How good are they?

In the last two instalments of this column, I focused on the pre-release of Edge of Eternities. It was fun and all, but now we need to focus once more on the Commander Challenge. Let’s take a look at where we left off.

What’s up with Mardu Surge?

Last time I mentioned I was tentatively adding the Mardu Surge deck to the list. That was because it looked interesting, but I hadn’t tried it yet. This time, I managed to try it, with Zurgo Stormrender as the commander. I picked him over Neriv, Crackling Vanguard, because, as I was shifting through the deck, I noticed many cards that made tokens, but not many of them made the same token. I wasn’t sure I would get much value out of Neriv in the deck’s current condition. However, as I played the deck, it felt really easy to create a bunch of different tokens. So the deck is officially on the list, but there’s still a tentative option for it. I have tentatively put down Zurgo as the commander, but that may change when I try Neriv.

Red, white, and blue, so many counters for you.

I am going to start with a note that my opinion is 10% biased when it comes to the Edge of Eternities, in general. The art of the set vibes so much with me that it has made me want to complete the whole set, including the Stellar Sights. This hasn’t happened since the Alara Block. But let’s talk about the commander decks now, and start with Counter Intelligence.

Jeskai is such a nice colour combination, especially for what the deck is trying to do, which is to drown everything with counters, especially artifacts. When I played the deck, I picked Inspirit, Flagship Vessel as the commander because I was fascinated by the Spacecrafts. It’s disgustingly good. Inspirit was shot down multiple times because the moment it landed on the battlefield, it instantly became a threat. But even without the commander on the field, the deck managed to deal around 30 damage out of nowhere and get me a win while I was at 3 life. And that’s with the cool commander and not the one that has the potential of infinite combos. Kilo, Apogee Mind is such an interesting card. I believe the deck needs only a couple of small upgrades and Kilo will shine. I think I’ve already seen a couple of 3-card infinite combos being mentioned. I don’t think I need to mention this deck easily made the list. As with Mardu, Inspirit is the current commander, until I get to try Kilo and decide who’s the reigning champion of the deck.

The Shaping of the World

I am a bit ashamed to admit I haven’t tried this one yet. But wait, don’t leave! I have a good-ish reason. The last time I played Commander, I tried the Mardu deck, and then I had to choose between this one and Counter Intelligence. I wanted to try something with blue, so I went with the latter. The thing is, the game took too long, and we had to conclude that day’s session, so I missed the opportunity to try World Shaper. However, that doesn’t mean I haven’t heard a lot of good things about this one. Landfall is a mechanic I wanted to add to at least one of my decks, so this feels like a great opportunity to test that. Again, there are infinite combos with this one as well. The commanders for this deck are Hearthhull, the Worldseed and Szarel, Genesis Shepherd. However, if you take a look at the deck list, you will notice Korvold, Fae-Cursed King has sneaked in as well. It doesn’t fit as a commander for this deck, but it’s a nice synergy piece. There are also quite a few more legendary creatures in there. This deck is also in the least, but tentatively until I try it, with Hearthhull as the commander, just because I like Spacecrafts.

The state of the list

Now, let’s take a look at the current list.

I’m at 9 out of 32 decks so far. I still have more to do, but that just makes it more fun. I have covered almost all 3-colour combinations, with only the Bant and Abzan slots still open. Both are interesting combinations, and I am going to have fun looking for decks. Once I am done with those, I think I will look into a 4-colour deck or a couple of the 2-colour ones. I acquired some more legendary creatures recently, so I need to check out my binders again.

Upgrades?

Finally, I’ve been thinking a lot about upgrades on my current decks. It’s not that I need to make them stronger. It’s just that precons aren’t the best an archetype can do, and, in many cases, precons try to do multiple things at the same time. I would like to clean up some of them just to see how piloting a more concise deck feels like. However, I am going to disregard all of the above and start with upgrading the Dogmeat deck, because it’s Nicole’s favourite. Does that mean I’m going to lose more? Sure, I don’t mind that. Plus, I will see the deck closer to what it’s meant to be, which will also make me think more strategically.

Anyway, these are my updates regarding the Commander Challenge. So far, it’s been fun doing this. And the best part is that all that has been done only with precons. Imagine the fun I’ll have once I start making buylists for singles. I can’t wait, though my wallet is already crying. By the way, if you have any deck suggestions, feel free to leave them as a comment. I like finding out about commanders I didn’t know about.

And until next time, have fun!