Big changes are coming to Commander, and here what it means for you.
Commander is changing substantially, what with the introduction of Brackets and the Game Changers earlier this year, but that isn’t all. Today marks the first unbanning we’ve had quite some time in Commander, and we’ve also had several new cards added to the Game Changers list alongside this announcement.
This means that many of us will have decks that could be jumping around in the Brackets, with some fun cards back on the menu. To keep it simple, we’ll break down the key points announced by Wizards of the Coast earlier today right here.
Coalition Victory is Back in Commander
Market Price: $15.91
Market Price: $49.06
So, let’s start with the important news, the unbannings:
- Coalition Victory
- Sway of the Stars
- Braids, Cabal Minion
- Panoptic Mirror
- Gifts Ungiven
Right then, let’s go through the unbans. Gifts Ungiven is a four-mana instant that enables you to fetch up four cards, and then an opponent chooses two for your hand, and you put the others in your graveyard. This is a massive addition to not only Sultai decks but also basically every Spellslinger strategy there is in Commander. Expect Gifts Ungiven to feature play all over the place in a mixture of archetypes. Sway of the Stars is a ten-mana sorcery that semi-resets the game and puts everyone at seven life. It’s quite a powerful card, so it’ll be interesting to see how this one plays out in the coming months.
Market Price: $15.13
Market Price: $20.94
Market Price: $20.16
Braids, Cabal Minion is a menacing four-mana black 2/2 that forces everyone to sacrifice a permanent in their upkeep, which is fun specifically for Braids’ controller. Panoptic Mirror is a five-mana artifact that lets you exile an instant or sorcery from your hand and copy it in each of your upkeeps for free. This is another strong card and very exciting for Spellsinger strategies.
However, the big winner here is Coalition Victory, an eight-mana sorcery that lets you win the game if you control one of each basic land type and a creature of each color. We’re very excited to play this alongside Leyline of the Guildpact and also throw Coalition Victory into the excellent 20 Ways to Win Commander Precon. We can all agree that a win condition that’s really easy to just Counterspell and costs eight-mana is more than fine, right?
Changing the (Commander) Game
Market Price: $21.60
Market Price: $22.02
Market Price: $40.92
Cards Removed From the Game Changers:
- Trouble in Pairs
- Trinisphere
So, Trouble in Pairs and Trinisphere are coming off the Game Changers, which is a group of cards that can dramatically warp games of Commander in a way players often dislike. As a result, the Commander Format Panel created a system (or list) to track these powerful cards going forward. It’s clear Trinisphere and Trouble in Pairs are fantastic cards, but we completely agree they’re not doing as much as the other cards currently on the Game Changers list. We’re a little surprised to see Force of Will sticking around, but it’s an undoubtedly powerful counterspell, so it’s staying for now (at least).
Cards Added to the Game Changers:
Market Price: $14.26
Market Price: $44.96
- Teferi’s Protection
- Humility
- Narset, Parter of Veils
- Intuition
- Consecrated Sphinx
- Necropotence
- Orcish Bowmasters
- Notion Thief
- Deflecting Swat
- Gamble
- Worldly Tutor
- Crop Rotation
- Seedborn Muse
- Natural Order
- Food Chain
- Aura Shards
- Field of the Dead
- Mishra’s Workshop
That’s a lot of cards, right? We’re not going to break down every single one for sanity’s sake and because Wizards of the Coast went over these in more detail on the mothership. However, they’re all solid additions to the Game Changers, with cards like Teferi’s Protection and Field of the Dead being incredibly powerful cards that can turn the tide of a given game if played correctly.
Necropotence allows you to draw cards in exchange for life, and given that Commander has you starting at 40 life, that means you can burn through nearly half of your deck with minimal effort outside of casting this one enchantment. Several new Game Changer additions are tutors and are already listed in the Brackets, so it’s odd to see them here, but clarification is always a good thing.
The only one that feels odd here is Gamble. It is a one-mana tutor — already strong — but you also have to discard a card at random when you cast it, which can make it useless if you draw it from the top of your library with nothing in hand or if you’ve only got one card in hand, giving you a 50% chance that you lose the thing you tutored for. There are decks this isn’t a negative for, but we think it’s worth keeping in mind.