The Commander Card Corner

Hello everybody! It’s preview season, which means that I’ll have plenty of new material for posts to make and cards to talk about. However, I know that not everybody wants to see previews. As such, I will be tagging posts for officially previewed cards as “[Set Acronym] Spoiler” so that those that do not want to see said previews can blacklist that tag during the preview season until they’re ready to see them.

For example, for Commander Masters, previewed cards will be tagged as #CMM Spoiler. So if you do not want to see Commander Masters cards before the set’s release, block that tag.

Please note, I will only show officially revealed cards that have been posted to the set’s respective Card Image Gallery posted to the Magic Wizards website. I will not discuss unofficial spoilers with no exception.

I will remove spoiler tags from posts three days after the set’s official US release. This should give everybody plenty of time to experience the set blind if they so choose.

Delighted Halfling   G

Creature - Halfling Citizen

T: Add C

T: Add one mana of any color. Spend this mana only to cast a legendary spell, and that spell can’t be countered.

Erebor Flamesmith   1R

Creature - Dwarf Artificer

Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, Erebor Flamesmith deals 1 damage to each opponent

2/1

Fiery Inscription   2R

Enchantment

When Fiery Inscription enterd the battlefield, the Ring tempts you.

Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, Fiery Inscription deals 2 damage to each opponent.

These kinds of effects are always welcome in Commander, and fill a particular niche in decks that aim to cast a lot of instants and sorceries. Without cards like this, spellslinging decks don’t have too many win conditions.

The damage to each opponent is the key element here. Especially in a multiplayer format like Commander, casting enough spells means winning the game.

Personally, I’m a huge fan of this kind of card in Feather, the Redeemed, which naturally wants the player to stack their deck with a surplus of cantrips. Enough of those, and not only will you be doing damage with every spell, but you will likely be able to swing in with creatures like Erebor Flamesmith once they get big enough. Alternatively, if you’re running a Grixis-style storm deck like Kess, Dissident Mage or Abaddon the Despoiler, you’ll (hopefully) be casting so many spells that effects such as these will net you the win by themselves.

Orcish Bowmasters   1B

Creature - Orc Archer

Flash

When Orcish Bowmasters enters the battlefield and whenever an opponent draws a card except the first one they draw in each of their draw steps, Orcish Bowmasters deals 1 damage to any target. Then amass Orcs 1.

1/1

I feel like it doesn’t need to be said that this card is very good. A lot of the time, players are going to seek out cards to draw, and as a result this card will garner a lot of triggers for the period that it’s on the battlefield. At the very least, it will mostly likely get two triggers if you’re doing the smart thing and casting it in response to a card draw effect; once on ETB, and a second on the opponent drawing an additional card.

The ability to do one damage to any target is especially nice. Sure, you could hit their life points directly, but if they have a mana dork you can bolt? Or a Planeswalker you can hit? Or even a Battle, if you’re running any. The specification of any target is incredibly freeing.

Oh, and this card also amasses an Army every time the ability activates, too! Honestly, I would give this card high praise even without this line of text. This is just icing on the cake. Generating a larger and larger Army every time can create a major threat depending on how frequently your opponents trigger the ability. Or, if you have a sacrifice outlet, that’s an extra sac every time they draw extra cards.

Mirkwood Bats   3B

Creature - Bat

Flying

Whenever you create or sacrifice a token, each opponent loses 1 life.

2/3

This is a format where treasures are reigning supreme. If you’re in black, and you’re generating a decent amount of treasures (or any tokens, for that matter), this card is a strong consideration. Unlike its similar counterparts, it isn’t a drain effect, so you don’t gain life. Additionally, 3B is a somewhat steep cost (though if you’re making treasure, that shouldn’t necessarily be a problem). There is also the last item that the tokens need to be created or sacrificed for the life loss to activate. It doesn’t work if they just die.

I have a personal home for this card in Aristocrats, where you’re already generating a lot of tokens to specifically sacrifice. The life loss is powerful enough, especially considering that each token is effectively 2 damage to each opponent. And, since it’s a creature itself, it can also be used as a last-minute sacrifice if needed. Even better, since it’s a creature with flying, it can also get in for a bit of damage against whoever may not have fliers.

Call of the Ring   1B

Enchantment

At the beginning of your upkeep, the Ring tempts you.

Whenever you choose a creature as your Ring-bearer, you may pay 2 life. If you do, draw a card.

This will be a good opportunity to actually go over what the modes of the Ring are. Every time the Ring tempts you, you choose a Ring-bearer (of which you can only have one at a given time) and gain another ability on your Ring emblem that gifts your Ring-bearer with an added effect. These are as follows...

Your Ring-bearer is legendary and can't be blocked by creatures with greater power.

Whenever your Ring-bearer attacks, draw a card, then discard a card.

Whenever your Ring-bearer becomes blocked by a creature, that creature's controller sacrifices it at the end of combat.

Whenever your Ring-bearer deals combat damage to a player, each opponent loses 3 life.

With these modes in mind, it should be noted that this card is definitely the most reliable means of getting the Ring up and going if you’re looking to get all four modes onto one creature, with some added card draw to boot. To be forward, this card is fantastic.

The first mode is effectively the keyword Skulk from Shadows Over Innistrad block with an added effect of the creature being legendary. If you’re deck’s strategy involves getting small creatures in to do nasty effects, then this alone is worth considering any Ring card.

The second mode adds an additional attack trigger that lets you loot. This, in tandem with Call of the Ring’s card draw, nets you some excellent advantage over time, especially in black, and even more so if you’re running graveyard shenanigans.

The third mode disincentivizes your opponents from blocking your creature if they still can, most likely with creatures with greater toughness than power. Admittedly, this is the weakest of the four, but it’s still an alright effect.

Finally, the fourth and best mode bolts each of your opponents whenever your Ring-bearer deals combat damage to a player. Especially in an opponent like Commander where you’re likely playing against multiple opponents, this kind of effect is invaluable, and the damage can add up very quickly.

Frodo, Sauron’s Bane   W

Legendary Creature - Halfling Citizen

W/B W/B: If Frodo, Sauron’s Bane is a Citizen, it becomes a Halfling Scout with base power and toughness 2/3 and lifelink.

BBB: If Frodo is a Scout, it becomes a Halfling Rogue with “Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, that player loses the game if the Ring has tempted you four or more times this game. Otherwise, the Ring tempts you.”

This is a very interesting pick for a commander that utilizes the most enticing mechanic from Tales of Middle Earth. The Ring tempting you, as a mechanic, is powerful in repetition. But how often can you get it going in White/Black?

This Frodo, by himself, can have the Ring tempt you, though it’s difficult to do. Otherwise, there are 19 other cards that can go in a deck with Sauron’s Bane as the commander that can cause the Ring to tempt you. Of these, three of them are repeatable (though Witch-king of Angmar only tempts you when you take combat damage), and one of them is Nazgul, which you can have nine of in your deck and tempts you when it ETB’s. As for the other one-off Ring tempting effects, you have such options as a flicker effect, kill spells, some graveyard retrieval, a mana rock, and a delayed boardwipe.

So overall, it’s not impossible to get to stage four of the Ring tempting you. So how do you get Frodo in? Well the Ring’s first mode prevents creatures with greater power than the Ring-bearer from blocking, but there’s plenty more that can be done. For example, also new to this set (and a card I’ll talk about later), Bilbo’s Ring, makes the equipped creature unblockable and gives it Hexproof during you turn, and only an equip cost of 1 for Halflings like Frodo. Additionally, The Black Gate can make it so that if you’re attacking the player with the highest life total, they can’t block your creatures. Access Tunnel, Manifold Key, Prowler’s Helm, Rogue’s Passage, Suspicious Bookcase, Thieves’ Tools, and Whispersilk Cloak are all also good cards for making Frodo unblockable.

And since you’re making Frodo difficult to block anyway, let’s give him some equipment that gives you some bonuses when you hit with them. Dowsing Dagger, Mask of Memory, Quietus Spike, Rogue’s Gloves, Umezawa’s Jitte, Vorpal Sword, and Elbrus, the Binding Blade all have triggers that activate when the equipped creature deals combat damage, which Frodo most likely will be.

Forge Anew   2W

Enchantment

When Forge Anew enters the battlefield, return target Equipment card from your graveyard to the battlefield.

As long as it’s your turn, you may activate equip abilities any time you could cast an instant.

You may pay 0 rather than pay the equip cost of the first equip ability you activate during each of your turns.

Equipment decks are gunning for cards like this, and Tales of Middle Earth delivered. While the “your turn” clause is limiting, equipment decks are typically trying to attack in anyway, so these kinds of effects are most useful during your turn. Additionally, while it’s no Sigarda’s Aid, being able to move equipment around for free is especially good with the high-costing equip costs like Kaldra Compleat and Colossus Hammer.

For that matter, it works similarly to Sigarda’s Aid, just with the added addition that your opponent basically will always know what’s coming. If you attack into an opponent with more creatures than they have blockers, then you can just move one of your equipment to an unblocked creature before damage happens. Hopefully, your opponent can’t do anything about it, and you can get in for a nice chunk of damage no matter how your opponent blocks.

Flowering of the White Tree   WW

Legendary Enchantment

Legendary creatures you control get +2/+1 and have ward 1

Nonlegendary creatures you control get +1/+1

Let’s start the LotR cards off with a bang! Flowering of the White Tree is a fantastic card for Commander if you’re in white. Buffing up all of your stuff in an anthem-style effect is already pretty good, especially at two white mana. However, giving your legendary creatures (commander included) that extra power and, more notable, ward 1 is especially enticing.

It should be noted, however, that I don’t think this is an auto-include in every white deck. If you’re running 4+ colors (or even three-color decks that are light on white), double white might be a bit inconsistent for your deck depending on your land base.

Additionally, it also depends on how go-wide your deck is. If you’re running a deck that likes to put out a whole lot of creatures, legendary or otherwise, putting this card out there can really help add on the damage and keep your commander a bit safer to boot. However, if you intend on just getting in there with your commander or only one or two other creatures, you may want to opt for equipment and/or enchantments instead.

Hello everybody! It’s been a while since I posted on this blog, so I wanted to give an update.

To make a long story short, my absence from this blog has been a combination of WotC printing so many cards, graduating from university and the ensuing chaos that came from that, and what is most likely undiagnosed ADHD. I do genuinely love writing up on cards, but in the past couple years, these factors have lead me to put this blog to the side.

Despite these troubles that I’m still going through, however, I do intend on booting this blog back up again! I’m changing the blog’s name from edhcardaday to commander-card-corner. This is primarily because I do not intend to post every day, nor do I intend to post about only one card each day. Instead, I am going to post whenever I can/have the energy to, and that energy may very well end up with me posting about several cards in the same day. As such, having a name that deviates from the “once a day” formatting will be better for myself mentally, at least so far as to not put pressure on myself.

All of that said, I intend to restart with taking a look at the most recent Lord of the Rings sets, Tales from the Middle Earth and its affiliated Commander decks. These analyses will not encompass the entirety of both sets, but rather cards that I think are good and/or find interesting.

Alpine Meadow

Snow Land - Mountain Plains

Alpine Meadow enters the battlefield tapped.

Snow lands are making their return in Kaldheim, with this set also introducing these duals that enter tapped. However, these lands have a few specific things that set them apart from other duals.

First, and most obvious, they’re snow lands. Modern Horizons introduced a lot of snow-based cards as well, including On Thin Ice, Marit Lage’s Slumber, and Dead of Winter. And of course, this isn’t even bringing up whatever Kaldheim has in store for us. Chances are we could see a legendary creature based entirely around snow permanents this set.

The second point to bring up with these duals is that, yes, they enter tapped. However, they’re significantly different from most tapped lands in that they have land types attached to them. This means that you can get them off of things like fetches or other cards that let you fetch for specific land types. And since Kaldheim is bringing us all 10 duals, there won’t be any problem if your deck fetches for a specific land type or not.

Sarulf, Realm Eater   1BG

Legendary Creature - Wolf

Whenever a permanent an opponent controls is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on Sarulf, Realm Eater.

At the beginning of your upkeep, if Sarulf has one or more +1/+1 counters on it, you may remove all of them. If you do, exile each other nonland permanent with converted mana cost less than or equal to the number of counters removed this way.

3/3

Sarulf is based on Fenrir, a wolf-like deity bound and chained up until the Norse interpretation of the apocalypse, Ragnarok. This interpretation of the card reflects Fenrir in being a sort of harbinger of the end times in the fact that it acts as a means to repeatedly wipe the board given you can stack enough counters onto it. Which, given the first part of its ability, is not hard at all to do. Especially given the fact that it’s also a very cheap Commander to cast, and its ability also doesn’t kill itself, but rather everything else.

Part one of the plan with this card is to stack on the counters, which can easily be done with its first ability or with outside means. Your opponents are likely to do the dirty work for you with things like sacrifice outlets or fetch lands, but if you want to ensure you can remove your opponents’ permanents, packing a bit more removal than normal is definitely a good idea--especially if said removal is repeatable! If you’re running a creature-heavy deck or can produce a lot of tokens, Attrition is a great way of picking off your opponents’ creatures while boosting up Sarulf. And with all the removal going on, Avatar of Woe can also be cast for very cheap and let you destroy creatures every turn. Something like Casualties of War, which can destroy multiple things without destroying Sarulf, is also a good idea, since you get a counter for each card destroyed with it.

Part two is to have a clear board. It may or may not already be clear with all the removal you’re doing, but that’s completely okay. After all, Sarulf’s board wipe is a “may” ability, so you don’t need to remove any counters at all and can just have a big, pumped up puppy to swing in with. But if your opponents are building up a board, you can just have Sarulf wipe it all away and start building up again--and allow Sarulf to swing in with no on-board threats to boot. As a side-note, because it may come up, you can only activate Sarulf’s ability if it has counters on it, meaning that you can’t “remove no counters” to wipe everything with CMC 0.

Magda, Brazen Outlaw   1R

Legendary Creature - Dwarf Berserker

Other Dwarves you control get +1/+0.

Whenever a Dwarf you control becomes tapped, create a Treasure token.

Sacrifice five Treasures: Search your library for an artifact or Dragon card, put that card onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.

2/1

Would you like to cheat out a Blightsteel Colossus? Because this is how you cheat out a Blightsteel Colossus. Magda, Brazen Outlaw is immediately an interesting card for this very reason. Of course there are other cards to cheat out with it, but Blightsteel is the one that sticks out to me the most. Of course, this all hinges on how easy it is to get out those five Treasures.

Of course, the way the card intends for you to do it is by tapping Dwarves. There are plenty of Dwarves in Magic, but how do you tap them? Well one way is to tap some creatures to crew a Vehicle. Mind you, you can tap as many creatures as you’d like to crew a Vehicle, even if their power surpasses the Vehicle’s crew cost by a large margin. Additionally, even if a creature has summoning sickness, they can be tapped for activating a Vehicle’s crew ability. And of course, Magda’s ability includes herself for tapping Dwarves. And there are plenty of Dwarves in Magic, and there are sure to be even more in Kaldheim.

Alternatively, find other things that tap your creatures. Sticking with the tribal theme, Cryptic Gateway lets you tap two untapped creatures to put a creature card onto the battlefield that shares a creature type with both of those creatures. So hey, keep up on those dwarves! For a more obscure card, Kyren Negotiations lets you tap an untapped creature to deal 1 damage to target player. May as well capitalize on the tapping you’re going to do.

So that’s how we tap Dwarves, but is there any other things that make Treasures? Well even right now, there is! Brass’s Bounty, Dockside Extortionist, and Impulsive Pilferer all create multiple Treasure tokens. And knowing Kaldheim, there’s going to be even more ways to create Treasure tokens. And of course, sacrificing those Treasures lets you get out any artifact or Dragon you want, so make it a good one!

Pyre of Heroes   2

Artifact

2, Tap, Sacrifice a creature: Search your library for a creature card that shares a creature type with the sacrificed creature and has converted mana cost equal to 1 plus that creature’s converted mana cost. Put that card onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.

Keeping up with Kaldheim’s tribal themes, let’s discuss the new tribal Birthing Pod. But before that, some clarification. The card you’re searching for has to be exactly 1 plus the sacrificed creature’s mana cost, meaning if you sacrifice a 2-drop, whatever you’re looking for must be exactly a 3-drop, and it cannot be a 1- or 2-drop. This is one of those cards that necessitates that you know your deck very well if you intend to use it effectively.

That said, this card is very solid, but maybe a little underwhelming. Especially comparing it to the original, Birthing Pod, I would have preferred a copy of Birthing Pod without the Phyrexian mana, or even costed up slightly. This is still great, but it just reminds me of what could have been.

But I digress. Pyre of Heroes, despite its limitations, is still great in the decks that can fit said limitations. Cycle up through your slivers, your elementals, or your dragons for better ones. Alternatively, sacrifice your elf tokens to pull out some more mana dorks, or sacrifice your mana dorks to get the 2-mana utility creatures. Ironically, despite me saying it has its limitations, its low cost actually makes it flexible in the decks that can effectively use it.

Realmwalker   2G

Creature - Shapeshifter

Changeling (This card is every creature type.)

As Realmwalker enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.

You may look at the top card of your library at any time.

You may cast creature spells of the chosen type from the top of your library.

2/3

It’s become apparent that Kaldheim is once again going for a very strong tribal theme, and this card is currently one of the pinnacles of that.

Before delving too deep into this card on an applications standpoint, let’s first discuss it on a rules standpoint. Primarily in the Changeling ability, which we haven’t had in a primary set since Lorwyn block. Changeling, as the reminder text indicates, means that the card is all creature types. This is at all times and places, including your hand, deck, and graveyard. Meaning if there’s a card that searches for a specific creature type, this is included among them.

Now that that’s out of the way, Realmwalker is an excellent piece of card advantage to consider in any tribal strategy that utilizes green. Being able to play from the top of your deck has historically been a powerful effect, and this is no different. Name the tribe of your choice and if you’re lucky you can plow through your own deck by repeatedly casting creatures. While this is admittedly a best-case scenario, the card advantage you’d get is still notable.

Commanders like Ezuri, Renegade Leader are already looking to swarm the battlefield with Elves. This card will only make it that much easier to seal the deal...though it sadly won’t get Craterhoof Behemoth. There are also plenty of five-color tribal leaders, like Sliver Queen, The Ur-Dragon, and Horde of Notions. And of course, I can’t forget a personal favorite Commander of mine, Ayula, Queen Among Bears. Alternatively, if there isn’t a tribal leader for you (or at least not one in green), you could always go for Morophon, the Boundless and make your own tribal deck. No matter how you build with it, Realmwalker can slide right in.

Barkchannel Pathway

Land

Tap: Add G.

--------------------

Tidechannel Pathway

Land

Tap: Add U.

Let’s discuss a land cycle that’s being quickly finished in Kaldheim, the Pathways. Modal double-faced cards have already been making their rounds in Commander as staples for very good reason. They provide a great amount of flexibility without compromising the deck’s structure. The double-faced lands in particular offer that same flexibility while also being an excellent choice for dual lands.

I should probably list off the downsides, but there are only a couple I can personally think of. First, like many duals, they don’t have land types, so you can’t search them off of fetches and the like. Second, once you choose a side of the land, you can’t choose another one unless you return it to your hand (which, to be fair, some decks can do very easily). Once you choose a side, you’re basically stuck with it. This can potentially lead to some awkward mana situations, but those will likely be few and far between.

Now let’s look at the positives. For starters, duals are just naturally a good thing to have, and given that the downside isn’t too great then they’re probably going to be auto-includes in a lot of decks. After all, being able to tap for one of two different colors means that you can more easily cast any of the spells in your hand. The Pathways provide a similar benefit in a different way; you choose which of the two colors it produces as it enters the battlefield. Like I said prior, you are stuck with this choice, but there’s no downside outside of that. No life to be paid, no entering tapped, you just play it and you can tap it right away.

Toski, Bearer of Secrets   3G

Legendary Creature - Squirrel

This spell can’t be countered

Indestructible

Toski, Bearer of Secrets attacks each combat if able

Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, draw a card.

1/1

Now that the holidays are over, let’s delve right into the previews for Kaldheim, starting with arguably one of the best cards in the set.

Toski, as a mono-green legendary creature, is a bit limited as your Commander. However, with some good building, or especially as a part of the 99, Toski can serve up some real damage.

As your commander, the real thing you’re taking advantage of is Toski’s card draw ability. As such, you want to load up on creatures with evasion or cards that can give them evasion. Anything with flying and/or trample serves well here, and colorless cards like Gingerbrute can get in easily as well. Alternatively, slip in a Whispersilk Cloak or Rogue’s Passage to allow your own creatures to slip by your opponents’. Before you know it, not only will you be swinging in for a ton of damage, but you’ll be drawing a lot of cards as well.

Like I said, Toski serves better under the 99 than as a commander. There are already so many card draw effects in green, another one will only serve to help. Like one would build a deck for Toski specifically, this squirrel slides perfectly into decks that are already looking to swarm the field and/or get in with evasion. Evasion variants of Ezuri, Claw of Progress come to mind, especially given Toski’s low power serving Ezuri well. Token strategies like Rhys, the Redeemed also go well with Toski, as creating so many tokens that your opponents can’t hope to block all of them will net you some card advantage in the process.