Ixalan For Commander And More!

This weekend, I was having lunch with my kids and I could not help myself.
I pulled out my phone, pulled up Ixalan previews and showed them
some cards.

“Dinosaurs, kids. This new Magic set has Dinosaurs.”

I may have giggled. I probably did. The kids looked at me bemused. My
daughter is nearly seventeen; my son is fifteen. Though I have tried for
years, I have never been able to get them into Magic. I thought that
perhaps Dinosaurs might spark a little interest. I mean, they were not far
away from being that age where Dinosaurs just captured the imagination.

“Check it out. They’re even biologically correct, with plumage like birds!”

They chuckled. Which is different from giggling. You giggle with someone.
You chuckle at someone.

Desperate, I tried another tack. “There are Pirates too!”

Okay, so my kids are not Magic fans (yet, I still have hope) but for the
rest of us, this set has been a blast discovering through the previews so
far. I am super-excited about the ramifications of Ixalan and the
coming rotation for Standard – and I will talk a little about that later –
but for now, I want to talk about how cool Ixalan appears to be
for Commander.

Commander 2017
has been a roaring success with its tribal themes, and I think it was a
brilliant move for Wizards to continue beating the tribal drums in Ixalan. I am not sure whether that was planned or a happy
accident, but Commander fans are reaping the rewards. Let us talk about
some of the great things for Commander that has been previewed so far.

In My Tribe

Speaking of tribal, there are a handful of cards previewed so far that slot
right into any deck built around creature type synergies. Therefore, no
matter which of the Commander 2017 decks you have picked up and
are looking to tweak, there are some goodies for you in Ixalan.
Vanquisher’s Banner in particular is a fantastic card, giving an immediate
boost to your creatures when it hits the Battlefield, and then reaping card
dividends each time you cast another one. Tribal decks often run out of gas
in Commander due to the many powerful “destroy all creatures” spells people
play, so this is another great way to refuel. Pillar of Origins and
Unclaimed Territory help with color fixing, though only specifically to
cast spells of the selected tribe.

Arcane Adaptation is an oddball card that takes the conservative approach
of Conspiracy and Xenograft and kicks it up a notch for two less mana. If
your tribal deck plays blue and you have some creatures not of your focused
tribe but provide benefits to that tribe, keep Arcane Adaptation in mind.
One combo I have seen mentioned is this card with Turntimber Ranger. Then
have an Ally enter the battlefield under your control and you get a 2/2
Wolf token that is also an Ally, so that triggers the Ranger. You ever
wanted a Wolf pack that encircles the globe? You got it!

Vampires

If you are a fan of Vampire tribal, this has been a great couple of years
for you! Vampiric Bloodlust from Commander 2017 is a great deck
right out of the box stuffed to the gills with great tribal synergies.
There are plenty of great Vampires not in the deck that you can pick up to
juice the power level, especially with Shadows over Innistrad and Eldritch Moon rotating out of Standard and the Spikes looking to
liquidate so they can buy the new set. With Vampires a supported tribe in Ixalan we have even got more to choose from, including a few
legendary creatures (which I’ll talk about below).

Bishop of Rebirth is just a potent Magic card, period. I expect it to see
play in non-Tribal Commander decks (imagine it alongside Selfless Spirit or
Dauntless Escort) and might even break into Standard. Its size can be
quickly outclassed in Commander, though, so having some tribal synergies to
boost it will help ensure you get to keep attacking with it.

If you pay attention to your mana curve in Commander, one thing that is
often lacking is a good one-drop, and Duskborne Skymarcher might do the
trick for Vampire tribal. A one-mana flying Vampire is pretty good, and
later in the game its ability can help push through some damage.

I am not sure whether Bloodcrazed Paladin makes the cut in Commander, but
it feels a lot like Khabal Ghoul and Caller of the Claw. The mana is
dirt-cheap, so it could make the grade in Vampire tribal.

A 4/4 flier for six mana is a bit behind on rate, but I love the flavor of
Deathless Ancient and the recursion ability is quite nice. In particular,
this seems easy to trigger when you have Edgar Markov’s eminence ability.

So what about the other Ixalan tribes? Well, Merfolk is a
longstanding heavily supported tribe in Magic, and I imagine Merfolk fans
of all stripes, from Commander to Modern, will be getting a few goodies
along the way. Deeproot Waters seems like a great card for Merfolk
Commander decks. Pirates and Dinosaurs as creature types are pretty thin
across the history of Magic, even with the recent creature-type adjustment
for old cards now becoming Dinosaurs. My hunch is that Ixalan and
the handful of older cards will not provide enough support for a
competitive Commander deck, but let us keep our eyes peeled for more of
those in Rivals of Ixalan!

Destination Lands

If you are a Commander fan, I have no doubt you’re super-stoked for these
double-faced cards with super-cool destination lands on the flip side. In
Standard, you are not always going to have the time to go on the quest to
transform these cards, but that sort of thing is right in Commander’s
wheelhouse and I imagine these cards are going to make an immediate splash
in Commander and be doing cool things for years to come.

Search for Azcanta transforms into Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin, which gives
you access to a three-mana Impulse each turn—wow! Arguel’s Blood Feast
transforms into a Diamond Valley that can also tap for black mana if you
need to. Growing Rites of Itlimoc transforms into Gaea’s Cradle that can
also still tap for a green mana even if your opponents have rudely wiped
your battlefield clean.

Conqueror’s Galley transforms into Conqueror’s Foothold, which is a
veritable Swiss Army knife of abilities, depending on how much extra mana
you have to spend. Primal Amulet transforms into Primal Wellspring that
taps for any color mana, and if you spend it on an instant or sorcery, you
get to copy it—yes, please! Thaumatic Compass finds Spires of Orazca, which
is a Maze of Ith that can also tap for a mana.

Last (so far) is Treasure Map, which transforms into Treasure Cove, giving
you three Treasure tokens and the ability to sacrifice a Treasure token to
draw a card. This is not as super-splashy as the other ones for Commander,
but it could still do some decent work in Commander. If Pirates and
Treasures get pushed hard in Ixalan and Rivals of Ixalan,
this might get even better. We’ll have to see. I do think it will probably
do some good things in Standard.

Utility

There are some great utility cards previewed so far that will no doubt do
some good work in Commander decks. Ashes of the Abhorrent is a partial
graveyard hoser that can still generate value even if you are not playing
against that sort of deck. Ixalan’s Binding is incredibly flexible
temporary removal that can do some interesting work against opponents’
Commanders. I’m not a big proponent of stealing creatures in Commander, but
I have to respect the power of Entrancing Melody. River’s Rebuke is a
little more surgical than a kicked Cyclonic Rift and thus is a better
political card, with recursive shenanigans potential if you want to target
yourself.

Revel in Riches seems great even outside of a focus on Treasures (though I
would probably put Treasure Map in any deck with Revel in Riches). Pair
this up with “everybody draws” cards like Temple Bell to ensure that your
opponents keep having creatures to cast so you can keep reaping the rewards
from their deaths. Wow, this plus Black Market can really generate a ton of
mana for you in the late-game outside of the potential “oops, I win” from
the second triggered ability.

We get two haymaker spells in red that seems tailor-made for Commander in
Star of Extinction and Sunbird’s Invocation. I cannot wait to cast Star of
Extinction, blowing up someone’s Maze of Ith with a Mogg Maniac on the
battlefield! And Sunbird’s Invocation seems fantastic alongside cards with
high mana cost but some sort of mana reduction mechanic, like delve or
improvise. I could see the card potentially doing cool stuff even in
Standard.

Of course one of the best things for Commander fans is the reprint of the
“checklands,” Dragonskull Summit and pals. Sure, in the short-term the
price of these will bump up a little bit due to Standard demand, but they
have been printed enough that the price will eventually dip back down and
there will be plenty in circulation. These are just really great lands for
two- and three-color Commander decks so I am glad the supply will continue
to grow. And the artwork on these new ones is simply fantastic!

Legendary

What is cool about this batch of legendary creatures is that none of them
seem particularly insane for Commander, yet they’ll be decent in the right
decks. Gishath, Sun’s Avatar is certainly big, bad, and splashy, but the
power of its triggered ability is predicated on how many Dinosaurs you can
put in your deck. It is certainly something to keep an eye out on as more
Dinosaurs are printed. The same goes for Admiral Beckett Brass and Pirates.

Tishana, Voice of Thunder feels an awfully lot like Prime Speaker Zegana,
and I imagine they will both be hanging out in each other’s Commander
decks. Tishana can get very big in a hurry, so watch out for trample
effects! Vona, Butcher of Magan will be surprisingly good in decks that
focus a lot on Vampiric-style lifegain. You have to love vigilance paired
with a tap ability. Mavren Fein, Dusk Apostle is extremely low-powered as a
Commander, but I could see it making the cut as one of the 99 in some other
Vampire Commander deck.

I’m a little disappointed in Captain Lannery Storm, since her ability to be
great is tied very closely to how many good Treasure-making cards there
will be in Ixalan and Rivals of Ixalan. I wonder if the
card was just too good getting the +1/+0 boost for any artifact that gets
sacrificed? My opinion could be completely turned around if there ends up
being some crazy Treasure-generating card, but we will see.

What Ixalan cards are you excited to see for your Commander decks?
Are there any of these legendary cards you’re excited to build around?

Standard

I could not let Ixalan preview season go by without touching on my
excitement for the upcoming Standard rotation. While I am sad about the
Eldrazi leaving, along with many of the cool lands I was playing in my
Green Eldrazi Desert deck, the sweet Dinosaurs of Ixalan are here
to ease my pain.

As many others have observed, Ripjaw Raptor looks really good to me and I
can’t wait to jam games with a playset of them in my 75. I actually think
the Enrage mechanic is neat and I think Wizards has been subtly making it
even better by printing some good red spells lately. If the Standard world
is ruled by Abrade, Lighting Strike and Harnessed Lightning, then big
hulking Dinosaurs with Enrage seem like a good call.

Case in point… a lot of Dinosaur hype so far, other than Ripjaw Raptor,
seems to be tied up in this card.

And that’s understandable. This Dinosaur is hard to stop—you can’t
counterspell it, and you can’t kill it with targeted removal. It’s big
enough that it’s going to be tough to kill by blocking it, especially if
it’s paired up with instant-speed removal. But my excitement has been tied
up in an uncommon Dinosaur at the same mana cost with Enrage, especially
paired up with this other card.

So assuming you’ve got a Walking Ballista with at least two counters on it
and some other creature, when you cast Bellowing Aegisaur, you can ping it
with Walking Ballista to put a +1/+1 counter on each other creature. You
can do it four times each turn without killing Bellowing Aegisaur. This can
lead to some insane battlefield states, right? Not to mention that Walking
Ballista is nuts with any of the Enrage Dinosaurs, not just Ripjaw Raptor
but also Ranging Raptors—each time you ping Ranging Raptors (Ranging
Ramptors? Ramping Raptors?) you get a Rampant Growth, which just so happens
to play fantastically with a deck chock-full of Walking Ballistas.

Here’s is my initial sketch for a Standard post-Ixalan deck:

Naya Dinosaurs

Bennie Smith

Test deck on 09-11-2017

Standard

Creatures (28)

Lands (24)

Spells (8)

4 Abrade
4 Savage Stomp

The numbers reflect some experimentation. I’m not sure how good Raptor
Hatchling is going to be so I’ve split that with Metallic Mimic. Regisaur
Alpha is good in a vacuum, but I really like Raging Swordtooth’s ability to
sweep away smaller creatures and trigger Enrage. Savage Stomp might be
amazing or maybe horrible, but it certainly feels pushed and worth
experimenting with Enrage.

What do you think? Is the Bellowing Aegisaur / Walking Ballista combo worth
exploring?

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)