Commander Masters Second Looks: Part 1
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What a Difference a Printing Makes
Commander Masters is finally here, and with it an absolute deluge of reprints for, obviously, legendary creatures. There are a few creatures we see quite often--shout out to Judith, the Scourge Diva and the legally-required-to-be-in-every-reprint-set Talrand, Sky Summoner--but for others, this is the first time being reprinted, ever.
For those reprints, Commander Masters comes many years after their debut, which means that there are players slinging spells today who weren't into Magic the first time around and never had a chance to get into the hype when these creatures hit the scene. Others may have simply skipped over building those decks, and these reprints are a perfect opportunity to give these creatures a spin and see what the fuss was about. Additionally, even for those of us who did build one of these decks back in the day, a lot has changed in the Commander space in recent years, plenty of new cards and strategies and archetypes; with these changes can come new ways to build old favorites.
Let's dive into commanders that are getting their first reprint in Commander Masters and see what new tools are out there to give them a second chance at stardom in 2023!
Rules: We're highlighting legendary creatures (and planeswalkers that can be your commander) whose printing in Commander Masters marks the second time they are appearing in a widely available set. Judge promo printings and Comic-Con promos, for example, I don't consider "widely available," so we wouldn't count those. But we do count Secret Lair printings, The List, Duel Decks, Commander Collections, and other special products so long as they don't have extreme scarcity. Good? Good. Let's get to it.
Akiri, Fearless Voyager
Akiri has the unfortunate luck of being smack dab in the middle of a long, long line of Boros Equipment commanders. It's one of the more consistent ones, though: three mana, provides card advantage along with the stated gameplan, doesn't need to risk its own neck in combat, and can protect itself or your attacker of choice.
Akiri rewards you with extra cards if you split up your attacks between players, so going a little wider than the traditional Voltron deck tends to might be in order. That's the same thing Merry, Esquire of Rohan wants you to do, with legendary creatures specifically--not a tall order given how many we have these days. And Forge Anew, also from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, makes combat steps much safer for your team because as long as you have the mana available (or one of Boros's many "equip for free" enablers), it's going to be very hard for your opponents to remove any creatures headed their way, geared up or not. It also lets the Akiri pilot move their Equipment to the most effective configuration on their team after blockers are declared.
Cabal Patriarch
Oh, Cabal Patriarch. As one of the face cards of Odyssey, a set that introduced me to Magic back in the day, and a character that was an imposing presence during that chapter of the Magic story, I have a lot of fondness for this guy. But I might be the only one; as I write this, he has a whole 21 decks to his name on the EDHREC database, good for a rank of 2494th most popular commander, which I can't imagine is far from the bottom. There are acorn cards from Unfinity with more decks.
But he's been relegated to uncommon status in Commander Masters, which means he's now eligible to lead a Pauper EDH deck! I can't imagine he's going to warp the format--his abilities cost too much mana to be a reliable sac outlet en masse--but he could do work managing the board and disincentivizing attackers to come your way while your gameplan unfolds. His creature type is Wizard, surprisingly, and the bench of playable black Wizards in EDH is deeper than you might think: Viscera Seer, Ecstatic Awakener, and Loathsome Curator, and if you drop the "p" off of pEDH, you also get Grim Haruspex, Apprentice Necromancer, and Acererak the Archlich--the makings of a flavorful and effective mono-black Wizards-and-aristocrats build are right there.
Captain Ripley Vance
There's a lot of "cast two spells in a turn" going around lately--I see you, Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff--but Captain Ripley Vance asks 50% more of you, and rewards you with a cannon blast of increasing size at whatever face (or creature (or planeswalker (or battle))) you prefer. Spellslinger builds, and ways to increase CRV's power before that trigger goes off, are popular, but I'm thinking this is a commander that wants you to get greedy, pulling as many cards off the top of your library as possible to maximize how many spells you have access to on a given turn.
Thankfully, even in the two short years since Modern Horizons 2 brought CapRipVan to us, red has received a greater focus on "impulse draw"--exiling a card and having the opportunity to cast it in a specified time frame has become red's preferred form of card advantage--and many of these new cards are surprisingly good. Visions of Phyrexia is a great redundant copy of Outpost Siege that gives you a consolation prize if you don't use what it offers that turn, and identical twins Reckless Impulse and Wrenn's Resolve keep your turn going or set up for a big turn next time around. Add Birgi, God of Storytelling and Runaway Steam-Kin to keep the mana flowing, and baby, you've got a stew going.
And as I hinted at earlier, the new battle card type might be a fun way to build Vance. You can use her cannon fire to bring down already-placed battles without needing to get into combat. And don't forget that after knocking all the defense counters off of a battle, you actually cast the backside for free--meaning if you need to, finishing off a battle with a burn spell and getting to cast the back side will cover 2/3 of a Vance trigger on its own.
Erebos, Bleak-Hearted
Yes, it's the weaker of the two Ereboses, but it's still both a sacrifice-enabler and payoff in the command zone, and an indestructible one, at that. Any commander that lets me happily sleeve up Reassembling Skeleton is one that I like.
As for cards that have come out post-Erebos that would fit in his deck, Vraan, Executioner Thane and Bastion of Remembrance (which you could open in a Commander Masters pack right alongside Erebos!) can pad your life total, which tends to dwindle after using Erebos's ability to draw a few times. Braids, Arisen Nightmare will get you even more value out of sacrificing a creature with Erebos on the board, and Erebos plus a piece of sacrificial fodder turns Village Rites into a shock-yourself Ancestral Recall. Seems good.
Gorex, the Tombshell
It has not been long since Gorex hit Commander tables--the accompanying main set it was tied to will still be in Standard for another year, if that's any indication of how recent it is. But because sets are releasing at so fast a rate that I'm assuming another one has been announced since I started this sentence, there are still some new cards that fit with ol' Gorex. Cemetery Tampering fills the bin efficiently and offers an additional payoff. Gloomfang Mauler and Injector Crocodile are especially fun to loop with Gorex. Sadly, we don't have much we can do in the way of Turtle typal decks thus far, I can only assume because the devs don't have the guts. Give us what we want, cowards.
Grenzo, Havoc Raiser
Now this is a spicy reprint. Goading has gotten a lot more attention lately, and we've also seen red players' lust for impulse draw extend to decks that aren't even theirs. Rude! Grenzo puts a red mage's favorite things (short of bolt- and fireball-throwing) all into one neat little package, provided you can go wide enough. Which, spoiler alert: you can. This is Goblin territory, after all. We have the best of the best, Krenko, Mob Boss, but we've also gotten some new toys since Grenzo's initial appearance. Legion Warboss and Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin are perfect turn-three plays to follow Grenzo.
Moria Marauder allows you to get more out of your gobbo hits. Professional Face-Breaker gets Treasure to cast the spells that Grenzo uncovers. M21's Subira, Tulzidi Caravanner is tailor-made for a Grenzo deck, and hey! She's in Commander Masters, too. More on her soon.
Isareth the Awakener
Most of what I said for Gorex, the Tombshell still holds true for Isareth. We still want to fill our graveyards, but since she's bringing creatures back to the battlefield instead of our hands, our targets can shift a little bit. Gloomfang Mauler is still a great one for Isareth, though--people are not going to want to block a 5/5 menace deathtoucher.
Archon of Cruelty and Archon at Home (Dusk Mangler) are great new reanimation targets for Isareth. Vile Entomber is an excellent setup card that isn't a bad target for our commander's ability if we need to double-down. I also highly recommend throwing Tormod, the Desecrator into these decks to get the most out of Isareth's dark deeds.
Kaho, Minamo Historian
Eighteen years since Kaho was printed! At that age she can smoke, vote, and if she visits most European countries, enjoy a cold pint. In a game of Commander, though, she can do a lot more. Her ceiling is the power level of non-X-cost blue instant spells she can cast; eighteen years is a long time, and we've seen some doozies since then. Mystic Confluence, Sublime Epiphany, and Cryptic Command are great cards to have in the chamber when passing the turn with Kaho, because they guarantee you some kind of action or reaction as needed.
I don't think the people designing Kaho foresaw Dramatic Reversal, which will let you use more than one of the spells she stows away in a single turn, but if you're building Kaho in 2023, get dramatic with it. And don't stop there: doubling or copying spells has become a lot easier in recent years, and they're good effects to have either tucked away with Kaho or in hand ready to get more value out of her spells, so bring See Double, Echo Mage, and why not, Narset's Reversal.
Keleth, Sunmane Familiar
For such a simple design, Keleth has proven to pack a surprising amount of horsepower (and no, I won't apologize for that pun). Any other partner commander that wants to attack loves to ride in on this noble steed, most notably Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh, which unlocks red in a deck's color identity and leads you pretty cleanly to Equipment decks; we have no shortage of new Equipment to use in such decks, like the final three pieces of the Mirran Sword cycle: Sword of Hearth and Home, Sword of Forge and Frontier, and Sword of Once and Future.
Reyhan, Last of the Abzan is another popular pairing with Keleth, and recently picked up another couple pieces of Hardened Scales redundancy with Ozolith, the Shattered Spire and Kami of Whispered Hopes.
As far as new partners since Commander Legends, Keleth has only gotten one, but it's a darn good one: Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful. Dog on one, horse on two, and swinging for three commander damage right away at minimum, since there are things like Mox Amber and legendary lands aplenty to juice Yoshimaru fast. Add Luxior, Giada's Gift for extra brutality.
Mangara, the Diplomat
If ever there were a commander that screamed "pillow-fort," this would be the guy. Effective enough to dissuade most mid-game attacks at you, but not so overbearing as to be a lightning rod for removal (not when the Yoshimaru player at the table is swinging for thirteen commander damage on turn four*), there are a lot of ways to build a Mangara deck even if he's still a solid addition to any 99 he can fit in. Plus, he's got some new tricks to try out in the few years since he was first printed, too.
For one, white just got one of the best disruption spells it's ever seen in Reprieve: sometimes you need to be able to stop a haymaker from your opponent or buy yourself a little more time, and Mana Tithe isn't always going to cut it. Mangara also has some card-draw redundancy in a color that has gotten a lot of help in that area lately (and yet still feels like it needs more): Archivist of Oghma, Smuggler's Share, and our rhystic buddy, Esper Sentinel.
It's not a new card, but Crawlspace's recent reprinting in Dominaria Remastered has made it very affordable, and it plays great with Mangara. If opponents want to maximize the amount of damage they can do to you through combat, you're drawing a card and still not getting hit too hard. Try a Master of Ceremonies in this deck to continue your diplomatic means of accruing advantage throughout the game... until you're ready to cash it all in for a win, of course.
*(Hi, it's me)
Mowu, Loyal Companion
The second goodest boy in the multiverse (only after Yoshimaru, of course), Mowu wants to be big and he wants to bite. This is a Voltron commander with some counter synergies, and I honestly think one of the easiest ones to get going in mono-green outside of Thrun, Breaker of Silence. A built-in, self-Hardened Scales and two very relevant keywords makes Mowu a good call if you want a commander you can sic on unsuspecting foes.
Again, extra counter-building redundancies, like Ozolith, the Shattered Spire and Kami of Whispered Hopes, are a must for this deck, but, since War of the Spark, we've gotten the best possible addition to this deck: a place for those counters to go when Mowu is killed and put in the command zone takes a little nap: The Ozolith. Mithril Coat is also a great addition to this deck from the recent LOTR release, because our goal is to get him on the board and let him run wild and free all over our opponents' life totals; a flash protection tool, and one that sticks around, is very welcome. There are also very few decks that want Invigorating Surge and Ram Through more than this one.
Neheb, the Eternal
Patron saint of the mana burst, Neheb is an imposing commander to have staring at you from across the table. With his help, your creatures pave the way for bigger baddies after a beatdown, and your burn can lead to, well, bigger burn. Neheb is a fairly popular commander, so those who have kept updating him since he showed up probably know this, but for those who never built him or have your Neheb deck still stuck in 2017 like a cardboard time capsule, I have three words for you: Crackle with Power.
For my money, there's no better finisher in big-mana mono-red decks than Crackle. Of course, you may not have Crackle in your hand yet, and you may also not have a way to spend the mana that Neheb just pulled, painfully, from your opponents' life totals. That's why your deck should never leave home without a Leyline Tyrant to store that mana until you get your big X finishers. The Tyrant even comes with an option to use that stored-up mana when it dies; if an opponent tries to take it out before you have a critical mass of mana saved up, all of that mana can go right to their face in the form of beautiful direct damage.
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
It's been a minute since ONBO (as he's affectionately called by no one) first hit the scene. The better part of a decade, in fact. You often see him running around with a whole gang of Demons in tow, and we've gotten a bunch of excellent ones in black in recent years: Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire, Vilis, Broker of Blood, and Infernal Sovereign all come to mind, as does one of the more unique ways to win by an alternate means Wizards of the Coast has printed to date: Liliana's Contract.
What was once a creature type defined by being big and, well, kind of bad evolved over the years to playable big creatures and finally, now, above-rate monsters. They're ready to hang with the big kids at the table. If you're in for mono-black Demons, Ob might just be your guy. He also may be good for a mono-black lifegain/drain deck with his plus, with the excellent Revenge of Ravens now around to give him a little protection and further the goal of getting some sick gains.
Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter
Green has long been the color with the least artifact synergies; it just seemed to go against their whole "natural world" vibe. They still might be in fifth place in the MTG artifact race today, but the floor has been raised considerably (I'm looking at you, The Great Henge), especially thanks to The Brothers' War, which gave us a number of great artifacts for the aspiring green mage: Perennial Behemoth, Teething Wurmlet, and my vote for the most underrated uncommon of 2022, Sarinth Steelseeker.
The time is also right for an Oviya Construct typal deck. Scrapyard Recombiner, Containment Construct, and Cityscape Leveler are all excellent cards, and with Oviya at the helm you can also tap into green's ramp and fight spells to make your Constructs come down early and clear a path to victory once they arrive. Oh, and Urza's Saga is a thing now, too. Constructs are poised for something big; maybe it's time someone took Oviya and made them stars.
Pianna, Nomad Captain
Well. They can't all be winners, and at least Pianna, like Cabal Patriarch, had the decency to shift down to uncommon. This is a go-wide commander through and through, which is day one stuff when it comes to mono-white, and there are dozens, and honestly probably nearly a hundred, better choices to run the same anthem-stacking deck. If you do sleeve up Pianna, make sure to run Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, Myrel, Shield of Argive, and any of the other cards more worthy of accruing a commander tax just to remind you what you could have had.
I can't imagine you're running Pianna in the command zone unless you enjoy people looking at you wondering if you're on some random Nomad typal deck or some super-secret tech they haven't even heard of yet...are the 31 Pianna deckbuilders listed on EDHREC the Commander equivalent of hipsters? Actually, there you go: make a Nomad deck with lots of "wanderers" that can give Pianna a fun and flavorful reason to exist, and finally you can break out that foil Resilient Wanderer you've been holding on to just in case white madness ever became a thing.
Mastering... Patience
That's it for this time; tune in next go around when we'll cover the other fifteen first-time reprints in Commander Masters. Which of these sophomore outings has you itching to build? Tell me in the comments below.
