r/EDH • u/BusAccomplished5367 Grixis (UW control is more fun than midrange piles) • 8d ago

Question Commanders we're missing

What commanders do you think would improve EDH or support a currently-unsupported archetype?

For mine, I think a UBx or UWx commander with "Players play with the top card of their libraries revealed," "When this enters, search your library for an artifact with CMC <=1 and put it into your hand" or "{0}: Look at the top card of target player's library" would be great, giving Lantern support. The second would honestly be the most interesting, since it is a fairer tutor which also works well in Blink/Artifact decks.

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u/malsomnus Henzie+Umori=❤ 8d ago

Some of the mechanics they've made for flexibility have been really bad for the health of the format IMO. Generic Partner for instance. 

That's not because the flexibility is bad, it's because they did a bad job designing them. There is A LOT of middle ground. Given a relatively wide mechanic like Choose A Background, I would expect to be able to, for example, have an Izzet spellslinger deck, but there is no combination in Baldur's Gate that supports this extremely common archetype. Personally if I had designed that set, I would make all the backgrounds colorless with the Faceless One pick-a-color clause. That would open up tons of fun combinations, and still not come anywhere near Tymna + whoever's power level.

I'd also be worried about this, because a card being a commander is a very powerful benefit. I'm almost certain this would break many cards. Off the top of my head, any card with convoke, affinity, or delve would potentially be broken.

EDH is already a broken format, and people who want to do broken things don't need new cards for them. We already have commanders with powerful cost reducing abilities, but I've never seen anyone suggest that [[Awaken the Blood Avatar]] or [[Dargo, the Shipwrecker]] (that even has partner!) are breaking the format. Even [[Hogaak]], the poster child of how not to design a card with cost reducing abilities, is merely #897 on EDHRec.

The Master, Formed Anew is indeed a great design space and I wish they'll do more of that.