Brothers Yamazaki Partner Commanders
Custom Cards forum
Posted on Feb. 18, 2019, 4:43 p.m. by Dango
First and foremost, I want to start this discussion by saying that Kamigawa was one of my favorite sets in terms of flavor but not necessarily mechanically. Brothers Yamazaki was certainly an interesting card, but they don't really have a lot going for them I'm afraid aside from being somewhat beefier when two copies of them are on the field at the same time.
As far as the lore goes, Seitaro and Shujiro Yamazaki were an incredibly interesting duo. They were twin brothers only distinguishable by the adornments on their kabutos and the weapons they wielded. These two were originally samurais in service of Konda, Lord of Eiganjo , but left his service because Konda pulled forces away from their home village in order to protect Eiganjo Castle during the Kami War. The brothers were offended by his leadership to disregard the surrounding villages and left to defend them. They met Godo, Bandit Warlord who was a barbarian that greatly opposed Konda. The Yamazaki brothers decided to join the ranks of the Sanzoku Bandits and quickly became two of Godo's most respected lieutenants. The bandits rebelled against Konda, but failed an assault on Eiganjo and the brothers left Godo's service soon after. Their father had sent a messenger to them requesting to return home because he needed help defending the village from kami. Upon arrival, Seitaro slew a kami of fire and ice, but the brothers found out the kami was actually their father in the guise of a guardian who protected their village. Despite the death of their father, the brothers took on the role of protecting their village and they were successful at defending it throughout the war. However, the brothers never received any recognition for their acts of valor during the war and they parted ways because of their father's death.
With that very rough summary of their background out of the way, I would like to throw around the idea of them appearing as a Partner Commander pair, much like that of Partners that appeared in the Battlebond set. I think in terms of their color combination, they would drift heavily into Boros colors, but I could also see Mardu or Jeskai given their background. I want to leave this open-ended, and I'd like to ask you all what you think this pair of ronins might look like mechanically. Could you see Wizards potentially reprinting this duo and in what form? How would you envision a fresh take on Seitaro and Shujiro Yamazaki? Do you think a Return to Kamigawa-esque set might appear in the near future?
I personally could see the duo represented as Partner commanders in something like a Battlebond 2 expansion, or I wouldn't be surprised if they appeared in a new Kamigawa set on a single face card to represent both of them, much like how Firesong and Sunspeaker is done but under the name Seitaro and Shujiro Yamazaki and have abilities representative of them. What do you guys think about this? Leave a comment below, I'm really excited for this discussion!
Cheers!
Daedalus19876 says... #3
I like the idea of having them both in the command zone as partners, under different names so that the legend rule doesn't mess them up (only because the line of text that voids it is too long). I guess it depends what you want to do: do you want them to be equipment-focused? Samurai tribal? Just very aggressive voltron? Their story is vague enough that they could go several directions.
February 18, 2019 6:52 p.m.
dbpunk that would be an interesting mechanic, but I'm afraid cards like Stangg and Verix Bladewing do something very similar. I'm tending to favor the idea of a partner commander design, but I haven't the slightest clue regarding how they would work and compliment each other. Seitaro wields two swords while Shujiro wields what appears to be a battleaxe or polearm of some sort. Perhaps that could be relevant to their abilities? Give Seitaro double-strike and give Shujiro something like vigilance? And when they're on the field together they each get double-strike, vigilance, and haste? I feel like that wouldn't be very impactful though, and Sylvia Brightspear / Khorvath Brightflame already do that but in a better way. I'm not sure how to craft them in a relevant manner for them to both be impactful enough on the battlefield together and still remain flavorful.
Daedalus19876 I think they could be potent as partners for sure. I just don't know which direction they could be taken. Equipment and Voltron strategies can get awkward because typically Voltron aims to win via commander damage, and having two commanders for a Voltron strategy would dilute it quite a bit considering that one or the other would need to be pumped up (Unless a mechanic was introduced where they assign shared commander damage? I'm not sure, that could be a little broken). Samurai tribal as of right now is rather subpar due to the lack of relevant samurais out there, but who knows. The tribe is due to be expanded on in my opinion.
Thank you for your thoughts on this so far!
February 18, 2019 7:16 p.m.
Why not have them do partner with and each of give them abilities involving doubling damage or combat (two swords) and creating a defensive front (pole arm)?
February 18, 2019 7:21 p.m.
Well Kamigawa is one of the most popular sets via Rosewater, so... I just hope they go back to Kamigawa and do it right! I don't know what kind of drugs RD was doing back then but Kamigawa was pretty boring... Bushido was a bad keyword in my opinion, Ninjutsu was cool but had nothing enabling it at the time and was too costly, Epic was kinda cool but not really, Offering was cool but too niche, Soulshift was actually really cool but not very relevant at the time, Splice was an AWESOME concept but the costs were awful (surge did it better), and while Sweep was SUPER interesting the tempo disadvantage wasn't worth it.
February 19, 2019 11:16 a.m.
Honestly the biggest issue was that Kamigawa just had weak mechanics and the good cards with those mechanics weren't... good enough. Honestly some of the coolest cards with offering were also super overpriced for what they did ( Patron of the Moon for example could've been like a 4 drop, for example) and Bushido was interesting but like the fact that none of them had Trample kinda ruined it.
February 19, 2019 1:01 p.m.
I've been brewing ideas for a while now, and I thought of that bit of lore that revealed that there was a guardian spirit of fire and ice that protected their village. What if they had an ability where it said something like "at the beginning of your combat step, if you control Seitaro and Shujiro Yamazaki, and you don't control a creature named Guardian of Sokenzan, put a red and blue legendary spirit token named Guardian of Sokenzan into play under your control."
Also what are your thoughts on making this version of the twins spirits themselves? After all, it would help extend their lore and explain why they would be partnered together again because the lore stated that they never spoke to each other again after the death of their father. Essentially what unites them is the mutual desire to protect their village and they become guardian kamis of their village after they pass away. I was thinking that would be relevant, or perhaps one of them is a spirit and the other is human? Say, Seitaro became overwhelmed with guilt for killing his father and committed seppuku to restore his honor. If this were the case, Shujiro would be living, and Seitaro's spirit watches over him and aids him in battle. I think as far as flavor goes, these would be really cool concepts, but I don't want to write implicit lore based on my speculation.
Mechanically, I'd like them to buff each other when in the presence of each other. Or maybe Seitaro could be gimped to only being able to attack or block when Shujiro does? At that point though I feel like it would make more sense to simplify things and make Seitaro a legendary spirit samurai token that a non-partner Shujiro summons at some point in the combat step, similar to how Brimaz, King of Oreskos and Geist of Saint Traft function.
I'll get to drafting rough copies of all of these variants in the next couple of days. I've been brainstorming all day, even while I've been in class and I really just want to brew how these guys would function outside of samurai tribal.
February 19, 2019 5:08 p.m.
PIayswithFlRE says... #9
Looking forward to see what you come up, but this thread got me thinking, so I came up with this.
Makes the rules for commander tax a bit complicated and required the meld to have a casting cost, but I wanted to try it with meld.
Legendary Creature - Spirit Samurai
Menace
At the beginning of your end step, if you both own and control Seitaro Yamazaki and a creature named Shujiro Yamazaki, exile them, then meld them into Yamazaki Brothers.
Creatures you control with bushido get +1/+0 and gain menace.
Partner (You may have two commanders if both have partner.)
2/3
Legendary Creature - Human Samurai
Vigilance, bushido 1 (Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
Spirits and tokens you control gain bushido 1.
: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature
(Melds with Seitaro Yamazaki)
Partner (You may have two commanders if both have partner.)
2/3
Legendary Creature - Human Samurai
Vigilance, menace, bushido 2
Other creatures you control have menace and bushido 1
When a creature an opponent controls dies, create a 1/1 black and white spirit creature token with flying
When a creature you control deals combat damage to an opponent, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature
6/6
I shifted them to Mardu while keeping them castable with Boros mana and tried to have them both work well with the Boros, Orzhov, and Rakdos mechanics from the Ravnica set without dropping their original bushido mechanic.
Named the meld Yamazaki brothers so that it can also interact with the original
dbpunk says... #2
Honestly I like the idea. Also adding in the fact that they're samurai lieutenant could lead to an interesting cards.
Maybe something like them each giving an ability? Or having one enter and create a token that's the other?
February 18, 2019 6:40 p.m.