Retrospective Reviews: Commander 2018

There's no time like the present to dig up the past: it's time for another Retrospective Review! This week's article is about Commander 2018. By this point, the Commander product line had fallen into a solid groove, and most major experimenting had concluded. There's no major mechanical upheaval that happens here... except for pricing. Commander 2018 would bump up to a new MSRP: $39.99. There was controversy over this, as the price had stayed at $34.99 since Commander 2014, and many players felt like the product compared unfavorably to years past.

But is that true?

Let's dig in and find out!

Commander 2018 Overview

Commander 2018 was during an upswing in my life where I was stable enough to buy the full set. I still have three of them intact! I've played them on and off, slowly tweaking and retooling them with the face commanders still leading the charge.

They continued the biodome approach, where each deck had a few cards clearly there for the purposes of interacting with the other decks (hi, Enchanter's Bane!). The more important note is the idea of a shared theme: being themed around a permanent type... mostly! Additionally, these decks represent the second round of having planeswalkers as the face commanders.

With no major shift in the formula or experimental new mechanic, there's not much else to talk about here, so let's jump into the decks!

Exquisite Invention

The first deck would choose artifacts as the theme! This little ditty, an Izzet piece, would be the only two-color deck of the lot, and the face commander was Saheeli, the Gifted. Saheeli's main function here would be making Thopters or giving one spell Affinity for artifacts, making her exceptionally powerful (and the only planeswalker banned in Oathbreaker). I personally think that the deck was intentionally set to two colors to both align with the popular new character, Saheeli Rai, and to make sure it felt meaningfully different from the four-color artifact deck from Commander 2016.

There were two back-up commanders here: Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer and Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice. Brudiclad would prove incredibly popular, though this strange commander aligns itself more with a "weird tokens" strategy than artifacts. Tawnos did actually align more closely with the artifact theme but... not to great success. Copying artifact abilities still doesn't seem too popular? Strange!

What did the deck do for the theme?

It's hard to envision it now, but red wasn't always an artifact-adjacent color. It was good at smashing artifacts, sure, but red didn't do too well at putting them back together. Esper was the artifact color combination!

Then Magic Origins came out and introduced us to Kaladesh in the Izzet Thopters archetype. Kaladesh proper came along and brought with it more and more red-based artifact goodies! However, Saheeli Rai took the spot for an Izzet character, and no commander was granted for the combination. This deck finally took care of that!

How desirable are the cards?

Value Cards:

The deck has solid value (about $60 total), thanks mostly to Retrofitter Foundry ($17), for seeing play in eternal competitive formats, and Treasure Nabber ($11), for its role in a mana-rock-heavy format. There are a few $5 cards here and there, though they'd likely crater with a reprint. This is the artifact deck, so most of these cards are geared towards that, but there's still plenty of general utility.

High Utility, Low Price

Yeah, Etherium Sculptor is only in artifact decks, but that's the most popular theme on EDHrec. If you get bored with Saheeli, you won't be short of options to pivot to and keep this creature sleeved up. The rest are ramp, card draw, removal, and Echo Storm. Echo Storm is slept on, y'all, but its recent reprint may convince more of its power. Put that in more decks.

In total, thirty cards worth keeping around if the deck doesn't work out. Not bad!

What kind of legacy does it have?

Saheeli, the Gifted sits at 1600 decks now, while Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer has rocketed to 4000. I'd argue that Brudiclad kick-started the interest in what would become the Weird Tokens archetype. The deck's face commander proved no match for Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain, but she's still great fun. As for Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice, well, Gavin Verhey once used him as an example in why they only do two new commanders for decks these days. Ouch!

The deck itself strayed towards being a little too safe, and I'd actually argue that while Brudiclad was good for the game, he was wrong for this deck (it needed another strong design centering an artifact strategy).

There's no doubt the deck has its fans, but there isn't a strong legacy here.

Nature's Vengeance

The Jund deck in the biodome would go for lands as a theme. Its face commander would be Lord Windgrace, a beloved character from the past. He lets you discard lands for value, can reanimate two lands at a time, and his ultimate is explosive. What's not to love?

Well, the deck itself.

While rummaging through this list, there is an interesting backdrop to the discussion. A "lands" deck has had a specific meaning to many players, and while it can overlap with themes like Landfall or ramp, it is different. For most players, a "lands" deck is about recurring value lands from the graveyard and doing some degree of combo-y shenanigans. This was a ramp deck. The muddled expectations made for a rocky reception on release.

The other commanders leading this deck were Gyrus, Waker of Corpses and Thantis, the Warweaver. Gyrus used the Marath, Will of the Wild mechanic to convert all mana spent (even commander tax!) into +1/+1 counters, then use its power to temporarily reanimate a creature. Thantis was a forced combat commander, a factor I'll talk about later.

Let's get into the deck itself!

What did the deck do for the theme?

Well, I'll be honest: not a lot. Lord Windgrace did all the work himself. Your average deck with the commander will share very few cards from the precon. Crash of Rhino Beetles is cute, but it's not really what a lands or ramp deck wants to do. There are odd choices in terms of reprints (Moonlight Bargain feeling weirdly egregious), and the land base is sorely lacking.

Even the new cards you could say embody the theme properly, Nesting Dragon and Turntimber Sower, just miss the mark. The first is a good card but betterp-suited in different decks, whereas the second is... okay. Poor Turntimber Sower isn't even in 20% of Lord Windgrace decks.

How desirable are the cards?

Value Cards:

Xantcha used to be ten bucks, but a single printing on The List dropped her to ten, and she would have been the most expensive card from the deck at the time. Now the honor goes to Nesting Dragon, who sees play in Dragon decks and Atla Palani, Nest Tender, who I'll get around to next time! The total value here is about $40, which puts it near the bottom ranking. Poor showing.

High Utility, Low Price

I might be over-rating Windgrace's Judgment, but I liked that card, dang it. The deck naturally has a lot of useful ramp cards and Landfall value, which has high usefulness outside of the deck. Including our faithful Sol Ring and Command Tower, that's 31 cards for the trade binder or other decks!

What kind of legacy does it have?

Due to the miscommunication about the deck's actual theme, Wizards of the Coast learned a valuable lesson about messaging. There were also lessons learned about what kinds of cards ought to be in these precons, as well as the purpose of back-up commanders. Thantis, the Warweaver was a cool card but had an initially poor reception due to being a combat commander in a lands deck.

Thantis has since climbed up to the number 9 amongst her Jund colleagues. Gyrus, Waker of Corpses isn't completely hated (has a little over 700 decks) but certainly falls into the "third commander" problem.

Despite the pitfalls of the deck, Lord Windgrace has taken a firm spot in the format and one much enjoyed as the number 3 Jund commander. Even after the printing of Omnath, Locus of Creation, Lord Windgrace still has the top spot of lands-themed commanders.

Adaptive Enchantments

The Bant deck in biodome focused is on enchantments! One of my friends had been playing a deck they called "Bant-chantments" since 2013, when they swapped out Derevi for Rafiq of the Many. This deck vindicated most of their feelings about enchantments, namely that they're a cool card type that remains hilariously under-served by Wizards, especially in comparison to artifacts. I'm a big enchantment fan, and I was excited to see the possibilities.

We got Estrid, the Masked, a planeswalker who can put Totem armor Auras on permanents and untap enchanted permanents. The primary back-up would be Tuvasa the Sunlit, a once-per-turn enchantress that grows with your board state. The third commander in the set was Kestia, the Cultivator, a commander who cares about enchantment creatures. This deck had no dud commanders in my opinion.

What did the deck do for the theme?

People played enchantment decks back before 2018, of course, but the options were slim. You played Zur the Enchanter and either tried to convince your group it was janky or you committed to the villainy full-tilt. The closest I came was Uril, the Miststalker, which I crammed full of green and white enchantress cards from a Planechase deck.

Tuvasa finally provided a genuine home for all the classic enchantress players. Estrid crafted a unique ramp deck with the option to enchant lands and speed up mana production, which was an altogether clever deck. Kestia allowed for Theros's enchantment creatures to have a real home after almost five years without anything of the sort.

Enchantment decks had the pieces, but it wouldn't be until this set that they had commander options that really clicked.

How desirable are the cards?

Value Cards:

Half of the twelve cards here are intrinsically tied into the enchantments theme, which is less popular than artifacts but still a solid theme. The total value in these twelve cards is about $60, which had been kind of standard up until the two titantic years of 2016 and 2017. The heavy hitters here are Estrid's Invocation (about $10) and Nylea's Colossus (a whopping $13), both never having had a reprint. Bear Umbra is, of course, up there at $7 as it can't be brought low by reprints for long.

High Utility, Low Price

Even if you're not an enchantment deck, this deck has a nice package of land auras that can ramp you. If you've got any untapping synergies or just hate shuffling ten times a game, then Wild Growth and friends are ticket!

Altogether, there's 25 cards in the deck worth trading or keeping sleeved for other ventures.

What kind of legacy does it have?

All three commanders are in the top 20 on the Bant page, although none of them are in the top 100 oveall, I still think they're a great first step. I will admit that I personally think the deck invested a little too heavily in the Auras side of enchantments rather than the base card type. Enchantments still need a lot, but this deck had a positive impact in the long run.

Subjective Reality

The Esper deck pivots away from the "theme" of permanent types into library manipulation. This deck, more than the others, makes me wonder if the designers were simply going for resonant planeswalker designs and fell backwards into the type-theme thing they tried for. The primary theme of the deck would be top-deck or Miracles, with a blink sub-theme arising because of the cool tricks one could pull off by blinking creatures you Manifested.

The leader of the deck would be Aminatou, the Fateshifter, a captivating character that has regrettably no lore. She'd eventually get a reprint in Double Masters 2022, even appearing on the box art. Her plus ability helps you set up the top card of your library, and she has a minus to blink something. The secondary commander for the deck was Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign, a quirky top-deck commander given an... odd blast of flavor! The final of the three would be Varina, Lich Queen, which is... a Zombie commander, if we're being honest. She lets you play your Amonkhet and Innistrad zombies together! That's nice.

With an understanding of the premise, let's get into the deck!

What did the deck do for the theme?

As for the primary theme, topdeck manipulation, this deck put it on the map. Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign fully commits to the top-deck theme and actually grants a pay-off, so she's the most popular Esper topdeck commander (second most popular overall, at time of writing).

Aminatou, the Fateshifter is a very solid enabler for the top-deck strategy, but she was ultimately more commonly rendered as a blink commander. The odd quirk about Aminatou in that category is that she's remarkably... fair. Other blink commanders exist with much higher ceilings, but Aminatou has a few bonus quirks that keep her relevant.

To summarize, the commmanders and deck really pulled together the themes and solidified them going forward.

How desirable are the cards?

Value Cards:

Sower of Discord is a unique effect and hasn't been reprinted in the years since, hanging in at $11. Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow hasn't gotten a "full" reprint, but the various avenues have still cut her price down to $8. The collective value here is... $30, one of the lowest ever. The decklist went for quirky themes, which necessarily brought the value theme.

High Utility, Low Price

Who doesn't love Mulldrifter? Altogether, the utility cards are solid but not exciting. The deck squeaks out a total of 21 cards for trading or rebuilding.

What kind of legacy does it have?

I could talk a bit more about the effect that Aminatou, the Fateshifter and crew had on the game. She and Varina, Lich Queen are still in the top 10 Esper commanders. For me, Varina falls into the third commander problem where she no longer helps the theme at all but is instead tossed in as a bonus. I don't like those kinds of cards.

The real legacy of the deck is in Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow. Yuriko blitzed out of the deck at lightning speed and spun a Ninja Commander deck out of shadows. She's in the top 5 commanders of all time, and it ain't because of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. She cheats the commander tax and she draws hella cards while encouraging a fun, resonant tribe. The first part of that sentence is the most damning part, unfortunately, and has gotten her on Gavin Verhey's own list of mistakes. She's lumped in with Edgar Markov, which is harsh but fair.

This deck did a great thing in enabling top-deck the way it did, giving us unique commanders that are well-loved in various ways, and it even provided a few quirky new cards that have homes in several different places. I think this is the most interesting of the decks, to be honest, and it would have a purely positive legacy if not for Yuriko.

I have been relatively fortunate in my time and have not bumped up again Yuriko that often. I nearly built her but never got around to it and ultimately shelved the pieces. I've seen a few games and she seems extra frustrating, but I can also see the desire to put together a genuinely hard-hitting commander for such an under-represented creature type.

Ultimately, I still think the deck has had a positive impact and that Yuriko isn't the worst for the format. Cheating the command tax is something I hope we never see again, but a commander who actually wants to get into the red zone is probably the best place for it.

Conclusion

I do really love these decks, but from a weird nostalgic point of view. It was in 2013 that I was introduced to the format, but in 2018 I really developed a love for the preconstructed decks by analyzing these. The conversation stoked up around them made me reflect on the choices that had been made in the past and at the time. People were genuinely upset at the Windgrace deck, and I do understand why now. At the time, though, I could only recall my experiences with the 2013 deck and shrug, but that wasn't correct. The pre-constructed decks had genuinely increased in quality over time.

These decks were fairly straightforward to a fault and were honestly lacking in terms of valuable reprints. They played well enough in the biodome, and they all had cool upgrade paths, but there were problems with them. These decks weren't as bad as people initially said, but they weren't as good as they really should have been. I appreciate these decks as a learning experience, but they don't hold up to modern scrutiny. People certainly had a right to be upset at this release after the 2016 and 2017 releases.

That's just my opinion; what do you think?

Join me next time for the final week of the Commander Retrospectives: Commmander 2019!