What have I missed?

[tempoEDH]

Over the course of quarantine, I've grown very distant from magic. Not having anyone to really play consistently with has kind of killed my attentiveness to new releases, building decks, and general magic news. That being said, I'm now starting to get back to magic after my long period of inactivity (still just commander though, lol). So, my basic question here is - what have I missed? The last time I even really looked through set spoilers was Core 2021. Could someone give me a brief, yet comprehensive, recap of what has happened with commander with the recent sets (commander legends, zendikar rising, kaldheim, anything in between I'm forgetting)? New cards that I should be aware of that are relevant, interesting/hype commanders that have grown in popularity, meta changes, new archetypes/mechanics to be aware of..... Basically, can someone walk me through all the hype and discussion of the last year of sets in one post, since I missed it when it happened?

(PS: Am interested in these topics from the POV of both "Casual" EDH and also CEDH - I'm aware that meta shifts and cards to be wary/aware of could be very different depending on which of those are the focus, so let's just go with both!)

TIA, and I'm about to double post

[Sinis]

Welcome back!

Commander Legends had mixed reviews. Some people didn't like that partners got expansion, while other people (myself included) liked it for exactly that reason. The big hot stuff out of Commander Legends was Hullbreacher, Opposition Agent, Keeper of the Accord, Jeweled Lotus and enemy coloured battlebond lands. The set has some cool stuff in it, IMO, and a lot of it is very playable with a lot of potential. Of the new commanders, Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait is considered a boost to Tatyova who is already pretty decent.

Zendikar Rising was largely a flop. The set itself is pretty forgettable, and the 'party' mechanic will probably be resigned to the mists of history. The biggest cards in the set are reprints (like Lotus Cobra), though there are some notable cards like the start of the Pathway cycle (Needleverge Pathway // Pillarverge Pathway), black's third enchantment destruction in the form of Feed the Swarm, Felidar Retreat (which is a pretty big improvement on Retreat to Emeria), Ancient Greenwarden and Moraug, Fury of Akoum. It feels like outside a handful of cards, though, the set is a snooze for EDH with few cards that spark interest. Oh, and there's one more fleshbag marauder if you're into that sort of thing: Demon's Disciple.

Finally, Kaldheim, the latest set. A mishmash of elves, dwarves, gods (that aren't indestructible, but are double-sided with their favoured trappings), berserkers, angels, demons, trolls, a new Vorinclex, and one legendary squirrel. This set is still really fresh for me, but ISBPathfinder put out a thread for a variety of opinions here. Notably Tergrid, God of Fright // Tergrid's Lantern will (probably) be a monstrous negative play experience, Ravenform gives blue Artifact removal, and Simic gets another big stompy general. There are some really interesting/cool designs in this set, including Orvar, the All-Form, snow dual lands (that ETB tapped), a red counterspell in the form of Tibalt's Trickery and the completion of the pathway cycle started in Zendikar Rising. It's also worth noting that there was a rule change prompted by Valki, God of Lies // Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor; cascade now checks for the converted mana cost of a card when it determines whether it can be 'cascaded into', and again when you try to cast it. People were casting low-end cascade cards (like Shardless Agent) hitting Valki, and then casting the other side, Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor.

Hopefully that helps!

[Krishnath]

@Sinis You forgot to mention that the snow duals have both basic land types and are COMMON which is a huge deal, because they are fetchable and easy to get.

As for Commander Legends, the only thing I personally disliked about the set is that I got *five* Nevinyrral over two boxes, which kinda sucked. It introduced a new mechanic that is a variation of Myriad combined with Unearth called Encore, it is pretty fun on its own. But most of the creatures it is attached to have pretty decent abilities as well, which makes it very playable in multiplayer formats. The set also contains a few goodies for various tribes, most notably Elves and Pirates. Also has two planeswalkers you can have as your commander, and both have partner as well: Jeska and Tevesh Szat.

I agree that Zendikar Rising is mostly forgettable, people where mostly annoyed with the party mechanic, not that it is bad (because it isn't), but because it meant no Allies. The set did contain one exceptional standout among the artifacts, a rare mana rock that is not only indestructible (putting it on par with Darksteel Ingot), but also has a fairly cheap kicker cost granting you two additional copies of it when kicked. It's called Skyclave Relic, and it is really, really good. Set also has a few tribal goodies, notably for the Rogue, Wizard, and Warrior classes. Also, the mythic Lithoform Engine could end up being broken, but we aren't certain yet. It is hilariously bonkers though, in the right deck. I really need to get one for my Riku deck.

Kaldheim, other than giving us snow duals with basic land types, also featured an expansion of the snow mechanic, as well as a dedicated Snow commander in the form of Jorn, God of Winter. The set has an insane amount of legendary permanents, 20 new Sagas (all are dual colored), and more lands than the original Zendikar. And when I say more lands, I mean more lands. Besides the 10 common snow duals, there is another common snow land, a cycle of ten uncommon utility land, four MDFC dual lands at rare, and a handful of other lands scattered between uncommon and rare. The set also has a lot of tribal goodness, particularly for giants, elves, and angels. Not to mention a return of changelings (in blue and green). There are also a couple of nice mana rocks, including one that gives you eight more every eight turns (called Replicating Ring), and a legendary creature you can tap to create a manalith with the snow supertype. The set also has two new mechanics that are a lot of fun in commander, called Boast (on creatures, activate it once per turn, but only if the creature has attacked that turn, and yes, you can activate it *during* the attack), and another called Foretell (pay 2 to exile it face down to cast it later from exile at reduced cost). Also, the set contains an actually good Tibalt card that you can play as your commander if you so choose. The set is also metal as heck.

[tempoEDH]

Sounding like most of the hype is for Kaldheim, with Commander legends falling a little behind, and Zendikar is just kind of there (except new omnath I still support that). Saw foretell in relation to new legend Ranar, wasn't sure if "foretelling" the card refers to exiling it for 2, or casting it for it's foretell cost..??? Assuming it's exiling it, but just checking. Common dual lands sounds.... like a possibly poor decision, lol. Hullbreacher and Opposition Agent certainly seem like strong go-to cards for shutting down tutors/draw effects, and who's to argue with ramp in white?

What are the general opinions on the new partners, in terms of strength? Are they as busted and uncontrollable as the original ones? Have they enabled yet another good Pact shell? Or is Thrasios/Tymna still kind of the king of partner EDH? What are we looking at here?

[materpillar]

Commander legends was pretty fantastic in my opinion, I've done a few sealed commander legends games with my friends and had a great time. In addition it released a lot of cards and none of them broke commander which was a thing I was terrified of. My experience with all the partner commanders is that they're usually strong but fair, except Kodama of the East Tree as that card takes about 0 effort to break. Sakashima of a Thousand Faces especially allows for some really neat decks.

Zendikar added a bunch of playable but unexciting cards. I've basically been jamming Ondu Inversion // Ondu Skyruins into every deck I own that contains white. I think the flip spell lands can reduce the amount of flooding you feel like you have in games.

I have a changeling deck and kaldheim had changelings so I got a ton of playables from that set. Masked Vandal is exceptional as it turns out.

[Sinis]

@Sinis You forgot to mention that the snow duals have both basic land types and are COMMON which is a huge deal, because they are fetchable and easy to get.

True, I did leave that part out. It's pretty wild, though, I think when you really think about it, it doesn't matter a whole lot. Outside of Farseek and forest/plains searchers, it's probably not going to be relevant, since Fetchlands remain a fortune (and I think using something like Bad River for a tap land would be actually too slow, and I'm generally okay with taplands).

As for Commander Legends, the only thing I personally disliked about the set is that I got *five* Nevinyrral over two boxes, which kinda sucked. It introduced a new mechanic that is a variation of Myriad combined with Unearth called Encore, it is pretty fun on its own. But most of the creatures it is attached to have pretty decent abilities as well, which makes it very playable in multiplayer formats. The set also contains a few goodies for various tribes, most notably Elves and Pirates. Also has two planeswalkers you can have as your commander, and both have partner as well: Jeska and Tevesh Szat.

Oh, we also left out the Three Visits reprint. Take that, $60 uncommon!

I agree that Zendikar Rising is mostly forgettable, people where mostly annoyed with the party mechanic, not that it is bad (because it isn't), but because it meant no Allies.

I built Tazri 2.0. It felt pretty bad; the activation ability didn't feel good even with 30 party-goers evenly distributed. Maybe Linvala was the better build? Most of the party-goers just didn't scale for EDH. Eventually my deck was just trying to get value out of the ETB party-goers with Ghostway and Eerie Interlude (which could be looped with Archaeomancer), but, it never really got there, and wins often felt contrived (usually with Mirror Entity). Cards like Malakir Blood-Priest just didn't have the oomph required. Zagras, Thief of Heartbeats felt good sometimes, but generally just... didn't get there?

I really liked Coveted Prize and Linvala, Shield of Sea Gate, and would have played Esper for those two. I felt like red and green didn't add much to the deck. Idk, maybe I'm a bad deckbuilder. I'd love to see your take on it. Do you have a list somewhere?

Sounding like most of the hype is for Kaldheim, with Commander legends falling a little behind, and Zendikar is just kind of there (except new omnath I still support that). Saw foretell in relation to new legend Ranar, wasn't sure if "foretelling" the card refers to exiling it for 2, or casting it for it's foretell cost..??? Assuming it's exiling it, but just checking. Common dual lands sounds.... like a possibly poor decision, lol. Hullbreacher and Opposition Agent certainly seem like strong go-to cards for shutting down tutors/draw effects, and who's to argue with ramp in white?

Honestly, Kaldheim was the home run hit for me. Gods, metal viking theme (I'm more nordicphile than weeb), and gorgeous showcase cards pretty much sold me on all of it. I spent way too much on the set, but I'm not unhappy.

What are the general opinions on the new partners, in terms of strength? Are they as busted and uncontrollable as the original ones? Have they enabled yet another good Pact shell? Or is Thrasios/Tymna still kind of the king of partner EDH? What are we looking at here?

New partners are definitely not as strong (in a competitive sense) as Thrasios and Tymna. All the new partners are monocoloured, so I think it'll be hard to compete with 4c T&T, and that both Thrasios and Tymna are just more powerful than anything released in Commander Legends (certainly more powerful in text + another colour vs. just new text).

Some partners are adorable (and deceptively powerful), like Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh. I've played around with combinations of Gilanra, Caller of Wirewood, Akroma, Vision of Ixidor, Kamahl, Heart of Krosa, in a keyword soup deck and they're good, but not exceptional. Obviously Akroma and Kamahl are timmy wet dreams, but, I think I've had a great deal of fun with them. One of the big pluses for something like Akroma or Kamahl is that you have another commander that you can probably leverage before the big guys, so, it's not like playing OG Akroma where you're mono-white no-general until you hit 8 mana. Now it's guild, wedge or shard colours with other options until you hit 7-8 mana. I even toyed with the idea of a bant Akroma deck with Thrasios.

I think some of the partners (notably Sakashima of a Thousand Faces) have huge potential (no legend rule is a big deal!). During spoiler season, people noted the combo of Sakashima of a Thousand Faces and Kodama of the East Tree, wherein you have two Kodamas and get to just play stuff for free (with ever decreasing costs... but you'll at least get all your lands out, since Kodama allows free stuff of the same cost). Many of the other partners seem either lackluster or vanilla, but there are some niches that got filled (like golem tribal with Ich-Tekik, Salvage Splicer).

I, personally, was initially very excited about Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools and Sengir, the Dark Baron, but haven't managed to leverage them in a deck yet (I'm in the middle of a big move, and it's hampering my ability to brew with CMR and KHM cards). There are some cool Pirate commander niches as well.

[Krishnath]

I have a changeling deck and kaldheim had changelings so I got a ton of playables from that set. Masked Vandal is exceptional as it turns out.

Any card that allows one to deal with Blightsteel Colossus is good in my book, but Masked Vandal is insanely good. And it is common.

@tempoEDH You foretell a card with the ability by paying 2 and exiling it face down. When you later cast it for its foretell cost, it is dealt with like any other spell. WotC put up a video about it when they introduced the mechanic. It should be fairly easy to find on youtube, and is only a couple of minutes long. Just like their other mechanic videos.

I really liked Coveted Prize and Linvala, Shield of Sea Gate, and would have played Esper for those two. I felt like red and green didn't add much to the deck. Idk, maybe I'm a bad deckbuilder. I'd love to see your take on it. Do you have a list somewhere?

I haven't built a Party deck yet, but it seems like Linvala is the better option as commander for that deck, either that or everyone's favorite changeling: Morophon. Changelings would be crucial to the deck regardless.

[materpillar]

I really liked Coveted Prize and Linvala, Shield of Sea Gate, and would have played Esper for those two. I felt like red and green didn't add much to the deck. Idk, maybe I'm a bad deckbuilder. I'd love to see your take on it. Do you have a list somewhere?

I haven't built a Party deck yet, but it seems like Linvala is the better option as commander for that deck, either that or everyone's favorite changeling: Morophon. Changelings would be crucial to the deck regardless.

Linvala, Shield of Sea Gate has been great in my tribal changeling deck since that deck is so creature heavy and vulnerable to wraths. I often trigger the full party, so she's wrath protection with very relevant on-board ability.

In addition, Maskwood Nexus is one of the best cards in the deck. It turns out that being able to tutor and cast it for b is pretty strong.

[Krishnath]

I really liked Coveted Prize and Linvala, Shield of Sea Gate, and would have played Esper for those two. I felt like red and green didn't add much to the deck. Idk, maybe I'm a bad deckbuilder. I'd love to see your take on it. Do you have a list somewhere?

I haven't built a Party deck yet, but it seems like Linvala is the better option as commander for that deck, either that or everyone's favorite changeling: Morophon. Changelings would be crucial to the deck regardless.

Linvala, Shield of Sea Gate has been great in my tribal changeling deck since that deck is so creature heavy and vulnerable to wraths. I often trigger the full party, so she's wrath protection with very relevant on-board ability.

In addition, Maskwood Nexus is one of the best cards in the deck. It turns out that being able to tutor and cast it for b is pretty strong.

I'll keep that in mind when it is time for me to build my version of the "party" deck.

[folding_music]

I still can't believe foil Coveted Prizes are so cheap. look at the high ceiling on it :3 tbh I think ZNR got brushed over so quickly by casual players, it's really deep, just not as badass as Kaldheim's marketing =P

[Sinis]

I still can't believe foil Coveted Prizes are so cheap. look at the high ceiling on it :3 tbh I think ZNR got brushed over so quickly by casual players, it's really deep, just not as badass as Kaldheim's marketing =P

Honestly, it was pretty good tutor + ritual in the same breath for a low-end card. But, unless you're specifically playing those tribes, I think it'll probably be lackluster (and somewhat comparable to Bring to Light, which isn't super popular, either).

[Rumpy5897]

Sounding like most of the hype is for Kaldheim, with Commander legends falling a little behind, and Zendikar is just kind of there

This is less to do with set quality and more to do with recency bias. We're in perpetual hype mode and you literally rattled these off in reverse chronological order

The best thing to happen to the format in this time frame are the partner commanders from CMR. They're a lot more narrow than the C16 bunch, and you can mix and match them to your heart's content. For example, I'm rocking an Eligeth, Crossroads Augur + Gilanra, Caller of Wirewood list, which is not a combination that has taken the internet by storm. Plus the C16 batch's existence makes it all the more interesting to mix and match - are you cool with just one specialised legend and then use the two-colour option for padding identity? Exciting! This was the first time I built more than one deck out of a set, I had four brews with the partners going at various points, and two survived. Out of my active decks, a third came about because of CMR.

[ISBPathfinder]

Zendikar Rising:

• Dual Face Cards - The mythic cycle is quite reasonable and I think in a lot of decks they are very reasonable considerations. Taking a lightning Bolt for an untapped land that produces mana is not that big of a deal to potentially have a castable spell is quite reasonable. There are a few others in this cycle that are reasonable too in the right decks.
• Landfall - Landfall is a strong mechanic (surprise). I still think that landfall is a mechanic that is kind of assumed you are in green but most of the new stuff is good too. Omnath, Locus of Creation, Scute Swarm, Felidar Retreat, Lotus Cobra (reprint), and Moraug, Fury of Akoum.
• Archon of Emeria - Its a good hatebear effect and its on a cheap flyer so it could carry equipment and such. I think Rule of Law is a good effect that doesn't see enough play especially given how it feels like every commander comes with tagged on draw to it. Situational, but good in the right place.

Commander Legends:

• Jeweled Lotus - Well, its expensive, shiney, and leads to impressive what if hands. I honestly haven't gotten to play much with or against it due to covid so I can't really say if its worth it but lets be honest, most fast mana is great. If you think that a stronger Dark Ritual but only usable on your commander sounds appealing it might be. Its explosive but its also very niche in where it can be used. I think that in general it got more hype than it should but I also think its a bad idea to write this card off. It will be powerful but its also going to have a caveat of "in the right deck" kind of a situation. Its like, how most people don't push Mox Diamond into every build they make but if they do they are probably playing cEDH and want all of this stuff.
• Reprints - this set had sick reprints and the prices are still relatively good for them Mana Drain / Vampiric Tutor / Scroll Rack / Rings of Brighthearth / Staff of Domination.
• Sakashima of a Thousand Faces - I think it deserves attention from the standpoint that I think this is probably the best take on this we have seen so far. We have seen some previous Sakashimas and Mirror Gallery but most of them didn't clone further well. This version can be cloned infinitely in a good way and clones of it also make it hard to reverse the number of legends rule.
• Hullbreacher / Opposition Agent - I am going to mention these two because I think they are controversial. I think they are over hyped and that hatebears in general require your opponents to play a specific type of way. If your meta seems susceptible to these I think its a meta call but I don't personally think that either of these is that impressive.
• Monarch - We got more monarch effects. Most people don't play this effect much but its actually low key incredibly powerful in some white concepts. I play a few mono white decks where its literally untargetable indestructible phyrexian arena as I essentially never give them away. I think that white sort of low key dominates this effect and many players don't give it a second thought. If you have some big flying vigilant white strategy its incredibly easy to dominate with a monarch effect.
• Legends / Partners - Tons of new options for commanders here.

Kaldheim:

• Toski, Bearer of Secrets - I think its worth pointing out Toski specifically as being a bit out of the norm. Its true that green has a number of effects that draw per creature but what is big about Toski is that it opens up draw in the creaturebase. This means that you can curve early game action and Green Sun's Zenith still early into draw. Opening up draw into green's creatures really adds a lot of consistency to aggressive / token based green tactics. Its true that Ohran Frostfang already existed but adding another at a cheaper price with indestructible are all exciting additions and increase the consistency for access to this effect.
• Elves - I am going to just go out and say elves got a ton of things between this set and the preconstructed deck that came out with this. Lathril, Blade of the Elves seems really strong and it got a lot of tools for the 99 as well.
• Fetchable Snow Duals - Generally speaking I would say that its likely that you will only use these if on a budget or playing a 2 color deck. I think its great that we got them at common level but I don't think it actually impacts much to be honest. Some 2 color decks that want to use effects that count your land types got a little better but as a whole I think its not a big change getting these. Getting the whole cycle of 10 in one shot was nice though.
• Lots of legends - I guess just in short there are a ton of legends to this set which means more commander options.
• Search for Glory - Its not new in that Thalia's Lancers existed before now but cutting two mana off of the effect really seems like it might open it up. I have mostly just played it in some mono white decks so far but I think that this effect is actually quite reasonable and might be something that can break out of mono white use. Keep in mind though that it can get legendary lands and in some ways it can duplicate some of the effect of Expedition Map getting some specifically powerful lands like potentially Kor Haven / Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx to name a few. Obviously it isn't the same but it can also get some really impressive creatures and artifacts in a lot of cases still. I just think that its actually quite reasonable and worth considering to the point I mentioned it here.

---

Something a little more abstract that I also think is worth looking at... I think that white's ability to do things with their life total actually increased a TON in the last year. You have Heliod, Sun-Crowned, Valkyrie Harbinger, Speaker of the Heavens, and Griffin Aerie all in the last year. If white isn't there yet I think its just a matter of time before all of these payoffs start to really energize white on the lifegain payoff concept. Its something I haven't seen many people talk about but this last year has been a HUGE step forward on white's lifegain payoff plan. I would strongly suggest picking up some of these type of cards as I think its something a lot of people are sleeping on and not noticing how close to working white lifegain is right now for commander.

Beyond that, Serra Ascendant and Speaker of the Heavens are both one drops which make Ranger of Eos / Ranger-Captain of Eos / Recruiter of the Guard all function. White has long had issues in having enough one drop targets to make Ranger packages work. Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant are also all one drops so it really opens up some of white's long forgotten ranger package. Walking Ballista also fits into this package and works really well with Heliod, Sun-Crowned. So, I think that all helps kind of support some of this concept. I keep fiddling with some of this white lifegain concept and I think it has a lot of directions and support colors it can go.

Don't sleep on white lifegain, its something that is kind of rising up rapidly. Some of the older support cards like Archangel of Thune / Crested Sunmare could possibly creep up if this gets more attention. For a long time there just weren't enough payoff effects for lifegain to matter but I think we are rapidly getting there.

[darrenhabib]

Zendikar Rising
Some of the modal lands are very playable giving you more spells in your deck.
Glasspool Mimic // Glasspool Shore, Sea Gate Restoration // Sea Gate, Reborn, Agadeem's Awakening // Agadeem, the Undercrypt, Shatterskull Smashing // Shatterskull, the Hammer Pass, Ondu Inversion // Ondu Skyruins, Valakut Awakening // Valakut Stoneforge, Bala Ged Recovery // Bala Ged Sanctuary, Turntimber Symbiosis // Turntimber, Serpentine Wood have been finding places in a lot of my both old and new brews.

Skyclave Apparition stands out as a pretty great removal creature.

Feed the Swarm is the first targeted enchantment removal in black and I find it an auto include for any mono-black or Rakdos deck.

Kaldheim
The modal Gods mean that you can now play enchantments and artifacts from the Command Zone which actually has been a really interesting experience for me personally.
Esika, God of the Tree // The Prismatic Bridge and Jorn, God of Winter // Kaldring, the Rimestaff being examples of doing quite different things as far as enchantment or artifact from the Command Zone

Tergrid, God of Fright // Tergrid's Lantern has been making the rounds and yes it is very obnoxious.

If Orvar, the All-Form sounds busted to you..well it is. You can sneeze and go infinite sometimes.

Kaldheim also has some more Changelings giving any tribal decks more options. Realmwalker and Masked Vandal being highlights for me.

Tibalt's Trickery is a legit hard counterspell for red decks. In my opinion it is an auto include for any deck that doesn't run blue.

Goldspan Dragon hits the sweet spot for aggression and as a mana producer.

The World Tree is a color fixing land for 5 color decks. Great at turning colorless or even non mana producing lands into colored mana.

Commander Legends
A little hard to summarize given the scope of the set. But think in terms that there are more combinations of potential partners than there are legendary creatures in Magic.
I'm an incredible prolific partner combiner and I haven't even scratched the surface of matching them up for unique brews.

As far as staples for your 99, Opposition Agent, Hullbreacher and Jeweled Lotus being the big ones as people have mentioned.
Jeweled Lotus caused quite the ruckus while the flash hate-bears are toxic as hell for casual games.

There are the "battlebond" lands for enemy colors which are excellent duels.

But outside of the actual Legends there isn't a lot of cards in this set as far as auto includes.
Wheel of Misfortune for all its wording is basically a Wheel of Fortune for at least yourself if you commit the life.
Mana Drain is a nice reprint.

Jumpstart
Was released just after Core 2021 so not sure if you looked at that set?
It had a limited number of new cards and lots of reprints.
Of the new cards Emiel the Blessed and Tinybones, Trinket Thief are legit Commanders.

Allosaurus Shepherd is..well a $120 card.

[DirkGently]

I think others have done a good job of covering the expansions in terms of major cards for commander, but I want to add that Commander Legends is a FANTASTIC commander draft experience. Really really fun, would highly recommend it if you enjoy the idea of drafting commander decks.

As far as news goes, the biggest news item of the past year has been that magic is moving into non-magic IP with "universes beyond", starting with Warhammer 40K commander precons and a Lord of the Rings expansion (details forthcoming). Personally this makes me sick in my mouth, but YMMV.

[kraus911]

Just wanted to say I have been paying attention to Magic the past year and this thread was still useful in terms of seeing folks sum up a release-heavy year for our format.

I would second (third, fourth?) the dual face land/spell cards. Zendikar Rising was kind of a flash in the pan, yet I see these cards in lots of deck lists, primers that haven't changed much in years throwing them in to replace a land. The pseudo wheel and regrowth ones seem the best value to me, but the splashier ones are cool too.

I'd say open scryfall, put in the 'partner' keyword, and just let your imagination go because there are so many options for build your own commander now.

[onering]

I think others have done a good job of covering the expansions in terms of major cards for commander, but I want to add that Commander Legends is a FANTASTIC commander draft experience. Really really fun, would highly recommend it if you enjoy the idea of drafting commander decks.

As far as news goes, the biggest news item of the past year has been that magic is moving into non-magic IP with "universes beyond", starting with Warhammer 40K commander precons and a Lord of the Rings expansion (details forthcoming). Personally this makes me sick in my mouth, but YMMV.

THIS. Commander Legends was really fun to draft. Voltron was a bit overplayed early and always a threat, but once people started figuring out the other archetypes they branched out more, and there was a lot of fun stuff to do. Once it wasn't 2 to 3 Voltrons per table (in mtgo 4 player pods), Voltron became a lot more manageable as well.