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turn-1-sol-ring · 1 year ago

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Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander Review - Part Two

Hello Elder Dragons, let's end this set review with the rest of our legendary creatures for Lost Caverns of Ixalan + Jurassic Park!

Ian Malcolm, Chaotician is our first Jurassic Park legendary creature, and not the one I'm most excited for. Adding the unique restriction that players cannot cast their own exiled cards does open a lot of interesting space for a group slug/Chaos deck, where any spell you would exile would be detrimental to the whole table, but being punished for drawing cards in Izzet of all colors feels very bad. Playing with cards like Nalfeshnee to get the most value out of spells out of exile is a good place to start!

Saheeli, The Sun's Brilliance is a tried-and-true design, and a very exciting option both in the 99 of decks like Brudiclad and as the leader of a deck. Adding a second color to Feldon of the Third Path is absolutely huge, but the permanents you want to copy must be on the battlefield instead of in the graveyard, which make cheating mana a lot harder. At a very cheap 2 mana to cast and 2 to activate, you will be able to start getting value very early, both from workhorse cards like Solemn Simulacrum and Mulldrifter, or from powerful haymakers like Myr Battlesphere. The fact that the token is sacrificed and not exiled is also a huge upside to get double value from small artifacts like Mycosinth Wellspring or Junk Diver. Fantastic commander, and one I would build if I did not already have multiple artifact decks.

Akawalli, the Seething Tower is the Golgari signpost uncommon of the set, and while it's a straightforward, voltron-focused commander, it's also, for a pretty small investement in self-mill, a 3-mana 7/7 with trample that can't be multi-blocked. There's plenty of ways to grant menace in black, turning it into a straight unblockable creature that will kill your opponents in 3 attacks without any additional pieces of equipment. Akawalli is sneakily very dangerous, and if you play in a low-interaction pod, your opponents will learn pretty fast to pack up a bit more removal.

The Mycotyrant, beside having a truly metal name, also somewhat undermines my previous comments on Akawalli. For 3 mana and self-mill, you get a REAL threat. It requires a bit more set up, but it is undeniably more powerful, allowing you to both go tall with the Mycotyrant, Deep by milling a lot of cards through Dredge and Mulch effects, Wide by creating a very large number of tokens very quickly, which can both be sent into the red zone, or sacrificed for fun and profits. You can also go in a different direction and build a Fungus Typal supported by the likes of Sporecrown Thallid and Slimefoot, the Stowaway. Overall, an exciting, powerful, and versatile option for Golgari. Also, as a clarification, Tokens do not fuel The Mycotyrant's triggered ability, as tokens aren't cards as per the rules.

Caparocti Sunborn is pretty powerful for an uncommon legendary creature. An generically-aggressive Boros commander that provide card and mana advantage with a little setup is nothing to scoff at, as discover is a very powerful mechanic. All that on a 4-mana 4/4 that only requires you to have a few tokens or value creatures laying around. Having to wait a whole turn is not great if your playgroup plays a bit more interaction, but if you have a boros Midrange deck, Caparocti is certainly worth the try in the command zone.

Anim Pakal, Thousandt Moon is a very good aggressive commander, in many ways similar to Krenko, Tin Street Kingping, but different in small, important ways. Gaining a color and generating creatures that are also artifacts, on top of having them enter the battlefield tapped and attacking, are all significant upgrades. However, Krenko only cared about having his power increased, whereas Anim needs +1/+1 counters, making the classic voltron route a lot less appealing. Boros +1/+1 counters in a pretty untapped archetype, but it also doesn't have a lot of support. Obviously, Cathars' Crusade is a must-have, but I wouldn't spit on one-shot effects like Angelfire Ignition either.

Nicanzil, Current Conductor is, unironcally, my favorite commander of the set. I LOVE explore as a mechanic, and a cheap legendary creature that turbocharge the mechanic is awesome. My only complain is that it's Simic and not Sultai, preventing me from running Lurking Chupacabra. Otherwise, load as much Explore as you can, grab some cards that provide evasion, such as Whispersilk Cloak or Herald of the Streams, add a bunch of landfall cards like Tatyova, Benthic Druid and Rampagning Baloth (With Path of Discovery for maximum value) and you got yourself a sweet explore deck.

Hakbal of the Surging Soul is also an explore commander, but this one cares about being Merkfolk typal first and foremost. Hakbal is very, very powerful, rapidly snowballing your merfolks into lethal threats with effects like Hardned Scales. The fact that it has an attack trigger on top of that really is the cherry on top, providing the classic combo of Ramp or card draw. Any number of merfolk token generation, such as Deeproot Waters, will make put Hakbal into overdrive, and make you the threat very quickly, so be ready to be a bit of an archenemy with this commander.

Xolatoyac, the Smiling Flood is first and foremost an adorable axolotl, and secondly, a powerful Simic Flash commander. A sort of DIY Wilderness Reclamation for any permanents, Xolatoyac allows you to spend your turn spending your mana to advance your board while still keeping mana up for responsiveness. Because it works with any counters, you can have fun rmping with Storage lands like Saprazzan Cove, or artifacts like Component Pouch, Coalition Relic, or Empowered Autogenerator. You can also add the Thirteenth Doctor to double up on untapping your creatures with counters.

Ellie and Alan, Paleontologists is a very cool and unique Bant commander, asking that you put creatures in your graveyard to get free value! This works with self-mill like Satyr Wayfinder or Mulch, with creatures with Cycling abilities to fill your graveyard at low rate, and exile those creatures to get free spells on top of the card advantage! I'd also recommend taking a look at Chakram Retriever, Which would allow you to have explosive discovery turns, and Misthollow Gryffin + Eternal Scourge, for cards you can exile multiple times.

Admiral Brass, Unsinkable is a new take on Pirate typal, throwing graveyard synergy in the mix with your evasive and disruptive threats. A free hasty 4/4 every turn, as long as you have a full bin, is no joke, and modt pirates tend to have disruptives ability attached to them, like Warkite Marauder or Hostage Taker, providing even more value. Grixis is probably the best color combo to fill your graveyard, between mill and looting effects such as Faithless Looting and Frantic Search. It's a more explosive pirate deck, compared to her previous incarnation, which wanted to play a more tempo-oriented deck.

Don Andres, the Renegade, is a new grixis Theft commander, in the line of Evelyn, the Covetous. Don Andres, however, is a lot more interested in smashing face with what you stole. +2/+2, Menace and Deathtouch is a serious buff, turning mostly inconsequential creatures into beatsticks. Getting free treasured of your Mind Siphon and Praetor's Grasp is also pretty good deal. Personally, I'd throw the Theft stapled such as Hostage Taker and Control Magic in with a few Threaten effects like Kari Zev's Expertise, and mass threathen like Mob Rule.

Indoraptor, the Perfect Hybrid is a sweet Jund Enrage/Combo commander that takes enough work to setup to avoid feeling oppressive. Starting at 1 toughness forces you to find a way to grant it Indestructible if you want to combo with Pestilence-like effects, but having Bloodthirst also allows you to play in a more fair, combat-oriented deck where the goal is to get a massive Indoraptor and simply trigger your enrage naturally through combat. I suspect Indestructible + Pestilence will be more popular, but a cheap aggressive Bloodthirst commander is also nice.

Huatli, Poet of Unity is a new Dinosaur commander for the set, but not the most exciting one. The front face is fairly lackluster, being simply a buffier Sylvan Ranger, but the Saga backside packs some real punch, with the disadvantage of being telegraphed miles in advance and being open to getting blown out by spot removal upon activation. What you get, however, is Ramp, the best dinosaur out of your deck, and a massive combat buff that should kill at least one player. The upside of being telegraphed is that, if you disrupt the natural progress through proliferate, or protect from mass removal with Teferi's Protection-like effects, you can really take the table by surprise and end the game.

Pantlaza, Sun-Favored is the second Dinosaur commander of the set, and frankly, he is frightening. I have a dislike for commanders that are just a massive pile of value with barely additional input, and slapping "Dinosaur" over it doesn't make it more palatable, but Pantlaza is the most powerful option for Naya Dinosaurs. Discover is an incredibly powerful mechanic, especially in a deck filled with threats and few reactive spells, Pantlaza also is incredibly resilient, as simply casting your commander after a board wipe will probably be enough rebuild thanks to the mana and card advantage of discover. I'm already tired of seeing it in Brawl on MTG Arena, and I don't expect to stop matching against it soon.

Wayta, Trainer Prodigy is a lot more in my wheelhouse. Synergizing with Enrage dinosaurs from original Ixalan like Trapjaw Tyrant and Needletooth Raptor, Wayta also diversify he menagerie by training Brash Taunters and Boros Reckoners. There's a lot of Non-Dinosaur creatures that have enrage-like abilities, and Wayta's 1 lone point of Power if perfect to trigger those without putting your creatures in harm's way. Acting as a repeatable removal spell on a stick, on top of doubling your triggers, is fantastic, and I 100% see myself building this deck.

Owen Grady, Raptor Trainer and Blue, Loyal Raptor are our first Temur Dinosaur commanders, replacing the most expandable color of Dinosaur (White) for blue (The color, not the raptor). There's not a lot of good blue Dinosaurs beside Nezahal, but Owen and Blue don't just want dinos, they want counters, and Simic is more than happy to oblige. Blue has a sizeable body, with a toolbox of abilities granted by Owen Grady that will be transfered to every subsequent dinos. It's not the best Dino commander, but it is on a unique color combination that leverages the additional strengths that Simic provides.

Tetzin, Gnome Champion is such an amazingly cool, but extremely narrow commander. Clearly designed for the Crafting mechanic, l also synergizes with the Transformers cards from Brother's War. The backside is very powerful, going wide with tokens while transforming artifacts like Azor's Gateway or Brass' Tunnel Grinder for a massive power boost, while backing your army of tokens with Intangible Virtue and Tempered Steel. There is a suprisingly high quantity of playable two-sided artifacts to go in that deck, though crafting with 6 artifacts is an hefty challenge of you don't build with tokens and self-mill in mind.

Xavier Sal, Infested Captain is a very exciting design, but suffers from the "Combo-By-Accident" problem, which will push the rest of the table to mercilessly destroy him and you in the process. While that happens, however, be sure to grab an Intruder Alarm and a Scurry Oak . There's some really cute cards like Chronozoa Watcher in the Water and Chitterspitter that work well with both sides, as well as basically any planeswalker that creates tokens like Tezzeret, Master Artificer, Ashiok, Nightmare Muse or Garruk, Cursed Huntsman. There's a lot of ways to build Sal, but be prepared to be seen as the obvious threat.

Henry Wu, InGen Geneticist is such an incredible flavor win that I'd want to build it for that reason alone. Mechanically, there's a lot of very interesting way to go. Human creatures that enter with non-human creatures (Such as Alirios, Enraptured), repeatable nonhuman token generators and Blink effects is an option. Building a fully nonhuman deck and loading up with existing Exploit cards to get double triggers off of your sacrifice is also very good. cards and mana are the most important ressources, and this provides you both on top of benefitting from sacrifice synergies. Very solid commander.

Indominus Rex, Alpha is a voltron commander in the vein of Rayami, First of the Fallen, except it requires only having creatures in hand except of killing creatures already in play, having synergy with Counter mechanics, and potentially refilling your hand instantly when it enters the battlefield as an untargeatable death machine. There's a lot of very powerful keywords that are easy to get in these colors, such as hexproof, flying or trample/deathtouch, as well as non-zero ways of getting Haste through cards like Akuta, Born of Ash of Clackbridge Troll. There is currently no creature in this color combination with Double Strike, but that may change in the future! Cards that make the Indominus Rex enter the battlefield with counters like Master Biomancer are also excellent synergy with the commander, getting a larger body and drawing more cards on ETB. And I have not mentionned how absurd Indominus is as a Dredge commander, both pitching your cards and drawing cards for dredging on a single body. Very versatile commander.

#mtg commander #edh #mtglci

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