#cmdr2014

A little review on each of the new Commander decks coming out.

Hello fellow commander players and welcome back to the most wonderful time of the year! No it’s not Christmas we are talking about but instead the annual commander release. We have many cards that we will be taking an in-depth look at, but first I figured I’d hit the sets and a little bit about them. Hold on tight because this is going to be a wild one, we will hit a little bit of finance, a little bit about the decks, and some heavy hitters.

Unless you live under a rock you probably have seen the spoiled deck lists and are anxiously awaiting the release on November 7th. The first thing I hear everyone talking about is Heavenly Inferno, will there be another one. In short the answer to that is no. Wizards is moving to a print on demand type of distribution which means that except for very rare sets, like the from the vaults type of products, Wizards will keep printing as long as there is demand. This makes sense, as Wizards has nothing to do with the secondary market, so the money they make is on the initial product that is sold, so why not get what you can.

Secondly, this allows them to plant cards for all the different formats without having huge buyouts; this is why you can find Mind Seizes still, despite how popular [card]True-Name Nemesis[/card] is. The argument people have with this idea is it devalues a collectable card game, which is not exactly true. While there will be more supply at first and that will keep prices down, you will be able to obtain the card you want cheaper and collectability has never been about the short term. So with more and more players every day the cards will be able to gain more dollar value over time. Which also means you get the cards you want now at a good price.

Another exciting aspect about this release is that Wizards is getting more and more behind this format. Just take a look at the new Commander specific cards like the Walkers and the Lieutenants. Even with all this commitment Wizards is still leaving the rules to the rules committee, which I think is great for the game and the players. You can agree with the godfather or not, but that group has a huge amount of experience to draw from as well as a social circle big enough to influence change even as high up as the Wizards staff.

Okay, enough with my opinion of the economics of the decks lets take a look at the decks themselves and see what we got! Honestly, I feel like these decks are the most refined and best built decks wizards have put out thus far, and yes I realize that is much easier to do with a mono colored deck, but these are still pretty solid.

My new friend!

White: Forged in Stone, is probably the weakest deck as it relies too much on tokens, although it does have great creature buffs with the enchantments and the equipment. If you lose those, the white deck doesn’t really have enough finishers to finish the job. Can we get another white finisher besides [card]Serra Avatar[/card]? The upside side to this deck is that it has a ton of sweepers and removal, which will go along way to keeping you in the game. This deck also has a low curve, hitting many useful cards at 3 mana. Add the recently reprinted [card]Reya Dawnbringer[/card], [card]Rout[/card] and maybe a [card]Heliod, God of the Sun[/card] and some better equipment and this deck could take off.

Blue: Peer Through Time, seriously although I have a known dislike for all things blue they keep on making the color way to strong. Now on top of card draw blue is aggro? This deck has a billion card draw options, some great creatures that will be pure houses to try and beat, and enough counter and removal to keep your opponents at bay. [card]Reef Worm[/card] is going to be a huge card aside from [card]Teferi, Temporal Archmage[/card]. This deck can be improved on, but honestly this will be the strongest deck straight out of the box by a long shot.

Green: Guided By Nature, is frankly another green elf deck with a sprinkle of beaters mixed in, it’s right on point for theme, has some removal focusing on flying as green should, and a great creature buff in [card]Beastmaster Ascension[/card]. However, the real standout in this deck will be [card]Lifeblood Hydra[/card]. Now, being a hydra, I’m sure it will never get too expensive, but this card will be huge for green decks! In fact here is a sample of how I think this card will play out:

Player 1: Lifeblood Hydra with ten counters and I have haste so swinging in.

Player 2: Looks down at his [card]Weathered Wayfarer[/card], damn [card]Swords to Plowshares[/card].

Player 1: Wait I gain 20 life and draw 10 cards… So worth it!

Look at all the fun!!!

Red: Built from Scratch, Wizards has heard the complaints about red not being strong, so they fixed it, they gave us artifacts! The best way to fix red is to add stuff like [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card], [card]Steel Hellkite[/card] and [card]Solemn Simulacrum[/card]. Other standouts are [card]Feldon of the Third Path[/card] and [card]Dualcaster Mage[/card]. This should be a fun and interactive deck with lots of interactions.

Black: Sworn to Darkness, has lots of solid role players but nothing that stands out as meta game warping. That being said, this will be a solid deck with a lot of recursion and graveyard shenanigans. Plus [card]Ghoulcaller Gisa[/card] should be a great addition to any zombie deck!

I can’t wait for all the fun new toys, but if you can’t get them all on the 7th don’t worry you will have time to collect them all. Also, I am considering do an unboxing video of the Commander sets so please leave some comments below if that would be of any interest.

Until next time this is EDH.Ghost out.