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Vigilance would be nice, but I don’t think the activated ability is good enough to be Plan A. Some initial thoughts: 

- It’s probably sufficient to have a huge hand before hitting someone with Atemsis. Paradoxical Outcome is a good way to do this, but there’s tons of ways to draw a lot of cards in blue. Enter the Infinite is a one card combo that doesn’t require you to build your whole deck around it for it to win you the game. It’s too slow to realistically expect to pull off in a game against good decks, but I like it for style points and its insane mana cost makes it useful for meeting the six distinct CMC cards in hand requirement.

- Alternative casting costs/cards with cost reduction mechanics could be a potential avenue for increasing the CMC diversity of the deck without too adversely affecting your ability to cast spells on time. Dig Through Time and Temporal Tresspass are castable cards with what would normally be an unpalatably high CMC that are solid synergy includes here. 

- Such a powerful saboteur effect makes extra turns even more valuable than normal I think. 

- Atemsis doesn’t need to deal combat damage to trigger, but monoblue doesn’t have a lot of good ways to take advantage of this. Most ping equipment is real bad with a six mana commander. Out of the less bad ones, I like Mortarpod more than Viridian Longbow since Mortarpod has a lower equip cost and doesn’t require haste but I don’t think either is a particularly good option.

This is a pretty cool alt-win commander. Desperately needed vigilance, though…

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Tomorrow, Azami’s Familiar :D

Nekusar and Urza should be happy with this. Any other commanders that can make good use of Timetwister effects?

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Paradox Engine probably isn’t even necessary. Urza lets you tap Winter Orb and friends for mana and gives you something to do with it which is absolutely disgusting.

I thiiink what you want to do is run cheap artifacts that draw cards (e.g., Guild Globe) and try to draw through your deck until you find Paradox Engine or a way to tutor it out, at which point you can use his activated ability to try to cast your deck.

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May we always hold on to the hope that there is a Tawnos to Morophon’s Jhoira lurking around the corner.

Yikes 😬

It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me that the reward for casting my 7-drop commander is to reduce the costs for my other spells (by 1-2 mana apiece). What have i been doing on turns 1-6 if not casting my creatures?

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Spring has come. All hail Springy the eternal destroyer

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I was suggesting a wholesale replacement of the rules text, so the assassins wouldn’t have haste or the ping ability. Haste + Flash is a pretty weird combo of abilities to grant from a single card anyway since they offer a pretty similar effect. Basically I want the assassin legend to turn assassins into better versions of Xathrid Slyblade.

Assassin Tribal Commander

I wanted to support Assassin tribal, so I made a commander that had synergy with most of the mechanics that Assassins tend to have. Haste helps out the Assassins with tap activations and the pinging ability helps both your deathtouch Assassins and the Orzhov Euthanist-type Assassins. Red is there for color pie reasons; it’s not like Red’s Assassins are all that great.

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Mark, Was the playtest name for Savage Stomp, "Di-no-fight!"?

Dino Might!

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Dowsing Dagger does a reasonable Gilded Lotus impression in decks that have cheap commanders or lots of utility dorks. There’s also mild synergy with commanders like Glissa that need enemy creatures to die. In multiplayer, you can just give the tokens to someone who already has blockers and attack a different and preferably defenseless player. Maybe that’s an unlikely board state by turn 4, but I think the card is probably more widely applicable than you’re giving it credit for. 

Ixalan Commander Set Review

For each new set, I write an article discussing the new legendary creatures and the nonlegendary cards that I think will be relevant in Commander.

In this set review, I’ll be using two five-point rating scales to evaluate the nonlegendary cards, one that measures how many decks a card is playable in (we’ll call that “spread”), and one that measures how powerful it is in those decks (”power”). Here’s a brief rundown of what each rank on the two scales means:

Spread

1: This card is effective in one or two decks, but no more (ex: The Gitrog Monster). 2: This card is effective in one deck archetype (ex: self-mill decks). 3: A lot of decks will be able to use this card effectively (ex: decks with graveyard interactions). 4: This card is effective in most decks in this color. 5: Every deck in this color is able to use this card effectively.

Power

1: This card is always going to be on the chopping block. 2: This card is unlikely to consistently perform well. 3: This card provides good utility but is not a powerhouse. 4: This card is good enough to push you ahead of your opponents. 5: This card has a huge impact on the game.

The Commanders of Ixalan

In this section, I’ll be analyzing the new legendary creatures, offering some ideas for decks build around them, and discussing their potential for inclusion in the 99 of other decks.

Gets you a ton of value from the sort of cards Green wanted to run anyway, like mana dorks and cheap utility creatures. Very strong commander.

In the maindeck:

Spread: 4 Power: 4

Lots of UGx decks run Regal Force, and she’s mostly a strict upgrade.

Keep reading

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Here’s hoping that they’re looking to bring more than just lizards into the dino fold. 

His trigger is super powerful but most of the Dinosaurs we’ve seen so far have been underwhelming. Getting them for free off Gishath is fine, but what happens when you actually draw your overcosted Dinos?

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You’ve got access to cards like Mirri’s Guile and Sylvan Library to keep your Dinos on top of your deck for Gishath without drawing them. Survival of the Fittest and Greater Good let you get value out of your uncastable fatties. Red’s one-shot rummage cards are pretty good for pitching fatties or ramp spells that you draw at the wrong point in the game. You can also jam Worldly Tutor, Sylvan Tutor, and Congregation at Dawn (I bet even Mwonvuli Beast Tracker could find its way in here). In a similar vein, Reclaim-style effects set up Gishath nicely, especially if the plan is to loot away fatties early. I don’t think it’s necessary to run very many dinos to get consistent value out of Gishath because Naya has access to a critical mass of powerful creature tutors and medium-strong library manipulation. Really there just needs to be some dinos worth playing in Commander in the first place.

His trigger is super powerful but most of the Dinosaurs we’ve seen so far have been underwhelming. Getting them for free off Gishath is fine, but what happens when you actually draw your overcosted Dinos?

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I think you could push this way harder since Assassins are mostly too weak for commander. I have a few ideas for possible rules text. 1) Whenever ~ or another Assassin creature you control deals combat damage to an opponent, that player sacrifices that many creatures. Play into the flavor of sneaking into enemy territory to pick off their soldiers in the dead of night. I also think the ability is powerful enough to make other players wary of incoming assassins. Almost all Assassins in MTG have 3 or less power, so there’s also gotta be some kind of spycraft going on to get your assassins through your opponents’ (probably much larger) creatures. 2) ~ and other assassin creatures you control have infect. Poison-y assassin flavor.

3) You may cast assassin spells as though they had flash. Assassin creatures you control have first strike and deathtouch.

Ambush assassin flavor.

Assassin Tribal Commander

I wanted to support Assassin tribal, so I made a commander that had synergy with most of the mechanics that Assassins tend to have. Haste helps out the Assassins with tap activations and the pinging ability helps both your deathtouch Assassins and the Orzhov Euthanist-type Assassins. Red is there for color pie reasons; it’s not like Red’s Assassins are all that great.

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Here’s one that looks pretty good.

Your opinion of Kess is highly amusing. She a replacement for Jeleva at the head of Grixis Storm, which has been one of the best decks in the format since it was created. I suppose from a non-cEDH perspective she doesn't seem that great, but it's funny to watch people in other circles losing their mind over her while you go, "Eh, not as good as Taigam..."

Yeah, I don’t pay a lot of attention to cEDH. Glad to hear there’s a deck she can find a home in; got a list to share?

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Psychic Puppetry, Uba Mask, and Teferi’s Puzzle box too. Also for some reason Mana Vault’s (mostly nonexistent) drawback triggers during your draw step.

Paradox Haze, Strionic Resonator, Rings of Brighthearth, and graveyard recursion spring to mind, but otherwise, I’m not sure there are a whole lot of opportunities for synergy with this design. Any ideas?

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Anthroplasm + Sage of Hours gives you repeatable time warp.

Seems great with Galina, Beguiler of Wills, Arcanis, Shauku. Creatures with activated abilities that untap and protect them (Morphling, Torchling) also seem good, since you can still activate his abilities on each of your opponents’ turns. Any other sweet activated abilities that are worth putting in wizard jail?

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Jace, Vryn's Prodigy with 5+ cards in the yard is a manaless flicker + loot. With haste, you could arbitrarily deck yourself.

Seems great with Galina, Beguiler of Wills, Arcanis, Shauku. Creatures with activated abilities that untap and protect them (Morphling, Torchling) also seem good, since you can still activate his abilities on each of your opponents’ turns. Any other sweet activated abilities that are worth putting in wizard jail?

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Inalla, Archmage Ritualist

Getting to double up on Trophy Mage without prior setup and access to Black’s unconditional tutors seems gross. 

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You’re missing Viscera Seer, Metallic Mimic, Adaptive Automaton, and Mirror Entity. Additionally, Cauldron of Souls could help repeatedly protect some of your larger threats from board wipes in conjunction with Edgar. I’d probably cut Expedition map and some of the french vanilla vampires. I’d also cut a basic Swamp for Cavern of Souls. 

Less-essential vampires that could still be pretty decent: Shadow Alley Denizen - Usually will give two creatures intimidate for each vampire you cast thanks to most vampires being black and Edgar’s Eminence trigger. Close enough to Cover of Darkness, but it costs less and can attack. Falkenrath Exterminator - Turns +1/+1 counters and mana into cards without actually needing to spend the +1/+1 counters. Yahenni, Undying Partisan - Free sac outlets are useful mostly for stopping your opponents from stealing your stuff. They’re also a bit of board-wipe insurance since if the board is big enough to wipe, they’ll survive and be enormous (unless you were the only one with a big board). Arguably They’re less impactful than any of the other 3-drops I suggested or currently in the list except maybe Vampire Nighthawk. Falkenrath Aristocrat - Same justification as Yahenni except there are many fewer 4-drops in the list right now.

Great eminence trigger! Gimme an hour and I’ll brew something up for this guy.