Companion in Commander
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on April 9, 2020, 3:11 a.m. by enpc
So for those of you who don't already know, the RC has pre-banned Lutri, the Spellchaser since unless you're running a Shadowborn Apostle deck, you pre-qualify for Lightning Otter's companion ability (assuming you're playing izzet colours).
This raises an interesting point though - It seems as if the RC have decided that you can in fact run a companion card as your 101st card in the deck. This is odd though, considering that while the wish cards (e.g. Cunning Wish) are all legal in commander, you can't run a wishboard.
So what are people's thoughts about this? Should companion as an ability be disabled for commander (which would in turn unban Lutri)? or should Commander allow companion? And what follow-on effects do you think this will have?
The other things I find kinda bad about it in commander:
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Its essentially making partner commanders with extra steps and less payoffs. You cant send it back to the command zone and you cant add extra cards for it.
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Zirda would be banned almost automatically because of a) how easy it is to build a deck with its conditions and b) how it would essentially become a use all card for any deck that can support it and Basalt Monolith.
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Long drawn out discussions and misunderstandings among players about wishboards, sideboards, whether a commander is part of a deck, etc.
April 9, 2020 4:17 a.m.
Doesn’t it just stay in your sideboard which can have no more than 10 cards in it? I adhere to that whenever I run Burning Wish. Personally I’m not going to run any of them, but I think it’s perfectly fair game to use them.
Also banning a lot of new legendary generals because of the companion mechanic just sounds dumb to me as the banlist makes no distinction for banned as general and banned in the 99 last I recall.
April 9, 2020 4:23 a.m.
I mean it used to. I think the biggest issue is the fact that a lot of them become no opportunity cost cards. For example, Zirda, the Dawnwaker is an easy one to fulfill and is extremely powerful. As is Umori, the Collector. The issue isnt the existence of the wishboard alone (although that might become an issue since sideboards are rarely used in edh) but instead how easy these cards are able to get out.
Also, using stuff like Burning Wish requires a specific card to get stuff from your wishboard. This mechanic doesnt. It still takes up space in the deck. These cards don't.
April 9, 2020 4:31 a.m.
DrukenReaps says... #6
Besides Lutri being too easy to include in everything I find all of their restrictions rather straight forward and most of their payoffs of minimal usefulness. If someone has their 101st or 102nd or 103rd card they have paid a hefty price imo and deserve that card. I'll hope to applaud their creativity. I really don't think we will see them getting used very much as companions after about 2 months.
dbpunk "people will definitely accuse each other of not following the building requirements."
That feels like flawed logic at best. Commander players already have deck building restrictions that they build around. Occasionally someone gets something wrong. Most of the time, in my decade of playing commander, people ask a few questions and then make a deck correctly. These just add another simple to follow restriction once people understand how they work. I've never been a fan of the whole "spirit of commander" argument either... It seems like it is always used to restrict creativity.
April 9, 2020 4:43 a.m.
fadelightningmm says... #7
I personally hate that they are card 101 in the deck. The main problem with Lutri is that in izzet it was all upside for no “opportunity cost”. I for one did not get the opportunity cost concept so for those who were like me I’ll briefly explain: opportunity cost is the idea that each card in the deck comes at the cost of adding a different card. With Lutri you didn’t have to decide whether you would run it at the cost of some flashy spell. In UR it was a free extra card that could benefit you.
This will bring me to my problem with companion: why is there no opportunity cost to them? If I build partner commanders I don’t have 99 cards plus the partners. The extra commander comes at a cost. All companions are legendary and function almost as a second (or third) commander, but as a one time shot. Why can’t we create a new zone outside of the game (not a sideboard), but a companion corner. If you meet there requirement they can chill in the corner, but they count towards your 100 cards. You can’t send it back to the corner once it’s played and now they have the opportunity cost built into them. I think having a companion would be neat, but I don’t like the iteration we have. I understand why it was designed this way for standard, but the commander implications are stupid imo
April 9, 2020 5:15 a.m.
sure, Umori, the Collector is easy to fulfill, but is it worth it? No Sol Ring, no Damnation, no Cultivate, just creatures. I think all of the Companion cards has too much of a restriction to be playable as a companion at all.
April 9, 2020 6:18 a.m.
Champion is a huge change to the game. I don't think prebanning or predismantling anything is a good idea. Let it play out and see what happens. It's a cool and interesting idea.
April 9, 2020 6:30 a.m.
RNR_Gaming says... #10
It's a cool idea and I never really minded the idea of sideboards/wish board cards. I feel it adds a different dimension to the game and would be fun to explore. Plus the restrictions are a tad hard to fulfill and would need most builds.
April 9, 2020 1:49 p.m.
JANKYARD_DOG says... #11
Disabled for any sort of event, but open to house rules in casual play is where I'd have it I think. It feels like an 'Unset' thing to me and when they experimented with legalizing that it just didn't work for me... I have the same feeling about this. Granted companions add a new level/restriction to deck building and for the right people could be fun, but it's not for everyone and should probably be something agreed upon before play. That's my 2 cents anyway.
April 9, 2020 9:23 p.m.
Mj3913: but if they get officially ruled in as usable (which due to Lutri's banning seems to be how the RC is leaning) then they are fair game in tournaments.
April 10, 2020 12:30 a.m.
Weche_the_goblin says... #13
Can i use the companion in the deck itself or as the commander?
May 29, 2020 12:50 p.m.
JANKYARD_DOG says... #14
Weche_the_goblin Yes you can use a companion as a commander. You don't need to follow its restrictions if you do. The only way you can have both a companion and a companion as a commander is to run Jegantha, the Wellspring as commander and any companion other than Lutri and Yorion because ban/rules. Incase ou were wondering.
dbpunk says... #2
Honestly I would dismantle it. It kind of goes against the spirit of commander (only having 100 cards) and almost any deck would be effectively neutered by the requirements of any of them (except maybe Lurris, Lutri and Zirda). Plus, honestly, I think its just going to cause a ton of confusion in terms of gameplay, and people will definitely accuse each other of not following the building requirements.
April 9, 2020 3:59 a.m.