Retrospective Reviews: Commander 2015

Daxos, the Returned | Illustrated by Adam Paquette

Retrospective Reviews: Commander 2015

No time like the present to look at the past: it's time for Retrospective Reviews! In this installment, I'm continuing my deep dive into the early Commander preconstructed deck releases. Commander is an incredibly different animal these days, and the early products provide a wonderful way to examine those early years of the format. I'll be looking at the products with three critical lenses: how it plays out of the box, what it offers to collections, and what kind of impact it had on the format.

In previous installments, I noticed that 2013's decks were best viewed as a way to teach deckbuilding, while 2014 felt like a more complete package where the commander options could at least go in the same deck. With this framework in mind, let's dive into the 2015 edition!

Commander 2015 Overview

In the early days of Magic: the Gathering, the distinction between ally and enemy color pairs was held to a higher degree. Game design decided that enemy color decks needed less mana-fixing overall to represent this flavorful idea that the colors were actively discordant with each other. They eventually dislodged this notion, as it actively hampered gameplay, but the inequality persisted. When the year 2015 opened, there were nearly 1.75 ally-colored cards for every 1 enemy-color cards.

It seemed natural for a Commander set to swoop by and dole out some new, interesting options for enemy-color-pair enjoyers to pick up, but as with every product in this line, it wanted to experiment and do something new. A common concern at the time was making sure that players had some way to still impact the later turns of the game. The designers for Commander 2015 came up with an interesting solution: experience counters.

Experience counters were a two-part piece. Each commander had a condition that allowed you, the player, the gain an experience counter. The commanders could produce an effect which scaled with experience counters. By putting the counters on you directly, the experience counters could keep building and wouldn't all be removed alongside the commander. This allowed for players to avoid being blown out after a slow-building gameplan, but also made them harder to interact with.

With this in mind, let's dig into the decks themselves!

Call the Spirits

The first deck on the list is Call the Spirits, featuring Daxos the Returned, a commander that can produce Spirits that scale with the number of enchantments you've cast. This attempted to take Orzhov into a new direction, as while white had enchantment synergies for years, it was only Theros block that had given anything of note for a black enchantment deck.

The deck's back-up commander was Karlov of the Ghost Council, an absolute beater of a lifegain control Voltron. Not sure what Wizards of the Coast has about making a Commander precon that has lifegain as a theme with absolutely no overlap with the other competing theme of the deck, but here we are again, I guess.

Is there a coherent deck theme?

As mentioned, this deck has dual themes in enchantments and lifegain, and the numbers are... interesting. Daxos the Returned is incredibly well supported, with 52 nonland cards in the main deck working towards its intended goal, 32 of which could be solid picks to run. As for Karlov of the Ghost Council, there are only 10 nonland cards that actually go along with his primary plan... only 3 of which would probably go into any kind of final list.

This is the first time where I'll say the face commander has a cohesive enough deck but the back-up commander is more thrown in as an afterthought.

How desirable are the cards?

Value Cards:

Alright, there's a solid $81 in here (would have been more but Phyrexia: All Will Be One has done a number of Phyrexian Arena's price). Ignoring the commanders, there's 11 solid pieces here that have a good shot of juicing up a different deck.

High Utility, Low Price

Look, you just haven't lived until you've put Gift of Immortality onto a Burnished Hart and go fetch two lands every turn for the rest of the game. It was fun in Theros draft, and it's delightful in Commander. These cards definitely hit on that sweet budget-y option. Underworld Connections at 25 cents is probably far less desirable now that Phyrexian Arena is available for only $2, but you had to ask yourself three months ago when the latter card was $10 and up: is it genuinely 40 times better than its budget options?

The deck as a whole has about 26 cards (including our faithful standbys, Command Tower and Sol Ring) that, if you ever tear apart the preconstructed deck, can easily port in somewhere else.

What kind of legacy does it have?

I'm gonna level with you, reader, I bought this deck. I durdled with it through a dozen games, trying to tweak it with a meager budget but never got it going well. The main gameplan asks you to durdle and then put in a hefty, continual mana investment into Daxos. That was back in 2015, and I haven't really revisited ole Daxxy in the almost-decade and two enchantment sets since. Would love to know if there are any cool lists out there!

Karlov of the Ghost Council remains the 9th most popular Orzhov commander, and Daxos the Returned is all the way down at the 21st spot, right above his experience counter successor: Minthara, Merciless Soul. Those two probably have a lot of neat overlapping possibilities, although Minthara herself is more open-ended.

I'll say that this one was a muted effort, but that's not a bad thing. The face commander here really wanted to open up a new archetype, and that's a noble goal I think. It's important that the format have interesting commanders that hit at a lower power level.

Seize Control

The second deck, Seize Control, pivoted to a different card type mattering: instants and sorceries! Mizzix of the Izmagnus asks for a laddering of instant and sorcery mana values, slowly building up a cost reduction to help you sling spells. The back-up commander, Arjun, the Shifting Flame, pivots from spellslinger to a Mindmoil effect that lets you pop off card draw triggers.

Is there a coherent deck theme?

Once again, there is something of a split between themes, though thankfully nothing in this year is as divergent as Call the Spirits. The primary commander has 48 nonland cards that fit the theme, 31 of which pass muster (the 100 decks on EDHRec that run Lone Revenant are almost definitely just copy-pasted precons that the poster forgot to update). As for the Sphinx, Arjun, the Shifting Flame has about 33 nonland cards in the deck that you can squint at and go "sure, that fits" before cutting it down to 21 for good measure.

This deck relies on the fact that the secondary commander doesn't really have a restriction on what you should be doing to allow the two themes to be bridged together easily, but it's alright, just a little odd.

How desirable are the cards?

Value Cards:

This actually has the lowest "value" in terms of pricey cards, at $35. Some of these have been reprinted, but a quick look at the list reveals some number of oddball cards that are good in Mizzix but not really elsewhere. Repeal is cute, but only good in X-spells lists and... Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh cEDH lists? Huh.

High Utility, Low Price

Honestly, this is packed with premium low-mana-value instants: Brainstorm is in over 300,000 decks, and Faithless Looting is right over 200,000. Sure, Worn Powerstone is worse than Sol Ring, but that's a real good second place to be in. This is a solid starter pack that could juice up any Izzet player just beginning their Commander journey!

What kind of legacy does it have?

Picture this: it's 2015 and you want to make a spellslinger deck. Your options are Riku of Two Reflections, Talrand, Sky Summoner, Melek, Izzet Paragon, or... Toshiro Umezawa if you want to get really out there with it. These are all fine, but each of them are just slightly... off-base from what one might want. Then along comes Seize Control, and Izzet spellslinger decks took off like a rocket. Knowing Izzet, probably one held together with illegal parts.

These days, there are almost fifty spellslinger commanders. Despite this mass of options, Mizzix of the Izmagnus is still hanging in the number ten spot for Izzet commanders total, and that's pretty great! I think the deck's new cards hit a decent sweet spot of fun, but not everywhere. I wish that the back-up commander had been more relevant and less fiddly, but if we get a few more "Draw 2" archetype sets, it may get there!

Positive impact, even speaking as someone who got combo'd out by a Mizzix player twice in one night.

Plunder the Graves

With some of these deck sets, I have to go and see which commander of the bunch is the most played. It's fairly intuitive after years of playing, but there's occasionally a bit of back-and-forth. Not so with 2015, but that's getting ahead of myself. Plunder the Graves was a heavy graveyard deck, led by Meren of Clan Nel Toth with back-up commander Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest and reprint in Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord.

Let's jump into the decklist!

Is there a coherent deck theme?

Meren of Clan Nel Toth is all about creatures dying, while Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest just likes seeing things sacrificed. This is kind of a similar disparity between Prossh, Skyraider of Kher and Shattergang Brothers, funnily enough. In both cases, there is enough overlap that swapping back and forth allows the deck to run fairly well. Meren's reanimator theme is supported by 55 of the nonland cards (with 29 keepable for a first draft). Mazirek's less discriminating sacrifice theme wants 48 of the nonland cards (with 25 keepables).

It's a coherent theme! Just needs a little tweaking. There's a conversation to be had about which "made for a deck" commander has the highest difference in power level between their preconstructed deck and an intentionally tuned custom deck, and Meren is in that conversation for sure.

How desirable are the cards?

Value Cards:

Decent value here, middle of the pack overall, at around $61 at time of data collection. Almost a third of the value, however, are in the new commanders, with another third going to Pathbreaker Ibex (the not-so-budget-anymore Craterhoof Behemoth) and Eldrazi Monument. Even so, solid value.

High Utility, Low Price

Plenty of goodies that could easily slide into most Commander decks without a problem! Including our trusty Command Tower and Sol Ring, we have 28 cards that can go into a collection to be easily re-used in other decks should the need arise.

What kind of legacy does it have?

Meren stays on her grind at number 25 on EDHrec, number 3 in Golgari. Only Elves and Squirrels have beaten out this steadfast reanimator. I do think there's no argument here that Meren herself wound up too powerful and soured the experience. The repetitive gameplay and simple fact that she just straight-up invalidates most reanimator commander designs means she's a tough one to love. Mazirek hasn't done too poorly, staying close to the top 20. He's an odd one for a commander, as Treasure decks have led to him being twenty times as likely to go in the 99 than lead a deck these days. Fascinating!

I'll say this legacy is a mixed one, but ultimately foundational in shaping how commander decks would be designed in the future.

Wade into Battle

The Boros entry in 2015 set out for a tough goal: make a Boros Giants deck viable. The leader of it is Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas, a vigilant double-striker who gets bigger as you cast mana-value-five creatures. The back-up here is Anya, Merciless Angel, a big beater who gets better as opponents' life totals decrease. This is the back-up commander most evidently geared towards solving the "how can decks stick it out in the endgame" problem.

Is there a coherent deck theme?

Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas and Anya, Merciless Angel point you rigidly towards one goal: get in the red zone as fast as possible. Kalemne wants to do this with bigger creatures (50 nonland cards support this), while Anya just wants someone half-dead before she starts swinging (40 nonland cards go along with this plan), but there's a heavy overlap. For the record, Kalemne and Anya would both need some work; of the aforementioned themed cards, a real first draft of Kalemne would probably only use 23, while Anya could use 20 of the nonlands.

How desirable are the cards?

Value Cards:

Over half of the deck's valuable card value comes from just two: Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, at $12, and Urza's Incubator, at $21. Blade of Selves was just reprinted in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate and has dropped quite a bit! The amusing one here is Herald of the Host, which I presume hopped over the bulk line due to Giada, Font of Hope.

High Utility, Low Price

Thanks to the weird Giant theme, this deck had plenty of ramp that many other decks could make use of! Including the faithful stand-bys, the deck has a total of twenty-four solid cards that can slide into other decks (or trade binders). Not bad!

What kind of legacy does it have?

This deck wants to go for a Big Mana Value theme, and that's a hard sell in Boros in 2023, let alone back in 2015. I've played big creatures decks in the form of trust old Mayael the Anima, and I can safely say that green is the key reason that the deck works, between ramp and pay-offs for big creatures. Taking that away and forcing you to actually cast the creatures for value makes this commander so hard to really go for. I did some digging online and found most people tended to switch the commander to Brion Stoutarm if they kept the theme intact-- or just went all in on a normal Voltron strategy and ignored the dream of casting angels and dragons to make their giant bigger. This deck clearly had its heart in the right place, but it wasn't put to print with fully clear eyes. I think the decision here is "no impact".

Swell the Host

This is one of the precons that, upon being upgraded, made a regular showing in my playgroup. It made another member of my playgroup nervous because it had an infinite turns combo. One. Ah, 2015. This strange little weenies deck featured Ezuri, Claw of Progress, a commander who pushed towards a +1/+1 counter goal. The back-up commander, Kaseto, Orochi Archmage, pushes towards a slightly more political aggro strategy with a Snake sub-theme. How does that all play out? Let's look.

Is there a coherent deck theme?

First up, let's talk about the themes. Later preconstructed decks would work on honing down the themes by quite a bit, but these early ones were more generic. Ezuri, Claw of Progress would of course push towards +1/+1 counter strategies, but this deck uses it more like a weenie strategy that Ezuri occasionally buffs. Kaseto, Orochi Archmage, likewise, wants to go all-in on Snakes and interesting combat damage triggers, but has to be similarly pulled back. They get united under the name of helping valuable small creatures get into the red zone.

All that is to say that Ezuri, Claw of Progress comes with 46 nonland cards that fall in line with his "weenies and counters" operation, 26 of which could see inclusion in a final draft. Kaseto, Orochi Archmage fairs worse by eight cards in both categories, having 38 nonlands that go along with the political aggro/Snake goal, 18 of which could see play in a typical Commander night.

The primary takeaway here, for me, is that Kaseto was a more successful implementation of what the previously discussed Karlov of the Ghost Council, a commander that really cracks open a new archetype and wants its own deck. The difference is that Kaseto has enough synergy with the main deck to still lead it.

How desirable are the cards?

Value Cards:

Almost half of the value here is Arachnogenesis, since Spider Fog over here has never seen a reprint. The rest are those solid standby sort of value cards in the $3-5 range. Rapid Hybridization is one of the most played pieces of creature removal ever, and could be justifiably be played even in decks where you have access to black or white. The rest, save Eternal Witness, ask you to do a little more to get value, but not much.

High Utility, Low Price

Who doesn't love a Coiling Oracle? There's a really solid ramp-and-draw package here, the usual Simic bread and butter. It's good stuff! Literally! Combine it with the value pile and the deck has about 28 cards that can make a decent splash in any player's collection.

What kind of legacy does it have?

Ezuri, Claw of Progress is the ninth most played Simic commander as of April 2023, which is bonkers to me given all the #SimicValue we've been getting. There are a lot of neat, interesting decks that opened up under Ezuri. Kaseto, Orochi Archmage is the leader of Snake theme decks and has made it over 600, which is nothing to sneeze at. With Ezuri's ability being powerful but incredibly limited (once per turn, requiring a creature and decent set-up), I feel like this reasonably qualifies for best execution of experience counters!

Positive impact! Even if my friend used Simic Manipulator to steal all of my creatures. 🙁

Conclusion

Experience counters proved to be an interesting way to push the games to end, but they definitely come with downsides. As our friend Oloro, Ageless Ascetic had demonstrated, players hate when they can't interact with something. Planeswalker emblems demand a lot of work to deploy, and there are still some Magic players who pester Mark Rosewater for a way to remove them. Sure, experience counters require deckbuilding and play constraints (ignoring "creatures die" I guess), but Commander players jump through smaller hoops for less. All is not lost! Three more experience counter commanders have been printed in Kelsien, the Plague, Minthara, Merciless Soul, and Otharri, Suns' Glory, making a silly experience counter theme deck possible!

I love the flavor of experience counters, but I understand why Wizards of the Coast has been reticent to print too many more. It would be nice if there was a way to properly silo them off in the future, but I don't know if it'd be worth it. I do totally think we could get an ally cycle without accidentally tripping and enabling some crazy experience counter monster deck.

Overall, I love that Wizards continued experimenting this extensively and with such a worthy goal. I think the experience counter and similar veins of design space were worth digging up and looking at, and that the shot of enemy commanders was an excellent grab in the early years, when Commander was still heavily balanced in favor of ally color combinations. A solid set!

Join me next time when I take a peek at a real pandora's box in Commander 2016!

Daxos, the Returned | Illustrated by Adam Paquette

Retrospective Reviews: Commander 2015

Commander 2015 Overview

Call the Spirits

Is there a coherent deck theme?

How desirable are the cards?

Value Cards:

High Utility, Low Price

What kind of legacy does it have?

Seize Control

Is there a coherent deck theme?

How desirable are the cards?

Value Cards:

High Utility, Low Price

What kind of legacy does it have?

Plunder the Graves

Is there a coherent deck theme?

How desirable are the cards?

Value Cards:

High Utility, Low Price

What kind of legacy does it have?

Wade into Battle

Is there a coherent deck theme?

How desirable are the cards?

Value Cards:

High Utility, Low Price

What kind of legacy does it have?

Swell the Host

Is there a coherent deck theme?

How desirable are the cards?

Value Cards:

High Utility, Low Price

What kind of legacy does it have?

Conclusion

Ciel Collins

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