In case you missed the announcement article yesterday, it was revealed that the Colorless Commander deck for Commander Masters is less about Eldrazi than it is about casting big colorless spells in general. This kind of disappointed me so I wanted to imagine what sort of cards I wanted to be printed for eldrazi, showing a hypothetical 9 cards that could be added to the spoiled commander.
Colliza, All is Void
Legendary Creature- Eldrazi (M)
If Colliza is your commander, colorless cards in your starting library have no color identity.
Whenever a player casts a spell, that player loses X life, where X is twice the number of colors that spell possesses.
Annihilator 3
7/7
Kindred Distortion
Enchantment (R)
As Kindred Distortion enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.
Spells with the chosen type cannot be countered by spells and abilities.
Creatures with the chosen type gain "Ward- Discard a card".
Broodline Nexus
Land (R)
As Broodline Nexus enters the battlefield, choose a creature type
: Add to your mana pool.
: Add to your mana pool. Use this mana only to cast creature spells of the chosen type with mana value 5 or greater.
Corrupted Hedron
Artifact (R)
Whenever you cast a colorless spell, create a 1/1 colorless eldrazi scion creature token with "Sacrifice this creature: add ". This ability triggers only once each turn.
Add
Wave of Corruption
Instant (R)
Each opponent sacrifices two nonland permanents. For each noncreature permanent sacrificed in this way, create a 1/1 colorless eldrazi scion creature token with "Sacrifice this creature: add "
Eerie Beacon
Artifact (R)
If casting a spell causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control or spell you own to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time.
, : Add one mana of each color not in your commander's color identity.
Temporal Defiler
Creature- Eldrazi (R)
Flash
Ingest
When Temporal Defiler enters the battlefield, exile any number of target nonland permanents with total mana value three or less until Temporal Defiler leaves the battlefield.
3/5
Ash Collector
Creature- Eldrazi (R)
Exile two lands you control: Create a 1/1 colorless eldrazi scion creature token with "Sacrifice this creature: add ". Activate this ability only once each turn.
You may play lands you own named Wastes from exile.
5/5
Endless Legion
Creature- Eldrazi (R)
Annihilator 1
Other Eldrazi you control get +1/+1 and gain Annihilator 1.
Whenever a nonland permanent an opponent controls is sacrificed or exiled, create a 1/1 colorless eldrazi scion creature token with "Sacrifice this creature: add "
9/5
Suppose I "treat the game as if that condition were true". And, only for the purposes of... what effect? Is Leyline's effect: [you may cast that spell] ?
I mean… yes?
you listed the Trance as an example of an “as though” effect where you don’t have permission to do the first part UNLESS you have the second part… but not all of those abilities work that way. For real.
I brought up Frenzied Saddlebrute very much on purpose. Without the “as though” portion of that card, the effect of that creature is “All creatures can attack opponents and planeswalkers they control”, which they could very much already do. If you ignore the “as though” clause of chromatic orrery, its passive ability reads “you may spend mana”, which you could very much already do.
I’m not sure why people feel that 609.4 is ambiguous.
609.4. Some effects state that a player may do something “as though” some condition were true or a creature can do something “as though” some condition were true. This applies only to the stated effect. For purposes of that effect, treat the game exactly as if the stated condition were true. For all other purposes, treat the game normally
Leyline of Anticipation let’s you [cast spells] [[as if they had flash]] much as Frenzied Saddlebrute let’s creatures [attack your opponents] [[as though they had haste]]. Frenzied Saddlebrute doesn’t give benefits from Ognis, the Dragon's Lash and Anticipation doesn’t let you cast everything with G&E.
Card tags added, please use them when you mention cards that didn't appear in the thread previously. -MadMage
So instead of the possible downsides increasing linearly (each failed flip costing 1 or 2 life to give an experience like greed) to match the linear benefits (getting one additional chance to draw a card each turn), the downsides grow exponentially.
If this card has four age counters and I reveal 4 1-cost cards before failing all four flips, for example, I would lose (4 x 4 + 4[1+1+1+1]) life (32 life), gain one poison counter for each failed flip for each card (AKA 16 poison counters), reveal the top 4 cards to my opponent with no benefit to myself... on top of having spent 4 mana for THE PRIVILEGE of making those flips.
Were you aware that adding the "per coin flip" AND "per revealed card" would make the losses exponential? If so, was the point to just make this card a giant "gambling is bad" PSA? Because wizards typically does coin flips and the like in a fairly balanced way.
The fact that this card encourages you to shove 1/1 creatures in the way of giant attackers (or to use huge sweeper spells) as sacrificial looks makes this effect feel a bit more W/B or W/R than straight-up mono-white, in my opinion.
My predictions:
1. I predict we'll get a black card named "The End" that riffs off of either "Happily Ever After" or "Once Upon a Time" from Eldraine (much like Tree of Redemption/Perdition)
2. I predict a keyword that calls out (or explicitly excludes) humans, building off of the non-human subtheme from Thrones of Eldraine. I strongly suspect that we will see some sort of "mount" mechanic within the next two years (especially if that wild west plane artstyle from a while back is genuine) and could imagine a mount/familiar/animal companion mechanic appearing here.
3. Given the sleeping curse, we might see a bit more of counters than we've seen in the past couple of sets.
I apologize if I'm missing something but why is everyone saying to put this in Kathril? Kathril only cares if a creature in your graveyard has the ability (unless they are saying to put an indestructible counter onto Arwin using Kathril... which doesn't seem all that useful, honestly.
I just checked... with this at 113 the Name and Number Crunch rules out Invasion of Equilor...
I still hold hopes for the Commander packs - a battle with stronger effect better for constructed commander than would be safe in Limited (especially on lower rarities). It would also fit the special nature of the plane.
I hope so too, but I would have expected them to drum up some more hype around that then, like "there are 36 planes featured on battles in the set, but don't worry, there will be more in the commander product!" so I am leaning towards 'probably not'.
Maybe we'll get some more invasions in alchemy?
Outside of that one secret lair commander deck (kinda) DFCs and Commander precondition don’t mix. Maybe one more as a set/collector booster exclusive commander card, though.
Between this and the new Raptor, I wonder if there's possibly some form of Aggro Battle deck in the works? It seems like there would be a weird disconnect between having cheap, hasty beaters but using them to attack battles INSTEAD of your opponent.
I predict that “ignoring opponent to attack battles every turn” is going to be the new “gain life until all of my creatures have 100+ power” in Arena.
If you run R/U storm in cube, I imagine that this is a card to test.
It effectively flips for free (the third spell generates the mana needed to flip) and punches your opponent for 6 on the turn you flip it (3 triggers for 1 plus saga trigger for 3 more), if the saga lives long enough to transform back, there’s a VERY good chance of instantly punching your opponents for 6+ again that turn.
On the other hand, transforming as a sorcery means that this card, while decently sized, stumbles hard when any form of instant speed removal comes out (even if you treat this as a 6 or 7-mana spell to cast other spells the same turn).
Might thrive in U/R with the assumption of holding counter magic up when you cast this but that’s a fairly specific build.
Also, I'll be pissed off if they don't give us a villain that liked compleation so much that they want to find a way to reactivate the oil, or a way to reconnect New Phyrexia with the Multiverse.
Anyone who was compleated is now comatose, though. Where would this hypothetical villain have come from?
As there were announcements regarding the LotR set this morning, I wanted to take a guess at what the legendary one right might looks like.
The One Ring
Legendary Artifact- Equipment
Equipped creature cannot be blocked and has “ : add “
At the beginning of your end step, if the one ring is equipped, you lose 1 life.
Equip
Calling it now. The secondary Eldrazi commander will have the following text (or some variation)
If CARDNAME is your commander, all colorless cards in your library are treated as colorless for the purpose of color identity.
It allows devoid cards, colorless artifacts with colored activated abilities, and lands producing colored mana to use those abilities while still allowing this card to be in a colorless deck with another Eldrazi at the helm.
Discarding, then drawing for 2 life in dredge is flat-out better than a card that a card that lets you draw for free or discard a bunch of cards without drawing for mana.
Colliza, All is Void
Legendary Creature- Eldrazi (M)
If Colliza is your commander, colorless cards in your starting library have no color identity.
Whenever a player casts a spell, that player loses X life, where X is twice the number of colors that spell possesses.
Annihilator 3
7/7
Kindred Distortion
Enchantment (R)
As Kindred Distortion enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.
Spells with the chosen type cannot be countered by spells and abilities.
Creatures with the chosen type gain "Ward- Discard a card".
Broodline Nexus
Land (R)
As Broodline Nexus enters the battlefield, choose a creature type
: Add to your mana pool.
: Add to your mana pool. Use this mana only to cast creature spells of the chosen type with mana value 5 or greater.
Corrupted Hedron
Artifact (R)
Whenever you cast a colorless spell, create a 1/1 colorless eldrazi scion creature token with "Sacrifice this creature: add ". This ability triggers only once each turn.
Add
Wave of Corruption
Instant (R)
Each opponent sacrifices two nonland permanents. For each noncreature permanent sacrificed in this way, create a 1/1 colorless eldrazi scion creature token with "Sacrifice this creature: add "
Eerie Beacon
Artifact (R)
If casting a spell causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control or spell you own to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time.
, : Add one mana of each color not in your commander's color identity.
Temporal Defiler
Creature- Eldrazi (R)
Flash
Ingest
When Temporal Defiler enters the battlefield, exile any number of target nonland permanents with total mana value three or less until Temporal Defiler leaves the battlefield.
3/5
Ash Collector
Creature- Eldrazi (R)
Exile two lands you control: Create a 1/1 colorless eldrazi scion creature token with "Sacrifice this creature: add ". Activate this ability only once each turn.
You may play lands you own named Wastes from exile.
5/5
Endless Legion
Creature- Eldrazi (R)
Annihilator 1
Other Eldrazi you control get +1/+1 and gain Annihilator 1.
Whenever a nonland permanent an opponent controls is sacrificed or exiled, create a 1/1 colorless eldrazi scion creature token with "Sacrifice this creature: add "
9/5
I mean… yes?
you listed the Trance as an example of an “as though” effect where you don’t have permission to do the first part UNLESS you have the second part… but not all of those abilities work that way. For real.
I brought up Frenzied Saddlebrute very much on purpose. Without the “as though” portion of that card, the effect of that creature is “All creatures can attack opponents and planeswalkers they control”, which they could very much already do. If you ignore the “as though” clause of chromatic orrery, its passive ability reads “you may spend mana”, which you could very much already do.
609.4. Some effects state that a player may do something “as though” some condition were true or a creature can do something “as though” some condition were true. This applies only to the stated effect. For purposes of that effect, treat the game exactly as if the stated condition were true. For all other purposes, treat the game normally
Leyline of Anticipation let’s you [cast spells] [[as if they had flash]] much as Frenzied Saddlebrute let’s creatures [attack your opponents] [[as though they had haste]]. Frenzied Saddlebrute doesn’t give benefits from Ognis, the Dragon's Lash and Anticipation doesn’t let you cast everything with G&E.
Card tags added, please use them when you mention cards that didn't appear in the thread previously. -MadMage
If this card has four age counters and I reveal 4 1-cost cards before failing all four flips, for example, I would lose (4 x 4 + 4[1+1+1+1]) life (32 life), gain one poison counter for each failed flip for each card (AKA 16 poison counters), reveal the top 4 cards to my opponent with no benefit to myself... on top of having spent 4 mana for THE PRIVILEGE of making those flips.
Were you aware that adding the "per coin flip" AND "per revealed card" would make the losses exponential? If so, was the point to just make this card a giant "gambling is bad" PSA? Because wizards typically does coin flips and the like in a fairly balanced way.
1. I predict we'll get a black card named "The End" that riffs off of either "Happily Ever After" or "Once Upon a Time" from Eldraine (much like Tree of Redemption/Perdition)
2. I predict a keyword that calls out (or explicitly excludes) humans, building off of the non-human subtheme from Thrones of Eldraine. I strongly suspect that we will see some sort of "mount" mechanic within the next two years (especially if that wild west plane artstyle from a while back is genuine) and could imagine a mount/familiar/animal companion mechanic appearing here.
3. Given the sleeping curse, we might see a bit more of counters than we've seen in the past couple of sets.
Outside of that one secret lair commander deck (kinda) DFCs and Commander precondition don’t mix. Maybe one more as a set/collector booster exclusive commander card, though.
I predict that “ignoring opponent to attack battles every turn” is going to be the new “gain life until all of my creatures have 100+ power” in Arena.
It effectively flips for free (the third spell generates the mana needed to flip) and punches your opponent for 6 on the turn you flip it (3 triggers for 1 plus saga trigger for 3 more), if the saga lives long enough to transform back, there’s a VERY good chance of instantly punching your opponents for 6+ again that turn.
On the other hand, transforming as a sorcery means that this card, while decently sized, stumbles hard when any form of instant speed removal comes out (even if you treat this as a 6 or 7-mana spell to cast other spells the same turn).
Might thrive in U/R with the assumption of holding counter magic up when you cast this but that’s a fairly specific build.
Anyone who was compleated is now comatose, though. Where would this hypothetical villain have come from?
The One Ring
Legendary Artifact- Equipment
Equipped creature cannot be blocked and has “ : add “
At the beginning of your end step, if the one ring is equipped, you lose 1 life.
Equip
If CARDNAME is your commander, all colorless cards in your library are treated as colorless for the purpose of color identity.
It allows devoid cards, colorless artifacts with colored activated abilities, and lands producing colored mana to use those abilities while still allowing this card to be in a colorless deck with another Eldrazi at the helm.
Discarding, then drawing for 2 life in dredge is flat-out better than a card that a card that lets you draw for free or discard a bunch of cards without drawing for mana.