2022 has been a crazy year to be a Magic fan; when your format encompasses just about every Magic card ever printed, it can be a little wild to digest all the new cards, even in normal times. But this year there were over 1,900 new Eternal-legal cards printed. To put that in perspective, in the earliest days of Magic from Alpha to Visions (roughly 3.5 years), Wizards of the Coast (WotC) printed 1,890 unique cards. Put another way: 8.5% of all unique paper Magic cards were printed in 2022. Shout out to Magic Data Science on Twitter for crunching the numbers!
It can be a bit overwhelming trying to keep up, so in August I wrote an article called “Commander’s Most Underplayed Magic Cards Of 2022 (So Far)” where I highlighted some quality new cards for Commander that might have fallen through the cracks. Now that 2022 is in the books, it’s time to finish out the list from sets that came out since August.
I’ve ranked them roughly from the truly hidden gems at the beginning, through to ones that have caught on somewhat but still seem underplayed to me, based on the percentage of decks they show up in according to the deck data scraped together by EDHREC.com.
Buckle up. It’s gonna be a wild ride!
Clown Car (0% of Decks; 1,670 of 409,986)
Unfinity brought some controversy when it was released this year; gone are the silver borders which upset some fans, but the upside of this change meant that some of the cards were officially legal for Commander and other Eternal formats. If the card didn’t have the acorn designation at the bottom of the rules text, you could play it.
One card that jumped out to me was Clown Car, which obviously fits awesomely in any deck that cares about rolling dice. I have an Izzet deck built around Wyll, Blade of Frontiers, and I quickly made room in it for Clown Car. But there’s a lot more going on with the card. For instance, in any deck where you’re playing Doubling Season, you should also slot in Clown Car. Also, if you’ve got a bunch of mana ramp in your deck, Clown Car is a solid mana sink. If your deck has artifact synergies, keep in mind the Clown Robot tokens are artifact creatures.
Lastly, it counts as a zero-mana artifact, and there are decks that care about that sort of thing, whether it’s something you can get back from Scrap Trawler triggers or something you can cast for free to get storm triggers. If you don’t mind putting an Unfinity card in your Commander deck, take a second look at Clown Car.
Destroy Evil (0% of Decks; 1,197 of 247,432)
Rhystic Study. Smothering Tithe. Dictate of Erebos. Propaganda. Blind Obedience. So many enchantments are ones that I personally hate to play against, so I love the name of this card more than I should. But seriously, this card should be played a lot more than it is currently, since both modes are good in a typical game of Commander and two mana is perfectly reasonable for an instant like this. Compare this to the very comparable Valorous Stance, which is played in nearly 15,000 decks on EDHREC; granted, Destroy Evil was just printed in Dominaria United, but if your deck runs Valorous Stance, I’d strongly consider also running Destroy Evil. Modal spells often play much better than they look in Commander due to their versatility.
Exchange of Words (0% of Decks; 648 of 203,310)
I’m not going to suggest that Exchange of Words go into every blue Commander deck, but I do think that it’s a super-fun card that a lot more decks should try, especially any deck with enchantment synergies or ways to reset the enchantment by bouncing, blinking, or bringing back from the graveyard.
While I have yet to draw it since putting it in a couple of decks, I have high hopes for shenanigans. It scales well with the power level the pod is playing at, and is the sort of card that’s going to lead to some epic game states that will make great stories. Imagine switching the text box of Scute Swarm, Sun Titan, or Syr Konrad, the Grim. With Exchange of Words being a bulk rare, there’s almost no downside to giving it a whirl.
Golden Argosy (0% of Decks; 1,960 of 557,222)
I know Vehicles aren’t all that popular in Commander. It takes a lot of upside to be worth tapping down a potential blocker on your own main step in order to turn an artifact into a creature that can attack. But if your deck has creatures with abilities that trigger when entering the battlefield – or the occasional leaves-the-battlefield trigger like Reveillark’s – you should definitely consider finding room for Golden Argosy. In particular, it’s great with creatures that make creature tokens, like Avenger of Zendikar and Grave Titan, which offsets the fact that the crewing creatures come back tapped.
Creeping Bloodsucker (1% of Decks)
A brand-new card from Jumpstart 2022, Creeping Bloodsucker was easy to overlook for a lot of Magic players. It might feel like something you’d only slip into a Vampire tribal deck, but its passive life drain each upkeep is solid in a wide range of decks. Think about it: in a deck built around Belbe, Corrupted Observer, one upkeep trigger means you’ll get two colorless mana for each opponent during your postcombat main phase. Its trigger easily allows you to cast Rakdos, Lord of Riots. It does awesome work in decks that care about lifegain, like Willowdusk, Essence Seer or Liesa, Shroud of Dusk.
Exterminatus (1% of Decks)
I know a lot of people gloss over cards that cost seven or more mana and don’t immediately win the game, but I think Exterminatus is totally worth a slot in any medium-powered or lower deck as an excellent removal spell. There are Commander decks that revolve around building an unassailable fortress, layering hexproof with indestructible and cutting off any chance you have to interact with the cards, and Exterminatus is the perfect way to smash that fortress to smithereens and change the course of the game.
Note that opponents can’t respond to Exterminatus by casting something like Heroic Intervention to give their permanents indestructible, since that will resolve first and then Exterminatus removes indestructible. Also keep in mind that the clause in the rules text is asymmetrical, so if you have anything that’s indestructible, it will stick around when the destruction is done. You can pick up Exterminatus for 50 cents or less, so pick up a copy or two and give it a try!
Hierophant Bio-Titan (1% of Decks)
I try to avoid playing +1/+1 counter synergies because I’m an old man and there are just way too many cards that support this strategy and all the triggers hurt my brain. But if I did have such a deck, Hierophant Bio-Titan would be a slam-dunk inclusion, and in such a deck, it should be quite easy to remove five counters to shave the mana cost of this monster to just two green mana.
For your trouble, you get a 12/12 with vigilance, reach, and ward 2, and, as the cherry on top, it can’t be blocked by small creatures. Even if you’re only removing three +1/+1 counters to help reduce its mana cost, the body is well worth six mana. There are even situations where its outrageously large printed mana value is a benefit, like Burnt Offerings, Combustible Gearhulk, or Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder.
Hormagaunt Horde (1% of Decks)
Hormagaunt Horde is one of many new creatures from Warhammer 40,000 Commander that go great into decks that care about X-spells, such as Zaxara, the Exemplary, or +1/+1 counter synergies, but that’s not where the story ends. I’ve been slotting this card in all of my green decks that really push the land ramp themes. It’s a great mana sink, and once you’ve reached six mana, it will even draw you a card with the ravenous trigger. Once it dies, it’ll be easy enough to snag back from the graveyard the next land drop you make where you have some extra mana. This card isn’t splashy or flashy, but it’s a nuts-and-bolts creature that helps to grind out value in the long run.
Primaris Eliminator (1% of Decks)
Primaris Eliminator has a ton of upside. It is easy to cast in a deck with three or more colors, and its modal ability is a flexible answer, depending on the state of the battlefield. I love creatures like Ravenous Chupacabra that can kill the biggest threat on the battlefield, but for an extra mana, this card also gives you that ability to sweep away a bunch of tokens that an opponent is amassing that can sometimes be much more threatening than a single creature. Again, having options in Commander plays much better than it may look at first blush.
Skyfisher Spider (1% of Decks)
As a longtime Golgari fan, I’m a bit embarrassed that I overlooked Skyfisher Spider initially. To be fair, there’s a lot of text there, and in my first reading, I thought that the Spider always exiled itself when it dies. But upon further reading, I realized that it only exiles if you choose to gain one life for each creature card in your graveyard. So long as you don’t do that, you can bring Skyfisher Spider back from the graveyard over and over through various means, sacrificing fodder to destroy nonland permanents your opponents control that demand answers. And as a 3/3 with reach for four mana, its body isn’t totally negligible on the battlefield. Any Golgari graveyard recursion deck worth its salt ought to be playing this card. It’s much better than it seems at first glance.
Blast-Furnace Hellkite (2% of Decks)
If you’ve played Commander for any length of time, you’ve probably been on the wrong side of Gisela, Blade of Goldnight. Doubling the damage output when dealing damage to the opponents of whoever controls Gisela is a powerful effect that warps the battlefield, and it’s what I thought about when I first saw Blast-Furnace Hellkite.
Having only red in its color identity means that Blast-Furnace Hellkite can go into many more decks, but I think its printed mana value of nine is off-putting to a lot of players at first glance. That artifact offering ability is doing a ton of work, though, turning Blast-Furnace Hellkite into a potential combat trick that can lead to unexpectedly spectacular results once blockers are declared—or not declared, in which case, ouch!
I feel like there are definitely random artifacts that hit the battlefield from a typical Commander deck that might not be overly useful currently and make easy sacrifices to the ability. You could even do it in response to someone destroying that artifact with a removal spell. I immediately put Blast-Furnace Helkite in my Valduk, Keeper of the Flame deck, which has a ton of Equipment card and artifact synergies. Giving all my 3/1 Elemental tokens with trample double strike in the middle of combat sounds awesome!
Callidus Assassin (2% of Decks)
If an opponent’s creature is worth killing, it’s worth copying, and Callidus Assassin lets you do both! The fact that it enters the battlefield tapped is a little disappointing, but I think there’s enough value stapled into this one card that it should definitely see play in a lot more decks. You can snag it for less than a dollar!
Gaea’s Gift (2% of Decks)
Green got Tamiyo’s Safekeeping just this year, an incredible protection spell that immediately slotted into tons of green Commander decks. Then The Brothers’ War came along and brought us Gaea’s Gift, a spell that’s arguably just as good. For just one mana more, you get the best parts of Tamiyo’s Safekeeping only for a creature, but also get to put a +1/+1 counter on the creature and give it reach and trample until the end of the turn. If you’ve got creatures you’d like to protect from removal spells, this deserves a slot in your deck.
Loran’s Escape (2% of Decks)
For a while I was comparing Blacksmith’s Skill with Tamiyo’s Safekeeping, but now we’ve got Loran’s Escape, which, like Gaea’s Gift, grants a lot of the same benefit of the spell but is a bit more narrow in what you can target. I know we all hate seeing yet another tool for the obnoxious Feather, the Redeemed deck, but if you’re playing a white deck with creatures and/or artifacts you’d like to protect from removal spells, this is a great card to add to your list.
Malanthrope (2% of Decks)
I’ll wrap this up with a little bit of utility that all decks should find room for in their Commander decks: graveyard control! I like that Malanthrope scales up quite well later in the game, where someone’s bound to have a graveyard filled with nonsense that needs to be exiled, adding +1/+1 counters to Malanthrope and potentially making it a very threatening flyer. In green and blue, there are a variety of ways to bring it back to your hand to reuse the effect, so give this Warhammer 40,000 Commander gem a whirl.
Talk to Me
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And lastly, I just want to say: let us love each other and stay healthy and happy.
Visit my Decklist Database to see my decklists and the articles where they appeared!
