Rivals of Ixalan Commanders

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

Today we will address the Dinosaur in the Room and see what the newest Magic: the Gathering set, 'Rivals of Ixalan' delivers for potential Commanders.  This is quite obviously a rather important decision to make.  Although your Commander may very well be the most important card in your deck, we would suggest that if you are building your very first list (we built our first when the format was still called Elder Dragon Highlander), that you may be well served in deciding on your individual playstyle and choose your colour(s) first.  After this, you can then decide upon your Commander to support your strategies.  This is a suggestion however, and there is no reason for you to choose your Commander first, especially one that strongly suggests to build around it.  Perhaps you already have a solid deck-list and are entertaining the idea to replace and existing Commander which has not been performing to expection. 

Before we get into our opinions on the potential of our pool of Rivals of Ixalan Commander choices, it may be of use to see how well the previous Ixalan set had done.  In our own (perhaps limited) opinion, there were only two clear winners from Ixalan which went on to become popular Commanders.  Here is the list -

# 1 : Gishath, Sun's Avatar - NAYA.  Designed for Dinosaur tribal and good at dropping dinos onto the battlefield.

# 2 : Admiral Beckett Brass - GRIXIS.  Designed for Pirate tribal. Pirate lord which steals your heart.

# 3 : Tishana, Voice of Thunder - SIMIC.  Seeing some tribal Merfolk builds, but quite a few simply being inserted as support into existing Simic lists like Ezuri and Kruphix.

Did not really become favourites with the Commander community, but certainly acceptable in a supporting role :
• Vona, Butcher of Magan, Orzhov
• Kopala, Warden of Waves, Blue
• Captain Lannery Storm, red
• Mavren Fein, Dusk Apostle, white

Given the popularity contest winners from Ixalan, it stands to reason that dino and pirate tribal will continue to reap the benefits of further members joining its ranks in Rivals of Ixalan.  The big question however, will these two cards be eclipsed by the new hotness ?

There are a cycle of five Elder Dinosaurs presented with Rivals of Ixalan, one within the colour wheel.  These dinos are big, like really big.  Unfortunately these will unlikely be picked up by players to be a Commander.  With the exception of Zetalpa and Tetzimoc, which may have a sliver of a chance of being promoted to General, these will be best used in a supporting role.

• Zetalpa, Primal Dawn 
• Nezahal, the Primal Tide 
• Tetzimoc, Primal Death
• Etali, Primal Hunger 
• Ghalta, Primal Hunger 

Zacama, Primal Calamity - NAYA
This Elder Dinosaur does have a shot of being a Commander, but looks look further.  NAYA colours of red, green and white with a CMC of 9.  Solid 9/9 body with vigilance, reach and trample.  When this enters the battlefield, all your lands untap which is a big deal.  There are three decent activated abilities to pinging a creature, gaining life and nerfing an artifact / enchantment - again, not too shabby.  There may be some players interested in a mana ramp deck with Zacama at its head (or is it heads?), but we think it safe to have this included, along with Zetalpa, Etali, and Ghalta in a Gishath tribal build.

Azor, the Lawbringer - AZORIOUS
The competition is fierce in white / blue.  The popular Commanders are Brago, Grand Arbiter and Bruna.  So what does Azor bring to the table?  A 6/6 flying Sphinx for six mana and two abilities.  What appeals to us is the ability to shut down your opponent's instants / sorceries until your next turn.  If Azor sticks the landing, this will present a big evasive threat.  The second activated ability to gain life and draw cards will also endear Azor to Commander players.

Elenda, the Dusk Rose - Orzhov
We have been fans of black / white tokens for years now and are enthusiastic to give Elenda serious consideration.  Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts and Teysa, Orzhov Scion are the popular Commanders for B/W tokens.  Elenda could also be a consideration for more traditional gain and drain lists perhaps as well.  For now, our only hesitation is that a rather frail 1/1 body will make her an easy target for a turn or two.

Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca - SIMIC

We have two Simic Commander decks at the moment - Experiment Kraj and Momir Vig, Simic Visionary.  We really desperately want to build a Merfolk tribal list, and Kumena is the closest card we have seen to do that.  Our wishlist also includes a Bant (white, blue, green) Commander so that we could also roll in Sygg, River Guide and some of our fav supporting spells in white.  An anthem effect with Radiant Destiny and high token production with Parallel Lives would be ideal in a Bant Merfolk list.  Anywhoos, We have good feelings that there is now enough card support and interested players to propel Kumena past in popularity fo at least Edric, Spymaster of Trest to eventually rival that of Ezuri, Claw of Progress. 

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General Election 3

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

We continue today with our 'General Election' series of posts. Previous posts are HERE (/) and HERE (/) where we ask you, the MTG Realm reader to assist us in choosing our next EDH / Commander General. In this, our third of four posts, we delve into Simic (/) to find a General for our new EDH / Commander deck.

The blue and green coupling in Magic the Gathering is thematically about going big and being sneaky - kind of like that 2-pound Fruitcake which somehow makes it's way back into our kitchen no matter how many times we've chucked it over the neighbours fence. In Ravinca's Dissension set, the Simic Combine was all about biomancy while in latter sets, this colour combination provided loads of triggers and card draws.

Our two candidates for Simic (/) are Momir Vig, Simic Visionary and Edric, Spymaster of Trest. Let's sit down and chat with the hopefuls -

First up - Edric, Spymaster of Trest.

Hailing from the port city of Trest, this rogue Elf is at the center of all intrigue, sophistry and strategy. For a mana cost of one colourless, one blue and one green, you get a 2/2 creature with a solid card-draw ability when a creature deals combat damage to one of your opponents. Excellent in a 1v1 game, multiplayer / Commander. This card's flavour may translate well in mulitplayer as it provides an environment for political alliances.
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Next up is Momir Vig, Simic Visionary.

This Elf Wizard comes with a 2/2 body for five mana but don't let that cost put you off - check out his abilities. While on the game table, you can float a creature to the top of your library when you resolve a green spell and you are able to put that creature from the libary top into your hand when you cast a blue spell. This legendary creature has tool-box written all over it - and when you are playing Commander, being able to respond to an opponent's threats or weaknesses gives you an amazing advantage.

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Here's the list of the EDH / Commander General finalists -

Selesnya ( / ) : Captain Sisay, Rhys the Redeemed
Azorius ( / ) : Geist of Saint Traft, Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
Simic ( / ) : Momir Vig, Simic Visionary, Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Bant ( / / ) : Jenara, Asura of War, Rafiq of the Many

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We invite you to Vote Now :



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Lastly,
The folks over at MTG Mint Card has one heck of a Christmas Holiday deal - you can knock off 50% (!) off express shipping for any purchase. This deal is good until 21st December which should allow you loads of time to Christmas shop for that special MTG fan.

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General Election 2

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

We continue today with our 'General Election' series. In this, our second post, we delve into Selesnya (Green / White) to find a General for our new EDH / Commander deck. Here's the backdrop to this Ravinca Guild and the opportunities in these colours for a Commander build. First off - The guild of Selesnya is one of peace, life, community, and . . . cupcakes. We can easily imagine Elves and Saprolings moshing in a glade to a Centaur's fiddle music. Basically Green packs the build with fatties, White provides order and both provide an opporunity to puke out a variety of token creatures to pump up for an alpha strike.

Anywhoos - let's sit down with the candidates and review their qualities. Hit up the bottom of the post to put in your VOTE.

First up in our short list is Captain Sisay, a 2/2 for two colourless, a green and a white mana. These stats are simply lacklustre but her ability is stellar. By tapping her, you can search your commander build for a legendary card and put it in your hand. This tutor engine clearly spells out card advantage as you dig through your assembled tool box for the best utility creature. As the Captain will have a huge target on it for removal, she better be wearing a Mask of Avacyn or Creeping Canopy. One artifact which certainly needs consideration here is a Thousand-Year Elixir to give the Captain haste to tap and untap to start churning those legendary targets out.

Next up - Rhys the Redeemed from Shadowmoor. This elf is a one green-white hybrid mana for a 1/1 body. The three mana tap to gen out a 1/1 token is silly expensive. The six total mana and tap to double-up on each creature token you already have in play bears further investigation. Tokens could really give your opponent cause for concern with cards such as Doubling Season, Eldrazi Monument or Intangible Virture. Some friends to tag along may be Sigil Captain which provides two +1/+1 counters for each 1/1 coming out or else feed those elves into a devour monster like Mycoloth to spew saprolings all over the game board.

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Here's the list of the EDH / Commander General finalists -

Selesnya ( / ) : Captain Sisay, Rhys the Redeemed
Azorius ( / ) : Geist of Saint Traft, Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
Simic ( / ) : Momir Vig, Simic Visionary, Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Bant ( / / ) : Jenara, Asura of War, Rafiq of the Many

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We invite you to Vote Now :



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General Election 1

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

MTG Realm is building a new EDH / Commander deck and we would like your input. Some background first though. The MTG Realm crew consists of a small group of players with a shared collection. When we scrap toghether a new build it typically by consensus after some serious deliberation.

We have distilled a list of EDH / Commander Generals to 8 finalists for your consideration and comment. We will have a total of 4 posts to provide a bit of a background on each General. Here's the list of finalists -

Selesnya ( / ) : Captain Sisay, Rhys the Redeemed
Azorius ( / ) : Geist of Saint Traft, Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
Simic ( / ) : Momir Vig, Simic Visionary, Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Bant ( / / ) : Jenara, Asura of War, Rafiq of the Many


~ As with every job interview, we have to sit down with the candidates and check out their game cred. Today's post we yatter with Augustin and Traft.

Geist of Staint Traft is a hexproof 2/2 for three mana which means it's a bit more difficult to bust this ghost with your off-the-shelf proton-pack.

When he swings, he brings along a 4/4 flying angel token which disapparates after combat. He was pawn'd by the demon Withengar but is back with a vengeance.

Next up -
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV is a 2/3 for four mana who dispenses justice without ego or remorse. Agustin will get you a sweet Sprawl-Mart discount on blue and white spells while charging extra for your opponent's spells.

Agustin is very typical of other members of the Azorius Senate in their choice of undergarments and game play : restrictive, controlling, and absolute.

Stay tuned for futher General Election interviews here on MTG Realm.

We invite you to Vote Now :



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Lastly,
The folks over at MTG Mint Card has one heck of a Christmas Holiday deal - you can knock off 50% (!) off express shipping for any purchase. This deal is good until 21st December which should allow you loads of time to Christmas shop for that special MTG fan.

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