Editor’s Note: We’re off today in celebration of the holidays. Enjoy this Monday Magic article, which was originally published on November 28th.
Commander 2016 has begun circulating in earnest, and while it’s still a bit early to say how well received the decks themselves are received, early word seems to indicate interest in what this iteration offers. Now into its 5th year of supplementary Commander products, Wizards seems to have ironed out some of the past issues of card scarcity and availability. What’s more, because of their insistence on making additional print runs if supply gets low, it’s much more likely that stores are holding to the $35 price tags.
Mostly, anyway.
Chief among those by far is the creation of four new four-color creatures, all now with legendary status. Ever since the creation of the only four-color cards out there with Guildpact’s Nephilim, players have been wanting to see more of their ilk. This became even more evident with the rise of EDH and the desire to create four color decks. Now with C16, players have that option with five new creatures – bringing the total amount of quad-color cards up to a whopping ten.
Finally, there is the overall assortment of new cards themselves. While Commander decks are almost always worth their value thanks to their assortment of brand new cards and sought-after reprints, it’s hard not to get excited about the various new additions they bring to the Magic library. With over 50 new cards to showcase chock full of EDH goodness, we’d be remiss if we didn’t talk about a few of them here.
So, this week we’re going to look at the ten most versatile cards in Commander 2016. Per usual, the criteria for choosing them focuses around which cards can be utilized in the most situations and deck styles more so than those that are simply the most powerful or most valuable.
Anyhow, let’s get started!
Honorable Mention #1: Stonehoof Chieftain
The newest edition to this arsenal is the imposing Stonehoof Chieftain. While an expensive investment at eight mana, you certainly get what you pay for in a hulking 8/8 creature with both indestructible and Trample – a potent combination if there ever is one.
Then if that isn’t enough, Stonehoof goes all super Brawn by giving your other attacking creature you control those same two abilities, turning your entire army into a damage-dealing with near-complete impunity. While it doesn’t pack the same buffing bonuses of last year’s Pathbreaker Ibex or 2014’s Thunderfoot Baloth, gaining temporary indestructibility can be equally as useful depending on your ambitions.
It’s not the most creative card in existence. What it is, however, is a scary creature to face on the other side of the board as it can single-handedly turn even a modest force into one no one wants to see barreling down at them.
Honorable Mention #2: Deepglow Skate
It’s been long stated that in the era of planeswalkers Doubling Season would be too problematic to reprint in a normal set. (We should be so happy we even got a single reprint with Modern Masters.) Instead, we have gotten a series of cards over time with similar effects on a smaller scale, such as Primal Vigor, Parallel Lives, and Vorel of the Hull Clade, always careful to avoid repeated effects that could double the silly power-level issues of doubling planeswalker loyalty counters. Deepglow Skate is the continuation of that idea, except that this time…it does power up your Superfriends.
Make no mistake, Deepglow Skate is a highly flexible creature for many decks, letting you double nearly any kind of counter you can think of, from storage counters on lands, +1/+1 counters on creatures, or charge counters on artifacts. But most people – and rightfully so – are going to look at it and think planeswalkers, especially as this doubling effect is in Blue instead of Green. It may only be a one-time effect (by itself), but with the right permanents on the board there is nothing fishy about how effective a well-timed use of this creature can be.
Honorable Mention #3: Saskia the Unyielding
Saskia makes for a fairly intriguing creature in EDH games where one player is particularly difficult to attack head-on for one reason or another; this card gives you the ammunition to take them on indirectly. When Saskia enters the battlefield, you are essentially marking another player to take damage whenever one of your creatures attacks any of your opponents. If you can’t attack Player A directly, this allows you to attack another player and still do damage to them. And if you can attack that person you’re effectively dealing double damage. It’s sort of like Curse of Bloodletting, except that it only affects damage you’re doling out.
Likewise, we’ve seen a similar effect with Hydra Omnivore, but unlike the hydra or Aura, Saskia allows you to zero in on a specific problematic opponent with your creatures without the danger of either inciting everyone to pile on to a specific player or being so indescriminate that you risk antagonizing opponents you hadn’t meant to. Saskia is one of the more subtle new Commanders debuted, but its possible political implications at an EDH table are full of potential. Indeed, it allows you to come at a more defensive-minded opponent sideways in a way they likely won’t be prepared for.
Number Ten: Boompile
Of those, none stand out more than the classic and iconic Nevinyrral’s Disk. Fitting in any deck, the Disk is cheap, effective, splashable, and will destroy most of your problems. In some ways, it’s almost too good, as far as variety goes.
That said, it does have two drawbacks. The first is that it doesn’t take out planeswalkers. The second, and more important, is that it enters tapped, meaning it has to last a round before it can go off. Unless you want to double the mana investment for Oblivion Stone though, its cost efficiency always makes it worth that gamble.
Boompile takes that gamble one step further by giving you another all-inclusive board wipe capable of going in any deck for just four mana. The catch is that it only has a 50% chance of going off when you need it to. Not everyone is going to like those odds, true, but if you’re ok with chancing it, Boompile is the cheapest all-encompassing sweeper out there – especially for off-color permanent destruction. And hey, 50% of the time, it works every time.
Number Nine: Thrasios, Triton Hero
That said, it doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile. At its worst, this is effectively a creature-based version of Candles of Leng, giving you a 1/3 creature for two mana with a built-in ability to pay four to draw a card.
However, it also throws in the rider that the drawn card can go right into play if it’s a land, giving you the ability to get out land or draw into useful cards quickly. Coiling Oracle has this effect as a one-time trigger and is considered a worthwhile EDH card in its own right while Skyward Eye Prophets turned the “free land” rider into a tap ability. And ta da! Now Thrasios makes it a repeatable effect for every four mana.
The cost to use may sound prohibitive, but don’t discount the ability to sift through your deck in the later stages of the game. This card can certainly do that – especially with its Scry bonus – making it more useful than it may first appear. There’s no shortage of useful things this merfolk could unearth; that’s doubly true if it’s used as a Commander itself.
Number Eight: Conqueror’s Flail
When compiling a list of ways to prevent your opponents from mucking with your turns, few things are more effective than simply preventing your foes from being able to do anything in response to your actions.
It’s not a new idea. Magic has toyed with different ways to stop someone from stopping you as far back as Visions’ City of Solitude. In the world of Commander, though, the most emblematic face of Not Gonna Happen is Grand Abolisher. Although it’s not the biggest creature around, few other two-drops can cause as many tactical headaches as someone sitting with an Abolisher out. Anyone who has faced one knows the frustration of being unable to react to anything that player does, often to their detriment. It’s one real weakness, of course, is that a 2/2 creature is generally an easy removal target.
This Flail solves that problem by turning any creature of yours into a cleric-in-training, which is beyond advantageous. While the Flail doesn’t give the same shield defense for activated abilities as Grand Abolisher (similar to Dragonlord Dromoka), the tradeoff of being able to stop all manner of reaction spells from spot removal, to Fog effects, to counterspells, regardless of which creature you have out, is well worth it.
Plus, this affordable little equipment also fixes the Abolisher’s other problem by providing a creature buff as well. Which, given the ability’s effectiveness, it very well may need.
Number Seven: Faerie Artisans
Their only limitation is, of course, that they only work when the creature initially enters play. Thus, if you want to take advantage of a creature’s effect more than once, you either need it to leave and re-enter the battlefield or to make a copy of it.
Faerie Artisans takes the latter option and embraces it in full fae-like fashion. Any time a creature card hits the board, you gain a temporary copy of it. That could be yours, an opponent’s – it doesn’t matter. That copy’s lifespan is only as good as its toughness, or until something else comes along, so they aren’t much good if you’re trying to Clone something particularly useful for the long term. Instead these mischievous faeries give you the means to take advantage of every ETB effect that transpires, for better or worse. From this perspective, it doesn’t matter that all but your newest copy gets poofed from existence since even just a couple triggers will easily justify this card’s usefulness.
Number Six: Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist / Orzhov Advokist
This pair of political creatures shows how different colors can approach a similar idea from differing angles. In this case it’s trying to deter your opponent from attacking you. Both Blue and White are the defensive colors, so it’s no surprise to see new options here. Besides, it’d get boring just reprinting Propaganda / Ghostly Prison over and over.
Although both cards seek the same ends, they do go about it different ways. Ludivec – for all of the talk about his card not really fitting the character – is basically the Blue / Red version of Edric, Spymaster of Trest. This method doesn’t prevent someone from attacking you. Rather, it merely rewards players when they damage anyone but you. One thing it has over Edric btw: Ludivec deters all life loss, not just creatures.
Orzhov Adkokist similarly rewards other players for not attacking, albeit in a more proactive way. Instead of card draws, the church offers every opponent a deal: get a pair of +1/+1 counters in exchange for leaving you alone. The choice will be up to them, making it very reminiscent of Commander 2013’s Tempting Offer cards. It may not be enough of a bribe for everyone to spare you – or your planeswalkers – forever, but much like Propaganda, unless they’re intent on doing you harm it’s an easy incentive for an opponent to continue their indifference. And hey, at the worst you’re still getting two counters on a creature every round.
Number Five: Reyhan, Last of the Abzan
There’s not a lot of nuance to what this creature offers, admittedly. By itself, Reyhan is a solid 3/3 creature for three mana that doles out its counters if it dies. That fact alone makes it quite an efficient creature.
Whether part of your deck or leading it, though, its real potential is unleashed in situations where you’re sporting lots of +1/+1 counters. It’s a simple conceit, but so long as you have another creature to dump them on (or an opponent’s creature if you wish for some reason), those counters will continue to boost your army’s ferocity even in death.
Put another way: if you thought one Skullbriar was bad, prepare to meet an entire battalion of them.
Number Four: Divergent Transformations
It isn’t that Red should be as adept at spot removal as its Black or White counterparts. Rather, it’s that Red should at least be as capable handling creatures on the same level as it did in the past. With the proliferation of Hexproof and Indestructible, however, not to mention the percentage of large creatures found in EDH, Red’s has had some viability issues. Well, Wizards tacitly acknowledged this finally not that long ago and has started creating more multiplayer friendly Red spells. Ones such as this.
Enter Divergent Transformations, the new Red Polymorph. Trying the mechanic out Red, Divergent exiles problematic creatures it simply can’t burn to death – at the cost of possibly giving an opponent something equal or better in return. Yet the benefits far outweigh the risk, making this an impressive new tool in Red’s toolbox. Seven mana for instant speed Red exile of two creatures is justifiable, but when you add in the Undaunted cost reduction, it’s a no brainer for the fire mages among us. Dismiss its usefulness at your own peril. The card isn’t exactly flashy, but it’s far more valuable than it seems – all without the color pie issues of Chaos Warp.
Number Three: Magus of the Will
Admittedly, part of Yawgmoth’s Will’s impact is casting it to set off an explosive turn. Yet as with all Maguses (Magusi?), you do have to wait a turn first. While you do lose the element of surprise as a result in creature form, there still are a few advantages in an EDH setting. Those include that it’s a highly splashable creature, it’s a hefty 3/3 creature for three mana, and it doesn’t generate the knee-jerk need to automatically counter it. It will also make for a great deterrent in the middle to late stages of the game if you’re sitting on cards in your graveyard no one wants to see again. Finger on the trigger and all that.
Oh, and it’s also going to be far, far more affordable to acquire than its progenitor. That alone almost puts it into contention.
Number Two: Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice
While all of the new four-color legends are interesting in their own right, Atraxa is by far the most formidable based on raw power. Which is almost regrettable on some levels, because she’s probably also the least creative of the bunch. Still, it’s hard to argue with what works.
The combination of her four static abilities for her cost makes it quite scary to face down alone, especially if you can’t or don’t want to block. There are no conditional situations for her: Atraxa will always be useful on a creature level, so long as you have the mana.
When you add in the free Proliferate trigger every round, however, that opens up all sorts of doors to explore beyond simply having an appealing beatstick – Commander or not. Whether it’s manipulating creature counters, Infect damage, or, yes, planeswalker loyalty, Proliferate is the kind of mechanic with all manner of uses at the ready. And it just found its figurehead. The level of variety it offers across four colors is nothing short of impressive. Between being an effective creature in combat and enabling all manner of deck synergies, this fallen angel’s spot is well earned.
Number One: Grip of Phyresis
Not this time.
For Commander 2016 the top card, the one with the most wide-reaching potential, is the humble Grip of Phyresis. It earns its laurels not because it will single-handedly swing the game in your favor or break the bank with its awesomeness. No, this card earns the top spot because it’s almost always going to be useful in a game of Commander, no matter what deck you put it in.
In may ways Grip of Phyresis is a faster and more surefire Steal Artifact since it can be cast whenever and the control change is permanent. It may only care about Equipment, but this restriction is nearly moot. It’s rare to play a game of EDH without someone at least sporting a Swiftfoot Boots or Lightning Greaves, let alone more powerful treasures like Argentum Armor or Darksteel Plate. Whether you wish to stymie an opponent or simply turn their own asset against them, Grip of Phyresis is happy to oblige. And, if your ill-gotten artifact happens to provide a creature buff, then you also get a Germ that can be used for a surprise block, making this card work as a worthwhile combat utility card as well.
…All for three mana.
And if that isn’t the epitome of versatile, what is?
Would these cards have been on your own top ten? Tell us over on our social media!
Do you have a particular Commander card to suggest for us to shine a future Spotlight on? You can send suggestions to ryan@cardboardrepublic.com