Commander Masters Precon Review – Planeswalker Party!

Magic: The Gathering, Magic: The Gathering Products, TCGs

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Mike Carrozza - August 3, 2023

Hello! Welcome to my set review of Commander Masters commander preconstructed decks!

I’ll be going through each of the Commander decks and talking about the new cards chiefly while highlighting worthwhile reprints.

Next up is the Planeswalker Party deck. I’ve already covered Commodore Guff in an A Seat at the Table article, but the new cards have been quite impressive. Let’s see what’s cookin’.

Commodore Guff

Guff is interesting in that he’s a support character in his own deck. The passive ability to put another loyalty on another planeswalker at your end step while also creating dorks to cast other planeswalkers is pretty neat. Then when you’ve got a ton of of planeswalkers, Guff hits your opponents for each one while drawing you cards to cast more planeswalkers. The Guff decks definitely need protection and even more planeswalkers. Pack your Strionic Resonator, Peregrine Dynamo, and Rings of Brighthearth, it’s time for Guff.

Leori, Sparktouched Hunter

Leori in interesting in that it’s a well statted and aggressive creature that lets you double up on a planeswalker’s abilities it activated for the turn when it hits an opponent. But the fun part is that it’s for each planeswalker of that type, so if you have three different Chandra’s, each one can activate and copy an ability. If you’ve got Oath of Teferi that allows you to activate an additional ability for planeswalkers you control which also will allow those to be copied. It’s really cool, but personally, Liliana is the planeswalker type I keep coming back to. With the game’s pool of cards ever expanding, I’d be shocked to find out there aren’t more interesting planeswalkers for Leori to set up with.

Chandra, Legacy of Fire

This Chandra is absolutely nuts. This feels like an inclusion in all planeswalker decks with red for as long as it remains legal. It gives you mana, it domes your opponents for just having planeswalkers. Getting to also bottle cards of a 0 ability is pretty sweet. If there are any Prosper, Tome-Bound decks with a planeswalker lean out there, congratulations on your new favourite card.

Gatewatch Beacon

This is a mana rock that’s kind of like an Oath of Gideon. It’s fine and will likely see play mostly in Aminatou, The Fateshifter decks, honestly. It’s not hyper impressive but it does get Doubling Seasoned or Lae’zel’ed. It’s fine!

Guff Rewrites History

Each player gets hit with a fixed Chaos Warp that can’t miss. This is for the chaos themed decks out there who love to embrace a nightmare scenario but get rewarded with the best case some of the time.

Jaya’s Phoenix

Much like Leori, Jay’s Phoenix lets you copy the planeswalker’s ability once it gets in for some combat damage. Though this one requires a little bit or in terms of sequencing, it’s pretty sweet to be able to bring it back by casting a planeswalker and then getting to double an activation post combat.

Onakke Oathkeeper

This is what I’m talking about! Get some protection! Sphere of Safety without enchantments is basically what this guy offers for two mana and then from the graveyard, you can cash in the second ability to bring back a key planeswalker (I’m thinking Chandra, Legacy of Fire).

Sparkshaper Visionary

Speaking of protection this card protects your planeswalkers by making them more vulnerable to board wipes since they become creatures, but at least they can’t be attacked outright anymore. Also, you can still activate loyalty abilities and they slap for 3 in the air, scrying one per combat damage.

This card is one of the strangest ones I’ve ever seen and it means that we now have Luxior, Giada’s Gift and Sparkshaper Visionary that can make it so your planeswalker commanders can hit for commander damage.

Teyo, Geometric Tactician

I want to love Teyo. I think he’s a cool character and there’s interesting stuff to be done. Having a Loran of the Third Path ability on the +1 makes it pretty likely that you can make some deals, but that -2 is where it’s at, controlling players and making sure your key planeswalkers can’t be hit at pivotal moments. It’s not particularly impressive, but I’m seeing this for Aminatou pretty easily.

Vronos, Masked Inquisitor

What a completely off the rails crazy character inclusion. Vronos was entirely unexpected. I think the +1 ability to phase out planeswalkers speaks to the theme of protection I’ve hammered home as an important piece, although this does cut into Guff or Chandra’s end step abilities. That said, the -2 removal is exquisite and Vronos gives you an ultimate ability that turns on a clock for the game to end. Activate it with some of the ability doublers and you’ve got yourself a board of beater artifacts that aren’t going anywhere.

Here are notable reprints!