Ixalan Commander Overview

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

When we are not getting crushed by standard constructed, we enjoy Commander at the Kitchen Table.  As always, there are three or four of the MTG Realm playgroup slinging that carboard from the tall stacks so we have decided to deliver our thoughts on some of the new potential Commanders from Ixalan which the group is excited about.  

Here is a quick re-cap of the available legendary creatures which are available as your Commander - in order of our personal favourite to least -

Gishath, Sun's Avatar 
Naya Tribal Dinosaur for the win!  Not a very complex build as one is using pretty much all the dinosaurs offered in Ixalan, and there are just enough to fill the ranks.  Beyond that set, use available in-colour Shapeshifters such as Chameleon Colossus, Mirror Entity, Adaptive Automoton and Metallic Mimic.

Admiral Beckett Brass
Grixis Tribal Pirate build.  Similar to Gishath, the lion's share of the creatures are coming from Ixalan, so not that much critical thought is required to get a working prototype off the ground.  Don't overlook to add some flavour with Pirate Ship (Time Spiral).

Tishana, Voice of Thunder
Simic Tribal Merfolk may be a bit of a stretch here but players who are using Thrasios, Triton Hero (from Commander 2016) may disagree.  The more popular choice here may be a simple blue / green shell for ramping into monsters while introducing an element of classic control

Kopala, Warden of Waves
There are around a dozen rather good legendary merfolk creatures already of which are really only two which are suitable should you want to task your list to merfolk tribal. There is already Sygg, River Guide in blue / white so we feel that Kopala is best placed in riding shotgun with Sygg.

Vona, Butcher of Magan
Pretty neato as Commander in the right lifegain theme build as one would expect to have an ample volume of life to spend on Vona's ability to nerf non-land permanents.  Certainly not suited for a vampire tribal Commander in our opinion so we suggest sliding this in to an existing vampire-centric list such as Edgar Markov (Commander 2017).

Mavren Fein, Dusk Apostle
Not suitable as a Commander.  There are simply not enough white suck-heads printed to support this.  Again, look for a spot to support vampire-centric list.

Captain Lannery Storm - See Admiral Beckett Brass, as we do not think that is likely a good Commander.

Supporting cards for Ixalan Tribal
Vanquisher's Banner, Unclaimed Territory, and Pillar of Origins are all solid choices to either assist in fixing your colours or providing an anthem effect to pump your team.  Do try out similar card to support your tribe such as Door of Destinies.

Another note -

Growing Rites of Itlimoc // Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun is the cat's meow.  Any creature-heavy list looking for ramp will love to have this gem.

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