Dirk's completed rundown of DMU legends

[DirkGently]

There's been a lot of legendaries spoiled so far, and I wanted somewhere to compile my thoughts about them all, so here it is. As usual I dislike most of them.

I put this thread in decklists instead of general discussion because (1) making my opinions a topic of general discussion feels slightly egotistical and (2) I might be sad if everyone ignores them on the main forum. Here my shame can hide, in case it turns out nobody cares.

Anyway, lets get going. It's going to take a while. I'll try to keep this list updated as more spoilers come out.

Asterisks for commanders I might actually build.

Shanna, Purifying Blade - don't like that it only triggers on your endstep, which is the worst possible timing since you'll have to tap out for your opponents turns and you can't play the cards right away. Could go voltron, but she doesn't really do much except drawing cards and having lifelink. As a control deck with lifegain for draw, the timing is crap, and as a voltron with draw it's just kinda boring.

Najal, the Storm Runner - no evasion is rough for an attack trigger. The sorcery flash is nice. Not exactly worth a 5-drop, but the copy ability is strong. Of course, the best copies are extra turns which is mega yawn. The fact that so many spellslinger commanders are blue is actually a huge issue because extra turns just always becomes the most powerful option every time.

Orca, Siege Demon - Looks awful compared to Juri. Sure, it counts enemy deaths (but those are hard to rely on), and lets you split damage, but costing 5 more mana is awful when it's a long-term grower.

Jenson Carthalion, Druid Exile - Can't think of much value for the mana ability except as fixing. And the multicolor trigger is very mediocre except for with 5c. So it's basically just "jam all the 5c cards" deck to make some angels. Which sounds pretty mediocre given that the vast majority of 5c cards cost at least 5 and don't really have synergy with each other or angels.

Torsten, Founder of Benalia - Probably an etb: draw 5-7 cards if you build it remotely competently, and a strong death trigger too. So at least he's worth the mana cost. As far as synergies, though, I can't say he excites me. Seems more like a 99 card to me.

Ohabi Caleria - Hell of a lord for a tribe that is…absolute trash. Looking at archers, obviously you mostly want tap abilities, so the random reach archers aren't very useful. As far as tap abilities, mostly it's damaging attacking/blocking creatures (which of course your opponent needs to walk into, and also are really bad) with a few that hit flyers. Can definitely get some big draw if you have the mana with some of the flyer hitters, though it's definitely a low-powered deck.

Xira, the Golden Sting - Fun flavor. I think you should be able to stack the abilities, so you can just put them all on some creature of yours that can sacrifice itself. But idk, even if there was no condition on the draw/token it wouldn't be that exciting imo. It's not awful, just more of a 99 card I think.

*Verrak, Warped Sengir - Really cool design. Curiously narrow, though - stuff you'd think would be awesome, like greed, is actually really mediocre. What you really want is stuff that has big costs in addition to the life payment, so you get double value for those parts of the cost. Fetchlands are the best, easiest synergy I could find. Which is rad, but outside of crucible to get 2 lands every turn it's kinda hard to fill up the deck with synergies, so it's pretty open ended. Luckily his stats are quite strong too. I doubt he'll be too popular, and I don't think he's super strong, but he's definitely interesting.

*Cadric, Soul Kindler - Bit awkward that Hofri is in the same colors and does a similar thing. There's probably some interesting stuff here, though I haven't quite found it. You get a bunch of free-ish sac fodder, but most legends don't have self-sacrifice effects. So maybe you sac them to other things? I guess it's cool with haste enablers to get a double-legendary attack. Something like aurelia, the warleader is pretty spicy. Or Gisela for that sweet quad damage for a turn. And of course etbs and death triggers, almost forgot that somehow. So yeah, there's definitely legs here, albeit legs he's sharing with Hofri.

Bladewing, Deathless Tyrant - the haste and evasion is huge here, makes it pretty doable to set up a big swing turn. Set up a huge graveyard and then slam someone to make 20 zombies in a turn. Considering the high cost and setup, there are definitely more powerful graveyard things to do, but he's still pretty cute. Maybe better in the 99 where people can't anticipate him.

Zeriam, Golden Wind - He's a hell of a lot better than Zuberi. Griffins are almost universally trash, and it's mono-white, so it's not good. I guess you can just play him as your only griffin. He does spiral out of control somewhat quickly if someone is undefended in the air, so you could just play it as a control deck. Not the most exciting, but it does look relatively strong for what it does.

Shanid, Sleepers' Scourge - In theory you can play almost all legendary lands, and of course you can play lots of legendary spells to basically have infinite draw as long as Shanid is in play. So it's definitely a strong option for legendary tribal. Menace is boring but that's ok. You don't even need to commit that hard to legendary spells to keep your hand perpetually full tbh. Looks quite strong.

Ayesha Tanaka, Armorer - Yuck. What is this garbage? A 2/4 for 5? The evasion is super lame too. I guess you're supposed to play her voltron to increase her power, but usually I'm more interested in a commander that's cheap, has good evasion, and most importantly has protection so I don't get blown out after I equip a ton of stuff, and Ayesha does none of that.

Tetsuo, Imperial Champion - Another voltron commander that doesn't really do the things I want my voltron to do. At least he's cheaper. The cast trigger sounds like the payoff, but I think it's mostly a trap tbh. Like say you have a 4-mana equipment attached to him - the damage mode is functionally like casting a deal 4 draw a card instant (since it doesn't use a card)...that's a pretty damn good card. So you'd really better have a good spell to cast, and it better be the right time to cast it, which seems rare. The damage ability is fine, but it doesn't exactly blow me away. Playing a 3-drop, then an equipment, and then equipping it seems like a lot of work to ping for a couple damage, and multiple equipment does nothing additional. Sure, it's cute with Basilisk Collar or whatever, but I don't think the synergy is that compelling since it peaks pretty quickly.

The Lady of Otaria - Dwarves suck and green doesn't have them. Her abilities are okay I guess but RG dwarf tribal is a nonstarter without more support. And considering she doesn't boost dwarves on-board I don't think she'd be much good even with support.

Tobias, Conqueror of Bad Luck - This guy looks like limited fodder. Way too hard to set up, for not an exciting payoff. And not even in good colors for it either.

Rasputin, the Oneiromancer - Another crappy UW legend. He generates 3 mana once, only in a 4p game? And with it being a tap ability, blink isn't even very interesting. Alternately, crapping out small tokens one at a time. Maybe I'm missing something but he looks super bad to me.

*Astor, Bearer of Blades - Nice sunforger commander. Most equipment with big equip costs are themselves expensive, and same for vehicles and crew, but there are ofc exceptions that will be really strong here. He's not the most exciting outside of sunforger shenanigans imo, from playing Zirda companion I don't think equip-cost reducers are usually very compelling, but especially with his etb effect he does a decent enough job overall.

Nemata, Primal Guardian - Calls to mind Kalitas (though it doesn't have the nontoken clause), and like Kalitas the follow-up abilities are fairly middling. If stuff is dying left and right, though, I could see it being pretty strong, and brutal with grave pact. Definitely nice in a Grismold deck. I do think harsh hate pieces in the command zone can create poor experiences where one opponent may be forced to become your mortal enemy, which can be bad for the person playing Nemata if she's constantly getting forced off the field.

Tori D'Avenant, Fury Rider - Uncommon and feels like it. Untapping your white creatures might have some interesting applications, but we already have a better option for the same thing.

*Braids, Arisen Nightmare - Neat design. If you sac something nobody wants to sacrifice, it's an easy draw 3 with a bit of life loss attached, and much like rhystic study it's often better for people to avoid cooperating. A bit tricky to decide whether to go into creature tokens and hope people don't have cheap sac fodder, or commit to something like lands that are unlikely to be sacrificed, but are more painful for you to sacrifice. Presumably the goal here is to balance the difficulty of sacrificing the type, versus the likelihood that your opponents won't have, or won't be willing to sacrifice, the corresponding fodder. Cantripping enchantments, maybe? Treasure tokens maybe, but a lot of people have those as well. The payoff is definitely there, although it doesn't provide a ton of direction outside of being a strong draw engine with some work involved.

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse - Definitely more of a 99 card. Pretty insane compared to similar effects like underworld dreams. But black doesn't have a lot of wheels, so I don't think I see this working as a commander, despite the beefy statline and impressive effect.

*Jhoira, Ageless Innovator - She's not really ramping you until the third activation (well, she still saves mana, but doesn't let you play anything larger than normal). Unless you're trying to get to a blightsteel with no ramp, she won't really let you play very far off-curve. However, she does give artifacts flash, and makes it trivial to double-spell. Probably you want to pack the deck with 6/8 mana artifacts rather than trying to get mediocre value from her first two activations, which does make her pretty fragile as a strategy. I don't think she'll be super popular, but she's an interesting new take on artifact synergy, definitely more compelling than most of what we have so far that just boils down to "play a lot of artifacts".

The Raven Man - the bird tokens are pretty weak sauce, and black isn't amazing at pumping them into anything more compelling. I guess they're passable sac fodder, but there are easier ways to pull that off. The discard ability isn't bad, although it's also expensive, slow, and on-board. More of a 99 card. Nice with Larceny I guess.

Raff, Weatherlight Stalwart - Little bit split in his directions, though playing token-producing instants/sorceries brings them back together. Seems like you maybe want spirit/bird tokens so you can deliver some damage, though 5 mana is kind of a ton for +1/+1 so maybe just ignore that ability. He does count himself as one creature of course, so maybe you can just use a few incidental utility creatures to turn your control spells into cantrips. The low mana value is definitely nice, though he's far from splashy.

*Soul of Windgrace - I really like this guy. Land recursion feels great, and you can even steal enemy lands. The lifegain ability is pretty uninteresting, the cycling ability is fine though not exciting, and the protection ability is definitely nice to have though not very proactive. I guess he plays very nicely with obliterate and jokulhaups if you're a bastard. Or with blowing up powerful enemy utility lands. Excellent with Strip mine, though of course only triggering once per turn is a bit of a limitation. Reminds me of Uyo, and maybe he's overall a poorer version, but at least he's in different colors.

Zur, Eternal Schemer - Bleh. I hate turning difficult-to-kill permanents into easier-to-kill permanents. They do get hexproof, but that's only with zur onboard. And enchantments are harder than artifacts to create en-mass, I'd say. And his ultimate best-case upside is a bunch of french-vanilla bodies getting added to the table. He's not terrible but he really doesn't interest me.

Sol'Kanar the Tainted - Playing around the upside is interesting, but I don't think he really justifies the effort. Even if you could choose the same mode twice and never had to pick that bad one, he'd still just be middling and basically devoid of synergy. More of a challenge run than a commander.

Squee, Dubious Monarch - Let's face it, nothing will top Krenko for pooping out infinite goblins in a short time span. This guy will get played in the 99 in plenty of decks, but rarely will he helm them. He doesn't do invincibility well enough, or token creation well enough, to be worth the command zone.

*The Ever-Changing 'Dane - There are corner cases that I'm probably missing (phyrexian dreadnought, for example) but generally sacrificing your own things just to have another one of the same thing seems bad? I guess you can "protect" a crucial creature by having a functional backup. Stealing things and then sacrificing them could be cool. So probably theft and sac deck? There's probably also some combo-related things that are possible.

Hazezon, Shaper of Sand - Are we getting more deserts? If we aren't, I think the pool is restricted enough that he looks pretty weak. A lot of them are colorless, too, which isn't great for a 3c commander. And the desertwalk seems like flavortext unless there's some really wild synergy pieces. The theoretical fully-synergized version that becomes a crucible that makes tokens is pretty rad, but without support he seems way too inconsistent. I guess if you mill a ton of cards you can maybe hit a desert semi-reliably? There's only 16 current on-color deserts, though, and a lot are really bad. So I'd say, needs support before it becomes interesting, probably.

Rohgahh, Kher Keep Overlord - Yeah so sorry Rohgahh but we're not casting any actual dragons or kobolds because those are stinky, we're playing nothing but changelings. Changelings have kinda ruined a decent number of "tribal" archetypes. Getting both triggers and skipping the typically high cmc for dragons means Universal Automaton is way more synergistic than any "real" dragons or kobolds, which you'll probably only run when you run out of cheap changelings, and that's kinda lame. But hey, so is tribal in general so whatevs.

Jedit Ojanen, Mercenary - Without forestwalk this just seems pretty weak. You've gotta play legend tribal and play off-curve to get a 2/2 token, meh. I daresay you're running a ton of tutors for Yavmiaya, Cradle of Growth to make the tokens more exciting, though it all feels like slow, obvious board-wipe bait to me.

Dihada, Binder of Wills - More stupid legend tribal, bleh. The ult is telegraphed and mediocre, the plus is decent though not terribly exciting imo, so the -3 is the real money I think. What's interesting is that you can kinda ignore the legend aspect and just use her to crap out a ton of treasure. 4 treasure mill 4 is not bad tbh. I don't think it provides a strong direction played that way, and I suspect most people will jam her with max legends, but there's probably an okay treasure deck in there if you want it.

Jared Carthalion - 5 color tribal, even more bleh. A 3/3 is a pretty decent token for a plus ability on a 5-drop. I'm less stoked about the -3. Seems decent for a low-powered, combat-focused meta but not something that'll scare experienced players. The ult is extremely weak, but it's very easy to hit, so less of an ult and more of a big minus. I can't say I'm remotely interested in this archetype but if it's your thing I guess he's your only option.

*Sivitri, Dragon Rider - Other people seem to be liking her +1, personally I'm not super into it. It could be effective against an army of tokens, but it's pretty minor deterrent versus a single decent beater smashing her face in. I'm just saying, I think I'd want significant defense as well, so that it's adding to deterrence, not substituting for it, and that takes decent setup. The dragon tutor is nice, you can play other dragons as pseudo-commanders, but she's not in the best colors for it. Ult is nice but slow, telegraphed and not overwhelming. I think she's pretty decent overall, but mostly as a fairly slow-roll control deck. If people are concerned about you, that 2 life isn't going to mean very much, so you have to play pretty sneaky.

*Stangg, Echo Warrior - Funky take on this ability. Etb auras are the obvious thing, but there's also the sundial of the infinite shenanigans option, presumably with equipment so you can stack them way up. Though I don't think there's much redundancy for that plan, and not many tutors in RG for sundial, so the aura option is probably the more viable. In that category, there's a decent chunk of cantrips and damage dealers to get value from - 16 by my count. Which is kinda light for your main deck strategy. Maybe you also run some equipment, and throw in sundial for the highroll.

General Marhault Elsdragon - Super boring. Surprised he's in the commander product instead of the main set.

Ramses, Assassin Lord - talked about this dude a decent amount…I think he's mostly for the 99 of Etrata decks. In the command zone, your opponents will almost certainly see him coming and have a plan for him, so you'd better pack a lot of protection, not to mention assassins are pretty terrible and he doesn't make their board presence much better. The best assassins are more ability-focused than p/t anyway. So mostly a meme deck in the command zone, I think.

*Ramirez DePietro, Pillager - Incidental treasure-making is pretty nice, though it is a pretty limited source for alternate mana colors. The card stealing mechanic incentivizes tribal, though not too heavily since it's capped at one per opponent. I think you'll want to play a medium number of evasive pirates and otherwise play more of a control deck while you capitalize on the value, and that sounds pretty fun to me tbh. Though it does have some redundancies with the red partner pirate from CMR.

Jasmine Boreal of the Seven - Using the first ability seems like an atrocious plan, as well as a boring one. The second one works fine for tokens, though it's not very compelling compared to plenty of other options imo.

Tor Wauki the Younger - Could go spellslinger to maximize his third ability, or treat him like Torbran for the second ability. Of course, the problem with the second plan is that Torbran exists and is a lot better at it, costing less, having double the effect (though not affecting artifacts), and working in combat as well. Plus Torbran isn't symmetrical, which makes him better with pyrohemia etc. So I think mostly he's looking like spellslinger, with maybe a few extra damage things like pyrohemia to mix it up a bit.

Rosnakht, Heir of Rohgahh - Definitely more of a 99 card, if that. Heroic is not a small cost, so getting just a 1/1 out of it is not worth the effort. Not even sure you'd want him in Rohgahh since he's unlikely to want heroic support, though I guess warcry is something? Challenge run material.

Moira, Urborg Haunt - Interesting trigger. Only likely to have a target if you put it there yourself, so you're probably planning on etb creatures and sac outlets. But then Moira also only has menace, so you probably need to put some work into evasion. It sounds like maybe too much work tbh, but it is an interesting card.

Greensleeves, Maro Sorcerer - Why did they name a card after a folk song? Kinda weird. The p/t is decent but not compelling, but the token creation is not bad. Life and Limb combos? Badgers have no support, but having a rampaging baloth in the command zone isn't bad. Easy enough to get multiple badgers per turn, and that also makes greensleeves bigger and easier to recast if necessary. So the plan is straightforward, but probably kind of repetitive and not super interesting imo.

Emperor Mihail II - Decent tribal lord for merfolk. Topdeck casting with type restrictions is somewhat underwhelming imo, but it's nice to have, and making more tokens is a good way to empower coat of arms or have sac fodder. Probably the best tribal option for mono-blue merfolk, since Svyelun isn't strongly tribal.

Baru, Wurmspeaker - Kinda silly activation cost since it will cost at most 2 after its been activated once. Presumably you'll want to play another wurm before your first activation. +2/+2 is a pretty major bump, so he's worthwhile as a tribal commander, but almost all wurms are horrible stinky garbage. Only a handful are remotely decent. So maybe tutor wurmcoil engine and then let Baru continue the chain? Or maybe screw wurms altogether and just play him as a rampy deck that has a token maker in the command zone with a really high startup cost.

Zar Ojanen, Scion of Efrava - Sorta wrecked by the rules. There are some things that will let you convert land types so you can go beyond 2, but not nearly enough to not suck as far as I can tell. It is neat that he only has to become tapped, rather than attack, though. Sorry Zar, you got fed to the rules and did not hit the ground running.

*Vohar, Vodalian Desecrator - Merfolk looter in the command zone! With upside! Multiple upsides! Okay, realistically it's not that exciting, but he's good with madness, draw triggers, death of a thousand stings/exile into darkness synergies, etc, so I think he's got some viability. Though like all blue-based spellslinger commanders, the specter of extra turns hangs over his head.

Uurg, spawn of Turn - Spawn of turd, more like. He looks like he should be good, but none of his abilities are good. Surveil one each upkeep is very mid. Sacrificing lands for life, especially at 2 mana a pop, is extremely niche. So mostly he's just a fatty that requires a lot of work. Pass.

Tura Kennerud, Skyknight - I'm guessing this is uncommon. There's nothing awful about her, but she's just not flashy. We've had nonlegendaries make flying tokens when you cast instants and sorceries, so ground tokens seem pretty mediocre, especially for a 5-drop. You're paying a lot for that 3/3 flying body, but the abilities don't really synergize with it. For a low-powered option it's fine, but it's not very strong or splashy.

Tatyova, Steward of Tides - I will never want to turn my lands into creatures permanently. I like having lands. I like how they don't die to board wipes. Hard pass.

Stenn, Paranoid Partisan - I love this design, but I just don't think it has enough payoff. In theory he flickers to discount different types, but you probably want to focus on just the one type if you're building around him. I think the best way to use him "properly" is as a commander for sensei's divining top combos, setting him up as a discount for instants until you go for the kill by setting him for artifacts, which is probably a pretty strong plan tbh, but probably not one I'm interested in. So I guess it's less that it doesn't have the payoff, and more that it doesn't have the payoff outside of combo.

Rulik Mons, Warren Chief - Feels uncommon. Attack trigger means once per turn usually, and the payoff isn't very significant, plus he's not very evasive.

Rona, Sheoldred's Faithful - I like the recursion ability but she doesn't really do enough to be worth casting in the first place. Guttersnipe costs less and hits twice as hard.

*Rivaz of the Claw - Zirilan? Potentially fun, I do like recursion that isn't broken, though being unable to reuse dragons means you've probably gotta go fairly tribal. Not needing to go strongly tribal was a bit part of the fun for Zirilan, decks full of dragons are really tedious imo.

Rith, Liberated Primeval - Difficult to set up without burn spells, so that's probably what you're looking at. Not too much reason to focus on tribal since it's just the ward 2. Capping out at 1 dragon token per turn cycle isn't a huge payoff, firesong and sunspeaker felt like a way higher ceiling for a burn deck. Only 4/4 too, meh. And you have to use your burn removal on your own turn, double meh. Not awful but not great.

*Ratadrabik of Urborg - Too bad it's not in blue or you could run leyline of singularity combo. I guess you could just run some high-value sac outlets and fuel them at double efficiency, but mostly I expect you'll want etb and death effect legends to pull double-duty, which is kind of fun. At least it's more interesting than most of the other legendary tribal stuff.

Queen Allenal of Ruadach - Chatterfang, but doesn't work with treasures, doesn't have a good sac ability, and presumably is less camp. Being a big fat fatty is okay but Chatterfang seems overall stronger. I guess white gives you access to more anthems, so there's some room for her, but token builds in general don't interest me very often.

Meria, Scholar of Antiquity - Weird to see in red green. I mean, she does a solid urza impression as far as stax is concerned, so I'm sure she'll be strong in a competitive meta. Looks strong, not sure if she's my cup of tea though.

King Darien XLVIII - Damn that ability is expensive to activate. He's a reasonably priced anthem, and token protection is nice, but he looks more like a 99 card to me.

*Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief - Hey, it's finally my favorite commander spoiled so far! Really interesting that you can copy enemy spells (if you want), copy auras, etc in addition to obvious stuff like double-value cantrips. Nice body too, with a nice low cost. I think there will be a couple ways to build this, focusing more around the cantrip angle for value, or a more aura voltron situation, with flavors in between. Definitely curious to give it a try.

Ertai Resurrected - Ertai's a cool dude. His new mode is…well, it's very versatile. Reminiscent of Venser. I guess you could do a flicker/bounce deck to make him work as a commander, but mostly he feels 99-ish to me. If you do build a deck around him, you could use stuff like Phyrexian Dreadnaught to stop the bad triggers and draw a card at the same time.

Elas Il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim - I'm sure people will play this dude for aristocrat shells. He'll also see a lot of play in the 99. He's not exactly flashy, but he's damn good at what he does.

Danitha, Benalia's Hope - Danitha's going to get conscripted by the Eldrazi a lot, I expect. 5 is honestly a solid deal for her keywords and major discount/CA by retrieving/cheating a big aura or equipment. I think she's best in the command zone since most decks won't focus on big auras/equipment exclusively. As a voltron option, she's not bad, it's just too bad her CI is so limited, especially for auras (and also sunforger boo).

Balmor, Battlemage Captain - I guess he might be a decent alternative to Adeliz. He does buff tokens and crap, so he's actually probably not bad despite losing the toughness boost, and he costs nothing so that's nice. Not splashy, and probably won't see a lot of play in the command zone, but I think he's stronger than he looks. If you can set up a board with a bunch of tokens and then cantrip a few times, you can hit pretty dang hard pretty dang quickly.

Baird, Arigivian Recruiter - Super easy to trigger, but then the payoff is so limited and doesn't scale at all. Looks uncommon bro.

Jodah, the Unifier - Kind of insane that you can set him up to guarantee certain spells. Hypergenesis, probably? I guess that screws up your ramp, but if you have enough 1-2 drop legends you could ramp on 2 or 3 and then start going insane on turn 4 or 5. Probably ends up being more of a combo deck than anything, although you could also just jam a bunch of ramp and legends and see what happens. What happens mostly is that I don't play it, because both those things sound boring to me.

Bortuk Bonerattle - This guy might even be more screwed by the rules. I can't imagine a deck that would want a 6-mana commander that can only reanimate a 2-drop. At least black it makes it easier to find the few cards that can change land types (Prismatic Omen!) but is it really worth the effort for a 6-mana reanimation spell with limited targets? He can't even bring back Ornithopter when he gets blinked, just to add insult to injury. Might have played it a little TOO safe on this one, that cast-only seems wholly unnecessary.

*Lagomos, Hand of Hatred - Actually kind of sweet. Of course, as a tutor commander, he can be built fairly bustedly, but since 5 dead creatures is a pretty steep requirement I doubt he's cEDH. So you have to moderate your power level a bit, but he offers a lot of ways to build around. One easy way is with stuff like Innocent Blood which gives you 4/5 pretty easily, provided everyone has something in play, and doesn't cost you a creature either. Make it one of the etb: everyone sacs creatures, and if you've got a sac outlet yourself you've got 5/5 easy peasy. Alternately, you could run instant-speed removal and try to snipe the 5th creature on someone else's combat, since Lagomos can activate on any turn. Or you could just run a ton of tokens, sac outlets, and do all the work yourself. Lots of intermingling options. The tutor is as strong as you want it to be, so it might be hard to resist temptation to make the game basically over once you activate him, but you also want to make it worth the effort, so it's a bit of a balancing act.

Garna, Bloodfist of Keld - Decent, if fairly vanilla, effect. Works with tokens, so you're probably looking at something like goblins or zombies to make a lot of them at once. Alternately you could focus on smaller, incremental value with Bloodghast-type stuff, which is decent for the draw but not as useful for exploding people with damage. Definitely very sac focused, so the usual grave pact stuff is strong. I've seen and played enough decks focused around sac that I'm not too interested, but the flexibility and fairly low cost of the commander makes this a solid option for an uncommon.

Aron, Benalia's Ruin - WB tokens, I suppose. You could provide him with free sac fodder via bloodghast etc, but there's not a lot of point worrying about that when you're surely going wide with tokens anyway to get value from his activated ability. I've seen more explosive token options, but he only costs 3 so he's not awful, just kinda boring.

Radha, Coalition Warlord - The last of the domain commanders, and the worst. Sure, it can be tapped via other ways, but it can't even buff itself nor impact the board beyond a temporary buff. Certainly among the worst options in the set and a boring note to end on. But there it is.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I'm going to wait to respond until I don't have to flick between your commentary and the release notes for card details. But that thread tag is golden, man. Can't wait to discuss the lot over a glass of J.J.'s famous Kool Aid!

[DirkGently]

@TheAmericanSpirit lol, after going through 68 of these stupid things, I'd lost the will to live. It seemed appropriate.

Woo, one more today! It's...not interesting! But hey, 69 commanders. Nice.

[duducrash]

Jenson Carthalion, Druid Exile - Can't think of much value for the mana ability except as fixing

I think it might have some synergies filtering mana that can't be used for some stuff. Like "Use this mana only to pay for abilities" . can become WUBRG. Idk how often those come by or prevelant they are though

Shanid, Sleepers' Scourge - In theory you can play almost all legendary lands, and of course you can play lots of legendary spells to basically have infinite draw as long as Shanid is in play. So it's definitely a strong option for legendary tribal. Menace is boring but that's ok. You don't even need to commit that hard to legendary spells to keep your hand perpetually full tbh. Looks quite strong.

The lands part is amazing. should be able to be built really strong, right? Her effect is better than Reki, the History of Kamigawa which is pretty fun.

Tetsuo, Imperial Champion

seems that it can be fun. You can cast suspend spells which is nice. I think it can be pretty fun, I'm dissapointed Tetsuo isn't fat. We could use another fat Tetsuo.
]

The Lady of Otaria - Dwarves suck

- Fun fact, otaria in portuguese means "female sucker" or something like that.

[DirkGently]

I crunched some numbers and I think we're looking at at 3 legends of each 2-color pair (2 uncommon and 1 rare), with rith filling in the cycle of shard mythics. That means we'll see 2 BR uncommons, a RG uncommon, and a GU uncommon most likely (rarities are more of a guess). Each color pair seems to have a #XY uncommon and a #XYY uncommon. Not sure about the mono-colors yet, since we've got way more black ones so far and few of the other colors.

@duducrash I guess Jenson does work with powerstone tokens?

I don't think there's enough suspend spells to massively move the needle for me on tetsuo, plus some of them are pretty conditional. Looks like there's 6. Ancestral Vision is nice but it's probably only worth ~3 mana anyway. Glimpse of Tomorrow needs a pretty specific deck, probably doesn't work. Inevitable Betrayal is worth 5 so that's the best hit so far. Living End is also worth 5 but difficult to set up. Having a sac outlet would help, but still. Profane Tutor is worth 2-3. Wheel of Fate is worth 3 but is somewhat conditional.

So idk, it's not like you're freecasting 7 drop sorceries. It is nice to highroll ancestral vision off a t3 tetsuo with lightning greaves but I think the only one that really gets gross is an early inevitable betrayal, and that still doesn't seem game-breaking. I think he's cute but not terribly powerful, and not interesting to me because the ceiling is so low on his synergy.

lol @ Lady of Otaria. Is she stuck into the 5c deck? Or is it more of those god-awful "they're commander cards but they're only on certain kinds of (non-draft) packs" situations?

[TheAmericanSpirit]

lol @ Lady of Otaria. Is she stuck into the 5c deck? Or is it more of those god-awful "they're commander cards but they're only on certain kinds of (non-draft) packs" situations?

Pretty sure it's the latter. Think of how Umbris, Fear Manifest hit circulation, in the collector boosters exclusively I think. It's not great, but unless the supply chain breaks a link, it shouldn't be unusually difficult or expensive to obtain them about a month after release.

[DirkGently]

Pretty sure it's the latter. Think of how Umbris, Fear Manifest hit circulation, in the collector boosters exclusively I think. It's not great, but unless the supply chain breaks a link, it shouldn't be unusually difficult or expensive to obtain them about a month after release.

In the US, but in NZ it's pretty obnoxious. Most of the local vendors have scant stock and high prices. And the existence of cards that I can't have access too even if I buy all the precons and draft until I'm sick pisses me off.

But on the other hand, she's both mediocre and boring so I'm sure I won't miss having her until I do another big backfill in a year or two.

[duducrash]

Jenson Carthalion, Druid Exile - Can't think of much value

Pointed out to me it allows Lurrus of the Dream-Den in 5c. this can be pretty great

Tobias, Conqueror of Bad Luck - This guy looks like limited fodder

- being your own creatures suck. I assume wrath tribal? But then again, wrath tribal isn't planning on killing many of their own creatures.

Nemata, Primal Guardian -

Exiling as a replacement effect is not a weak effect, worth running on its own sometimes. I'm a fan of the hatetree tbh.

Hazezon, Shaper of Sand - Are we getting more deserts?

After Nine-Fingers Keene we continue the cycle of weirdly land specific 3 collors legends.

Ramses, Assassin Lord

Damn I will hate losing to this because some random other player playing badly.

Tor Wauki the Younger - Could go spellslinger to maximize his third ability

This is could be fun in a lower powered meta, right? I wish we had more Spectacle cards from the last Ravnica block. This would be the perfect comander for that mechanic. I think I will build him, Will play some burn, some removal, some of those weird black spells that regenerate/bring back the creature that died this turn. It's just too expensive

*Lagomos, Hand of Hatred - Actually kind of sweet.

Lots of potential! could be the hidden hit of the set imho


Some of the cards I couldnt find online, I'll see it latter

[DirkGently]

@duducrash Good point about Jenson, although it basically renders your commander itself worthless and Lurrus can easily get permanently removed if you aren't careful. Ofc it'd be way more interesting if companion didn't get sacrificed on the altar of constructed player whininess.

What I find most confusing about Tobias is that he's in the precons. If he was in the main set I'd think "oh, ok, it's just a limited plant".

Nemata is strong, certainly gets a bit nutty with grave pact etc. I guess the upgrades compared to Kalitas (2c, triggers on tokens, has better sac abilities) make it a pretty solid commander, probably not my thing though.

Guess we aren't getting more deserts, so Hazezon seems bad. And desertwalk I guess is just flavor?

I mean, if someone is playing Ramses (or etrata), just keep up removal. And maybe a backup for countermagic.

All the cards not visible in card image galleries are the ones leaked - they're a few pages back in new card discussion, hermes posted them. Though it is a slog to find them in all the spoiler tags.

Ivy is in the one marked "page 22", 4th or 5th from the bottom I think. She's my fav.

edit: oh damn, 3000 posts. Woo.

[DirkGently]

All done. Out with a wimper. Do let me know if I inadvertently missed any.

[ISBPathfinder]

Danitha, Benalia's Hope - Don't overlook the potential to just go a midrange life cruizer type deck. Having vigilance + lifelink will allow her to escape a lot of gradual deaths that aristocrat type decks like to apply and there is a lot of value in gaining life these days outside of voltron aura / equipment concepts that she obviously has synergy with. The lifegain concept doesn't have a lot of commanders that are card advantage and good enablers all on their own.

Resplendent Angel, Valkyrie Harbinger, Crested Sunmare, The Book of Exalted Deeds are sort of the effects I was thinking at least. The commander can almost singlehandedly trigger these while offering an offence + defense + card advantage.

[DirkGently]

@ISBPathfinder if I want to go mono-white lifegain I'll do Heliod, Sun-Crowned or something. Danitha splits you between lifegain and equipment, plus if you really want value from her you'd ideally be milling equipment and blinking her or something. You can play her as a mono-white equipment list that happens to have a few lifegain triggers, which is fine (won't beat a halfway decent aristocrats build ofc because you'll never keep her on-board), but if you're going deep on lifegain I think it's going to make the equipment part more of a hassle than an asset, and Danitha as your primary source of lifegain is going to be pretty insufficient for a lot of the lifegain synergies. Heliod gives you multiple lifegain events AND a payoff, and he doesn't get cleaned up with your other lifegain engines, etc.