- the card has the same name as a card in your starting deck (including your commander [C.R. 903.3]) or a card you own in the current game, or
- the card's color identity includes colors outside your commander's color identity
"Any number" means zero or more (C.R. 107.1c). "Any number" does not mean "all".
To be clear, even though Spawnsire of Ulamog's last ability lets you cast multiple Eldrazi cards from outside the game, this doesn't let you cast, say, multiple cards with the same name this way in a Commander game (C.R. 903.11). This is because if you cast more than one Eldrazi card with Spawnsire of Ulamog, you nevertheless cast them one at a time, since casting a card is a multistep process (C.R. 601.2).
The Commander variant limits
- changes whether a card you own from outside the game counts as included in your deck,
- changes what "outside the game" means (as M.T.R. 3.16 does in a sanctioned tournament, including a sanctioned Commander variant tournament), or
- otherwise overrides the Magic: The Gathering Tournament Rules.
EDIT: Expanded on last sentence after comment 4 was posted (I mistakenly wrote "...comment 3 was posted").
EDIT (Jan. 29): Clarified first paragraph after comment 9 was posted.
EDIT (Feb. 13): Deleted a sentence in first paragraph.
EDIT (Apr. 19): Minor clarification.
EDIT (Apr. 29, 2019): Edited a rule citation, probably to conform to rule changes. Minor edit.
EDIT (Jul. 9, 2019): Edited to conform to rule change with Core Set 2020.
EDIT (Apr. 17, 2020): Edited to conform to rule update for Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths.
EDIT (Apr. 19, 2020): Clarification; add rule citation.
EDIT (Apr. 17, 2021): Edited.
EDIT (Jul. 23, 2021): Edited to conform to rule update with Adventures in the Forgotten Realms.
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I recommend making them into a distinct theme so that players can get a feel for the setting and storyline, hopefully creating something akin to a role-playing or storytelling experience. It's also good for them to see the "cycles" between the various decks (such as Dimir Guildgate, Rakdos Guildgate, etc.).
I made five decks, one for each Shard in Shards of Alara. All were designed and playtested to be balanced against each other. I made them into 45-card singleton decks so that players wouldn't see the same card twice in one game. The theme is that the maelstrom is causing the shards to bleed over into each other, causing warfare between the shards as each fights to preserve its integrity from the others.
I also created a super-secret sixth deck, the Maelstrom deck, for use when six people are playing. The idea is that the creatures in this deck actually welcome the conflux and are trying to eliminate all resistance to it. Several five-color cards are herein.
Anyway, in my opinion you're best served by either doing what I did or by following one of these other themes:
4
The following list is arranged by creature (token) name, then by color, then by P/T, then by ability. Anyone up for creating customized tokens for the remainder?
Enjoy!
---BONUS------BONUS------BONUS---
The Great Emblem Project
In the game of Magic so far, there are 18 cards that can generate emblems. Between them, they can generate exactly 18 unique emblems. Here is a list of each unique emblem so far, up to and including Commander 2014.
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