Retrospective Reviews: Commander 2016

Thrasios, Triton Hero by Josu Hernaiz

Retrospective Reviews: Commander 2016

No time like the present to look at the past: it's time for Retrospective Reviews. In this installment, we're pivoting away from the previous formula. Commander 2016 would be the last of the early Commander releases to feature a full set of five decks, but it would be the first to have a genuinely cohesive gameplan mapped out in the decklist, albeit one that leans towards a Good Stuff Value Town. After poring over the lists again and again, there are cards that are open-ended, but none of the decks have a cluster or package that is clearly designed to be a seed for a different commander deck entirely. There's no longer a need for the question "is there a cohesive gameplan?" in the second era of Commander decks.

"What do you mean second era?" I don't have room here to go into detail, so here's the quick blurb: 2011-2015 represented the first full era of preconstructed Commander decks, while 2016-2019 represented the second era. Era 1 is characterized by decks being composed of deckbuilding options, while Era 2 has more cohesive builds. One day, I might be able to articulate this train of thought in a full article, but not today! Let's get into the main product.

Commander 2016 Overview

Not to get ahead of myself, but Commander 2016 genuinely changed the game.

Longtime players of the format had been asking for a four-color commander, as that would be the only way to build four-color decks. The Chromatic Challenge, a deckbuilding exercise in which the person creates a deck for each color combination, had been around for a few years by that point but couldn't be completed until November of 2016. The hardest challenge of four-color was making a design that felt like it was supposed to be missing a color and wasn't simply a splashy five-color card with one color trimmed off. Commander 2016 promised to finally deliver.

Commander 2016 started the trend of having three brand-new commanders which could lead the deck in question, as opposed to one reprint. This was a necessity, as the decks liked to have three options but no four-color legendary creatures had been printed before. The difficulty of making a four-color commander compelled the design team to get creative. Instead of making three four-color commanders, they came up with the Partner mechanic, which allowed players to run two commanders and combine their color identity. All the Partners in Commander 2016 would be two-color, with five allied color Partners and ten many enemy color Partners. Having two enemy color options made sure the deck could have three distinct commander options to lead it. This was a neat way to also bolster the number of enemy color and wedge color commander options.

There are dozens of articles talking about the problems of Partner. I acknowledge those problems, but ultimately my position is: cool idea with misjudged rate (Backgrounds are superior).

Now, let's jump into the individual decks!

Entropic Uprising

Our first entry is the UBRG/Glint-Eye/Whiteless color set. Entropic Uprising would feature Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder as the face commander, a beatstick that gives your spells Cascade. The back-up options would be Vial Smasher the Fierce as the ally option, with Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix and... Thrasios, Triton Hero. Anyone feel a sudden chill?

What's the gameplan?

All signs point to BigSpells.deck! The face commander provides Cascade to any spell you cast from hand, which naturally goes best with bigger spells. Vial Smasher the Fierce specifically triggers off of the mana value, and his Simic Partners in crime either provide a mana sink or ramp to help push the game along.

There's a flavorful crack at a chaos theme, with wheels and weird cards, but it's an altogether value-oriented deck. There's the echoes of Grixis control bonded to a Sultai graveyard deck.

How desirable are the cards?

Value Cards:

The deck offered over $100 in value, thanks largely to two of the Partners, although that sneaky little Burgeoning and Waste Not help a fair deal.

High Utility, Low Price

As always, there's the Sol Ring and Command Tower to chuck in. In total, that makes 31 cards that can either slot into other decks with ease or help trade for cards of interest!

What kind of legacy does it have?

Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder has almost 5000 decks on EDHrec and may be hitting a new stride, as the last two years have seen quite a few cards that care about things being cast from exile! I'd love a renaissance for the old Ogre, with the decks actually being built around his chaotic blitzing.

Counting the number of decks for a given Partner is... tricky, for obvious reasons, but it's fairly evident that Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix didn't prove popular. None of her pair-ups break 600... and that's sad. Kyle Massa doesn't even use 600 as a baseline anymore!

Vial Smasher the Fierce would prove demonstrably powerful, with over 5000 decks from his top 3 Partner picks alone, but who could contend with...

This commander is practically synonymous with cEDH. He went where I could not follow. Thrasios's legacy cannot be understated. Gavin Verhey literally went into Commander Legends with the mindset "don't make another Thrasios". A titanic legacy, but a regrettable one.

Open Hostility

Our second entry is the WBRG/Dune-Brood/Nonblue deck, Open Hostility. By opposing the blue ideals of taking one's time and thinking things through, this deck pushes into pure aggro town! Saskia the Unyielding understands the value of having two hands: it means you can smash twice as many people! Tana, the Bloodsower wants to churn out Saprolings at light-speed. The enemy-colored duo includes the anthem man himself, Ravos, Soultender and... Tymna the Weaver.

What's the deck theme?

As opposed to the nebulous "chaos" from the first deck, this one is straightforward: combat, baby. Use a bunch of mana dorks to accelerate and fix mana, get a big board up, then drop Saskia to really hurt everyone. There's even a nifty Sunforger package included to make combat exceptionally difficult! There aren't many high-mana-value plays here, but they're all impactful enough to close things out.

How desirable are the cards?

Value Cards:

I'll take this moment to note how good the mana-fixing was in these decks. Commander preconstructed decks have been notorious for having far too many taplands once they go above two colors. The decks here had checklands! Sweet picks.

Value-packed deck, with $140 spread across these 19 cards. A lot of that is concentrated in the four commanders (about $55), especially Tymna ($36), for obvious reasons. Iroas is a beating in any aggro deck and deserves the $15 price tag, even after multiple reprints. Stonehoof Chieftain and Lightning Greaves are the only other pieces at the $10+ range, notably with a very different level of reprints.

High Utility, Low Price

I honestly think the Sunforger package in this deck is genius, because it really ramps up the aggression and provides weird card advantage for this strange deck. It also lent itself to including a lot of cards that are solidly useful in a lot of situations. You could certainly argue against Grave Upheaval as an inclusion, but that Landcycling is important for 3+ color decks, and the effect is still solid at six mana for plenty of Commander pods.

This deck, with Sol Ring and Command Tower, has a stunning 39 cards that can easily go in the trade binder or other decks. I bought this deck on release day and, after beating down for a few months, tore it apart. Most of these cards are currently sleeved up across my various decks, ready to deliver some serious aggression.

What kind of legacy does it have?

I'm trying to remain objective here, but Saskia the Unyielding has such a good aim in trying to make low-to-the-ground aggro viable in the 40-life Commander format, and she's got a penchant for leading off the Wall-themed decks, especially the various creature themes, be it Human, Phyrexian, Angel, or Werewolf. She'll tell all of them to punch twice as hard, which ain't bad.

The blind cleric in the room is Tymna the Weaver. She gets less flak than her fishy friend, but she's also able to chart-top without him: Tymna and Kraum, Ludevic's Opus have been the reigning champs at cEDH tables. I certainly think her ability is... fairer than Thrasios, who just wants an infinite-mana combo to pop off.

She unfortunately muddies the water of an otherwise fascinating deck. Another massive legacy riddled with caveats.

Stalwart Unity

For the third entry, we have the WURG/Ink-Treader/Nonblack deck, Stalwart Unity! This deck seeks to make itself distinct by focusing on the opposite of black's sacrificial selfishness: group hug! Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis draw you a card and give you a land drop, then let your opponents choose one of those for themselves. This is a neat trick, and it even lets these gay kings lead a Landfall theme fairly well.

If they don't do the trick, then Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa is here to help direct aggression at opponents by using a paragraph of text to essentially give small creatures attacking not-you pseudo-flying! Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist and Kraum, Ludevic's Opus both do neat tricks to give you card draw in a way that pushes benefits to your opponents (but more for you). Kraum would outstrip his creator in popularity and get the designers to consider how they went about actually making cards for beloved characters, an interesting touchstone!

What's the deck theme?

Group hug has a core idea of giving your opponents resources and trying to push them to use those resources on each other instead of you. It has difficulty closing out a game by itself and intentionally durdles. This certainly runs that way. It has three Propaganda effects, not counting Blazing Archon. I've heard of a pod with three of these, and the game is presumably going to this day.

I once used Keening Stone in this as a wincon after getting everyone to draw a bunch with Minds Aglow. The theme is there, but I'm not sure it was a great one for beginners.

How desirable are the cards?

Value Cards:

Another big money deck, with $129 packed in after all this time. The face commander is the only of its commanders to go over $10, though I'd expect Kraum, Ludevic's Opus to break through in due time. The primary value drivers are in Homeward Path, Swan Song, and... Benefactor's Draught, a card I keep forgetting about because it's so weird and under-reprinted.

High Utility, Low Price

I remember a few of these being more in the value category, but they were reprinted enough times in the intervening years to drop, which is a great thing for the players!

Including our faithful standbys, we have a stunning 37 cards that can really up the ante on a new player's collection in one way or another.

What kind of legacy does it have?

I'm not going to ignore that this was the first obviously gay couple depicted on a Magic card, because that's a factor that can't be ignored. It means a lot, in so many different ways.

Kraum, Ludevic's Opus is a staple in cEDH, but I don't see much of him at casual tables. He hits that rare sweet spot where he's only as busted as the pod that he's in? Fascinating.

I think Stalwart Unity managed to squeeze a pleasant legacy out of this complicated set. I can't bring myself to be angry with it.

Breed Lethality

If I were going purely for dramatic effect, I might have saved this one for last, but alas, WUBRG order it is! The WURG/Witch-Maw/Redless deck features the number one commander of all time: Atraxa, Praetors' Voice. Atraxa's Proliferate plan is incredibly open-ended, but the deck itself honed in on +1/+1 counters as a way to provide a fairly singular, straightforward, beginner-friendly strategy.

To this end, it has the flying Managorger Hydra in Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker as the ally-colored option. As for the green-black Partners, there's Reyhan, Last of the Abzan, who saves counters, and Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper, who synchronizes with the big beaters by giving them... toughness lifelink?

What's the deck theme?

This deck pulled most of the Abzan +1/+1 counters cards from Khans of Tarkir block (e.g., Abzan Falconer) and the Simic +1/+1 counters cards from Return to Ravnica block (e.g., Vorel of the Hull Clade) and smashed them into a delightful pile of weird creatures that grow out of hand fast.

I'll note here that there may not be a greater disparity in power level between the precon decklist and what ended up going out than Atraxa, Praetors' Voice. Building up +1/+1 counters was a perfect theme for a preconstructed deck, but as I alluded to earlier, Proliferate can do far more. Superfriends and poison themes are much more popular versions of the Phyrexian Angel in question.

How desirable are the cards?

Value Cards:

So, of special note is that Atraxa, Praetors' Voice was just reprinted in March of the Machine, which caused her to drop drastically (cut by over $20). This dropped the collective deck value to $80, making this the first of the list to be below $100 in value.

Atraxa's reprint shouldn't have been the deciding factor, it was the deck itself. The +1/+1 counter theme doesn't have a fleet of cards which can command a high price tag, and most of the pricier options would actually come out long after 2016.

High Utility, Low Price

Farewell is a messed up card, but Merciless Eviction still feels like it has a place in the format. Corpsejack Menace and Bred for the Hunt end up just on the other side of the line: really good cards, but only with decks dedicated to the counter theme. All the same, we have 25 solid picks for a collection, not to mention a clutch of cards that are still great if you do what I did and try to just cut one color but still stick with the theme.

What kind of legacy does it have?

Atraxa, Praetors' Voice is a card that I could spend a whole article on in terms of impact. She slices, she dices, she makes her player a target in seconds. The canyon between Atraxa's Charge Counters and Hyper Infect Go is vast, and this is a frustrating part of her experience.

She's the number one commander, and that's a mixed legacy, but I think she's a net positive.

Invent Superiority

At last we come to the WUBR/Yore-Tiller/Greenless deck. In its struggle against the natural green, this deck went towards artifacts. The face commander is Breya, Etherium Shaper, an Esper artificer who picked up the color red and the ability to combo with a stiff breeze.

Still in line with the artifact theme is Silas Renn, Seeker Adept (who can regrow artifacts), especially paired with Akiri, Line-Slinger, a beatstick who makes you recount all your tokens and lands to check how big she is. Slight pivot in Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder, a Voltron-oriented beater with an impressive physique.

What's the deck theme?

There are only nine nonland cards in the entire deck that don't directly synergize with artifacts in some way, and even some of those are still in line with the deck's gameplan. Play artifacts, grind out value, beat someone with Golems, and then win somehow. The deck sneezes out wincons, a harsh contrast to poor Stalwart Unity.

How desirable are the cards?

Value Cards:

Basically all of these are incredibly solid cards with high utility somewhere, and then Curse of Vengeance just hasn't ever been reprinted. None of the Partners are exceptionally sought-after. Due to the lack of a solid Good Stuff package and those enjoyed-but-not-beloved commanders, this ranks the lowest in value, at a mere $63 at time of writing.

High Utility, Low Price

There's something interesting about the dip in viable "collector builders" with this and Breed Lethality. The theme may have been just narrow enough that widely used cards didn't make the cut as easy. Artifact decks aren't a dime-a-dozen; try a dime-a-gross, so none of the deck would go to waste. For a general collection, you're really only looking at 30 cards here that can be used for other decks.

What kind of legacy does it have?

Breya, Etherium Shaper is the queen of her domain, at 10,000 decks, four times that of the second place, Tymna/Kraum's 2500. She's not the most powerful artifact commander (thank goodness), but she's the one that lets you play all of your Esper cards with your various red artifact cards, and that's awesome. None of her Partners are ridiculous, either! So that's a solid plus for me.

The Legacy of Commander 2016

The first of the Era 2 decks really represents a slow pivot: their themes are in place, but they're incredibly broad. This overly open-endedness is contentious; it means you can pick up most of these four-color commanders and do a lot of different themes. Unfortunately, the more powerful ones end up with such a reputation that trying a kind of janky Angel theme with Atraxa, Praetors' Voice usually ends with you getting shot out of the pod before you can start. This gap between what the precon is and what the possible decklist can do would close over time, as the designers got a better grasp of what they were trying to do. If there are to be any future four-color decks, I'd hope they lean towards much more specific and focused archetypes.

The Partners shine a poor light on this year's release, unfortunately, and one that won't dim anytime soon. I think Commander Legends proved that the Partner mechanic has a fun potential and that 2016 merely missed the mark (by a lot). I admit that I dig it because I'm a completionist, and I like that I can do a full Chromatic Challenge. There's always a bright side!

Join me next time as I bring up a similarly controversial release: Commander 2017... and the Eminence mechanic!

Thrasios, Triton Hero by Josu Hernaiz

Retrospective Reviews: Commander 2016

Commander 2016 Overview

Entropic Uprising

What's the gameplan?

How desirable are the cards?

Value Cards:

High Utility, Low Price

What kind of legacy does it have?

Open Hostility

What's the deck theme?

How desirable are the cards?

Value Cards:

High Utility, Low Price

What kind of legacy does it have?

Stalwart Unity

What's the deck theme?

How desirable are the cards?

Value Cards:

High Utility, Low Price

What kind of legacy does it have?

Breed Lethality

What's the deck theme?

How desirable are the cards?

Value Cards:

High Utility, Low Price

What kind of legacy does it have?

Invent Superiority

What's the deck theme?

How desirable are the cards?

Value Cards:

High Utility, Low Price

What kind of legacy does it have?

The Legacy of Commander 2016

Ciel Collins

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