Retrospective Reviews: Commander 2011
Kaalia of the Vast | Illustrated by Michael Komarck
Retrospective Reviews: Commander 2011
I love Commander Preconstructed Decks. Ever since unboxing 2013's Nature of the Beast at my bachelor party and getting some games in (this tells you everything you need to know about me), I became hooked on Commander forever. Every year, I would eagerly await the announcement of the next wave of precons and pore over the decklists and new cards. To this day, my favorite part of the Magic experience is unboxing a precon and playing it unaltered.
Over the years, I've seen the precons change and evolve. The first Commander release was not intended to be the beginning of an annual product; it was in the "Summer of Multiplayer" slot. What started as five decks shifted to the biodome-oriented set of four. The biggest shift would occur in 2020, when the deck releases would become tied to a plane. This shift represented the start of a new era! So I want to take the time to examine the 2011-2019 line and see what it reveals about design and the growth of the format.
I hope, at the end of this series, we'll all have a better idea of what makes a good Commander precon and how this format's humble beginnings were guided by Wizards of the Coast. With this lengthy introduction of the series out of the way, let's begin with Commander (2011)!
Commander 2011 Overview
The Commander line of products debuted in June 2011 at $29.95 MSRP. These first five products came out with a wedge color theme, as the designers knew that wedge options were incredibly limited at the time (the decks tripled the options by adding two new commanders in those color combinations).
This release's two notable shared cards would be Sol Ring ($5 at release) and Command Tower ($1 at release). Sol Ring is a unique pillar of the format, whose mention can kick off endless discussion. It being included in each deck arguable cemented it in the format. Funnily enough, Trade Secrets is the only card to have been printed in a precon to later be banned.
So, it's halfway through 2011. Zach Galifinakis is having a second hangover, and LMFAO is about to apologize for party rocking; what decks are on the shelves for this kooky new format you just heard about at the LGS?
Heavenly Inferno
Heavenly Inferno, you fascinating source of an eternal boogeyman. The leading options were Kaalia of the Vast, who needs no introduction, Tariel, Reckoner of Souls (a weird massive angel that reanimated a random creature from your opponent), and Oros, the Avenger... who sure is a card. Let's put the deck through our ringer of questions.
Is there a coherent deck theme?
There are a swath of Angels, Demons, and Dragons for Kaalia of the Vast, and there are a lot of mass removal obviously designed to be asymmetrical thanks to you controlling large fliers. I think this gameplan can be supported by both Tariel, Reckoner of Souls and Oros, the Avenger. Even so, there's a set of lifegain cards in the deck that distract from the real goal, and there are some odd quirks that distract from the real goals.
Overall? Muddied.
How many of the cards help the theme?
The gameplan here is control the board until you can cheat in or play large threats. Of the 62 nonland cards, I would say there are 8 cards that do nothing for the main plan. Of the remaining 54 nonland cards, there are 25 total cuts that I would make to get the engine really revving, mostly considering efficiency or impact. Why would I pay four mana for Kaalia to cheat in Dragon Whelp!
Only 29 nonland cards in the deck can be considered part of the gameplan.
...I also think this deck is weird because there are two Demons with a "blow everything up if this is cast" clause... in the "cheat Demons into play" deck.
How desirable are the cards?
As a whole, Heavenly Inferno's singles can be picked up for about $80, the bulk of its value currently held in the face commander herself and five others. Let's look!
Value Cards
1. Pyrohemia
2. Stranglehold
3. Anger
4. Lightning Greaves
5. Dread Cacodemon
Only two of these are useful in enough decks to be considered solid for a collection: Anger and Lightning Greaves.
The other three are supply issues. They require a certain kind of deck or meta to be worth it.
High Utility, Low Price:
- Mother of Runes
- Duergar Hedge-Mage
- Angel of Despair
- Path to Exile
- Terminate
- Mortify
- Return to Dust
- Akroma's Vengeance
- Armillary Sphere
- Boros Signet
- Orzhov Signet
- Rakdos Signet
- Rakdos Carnarium
- Orzhov Basilica
- Bojuka Bog
Including Sol Ring and Command Tower, there are 19 cards in the deck that, should I tear it apart, would be easy or worth it to keep and use elsewhere.
What kind of legacy does it have?
Kaalia of the Vast is that girl. She pulls in Timmies and Tammies with her promises of the three most popular iconic creature types while bringing Spikes of the world over by whispering about the value of a one-hit K.O. thanks to Master of Cruelties. She's a lightning rod that maintains the #3 spot on Mardu Commanders even after over a decade. Kaalia is beloved enough to make up for the rest of the deck's lack of relevance.
I think the format is better off with her in it.
Mirror Mastery
A pod with a Riku of Two Reflections is a pod that's going to end with 14,000 Golems falling on the other three. Animar, Soul of Elements is no joke either, one of the early commanders that could go as silly as AniMorphs or as hard as free Eldrazi. Riku's deck would be the one to double the number of boogeymen per release. Intet is one of the better wedge Dragons, but she just doesn't hold a candle to either of the newly printed commanders!
Let's see how the deck stacks up!
Is there a coherent deck theme?
Our first disconnect! Riku wants to cast instants, sorceries, and creatures. Animar only wants creatures. According to EDHREC, the average Animar deck has 42 creatures, while Riku averages at 25. The deck's focus is on ramping and getting down big beaters. I think it has packages that simulate those but don't quite hit.
This one is semi-coherent.
How many of the cards help the theme?
This is a deck that wants some big spells, but Riku of Two Reflections really shines when he doubles three- and four-mana-value spells until laying down a doubled-up heater. This deck has over twenty spells at the six-mana-value spot or higher. Of course, those big creatures are good for Animar, but therein lies the disconnect between the commanders.
This deck, more than the others, needs an inordinate amount of mana. Its package of Cyclers are okay, the planeswalker (hi, Garruk Wildspeaker!) and mana rocks are fine, but the creature/spell ramp package in the creature/spell deck is sorely lacking.
At a glance, I'm easily cutting 33 of the deck's 58 nonland cards. If I dug deeper, it'd probably be more. Chartooth Cougar is in 563 decks on EDHREC, and that's 564 decks too many.
Only 25 nonland cards in the list push forward the gameplan at an acceptable pace. Yikes.
How desirable are the cards?
The deck's singles could be picked up for $90, but where does that come from?
Value Cards
- Riku of Two Reflections
- Magus of the Vineyard
- Animar, Soul of Elements
- Edric, Spymaster of Trest
- Hydra Omnivore
- Trench Gorger
- Garruk Wildspeaker
- Collective Voyage
- Ruination
- Lightning Greaves
- Homeward Path($17!?)
Ignoring the commanders, I'd say four of these could find a home with ease. Lightning Greaves and Homeward Path have the advantage of being colorless, of course, while being widely applicable. Garruk Wildspeaker and Collective Voyage aren't typical ramp, but they're useful. The rest are asking me to make some specific choices by including them.
High Utility, Low Price:
- Veteran Explorer
- Brainstorm
- Hull Breach
- Cultivate
- Kodama's Reach
- Explosive Vegetation
- Armillary Sphere
- Gruul Signet
- Izzet Signet
- Simic Signet
I'll never say no to Cultivate, its twin, or its older brother. I've kept those in my Mayael the Anima deck for a decade.
The deck has 16 noncommander cards I'd easily slot into another deck. Meh!
What kind of legacy does it have?
Animar and Riku are the second and fifth most popular Temur commanders, respectively, only knocked down by Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm. Riku, for his part, cast Double Major and Galvanic Iteration eleven years before those spells were printed! Copying creatures and spells has become a frequent deckbuilding reward, thanks to Riku.
They both carried hefty double-digit price tags until they, like Kaalia, saw reprints across Double Masters. More like Commander 2011 Masters, am I right?
Even Edric, Spymaster of Trest has a solid history as a surprisingly powerful commander.
They have their negatives, but I feel like their positives outweighs them by a wide margin!
Giving Animar protection from white and black was messed up, though.
Counterpunch
Abzan counters, the gift that keeps giving, and sacrificing, and giving again. Ghave, Guru of Spores would become the kind of commander that goes infinite with just about any 99, while Karador, Ghost Chieftain is a rock solid graveyard player. Teneb, the Harvester isn't a bad pick either, speaking as someone who ran Teneb.
In Abzan, tokens, counters, sacrifice, and graveyard are four themes that blend together so thoroughly that it's hard to tell where one ends and the other rears up thanks to the high level of synergy and crossover. It all started here, in this deck!
Is there a coherent deck theme?
I just talked about how Abzan's theme tends to be a little soupy, and that's evident here. There are creatures that leave behind tokens when they die, there are creatures that put out counters. Putting counters on tokens is naturally synergistic, and removing counters from a creature you plan to sacrifice feels like cheating.
Ghave, Guru of Spores strings all those together handily, and Karador, Ghost Chieftain goes for the same kind of grindy gameplay. There is the same Animar-Riku disconnect, where Ghave takes in all kinds of spells while Karador really prefers creatures, but I think it's better handled here.
This deck is a little chaotic, but it's coherent.
How many of the cards support the theme?
Out of the 60 nonland/noncommander cards, 51 of them work towards the central theme of counters blended with aristocrats. I also find that some of the inclusions are a bit more forgivable overall, but I'm still throwing out another 17 cards. 34 helpful cards out of 60 is the best score so far but far from where we want to be.
How desirable are the cards?
Alright, so this is the first deck where none of the commanders count as value. Seeing as Ghave was once a respectable $7 and Karador commanded over $20 for a time, this is bonkers to me, but time marches on! Plus, Double Masters 2022 has marched plenty of prices down a cliff! This deck's singles add up to about $70, but price isn't everything!
So which cards in the deck do hold a premium?
High Value Cards
1. Alliance of Arms
2. Skullclamp
3. Lightning Greaves
4. Acorn Catapult
5. Attrition
6. Aura Shards
Aside from the Squirrel card in the middle there, all of these go into most creature decks. Five solid pick-ups!
...They really wanted new players to have Lightning Greaves.
Low Value, High Utility Cards
This deck's theme is fairly locked in on creatures and counters, but those are universally beloved themes. This deck also gave us two cards that would later be reprinted into Standard and become major players in their time.
Hornet Queen doesn't verge on staple these days, but a mono-green or a non-Dragon Gruul deck would always get good mileage out of this excellent anti-flyer piece.
1. Sakura-Tribe Elder
2. Scavenging Ooze
3. Hornet Queen
4. Yavimaya Elder
5. Shriekmaw
6. Cultivate
7. Mortify
8. Harmonize
9. Golgari Signet
10. Orzhov Signet
11. Selesnya Signet
12. Awakening Zone
13. Oblivion Ring
So, including Command Tower and Sol Ring, the desirable card count pumps up to... 19. It's not in... great standing.
What kind of legacy does it have?
Abzan counters and aristocrats are supreme archetypes, and Ghave, Guru of Spores and Karador, Ghost Chieftain absolutely pioneered that, remaining at the 3rd and 4th spot for Abzan, respectively. Abzan's identity has been slowly shifted more and more towards the graveyard, with counters themes being siloed into GX color pairs (although a certain Phyrexian Angel Horror remains the expanded exception...), but Ghave gives players a reason to slam Corpsejack Menace, Conclave Mentor, and Felisa, Fang of Silverquill all in one deck, and that's beautiful.
Fittingly for the grindy Abzan deck, these commanders have had a muted but steady impact on the format. They're not the big conversation-starters, but they certainly have their place.
Political Puppets
This deck, more than the others, really leaned into the "this is a multiplayer game" aspect. Zedruu the Greathearted rewarded you for giving away permanents, which turned out to be an excuse to dump off downside cards, but also allowed a player to pull a struggling opponent into the game and encourage them to fight the others! Ruhan of the Fomori enters the game as a zany Voltron that lets you be free and clear of blame: I didn't attack you! He did! Numot, the Devastator brings land destruction, an unpopular strategy, but a fine Dragon overall.
Is there a coherent deck theme?
There are Walls, there are cards that let you give opponents some resources, and there are cards that let you steal most of those resources to snag the win. It's the original Group Hug, and this blueprint has been improved but the spirit is still there. I'm surprised, but this one is coherent.
How many of the cards support the theme?
Nothing in the list contradicts the theme outright, but there are definitely cards in need of replacing (like the banned Trade Secrets). Without digging too deep into specific builds of Zedruu, I know 20 cards in this are just below rate and need cut.
That leaves 45 out of the 65 nonland, non-commander cards as good, theme-supporting picks. The Vows actually make sense to play here!
How desirable are the cards?
This deck has some oddball value cards, no surprise! The singles add up to $155 as of writing.
High Value!
Insurrection is the premiere red "end the game now" button. Champion's Helm, Lightning Greaves, and Propaganda are the other three cards I'd actually consider worth adding to a collection. The other high prices look like supply issues.
Low Value, High Utility
- Wall of Omens
- Windborn Muse
- Brainstorm
- Chaos Warp
- Spell Crumple
- Wild Ricochet
- Austere Command
- Armillary Sphere
- Fellwar Stone
- Howling Mine
- Darksteel Ingot
- Dreamstone Hedron
- Ghostly Prison
- Martyr's Bond
Including Command Tower and Sol Ring, this deck has 20 cards worth slotting into other decks.
What kind of legacy does it have?
Zedruu remains the 5th most popular Jeskai commander, and its chaotic, early version of group huge would pave the way for future commanders to iterate on the formula of giving away resources and finding ways to break parity.
Even if it's not my cup of tea, I absolutely respect the sideways method of attacking a multiplayer format. Solid legacy.
Devour for Power
Nearly nine years before Mutate would come into Magic and find all kinds of weird ways to combine creature, The Mimeoplasm came to play. Backed up by the strange, cruel Damia, Sage of Stone and absolute beatstick of Vorosh, the Hunter, this precon came to tear up libraries and recycle the scraps!
Is there a coherent deck theme?
The Mimeoplasm very clearly drives this deck's theming, as Damia, Sage of Stone doesn't point towards a theme beyond efficiency. Almost every card in the deck is either a creature that Mimeoplasm wants to copy or a spell that helps you get creatures in a graveyard. (Drawing cards means you'll put them in the graveyard eventually!)
Coherent, but points off for Damia.
How many of the cards support the theme?
There are eight cards in the deck that do little enough for the deck that I'd cut them without much thought, and sixteen that I'd cut for power level reasons. That leaves 35 nonland cards as a solid starting point for the deck, which isn't bad for 2011.
How desirable are the cards?
This deck's singles are valued at $106, and it has the highest number of high value cards from the year's releases. I personally prefer when a decklist has a wider spread of value (like here) than it being concentrated in just a couple of cards.
High Value
- Eternal Witness
- Riddlekeeper
- Dreamborn Muse
- Damia, Sage of Stone
- Avatar of Woe
- Minds Aglow
- Stitch Together
- Buried Alive
- Windfall
- Living Death
- Lightning Greaves
- Memory Erosion
- Grave Pact
Okay, I questioned my intuition on what counted as a staple most here. Stitch Together is a card I enjoy but had doubts on. A quick check-in on EDHREC revealed it didn't quite crack the top 100 black cards, but it is in the top 50 black sorcery cards.
Eight solid inclusions here that could easily go in other decks.
Low Value, High Utility
- Fleshbag Marauder
- Solemn Simulacrum
- Wonder
- Mulldrifter
- Sign in Blood
- Cultivate
- Fact or Fiction
- Dimir Signet
- Golgari Signet
- Simic Signet
Including Command Tower and Sol Ring, we have 20 cards that can be used elsewhere, tying it with Political Puppets for first place in that category!
What kind of legacy does it have?
The Mimeoplasm is one of those commanders that just seems genuinely fun, even now. It's not an obscene powerhouse, but it provides those big, weird moments that make Commander a great format. It holds its own in the 8th spot among Sultai commanders, which is high praise for such a value-oriented color combination. I think it allows for some unique Sultai strategies that aren't pure graveyard value like Muldrotha, the Gravetide.
Damia, Sage of Stone remains interesting as a super-high-mana-value commander, but her play pattern of rewarding efficient cards seems less beneficial to the format. She's lower on the list, at 14, but I think she's a net positive.
I do have to mention Skullbriar, the Walking Grave, still in the top 10 Golgari commanders, and such a unique Voltron commander that managed to get new tech with Ikoria's keyword counters! Amazing that such an old commander could get new life breathed into it so long after its first printing but very in the spirit of a walking grave, I suppose. Positive force in the format.
Conclusion
2011's Commander Precons feel like two and a half limited decks stapled together and headed by an absurdly powerful commander. Their very existence would lead tens of thousands into the format, but the product would need some serious tuning up.
I still cherish these weird little first outings and picks that were obviously the designers' pet cards. They're a delightful snapshot of when Commander was still in its infancy, well before things like pub-stomping and tutor discourse.
Join me next time as I dig into my entry into the format: Commander 2013!
