I love the idea of mono-eminence. I also love the idea of origins (They let you use cards outside your commander identity if they fulfill a condition). I love being incentivized to build unoptimal decks.
In the future, if some of these cards inspire real cards one day, I hope we get a video about that design process. These are always fun videos to watch.
Hidetsugu/Vito player here! Thank you so much for the shoutout Gavin, and for the wonderful Barce artwork you did, it looks great in my commander cube 🥰
I really like the stuff that's based off commander tax. I don't think you should be able to reset it but making tokens or drawing form how much your tax is, is pretty neat.
10:58 OMG! I can't believe my Barcelona commander couple got featured in the video! 🎉 It was such a fun event, and THE Colossal Dreadmaw with Brinelin was so easy to pilot and yet so. damn. Fun! Thank you Gavin and everyone in the team for blessing me with this terrifying couple. Please make it a real card?
Hey, Gavin! What card would I want to be real in Magic? Well, how about a colorless Eldrazi Commander with "Rulebreaker - ... you may include eldrazi cards of any color in your deck regardless of color identity." Currently the only way to make a Five Color Colorless Eldrazi Tribal Deck is with Morophon, which is fine but I'd love to have something a little more directly dedicated to eldrazi. I know we just got a whole eldrazi starter commander deck, but what can I say, they're my favorite tribe! : D
I’ve always wanted “the home for lost keywords”. For example, using +1counter mechanics as an example, a commander that allows target creature to explore, or adapt, or connive etc. that way it can build a deck of its own, or let you build around mechanics like explore that don’t really have a legend
The commander enchantments seem like more complicated Background enchantments. You could just add that Background enchantments affect your commander in any zone.
Okay, as an aspiring designer, I love so much of this: -Rulebreaker is a fun design space, giving more creative liberty to de k building. -I'm interested in spell commander, but how can you make that feel like your general more? Or is the point for it to be more of a signature spell like in the Oathbreaker format? -I loved the enchantment that makes sol ring. -mono eminence is awesome. Not enough people test their deck building prowess with mono color decks, so incentive is awesome. - also like the idea of commander suspend. What a fun atmosphere that would put on the game I think! - I also love the tinkering with command tax payoffs, and even decreasing command tax and commander damage. They just seem like ways to help players continue to do what they want to do with their decks, and not feel so blown out. And keep bringing high cmc commander payoffs!
I love the idea of commanders that care about their tax/number of times they have been cast. Two of my favourite commanders are The Swarmlord (for making the tax feel somewhat like an upside) and Jeska, Thrice Reborn (for enabling a win-con if you can loop casting a commander).
I think the custom art thing at the end is truly magical and unique. I think that should be encouraged. I wouldn't be mad if "Secret Lair: ___" existed with blank arts. Maybe some coupon could be included in it that SL that are intended for artists to collect; players send the blank card to the artist along with the coupon as a gift. If an artist collects enough coupons (with proof they actually did some art), WotC gives them some sort of thank-you gift.
Maybe to avoid Fury/Grief shenanigans it either pulls an Uro/Kroxa and sacrifices/exiles itself on play or it's a 0/0. That way you don't necessarily need an Evoke cost. Or you can say "Evoke - Cast from your command zone" or something.
One of my friends plays a commander deck that does use a mechanic already in the game that is similar to the presented commander attachments. Stickers. He plays a Questing Beast deck with a sub theme of using stickers to give questing beast even more abilities. Seeing that in play, I do think it is a interesting design space, permanently modifying your commander is neat. Many of these those feel like they make more sense if they were more like backgrounds with ward or hexproof for that hard to kill aura effect.
I think conditional identity breaks might be really useful design space. Oftentimes adding a second color to a card hamstrings both its potential and its demand. A card of a single color can be placed in 16 out of the 32 existing color identities in Magic, and adding a single extra color halves its availability to 8. A third halves it again to exactly 4, and so forth for four and five. This is why 3 color Ascendancy enchantments like those from Streets of New Capenna and Ikoria get washed away in the end. I have a Light-Paws deck and would have remorselessly loved to have played with something like Heliod, the Radiant Dawn, but whoops, we made the back half blue, so now it's a bulk rare. Same for Polukranos Reborn and new Etali. It literally places cards with effects inspired by the pedigree of Leyline of Anticipation, Wurmcoil Engine, and Blightsteel Colossus into a lower rung of desirability. If I were the one fielding this responsibility, I think I'd start with a cycle of mono-color identity breakers, each focused on a given card type (white enchantment, blue instants, black planeswalkers, red artifacts, green creatures). I'd give each one a static ability that lets lands tap for "Add one mana of any color, spend this mana only to cast [deck theme's] spells" and little else aside from perhaps some evergreen/deciduous keywords to milk their theme (like Prowess for Blue, and First Strike/Deathtouch for black). This should be some soft enough design space where they're still facing limitations to their deckbuilding, as only the cards of the featured type can be placed in and cast easily and it doesn't require too much "outside help" for deck building. Some multicolor sources are still useful in each style, but many of the good three cost mana rocks have tangential static upsides that could fix any moments when their commander isn't on the field. Hopefully this would be the first step, ensuring that the color identity break doesn't become as overly spicy as Eminence was, and should give some unique usefulness to cards that don't often get considered, such as cards with secondary color costs, hybrid mana cards, vivid lands or filters in mono color decks, and more.
Except it wouldn't? It's still a limitation compared to just making it a WUBRG commander in the vein of Kenrith, Najeela, Sisay or Esika. They could've made Urtet more flavorful by making him colorless, but allowing you to include Myr in your deck regardless of color identity. Similarly, they could've limited Tom Bombadil's color identity while still allowing him to use all Sagas.
Mono-Eminence is definitely a good idea. Right now there is a big importance on multi-colors in order to have access to as many synergies as possible, or just Good Stuff. Who WOULDN'T want Rhystic Study, Smothering Tithe, Collosal Dreadmaw, and Black Tutors all in the same deck? And Partners also made the multi-colors even easier to pull off, along with Backgrounds. There has been a lot of importance placed on the Multi. I think making Mono Great Again is a really good idea! It would definitely give rise to interesting and very focused decks like we use to see in Limited back in the 90s and 00s. It would also not force people to play a certain way, but reward people who choose to go down that route. Really, I can't remember the last time I saw a Mono Colored Commander deck in the wild... Well, I think the Necrons are an exception, as they came feature complete.
The tax cards remind me of the commander storm cycles (Empyrial,Echo,Skull,Fury, and Genesis storm) which I really like that play space. maybe some kidn of aura or equipment that's like "taxing aura 2W - enchant legendary creature you control Enchanted creature has Ward X where X is the number of times you've cast a commander from the command zone" helps with those commanders that get hated out. Maybe make it a cycle of some kind? white - Ward X Blue - Tap X creatures until the aura leaves black - legendary creature you don't control - enchanted creature gets -x/-x Red - Deal X and has haste Green - Enchanged creature gets +x/+x and trample or similar you're the designer these just came into my conciousness while watching :P
Shower thought. Commanding Tax - U counter target non creature spell unless it's controller pays X where X is two times the number of times you've cast a commander from the command zone
My favourite designs that I saw here: 1. Slobad, the one which let you interchange creature and artifact sacrifice requirements. Don't know *exactly* what to combine together off the top of my head with it, but I know there's got to be something great (also potentially something busted in constructed, but we'll ignore that for now) 2. Groaag is also quite neat. Give up the chance to ramp on two for the discount on your cash-in value payoff later. 3. The Colossal Dreadmaw was also kind of cool-- I like the utility of ramping into it and then casting any extra mana dorks as haymakers, or building around it with self-regrowing Skeletons or Urborg Reclamation. Skull Prophet would make my first draft. The effect is a kind of re-imagining of Scale Up that works on a different axis. Rather than temporarily growing a lot of creatures all at once for a surprise swing, it permanently but slowly grows individual creatures as fast as you can find and cast them. That said... Honestly, there's a lot of "interesting" but not a lot of "fun" across these specific designs for me. I get all the injoke cards, but aside from White Rhystic Study, a solid if easy rimshot, the only one I was truly amused by and would enjoy casting was Math Is For Blockers. Or perhaps My Deck is About a Seven, with proper verbal setup for the punchline, but that's only funny once or twice. I'm glad to know The Sol Ring counterspell got to do its bit once in the event. But much like the early UnSet humor, a lot of this stuff just doesn't do it for me. (Simic Value Engine is fine; not making me uncontrollably laugh or anything, but I do appreciate... the attempt? as far as the humor goes. As an actual design, I like it enough to want to see if a Growth Spiral build of it ends up being fun or just eye-rolling) I'm also glad some people got to do the Nephilim thing on the day of. Some of these designs are definitely serving a purpose in terms of catering to the audience participating in the experience that is the event on the day-of. I admit not actually engaging in the Sealed opening and deckbuilding/gameplay puzzle as a first impression could make less stuff land; I can see the value of certain opportunities to make the day itself memorable, though. I really dislike all of the secret guessing games. Considering the game theory involved on the dual land was again, interesting to roll over in my head for a second, but I would not want that kind of variance in a game I had actually sat down to play. The Confluence RNG card would be something to see happen. I think Arena's Draft-From-This-Card's Spellbook designs are easily the superior form of this kind of space for me, to the extent that it's viable or enjoyable. Some more designs for Rulebreaker cards *as acorn cards* are something I'd pay attention to. I am uncomfortable committing myself and the entire playerbase to having to Rule Zero them *out* as opposed to Rule Zero-ing them *in*, if further designs ever got printed in a future release. If nothing else, though, that's one way to play Shaman of the Great Hunt outside of Temur. Curious to know what people might do with Daxiver or Valko or Arvad. Also curious how many much design space there'd really be in this mechanic beyond what's just been shown. I suppose you could staple whatever form of extra enabler or payoff for off- or multi-colored spells you wanted to each of the card type exemptions. Unsure how many different ones we'd want to have made that could feel both organically linked to the theme but distinct from one another. That said, while Daxiver just generically ramps and fixes for your relevant stuff, and Hadran just generically draws you cards, Valko is breaking an entire second axis of thematic overlap. Now you van play your UR artifacts and have them trigger your Abzan Enchantress stuff. And vice-versa. As far as existing Magic flavor that would work for the idea, this would be potentially best executed as a "Teamup" design between some of the gods of Theros? Or a God of Theros and Daedalus or someone. The commander tax counters are bog-functional, but not flavourful or enticing to me. I would rather just play any other version of the given effect. The commander auras work as a headache-saver as far as being able to just pay the mana and card once to upgrade your commander and be done with it without having to jump through a bunch of hoops or specifically playing e.g. Bruna 1.0 . But the designs shown just don't actually grab me outside of maybe the lifelink one for shenanigans-- not with Hidetsugu; thumbs up for that person getting to fill out their bingo card at the event but I don't actually want that anywhere near me. I would hate to "just lose" to that as one of my precious event rounds if I didn't either open or draw enough removal for it, and I dont find it particularly compelling for outside games either. But like Willowdusk or something else vould be worth. As for the other examples here, maybe I just don't play enough GR monsters for that expensive of a haste enabler to grab me, or if it really is just too clunky. Making a commander with a sabotoeur effect or on-attack effect fly permanently would be good though. (Along those lines, I'm sure some of the oldest-school players appreciated The Dilu Horse callback; I just would rather interact with the flying mechanic than what Horsemanship is outside of its original environment. Horsemanship and/or Flanking that both players might reasonably be running? Sure, could be fun. Isolated horsemanship in your singleton format? Just too uninteractive and cheap when undercosted, too clunky when overcosted. I still have to test how I'll feel about Siege Engine's unblockable mechanic when I get around to seeing it in action) Spell Commander, particularly with Partner, is something I would keep looking out for designs for, but while I like playing in card-flow and graveyard exploitation like Ransack thr Lab, that rate is just not exciting to repeat. The Rampant Growth *is* enticing, but probably unhealthy. Oathbreaker, to the extent that it's feasible to balance it and make it fun casually, does this by far the best so far. (Obviously) Or the Retrace mechanic. Or Rebound. Or Buyback. But honestly, just building constructed with enough rhyme and redundancy is probably healthiest for the game. Rosewater and others constantly repeat how over-reliable and repeatable effects are dangerous and less fun than you might expect-- a poisoned candy apple. Mr. Wiggles is of course the healthier way to try and put guaranteed ramp in the command zone. Theopholos is alright, I guess. I think I'd rather just play an Ikra Shidiki and [partner here] deck though. There's a monowhite partner that anthems your tokens for 4 toughness, or Sidar Kondo of Jamura. Rebbec, Architect of Ascension artifact aggro could work though. Or perhaps Katerina of Myra's Marvels. Mono-colored payoffs are perhaps worth looking into for the Commander format. I just don't like any of the particular examples shown here. Another Equipment Commander is functional, I suppose. But also kind of bland, even if it were re-flavored to an actual character. Ensoul Ring is powerful, and I'm interested in effects that morph and change your artifacts in terms of what resources they provide. Not sure that's actually the design I want to have though. Vedalken Engineer is probably the superior design for me for the 1U ramp two slot for me (although not as powerful for being often easier to remove and not refunding the mana the turn it's played because of summoning sickness) Muzzio, Padeem, Oswald, Glacian, Armix, and Keskit are all more my jam for transformative artifact value stuff. Or Liquimetal Coating shenanigans, if we're talking about making something *into" an artifact for whatever reasons. Maître Tree is one I appreciate some amount. I'm interested in modal designs, and the wordplay as an device to excuse the rules-text shortcutting is cute enough; I hope that specific design ended up playing well with enough synergies in the limited environment to make it an effective and flexible role-player. I'm interested to know if there's a less un-set-like way to work more ways to design modality into premiere sets with more freedom. The event-refetential commemorative cards are a good extra effort, and I like the idea of the Mirran/Phyrexian victory card designs in particular-- I just wouldnt play a deck using any of the effects that actually appear on those designs except maybe the Toxic lord, if it made the cut. (I think the existing black Phyrexian menace lord might just be better and enough, although maybe this would be worth as copies five and six)
Expanded a little more on various paragraphs in this on an edit, but I'm pretty sure I hit the character limit and it wasn't feasible to pick parts back out of it until it was under again.
As some of my own custom card ideas are built around the concept of granting a benefit for having mono-color partner commanders, I like mono-eminence a lot. These all look like a lot of fun to play!
The first uncards are used for a deck, started with Urza academy, Headmaster as my very first five color commander deck. Especially considering all of the dice cards that we have had in the past few years, go to jail seems like a very fair card to be printed in a legal set. When my LGS had Slivdrazi Monstrosity in its case, I bought it to use in my sliver, mutate deck, before realizing that I didn’t have a single source of colorless mana to actually cast it, oops. I recognize that not all play test, and uncards should be printed in legal sets, due to rule breaking and assumed knowledge, but they are very fun for rule zero play. I am using One with the Stars in a few decks and I am glad it became legal when it originally started as Enchantmentize.
Haha!! These are some great ideas that looks like a blast to play with. While most of them are quite silly and not probably something that would be created for real, I do actually really enjoy both the Commander Tax reference cards, the Commander Damage reference cards and the Mono-Eminence. I would be elated to see those in future sets!
Awoken Nephilim feels like a conspiracy card from a commander conspiracy set! Which, now I've thought of that, I absolutely need, and would be great place to print a lot of these cards EDIT: okay, just got to command from the shadows, you beat me to it :P
a lot of good ideas! Commander enchants, colorbreaking identity, spell that matter the commader tax and mono eminance are the one that i loved the most!!
So white rhystic study I feel would be something similar to this." Whenever your opponent's cast a spell, then they pay one less if they do you draw card."
I wonder if they could do something similar to Rulebreaker but slightly more tame. Maybe a 5-color commander but with rule text that says "If CARDNAME is in the command zone or on the battlefield, you can't cast white, blue, or green spells". Obvious things like Devoid and artifacts get around this, it would shut down stealing and casting opponents' cards, and you could leave it in the grave or exile but idk, I think it could be interesting.
I think spell commanders would be a lot of fun if they worked like backgrounds, that way your deck still has an identity to build around with the versatility of a spell in the command zone
As someone who is attempting to make a deck featured around a legendary Noble for each color combination, I would love for Margle to pop up in a future Magic product!
Ensoul ring and many other cards here would be fun! Also more companions that are locked into just the commander format could be really fun to build decks around
Aaaah i see what you did there Gavin, that mono eminance (btw i hope this mechanic makes it into the game) works pretty similar to vanguard but for commander, different life, different starting hand 👌
Rulebreaker cards are super interesting, I've tried making rule zero decks before using exactly that type of condition. I'd love to see it on real cards
Rule breaker, and commander tax cards should definitely be used in the next commander masters set! I think undoing commander damage is kinda a kill joy for the already weaker voltron, but enhancing it or using it in other ways is definitely a plus Edit: Also a commander unset named something like Rule 0 where the designers get to have fun would be awesome. It wouldn't be legal, but you could rule 0 it
Oh my god Valko Indorian (the artifact/enchantment commander) is so cool! I would love if it was a black-border card some day, even if it didn't have the rulebreaker line. (You could also just have it have a black/red activated ability or something). But even without it, I would still love to brew around it! The idea of using Emry to get back an enchantment, or using artifact lands to trigger constelation, or even tapping my enchantments to cast an improvise spell...I would kill for a commander that spicy 😆 Edit: Gandalf the white causes your artifacts to trigger constellation. You can use greater tanuki and sanctum weaver for ramp, because they're enchantment creatures. This card is so sweet!
Hope I'm not late to the bandwagon for this, but I think it would make sense to expand upon the latest introduced card types, for Battles. Why not a Legendary Battle that could also be a commander? Have your deck be themed around an absolutely epic conflict that changes a rule of how the game is played that the rest of the table has to play around with, because they would be in the thick of the conflict. I'm all in favor of sorcery commanders, so long as we can get an entire cycle of them depending on what you wanna do with them. Blood Avatar is really cool cuz it works incredibly well with rakdos sacrifice themes. You're doing something that drastically impacts the board state in a very thematic way. I would love to see more sorcery spells to be able to be in command zone outside of Oathbreaker (which admittedly I very seldom play as I don't have a regular play group, but I do love the idea of the format very much.)
Spell commanders, mono eminence, and tax effects all seem like pretty nifty design space. Resetting tax and commander damage is a hard no, it's hard enough to kill people with it outside of one-shotting where it doesn't matter anyway (and even that's hard too), and it removes it as a safety valve. And especially in it's current form, my friend's Olivia deck would love functionally always being able to Yuriko her out for 6 no matter what. Rulebreaker I'm also not a huge fan of, it's cute, but seems dangerous space to play in (and I know it's not intentional, but sure feels like a slap in the face as long as the rules committee keeps using the incorrect rules for hybrid :P). Also given how much Treasure is in the format now the cost isn't even much of a restriction. Your Favorite Character should partner with itself so I can run Sash and Waistcoat :P
I love the idea of 'Form of the Stax Player', but not the stax angle. I love how garth one-eye works, but wish he was random. As it stands he is just kind of best as an infinite combo piece. I still play him because it is an absurd card and I read/loved Arena as a kid. I really like "The Colossal Dreadmaw" too. Mono-eminence is neat, but I think I prefer maybe just leaning into heavily colored costs. I like the idea of referencing commander tax and commander damage too! What if you had an effect that had to target an opponent that dealt the most commander damage to you? I don't like rulebreaker though, I feel like good stuff soup is an issue in magic and this just makes subsets of soup, plus makes your opponents check legality. Neat in limited but I would be unhappy across the table from this.
Rules question: If both of your commanders are in the command zone, Spice Rack forces you to move one of your commanders to the graveyard. By 903.9a, you can choose to move it back to the command zone the next time state-based actions are checked. But that re-triggers the Spice Rack trigger, which creates a loop. Do the game rules force you to choose not to put it back eventually, or can you force a draw in this way?
You're going to find that playtest cards haven't had the rules scrutiny that normal Magic cards have, so you're going to have to assume that the rules would be updated to accommodate them. More than likely, you'd be unable to try to move your other commander to the command zone while you have another one in there.
Really like the commander enchantments. All of them but the blue one seem well designed. Enchantments are hard to interact with for some colors, and giving a value engine enchantment commander cantripping ward 2 forever seems like a worse idea than the strictly combat-focused ones. The white one is perfect.
Maybe the sol ring counter would work if it were like the leylines and it starts in the hand? That would still heavily nerf it though, hm. Maybe an enchantment that starts in the field and counters all sol rings...
@11:30 That would be an ok thing to do once but maybe a little more than 4? Maybe 7, or cmc instead of power. And maybe make it black/white+ for reanimator stuff? Make there be a really, really good reason for the ability to exist.
Wow, if I had a nickel for every time Wotc had made a card named after the Sagrada Familia, I'd have two nickels - which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice. [context: They named a duel masters creature after it, too]
So I have a question for you Gavin! Relating to the card Waste Not. I've been reading the artifact cycle books and a phrase the "waste not, want not." comes up countless times. Which begs the question.... will there be a Want Not card? And if not there should be 😅
I'm a big mono color advocate in EDH, and would love a Keyword that either made a spell more powerful in a mono color deck, or restricted its use to only be playable in mono color decks
Regarding the Rulebreaker ability: I am a fan of the concept, but I think messing with color identity specificlly is a slippery slope. Mana fixing is so easy today that 5 color mana bases are easier to build than two and especially mono colour mana bases. The game as is could have more interesting limits and choices. Color identity is one of the (or maybe the) last relevant restrictions in terms of access to colour. It is format defining and messing with it won't do the format any good. Contemporary cards usually have only upsides and tend to be asymmetrical. I would love to see more interesting drawbacks and symmetrical hate pieces. Think sphere of resistance compared to lodestone golem, which is powerful but not very interesting, because it solves several problems at once and all on its own. Sphere of Resistance impacts both players and makes deck building much more specific.
Spell commanders sound great because I don't like running permanents with too many knobs (creatures, planeswalkers, etc.). Keep the board simple and deal with complexity only for a very limited span of time.
Any insight you can provide into the logic or thought process as to why a set called 'Commander Masters' doesn't have Rhystic Studies in it, but then it is reprinted in a regular, standard set like Wilds of Eldraine? Also, if you have the time to answer, why is it that Doubling Season is reprinted in Commander Masters and then reprinted again in Wilds of Eldraine? Is WOTC's strategy to reprint all cards so that they maintain a certain threshold in price point?
I really hope we get more soceries as commanders. I have a Jeska thrice reborn deck and that plays a lot like having a burn sorcery in the command zone and it’s a ton of fun so I would love to see more soceries as commanders
I like the idea behind theopholos. Not the eminence (as I dont like non interactive-non preventable things in magic) but rewarding playing less colors in commander should be a focus the upcomming years. Als multicolor decks in commander are by default more powerful. As mana bases are super consistent and you have more cards to choose from. Commander needs a mechenic called "Monopoly" :You can only cast this spell if your commander(s) dont have any other color then this card. (word it better then this). This should work like a reverse Fallaji Wayfarer. And as this is a downside you can even push powerlevel with it. And as vintage and legacy dont have commanders they cant cast the cards and it wont warp those formats.
1) KALLIIIIIIIIST 2) I feel like Rulebreaker would be ok, as long as it's on the Commander themselves, and not being able to include lands of that type is very restrictive.
For the taught by enchantments. Could you have them phase out when the commander leaves the field and phase back in attached when the commander next enters
We definitely need a "Form of the ____ player" cycle in the next un-set. I'm sure there's a ___ player you could choose for each of the other four colours.
Hi Gavin, I like Shedding Snake both thematically and mechanically. The snake's ancient cultural association with regeneration and restoration I think is a bit of an underexplored flavor in M:tG, as it is in fantasy in general, and this card captures it nicely. In long games the Commander tax can feel burdensome so it's satisfying to play with a design space that gives players a later game sigh of relief. Also, if you see this comment and you're interested, is there a place I can share a card design idea? I've been brewing this card for a while that I think is cool, evocative, and full of fun references and I'd love to share and discuss.
As someone with an Awaken The Blood Avatar deck, I do enjoy a good Spell Commander, but I feel like it has to be suitably Commander-y. Commander Enchantment makes me nervous. Eminence I'd rather never see again. I don't like Rulebreaker; Exceptions like Fallaji Wayfarer are neat, but granting other cards the ability to go in any deck is, I feel, incredibly dangerous.
Mono-Eminence and commander suspend both look like fun ideas, please experiment more and maybe bring over into actual commander! Rulebreaker is probably too broken, unless it's very limited effects…
considering using the colossal dreadmaw as a rule 0 commander since i know my playgroup would be totally down. for clarification, would you pay the original mana cost of the creature or 4gg?
You're casting it as though it were Colossal Dreadmaw, so you're paying 4GG to cast it, not the creature's normal casting cost. It's similar to Form of the Mulldrifter from Mystery Booster.
Rulebreaker seems too good on Hadran, and even if implemented on a small scale now it will probably balloon in a power-creepish way in the future. That being said... I would 100% love a Rulebreaker mechanic specifically for creature types. Please let me have all Cat creatures be legal outside my commander's color... I like cats :)
Dear Gavin, Few things would make me happier than geting to play [[Form of the Stax Player]] in EDH. Please also include a way to interact with nonbasic lands that aren't fetches like [[Archon of Emeria]] or some version of [[Wasteland]] that makes sense in multiplayer. I think token copies of named cards are fine and could easily be accomodated in the rules. I think the term "menu" or something similar could be accodated in the rules. I dislike any of the effects that break the color pie; the poe is a huge part of what makes magic great!
Big fan of the commander tax related spells and the "deck building rewards" for being monocolored. I would love to see more deck building rewards with other restrictions - perhaps inspired by the companion restrictions? Not a fan of the spell commanders, as they don't feel "commander-like". Perhaps if done properly, one could make a one-off spell commander, but it should be due to flavor rather than design space exploration in my opinion. I want commanders that are fun to build around, not just "hey, I have this spell I can cast again and again to support my deck". The deck should be built to support the commander (in my opinion), not the other way around. Rulebreaker seems to have potential, but I think it should be very restricted, so that it stil feels like the given commander's color identity and not e.g. "5-color enchantment good stuff". An alternative is to have Rulebreaker instead be "You may include this in your deck, even if it does not fit your commander's color identity". That way, the majority of the deck would still match the color identity, but there is always the small possibility that your opponent has *insert rulebreaking card here*. Maybe a cycle of them? Otherwise, as someone else mentioned, the mechanic you went for could be an ability of a colorless eldrazi that allows you to include any devoid cards in your deck. Perhaps even "any colorless cards" (thus including lands). With the first example devoid commander (include any devoid cards), I wouldn't give it the ability to have non-Wastes basic lands. There is plenty of colorless lands that tap for colored mana. Commander Suspend should in my opinion be on a specific commander rather than a mechanic in itself. Something that both interacts with suspended cards and does something while suspended.
The commander tax bolt is a horrible idea with the amount of commanders that want to be recast over and over (food chain commanders) i do however *LOVE* the Dilu horse, mr. wiggles, potatoes, Enolc and Barce
I am currently building an Izzet spellslinger commander deck, and while I would love Daxiver for purely selfish reasons, jesus christ it would break all of the game. Just, all of it. 😂
Gavin tricks people into the largest brawl tournament ever
Got 'em!! :D
Optimal.
I'd unironically love to do a brawl draft tbh
I love the idea of mono-eminence.
I also love the idea of origins (They let you use cards outside your commander identity if they fulfill a condition).
I love being incentivized to build unoptimal decks.
In the future, if some of these cards inspire real cards one day, I hope we get a video about that design process. These are always fun videos to watch.
Hidetsugu/Vito player here! Thank you so much for the shoutout Gavin, and for the wonderful Barce artwork you did, it looks great in my commander cube 🥰
I really like the stuff that's based off commander tax. I don't think you should be able to reset it but making tokens or drawing form how much your tax is, is pretty neat.
10:58 OMG! I can't believe my Barcelona commander couple got featured in the video! 🎉
It was such a fun event, and THE Colossal Dreadmaw with Brinelin was so easy to pilot and yet so. damn. Fun! Thank you Gavin and everyone in the team for blessing me with this terrifying couple.
Please make it a real card?
Hey, Gavin! What card would I want to be real in Magic?
Well, how about a colorless Eldrazi Commander with "Rulebreaker - ... you may include eldrazi cards of any color in your deck regardless of color identity." Currently the only way to make a Five Color Colorless Eldrazi Tribal Deck is with Morophon, which is fine but I'd love to have something a little more directly dedicated to eldrazi. I know we just got a whole eldrazi starter commander deck, but what can I say, they're my favorite tribe! : D
It's easier to do this with a WUBRG costed activated ability representing the eldrazi devouring mana
I’ve always wanted “the home for lost keywords”. For example, using +1counter mechanics as an example, a commander that allows target creature to explore, or adapt, or connive etc. that way it can build a deck of its own, or let you build around mechanics like explore that don’t really have a legend
I love the idea for getting a benefit for going mono. It helps mono colors balance against multi-color.
The commander enchantments seem like more complicated Background enchantments. You could just add that Background enchantments affect your commander in any zone.
Backgrounds can be targeted when commanders are not on the field though. I don't think the commander enchantments work that way.
I was actually expecting a rule breaker-like backup commander for the Eldrazi deck which would let you play Devoid cards in a colorless deck.
Okay, as an aspiring designer, I love so much of this:
-Rulebreaker is a fun design space, giving more creative liberty to de k building.
-I'm interested in spell commander, but how can you make that feel like your general more? Or is the point for it to be more of a signature spell like in the Oathbreaker format?
-I loved the enchantment that makes sol ring.
-mono eminence is awesome. Not enough people test their deck building prowess with mono color decks, so incentive is awesome.
- also like the idea of commander suspend. What a fun atmosphere that would put on the game I think!
- I also love the tinkering with command tax payoffs, and even decreasing command tax and commander damage. They just seem like ways to help players continue to do what they want to do with their decks, and not feel so blown out. And keep bringing high cmc commander payoffs!
More cards that interact with commander tax would be nice to have in a commander focused product.
I love the idea of commanders that care about their tax/number of times they have been cast. Two of my favourite commanders are The Swarmlord (for making the tax feel somewhat like an upside) and Jeska, Thrice Reborn (for enabling a win-con if you can loop casting a commander).
I think something like spell commander would be great as part of a partner-esque mechanic, like backgrounds. You could even make it oathbreaker-lite
I think the custom art thing at the end is truly magical and unique. I think that should be encouraged. I wouldn't be mad if "Secret Lair: ___" existed with blank arts.
Maybe some coupon could be included in it that SL that are intended for artists to collect; players send the blank card to the artist along with the coupon as a gift. If an artist collects enough coupons (with proof they actually did some art), WotC gives them some sort of thank-you gift.
I think the easiest way to make a currently legal “spell commander” is to give a legendary creature an ETB and evoke.
Or just give it "~ can be your commander."?
Maybe to avoid Fury/Grief shenanigans it either pulls an Uro/Kroxa and sacrifices/exiles itself on play or it's a 0/0. That way you don't necessarily need an Evoke cost. Or you can say "Evoke - Cast from your command zone" or something.
One of my friends plays a commander deck that does use a mechanic already in the game that is similar to the presented commander attachments. Stickers. He plays a Questing Beast deck with a sub theme of using stickers to give questing beast even more abilities. Seeing that in play, I do think it is a interesting design space, permanently modifying your commander is neat. Many of these those feel like they make more sense if they were more like backgrounds with ward or hexproof for that hard to kill aura effect.
I think conditional identity breaks might be really useful design space. Oftentimes adding a second color to a card hamstrings both its potential and its demand. A card of a single color can be placed in 16 out of the 32 existing color identities in Magic, and adding a single extra color halves its availability to 8. A third halves it again to exactly 4, and so forth for four and five. This is why 3 color Ascendancy enchantments like those from Streets of New Capenna and Ikoria get washed away in the end.
I have a Light-Paws deck and would have remorselessly loved to have played with something like Heliod, the Radiant Dawn, but whoops, we made the back half blue, so now it's a bulk rare. Same for Polukranos Reborn and new Etali. It literally places cards with effects inspired by the pedigree of Leyline of Anticipation, Wurmcoil Engine, and Blightsteel Colossus into a lower rung of desirability.
If I were the one fielding this responsibility, I think I'd start with a cycle of mono-color identity breakers, each focused on a given card type (white enchantment, blue instants, black planeswalkers, red artifacts, green creatures). I'd give each one a static ability that lets lands tap for "Add one mana of any color, spend this mana only to cast [deck theme's] spells" and little else aside from perhaps some evergreen/deciduous keywords to milk their theme (like Prowess for Blue, and First Strike/Deathtouch for black). This should be some soft enough design space where they're still facing limitations to their deckbuilding, as only the cards of the featured type can be placed in and cast easily and it doesn't require too much "outside help" for deck building. Some multicolor sources are still useful in each style, but many of the good three cost mana rocks have tangential static upsides that could fix any moments when their commander isn't on the field. Hopefully this would be the first step, ensuring that the color identity break doesn't become as overly spicy as Eminence was, and should give some unique usefulness to cards that don't often get considered, such as cards with secondary color costs, hybrid mana cards, vivid lands or filters in mono color decks, and more.
The rulebreaker mechanic just seems like it would be companion all over again, giving you a massive advantage for little deck building cost.
Except it wouldn't? It's still a limitation compared to just making it a WUBRG commander in the vein of Kenrith, Najeela, Sisay or Esika. They could've made Urtet more flavorful by making him colorless, but allowing you to include Myr in your deck regardless of color identity. Similarly, they could've limited Tom Bombadil's color identity while still allowing him to use all Sagas.
Mono-Eminence is definitely a good idea. Right now there is a big importance on multi-colors in order to have access to as many synergies as possible, or just Good Stuff. Who WOULDN'T want Rhystic Study, Smothering Tithe, Collosal Dreadmaw, and Black Tutors all in the same deck? And Partners also made the multi-colors even easier to pull off, along with Backgrounds. There has been a lot of importance placed on the Multi. I think making Mono Great Again is a really good idea! It would definitely give rise to interesting and very focused decks like we use to see in Limited back in the 90s and 00s. It would also not force people to play a certain way, but reward people who choose to go down that route.
Really, I can't remember the last time I saw a Mono Colored Commander deck in the wild... Well, I think the Necrons are an exception, as they came feature complete.
The tax cards remind me of the commander storm cycles (Empyrial,Echo,Skull,Fury, and Genesis storm) which I really like that play space. maybe some kidn of aura or equipment that's like "taxing aura 2W - enchant legendary creature you control Enchanted creature has Ward X where X is the number of times you've cast a commander from the command zone" helps with those commanders that get hated out.
Maybe make it a cycle of some kind?
white - Ward X
Blue - Tap X creatures until the aura leaves
black - legendary creature you don't control - enchanted creature gets -x/-x
Red - Deal X and has haste
Green - Enchanged creature gets +x/+x and trample
or similar you're the designer these just came into my conciousness while watching :P
Shower thought.
Commanding Tax - U counter target non creature spell unless it's controller pays X where X is two times the number of times you've cast a commander from the command zone
My favourite designs that I saw here:
1. Slobad, the one which let you interchange creature and artifact sacrifice requirements. Don't know *exactly* what to combine together off the top of my head with it, but I know there's got to be something great (also potentially something busted in constructed, but we'll ignore that for now)
2. Groaag is also quite neat. Give up the chance to ramp on two for the discount on your cash-in value payoff later.
3. The Colossal Dreadmaw was also kind of cool-- I like the utility of ramping into it and then casting any extra mana dorks as haymakers, or building around it with self-regrowing Skeletons or Urborg Reclamation. Skull Prophet would make my first draft. The effect is a kind of re-imagining of Scale Up that works on a different axis. Rather than temporarily growing a lot of creatures all at once for a surprise swing, it permanently but slowly grows individual creatures as fast as you can find and cast them.
That said...
Honestly, there's a lot of "interesting" but not a lot of "fun" across these specific designs for me.
I get all the injoke cards, but aside from White Rhystic Study, a solid if easy rimshot, the only one I was truly amused by and would enjoy casting was Math Is For Blockers. Or perhaps My Deck is About a Seven, with proper verbal setup for the punchline, but that's only funny once or twice.
I'm glad to know The Sol Ring counterspell got to do its bit once in the event. But much like the early UnSet humor, a lot of this stuff just doesn't do it for me.
(Simic Value Engine is fine; not making me uncontrollably laugh or anything, but I do appreciate... the attempt? as far as the humor goes. As an actual design, I like it enough to want to see if a Growth Spiral build of it ends up being fun or just eye-rolling)
I'm also glad some people got to do the Nephilim thing on the day of.
Some of these designs are definitely serving a purpose in terms of catering to the audience participating in the experience that is the event on the day-of. I admit not actually engaging in the Sealed opening and deckbuilding/gameplay puzzle as a first impression could make less stuff land; I can see the value of certain opportunities to make the day itself memorable, though.
I really dislike all of the secret guessing games. Considering the game theory involved on the dual land was again, interesting to roll over in my head for a second, but I would not want that kind of variance in a game I had actually sat down to play.
The Confluence RNG card would be something to see happen. I think Arena's Draft-From-This-Card's Spellbook designs are easily the superior form of this kind of space for me, to the extent that it's viable or enjoyable.
Some more designs for Rulebreaker cards *as acorn cards* are something I'd pay attention to. I am uncomfortable committing myself and the entire playerbase to having to Rule Zero them *out* as opposed to Rule Zero-ing them *in*, if further designs ever got printed in a future release.
If nothing else, though, that's one way to play Shaman of the Great Hunt outside of Temur.
Curious to know what people might do with Daxiver or Valko or Arvad. Also curious how many much design space there'd really be in this mechanic beyond what's just been shown. I suppose you could staple whatever form of extra enabler or payoff for off- or multi-colored spells you wanted to each of the card type exemptions. Unsure how many different ones we'd want to have made that could feel both organically linked to the theme but distinct from one another. That said, while Daxiver just generically ramps and fixes for your relevant stuff, and Hadran just generically draws you cards, Valko is breaking an entire second axis of thematic overlap. Now you van play your UR artifacts and have them trigger your Abzan Enchantress stuff. And vice-versa. As far as existing Magic flavor that would work for the idea, this would be potentially best executed as a "Teamup" design between some of the gods of Theros? Or a God of Theros and Daedalus or someone.
The commander tax counters are bog-functional, but not flavourful or enticing to me. I would rather just play any other version of the given effect.
The commander auras work as a headache-saver as far as being able to just pay the mana and card once to upgrade your commander and be done with it without having to jump through a bunch of hoops or specifically playing e.g. Bruna 1.0 . But the designs shown just don't actually grab me outside of maybe the lifelink one for shenanigans-- not with Hidetsugu; thumbs up for that person getting to fill out their bingo card at the event but I don't actually want that anywhere near me. I would hate to "just lose" to that as one of my precious event rounds if I didn't either open or draw enough removal for it, and I dont find it particularly compelling for outside games either. But like Willowdusk or something else vould be worth. As for the other examples here, maybe I just don't play enough GR monsters for that expensive of a haste enabler to grab me, or if it really is just too clunky. Making a commander with a sabotoeur effect or on-attack effect fly permanently would be good though. (Along those lines, I'm sure some of the oldest-school players appreciated The Dilu Horse callback; I just would rather interact with the flying mechanic than what Horsemanship is outside of its original environment. Horsemanship and/or Flanking that both players might reasonably be running? Sure, could be fun. Isolated horsemanship in your singleton format? Just too uninteractive and cheap when undercosted, too clunky when overcosted. I still have to test how I'll feel about Siege Engine's unblockable mechanic when I get around to seeing it in action)
Spell Commander, particularly with Partner, is something I would keep looking out for designs for, but while I like playing in card-flow and graveyard exploitation like Ransack thr Lab, that rate is just not exciting to repeat. The Rampant Growth *is* enticing, but probably unhealthy.
Oathbreaker, to the extent that it's feasible to balance it and make it fun casually, does this by far the best so far. (Obviously)
Or the Retrace mechanic. Or Rebound. Or Buyback.
But honestly, just building constructed with enough rhyme and redundancy is probably healthiest for the game. Rosewater and others constantly repeat how over-reliable and repeatable effects are dangerous and less fun than you might expect-- a poisoned candy apple.
Mr. Wiggles is of course the healthier way to try and put guaranteed ramp in the command zone.
Theopholos is alright, I guess. I think I'd rather just play an Ikra Shidiki and [partner here] deck though. There's a monowhite partner that anthems your tokens for 4 toughness, or Sidar Kondo of Jamura.
Rebbec, Architect of Ascension artifact aggro could work though. Or perhaps Katerina of Myra's Marvels.
Mono-colored payoffs are perhaps worth looking into for the Commander format. I just don't like any of the particular examples shown here.
Another Equipment Commander is functional, I suppose. But also kind of bland, even if it were re-flavored to an actual character.
Ensoul Ring is powerful, and I'm interested in effects that morph and change your artifacts in terms of what resources they provide. Not sure that's actually the design I want to have though. Vedalken Engineer is probably the superior design for me for the 1U ramp two slot for me (although not as powerful for being often easier to remove and not refunding the mana the turn it's played because of summoning sickness)
Muzzio, Padeem, Oswald, Glacian, Armix, and Keskit are all more my jam for transformative artifact value stuff. Or Liquimetal Coating shenanigans, if we're talking about making something *into" an artifact for whatever reasons.
Maître Tree is one I appreciate some amount. I'm interested in modal designs, and the wordplay as an device to excuse the rules-text shortcutting is cute enough; I hope that specific design ended up playing well with enough synergies in the limited environment to make it an effective and flexible role-player. I'm interested to know if there's a less un-set-like way to work more ways to design modality into premiere sets with more freedom.
The event-refetential commemorative cards are a good extra effort, and I like the idea of the Mirran/Phyrexian victory card designs in particular-- I just wouldnt play a deck using any of the effects that actually appear on those designs except maybe the Toxic lord, if it made the cut. (I think the existing black Phyrexian menace lord might just be better and enough, although maybe this would be worth as copies five and six)
Expanded a little more on various paragraphs in this on an edit, but I'm pretty sure I hit the character limit and it wasn't feasible to pick parts back out of it until it was under again.
White Rhystic Study needs to be a card. One for each color wouldn't be a bad idea either
Esper sentinel
@@Asageun that's a watered down Rhystic Study. Great in it's own right but nowhere near as good.
As some of my own custom card ideas are built around the concept of granting a benefit for having mono-color partner commanders, I like mono-eminence a lot. These all look like a lot of fun to play!
The first uncards are used for a deck, started with Urza academy, Headmaster as my very first five color commander deck. Especially considering all of the dice cards that we have had in the past few years, go to jail seems like a very fair card to be printed in a legal set. When my LGS had Slivdrazi Monstrosity in its case, I bought it to use in my sliver, mutate deck, before realizing that I didn’t have a single source of colorless mana to actually cast it, oops.
I recognize that not all play test, and uncards should be printed in legal sets, due to rule breaking and assumed knowledge, but they are very fun for rule zero play. I am using One with the Stars in a few decks and I am glad it became legal when it originally started as Enchantmentize.
Haha!! These are some great ideas that looks like a blast to play with. While most of them are quite silly and not probably something that would be created for real, I do actually really enjoy both the Commander Tax reference cards, the Commander Damage reference cards and the Mono-Eminence. I would be elated to see those in future sets!
Awoken Nephilim feels like a conspiracy card from a commander conspiracy set! Which, now I've thought of that, I absolutely need, and would be great place to print a lot of these cards EDIT: okay, just got to command from the shadows, you beat me to it :P
a lot of good ideas! Commander enchants, colorbreaking identity, spell that matter the commader tax and mono eminance are the one that i loved the most!!
now i need to find a magic con near by me so i can do one of these events, they looked sick
So white rhystic study I feel would be something similar to this." Whenever your opponent's cast a spell, then they pay one less if they do you draw card."
I wonder if they could do something similar to Rulebreaker but slightly more tame. Maybe a 5-color commander but with rule text that says "If CARDNAME is in the command zone or on the battlefield, you can't cast white, blue, or green spells". Obvious things like Devoid and artifacts get around this, it would shut down stealing and casting opponents' cards, and you could leave it in the grave or exile but idk, I think it could be interesting.
I think spell commanders would be a lot of fun if they worked like backgrounds, that way your deck still has an identity to build around with the versatility of a spell in the command zone
As someone who is attempting to make a deck featured around a legendary Noble for each color combination, I would love for Margle to pop up in a future Magic product!
Ensoul ring and many other cards here would be fun! Also more companions that are locked into just the commander format could be really fun to build decks around
Aaaah i see what you did there Gavin, that mono eminance (btw i hope this mechanic makes it into the game) works pretty similar to vanguard but for commander, different life, different starting hand 👌
Rulebreaker cards are super interesting, I've tried making rule zero decks before using exactly that type of condition. I'd love to see it on real cards
Rule breaker, and commander tax cards should definitely be used in the next commander masters set! I think undoing commander damage is kinda a kill joy for the already weaker voltron, but enhancing it or using it in other ways is definitely a plus
Edit: Also a commander unset named something like Rule 0 where the designers get to have fun would be awesome. It wouldn't be legal, but you could rule 0 it
the democracy mechanic is so funny
Oh my god Valko Indorian (the artifact/enchantment commander) is so cool! I would love if it was a black-border card some day, even if it didn't have the rulebreaker line. (You could also just have it have a black/red activated ability or something). But even without it, I would still love to brew around it! The idea of using Emry to get back an enchantment, or using artifact lands to trigger constelation, or even tapping my enchantments to cast an improvise spell...I would kill for a commander that spicy 😆
Edit: Gandalf the white causes your artifacts to trigger constellation. You can use greater tanuki and sanctum weaver for ramp, because they're enchantment creatures. This card is so sweet!
Hope I'm not late to the bandwagon for this, but I think it would make sense to expand upon the latest introduced card types, for Battles. Why not a Legendary Battle that could also be a commander? Have your deck be themed around an absolutely epic conflict that changes a rule of how the game is played that the rest of the table has to play around with, because they would be in the thick of the conflict.
I'm all in favor of sorcery commanders, so long as we can get an entire cycle of them depending on what you wanna do with them. Blood Avatar is really cool cuz it works incredibly well with rakdos sacrifice themes. You're doing something that drastically impacts the board state in a very thematic way. I would love to see more sorcery spells to be able to be in command zone outside of Oathbreaker (which admittedly I very seldom play as I don't have a regular play group, but I do love the idea of the format very much.)
I have a meme Twincasters deck that acts like Colossal Dreadmaw reads "Your deck can include any number of cards named Colossal Dreadmaw."
Spell commanders, mono eminence, and tax effects all seem like pretty nifty design space.
Resetting tax and commander damage is a hard no, it's hard enough to kill people with it outside of one-shotting where it doesn't matter anyway (and even that's hard too), and it removes it as a safety valve. And especially in it's current form, my friend's Olivia deck would love functionally always being able to Yuriko her out for 6 no matter what.
Rulebreaker I'm also not a huge fan of, it's cute, but seems dangerous space to play in (and I know it's not intentional, but sure feels like a slap in the face as long as the rules committee keeps using the incorrect rules for hybrid :P). Also given how much Treasure is in the format now the cost isn't even much of a restriction.
Your Favorite Character should partner with itself so I can run Sash and Waistcoat :P
I love the idea of 'Form of the Stax Player', but not the stax angle. I love how garth one-eye works, but wish he was random. As it stands he is just kind of best as an infinite combo piece. I still play him because it is an absurd card and I read/loved Arena as a kid.
I really like "The Colossal Dreadmaw" too.
Mono-eminence is neat, but I think I prefer maybe just leaning into heavily colored costs.
I like the idea of referencing commander tax and commander damage too! What if you had an effect that had to target an opponent that dealt the most commander damage to you?
I don't like rulebreaker though, I feel like good stuff soup is an issue in magic and this just makes subsets of soup, plus makes your opponents check legality. Neat in limited but I would be unhappy across the table from this.
Rules question: If both of your commanders are in the command zone, Spice Rack forces you to move one of your commanders to the graveyard. By 903.9a, you can choose to move it back to the command zone the next time state-based actions are checked. But that re-triggers the Spice Rack trigger, which creates a loop. Do the game rules force you to choose not to put it back eventually, or can you force a draw in this way?
You're going to find that playtest cards haven't had the rules scrutiny that normal Magic cards have, so you're going to have to assume that the rules would be updated to accommodate them. More than likely, you'd be unable to try to move your other commander to the command zone while you have another one in there.
Really like the commander enchantments. All of them but the blue one seem well designed. Enchantments are hard to interact with for some colors, and giving a value engine enchantment commander cantripping ward 2 forever seems like a worse idea than the strictly combat-focused ones. The white one is perfect.
I love the auras that don't fall off. Though I honestly would like them all in a limited format.
I want rulebreaker to be a thing so badly. You guys should debut it whenever you get around to making a set visiting that paradoxical plane Xerex
Maybe the sol ring counter would work if it were like the leylines and it starts in the hand? That would still heavily nerf it though, hm.
Maybe an enchantment that starts in the field and counters all sol rings...
I'd also love to see some of these Sol Ring Replicas put out into the world.
@11:30 That would be an ok thing to do once but maybe a little more than 4? Maybe 7, or cmc instead of power. And maybe make it black/white+ for reanimator stuff? Make there be a really, really good reason for the ability to exist.
Tax hounds IMO 100% has precedent, would just need to be a lot wordier to make things like Echo Storm with "times you've cast your commander"
Wow, if I had a nickel for every time Wotc had made a card named after the Sagrada Familia, I'd have two nickels - which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
[context: They named a duel masters creature after it, too]
I didn't know that! That's awesome
There was a few of them named after buildings in Europe such as Notre Dame too. One day I'll manage to take them over there! @@GoodMorningMagic
So I have a question for you Gavin! Relating to the card Waste Not. I've been reading the artifact cycle books and a phrase the "waste not, want not." comes up countless times. Which begs the question.... will there be a Want Not card? And if not there should be 😅
Commander suspend, mono eminence, and the spell partners all sound really cool to me.
I'm a big mono color advocate in EDH, and would love a Keyword that either made a spell more powerful in a mono color deck, or restricted its use to only be playable in mono color decks
Regarding the Rulebreaker ability: I am a fan of the concept, but I think messing with color identity specificlly is a slippery slope. Mana fixing is so easy today that 5 color mana bases are easier to build than two and especially mono colour mana bases. The game as is could have more interesting limits and choices. Color identity is one of the (or maybe the) last relevant restrictions in terms of access to colour. It is format defining and messing with it won't do the format any good.
Contemporary cards usually have only upsides and tend to be asymmetrical. I would love to see more interesting drawbacks and symmetrical hate pieces. Think sphere of resistance compared to lodestone golem, which is powerful but not very interesting, because it solves several problems at once and all on its own. Sphere of Resistance impacts both players and makes deck building much more specific.
Heck yeah, Kallist! What a cool card. Love the in-jokes on these, thanks for the video!
Man I love spell commanders, they will certainly be making their way into my commander cube
White Rhystic Study!!!!!
Red or Black Craterhoof?
Spell commanders sound great because I don't like running permanents with too many knobs (creatures, planeswalkers, etc.). Keep the board simple and deal with complexity only for a very limited span of time.
Any insight you can provide into the logic or thought process as to why a set called 'Commander Masters' doesn't have Rhystic Studies in it, but then it is reprinted in a regular, standard set like Wilds of Eldraine? Also, if you have the time to answer, why is it that Doubling Season is reprinted in Commander Masters and then reprinted again in Wilds of Eldraine? Is WOTC's strategy to reprint all cards so that they maintain a certain threshold in price point?
Toe Breaking Helmet absolutely cracked me up… perfect, should’ve made the set
I really hope we get more soceries as commanders. I have a Jeska thrice reborn deck and that plays a lot like having a burn sorcery in the command zone and it’s a ton of fun so I would love to see more soceries as commanders
I really like the "rulebreaker" effect, i hope that it'll be printed ^^
I like the idea behind theopholos. Not the eminence (as I dont like non interactive-non preventable things in magic) but rewarding playing less colors in commander should be a focus the upcomming years. Als multicolor decks in commander are by default more powerful. As mana bases are super consistent and you have more cards to choose from.
Commander needs a mechenic called "Monopoly" :You can only cast this spell if your commander(s) dont have any other color then this card. (word it better then this).
This should work like a reverse Fallaji Wayfarer. And as this is a downside you can even push powerlevel with it. And as vintage and legacy dont have commanders they cant cast the cards and it wont warp those formats.
THE colossal dreadmaw did it for me 😂😂
1) KALLIIIIIIIIST
2) I feel like Rulebreaker would be ok, as long as it's on the Commander themselves, and not being able to include lands of that type is very restrictive.
For the taught by enchantments. Could you have them phase out when the commander leaves the field and phase back in attached when the commander next enters
We definitely need a "Form of the ____ player" cycle in the next un-set. I'm sure there's a ___ player you could choose for each of the other four colours.
I've been wanting a commander that allows you to break the colour rule for creature types for a while
Simic, Value Engine is my favourite. Great choice of creature types as well!
I’m still disappointed I wasn’t able to play your event in minneapolis it looks so fun and whacky
I love the idea of messing with color identity with a certain restriction
Hi Gavin,
I like Shedding Snake both thematically and mechanically. The snake's ancient cultural association with regeneration and restoration I think is a bit of an underexplored flavor in M:tG, as it is in fantasy in general, and this card captures it nicely. In long games the Commander tax can feel burdensome so it's satisfying to play with a design space that gives players a later game sigh of relief.
Also, if you see this comment and you're interested, is there a place I can share a card design idea? I've been brewing this card for a while that I think is cool, evocative, and full of fun references and I'd love to share and discuss.
This is mad science I tell you!!
Do spell commander cards go to your graveyard when resolved or can you put them back in command zone with tax?
As someone with an Awaken The Blood Avatar deck, I do enjoy a good Spell Commander, but I feel like it has to be suitably Commander-y. Commander Enchantment makes me nervous. Eminence I'd rather never see again. I don't like Rulebreaker; Exceptions like Fallaji Wayfarer are neat, but granting other cards the ability to go in any deck is, I feel, incredibly dangerous.
Mono-Eminence and commander suspend both look like fun ideas, please experiment more and maybe bring over into actual commander! Rulebreaker is probably too broken, unless it's very limited effects…
considering using the colossal dreadmaw as a rule 0 commander since i know my playgroup would be totally down. for clarification, would you pay the original mana cost of the creature or 4gg?
You're casting it as though it were Colossal Dreadmaw, so you're paying 4GG to cast it, not the creature's normal casting cost. It's similar to Form of the Mulldrifter from Mystery Booster.
Yep! What Nathan said 😄
I cant wait for more unknown events
Rulebreaker seems too good on Hadran, and even if implemented on a small scale now it will probably balloon in a power-creepish way in the future.
That being said... I would 100% love a Rulebreaker mechanic specifically for creature types. Please let me have all Cat creatures be legal outside my commander's color... I like cats :)
Dockbreacher is unironically a great design
Dear Gavin,
Few things would make me happier than geting to play [[Form of the Stax Player]] in EDH. Please also include a way to interact with nonbasic lands that aren't fetches like [[Archon of Emeria]] or some version of [[Wasteland]] that makes sense in multiplayer.
I think token copies of named cards are fine and could easily be accomodated in the rules.
I think the term "menu" or something similar could be accodated in the rules.
I dislike any of the effects that break the color pie; the poe is a huge part of what makes magic great!
The real question is, when is battle bond 2?
Big fan of the commander tax related spells and the "deck building rewards" for being monocolored. I would love to see more deck building rewards with other restrictions - perhaps inspired by the companion restrictions?
Not a fan of the spell commanders, as they don't feel "commander-like". Perhaps if done properly, one could make a one-off spell commander, but it should be due to flavor rather than design space exploration in my opinion. I want commanders that are fun to build around, not just "hey, I have this spell I can cast again and again to support my deck". The deck should be built to support the commander (in my opinion), not the other way around.
Rulebreaker seems to have potential, but I think it should be very restricted, so that it stil feels like the given commander's color identity and not e.g. "5-color enchantment good stuff".
An alternative is to have Rulebreaker instead be "You may include this in your deck, even if it does not fit your commander's color identity". That way, the majority of the deck would still match the color identity, but there is always the small possibility that your opponent has *insert rulebreaking card here*. Maybe a cycle of them?
Otherwise, as someone else mentioned, the mechanic you went for could be an ability of a colorless eldrazi that allows you to include any devoid cards in your deck. Perhaps even "any colorless cards" (thus including lands).
With the first example devoid commander (include any devoid cards), I wouldn't give it the ability to have non-Wastes basic lands. There is plenty of colorless lands that tap for colored mana.
Commander Suspend should in my opinion be on a specific commander rather than a mechanic in itself. Something that both interacts with suspended cards and does something while suspended.
Of course sorcery as commander I have been doing this since strixhaven it’s a blast and my favorite deck
"Hole filling Team" 😂
The commander tax bolt is a horrible idea with the amount of commanders that want to be recast over and over (food chain commanders)
i do however *LOVE* the Dilu horse, mr. wiggles, potatoes, Enolc and Barce
Ah yes the famous “building” sagrada familia. How Reddit can you get
The commander-auras just seem like backgrounds with extra steps
There already is a sorcery commander, Awaken the Blood Avatar (Extus). I don't think I've ever seen one cast Extus before.
Commander tax cycle and rulebreaker is good idea😊 I want to see them in real commander set
I NEEED Ano’thr!! Hmu if you want to part with that card!
I really like Tax Bolt.
I am currently building an Izzet spellslinger commander deck, and while I would love Daxiver for purely selfish reasons, jesus christ it would break all of the game. Just, all of it. 😂
lol Lorthos counts as an obscure character? he's had a card tho.
Just make the Slivdrazi Monstrosity a thing and I'll be happy
Convince other players to play it with you. It doesn't need to be an official card in a casual game.
Will these show up in future Mystery Boosters?
now this is what im talking about
Please play test the remaining commander collection boxes. You left out red blue white and artifacts