Spellslinging Returns to Standard! | Exclusive Dominaria United Preview
Dominaria United is almost here, and the set is looking amazing so far! Thanks to Wizards hooking us up, we've got a spicy exclusive preview to show off for you all today that might bring with it the return of prowess-style decks to Standard and will certainly have a home in spellslinger Commander decks. Meet Balmor, Battlemage Captain!
While Balmor might be just a lowly uncommon, don't let its rarity deceive you—the card is super powerful! A two-mana 1/3 flier is already a reasonable start as far as stats or abilities; then, its pseudo-prowess ability—which pumps your entire team +1/+0 and gives them trample whenever you cast an instant or sorcery—is downright scary in the right deck. We haven't really seen a card exactly like Balmor before. It reminds me a bit of Stormchaser Mage based on its stats and abilities, or maybe a cheaper version of Adeliz, the Cinder Wind that isn't limited by the Wizard tribe? A more recent (and perhaps disappointing, considering both Stormchaser Mage and Adeliz, the Cinder Wind have seen a decent amount of play) one might be Leonin Lightscribe, as a two-drop that can pump your entire team when you cast an instant or sorcery, although I'm not sure this one is completely fair. While [[Leonin Lightscribe] ended up bombing in Standard, this is in large part because white is a weird color for spellslinger. If Leonin Lightscribe were Izzet, I think it would see a lot more play. Plus, a 1/3 flier is a much better threat than a Grizzly Bears. Basically, if you add all the different text on Balmor together and mix in the best comparisons from Magic's past, you end up with what looks to be a very playable card, assuming the right support exists.
So, what kind of support does Balmor, Battlemage Captain need to be good? Cheap spells to trigger it and hopefully a board full of creatures to pump and trample up. How much of this support exists in Standard? At this point, I'm honestly not sure. Because it takes a few days to write and edit an article and video, I'm writing this just as Dominaria United spoilers are about to start, which means the only cards we've seen from the set are the handful we got months ago during the sneak-peek day. Looking at the cards from non–Dominaria United sets that will be in Standard after rotation, a handful of them seem interesting with Balmor. Poppet Stitcher cares about spells and can build a huge board of tokens. Smoldering Egg also likes a deck full of instants and sorceries. Delver of Secrets still exists, although it hasn't really proven itself in its latest run through Standard. Beyond this, it's mostly speculative picks like Maestros Ascendancy or Geistflame Reservoir that seem like they could be powerful but haven't really done much in Standard yet.
However, Balmor is going to be in Standard alongside the rest of Dominaria United, and there are a couple of signals that some sort of UR Spellslinger is a theme of the set. Most obviously, we have Balmor, Battlemage Captain itself, which looks an awful lot like a "signpost uncommon" for limited designs to direct players toward an archetype. Plus, the one planeswalker we know of as of this writing—Jaya, Fiery Negotiator—has a pretty strong spellslinger theme, making prowess tokens and having an ultimate that cares about instants and sorceries. As such, I expect that once we have the full picture of Dominaria United, there will be more than enough pieces to make a strong Izzet Spellslinger deck in Standard. Even just the synergy between Poppet Stitcher making a bunch of tokens and Balmor pumping them for a potentially lethal attack is enough to make me want to build around the new uncommon legend!
Outside of Standard, the main home for Balmor will likely be Commander, although it might have some shot in older 60-card formats as well. I think we can pretty safely cross Modern, Legacy, and friends off the list because Balmor fails the Lightning Bolt test and, unlike popular prowess creatures, Balmor only pumps power, not toughness. One reason why Stormchaser Mage saw some Modern play was that, even though it dies to Lightning Bolt, a single spell will pump it to a 2/4, allowing it to survive a Bolt. Balmor can't do this trick because its ability only pumps toughness, even though the ability is super strong because it pumps everything (and trample is sneakily powerful), I would be surprised if Balmor saw serious play in Lightning Bolt formats.
On the other hand, it might have a shot in formats like Pioneer / Explorer or Historic. Being a Wizard is huge, potentially letting us play Balmor alongside Adeliz, the Cinder Wind for some truly absurd creature pumping, assuming we're willing to fill our deck with Wizards. It might look something like this:
Would Balmor Wizards be better than something like Izzet Phoenix, which has a similar spellslinging game plan? Perhaps not, considering that Phoenix is one of the best decks in Pioneer at the moment, but the Wizard-focused aggro spellslinger deck looks solid enough to win quite a few games and is probably worth exploring, at least.
As for Commander, I'm not sure how popular Balmor, Battlemage Captain will be as a deck's commander. While it is super powerful, there are a ton of Izzet Spellslinger commanders, including cards like Niv-Mizzet, Parun and Veyran, Voice of Duality, which are both super strong and super popular. I don't think Balmor is quite on their level, even though it is a strong commander. There's actually some sneaky upside in building around an uncommon legend like Balmor. Spellslinger is a scary archetype in Commander, and players know that they should be afraid of commanders like Niv and Veyran—if you let your opponent untap with one, they'll probably pull super far ahead—so it's easy to find yourself as the archenemy when playing those commanders. Balmor isn't likely to draw as much heat—it's just an uncommon, after all—but it is still more than powerful enough to win a Commander game.
So, how do you build around Balmor in Commander? Probably the easiest and perhaps most effective way will be to overload on cards that make tokens when you cast an instant or sorcery spell, like Young Pyromancer, Talrand, Sky Summoner, Metallurgic Summonings, Deekah, Fractal Theorist, Murmuring Mystic, Shark Typhoon, and Poppet Stitcher, and then load up on cheap cantrips and card draw like Brainstorm, Ponder, and Preordain. My guess is that Balmor will play best if you don't cast it early in the game. Remember, Balmor is only two mana, which makes it pretty easy to play Balmor and a bunch of cheap spells in the same turn. Keep Balmor hiding in the command zone where it's safe; build a big board of tokens while slinging spells; and, once you get things set up, play Balmor, cast a bunch of cheap spells to pump your team, and hopefully one-shot the table with a board full of massive trampling tokens! Here's my build:
Two quick notes. One, Harmonic Prodigy is pretty sweet with Balmor since it doubles up Balmor's trigger so every spell you cast will give +2/+0, making it super easy to kill everyone if you can build a big-ish board of tokens. Second, I tried to build the deck more or less like I would for Commander Clash. If you want to power it up further, you can add in free counterspells like Force of Will and Fierce Guardianship along with things like Dockside Extortionist. Either way, the deck looks super fun if you're a fan of spellslinger, and as we discussed before, you're probably less likely to be hated out when playing Balmor than when playing some of the obviously busted spellslinger commanders.
The other place that Balmor, Battlemage Captain will likely show up is in the 99 of other spellslinger Commander decks. One thing I really like about Balmor, Battlemage Captain is that its ability is good in both go-wide spellslinger decks (like the token deck above) and also go-tall decks with fewer creatures, because of trample. If you have a huge board of small creatures, giving them all +1/+0 is super valuable, but trample isn't that great. If you have a few big creatures, giving them +1/+0 isn't all that important, but giving them trample might let you swing through blockers to close out the game. Balmor gets even better if you have Wizard tribal synergies, but as long as you have a decent number of creatures in your deck and are planning to sling a bunch of spells, Balmor is at least in the conversation for showing up in the 99 as a payoff / finisher.
Conclusion
Anyway, that's Balmor, Battlemage Captain. The card seems great in Commander, both in the 99 and as the commander of a deck. And I think it could end up being very good in Standard (and maybe even Pioneer, Explorer, and Historic) if we get the right support cards in the rest of Dominaria United, which I assume we will, based on the handful of cards we've seen so far. Thanks again to Wizards for hooking us up with an exclusive preview, and make sure to let us know what you think about Balmor in the comments!
