Commander Highlights: Commander Legends

[Morganator 2.0]

There is a lot of good stuff from Commander Legends. It would have been a little disappointing if the set didn't live up to it's name. After a long wait, we finally have a draftable Commander set. This set also brought us valuable reprints like Three Visits, Vampiric Tutor, Mana Drain, Scroll Rack, Staff of Domination, and the meaningful fetchland reprint.

Ha! No.

Fortunately, there are all kinds of new toys for your current decks, and well over a thousand different partner combinations for you to make new decks with. Let's get a look at some of the more noteworthy cards for you to put in the 99.

Apex Devastator

Timmy players rejoice. Not only do you get a 10/10 creature, you also get 4 other spells. Keep in mind that the mana cost on this thing is a big restriction, and you're not guaranteed to flip into 4 good cards. But I'm sure there are some decks out there that will have a field day with this hydra.

Commander's Plate

Mark Rosewater's hint for a "card that gets stronger the fewer colors in your commander's color identity" was either referring to War Room, or this card. Commander's Plate is a new favorite of voltron decks. Making your commander both unblockable and immune to removal from it's opposite colors is quite good, but if that wasn't enough it also gives a sizeable buff and is low cost. You might also consider using this if people tend to target your commander with removal a lot, but there are better options to use first.


Court Cycle

Court of Ambition, Court of Bounty, Court of Cunning, Court of Grace, Court of Ire

For my bingo card I marked this off as the "Cycle of cards where the red and/or white card sucks". And while I stand by the statement that the white card is the worse of this cycle, I think that the monarch mechanic is a good way of giving card draw to the boros colors. Just keep in mind that drawing the card is the easy part; you just need to consistently be able to deal combat damage every turn. But if you want the upkeep bonus, you also need to make sure no one takes the monarch from you. Looking at the individual cards, Grace and Ire are easily the worst, but at least they give card draw in colors that don't normally get much. Cunning is good in decks with mill themes to them, but you really need to be able to protect the monarch title. Ambition is nice in certain decks, although it's probably not going to see a lot of play outside of discard decks. Last but certainly not least, Bounty gives the most value out of this entire cycle.

Horizon Stone

Here's my weird pick. I am positive that there are decks that will want this card, I just don't know which decks. I'm imagining that it would be a partner combination of Thrasios, Triton Hero and something else. The kind of deck that has a use for an abundant amount of colorless mana.

Hullbreacher

Notion Thief's cousin. Have you ever wanted to play Smothering Tithe, but didn't want to play white? Hullbreacher will almost get you there. This is yet another toy for wheel decks like Opus Thief, Brallin + Shabraz, Rielle the Everwise, and The Locust God. Casting a wheel effect causes your opponents to discard their hands and draw nothing. It also gives you the mana to cast the spells that you just drew. Plus it has flash, so you can do it in response to someone else's wheel effect. A very powerful card indeed.

Keeper of the Accord

Yay for mana ramp in white! Except that it doesn't really ramp you it just gets you to the same point as other players, it doesn't do anything if your opponents are ramping with dorks, rocks, and other non-land based ramp, and it's mana cost means that you're still screwed for ramp in the early game.

Baby steps I guess.

Jeweled Lotus
This card has been talked about to death. There is nothing left for me to say. Deckstats even had a topic dedicated to just this card.

https://deckstats.net/forum/index.php/topic,58056.0.html

Opposition Agent

Aven Mindcensor's cousin. In reference to this card, I've heard a lot of people say "I only play casual, so it won't be a problem for me" as if they aren't also using Evolving Wilds and Kodama's Reach. I think this is going to be one of those cards that messes people up more than they think. And it has flash, so it comes at the worst moment.

Promise of Tomorrow

If either you or your playgroup uses a good number of boardwipes, this is the card for you. Your board recovers while everyone else does not.

Reyav, Master Smith

As always, I am not talking about this card as a commander (he's kinda bad as one) but instead talking about it's use in the 99. This is another fun tool for you voltron players. Considering that a lot of voltron commanders use Battle Mastery, this is a nice alternative that doesn't go away when your commander gets removed.

War Room

Not sure how much use this card is going to see. Spending effectively 4 mana to draw a card is pretty weak, and only giving colorless can come back to bite some decks. But on the plus side, there are a lot of decks that are desperate for card draw, particularly mono-white and mono-red. Hopefully this can give those decks a slight boost.

Wheel of Misfortune

Considering that Wheel of Fortune is on the reserved list, this will make a nice cheaper alternative. I especially like how it gives a weird prisoner's dilemma-type situation.