#hes huuuge too probably bigger than my cat

[meatlessmcmuffin]

be niceys to me im only 11

 possum roadkill (painitng) under cut

[loreleywrites]

Command Zone: The Legends of Commander (2017 Edition) - Part 1

Yooooo Commander (2017 Edition) is lit with tribal sweetness. Dragons, Vampires, Wizards, and Cats know that family is where it’s at this year. There are sixteen new legendary creatures between the four decks, which is way too many to talk about in one article. So today I’ll be highlighting the new Dragons and Vampires, while Wizards and Cats will be in part two tomorrow. There are commanders to promote, so introduction out!

URRRRP

“Excuse me.” -The bURp-Dragon.

The Ur-Dragon is the paragon of dragonkind, siring dragons across the Multiverse since the dawn of time (probably). Nine mana is a lot, but hitting like the iceberg that sank the Titanic while providing raw card advantage and board presence is exactly what you want to be spending that mana on. I mean, there’s not much to analyze here. You want to attack with Dragons, draw cards, and plop down more Dragons.

The Cool New Feature™ in this product is eminence, a mechanic shared by the four face cards of each deck. Eminence abilities function both while the commander is on the battlefield or in the command zone. While most Dragons aren’t so expensive as The Ur-Dragon, most of them still cost six or more mana to cast. The Ur-Dragon’s eminence ability helps you out by making all your Dragon spells cost one generic mana less to cast. And that’s any Dragon spell, not just creature spells, so enjoy your two-mana Crib Swaps. Tribal decks rely on getting a critical mass of creatures, so ramping them out faster is exactly what you want to be doing.

If you’re looking to break into the WUBRG Dragons game, there is no sexier leader than The Ur-Dragon

The Huuuge Engine That Could

He thinks he can, but only because Urza told him to think that.

While only the fancy face card with the eminence ability aims to be a tribal commander, each deck does come with three new commanders belonging to the tribe and color identity. Ramos, Dragon Engine is still a Dragon, but cares specifically about casting multicolored cards. Time to break out your Urza’s Filters.

If you’re building around Ramos, you’re going to want to fill your deck with multicolored spells. That’s pretty easy, as a five-color deck has access to every multicolored spell ever printed. That said, running a deck with only gold cards can put a lot of stress on your mana base. Don’t be afraid to one-color spells and artifacts if they help your deck function. This is especially true of cards like Darksteel Ingot or Cultivate that help your mana issues.

Despite Ramos’s capacity to grow friggin’ huge just by playing Magic, y’all are probably salivating at his final ability that adds WWUUBBRRGG to your mana pool. Yes, that’s Door to Nothingness mana. Yes, that’s “free +10 to my X spells” mana. Yes, that’s mana you can dump into all your mana sinks (‘Sup, Helix Pinnacle?)

What I love about Ramos is how open-ended his mechanics are. Other than asking you cast multicolored spells, which five-color decks do anyway, you’re free to experiment with his powers however you want.

Kami, Can You Hear Me?

Because your immortality got stolen, and you should probably find the jerkwaffle who took it.

When Lord Konda stole O-Kagachi’s divinity, the kami could have just asked him why. Instead, O-Kagachi passed through the barrier dividing the mortal and spirit realms and waged a twenty-year war. Jerk move.

When under your command, however, O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami’s insatiable rage is an asset. This is foremost a rattlesnake ability that acts as a warning to dissuade being attacked. “Don’t attack me, chumps, or else I’m gonna start nuking your board!” If you have ways to give O-Kagachi haste, which I highly recommend, then your vengeance can even strike red-hot from the command zone. You can also be greedy and use cards like Alluring Siren to force your opponents into attacking you. It still counts as vengeance if you made them hit you.

Vorthoses should be especially happy about O-Kagachi. While the deity is a powerful commander on his own, he’s also (finally) a five-color Spirit to lead a Kamigawa-flavored Spirit tribal deck. The kami have their leader, and Mel and Vorthos have a legendary creature to build around in multiple ways.

The Cunning of the Dragon

While no longer a traitor, Taigam is still a sycophantic tattletale.

A few new legends pop up outside the color identities of the decks themselves. For example, the Dragons of Tarkir version of Taigam bears his Ojutai-colored stripes in the five-color Dragon deck.

What I love most about Taigam, Ojutai Master is how he feels like a reprint from Dragons of Tarkir despite being a brand-new card. He fits both the Dragon-tribal theme seen in that set as well as the instants-and-sorceries theme that ran through the Jeskai and Ojutai clans. He even uses the rebound mechanic which defined Ojutai’s spells. In order to unlock Taigam’s full rebounding prowess, however, he needs to attack. You know, kinda like if he had prowess. That’s the gameplay feel from the Tarkir sets that’s baked into the mechanical and flavorful dumpling we know as Taigam, Ojutai Master.

Taigam feels right, which is why it’s easy to start building around him. Just look for cards in Khans of Tarkir, Fate Reforged, and Dragons of Tarkir. The White/Blue cards support a deck that wants play aggressive creatures and support them with combat tricks and protective magic. Monastery Mentor and Cunning Breezedancer will thank you for the uncounterable spells that turn them into creature with much bigger stats than their mana costs imply.

Saving All My Cat Puns

Sorry, folks.

Wasitora, Nekoru Queen is a cat-dragon from Dominaria. You’ll read about her race soon. In Commander (2017 Edition), she’s a vestige of a time when every deck had a creature that melded two creature types. I am so glad she stayed in, as her card is filled with a lot of charm.

When you have an ability that triggers upon dealing combat damage to an opponent, it’s good to be a 5-power flample for five mana. They’re not aggro stats, but they’re aggressive stats. Everything else aside, Wasitora hits hard.

And when she does hit, she tears into your opponent’s board state. If they have no fliers, they’re going to lose a creature in addition to taking damage. If they have no creatures, you get a free 3/3 kitten-whelp to augment your forces. Jund ‘em!

Jund happens to be the color combination that contains most of Magic’s Dragons in the first place, so Wasitora still makes for a great Dragon tribal commander. She wants to attack too, so she’s also perfect for a Voltron deck. Load her up with Equipment and Auras and start demanding tribute! She’s even an awkward Cat tribal commander if you want to foolishly eschew White from that deck.

Smell Ya Later, Gramps!

His true gift wasn’t vampirism, but those little candies with the strawberry wrappers.

Seriously though. Those strawberry candies are lit.

Sorin’s grampy, Edgar Markov, used to be a regular rich selfish dude seeking immortality. After using angel blood and demonic magic to turn himself and his people into bloodthirsty monsters, he was just a regular rich selfish immortal dude. Be happy his propensity for siring creatures of the night is on your side.

Edgar has the Vampire tribe’s eminence ability, which plops a 1/1 token onto the battlefield whenever you cast a Vampire spell. Enjoy your Crib Swaps that also give you a token! The history of the Vampire tribe is one of aggression, so creating an army of alchemically enhanced soldiers is exactly what you want to be doing.

Even better, creating tokens is exactly what Edgar’s attack trigger want you to be doing too. Once his vassals are finished suiting him up, grandpa Markov hits like a pallid truck. First strike and haste make it difficult to defend against him, and don’t forget that his army-boosting trigger affects him too.

There are a lot of naysayers that naysay that aggressive decks can’t cut it in Commander. But Edgar Markov provides the tokens, power, and single mighty attacker that can quickly rebuild after a sweeper and pull a deck into the late game. Even if you don’t care about Vampires as a tribe, peepaw Markov can scratch that aggro deck itch you might have.

Self-Loathing

Seriously. Go read Mathas’s bio. Dude needs counseling.

Commander is usually played as a multiplayer format, and some of my favorite cards are ones that make multiplayer Magic matter. Mathas, Fiend Seeker is one such card.

Mathas “brands” your opponents’ creatures with bounty counters, incentivizing your opponents to kill that creature instead of another. The idea is to draw attention away from your own creatures, but also to get your opponents to do some of the removal work for you. You can even use the promise of two cards and 2 life as a lobbying tool to get favors out of other players.

Aside – If you’re playing with the old card Bounty Hunter, there are some rules quirks to keep in mind. When Bounty Hunter puts bounty counters on creatures, they don’t give cards and life when they die. Only creatures that get bounty counters from Mathas’s ability will. But, Bounty Hunter is a perfectly good way to just kill creatures that Mathas puts bounty counters on. I advise playing Bounty Hunter in your Mathas decks because of the thematic connection, so these are good rules quirks to know.

The best deck you can build around Mathas is a controlling one that can best leverage all the extra cards you’ll be drawing. More time also means more bounty counters to be distributed. The distraction from attacking your board also works in a control deck’s favor. Finally, feeding cards and life to your opponents is group-huggy enough to enshroud your insidious intentions to eventually backstab everyone and win the game.

Are You Not Entertained?

But seriously, go read Licia’s bio too. ANGEL FEATHER HELMET.

If you enjoy gaining life but hate being the mean pillow fort player, then Licia, Sanguine Tribune is the vampire for you. She puts an aggressive spin on life gain decks to make sure you’re finishing the game instead of needlessly and selfishly prolonging it.

Balance is the key to Licia. Let’s start with her stats: a 4/4 first strike lifelink. Whenever she deals combat damage, you get 4 life. You can also pump her with three +1/+1 counters for a payment of 5 life. Do this once and her attacks start netting you life. Then you can start gaining massive chunks of life as Licia gets stronger and stronger. That’s a good place to be in when you’re a commander.

But what if Licia dies?

Cost reduction mechanics on commanders are beautiful things. Licia is cheaper to cast the more life you gain. At the start, it’s not that difficult to cast her for just RWB. You might even be able to wipe out commander tax early on as your mana generates a bunch of opportunities to gain chunks of life. Many Vampires have lifelink, so engaging in combat is a great way to make Licia as cheap to cast as possible. Hey, that fits in with her aggressive strategy!

Lords of Blood and Bite

Two tribes down, two to go.

If you’re looking to buy into a new tribe for Commander, this year’s product is so great. Five-color Dragons brings new potential to play all the most savage of Magic’s firebreathers in one deck. Vampires offers multiple play strategies for a wedge, which is an undersupported color combination.

You can’t go wrong with any of these legendary creatures, Planeswalkers, so which one are you most excited to build a new Commander deck around?