While I really enjoyed the games I played with the Commander 2017 Wizards deck out of the box, I was never inspired to take that deck and tune it into anything of note. Regardless, the Wizard tribe was thematic to me and something I could easily build around but when the Wizard decks I would build were not able to keep up with other decks around me, I felt disenfranchised.įast forward to now. My guess is that Wizards looked too good in playtesting-impressive considering how Goblins and Zombies were allowed to thrive with significant power. It was also, ironically, the first appearance of morph.Īs enticing as the Wizard creature type was, the designers set a low bar for the tribe’s power level. This was just as Onslaught was coming out and Wizards made their first attempt as building a block around tribes. This was the beginning of my Magic career and a time where I bought triple digits of packs of Odyssey, for reasons that I can’t rationalize now. To understand why, we need to take a journey back to 2002.
Wizards have been on my radar as a tribe to build a deck around for almost two decades. Quite frankly, Kadena’s ability being limited also prevents one from breaking one of the Commander Commandments: “Thou shalt not overcommit.” I’ve heard some complaints that she doesn’t allow every morph spell you cast each turn to come down from free-which would be ridiculous-but I like her endorsing a morph deck in the same fashion as Tuvasa the Sunlit endorsed an Enchantress build.
But if you didn’t want to play a Temur deck, a general with a similar cost reduction ability like Kadena, Slinking Sorcerer was going to be very important towards breathing life into this archetype. The morph mechanic has been held back from being a viable archetype in Commander because it lacks enablers beyond the interaction with Animar, Soul of Elements. I was impressed by how often cards I wanted in the deck were already included in the preconstructed version. What really impressed me was how differently thee Faceless Menace deck played than I was expecting. Even so, all seemed very well balanced, and I had fun playing against each one of them over the course of the night. With all four decks on display, it was clear that all of them were going to be moving significantly slower than your average game of Commander. I chose Faceless Menace as my weapon of choice going into the event. We'll go through each of these cards one at a time, highlighting opportunities for fun and flavorful inclusions.This past weekend I was able to take part in a release event for the new product, Commander 2019. Today, I'm going to be diving into Commander 2019's Jeskai-colored "Mystic Intellect" deck, with an eye on potential updates based on each of the brand-new three-color commanders. One of the things I like most about these decks is that they come with multiple three-color commanders, each of which has its own unique identity.
Anything can-and does-happen.Īs a Vorthos who likes to modify decks based on story, art, flavor, and the potential for emergent narrative, I tend to base most of my changes on who I choose as my commander. Since the cards in Commander (2019 Edition) aren't bound to a single place or time, it's possible to see an ancient Monk of the Jeskai sitting next to a mysterious shimmering Wall from a nameless, unknown Plane.
From a flavor perspective, the Commander decks are one of my favorite Magic releases each and every year.