica. And while the sets featured a lot of familiar faces and newcomers, two Legendary Creatures have been notably absent, so far: we know Borborygmos has fallen from grace, but he is also very much alive. Similarly, Ruric Thar, the Unbowed is nowhere to be seen, despite a mention in Gruul Guildgate. On top of that, Ilharg, the Raze-Boar has been strongly hinted at being a crucial, possibly upcoming player in Ravnica’s conflicts. I fully expect War of the Spark to feature at least one of these three characters, but, with the expected plethora of Planeswalkers to be printed, I do not expect three different Gruul Legendary Creatures to appear in a single set. This leaves room for at least one of the three to show up in Commander 2019, either in a dedicated Gruul deck, or as part of a three-colour deck.

Jund was a colour combination we saw just last year with Lord Windgrace, so it’s safe to say the same shard is unlikely to be represented again in 2019. Assuming Naya is also excluded, due to the strong overlap with the theoretical Boros deck, we are left with Temur as a possible wedge. This is where I think a lot can be done in Commander 2019.

Temur as a wedge was only represented by the Riku of Two Reflections deck back in 2011. The deck was also notably absent from every Commander Anthology product so far, despite including some very popular and beloved Legendary Creatures.

On top of that, Ravnica Allegiance has introduced two different mechanics prominently featuring +1/+1 counters: Evolve in Simic and Riot in Gruul. Cards like Bolrac-Clan Crusher hint at interestingly cross-synergies between the two Guilds and, personally, I think this is a design space that can be very heavily expanded upon in a preconstructed deck. I can really see a new Temur deck featuring two new Legendary Creatures and maybe an Animar, Soul of Elements reprint. A new version of Borborygmos or Ruric Thar, the Unbowed or a first printing of Ilharg, the Raze-Boar could also be featured in the deck.

We have finally come to the fourth deck. With Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow being such a well-received Legendary Creature from last year’s Commander product, there is a chance Dimir is going to see some further support in Commander 2019. We are definitely not going to see another Esper preconstructed deck, after last week’s Aminatou, the Fateshifter. I would exclude Grixis, as well, as it would lead to the set featuring three Red decks out of four.

Sultai would be an interesting colour combination to feature in a Commander preconstructed deck, as it has not been showcased in any product since The Mimeoplasm preconstructed deck from 2011. It is also worth mentioning that Muldrotha, the Gravetide is gaining a lot of popularity in the format and further support for Sultai Graveyard-focused strategies would be very welcome. On the other hand, The Mimeoplasm preconstructed deck has already been reissued in Commander Anthology Volume II in 2018, so we could be fine with no Sultai in Commander 2019.

With this deck being the only one from the set featuring Black, I would also assume that a lot of the its focus would be put on Graveyard shenanigans. And with surveil being such an interesting and well received mechanic in Guilds of Ravnica, I think a Dimir Graveyard-matters deck would probably be a safe proposal.

And maybe, just maybe, this could also be a chance to print a transforming version of Tezzeret, the Seeker, portraying the moment of his Spark’s ignition. Much like my Ugin, the Spirit Dragon guess, this would tie in beautifully with Ravnica’s storyline.

Wrapping up

Just to recap what I think we will see in Commander 2019 this year, if I were to put my money on four decks, I would probably go for:

1. A Boros deck, primarily focused on Tokens
2. A Colourless deck, possibly featuring Ugin and an Artifact theme
3. A Temur deck, primarily focused on +1/+1 counters
4. A Dimir deck, primarily focused on Graveyard shenanigans

I think Battlebond Partners are also very likely to return soon. As they take relatively small design space in the economy of a whole Commander deck, it is possible that Commander 2019 will be including some of these pre-paired Partners. Much like the other enemy colour pairs, Boros already has a Battlebond Partner pair in Sylvia Brightspear and Korvath Brightflame, while allied colour pairs do not currently have any equivalent.

I think Commander 2019 could be a good starting point to progressively rollout allied Battlebond Partner pairs, starting with Dimir and maybe Gruul. Just for the sake of symmetry, these would probably not be the lonely frontmen of the preconstructed deck, but just two of the cards included in the list. I personally do not see Battlebond Partners in Commander 2019 as something assured, or even likely, but I sure hope to be wrong on this.

And finally, the pain point. With Wizards getting rid of the MSRP, I think it’s safe to assume Commander 2019 will be implicitly aligned with last year’s price tag. The actual retail price will be obviously based on the demand for the product and the reprints it will include. While I think we are nowhere near the desired one Fetchland per deck, the mixed reception of Commander 2018 demands a better reprint approach for this year’s product. Considering we are also headed towards three months full of releases, with War of the Spark coming in April, Modern Horizons in May and Magic 2020 in June, product fatigue will likely be an issue.

This is Wizard’s chance to step up their Commander game and really fill Commander 2019 with sought-after reprints. I’m not asking a Mana Crypt in each deck, but what if the Temur list included a Sylvan Library?

So, this is what I think we will see in August 2019. What do you think is headed our way in the upcoming preconstructed decks for this year’s Commander release? What colour combinations and themes are going to be featured?

Until anything official is shared, all we can do is speculate. But aren’t we Magic players great at speculating?