BRAWLSTAR REVIEW: I am doing a star system for challenge and feedback, so to give you a sense...
Four stars: For a Legendary, this is going to be in the top 5 most played Commanders of that color combination. For a non-Legendary, it is a staple and I expect to see it in basically every deck of its colors. An amazing card.
Three stars: For a Legendary, I expect to see it often and expect it will be in the top 10 for its color combination. For a non-Legendary, it is very good but a little more niche, and I expect to see it only in decks dedicated to doing this cards (narrow) thing. An above average card.
Two stars: For a Legendary, I expect it to not be top 10 but to avoid being bottom-ranked. For a card, it is fine, average, and fun but rarely optimized outside of extremely specific decks, and I expect to see it rarely. An average card.
One star: For a Legendary, I suspect they will be among the least-played Commanders of that color. For a card, I suspect it is actively bad, and will see play only in budget/casual/newbie decks or specific theme decks. A below average card.
Zero stars: Terrible - almost unplayable in the format.
The Legends:
Chulane, Teller of Tales: A known quantity - to reiterate, 5 mana is a lot but a supercharged
Beast Whisperer in the commander slot is disgusting and I'm sure we'll all grow to see Chulane as the most obnoxious Bant-mmander since
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician by December. Fun with Adventure, a fun alternative to Roon as a blink/EtB tribal commander, interesting with various tribes like Elves, Druids, and Humans, and will almost assuredly ignore all of that to draw his entire library with
Shrieking Drake. Four stars.
Korvold, Fae-Cursed King: I misread this guy at first, and on second read holy cats. I didn't think they could make an aristocrats/foodchain-style Jund commander more dangerous than the infamous
Prossh, Skyraider of Kher, but, well, there it is. Drawing a card whenever you sacrifice
any permanent, including fetchlands and treasure, is insane. He comes down a turn sooner than Prossh and has different synergies, but this noble dragon is coming to eat some tables near you I think.
Ruthless Deathfang and
Smothering Abomination see very little play, but costing less, in the commander slot, with a way to enable himself, and triggering off all permanents instead of just creatures, is very powerful.
Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest has proven quite bonkers and this is arguably more gross. I can't say enough about how good Koro is. Four stars.
Alela, Artful Provocateur: I wouldn't be surprised if Alela ended up as a top 5 Esper Commander.
Vampire Nighthawk is a fine statline for a commander, offering offense, defense, and a great body to enchant/equip.
Favorable Winds already makes this a fine commander for Faeries or a "skies" style tempo deck. But the real selling point is that she's now the ultimate Esper-Enchantress Commander, tacking on a 2/1 flying body to every enchantment, and she triggers off artifacts too for extra versatility. Oh, and creature - Warlock makes me insanely happy. At 3 CMC I think she might have a real shot at unseating Troloro and Zur - at four, she's still great. Three stars.
Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale: Probably the loser of the bunch. She's obviously fun as a Knight Tribal or Equipment Tribal commander, but six mana is a lot and her comboes are going to be painfully obvious (
Argentum Armor,
Colossus Hammer). She's still pretty good, but these other three are in contention for best-in-color-combo, and Syr Gwyn is merely okay. Two stars.
UNIQUE CARDS:
Mace of the Valiant: Like a mediocre
Cathars' Crusade, and in many decks is just straight worse than
Veteran's Armaments,
Pennon Blade, and
Stoneforge Masterwork - none of which are exactly tearing up the format. I wouldn't run this outside of the most dedicated of Knight Tribal decks where it was equip 0 - it isn't even in the "good timmy fun" category honestly, considering how much work one has to put into it for it to be better than a simple
Vulshok Wargear or
Greatsword. Zero stars.
Silverwing Squadron:
Crusader of Odric for twice the cost feels like a bad deal, even with Flying + Vigilance. This would need to safely attack multiple times to feel worthwhile at six CMC. Not great outside of dedicated Knight Tribal and even then is likely among the worst cards in your deck. One star.
Shimmer Dragon: Seems like a fine top-end to an artifact deck. Being a dragon also has some relevance; decks like Scion of the Ur Dragon like running lots of mana rocks so turning them into late-game card draw is gas. I imagine there are ways to infinite with this, although most are convoluted enough that there's better ways to win. Still a bit narrow, but totally fine in the right deck of which there are many: Three stars.
Workshop Elders: This is effectively an 8/8 for eight with four of the power having Haste and Flying, so it isn't terrible in an artifact deck. It's also not amazing, and I can't imagine it especially as the most popular blue-based commanders have plenty of ways to animate artifacts already. Fun, but nonessential. One star.
Chittering Witch: On average this is a 5/5 for four spread across four bodies -
Sengir Autocrat, eat your heart out. The sac outlet is super medium in Commander - two mana is a lot and -2/-2 isn't enough to kill most targets, but at least it is text. A blast in Rat decks, and an acceptable card in sac decks generally. Two stars.
Embereth Skyblazer: A 4/3 flying on your turn isn't amazing, and the pump ability is REALLY expensive for +3/+0. Fine in Knights, mediocre elsewhere, not something I'd be looking to run. One star.
Thorn Mammoth: Everything looks small next to
Apex Altisaur but this is still rock-solid. Two stars.
Steelbane Hydra: Hydra Tribal is a hungry deck, but this looks a bit mediocre even by that standard and is so slow everywhere else - it's eight mana for a non-deathtouch Acidic slime, and even with a payment plan and some Proliferate potential that seems bad. One star.
Banish into Fable: That's a lot of hoops to jump through for a trio of man-o-wars, and it's in the wrong colors for Knight Tribal. Fun but mediocre. One star.
Gluttonous Troll: Meh. One star.
Knight's Charge: A
Sanctum Seeker effect for Knights is fine. The backup text is stupid-costly but it is Plan Z. Fine in Knights although not noticeably better than
Etchings of the Chosen. Two stars.
Arcane Signet: Much has already been written of the best mana rock this side of
Sol Ring. All self-respecting players will need a copy for every deck. Five stars. Curse you Gavin!
Tome of Legends: Not quite a staple - you really need a cheap and/or aggressive commander, and the hoops mean that the average Blue and Black deck probably has better draw. Still an auto-include in all Boros decks, and worth considering in any non-blue deck with a commander of CMC 3 or less. I'm even toying with it for Daretti. Three stars.
OVERALL: I feel like the commanders are insanely pushed, likely because 3 colors in Standard is hard and most of the broken comboes you can do with them aren't in Standard. As a result, all of them except the Knight are likely to really take off and shake it up in our beloved Commander format. The cards in the '59 (and for the '99) on the other hand are really safe since they have to be fair in Standard - and as a result, only Arcane Signet, Tome of Legends, and the blue dragon feel worth chasing down for the average collector and brewer. If you want the most value, buy Chulane - you get Chulane, a Signet, and Tome of Legends. The Knight deck is the worst, with narrow mediocre cards and the worst commander.