Tarkir: Dragonstorm Set Review - White/Abzan

(Elspeth, Storm Slayer
| Ekaterina Burmak

White | Blue | Black | Red | Green | Artifacts & Lands | Allied & Shards | Enemy & Wedges | cEDH | Reprints | Pauper/Budget

White, Black, and Green

Hi, I'm Michael Celani, and I have something to admit: I wasn't around for the original Tarkir block (by which I mean I wasn't playing Magic at the time, I don't mean I was literally not born yet), so when I talk about the white, black, and green color combination, I use the Ikoria name: Indatha

This pisses off everyone at the game store and I highly recommend it. So, let's get down to the White and Indatha review!

Mythics

Elspeth, Storm Slayer

Good God, Elspeth, Storm Slayer

is a token-doubler stapled to a token engine. If Ocelot Pride

hadn't already numbed me like a concentrated shot of procaine directly into my puffy, inflamed gums, I'd have a whole essay decrying this development, but thankfully, I and the vodka have finally made peace with the state of things.

I'm sure a lot of you are blinded by that static ability, so lets unanoint her procession

and focus on Elspeth, Storm Slayer

, the planeswalker.

Her +1 puts two 1/1 Soldier

tokens onto the field (since her own token-doubler still applies). This is a relatively unique niche for her, as generally Elspeths can either only make one token

each turn or force you to go down loyalty

for the privilege. Only Elspeth, Sun's Champion

has better recruitment numbers, and that ability alone practically catapults her to the second most popular planeswalker in the format.

Yes, two is less than three, and that is a meaningful downgrade, but there's nothing wrong with falling short of Sun's Champion

, and it's curtailed by the fact that Storm Slayer

costs one less and enters with a whopping five loyalty. That extra buffer on both speed and stamina means you don't need quite the same level of padding to ensure she lives to your next turn.

Soldier

tokens have always been useless against things that fly, anyway, and Elspeth

solves that problem with her ridiculous +0 (or -0, if you're a pessimist). It's the best iteration of "buff your creatures" she's gotten yet: +1/+1 (which sticks around, by the way) and flying to your board until your next turn is just as punishing on defense as it is on offense, and if your army is vigilant

, even better.

There's a compelling argument to be made that the ±0 ability alone means Storm Slayer

's floor is at worst Overrun
, with the only difference being it trades some of its raw power for a keyword that ensures more of the damage gets through. Plus, giving counters instead of a buff is relevant: if you care about +1/+1 counters and you're in white, you probably already have some sort of enhancer

on the field anyway, which minimizes the downside.

The only place Elspeth, Storm Slayer

stumbles is her -3, which is way too expensive for removal that sucks. I'm sure the option will be useful in a pinch; after all, most commanders cost more than two mana, and I like it's here instead of some garbage ultimate I'll never use

, but it's bad.

Considering her planeswalker abilities alone, Elspeth, Storm Slayer

is at least the second-best Elspeth ever printed, comfortably ahead of Tirel

and even giving Sun's Champion

a run for its money. The fact she's stapled to Anointed Procession

catapults her into another tier of disgusting: the Fifty-Dollar Zone.

If you drop this onto a commander that makes tapped and attacking tokens

, then your opponents are just screwed, and even Heliod can't save them if she lives to your next untap step.

Smile at Death

Unfortunately, Alesha's death means she'll no longer get great new titles. Alesha, Who Smiles at Death

and Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate

are both great, but I was really holding out hope for Alesha, Who Cackles at The Inexorable March of Time and its Inevitable Dustening of Us All and Knuckles.

Regardless, this five-mana enchantment returns not one, but two creatures with power 2 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield at the start of your upkeep. Perfect for aristocrats decks: not only are most of the creatures you wanna kill

two power or less, but most of the payoffs

are, too. It's especially potent in Athreos, God of Passage

decks, because your opponents just paid six life to get rid of those damn Apostles

There's also some self-mill application. Even if your deck doesn't particularly care about things dying, you can still use this to pluck small creatures out of the 'yard onto the battlefield, and it gets back deck-killing all-stars, like Stitcher's Supplier

and Hedron Crab

But I didn't have to tell you that you should include it in decks where you want to put things in the graveyard; that's obvious. If your deck wants Phyrexian Reclamation

and it's in white, there's a pretty good chance Smile at Death

will do some work. The real question is whether or not Smile at Death

has serious defensive potential; is it worth running just because you don't want your things to die?

If your commander is two power or less, I'd consider it, especially if it gets value off enchantments. Sythis, Harvest's Hand

and Tuvasa the Sunlit

both love this, since it cycles itself and brings back all manner of died-to-Wrath of God

enchantresses. Hanna, Ship's Navigator

is basically immune to destroy effects with it on the field since each piece recurs the other. It's also a decent pick for Zur, Eternal Schemer

as its fairly high casting cost gives it a tough body.

Gifting the recently undeceased a +1/+1 counter generally doesn't matter, but for some decks it's useful. Modular is a slam dunk since most creatures in the strategy have 0 power and they benefit from having more counters when they die. It also instantly puts two modified creatures onto the battlefield, and weird pieces like Evolution Witness

that trigger when counters are put on them love Alesha's vibes.

Its only drawback is it's a five-mana do-nothing spell, and since it triggers on your upkeep instead of your end step, that means it's not the best draw if you're on the back foot. I'd run this out a bit early, especially if I already have a sac outlet on the board, and try to discard or mill targets into my graveyard later to surprise my opponents rather than play it with the expectation I'll get back the Sekki, Seasons' Guide

I put there turn one.

Betor, Ancestor's Voice

is a commander for graduate students.

I mean, the intended play pattern makes sense: gain a bunch of life, then spend that life to recur creatures from your graveyard. In practice, you're going to have to skimp on something, because your deck has to:

Find ways to gain life;
Find ways to spend (or lose
) that life;
Have other creatures¹;
Care about putting counters on those creatures;
Stock your graveyard; and finally,
Have card draw, removal, ramp, and protection for Betor, Ancestor's Voice
.

That is a lot to accomplish, and the best way I could find to put it all together is to combine the removal, lifegain, creature, and counter payoffs into fighting with lifelink creatures. By having your army be the source of your lifegain, then letting that lifegain scale with counters, you can create runaway board states where you end up slamming into someone with a 40/40 flyer. Even then, I couldn't easily fit paying life into the list and had to rely on lands that hurt me (and Doom Whisperer

) to turn the recursive part of the deck on, and the less we say about the suite of protection (or lack thereof), the better.

Ultimately, I think Betor

's complexity is going to be his downfall. He's way too specific to see any play outside the command zone, with a restrictive color identity that has better ways to recur creatures and doesn't really have that many options for a lifegain strategy (Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant

aside). If you only care about the counters, Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn

is much better at distributing them and does it on every end step instead of just your own; if you want to marry recursion and lifegain, then Rodolf Duskbringer

is far more straightforward and resilient; and if you just want a big, lifelinking Dragon, Dragonlord Dromoka

already exists and can't be blown out by instants on your turn.

Betor

is good, but be prepared to make concessions in your deckbuilding. You can do it all, but damn are you gonna be stuck in Archidekt for a while.

Betor, Kin to All

This Betor

, on the other hand, requires only arithmetic instead of multivariate calculus.

Have any other creatures whatsoever? Congratulations, you get to draw a card on your end step, because Betor, Kin to All

counts for seven of the laughably easy ten total toughness threshold to replace himself.

His second tier, at twenty total toughness, causes you to untap all your creatures on your end step, which is (deceptively) where the true strength of the deck lies. It encourages you to run a plethora of mana dorks with dump truck rears, like Fanatic of Rhonas

, since they'll come down early, contribute to casting Betor, bump up your toughness score, and then untap so you can hold up instant-speed interaction on enemy turns.

Fill your whole deck up with 'em, then include activated abilities, like Mikaeus, the Lunarch to distribute counters to your creatures, Deepwood Denizen to draw cards, or Tree of Perdition for the memes. If an enemy tries to knock you down a peg, just fire off one of white's annoying protection spells and no sell them until they start complaining about the power level of your deck.

Your goal is to survive until you reach the magical forty toughness, where you kill your opponents with the raw, unbridled magic that is existing at them too hard. Granted, you'll need some other form of reach to close the game out, since repeatedly halving an enemy's life total takes maybe longer than you'd like, but an Exsanguinate or Gray Merchant of Asphodel should take care of that easily. It's a very linear gameplan, but as long as you include a unique suite of instants, you should be able to make actually playing your games fun and dynamic.

Unlike raw lifegain, Abzan does at least kind of care about toughness, so there's at least a bit of play for this Dragon outside the command zone. A white-partnered Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper loves seeing more defensive creatures, and the venerable Doran, the Siege Tower, uniquely among Abzan commanders, turns toughness into combat damage. Both would love to see Betor, Kin to All as a way to untap attacking creatures while drawing extra cards.

I like this Betor. We need more commanders like him and Doran: creatures that fulfill a unique niche for a color combo no other commander can.

Felothar the Steadfast

No, wait, I take it back, not like Doran, not exactly like Doran!

Okay, fine, whatever. Felothar the Steadfast takes Doran, the Siege Tower and ruins his legacy by adding a healthy amount of power creep. For just extra, the Rolling Stones is built right into the commander, instantly adding a ton of consistency to the deckbuilding by unleashing defenders. If that's not enough, Wizards saw fit to add a bonkers sac outlet.

Take a Wall that's really easy to cast; say, Gleaming Barrier. That thing's got four toughness and zero power, so you can sacrifice it to draw four cards, discard zero, and make a Treasure token, all for just , which is absurd. This thing is Shadowheart, Dark Justiciar levels of free money.

Now, the experienced players will actually take advantage of the discard to stock their graveyard. Fill the low part of your curve with glut of cheap Walls and Feral Prowlers to cycle through your hand, then stock the top end of your deck with odious garbage, like Archon of Cruelty. What if that trash about to get taken out? Screw it, sacrifice it and try again!

Outside the command zone, I'd say this fits in Doran, the Siege Tower, but it so utterly replaces that commander than I'm not sure where it goes now. Now that's suffering from success.

Perennation

I don't care how invincible the thing you're reviving is, six mana is not worth getting back one permanent if you've got access to black.

The only exception is if you're doing something truly heinous. Boompile and Lethal Vapors come to mind, and it reminds me of my very first Commander deck, which used Mycosynth Lattice and Darksteel Forge to kill everything my opponents had with Nevinyrral's Disk.

I guess if you're already doing counter movement shenanigans, you can also use this as a way to get a proliferatable source of invincible and hexproof counters. Nesting Grounds continues to impress me.

Rares

Ainok Strike Leader

Ainok Strike Leader turns your commander into a discount Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, with the caveat that either it or Ainok Strike Leader itself has to get into the fray to reap the rewards. That is a significant drawback, but compare its trigger to something like Raise the Alarm, and you already come out ahead. Simply play Ainok Strike Leader turn two, swing with it turn three, and if the Dog is destined to visit a farm upstate, you can sacrifice it to still be up creatures compared to Raise the Alarm. For two mana, I'm not complaining.

Not to mention, if you're looking at Ainok Strike Leader, you probably already have a deck that cares about your commander or your creatures attacking (probably Isshin, Two Heavens as One, because it's always Isshin, Two Heavens as One).

Aligned Heart

Aligned Heart reads a lot like Assemble the Legion, but you've got a lot more control in when you decide to deploy the cenobium than its Boros predecessor. For one, you don't have to wait until your upkeep to put the first counter on it, since all you have to do is follow it up with some second spell. You can also realistically trigger Aligned Heart during an opponent's turn if you have enough instants at your disposal, and best of all, those Monks have prowess, so they're likely attacking as at least 3/3s in the kind of deck Aligned Heart belongs in.

Spellslinger decks often have problems fielding blockers before they inevitably combo off into a kill, so adding one of these in your Jeskai Oops! All Opts list is a solid way to avoid getting bowled over. Go ahead, take your twenty turns and all of my girlfriends, you've earned it.

Anafenza, Unyielding Lineage

Anafenza, Unyielding Lineage is a little too boring to head up a Commander deck of her own, and nobody is playing her for the counters mode.

You know why you're here: every single nontoken creature death now comes with a Spirit token, a token which will also summarily die as you feed it to the unending jaws of Bartolomé del Presidio. She's not a good fit for every flavor of Aristocrats; she only fits into the suitably recursive ones, but in those decks, doubling up on your death triggers is tantamount to including another copy of Teysa Karlov.

Also, she's a flash first-striking 2/2? Not for nothing, but you can probably stymie a careless attack if you play your cards right.

Clarion Conqueror

"Alright, Michael, now that the paperwork's gone through, I'm officially the world's most divorced game designer. It's time to make a Dragon that stops players from activating the abilities of creatures, artifacts, and planeswalkers."

"That's a great idea, Bill! Let me write it down. 'Activated abilities of creatures, artifacts, and planeswalkers can't be activated' -- unless they're mana abilities, right?"

"..."

"...unless they're mana abilities, right?"

Dalkovan Encampment

Dalkovan Encampment is the latest entry in Wizards' ongoing series Mono-Color Lands With Upside. The floor: a Plains that enters tapped. The payoff? For four total mana, you get two Warriors who are tragically not long for this world when you go to swing. I'm not incredibly impressed, but it's on a land, and thankfully, the from Dalkovan Encampment has no restriction on its use like Lupinflower Village did.

To have the land enter untapped, you need to control either a Swamp or a Mountain as it enters. That's as easy as controlling the relevant shockland or triome, and both Orzhov and Boros have use for a repeatable source of sacrificial, attacking tokens.

Orzhov's got utility because of the, well, everything. I won't waste any more of your time.

Boros is a little harder up for value, because two 1/1s won't do all that much without steroids, but it's worth noting that Dalkovan Encampment's ability triggers every time you go to attack that turn, meaning extra combats can get in on the fun, too.

It's not like she needs the help, but Dalkovan Encampment could be spicy in Najeela, the Blade-Blossom lists, who (as a bonus) actually cares about the type of creature this land spits out. Oh, and of course, Isshin, Two Heavens as One, because it's always Isshin, Two Heavens as One.

Ironwill Forger

Learning from Duke Ulder Ravengard before him, Ironwill Forger gives a nonlegendary (you cowards) creature myriad as you go to combat... so long as you control your commander.

It's pretty groundbreaking seeing a flexible myriad-granting effect at such a low mana value, but my big issue with Ironwill Forger as written is that it does just about everything it can to invite blowouts, and they're gonna show up like there's an open bar and those waiters that walk around serving free bacon-wrapped dates on a toothpick.

Myriad is about as subtle as Jeremy Irons in Dungeons and Dragons. With how much stuff the average Commander-playable creature does these days, slapping myriad on something means you're drowning in value and declaring war on three fronts all at once. All your opponents will instantly gain an incentive to shoot Ironwill Forger dead, and I can't say I blame them.

To make matters worse, the fact that so many stars have to align for Ironwill Forger to function in the first place means the space for counterplay is astronomical. Not only can you remove Ironwill Forger, not only can you remove the target of its ability, an opponent might opt to hamstring your upcoming blitzkrieg by assassinating your commander, which, thanks to Lieutenant, also puts Ironwill Forger out of commission.

Even if you're holding flawless single target protection to dodge a Swords, the other two weak points are still wide open for an enemy to take aim. I'm aware that this is just the dies-to-removal argument, but it dies so hard to removal that it folds to a kill spell that's not even targeting it.

But maybe you're a thrill-seeker and you find the payoff worth the risk of being the center attention. Resist the urge to play Ironwill Forger on-curve before you've got all the pieces in play, because you'd sure be spending four mana on a 3/3. If you keep that and the size of the target on its head in mind, you've got two options for Ironwill Forger: treat it like a one-shot copy effect to close out a game, or assemble its components as early as possible to maximize value before your opponents can afford to pause their gameplan disrupting you.

If you go the second route, your best bet is to put him at the top of a curve with a two- or three-drop commander, probably Isshin, Two Heavens as One, because it's always Isshin, Two Heavens as One. Get your busted early play out (rest in peace, Dockside Extortionist), play your commander on turn three, then drop this prior to combat on turn four to catapult yourself over your opponents.

Protector of the Wastes

Compare Angel of the Ruins, who is also a giant flying creature that exiles two artifacts or enchantments when it enters the battlefield. This is markedly more dead-in-hand if you draw it early, and it can't double-dunk on a single player, but Protector of the Wastes compensates for that by letting you dump more mana into it to trigger it again without any external help.

I personally prefer the consistency in mana fixing that comes from having plainscycling, so I'd only recommend the swap if your deck wants Dragons.

Reunion of the House

Boy, am I sad that this exiles itself.

I mean, it's absolutely correct for Reunion of the House to go away forever instead of becoming an untouchable recursion engine with any given Archaeomancer, but it still bums me out.

Gripes aside, here's another white mass-reanimation spell. It goes without saying that if you're playing black, just use Rise of the Dark Realms, which costs more but also wins you the game. Sans black, your niche here is specifically high cost, low power creatures: stuff like Threefold Thunderhulk, Jumbo Cactuar, or Agent of Treachery.

Now that I think about it, it might be more educational to list the scenarios where you don't want Reunion of the House. If your plan is to recur a bunch of small creatures (Lurrus of the Dream-Den), then you want Raise the Past. If you have a team of medium-cost creatures, then Ascend from Avernus would work better, and if you just want to reuse your graveyard's ETBs and you don't particularly care about the raw stats of your creatures, then Storm of Souls is your spell.

Oh, and for those of you that hate mutate, congratulations: Nethroi, Apex of Death is officially useless to you now.

Sage of the Skies

Storm for cowards.

Tempest Technique

If you've got a great quantity of enchantments in your deck, then Tempest Technique will end lives. After all, All That Glitters has been an Aura-deck staple for years, and Tempest Technique is just that but more.

This is definitely a payoff for enchantment decks that are enchantress-heavy, like Sythis. You'll want a lot of velocity tied to inexpensive enchantments to juice that storm count. Another option is Gylwain, Casting Director, who gets a free enchantment for every creature you play, and so has a lot of cheap creatures to trigger Constellation.

United Battlefront

Collected Company, but worse... and to be honest, Collected Company was already no real prize for Commander. It's a card that really benefits from having duplicates in your deck, which our singleton format can only dream of.

But what do I mean "but worse?" Sorcery speed aside, it just comes down to a numbers game. Artifacts and enchantments, relative to creatures, aren't all that common in your average list. For United Battlefront to be useful, you'll want to be able to hit two artifacts and enchantments every time you cast it, which means you're in a dedicated artifact or enchantment deck. (What's that? Battles and planeswalkers? The hell are those?)

In those dedicated decks, not all of your artifacts or enchantments are gonna cost three or less, and the fact that it's worded to say noncreature, nonland permanent instead of artifact or enchantment means you can't choose any artifact creatures or enchantment creatures, which is a severe blind spot.

It's so severe that I'd say if you're in artifacts, you're much better off running Kayla's Reconstruction and not looking back, since you can pump more mana into it for more permanents, it can hit nonartifact creatures, and the art is better.

Enchantment decks are a little bit more up the creek, but they never really needed all that much help with card advantage anyway. I'm just retching at the thought of casting this, seeing all my enchantresses in the top seven, and walking away with nothing to show for it.

Voice of Victory

Mobilize 2 doesn't make up for allowing activated abilities during your turn, so Grand Abolisher is still the king of two-mana anti-interaction. Seriously, who wants to attack with their Grand Abolisher anyway?

Will of the Mardu

Will of the Mardu slots in where Call the Coppercoats otherwise would. You're giving up strive for the ability to target yourself as the source of the creature count and a built-in bad removal spell. In my playtesting, I've never really strived Call the Coppercoats too often, so this seems like a slam-dunk switch to me.

Felothar, Dawn of the Abzan

Felothar, Dawn of the Abzan is the perfect three-mana commander. Not heinous, not insignificant, but you're getting exactly what you pay for and that's just fine.

There's the straightforward go wide approach, of course. Suit her up with stuff that protects her, like Mithril Coat, and swing your way to an inexorable victory. Of course, you'll want to create some kind of token every turn to throw under Felothar's bus, but since you're in white and green, that should be no problem. Food, Clues, Treasures, Soldiers, Squirrels, you name it; it's hard to build a deck that doesn't have a copious amount of fodder by the time you go to swing with her.

Then, there's a second way you could play Felothar, Dawn of the Abzan, and that's to have her jump off a cliff over and over for fun and profit. Nothing on the card prevents Felothar from sacrificing herself to her own trigger, so you can play her like a sorcery that gives all your creatures a counter and triggers your Grim Haruspex. Bring her back to your hand with spells like Phyrexian Reclamation, or cast Feign Death on her before she dies for even more power, while the rest of your deck is dedicated to pumping out token creatures.

Honestly, I have no complaints with Felothar, Dawn of the Abzan. She's a level of reasonable that I respect. I'd be much happier facing a player with this in the zone than that infuriating jerk Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest, at least.

Revival of the Ancestors

The floor on Revival of the Ancestors is a Captain's Call, which is already playable in a go-wide deck. The flexibility of the second chapter is what sells me on this Saga, though; not only can you distribute those +1/+1 counters as wide as possible, you can also stack them on a single thing, which is probably the more effective way to use it. The third chapter is nice-to-have, but I'm not banking on it coming through for me like an Overrun would.

Severance Priest

Severance Priest is a blinkable Thoughtseize, but that's much less effective in a four-player format than a two-player one.

Any card you use to force an opponent to discard one card means you're just leaving your two other opponents up a card. You might find it useful to try and disrupt the guy that just drew twenty cards and discarded down to seven, and having it stapled to a deathtoucher means at least you're affecting the board more than not at all, but you've got better things to do on your turn three.

Yathan Roadwatcher

Perfect, no notes. Yathan Roadwatcher does everything an Abzan deck wants, at a reasonable cost, and even has a decent blocking statline. "If you cast it" makes my Ephemerate cry, but there's enough creatures in white that already fill that role, so I'm not too depressed.

Uncommons & Commons

Abzan Monument

Of the Monuments, Abzan Monument is the clear winner. A toughness-matters deck, like Felothar the Steadfast, could easily see a 0/7 by turn four, and with Abzan Monument's activated ability, that basically means you're playing a four-mana 7/7--

...I'm sorry, I think I just had a stroke.

Coordinated Maneuver

If copying stuff from the last set is good enough for Wizards, then it's good enough for me: go-wide decks may be tempted, but they're forgetting that Get Lost exists.

Duty Beyond Death

Sacrificing a creature is a heavy price to pay for a protection spell that doesn't even bother to give your creatures hexproof. Though, in a weird way, I suppose Duty Beyond Death is as good as any a response to a Swords to Plowshares: you're not saving the thing that's getting targeted, but you are using its untimely death to bolster the rest of your crew at instant speed.

It also generally reduces board wipes from devastating, game-ending setbacks to "you lose a single token," which is worth it. I'm only running this in the go-wide counters deck, make no mistake; but, similar to Requisition Raid, it fills a wide enough array of niches for me to consider in that specific list.

Furious Forebear

This is what that terrible recover mechanic should have been. I'm glad Furious Forebear doesn't exile itself the moment you decide to leave 'em on read.

Unfortunately, it loses ten points for not being a literal Bear, but this is the Abzan review, not the Temur one.

Loxodon Battle Priest

Is +2/+4 really worth the three-mana premium Loxodon Battle Priest demands over Luminarch Aspirant? Remember, white has a much easier time recurring the cheap creatures than the expensive ones.

Rally the Monastery

Rally the Monastery is an instant you can only cast on your own turn. To get the discount that makes Rally the Monastery even remotely playable, you need to have cast a spell before it, which means either you're holding up two instants on an opponent's turn, or you're using it on your end step after you've played a creature or something. The card's not sufficiently reactive to be worth holding up on an enemy turn, so we're left with option B.

I'm going to spend the rest of this review assuming you get the discount and that your default use for this card is the first mode. Why wouldn't I? Two 1/1s with prowess for is a steal, and you'll want those creatures in the spellslingery decks this card's made for. Baseline, it's a better Goblin Wizardry, and although that card has the strength of its creature types to justify it (look at the decks its included in), we have two more modes that are useful fallbacks.

A good play pattern could be to main phase one a spell, and then go into combat holding up Rally the Monastery. Your plan is still to make the two Monks, but if your opponent blocks poorly, then giving two creatures +2/+2 can be major profit.

Finally, in a pinch, destroying a creature with power 4 or greater... well, it is a removal spell. This is the one that excites me the least, but I won't say no to more modes.

All in all, decent spell. It's the type of spell Raff, Weatherlight Stalwart wants, since that deck lives and dies on its instants and sorceries that make tokens.

Rebellious Strike

Another cantrip for Feather, the Redeemed, and +3/+0 goes a long way towards hitting that commander damage total.

Reputable Merchant

Reputable Merchant looks like a three-drop, but its mana value is actually six, perfect for when you wanna scam more value out of Illuminor Szeras and the like. Well, they might be lying about their mana value, but that's no matter. I'm sure the quality of their goods is paramount.

...Wait a second, these talents of copper are crap! Damn you, Ea-nāṣir!

Riling Dawnbreaker

Oh, we finally get to a creature with an Omen.

Omens are not Adventures, even though they're attached to permanents like Adventures, use the same frame as Adventures, and in the alternate and extended art versions of the cards, have no reminder text or anything differentiating them from Adventures other than the easily overlooked subtype in the text box. Got it? No?

Joking aside, what they are are an instant or sorcery mode on a creature that shuffles itself back into your deck once it resolves. That means you can't animate or cast the creature from exile afterwards to double-dip on the card's value, which is sad, but hey! You can use them to indefinitely postpone decking yourself. (Also, hilariously enough, copies of an Omen spell are still Omens, so if you decide to Thousand-Year Storm into fifty copies of an Omen, you better be prepared to shuffle fifty times.)

I'm sure that the point of this downgrade is to give the designers some breathing room to up the power level of both sides of the card, since you don't automatically get to play one after the other. Unfortunately, what white gets to demonstrate this mechanic is almost exactly Lonesome Unicorn, which automatically gets to play one after the other?

Salt Road Packbeast

The ceiling on Salt Road Packbeast is a 4/3 for that draws you a card when it enters. You just need four creatures already in play to make that dream a reality. You, too, can become a multimillionare, you just have to recruit forty thousand people to be authorized Cutco resellers!

Only blink decks have ever wanted cantripping creatures like this in the first place, and you generally wanna run them out as soon as possible so that you can start, y'know, blinking them. The fact that this thing's a 4/3 does not give you any value over a Wall of Omens in its target deck, so why bother?

Starry-Eyed Skyrider

Starry-Eyed Skyrider gives attacking tokens flying and jumps a thing that isn't a token, which is pretty great for three mana. If your commander gets value off attacking, and it makes tokens when it does that (hmm, sounds familiar), then Starry-Eyed Skyrider can protect all of them as you inevitably beat up on the one guy who refuses to put anything with reach in their deck.

Stormbeacon Blade

A two-mana too-specific value artifact!

Stormbeacon Blade is even more annoying to trigger than Chivalric Alliance, and it doesn't have any built-in token generation, but +3/+0 is extremely reasonable for a two-mana Equipment with such a low equip cost. You also don't actually have to attack with three creatures; if you generate tapped and attacking creatures when you declare your attack, you can stack the triggers so you have enough scrappers first, and then resolve it to draw a card.

Being a cheap Equipment lends it to being included in garden-variety Equipment decks, though you probably want to leave it for the versions that want to spread out the gear instead of stack it all on one guy. I'm more interested in attaching it to creatures that generate tokens at combat based on its power, like Jacked Rabbit and Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin.

You know, the type you'd run in Isshin, Two Heavens as One, because it's always Isshin, Two Heavens as One.

Sunpearl Kirin

As far as I'm concerned, Sunpearl Kirin is just a reprinted Jeskai Barricade with the distant, distant second mode of sacrificing a token to draw a card.

At first, I was really excited to try and come up with ways to get value out of bouncing tokens back to my hand. I could populate token copies of it to turn those populates into card draw! I could blink it to crack Clues! I could even steal things my opponents control and use this to bounce it to their hand!

Then, I realized that all of that was impractical compared to just, like, casting Wall of Omens or something.

The final nail in the coffin for Sunpearl Kirin is that, like all new bounce-protection creatures, it comes with the Whitemane Lion I-can-target-myself-to-get-infinite-creature-ETBs exploit patched.

Tempest Hawk

The fact that Tempest Hawk's preorder price is four dollars just confirms for me that Commander players will buy anything that says you can include any number of copies of it in a deck. You're telling me this one is supposed to compete with Shadowborn Apostle, Slime Against Humanity, Persistent Petitioners and freakin' Hare Apparent for my attention?

There's nothing to work with here. Tempest Hawk just looks for more copies of Tempest Hawk when it smacks into an opponent's freshly cleaned glass window. That sort of swarm tactic suggests a similar strategy to Hare Apparent, but there's much less opportunity for creativity since it doesn't synergize with white's kit nearly as thoroughly.

I predict that Tempest Hawk's inclusions will be limited to Bird lords, like Kangee, Sky Warden, and nowhere else. It might actually unseat Templar Knight for least interesting singleton buster.

Since Betor, Ancestor's Voice can't target himself

(Elspeth, Storm Slayer | Ekaterina Burmak