Commander Review: Dominaria Part 2 (Red, Green, Colorless, Multi-Color, Lands)
Dominaria has been fully spoiled so it's time again for a full Commander set review! We continue where we left off with Part 1:
RED
Firefist Adept
Firefist Adept is the Flametongue Kavu of the Wizard Tribe. Is it great? Well, no, but if you're looking to build a low-power version of Inalla, Archmage Ritualist, this is a fine inclusion.
Goblin Chainwhirler
I can see Goblin Chainwhirler showing up in some niche Rakdos decks that take full advantage of its ETB ping: perhaps if you have a way to give it deathtouch (Archetype of Finality)? Maybe as an enabler for Rakdos, Lord of Riots, like a worse Lobber Crew? I dunno. It's interesting enough to be worth mentioning though.
Haphazard Bombardment
Haphazard Bombardment is another card I mention here because I find it interesting rather than being great. I'm fond of versatile answers like Aftershock since threats in Commander come in all shapes and forms. This enchantment can kill up a variety of threats over four turns, but at the high cost of 6 cmc and each one is randomly selected, so it's not a good answer if you need a specific threat taken care of immediately.
Despite its shortcomings, Haphazard Bombardment brings a ton of value over four turns and can get even better in a deck that can abuse it: you can double its speed by copying the trigger with Strionic Resonator and you can distribute more aim counters if you can bounce / blink the enchantment. Also keep in mind that the way it's worded, Haphazard Bombardment can also destroy things with hexproof/shroud; a neat little bonus!
Jaya Ballard
Jaya Ballard is a fantastic addition to any Spellslinger deck that is able to protect her. All her abilities are terrific in the archetype; the cmc, starting loyalty, everything is solid. Hell, I'm even slotting Jaya into my Squee, Goblin Nabob Discard deck since cycling up to 3 cards is just fantastic with all the Graveyard / Madness shenanigans the deck runs. Just remember that she is a planeswalker and therefore vulnerable to combat damage, so any deck looking to run her needs to be able to protect her, either with blockers or other means.
Jaya's Immolating Inferno
Compared to ye olde staple, Comet Storm, Jaya's Immolating Inferno is more mana-efficient (you save up to 2 mana), but at the cost of needing a legendary creature/plansewalker, sorcery instead of instant, and only up to three targets. Comet Storm is going to be better in most decks, but if you need a second copy and don't mind the legendary requirement, Jaya's Immolating Inferno is a fine removal/finisher.
Mechanics, aside, what's with this flavor text? Fiery conflagration? "Conflagration" means "a destructive fire." So this is a fiery fire? Huh?
Squee, the Immortal
Squee, the Immortal is a silly fun card; not terribly strong, but just so gosh darn neat! Surely there are some convoluted combos involving him being cast/sacrificed infinitely for value, probably with Purphoros, God of the Forge as the payoff card. Absolutely he will be Skullclamp'd over and over to draw 2 cards for 4 mana. Not sure what else. Personally, I prefer Squee, Goblin Nabob over the new version, but they do different things and shine more in different decks.
The Flame of Keld
There's very few decks where I'd consider a card that made me discard my entire hand on the hope that I'll be rewarded in the next two turns. even decks that want to discard cards, like Madness decks (Olivia, Mobilized for War) or Discard decks (Squee, Goblin Nabob) don't want to go full hellbent. The payoff is okayish, with the third chapter trigger being particularly spicy if you've got Firecat Blitz, but the cost of discarding your hand and the risk of the saga being destroyed before you get to the second chapter is too risky for me.
Two-Headed Giant
Two-Headed Giant isn't a great card in Commander. It's an alright inclusion in Giant Tribal or Warrior Tribal, simply because those archetypes suffer from small card pools. Personally I'd be most excited to try it out in the Coin Flip deck, since it flips two coins each time it attacks, fueling the Chance Encounter victory.
Valduk, Keeper of the Flame
Valduk, Keeper of the Flame has a sweet payoff if you gear him up, like a more aggressive Kemba, Kha Regent (they'll be buddies in the same deck). He seems like a great inclusion in an Equipment archetype for sure. I'm not sure if there's a sweet Aura deck for Valduk to go into, but it would certainly be in Boros colors minimum thanks to support cards like Danitha Capashen, Paragon and Sram, Senior Edificer.
Warcry Phoenix
Warcry Phoenix is another welcome addition to the Phoenix Tribal deck. Not a powerful archetype, but a fun one! This phoenix will be joining its brethren in my Squee, Goblin Nabob Phoenix list.
Broken Bond
Broken Bond will never replace my favorite artifact/enchantment removal card, Nature's Claim, in any of my Green decks, but it's still a solid card in certain decks! Broken Bond seems like a great addition to any Landfall deck or basically any deck that wants to be running Explore: Azusa, Lost but Seeking, Mina and Denn, Wildborn, Omnath, Locus of Rage all love flooding their hands with lands and then slamming them into play as quickly as possible; Broken Bond does a great job advancing that game plan while disrupting your opponents.
Grow from the Ashes
Grow from the Ashes joins the ever-growing ranks of solid Green land ramp spells to choose from. It costs one more to cast than Sakura-Tribe Elder / Rampant Growth or Explosive Vegetation - which is a big deal since you really want to be ramping in your early turns so a turn 2 Rampant Growth is way better than a turn 3 Rampant Growth - but offers you the flexibility of which version you want to cast. The lands also come into play untapped, so if you end up using those untapped lands on the same turn then Grow from the Ashes ends up costing you the same amount of mana overall as Rampant Growth or less than Explosive Vegetation. Not bad.
The other four most popular Green Ramp cards that Grow from the Ashes will be most often compared to and compete with will be Nature's Lore, Skyshroud's Claim, and Kodama's Reach / Cultivate. They're really all great options and Grow from the Ashes fits right in with them.
If I had to rank them personally, it would go something like:
- Sakura-Tribe Elder in decks that care about it being a creature
- Nature's Lore in Mono Green or multicolor decks that run Forest duals (Breeding Pool)
- Sakura-Tribe Elder in decks that don't care about its card type (hey, it can chump block!)
- Rampant Growth because I really like ramp that I can cast in turns 1 and 2
- Skyshroud Claim in the same decks as Nature's Lore
- Kodama's Reach / Cultivate
- Grow from the Ashes
- Explosive Vegetation
I'I think it's really close between Kodama's Reach / Cultivate and Grow from the Ashes but in most cases I'll prefer the Cultivates as I find them overall stronger when cast on turn 3, which is the most important aspect of these ramp cards to me. Like I said before however, I'm happy to run any of these cards, and in some decks I might end up running all of them.
Grunn, the Lonely King
Grunn, the Lonely King looks like a great choice for a simple Voltron deck: play the ape, suit him up, and swing for silly amounts of damage. He works especially well with double strike (Fireshrieker) and anything that pumps his power. Grunn is a great choice for a beginner commander deck.
Kamahl's Druidic Vow
Kamahl's Druidic Vow isn't as busted as Genesis Wave - which is a good thing in my opinion - but can still be a game-winning powerhouse in a Legendary Tribal or Superfriends deck. Library manipulation cards like Sylvan Library and Scroll Rack will help make this card more consistently awesome.
Marwyn, the Nurturer
Marwyn, the Nurturer is a solid new inclusion to Elf Tribal, joining the ranks of Selvala, Heart of the Wilds and Priest of Titania as another mana dork that can produce a ludicrous amount of mana to pump out game-winning spells. Like Selvala, she can produce infinite mana while growing to an infinite size when equipped wth Umbral Mantle and there might be other neat interactions out there as well.
Marwyn is a solid commander for Mono Green Elf Tribal if you prefer ramp in your command zone rather than protection/finisher like Ezuri, Renegade Leader. If we're looking for the most powerful Elf commander though, I'd bet on Selvala, Explorer Returned due to her incredible combo potential, but they're all good depending on what you want to do.
Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar
Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar functions well as the commander of a straightforward Green Ramp Voltron deck, where his ability to get around the commander tax allows you to recast him as many times as necessary while also fueling landfall triggers (Avenger of Zendikar). It's easy to get him over 10+ power just running solid green ramp cards (Harrow) and trample lets him walk over chump blockers, all good for Voltron strategies. I actually like him more than Omnath, Locus of Mana since Multani is more resilient against removal while Omnath usually falls apart if killed a few times.
While Multani is a fine commander, I think he will more often end up as part of the 99 of Land decks like Omnath, Locus of Rage, Titania, Protector of Argoth, and The Gitrog Monster: all these commanders bring more explosive power than Multani does but will enjoy this new heavy-hitting landfall-enabler in the 99.
Song of Freyalise
Cryptolith Rite is a fantastic staple in any Go Wide deck; how does Song of Freyalise compare? I think the saga is worse, since turning your creatures into mana-fixing ramp is the main draw of playing such a card and Song only does it for two turns, but I think it's still good enough to see play in basically any Go Wide decks. Song's third chapter trigger of giving your creatures indestructible is just begging for you to cast a Wrath of God, killing all your opponent's creatures while leaving your board intact. Solid card.
Sporecrown Thallid
Sporecrown Thallid is a simple yet effective Glorius Anthem for Saproling decks. Easy include if you want to beef up your 1/1's.
Sylvan Awakening
Sylvan Awakening is a slimmed down Rude Awakening that comes with the additional bonus of giving your lands reach, indestructible, and haste. I expect that it will almost always be cast as a finisher, but it's interesting that you can also use it to make emergency blockers for a turn if needed -- though I'd be sweating if anyone was playing White (Descend Upon the Sinful) or Black (Toxic Deluge). This is probably my favorite "animate land" spell and is going to be fun inclusion to the archetype.
Personally though, I'll just pair Sylvan Awakening with Armageddon. Sorry (not sorry).
Territorial Allosaurus
Creature removal on a stick at a decent mana cost? Yup, Territorial Allosaurus is an easy auto-include in Dinosaur Tribal. Kicker doesn't play well with the tribe's habit of cheating dinos into play (Gishath, Sun's Avatar) but that's alright.
The Mending of Dominaria
The Mending of Dominaria offers a lot of value in the right deck for the fair price of 5 cmc. The saga will find its home in the same decks that want to run World Shaper and Splendid Reclamation: these are decks that appreciate self-mill, creature recursion, and mass land reanimation. Sidisi, Brood Tyrant, Omnath, Locus of Rage, and The Gitrog Monster are the first decks that come to mind.
COLORLESS
Blackblade Reforged
Blackblade Reforged is an excellent equipment for any Voltron strategy or Legendary Creature Tribal list, turning any chump into a game-ending threat mid-to-lategame for a fair cost. I can see it doing serious work in a Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar deck, or Captain Sisay, or even a casual (non-combo) version of The Gitrog Monster.
For me personally, however, the best home for Bladeblade Reforged is unquestionably with Dakkon Blackblade; Korlash, Heir to Blackblade is fine too, but you gotta go with the OG for maximum style points.
Damping Sphere
Damping Sphere is a sweet meta-specific hate card that you can add if you want some ammo against decks that either ramp too hard with cards like Cabal Coffers and Mana Reflection, or like to combo off by casting tons of spells like Storm decks do (Tendrils of Agony). It may also find a permanent home in some Stax decks (Teferi, Temporal Archmage). Personally, I'll be running it in my Werewolf Tribal deck since it helps keep my werewolves flipped up.
Helm of the Host
And now we arrive at my favorite Colorless card from the set: Helm of the Host! This card excites the Johnny in me! What legendary creatures become busted when you start copying them? Here's one: Godo, Bandit Warlord. All you do is cast Godo, tutoring up and equipping Helm. At the beginning of combat, Helm creates a Godo clone with haste, giving you an extra combat step and you get to tutor up another equipment (Hammer of Nazahn for example). Attack with Godo clone. Then you take your extra combat phase, Helm creates another Godo clone, and you keep going for infinite combats. So now Godo Combo is a thing.
What other sweet synergies are there with Helm of the Host? Let me know in the comments section!
Karn, Scion of Urza
Karn, Scion of Urza looks like a fun card but not something I'd jam into most decks. His primary function is steady card advantage, but honestly most colors have enough powerful card draw options that don't come with the drawback of having to defend against multiple opponents' creatures. Even Mono Red has stuff like Outpost Siege and Vance's Blasting Cannons for steady draw that is less vulnerable to getting destroyed early. I think poor Mono White (excluding Sram, Senior Edificer decks) and Colorless decks are desperate enough to gamble on Karn's source of draw.
There are some cool advantages of Karn, Scion of Urza's form of draw, however: first, of course, is politics! If you can convince another player to give you the card you want immediately, then the ability becomes amazing! The other use I can think of is that Karn's card draw isn't worded as "drawing," so if you're a horrible person and want to lose your friends, you can pair Karn with mean cards like Possessed Portal or Omen Machine to lock them out of the game while you keep your hand nice and full.
Mishra's Self-Replicator
Mishra's Self-Replicator is a silly fun card. It probably goes infinite too in a bunch of janky ways. I dunno. I feel like this is the type of card I'm going to forget about and then some time later have this crazy deck idea and rediscover it.
Mox Amber
Mox Amber is an instant new staple in Captain Sisay and Superfriends. It's not quite Sol Ring or Mana Crypt in those archetypes but it's close.
Thran Temporal Gateway
Thran Temporal Gateway is a Quicksilver Amulet for historic permanents. I think this is an alright inclusion in Superfriends but I personally won't run it in my own list as I prefer to just ramp things out the good ol' fashioned way; the same goes for most artifact decks.
But just like Quicksilver Amulet, Thran Temporal Gateway is going to be a powerful support cards in decks built around cheating huge things into play: Braids, Conjurer Adept springs to mind. I imagine any deck that runs Master Transmuter will be interested in this as well.
Traxos, Scourge of Kroog
I'm not sure how many combos there are out there to take advantage of Grimlock's untap trigger, but I'm sure they're out there and at least one takes advantage of Honor-Worn Shaku. Outside of combo, Traxos, Scourge of Kroog is an efficient beater and untapping him should be easy-peasy in any Artifact deck that he'll inevitably be part of.
Voltaic Servant
While most people are drooling over Voltaic Servant's ability to untap Traxos, Scourge of Kroog, I'm here wondering if this is any good in Commander. Honestly, I don't think so. Most cases I'd prefer Voltaic Key because even though it costs mana, I control when the artifact untaps, so I can tap that Thran Dynamo and untap it in the same phase to make 5 mana, while Voltaic Servant can only do that at your end step. Also the Servant is a creature so it dies far quicker than the Key version.
Weatherlight
Weatherlight is a solid inclusion in any historic-heavy deck, which means Artifacts (Breya, Etherium Shaper), Legendary Tribal (Captain Sisay), or Superfriends (Atraxa, Praetors' Voice). Super fast combo versions of those archetypes will pass on this vehicle, but if you're playing a historic-heavy deck and want to grind out opponents, Weatherlight does a great job.
MULTI-COLOR
Adeliz, the Cinder Wind
If you're looking to take your Wizard Tribal deck in an aggressive combat direction, Adeliz, the Cinder Wind is your lady. Wizards aren't known for attacking or Going Wide, but at least she pairs up nicely with Docent of Perfection. I prefer playing Wizard Tribal as ultra durdly Combo, but I appreciate having other options.
Arvad the Cursed
Arvad the Cursed gets a solid "meh" rating from me. He's an alright anthem, but these anthems work best in Go Wide (Tokens) lists, which Legendary Creatures are not -- unless you go deep with a Leyline of Singularity Tokens deck I suppose.
Arvad's best shot at slotting into a deck is probably in Knight Tribal under Aryel, Knight of Windgrace since, well, he's a Knight, and the card pool for the tribe is so small that he might make the cut. Speaking of Knight Tribal ...
Aryel, Knight of Windgrace
Aryel, Knight of Windgrace is our Knight Tribal commander, and thankfully she's pretty decent! Her White ability is okay and once you've developed a decent board state her Black ability can really mess with the board. She's best used politically: she doesn't need to gun down your opponent's creature if they're willing to cooperate with you a little! Maybe they should just swing that 10/10 elsewhere? (But shhh, you can totally gun them all down after with things like Strionic Resonator and Thousand-Year Elixir, I won't judge) I think Aryel sums up the Knight Tribe as a whole: it's not strong but it's neat. It's feels almost purposely like a casual deck made for casual playgroups, which I'm totally on board with!
I haven't heavily researched Knight Tribal yet, but a quick glance leads me to believe that the most effective route would be merging a Go Wide theme that Aryel herself promotes with an Equipment theme that some of the better Knights supports. We'll see how that pans out!
Firesong and Sunspeaker
Firesong and Sunspeaker is a sweet new Boros build-around-me commander that promotes a unique archetype, all great things in my opinion! Instead of going the typical Go Wide Aggro route that Boros is known for, we have a commander that wants you to play Lifegain Spellslinger and ups the damage/lifegain from Lightning Helix to 9 damage and 6 lifegain! Yes, that's awesome and you should be excited!
But wait ... the internet is saying Firesong and Sunspeaker is the best Boros commander ever? Healing Salve is premium removal in the deck? Archangel's Light is a powerhouse? Oh, no. No no no. Maybe slow down the hype train just a little bit, internet: F&S is good, but they're not amazing, and don't use their sweet ability as justification to run terrible cards.
Look, Firesong and Sunspeaker can do silly things, but there's a lot of crappy deck lists flooding the internet right now that worry me, like suddenly every card that people would unanimously agree are utter trash in Commander are suddenly amazing because it's moderately good when their 6 cmc commander with no built-in protection against removal is on the table. No. Run good cards that are made better when F&S is in play! Alright, next Budget Commander is in the works now on Firsong and Sunspeaker. Let's fix the bad decks.
Garna, the Bloodflame
Holy crap, Garna, the Bloodflame is an uncommon? I wouldn't have bat an eye if this was rare or even mythic! Garna is a powerful addition to Commander decks, able to restock your hand after a board wipe or even if you simply discarded your hand of creatures! I can see Garna being played in Sacrifice decks to sacrifice your entire board for value and then scooping them all back up to your hand to play again. She can also be played in a Wheel or Cycle (Living End) deck where you're discarding tons of cards for value and then getting them back to do it again. Garna, the Bloodflame looks good as part of the 99 and as a commander.
Grand Warlord Radha
Grand Warlord Radha brings a ton of explosive power to your deck for only 4 cmc! I love that you can cast her and immediately generate mana to cast more things in your post-combat main phase, or pool all that sweet mana for a game-ending spell (Comet Storm). She can enable infinite combat steps with Aggravated Assault and Hellkite Charger if you have five/seven attacking creatures so those cards feel like staples in any deck running her (alongside Sword of Feast and Famine and Bear Umbra).
I can see Grand Warlord Radha slotted into the 99 of any Aggro deck and be an absolute powerhouse in any Go Wide Aggro lists, either a deck built around her as a commander or as part of the 99 (Hazazeon Tamar maybe?). She's also a Warrior which makes her an amazing and much-needed inclusion in Warrior Tribal lists - my current favorite deck for this archetype is Saskia the Unyielding so you have access to all the best Warrior colors.
Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain
For the longest time, Commander players asked Wizards to print an Izzet Artifact commander. Eventually we got Breya, Etherium Shaper, the best Artifact commander ever printed, but still a portion of the community was unsatisfied because Breya has W/B in it and they didn't like that - despite the fact that you can build her with zero White or Black cards because extra color options is bad or something I really don't know.
Wizards heard the feedback that Breya wasn't the Izzet Artifact commander that everyone wanted, so they took another crack at it and made Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain: she draws you a card each time you cast an artifact and she doesn't have those pesky White/Black colors, huzzah! Mark Rosewater even says of her, "Finally, a Jhoira that's a Jhoira and a blue-red 'artifacts matter' commander." Finally, the Commander community got the Izzet Artifact commander they wanted and everyone's happy, right?
Well ... some people are. Others are still not happy. Jhoira doesn't care just about artifacts but all historic cards, and some people don't like that because they feel she should just be about artifacts! And still others are upset that she doesn't do anything interesting with artifacts, which is something even I, a shameless lover of all things card draw, can agree with: it's a good card but it's not necessarily an interesting card. So this isn't an Ulrich of the Krallenholde level of "oopsie" on the part of Wizards, but I agree with the community that if Jhoira was actually meant to be the Izzet Artifact commander that Breya wasn't, and not just a support card for their historic theme, then they didn't understand what exactly the community was asking for and missed the mark with this one.
With her design history out of the way, let's talk mechanics: Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain is a great inclusion in any Artifact deck. In the 99 she's basically a better Vedalken Archmage and that's solid. As a commander she's an excellent reliable source of card draw to keep your hand full while you vomit out tons of mana rocks and whatnot. She gives you access to the most important Artifact colors, Blue and Red, though she doesn't grant access to the next best colors, White and Black . . . which again is a plus to some people. She's also much more open-ended than Breya, Etherium Shaper, which leans heavily towards Combo; Jhoira just helps you do anything you want.
Overall, Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain offers a nice alternative to Breya, Etherium Shaper: Jhoira is definitely powerful and explosive, but not to the absurd levels of Breya, which is one of the most competitive commanders in the entire format. So if you want to play a slightly more casual Artifact deck that isn't inherently focused on Combo, Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain is the perfect choice.
Jodah, Archmage Eternal
Jodah, Archmage Eternal is a sweet new Timmy card! With Fist of Suns as your commander, you can build a sweet High CMC Tribal deck: yes, I would like to cast Omniscience for 5 mana, thank you! Basically you load up on your favorite High CMC spells - Eldrazi Titans (Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre), extravagant board wipes (Decree of Annihilation), whatever you find interesting (Myojin of Night's Reach) and just go to town. Find ways to cheat these massive spells into play using Jodah, Fist of Suns, Braids, Conjurer Adept, Thran Temporal Gateway, Dream Halls, Omen Machine, yadayada - you see where I'm going with this.
Jodah decks look to be silly fun.
Muldrotha, the Gravetide
Muldrotha, the Gravetide takes the cake for the most powerful new Commander card out of Dominaria and is already generating a lot of buzz throughout the community. Being able to play multiple cards from your graveyard each turn as if they were in your hand is just so darn strong! Muldrotha works best with cheap permanents, especially ones that are sacrificed as part of their activation costs: Pernicious Deed becomes a repeatable board wipe, Mystic Remora is downright broken when you never need to pay for its cumulative upkeep, Caustic Caterpillar keeps blowing up stuff, and so on.
Pretty much all Sultai decks have a Graveyard theme so Muldrotha, the Gravetide works wonderfully both as part of the 99 of basically any deck or as a build-around-me commander.
Oath of Teferi
As if Superfriends didn't get enough from this set already, here's Oath of Teferi, a new staple for the archetype. You can use his blink ETB on another Oath, or to reset a planeswalker's loyalty counters after using a -X ability, or whatever else. The meat of the deck is the double planeswalker activations similar to The Chain Veil; Oath is better in general, but the Veil is better when you go for the Teferi, Temporal Archmage infinite combo. Regardless, Oath of Teferi is insane and all Superfriend decks should run it.
Primevals' Glorious Rebirth
Wow. Alright. Another must-have for Superfriends decks and Legendary Tribal Captain Sisay lists. Not much else to say. Those archetypes keep getting the goodies!
Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage
Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage is basically a narrow Vedalken Orrery / Leyline of Anticipation in creature form. I don't find him interesting enough to build a deck around, though I do appreciate that he works well with Sagas since you can flash them in before your draw step to get two triggers in a single turn. He's alright as part of the 99 in a historic-heavy deck but only if they're already running Orrery and Leyline and need a third flash-enabler, but three flash-enablers is a ton.
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Rona, Disciple of Gix kind of like a Snapcaster Mage for nonland historic cards, which is alright. I personally don't find that ability interesting enough to build around or even as part of a Historic deck really. Not bad, but not great.
Slimefoot, the Stowaway
Slimefoot, the Stowaway is an excellent addition to the Saproling Tribe, either as a commander or as part of Ghave, Guru of Spores deck. Or run Slimefoot as just a Golgari Artistocrats deck without any Saproling theme, up to you!
Slimefoot is basically piece of a combo: find a way to produce infinite mana to make infinite saprolings and a sacrifice outlet so Slimefoot can ping all your opponents. One way I can think of would be pairing Slimefoot with Ashnod's Altar and Illusionist's Bracers: with the bracers equipped, use Slimefoot's ability to create two Saprolings, sacrifice them to the altar and ping opponents, then use that mana to repeat the process. It's probably a dozen variations of this combo available. Ghave does much of the same things, so I don't know which one makes for the better commander, but if you like Saprolings and combos then you have two great options now.
Tatyova, Benthic Druid
Tatyova, Benthic Druid draws lots of cards. I'm sold.
But really, Tatyova is a solid creature! Green is all about that land ramp anyway and can really go ham with it. The only thing stopping dedicated land ramp decks is running out of gas, but with Tatyova constantly keeping your hand stocked up things can spiral out of control in a hurry. Cards like Exploration, Burgeoning, and Summer Bloom become absurd with Tatyova as you restock your hand full of gas just as quickly as you vomit your cards out on the table!
Oh, and she gains life too, so I guess you can go for a Lifegain subtheme, but the real focus is that sweet sweet card draw!
I think Tatyova, Benthic Druid will end up being a fun Land Ramp commander, like a non-Combo alternative to The Gitrog Monster that swaps Black for Blue. She'd also function fine as part of the 99 of a Land Ramp deck too if there are any other Simic ones out there.
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
Yes, Teferi, Hero of Dominaria is bonkers with Doubling Season. What a surprise that a Planeswalker is broken with that enchantment. Let's move on.
Teferi's +1 activation works very well with instants and flash spells, which makes think of decks like Ephara, God of the Polis or Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper as potentially interested homes for him. His -3 activation is versatile removal in a format with a variety of threats, very nice. All this comes at a fair cost and starting loyalty. Honestly not a bad option at all in any Draw-Go style of deck. Of course there's also his best home, Superfriends, where he can enjoy ending the game in predictable fashion with Doubling Season and having other neat synergies to benefit from. Overall a solid planeswalker.
Tiana, Ship's Caretaker
"Nothing is too broken to mend." Except ships aka Vehicles, apparently, TIANA, SHIP'S CARETAKER! YOU FAILED AT YOUR ONE JOB! How the hell did this card get approved? Argh!
Tiana, Ship's Caretaker is an okay inclusion in Aura or Equipment decks (not Vehicles!) as a minor deterrent against having them blown up while she's around. Put a Lightning Greaves on her or Gift of Immortality to add an extra layer of protection. Things get a lot more interesting if you have Auras / Equipment that can be purposefully sacrificed and brought back by her ability, but I can't think of any because I'm distracted by her absurdly large wings which would be a huge liability for anyone doing work in a cramped engine room! Seriously, who in HR recruited her? Did anyone even look at her resume, let alone interview her for this position??? Gah! If the Weatherlight has any sort of engine troubles, this Angel is going to fly away while everyone else crashes and dies. But it's okay, because she can mend their equipment after.
LANDS
Cabal Stronghold
Cabal Stronghold isn't as good as Cabal Coffers. While I do like that Stronghold can tap for mana regardless of other lands in play, the fact that its second ability only counts basic Swamps instead of all Swamps like Coffers does makes it worse in any multi-color deck since it's not as strong paired with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth or Swamp duals like Overgrown Tomb. However, Cabal Stronghold is still a must-have for Mono Black decks since nearly all your Swamps will be basic anyway.
Memorial Cycle
The Memorial Cycle: Memorial to Folly, Memorial to Glory, Memorial to Unity, Memorial to Genius, and Memorial to War are all pretty good utility lands. They are worth considering in Mono Color decks since those do not need mana-fixing lands in their manabase and instead use those spots for utility lands like these. They can also be strong in decks that want to sacrifice lands, like Titania, Protector of Argoth. The best of the cycle would be Memorial to Folly, Memorial to Unity, and Memorial to War; Memorial to Genius is okay and Memorial to Glory is pretty weak but passable in a Soldier Tribal deck.
Zhalfirin Void
Zhalfirin Void is a welcome addition to Colorless decks and perhaps even Mono Color decks that want to round out their "utility land" slots. I like that it gives you value immediately and doesn't come into play tapped. Solid card.
That's All, Folks!
Phew, we finally got through all of Dominaria! There's a staggering amount of cards to consider for Commander in this set and a lot to be excited about! Let me know what cards you're most excited for and how you plan to use them! As always, you can reach me in the comments section below, tweet me @BudgetCommander, or email me at tomer@mtggoldfish.com ! Next up on the list is some Budget Commander brews, so stay tuned!
