Commander Review: Oath of the Gatewatch Part 1 (Lands, White, Blue, Black, Red)
Oath of the Gatewatch has been fully spoiled! It's time to search through the pile of minty fresh cards and check out which ones are the best suited to make a splash in Commander. Oath doesn't give us many cards that you'll want to jam into multiple decks, but rather amazing niche cards that will be staples in very specific archetypes. While many different deck archetypes got some sweet new inclusions, there are a select few that got a huge boost in viability that I'm excited to brew with in the near future.
- Colorless Decks: Probably the happiest archetype right now, Colorless decks often led by Kozilek, Butcher of Truth or more recently Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger have gotten the lion's share of new goodies to play with. There are some easy additions in the new colorless creatures and lands, most notably the first ever basic land available, Wastes, which means no more auto-losing to Ruination effects. We even get a powerful new leader with Kozilek, the Great Distortion.
- Allies: Finally, our prayers have been answered with General Tazri, the 5-color ally commander we've been waiting for! And she's pretty good, too!
- Superfriends: Assemble! We've never gotten so much planeswalker support in one set before. Both new planeswalkers are solid, but even more interesting are an entire Oath cycle to support the archetype, such as Oath of Gideon.
Alright, let's dive into the cards!
Lands
One of the biggest contributions that Oath is bringing to Commander are a slew of Colorless (non-Artifact!) support, led by these brand new basic lands. Wastes are not appealing lands when strictly compared to other options. We have plenty of lands that produce colorless mana in Commander, almost all of them superior because they do something useful on top of producing colorless mana. What Wastes brings to the table is being basic lands, which enables Colorless decks to not immediately scoop to popular nonbasic land hate like Ruination or Wave of Vitriol. How many Wastes you should run depends on your meta. If you're running a Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre deck and you see Path to Exile being cast regularly, you'll want at least a couple of Wastes in your deck. If the aforementioned Ruination and its brethren are popular, you'll want to run a lot more Wastes to avoid being blown out. My point is don't run a lot of these if you don't have to, but now you've got a great answer to nonbasic hate if you come across it.
A niche Mana Confluence that has the option to pay for colorless and not hurt you. For Devoid decks this card is a powerful staple; other decks will pass.
Mirrorpool is one of the best colorless lands to be printed. It does hurt that it comes into play tapped, but the payoff of eventually cashing in the land to duplicate something is huge. And all the better the effect can't be easily countered, short of a Stifle effect. This land is a snap-include in Colorless decks and a good choice in Mono Color decks that are running enough colorless sources to support it. Since Mirrorpool sacrifices itself, Titania, Protector of Argoth and Omnath, Locus of Rage will love to add the land to their lists as well.
Oran-Rief, the Vastwood is a great card, and Ruins of Oran-Rief is similar for Colorless/Devoid decks. This land will see play in those two decks and nowhere else, but it will be great there.
While Mirrorpool comes into play tapped to balance out its powerful ability, Sea Gate Wreckage has no such drawback. It's all upside, baby! This land will be great for Big Ramp decks that blow through their hands in a hurry and need ways to refill again. Colorless decks often fit that category, but also one archetype in particular, Mono Red Artifacts, has a habit of playing 15+ mana rocks and ending up relying on Wheel of Fortune effects to refill. Sea Gate Wreckage will be a perfect fit in both those decks and more.
Creaturelands typically don't scale well in the battlecruiser format that is Commander. The creatures are simply too small to make a dent in the environment. However, my favorite of the bunch is Hissing Quagmire, because deathtouch always makes for a good blocker no matter how small the creature.
Special mention goes to Wandering Fumarole for having a cool name. Wandering Fumarole. I really like it for some reason. Moving on!
(Editor's Note: Fumarole, from the Latin fumus or "smoke," is an opening in the earth's crust, often in the neighborhood of volcanoes, which emits steam and gases)
White
The Eldrazi version of Mistmeadow Witch is quite interesting. I've always had a soft spot for the Witch and often run her in my Blink decks, but I admit she's rather slow and mana-intensive, which is why she's never been popular amongst the Commander crowd. Eldrazi Displacer's ability is a bit cheaper to use, and unlike the Witch, there are some pretty easy infinite combos to pull off with it:
Example combo: Eldrazi Displacer + Brood Monitor + Zulaport Cutthroat. Sacrifice the 3 Scions made by Brood Monitor to activate Eldrazi Displacer, draining 3 life with Zulaport Cutthroat in the process. Blink the Brood Monitor with the Displacer's ability, triggering the enter the battlefield clause making 3 more Scions. Repeat until you drain all of your opponents!
There are many variations of the above combo, you just need a creature that can somehow make 3 colorless mana when it enters the battlefield and some way to kill your opponents from the interaction, be it drain or mill (ex. Altar of the Brood).
The Idyllic Tutor(!) for Superfriends. It's undoubtedly a new staple for the archetype.
General Tazri is sure to please many people, finally offering a 5-color Ally to lead our Allies decks. Her tutor ability is exactly what Allies wants, as it gives them a toolbox to fetch out the right Ally for the situation. Her pump ability is a legitimate way to close out the game once you've established a board position, a welcomed bonus on this card.
I've always considered Allies to be a "fairer," more casual version of Slivers, and General Tazri maintains that theme. Her tutoring is strong but tame in comparison to Sliver Overlord's "infinite combo if you let me untap" version, and her pump ability is a prime example of a fair way to end the game once you're ahead. This is a great thing. We already have Slivers, an archetype that is an unwavering hate magnet for Commander players everywhere. Allies carves its own niche by being a lot less threatening, winning in a more predictable fashion, which means your opponents are less likely to be gunning for you the moment you reveal your commander.
Expect a Budget Commander article on this General Tazri as soon as Oath is released on Magic Online.
In a multiplayer game, Linvala, the Preserver is likely a 5/5 flyer that gains you 5 life and makes a 3/3 flying token for 6 mana. That's really mana efficient, and yet I'm not excited about this card. There are plenty of efficient beaters to choose from in Commander; I want something different.
That's a lot of mana for what you get, but because it's an Ally and the Allies deck doesn't have a wide variety of options to choose from, it may just be good enough. You really want a way to give Munda's Vanguard haste, which shouldn't be too hard.
Superfriends often have a Tokens subtheme since many planeswalkers either make tokens to protect themselves and/or pump creatures. Oath of Gideon makes tokens to protect your planeswalkers and gives them an extra +1 loyalty counter. This is good! Planeswalkers like Garruk, Primal Hunter and Liliana of the Dark Realms can use their -X abilities immediately without dying, Tezzeret the Seeker can search for bigger artifacts or ultimate immediately, and all planeswalkers are that much closer to their ultimates. Sweet!
White and/or Red are notorious for their lackluster card draw in Commander, leaning heavily on artifacts as support to keep up with other color combinations. White has long had an Equipment theme going as their "card draw," and Stone Haven Outfitter is another piece to that plan. While drawing cards only when the equipped creature dies isn't ideal, it's better than nothing. It's also a nonbo with Skullclamp as the Outfitter turns your 1/1 fodder into 2/2s when equipped with the clamp, so they don't die and you can't cash them in for cards immediately.
Since the Allies deck will probably want to be 5-color, I don't think running an Equipment subtheme is necessary since you've got tons of card advantage options from Green / Blue / Black. If Allies decks do decide to run an Equipment theme, Stoneforge Acolyte is actually pretty good, digging deep for card advantage on just a 1-mana dork. He's incredibly efficient for what he does.
Blue
Dissipate is a fine card in Commander because exiling spells instead of letting them go into the graveyard is strong in a format full of graveyard abuse strategies. Void Shatter is a slight upgrade to Dissipate, as it works with Colorless decks and cannot be affected by Blue hate like Pyroblast.
Inspiration is a bad card. Inspiration that costs 1 less mana may actually be decent in a handful of decks, namely Talrand, Sky Summoner, where you can Counterspell something and follow up with this. Not the best, but decent.
This is no Cyclonic Rift, and while I still prefer Devastation Tide as a secondary Rift due to its shenanigans with cards like Brainstorm and Mystical Tutor, for decks not running topdeck manipulation and/or looking for a board wipe with more bite, Crush of Tentacles is a fine option. It's also a fun flavor card in Fishy Fatties decks, the kind that run Quest for Ula's Temple and Whelming Wave.
This is a fine card for Superfriends. Not my favorite Oath for the archetype, but still good. We already have better card draw options but at least digging for 3 is nice. If you manage to scry for 2 or more each turn the secondary ability becomes quite good.
If your meta is heavily skewed towards Blue and counter wars happen regularly, Overwhelming Denial can be the ace up your sleeve in winning the battle. Otherwise the risk of spending 4 mana to counter is too high to be worthwhile.
For when you really, really hate your stuff being countered. I still prefer the classic Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir to shut down opposing countermagic, as he can pop into play when your Counterspell-loving foe is tapped out due to flash. Terferi also grants your other creatures flash, protects all your spells (not just instants / sorceries), and costs 2 less to play. However, Sphinx of the Final Word is uncounterable itself and can't be killed by targeted removal.
Black
There's probably only one use for this card, and it's a clunky one:
- Make sure your graveyard is empty or use something like Bojuka Bog to empty it.
- Cast Inverter of Truth to exile your library. Since you have nothing in your graveyard, your library is now empty.
- Cast Laboratory Maniac.
- Draw a card, winning the game with Laboratory Maniac.
The combo can go horribly wrong any number of ways and you'll end up killing yourself more often than not, but I'm sure brewers out there will try it.
I love Pawn of Ulamog in my Sacrifice decks; he's done great work in my Sek'kuar, Deathkeeper deck of long ago. Sifter of Skulls is slightly worse since you're paying a bit more mana and the difference between a 0/1 and 1/1 eldrazi token is usually insignificant. It's still a good card though, and I'll definitely be testing it out alongside Pawn.
I do love graveyard hate cards, especially ones that deny death triggers like Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet does. That replacement effect is the most important part of the card for me, and the fact that it's on a fairly cheap, efficiently-costed Vampire with lifelink and an optional sac outlet is a sweet bonus. Kalitas is for sure a sweet inclusion in Vampire decks, possibly also Zombie decks or any Black deck looking for another Leyline of the Void to counter powerful Graveyard decks in your meta.
Red
This card is the absolute nuts. It's a beefed up, instant speed, mega-flashback (new keyterm in Shadows Over Innistrad, calling it now) Pyroclasm that is big enough to do a dent even in the Battlecruiser Format. Unfortunately, Colorless decks led by Kozilek, the Great Distortion or Kozilek, Butcher of Truth cannot run this Red card. However, there are Red Eldrazi decks out there that could get some great use out of this spicy new board wipe:
- Rakdos, Lord of Riots loves casting giant Eldrazi at heavy discounts
- Xenagos, God of Revels plays giant fatties, including Eldrazi, and few if any of his creatures will die to a mere 5 damage
- Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge is probably the most oddball Eldrazi deck I've ever seen, but she's surprisingly effective leading Eldrazi Processor cards like Ulamog's Nullifier due to her exile effect, and thus is another candidate to run giant eldrazi.
In these decks, Kozilek's Return may make a splash.
A Chandra that doesn't suck! Each ability on Chandra, Flamecaller is useful: +1 generates tokens that are begging to be sacrificed for profit to things like Phyrexian Altar or (best) Skullclamp, 0 is actual card draw in Red WOWOWOW, -X is a board wipe that scales in multiplayer perfectly. The only downside is she's 6 mana, but hey, it's a good Chandra!
There's only one good use for this card in Commander, but it's a cool one: Zada, Hedron Grinder. Make some weenies, maybe with Hordeling Outburst, then cast Expedite drawing 4+ cards for R? Sounds awesome to me! Zada is sounding like tons of fun. Expect Zada on a future Budget Commander poll.
Stay Tuned for Part Two!
We'll finish up the review with Green, Multicolor, Artifact, and Colorless.
Disagree with any of my evaluations? Think I missed a good card in my review? Let me know in the comments section below!
