Commander has become huge in the Magic the Gathering playing community, but I’m still in awe of how much Wizards wants to support this format. As someone who survived Combo Winter, the rise of Rebels and the absurdity of Fires before getting crushed by UG-Madness, I grew tired of Standard Magic years ago. Of course then Affinity rose up, then with Faeries, Jund and now CAW-Blade – it’s enough to make many veterans tired of the time. Thankfully, Commander is a much needed break.
For the uninitiated, Commander was once known as EDH – Elder Dragon Highlander. Inspired by the cycle of dragons and the film, EDH became more and more popular. The gist of the format is: you make a 100-card deck around a single legend and you only get one of each card except basic lands. Full rules are available here.
Use Ghave, Guru of Spores to create a strangling tangle of vines and vegetation that will crush all who oppose you! The all-consuming power of growth turns your creatures into monstrous behemoths while Saprolings fuel your increasing might
Contents: 100 Magic card deck, 3 oversized Commander cards, deck box and rules insert
Made by: Wizards of the Coast
Retail Price: $29.99, available at Amazon and local stores, soon to be available at big box retailers
Each impressively excessive package includes one 100-card deck, a cardboard deck box, a rules insert and three oversized foils – which are copies of the Commanders included. Yes, each set includes both regular AND oversized cards. The cardboard deck box is very poorly designed since it is too big for the deck (the cards move around) but too small for sleeved cards! I know Wizards isn’t in the deck box market, but why include them when they can’t even be used properly?
To not show favorites in these reviews, I’ll be doing the decks alphabetically – so first up is Counterpunch! The black-green-white wedge, Counterpunch uses tokens and counters to make a mess of things for everyone on the battlefield. Toss in plenty of graveyard play and you’ve got a deck that’s a lot of fun.
Each Commander deck comes with three possible commanders. Teneb, the Harvester is a reprint but his recursion ability which can target any graveyard is a mainstay. But he’s old – on to the new Commanders!
Karador, Ghost Chieftain was one of the first cards revealed for the set as being unique to Commander. So for all you Standard and Extended players, have fun not being able to use these! Karador provides some great support both as being a commander who is near impossible to kill for good and during your upkeep you get to cast a creature again and again! For singleton, this is a great gift. Still, the 8-casting cost makes me think he’ll be hard to get in play regularly.
Ghave, Guru of Spores is the official “commander” of this deck. A giant fungus that combines the fun of Spikes and Fungus (if that doesn’t sound fun to you, you’re clearly not a green mage). Ghave is still pretty exciting with the ability to essentially make creatures and +1/+1 counters the same thing. With the right cards (Doubling Season), he’d rule the streets. He’s definitely a commander that needs to be built around though.
But these two aren’t the only new cards in the deck! There are 13 more!
Rarity in the Commander sets is an odd thing but the breakdown for NEW cards is this: commons appear in all five decks, uncommon in three and rares/mythics in only one. Mythics are commanders, rares are other cards.
The common land is a doozy – Command Tower! Mana bases can be as cheap or expensive as a player wants them to be and going multicolor can be hard in Commander, especially given how expensive dual lands are now. Command Tower though is great because it’s only useful in Commander! Getting a land that adds any color you need with zero drawbacks is amazing. If you play any multicolor-Commander decks, this is a must own.
The Vows are a cycle of enchant creatures that combine diplomacy with raw power. Being able to make it so your opponent’s best creature can’t attack you is fun but making the creature better by giving it +2/+2 and another ability makes for even more fun. Or you can toss one on your own creature for a boost. These may be some of the best auras Wizards has designed.
Syphon Flesh continues a casual favorite theme of the Syphons – mind and soul. It hits everyone equally and then gives it all right back to you! An Innocent Blood for all your opponents is great and being able to get you a handful of zombies isn’t too shabby either.
Tribute to the Wild continues the Innocent Blood-like cards and gives green a much needed upgrade over Simplify which was just awful. The best part about this card is everyone has to sacrifice something except you! In a format when Naturalize isn’t good enough, Tribute to the Wild can definitely swing a game.
Soul Snare is the newest white removal that seems like a cross between a Seal and Path to Exile. For only two white mana, you get to exile any creature attacking you! Tossing this down on turn one means everyone knows to leave you alone and that’s a great card for politics. I also love that many of these cards specifically mention Planeswalker and keeps them safe as well.
Alliance of Arms shows off the newest ability word – Join Forces! Even seeing this spells in action, I’m still torn on them. In the wrong hands, they backfire horribly and usually are someone’s undoing. In the right hands, they seem almost as abusive as Balance. Call to Arms seems fair but rarely does anything more than stall the ground war – unless the player casting it happens to have some Honor of the Pure and similar spells to ruin it.
Celestial Force is an interesting little gem that seems to be a distant cousin of Verdant Force. A 7/7 body is nothing to laugh at and some people are scoffing at the upkeep trigger of you gaining 3 life each upkeep. Note – this isn’t a may trigger. In a game with four players, this basically reads gain 12 life each time around. Would you pay 8 mana for a 7/7 with double lifelink? I think I would.
Hornet Queen is a weird, weird, weird removal spell disguised as a creature. The closest card I can compare it to is Hex but it basically says “kill 5 creatures.” In green, that could very well be worth the 7 mana for 6 power worth of fliers. But this card really shines when you can bounce it or flicker it. I’m afraid of what this creature does defensively.
Scavenging Ooze is a fantastic bear. With the graveyard being a dangerous resource for many decks, being able to selectively each parts of it (or your own) and getting a bigger creature works well. What I really like is that this card is a 2/2 for two early game but late game, he basically reads XG for an X+1/X+1. That’s a great tool for Commander as a card that’s never a dead draw.
In addition to the two new mythic 3-color commanders, each deck includes a two-color rare legend just oozing with deck building potential. Vish Kal is just that – a vampire who devours creatures whole, absorbs all their strength before vomiting them up to melt another creature to death! He’s big, he flies and he only gets bigger. The lifelink is just icing on the amazing cake that is this guy.
The final new card is a quirky little artifact called Acorn Catapult. A twisted take on Skull Catapult, instead of sacrificing a creature – this one throws a squirrel at them! A twist Rod of Ruin, this is a pure multiplayer card that acts are weird removal or a quick way to help someone out with a little blocker. Or you can just use it on one of your own creatures to get a quick 1/1.
But there are still 84 cards left in this deck! The mana base isn’t too bad with 10 forests, 8 plains and 8 swamps. I will say the artwork used isn’t exciting and a lot of it we’ve seen before and seen recently. I would have loved getting some older art (anything from 5th Edition finally in black border) but lands are lands.
The non-basics include the cycling lands from Onslaught which are useful as either a much needed land early game or a cheap way to draw a replacement. The bounce lands from Ravnica are amazing in long games as ways to boost your mana production. The Vivids are fantastic here as well. The final three include Evolving Wilds to grab any basic, Rupture Spire to add any color and Temple of the False God to give you that mid-game bump for mana acceleration. Nothing exciting, but it’s a decent and cheap mana base overall.
The rares in the deck are an interesting selection of sweepers, utility and big creatures. Chorus of the Conclave is a good way to get an older Commander in the hands of new players while Spawnwrithe, Symbiotic Wurm and Dark Hatchling fill very different roles.
Attrition and Awakening Zone make up a little combo that is hardly even fair, great work by the designers on matching those two up. Hex and Hour of Reckoning give this deck some much needed control while Storm Herd is easily an “I win” card – provided you can cast it.
The uncommon artifacts are almost worth the price of admission alone with them being Sol Ring, Lightning Greaves and Skullclamp! By including Sol Ring in every deck, Wizards really showed off their commitment to the Commander format.
Necrogenesis helps keep graveyards selectively in control while providing fodder and Aura Shards has been begging to be reprinted for years now! The sorceries are a touch odd with Harmonize (great), Bestial Menace (not bad) and Death Mutation (really?). Instants are disappointing too with Nemesis Trap, Cobra Trap and Afterlife – they could have provided Swords to Plowshares or Path to the Exile but didn’t! At least Mortify is some great utility.
The creatures are interesting. Oddly, Golgari and Selesnya Guildmages are present but Orzhov is absent. Shriekmaw, Vampire Nighthawk and Spike Feeder are all some of the best creatures in their colors, while Sigil Captain can be a beast in this kind of deck. Nantuko Husk works well with tokens and Squallmonger is just one of those weird multiplayer cards.
None of the commons are bad; they just aren’t as exciting as they could be in a few instances. The artifacts help wrap up the mana fixing with all three Signets and a Darksteel Ingot. Cultivate is the lone sorcery and much needed in a deck of three colors. Doom Blade is almost always useful while Footbottom Feast helps get back those creatures that got killed off one way or another. Oblivion Ring is solid and Fists of the Ironwood is just a weird choice, I understand why but Rancor is better.
Monk Realist seems to unrealistically overestimate how many enchantments will be on the field. The rest of the commons all do something useful. Fertilid, Sakura-Tribe Elder and Yavimaya Elder provide great ways to keep your mana curve under control. While Penumbra Spider, Deadly Recluse and Aquastrand Spider keep your skies safe. Selesnya Evangel is a quirky way to generate tokens before Ghave arrives.
Counter Punch Decklist
Tags: black, commander, counterpunch, edh, ghave guru of spores, green, karador ghost chieftain, magic: the gathering, teneb the harvester, vish kal blood arbiter, white
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