It’s been a great year for Commander players – 2020 brought lots of Pre-constructed decks, cool reprints in Double Masters, and finally the long-awaited Commander Legends. Wizards R&D has definitely outdone themselves this time, giving us a frankly overwhelming number of new Legendary Creatures from which to brew with!
Apart from juicy new generals to tinker with, this set is also bursting with new non-Legendaries that are going to work well as part of the 99. Yes, folks – even White gets some great stuff this time around!
Everyone has their own opinions on what’s good and what’s not, and I’m not here to debate that. These are my top 3 favourites for NEW, non-Commander cards from the set – I’m certainly looking forward to playing with them! Do bear in mind that I’m leaving out reprints as we all know cards such as Mana Drain, Vampiric Tutor and Scroll Rack are already powerhouses in the format.
White – Top 3
No. 1: Keeper of the Accord
Keeper of the Accord combines two things that white does very well at a very reasonable mana cost with an even more reasonable stat line. It ensures that you can always keep up with the green players ramping up, and helps you put out a token for either offence or defence – all at the opponent’s end step!
The amount of value you get from just going one round around the table is undeniable, but it does get worse the later you draw it – but the same can arguably be said about any ramp spell, so Keeper gets the top spot for me!
No. 2: Court of Grace
Court of Grace gives you card draw via the Monarch mechanic while netting you a flyer at your upkeep for free every turn – not unlike the powerful Bitterblossom. The upside on this Court is that you might be able to turn the 1/1 Spirit into a 4/4 Angel instead!
White decks looking to run token strategies will definitely want this card, but even if you aren’t a token deck, there’s a good case for its inclusion.
No. 3: Akroma’s Will
Akroma’s Will can easily find its way into any aggressive White deck, and with the new Akroma buffing up creatures with keywords, this is a surefire way to close games out!
As a protection spell, it does have its drawbacks considering cheaper cards like Apostle’s Blessing, Unbreakable Formation, and Brave the Elements exist, but it should be able to do the same thing if you’re looking to double down on these effects.
Blue – Top 3
No. 1: Hullbreacher
This card is just busted. It combines the best of Notion Thief and Smothering Tithe on a 3/2 Merfolk Pirate body, and it even has Flash! Combine this with Wheel of Fortune and watch your opponents groan as they lose all their cards while you get a nice healthy hand refill while netting the Mana to cast the new toys you just drew, too.
Expect this to appear in most blue decks, even if they aren’t playing any wheel or Windfall effects.
No. 2: Sphinx of the Second Sun
The great thing about casting this on your pre-combat Main Phase is that you get to untap anyway after combat – which is exactly what blue players can appreciate!
Often, powerful cards like Consecrated Sphinx are hard to squeeze in due to their high casting cost, but there’s no such issue with this particular Sphinx. Decks that care about upkeep triggers will also appreciate this card, since it gives you an Upkeep trigger on the same turn.
It even allows you to tap creatures you played in your pre-combat Main Phase during the post-combat Main Phase, since that creature has already passed an upkeep! Insane.
No. 3: Laboratory Drudge
While it seems like an odd choice, honestly this card is pretty great. It plays well with popular commanders like Muldrotha the Gravetide, giving you repeatable card draw as long as you cast a card from your graveyard during that turn.
You can also draw cards on an opponent’s end step, so spellslinger decks with cards like Snapcaster Mage or Torrential Gearhulk get some good mileage with this card too!
Black – TOP 3
No. 1: Opposition Agent
The card that’s on every Black players’ minds, just like Hullbreacher is for Blue. Search effects are easily found in a game of Commander, whether it be a simple ramp spell like Three Visits, or a more powerful card like Tooth and Nail.
Opposition Agent stops all these things in their tracks, and even steals these cards for you to use in a later turn! Expect lots of targeted removal to fly its way, but even if you only get to disable your opponents once, this card has already done its job. There’s also talk of a turn 1 draw lock with Maralen, the Mornsong, but let’s not wade into those waters.
No. 2: Pleague Reaver
I love Black cards with a downside. Plague Reaver is a weird, one-sided “wrath” that leaves that opponent with a 6/5 body which they can then use to go and mess with someone else’s board.
The political nature of this card is sweet, sweet, sweet, and it even has a home already – in the new Blim, Comedic Genius deck! The ability also lets you discard cards, for decks that care about it – goad your opponents into passing Plague Reaver around while you have a Waste Not to net some Zombies and some card draw!
No. 3: Nadir’s Nightblade
At first glance, this looks quite a bit weaker than cards like Blood Artist or Zulaport Cutthroat because it only triggers off tokens dying, but the tradeoff is that this also triggers when your tokens get exiled by effects like Detention Sphere, or bounced by Cyclonic Rift.
For token decks, this could be a great form of insurance against opportunistic Blue players looking to set up their kill turns while also providing some redundancy.
Red – Top 3
No. 1: Jeska’s Will
This card is actually insanely powerful no matter how you cut it. This could potentially be a ritual that nets you upwards of 7 mana while also giving you 3 additional cards to play with for the turn.
Combined with some form of repeatable recursion (flickering Archaeomancer or something, perhaps?), this card alone can dig through your entire deck while generating mana – potentially setting up for a kill turn right there and then. Even when used for either mode alone, this card already does amazing work, so it’s an easy inclusion in almost any red deck, and not just for Storm decks.
No. 2: Impulsive Pilferer
The only Common card on this list, and with good reason!
Impulsive Pilferer nets you a Treasure the first time he dies, and then nets you 3 more when you Encore it! Decks that want to generate mana fast with Treasures, like Malcolm/Breeches, will definitely appreciate a card like this that serves as an early blocker, as well as a ramp spell for later turns (especially since it’s on-tribe for Malcolm/Breeches!).
No. 3: Port Razer
Most extra-Combat effects only let you untap attacking Creatures, or Creatures that attacked this turn. Port Razer doesn’t care – he untaps all your creatures, meaning you can reuse stuff like Heartless Hidetsugu’s devastating activated ability repeatedly to cut everyone down to size.
If you can give evasion to your board, Port Razer will swing in with impunity and give you as many combat steps as you have opponents. Also worth noting is that Port Razer cannot swing at the same opponent twice, but your other creatures can, so you can better plan your attacks.
Green – Top 3
No. 1: Court of Bounty
In my opinion, this is the best of the Court cycle. It gives you card draw via the Monarch mechanic, and even if you don’t manage to keep the crown, you get to ramp every upkeep!
The real power, though, is in putting in a creature into play regardless of its cost. This means you get to put multiple creatures into play in one turn, which can make all the difference between winning this turn, and needing one more turn to cast another spell.
No. 2: Reshape the Earth
Reshape the Earth looks like a win-more card at first glance (why would you need 10 lands when you already have 9?), but this card does let you trigger all your landfall abilities for massive gain.
If we take a step further, cards like Lotus Cobra or Amulet of Vigor will let you use the mana immediately for a massive turn. Rude Awakening + Mana Reflection into a big spell, perhaps? Like Scapeshift, Reshape the Earth lets you search for any land, so if you want to go for a Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle kill, that’s possible too.
No. 3: Apex Devastator
This big Green baddie is more bang for his buck than he looks! Sure, he looks a tad hard to cast at 10 CMC, but it will often net you more than just a dumb 10/10 to swing with with its 4 Cascade triggers.
10 casting cost also ensures that most of your spells are fair game from its triggers, so you essentially pay 10 mana for 5 spells – which is an insane rate, to be sure! Combine this with the newly reprinted Scroll Rack to set up your cascade triggers!
Colourless & Lands – Top 3
No. 1: Jeweled Lotus
I’m not entirely sure Jeweled Lotus deserves all the hate it gets. Sure, it provides a massive amount of mana really early, but outside of mono-color or two-color decks, this card’s use seems limited.
Looping it to generate mana seems tempting, but you can only spend it on your commander, so it’s not like you can win with it unless your whole combo is in the command zone. It is a very powerful card, don’t get me wrong – I just don’t think it’s as broken as people think it is.
No. 2: Commander’s Plate
Wow, protection from colours not in your general’s colour identity? That can range anywhere from no protection at all (please don’t play this in a 5-colour deck!), to protection from all colours if your commander is colourless.
Realistically, you’ll get somewhere between 2-3 colors, which is pretty good! Bonus points if you can use it on a Commander that can protect itself from the common removal colours – a Simic Commander would use this admirably, for example.
No. 3: War Room
Similar to Commander’s Plate, this card gets better the lesser the number of colours in your Commander’s colour identity. This essentially acts as a Castle Lochtwain for decks that need it, and perhaps a second copy for mono Black decks. This card can slot into any deck, though, so do expect to see it more especially in colours that don’t have a lot of accessible, cheap draw.
End Step
With the release a few weeks behind us now, the top cards have certainly shown themselves already – with Hullbreacher and Opposition Agent being the most coveted of the set for sure.
The jury is still out for Jeweled Lotus, but I doubt that a ban will come for it in the future. Its price has started to fall, in fact, so do pick one up if you can spare the cash! Key reprints like Three Visits, Mana Drain and Vampiric Tutor are also cheaper than they’ve been the last couple of months, so these are great pickups as well.
Overall, I’m actually pretty happy with the power level of the new Commander Legends – nothing as gamebreaking as Oko, Thief of Crowns or Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis, but not a set that’s unplayable or weak for sure. I’ve also had a chance to draft it, and it’s been a blast to play! How has your experience been so far?
Did you also know there was 21 Commander Legends that were cut from the set and never printed? We review the abilities and power level of 4 of these cards.
