Commander's Library

Yes. This is spelled out in the EMN release notes:

Foul Emissary’s last ability triggers if it’s sacrificed for any reason while you’re casting a spell with emerge, whether or not you’re casting that spell for its emerge cost. For example, if you sacrifice it to activate the ability of Ashnod’s Altar while casting Decimator of the Provinces for 10, its ability will trigger.

Funniest death in our group was when we me and my party encountered a white dragon in our 5e game. Our party is up in the mountains, and all of us have played for a while now but some of our players are a bit on the lazy side with checking out the 5e books and such. 

Today is Christmas, so go open presents if you’re into that kind of thing. If not, enjoy your Chinese food or whatever else you do. However you have your December, it’s generally a gift-receiving time of year.

Unless you have a colorless Commander deck, in which case your gift-receiving started the moment Battle for Zendikar hit store shelves and provided you with a sizable helping of colorless non-artifact cards. Oath of the Gatewatch will be including another swath of these cards, greatly expanding the options available to colorless decks.

Unless you have a Karn deck, in which case you’re more worried about artifacts than eldrazi. What an exciting time we live in, folks! Colorless Commander is more diverse than ever, and today’s article is going to talk about what we can do with this archetype.

Silver Bells

Karn, Silver Golem by Mark Zug

In the beginning, there was Karn. There was a time in Commander when Karn, Silver Golem was the only colorless commander. Before the eldrazi, this also meant that the only cards you could use were artifacts. That was fortuitous, as Karn is the perfect commander for an artifact deck.

Really, little has changed for Karn. He’s still commanding decks built almost exclusively out of artifacts and lands. New artifacts get printed, sure, but the baseline strategy hasn’t changed.

Artifacts show up in every set, but so few are cut out for Commander. Most of them serve limited, so Karn decks only get a few new toys every year.

Obviously, the major change to Karn decks will be the introduction of Wastes in Oath of the Gatewatch. Colorless decks have previously had to rely 100% on nonbasic lands, opening them up to severe land destruction and isolating them from reasonable land ramp options. Both of these problems go away with Wastes entering the format, and Karn decks have plenty of options to take advantage of this.

Solemn Simulacrum, as staple of a card as any in the format, is Karn’s new best friend. Wayfarer’s Bauble, Journeyer’s Kite, and Armillary Sphere join the legions of mana rocks that make Karn decks go. The ability to search up lands on a whim will make all colorless decks run smoother.

Mana rocks will still fuel Karn decks the best, however, and he has a doozy to choose from. My favorite is Blinkmoth Urn, which just gets ridiculous when 60% of your deck is artifacts. Basalt Monolith, Everflowing Chalice, and Thran Dynamo never waste colorless mana when all your spells are colorless. Like Sydri, Galvanic Genius, Karn can turn your mana rocks into face-pounding creatures. Don’t be afraid to run more mana rocks than you usually would, as Karn can put them all to work.

I Saw Mommy Kissing Eldrazi

Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger by Michael Komarck

The other side of colorless Commander is the domain of the eldrazi. While Rise of the Eldrazi only provided a handful of colorless non-artifact spells to work with, Battle for Zendikar bumped that number up big time. Oath of the Gatewatch will add even more, and suddenly we have a whole other axis to build colorless Commander decks on.

So what do eldrazi bring to Commander? As a battlecruiser format built around big mana and flashy spells, the eldrazi are pretty much the prototypical Commander race. They’re big fat fatties that swing games and cause chaos and impact board states. Eldrazi creatures see play in many colored decks because of these traits. In essence, the eldrazi get to the core of the format and play around one of its major themes.

So eldrazi decks want to ramp into big creatures as quickly as possible. Mana rocks already helped that part, and now Wastes will help even more. Just go back and reread what I said about Wastes above; this new basic land is fundamentally changing colorless Commander decks.

Eldrazi also bring an exciting piece to colorless decks: colorless instants and sorceries. Cards like Scour from Existence and All is Dust help these big-mana decks do the things other decks do (like cast spells on other players’ turns). This is arguably the space that eldrazi should be most praised for, as it was something totally lacking the colorless Commander arsenals.

Ultimately, however, decks built around eldrazi still have to rely on artifacts. We don’t have that many colorless non-artifact spells yet, and almost none of them provide mana and card advantage in the way artifacts can. Which brings me to the next section…

I’m Dreaming of a Colorless Christmas

Ugin, the Spirit Dragon by Raymond Swanland

Colorless Commander decks still overlap on many levels. While you can build a Karn deck with only artifacts and lands, you can’t yet build an Ulamog/Kozilek deck with only eldrazi-themed spells and lands.

And both of those archetypes ignore the raw power of Karn Liberated and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. These are the only colorless planeswalkers in the game, but they’re some of the most powerful when it comes to Commander. They immediately impact the board. Karn nukes at least one permanent, making him at least a hybrid between Spine of Ish Sah and Scour from Existence. At best, he can overtake a game. Similarly, Ugin doubles as another All is Dust, providing a one-sided sweeper as soon as he hits the battlefield. Both cards are incredibly powerful in both artifact and eldrazi archetypes.

While many of the artifacts-matter cards only fit into Karn decks, plenty of artifacts benefit all colorless archetypes. Mana rocks aside, cards like Nevinyrral’s Disk and Staff of Nin fill in the holes in both archetypes. Power usually comes with a sorcery-speed cost, but there’s no denying that such artifacts are core to the colorless Commander experience.

But do the eldrazi have the ability to contribute to colorless decks in the same way? They sure do! All is Dust was already a perfect card for Karn decks, but Scour from Existence, Titan’s Presence, and Gruesome Slaughter interact in the same positive ways. Eldrazi creatures can do more than just be big fat fatties now too. Oblivion Sower is a supercharged ramp spell. Conduit of Ruin can tutor up your Darksteel Colossus. These eldrazi cards are great even outside an eldrazi deck, so don’t forget them if you’re choosing to build a Karn deck instead.

Oath of the Gatewatch will only bring new colorless eldrazi for colorless Commander decks to play with. Whether they are creatures or spells, they’ll help push the format’s weirdest color identity to new heights.

A Present for Everybody

Which brings me to the end of today’s article. My traditional conclusion is edged out by a very special occurrence: my very own Oath of the Gatewatch preview card. If you’re a fan of colorless Commander decks, then hold onto your hats. Your mind is about to be blown into the next country.

Ready?

Set?

Click here to GO! and see this awesome addition to the format.

Tolarian Community College did a great short video on helping budget EDH/Commander players find solutions to a struggling mana base not too long ago, go check it out!

Reaper King 

If there is anything I want in MTG, it’s for there to be more scarecrows. Mainly so that I can build an awesome signature scarecrow theme deck. I really like Reaper king as he is Omni-colored and has the awesome destroy permanent ability. Also he is a 6/6 for potentially 5 mana. His main problem is that there aren’t many scarecrows (good ones, anyway). 

It looks like a Scarecrow…No, wait…Sliver? 

There are “almost” enough scarecrows to get a decent creature base, if you use all of them, Painter’s Servant is banned however so we can’t use him, so we’re a scarecrow down already. The other’s don’t really interact with one another without Scrapbasket and what are the odds of getting one of those when you need one. No, your best bet for building Reaper King is Changelings as they be scarecrows and many other tribals all at once allowing you to mix them with other tribals and still get the benefits. You should probably use all of the Changelings, but some of the better ones are Mirror Entity, Chameleon Colossus and Cairn Wanderer 

I’m your master now! 

The other good thing about using changelings is that you can use lords from other tribals to further kick your opponents asses. A Sliver Hivelord in a scarecrow deck… why not? Don’t go overboard, mind, focus on some of the ones that provide better abilities such as Lord of the Unreal (Which bestows Hexproof) Knight Exemplar and/or Timber Protector (Indestructible) and Myr Galvanizer which allows all of your “Myrs” to untap for a small price. Another good tactic is to use creatures from other tribals such as Slivers, Goblins and Elves. Gemhide Sliver and Elvish Archdruid are especially useful as they will allow you to ramp beyond your opponents. 

Awww but what about the good Scarecrows 

Okay so not all the scarecrows suck… Scarecrone could be useful as a sack outlet that allows you to draw cards, it also allows you to return some artifact creatures too. Scuttlemutt is also useful as it can tap for any color mana. Pili-Pala has the potential to combo for infinite mana if mixed with Grand Architect, You can probably manage without the rest.  

Spells with Changeling 

Some spells from the Lorwyn-Shadowmoor Blocks have Changeling too and can be tutored for with the Harbingers that are also from those blocks, Try and stick to some of the cheaper ones though such as Flamekin and Treefolk, as the giant one is expensive. Some of the better changeling spells include Blades of Velis Vel, Nameless Inversion and Crib Swap. Runed Stalactite is another way to let some of your non-changeling creatures in on some of the trade secrets too.  

Spoilers galore! Fortunately, none for Star Wars here :)

Red gets a Snapcaster Mage of sorts! But slower…more expensive…but hey, a stronger body and combat-friendly isn’t so bad!

Endbringer. Where is the bad in this card? A strong body, that allows you to choose between:

-Pinging someone or something (including planeswalkers) -Controlling a bit of combat (stopping or allowing the biggest threat), or -Drawing a card

Every turn? These two cards scream EDH/Commander! 

So Kozilek, the Great Distortion and Wastes were officially revealed, confirming the leaks, blowing everyone’s minds again, and ushering in a new era of confusion. Veteran planeswalkers are witnessing change to a system they’ve been conditioned to understand, while new sparks are being confronted with rules jargon they don’t even understand. There’s yelling, screaming, fire and brimstone coming down from the skies, rivers and seas boiling, forty years of darkness, earthquakes, volcanoes, the dead rising from the grave, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together…mass hysteria!

Well, OK, so it’s not quite that dramatic. But Wastes and the colorless mana symbol, {C}, are changing many things about Magic. There’s much concern about the Commander format and its specific deck building rules. So sit back, relax, and let me guide you through this brave new world.

Lucy in the Sky with (✧)

Pick a flavor: dentin or bismuth.

First, let’s unpack {C} as a mana symbol, as this is the most obvious change that we are being presented with. You may be confused as to what this symbol actually represents. That’s easy: one colorless mana. This symbol functions exactly like the five mana symbols you’re already familiar with.

When a spell costs {R}, its shorthand for, “this spell costs one mana to cast, and that mana must be Red.” When an ability adds {G} to your mana pool, its shorthand for, “this ability adds one mana to your mana pool, and that mana is Green.” This new {C} symbol is the same.

Kozilek, the Great Distortion, for example, requires ten mana to cast, but two of that mana must be colorless. You cannot use {G} to pay for {C}, only for generic mana costs like {1}. Cards like Kozilek’s Channeler will now use {C} as well, templated like this: “{T}: Add {C}{C} to your mana pool.” This adds two colorless mana to your mana pool, just like it always did.

All that’s changing with {C} is notation. Any card that added colorless mana to your mana pool before will receive errata (an official text change) to display the appropriate number of mana symbols. No cards function differently with this change.

No functional changes means colorless mana will still act like colorless mana always has. You won’t be able to tap Birds of Paradise to add {C} to your mana pool, just like you were never able to tap it to add {1} to your mana pool; colorless is still (and always will be) not a color.

So how does all this affect generic mana costs like {3} and {7} and {X}{X}? It doesn’t. Generic mana costs on spells and abilities will still use the numbered notation. Generic mana isn’t colorless mana, which is one of the confusions that is solved by {C}. Perilous Myr won’t be changed to cost {C}{C} to cast; requiring any mana isn’t the same as requiring colorless mana.

One last Commander-specific weirdness happens, however. There’s a usually-meaningless rule that states that if an ability would add mana to your mana pool of a color other than your commander’s color identity, it adds colorless mana instead. For example, say you have Darksteel Ingot in your Nin, the Pain Artist deck. When you tap the Ingot for mana, you’ll choose a color. Choosing Blue gets you {U}; Red gets you {R}; but White, Black, and Green get you one colorless mana. So the question is, can this mana be spent to pay for {C} costs? It’s colorless mana, right? As of right now, the Commander rules committee is saying, “Yes, this is how that works.” So if an opponent controls Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, you can cast the new Kozilek with ten Forests in your mono-Green deck. If this decision is changed, they’ll let us know with the regular Oath of the Gatewatch update.

Does that all make sense? Good.

Secret Identities

Butcher of truth, baker of lies, and confectioner of chaos.

Confession: I lied. Nothing secret about colorless identities. The new Kozilek and Wastes both have a colorless color identity for the purposes of building Commander decks. Both cards can go into literally any Commander deck you wish. A spell with {C} in its mana cost doesn’t have some super-colorless color identity; colorless is just colorless.

Wastes has another layer of identity to it, as it’s a basic land. As per every deck building rule in every constructed format, your deck can have any number of basic land cards in it. That means there’s no restriction to the number of Wastes you can have in your Commander deck.

Celebrate, colorless Commander players! You now have a basic land to your name! Your days of just scooping to Wave of Vitriol are over!

Any card that cares about basic lands will care about Wastes. You can grab Wastes with Solemn Simulacrum. You won’t lose your Wastes to Ruination. Sadly, you can’t grab two Wastes with Myriad Landscape, as having no land type means two Wastes can’t share a type. Related to this is domain, which won’t count Wastes either. You can’t push domain to six. Sorry, Barry.

As expected, Wastes taps for {C}. While you won’t see its ability printed on any version of the card, it’s there. Don’t worry, I know its weird (and I personally don’t like it), but Wastes have Oracle text of, “{T}: Add {C} to your mana pool.” You’ll be able to see this once Oath of the Gatewatch is on Gatherer. This concerned some veteran players because basic lands get their mana abilities from their subtypes. All Islands innately have the, “{T}: Add {U} to your mana pool,” ability. Wastes can’t have this innate ability because it has no subtype. The ability would be in the text box of the non-full-art versions of Wastes, but aesthetics of the big mana symbol won that fight.

Like with the {C} mana symbol, there isn’t anything revolutionary here. Colorless is still colorless.

Colorless Is Colorless

Colorless is colorless. Just keep repeating it. Colorless is colorless.

On the surface, Wastes and {C} seem to be upheaving the very foundation Magic is built upon. Hopefully today’s article helped reassure you that these changes are largely cosmetic. They even open up design space for Kozilek’s brood by allowing colorless cards to require colorless mana to be spent on them. So settle down, Magic community, they sky isn’t falling. {C} isn’t ruining Magic forever. You’ll be fine.

Brothers Yamazaki artwork by Ron Spears

@generally-edh is a fellow EDH/Commander blog dedicated to the format, going over Legendary Creatures and what they work well with, as well as deck reviews! Follow up and get more awesome EDH/Commander content on your feed!

Welcome to Second-in-Command! This is a new column here on The Burnished Hart where I briefly discuss a particular card that I think uniquely fits in a particular EDH/Commander deck. I must emphasize the word “uniquely”, because these are the so-to-speak characteristics I have given to a card that I claim to be Second-in-Command to any given legendary creature:

It synergizes extremely well with its commander, perhaps assembling an infinite combo, in a way it doesn’t with any other legendary creatures.

It should not see play in any other EDH deck in order to be utilized to its maximum potential. In other words, it doesn’t usually see play because how suboptimal the card can be on its own.

It might seem a bit vague as to what exactly constitutes a card to be Second-in-Command to a particular commander. My initial idea for this column was to highlight cards that never see play in EDH except in one particular deck, where it’s actually REALLY good. That’s the simplest working definition I have for “Second-in-Command”, but I remain flexible and open to any suggestions you may have on the subject.

The card I want to talk about today is Terra Eternal for Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper. Previously never have seen the light of the EDH table, Terra Eternal rose up from the dust when Noyan Dar was first spoiled by Mark Rosewater on the Magic mothership site. You see, for every instant or sorcery spell you cast when you have Noyan Dar out on the battlefield, he “awakens” a land you control, turning it into a 3/3 fighting machine. While these lands will have haste, meaning they can attack even if you played them the same turn you cast your spell, Noyan Dar offers them no other ability to protect themselves, making them incredibly susceptible to removal.

Enter Terra Eternal. For just two generic mana and one white mana, this nifty enchantments suddenly makes all your weak, little lands into strong, indestructible ones! No more will they die to the hands of Damnation or Anger of the Gods! Your lands will even survive your own Supreme Verdict! And because no other legendary creature deals with lands the way Noyan Dar does, this is what makes Terra Eternal this week’s Second-in-Command!

In this week’s Saturday article, Shawn and Cara explore the effects of Tutors on Commander, taking stances of tutors having positive or negative influence on the format.

Diabolic Tutor artwork by Rick Farrell Image courtesy of @googlyeyesonmagiccards​

Without your commander, you are nothing. Without you, your commander is nothing. With great power comes great responsibility-but if there’s not a lot of power, do you have to be responsible? When purposefully toning down the power level, playing into a very specific strategy or even limiting yourself to revolve a deck around the terrible leader itself, the level of enjoyment in a game can skyrocket.

Anax and Cymede artwork by Will Murai

Decklist here.

Overview

My take on Ezuri was to:

1. Focus on swarming with fairly small creatures to boost his experience counters

2. Clone utility creatures you control or that your opponent controls.

3. Take my opponents creatures for perfection. Either temporarily to clone them, or permanently.

This turned out to be an incredibly fun build for me to play. Even when there’s no good targets from your opponents, making copies of your own and pumping them is still powerful. However, when you get chances to take creatures permanently, you just roll over your opponents, as you can either take the best utility creature they have, the best powerhouse on board, or the best blocker they have. For example, as experience counters are universal, I took my opponent’s Mizzix, cloned it, then sacrificed his to the legend rule. And at that point, Ezuri had fueled my experience counters to the point that all of my expensive instants and sorceries were just the colored cost.

For this deck tech. I’m going to split up the deck into separate parts. Swarm enablers and buffers, steal effects, cloning effects, and then utility creatures and spells.

Swarm Enablers, Makers, and Buffers

Enablers

Doubling Season and Primal Vigor both double tokens and +1/+1 counters which are exactly what this deck cares about. Doubling Season has the added benefit of buffing a swarm maker and the only two planeswalkers in the deck. 

Makers

Orochi Hatchery and Avenger of Zendikar are the big swarm makers here. Doubling Season will double the number of charge counters Orochi Hatchery enters with and doubles the number of tokens Avenger makes. Coupled with a few clone effects, Avenger gets out of hand fast. Thelonite Hermit and Phyrexian Swarmlord make smaller swarms, though Swarmlord pushes the game closer to and end as you make 2x the number of poison counters on your opponents in more infect creatures. Arachnogenesis is Spider Fog. Fog them, trigger Ezuri a couple dozen times, then you have a swarm ready to go the next turn.

Buffers

Thunderfoot Baloth and Murkfiend Liege both buff your swarms and give them unique little abilities to help you out. Thunderfoot gives trample while Liege gives pseudo vigilance. Siege Behemoth allows your swarm to break through any defensive line while also making your few infect creatures much more lethal.

Clone Effects

Due to the benefits of Doubling Season and Primal Vigor, the number of clone effects is slightly skewed towards token making effects. Rite of Replication is the best one here, being cheap early game, and having a huge effect late game. Cackling Counterpart and Fated Infatuation can both only copy creatures you control, but have the added benefits of being Instants. Progenitor Mimic makes a token that’s a copy of itself at the beginning of each of your upkeeps. Best on a creature with a good ETB ability, such as Avenger of Zendikar.

The traditional clone effects include Gigantoplasm, as it allows you to take something small with a great combat damage trigger, such as an infect creature, and make it large enough to be lethal. Body Double is for those creatures that hit the ‘yard before you get a chance to copy them. And Mercurial Pretender allows you to switch up what you need another of among your creatures.

Steal and Dominate Effects

Temporary

Reins of Power and Domineering Will are primarily to mess with other players combat steps, or when you’re behind in the case of Reins of Power, acting as a pseudo-Insurrection. They also are cheap, allowing you to cast a clone effect the same turn.

Spastic

Fool’s Demise and Illusory Gains. I term these spastic, as you may never know when or for how long you’ll control what they enchant. While both useful in their own right, these are the ones you want to clone fast or have your opponents remove, in the case of Fool’s Demise, as the opportunity to use them is so fleeting.

Permanent

Dominate, Blatant Thievery, and Control Magic are all ‘permanent’ steal effects as they give you permanent control of the creature for as long as their on the field. Dominate has the bonus of being instant speed, but will also get increasingly expensive as your targets get better. Blatant Thievery also gets better the more opponents you have, but is not so prohibitively expensive. Control Magic is the most fragile of the effects, but also the cheapest.

Choice Utility Spells and Fun Cards

Utility Spells

Aside from the cards already in the precon, my choice utility spells are:

Courser of Kruphix to not only trigger Ezuri but to also smooth out your draws, 

Thrummingbird to trigger Ezuri as well as double poison, experience, and +1/+1 counters. Note, you can politically use Thrummingbird as a way to boost an opponents experience counters.

And Bioshift as the most threatening card in the deck with Ezuri. Because Ezuri only puts his +1/+1 counters on a single creature, your opponents know what to chump block. However, Bioshift makes this game even more challenging as you can either put the counters on the one unblocked infect creature, the one with the fantastic combat damage effect, or the one small creature that is most likely blocked by the most threatening creature. The possibilities are endless.

Fun Cards

Unexpected Results is the chaos card of the deck, as you’ll never know what you get. Either it’s a four mana accelerator, or a 4 mana Blatant Thievery. You never know.