I'm planning on trying to rule zero the initiative to say "Venture into the Dungeon" and under city to say "you cant enter this dungeon unless you have the initiative."
Quick explanation of the tadpole thing: The game Baldur's Gate 3 starts with characters on the nautiloid ship. All of them were captured by mind flayers and had tadpoles inserted into them. the tadpole is an important plot element and every playable character has one. WotC made all of the playable characters into cards so thats why they tadpole thing kept coming up :D. Also on another note. The lore on some characters like Lae'zel is very sparse because their game (BG3) is still in early access and we haven't learned that much about them. Shadohearts past espeacially has been kept purposefully mysterious.
I feel like some of these are a bit underrated for power? Mostly because I don't think you really *can* rate these as commanders without considering background pairs. Wilson, for example, is weak on his own, but if you pair him with Cultist of the Absolute you end up with one of the stronger combinations of the set for Voltron.
@@jackalcoyote8777 I think just pairing it with the best possible would do. The power ranking is supposed to be the ceiling isn't it? Cuz the floor is always 0, like Elf tribal Kess or Baral Voltron. IIRC, some of the partners were really low. Rograkh is at 3 there but it's in quite a few CEDH decks, either by powering out "If you control a commander" spells and Mox Amber for 0, getting sacced to Tevesh Szat or Culling the Weak for value, or polymorphing it into a combo piece.
@@jackalcoyote8777 yeah but you can't say Wilson is bad when a double strike background exist in a commander with vigilance, reach, trample, can't be countered and ward 2 😂
28:30 - Worth mentioning the Background “Folk Hero” here imo. Gives a draw once per turn when you cast a creature that shares a type with commander, there are a good number of great rogues/wizards/clerics in Orzhov with flash
"He was turned into a drider! Yay!" "No, that's a bad thing" "Is it? Don't they all worship Lolth?" "No, he rescued her *from* Lolth, so he was turned into one as a punishment" "Huh" You've perfectly captured the essence of everyone encountering Lolth culture, either in setting or reading the lore. I'm halfway convinced that R.A. Salvatore wanted to see how much bullshit it would take for Ed Greenwood to finally say "No, that doesn't make sense". Joke's on him! Ed 'My self insert sleeps with the goddess of magic on the reg' has no filter or limit for bullshit. And that's why Menzoberranzan is so utterly fucked up.
I LOVE Lulu in DnD and even have a plushie of her! To clarify the lore a little bit (spoilers for the Descent into Avernus campaign book): Zariel was once a powerful angel who was so driven to destroy all devils and demons that she led an army of angels into Avenus, the first level of Hell. Lulu was her war elephant mount and closest companion. The battle ended in a bitter defeat, and Asmodeus (the lord of the Nine Hells) made a deal with Zariel to spare her life, corrupt her into becoming an archdevil, and giving her the plane of Avernus to rule over. Corrupting a powerful being of pure good such as Zariel was a bragging point for Asmodeus. Her hatred of demons drove her to led armies of devils against the hordes of demons. She was once a lawful good angel but is now an lawful evil devil. There was a small part of Zariel that sought redemption from her devilish form and spared Lulu, giving her a sword that could redeem her. Lulu faced her share of hardships (including losing her memories and powers thanks to Mahadi, the Rakdos commander in this set). She eventually guides the players through Avernus in hopes of recovering her memories and powers, finding the sword, and redeeming her old friend. There is actually a mechanic in game where if the players befriend Lulu and take time to really become close to her, she will regain her powers and memories of what happened. You definitely nailed her vibe as the happy-go-lucky idealist, but all she wants to for her friend to return to her former state. The campaign has multiple endings, and it is possible to fulfill Lulu's wishes and redeem Zariel, transforming her into her angelic form, or it is also possible for Zariel to grow further into the darkness, which drives Lulu mad (very sad). Its such a great story, and I look forward to building a Lulu deck!
- Faceless One, Prismatic Piper's relative twice removed - Livaan, right into the 99 of Vadrik - Halsin looks awesome for Raggadragga mana dork stomp, bear in mind that they will be 6/6 for 1 mana that they can tap for themselves. Makes me think of a super cheap alternative to Allosaurus Shepherd - So excited for MOAR CLERICS! LOL
Just started BG3 and, by accident, i've built one of my favoite decks of all time: Karlach, Fury of Avernus and Cultist of the Absolute. It just crushes people. The first time i've played it we tried planechase for a change. First plane was the double damage one. From turn 5 on, Karlach took out at least one player per turn. Pretty short game and my opponents were shocked, that I could deal 32, 48, 64 commander damage a turn. The upkeep sac-a-creature trigger isn't that bad in rb tbh. You've got lots of options of great and cheap token makers that you could put out before you even play your commander+background, plus you get a lot of aristocrats stuff to even profit from sac trigger. This deck also goes nuts with attack triggers. Trigger elder brain three times a turn and let someone exile up to 21 cards from full hands is just insane. Karazikar goads the worst blockers and taps them, it also draws you cards. Yuri becoes a wincon if paired with krenko and remains in the game long enough. Add 16 to 64 red mana in your second or third main phase with Neheb, the Eternal? Check! I really dont like playing rakdos for the most part, only got one more deck in that color combination (Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin with an exile theme). But this one is a blast and a lot of fun to play. Check out my decklist if your interested (100€ budget): www.moxfield.com/decks/XdmApFoEtUq-apSNsVBShw
Wilson is actually a pretty scary commander if you pair it with the doublestrike background. I have a guy in my play group who fleshed out the deck and it definitely kills players.
Yeah Gale is actually the best in my opinion. It goes so well with any other color, with red you can actually use Lighting Bolt, Leyline of the Blue and you use sorceries as instants, with black you can use all the mass drain spells, with white you have more removal then a Modern Yorion deck, with green you double the ramp on can trips. All of it so great!
Built a Volo deck on moxfield (Volo, Pokemon God) and it's my new favorite deck. It was a lot of fun searching for different creature types and using creature types to limit what I could and couldn't play. Right now the creatures in the deck cover 35 different types. Kind of a journey to Godhood by flickering, bouncing and stealing. It's like playing Pokemon but better because you're playing Commander instead. 👍
@@NitpickingNerds I'm looking forward to saying "Ptermander, I choose you!" etc etc etc everytime I play a creature. Pretty sure I'll get banned from my group but it'll be worth.
You combine zellix with haunted one background and now all your horror tokens have 3/1 menace and undying. Maybe actually consider background pairings with background commanders.
Joe Cherries looking fresh with that haircut! Love your content nerds! I'll be updating my Volo UG deck to a Volo + Background deck now 😎 original Volo grabs too much hate, he'll be in the 99 lol.
I really like the idea of Durnan+Passionate archeologist. Durnana exiles and discounts big creatures and when I cast those creatures from exile the background is gonna blast someone for damage equal to that spells CMC. Gets good immediate value even if the spell gets countered
Incredibly stupid combo with Zellix Sanity flayer: you play a deck where almost everything is a creature, then you play Sage's Row Denizen (whenever a blue creature ETB, you mill 2), then you play a card like Spectral shift or Alter reality to change all instances of one color with another, so you change Denizen "when a blue creature" to "when a black creature" and you can keep selfmilling. every horror that ETB triggers the denizen that mills making more horrors you can play mana severance too to remove land, for more consistency.
Shadowheart ( 22:27 ) is great paired with a red background in a rakdos "threaten" deck. Steal your opponents creatures, then swing with them, then sac them to draw cards, even better if you sprinkle in some aristocrat stuff to make them lose more life when their own creature is getting sac'd for your card advantage 😈😈😈. Muhahahaha
@@jackalcoyote8777 I've done this with Olivia volderan and hoffri Ghost forge, But this one is just way better because the card draw is right in the command zone. Usually by the time I sack my first or second creature I have way too many cards and it's kind of a useless ability until I get a max hand size card. Worrying about milling myself out 😂
@@jlateralus21 IMO the coolest commander for this kind of deck is Marchesa the Black Rose, because with a sacrifice outlet you can actually keep all the stuff you steal from the enemies forever unless someone's running a Homeward Path.
@@astuteanansi4935 yeah, that's absolutely a great way to go. I just have been playing this one (a few games) and what I've noticed is that it's pretty streamlined. The card draw and sac outlet are both in the commandzone so it leaves many more spots in the deck for extra threaten spells, ramp, and responses. With the others you really have to add two or three (at minimum) sac outlets, And usually I run at least eight to 10 dedicated card draw spells.
Erinis is awesome, especially paired with the Street Urchin background, acting as a sort of build your own Attrition...in GR. Incredibly unique playstyle for the color, and more then enough token creation in the color pair.
Surprised I didn't see this mentioned. It's similar to Kelsien the Plague but you don't have to play deathtouch enablers, plus it has a ramp / landfall angle. I'm kinda tempted to build it
Jaheira is phenomenal in the 99. I picked her up to play in Lonis, Cryptozoologist as a redundant mana engine piece with Academy Manufactor; Urza, Lord High Artificer; and Inspiring Statuary. Super easy to rip through the deck with 48 creatures at a G discount just from having Lonis + Jaheira in play, plus she's even randomly an elf so I get a bit of value being able to use Wirewood Symbiote to protect her at activation speed. And if you find Academy Manufactor to pair with Jaheira and Lonis? Forget it.
I'm new to MtG, bu does Raised By Giants not make Wilson, Refined Grizzly an amazing card? A 10/10 with vigilance, reach, trample, and ward 2 for eight mana that's guaranteed to be played multiple times?
What's better than creating apparel and selling it to your audience? BEING SPONSORED TO PROMOTE IT! Nice! Glad to see the channel grow daily. Keep pumping out the great, quality content!
Abdel Adrian, Gorions Ward is amazing, I'd give him higher artwork because of his showcase art and higher coolness because hey canonical protagonist of the original saga, fought dragons, demiliches and demigods, an actual legend of the setting!
Very casual player & mill is basically like damage that doesn't kill you unless they have a really good mill deck. For one of my friends they would rather take 10 damage then mill 3... pretty ridiculous cuz he has never been decked he just hates milling.
I really wanted to make an initiative deck but man o man like 0 support. Seems like they fit into that esper precon commander but not much else. Most of the background commanders seem way underpowered or do things from other colors in very inefficient and awkward ways ...
If you run the poll about mill can we have more yhan two options to choose from. Such as... I like mill and play mill, I like mill and don't play mill, I dislike mill and don't play it, I don't care about mill either way.... just some ideas.
I threw skanos in my gruul dragon tribal as a backup character. I thought he was cool enough for my level. I have his paper sketch art. Ganax and acolyte of bahamut are the commander for it.
Hate to nitpick.. Love your content. I just wish you guys set up chapters in your videos. The long form is great but sometimes I may want to click to topics that are relevant to me at the time.
A reminder to people. Each of the commander precons has one "choose a background" commander and the intended background will be whatever one is in that deck.
To defend all the story stuff, the game is in early access and not all of the plot points have been revealed. The tadpole incident is the inciting incident of the new game. Its the driving force of the whole plot that people are infected with tadpoles.
I browsed through the comments and didn’t see anyone mention it, so I guess I’ll do it: the winged cat mentioned in Gale’s backstory is called a tressym.
I am blown away by Zellix's low placement! His intended background is Haunted One, AKA turning all your horrors into +2/+0, undying, big threats. Also Mesmeric Orb can get you several horrors every turn, combine that with Altar of the brood and any of the many horrors which also mill just by existing (consuming aberration, the one that mills 10 on attack trigger, Umbris in a way) then you're not just milling to death, you're milling for dozens of cards and then swinging for lethal with an army of 3/1 horrors! Also I think it's very fun because as you say yourself if you could start with cards in the graveyard you would. It's a risk/reward style of gameplay to mill your opponents but give them great flashback, reanimation, dredge, you name it targets, and one that I think is very very fun.
Fun idea but it doesn't work that well, quoth the wiki: "Tokens can gain undying, and the ability will trigger if a token is put into a graveyard. However, like all tokens, it can't return to the battlefield and will cease to exist as a state-based action before the ability would go on the stack." They still gain the +2/+0 but undying does nothing
@@astuteanansi4935 The undying does nothing for the tokens but they're still a bunch of 3/1s, and your regular horrors still get the resilient part of undying, and it's horror tribal so there's plenty of benefit to go around. Swinging with a dozen+ 3/1s does work well
* Gut I think is meant to be played with Treasures/Clues. * Erinis is *fantastic* with Scion of Halaster. She becomes the queen of Golgari ramp. Endlessly playing Evolving Wilds or Riveteer's Outlook means you often end up with double the lands your opponent has. If you can give her Thieves' Tools or something similar, you can guarantee she sticks around.
Alora , Merry Thief with Raised by Giants background… 2 turns of attacking = win through commander damage. (Discounting backgrounds by thinking that they don’t make a difference isn’t giving these commanders their proper spots.)
Sorry but Gut is way better than you think. I made a rakdos sac deck so agent of the iron throne and mahadi. Making treasures and dealing tons of damage while forcing people to double block every time. And he doesn't have to attack to get the ability so he you don't have to force his attack
Raised by giants with vahl let’s you tap for 10 jsyk. There’s ways to make fun decks without infinite. You’re down talking a lot of good commanders from this set.
Gale and scion of halstad dimir is very strong. Deck yourself out or simple work with your graveyard to cast spells. Lots of creatures to keep you safe while you amass your graveyard and hand for a plethora of cast options.
The amount of people playing pauper may increase. So many uncommon commander choices now. So while there are lots of weak cards, you could have thrown in a consideration for pauper options.
That's very reasonable, but pauper is a separate format that doesn't really matter for the context of regular commander. If they ever decide to rank every uncommon legendary I'm down for that though.
Excuse me but... You pair Wilson with the Double Strike white background and you make a boggle deck with him and he can literally kill someone turn 4-5 xDD I would NOT EVER call that bad. Ward 2 and stacking umbras? Oh boy... not to mention hexproof enchantments and protections. Edit: I feel you should have rated cards with backgrounds, been playing Burakos for the last 3 days and she's very powerful creating treasures and Folk's hero makes you draw a card almost every single turn, the party deck is surprisingly strong. You can do tons of damage with Agent of the Iron throne, Vrock and win the game with Revel in riches... Probably there's many other cards to take advantage of having a treasure machine as your commander. It makes a huge difference when you take the right backgrounds in consideration XD
Halsin can be quite interesting depending on the cards you use. Manipulating tokens to become 4/4 can be really strong. In the 99 Ziatora would most likely want to turn a treasure into a 4/4 bear and fling that to make three more treasure. As a commander on could go the crazy route of e.g. using Greater Good which allow you to pay 1 and sacrifice any token to draw 4 then discard 3. In Black one could profit from Bone Miser (and tutors) to empty the whole deck while selecting what ends in your graveyard and what stays in your hand. It is also worth mentioning that Pitiless Plunderer will allow you to get infinit death triggers if you manage to give hast to the bears. They stay treasures and could still tap for mana and be sacrificed which will give you a new treasure. Giving haste might already be useful even without Pitiless Plunderer because in the end Halsin x Greater Good would like to search for mass reanimation while filling the graveyard with creatures. From the general strategy the deck works best with Agent of the Iron Throne to give you a Blood artist like card in the command zone. From a power level this should be about as good of a Plan as playing Slimefoot, Beledros. But certainly about better than actually playing e.g. Willowdusk. Especially with "Agent of the Iron Throne" already being close to Slimefoot
Fun fact for ganax, he doesn't specify nontoken so he works great with anything that makes dragon tokens.^^ Lathliss, Dragon Broodmother, Miirym from this same set, etc. Get treasure for casting dragons and then get MORE treasures when your dragons make more dragons.^^ Also, since you'll be going tribal for this anyway, urza's incubator and mana echoes^^
I think you are sleeping on Erinis, Gloom Stalker. With Sword Coast Sailor, she is unblockable when attacking the opponent with the most life. Get back fetches, land creatures, strip mines, and all kinds of other nasty stuff. (DARK DEPTHS/THESPIAN STAGE) I am leaning towards creating this version with landfall effects. (Simic may be tough to find value though (ha) ) There are also black backgrounds that would let you go down a more "Gitroggy" path. She immediately stood out to me as a sleeper, but I guess to each their own. It must have been difficult to classify these commanders without factoring in the backgrounds that work well with them.
Ngl, Background Partners are just... too many choices! I couldn't even settle on normal partners, coz it always went to "yeah but i kinda need that other color and that color and whoops i built Thrasios Tymna again" This is just too much
i don’t think i’ve seen anyone else mention, but Amber Gristle O’Maul actually IS on the Forgotten Realms Wiki, but her page is under her nickname Ambergris, and her full name doesn’t redirect for whatever reason. she’s a character from the same book series as Drizzt.
As a many years veteran DM, it is soooooo funny to watch these guys try to lore, lol. At least they try. Fyi, Zariel is dope af. She is like the Darth Vader of DnD. Fallen angel that sacrificed her divinity to wage endless war against the demons. If either the demons or the devils win the blood war, they will turn to take over the rest of the universe. So yeah, it's kind of important that the war never ends regardless of what harm it does to the u iverse because the alternative is way worse. The archdevil Asmodeus was so impressed with Zariel that he offered her the throne of Avernus (1st layer of hell) to wage his war for him as his top general and she is the closest the devils have ever come to winning the war. In the dnd campaign Descent into Avernus, the heroes can reunite Lulu with her friend Zariel and try to redeem the angel by convincing her to retake her divinity. Or, you can help her defeat the devils and end the war. Or endless other endings. Either way, huge consequences for the universe.
A lot of these characters are from the OG Baldurs Gate games. Awesome to see them as magic cards. Will always remember "The Lord of Murder Shall Perish, and in his doom he shall spawn a score of mortal progeny. Chaos will be sown from his passage. So sayeth the wise Alaundo!
I'm doing a deck with Sivriss when Liliana is like their "master" in a sense, training an apprentice to take value out of necromancy. Plenty of Strixhaven cards to add to the deck with lessons and I already have a bunch of Liliana Planeswalkers.
Alora makes me think ninjas. Drawback is irrelevant if you're going to ninjutsu anyway, and she helps keep the ninja train rolling since even your creatures that could normally be blocked turn into ninjutsu enablers.
I will say though, Gale, Lae'zel, Wyll, Karlach, and Shadowheart are part of Baldur's Gate 3 which still isn't fully out, so these characters don't have their lore fully revealed just yet
I think Shadowheart's lore is vague (and the other Baldur's Gate 3 character cards) because the game hasn't been released yet, and they don't want to spoil everything.
All right, time to being typically nerd! The yawning portal gets its name for a hole that leads to a dungeon, called undermount. At the center of the bar this whole is located, it is referred to as the yawning portal.
Can someone explain to me why a set called (and supposedly aimed toward the Commander format) "COMMANDER Legends" was designed so fucking heavily for Draft? I get the reason to open boxes, but that can be said for any set, right? Mtg's most popular format will sell boxes through correlation.
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I'll be asking my playgroup if we can rule 0 Faceless One to say "etb you gain the initiative" to make initiative commanders work
That's a nice idea!
Honestly a great idea, a shame it didn't have it already
Orrrr rule zero Prismatic Piper to have “choose a background” and let it be Faceless One
I'm planning on trying to rule zero the initiative to say "Venture into the Dungeon" and under city to say "you cant enter this dungeon unless you have the initiative."
Same function, just less clunky with the existing dungeons.
Quick explanation of the tadpole thing:
The game Baldur's Gate 3 starts with characters on the nautiloid ship. All of them were captured by mind flayers and had tadpoles inserted into them. the tadpole is an important plot element and every playable character has one. WotC made all of the playable characters into cards so thats why they tadpole thing kept coming up :D.
Also on another note. The lore on some characters like Lae'zel is very sparse because their game (BG3) is still in early access and we haven't learned that much about them. Shadohearts past espeacially has been kept purposefully mysterious.
I’d love to see a video of all of these commanders with the BEST background they can be paired with. It would be pretty unique!
I feel like some of these are a bit underrated for power? Mostly because I don't think you really *can* rate these as commanders without considering background pairs. Wilson, for example, is weak on his own, but if you pair him with Cultist of the Absolute you end up with one of the stronger combinations of the set for Voltron.
Also the white one which gives Double Strike and you can play a boggles deck with enchantress like Sythis, Sram and Kor Spiritdancer.
They'd have a 6x longer video if they paired it with all the colors of background
@@jackalcoyote8777 I think just pairing it with the best possible would do. The power ranking is supposed to be the ceiling isn't it? Cuz the floor is always 0, like Elf tribal Kess or Baral Voltron.
IIRC, some of the partners were really low. Rograkh is at 3 there but it's in quite a few CEDH decks, either by powering out "If you control a commander" spells and Mox Amber for 0, getting sacced to Tevesh Szat or Culling the Weak for value, or polymorphing it into a combo piece.
@@jackalcoyote8777 yeah but you can't say Wilson is bad when a double strike background exist in a commander with vigilance, reach, trample, can't be countered and ward 2 😂
3:15 The Faceless One
4:15 Amber Gristle O'Maul
5:55 Gut, True Soul Zealot
7:45 Erinis, Gloom Stalker
8:55 Livaan, Cultist of Tiamat
9:55 Safana, Calimport Cutthroat
12:15 Vhal, Candlekeep Researcher
14:00 Halsin, Emerald Archdruid
15:50 Zellix, Sanity Flayer
17:45 Skanos Dragonheart
18:50 Viconia, Drow Apostate
21:00 Renari, Merchant of Marvels
22:30 Shadowheart, Dark Justiciar
24:10 Wilson, Refined Grizzly
25:35 Alora, Merry Thief
27:25 Burakos, Party Leader
29:00 Rasaad yn Rashir
32:20 Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer
35:00 Ganax, Astral Hunter
36:35 Wyll, Blade of Frontiers
38:40 Sivriss, Nightmare Speaker
40:25 Lulu, Loyal Hollyphant
42:15 Sarevok, Deathbringer
44:30 Imoen, Mystic Trickster
46:10 Durnan of the Yawning Portal
47:55 Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward
50:35 Gale, Waterdeep Prodigy
52:40 Lae'zel, Vlaakith's Champion
54:45 Jaheira, Friend of the Forest
56:45 Karlach, Fury of Avernus
58:50 Ellyn Harbreeze, Busybody
1:00:30 Volo, Itinerant Scholar
Why you gotta spoil the moxfield ad😭
@@ayllipkhieu8659 I thought about it, to take it in the list, but you are right, I apologize
@@giriel all good fam! Have a nice day
28:30 - Worth mentioning the Background “Folk Hero” here imo. Gives a draw once per turn when you cast a creature that shares a type with commander, there are a good number of great rogues/wizards/clerics in Orzhov with flash
Seems like a really good pairing!
I like the idea of a deck build challenge of Burakos + Haunted One: All edgelords
"He was turned into a drider! Yay!"
"No, that's a bad thing"
"Is it? Don't they all worship Lolth?"
"No, he rescued her *from* Lolth, so he was turned into one as a punishment"
"Huh"
You've perfectly captured the essence of everyone encountering Lolth culture, either in setting or reading the lore. I'm halfway convinced that R.A. Salvatore wanted to see how much bullshit it would take for Ed Greenwood to finally say "No, that doesn't make sense". Joke's on him! Ed 'My self insert sleeps with the goddess of magic on the reg' has no filter or limit for bullshit.
And that's why Menzoberranzan is so utterly fucked up.
Thankfully DnD lore is endlessly customizable by the dm so you can just ignore the stupid parts.
I LOVE Lulu in DnD and even have a plushie of her! To clarify the lore a little bit (spoilers for the Descent into Avernus campaign book): Zariel was once a powerful angel who was so driven to destroy all devils and demons that she led an army of angels into Avenus, the first level of Hell. Lulu was her war elephant mount and closest companion. The battle ended in a bitter defeat, and Asmodeus (the lord of the Nine Hells) made a deal with Zariel to spare her life, corrupt her into becoming an archdevil, and giving her the plane of Avernus to rule over. Corrupting a powerful being of pure good such as Zariel was a bragging point for Asmodeus. Her hatred of demons drove her to led armies of devils against the hordes of demons. She was once a lawful good angel but is now an lawful evil devil. There was a small part of Zariel that sought redemption from her devilish form and spared Lulu, giving her a sword that could redeem her. Lulu faced her share of hardships (including losing her memories and powers thanks to Mahadi, the Rakdos commander in this set). She eventually guides the players through Avernus in hopes of recovering her memories and powers, finding the sword, and redeeming her old friend. There is actually a mechanic in game where if the players befriend Lulu and take time to really become close to her, she will regain her powers and memories of what happened. You definitely nailed her vibe as the happy-go-lucky idealist, but all she wants to for her friend to return to her former state. The campaign has multiple endings, and it is possible to fulfill Lulu's wishes and redeem Zariel, transforming her into her angelic form, or it is also possible for Zariel to grow further into the darkness, which drives Lulu mad (very sad). Its such a great story, and I look forward to building a Lulu deck!
This is so sad I feel for her!
if it suits you..you can pair her up with master chef and make revolt deck and see how it goes
You 2 need to join a d&d group. Come on guys, get with the program.
Baeloth can be paired with the Background that makes it a 10/10. Then you goad almost everything
That's what they said. That's raised by giants and they curve into one another.
Is Abdel/Animate Dead strong enough to be a thing? Seems kinda cool idk
Seems like a thing to us!
Ive seen a good cedh deck build around that, so yes
- Faceless One, Prismatic Piper's relative twice removed
- Livaan, right into the 99 of Vadrik
- Halsin looks awesome for Raggadragga mana dork stomp, bear in mind that they will be 6/6 for 1 mana that they can tap for themselves. Makes me think of a super cheap alternative to Allosaurus Shepherd
- So excited for MOAR CLERICS! LOL
Yes, that's why they made it. Same reason as last time, the Basic commander to have your back if you fail the draft.
Just started BG3 and, by accident, i've built one of my favoite decks of all time: Karlach, Fury of Avernus and Cultist of the Absolute. It just crushes people.
The first time i've played it we tried planechase for a change. First plane was the double damage one. From turn 5 on, Karlach took out at least one player per turn. Pretty short game and my opponents were shocked, that I could deal 32, 48, 64 commander damage a turn.
The upkeep sac-a-creature trigger isn't that bad in rb tbh. You've got lots of options of great and cheap token makers that you could put out before you even play your commander+background, plus you get a lot of aristocrats stuff to even profit from sac trigger.
This deck also goes nuts with attack triggers. Trigger elder brain three times a turn and let someone exile up to 21 cards from full hands is just insane. Karazikar goads the worst blockers and taps them, it also draws you cards. Yuri becoes a wincon if paired with krenko and remains in the game long enough. Add 16 to 64 red mana in your second or third main phase with Neheb, the Eternal? Check!
I really dont like playing rakdos for the most part, only got one more deck in that color combination (Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin with an exile theme). But this one is a blast and a lot of fun to play.
Check out my decklist if your interested (100€ budget): www.moxfield.com/decks/XdmApFoEtUq-apSNsVBShw
Wilson is actually a pretty scary commander if you pair it with the doublestrike background. I have a guy in my play group who fleshed out the deck and it definitely kills players.
Yeah Gale is actually the best in my opinion. It goes so well with any other color, with red you can actually use Lighting Bolt, Leyline of the Blue and you use sorceries as instants, with black you can use all the mass drain spells, with white you have more removal then a Modern Yorion deck, with green you double the ramp on can trips. All of it so great!
22:22
Cherries hair looking good btw
Ranking these commanders without the backgrounds they are intended to be paired with seems like a waste of time.
Just want to say, Joe, your hair and beard are looking sharp 👌
Thank you so much
Play maskwood nexus, cast labman, tap volo to win for drawing 261 cards!
Built a Volo deck on moxfield (Volo, Pokemon God) and it's my new favorite deck. It was a lot of fun searching for different creature types and using creature types to limit what I could and couldn't play. Right now the creatures in the deck cover 35 different types.
Kind of a journey to Godhood by flickering, bouncing and stealing.
It's like playing Pokemon but better because you're playing Commander instead. 👍
OMG get volo alter to be ash and the journal a pokedex!
@@NitpickingNerds I'm looking forward to saying "Ptermander, I choose you!" etc etc etc everytime I play a creature.
Pretty sure I'll get banned from my group but it'll be worth.
Wizards should've did an article with lore snippets for those who aren't well versed on baldurs gate.
I was going to compliment the hair color change on an earlier video, but I forgot. So, it looks nice, good job.
You combine zellix with haunted one background and now all your horror tokens have 3/1 menace and undying. Maybe actually consider background pairings with background commanders.
The tokens won’t return with undying, tokens disappear when they leave the battlefield. But every other non token horror will return tho
Joe Cherries looking fresh with that haircut!
Love your content nerds! I'll be updating my Volo UG deck to a Volo + Background deck now 😎 original Volo grabs too much hate, he'll be in the 99 lol.
I really like the idea of Durnan+Passionate archeologist. Durnana exiles and discounts big creatures and when I cast those creatures from exile the background is gonna blast someone for damage equal to that spells CMC. Gets good immediate value even if the spell gets countered
Incredibly stupid combo with Zellix Sanity flayer: you play a deck where almost everything is a creature, then you play Sage's Row Denizen (whenever a blue creature ETB, you mill 2), then you play a card like Spectral shift or Alter reality to change all instances of one color with another, so you change Denizen "when a blue creature" to "when a black creature" and you can keep selfmilling. every horror that ETB triggers the denizen that mills making more horrors
you can play mana severance too to remove land, for more consistency.
I just noticed that faceless one doesn’t even have a creature type
They should have made it so any mono color commander could have a background in the command zone.
You can try it with your group and see what happens. I bet it's miserable, like giving every monocolored creature partnee
@@jackalcoyote8777 krenko...all i gotta say
Shadowheart ( 22:27 ) is great paired with a red background in a rakdos "threaten" deck. Steal your opponents creatures, then swing with them, then sac them to draw cards, even better if you sprinkle in some aristocrat stuff to make them lose more life when their own creature is getting sac'd for your card advantage 😈😈😈. Muhahahaha
Yup, baby's first steal sac deck.
@@jackalcoyote8777 I've done this with Olivia volderan and hoffri Ghost forge, But this one is just way better because the card draw is right in the command zone. Usually by the time I sack my first or second creature I have way too many cards and it's kind of a useless ability until I get a max hand size card. Worrying about milling myself out 😂
@@jlateralus21 IMO the coolest commander for this kind of deck is Marchesa the Black Rose, because with a sacrifice outlet you can actually keep all the stuff you steal from the enemies forever unless someone's running a Homeward Path.
@@astuteanansi4935 yeah, that's absolutely a great way to go. I just have been playing this one (a few games) and what I've noticed is that it's pretty streamlined. The card draw and sac outlet are both in the commandzone so it leaves many more spots in the deck for extra threaten spells, ramp, and responses. With the others you really have to add two or three (at minimum) sac outlets, And usually I run at least eight to 10 dedicated card draw spells.
In Baldur's Gate 1 you make whatever character you want and play through. When they make a "cannon" character for the story later it is Abdel Adrian.
Erinis is awesome, especially paired with the Street Urchin background, acting as a sort of build your own Attrition...in GR. Incredibly unique playstyle for the color, and more then enough token creation in the color pair.
Surprised I didn't see this mentioned. It's similar to Kelsien the Plague but you don't have to play deathtouch enablers, plus it has a ramp / landfall angle. I'm kinda tempted to build it
Jaheira is phenomenal in the 99. I picked her up to play in Lonis, Cryptozoologist as a redundant mana engine piece with Academy Manufactor; Urza, Lord High Artificer; and Inspiring Statuary. Super easy to rip through the deck with 48 creatures at a G discount just from having Lonis + Jaheira in play, plus she's even randomly an elf so I get a bit of value being able to use Wirewood Symbiote to protect her at activation speed. And if you find Academy Manufactor to pair with Jaheira and Lonis? Forget it.
I'm new to MtG, bu does Raised By Giants not make Wilson, Refined Grizzly an amazing card? A 10/10 with vigilance, reach, trample, and ward 2 for eight mana that's guaranteed to be played multiple times?
What's better than creating apparel and selling it to your audience? BEING SPONSORED TO PROMOTE IT! Nice! Glad to see the channel grow daily. Keep pumping out the great, quality content!
I was kinda hoping y'all would go through and recommend Backgrounds for each commander
Abdel Adrian, Gorions Ward is amazing, I'd give him higher artwork because of his showcase art and higher coolness because hey canonical protagonist of the original saga, fought dragons, demiliches and demigods, an actual legend of the setting!
Very casual player & mill is basically like damage that doesn't kill you unless they have a really good mill deck. For one of my friends they would rather take 10 damage then mill 3... pretty ridiculous cuz he has never been decked he just hates milling.
I really wanted to make an initiative deck but man o man like 0 support. Seems like they fit into that esper precon commander but not much else. Most of the background commanders seem way underpowered or do things from other colors in very inefficient and awkward ways ...
If you run the poll about mill can we have more yhan two options to choose from. Such as... I like mill and play mill, I like mill and don't play mill, I dislike mill and don't play it, I don't care about mill either way.... just some ideas.
I threw skanos in my gruul dragon tribal as a backup character. I thought he was cool enough for my level. I have his paper sketch art. Ganax and acolyte of bahamut are the commander for it.
Hate to nitpick.. Love your content. I just wish you guys set up chapters in your videos. The long form is great but sometimes I may want to click to topics that are relevant to me at the time.
A reminder to people. Each of the commander precons has one "choose a background" commander and the intended background will be whatever one is in that deck.
They went over them. Obviously party isn't in the set.
To defend all the story stuff, the game is in early access and not all of the plot points have been revealed. The tadpole incident is the inciting incident of the new game. Its the driving force of the whole plot that people are infected with tadpoles.
I browsed through the comments and didn’t see anyone mention it, so I guess I’ll do it: the winged cat mentioned in Gale’s backstory is called a tressym.
Joe bringing up the atrocities that were the Mortal Kombat films lol
Edit: Also, Vahl/Raised by giants is OP af
30:53 aged like milk lmao 😂
are you guys ranking the backgrounds in this? Their kinda commanders/they sit in the command zone just as these choose a background creatures do
I run Baeloth Barrityl with Noble Heritage for immediate buffs and then run a Voltron Boros shell for commander damage kills
I guess ppl don’t get gut power with chefs bg and doublers and extra counter. Together with menece and it gets fast strong.
you need to play against gut to appreciate it. i played against him in the prerelease and it was sick lol. those skeletons will crack your head.
hahaha my friend made a wyll dice rolling deck and some of the effects are brutal and does decent on casual environment def nothing cedh
Is Joe's hair Purple or Blue-ish or is it just my eyes playing tricks on me. Either way man like the style.
Biggest disagree possible on gale having a 5 for power, he is by far the strongest legendary in this set and its not even close.
I am blown away by Zellix's low placement! His intended background is Haunted One, AKA turning all your horrors into +2/+0, undying, big threats. Also Mesmeric Orb can get you several horrors every turn, combine that with Altar of the brood and any of the many horrors which also mill just by existing (consuming aberration, the one that mills 10 on attack trigger, Umbris in a way) then you're not just milling to death, you're milling for dozens of cards and then swinging for lethal with an army of 3/1 horrors!
Also I think it's very fun because as you say yourself if you could start with cards in the graveyard you would. It's a risk/reward style of gameplay to mill your opponents but give them great flashback, reanimation, dredge, you name it targets, and one that I think is very very fun.
Fun idea but it doesn't work that well, quoth the wiki: "Tokens can gain undying, and the ability will trigger if a token is put into a graveyard. However, like all tokens, it can't return to the battlefield and will cease to exist as a state-based action before the ability would go on the stack." They still gain the +2/+0 but undying does nothing
@@astuteanansi4935 The undying does nothing for the tokens but they're still a bunch of 3/1s, and your regular horrors still get the resilient part of undying, and it's horror tribal so there's plenty of benefit to go around.
Swinging with a dozen+ 3/1s does work well
* Gut I think is meant to be played with Treasures/Clues.
* Erinis is *fantastic* with Scion of Halaster. She becomes the queen of Golgari ramp. Endlessly playing Evolving Wilds or Riveteer's Outlook means you often end up with double the lands your opponent has. If you can give her Thieves' Tools or something similar, you can guarantee she sticks around.
With zellix I'd just put him in my self mill and make creatures to sacrifice to altars for different abilities
Have you ever considered going back to old sets and talking about your explanations for those commanderz
I love your hair Joe, its amazing.
thank you so much
With imoen id probably just run monarch, iniative, and the coveted jewel. Why not right?
Hey, Baldur's Gate legendaries, having a tadpole in your eye doesn't count as having a personality
Joe sporting a fresher than wet paint haircut 🍻🤣
One thing you missed on shadowheart is you can sack tokens so a zombie is a draw 2 with no other cards
Alora , Merry Thief with Raised by Giants background… 2 turns of attacking = win through commander damage. (Discounting backgrounds by thinking that they don’t make a difference isn’t giving these commanders their proper spots.)
I actually laughed out loud when someone drafted me a karlach towards the middle of pack 2
can you use faceless one as a background and then choose another background for 3 color decks?
Sorry but Gut is way better than you think. I made a rakdos sac deck so agent of the iron throne and mahadi. Making treasures and dealing tons of damage while forcing people to double block every time. And he doesn't have to attack to get the ability so he you don't have to force his attack
Making 1 4/1 a turn seems very weak
I wish the previews to regular videos ratio was slightly higher in favor of regular videos
Do I hear shade being thrown at Taranika, the best banding commander out there?
Raised by giants with vahl let’s you tap for 10 jsyk. There’s ways to make fun decks without infinite. You’re down talking a lot of good commanders from this set.
Problem is that you can’t use it to cast spells from your hand
Gale and scion of halstad dimir is very strong. Deck yourself out or simple work with your graveyard to cast spells. Lots of creatures to keep you safe while you amass your graveyard and hand for a plethora of cast options.
The amount of people playing pauper may increase. So many uncommon commander choices now. So while there are lots of weak cards, you could have thrown in a consideration for pauper options.
That's very reasonable, but pauper is a separate format that doesn't really matter for the context of regular commander. If they ever decide to rank every uncommon legendary I'm down for that though.
For Zellix it pairs pretty well with altar of the brood
I noticed this set has a lot of meh commanders just because of the "one or more"
Alora seems like an interesting Ninja commander with a black background
There should be a list of your ranking in the description of the video.
Excuse me but... You pair Wilson with the Double Strike white background and you make a boggle deck with him and he can literally kill someone turn 4-5 xDD I would NOT EVER call that bad. Ward 2 and stacking umbras? Oh boy... not to mention hexproof enchantments and protections.
Edit: I feel you should have rated cards with backgrounds, been playing Burakos for the last 3 days and she's very powerful creating treasures and Folk's hero makes you draw a card almost every single turn, the party deck is surprisingly strong. You can do tons of damage with Agent of the Iron throne, Vrock and win the game with Revel in riches... Probably there's many other cards to take advantage of having a treasure machine as your commander. It makes a huge difference when you take the right backgrounds in consideration XD
This ranking is waste of time imo clearly they never even try cards yet
Side note I think Joe's hair looks great, fantastic video guys
Halsin can be quite interesting depending on the cards you use. Manipulating tokens to become 4/4 can be really strong.
In the 99 Ziatora would most likely want to turn a treasure into a 4/4 bear and fling that to make three more treasure.
As a commander on could go the crazy route of e.g. using Greater Good which allow you to pay 1 and sacrifice any token to draw 4 then discard 3.
In Black one could profit from Bone Miser (and tutors) to empty the whole deck while selecting what ends in your graveyard and what stays in your hand. It is also worth mentioning that Pitiless Plunderer will allow you to get infinit death triggers if you manage to give hast to the bears. They stay treasures and could still tap for mana and be sacrificed which will give you a new treasure.
Giving haste might already be useful even without Pitiless Plunderer because in the end Halsin x Greater Good would like to search for mass reanimation while filling the graveyard with creatures.
From the general strategy the deck works best with Agent of the Iron Throne to give you a Blood artist like card in the command zone.
From a power level this should be about as good of a Plan as playing Slimefoot, Beledros. But certainly about better than actually playing e.g. Willowdusk. Especially with "Agent of the Iron Throne" already being close to Slimefoot
Fun fact for ganax, he doesn't specify nontoken so he works great with anything that makes dragon tokens.^^
Lathliss, Dragon Broodmother, Miirym from this same set, etc.
Get treasure for casting dragons and then get MORE treasures when your dragons make more dragons.^^
Also, since you'll be going tribal for this anyway, urza's incubator and mana echoes^^
In all honesty, the Backgrounds are so bad, faceless one could be one of the better ones. I mean, he at least does smt by himself.
Well the backgrounds are not great they are much better than a 5 mana 3/3
I think you are sleeping on Erinis, Gloom Stalker. With Sword Coast Sailor, she is unblockable when attacking the opponent with the most life. Get back fetches, land creatures, strip mines, and all kinds of other nasty stuff. (DARK DEPTHS/THESPIAN STAGE) I am leaning towards creating this version with landfall effects. (Simic may be tough to find value though (ha) ) There are also black backgrounds that would let you go down a more "Gitroggy" path. She immediately stood out to me as a sleeper, but I guess to each their own. It must have been difficult to classify these commanders without factoring in the backgrounds that work well with them.
Ngl, Background Partners are just... too many choices!
I couldn't even settle on normal partners, coz it always went to "yeah but i kinda need that other color and that color and whoops i built Thrasios Tymna again"
This is just too much
My heart still cries that Merieke Ri Berrit is so low on the list...
i don’t think i’ve seen anyone else mention, but Amber Gristle O’Maul actually IS on the Forgotten Realms Wiki, but her page is under her nickname Ambergris, and her full name doesn’t redirect for whatever reason. she’s a character from the same book series as Drizzt.
As a many years veteran DM, it is soooooo funny to watch these guys try to lore, lol. At least they try.
Fyi, Zariel is dope af. She is like the Darth Vader of DnD. Fallen angel that sacrificed her divinity to wage endless war against the demons. If either the demons or the devils win the blood war, they will turn to take over the rest of the universe. So yeah, it's kind of important that the war never ends regardless of what harm it does to the u iverse because the alternative is way worse. The archdevil Asmodeus was so impressed with Zariel that he offered her the throne of Avernus (1st layer of hell) to wage his war for him as his top general and she is the closest the devils have ever come to winning the war. In the dnd campaign Descent into Avernus, the heroes can reunite Lulu with her friend Zariel and try to redeem the angel by convincing her to retake her divinity. Or, you can help her defeat the devils and end the war. Or endless other endings. Either way, huge consequences for the universe.
Khalid and Rasaad Yn Bashir have names I believe are based in Arabic
A lot of these characters are from the OG Baldurs Gate games. Awesome to see them as magic cards. Will always remember "The Lord of Murder Shall Perish, and in his doom he shall spawn a score of mortal progeny. Chaos will be sown from his passage. So sayeth the wise Alaundo!
Khalid is a pretty classic Arabic name like John or Jacob.
I'm doing a deck with Sivriss when Liliana is like their "master" in a sense, training an apprentice to take value out of necromancy. Plenty of Strixhaven cards to add to the deck with lessons and I already have a bunch of Liliana Planeswalkers.
Alora makes me think ninjas. Drawback is irrelevant if you're going to ninjutsu anyway, and she helps keep the ninja train rolling since even your creatures that could normally be blocked turn into ninjutsu enablers.
I will say though, Gale, Lae'zel, Wyll, Karlach, and Shadowheart are part of Baldur's Gate 3 which still isn't fully out, so these characters don't have their lore fully revealed just yet
WILSON IS BUSTED. PL AT LEAST A 6 FOR VOLTRON COMMANDER!
What about Korlessa!!! I won all my draft matches with her. Big splashy Simic dragons!!!
Will be in tomorrow's video
YOU ARE OBLIGATED TO MAKE AN AMBER DECK, BZ.
Mox Amber goes in there as well, of course.
"You're even more giant." Dead.
I think Shadowheart's lore is vague (and the other Baldur's Gate 3 character cards) because the game hasn't been released yet, and they don't want to spoil everything.
Pretty much spot on for Sarevok's lore and a lot of decent story in Baldur's Gate 1
All right, time to being typically nerd! The yawning portal gets its name for a hole that leads to a dungeon, called undermount. At the center of the bar this whole is located, it is referred to as the yawning portal.
Can someone explain to me why a set called (and supposedly aimed toward the Commander format) "COMMANDER Legends" was designed so fucking heavily for Draft? I get the reason to open boxes, but that can be said for any set, right? Mtg's most popular format will sell boxes through correlation.
Well it is balanced for a draft experience. The set still has some really cool commander cards
@@NitpickingNerds Thanks for the reply, but then why call it Commander Legends? I feel a set should sell what it advertises right?