Commander Review | Innistrad: Crimson Vow | Part 1 | White, Blue
Innistrad: Crimson Vow has just been fully previewed so now it's time for me to go over the entire set and highlight the cards that I think are most noteworthy for us Commander players! Let's get started!
WHITE
Breathkeeper Seraph
Breathkeeper Seraph is a cool repeatable way of protecting important creatures from removal: the way it works is when either the Seraph or the creature you want to protect enters the battlefield you can soulbond them. Then when either of them die they will return to the battlefield and you can soulbond them again, and you can also change the protection to another creature. This makes them super resilient to the most common forms of removal except for exile and bounce.
Most decks don't want to spend six mana for this level of protection, but in decks that reeeeeally want your Commander to live then this might justify the cost. However, other decks that get value out of the Seraph are actually Sacrifice / Artistocrat decks! The Seraph essentially allows you to sac a creature for "free" once per turn cycle for value, which is kinda sweet!
By Invitation Only
By Invitation Only is an acceptable board wipe on its own -- it's more expensive than generic staples like Vanquish the Horde and Wrath of God, but it still gets the job done with the added bonus of killing off indestructible creatures.
However, where this board wipe gets really good is in Go Wide decks, where you can force your opponents to sacrifice their creatures while you just sacrifice some 1/1 token fodder and your important creatures remain unharmed. Heck, if your deck has a Sacrifice subtheme then this might even help fuel it! I highly recommend checking this out for Token decks like Thalisse, Reverent Medium and Extus, Oriq Overlord.
Cemetery Protector
Cemetery Protector provides an interesting combination of spot GY hate with a steady stream of Human creature tokens. Protector is a strong inclusion in Human Tribal decks looking for good Human token producers, being particularly strong in Selesnya Human Tribal like Katilda, Dawnhart Prime because if you exile Dryad Arbor with its ability then you're making a token any time you play a land or cast a creature spell, which is amazing value!
Faithbound Judge // Sinner's Judgment
Faithbound Judge is a sweet new jank way to have someone lose the game. The front side is meh (maybe an Arcades, the Strategist deck wants it) but the disturb side, Sinner's Judgment, is cool. Paying seven mana to kill someone after four more turns is a lot to ask for, but we can at least speed things up by a turn if we get extra upkeeps (Paradox Haze) or proliferate the judgment counter (Atraxa, Praetors' Voice). You can even not let your opponents have a turn before they die with Time Stretch.
Is this a competitive way to kill someone? No, absolutely not. But it's certainly a unique way, and that's the sort of jank that I appreciate.
Hallowed Haunting
Enchantress decks has a few of these "cast enchantment, make tokens" cards: previously the best two were Sigil of the Empty Throne and Archon of Sun's Grace, but Hallowed Haunting makes a strong case for being the new #1. I would say Haunting is equal to Sigil but better than Archon: the creatures it makes start off smaller but can grow to be the largest, and then giving all your creatures flying AND vigilance once you have 7+ enchantments is absurdly good for a 4-drop enchantment.
Hallowed Haunting is a new staple for all Enchantress decks out there. It provides both a defense early on that flips into a win condition, and its an enchantment itself so it benefits from all Enchantress synergies: Sythis, Harvest's Hand, Tuvasa the Sunlit, Ghen, Arcanum Weaver, whatever your White Enchantress deck is, run this.
Hopeful Initiate
Hopeful Initiate is a thematic way for +1/+1 Counter decks to get rid of must-answer format staples like Rhystic Study, Smothering Tithe, Skullclamp, and so on. It's a 1-drop that can slowly add counters to itself and then have them removed with its ability to keep training easily, which is neat. Still, paying 3 mana and removing 2 counters is kinda steep early/midgame, so I wouldn't recommend removing a Nature's Claim for it or anything, but maybe a Heliod's Intervention if you really want to stick to theme.
It's not a busted card, but it's pretty good. Probably could've costed less to activate imo, but hey.
Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr // Katilda's Rising Dawn
While Katilda, Dawnhart Prime was a big supporter of Human Tribal, the new Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr instead supports this Spirit + Enchantment schtick that Crimson Vow is pushing for Azorius. I don't think there's enough support here for Spirits + Enchantress to be a cohesive deck in Commander, but both Spirit Tribal and Enchantress are certainly established archetypes at this point and Katilda is solid in both. I think it's easier to automatically jam Katilda in Spirit Tribal since the card pool for that archetype is more shallow than Enchantress, but either way, a huge evasive lifelink beater is real good, and having both a creature and a disturb aura version of it is sweet.
Radiant Grace // Radiant Restraints
Radiant Grace is a cute card that seemingly does a lot for one mana. The only problem is I can't think of a single deck I'd actually want to run it in. It's an Aura so my mind goes to Aura Tribal, but I've made a lot of Aura decks with a lot of different commanders and I don't think I'd run this in any of them. Maybe Tiana, Ship's Caretaker? I dunno. It's neat, but I don't think it's good enough. What do you think?
Savior of Ollenbock
Savior of Ollenbock is a neat version of Fiend Hunter that can temporarily exile multiple creatures, but you do have to jump through some significant hoops to do so. I do like that you can blink / sacrifice the Savior while its exile trigger is on the stack to permanently exile creatures, though original Fiend Hunter does that without needing to train. Maybe it's good enough in Human Tribal or Soldier Tribal.
Sigarda's Summons
Sigarda's Summons is a niche but sweet, potentially game-winning anthem, mixing both a power/toughness boost with flying to get around blockers. Best case is you've got an army of 1/1's with +1/+1 counters on them then Summons provides +3/+3 P/T and flying which is definitely worth the 6 mana. If your deck does not usually have an army of 1/1's with counters on them though, then this card is doodoo. It's very reminiscent of Divine Visitation except Visitation costs less mana and doesn't have that extra hoop of needing counters. It also works very well with Cathars' Crusade, one of the best anthems in the entire format ... but honestly if you already have Crusade down you don't really need anything else -- and again, 5 mana anthem. I certainly wouldn't add Summons if you're hoping to pair it with Crusade every game and it's a dead card otherwise! Please don't do that!
Basically, if your deck is both Go Wide and +1/+1 Counters, then Summons is a good inclusion. I wish it cost less mana considering how niche it is, but it's still going to work fine. I'm excited to jam it into Hamza, Guardian of Arashin, where I expect it to be consistently great. Orzhov also has support for Go Wide Counters, like Felisa, Fang of Silverquill and Shadrix Silverquill.
Voice of the Blessed
I have never seen someone run Ajani's Pridemate in Commander. But a Pridemate that also has flying, vigilance, and indestructible at the same mana value, aka 2021 Pridmate? Honestly, yeah, I'm down to try it! Lifegain decks are filled with Soul's Attendant type cards that gain life a billion times per turn, quickly turning Voice into a game-winning threat. As someone who almost never runs Big Dumb Beaters with no utility, this is one of the first exceptions.
Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity
For 3 mana you get to draw up to 3 card over 3 turns IF you can attack with 2+ creatures each turn. After those 3 turns you get a small anthem. Is this a generically good card? Hell no. Not even close. However, if you're playing Mono White Go Wide then this becomes quite interesting. I'm personally excited to run it in Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, possibly the best home for it that I could think of.
Mark Rosewater previewed this card as an example of how they want to "fix" White's lack of card draw in Commander, so just to respond to that: this ain't it, Mark.
Welcoming Vampire
This is it, Mark.
Finally a card draw spell I can actually get behind! Welcoming Vampire is the type of card I've been asking for 2+ friggin' years now: passive, mana-free card draw that doesn't require a huge hoop to jump through, and it can potentially draw multiple cards per turn cycle. It's an ETB trigger not a cast one so it works with token generators and blinking. It's super similar to another Innistrad card, Mentor of the Meek, letting you draw a card for free instead of paying mana but capping it to once per turn, a fine trade that makes the Vampire more useful early/midgame when mana is tight, though any deck running the Vampire is running also the Mentor.
It's also interesting to note that Mark Rosewater considered the Mentor a color pie break and was fighting against it as late as 2018, so thank Avacyn he lost that battle!
That's not to say Welcoming Vampire is the best card draw ever, or that I won't keep pushing for better card draw than this, but it's a start. It's still capped to one card per turn despite the hoop and it doesn't play nice with anthems that buff up your army, which is something any respectable Go Wide deck will be doing to close out games. Comparing the card draw to literally any other color's equivalents is an exercise in depression: heck, Morbid Opportunist came out last set, also three mana creature, also thematic card draw capped at once per turn, but it triggers on your opponents creatures too! Imagine if Welcoming Vampire did that! Oof.
But I digress: Welcoming Vampire is a solid card and a great start at real card draw for White. It's fine in any deck that can consistently trigger it on your own turn, like Edgar Markov or Adeline, Resplendent Cathar. It gets even better if you can consistently trigger it multiple times per turn cycle, like with Whitemane Lion in Ephara, God of the Polis. I'm very happy that it got printed and looking to see more of these in the future, just push it a bit more! Almost there!
BLUE
Cemetery Illuminator
Cemetery Illuminator is uhhh really good? This 3-drop is one of the best graveyard hate cards Blue has ever gotten, exiling both on ETB and on attack (made easier with flying). The cherry on top of that it's a build-your-own Future Sight at a discounted rate! This looks amazing to me. I'd be shocked if this isn't one of the best spirits in Spirit Tribal decks and any decks that love peeking / playing cards off the top of their library will love it too. If you exile an artifact with it then you can pull off the Sensei's Divining Top + Helm of Awakening combo with this instead of Future Sight, which is sweet redundancy if that's your win condition. Even without any special synergies though I don't think it's a terrible idea to jam this in just about any Blue deck if you're looking to fill a slot and have a copy laying around.
Consuming Tide
No, this isn't as good as Cyclonic Rift (thank Avacyn) but Consuming Tide is a solid board wipe. Four mana sorcery, mostly resets the board, potentially draws you some cards. That's a good rate. I think this one has the most potential in Blue Voltron decks, letting you keep your commander but clearing out most other stuff.
Geistlight Snare
As a diehard defender of Spell Pierce in Commander, I know that these Mana Leak variants are better than you'd think. If your deck can reliably cast this for 1 mana then Geistlight Snare is a slam-dunk imo. If not then pass.
Geralf, Visionary Stitcher
Geralf, Visionary Stitcher is a solid card: for 3 mana you've got a sac outlet that makes big beefy zombie tokens and all your zombies have evasion. For most tribes I'd say this is a no-brainer staple, but Zombie Tribal in 2021 is a shambling march of never-ending new staples and honestly I'm not sure if I'd run it personally in my own Zombie lists. The biggest strike against Geralf is that he's not a Zombie himself, so he doesn't benefit from the horde of fantastic tribal support cards like Zombie Apocalypse and Rooftop Storm. He does exactly what Zombie Tribal wants -- make zombies, buff zombies, sac zombies -- but his sister Ghoulcaller Gisa does this better since the tribe prefers Going Wide.
Geralf isn't a bad card -- he's very good actually -- but Zombie Tribal is just so good that it's hard to shove him into the 99 if you have access to all the card pool. He's a solid inclusion, and if you have a copy and want to run him he's not going to disappoint, but he's not some new staple either.
More interestingly for me though is maybe running Geralf in non-Zombie decks, like a Blue Sacrifice or Token deck. Sacrificing a Charix, the Raging Isle or Phyrexian Dreadnought can lead to huge tokens. He could be sweet in Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer. These archetypes have much shallower pools which can let Geralf shine more.
Hullbreaker Horror
This is a sweet top-end finisher for Blue decks, woof! Comparisons are immediately drawn to Tidespout Tyrant, and while the Horror can't bounce lands it does have its own benefits of flash, can't be countered, and can "counter" spells by bouncing them back to hand before they can resolve. Honestly, as someone who avoids playing Tyrant solely because bouncing lands is a bit too mean for my personal playgroups, I much prefer this version. The Horror is also a Kraken which is a much more relevant creature type than Djinn (sorry, Djinn fans) which means it already has a happy home in Sea Monster Tribal.
Card is solid! Either ramp it out the fair way like Sea Monsters do or else it's a great Reanimate target in Graveyard decks!
Imperious Mindbreaker
Mill is a weird archetype in Commander: you don't really see Mill as a win con outside of combos like Bruvac the Grandiloquent + Maddening Cacophony to mill everyone out in one go. That's not what Imperious Mindbreaker is about: this is fair Mill, which doesn't really work in Commander since you end up kingmaking Graveyard decks. However, if you're milling to use your opponents' graveyards like Anowon, the Ruin Thief, then this can be useful to put stuff into the yard to yoink later.
It's not a Rogue, but it definitely is efficient milling, so if you want this effect it's really good at it.
Inspired Idea
Pay 3 draw 3 is a great rate and I jam Painful Truths in literally every single 3C deck that can run it. Idea is Mono Blue though, which is quite interesting. The drawback can be nasty but also negated by a Reliquary Tower or whatever. A bit risky sure, unless you don't care about your hand size, or you're a Storm deck looking to pop off in a single turn and just want efficient card draw. Would this make the cut in, say, Vadrik, Astral Archmage Combo? I think it's worth testing.
Jacob Hauken, Inspector // Hauken's Insight
Our newest Merfolk Looter is pretty darn sweet. The looted card is exiled instead of discarded which is generally bad, but you can pay six mana and flip this into a better Outpost Siege to start casting all those exiled cards. The exiled cards are gone forever if the enchantment is destroyed but on the flipside enchantments are generally the hardest permanent type to destroy, so it's safer than most stuff.
The only other Looter fighting for the #1 slot is Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, and in a vacuum I think they're evenly matched in power. Jace fills up the GY, flips for free, and gives instants/sorceries flashback, so he's better in Reanimator and Spellslinger decks. Meanwhile Jacob is better in Exile Matters decks and is a more reliable card advantage engine despite costing six to flip. They're both great, just different decks want them.
Mirrorhall Mimic // Ghastly Mimicry
Playable Clones in Commander always come with a little extra: Dack's Duplicate has haste and dethrone, Phyrexian Metamorph costs 1 less and can copy artifacts, etc. Mirrorhall Mimic follows this trend by being a Clone on the frontside but you can also cast it as Followed Footsteps in the graveyard, which doubles its value. That's amazing, one of my favorite clones! I look forward to jamming this one.
Necroduality
With the sheer volume of insanely good Zombie Tribal cards we have at this point, a card has to be nuts for me to find a slot in the 99 for it; friends, Necroduality is such a card! This is what Reflections of Littjara wishes it was: cheaper, and it triggers whenever a Zombie enters the battlefield, not just when you cast one. Double the Gray Merchant of Asphodel? Double the Fleshbag Marauder? Diregraf Captain double the pings? Cast Zombie Apocalypse with this on board and you win the game 9/10 times. This is ALWAYS and insane value engine in Zombie Tribal but also happens to add redundancy to insta-win combos like Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar for infinite zombies.
This card is insane. I recommend it in any Zombie deck.
Overcharged Amalgam
Zombies are really good at interacting with creatures (e.g. Noxious Ghoul, Fleshbag Marauder) but have minimal options to interact with the stack. Overcharged Amalgam is a rare zombie option to do that, and it's a good one too. Four mana is a lot to keep up for countermagic but it's great to have in your back pocket. I'd definitely test it in Zombie Tribal.
Patchwork Crawler
Patchwork Crawler is a poor man's Necrotic Ooze, requiring to pay 3 mana and exile the creature you want to copy the activated abilities of instead of just having all of them for free. It can pull off the same combos as the Ooze ... just worse. I'd probably pass on this for most decks.
Scattered Thoughts
Blue has a ton of "4-drop instant draw 2 with upside" at this point. The best is still Fact or Fiction but Scattered Thoughts might actually be the second best for most decks. You get to see four cards, keep 2, and bin 2 for graveyard synergies. The next best option is probably Memory Deluge but Deluge doesn't fill your yard and that flashback cost is STEEP. I actually quite like this card!
Screaming Swarm
This six mana 4/4 looks unplayable, no? WRONG! One person will play it: Richard, since it's one of the best Birds in his terrible Bird Tribal decks (the best Bird being Toski, Bearer of Secrets, of course).
Stormchaser Drake
In a deck that regularly targets creatures with spells, Stormchaser Drake can be a super efficient draw engine. The real question is: which Blue deck does that? I'm not really sure. I know if this was Green then I'd windmill slam it into my Gargos, Vicious Watcher deck which is ALL about 1-drop cantrip spells like Charge Through to nomnom everything. Anyone have ideas on Blue decks that would like this, let me know!
Thirst for Discovery
Compulsive Research doesn't usually show up in Commander except for the very lowest budget decks. But an instant speed version? Now that's interesting! I'm not sure if most decks will want it still, but I do intend to jam it in Moonfolk Tribal at the very least!
Wash Away
Wash Away has a very high ceiling of countering something for 1 mana, a top-tier rate for countermagic, and a subpar floor of being Cancel, a card nobody runs in Commander. What it can counter for 1 mana is pretty narrow, but it does include commanders cast from the command zone, so it's always sorta relevant in this format. It also hits flashback spells (Memory Deluge), impulse draw (Prosper, Tome-Bound), cascade (Maelstrom Wanderer), and all sorts of random stuff, so I think you'll be casting it for 1 mana pretty often.
If your meta is dominated by Kill On Sight commanders then Wash Away could be a strong consideration. If you aren't looking to cast it for 1 mana often though then a vanilla Counterspell is a safer bet.
Coming Soon: Part 2, Black and Red!
Let me know what you think of the new White and Blue cards. Which are you most excited for and how do you plan on using them? What decks will you put them into? Tell me in the comments section below! Thanks for reading!
