Well, here we go again I guess.
Tazri, Stalwart Survivor
Power: C
Design: D
I know my design grade is pretty mean but I cannot get over how ugly the wording is. Feels massively overdesigned. I don't really see him being very good either, you're disincentivized from playing tap ability creatures since it kinda negates the first ability, so you're just playing a bunch of mana sink creatures? I can't really see how this is supposed to work, honestly, it seems like best case scenario you're just begging to get wrathed. I'll believe it when I see it, I guess.
Arni Metalbrow
Power: C
Design: C-
Kind of an insane ability, you get to combat cascade your entire hand into play tapped and attacking so long as your most expensive thing is already in play (and nothing has equal mv) (and you can afford to pay 2 for each creature). That said, he seems like maybe more of a 99 card since the setup seems kinda difficult and mono-red is fairly restrictive. Still, it seems like he can probably do something broken - you just need to get something expensive into play first, and I'm not really sure how you'd do that in mono-red reliably. Pray you draw Sneak Attack? Seems very feast or famine.
Plargg and Nassari
Power: B
Design: A-
Very much a standalone value piece, I can't think of a ton of ways to synergize here since you have very little control over what you're going to cast. I guess there are some ways to get value from casting cards from exile (Nalfeshnee, Passionate Archaeologist) but idk that I'd want to give my opponents more reason to want to kill this dude(s). As a standalone value piece, it's pretty reminiscent of Etali, Primal Storm - it costs 1 less, doesn't need to get into combat but can't expedite its trigger with haste, always "hits" but is capped at 2 spells and never gets the "best" one (unless politics or dumbness). Having played Etali, he's sweet, but the spells you get can often be less than helpful since they're often based on synergies you largely won't have - though being less combat-focused might help reduce your need to close the game quickly, and you can maybe build into synergies over time. Besides a smattering of ramp to get to 5, I'm not really sure what the rest of this deck looks like, so most likely they'll see more play in the 99 - but I might give them a try in the CZ.
Nissa, Resurgent Animist
Power: B
Design: C
My initial thought with creature Nissa is that she's another boring elf/elemental tribal option, but that's not exactly true. She does get extra value from those types, but she tunnels into them, so you can still get plenty of value, and potentially more value, with just a couple of them in your deck. There's very likely some combo nonsense that could be done on that front. In addition, she's a lotus cobra in the command zone, which makes her Azusa, Lost but Seeking-esque in terms of generating a lot of mana early in the game. She doesn't ramp permanently like Azusa, though, so you'll probably want to fuel her with other ramp spells. Overall she seems relatively good-stuffy ramp based. I think the most obvious elves to get are ones that fetch lands into play so that you continue to fuel her abilities and play big bomby stuff. Or a potentially combo commander. Definitely will see some play in the 99 as well.
Calix, Guided by Fate
Power: B-
Design: B
Thank god it's not another "play enchantment draw card" enchantress commander. Obviously there's a little payoff for playing a volume of enchantments but it's not really enough to be compulsory. So I can definitely see a version of Calix that uses a smaller number of high-impact enchantments that are great to copy, and either auras + evasive creatures, or evasion-granting equipment to get the commander through. Making a copy of Doubling Season or Mirari's Wake seems like a pretty sweet payoff, and I like the limitation that it only works once per turn to disincentivize just running a million enchantments like every other enchantress deck.
Danitha, New Benalia's Light
Power: C
Design: B-
Vigilance, trample, lifelink is a pretty solid set of abilities for a voltron commander since it has built-in evasion to make it much easier to get damage through, and vigilance/lifelink means it plays defense as well as offense. Voltron is generally a pretty weak archetype, and she doesn't speed it up, though she does provide some extra durability.
Jirina, Dauntless General
Power: D
Design: C-
I can't really imagine someone playing this as a commander. Grave hate on entering is not really when I'd prefer to have it, and setting up a reactive protection against board wipes is less effective when it's so predictable. I can imagine a deck running her alongside boardwipes to do a plague wind, but that doesn't seem exciting enough to build a deck around really.
Jolrael, Voice of Zhalfir
Power: C+
Design: B-
I've moved around a bit on this. The land creature Coastal Piracy is potentially strong, but making lands creatures is so risky, and expensive too since it basically costs you 1 mana to attack. There are a few cards that make it look really good, but otherwise I'd be very wary. On the other hand, just animating one land into a massive flyer could be pretty okay, and it gives you a free card every turn so long as you connect. And there are a decent sampling of indestructible lands to target as well. I'm not super excited about her personally, but I do think she's a decent design for a land-creature based commander.
Kiora, Sovereign of the Deep
Power: C-
Design: C
Lord do I hate sea monster tribal. As far as payoffs go, it's fine I guess. It's kinda just cascade, but not quite, so it's sort of unique? I don't think the power level is too egregious and I do like that the mana value matters so you aren't just jamming in 1mv changelings. I want to get more angry at her because I hate wotc making meme decks into real decks, but that ship has sailed and honestly her design is fine if you're into this sort of thing.
Nahiri, Forged in Fury
Power: C
Design: D
It really boggles my mind the way wotc designs some of these commanders. They keep trying to make a commander that pays you off for having a bunch of separate creatures each equipped with something. Probably the best one they've ever designed was Nahiri, the Lithomancer. But for new Nahiri, Jor Kadeen, First Goldwarden, Dalakos, Crafter of Wonders, Halvar, God of Battle // Sword of the Realms, Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith, there's a really obvious problem - if you've got all these equipment around, and you've got a commander with solid stats...why the hell would you bother equipping your other creatures? Your commander can kill people in 1-2 hits! You're supposed to dedicate a bunch of slots of the deck to other creatures just so you can justify NOT equipping it to the obvious target? Nahiri admittedly has a better payoff than most, but I can't look at a 5-power 2-drop and not immediately think "I'm putting all my swords on that". So she's kinda okay, but I find the design choices really frustrating.
Narset, Enlightened Exile
Power: B-
Design: B
Woo a narset who isn't cancer (probably). I like her ability to target any graveyard. I like how she's restricted by cmc but provides a way to reduce that restriction. I like that she exiles the original so it can't get too repetitive. Overall a lot of good design choices. I'm not that excited about the teamwide prowess, but it's fine and other people seem to be into it. Overall I think she's one of the standouts of the set.
Nashi, Moon's Legacy
Power: C
Design: C-
It looks very similar to Narset, but I'm way less interested in rat tribal or legendary tribal, and I think there are more logical options for both archetypes anyway. Plus it's restricted to your own graveyard, which is lame. Big meh.
Niv-Mizzet, Supreme
Power: B+
Design: B
Turns out adding sour cream and tomato was all it took to make me like niv mizzet, one of my most hated characters-as-a-card since 2009. It's hard for me to say for sure, but at least from first blush it seems like they fixed a lot of issues with similar designs. Unlike Kess, Dissident Mage it doesn't prevent casting on enemy turns, it doesn't prevent your own interaction like Lier, Disciple of the Drowned, and unlike (every blue spell-based commander) it doesn't synergize with time magic. It also feels pretty balanced between the bi-color restriction and being forced to discard, though of course the discard also presents an opportunity to circumvent or even exploit the cost (squee, madness, etc). Does seem like it could be really strong still, but it's complex enough that I'm interested in giving it a try.
Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin
Power: B+
Design: D+
Small rant, I really don't love when they pair a value bonus with a threat bonus. Like, maybe you could get away with just cooking up some nice CA for yourself, but then also your highly evasive commander decides he needs to get massive and now everyone's going to by pointing their removal at him. That said, he's still really strong potentially, there are a million effects that drain everyone for 1 or ping everyone for 1 in those colors, so you could easily storm your way through a lot of your deck pretty quickly. I really don't like decks that tend to spend endless turns churning through their decks, so I'm not into it.
Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival
Power: C-
Design: B
The more I've looked at her, the more I like her. She's a small value piece, but she definitely has the potential to generate some nice combat-oriented value. I do think trying to make a cast-from-exile deck, especially where the commander doesn't help you do it, is fairly difficult, but at least she looks like a fun way to pay if off.
Rocco, Street Chef
Power: C+
Design: A-
Rocco fixes a lot of the design problems in other group hug-ish commanders. He doesn't force the group hug upon anyone, but he does incentivize it. He gives you some inherent value even if nobody wants to play ball. And the payoff you get is interesting since it's not obviously strong, so he takes some work to really exploit. The cards being exiled also means everyone gets a good look at what's going down, which can create a minor Telepathy-like effect that can sow some juicy discord. Price is right, too, at just 3. I dig it.
Samut, Vizier of Naktamun
Power: D+
Design: B-
In a multiplayer game there's a good chance someone is open to get damage through, especially since people are disincentivized from trading. And there are some ways to make a lot of tokens with haste. That said, the payoff here seems somewhat middling. Typically if you're doing a big hasty alpha strike, the thing you want is for the alpha strike to kill people, not for it to set up a future alpha strike again. That said, the cost is quite low and the body isn't bad, and likely draws you a card when played. Definitely lags behind Goro-Goro and Satoru, but I do think it's a cute, tight design that doesn't get overly fancy.
Sarkhan, Soul Aflame
Power: C-
Design: C+
Ah, Sarkhan, and his love of ruining good draft formats. He's obviously got a lot of overlap with other dragon commanders, though his restrictive colors make him slightly unique? I'm not surprised that he's as unpopular as he is, given that he's not naturally a dragon and has pretty middling abilities - who'd want to pay 3 and need to keep a creature on the board for the same bonus that ur-dragon gets for literally zero effort? I do like him being a temporary clone, that is somewhat interesting, though dragon tribal doesn't enamor me towards the actual build.
Sigarda, Font of Blessings
Power: C
Design: D-
Holy cow does this feel samey to other GW angel commanders. I guess she's the only GW angel commander...oh noes, we don't just need every single tribe to have a commander, we also need every color permutation to have a tribal commander for every tribe...but that's about the extent of it. She might be a slight upgrade on Shalai, Voice of Plenty or other sigarda versions but she's definitely not winning any awards for creativity.
Tyvar the Bellicose
Power: B
Design: C
Now that's a much more unique ability. While it's interesting that you can quickly turn Priest of Titania into an Impervious Greatwurm in short order, that sort of relatively slow build seems pretty mid for a deck as explosive as elves. I think more likely the deathtouch is the crucial element as a pairing for the typical craterhoof plan, with the extra counters as more of a nice bonus. Not my thing, but I do like the uniqueness of his abilities, even if they're probably going towards the service of the same ol' elfball deck.
Karn, Legacy Reforged
Power: B
Design: C-
Boy is that first ability a waste of text. The obvious payoff for this guy is not his potentially-slightly-larger stats, but his ability to generate a ton of extra mana. He could easily be the strongest colorless commander, given that he can pretty easily add 4+ mana the turn after you play him, quickly ramping out eldrazis using cards you were playing anyway. Whether you prefer the setup or the payoff card in the CZ is a matter of personal taste, but I'll definitely be concerned when I see him sticking around for a turn cycle.
Oof, that was kind of a slog tbh. Took me a week to get this finished, and my heart wasn't quite in it. There are some interesting options in there, but I find it kinda exhausting to review cards that are SO blatantly designed for commander. At least with normal sets you sometimes get a Migloz, Maze Crusher that is obviously weak in the format and you can remember that not everything is made for us.
What's y'alls opinion of the mini-set?
