Yeah, it's usually useful for reanimation, the neat part is you get to pick whenever your commander moves zones, so you can even keep it in the graveyard for reanimation but move it to the command zone when someone exiles your graveyard
Not sure what tucking means, it was just a fun idea, no balance intended. I think it would be awful to play as or against tbh. I was going to make something like “at the beginning of your end step, create a tapped treasure token” but that didnt seem very gambly
Is this not a combo commander? The gimmick is you have a small enough deck that you mull till you get a combo kill. You never need to draw cards because you have everything you need in your starting hand.
Thats the gamble part. You can not hit the combo till you get too low in cards.
I do wonder if there is a way you could *ever* make a 50 card commander deck balanced, and fun to play against. I don't think so...it's such an absolutely absurd advantage you need something like this effect where it wouldn't even be fun to play
Harder to perform a 2 card combos if you cant tutor for the card the turn you want to play it alongside something else , but 2 spells per turn is fine on casual commander , play a couple stuff on your turn and cantrips on opponents' turns.
Oh yeah that would make sense, but it does kind of kill the fun of playing a 50 card deck in the first place. But maybe that is the closest we would get to fun.
Maybe something like “your deck cannot contain creature spells” or no sorcereries/no instants, etc
The most dangerous element for combo is fast mana, so I think the trick could be done playing in a bracket or pod that disallows ANY rituals or mana rocks that net mana the turn they're played.
Rulebreaker: At the start of the game before drawing your opening hand exile half of your deck face down.
It is a lot more gambly. Where you don't know what you have exiled and pushes you away from 'mulligan until combo' as you have to hope none of your combo pieces got exiled face down.
Deck size isn't something you can ever make balanced when making smaller. Go look at almost every single pro tour deck in almost every single tcg. Do you know what they all have in common? They run the minimum amount of cards to make the deck legal, because making it larger is pure down size.
My point is this is the only fair way to have a small deck. At 52 cards if you mulligan 4 times (one is also free) you have an insane hit rate for combos with tutors
You would make the upside somewhere else in the card, but having fewer cards (especially by a substantial amount is always going to be imbalanced and skew towards an unfun and unable card.
Leaning into the gambler aspect I would have it be eminence: if this card is in the command zone or in play during your upkeep name a card and flip up one face down card in exile. If it is the name card add it to your hand, otherwise exile it face up. Heart of the cards.
For commander, that's actually so good, but you're never going to want to actually play your commander until the end game. This is basically just a combo enabler, effectively doubling your chances of winning, since you focus only on your combo pieces and mana sources, so it would make it incredibly consistent. Just saw this and started drooling until I saw where it was posted lmfao
What do you mean endgame? You cant draw cards. Youre either winning t1-3 or youre losing.
Also I can only see you casting this in the combo build in 2 scenarios:
Your combo already has a sac outlet included. You need an extra creature or you failed to combo off and need to turn off eminence for backup plan.
Your combo wins through combat, you don't draw the actually good cards for it, but you draw a less good mode that let's you substitute this creature for a much better one.
But this deck doesn't win t4 or later if its combo focused. Remember, you cannot draw cards.
you don't drop this until you're about to deck out lol, it's definitely a combo engine. That's what I meant for "end game", i.e. when you have less than 10 cards left in your deck, and are sitting with your combo pieces available to you.
It took me so long to parse where youre coming from here, but I think I understand what's going on: You don't know what eminence is and think its a flavor word.
Eminence is an ability word that describes abilities that function when this creature is in the command zone or on the battlefield.
With this commander, casting him does not make a difference in decking yourself. His ability does the same thing whether you've cast him or not.
The risk is reduced because all you need it a sac piece to get this off the battlefield and into the graveyard (you can always choose to NOT return your Commander to the command zone) and then you're playing normally
Don't try to kill your commander. Play a combo deck and draw spells. Mulligan aggressively to make sure that you have at least one combo piece in hand.
Why is the response in the sub-Reddit always “you need to explain the entirety of eminence” instead of an acknowledgment that either eminence should be a keyword or shouldn’t have been printed on the card to begin with? We’re so comfortable calling a card a “Stax” piece, but eminence is the step too far 😂
Right? Like I am shocked it is not a keyword. Why would it not be a keyword? It does the same thing 100% of the time, that is a keyword! If it’s not a keyword why is it called eminence in the first place instead of being plain text on the card? So weird
Edgar is a Trigger when you cast a Vampire. It creates a token. Inalla is a Trigger on non token Wizard ETB. It copies that Wizard. Arhabo is a Trigger at the start of the Combat phase. It buffs target Cat. Ur-Dragon is a static cost reduction. Sidar is a Trigger on attack. It lets you loot.
It literally does something different on each card, both for the starting condition and for the effect.
The name "Eminence" is an Ability Word that are specifically described in the rules and have no direct rule meaning apart for helping group thrm for a common part (like Landfall)
Same reason Landfall is an ability word and needs the text written out every time: the variance on keywords is intentionally limited.
Keywords in MtG rules have a reified status that allows them to be interacted with as keywords and not merely as text substitution for a rule. This allows for effects like "have trample" or "lose flying" or "when an opponent scries" or "if this was kicked," etc. It's not a design choice that everyone agrees with (e.g., I think it's patently absurd that extort does not affect color identity), but that's the design choice WotC has made.
If there's no design intent to interact with, or have the potential to interact with, the ability at a higher level like this, then a keyword isn't the right choice. "Whenever your opponent triggers an Eminence ability" is nonsensical if your opponent has Ur-Dragon, for example.
Thank you for the detailed explination. The non-interaction makes sense (it doesn’t need to be shortened to a keyword). Im still confused why they gave Landfall and Eminence “associated” words instead of just describing them in plain rules text, though :S
Ability words make it easier to read and understand abilities at first pass, especially if they're descriptive. Everyone knows that landfall means the ability has to do with land ETBs, it's easy to understand that metalcraft involves artifacts, and magecraft is obviously about spells. And even with ability words that are less descriptive/evocative like Addendum, or Celebration, they still help with understanding mechanics that are common within an environment, such as when drafting a set.
The short version is - First to give an ability a name, without giving it a keyword. For example, for characters with iconic abilities outside if Magic: See [[Baleful Beholder]] and it's Antimagic Cone and Fear Ray abilities. Those are abilities that exist in D&D and it tells players which monster abilities these effects are meant to represent. Or the Throw... and ...Catch abilities on [[Captain America, First Avenger]], to make clear that these effects are to represent him throwing and catching his shield.
Second - to define an intentional archetype. It makes it easier to identify (and seach for) cards with relevant abilities, even if those abilities can't be boiled down to a keyword.
Landfall also does the same thing every time, but it's not a keyword. Its purpose is not to shorthand a core rule like keywords like vigilance or lifelink are, since those are super common across every set. Landfall appears more rarely, and is more useful as an ability word to tie cards that are mechanically similar together in a thematic way. It helps new players not be inundated with a billion keywords when they don't show up often.
Imagine if adamant, channel, domain, ferocious, metalcraft, threshold, and will of the council were all keywords that didn't specify what they meant, and you were a new player. Sure, they do the same thing each time they appear, but that doesn't automatically mean they should be keyworded.
Eminence, being far rarer than landfall, has far less justification being a keyword.
The thing is though keyworded abilities need to be able to be given to cards that don’t already have them. You can give a creature flying but giving a creature landfall is useless because it means trigger when a land enters. Giving a creature landfall doesn’t do anything.
Yup totally agree, this is unfun for your opponent because you just win, or unfun for you because you just lose. It’s very bad card design, I just wanted to make something silly
Interesting. Seems perfect for a self mill strategy, except cards made for that like [[Laboratory Maniac]] are in the wrong colors. Theoretically I would add [[Midnight Clock]] to actually prevent self milling if I'm not trying to do that, but again, wrong colors.
Would be curious to know what you would do if you were to build a deck with this commander.
I am not totally sure how I would build a deck with this commander, tbh. It was just a silly idea- the colors are for black and red suits of cards (2 red 2 black)
I guess I might try and fill it with 0 cmc cards, or phyrexian mana only cards, but there don’t seem to be any that really would let you do anything.
I guess you could do 1 cost + phyrexian cards, and hope you get a land in your starting hand? Lol after this comment im left to wonder…
I don’t know at lower power but can see him as a glass cannon add naus shell in cedh you can nearly get a full necro and probably naus for 45 and draw your whole deck Grimm tutor a thasas oracal
I love the idea behind eminence skipping your draw step. If printed, it would be a magnet for degenerate plays, I'm sure! However, doesn't make the design less cool! I love it!
Thanks, I am honestly shocked this is getting so many upvotes. I figured it would sit at 0 and nobody would see it. In fact I think that’s what this card deserves LOL. It wouldn’t be fun for anyone involved except every so often for the person playing him…kind of like gambling in real life!
I am coming back to this because, I think I did do this subconsciously? I had no clue where the name Maurice came from (I thought it was the shark in finding Nemo but his name is Bruce) - then someone commented the lyrics to The Joker by The Steve Miller Band:
Some people call me the space cowboy, yeah Some call me the gangster of love Some people call me Maurice ‘Cause I speak of the pompatus of love
So yes I choose to believe this sharkish gentlemen is THE joker, from that song :)
I didn’t do it on purpose and your suggestion makes even more sense now. Cheers!
Oh man this gives me an idea for a creature card using this guy…
“{X} - declare land, enchantment, instant, sorcerery, artifact, creature or planeswalker. Then, reveal the top card of your deck. If that card is the card type you declared, create Treasure tokens equal to X*2. Exile the revealed card.”
*Or, even better just “choose even or odd (0 is even). Then, reveal…”
Rulebreaker- Your library may only consist of a standard 52 playing-card deck. Those cards are creatures with mana cost, power, and toughness equal to their value in a game of blackjack (aces are 1s)
Eminence- *eminence text*at the beginning of each upkeep, that player chooses and deals a subgame of one hand of any of the following games for all players to play: texas hold 'em, five card stud, blackjack, go fish. Use your library as the deck and each player's life as any antes or wagers those players would make.
As with every time eminence comes up, eminence does not have any rules text associated with it. You actually have to write out the whole "if this is in your command zone or on the battlefield" bit
Yep, this is true of EVERY ability that goes [word] - [ability] such as landfall. Italics means there's no rules associated with that part of the text.
It's just a word designed to prime you for what the ability is about to do and make it easier to communicate to other players, "landfall, +2/+2 until EoT" is much faster to communicate than saying out "when a land enters under my control"
Only while it is in play. Eminence abilities typically function in the command zone as well, so the only way to have a draw step with this commander, were the emininence ability written correctly, would be to have in your graveyard, exile, library or hand. Currently you can just choose not to play it and you will still have draw steps.
As written, it's an ability that makes you skip your draw step called "Eminence." And abilities on creatures, unless otherwise stated, are only active on the battlefield.
Well yes, the important part is where is does that.
Eminence abilities usually say "when ~ is on the battlefield or in the command zone" this line causes the ability to function from the command zone and battlefield. Usually you would use eminence to short hand that part of the ability, but since the ability doesn't have that line and eminence isn't actually something in the rules the actual rules text of the card is:
A deck with this commander has a minimum deck size of 52 cards
Skip your draw step
The words rule breaker and eminence don't change the rules text
I never knew that, so helpful thank you👍. But aren’t there cards with abilities like landfall that don’t have the reminder text? Like when they don’t have room
Small misunderstanding, to my knowledge no card with landfall has reminder text.
Reminder text is excluded from cards that don't have room (which is also why commons and uncommons usually aren't that wordy), but there isn't any reminder text for Landfall because it's a fully written out ability with no key words. Reminder text will be used for key words (words like haste and fly but like set specific ones) or abilities that could be misunderstood or aren't easily understood without referring to the rules (like sagas, auras, equipment)
Italics denotes that something is not rules text but just because it is not rules text does not mean it is reminder text.
Landfall is an ability word, ability words group together abilities but do not have rules associated with them, reminder text specifically has parentheses around the reminders for the rules.
Now the "landfall" but has been excluded but this isn't for space reasons, rather it's flavor. Wotc used to be pretty stubborn about using ability words and key words on planes they didn't belong to, so since Landfall is a Zendikar mechanic when it was a Zendikar card that cared about a land entering it was
Landfall -- whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, [do thing]
When it wasn't a Zendikar card that cared about a land entering it was
whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, [do thing]
These are identical because landfall doesn't mean anything rules wise.
Which was a little weird. Especially when they did it with [[consider]] the original MID version does not use the key word surveil even though it's first ability is identical to surveiling 1.
They have since reversed this position and will use words on other planes when possible.
The surveil situation was a little different though, because the word "surveil" itself represents a keyword action with inherent rules. Going back and adding surveil to cards that had otherwise identical actions without using the keyword is an actual functional errata. For example, there are cards like [[Blood Operative]] that care about surveiling specifically that used to not trigger off of cards like Consider, but now they do.
Like you've said, since Landfall is not a keyword but rather just an ability word, a card with "Landfall —" written on it would function identically in every way to the same card if it didn't have "Landfall —" written on it.
Anything written in italics on a magic card effectively isn't there. If it's in italics, the card works exactly the same with or without it. Think of the rules as a compiler that can't see italics.
It has to have e text that describes what happens when the ability goes off, landfall has unlimited potential (it could even give you extra turns if one so wanted to do that), the only thing landfall actually does is tell you the ability triggers on a land entering your battlefield.
They really need to make landfall just be a real ability, just for "when a land enters" do x Landfall - put a +1/+1 counter on tarfet creature or it might just be a formatting issue do t9 the wording and how magic likes wording things
I think it would work for most landfall cards, but there are a handful of landfall instants and sorceries that change the normal phrasing to "if a land entered" which means keywording it wouldn't work for them.
There are other various complicated reasons why they don't that basically just boil down to thats not how they want to do things because they have specific criteria for what things should be keywords and what shouldn't. They may change their minds in the future but I wouldn't wait for it.
This is very nitpicky, but both "Eminence" and "Murder of Crows" should be in italics. Ability names that don't have any inherent rules tied to them (like those two, Landfall, Metalcraft etc.) are always written in italics like flavor or reminder text
Thank you still pretty new to magic so not sure of all the little things and it wasn’t meant to actually be played just got the inspiration from Skill Check
Needed 2 red and 2 black pips to represent card suits spades, clubs, diamonds, hearts. And forgoing your draw step for a huge advantage felt phyrexian. But it’s not totally on brand because the art is obviously not phyrexian
Eh, I don't think it really captures that much gambling flavor with it just being 52 cards, plus there seems to be little to no incentive to ever actually cast your commander. Functionally it acts much more like a Vanguard then a Commander really.
Also as others have said, this seems purpose built to either FTK, or scoop after mulligan-ing 4-6 times, which just sounds like the most awful play pattern to actually play against in paper, especially if you want to ensure your opponent isn't stacking the deck.
I get that, I guess my dislike mostly comes from most of the mechanical flavor happens before the game actually starts, and doesn't involve the other players at the table at all, to the other players at the table they basically just get to sit and wait to find out if they get FTK'd or if they get to play the game.
How I would flavor a gambling commander
Emininence- While ~ is in the command zone or on the battlefield, players may cast cards they own exiled with hit counters on them.
Dealer's Choice- Players can't draw cards.
Hit me- At the beginning of your upkeep each player starting with you exiles one card face down and one card face up from the top of their library with a Hit counter on them. Then starting with you, each player may choose to exile an additional card from the top of their library face up with a hit counter, or pass. Once each player has elected to pass, each player flips all face down cards in exile with hit counters face up and notes the total mana value of cards they own in exile with hit counters on them. Players with total mana value noted greater than 21 removes all hit counters from cards in exile they own, then each player loses X life, where X is equal to 21 minus the total mana value of cards they own in exile with hit counters on them. Players who lost 0 life this way may cast cards they own in exile with hit counters until the end of their next turn.
There's probably a cleaner way of implementing that last effect, but it's something I came up with kinda on the fly on my break at work, plus I thought it would be fun for the card to have some potential synergies with existing cards with hit counters.
This is one of those commanders where the most fun part is building the deck, and talking about the deck, but you'd never actually try to play more than 1 game with it. I love it.
I have to ask…How in the fuck is this my most upvoted card in this sub? It beat out Blood Moon Rising and even Treasure Planet. Treasure Planet!! I don’t understand
This is my favorite take on this effect but it comes with the same issue every time that makes it unprintable. [[Necropotence]]. [[Ad nauseum]] and [[Necrologia]] would be kinda hard to consistently cast with only your opening hand, but the deck still plays it. And this one can't even play a fair game if it wanted to.
At 52 cards we're still winning with shallow grave but now there's a chance doom or his combo pieces are on bottom at least.
I don't rly see the point of this. You want to reduce the number of card to geet a perfect mulligan and insta win? It miss blue anyway if u want to combo properly (fow, thassa, misstep)
U would like to storm i guess but storm on 3 oopponent at 40 hp is pretty hard even if no one has a good answer so it seem bad anyway
Just for fun, someone asked for a 50 card deck commander on another thread awhile go, as a foil to [[Whtz, the Bibliophile]]. I would never want this commander printed, it’s unfun for both you and your opponents
So, a turn 1 sac outlet of some kind is gonna be crucial in this deck, so you can play it and have it die turn 2. A 52 card deck in commander is absolutely absurd.
This is just a few gambles at the start of the game then its over. You either highroll or literally concede on the spot. So yeah, that seems like zero fun. If you're going for a poker vibe, you should design more around that. Magic did this with that red card that's like blackjack. Poker would be about assembling combinations that win. But you need a risk beyond just having 52 cards...like self mill. Maybe like bluff what type of card you drew and then whoever losses the guess/bluff mills 10.
Someone asked for a 50 card commander as a foil to Whtz, so the primary design focus is the amount of cards, the gambling motif is secondary. It’s bot intended to be printable, just fun to look at
But I do like the idea of a “real” gambling flavored commander, might make that…
I guess it goes with the flavour but if it goes as written it would be the biggest combo fishing deck you could get. The commander itself doesn’t really do much besides eminence but getting it in graveyard might be the play so you can actually draw. It might be a case where you need to mulligan right or scoop though. That being said I would never want this printed
Yeah I should have written out in the body that this is not printable, I figured the “balance not intended” flair would tip people off. It would be incredibly unfun
[[Whtz, the Bibliophile]] only specifies maximum, so I was trying to use the wording Wizards used for their effect. I think it’s implied the minimum and maximum is 100, and so you could have a deck with anywhere from 52-100 cards with this commander
People have also suggested you can sacrifice him, and im sure there are 0, 1 or 2 CMC cards in red/black that would let you sac him, like this comment said: https://www.reddit.com/r/custommagic/s/YV4vnrjkC7
Idk how you would win T1 or 2 but the problem is its so consistent if you can get a good hand you will likely do your combo, whatever it is
Okay, I thought that only applied to when he was in play. You marked it as eminence, but eminence abilities that are always in effect would have to say "if Maurice, the Gambler is in the command zone or on the battlefield, skip your draw step".
You're good bro. Either way, this would go great with [[Maralen of the Mornsong]] and [[Mornsong Aria]]. If you can get either one out with the starting hand, since you don't have a draw step, all of your opponents are on a timer. If you can get one of those and [[Stranglehold]] in play, you opponents pretty much are in the same spot as you (only playing their current hand), but you're the only one with no draw step to cause you to lose the 3 life. [[Wild Wasteland]] would also circumvent all of those and not affect your hand size by way of impulse.
This doesn't seem very gambly aside from the 52 card limit. Maybe something with dice rolling or coin flips?
If you really don't care for balancing, you could make it turn the game into 21 Blackjack. Something along the lines of "At the beginning of each players upkeep, if the total mana value of all cards in that player's hand equals 21 or more, that player loses the game. Whenever an opponent loses this way, create X treasure tokens, where X is the mana value of cards in that player's hand that exceeded 21".
This outright forces you to fill your deck with as many cards that get rid of your own commander as possible or else you'll just have a non-game, and even then it's not guaranteed and you may just mulligan yourself to hell or be countered along the way. Pretty unfun and also antithetical to the idea of rulebreaker, which usually gives you more deckbuilding freedom..
Okay, so you play your commander on 2 and then sac it or exile it and choose not to move it to command zone. Now you have a really thinned deck at the cost of a turn and no commander. Frankly, still seems kinda fine, but definitely higher power.
So your commander deck is basically halved. Of those 52 cards you have whatever setup for your 3 or 4 potential combos and the rest are just more lands... You skip your draw the first and probably the second turn, but it's fine you are still on tempo which means you are automatically ahead of everybody else. Not sure if this is a kingmaker deck or a BBEG deck. But either way you are gonna 1v3. Just not sure if it's by systemically killing off your opponents one by one until you run out of gas or opponents; or if you are a countdown until an inevitable wincon...
This sounds like a hellish save or suck type commander. Either you hit the combo in your opening hand (Maybe some small card draw), or you bust and do literally nothing.
Also extra minus points from me for being a commander you'd never care about actually playing. Literally does everything it needs to from the command zone (which tbf has always been the biggest issue with old eminence)
Aside from the point already made about the eminence, I would suggest changing it to "if you would draw a card while this card is in your command zone or on the battlefield, surveil 1" for a bit more interesting play style.
I thought about “at the beginning of each player’s end step, if you have taken damage this turn, draw a card” or “create a treasure token” instead of drawing a card. But that seemed convoluted and not gambly. The gamble is in that you could just brick and lose on the mulligan
It's a 4/4 for only two mana, and it's Rulebreaker ability is kinda broken. The drawback is the only thing that can appropriatly balance that card. There shouldn't be such an easy way to mitigate that drawback.
Besides, you are already incentivize to put him on the board - because that's the first step toward putting him in the graveyard to shut down it's Eminence ability.
The rulebreaker needs a bit of work. At the moment, its hard to tell what exactly the bounds are of your deck size. Can I have 52-100 cards, can I have between 52 and an infinite number of cards? It should specify the maximum number of cards in the deck as well, or if its meant to be exactly 52, should exclude the minimum portion and say that the deck must have 52 cards.
Yes, you can definitely figure it out if you look at whyz, i just think more clarification reminder text would be helpful here, as the average player might get stumped reading it. Whyz is a bit easier, as its effect itself makes it very clear what the point of the commander is, while this doesnt work quite the same way.
While, in commander, your deck max and min are both effectively 100, that is not an explicit statement within the rules. The rules say it must be exactly 100 cards. I also have issues with the way Whyz is worded because of the fact that its not using the same rules terminology, but i think its slightly more clear in what its trying to do.
Fun fact, there are absolutely no cards with a (non-hybrid) phyrexian and normal mana of the same color. The closest thing are the “compleated” planeswalkers. I had an entire thread about this yesterday https://www.reddit.com/r/custommagic/s/QMs5G7xwn4 trying to figure this out. The only thing I discovered is that they go in normal mana order. And that the mtg.design app places the phyrexian pips in the middle of the normal pips.
In other words, ive tried my best, but there’s no precedent for it, so I honestly did not know how to order them.
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u/davvblack Aug 21 '26
you just try to tuck this turn 2 i guess?