Going down today's previews of anything that I think is better than draft chaff:
Introduction to Annihilation: I don't play
Scour from Existence anywhere, and will have to think long and hard about whether saving
2 is worth going down to sorcery speed AND giving them a card (and you can't target lands but...meh). I suspect the answer is "no", but this is a solid little budget option for players (especially non-white players) who really really need to kill whatever permanent type it is that there deck normally can't touch.
Introduction to Prophecy: The rate here is terrible, so terrible I'm not sure I'd run it in all but the dumbest and durdliest of budget white decks, but it's at least on my radar in decks like
Mizzix of the Izmagnus that can get the cost down to
0.
Professor of Symbology: Learn doesn't work (or at least, the juicy part doesn't) in our format, but I've also joked about how close I've been to running stuff like
Fissure Wizard/
Immersturm Raider in mono-red or Boros decks just to get some card flow. This could be fringe playable in mono-white decks, especially Cleric tribal ones.
Archmage Emeritus:
Lunar Mystic gets strictly-bettered. This card is sorta bananas honestly, and I look forward to jamming it in (and seeing it in) pretty much any 75% Spellslinger deck from here on out. Triggering on copies as well makes it pretty hot for Sevinne
First Day of Class: Seems quite strong in a deck that both slings spells and/or creates tons of tokens (like
Kykar, Wind's Fury or
Zada, Hedron Grinder or
Wort, the Raidmother). The free rummage takes what would already have been a fringe playable and makes it a great little add.
Storm-Kiln Artist: Already noted as an absolutely terrifying addition to Zada and other spellslinger decks.
Dragonsguard Elite: Mentioning only to say that this is a pretty snoozy BaB Promo for Commander. This is a great example of a pretty strong card that is "just stats" and thus not generally playable in EDH. I can't imagine this being played anywhere, although I do look forward to brewing up a MiracleGro-style aggro deck in standard.
Kianne, Dean of Substance: This is a fascinating design, doubling down on the versatility of the Kaldheim commanders. They're sorta a middle-ground behind the Kaldheim commanders and outright Partner Commanders in terms of offering two different commander options for different phases of the game. I like it in theory, but don't like the substance of these two in practice. Kianne is a pretty meh
Dryad Greenseeker with a too-slow token generating effect, while Ibraham is a too-slow draw engine. Unless the set has other cards that exile with Study, I can't imagine ever playing these two over
Haldan, Avid Arcanist and
Pako, Arcane Retriever (if I just wanted UGx "top of library shenanigans and card advantage") or the spicier new
Adrix and Nev, Twincasters for tokens.dec. Because of their reliance on the study counters they create, they also seem really meh in the 99. Pass.
Plargg, Dean of Chaos: As a commander these two seem a bit one-trick pony, and it's strange that they don't synergize at all. It's interesting to theorycraft a deck that uses Plargg to cheat out
Restore Balance or other "CMC-less" cards, but that doesn't feel like a winning line; meanwhile Augusta is back there being a weird, over-complex
Always Watching type anthem with a bunch of extra triggers and nonsense. I'm more interested in them in the 99, where Plargg is a
Rummaging Goblin at a much better rate with a free sort of "super draw a card" effect stapled to him. That's so good in most Boros or RWx decks that I imagine finding a home for Plargg in many places, with the ability to use Augusta as a pump as gravy.
Rowan, Scholar of Sparks: Rowan and Will are almost as good as their original incarnation in a spellslinger deck, maybe better, offering a
Goblin Electromancer-style discount. Both sides protect themselves. Rowan's ultimate is more exciting, and I suspect I'll be playing the Rowan side more often, but options don't hurt anyone.
Shaile, Dean of Radiance: As commanders there is some natural synergy here, but I suspect that having to tap on both sides is going to make this duo a bit too ponderous for the average EDH table. Again, they're a bit spicier in the 99 of a counters matter deck where Embrose is a rock-solid card draw engine. Embrose may be strong enough to make that deck work in EDH alone the more I think about it, but for sure I see these guys in a lot of Abzan counter decks.
Torrent Sculptor: Strong elsewhere, but doesn't seem good in EDH.
Uvilda, Dean of Perfection: A "fixed"
Jhoira of the Ghitu - you can only suspend (sorry, "hone") instants and sorceries, and you get a nice
4-finger discount but it ain't free, preventing you from just slamming a way-too-early
Expropriate,
Time Stretch, or
Obliterate with almost no resources (and meaning you generally don't want to suspend stuff like Obliterate or
Decree of Annihilation, since you won't be able to play your other suspended cards after). In general she's "worse" than Jhoira, but in some metas maybe that's a good thing...and that's before we even talk about her other half in Nassari.
Stolen Strategy is a fun card, and having it in the command zone seems very fun. Again, it surprises me that while there's a little synergy between the two here they mostly play differently, but in general they seem fun to brew around.
Valentin, Dean of the Vein: Is it weird that I'm at first most interested in the voltron potential of a 1 CMC commander with built-in evasion? I mean, he's no
Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh but it is interesting. He also has a
Planar Void-style graveyard eating that makes little dork tokens, and his other half does reward the same kind of deck with lots of pests and incremental lifegain to overrun the swarm of pests. It's gonna take a lot for me to make a 3rd Golgari deck, but I am intrigued.
Quandrix Apprentice: The only apprentice who doesn't seem like "just" a limited signpost; this is going to be the aforementioned bonkers Archmage Emeritus a significant amount of the time for half of the CMC. Top of head I don't know of any UGx spellslinger decks (I guess some versions of
Riku of Two Reflections?) but for them, this card is legit.
Shadrix Silverquill: Some of the cards today are obviously meant for other formats; this is one that's clearly so much better in EDH where you can pick a neutral 3rd party as the other target while Shadrix shreds your current prime opponent. Not sure he's good, mind, but he scales fast, makes blockers, draws cards - he's a real swiss army knife with an awesome typeline and I expect to see him often when game stores are really open again.
The Snarls (
Frostboil Snarl et al): We live in the saddest timeline, where we're getting reveal lands instead of the tangos we all wanted. Womp womp. These are gonna be pretty cheap especially post-rotation in a few years, but that's because they're also going to be really really mediocre outside of 2-color budget decks.