Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Commander Review - Planar Portal
FROM THE DEPTHS OF NOWHERE!
Howdy everybody! I'll get to the good stuff! MTGGoldfish previewed Planar Portal and it's fun to watch Tomer geek out on D&D connections, etc. I don't know that world so you won't be getting that from me (Sorry!) but you can check out that vid here.
THE CHARACTER SHEETS (LEGENDS)
Prosper, Tome-Bound
Kicking things off with the face commander who has me most excited for Planar Portal. I've already got a list I'm brewing (it's not finished, so be nice).
Prosper is really cool; this card can get nutty. Prosper generates card advantage the turn he comes down by impulse drawing at your end step. You can play it until the end of your next turn. That timing that they've added to red's impulse draw lately has had a huge hand in making it work way better. Prosper also makes a Treasure every time you play a card from exile. How do you play from exile? *Inhale* Cascade, Suspend, Rebound, Madness, impulse draw, Foretell, opponent library theft like Cunning Rhetoric, Conspiracy Theorist, Uba Maska, Knowledge Pool, Harnfel, Horn of Bounty, and more!
Heads up though, Rebound only works when cast from hand and you can only suspend and foretell cards from hand as well. Happy building!
Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant
As a fan of Breena, the Demagogue, I can say that I already love this card. I did an article on honorary partners recently in my Am I The Bolas? series but Damn I don't think I'd be cool with that much power in the command zone when it's THIS GOOD! Swinging at a player, with any creature mind you not just Karazikar, to tap down a defending creature, preventing blocks, and goading it, guaranteeing card draw at their combat if their creature and Karazikar are still around? Money. Don't even get me started on how much everybody LOVES drawing cards. Your opponents will be swinging at each other without you even making an effort. Make sure to pack life gain in here because you'll be drawing a ton of cards from Karazikar. Kardur, Doomscourge decks love this or might be demoting the demon to the 99. WOO!
Lorcan, Warlock Collector
Oh, boy. This one really speaks to me. To be able to Reanimate a creature card from an opponent's yard, NO MATTER HOW IT GOT THERE, is extremely powerful. Sure, it can cost a lot of life and people don't really like it when you play with their stuff, but it's so cool. Pack your Grey Merchant of Asphodel and your Whip of Erebos into Planar Portal! Considering I'm a big mill and discard fan, this is getting my gears going big time! The trouble is I'm already looking at Asmodeus the Archfiend[el] and [el]Ayara, First of Locthwain in my Moxfield folders; should I really add another monoblack commander? (Yes.)
THE REST OF THE BUNCH!
BLACK
Bag of Devouring
WEIRD! Nontoken artifacts and creatures you sacrifice get exiled with the Bag to hopefully sacrifice the Bag to return up to 10 exiled cards to your hand if you're lucky? You at least get back one for sure, but then you've exiled pieces that honestly, I'd rather reanimate with Command the Dreadhorde or Phyrexian Delver. Plus its second ability allows card draw for 2 and sacrificing another artifact or creature, but you have to tap it. At least it dodges the nontoken restriction? Maybe I missed something. With all the Treasure, it's a cheap way to turn them into a card. I'm not sure! I love the art though.
Danse Macabre
An edict that gets around anybody sacrificing a meaningless token, forcing a creature card sack, then you can have your pick for best of the bunch? Sold. There's a chance that I can get TWO of those creatures for 5 mana and keep two of the others off the field? Honestly, I am hyped on this. At worst, I got rid of three creatures and flickered my best ETB effect. Hell, maybe I run this Kokusho, the Evening Star and have a good time.
Death Tyrant
Reporting for duty in those forced combat decks I mentioned earlier. This triggers on attacking creatures you control dying but notably also on blocking creatures your opponents control, regardless of who is attacking them. If you've goaded and the defending players block - their blocking creatures die and YOU get a zombie?
Gorgeous.
The Tyrant recurs well. Shenanigans abound. I'm hoping to swing with my army of Zombies, sacrifice them to something like Altar of Dementia, proc Syr Konrad, the Grim triggers, get a bunch more Zombies and sack them for the kill. I like it!
Grim Hireling
Rogues rarely get blocked (hint hint Anowon, the Ruin Thief players) and if you spread the love you get 2 Treasures per player you hit. Then you can use those Treasures to take down an Avacyn, Angel of Hope with the activated ability. I think this might be the card to stock up on. That art is so cool!
Hellish Rebuke
Giving off Silverquill Inkshield vibes. A three mana blanket effect for all opponents' permanents - excellent. Permanents, remember, not just creatures. They have to sacrifice those permanents and lose 2 life if that permanent deals damage to you. No Mercy with an extra slap on the wrist. Ultimately, this can also be a real kingmaker of a card. Get smacked by a whole army of tokens, they might take you out, but they'll either be dead or significantly disadvantaged for the rest of the game.
RED
Fiendlash
I love Brash Taunter and Stuffy Doll and Boros Reckoner and...
Rather than dealing equivalent damage dealt to equipped creature, it instead does damage equal to its power. That means Pyrohemia will throw around at least 3 damage to players you choose for each 1 damage it does to the equipped creature. However, Blasphemous Act will only trigger this once. The reach on it makes you think it's ideal for blocking, which is true, but I'd say it makes blocking the equipped creature also a big decision point. Maybe you attack a player with a bunch of tokens who block it to target each trigger at another player at the table! I really like this thing!
Reckless Endeavor
Rolling dice! A board wipe or ramp, you pick which die does what. This has a spot in my Brash Taunter deck. The most likely rolls hover at around 6, so say you have the most average roll ever, you're paying one mana to deal six damage to each creature. I'll give this a shot. Not to mention with table play coming back, the excitement of watching the gamble either pay off or fail miserably is tempting. Hearing a group of people yell "OHHHH!" in response to something like this is why I play the game!
Share the Spoils
I really like this especially for Prosper, Tome-Bound. Knowledge Pool 2.0 costs four less mana and allows you to cast without having to do a weird dance of navigating a casting maze to play what you want. Nope! It's just "want to cast something or play a land here? You can but it costs you sharing the top card of your library." Excellent design. I can't wait to play this.
Wild-Magic Sorcerer
This is the nice spice for Prosper, Tome-Bound. Cast a card from exile, make a Treasure, cascade into another card being played from exile, make another Treasure. Repeat this process at instant speed during opponent's turns? Chef's Kiss (no, not that!)
I LOVE GOLD
Fevered Suspicion
Holy. Prosper, Tome-Bound again, obviously. Each opponent exiles until a nonland land is reveal, you cast without paying for them, make three Treasures, then if you cast it from your hand (god, I hope Prosper doesn't exile this at an end step), your next upkeep it all happens again, but this time you make four Treasures? I love this game. This is such a dumb card. I say that with the most love. As a Sizzle player (shoutout Commander Sphere podcast, check out their episode on Sizzle vs Steak, an excellent resource for Rule 0 talks), this makes my heart flutter.
Hurl Through Hell
I laughed when I saw this card. I think it's excellent. Instant speed creature removal that lets you yoink some power or utility over to the dark side. "From exile!" Yeah, we know, Prosper!
ARTIFACTS AND ONE LAND THAT DOESN'T NEED ITS OWN SECTION
Bucknard's Everfull Purse
Slap this into your lists and send it all around. It requiring passing to the right means that, if people activate, it'll make its way around. With the ceiling being four extra mana, why say no?!
Ebony Fly
No idea what this wants to be. Two mana rock that ETBs tapped? Yeesh. It can be animated and does an impression of Pegasus Courser.
For me, it's most useful as the easiest cut to make from the precon. Zing. Gotcherass, ya Fly.
Underdark Rift
There are cheaper ways to put cards at the bottom of libraries. Plus this ability can only be activated at sorcery speed? Another Fly, if you ask me. Sorry!
THROUGH THE PORTAL WE GO
Let me know what you think! Did I miss anything, did I overvalue or undervalue cards? Check out my Am I The Bolas? series and send in your stories. Yell at me on Twitter @mikecarrozza. Love and appreciation. Let's play some games 🙂
