[MTG] Commander 2017 Spoilers

[NeoRWBY65]

 

 

The non-english one is

 

Portal Mage

2U

Creature - Human Wizard

Flash

 

If Portal Mage enters the battlefield during the declare attackers step, you may reselect the player or planeswalker that the target attacking creature attacks.

 

 

EDIT: My thoughts on the cards.

 

Portal Mage seems like a really neat trick. If you want, you can flash it in to save someone else from an attack and throw it at someone else.

Magus of the Mind is crazy. I don't think any Magus has done an impersonation of a storm card before. I'm almost tempted to clone it and do all of the copies firing off one after the other in the same turn.

Oh hey, we were asking for a Taigam card throughout Tarkir block, now we get two.

Kess is just lovely. While I don't have much focus on instant or sorcery spells in my commander decks, just thinking about getting to replay any of them is just dreamy.

I'll be honest, I missed the granting Haste when I read Shifting Shadow. Now that I see that is there I like it alot more than I did before.

Izzet Chemister falls into a similar category as Kess for me, but he takes a little bit of buildup before he gives you your spells back.

[bury the year]

Vindictive Lich seems great in Meren or Karador, as creatures with powerful death triggers are wont to be.

So I've been thinking about Mairsil more and more, and I don't think he's as good as everyone's saying. Outside of the glaring combo appeal, he just seems really slow and vulnerable. Since a lot of good activated abilities require tapping, without something like Horseshoe Crab or Quicksilver Elemental you can easily be up sheet creek sans paddle. Plus, activated abilities cost mana, and you can easily end up stretched thin. I don't deny that he's powerful, but he very well may end up too slow.

Kindred Dominance is basically a cheaper Plague Wind. That said, most tribal decks that'd run this will usually have one or two utility creatures not of the given tribe (e.g. dragons and Dragonspeaker Shaman), so this could often come back to bite you, haha.

Kindred Boon combos with the myojin. Outside of the obvious, it seems like a pretty fair replacement for Darksteel Plate in white decks, since you're usually using Plate to protect your commander and you'll be able to hit some incidentals.

Portal Mage will find a home in Ephara, for sure. Being able to redirect Prossh will be pretty funny, haha.

Six mana is a lot upfront, but since you can save Magus to activate on a later turn, he seems worth the investment. Definitely seems crazy in spellslinger decks. Also don't need to shuffle in between flips which is nice.

Khans!Taigam seems quietly powerful. At minimum a roleplayer in any UBx dredge deck (Sidisi, Tasigur, etc), but he seems pretty powerful on his own. Getting card selection and graveyard filler at once isn't to be underestimated, and the removal aspect is just gravy. (Also plays well in Tasigur.)

Snapcaster Mage grew up, and got hot. And sorta creepy. Pretty sure she's from Grixis, which explains the messed-up landscape. Anyhow, she's very obviously powerful. I've heard rumblings of her even being this set's Legacy playable.

Shadow's another example of red getting more and more of the polymorph territory. Also kept reading this as 4 mana - being 3 makes it a lot better. You could easily churn through your deck quickly if you're not careful, though.

Let the record show that caging Chemister with Mairsil doesn't let you "uncage" exiled cards with his second ability. That said, he's absurdly slow but really powerful. Would suck to have five spells exiled and get him Doom Bladed while tapped out.

 

---

 

And since that's all the new cards we're getting, what do people hope to pick up, for either new or existing decks? Bolded cards in the list below are ones I'm definitely picking up.
 

New: Hoping to buy the Wizards precon, or the Vampire one if I can't find it. Not sure which general I'd like from those six, but I'm sure I'll find something.

 

Saskia/Samut:

• Teferi's Protection
• Curse of Opulence
• Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist
• Path of Ancestry

Ephara:

• Alms Collector
• Teferi's Protection
• Portal Mage

Mazirek:

• Curse of Disturbance
• Vindictive Lich
• Traverse the Outlands

Alesha (only if I don't end up getting a precon, haha):

• Teferi's Protection
• Kheru Mind-Eater
• Disrupt Decorum
• Mathas, Fiend Hunter
• Path of Ancestry

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

Chemister works with Mairsil to a degree. If you already have chemister caged, and drop mairtil, whatever he exiles until he leaves the battlefield is fair game for Chemister's ability. This means he acts more like an expensive reanimator spell than anything.

[Flame Dragon]

Commander deck lists are up. First past had me feeling like the Wizard deck was really weak. Would need to take a close look to make sure I'm not crazy.

[Poc]

The cat deck looks the best out of the box. It feels much more focused than the other ones plus it has Mirrari's wake which is pretty wild. People are speculating Arhabo will be a strong duel commander so theres that too. Vampires has some solid removal and skullclamp but the rest of the deck is a bit weak. Dragons and wizards just looks durdly and jank AF out of the box.