Welcome back to The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly - the series where we look at every new set and analyze the new potential commanders to see whether they'll be worth building. We look at their potential power, consider whether their design looks fun or interesting, and finally give them a grade based on whether they'll be good (fun to play, a positive contributor to the format) bad (weak and/or uninteresting, not worth building) or ugly (those broken commanders that make you groan when your opponent decides to play them). And sometimes we remember that we're supposed to have a western theme. Yee haw!
We're back to classic magic IP with Reality Fracture—a set about multiverses, or alternate realities, or Jace having an aneurysm; I'm not sure, I don't read the lore. Either way, though, it looks really interesting, with some seriously strange mechanics like "empower Jace" which makes a planeswalker token, and tons of alternative-universe-counterpart legends and planeswalkers, which means we've got a ton of potential commanders to sift through, at least by universes within standards. But do more legends equal more viable commanders? Let's take a look.
We basically just got a much better version of this in Kili the Resourceful, minus the targeted spell bit. That part does make it easier to trigger on enemy turns with cheap cantrips like Heal, which does add some interest here, but there's only 7 1-mana cantrips that target your creature in white, and 3 of them require that the creature is blocking. Not completely useless, but pretty limited.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Ghalta is easy to cast quite cheaply for the type of deck that would want to play him, but it's hard to overlook the downsides compared to existing options like Arcades, the Strategist which offer tons of value as well as additional colors, which is particularly valuable when constrained to a fairly small subset of creatures (though white is likely the deepest color for it). Ghalta probably has the most aggressive potential, but between playing a bunch of otherwise-garbage creatures and lacking draw power, it's likely pretty fragile.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Might be some utility for this in the 99, but in the command zone, this doesn't do much of anything, particularly in white which doesn't have much land ramp.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Another card with 99 potential, but doesn't likely do enough to sit in the zone. Most lifegain decks would prefer a payoff rather than an enabler in the zone, and this one is pretty vanilla. Not impossible, but not that most interesting.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Speaking of lifegain payoffs, Lyra is a reasonably potent one, either alone or with other angels. We've had plenty of Ajani's Pridemate commanders, but adding flying means this is much more likely to connect for lethal, and the option to go wide with angels could get out of control fast, especially since many angels also synergize with lifegain. Doesn't provide its own lifegain like Minwu, White Mage, but that's easily worth the tradeoff for a lower cost and evasion.
Final Judgment: Good
Final Judgment: Good
As essentially a blink engine, there's a lot of stronger options that don't force you to recast whatever you're bouncing. She is flexible in being able to bounce any permanent, but creatures are usually what you want to bounce anyway, which puts a lot of much more efficient commanders ahead of her.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Fairly easy to trigger, and with some effort this could make a thopter on each turn. But this being a 5-drop and requiring a lot of setup, I don't think that reward is realistically worth it beyond bracket 2.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
This is a weak enough card already, but being in the command zone eliminates the element of surprise. I guess you could use it to ultimate a walker, perhaps paired with some blink spells, but there are better ways to do this.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Original Thalia was never a very popular commander, and this is very similar, trading a higher cost for asymmetry. Having a hate piece in the command zone is never going to make you very popular, but in this case maybe it won't matter as much since she's pretty weak at 4 mana.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Lot of text for a 2/1 flyer for 2, but none of it does much. Not enough to support a planeswalker deck, and the activated ability is pretty random, also not synergizing particularly well with planeswalkers. Ultimately being a 2/1 flyer for 2 is probably his best attribute.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Hardened Scales is a solid card because it's so cheap, but at 3 this isn't terribly interesting even in the 99. The absurdly overpriced activated ability doesn't really make any difference.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Locking down combat is hard to take advantage of, and white is one of the colors that most wants to cast spells during combat. The double strike trigger is reminiscent of Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima, but has less flexibility, fewer colors, and lacks his saboteur trigger. Jin is a pretty strong commander, but those are some huge knocks that make Yuriko pretty mediocre.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Maybe there's something I'm missing, but this doesn't look very interesting. A looter that costs 3 is definitely behind the curve, and while the untap is easy to trigger, looting generally gets less valuable with repetition, as your hand quality improves.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
While "win the game" based on emptying your library, attached to a blue creature, might raise some concern, this seems like easily the weakest version of the effect. Getting through for damage isn't something a lab-man combo deck is usually interested in, and having this in the command zone makes it much harder to pull off unexpectedly. Seems extremely fragile and telegraphed, which makes it incredibly risky. If you lose to this, you probably deserved it.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
This will see plenty of 99 play. As a commander, it might have some room in some metas, as it's undoubtedly powerful, but it's awfully vanilla. I guess if you really like the Sensei's Divining Top + Future Sight combo?
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
The ETB is pretty boring, though I guess it becomes okay if you can blink her repeatedly. The untap effect would be easy to infinite with in green, but in blue it seems too expensive to be very interesting.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
There's something very aesthetic about blue angels. As a colorshifted Resplendent Angel, drawing 3 cards is harder than gaining five life, but drawing is more valuable of an enterprise than lifegain. The activated ability is cheaper, but doesn't help in combat and requiring getting through for damage. But none of this matters too much, since Resplendent Angel can't be a commander, whereas Lyra can. But while she has an effect that I think some decks will like, her payoff seems relatively weak to me, and while she can be enabled on enemy turns, by that point you're probably just spinning wheels drawing cards when you ought to be playing something to the board. I do think she's cool, and I really want to give her a passing grade, but I think she's more of a cool pick than a good one.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
He's an okay drawing engine, and scry/survel is fairly easy to trigger, but it's not really efficient enough to be too compelling.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Somehow he's even more of a dumb beater than the original version. For 6 mana, this isn't remotely interesting.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
A lot has been said about this card, and I do think it could have legs in some environments, but I don't think it's too scary for normal commander, and I definitely don't see it as a powerful commander itself. Only applying to instants and sorceries rules out most actual win conditions, and while making your answers uninteractive is powerful, I'm not sure it's worth a card, let alone the command zone. You can ensure risky wincon-ish spells like Rite of Replication resolve, but I just don't think that's an advantage worth building a deck around.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Pretty cheap I guess, but I'm not playing this as a commander.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Pretty expensive I guess, I'm not playing this as a commander.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Really going out with a whimper on the blue legends here. This does impressively little, considering all the words on its text box.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
White Danitha got the better trigger in the divorce. Triggering on removal is nice, but a +1 counter is such a nothing reward, and it doesn't even trigger on equipment (or something similar to maintain symmetry), which seems odd.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
I like self-recurring creatures, but 5 is too much, and even if it were more efficient, it's not usually the role you want your commander to fill. Plus this card makes me feel bad. To the dumpster with ye.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Pretty mediocre hate card, especially since the last ability has no effect against most decks. The ward barely matters because people probably wouldn't bother to use removal on him anyway. I guess it's neat that you can give him lifelink?
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Combining self-mill with reanimation is nice, but only getting to reanimate once makes this a pretty uninteresting option. Add in a steep mana cost and I'm out.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
There are a few synergies in black, but when the most popular card in the deck is despondency, effectively Rancor without trample for twice as much mana…yeah there's not really enough room here. Should have been blue for Chant of the Skifsang.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Can't really see any reason to run this as a commander. I guess with creatures that enter with -1 counters this could be a reliable upside, but that doesn't sound remotely interesting for commander, let alone in the zone.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
The drain effect is very overcosted at 5, but as a way to fuel growing her, it's a bit more interesting. Considering she doesn't come with evasion, though, and requires setting up a whole aristocrats deck just to get a big beater, she's still not too compelling.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Can't use the discard ability, and the main version is just a beater with conditions. Pass.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Somehow a worse effect than his white counterpart, for twice as much mana. That'd be a no.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Oddly decent amongst the slew of terrible black uncommons, since he usually pings everyone for three on ETB in addition to the discard. Still likely more of a 99 card, since black isn't great at blink, but you might be able to get a stew going with symmetrical discard. The "one or more" clause prevents this from going crazy with wheels, though (not that black has many wheels, per se), so this is still a fairly tricky build.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Mostly reads like a glorified Fleshbag Marauder to me. Not something I'd usually build around, but some recursion could make him annoying, and maybe at some point he could become a lethal threat. Not great, but could be worse.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
I've never been a fan of commanders that grow from playing other creatures. If I'm trying to kill my opponents with commander damage, what do I need other creatures for? I can see this hitting reasonably hard, but needing to continuously spam creatures for this to do something seems like…why not just make a token deck and be done with it?
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
The most interesting thing here is the typo. This same set has a much better haste enabler in the command zone at the exact same cost.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Somewhat better than it looks, since you can trigger this for each opponent, netting 3 rummages and 6 total counters, +3 for every other card you discarded earlier in the turn. Get a couple double strikers, cycle some cards, and you can rack up damage pretty quickly. I'm almost tempted to bump this into the good camp, but at 5 mana, it's a little pricey. Still, though, pretty interesting design for an uncommon.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
I guess it's an outlet for enormous amounts of mana, but there's gotta be more efficient ways to win.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Like his white counterpart, there's not enough landfall activation to make this very interesting. Maybe sees some 99 play.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Not the worst ability for a 1-drop, but not efficient enough to be interesting.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Pretty expensive buff, though certainly capable of giving a big power boost at instant speed. Hard to imagine being too excited about this, but it's not completely worthless.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
One of the most efficient haste outlets we've seen, so I expect it will see a decent amount of 99 play. Not something I'd be too interested in for the command zone, though.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Decently threatening beater, but I'd rather have a cheaper double striker in the command zone that has more useful abilities and/or more colors. And the trigger doesn't really help at all with a voltron plan.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Not a bad ability, really, as a half-powered, half-costed Hawkeye, Young Avenger. Has an outsized impact with cards like Pyrohemia, and prowess can help keep him alive through some symmetrical wipes like Pyroclasm. Ultimately probably a little too small-ball to be a great commander, but I could see him being decent.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Decent triggered ability for a commander, though we've seen a similar effect on Balmor, Battlemage Captain, who's much cheaper and grants evasion. Really the bigger knock is being mono-red, though. Not unplayable or anything, but kinda basic.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Doesn't grow fast enough to be very interesting, particularly as a 5 mana 4/4. 5 mana for a weaker proliferate is fine but again, not exciting.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Doubly unfortunate: Being mono-green obviously nerfs this badly, but even then, his etb trigger only putting lands to hand is not strong enough to be interesting.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Much harder to make cheap than his white counterpart, plus his effect isn't terribly exciting beyond just being a big fatty, which the original did better.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Not the most creative naming scheme with the Yanggu twins. With something like springleaf parade he could do a bad seedborn muse impression, but I don't think there's enough good mana-producing tokens for it to be worth the effort, on top having ways to use the mana efficiently.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Potentially potent mana dork, but hard to imagine in the command zone. For an extra mana, Selvala, Eager Trailblazer provides a ton more value and (most likely) mana generation.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Lands are rarely targeted for removal, so I don't see hexproof making much of a difference. Recurring a land for 2 ensures a steady supply of fetches, generates value of cycling or sac effects, and makes any obnoxious lands pretty sticky. So this does have some interesting potential, though being mono-green is limiting, and I don't think it's efficient enough to be terribly powerful. Cute, though.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Tutors in the command zone have definite power to become problematic, and a tutor as broad as Pia is extra dangerous. The most dangerous thing it seems like people have found so far is Food Chain combo, though there's likely other powerful lines. I'm not completely convinced she's a problem, but it's definitely something I'd be wary of if it shows up at a table.
Final Judgment: Ugly
Final Judgment: Ugly
Guess he's a boring beater in every timeline.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Green lifegain is definitely weaker than white, and reach isn't the keyword I want on my growing threat. Of course the discard is irrelevant.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
The etb is merely unimpressive and boring, but what is going on with that activation cost? Yeesh.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Hell of an upgrade for the "whenever you scry or surveil" archetype that Proft debuted. Requires more moving parts, since you need to also go wide, but the payoff is great, and starting off with a flash flying 3/4 for 4 means that even with no other creatures this is still a threat. Goes crazy with Gossip's Talent and a decent token producer.
Final Judgment: Good
Final Judgment: Good
Ugh, this is a kind of commander I have a hard time evaluating because they often trend towards combo lines. The only-when-cast restriction obviously limits this, but it still works with any clones in your graveyard to repeat the trigger. Granted, the mana value restriction also limits the options, and since everything is exiled, it's pretty tough to go properly infinite. My guess is that this is too limited to do anything degenerate, though it could still be a lot of value when it enters—which is fair, for a 6-drop.
Final Judgment: Good
Final Judgment: Good
Kinda underwhelming compared to the other sphinges—the activated ability is really too expensive to tilt the scales much, and the attack trigger seems like a watered-down version of mishra, claimed by gix. Where it does get nastier is with infect, since the creatures themselves are the source of the damage (and I want to mention that I realized this before looking at EDHrec…but now that I am, yep, that seems like what everyone is building). While this could definitely be nasty, it is limited somewhat but the dearth of quality infect creatures in these colors—the two mana options will probably look pretty good even though they're understatted, but pestilent souleater is…less exciting. I only count 5 creatures that can easily enable an infect hit the turn Ingris comes down, and a lot of clunky overpriced junk. Not to say it's completely unthreatening, since proliferate can finish the job, but I think this is a deck that will likely look a lot scarier than it actually is.
Final Judgment: Good
Final Judgment: Good
This is one of those cards that really makes you want to build a time machine to 2002 and blow people's minds. A 5-power flyer for 4 that generates value coming and going AND will just kill you in one hit in an artifact deck? Jeez. Red green artifacts isn't my favorite place to be, but it's hard to complain too much when he ramps, pays for his own commander tax, and is a realistic wincon all in one. You don't even really mind if your opponents kill him.
Final Judgment: Good
Final Judgment: Good
Magic players are so predictable. "Omg it's black lotus". Black lotus is good because it comes down turn 1. When you're paying 6 mana upfront, it's a lot less exciting. Not to say that this is awful, but I'm not psyched about a ramp engine that costs 6 AND requires me to synergize around it (with lifegain, in this case). There is a real payoff here, though—generating up to 12 mana per turn cycle (or more, with token doublers, though that's probably overcomplicating things) is a big game. But I'm not convinced that the deck overall will be consistent, considering all the hoops needed to jump through: Getting and keeping a 6-drop in play, gaining life on enemy turns, and having some way to actually use the mana in a powerful way. It's got potential, but I'm skeptical that the entire package will be much stronger than average.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Only getting half of a blood artist trigger (the less interesting half) isn't great, and the sac ability is too expensive to be interesting.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
We've seen quite a few similar commanders, but adding haste into the mix is at least somewhat novel. Losing out on stats compared to the OG Talrand, Sky Summoner is unfortunate, but probably not the end of the world when you can not only cast big overruns to make up the difference, but also use the token created by casting that overrun that same turn. She's not the most unique by any stretch, but she's…fine.
Final Judgment: Good
Final Judgment: Good
Decent ETB, but BG isn't great at blink, and telegraphing removal from the command zone isn't ideal.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
More black green removal. More efficient body and more flexible removal (albeit not hitting all opponents), though the land clause makes it slower to come down. Or maybe you just slam her on turn 3 so that you threaten removal if she ever gets removed. 4/4 deathtouch for 3 is definitely efficient, and the removal aspect is nice, but as with Hapatra, BG not having strong blink options means this is mostly just a beater, though you could certainly do worse.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Weird ability that's kinda-sorta-not-quite the same as grumgully, the generous. One counter per creature is pretty meh, but like Grummy, this does go infinite with a sac outlet and a persist creature. However, there aren't many persisters in RW (I count 5) and they're pretty crap, plus you don't have many tutors for them. And playing her straight seems fine but pretty underwhelming. So while I'd definitely keep an eye on the mabel player in case of combo, I think the inconsistency here makes this less ugly and more just plain bad.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Not the planeswalker payoff you're looking for. The unblockability isn't something a superfriends deck usually cares about, and the "ultimate" she gives your walkers isn't worth it for basically any of them, except for the amassed jace token which probably doesn't have the support—and even then, I'd probably rather draw a couple cards instead of making a token.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Obviously a lot of potential for a superfriends deck, though only when you've already got such strong control of the board that you're able to keep multiple walkers alive. Once that's done, though, you basically win. Maybe it's best to amass a bunch of mana and then dump multiple walkers into play at the same time? Regardless, we haven't really had a 5-color superfriends commander yet, and while I do think Tam has the potential to be very threatening, I don't think she's quick enough to be overly powerful. So as an occasional fan of planeswalker decks, I don't see any problem with her.
Final Judgment: Good
Final Judgment: Good
Weird that she's basically just a worse Kykar, Wind's Fury. The tokens having summoning sickness is a big downgrade, and vigilance seems pretty meaningless for an army of 1/1s. Like Saheeli, she gets a rousing "I guess?" But I have a hard time seeing why you'd play her over other options.
Final Judgment: Good
Final Judgment: Good
Colored artifacts aren't a particularly synergistic bunch—if anything, less synergistic than colorless artifacts, as they're more likely to focus on something color-specific. So this likely ends up with a lot of fairly random stuff to achieve the payoff, which is…meh. ETB draw five is pretty potent, and you do have the colors to blink him of course, but it seems to me like the type of deck that spends all its time enabling his commander to where drawing cards just kinda gives you more enablers rather than something to actually progress a game plan.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
The activated ability is pretty expensive, but copying all prepare abilities is pretty efficient for a 3-drop. Building this deck is pretty on-rails since there aren't that many prepare creatures, but it will likely have more flexibility as time goes on. Right now I wouldn't expect it to be very high power, but prepare is a cool mechanic and this is good support for it.
Final Judgment: Good
Final Judgment: Good
We can't use the weird foretell ability, so this is just a big "free" fatty. Not worth playing colorless over.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Decent hate card, but wouldn't play it as a commander. At best you've made a permanent enemy while having a commander that doesn't advance a gameplan, and at worst it does nothing.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
His standards have slipped since the original version, which required artifacts. This is mostly just a vigilant beater, though I guess if you slapped Viridian Longbow onto him you could ping some stuff? Bleh.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
I really don't vibe with the art here, for some reason. I do like the card itself, although I'm wary from the Beamtown Bullies. However, the most dangerous beamtown cards rely on their etb effects, and there aren't a lot of poisoned gifts within white outside of grid monitor. More effective is likely to focus around giant threats plus blink, which can serve both to retrigger dack's etb, but also to regain control of the gifts you've given away. At 6 mana, this isn't likely to be a plan that comes to fruition too quickly, and there's definite risk of things blowing up in your face when handing out free eldrazi. But on the other hand, this could generate a pretty spectacular amount of mayhem for the cost, and I'm into it.
Final Judgment: Good
Final Judgment: Good
At first I was ready to dismiss this based on being a telegraphed wipe, but the lifegain trigger is quite easy to enable and create a lot of power, plus the etb trigger can be very powerful with flicker effects. It's pretty straightforward, and seven is obviously a lot of mana, but this looks like it could definitely be a big player in the lategame.
Final Judgment: Good
Final Judgment: Good
Mostly this reminds me of a big version of Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker. Shirei is a lot cheaper, but it's much more fragile, both because it has no inbuilt protection and because it has to live for your creatures to return, so removal can be devastating. Paying 8 is a hell of a cost to avoid those limitations (plus the power restriction), but this could very easily dominate a table alongside an army of fleshbag marauders and burglar rats. I think the cost prevents this from getting into ugly territory, but you might want to prepare some grave hate when playing against this, before it gets to 8 mana and things get crazy.
Final Judgment: Good
Final Judgment: Good
This feels like a risky choice for a commander. By far the most common historic cards played are mana rocks, which aren't going to be super exciting to hit off your 6-drop. Plus, as with most theft commanders, there's a lot of cards that are very synergy-focused and won't work well outside their deck. At a lower cost this could have been interesting, but at 6, nah, that's too slow for too nebulous of a payoff.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
This looks like a powerful card, but not one I'd be too excited to run in the command zone, as much of its power comes from the element of surprise. When this is face up, smart players will play around it. Not to mention, anyone with a clone will automatically win if this is on the field, and they'll be saving that clone when they see you play this. I'd keep this one in the 99.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
This is a pretty potent payoff for lifegain decks, but at 6 mana it's on the slow side, and vulnerable to removal. Interesting that it's worded so that you lose the life, rather than as a replacement for gaining the life—presumably so that you can still trigger your other lifegain things. While this looks powerful, I think it's likely not too crazy based on the setup requirements and the cost.
Final Judgment: Good
Final Judgment: Good
I dig this design. It both creates a source of card advantage with minimal setup, but also deters attacks at the same time (well, sorta…obviously being the monarch encourages attacks). On top of that, it's got a decent body, once all the keywords are factored in. Do I think it's a great commander? Nah, not really—there's not a ton of synergy space for it (proliferate I guess? Cards that care about the monarch?), and 6 is a lot. But it is a cool card, and I'd definitely be interested to see it at a table.
Final Judgment: Good
Final Judgment: Good
Ugh. Okay. We're revisiting this design space, are we? Ur-dragon is a pain, and this obviously imitates it. Thing is though…sphinxes are expensive, and they have barely any tribal synergy. Dragons are expensive too, typically, but they've added lots of cheap dragons, and also just a lot MORE dragons. There's 450 dragons (not including changelings) against fewer than 90 sphinxes. Once the numbers get that low, you end up playing some jank pretty quickly, and the cost discount just isn't that impactful on, say, sphinx of the second sun. So all that to say, I don't THINK ur-sphinx is going to be nearly as bad as ur-dragon. At least, not yet. Call me back after they release "Sphinges of Tarkir".
Final Judgment: Good
Final Judgment: Good
This reminds me of the prismatic bridge, and that's not a great sign. On one hand, Jace lacks green, and he does need to do a tiny bit of setup first by making a token to sacrifice (which, since he targets, also enables some interaction to stop his activation, which is nice). Plus without support he needs some recharge time before he can pull out another fatty. On the other hand, he doesn't need to wait until your next upkeep to put something gross into play, which means sorcery speed interaction will not avail you. I wouldn't say I'm a fan of this, but the fact that he can only pop off once and then needs multiple turns to recharge makes him significantly less powerful, and losing green means he loses a few of the nastier fatties to put into play (no vorinclex, at least). So I'm giving him a very tentative benefit of the doubt…but I'd still be pretty wary.
Final Judgment: Good, I guess
Final Judgment: Good, I guess
Oh good, this one I feel less bad for hating. Sure, she costs a ton, but she can pop off a lot more reliably, potentially even on enemy turns. And then she's also just casually a Tatyova, Benthic Druid on top of that? If this lives for a single turn, you'll be up to your neck in eldrazi. Kill it with fire.
Final Judgment: Ugly
Final Judgment: Ugly
This is cute, but I think more of a 99 card than a commander. 6 is a fair price, but not a great price, for this sort of effect, and gingerbrutes aren't a ton better than just a normal 1/1 token. Needing to keep the monarchy makes this extra dicey, since unlike Tamiyo, Ginger just provides extra incentive for people to take it away from you.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
This is a crazy ability, with a pricetag to match. For a colorless deck, you could probably draw your deck out pretty quickly with proper support. The question is, is it worth playing colorless for what is, ultimately, just a very expensive draw engine? I could kinda see going any direction on this: if it gets interacted with and you don't have the mana to replay it, he could be quite bad. On the other hand, with a gassy start that ramps to 10 quickly, against opponents who didn't draw their StP, he could generate a crushing amount of CA very quickly, even immediately with a haste enabler. I guess I'll land in the middle and say that it's good—but I suspect most games with this guy will be either feast or famine.
Final Judgment: Good
Final Judgment: Good
I really don't get what they were going for here. Omnath, Locus of Mana is 16 years old, and costs 3 mana, and lets you play green (the color that's good at making a lot of mana). This costs 7 and doesn't let you use green, and as recompense is kinda fat and generates 2 mana on landfall…which he can't take much advantage of, because he doesn't have green and can't even use most fetchlands. If you liked original Omnath but wanted him to be much worse, I guess this is your guy? Otherwise, I don't see the point.
Final Judgment: Bad
Final Judgment: Bad
Out with a bit of a whimper, but how did the set do overall? Well, it feels like they concentrated a lot of the commander juice into the sphinxes and the precons, with most other legends ranging from passable to limited fodder. But aesthetically, I think the set looks very cool, and while I think most people will end up drawn to the obvious commander choices, it's always fun to root around in the trash and try to find some treasure. Maybe I'll try to brew a Jiangg Yangu deck, who knows. At the very least, it's good to have a magic IP set, and the limited environment looks really fun.
Time to ride off into the sunset…in this universe. In another universe, I keep talking for 30 pages about how they should bring back the companion mechanic. Just be glad we live in this one.
Until next time, cowpokes.
