Remastering Bad Commanders - Lockdown Project

[Mimicvat]

It's pretty mediocre. I'm a primary school teacher and the sort of 'teaching' they get us to do digitally is a joke. Just want to get out of the house and back to work honestly.

Been surprisingly busy for a lockdown and been feeling under the weather, so doing a catch up post.

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Volrath the Fallen

Despite getting a rework in very cool, playable and interesting Volrath, the Shapestealer I still want to make a remaster for the original mono-black incarnation, especially since few black legends appeal to me at the moment. He plays as a beater with an instant speed combat trick based around discarding cards, which can be useful for black to have. I reckon with a little rework he could be solid.

Volrath the Fallen 1BB
Legendary Creature - Phyrexian Shapeshifter

1b, discard a creature or artifact card from your hand: Choose one;

• ~ becomes a copy of the discarded card until end of turn.
• ~ gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the mana value of the discarded card.

4/4

Started with my usual rebalancing of power, toughness and cost - only very high impact commanders should have a very high price tag. Then I adjusted his ability to include artifacts due to his phyrexian nature. Lastly, I borrowed from his newer version a little and gave a choice of either changing form or increasing power. Would lead to some really neat tricks such as discarding an evasive creature, or swinging in and then 'combat trick' with the ability to boost for high damage. Seems quite interesting to me!

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Alexi, Zephyr Mage

The biggest issue with this commander is just one of price. Expensive to cast, and a double discard for the spellslinger ability is rough too. I've decided to slim her down, make her effect limited but cheaper, and also incorporate an additional trick found on Alexi's Cloak to her toolbox.

Alexi, Zephr Mage1UU
Legendary Creature - Human Spellshaper

U, discard a card, : Another target creature gains shroud until end of turn.
UU, discard a card, : Return another target creature to it's owner's hand.
2/2

A good general for an annoying blue tricks deck. Honestly still probably a little weak, if I was stepping it up I would take a leaf from Jaya Ballard, Task Mage and give a third, high cost high effect ability.

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Jiwari, the Earth Aflame

This guy doesn't really do anything, especially since channel has no effect from the command zone. I figure the effect could use a push too and it would be a chance to make an interesting tribal deck.

Jiwari, the Earth Aflame 1RR
Legendary Creature - Spirit

Spirit and Arcane cards in your hand cost R less to cast for each Spirit you control
1RR, discard a Spirit or Arcane card from your hand: ~ deals X damage to each non-spirit creature, where X is that card's mana value.
Spirits you control have ": Deal X damage to target creature without flying, where X is the number of spirits you control"
4/1

A red commander that can go into janky spirit tribal or creature burn control. Not certain if it's any good, but it's a damn sight better than the original!

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Ayumi, the Last Visitor

A pretty straight forward evasive voltron option. Mostly just needs a cost rebalance

Ayumi, the Last Visitor[ mana]1GG[/mana]
Legendary Creature - Spirit

Legendary Landwalk
7/3

A three mana 7/3? Yep, but it dies to removal and is not good at anything else. By my philosophy of card design this card is fine.

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Ben-Ben, Akki Hermit

This guy does nothing, and even if his ability was improved, it would not be impactful enough in a format like EDH. So he needs a pretty substantial rework.

In the lore that I found, he is a hermetical Goblin Shaman with some spiritual summoning and trap making abilities. He also has the blessing of the Myojin of Infinite Rage, whatever that is - best approximation is what I could find of the Myojin of Night's Reach's blessings.

Ben-Ben, Akki Hermit 1RRR
Legendary Creature - Goblin Shaman

R, tap an untapped mountain you control: Choose one;

• ~ deals damage to target attacking creature equal to the number of untapped mountains you control.
• Target creature gains haste until end of turn
• Discard a card, then draw a card
• Sacrifice a mountain, then create an X/X red spirit creature, where X is the number of mountains you control

3/1

Lots of red aligned abilities that all tie into running a lot of basic mountains. I reckon I'd have fun playing this guy for sure.

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Major Teroh

Yikes. This guy does do a thing, but does it badly and it's a pretty unenjoyable effect. I wonder if I can channel all that hatred towards black into something a little more effective and also appropriate for EDH

Major Teroh 1W
Legendary Creature - Bird Soldier

At the beginning of the game, if ~ is in the command zone, choose a color.

Flying
White creatures you control have protection from the chosen color.

2/2

I don't care if his lore is black focused, for the sake of a more interesting and playable card I've given the ability for the player to choose their focus color at the start of the game. This is much more powerful, but also telegraphs who you are a threat too right off of the bat.

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Tsabo Tavoc

I remember seriously considering playing this guy when I first started - thats how bad I was. I think a slim down will achieve most of what I want here for this character. However we can also play into her treacherous and self-serving lore here which could be interesting too.

Tsabo Tavoc BBB
Legendary Creature - Phyrexian Spider Horror

First Strike, Protection from Legends
Whenever a legendary creature dies, scry 2.
BBB, : Target opponent chooses one;

• That player sacrifices a legendary creature they control
• You draw a card and gain a life.
  3/1

Reduced cost and stats to start with. Shifted the straight murder ability to a legendary edict with the ability for 'corruption' in the form of cards for you. Drew from an interesting thing in the lore where she cuts up a character to learn from them. Didn't feel very red so I downgraded to straight black, which gave me leave (imo) to let her be this power for this cost.

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Rasputin Dreamweaver

I think this guy is pretty pricy mana wise, but his $550 USD price tag is probably the main reason for his lack of play. Would work exceptionally wel in a flicker deck even as is. A 'fix' then would be to create a less abusable version for, as always, a lower cost. He has no lore aside from being a random wizard who defeated some goblins during the dark and blurry roleplaying game times of mtg.

Rasputin Dreamweaver 2WU
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard

~ enters the battlefield with four dream counters on it.
Remove a dream counter from ~: Untap target attacking creature and remove it from combat
Remove a dream counter from ~: Scry 1

At the beginning of each end step, if ~ has less than four dream counters on it, put a dream counter on it.

2/2

Still uses dream counters, but for less abominable things than generating seven mana off of a Cloudshift effect.

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Chorus of the Conclave

A friend of mine actually played this last week in a random commander challenge game. It suuuuucked. But the idea is solid, merely the price tag is too ridiculous as is the case with many unplayed, non-old border generals.

Chorus of the Conclave 1WG
Legendary Creature - Dryad

Forestwalk

As an additional cost to cast creature spells, you may pay any amount of mana. If you do, that creature enters the battlefield with that many additional +1/+1 counters on it.

1/3

Literally the same card but five mana cheaper. Would say this is still very much reasonable. What a ridiculous price on that original card....

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Greel, Mind Raker

Another overpriced spellshaper eh? This one is also really unenjoyable to play against if it actually goes off. If I look into the lore I find a reddit thread explaining he worked with Latulla (who already has a remaster, so no partner today) and he's essentially a sadist torturer. Can do something interesting with that I reckon.

Greel, Mind Raker 2BB
Legendary Creature - Horror

Whenever a creature is dealt damage, you scry that many cards.
Whenever a creature has -1/-1 counters placed on it, you gain that much life.

3/4

Fictional torture is one thing, but the real torture of playing with no cards is another, so I removed that effect entirely as well as all spellshaper-ness from the card. Instead you benefit from watching pieces of paper on the table 'get tortuered' by damage and -1/-1 counters.

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Iizuka the Ruthless

Pretty bad card. If we are looking at samurai tribal, there would need to be a ton of terrible cards in it. So I think we can afford to boost up that ability quite a bit. In red there are like 12 samurai, but in RWB there are nearly 40... and most of them are still terrible.

Iizuka the Ruthless 1RR
Legendary Creature - Samurai

Bushido 1
Tap a Samurai you control: Add W, B or R to your mana pool. Use this mana only to cast Samurai spells.
Samurai you control get +X/+X, where X is the total Bushido value of Samurai you control.
Sacrifice a Samurai: Samurai you control gain double strike until end of turn.

3/3

Thats a lot of buffs, but man, Samurai are total crap and need all this and more to be playable.

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Skeleton Ship

Hilarious but useless, good only as a meme general. I love that art! I think we could do something interesting here with Skeleton Tribal....

Skeleton Ship 1UB
Legendary Creature - Skeleton Pirate

Whenever a Pirate you control attacks, target Skeleton you control gains "when this creature deals combat damage to an opponent, draw a card."
Whenever a Skeleton you control attacks, target Pirate you control gains +X/+X, where X is the number of Islands the defending player controls.

0/5

Absolutely terrible, but I know some people would build it.

Thats it for now, will be back tomorrow with the next terrible old legend

[Mimicvat]

Zahid, Djinn of the Lamp

Reasonably recent, but has had enough time to not be played. This guy is standard fodder, a french vanilla beater with a conditional discount. He has a cool idea though by tying into the genie in the lamp theme. Wonder how this would work for Djinn tribal...

Zahid, Djinn of the Lamp 2UU
Legendary Creature - Djinn
Flying

Artifacts you control have ": Add UUU to your mana pool. Use this mana only to cast Djinn spells.
Djinn you control get +1/+1 for each artifact you control.
4/4

Potent, but this is because the Djinn we are talking about are almost entirely terrible. If someone needs to include Soulblade Djinn in their deck to get critical mass of tribal cards, they are going to need a serious incentive to do so.

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Isao, Enlightened Bushi

Poor Isao, the Samurai that nobody takes not even in samurai tribal decks due to being off color. In the lore, he is a samurai who turned his back on Konda and fled into exile. He grew strong, alone in the forest, and defends the forest against all who would threaten it. So... a creatureless mono green deck?

Isao, Enlightened Bushi 2GG
Legendary Creature - Samurai
Isao's power, toughness and bushido are equal to the number of forests you control.
Bushido *
As long as you control no other creatures, forests you control tap for an additional G and Isao has "G: Regenerate Isao.
*/*

Any conditional mana doubler is something to consider, and this guy does it by cutting off green's greatest strength. Will he be any good? No idea!

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Gerrard Capashen was already reworked with Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero and needs no remaster

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Suraya the Falconer

The Falconers can talk to birds and guard Serra's home. Other than that, not much to go on. So another attempt at white aggro and value seems fitting here

Suraya the Falconer 1W
Legendary Creature - Human
Birds you control have banding.
Whenever a non-bird creature you control attacks, create a 1/1 white flying Bird tapped and attacking.
Whenever a bird you control deals combat damage to a player, put a +1/+1 counter on target non-bird creature you control.
1/2

White weenie needs all the attempts it can get to work in EDH lol. I reckon this could actually be quite interesting to play.

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Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor

Mostly just needs a price change honestly, though he is hamstrung by a lack of cephalids so I will include a cephalid creating ability on him too.

Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor 2UU
Legendary Creature - Cephalid
Tap an untapped Cephalid you control: tap target nonland permanent
1U, discard a card: Create a 1/1 blue Cephalid with islandwalk.
3/3

I disliked the ability to tap lands, especially with a cephalid generation ability added on. I swapped the mass tap for the ability to make cephalids who could then individually tap threats down.

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Skyfire Kirin

Not playable due to an absence of red spirit and arcane spells, plus the ability sucks without haste. I think he could work by drawing a little off of Captivating Crew and being a threaten on a stick.

Skyfire Kiren 2R
Legendary Creature - Spirit
Flying
1R, discard a card: Create a 1/1 red Spirit with haste.
Whenever a spirit enters the battlefield under your control or you cast an arcane spell, gain control of target creature until end of turn. Untap it, it gains haste until end of turn.
3/3

Threaten for a low mana cost but you have to discard to pay for it. Sometimes red is happy to discard too, and it gives a payoff for any random crappy spirits and arcane that you run.

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Atogatog

Only twelve Atogs and they are all rather bad in EDH. This makes me extremely sad... the ability is also pretty pointless given that Atogs eat things to grow their strength, then he eats them to simply convert that into commander damage. I think we can improve Atogatog on both counts.

Atogatog WUBRG
Legendary Creature - Atog
Whenever you cast an Atog spell, copy that spell.
Whenever you activate an ability of another Atog, copy that ability.
Sacrifice an Atog or exile an Atog spell you control: Atogatog gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is that creature or spell's mana value
5/5

By making it mana value, you give Atogatog the chance to trade up on power rather than simply transfer power over. The clone effect maximizes your ability to run the few atogs that exist in the game. The effect copy makes Atogs into actual threats as they devour your resources - they're still terrible but now maybe its playable. Hopefully this would be a sufficient rework to make this guy useable because he is cool as hell.

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Adamaro, First to Desire

Can't find the lore behind these guys unfortunately, but I know that "maro" refers to the ability to have power and toughness scale off of the number of cards someone has. So we need to keep that. Sadly that is all he does at the moment, which isn't good enough. I have an idea to make him pretty ballsy and maybe kind of relevant, so lets give that a try.

Adamaro, First to Desire 1RR
Legendary Creature - Spirit
Menace
~'s power and toughness are equal to the number of cards in the hand plus cards in exile of the opponent with the most cards in and plus exiled cards.
At the beginning of combat on your turn, each player exiles cards from the top of their library equal to the number of cards in their hands. At the end of combat on your turn, shuffle the exiled cards back into their owners libraries.
*/*

Everyone draws into big hands that make him bigger. This also allows him to be answered. You can break the symmetry of this temporary draw by running a lot of instants and casting them during this window. Wish I could word it a little less clunkier.

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Diaochan, Artful Beauty

A solid effect, but too expensive and slow. Literally just improve the efficiency and she is golden

Diaochan, Artful Beauty 2R
Legendary Creature - Human
Haste
: Destroy target creature of your choice, then destroy target creature of an opponent's choice. Activate only during your turn, before attackers are declared.
2/2

[Mimicvat]

The Unspeakable

Jank combo standard card pairing with Reach Through Mists, Peer Through Depths and Sift Through Sands. I love the idea but not only does it not work properly in EDH, but even if it did you get essentially a vanilla beater with jank card draw effect. Not good enough. I want to run the same sort of effect but make the payoff work and be EDH-compatible.

The Unspeakable UUUUUUU
Legendary Creature - Spirit
Flying, Trample
~ costs UU less for each Spirit or Arcane spell you have cast this turn.
When ~ enters the battlefield or attacks, draw cards equal to the number of arcane spells you have cast this turn plus one.
Discard an arcane spell from your hand: ~ gains hexproof until end of turn.
7/6

He's still bad, because mono-blue arcane spells are essentially dead cards outside of Disrupting Shoal. So I want to reward the player for actually running them.

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Cao Cao, Lord of Wei [/card]

A bad p3k legend, complete with tap before combat text. Can we scale this up into something worth running?

Cao Cao, Lord of Wei 2BB
Legendary Creature - Advisor
: Sacrifice any number of black creatures you control. For each creature sacrificed this way, an opponent chosen at random discards a card. For each nontoken creature sacrificed this way, create a 2/1 black Soldier with haste named "Wei Infantry". Activate this ability only on your turn, before you attack.
4/4

Plays well with any sort of aggressive or aristocrat deck, with homages to his original ability and to another bad p3k card. I would play this over many black options available at the moment.

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Blind Seer

Card is straight playable if you add white, have already built a deck around this effect and while it wasn't the strongest it was good enough to not need any further adjustments.

Blind Seer 2UW
Legendary Creature - Wizard
1U: Target spell or permanent becomes the color of your choice until end of turn
3/3

I go for low impact changes where possible and this is a pretty open and shut case.

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Spirit of the Night

Too expensive and vanilla, and dedicated protection from one color is pretty poor both in effect and enjoyability. I want to keep the vanilla-ish beater theme but bring him into a modern power level.

Spirit of the Night 4BB
Legendary Creature - Spirit
Flying, Trample, Haste

~ has protection from the most common color or colors amongst each players' color identity.
7/6

Mostly a reduction of cost, the magical seven damage, and a more interesting protection ability.

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Mishra, Artificer Prodigy

Has a niche playable deck featuring Possibility Storm, so not desperately needing a fix. However, outside of this his ability is useless for EDH. So I will attempt an EDH-friendly version of this capability.

Mishra, Artificer Prodigy 1UBR
Legendary Creature - Human Artificer
Whenever you cast an artifact spell from your hand, put it into exile as it resolves and create a token copy of it. You may play artifacts you control from exile if they were put there by this ability.
4/4

Pretty easy fix and gives functionally the same effect at base level, though you can combo with it in different ways compared to the original.

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Lord of Tresserhorn

I actually made this guy way back in my early EDH days. He is absolutely crap but the core idea is there. I'm surprised he is this low, he's definitely far more playable than the other legends at this level despite his overall crappiness. When I research him it turns out he was a lord of the undead, created from the bodies of Kjeldorian heroes to prevent the undead of Tresserhorn from rebelling. So a weird sort of zombie lord.

Lord of Tresserhorn1UBR
Legendary Creature - Zombie Noble
Whenever another Zombie, Skeleton or Vampire you control attacks, untap it. You draw a card and lose 2 life.
Zombies, Skeletons and Vampires you control have exalted.
4/4

Took him in a different direction, wherein he is a lord that does not want to attack (well, attack properly) with his creatures. I know exalted is out of color but it fits perfectly to what I wanted him to do.

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Kodama of the North Tree, Kodama of the Center Tree, Kodama of the South Tree,

A set of useless generals that are utterly outclassed by the latest directional spirit, Kodama of the East Tree. Why is there no west tree? While North Tree is technically the one getting a fix here, I want to redo the whole lot (East tree aside, he is very popular and powerful). I think it could be cool to have a sort of kodama-tree tribal with this guy and his buddies so lets give that a go. I took a look into japanese cardinal direction mythology and found that North is Winter, South is Summer, West is Autumn and East is spring (which fits East Kodama's pure value) so will incorporate that into the designs.

Kodama of the Center Tree 4GG
Legendary Creature - Spirit
Partner with Kodama of the North Tree, Kodama of the South Tree, Kodama of the West Tree, and Kodama of the East Tree.
Each spirit you control gets +1/+1 for each other spirit you control.
Other spirits you control have hexproof.
4/4

Kodama of the North Tree 4GG
Legendary Creature - Spirit
Kodama of the Center Tree, Kodama of the South Tree, Kodama of the West Tree, and Kodama of the East Tree.
Whenever a land untaps, put a cold counter on it. Lands with a cold counter on them gain ": Add c and lose all other abilities." and "at the beginning of your untap phase, remove all cold counters from this card".
~'s power and toughness is equal to the number of lands with cold counters on them.
*/*

Kodama of the West Tree 4GG
Legendary Creature - Spirit
Partner with Kodama of the North Tree, Kodama of the Center Tree, Kodama of the South Tree, and Kodama of the East Tree.
Whenever you tap a forest for mana, add an additional G to your mana pool. That land does not untap during your next untap phase.
4/4

Kodama of the South Tree 4GG
Legendary Creature - Spirit
Partner with Kodama of the North Tree, Kodama of the Center Tree, Kodama of the West Tree, and Kodama of the East Tree.
Whenever a nontoken creature you control attacks, create a 1/1 green spirit tapped and attacking.
4/4

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Thats all for today