“We can’t change what fate has in store for us, but we don’t have to face it alone.”
Art:Shefet Archfiend
by Godmachine
We are back again with Part Two! Today, covering Red, Black, Blue, and White, we got some true heavy hitters today and a lot of really good commanders. As always, as we see in part one, where we covered Colorless, Multicolor, and Green, there are really highs and kind of low-lows in Aetherdrift, and that is the mindset that carries into today’s article very much. I am really excited to showcase this one and finish up this series! Without further ado, let’s get it!
Let’s get straight into it!
Rating for Tyrox, Saurid Tyrant 7/10:
This is an interesting one. This card is extremely aggressive and could be a decent commander for a pump-spell-filled deck looking to take out opponents with commander damage. I definitely don’t think this card is better than or even comes close to decks like Zada, Hedron Grinder
, but it could be a fun build for a casual table. I like this deck, but I definitely don’t think it’s viable at higher-level tables.
Rating for Reckless Velocitaur 4/10:
Red comes again with another very interesting build-around card, with 14 vehicles and 2 mounts in red I’m not sure if this at the point where you can build around, but can be good if you are focused more on damage-based removal and use the vehicle/mount package as a way to end games slowly, I’m not sure about this one but think it will get much better over time. I love the effect, but there just isn’t enough support at common to justify building around this card, in my opinion.
Rating for Pacesetter Paragon 8/10:
I could see this card being quite good in a Voltron shell. Being able to get a double-strike creature out pretty early in a color that has a ton of Voltron support is quite good, while this card is not as strong as something like Patched Plaything
(which saw a decent amount of play) I think this can be a strong Voltron option for mono-red and in some preliminary testing I really liked this deck.
Rating for Marauding Mako 10/10:
This card is just everything mono-red wants to be: quick, aggressive, and hard-hitting. Mako has the support to be discarding a ton of cards and still being efficient with cards like Faithless Looting
and Cathartic Reunion
basically being pump spells within this deck. This card is really strong and I had a lot of fun with it.
I actually did a full deck tech/primer with this one and you can find it here!
Rating for Greasewrench Goblin 4/10:
Focusing on a creature type as good as goblins, this card doesn’t make the cut. I can’t see any reason why you would want to run this over any of the existing goblin commanders. This is another instance of a card I wish was common because it would be quite good in the 99 of a goblin deck. Card draw is always nice for red, and this is some pretty easy card draw. As a commander, I think this card is a miss.
Rating for Endrider Spikespitter 3/10:
I love this card in theory but four mana and having to wait four turns before you can use its ability just buries this card, I love the idea of having extra ways for to generate cards within the command zone but overall this one is just a miss.
Rating for Dracosaur Auxiliary 6/10:
I love this card, I love a lot of things about it, but Six Mana is just a ton, and if you’re getting owned in combat and can’t keep creatures on the board or they keep dying to remove, this card kind of does nothing. This is just far too slow for red, although the ability can be strong. A lot of games end in the turn-five to seven range, and you may have only attacked once with this by the time you die. Just not a great commander.
Rating for Adrenaline Jockey 9/10:
One of my favorite commanders from this set, this card is kind of niche but I love a group slug and general chaos style deck for Pauper EDH, and this really beats up on control decks that love to kill your stuff, while this ability doesn’t prevent removal it helps quite a bit in making opponents think twice especially when they get low. This is a really good card. I don’t think building around exhaust is good for this card, and honestly, I just disregard its second ability. The first one carries super hard.
Rating for Wretched Doll 1/10:
It’s just awful. A two-mana commander that surveils and nothing else—what more do I need to say here? This is an absolute miss and, in my opinion, a waste of an uncommon.
Rating for Wickerfolk Indomitable 0/10:
Well, Black starts off 0-2 here; this card doesn’t work as intended as a commander and is just not worth having it in your command zone.
Rating for Shefet Archfiend 6/10:
Slow card overall but has a devastating ability, with the amount of removal that black ahs you could devastate an aggressive deck or token strategy with your removal in the early-game and deliver the final blow to your opponents with this, cool card, wish it wasn’t seven mana but I could see it working in a control or removal heavy strategy for black.
Rating for Risen Necroregent 3/10:
It’s just far too slow for the zombie archetype and doesn’t do enough. It’s just a bad commander. Start your engines is a bad ability in this format, and most of the cards like this are not worth the time you have to wait.
Rating for Kalakscion, Hunger Tyrant 5/10:
I want so bad for this card to be an awesome Voltron deck and I think it can be, its really aggressive, and with the amount of strong artifacts/equipment in the format I think this card can be a really fun build, I only give it a 5/10 because let’s be real this isn’t a world beater or going to be super widely played but I do think it can be a fun build around card.
Rating for Gastal Raider 3/10:
This is not a great card, I love the design philosophy of a Duress
on a stick but without a lot of ways to blink it in black, you arent going to get much out of this one, this is also another example of a start your engines card that falls flat as well. Just not a great commander.
Rating for Transit Mage 3/10:
This evaluation is less about transit mage and more about what we could grab at a mana value of four or five. There really aren’t a ton of great options besides some random creatures, and overall, I don’t think this card will see much play; tutoring is good but really specific tutoring makes this card much weaker.
Rating for Spikeshell Harrier 1/10:
Clearly, this is a card for draft and draft only. While this card is likely quite good in limited, there is almost no reason you would ever run this as a commander; it just doesn’t do much. Hey, if your opponent loves Aetherdrift and is going all in on the start your engines card, this may be good, but in the most realistic and likely situation, this card will just always kind of be bad.
Rating for Slick Imitator 5/10:
Another one that could go either way, I like the design of this card a lot but am not sure its worth it in the long game, is there a big enough blue spell at common besides things like Treasure Cruise
to make this card worthwhile, another card I would love to see as a common in the 99 as opposed to the general spot.
Rating for Scrounging Skyray 2/10:
Listen, I know this rating may seem weird as I loved Marauding Mako, but let me cook here, While I do love the idea of Scrounging Skyray it’s just not in the right colors, make this card black and it will be a 9/10 for me but in blue there just isn’t enough to scale this efficiently.
Rating for Sabotage Strategist 9/10:
I really like this card for a control deck and think it can help slow down and beat up on some aggressive strategies; while sadly, it can’t come out until turn four, it is typically ok because we have some early-game bounce spells in blue. I think this card is a slam dunk for Blue and is going to be pretty decent within the format.
Rating for Memory Guardian 8/10:
I think this is a really good commander and perfect for a Voltron strategy, this card can come out way early and is just great with artifacts, I am a big fan of this card and think it works really well and with the good amount of protection we get from mono-blue it can be pretty strong, big fan of this one.
Rating for Diversion Unit 6/10:
Not a bad commander at all, but nothing too crazy it’s a counterspell and that’s all it really is, luckily it is cheap, so you can recast it multiple times a game but overall while I think it’s ok it doesn’t do much to further the gameplan and is far too reactive if you are a table full of CPDH combo decks I could see it being good, but overall I’m not a fan.
Rating for Caelorna, Coral Tyrant 1/10:
It’s just bad. I can’t think of a reason why you would want this as a commander. I could see some potential in the other vanilla commanders, but I don’t think this one is very good.
Rating for Unswerving Sloth 8/10:
I’m a very big fan of this card; while it’s a little slow, that’s pretty much ok for white, especially since they are always kind of slow. I think this card works perfectly in a midrange shell and being untap all of your creatures is really strong, I think this card is quite good and will be a decent commander in one of the roughest colors in the format.
Rating for Sundial, Dawn Tyrant 1/10:
A two-mana 3/3 is not a commander! That’s all I got to say about this one.
Rating for Pride of the Road 8/10:
I know, I know I gave the other start your engines bad ratings but this one actually seems kind of worth it for a midrange mono-white deck, this will allow us to be very strong in combat and with protection being quite abundant in white we can actually keep this on the field, I am actually a big fan of this card.
Rating for Nesting Bot 1/10:
It’s a terrible card, just not a good commander and not worth getting up to max speed, just a bad one for white; hey, at least all of the other colors had bad ones.
Rating for Guidelight Synergist 9/10:
I’m sure you’re all sick of me, but this is a great Voltron card that can get really out of hand quickly. I’m a big fan of this one. We have the protection to back it up, and this card, if it sticks, can be a really deadly attacker.
Rating for Gloryheath Lynx 5/10:
Ramp is not that great in mono-white so this is a decent option, but it can be quite slow which is why it only gets a five out of ten for me, I think if this card didn’t need to be saddled it would be ok but in mono-white and needing to be saddled really makes this one rough.
Rating for Cloudspire Captain 6/10:
This is another one that will get better over time, but for now is kind of just ok, I think it’s decent but we just need more vehicles and mounts, I’m interested in revisiting this next time we get vehicles or mounts added to the format.
Rating for Canyon Vaulter 6/10:
Just as Cloudspire Captain, this needs more support but can be good, and I think it may be good in the future; evasivenss is something mono-white always struggles with, so a commander that helps with that can be pretty good.
Conclusion:
I hope you all enjoyed this one, it was quite a long slog, and I really appreciate you all reading to the end! I think there are a decent amount of strong commanders in this set and while there are a lot of misses I think this set was pretty good overall, I’m looking forward to brewing quite a few of these commanders to stay tuned for some deck techs. Tap IN!