Hello! Welcome to my set review of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth, where I will pick five cards of each colour and discuss my favourite cards from them.
Given that the set also comes out with a set of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article.
Without further ado, here are my favourite Blue cards!
I really love this card. It costs two mana and replaces itself to give you a surprise Vedalken Orrery. I see some folks talking about this with Isochron Scepter but at that point, might as well go with Leyline of Anticipation or Vedalken Orrery.
That said, there’s a reason not all cards can be played at instant speed! Being able to staple two mana to any spell to turn it into a cantrip and have it come down in a surprise is wild. Need to wipe the board to null an attack? Two extra mana please. Want to play your big scary enchantment on the end step before your turn, after your opponents have tapped out so you can guarantee they won’t counter or remove it? Two extra mana please!
This card is definitely a more competitive card than what I normally go for, but I’d say instant speeding your commander and cantripping as a baseline seems pretty sick.
I feel conflicted about blue getting what is essentially an Alliance ability on this creature, but I really like him, so I’ll give it a pass. Talk about wishing Choose a Background or Partner was on a card! Elrond, Lord of Rivendell is a solid scry enabler for your Eligeth, Crossroads Augur decks or Elminster decks, but ultimately the space for scry matters is still being carved out.
Smoothing out your draws is very useful in this format and I appreciate incidental scrying. But that tempting of the Ring is great with creatures in blue – evasive guys who will get through and start hitting each opponent for 3 life when they connect and getting a loot. There are also fun cards that are printed in this set that care about when you select your Ring-bearer.
As far as potential monoblue commanders in the set go, it’s going to be very difficult to beat The Watcher in the Water. A 9/9 for five is a lot of value. Sure it can’t untap until it untaps nine times first, but it sits and generates value for drawing cards on your opponents’ turns – a thing blue loves doing already.
The Tentacle tokens become amazing rattlesnake blockers that can come out of nowhere. Not to mention if you’ve got Intruder Alarm, you’ll speed run your way to having the Watcher untapped. With the Tentacles dying, you get to stun nonland permanents and get through for big damage. This is a hell of a control piece. Really, really wild.
In the 99 of decks, I can see Phenax, God of Deception players getting really happy about this or any decks that love Burning Anger, Fiendlash, and some pingers. In the end, we’re going to see this in the command zone most often.
Spark Double is busted already but copy Ioreth and have a legendary permanent with a good tap ability and it’s infinite whatever that is. Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx? Infinite mana. Alaundo the Seer decks get to dump their decks. Arcanis the Omnipotent and Chromatic Orrery say draw your library. Drafna, Founder of Lat-Nam can copy an artifact spell you cast infinite times, finally making Meteorite useful. Those are just a few of the 414 cards I found in Scryfall that are legendary with tap abilities.
Add to Ioreth’s fun the fact that the Ring tempting you means you can turn a creature you control into a Ring-bearer and therefore into a legendary creature. Let’s see what we can make work with this nonsense.
Four mana to draw four cards, discard two cards, and then get two mana back while shuffling cards you never wanted to dump back into your library makes this a pretty solid Saga. It’s a little slow, but Proliferate is a mechanic we’ve seen return with lots of support. Reanimator decks don’t mind tossing a creature into the graveyard and decks that don’t have any means to Regrowth will be satisfied with the deck shuffle. Enchantment decks might want this to fuel Replenish effects or maybe this is just a good card for Tom Bombadil. I really like it.
That does it for Blue, come on back for Black!
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Hello! Welcome to my set review of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth, where I will pick five cards of each colour and discuss my favourite cards from them.
Yes, there will be and artifact and lands review as well as a multicoloured review.
Given that the set also comes out with a set of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article.
Without further ado, here are my favourite White cards!
This is a bonkers little guy that just keeps giving every time I read it. Three mana for a 3/3 Human Soldier with Vigilance isn’t crazy, but it’s still decent for types. The first ability counters any spell your opponents cast without spending mana on it. Knowledge Pool and Possibility Storm lock your opponents out. Say goodbye to Cascade and Omniscience, opponents.
Then on top of this, you get a sacrifice ability that protects all your creatures! Indestructible for the board and you get tempted by The Ring? That’s pretty great for a costless activation.
There’s already an infinite combo with Ratadrabik of Urborg who says when a legendary creature you control dies, you create a nonlegendary token copy of it that’s a 2/2. Well, when The Ring tempts you, you have to select a Ring-bearer to gain The Ring’s abilities – the first of which is making it legendary! So Boromir dies, trigger Ratadrabik, create a copy of Boromir, The Ring Tempts you, make the new Boromir the Ring-bearer. Rinse and repeat.
Boromir is cool as hell and I know that he’ll be making appearances in lots of decks this summer.
Equipment decks get a brand new cool piece of tech. A mild version of Puresteel Paladin meets Leonin Shikari with an equipment reanimation on a blinkable permanent. Equipment decks getting to move things around on their own turn at instant speed means that any attack with multiple creatures are scary. It doesn’t matter that you’ve blocked a threat, the Swords of X & Y are gonna trigger.
Is this like having a Puresteel Paladin and Leonin Shikari? No, those are much better when they’re out together. But that’s two cards and they’re creatures, a card type that gets killed a lot more than others, even just incidentally. Regardless of these limitations, I think Forge Anew has potential to be a solid include in Boros Equipment decks and whatever other Equipment themed decks are out there.
Retribution of the Meek with upside! Destroy all the beefy creatures and then give all your little guys a snack!
With The Battle of Bywater, you’re looking at most likely including it in a token swarm or white weenie strategy and I say hell yeah. There aren’t a ton of spots for this card, but with a this board wipe sparing your little guys, maybe you’ve got a Reckless Fireweaver or Hedron Detonator left over who can make use of the tokens entering. Can’t forget if you’ve got indestructible across the board! Board wipe, keep yours, boom, lots of Food. Not a bad deal!
A Saga makes the cut! Tale of Tinuviel grants one of your creatures indestructible for two turns, reanimated a creature from your graveyard, and gives two of your beat sticks lifelink.
You have to really want this for the indestructible at the very least unless you can get a second lore counter very quickly. There are a lot of reanimation spells in white cropping up, but on a repeatable permanent that can be blinked? Just Elspeth Conquers Death comes to mind off the top of my head and that’s its final ability, so blinking it needs to be instant speed. So this being a delayed reanimation might make this perfect for Aminatou, the Fateshifter – give your blocker indestructible to keep your planeswalker safe before getting back another piece. I think this card is fantastic.
I wanted to pick this as my favourite white card but flipped a coin between this and Boromir, Warden of the Tower.
Gandalf the White is one of the coolest white creatures, combining a legendary-specific Panharmonicon and Teysa Karlov-esque abilites, all while adding flash to all your legendary and artifact spells.
To me? Gandalf the White is going right into my Will the Wise and Mike the Dungeon Master deck. Will triggers when he enters and leaves.
Don’t forget that it’s not the legendary permanent or artifact’s abilities per se that get triggered again by Gandalf. Let’s say you have a Zulaport Cutthroat and you have a Will the Wise die – you can trigger Zulaport Cutthroat twice. If you have a Vraan, Executioner Thane and your Grizzly Bears dies, this will not trigger Vraan twice. But if Will the Wise died, he would trigger Vraan. Anyway, remember that when brewing!
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Hello and welcome to A Seat at the Table, the column where I pick a commander and talk about what I’d include in the 99. With The Lord of the Rings set previews under way, we got a new four-colour general to play with!
Aragorn, the Uniter is red, green, white, and blue. No black for Aragorn! Let’s see what we can do with this Legendary Human Noble 5/5 for RGWU! Textbox please!
“Whenever you cast a white spell, create a 1/1 white Human Soldier creature token.
Whenever you cast a blue spell, scry 2.
Whenever you cast a red spell, Aragorn, the Uniter deals 3 damage to target opponent.
Whenever you cast a green spell, target creature gets +4/+4 until end of turn.”
That’s pretty spicy and if I may infer from the textbox, we’re looking at a multicolour themed list. Let’s get into some reminders.
What colour do you want to favour in your deck building? Are you going with a theme? This commander is so open ended, this article is difficult to write. But I’m gonna do my best!
Let’s put some cards in a deck shall we?
The first card I want to highlight is a new one from Dominaria United Commander. It’s a five colour card whose colour identity is green. Yeah, it’s crazy weird! It’s an excellent inclusion for a version of an Aragorn, the Uniter deck that is favouring multicoloured spells for the whole deck because Wayfarer’s second ability gives those spells convoke.
Why not run Cryptolith Rite or something? Because cool cards are cool and when you cast this three mana enabler, you get to create a 1/1 token, to scry 2, to deal 3 to an opponent, and to give +4/+4 to a creature, likely your commander. That’s a lot of value for something that’s already doing a lot.
Using cards cards that come back to your hand so you can cast them again and get your advantage is a solid plan when it comes to Aragorn. Shrieking Drake, Whitemane Lion, and Stonecloaker all require you to return a creature from the battlefield to your hand. They can bounce themselves to your hand so you can keep triggering Aragorn. Surprisingly, Shrieking Drake, the blue one on this list, doesn’t have flash, but it does only cost one for scry 2. Not to mention, if you’ve got something like Impact Tremors out or Aura Shards or Mana Echoes, that’s even more value.
But what if we wanted this effect in other colours? Azorious champs Deputy of Acquittals and Niambi, Esteemed Speaker get there slightly by allowing you to return another creature to hand. Ephara’s Enlightenment lets you return it to your hand when a creature enters (aka when you cast a white spell).
What else? Planeshift gave us the gating mechanic. Horned Kavu now plays like a repeatable two mana Lightning Bolt to an opponent’s face and a pump effect that also triggers Alliance abilities like Gala Greeters and Witty Roastmaster. Fleetfoot Panther, Sawtooth Loon, Silver Drake, and Sparkcaster are all worth a second look if you’ve got the mana and love some value.
Let’s get some extra value for casting multicoloured spells!
General Ferrous Rokiric will make a 4/4 Golem every time your cast a multicoloured spell. A 4/4 Golem is the perfect companion for a 1/1 white Human token created by Hero of Precinct One when you cast a multicoloured spell.
With Knight of New Alara and Glass of the Guildpact, your multicoloured creatures get more powerful. Meanwhile, Gloryscale Viashino only buffs itself with a Giant Growth for every multicoloured spell, making it quite the threat.
Mana Cannons and Lobber Crew turn your multicoloured spells into some burn to toss around. Obsidian Obelisk and Pillar of the Paruns help fix your mana for multicoloured spells only. Urza’s Filter reduces your multicoloured spells’ cost by 2 and Tome of the Guildpact is an expensive mana rock that gives you a card when you cast multicoloured spells. The Mana Rig also gives you Powerstones per multicoloured spell you cast. But do Powerstones matter? They do when they enable some digging using its second ability. But also when you’ve got Reckless Fireweaver type effects going.
Rienne, Angel of Rebirth is probably my favourite for this kind of deck. Every time a multicoloured creature you control dies, you’ll get it back to hand at the end step. Meaning you’ll get to cast them again. Huge!
Lorwyn block era gave us creatures that blew my mind back in the day that I literally gasped at upon reading. Unfortunately, a lot of my faves are black. However, the six eligible Lieges only get better when you get extra cast triggers from Aragorn.
The weakest of the bunch are Boartusk Liege and Wilt-Leaf Liege but they still grant buffs to the creatures that share their colour and prock Aragorn triggers.
Thistledown Liege, Murkfiend Liege, Mindwrack Liege, and Balefire Liege all have their advantages that only add to the fact that you’re getting so much out of your commander. I’ll say Balefire Liege is most exciting to me if you’re looking to go hard on red, but all of these are fun to see in your hand.
Here are some multicoloured cards that I really like in this deck: A brief top ten list with very little explanation – IT’S LIKE A BONUS ARTICLE IN AN ARTICLE!
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Hello and welcome to A Seat at the Table, the column where I pick a commander and talk about what I’d include in the 99. With The Lord of the Rings set previews beginning this week, we need to whet our appetite and quench our thirst with a little bit of a brew. So let’s talk about a card that was previewed a little bit ago.
An uncommon (!) 1/3 Legendary Creature – Halfling Rogue for 1UR, Bilbo, Retired Burglar gives us a lot to like. Let’s see that text box.
“When Bilbo, Retired Burglar enters or leaves the battlefield, the Ring tempts you. Whenever Bilbo deals combat damage to a player, create a Treasure token.”
To really appreciate this card, we need to learn more about the Ring and what happens when it tempts you.
As the Ring tempts you, you get an emblem named ‘The Ring’ if you don’t have one. Then your emblem gains its next ability and you choose a creature you control to become or remain your Ring-bearer.
Things to remember:
Let’s pick some cards!
My favourite card for the deck gets its own bullet point.
Alora, Merry Thief says you can make a creature unblockable if you bounce it to your hand at your end step. This can mean getting in for massive damage but more likely here in this deck getting Bilbo to max out the Ring and pick new Ring-bearers. It’ll also get you at least a Treasure token, which is already pretty damn great.
With this much bouncing, Candlekeep Sage seems like a solid include so you can get a card with Bilbo coming and going. Actually, Backgrounds are a solid idea for this deck! Sword Coast Sailor allows for further unblockable shenanigans for more Izzet ramp. Combine that with Popular Entertainer and you’ll get to goad the board making for easier attacks again. Feywild Visitor and Guild Artisan also grant token bonuses for when your commander swings. With all the Treasure you’ll make, Street Urchin might be the right card for some targeted ping removal. Maybe sack the artifacts to Clan Crafter to buff up Bilbo, and draw a card. But now that you’re through the blockers…
Give your board double strike! Bilbo has a combat damage trigger! Time to double that by making Bilbo hit with both fists.
Give your whole board double striker with enchantments Berserkers’ Onslaught and Rage Reflection. How about combat step triggering a gift of double strike with Blood Mist and its creature counterpart Chaos Terminator Lord. Even Swashbuckler Extraordinaire triggers at combat, but it’ll cost you a Treasure.
Death-Greeter’s Champion’s Dash ability is an expensive way to give creatures double strike and a buff, but it’s repeatable which is great. The ultimate repeatable way for this is Equipment: Lizard Blades and Fireshrieker deserve a slot.
The absolute best board wide double strike granter is the surprise Dragon Blast-Furnace Hellkite. That’ll end a game early!
If you’re going to be attacking and rocking some double strike, let’s draw some cards! Enchantments Reconnaissance Mission, Coastal Piracy, and Bident of Thassa all give you a card per combat damage to a player. Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar draws per player you hit but gives your opponent a catch-22 if they’re staring down Bilbo in the combat zone. Equipment like Mask of Memory and Mask of the Schemer also fill your hand via combat damage.
How about drawing your opponents’ cards? Grenzo, Havoc Raiser is one of the most powerful two-drops ever printed. I cannot oversell this card when there are critters getting through your opponents’ defences.
How about some more Lotus Petals – I mean, Treasures. Professional Face-Breaker, Prosperous Thief, Reaver Cleaver, and Storm the Vault – all of these give you Treasures on combat damage. Face-Breaker lets you trade Treasures for cards. Cleaver lets you make more than one Treasure per hit. Storm the Vault very easily flips into an impression of a rightfully banned card Tolarian Academy. Prosperous Thief allows you to create Treasures as long as you hit players with Rogues (which Bilbo is) and Ninjas. It also has Ninjustu which…
Ninjustsu is perfect! Do we have an Izzet Ninja commander? Sneak in your ninjas with the ability and appoint the ninja as the Ring-bearer, reap the benefits! Mistblade Shinobi, Moon-Circuit Hacker, Ninja of the Deep Hours, Moonblade Shinobi, Moonsnare Specialist, Sakashima’s Student, Thousand-Faced Shadow, and of course, the aforementioned Prosperous Thief.
All of them are blue of course which is theme that comes with the other creature type eligible for support here: Rogues.
Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive is another great way to get your commander through. Ghostly Pilferer is an excellent inclusion especially with all these “cast from exile” cards running around. Thieving Skydiver remains one of the best kicker spells in the game and will likely always have a solid target by turn three. Sakashima cards are always welcome. Whirler Rogue for more unblockable. Treasure Nabber so you can take away mana rocks from your opponents – I mean, borrow! Faerie Mastermind draws you cards when your opponents get greedy. Thada Adel, Acquisitor lets you take artifact cards right from your opponents’ libraries. Cephalid Facetaker is unblockable and can clone at combat. Not to mention Alora and Grenzo are also Rogues.
Just remember to pack your tribal support cards if you decide to build around a creature type in particular. Path of Ancestry, Secluded Courtyard, and Unclaimed Territory for fixing and filtering. Distant Melody, Vanquisher’s Banner, Herald’s Horn, and Kindred Discovery for lots of draw. Kindred Charge for doubling up your board of potential double strikers. Molten Echoes gives you more copies while Door of Destinies and Obelisk of Urd makes the chosen type stronger.
That’ll do it for another edition of A Seat at the Table. Enjoy the previews this week! If a creature jumps out at you, let me know which and I’ll write it up! @mikecarrozza on Twitter and Instagram!
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Hello and welcome to A Seat at the Table, the column where I pick a commander and talk about what I’d include in the 99. With The Lord of the Rings set coming in a month and preview season approaching quickly, I wanted to take on one of the legends we’ve seen so far: Sauron, the Lidless Eye.
“But Mike,” you say, puzzled. “Why are you so interested in Sauron, the Lidless Eye? Aren’t there already ways in Rakdos to Act of Treason your opponents’ creatures?”
To which I say, “Don’t get ahead of me! It’s time for a textbox!”
For 3RB, Sauron, the Lidless Eye is a 4/4 Legendary Creature – Avatar Horror who just wants to reach out and touch faith. Let’s see that textbox:
“When Sauron, the Lidless Eye enters the battlefield, gain control of target creature an opponent controls until end of turn. Untap it. It gains haste until end of turn.
1BR: Creatures you control get +2/+0 until end of turn. Each opponent loses 2 life.”
So why is this so special? There are only 17 legends eligible for the command zone that have the ability to gain control of your opponents’ creatures and permanents. One of them even takes control of the opponent themselves (Emrakul, the Promised End). However, of the 17, only one is Rakdos (Olivia Voldaren) and most of them don’t trigger on entering the battlefield, are very narrow, have multiple hoops to jump through, etc. The only one that comes close is Dragonlord Silumgar. So this is pretty new for these colours! Sure, there are cards like Zealous Conscripts out there, but they can’t be in the command zone and built around in these colours!
Another thing to note is that Sauron’s activated ability can be used offensively, defensively, and straight up passively. Let’s go over some things first:
Let’s pick some cards!
I will be brief and name my favourite sacrifice outlets in the game: Phyrexian Altar, Ashnod’s Altar, and Altar of Dementia. Woe Strider and Viscera Seer are also great. Goblin Bombardment is solid, and shout out to Lyzolda, the Blood Witch if you’re looking to sacrifice your commander a bunch.
There are a bunch of ways to get your commander back into play from the graveyard like Phyrexian Delver, Animate Dead, Victimize, Ayara, Furnace Queen (back side of Ayara, Widow of the Realm), Body Launderer, Vat of Rebirth, and of course, the classic Reanimate. Feldon of the Third Path does a pseudo-reanimate job here too.
I also want to shout out cards like Malakir Rebirth, Feign Death, Supernatural Stamina, Kaya’s Ghostform, Ashnod’s Intervention, Undying Malice, Demonic Gifts, Fake Your Own Death, and Return to Action.
And if you want to go harder, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Lifeline are pretty gross in this shell.
Radiant Performer is an instant copy spell that they put on a creature. Radiate is fine in this deck, but you can’t Phyrexian Reclamation an instant. You can however Volrath’s Stronghold a creature, so Radiant Performer is preferred in this deck. You must cast the creature from your hand, and when it enters the battlefield, you get to copy a spell or ability for every eligible target.
Is Sauron being targeted by Path to Exile? Play Radiant Performer for a board wide wipe and ramp unexpectedly. But more importantly, you can copy abilities. Sauron’s ability targets a creature your opponents control and Radiant Performer turns that into an Insurrection. Live the dream with a Zealous Conscripts though since that card just says target permanent, meaning that you’ll untap everything you’ve got and take the entire board. The whole thing.
Conjurer’s Closet allows you to have get another trigger from Sauron or if you’ve still got an opponent’s creature, it allows you to keep it. That’s right. Conjurer’s Closet says under YOUR control. That means if you use Sauron to take an opponent’s Consecrated Sphinx and then blink it with the Closet, you get that Sphinx for good until it’s removed or blinked. It’s a great way to trigger your Terror of the Peaks more than you normally would. Pair it with Panharmonicon for double triggers!
Nightmare Shepherd similarly to Conjurer’s Closet allows you to keep your opponents’ creature… in a way. When a nontoken creature you control dies, you get to decide whether to exile it or not and if you do, you get a 1/1 version of it! That’s pretty sick. You can sacrifice an opponent’s creature to Carrion Feeder and get a lil guy version that can still be a great ETB. It’s also still useful for your own creatures. If you’ve got a Gray Merchant of Asphodel out and one more trigger will kill the table? Time to sacrifice it and let the Shepherd guide it home… back to the battlefield!
What’s another great way to trigger your commander? Copy it. I know you’re expecting to see Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker here, but he doesn’t copy legends!
Red loves to copy creatures. It’s crazy how many amazing effects there are. Twinflame and Heat Shimmer are the OG sorceries for this type of thing. Jaxis, the Troublemaker, Orthion, Hero of Lavabrink, Rionya, Fire Dancer, and Delina, Wild Mage are all a solid run of creatures that create copies in different ways that are all worthy of inclusion in the deck. Soulbond Sauron with Mirage Phalanx or give him a +1/+1 and let Mirror-Style Master help. Cursed Mirror can be your commander, but why not just copy your opponent’s creature?
Flameshadow Conjuring, Molten Echoes, and Mirror March love a nontoken creature entering the battlefield. Make copies of Sauron easily with these enchantments with a little mana or luck. Helm of the Host, Blade of Selves, and Splinter Twin say hello to the Mirror-Style Master.
What about black though? Saw in Half kind of counts right? Make mini versions of your commander and sacrifice one? Alright, why not? Question mark?
And now, a list of good Threaten effects I recommend if you want to go whole hog on gaining control of your opponents’ stuff: Seize the Spotlight, Mob Rule, Captivating Crew, Zealous Conscripts, Mass Mutiny, Coercive Recruiter (a fantastic copy target, by the way), Molten Primordial, Word of Seizing, Angrath, the Flame-Chained.
That does it for another A Seat at the Table! With the new LOTR set coming out, keep your eyes peeled for previews coming soon!
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Hello and welcome to A Seat at the Table, the column where I pick a commander and talk about what I’d include in the 99. Coming up in the Commander Masters preconstructed Commander decks, one of my favourite characters in all of Magic: The Gathering’s history.
Commodore Guff is one of the silliest characters written for the game and I won’t lie, I don’t really see what part of his history is on this card aside from being supportive of other planeswalkers. I have an Aminatou, the Fateshifter superfriends planeswalker deck, so I’ll be drawing from my experience with that deck to suggest cards here.
At five loyalty for 1URW, Guff trades black for red as a Jeskai superfriends leader. Let’s see that textbox.
“At the beginning of your end step, put a loyalty counter on another target planeswalker you control.
+1: Create a 1/1 red Wizard creature token with “{T}: Add R. Spend this mana only to cast a planeswalker spell.”
-3: You draw X cards and Commodore Guff deals X damage to each opponent, where X is the number of planeswalkers you control.
Commodore Guff can be your commander.”
I think I get it now! Commodore Guff’s whole deal is that he knows the fate of the multiverse and breaking the fourth wall. He gets planeswalkers to their ultimate abilities quicker by hinting them to their end.
Here are a few things to note:
There are so many great cards for a superfriends deck besides the planeswalkers themselves. I want to mostly highlight the cards that aren’t planeswalkers. I’ll mention a few but keeping it at non-planeswalker cards.
Let’s talk about getting your planeswalkers to their strongest abilities. Ultimate abilities are usually hard to evaluate a planeswalker on because they infrequently make it to that level. If you have ways to bolster them – like Guff’s static ability – you very well might get to an emblem like Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset’s or Dovin Baan’s or Venser, the Sojourner’s. There’s no Doubling Season for these colours, but there are a bunch of ways to add counters.
Inexorable Tide lets you proliferate when you cast any spell, while Flux Channeler does it for noncreature spells. Deepglow Skate’s ETB allows your to double the counters on any number of target permanents which is pretty good when you’ve got a board full of planeswalkers. Ichormoon Gauntlet gives all of your planeswalkers the ability to proliferate and eventually an extra turn, not to mention a single target proliferate when you cast a noncreature spell. It’s really powerful. If you’re already proliferating, Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus thinks it’s so nice, better do it twice. Chandra, Acolyte of Flame basically proliferates your red planeswalkers for its 0 ability, but it won’t trigger Tekluthal.
Oath of Gideon and Lae’zel, Vlaakith’s Champion lets your planeswalkers enter with an extra loyalty counter. Lae’zel allows you to add an extra loyalty counter when using an ability that adds a counter, such as Guff’s +1 ability.
Get your planeswalkers within range of their emblems and get it down!
Sphere of Safety, when paired with enough enchantments, can make it impossible for your opponents to get through and hit your planeswalkers in any meaningful way. Norn’s Annex does a similar thing making your opponents have to either pay white or two life. But what about turning them into creatures so they can’t be targeted at all? Luxior, Giada’s Gift isn’t just a solid win condition when you’ve got a big enough planeswalker, but it also means that your opponents can’t attack your planeswalker of choice directly. Deification is also a solid inclusion if you’ve got a few of a single type of planeswalker or just need to protect a particular planeswalker. Mila, Crafty Companion makes your planeswalkers harder to attack and draws you cards when they’re targeted.
The best protection is getting them out of the way. Semester’s End blinks out your planeswalkers until the next end step and brings them back with an extra loyalty to boot. It also blinks out your creatures if you need to protect those too! If one planeswalker is getting pounced on, you can use Resourceful Defense to move loyalty counters over from a planeswalker to another and let them die supporting another superfriend.
Planeswalkers are powerful because their abilities are pretty wild. Why not get more out of them? Copy them if you need to! Spark Double is one of the best clones in the game. Sakashima of a Thousand Faces and Clever Impersonator can let you make another of what you need! Rowan’s Talent and Rowan Kenrith allow you to copy planeswalker abilities. Oath of Teferi and The Chain Veil allow you to activate your planeswalkers’ abilities an additional time.
There are only two mass planeswalker recursion spells in these colours: Triumphant Reckoning and Ascend from Avernus. Got a graveyard full of planeswalkers? Why not have a battlefield full of planeswalkers instead!
Repair and Recharge is an excellent piece of versatile recursion. Five mana to get back an artifact, enchantment, or planeswalker to play and get a Powerstone? Sounds good to me! Especially in a deck that can make use of Archaeomancer or Ardent Elementalist.
Elspeth Conquers Death is one of the strongest pieces of removal on a permanent. It can go through all three chapters in one go with all the proliferate in the deck so far. Play for five mana, exile a card, make things more expensive for your opponents, and get a creature or planeswalker to play? This card is cracked!
Teferi’s Talent and Teferi, Temporal Archmage can nab you an emblem to allow you to activate planeswalker abilities at instant speed, which is absolutely backbreaking. In my Aminatou deck, the moment this happens, my opponents know it’s only a matter of time before it’s game over.
Planebound Accomplice is planeswalker Sneak Attack. With you being able to basically speed run to ultimate abilities, paying one mana for a planeswalker and probably its best ability is pretty bonkers. Ignite the Beacon and Call the Gatewatch allow you to tutor for planeswalkers. Urza’s Sylex can also tutor planeswalkers if you can blink it or when you activate it.
All Will Be One deals damage whenever you put counters on things – like planeswalkers. Oath of Jace will let you scry like crazy in this deck and if you can copy or flicker it, you will draw a ton of cards. Urza Assembles the Titans is an amazing way to dig to a planeswalker, play one for free, and trigger multiple loyalty activations. Such a solid value piece for planeswalker decks.
That does it for this edition of A Seat at the Table! Let me know what you’d like me to cover in the next one! @mikecarrozza on Twitter and Instagram!
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Hello and welcome to A Seat at the Table, the column where I pick a commander and talk about what I’d include in the 99. This week, March of the Machine: The Aftermath desparked a planeswalker we hardly know!
Calix, Guided by Fate is a 2/2 Legendary Enchantment Creature Human Druid for 1GW with a textbox that’ll bring OG Theros heads a ton of joy.
Time for a textbox:
“Constellation – Whenever Calix, Guided by Fate or another enchantment enters the battlefield under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
Whenever Calix or an enchanted creature you control deals combat damage to a player, you may create a token that’s a copy of a nonlegendary enchantment you control. Do this only once each turn.”
Welcome back to Constellation town, population: me. I love this mechanic. Landfall for enchantments! Who could hate on that? Not to mention a really, really powerful combat effect. Personally, I’m going to toss him into my Estrid, the Masked deck and my Myrkul, Lord of Bones deck to try him out!
A few things to note:
Let’s pick some cards!
Since you need Calix or an enchanted creature to hit your opponents, you’ve gotta have ways to get through. Cards like Unquestioned Authority, Spirit Mantle, and Holy Mantle give the enchanted creature protection from creatures which makes it essentially unblockable. It does also mean that Calix can’t put +1/+1 counters on them anymore, but whatever, they serve another purpose now!
How about different kinds of protection? Flickering Ward allows you to pick a colour so you can reset and get through blockers as you need, plus it allows you to trigger all your enchantresses and Constellation triggers. Pentarch Ward and Benevolent Blessing are the other Auras I like in this vein.
What about making harder to block but not impossible? Canopy Cover is so much ridiculous value on an Aura. Alpha Authority defies your opponent to block your biggest creature. Shield of the Oversoul gives protection and evasion. Beastmaster’s Magemark makes blocking your creature a definite trade down. Angelic Gift draws a card and sends to the air and Shielded by Faith makes your creature indestructible. When all else fails, Rancor or Unflinching Courage for some trample damage.
Eldrazi Conscription, Beastmaster’s Magemark, Empyrial Armor, Gleam of Authority, Hope Against Hope, Ordeal of Nylea, Mantle of the Ancients, Sage’s Reverie: you’ll already have ways to buff your creatures thanks to Calix’s Constellation trigger, but here’s a handful of Auras that give you a buff for smacking down.
All That Glitters, Ancestral Mask, and Ethereal Armor all care about how many enchantments you have and in this deck, you’ll have probably at least five every time you get in for a swing, making your opponents stare down a bunch of beefy creatures. Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr has this buff already but when you cast her for Disturb, you get another Aura for your trouble. Sage’s Reverie, and the relatively new Mantle of the Ancients give your enchanted creature a buff per Aura while also providing another upside respectively.
Ordeal of Nylea lets you crack in for a hit, get some lands out easy. Gleam of Authority sees those +1/+1 counters and rewards you for spreading them around. Hope Against Hope hopes you’ve got lots of creatures to buff your modified guy while Empyrial Armor looks at your hand size instead.
But the biggest and the baddest is Eldrazi Conscription. Get that cost down with Cloud Key and many other effects and drop it down slam with annihilator 2, trample, and an extra +10. Yowza!
I’ll keep this simple: enchantments are some of the most powerful cards in the game. The card type runs deep and has a lot of fun to it. That said, some of them are more utility based and others win more. Let’s get into a few categories.
Let’s be honest, if you’re using your commander to copy the cards that copy tokens that you’re making, you’re already in a great position. Yes, Doubling Season is dope because you’re doubling your +1/+1 counters and turning that All That Glitters into a second, AND a third All That Glitters when you connect with Calix or an enchanted creature. But you’re already doing well, let’s be honest.
While you’re already in a great position if you’ve got one Smothering Tithe or Nyxbloom Ancient, you can have another, and another, and then what? Helix Pinnacle for the win by tapping one mana?
I think all of these are worthy of an inclusion, not just to be copied but to get you there. Ramp is necessary to allow you to play your resources!
Make it difficult to attack you. “Why are you crying! It’s not impossible! You just have to pay 56 mana to attack me with one creature, that’s not crazy!”
Having a few of these are just gas to keep the engine going. Don’t copy Eidolon too much, you might deck yourself!
If you have enough Hardened Scales out, any of Calix’s Constellation triggers can be downright deadly. Clear the way with Grasp of Fate. Make Spirits with Hallowed Haunting. Protect your creatures with totem armor and use the best Umbra to get more mana for post combat. Cherry on top with Unnatural Growth doubling and doubling and doubling every combat. Here comes a big damage dot deck!
Make your removal enchantments! Grasp of Fate already got mentioned, but consider turning your removal into Constellation triggers and cards from Enchantress’s Presence effects.
Darksteel Mutation, Song of the Dryads, Kenrith’s Transformation, Oblivion Ring, Aura of Silence, Seal of Cleansing, Seal of Primordium, Chains of Custody, Planar Disruption, and many more to choose from that are fun and good to run.
You need good creatures to enchant! Yavimaya Enchantress, Setessan Champion, Mesa Enchantress, Femeref Enchantress, Satyr Enchanter, Archon of Sun’s Grace, Nylea’s Colossus, Mondrak, Glory Dominus, Kodama of the East Tree, Karametra, God of Harvests, Heliod, God of the Sun, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, Nylea, Keen-Eyed, and Nylea, God of the Hunt.
These creatures either care about, benefit from, or are enchantments that are hard to deal with, and therefore are perfect for wearing those Auras. The exceptions are probably Mondrak and Kodama of the East Tree just being great value. Copy an enchantment and get an extra land from hand to play? Thanks, Kodama. Copy an enchantment, get a second copy for your troubles? Thanks, Mondrak. Also, you can make it indestructible? Nice.
If you want to lean into Auras heavily…
Xenk, Paladin Unbroken gives Auras exalted which can get out of hand if you’re swinging with a single creature at a time. Kodama of the West Tree turns all those Aura-wearing and +1/+1 counter carrying creatures into Rampant Growths on combat damage.
Umbra Mystic gives all Auras Totem Armor, Kor Spiritdancer draws cards and gets huge, Sram, Senior Edificer draws you cards a bunch, and Light-Paws, Emperor’s Voice is a toolbox creature that can be fun in the right build, but I personally am not a fan.
Ramp with big stats: Kami of Whispered Hopes, Gyre Sage, and Viridian Joiner each tap for mana equal to their power or their +1/+1 counters which means Calix’s Constellation trigger will have a few targets that’ll be big team players. Combine these with Tribute to the World Tree, you’ll have dorks that tap for two or three or four right when they can finally activate.
Weaver of Harmony is a fun little guy to remember in an enchantment deck, especially on Calix’s trigger. Helm of the Host is also great to put onto Calix because each instance of him will trigger independently. Calix, Destiny’s Hand is fun flavour to include that also is removal and recursion on a planeswalker.
Don’t forget to pack your lands. Yes, they’re expensive but they’re worth it. Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth, Hall of Heliod’s Generosity, and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx are all huge role players in this deck. If you can get your hands on a Serra’s Sanctum, go nuts, but $400 is a hard one to swallow.
That does it for this one! Who should I cover next? Let me know @mikecarrozza!
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Hey everybody! With March of the Machine: The Aftermath releasing at the end of the week, I thought it’d be fun to talk about my favourite cards for Commander from the 50-card set. I’ll go through my top five and I’ll save room for commentary on cards I know folks will like a little blurb about.
The disclaimer is that I am just a guy who plays Commander. I have my ear to the ground, I like certain play styles, I am just a person. I have my opinions, I like what I like, and this top five might not match your own. But I will highlight cards I think are worth picking up and trying out.
I will say that despite Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin and Niv-Mizzet, Supreme being among my favourite cards in the set, I will not include them in the top five here because I have already written articles for each of them.
Without further ado, let’s get into it!
This is the Cyclonic Rift that isn’t a Cyclonic Rift. There is a lot of buzz about this because some key Enchantments and Artifacts in cEDH are worth getting rid of for only three mana en masse. Not bouncing creatures is not necessarily a downside when so many creatures have incredible ETB effects that outweigh them just being in play.
I think Filter Out will be annoying to some, but also a boon to others. I believe putting it in an eggs deck (Artifacts with 0 mana value) or an Enchantress deck to prock more and more triggers is the best use of this. Being proactive against stax at the end of the turn before yours is also a great use for Filter Out.
Arni Metalbrow is very cool. Arni is a new red legend that isn’t just copying what you’ve got but slamming down your hand as long as you’ve got high enough mana value swinging. The fun part about this is that it is obviously capped, but it means having to use some high mana value creatures that nobody wants to play otherwise to get the chain going. And it’s a chain because as long as you have the mana, you can keep getting your board swinging. What’s the nut draw? Anything that keeps going. It is Balefire Dragon into Inferno Titan into Terror of the Peaks into Goldspan Dragon into Professional Face-Breaker. There’s a lot to like about a deck that can just zoom!
This is the card that is going to be most expensive from this set. No caveat, just absolute certainty. It is a three mana Lotus Cobra with a better body that when you Landfall a second time gets you an Elf or Elemental to hand if you have any in the deck. That second part could also just not be there and Nissa would still be a welcome addition to land decks. Yes, Lotus Cobra is already a staple, but it is fragile. However, it has an ability that has fans and therefore redundancy is an ally here! Having a curve of Lotus Cobra into Nissa means that your Evolving Wilds just paid for your four drop and you still have your other lands ready to use.
A Boros flicker card that lets you get more value out of your creatures and artifacts entering the battlefield. It’s selective, it allows you to protect them from players on your turn. You can have symmetrical become asymmetrical by exiling them at your end step, so only you benefit from them. Cadric, Soul Kindler focusing on legendary creatures can stack the Dockside Extortionist ETB trigger to the top and then pay for all the legendary clones you’ll make. Cathars’ Crusade is already a nightmare, have some more nightmares why don’t you – toss it in the deck! Impact Tremors, Purphoros, God of the Forge, Reckless Fireweaver – pick your enemies’ poison and go to town. This will leave you up for attacks, but you don’t have to exile everything to bring them back. This card is insane!
I can’t spend too much time on Narset because she’s just so freaking open-ended. Incredibly powerful commander meant to lead a deck. Creatures you control have prowess is massive if you want to just play cards like Dragon Fodder and Ral’s Reinforcements the whole game, but I will point out that Narset doesn’t need to target your own graveyard and doesn’t specify that you absolutely have to pick an instant or sorcery or enchantment or artifact or planeswalker or battle. You can pick any of these. You don’t even need to specialize or stick to a theme! What a wacky card.
That does it for me! Make sure to get your packs of March of the Machine: The Aftermath on May 13th!
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