Unreleased and New Card Discussion

[illakunsaa]

and the decklist are now live

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2022-08-19

EDIT: CipT lands without a way to have them be untapped...I guess they didn't feel a need to reprintAmulet of Vigor

Tiller Engine is one of the new cards in the deck.

[brainface]

Archelos, Lagoon Mystic ]] is in there too.

Tiller Engine is... is a thing. I'd been focusing on it as amulet-of-vigor-myr, but the other mode weaponizes trash lands! Elfhame palace clears a blocker, bant panorama turns into rishadan port. That is not bad.

[Sporegorger_Dragon]

bant panorama turns into rishadan port. That is not bad.

Hmmm, Tiller Engine can't tap lands, so no Rishadan Port sadly. Still pretty good though.

[Serenade]

Verrak, Warped Sengir is a generic "just copy it" legend, BUT at least it is limited to abilities and makes you pay the life again. I've had the idea of a Font of Agonies deck for a while, waiting for a general…he might be it.

Tiller Engine not being besties with Scaretiller is for the best. I have not picked up my WUR cycling deck in a while, and maybe this card will make me revamp it.

[DirkGently]

We're up to 68 legendaries in the set, by my count.

Of course that includes the precon legendaries, but jfc. Wotc panders to commander players like [insert political reference here].

[Sporegorger_Dragon]

Unofficial Spoiler Discussion

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In related news, Legendary Frog Beast is not Turg, but his child! Nice little nod to the past there

Hide Unofficial Spoilers

. Someone on the design team really likes Frogs.

[BeneTleilax]

Does Verrak let you double fetchlands?

[pokken]

Does Verrak let you double fetchlands?

Yes.

[Hermes_]

and the decklist are now live

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2022-08-19

EDIT: CipT lands without a way to have them be untapped...I guess they didn't feel a need to reprintAmulet of Vigor

Tiller Engine is one of the new cards in the deck.

reading fail on me lol

[brainface]

bant panorama turns into rishadan port. That is not bad.

Hmmm, Tiller Engine can't tap lands, so no Rishadan Port sadly. Still pretty good though.

Oh, dang, nonlands, not only lands. So... Rishadan... starboard? \o/

[Rumpy5897]

Alright folks, how are we feeling about Plaza of Heroes? I'd say this is the most "goes everywhere" card they've printed since Arcane Signet, though there are some caveats as to what decks actually want this. The further away you are from a cheap utility commander in a shell that can play at instant speed, the less this is for you. It just so happens Daxos/Feather both tick the boxes for this

[DirkGently]

@Rumpy5897 It's definitely strong, but I think the other qualifier is how many colors you are, and how useful the protection ability is. If you're mono or dual, the fixing is pretty mid compared to plenty of other options. So then it depends on how useful the protection ability is. And while it's definitely nice to have, it is quite expensive. Even if you play at instant speed, it's an onboard trick, so people can just wait until you tap out right before your turn to snipe your commander. That still protects it when it's attack etc, so definitely not useless, but it's not super hard to evade if you really want them dead. And sacrificing a land is no minor cost either.

I'm sure it'll go into a lot of decks, so the price might end up pretty high, but I don't think it's quite as good as it looks.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Out of all the rebooted legends in the commander product, Torsten. Founder of Benalia speaks to me the most. Maybe it's just my fondness for the zany flavor text of the original, maybe it's memories of the great Magnus Magicus's OG Torsten thread that casts him as a maniacal supremacist. But it is the legend I think I'm most likely to build so far.

[Hermes_]

i'm horrible at evaluating cards so from what we've got what would go into a Hanna, Ship's Navigator pillowfort/soldier token deck? (the actual end goal is Hive Mind and Enduring Ideal and yes my group is fine with the crazy idea)

[PrimevalCommander]

Tiller Engine looks sweet. I'll be getting one of those. Great for budget 5 color decks that does more late game turning your land drops into anit-blocker tech.
Fantastic in any deck running Scapeshift, as Amulet of Vigor would be, but this brings the advantages and disadvantages of being a creature.

[Mookie]

• Karn's Sylex is sweet. It's a bit like a colorless Pernicious Deed - enters tapped (and thus is more vulnerable to disruption), but being colorless lets it go in significantly more decks. Hitting planeswalkers does make it a bit more difficult to make asymmetric though (i.e. running it in a superfriends deck).
• Timeless Lotus looks powerful, albeit limited to 5c decks - a five mana rock that generates five mana represents a ton of ramp, even if it does enter tapped.
• Ratadrabik of Urborg looks very sweet for any Orzhov legends decks. I don't think I have enough legends in my Teysa deck, but could be a fun build-around. Throw in Primevals' Glorious Rebirth and you have a deck.
• Weatherlight Compleated is interesting. I think it's ultimately a bit too slow - you need to have stuff die, then it becomes a creature, then more stuff needs to die, then you can start drawing cards when things die. Hmmmm... Two mana is a bargain for a draw engine though.

[DirkGently]

Looks like we got another WH40K spoiler mixed into DMU.

The Swarmlord 3GUR
~ enters with 2 +1/+1 counters for each time you've cast him from the CZ.
Whenever a becountered creature you control dies, draw a card.
5/5

Seems...pretty boring. Good.

Also since nobody else brought up Lagomos, Hand of Hatred, I kinda like him. Getting 5 dead creatures is a reasonably difficult goal, but being able to activate on any turn makes it easier. Probably mostly a grave pacty sorta commander, but I do think it's interesting design. And I think the open-endedness of the tutor actually works in his favor for replayability. Something with a narrow tutor like Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice becomes pretty fast to streamline once you've found the best possible option, but I think Lagomos will actually generate a decent variety of decks.

[Dunadain]

Looks like we got another WH40K spoiler mixed into DMU.

The Swarmlord 3GUR
~ enters with 2 +1/+1 counters for each time you've cast him from the CZ.
Whenever a becountered creature you control dies, draw a card.
5/5

Seems...pretty boring. Good.

Interesting how this corrupted into Phyrexian Swarmlord don't really see the flavor there, but ok I guess. /s

[Sporegorger_Dragon]

The Swarmlord might be hinting at a keyword counter theme for the Tyranids.

Also, does this mean our Changelings are now Tyranids as well?

As an aside, I'm 99.99% sure that based on the art, Bog Badger was originally Penumbra Badger.

[Yatsufusa]

Looks like we got another WH40K spoiler mixed into DMU.

The Swarmlord 3GUR
~ enters with 2 +1/+1 counters for each time you've cast him from the CZ.
Whenever a becountered creature you control dies, draw a card.
5/5

Seems...pretty boring. Good.

To be accurate, it gets +1/+1 counters for any Commander of yours cast from the CZ, not just itself. That, alongside it being boring actually makes it pretty incentivizing to put into Animar for me, since I do have a +1/+1 counter theme going on, and that 7/7 or 9/9 statstick-only that draws a card when it dies would probably fly under the radar that it would actually function as a pretty nice card recovery when the other more actively-threatening stuff start getting destroyed, and also acts as a cushion against wrath effects, which Animar naturally attracts. But as with the oversaturation of card choices, I wouldn't be hurting if I can't get a copy for myself either.

The sheer amount of cards (and Legendaries) from Dominaria (there's like Commander decks, the main set, the subset...) makes it really annoying for me to word out opinions as spoilers are pumping out, so as usual I'll wait until the full spoiler gallery releases before doing my review (and also as usual, to shorten it I'll probably only review those relevant to me or I specifically find extra-interesting even if it isn't relevant to me).

[Serenade]

Serra Paragon, good gosh, that's a good white creature.

Haughty Djinn looks interesting for spellslinger. There are a few cost reduction permanents, but they are bigger enchantments or cheaper, weaker creatures. This guy does the cost reduction, has evasion, grows as the game goes on…the efficiency makes me want to try him.

[Mookie]

More stuff!

• Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief amuses me. You probably won't be getting many spells from your opponents (since most targeted spells are spot removal), but could have some potential for a pump spell deck. Sort of a reverse Zada, Hedron Grinder.
• Gaea's Might is worth calling out mostly for other formats - Might of Old Krosa gives +4/+4 for a single mana, but I can't think of many spells capable of giving +5/+5. I guess Aspect of Hydra? Could be an interesting addition to Tribal Flames decks.
• Jodah's Codex is a reasonable draw engine for 5c decks. I'd lean towards Staff of Nin (or something similar) elsewhere though.
• Haughty Djinn is alright. Cost reduction and a cheap, evasive threat.
• Serra Paragon looks quite nice. Sun Titan-ing a thing every turn is quite nice, even if it is tricky to loop stuff. I'll call out that the lands also get exiled when they hit the graveyard, so you can't just recur the same fetchland over and over... but still seems solid.

[Serenade]

Just remember the Paragon is not free like Sun Titan's ability.

[Guardman]

More stuff!

• Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief amuses me. You probably won't be getting many spells from your opponents (since most targeted spells are spot removal), but could have some potential for a pump spell deck. Sort of a reverse Zada, Hedron Grinder.

Something I saw that is really neat with Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief is that she works with mutate.

[Hawk]

I'm drowning under the weight of this set. 60+ legends is just too much. So far the sheer weight makes me not even looking at a new commander from the set - analysis paralysis.

A few highlights for me:

- Serra Paragon is incredible and an insta-staple in a lot of decks. Hate the memory issues, but this card is for example totally sick in Quintorius, Field Historian as another way to farm cards out of the 'yard.
- My wife is intrigued to see Sheoldred, the Apocalypse and is interested in a Commander deck around her although I don't know where to take it myself.
- My wife is also "over" Varina since she's too aggressive (she likes to turtle up and wheel and deal) so she's pretty interested in Ratadrabik of Urborg as a new BWx Zombies Commander.
- They don't matter for commander, but I am surprised to see Gaea's Might moved to Modern legality (card did work in Extended previously for Wild Nacatl-type zoo decks) and am surprised to see Djinn of the Fountain at uncommon.