For each new set, I write an article discussing the new legendary creatures and the nonlegendary cards that I think will be relevant in Commander.
The Set Overall
I think Aether Revolt is a great set for Commander. Most of the legends are playable (and a few are quite powerful), there are a lot of cards for niche archetypes, and the artifact decks got a ton of support. Considering that Standard sets are not designed with Commander in mind, I think we made out like bandits.
Also, Paradox Engine is the most broken card to see print in the last few years.
The Commanders
He may seem like he’s just a value commander, but the best version of Sram is probably the Equipment combo deck. There are so many 0-1 CMC equipment (like, more than 50) that it’s not particularly difficult to cast a dozen or more of them in a turn (it helps if you’ve got cost reduction effects and some additional card draw). Once you’ve dumped a few dozen equipment onto the field, you can just slap them onto Sram (with a little help on the equip costs from Puresteel or Sigarda) and swing for a ton of Commander damage. Here’s the list I’ve been playing with:
Sram Equipment Combo
Baral is quite good in Azami and Talrand, but I think he’s even better in the command zone.
My first take on Baral was a pretty passive draw-go list, but a clever reader suggested High Tide combo and the resulting deck I made is pretty damn solid. Baral can save you a dozen or more mana over the course of a High Tide turn, greatly improving your odds of comboing off. Here’s the list I’ve been playing with:
Baral High Tide Combo
Haste and the ability to protect one’s self are key qualifications for a strong Voltron commander (a low CMC is another), so Yahenni fits neatly into that archetype. In addition, their sacrifice ability gives you much more room to build around them than similar monoblack Voltron commanders (Grave Pact effects and/or Dawn of the Dead/Corpse Dance seem like good places to start). Here’s a (rough) list to get you started:
Yahenni, Undying Partisan
This is not a card for Commander. I say this because it seems as though Kari was specifically designed to keep you from doing cool things with her. Exiling the token at end of combat prevents you from clamping it or building up a token army, and her attack trigger doesn’t play very nicely with extra combat steps, either.
In addition to being a great addition to various +1/+1 counter decks, Rishkar is a strong commander that turns random value creatures into mana dorks. A list:
Rishkar, Peema Renegade
There are only a handful of ways to repeatedly recur this dude in monobrown, so I think you’re better off trying to figure out how to win with Commander damage than you are trying to Silence everyone for the rest of the game. Cheap, evasive bodies are exactly what Voltron decks are looking for, and no other colorless commander comes down as quickly as Hope.
The Maindeck Cards
In this set review, I’ll be using two five-point rating scales to evaluate the nonlegendary cards, one that measures how many decks a card is playable in (we’ll call that “spread”), and one that measures how powerful it is in those decks (”power”). Here’s a brief rundown of what each rank on the two scales means:
Spread
1: This card is effective in one or two decks, but no more (ex: The Gitrog Monster).
2: This card is effective in one deck archetype (ex: self-mill decks).
3: A lot of decks will be able to use this card effectively (ex: decks with graveyard interactions).
4: This card is effective in most decks in this color.
5: Every deck in this color is able to use this card effectively.
Power
1: This card is always going to be on the chopping block.
2: This card is unlikely to consistently perform well.
3: This card provides good utility but is not a powerhouse.
4: This card is good enough to push you ahead of your opponents.
5: This card has a huge impact on the game.
Spread: 4
Power: 2
Getting revolt and only being able to target tapped creatures are not insignificant restrictions, but White has basically zero ETB creatures that just straight-up kill stuff, so I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. Note that she is Sun Titan- and Recruiter-compliant and that she’s a playable Dwarf for Depala.
Spread: 4
Power: 1
Using her fairly seems like a terrible idea, since she requires you to let somebody else kill you (which could obviously backfire horribly if anyone has a removal spell). She could be interesting if you’re trying to dig really deep with Necropotence or Hate someone to death, but Resolute Archangel seems like a safer bet (and you actually get to keep your angel).
Spread: 1
Power: 2
This one is a little speculative, since I’m not sure exactly what deck it fits into. However, White sources of card advantage are usually worth scrutinizing, and small bodies are relatively easy for White to recur.
Spread: 2
Power: 3
An auto-include in Jor Kadeen that I believe has potential in other White token builds. Three bodies for four is not a terrible rate, and when you factor in the mana generated by this card, you’re actually paying quite a bit less than that.
Spread: 5
Power: 3
The jump between 2 CMC counterspells and 3 CMC counterspells is a big deal, but so is the added flexibility of a Stifle. Any deck running a lot of counters is going to be happy to add this to its suite.
Spread: 1
Power: 1
This will work about 30% of the time when you play it in your Breya tribal Thopter list.
Spread: 1
Power: 3
This is actually pretty legit as a way to draw more cards in Paradox Engine combo decks. Not sure other decks will be able to get enough value out of it to justify its inclusion.
Spread: 2
Power: 2
I think that you probably shouldn’t run Trophy Mage if your game plan is to grab Worn Powerstone or Coalition Relic or something. If, however, you’re running combo pieces that happen to be CMC 3, the Mage will do good work.
Spread: 3
Power: 3
The initial testing I’ve done with this card has shown me that Improvise is significantly worse than Convoke since you’re not likely to be running a bunch of artifacts that don’t already tap for mana. While you could typically count on Chord of Calling costing 2ish mana less than what’s printed on the card, you should expect that Whir of Invention will not be discounted during most games (unless your deck has a bunch of artifact tokens for some reason). The card is somewhere between Transmute Artifact and Reshape in power level, and I don’t think it’s correct to run it unless you’ve got artifacts that will win you the game (whether by themselves or as part of a combo).
Spread: 1
Power: 1
This is not a Dark Confidant, and I don’t think the energy deck is a real thing in Commander. You should probably view this as a worse Pain Seer.
Spread: 2
Power: 2
Not really sure what deck this is for. Kaalia can do much more powerful things than trading Signets for Disfigures or taking a card from each opponent and I doubt the Black artifact decks are interested in a sac outlet that costs 7ish mana.
Spread: 2
Power: 3
If your metagame tends towards low mana curves with lots of mana dorks and small utility creatures, there’s a reasonable chance that this will be a 1-mana board wipe.
Spread: 1
Power: 3
I think this could be good in something like Purphoros, where you have a ton of tokens to feed to it and more creatures entering the battlefield on your side is exactly what you want to be doing.
Spread: 1
Power: 2
Some Zada decks run Fists of the Anvil, and this is strictly better.
Spread: 4
Power: 2
I’d probably play this if it was colorshifted to White, but Red has a lot of strong competitors when it comes to artifact destruction (Vandalblast, Shattering Spree, Rack and Ruin, etc.). I think Purphoros might like it, since both halves of the card are useful in that deck, but most other lists can skip it.
Spread: 2
Power: 3
This seems like a solid addition to any Elfball-ish deck that has a lot of mana and is always looking for gas. For example, that Rishkar list I posted earlier.
Spread: 2
Power: 2
I think this is a pretty reasonable card to play in +1/+1 counter aggro decks that just want to turn on their Oona’s Blackguard or get value off of their Hardened Scales.
Spread: 2
Power: 4
I’m actually a big fan of these kinds of cards in fatty-heavy Green builds that are looking for ways to restock their hands. Rishkar’s Expertise is only slightly more expensive than most of these effects, and it’s likely to refund most of that mana when it resolves.
Spread: 4
Power: 2
Green/White decks to be permanent-based, so the +2 is pretty likely to hit and obviously the -2 is almost always going to be relevant. The main question is whether he’s worth six mana, and I believe the answer is no for most decks. The one deck where I think he could be above average is Planeswalker control. Generating card advantage and killing creatures are the most important abilities for a planeswalker to have in that deck, so Ajani should be right at home.
Spread: 5
Power:1
Seems super low impact compared to other cards in these colors. Compare with Capital Punishment.
Spread: 4
Power: 3
Cards that synergize with other good cards tend to be good themselves, and this guy is no exception. Green/White has a ton of spicy (and cheap) permanents that tend to draw removal, so there are always going to be solid targets for recursion. It’s also worth mentioning that he goes infinite with a sac outlet and Saffi Eriksdotter or Angelic Renewal. In fact, if you’ve got a Sterling Grove and a little time, you can sac Sterling Grove on your upkeep to put Greater Good on top of your library, draw it, then cast Rallier to reanimate the Grove. Sac the Grove again to put Angelic Renewal on top, then cast Greater Good and sacrifice any creature other than Rallier to draw the Renewal off the top. Cast Renewal, then Sacrifice Rallier to Greater Good, looting for three. Angelic Renewal returns Rallier, which returns Renewal. Repeat until you’ve dug through your entire deck for a win condition sac outlet.
Spread: 2
Power: 2
While I do like the -2, the +1 is not impactful enough to make me want to use it and the ultimate is pretty terrible. Black has so many better options for removal that you don’t need to waste your time with this slow, expensive, narrow, situational card.
Spread: 2
Power: 3
It’s basically a second copy of Hardened Scales for the decks that want it. It’s a little worse against infect, but that’s whatever since the infect decks are already so lethal to begin with.
Spread: 1
Power: 1
Not only am I pretty confident that the energy deck doesn’t exist in Commander, but even if it did it would probably involve Blue, and I can’t imagine running this over one of Blue’s many Time Warp effects.
Spread: 1
Power: 2
The only lists I can think of that have enough non-mana rock artifacts and non-artifact spells to use this card tend to specialize in either artifact tokens, Vehicles, or Equipment. In artifact token or Vehicle decks, you’d almost always rather be attacking with your tokens/Vehicles. This might do something in the latter archetype.
Spread: 1
Power: 2
I don’t think this is good enough for most tribal decks, but it can
generate free counters in Ghave.
Spread: 2
Power: 5
Best card in the set, and it’s not close.
Your deck has to be heavily invested in either mana rocks or mana dorks for this card to be effective, but if you’re in one of those camps then you’ll find it to be quite absurd. Once you have Paradox Engine and 3+ mana worth of rocks/dorks, you’ll find that every spell you cast is either free or it actually nets you mana, so you can just chain card draw spells and dig through your deck until you hit a win condition. It’s such a strong engine that it’s worth it to build an entire deck around tutoring it out, because the upside is enormous. This card will also change up the order in which Arcum Dagsson tutors for stuff, since it untap your Myr Turbine and your Arcum to net an additional tutor with every spell you cast.
Here’s a list built around Paradox Engine:
Nin Artifact Combo
Note that the deck doesn’t even have access to Black’s tutors, which means the ceiling on the Engine is even higher than the frequent T5 kills that list represents.
Spread: 1
Power: 2
Depala is the only deck so heavily invested in Vehicles that it could make use of this effect. I like the idea of limiting the amount of creatures you keep on the board in your Vehicle deck so that you can exploit Vehicle’s immunity to board wipes, and this card does a good job of enabling that strategy.
Spread: 2
Power: 2
Most colors have better ways of finding their win conditions, so I think it’s safe to say this is only likely to be good in Monored or Monobrown artifact ramp decks. It’s obviously absurdly expensive, but you’re probably going to be in a good position if you can fire it off even once, seeing as you can just grab a Blightsteel or an Eldrazi or something.
Spread: 2
Power: 3
This card is super hard to evaluate, so take those numbers with a grain of salt. It seems great in sacrifice-oriented artifact builds like Daretti or Breya, but I’m not quite sure how good it is if you’re playing an artifact deck that has less control over when things hit the graveyard.
Spread: 1
Power: 2
I’m always on the lookout for artifact creatures that generate value because I think artifact reanimation needs more solid targets to be truly good. Esper artifact decks probably have better things to do than try to cascade into value, but I think this guy could be playable in Daretti.
Spread: 1
Power: 2
If Mox Opal is good in your deck, I give you permission to run this card.
Wrapping Up
Please let me know if there are any cards you think I missed or if you think I evaluated any of these cards incorrectly. Thanks for reading!