“In a World without gold, we might have been heroes.“
Assassins Creed just dropped, and there are so many sweet commanders for Pauper EDH! We are always looking to do something new at TNT, so starting from Assassins Creed and beyond, we will be doing a set review for the Pauper EDH commanders from any particular set! We have done a ton of evaluation and testing with these decks, and some of these may even turn into articles! If you have a suggestion, please let us know! Without further adieu, let’s get it!
Table of Contents
White:
Rating for Keen-Eyed Raven 2/10:
Keen-Eyed Raven is by no means a bad card, it is well-costed, naturally evasive, and the buff on another creature can be quite nice the biggest problem with Keen-Eyed Raven is that it’s in an archetype that has a ton of amazing commanders and this card does not do enough to break into the +1/+1 counter archetype, white does have a lot of support but already has better commanders. This card is absolutely a flavor win but definitely not the greatest option.
Rating for Settlement Blacksmith 6/10:
One of mono-white’s biggest struggles in Pauper EDH is not being able to draw cards, and Settlement Blacksmith is a fine commander who supports the Voltron archetype very well; while they don’t do anything super flashy, their card draw is very nice and is perfect for be built-around. Settlement Blacksmith is not the best Voltron commander for mono-white but is a great option especially if you are dead-set on going mono-white. Even though Settlement Blacksmith is in a competitive archetype, as there are a ton of amazing Voltron commanders, any card that gives a white card draw gets a natural leg-up since there isn’t much. This is a deck where you absolutely want to include a couple blink effects and alternative Voltron targets. This is a strong commander that helps to address one of mono-white’s biggest weaknesses.
Rating for Tax Collector 8/10:
In a format with an absolute ton of blink effects and white having access to cards that fill up the board like Argivian Cavalier
or Gallant Cavalry
, Tax Collector certainly shines. Tax Collector is cheap, and the effect it puts on your opponents is amazing; in the early-game making, everything cost one more can devastate a lot of decks, and in the late-game, being able to detain the best of the best an opponent can allow us to guarantee a hit and some damage. Another element I love is that Tax Collector can be built in multiple different ways; I’ve seen awesome control-style lists and more mid-range style decks that use their commander to slow their opponents. This card is sweet and definitely on our to-brew list.
Rating for Templar Knight 0/10:
Because of PDH format rules, this card does not work as a commander, as you cannot have anything but commons in the deck. It’s a very cool card and design overall, though!
Blue:
Rating for Assassin Den 9/10:
Assassin Den is super sweet and a must-brew for me, at least; I love this deck in a control shell with a few creatures, and being able to swing unblockable is a great way to finish off opponents as we counter and bounce all of their stuff. The only knock I have on Assassin Den is their cost, but overall, this is a great casual commander and one that I think will get brewed quite a bit; whether you go all-in on control or creatures, I think this deck is super sweet.
Rating for Brotherhood Spy 0/10:
Sadly, there are no legendary assassins at common, making this card all but unusable. Because of this, if you run this as a commander, you have a two-mana 1/3 that does nothing. I hope that as time goes on this card gets cooler and cooler and gets more and more support but for now, this is definitely a skip.
Rating for Loyal Inventor 7/10:
Loyal Inventor is a cool card and a great tutor. Even if you don’t have an assassin, being able to search for any artifact you want is pretty sweet. There is a plethora of amazing options, and there are an extremely low amount of tutors in the format so being able to tutor for anything is very strong. I am still looking into brewing this one but I think this card is going to be very good, assassin or not.
Black:
Rating for Assassin Initiate 5/10:
Cheap creatures with upsides are always pretty sweet, at least to me! I like Assassin Initiate a lot and being able to adapt it to your combat situation is pretty good. For me, I would personally brew this as a Voltron strategy; I like this card and think it’s pretty good. This in my opinion makes for a casual deck and certainly provides a lot of fun.
Rating for Brotherhood Ambushers 2/10:
I am not a huge fan of this card; while I do like the flavor overall, I think this commander just is bad and doesn’t do much; we can cast it for its freerunning ability as there are quite a few assassins within mono-black, but overall I just don’t like the card that much. This commander is unimpressive to me, if you’ve got a list send it my way cause I need convincing!
Rating for Poison-Blade Mentor 8/10:
Since there are a lot of Assassins within the format, this card is great! Giving another creature deathtouch can make us very hard to deal with in combat. A cheap commander with deathtouch and the ability to give more and more creatures, deathtouch is pretty good. I like this commander a lot and think its one of the best in Black from this set.
Rating for Roshan, Hidden Magister 5/10:
This is an interesting one; there are ten cards we can play face-down within mono-black, and I am not sure if that is the best deck. While that does provide a decent amount of card draw beyond those few creatures, it’s just a value mono-black deck. I think this deck gets a lot better as more and more cards come out but for now I think this is just an ok deck. I think this a commander to pay attention too as it may improve over time.
Red:
Rating for Alexios, Deimos of Kosmos 8/10:
I like this card a lot, it’s honestly hilarious and a very interesting card for the format, as far as how powerful and good it is, that remains to be seen, but from a fun perspective, I love this card. Being able to utilize cards like Armory of Iroas
, makes it bigger and bigger every turn. Utilizing cards and equipment like that to have our opponents kill each other is super fun and just a great card overall. I am in love with this card, and it is very high on my to-brew list.
Rating for Labyrinth Adversary 9/10:
This is one of my favorite commanders from the set; it feels like a true mono-red card, and with awesome cards like Coronation of Chaos
already in the format, there is a ton of room for mono-red decks that stop your opponents from blocking. Because of the overall cost, this deck falls a lot more into the mid-range category with some aggressive elements, but overall, it is super sweet. I love this card and this is likely going to be one of the first decks I brew for the site.
Green:
Rating for Palazzo Archers 1/10:
Relying on your opponents to trigger your commander is certainly not the greatest thing in the world. Because of that and the fact that there are no Planeswalkers in the format, it leads me to give this card such a low rating. If you play in a meta where you go up against multiple Kangee, Sky Warden
s, this may be the deck for you, but overall, the green offering from this set is quite weak.
MultiColor:
Rating for Adéwalé, Breaker of Chains 9/10:
This card is super fun and flavorful and has quite a bit of support. Card selection on ETB can help us grab the best of the best while removing dead draws. Sadly, their second ability doesn’t do much, but this card is worth it for the card selection alone. I love vehicles, pirates, and assassins, and there are a lot of cards in the format with those, so we can easily hit them every time we trigger them. This commander is awesome.
Rating for Arbaaz Mir 10/10:
This card is just great, plain and simple. This is a fun and flavorful Boros card that is just awesome; whether you build it in a “Cheerios” style or like a typical Boros deck, this card is extremely strong and a blast to play. We have been testing this one since spoiler season and have been loving it. I built this as a value artifact deck that deals a ton of non-combat damage and hits hard. Our commander being able to come out early is super sweet as well. This is my first 10/10, and I think it deserves it 100%. I will concede that this deck’s gameplan is simple but still straight-up awesome. This card is sweet, if you haven’t brewed this one yet I highly recommend it.
Rating for Arno Dorian 8/10:
This is a sweet card that is perfect for a deck that cares about creature types; there are quite a few assassins that are quite good in the format, like Hooded Assassin
and Midnight Assassin
just to name a few and these cards are pretty good on their own but get even better when they have +2/+0! This deck is a blast and allows us to have some huge combat turns where we hit like an absolute truck. Multi-color is very strong in this set and this is another great example.
Rating for Bureau Headmaster 9/10:
Boros keeps on winning in this set; a discount on the equipment and the equipment costs allows us to pop off quite quickly, and having a mana discount pretty much always is a great way to load up a Voltron board very quickly. Just like the other Boros commander, this deck’s gameplan is quite straightforward and simple, but if you love Voltron, this is a great new option. While there are a plethora of great options, I think Burea Headmaster is still very good, and you certainly are not making a mistake by choosing them over another Boros equipment commander.
Rating for Ezio, Brash Novice 5/10:
I like this card, but certainly not as much as the other Boros options in the set. Having a built-in Armory of Iroas on a commander is pretty sweet, but their second ability doesn’t help that much beyond the first strike. This card can be good, and when I built it, I did go Voltron, but this card didn’t impress me all that much. If you love the flavor of this card, go for it, but in my opinion, there are better options.
Rating for Lydia Frye 3/10:
I really want to like this card; I love the flavor, and I love the idea of it, but unfortunately, there aren’t enough ways to tap down our assassins to make her Surveil ability worth it. There are a decent amount of asssins within the format but most of them have no real way to tap outside of attacking, going to combat every turn just to Surveil just isn’t worth it. I have tried and brewed multiple versions but couldn’t find a deck I was entirely happy with.
Rating for Shao Jun 10/10:
This card is crazy good and, in my opinion, the CPDH frontrunner for this set; while I am not a huge CPDH player, I think this card will make waves in that format. Even casually, this card is solid, and with a ton of card draw effects off of damage within the format and a bunch of different ways to make tokens that are artifacts, this card is crazy. Flying and First Strike on our turn allows us to go into a beatdown plan if we want. I think this card leans itself much more to combo but can be built in a variety of ways; you could even do a cantrip style spellslinger deck. This card is so good!
Rating for Shay Cormac 10/10:
Finishing up the list strong with an awesome Orzhov commander, this is one of the most interesting Orzhov commanders we have gotten in a very long time. I built this deck as a control-style deck packing all of the single-target removal we could to buff up our creatures and win in combat. Taking away opponents protection is super good and helps us fight back against a lot of the protection within the format. I am absolutely loving this card and this is an easy 10/10 for me. Even if an opponent counterspells our removal and that creature dies from some other means, we still get the counters! This is an excellent and inspired design, in my opinion.
Conclusion:
Thank you so much for coming on this journey with me today; while there are certainly some misses in the commander options for this set, there are a ton of hits and a good amount of sweet commanders I am excited to brew. Are you planning on brewing any of these commanders? Let us know! We would love to check out your list. Do you like this review/rating format? We are planning on doing these for every set. Thanks for reading to the end and thanks so much for all of your support!