Dominaria certainly is a set that spotlights Legendaries. But does it give us great Legendaries specifically for Commander? Does it give us worth while commanders? If so, how many?
I've looked at the cards and come back with nine great generals that you'll be wanting to brew around once the set is released. Let's take a look.
Finally, she's here! And no, I'm not talking about Jhoira, the new captain of the restored Weatherlight.
I'm talking about the Red/Blue artifact commander we've all been anticipating! Jhoira lets you draw a card whenever you cast a historic spell and artifacts (as well as sagas and legendaries) just so happen to be historic. So everyone can calm down about there being no Izzet artifact commander, because I think we can be happy with what we got.
Maybe some people wanted a specifically artifact related ability? However, I think making your artifacts cantrip is a great ability to have up your sleeve.
Speaking of cantrips, why not have a commander that now makes lands cantrip too?
Tatyova’s got your back. Whether it’s in or leading the right deck, Tatyova will draw you lots of cards while ramping out to cast your legions of Simic monsters. Whether in the deck or as the head of it, Tatyoya’s not really specialized around her ability. However, she still offers so much value to any strategy you want to spin for the best colour pair in EDH.
It's not every day you see such a good Planeswalker's ultimate as a regular ability on a commander. That’ll do, Pig.
Everyone know about Karador, Ghost Chieftain right? One of the highest rated commanders that's ever been printed?
Well, depending how you want to look at it, Muldrotha is either a better or worse version of big K. Worse in that Muldrotha's casting cost will never be lessened, so it’ll eventually get harder and harder to cast. Better in that you get to cast a card of EACH permanent type on your turn instead of just one creature. Also, Muldrotha is in arguably better colours for the self-mill exploit-your-own-graveyard deck it helms.
Muldrotha also opens the door to all kinds of other reanimator decks in Sultai. Enchantment reanimator? PLANESWALKER reanimator? I think we're looking at a new fan favourite here.
Ghave, Guru of Spores players are obviously stoked about Slimefoot, but as a player who thinks Ghave gets into the “annoying to play against” realm (the math gets overwhelming to juggle), Slimefoot is going to be my fungus/saproling general of choice.
I like how minimalist two-colour commanders are, plus the powerful yet simple effect Slimefoot will have on games is something I don’t want to be on the wrong side of. It’s a better alternative than someone counting +1/+1 counters for 20 minutes before they finally fold.
Continuing the recent Commander-set tradition of making Angels the Boros tribe that loves equipment, I can't imagine a better commander for that deck than Tiana. Your equipment becomes impossible to deal with, and the same goes for auras too.
I think there are some real powerful things to be done with this card and I love this new crop of Boros commanders we're seeing.
I’m on the fence about this card. On one hand, I dig the five-colour identity that comes from Jodah's ability, but why doesn't he himself cost five colours? Also, I don’t get why he has flying. With all that said, I do think there are going to be some silly and fun decks built around Jodah and I can't wait to see them. Eldrazi’s gotten stale, but 7cmc+ spells tribal seems very fun. Just make everything cost seven or more? I'm pretty into that too.
I'm sure there are more inventive ideas out there, he's not a bad WUBRG dragon commander either. Whoops! Sorry Ur-Dragon?
Gruul tokens just got a serious commander.
Have you been playing Tana or Wort? Might I recommend you consider X-spell/tokens Radha? Throw Neheb and Wort into the 99 and you are looking at a very wild deck. Of all the legendaries in this set, (and there are a LOT of them ) I think Radha might edge out Jhoira and Muldrotha for my most anticipated. Maybe it's just my Gruul bias, (my first EDH deck was Borborygmos Enraged) but I think Radha is an excellent commander that we're going to see a lot of in the coming months.
Finally, we have Firesong and Sunspeaker. Forget about the controversy of how to obtain this card. We finally have a Boros commander that isn't worried about attacking.
I think F&S as well as Tiana, (although you could argue Tiana cares about attacking) shows that WOTC really does listen to the Commander community eventually. We've all been saying Boros needs something else to get behind, and I think in Firesong and Sunspeaker we have just that. Small instants and sorceries, maybe burn spells, or Fireball-style. There are so many ways to build this new commander deck that I’m sort of proud for Boros as a guild. Like I'm finally seeing them leave the nest of their one note EDH existence into a larger world.
Dominaria may be the best set for actual Legendary creatures as commanders that we've ever seen. It rivals the actual Commander products themselves in sheer numbers. The nine generals we’ve covered show that the power levels and new ideas are right where we want them to be.
There’s so much to do with these new Legendaries, not to mention the other cards in the set that now care about historic spells, or the sagas… I could go on. Bottom line, Dominaria is a great set for EDH, so get out there and get brewing!
