What commanders do you want to see?
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on May 18, 2023, 10:26 p.m. by legendofa
There's a lot of niche commanders now, and a lot of general use goodstuff commanders, but every so often I come up with a deck design that I really like, but there's no satisfying commanders for it.
This deck, Do Not Mistake Peace For Passivity, is a enchantments deck (not Voltron). There are a couple of options in the other trios, but not Naya.
Another deck idea, that isn't fully lined out yet, is Bant merfolk tribal, getting Sygg, River Guide, Stonybrook Schoolmaster, Vodalian Wave-Knight, and all the Ixalan merfolk together in a big pile of value. (Incidentally, Tuvasa the Sunlit is an enchantment commander and a Merfolk, but doesn't support either of these ideas.)
What niches have you found, that you want to see filled?
I'd really like to see a landfall or land matters commander for bant.
What I would REALLY like to see is a token themed/populate commander in bant. It's been my favorite deck to play for a while now, but it is really just a stack of 99 cards with a bant colored commander thrown in.
May 19, 2023 10:11 a.m.
FormOverFunction says... #4
I was just now logging in to this page to post almost exactly like this! I want them to re-visit the dynamic duo of Chandler and Joven. I love the idea of messing with other people’s artifacts.
May 19, 2023 10:34 a.m.
FormOverFunction Please build a Chandler and Joven partner deck! That would be awesome! In my head-canon those two cards now have Friends Forever with Chandler/Joven.
On the original topic, I'll say that I really don't want a lot of goodstuff or niche commanders anymore. I personally prefer to need to find more unique ways to make niche strategies such as Shrines work rather than just having Wizards print Go-Shintai of Life's Origin. What I personally like to see is commanders with interesting abilities that aren't pigeonholed into a single deck. The backgrounds and background commanders from Battler for Baldur's Gate are things I love because there are so many open-ended and interesting combinations from them.
May 19, 2023 3:03 p.m.
legendofa funny that you would do this in I did the same thing with my Marisi deck: Cats off the Lawn! Seems like Naya is a great shell to use some aggressive enchantments to change the usual playpattern of that color combo. I want to see a Naya enchantment commander that doesn't need to be "enchantress" per-se but works with good synergy with aggressive enchantments, particularly some cheeky ways to work with global effects. Sortof like Marisi, Breaker of the Coil works hilariously with Earnest Fellowship.
May 19, 2023 3:28 p.m.
Also, more creativity in . Right now it is mostly sac-value or land recursion belonging to Jund, with some generic recursion. Land-GY is just sortof repetitive & lackluster ATM. The way creatures & other spells with flashback & escape work there are at least a bunch of multi-tiered ways to make those recursion effects interesting on 2 fronts... but the nature of lands (& land abilities) coming from the GY makes this a one-dimensional theme currently.
There are a few exceptions in Jund, but most of those have been lackluster dabbles on theme change or more exceptional commanders tend to be high CMC. I want something mold-breaking but viable... Let's get Jund polymorphing out there, polymorphing for everyone make the board-state difficult to control & let the strong feed of the weak, this is the Jund way.
Do a Jund equivalent to what Sultai does every month. Or what Jeskai just got to do with making a viable superfriend option - a reason to dabble outside of Atraxa or WUBRG in an archetype
Remember when Mardu enchantments was unthinkable?: Ghen, Arcanum Weaver & Pepperidge Farms remember. These are good ways for shards/wedges to explore archetypes without breaking formats.
May 19, 2023 11:11 p.m.
I've got some decks I love to play that just don't have the ideal commanders yet. Still waiting for a monored legendary phoenix (not sure why that's taking so long). I'd love to see a naya creature that supports planeswalkers as well, I like Gahiji, Honored One but it's kinda a placeholder for something better at the moment.
Some more 4 color options would be nice, maybe a BGRU dragon of some sort, and in magical christmas land a BGRW ooze.
May 20, 2023 8:08 a.m.
SteelSentry says... #9
They're being conservative with them after Partner, but either two color Backgrounds or two color legendaries with Choose a Background would be neat. I think there's a lot more creative space to the current selection than people give them credit for, but I'd love three color options to try out.
May 20, 2023 8:43 a.m.
I do like the Mardu-love they have given recently. legends matter is pretty cool. This was expanding what Mardu can do (powerful too) while not breaking any formats... Lets get that same love sent to Jund :)
May 20, 2023 9:32 a.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #11
I'm hoping for more giant tribal in Eldraine 2, but they propably can't go as far as making a RGWU legendary giant to replace Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis with. More tribal synergy would be awesome, still.
May 20, 2023 1:04 p.m.
fadelightningmm says... #12
I would love to see a sultai investigate deck Lonis, Cryptozoologist and Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth deserve a good clue deck
May 21, 2023 10:55 a.m.
I just remembered another commander I'd like to see. There's no real "evil bad guy"-coded commander. Part of the design of the color wheel is that no color or combination of colors is inherently "good" or "evil", and has a collection of philosophies outside of their usual portrayal of benevolent protectors.
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Authority belongs to the strong and worthy, while the weak and unworthy have no place in society.
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Social mobility threatens the natural order. Stratification and hierarchy preserve the natural order.
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Conformity and tradition should be enforced with no sense of individuality or innovation. Free will is a dangerous myth.
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All crimes are equal, and being imprisoned and fed to a hungry animal is always a fair sentence.
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These tenets are decided by fate, so there's no use in denying them.
I feel like this angle (which reads like a social Darwinism manifesto) hasn't been leaned into enough as a potential story villain. The Selesnya Conclave and Dromoka Clan skate around a couple of these, but don't dig in. If anyone remembers the original Archenemy decks, the one just didn't feel "archenemy" enough. is capable of true villainy, so let's see a card that shows it.
May 21, 2023 2:07 p.m.
legendofa I think you're right that Selesnya doesn't really have any "evil bad guys", but I personally I don't get a sense that Selesnya is really Darwinistic, I view that ideology as more Gruul or Naya. Instead let me suggest two options:
- A seemingly benevolent cult that espouses the virtues that we normally see in Selesnya of protection and equality, but really revolves around a cult leader who convinces everyone to drink the koolaid.
- A society that imposes strict equality on it members in a fashion similar to the story of Harrison Bergeron where the villain would be the leader who enforces the application of such strict handicaps.
May 21, 2023 2:33 p.m.
I'm curious why you lean toward Gruul or Naya as being more Darwinistic (opposed to Social Darwinistic?), but I agree that your two examples would be solid villains. My counter-opinion is that the cult leader one is more deceptive, shading into or , than I usually think of , which I see as being very straightforward and open with its position. The Harrison Bergeron one is perfect. Vonnegut had a good eye for that sort of thing.
May 21, 2023 2:46 p.m.
You would think mechanically could go anti-legends matter. Maybe a little bit of "daisy cutting" action on the "we must all be special" movement. Just not quite the Phyrexian Borgism though. Could be sortof like some of the more conservative characters of the past generation that really hated on certain millennial ideals.. & no I'm not diving into right or wrong, just that that could be a villain that hates on the trophy for everyone & we all are super special ideas.
May 21, 2023 3:51 p.m.
legendofa Darwinistic usually implies survival of the fittest, which I think fits the 'might makes right' feel that Gruul (and to a lesser extent Naya) has. My impression of Selesnya is basically communism without an authoritarian dictator, and I view that as not very Darwinistic. At least that's my take on it. Now for the cult leader, yes I'd agree that a deceptive cult leader would be more /, but not all cult leaders are trying to deceive, some are true believers themselves, which is some ways is even more frightening (thinking of Jim Jones and David Koresh here). I think that kind of cult leader would be . Honestly I think they'd need to be very careful about building out a set and a story around that considering Magic's audience, but if done right I think they might end up with a really compelling and scary villain.
Gleeock That's an interesting idea, kind of like the Harrison Bergeron idea but expressed in a different way maybe? Not allowing anyone to get out of line and imposing strict social rules. That could work very well.
May 21, 2023 11:18 p.m.
Abaques Not sure if you already know this, but just in case, social Darwinism is distinct from biological Darwinism. Social Darwinism is a discredited theory that some people are more uniquely fit to lead society, and that societal structures should be built to keep those people in power. By very strange coincidence, the people who were putting together the Social Darwinism theory usually described the uniquely fit leader as resembling themselves. There was almost always quite a bit of racism, classism, sexism, and other unsavory -isms mixed in.
Basically, these people took the Darwinist idea of "species most suited to their environment will be most successful" and warped it into "we're richer and have more political power than everyone else, so we deserve to stay on top."
Biological Darwinism fits pretty well into . Social Darwinism, I believe, is strongly .
As for the cult leader, if they genuinely believe what they preach (your examples are very good), then yes, those would also be .
May 22, 2023 12:38 a.m.
legendofa Ah, I think I mistook your initial take for biological socialism (which, on re-reading your post you did mention, so my bad). As for social Darwinism, I think I would actually go for or to represent social Darwinism. One of 's core tenets is order and one of 's core tenets is amorality. Social Dawrinism, or really any of it's related political philosophies, do make me think of amoral order. I think that you could likely sprinkle in some because many of the people who espouse such beliefs tend to try to paper over them with pseudo-intellectualism. represents nature, instinct and interdependence, which I don't think fit well into social Darwinism.
Now that being said, I do see your point. I think you could make a strong evil faction in if you had a group that was obsessed with restoring their vision of a "natural order". If you had another group, like say the Esper Vedalkin or sentient artifact creatures, that didn't meet this group's definition of "natural", well, that's a story with sadly too many parallels to history and certainly a social Darwinist background. So maybe it just depends on the context for the right color combination for social Darwinism.
May 22, 2023 2:02 a.m.
Abaques As a final discussion point from my end, because you do bring up some good references, I'm going to point to 's emphasis on determinism, tradition, fate over free will, and sense of "might makes right". These combine with combine with evil 's rigid structures, enforced unity, and distrust of those different from itself to set up a system where makes the rules to keep itself in power and prevent anyone from challenging their assigned role in society, defending it by claiming that it's the "only correct and natural" system.
I say final because this is straying off topic from "what commanders do you want to see." I'm always happy to discuss color philosophy, though, so I might make a new dedicated thread in the near future.
May 22, 2023 2:23 a.m.
So someone that hates on Legendary/loves on non-legendaries because: "it's not the name on the back of the jersey that matters" & they also are big on Manifest Destiny?
Sounds like humans + angel types expanding their territory & shaping a frontier in their image. Boy you could get filthy-hated with landstealing concepts.
I guess is a bit like a manicured garden right? So everything that is considered a weed gets plucked & you only want brackets of monocultures
May 22, 2023 9:01 a.m.
What's the mana value of this thread? I'm about to Reanimate it. I'd like to see more four-color stuff. Unlife mentioned this earlier, but I'd like to expand on the thought.
Four-color cards are especially hard to design and make meaningful, per Mark Rosewater. I'm willing to grant that. Right now, though, I'm trying to line out a Curse deck that uses Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor and Eriette of the Charmed Apple. Breya, Etherium Shaper, has absolutely no synergy, and the best partner options, in my opinion, are just kind of generically useful.
(I know Go-Shintai of Life's Origin is an option, but I don't see having a deep role in this deck, and it feels a little too "five-color good stuff" for me. It's off-theme and is offering stuff I'm not sure this deck concept wants or needs.)
There could be a graveyard commander, or a damage over time commander. Maybe I'm just being demanding, but I feel like outside of the two Atraxas and 's wealth of options (so two color sets out of five), there's just not any worthwhile choices for brewing four-color decks with cards that work well together but happen to not overlap in color identity.
TypicalTimmy says... #2
I don't have a whole lot of free time anymore, but one I am absolutely dying to build is Shalai and Hallar Naya Hydra Tribal.
May 19, 2023 1:30 a.m.