Commander 2019 Speculation

[cryogen]

I didn't expect myself to go through withdrawal after back to back Modern Horizons into M20 spoilers, but here we are. So what are your predictions for this year's annual Commander release? I honestly have no idea but someone at my LGS mentioned a conspiracy theory that the Rules Committee banned Iona because because the decks were going to be mono color again, so there's that I guess.

[pokken]

I expect a crazy value explosion this year. WOTC is notorious for over-correcting in whichever direction they go and after the jank last year I think they'll probably pack these things.

I wouldn't be surprised at all to see one big dollar card (e.g. Oracle of Mul Daya in each). If you wanted my off hand prediction there it's:

• oracle of mul daya
• mana vault
• cyclonic rift
• toxic deluge

As far as the sets, I have no idea. I struggle to think of themes they haven't covered at least loosely.

Based on last years being Planeswalkers I would expect creatures this year obviously, and for them to all have the same broken mechanic whatever it is. There'll be a WG one that sucks and at least one will be borderline bannable.

My list of off the wall for what that broken shared mechanic is:
* Interact with commander tax somehow (e.g. reduce it by doing X, it's straight up reduced by 1, etc.)
* Partner With another card that is not a legendary creature (that is in the set; the black one will be busted:P)
* Start the game in a different zone and do something from that zone (on the battlefield, in the graveyard, in the library, in your hand)
* More experience counters but this time you get them only when they are in the command zone, or some kind of triggered ability that only happens when they are in the CZ (kind of like crappy eminence)

[Dunharrow]

I am expecting value in lands and some format staples, but mostly lands. Like - does anyone needs Vivid lands anymore? Even if they are just painlands or checklands or battle lands... it will have to be better than previous versions.
I think it is time we see a returning multiplayer mechanic, like Monarch or voting (I like Conspiracy)
Maybe something encouraging teamwork? Like support or bolster for opponents creatures?

The new commanders I think will have a new keyword or no new keyword. I think there is a lot of creative space before they bring back things like Partner or Eminence (but I could see Partner return if they want to put monocolour or 3 colour partners) I am not sure they need a keyword if the decks are built around a theme.

I believe this is where we see the WB Innistrad Angel. Since I believe they are going to stick to 4 decks again, I think it will be a mix like WB, UR, Abzan and Temur. Each colour represented twice. Focus on colour combinations with few generals.

I really do not want to see 4 or 5 colour decks.

[schweinefett]

I wanna see 2 and 1 colour decks, really. There's something about 3+ colours that really tanks my inspiration for deck-building.

Actually, a painter-style deck would be awesome. Colour-control? UR colours probably?

[Dragonlover]

3 colour partner decks with a mix of two colour and mono-colour legends with partner. I think two shards and two wedges balances the colours across the decks?

Dragonlover

[TheTuna]

i actually think we might see a mono-W or mono-R deck this year. C18 had a pretty remarkable amount of support aimed directly at those two colors (Boreas Charger, Isolated Watchtower, Treasure Nabber, Endless Atlas, whichever enchantment that was that zaps other enchantments), and they still lag far behind the other three. Mono-W in particular has absolutely zero good commanders outside of Sram, who doesn't even really qualify in my books, since half his deck (or more?) is colorless. There's no better place to address this than in the Commander product.

At the very least, I am confident we will continue to see more cards along the lines of Alms Collector, Boreas Charger, Treasure Nabber, etc. I expect we'll also see some more support for high-CMC commanders like Geode Golem, since Wizards must be aware that the format continues to trend towards lower CMC commanders.

[Candlemane]

I've not a clue about what might be coming in this set, but I eagerly await the spoilers.

What I hope for are... more inspirational commanders in whatever they do, though I'd have some biased favorite color combinations. I'd really like them to push BG into something besides the graveyard (com'on enchantments!). Hapatra was a good step. I'd like them to expand slightly into UR exile matters, but it doesn't have to be a UR deck. Maybe W can bring stuff back as a flavor win, like redemption? To see an intersting mono-W commander would be cool, with some kind of unqiue or pie-crusting ability (giving W more area to work with).

So on and so forth. I'm glad they gave use some new wedge legends, even if they weren't all that inspirational to build around or broke new ground (gods know we needed a new Abzan one).

[pokken]

The new commanders I think will have a new keyword or no new keyword

How to make a prediction always true by Dunharrow

[Myllior]

There’s been some speculation over in the Preview forum already, so I’ll copy what I said there. Might have more thoughts later.

Give us a break from the 3-5 colors...

Given the number of 5C legends in Modern Horizons and the Wedge cycle in M20 I wouldn't be surprised if they did just this.

With RTRTR just gone, maybe they could go for a set of 5 decks to cover the ally-coloured guilds? This would finish the "cycles-of-five" that were almost fully covered by Commander through Commander 2016. It might also be a good place to reprint the ally-coloured Temples, since the enemy-coloured ones were reprinted in M20.

If they did go down this route, I'd probably hope for pairs of mono-coloured partner commanders. Whether I'd prefer them to have the general or specific version of the Partner mechanic, I'm not sure.

[toctheyounger]

I won't lie, I'm eager to see what's up, even if it's primarily just for parts. I have no idea what direction they'll go so I won't speculate. However...

I expect a crazy value explosion this year. WOTC is notorious for over-correcting in whichever direction they go and after the jank last year I think they'll probably pack these things.

This. WotC has all but confirmed that with the drop out of Masters sets after UMA, they will be supplementing other products to compensate for this. And honestly this is the predominant reason I want precons. Unless there's a stunningly cool mechanic, I'm in it for reprints. I want me an Oracle of Mul Daya, Grave Pact, Land Tax, Sneak Attack, amongst other things. I'm not greedy I swear.

[Mookie]

Random predictions and/or hopes:

-valuable reprints. Stoneforge Mystic is #1 on my list, but Oracle of Mul Daya, Swords of X & Y, Cabal Coffers, and Weathered Wayfarer are also on that list.
-more exploration of multiplayer-friendly design space for white and red.
-some support for monocolor
-maybe some noncreature, nonplaneswalker commanders? I do like what they did with Nazahn and his hammer.
-some counterplay / hate for some common types of cards (ex: tutors, ramp, ETB creatures, cyclonic rift)

Personally, I would be against more 2+ color partners, but monocolor partners could work. Eminence was a mistake, IMO.

[Dunharrow]

The new commanders I think will have a new keyword or no new keyword

How to make a prediction always true by Dunharrow

LOL
The Point I wanted to make was that I do not believe they will bring back Eminence or Planeswalkers or Partner at this time (though personally I want more partners).

[Hermes_]

Random predictions and/or hopes:

-valuable reprints. Stoneforge Mystic is #1 on my list, , Swords of X & Y,

this...so much this..I know I already own a SFM but still.....

[cryogen]

I would be VERY surprised if they reprinted anything currently worth more than $10 unless that price is solely tied to scarcity. What I would expect is they reprint a bunch of stuff that only crept up because of being a single printing. Black Market for example in the last set (or was it the one before?) But there is almost zero chance they reprint expensive staples to avoid the True Name Nemesis effect.

[pokken]

If they do it in every deck it'll be fine. Gotta avoid making one deck worth a a hundred and the others 17.

But yeah I expect it's mostly scarcity overpriced like oracle vs. stoneforge which sees multiformat play.

[xeroxedfool]

I would be VERY surprised if they reprinted anything currently worth more than $10 unless that price is solely tied to scarcity. What I would expect is they reprint a bunch of stuff that only crept up because of being a single printing. Black Market for example in the last set (or was it the one before?) But there is almost zero chance they reprint expensive staples to avoid the True Name Nemesis effect.

I agree. I doubt wizards would add a bunch of value to these. The first Modern Masters set was the most valuable, the first Commander Precons were the most valuable. Values have only gone down in both of these products in each of the following sets. They have a pattern of removing value and I don't think they would reverse this due to complaints about the last set.

They also want to avoid making one deck rare and expensive like cryogen said.

[TheTuna]

Random predictions and/or hopes:

-valuable reprints. Stoneforge Mystic is #1 on my list, but Oracle of Mul Daya, Swords of X & Y, Cabal Coffers, and Weathered Wayfarer are also on that list.
-more exploration of multiplayer-friendly design space for white and red.
-some support for monocolor
-maybe some noncreature, nonplaneswalker commanders? I do like what they did with Nazahn and his hammer.
-some counterplay / hate for some common types of cards (ex: tutors, ramp, ETB creatures, cyclonic rift)

Personally, I would be against more 2+ color partners, but monocolor partners could work. Eminence was a mistake, IMO.

I agree that there's a big need for hate cards aimed directly at tutors, extra turns (read: Expropriate) and combos in general. The few options out there like Aven Mindcensor, Stranglehold and Mindlock Orb aren't nearly enough, since they don't punish - they just prevent. We need cards that turn tutoring/playing extra turns into a net negative for yourself; maybe effects like "if an opponent searches their library for a card this turn, exile that card and you may cast it with mana of any color" or "if an opponent would begin an extra turn, skip that extra turn, then skip their next regular turn". Stuff like that. With how incredibly problematic "untap all your lands on everyone's turn" effects have been in the format, cards which directly punish people for untapping lands on other players' turns would be a great addition as well. Maybe some kind of red enchantment with "whenever an opponent untaps a land on another player's turn, deal 1 damage to that opponent"? Something in that ballpark, anyways.

I'm kind of surprised that we haven't seen cards along these lines, given how dominant extra turns/untap all lands/tutoring are in the format. You would think Wizards would be more eager to give "fairer" decks tools to fight back against the more commonly complained-of strategies, especially when they're strategies which encourage one player monopolizing the game time.

Teferi's Protection seemed like a card which was aimed directly at Cyclonic Rift (and Alms Collector a card aimed at Consecrated Sphinx, to a lesser extent) so it really is surprising that we haven't seen a more concerted effort to rein these strategies in as of yet.

[ConstantMists]

Solemnity notwithstanding, I really would like them to include a way to interact with experience counters. A few of those guys (read Meren) can get out of hand quickly and there is nothing you can do about it with the exception of 1 card (or ultimating Karn and restarting the game, but I have never seen that happen). Experience itself was a novel idea and I would like to see it again, but with a little more restraint.


While partner is wildly popular I don't think we will see a lot of it in the future. The reason is that wizards doesn't seem to have the playtest resources available for supplemental sets that they do for a regular set. If they created new partner commanders they would not only have to spend an enormous amount of time testing them with the new combos, they would have to ensure that none of the new ones become degenerate with all of the older ones as well. And then every time they did more "partner" commanders the playtest time would increase dramatically.


What these precons really need is a real manabase for any deck more than 2 colors. Vivid lands are not the answer. Scry temples, check lands, City of Brass and many other more reasonable fixers are available and would not significantly change the secondary market prices, but would give the decks added value.

[TheTuna]

Suncleanser from Core Set 2019 is actually a pretty brutal hoser for any experience counter general. I certainly wouldn't be opposed to more, though.

[ConstantMists]

Suncleanser from Core Set 2019 is actually a pretty brutal hoser for any experience counter general. I certainly wouldn't be opposed to more, though.

I forgot that one, but still as of right now if you aren't playing white, you can't interact with experience counters.

[RxPhantom]

I haven't bought any of these for a few years because they've gotten more expensive and somehow less valuable. Many people seem to be expecting some kind of wild value spike with high-dollar reprints. I don't think that's gonna happen. We're setting ourselves up for disappointment there.

My only real prediction is a colorless deck.

[ConstantMists]

looks like there is a leak of the themes here from a European distributor: https://www.blackfire.eu/product.php?id=33368

Themes on keywords: populate, morph, flashback and madness.

[pokken]

Wow, those all are things I like except morph.

GWx populate, UGx morph, URx flashback, RBx madness?

[TheTuna]

looks like there is a leak of the themes here from a European distributor: https://www.blackfire.eu/product.php?id=33368

Themes on keywords: populate, morph, flashback and madness.

Huh, not sure if I buy it, but that's interesting. Populate is probably the most personally interesting for me. Not sure how Madness will work well in Commander, where dumping your hand is practically a death sentence, but if it's real I'm sure that they've come up with something good.

[MRHblue]

If they do it in every deck it'll be fine. Gotta avoid making one deck worth a a hundred and the others 17.

I hope the recent comments by WotC about the reprint value being such crap last year leads to something like this.

One $15-$20 card in EVERY deck, keep em at $40.