Commander 2014 Card Review, Part 1

Since the Dear Azami duo are cranking through the new legends from Commander 2014, I thought I would hold off on my own takes a bit to avoid anymore double
legend coverage like last week where both Sean and I presented a Feldon of the Third Path deck. Instead I’ll go over the other brand new cards printed
specifically for this set and format, and offer up my thoughts on how to best utilize these in your own decks. There’s a lot to cover, so let’s roll!

White

Cards to consider: Siren’s Call, Maddening Imp, Crystal Shard, Roaring Primadox

I really like this card, though since it costs seven mana it’s not like your opponents won’t smell some sort of trick. That’s why you might need to coax
them into an attack with cards like Siren’s Call or Maddening Imp. It’s particularly cool that Angel of the Dire Hour doesn’t care who the creatures are
attacking, so even if you’re in no immediate danger you can rescue another player from demise and gain an ally against the aggressor. The enters the
battlefield trigger is incredibly powerful, exiling all attackers; this is a fantastic answer to otherwise problematic permanents like the gods from Theros
block or Avacyn, Angel of Hope. Thankfully R&D was wise enough to recognize the potential for abuse with blink effects so the trigger only happens if
you cast it from your hand, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still take advantage of it several times with cards like Crystal Shard or Roaring Primadox to
return it to your hand.

Cards to consider: Selvala, Explorer Returned; Brion Stoutarm; Tolsimir Wolfblood

All of the lieutenant cards are interesting to ponder, especially considering commanders cast right before or right after you’d cast the Lieutenant. For
instance, cast Selvala, Explorer Returned on turn 3, and then cast Angelic Field Marshal on turn 4. Not only do you have a 5/5 flying vigilance creature,
but you can even go ahead and attack with Selvala without tapping her and then use her tapping ability afterwards. Any white commander with a tap ability
that doesn’t already have vigilance can make great use of this card, such as Brion Stoutarm or Tolsimir Wolfblood.

Cards to consider: Soul Warden, Intangible Virtue, Suture Priest, Spirit Bonds, Aura Shards, Champion of Lambholt, Mentor of the Meek, Primal Forcemage, Jeskai Ascendancy, Raking Canopy; Teysa, Orzhov Scion; Congregate, Emmara Tandris

What a fantastic trick this is as an instant! Not only can you generate a bunch of blockers for yourself at instant speed, but you can save someone else as
well. I like that at instant speed you can benefit from triggers that might otherwise be limited to your main phase, like Aura Shards or Mentor of the Meek. If you’ve got a Primal Forcemage in play, your spirit tokens are 4/4s! We’ve been seeing Jeskai Ascendancy doing some pretty crazy things in Standard
and Modern, and it can do similarly crazy things in Commander. Of course, you can also punish people for getting creatures with cards like Suture Priest,
and put up some air defenses against those tokens with Raking Canopy, hopefully waving those attacks elsewhere.

Cards to consider: Kor Haven, Maze of Ith, Prahv, Spires of Order; Nyx-Fleece Ram, Sun Droplet, Forcefield, Furnace of Rath, Dictate of the Twin Gods,
Chronomantic Escape

Comeuppance is an interesting puzzle to ponder. You can clearly see that the potential for an incredible amount of damage is there, but I can’t help but
figure that too often your opponent will smell some sort of trick as you keep four mana open, and Comeuppance will end up just being an expensive removal
spell. To really leverage the power of this card requires a little misdirection. Cards like Kor Haven, Maze of Ith, Sun Droplet and Force Field do a nice
job of neutralizing individual threats, so when faced with these cards, opponents eventually have to pile on to really punch through damage. Chronomantic
Escape can provide similar incentive-once it’s in exile with time counters, an opponent might figure get in while the getting’s good. If you’ve got a Kor
Haven and Force Field on the board, it makes perfect sense why you might be sitting with a bunch of mana untapped, and if your opponent wants to punch
through, they’re going to have to commit a large force to do so. The more creatures they send, the better Comeuppance becomes. It also occurs to me that a
spell like this that prevents damage and then deals that much damage can benefit from the damage doubling ability of spells like Dictate of the Twin Gods.

Cards to consider: Crystal Shard, Stonecloaker

Containment Priest is a pretty straightforward hate card for unfair shenanigans that are more likely to see play at a Legacy tournament than Commander, but
if you’ve got an opponent who likes to do silly things with Sneak Attack, it’s nice to have Containment Priest around. Of course, if she is causing an
opponent grief, they’re going to put a big target on her head, so you’ll want something like Crystal Shard or Stonecloaker to rescue her from death.

Cards to consider: Mobilization, Jeskai Ascendancy, Vedalken Orrery, Mana Echoes, Assemble the Legion, Catapult Master, Darien, King of Kjeldor; Decree of Justice

This is a risky card to play in Commander; if you’ve got enough creatures in play to make this worthwhile, then you’re probably already doing okay, making
this a “win-more” card. If you’re behind on the board with few creatures then this card is rather dead. That said, you can kind of sneak out a gradual
board presence with cards like Mobilization, Assemble the Legion, or Decree of Justice to ensure your deployment is worthwhile. Since all the guys are
Soldier tokens, you can actually generate a bunch of mana in a Soldier-themed deck with Mana Echoes or do fun stuff with Catapult Master.

Cards to consider: Sylvan Caryatid; Doran, the Siege Tower; Asceticism

I think most players recognize this as an extremely risky card, since if an opponent kills the creature in response to you casting this, then no creatures
are destroyed. Of course, since this is a risky card that means no one is going to be playing it, so if you play it with success you can rack up some style
points. Hexproof guys makes this a safe play, and Sylvan Caryatid will pretty much nuke the board of any threats… except Doran, the Siege Tower. Okay, this
card is a given for Doran, the Siege Tower decks.

Cards to consider: Angelic Renewal, Nim Deathmantle, Saffi Eriksdotter, Enduring Renewal, Wrath of God, Eternal Dragon

If you’re playing a deck with a lot of creatures, Hallowed Spiritkeeper is a perfect inclusion and doesn’t require any fancy footwork to be good. Just drop
it after the first board wipe – like Wrath of God — and you’re golden. You can pretty much attack with impunity and wave off attacks unless your opponent
wants a swarm of flying spirit tokens to pop up. To get a little fancier though, you can use cards like Angelic Renewal or Saffi Eriksdotter to let you get
the dies trigger and still come back for more. Even fancier is a card like Enduring Renewal since any new creatures you draw get put into the graveyard to
stock it further, while each time Hallowed Spiritkeeper dies you get the tokens and the card comes back to your hand.

Blue

Cards to consider: Alchemist’s Refuge, Quicken, Vedalken Orrery, Prophet of Kruphix

This is a rather brute force card, and at sorcery speed and five mana it’s a little ponderous. You’ll be spending most of your mana casting this, so it’s
better to focus this on one player if you can since they’re unlikely to be able to recast all the permanents you bounced next turn. Of course, if you can
cast this at instant speed with something like Alchemist’s Refuge it becomes much better, and getting to untap your lands during your opponent’s turn with
Prophet of Kruphix will usually make up the loss in mana casting this at sorcery speed.

Cards to consider: Heartless Summoning; Animar, Soul of Elements; Krosan Drover, Whelming Wave

It’s pretty cool that they’ve been making some sweet, powerful sea monsters of late, but it certainly suffers with many of its ilk in being extremely
expensive to cast. So you might want to consider shaving its mana cost with something like Heartless Summoning to make it a much more reasonable seven
mana, and an 8/8 is pretty much just as big as a 9/9. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Whelming Wave, a particularly nasty follow up to this card once
everyone’s creatures finally get to untap. Also, much like Angel of the Dire Hour above, cards that can bounce this guy keep the tapping party going.

Cards to consider: Basilisk Collar, Spore Cloud, Icy Manipulator

This is an incredibly nice and flexible multiplayer card, letting you nab defenders for yourself or a potential ally out of nowhere. One thing that’s nice
is if you’ve equipped a creature you control with Basilisk Collar, and your opponent sends his big baddie at someone else, you can use the Will to send
your equipped creature over there to block, gain life, and kill that guy. A nice way to maximize the Will is to tap down a creature your attacking opponent
controls that you want to block with so he can’t attack with it, but you can untap, steal, and block with it. One other funky combo is to use Domineering
Will when one player is attacking another player all out, nab some blockers from a third player, and then when the defender assigns all the blockers, cast
Spore Cloud to tap all the creatures and keep them tapped.

Cards to consider: Berserk, Secret Plans, Royal Assassin

This is a pretty sweet combat management tool that can break open stalemates and ensure that the most threatening creature on the board attacks someone
else each turn rather than you. If you can also Berserk that creature it’s even better! Being a good morph creatures makes it sweet with Secret Plans, and
it’s also pretty vicious with Royal Assassin.

Cards to consider: Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Grim Monolith, Disciple of Deceit, Daring Thief, Fate Unraveler; Nekusar, the Mindrazer; Consecrated Sphinx

Another fantastic instant speed card with all sorts of multiplayer interactions. You can make sure that you and another player all of a sudden have
blockers when an opponent thought the attack coast was clear. You know I like the inspire creatures, and being able to untap them at instant speed can lead
to some nice triggers. With enough mana rocks you can even generate some mana when you untap your permanents. Drawing cards is, of course, lots of fun for
you and your selected opponent, but if you’re not feeling generous you can make them pay with cards like Fate Unraveler or Nekusar, the Mindrazer. Or if
you’re feeling greedy you can wait until you’ve stuck a Consecrated Sphinx before casting Intellectual Offering.

Cards to consider: High Market, Innocent Blood, Viscera Seer, Apprentice Necromancer, Ashnod’s Altar, Flash, Phantasmal Image, Nim Deathmantle, Flesh Carver, Reveillark

I’m pretty sure just about any blue deck wants Reef Worm, which is as good as it is funky and cool. Reef Worm is gold with any card that sacrifices
creatures for profit, and I love how you can use flash to sneak that guy in at instant speed and sacrifice it right way to start the train. Phantasmal
Image is usually pretty fragile for Commander, but that fragility is a plus when it copies Reef Worm. If you’ve got ways to bring back creatures from the
dead like Nim Deathmantle or Reveillark Reef Worm can really get nuts.

Cards to consider: Courtly Provocateur; Edric, Spymaster of Trest; Sword of Feast and Famine; Lazav, Dimir Mastermind; Phelddagrif, Rafiq of the Many; Sakashima the Impostor

Stormsurge Kraken’s hexproof makes it a tough hombre to deal with by itself, but if you’ve got your commander in play, he sets up a nasty place for your
opponent to be in: either they take a seven-point hit from the Kraken when he attacks, or they block with a creature that’s probably going to die, and you
get to draw two cards. You can really make the choice impossibly bad by playing cards like Edric, Spymaster of Trest and Sword of Feast and Famine so you
get benefits either way. Having Rafiq of the Many as your commander probably means that your opponent has to block this fellow. Lazav, Dimir Mastermind
makes an interesting commander for this to be lieutenant for, since if your opponent has to throw creatures in front of Stormsurge Kraken, you may get a
chance to copy a sweet creature along the way. How about Sakashima the Impostor as your commander and you copy Stormsurge Kraken?

Cards to consider: Cloud Key, Vedalken Orrery, Academy Rector

I like that this is an “everyone draws” card that gives you your cards up front when you play it, but why not put it into play at instant speed with
Vedalken Orrery or Academy Rector and be able to take advantage of it twice before your opponents get the benefit? It’s a little expensive so shave a mana
with something like Cloud Key. Also, if you don’t particularly like sharing the card-drawing wealth, see the cards I suggested above for Intellectual
Offering.

Black

Cards to consider: Glissa, the Traitor; Merieke Ri Berit, Kresh the Bloodbraided, Visara the Dreadful, Lim-Dul the Necromancer

Another solid lieutenant card, this guy is going to get one of your opponent’s creatures dead one way or the other-either they block a 6/6 flier, or they
take six damage and have to sacrifice a creature. The creature dying does nice things with Glissa, the Traitor, Kresh the Bloodbraided, or Lim-Dul the
Necromancer, or you can use the activated ability of Merieke Ri Berit or Visara the Dreadful to clear the sky for the Demon’s attack.

Cards to consider: Phyrexian Reclamation, Blood Artist, Nim Deathmantle; Athreos, God of Passage; Cauldron of Souls, Dictate of Erebos, Black Market,
Doubling Season

I didn’t like this guy at first, but the more I’ve thought about him the more I like him. With one activation he’s going to leave behind a 4/4 horror when
he dies, and if you’re given enough time or mana he can get downright scary. Since he puts on +1/+1 counters, you can keep him around with Cauldron of
Souls. All the sacrificing does fun things with Dictate of Erebos and Black Market, and the counters and token creature play nicely with Doubling Season.

Cards to consider: Tormod’s Crypt, Pack Rat, Athreos, God of Passage; Stinkweed Imp, Dictate of Erebos, Black Market

Again, if you’re not fond of letting people draw cards, see the suggestions above under Intellectual Offering. I thought a card with dredge — particularly
Stinkweed Imp – would work nicely with this card, since you can replace the draw with dredge and hopefully flip over some huge monster to reanimate. Also,
you’ve got Stinkweed Imp to block whatever big monster your opponent chooses to reanimate. Pack Rat seems pretty sweet here since you can discard a huge
monster to reanimate while drawing more cards to feed more copies of Pack Rat. Finally, you might want to keep the powder dry on Tormod’s Crypt in case all
of your opponents have a creature in their graveyard you do not want to see reanimated.

Cards to consider: Phyrexian Tower, Tragic Slip, Distorting Lens, Skirsdag High Priest, Scuttlemutt, Predator’s Howl; Grimgrin, Corpse-Born

The combo with this card is playing a game of Commander-creatures die. A lot. It’s not hard to trigger morbid just during the normal course of a game, so
why not slip in a few other morbid cards while you’re at it? In fact, no commander says morbid quite like Grimgrin, Corpse-Born! The one limitation for
Malicious Affliction is that it won’t kill black creatures, so you might consider Distorting Lens in addition to the Scuttlemutt that should be in every
Commander deck.

Cards to consider: Goblin Chirurgeon, Golgari Charm, Child of Alara, Eldrazi Monument

This is pretty much an auto-include in any deck that can support the triple-black mana; you get a board sweeper and get to reanimate the best creature that
died all in one card. There’s a reason why this card exiles itself! One way to break parity on this a little bit is to regenerate your team with something
like Golgari Charm, regenerate one guy with something like Goblin Chirugeon, or give all your guys indestructible with Eldrazi Monument. It occurs to me
this is a pretty sweet card to put in your Child of Alara deck if you make it heavy black, since to get the dies trigger from Child you need to actually
let it go to the graveyard rather than put it in exile, so casting this lets your Child die, nuking the board, and then you can bring it right back if you
want.

Cards to consider: Shadowborn Apostle, Nim Deathmantle, Blood Speaker, Damnation, Conjurer’s Closet

I remember when demons had a drawback to be awesome, but nowadays they make demons with all upside. Fetch it up with Shadowborn Apostles or Blood Speaker,
kill a dude and get a 5/5 flier and a 2/2 zombie. Since it’s an enters the battlefield trigger you can even do blink shenanigans with cards like Conjurer’s
Closet. Don’t be afraid to cast Damnation with Overseer on the board, even though he’ll die you’ll still get Zombie tokens for each nontoken creature your
opponents control that die.

Cards to consider: Brave the Sands, Angelic Skirmisher, Akroma’s Memorial

This is a crazy, chaotic card that is sure to stir up a hornet’s nest at your game table, forcing your opponents to throw creatures that will die in front
of Raving Dead or lose half their life. It occurs to me if you want to play this you might want to give it vigilance so not only is it putting a random
opponent under pressure when you attack, they can’t attack you back without losing their best attacker. Akroma’s Memorial is the perfect way to give
vigilance since it stacks on a bunch of other abilities too.

Cards to consider: Phyrexian Tower, Saproling Cluster, Varchild’s War-Riders, Hunted Phantasm, Akroan Horse, Sylvan Offering, Tempt with Vengeance

I said it before and I’ll say it again: The combo with this card is playing a game of Commander-creatures die. A lot. One mana isn’t much to hold up for
this spell waiting for a bloodbath that is sure to happen the longer the game goes. Remember that this doesn’t care whether the creatures that die are
creature cards or creature tokens, so you can help your cause by giving your opponents creature tokens with cards like Saproling Cluster, Hunted Phantasm,
and Sylvan Offering.

Cards to consider: Entomb, Survival of the Fittest; Archaeomancer, Izzet Chronarch

What a fantastic ambush card that can really do some incredible work with creatures that have enters-the-battlefield, leaves-the-battlefield, or dies
triggers. Use cards like Entomb and Survival of the Fittest to load the graveyard with all sorts of value creatures. Just keep in mind the limitations, it
can only be cast during combat on your opponent’s turn and the temporarily not-dead creatures don’t gain haste so you can’t take advantage of any creatures
with tap effects. Combine with cards like Archaeomancer or Izzet Chronarch to keep the party going every turn.

What other sweet combos have you discovered with these new cards from Commander 2014? Join me next week as I wrap up this review with Red, Green,
Artifacts, and Lands!

New to Commander?

If you’re just curious about the format, building your first deck, or trying to take your Commander deck up a notch, here are some handy links:

Commander Primer Part 1
(Why play Commander? Rules Overview, Picking your Commander)
Commander Primer Part 2
(Mana Requirements, Randomness, Card Advantage)
Commander Primer Part 3
(Power vs. Synergy, Griefing, Staples, Building a Doran Deck)
Commander Starter Kits 1
(kick start your allied two-color decks for $25)
Commander Starter Kits 2
(kick start your enemy two-color decks for $25)
Commander Starter Kits 3
(kick start your shard three-color decks for $25)