Khans of Tarkir promises to be one of the most thrilling sets for Commander in quite a while. Picking up in quality where M15 left off, it exceeds the last
core set in flavor and gives Commander fans quite a few new weapons in our wedge arsenals. Remember as with all of my set reviews, this is for Commander
only. There will be Draft, Sealed, Standard, and Modern cards that are just tiny blips for the 100-card format.
I’m going to bring in three people who know Khan in order to help me categorize the cards.
The Shatner List
For the cards on this list to be playable in Commander, you’ll need Kirk’s solution to the Kobyashi Maru. And the programming really has been
reprogrammed-many of the cards on the Shatner list have gotten me interested in drafting again.
White
Ainok Bond-kin; Alabaster Kirin; Dazzling Ramparts; Defiant Strike; Feat of Resistance; Firehoof Cavalry; Jeskai Student; Kill Shot; Mardu Hateblade; Rush of Battle; Sage-Eye Harrier; Salt Road Patrol; Seeker of the Way; Siegecraft; Take Up Arms; Venerable Lammasu; War Behemoth; Watcher of the Roost
Blue
Blinding Spray; Cancel; Crippling Chill; Dig Through Time; Dragon’s Eye Savants; Force Away; Glacial Stalker; Mistfire Weaver; Monastery Flock; Mystic of the Hidden Way; Riverwheel Aerialists; Scaldkin; Scion of Glaciers; Set Adrift; Singing Bell Strike; Treasure Cruise; Waterwhirl; Wetland Sambar; Whirlwind
Adept
Black
Bellowing Saddlebrute; Dead Drop; Debilitating Injury; Disowned Ancestor; Dutiful Return; Gurmag Swiftwing; Krumar Bond-kin; Mardu Skullhunter; Mer-ek Nightblade; Molting Snakeskin; Murderous Cut; Necropolis Fiend; Retribution of the Ancients; Rite of the Serpent; Rotting Mastodon; Shambling Attendants;
Sidisi’s Pet; Sultai Scavenger; Throttle; Unyielding Krumar
Red
Ainok Tracker; Arc Lightning; Arrow Storm; Bloodfire Expert; Bloodfire Mentor; Bring Low; Canyon Lurkers; Dragon Grip; Dragon-Style Twins; Goblinslide;
Horde Ambusher; Leaping Master; Mardu Blazebringer; Mardu Heart-Piercer; Monastery Swiftspear; Shatter; Summit Prowler; Swift Kick; Tormenting Voice;
Trumpet Blast; Valley Dasher; War-Name Aspirant.
Green
Alpine Grizzly; Archers’ Parapet; Awaken the Bear; Become Immense; Feed the Clan; Heir of the Wilds; Highland Game; Hooting Mandrills; Incremental Growth;
Kin-Tree Warden; Naturalize; Pine Walker; Sagu Archer; Smoke Teller; Temur Charger; Tusked Colossodon; Windstorm; Woolly Loxodon
Multi
–colored
Abzan Guide; Efreet Weaponmaster; Highspire Mantis; Mantis Rider; Mardu Charm; Rakshasa Deathdealer; Sagu Mauler; Savage Knuckleblade; Snowhorn Rider;
Winterflame
Artifact and Land
Briber’s Purse; Heart-Piercer Bow; Lens of Clarity; Witness of the Ages;
The Nemoy List
These cards are those who will perform “according to their own gifts.” Most are unspectacular but often useful in certain decks or situations.
White
Abzan Battle Priest: I doubt you’ll use the Outlast all that often, but giving everyone else lifelink-because you know you’re playing this in a Gavony
Township deck-for no additional cost could be worth it.
Abzan Falconer: Ditto with flying.
Brave the Sands: The combination of abilities combined with the cheap cost seems worth it. No, it’s not what you’re fetching with Academy Rector, but it’s
a nice tool, especially in an enchantment-heavy deck like Heliod, God of the Sun.
Erase: I’m not so sure people are going to play this reprint, but I’ll suggest they might seriously consider it. I like the M13 art best.
Herald of Anafenza: Mobilization on an ever-growing stick.
High Sentinels of Arashin: The +1/+1 counter decks are just getting more and more weapons.
Mardu Hordechief: Soldier and blink decks will create something for nothing.
Master of Pearls: “It’s always Willbender” will be the buzz phrase of the set. It’s a combat trick that’s going to surprise some folks the first few times.
Fortunately for you, it’s going to surprise them to death.
Smite the Monstrous: This one is The Corbomite Maneuver. Giant things need to go.
Suspension Field: Get rid of something scary, at least for a time for a very nice cost. Constellation is looking better and better.
Timely Hordemate: There is a great deal of value in getting stuff back out of your graveyard at no extra cost. Think of this creature as a mini Sun Titan.
Blue
Disdainful Strike: I’m giving this one a maybe, only for the blowouts it might cause on (Project) Genesis Wave.
Embodiment of Spring: An excellent little one drop to provide some early defense and some ramp.
Jeskai Elder: There is enough good simple straight card draw in blue that the spot for this is in a deck with black in it to be able to reanimate your
monsters.
Pearl Lake Ancient: Flash and uncounterable is a deadly combination. Plus, it’s a Leviathan. Get there, Whelming Wave!
Stubborn Denial: Let’s face it. You’re frequently going to have a big creature when you really want to counter that spell.
Taigam’s Scheming: Another tool for reanimation decks. There are arguments for it in delve decks, but we’re not going to see too many of them in the
format.
Thousand Winds: Being a little expensive for what it does keeps it of the list that follows, but I think it still has a little game.
Weave Fate: Splashable card draw keeps the warp core on line.
Black
Bloodsoaked Champion: Both the casting and reanimation costs will make this a role-player in decks that need to sacrifice creatures in order to do things,
like with Viscera Seer.
Despise: For one mana, stripping away one of the two most popular nonland permanents in the format is all kinds of upside.
Kheru Bloodsucker: The obvious thing here is to have big creatures and then dare someone to kill them. Really useful with a card like Minion Reflector. You
create a temporary copy of something large, then have a sacrifice outlet to deal with it. Trying to do Corpse Dance tricks with it would be cool but pretty
expensive.
Raiders’ Spoils: A little narrow, but that’s what the Nimoy List is all about.
Rakshasa’s Secret: These little delve-enablers may not have been intended to fill up graveyards for Rise of the Dark Realms, but they’ll be doing it
anyway.
Ruthless Ripper: Essentially a combat trick for no cost, tribal assassins just got a pretty good weapon.
Swarm of Blooodflies: Note that it’s any creature, not nontoken creature. Obv combo is with sac outlets, Blood Arist, and Reassembling Skeleton. Too bad
it’s not a Zombie or you could add Gravecrawler.
Red
Act of Treason: No reason to see a status change on a card that’s been getting played in decks since it came out.
Ashcloud Phoenix: Outstanding card conceptually, the cost to unmorph it is a little high for it to be super-exciting.
Crater’s Claws: I don’t see the ferocious part of it being super-relevant, but X spells to the face get played. Now if the ferocious line had “…and can’t
be countered…” then we’d have a winner.
Hordeling Outburst: Great. More goblins in the rutabagas.
Jeering Instigator: Early or late, this is a creature worth turning face up.
Mardu Warshrieker: Creating additional mana can always lead to interesting plays. I expect to see this creature in a Rosewater puzzle at some point.
Green
Dragonscale Boon: So many combat tricks for the Prime Speaker Zegana decks. Or Animar, Soul of Elements. Of course, “cards which are good in Animar” is a
pretty big list.
Lonshot Squad: Even if this card was terrible, I’d play it because it’s a Hound Archer. Giving a bunch of green creatures flying-an ability green doesn’t
do well-will make it valuable.
Meandering Towershell: There has to be some way to make cool use of this. Attacking every other turn doesn’t seem all that great. Maybe with Warstorm Surge
or something you could dial up some damage. Or in a Doran, the Siege Tower deck. Someone’s going to figure out something cool to do with this card, I know
it.
Roar of Challenge: A fine way to get a final attack through, and cool that the lure is likely going to survive.
Savage Punch: Brother’s punching a bear. A bear!
Scout the Borders: Mulch for a creature or land is fine if you need the cards in the graveyard.
Seek the Horizon: For the same mana, I’d prefer to put two Forests onto the battlefield (Ranger’s Path or Skyshroud Claim), but I can see situations, like
those where you get extra land drops on a turn, in which the horizon must be sought.
Sultai Flayer: Kind of a snaky version of Ravenous Baloth, although you obviously don’t have it as a sacrifice outlet.
Trail of Mystery: Making the all-morphs deck (an awesome idea) possible is worth the small investment of the Trail.
Tuskguard Captain: A little redundancy for your Crowned Ceratok.
Multi-colored
Abomination of Gudul: A great role-player in the mill yourself deck, I can’t imagine seeing it played face down all that much.
Ankle Shanker: A card name that I love and hate at the same time.
Armament Corps: Maybe if you’re going the Conjurer’s Closet route.
Avalanche Tusker: I like forcing a block, even if it just takes the block away from something I’d rather get through.
Bear’s Companion: You better not punch this warrior’s bear.
Chief on the Edge: A little tribal bump. Just make it so that cowards can’t block warriors.
Chief of the Scale: Probably gets played for flavor’s sake.
Death Frenzy: We don’t see Infest played too much. If your local environment likes the small creatures/token strategies, you might have a winner.
Icefeather Aven: Lots of good room to play with this creature. Bounce a lethal attacker, get a new enters-the-battlefield trigger, drop an attacker back
down after combat in order to blow. Very solid, if unspectacular card.
Ivorytusk Fortress: Strong if narrow effect. But hey, elephants. Note to R&D: Still waiting for that elephant lord.
Jeskai Charm: The first and third modes are fine. Unlikely to see the second one used.
Kheru Lich Lord: When I started reading this card, I was fist-pumping, cabbage-patching, krumping, and engaging in end zone dances that would have made
Icky Woods proud. Then I read the last sentence, and the celebration was over.
Kin-Tree Invocation: Goes right into your Doran, the Siege Tower deck-getting a big creature at low cost. Don’t forget Lord of Extinction.
Mardu Ascendancy: Not really grooving on the second ability, but the first has something going for it.
Mardu Roughrider: We’ve already talked about being able to take the best blocker out of a combat. Definitely changes the math.
Mindswipe: I think this will be one of those that doesn’t turn out as good as people think it will. Note that they take the damage even if they pay the X.
Ponyback Brigade: If this triggered only when turned face up, it’d be on the Shatner list. Since it’s an enters-the-battlefield trigger, it’s well worth
it.
Rakshasa Vizier: If you think that your graveyard is eventually getting hit anyway, I suppose you could take some upside from it. Still don’t think this
will lead anyone to playing a delve deck in this format.
Sage of the Inward Eye: It’s not going to make me play King Suleiman or anything (hey, wait-that guy kills Mirror Entity!), but a little lifelink goes a
long way.
Secret Plans: That morph deck is getting closer and closer. Break out your Ixidor, Reality Sculptor.
Siege Rhino: Perhaps Karador-style decks could make use of it, but I think they’d have to recur it a bunch of times to get value. Adding Conjurer’s Closet
might seem like the right call, but I think there would often be other things that you’d rather blink.
Sultai Ascendency: No, it’s not Sensei’s Divining Top. Speaking of which, if you play online, you should go weigh in on this thread. It’s not even Mirri’s Guile, but it does what the
decks built with it want it to do.
Trap Essence: Countering creatures is always good, but the mana requirement might be a little awkward. Plus you’ll have to have a creature to get full
value out of it.
Warden of the Eye: Yeah, okay. Narrower Eternal Witness in Jeskai colors? Not bad considering they’re also blink colors.
Artifact and Land
Abzan Banner, Jeskai Banner, Mardu Banner, Sultai Banner, Temur Banner: Cluestones for wedges. Fine with me, especially for the non-green ones.
Cranial Archive: I think I might still want the reusability of Tormod’s Crypt instead as graveyard hate, but using this for my own graveyard safety might
be a choice.
Ghostfire Blade: There are a lot of maybes surrounding this card. Like “maybe I’ll play it because it’s cheap” and “maybe I can put it on Darksteel
Colossus.” Too many maybes.
Bloodstone Caves, Blossoming Sands, Dismal Backwater, Jungle Hollow, Rugged Highlands, Scoured Barrens, Swiftwood Cliffs, Thornwood Falls, Tranquil Cove,
Wind-Scarred Crag: Sure thing. I’m always careful about having too many enters-the-battlefield-tapped lands in a deck.
Bloodstained Mire, Flooded Strand, Polluted Delta, Windswept Heath, Wooded Foothills: Like I said a few weeks back, I don’t think these are particularly
necessary to play the format, but I’m happy that those who really want them now have easier access to them.
Tomb of the Spirit Dragon: Seems okay. Will definitely go into the Karn, Silver Golem deck I plan to build.
The Takei List
These are the cards which are going to make you go “Oh, myyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!”
White
End Hostilities: Another reasonably-priced Wrath of God effect will get played, and this one has the opportunity to destroy even more. This card is a
photon torpedo strike right into Uril, the Miststalker’s engines.
Wingmate Roc: Lifegain in consistent chunks gets my blood racing faster than an Orion cadet. I’d play this card for the last ability
alone.
Blue
Clever Impersonator: Clones keep getting better and better! At these prices, you can’t go wrong. I especially see it in a blink deck where
you can just run it out there to copy something useful at the moment, then copy something cooler later.
Icy Blast: Tapping down creatures in order to engage in combat tricks is already good enough; keeping them tapped takes it to a new level.
Kheru Spellsnatcher: More like Kheru Spelljacker! Then bounce it back to your hand via Cloudstone Curio and do it all over again.
Quiet Contemplation: This is going to be one of those sneaky-good cards. You’re going to toss it in to give it a whirl and later find out how much you
really love it.
Black
Bitter Revelation: Not a card that will immediately make you go “Oh, my!” until you play it several times. Then, whenever you do, you’ll give that knowing
nod.
Empty the Pits: It’s an instant! It’s like Zombie Sun Zenith. This card will occasionally end games. One of the few delve cards which I think we’ll see.
Grim Haruspex: This card gets played a great deal and nearly never gets played a morph. You’re playing black. Other creatures die. Draw yourself some
cards.
Kheru Dreadmaw: Message coming in on subspace from Karador, Ghost Chieftain. He needs us right away.
Barrage of Bolders: Get out of the way little dudes! On second thought, everybody get out of the way!
Red
Burn Away: Whoa! Serious graveyard hate from red. Best blowout will be hitting a creature with it when someone else wraths.
Howl of the Horde: I have two words for you: Relentless Assault. Maybe Fury of the Horde. Or Waves of Aggression. Just getting value out of an X spell
could be enough. Excellent weapon for red.
Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker: I like that they’re printing planeswalkers which aren’t completely bonkers. I suspect we’ll see the first ability played quite
a lot. Because, you know, dragons.
Green
Hardened Scales: Since I’ve already gotten some emails asking to emergency pre-ban this card, I know it must be good. It’s awesome, it will get played
lots, it may even be the chase card for Commander from this set, but there’s no way it ever gets banned.
Hooded Hydra: The math majors will be able to tell you the optimal value of X versus playing it as a morph. I can just tell you that it’s going to deal
damages to many peoples.
Rattleclaw Mystic: Temur decks didn’t need much help in the first place, but boy did they get something here. It costs two to turn face up and generates
three mana. There has to be infinite mana in there somewhere.
See the Unwritten: My kind of card, because you know I’m getting two creatures. Big, fat ones.
Multi-colored
Abzan Ascendency: Both abilities are interesting enough to have by themselves. Having both together gives both your Karador deck some extra fodder. In
Ghave, Guru of Spores, not so much.
Abzan Charm: The question is never going to be “should I play this?” but “when should I play this?” Powerful in many situations, it’s in the early
running as being my favorite of this set’s charms.
Anafenza, the Foremost: Holy Squire of Gothos! A new Abzan commander that can also be a
serious player in other decks. I probably won’t put it in my Karador, Ghost Chieftain deck because I like other people having stuff in their graveyard
(with Puppeteer Clique and Sepulchral Primordial), but I might figure out that it’s well worth it to swap those out and put this in. I just have to
remember this can get played against me and keep that Riftsweeper ready. Graveyard recursion is such a powerful strategy, I think that having great
graveyard hate is reasonable protection.
Butcher of the Horde: Demons eating creatures has been happening since the beginning of Magic, and I’m happy that we’re continuing. I’m also happy about
affordable Mardu creatures. Long time readers know that I also love sacrifice outlets to keep other peoples’ hand off of my stuff.
Crackling Doom: This card makes me mourn for Adonis. Fantastic in most any mid-to-late game situation,
it’s certainly necessary if someone in your group plays Uril, the Miststalker.
Deflecting Palm: We’ve talked a fair amount about Uril today, and this is another way to combat it since the spell isn’t targeted. The bad news is that
Deflecting Palm deals the damage, unlike Reflect Damage, so you can’t use it to kill someone with their own commander. Still, it’s a lock to go into You
Did This to Yourself. Talk to the paw.
Duneblast: Outstanding name on outstanding art. Good Wrath effects are good. Keeping your best creature makes them even better. Remember that they can
regenerate. Might be cool if the player two seats to your left is out of hand, and you can’t do anything about it-giving the person one seat to your left
the chance.
Flying Crane Technique: Sure, it’s pricey, but when it works, you can use all the Mr. Miyagi quotes you want to. Either a supreme blowout to someone who
thinks they have a clear attack or just murdering someone who thinks they still are in the game.
Jeskai Ascendancy: This thing has comb written all over it. You can build an aggressive attacking deck, then still have your creatures for defense. The
first time you surprise someone with your onboard trick will make people twitchy every time they attack you.
Master the Way: Enter the Infinite into Master the Way. Make sure you’ve attacked this turn, then cast Howl of the Horde. It could happen. Major points to
the first person to make it happen.
Narset, Enlightened Master: I know lots of folks, me included, are excited about the new Jeskai commander. It’d be interesting to run with a bunch of
multiple attack step and creatures can’t block cards to see if you can get a commander damage kill. Remember that when you play the cards, they go to the
graveyard, so you can reshuffle use them again!
Ride Down: Yep, this works exactly like you think it does. One of my favorite flavor cards from the set. It will be especially good if someone smugly
blocks your giant thing with their Acidic Slime.
Sidisi, Blood Tyrant: I’m super-fond of the self-mill plan anyway, so Sidisi is a new weapon in my arsenal. I’m pretty sure that it’ll be 1 of 99 in my
Mimeoplasm deck, but I can definitely see the argument to that it should command its own. Outstanding card that I know I’m not the only person excited
about.
Sorin, Solemn Visitor: I love this kind of planeswalker: the one that people will tend to leave alone because it doesn’t seem so scary. In most cases, I
see activating the first ability twice, which could yield quite some lifegain for your four mana investment, and then the table orc-piling onto Sorin
(which isn’t the worst thing, since they’re not orc-piling onto you). Be careful though. Some of them might find that his ultimate isn’t all that scary
since they might have creatures that they want to sacrifice.
Sultai Charm: Although I think the Abzan Charm is better, this one is also strong in its great flexibility. It’ll certainly see play in my appropriate
decks.
Sultai Soothsayer: This is raw dog card draw from your pick of four. I’d play this even if I weren’t attempting recursion shenanigans.
Surrak Dragonclaw: Wait, what??? Surrak has everything! Certainly one of my top cards in the set and one that I might not even pretend to try to put into
only one deck (since I have three of the wedge). Remember that dancing I started doing with Kheru Lich Lord? It’s happening right now.
Temur Ascendancy: Talk about an upgrade from Fires of Yavimaya! Sure, it’s only in Temur and five-color decks, but just wow. With Garruk’s Packleader, now
you’re drawing two cards per creature.
Temur Charm: And the Temur hits just keep coming. I don’t think this one is as solid through the middle as the other charms on the Takei List, but I think
it’s the one that will lead to the biggest haymakers-like countering that giant Genesis Wave or rendering those Plant tokens useless against the incoming
attack.
Utter End: One more than Vindicate is a small price to pay for exiling. And it’s a freaking instant!
Villainous Wealth: Reverse Genesis Wave, although you don’t get lands. Still, other people have lots of cool stuff in their deck. Just watch out for
Homeward Path.
Zurgo Helmsmasher: An affordable Mardu commander that’s not Kaalia of the Vast. I call that a winner. There are a number of ways to take a Zurgo deck-and
most of your opponents will be taking it directly to the face.
Artifact and Land
Altar of the Brood: This could get out of hand really quickly, especially when you start with the Avenger of Zendikar and the Scapeshift. “Genesis Wave for
22. Oh, look! Altar of the Brood.”
Dragon Throne of Tarkir: Equipped to something immense multiplies that creature’s power to crazy proportions. An onboard threat everyone has to take
seriously.
Ugin’s Nexus: Another one that I’ve already had calls to pre-ban; I still don’t understand how it’s all that scary. It’s nice protection against extra
turns, and then if you need one yourself, there you go. It’s exiled, so it’s not like it can get out of hand.
Frontier Bivouac, Mystic Monastery, Nomad Outpost, Opulent Palace, Sandsteppe Citadel: Great that we now have wedge tri-lands. I really wish they would
have just named them after the clans though. Would have made it way easier.
The density of excellent cards for Commander is slightly smaller than in M15, but the impact will be greater. There is so much high-quality (and
much-needed) love for some of the wedges that we will see many of these cards make immediate splashes in your local environments. While it seems like the
Temur cards are objectively the best, it’s Mardu that seems to have closed the gap most, since it was probably the weakest wedge (or shard).
Good friend Brian David-Marshall will be vising for the Pre-release, so look for some reports of tomfoolery as the two of us attend the Sunday event at
Armada Games. I hope you have as much fun at yours as I suspect we’ll have at ours.
Our regular Decks Without Comment feature will return post-Khans of Tarkir release.
If you’d like to follow the adventures of my Monday Night RPG group (in a campaign that’s been alive since 1987), ask for an invitation to the Facebook
group “Sheldon Menery’s Monday Night Gamers.”
Here is the latest database version of all my decks:
ADUN’S TOOLBOX
; ANIMAR’S SWARM;AURELIA GOES TO WAR;DEMONS OF KAALIA;EREBOS and the HALLS OF THE DEAD;HELIOD, GOD OF ENCHANTMENTS;DREAMING OF INTET;HALLOWEEN WITH KARADOR;KARRTHUS, WHO RAINS FIRE FROM THE SKY;KRESH INTO THE RED ZONE;LAVINIA BLINKS;LAZAV, SHAPESHIFTING MASTERMIND;ZOMBIES OF TRESSERHORN;MELEK’S MOLTEN MIND GRIND;MERIEKE’S ESPER CONTROL;THE MILL-MEOPLASM;NATH of the VALUE LEAF;OBZEDAT, GHOST KILLER;PURPLE HIPPOS and MARO SORCERERS;ZEGANA and a DICE BAG;RAKDOS: LIFE IS SHORT;RITH’S TOKENS;YOU DID THIS TO YOURSELF;RURIC THAR AND HIS BEASTLY WEREWOLF FIGHT CLUB;THASSA, GOD OF MERFOLK;THE ALTAR of THRAXIMUNDAR; TROSTANI and HER ANGELS