What an incredible time to be a Commander player! Not only have we had Magic products specifically designed for us for over a decade, but Wizards of the Coast (WotC) now has a designated Casual Play Design team led by Melissa DeTora. That team is responsible for making Commander (and other casual formats) fun and balanced.
I know not every Commander fan has been happy about the level of attention that WotC has given our favorite format since the first Commander precon products rolled out, especially since there have been plenty of design mistakes along the way. Studio X (formerly R&D) has long been focused almost exclusively on competitive Magic, so shifting manpower design learning towards casual play has taken time.
But listening to the Commander Chronicles series on Gavin Verhey’s Good Morning Magic YouTube channel where he and Melissa review the Commander products over the years reassures me that Melissa very much understands what makes cards and mechanics that are good for Commander, and I very much look forward to seeing the influence of the Casual Play Design team percolating up through upcoming sets. In fact, I think that influence might already be showing its face in legends we’re seeing in the most recent sets, with legends that are much more niche and specialized:
Compare to previous newer designs that were value-engines that rewarded players for just playing Magic:
Past and Future
But as we eagerly await these cool, new niche designs to roll out in the coming years, it’s a good idea to remember legendary creatures from Magic’s past, especially those from before WotC began to focus so much on Commander.
The beauty of Magic is that the game reinvents itself with each new release, and nearly every Magic card from the past gets a new card pool context to swim in. Cards that have long languished in the back of your trade binder or the depths of a cardboard box might have a chance to shine when paired up with something new. Today, I wanted to present you with five legends from the past that you’re probably not playing with, but maybe you should be!
The Elder Days
In the elder days of yore, Legends introduced us to legendary permanents, and of course the original Elder Dragon legends inspired this format that we love. When searching through the various legends from back in the day, I ran across an old favorite that I think should see more love these days: Marton Stromgald!
(EDHREC Rank: #989)
Long-held conventional wisdom is that red and white were the weakest colors in Commander, but Wizards of the Coast have done a lot to juice up the power of red in recent years and I think the color can hang with the rest quite readily, especially in casual pods. So, I think there are plenty of supporting cards you can fill out a mono-red deck if you want to consider building around Marton Stromgald.
Let’s dig into some cards you’ll want specifically for your Marton deck!
Token Makers
If you squint really hard, Marton’s ability resembles Craterhoof Behemoth for half the mana, and you get to trigger it each time you attack with Marton and all your creature hordes. To help facilitate the ability to go wide, you’ll want to include a bunch of cards that can generate multiple creatures per card.
I feel like it should be fairly easy to achieve the city’s blessing on Turn 5 or 6, and so Tilonalli’s Summoner will create an army of 1/1 red Elemental creature tokens that are quite ready and willing to carry the banner for Marton. I also like that Anax, Hardened in the Forge lets you lean into casting creature spells into a potential battlefield sweeper and still end up with a bunch of creatures. You can even have Marton be an honorary Goblin lord, since there are a ton of Goblin cards that make multiple Goblin tokens, like Siege-Gang Commander and Beetleback Chief.
Protecting Marton
The downside to Marton is that his ability doesn’t boost himself, and he’s just a 1/1 charging into battle boosting all your other attacking or blocking creatures. While that’s brave, it also means that Marton is going to die a lot, so it’s worth including a fair number of ways to protect Marton from certain death. The classic old-school combo with Marton is Maze of Ith, and you can also slot in the modern-day version Labyrinth of Skophos. Subira, Tulzidi Caravanner can make Marton unblockable, and Dolmen Gate protects Marton and all your attackers from combat damage.
Attacking
Lastly, since we know we’re going to be attacking with Marton, let’s include other cards that benefit from an aggressive stance. The battalion ability of Legion Loyalist and the battle cry ability of Hero of Oxid Ridge are the sort of cards we’d add to the deck outside of a Goblin tribal approach.
Creatures that provide more attack steps like Port Razer and Moraug, Fury of Akoum are also quite good here since Marton’s ability triggers each attack step.
Kamigawa
Champions of Kamigawa and the original Kamigawa block brought a newfound focus on legendary creatures and making legends “matter,” which aligns quite well with the Commander format. There are a ton of legendary creatures from this era that you could build decks around, though there are a lot of clunkers too. One card in particular that I think could use another look is Patron of the Moon:
(EDHREC Rank: #620)
While the card is expensive, its Moonfolk offering ability allows you to discount the mana cost by sacrificing a Moonfolk, and you can cast it an instant speed. Having an instant-speed commander in the command zone is quite nice for a mono-blue deck, and you don’t even need to have all that many Moonfolk in your deck to take advantage of that ability.
The second ability was designed to offset the Moonfolk abilities that required a land to be returned to your hand, but since it was printed, we’ve gotten a fair number of cards that care about lands entering the battlefield, squeezing even more value out of bouncing our lands and putting them back onto the battlefield with Patron.
Moonfolk
After Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, there are now 22 Moonfolk you could play in a mono-blue Patron of the Moon deck, and up to thirteen creatures with changeling you could add in too. Several of the Moonfolk are all-star material, like Meloku the Clouded Mirror and Uyo, Silent Prophet. Discounting the Moonfolk activation with cards like Training Grounds and Heartstone can be beneficial.
The double-faced cards from Zendikar Rising like Silundi Vision are already pretty amazing but get much more value in this deck, since if you play them as lands early in the game, you can always pick them up later with a Moonfolk activation if you need the spell side.
Triskaidekaphile is probably worth a slot since putting lands into your hand at instant speed could creep you up to thirteen cards and the win condition, and other than that, the card draw ability and no maximum hand size are going to be useful.
Artifact Synergies
The new crop of Moonfolk seem to have artifact synergies, so it’s probably worth considering some artifact themes to round out the deck. You can copy artifacts with Replication Specialist and then animate them with Katsumasa, the Animator.
Landfall
Retreat to Coralhelm is one of the best actual landfall cards ever printed and would be a slam-dunk inclusion here, but I also really love slightly different cards like Cosima, God of the Voyage and Trench Behemoth that do a lot of heavy lifting when lands are entering the battlefield with frequency. I also really like Walking Atlas and Scaretiller as backups to Patron for putting lands back onto the battlefield after being bounced with Moonfolk or other effects.
Alara Gold
When Shards of Alara and the Alara block came out, there were a bunch of three-color legends that EDH/Commander fans were quite excited about. Rafiq of the Many was one of the scariest of the bunch, but over time people seem to have considered it a card that isn’t good anymore. For a lot of folks, attacking isn’t how Commander games end these days, which tells me that perhaps people need to be reminded about how to win games through the combat step!
(EDHREC Rank: #232)
Double strike is a potent ability that scales up quickly, and if you sprinkle in a lot of ways to boost a creature’s power, things can get scary in a hurry. I’m thinking of Rancor, Behemoth Sledge, and Blackblade Reforged for maximum pummeling!
Exalted
The Bant color combination was the home of the exalted mechanic, so you’d definitely want to add a handful of other exalted cards to the mix. For my money, Finest Hour and Sublime Archangel can really smash face and are must-includes.
Attacking Alone
Outside the exalted mechanic, there are a fair number of other cards that have abilities tied to attacking alone. Just think of Grunn, the Lonely King attacking alone with Rafiq on the battlefield: Grunn doubles its power and toughness, gets any exalted triggers, and then gains double strike to smash in for over twenty points of damage! Yuan-Ti Malison is a dungeon-delving machine with double strike and can’t be blocked when it attacks alone. I also really love Ironsoul Enforcer from the Neon Dynasty Commander decks.
Double Strike
Rafiq’s double strike ability means that we can really leverage other combat damage triggers like Bident of Thassa and the various Equipment like Sword of Hearth and Home. I also really love Trygon Predator here since it has natural evasion and can destroy up to two artifacts or enchantments if it connects.
Commander: The Early Days
Once the Commander precon decks came out, it was obvious that Wizards was starting to consider Commander fans when designing their legendary creatures. One of the coolest cards of this era was from Amonkhet: Samut, Voice of Dissent.
(EDHREC Rank: #289)
Samut offers a collection of relevant abilities tied up in a pretty efficient package for five mana, and the Naya color identity allows access to a lot of Commander’s greatest hits, including green’s A+ quality mana ramp.
Voltron
Samut’s flash, double strike, vigilance, and haste make her a fantastic candidate for “Voltron”-style creature buffs. The trample from Rancor, Shadowspear and Loxodon Warhammer pairs up quite nice with double strike. I also really like Bear Umbra, which helps protect Samut from destroy effects and in the meantime untaps your lands when you attack.
Attack Trigger
Not to be overlooked is Samut’s ability to give your other creatures haste. So, after a battlefield sweeper has destroyed all the creatures, you can cast Samut with flash on another player’s turn, untap, and cast something with an attack trigger that you get to take advantage of right away. Sun Titan and Etali, Primal Storm are the poster children for this sort of effect, but there are a lot of other good choices too. I particularly love Kogla, the Titan Ape here, since Kogla’s indestructible ability can be used in conjunction with Samut to save your commander from removal.
Untap Target Creature
Wait, there’s more—Samut’s vigilance means you can attack and then use her tap ability to untap a creature. You can leverage extra post-combat mana with Faeburrow Elder or Somberwald Sage, or double up activations of Mother of Runes or Captain Sisay.
Dominaria
Like the original Kamigawa block, Dominaria brought us a set that cared about legendary permanents and a bunch of cool cards for Commander fans. One of my favorite cards from the set is a huge and resilient threat, Multani, Yavimaya’s Avatar!
(EDHREC Rank: #618)
Much like Patron of the Moon, Multani benefits from a lot of cards that have been printed in recent years that care about the number of lands you play, so if green is more your speed, you should give this a consideration.
Play Extra Lands
Beyond the typical green land ramp spells you’re going to put in the deck, Multani wants ways to play extra lands in a given turn. Why? Well, when Multani dies, instead of putting it in your command zone, you can let it go to the graveyard and use its activated ability to bring it back to your hand. With cards like Druid Class or Budoka Gardener, you can quickly put those two lands back onto the battlefield, potentially triggering any landfall shenanigans you may also have going on.
Power Matters
If there’s one thing Multani has, it’s huge power that scales up throughout the game, so cards that care about a creature’s power get even better in a Multani deck. Traverse the Outlands is particularly nuts since you’ll be able to ramp your lands equal to Multani’s power, and then all those new lands will boost Multani even more. Ram Through is a crazy powerful card under normal circumstances, but given Multani’s size and trample ability, Ram Through becomes turbo-charged.
Lastly, if ever there was a deck where Belt of Giant Strength shines, it’s Multani—which has base power and toughness of 0/0, so setting it to 10/10 with the inherent trample is going to be massive.
Return Lands to Hand
Multani’s land-returning ability works quite nice with double-faced cards like Bala Ged Recovery you may have played early on as a land but are more useful as spells later. The new Boseiju, Who Endures has a fantastic channel ability that you might want to use later in the game after you’ve used it for mana.
Cultivator Colossus loves lands in hand when its trigger resolves, so with enough mana you can respond to the trigger by returning lands to your hand to bring back Multani. And lastly, Ashaya, Soul of the Wild makes all your creatures into Forest lands, so Multani could potentially rescue two of your creatures from a removal spell.
So, what legends from older sets do you think deserve a second look in 2022?
Talk to Me
Do me a solid and follow me on Twitter! I run polls and get conversations started about Commander all the time, so get in on the fun!
I’d also love it if you followed my Twitch channel TheCompleteCommander, where I do Commander, Brawl and sometimes other Magic-related streams when I can. If you can’t join me live, the videos are available on demand for a few weeks on Twitch, but I also upload them to my YouTube channel. You can also find the lists for my paper decks over on Archidekt if you want to dig into how I put together my own decks and brews.
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!
