Dragons Of Tarkir In Commander

The few weeks leading up to the release of a new set are always exciting, as we get daily sneak peeks into what’s coming from both the mother ship and a
host of other outlets (like this here very web site). Those
sneak peeks ramp up interest in the set and generate speculation on what else could actually be there. They also give us the chance to comment on what
we’ve seen so far before we get to a full-on set review, which is what gets us to where we are today. Note that I’ll only ever comment on cards which have
been officially spoiled. Now more than three years into retirement as a high level judge, I’m not really under the same kind of strictures that I was, but
it’s still a good practice. Unofficial spoilers have been known to be wrong, and no one wants that egg on their face. Plus, there are enough officially
released cards to talk about that we don’t have to go plumbing the depths to find interesting material. I’ll also note that because of the way deadlines
and editing work, there may have been something bonkers previewed in the last few days which I’m not commenting on-since I didn’t see it before posting
this piece.

Before we get there, I want to tell you about an insane game from this past week. Fellow Commander Rules Committee members Scott Larabee and Toby Elliott
were visiting on their way to Miami for the Grand Prix, since 1) Tampa is kind of on the way to Miami and 2) it was conveniently spring break for me. I’m
not much for wet T-shirt contests and alcohol poisoning, so I’d prefer spending my week off (the way my schedule works out, it was actually eleven days)
eating decent meals, playing games, and slinging the 100-card decks with two of my best friends-which is exactly what we did.

We were at Armada Games, and we had a list of folks lined up to get into a game with the three of us at the same time. In this game, we were playing with
Aaron, one of the newer Commander players at the shop (although he’s a long-time other formats player). Aaron was playing his new Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch
deck-which turned out to be an awkward choice, given that Scott was playing the Angus Mackenzie deck which we designed together ( and featured here), Toby was playing Zedruu the Greathearted, and I was
playing Ruhan and You Did This to Yourself. Someone watching asked what kind of game we expected; “grindy” was the answer.

As you might expect, Aaron took the early initiative, but Toby got out Meekstone and Crackdown, slowing things down quite a bit. After a few turns of
everyone durdling, Scott cast Hallowed Burial, tucking all four commanders, including his own. Once the board redeveloped, slanted heavily in Toby’s favor,
Scott cast an overloaded Cyclonic Rift. A few turns later it got silly. Scott cast Ajani Steadfast, then on the following turn activated the +1 ability
twice, the second time courtesy of The Chain Veil. Unfortunately, he forgot that Toby had Puca’s Mischief. On his upkeep, Toby swiped Ajani Steadfast and
activated its ultimate ability. Already deep inside his pillow fort, we knew he’d be pretty difficult to kill one point at a time, but we gave it a run.
Fortunately for us, Toby’s win condition is mostly Jinxed Choker, and we hadn’t seen it yet. We traded around some damage and dug for answers. The turn
after Scott got out Doubling Season, he cast Teferi, Temporal Archmage and was off to the races, over the next few turns casting and getting the ultimate
for Venser, the Sojourner, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, and Elspeth, Knight-Errant. This was certainly the most planeswalker ultimates I had seen in a single
game.

Scott was down to fifteen life, Aaron in single digits, Toby around 60, and I had 23. I had in my hand Acidic Soil. I considered just casting it to kill
Scott and Aaron and scooping to Toby-especially since there were still some folks waiting to play with us. I decided that I’d take one chance to take down
Toby, but I was certain I couldn’t do it alone. I almost pulled the trigger on Parallectric Feedback when Scott cast Sphinx’s Revelation for 30-that kind
of thing is exactly why the card is in the deck-but again, I figured that I needed him around. Toby’s Jinxed Choker finally came out and started making the
rounds, knocking Aaron down to two. Then Toby got Soul Conduit and swapped life totals for Aaron and Scott. My life total had climbed up into the fifties
through some trickery with Reverse Damage. With the writing on the wall and a fistful of damage prevention cards in hand, I made my final desperate play.
At the end of Aaron’s turn, I cast Blue Sun’s Zenith for 23-targeting Toby, whose library had 33 cards in it. I then on my turn cast that Acidic Soil,
killing Aaron and Scott. At this point, I was better off with them out of the game, since I didn’t want to worry about Scott exiling stuff with Venser or
Aaron dealing damage to my face. If Toby drew into something to kill me, then fine. If not, with only about ten cards left in my own library, I expected to
draw back into Blue Sun’s Zenith in short order. Getting back that Reverse Damage helped ameliorate some Jinxed Choker damage at a critical moment, and two
turns later I drew the BSZ, and we were done one of the most epic games I’ve played in a long time. Part of me wishes I had recorded the play-by-play;
another part is glad I didn’t because that would have slowed the game down even more.

Always Carry a Towel

I’d like to talk about two cards which have already generated a great deal of online chatter: Sidisi, Undead Vizier and Shaman of Forgotten Ways. The first
thing I’ll say is a shoutout to the late, great Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Neither card is a candidate for emergency or pre-emptive banning.

Sidisi is extremely strong; no doubt you’re going to see a great deal of her making her way into decks, both as a commander and 1 of 99. Having her
available from the command zone whenever you like means repeatability. Obviously, tutoring is a thing-it’s just that she’s not doing anything that’s not
already getting done in the format. Sure, I’d rather there not be another tutor in black. One of the draws to a singleton format is not having so
much repeatability. In normal Magic, consistency is a good thing. In Commander, we’d prefer more variance because we think it creates a better play
experience-or at least the experience that we’re going for. That’s still not enough of a sin to ban Sidisi (and no, we’re not even remotely considering
banning tutors as a class of cards). Of course, if over the next few months we see Sidisi start to warp the format, then we’ll re-evaluate.

Shaman of Forgotten Ways is causing uproar because it looks like Biorhythm on a stick. While the resolution of its activated ability mimics Biorhythm,
that’s where the similarity ends. First of all, one is a sorcery and one is a creature. You can see the Shaman coming, whereas Biorhythm can just jump up
out of nowhere. The more significant part is the mana costs are entirely different. To get the Shaman activated on the turn you cast it, you’ll need
fourteen mana. Yes, green is the color that’s most likely to be able to generate that much, but that’s still a great deal. Add to that the formidable
keyword, which means you’ll need six more power worth of creatures (again, not difficult, but board wipes are common in the format), and you have a card
that can only occasionally be a game-ender. I think that the fourteen mana requirement means we’re pretty safe. If the creature hangs around a turn, it
becomes a way more expensive Felidar Sovereign that doesn’t always auto-win the game. I’m not a fan of cards which set life totals to extremely low
numbers, but I just don’t see this actually getting that much play. It’s new and novel so you’re likely to see some folks try it out, but in the end, it
requires jumping through so many hoops at an extreme cost that I’m pretty sure we’ll see those folks give up on it pretty quickly.

What Is It? Dragons?

In a set called Dragons of Tarkir, we’ll see some dragons. A fistful of them (what’s the collective for dragons? Flight? Flock? School? Air Brigade? [Editor’s Note: I’ve heard ‘clan’ the most among my fantasy geek brethren]) have already been spoiled.

Sunscorch Regent: In a multiplayer game, this is going to get a pile of +1/+1 counters and will gain a nice amount of life for you. At first, you might
think that the 4/3 body is a small compared to other monsters, but those counters will add up pretty quickly, netting you a much larger creature than the
cost would indicate. People should already consider playing Aether Snap; Sunscorch Regent might make them think about it a little harder.

Acid-Spewer Dragon: Megamorph is a cool ability name. I find it a little mis-named. It’s like the group Massive Attack, which while cool, is neither massive nor attacking. I’d think about playing this
in a deck where +1/+1 counters matter, getting out Conspiracy, and turning all my creatures into dragons.

Deathbringer Regent: I’m honestly less excited about this one. The intervening if clause means you check both when the ability triggers and when it
resolves. Seven mana for Day of Judgment leaving you with a 5/6 flyer seems reasonable, but I think I might want to be more sure that my board wipe is
going to work. I think you have to be judicious (or just desperate) when using your mass creature destruction, so a situationally-dead one is likely to
disappoint you more than it helps.

Thunderbreak Regent: Face it, someone would rather take three damage from Thunderbreak Regent’s trigger than repeatedly get domed by any of your dragons. I
like the aggressive mana cost. It means in a dragon tribal deck, you no longer have to wait for six mana to get rolling.

Foe-Razer Regent: There’s something I love about the fight mechanic-probably its raw savagery. It might be a little awkward if you reveal this off of your
Guild Feud, but since it’s a may, you’re still in control; you could probably pick off two utility creatures pretty easily. Here’s hoping that a dragon
version of Contested Cliffs is one of the lands in this set.

Arashin Sovereign: Good enough when you’re also drawing cards when creatures die, or as a way to ensure you’ll recover from someone else’s board wipe. I
suspect that if it wasn’t a dragon, it wouldn’t see much play.

Boltwing Marauder: “Activate Krenko, Mob Boss, kill you?” I dunno. If it were all creatures, I’d be scared. Otherwise, I can maybe see it being useful in
pushing your commander over the top.

Cunning Breezedancer: I think I’d be inclined to play it if it had lifelink. Then the ability might be worth it. I suppose in a storm-count deck you might
be onto something.

Dragonlord Atarka: You might be tempted to dismiss this since it’s basically Bogardan Hellkite without flash, but then you look at the 8/8 body (plus
trample) and you realize its awesomeness.

Dragonlord Dromoka: Elder Dragons are back; elder being a creature type opens up the possibility of elder other things. Elder Merfolk. Elder Rigger. This
one is pretty solid, although it doesn’t immediately suggest itself as being a build-around commander. The fact that no one else can cast spells during
your combat would make me want to lean toward the red zone, since they can’t cast Fog. I’d certainly slip one of these into most Naya decks because they
tend to rely rather heavily on creature battles.

Dragonlord Kolaghan: The first ability is relevant in the format; the second is obviously not. I can think of at least one situation where the second one
might trigger: if someone casts Villainous Wealth and happens to reveal something of yours which they already have in the yard. Of course, they can also
choose not to (Villainous Wealth being a may).

Dragonlord Ojutai: It’s in colors which you can easily give it vigilance to keep it always hexproof. Its ability to get you sifting through your deck while
dealing damage is pretty saucy.

Dragonlord Simulgar: This is very spicy, since it can also steal planeswalkers. Like we saw above with Puca’s Mischief, that can lead to some crazy. One of
its colors is the color of copying and stealing, so it very easily slots into already-existing decks.

Enduring Scalelord: Of course you’re playing it with all the counter doublers, and this thing is getting immense pretty quickly. If you’re playing it in a
Bant deck and Clone it (notice that it’s not legendary), you can put an arbitrarily large number of counters on each of them. You’ll have to choose to stop
at some point (good that the ability is a may), but you’ll have enormous Scalelords.

Harbinger of the Hunt: A fine Scourge of Kher Ridges variant, Harbinger of the Hunt is a nice defense against one of the defining cards in the format,
Avenger of Zendikar. You won’t likely kill off the same swarms of flying creatures, but it will still do some work for you. Add Basilisk Collar for maximum
enjoyment.

Necromaster Dragon: Nicely thematic with an okay-ish ability. It’s small enough that at a certain point it just gets outclassed in the air; then you can’t
use the ability at all without some other help.

Pristine Skywise: Remember that it doesn’t have to be tapped for the triggered ability to be effective. This means any pre-combat noncreature spell you
cast gives it protection, which can be especially relevant in the upcoming combat.

Ruthless Deathfang: I suspect this will see play outside of just dragon decks. It’s a little different than Butcher of Malakir in that its trigger
condition is when you sacrifice a creature (hello, Thraximundar!), but you’ll still be able to set this up pretty easily.

Savage Ventmaw: This has combo written all over it, like anything that generates additional piles of mana. Of course, you can use that mana to help
activate Hellkite Charger and keep getting more attack steps. I’ll repeat my message: stay in school, kids-and play plenty of Fog.

Swift Warkite: Cool ability that goes with a card like Bone Shredder quite nicely. It’s like Sun Titan-lite with even more repeatability.

So far, Dragons of Tarkir looks like one of the most impactful sets for Commander in a long time. You’ll end up with plenty of powerful new weapons to find
room in your existing decks for and numerous new ideas to build from the ground up. All in all, I’m quite excited about the set. Look for a full set review
at the first opportunity.

This week’s Deck Without Comment is the Child of Alara deck I built some time back. I finally got around to assembling it, and as it always goes, I didn’t
have every card that I wanted available at build time.

Child of Alara

Sheldon Menery

Test deck on 10-30-2014

Commander

Creatures (37)

Planeswalkers (2)

Lands (38)

Check out our cool deck list database for the latest versions of all my decks:

ADUN’S TOOLBOX
; ANIMAR’S SWARM;AURELIA GOES TO WAR;CHILDREN of a LESSER GOD;DEMONS OF KAALIA;EREBOS and the HALLS OF THE DEAD;GLISSA, GLISSA;HELIOD, GOD OF ENCHANTMENTS;DREAMING OF INTET;FORGE OF PURPHOROS;KARN, BEATDOWN GOLEM;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;NYLEA OF THE WOODLAND REALM,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 FIGHT CLUB;THASSA, GOD OF MERFOLK;THE ALTAR of THRAXIMUNDAR; TROSTANI and HER ANGELS

If you’d like to follow the adventures of my Monday Night RPG group (in a campaign that’s been alive since 1987 and is just now getting started with a new
saga called “The Lost Cities of Nevinor”), ask for an invitation to the Facebook group ” Sheldon Menery’s Monday Night Gamers.”

Always Carry a Towel

What Is It? Dragons?

Creatures (37)

Planeswalkers (2)

Lands (38)

Spells (22)