After a week of no gaming and boring you with some posts as my contribution for #RPGaDAY2019, it’s my turn to bore you with some MtG stuff.

With GenCon and now the past week it has been spoiler season for…

In about 2 weeks time we will get our hands on the physical cards. But in the meantime it’s time for me to share with you some of the cards that caught my eye.

But first let’s talk about the elephant in the room. For the second year running we are seeing a price hike in the cost of the decks. A taster of the things to come with the Throne of Eldraine.

If you have seen the Commandzone spoiler season coverage they mention the value in each deck (based on reprints alone) but fail to mention the cost of the deck increase. It’s almost as if WotC asked them not to mention it.

The value is irrelevant really, it’s whether the reprints are any good, and Commander staples that matters. And that’s how they should be judged.

Another factor I take into account about a deck, and it only really comes into play once I’m playing them. Are they fun to play? It’s a hard one to quantify. And it’s very subjective, and personal.

At the moment based on the deck lists I think the deck I’m most excited about, and think I will enjoy the most is the morph deck Faceless Menace.

With the decks that have graveyard shenanigans like the Madness deck I keep thinking ok these decks will be ok when played against each of the other pre-cons. But graveyard hate is a thing. I use it in my decks, these 2 cards go in almost by default these days.

There are other cards that do similar, but I like these. Plus they are cheap and easy to get. Also Leyline of the Void is also a nice graveyard hate card.

Remember when I choose these cards I’m evaluating them for if I think I can i]use them in an existing deck. You know upgrading it (MtG players are known to do that). And if they inspire ideas for a new deck.

So let’s look at these new cards.

Beacon of Unrest get something back from the graveyard, and you get to do it again later. That’s always a neat trick. Dark Withering is a nice removal that with a later cars becomes super cheap with the madness cost. And Faith of the Devoted also combos off nicely with that later card also.

I think I already play From Under the Floorboards in my Scarab God Zombie deck. If I,don’t it needs to go in. 9 CMC for a board wipe seems expensive but In Garruk’s Wake I think is worth it (just). Mainly because it’s a board wipe that leaves your creatures and Planeswalkers alone. Nightshade Assassin now that I’m writing this I’m cooling on. I like it’s etb but not sure how big that X will be unless you can keep cards in hand.

Ok this next one isn’t a zombie, but it generates zombies. And the nice thing is a board wipe will leave you with zombies. It’s expensive but still I like Overseer of the Damned. I can see it being a sweet card in a Kaali (sp?) deck. Zombie Infestation is just a nice card that allows you to get rid of dead cards and get a zombie token. You can guess the deck I’d try those 2 cards in. Now Warstorm Surge is a sweet sweet card for my mono red Commander deck. Basically each time you cast a creature it’s removal or direct damage. Plus any other etb or effects they have.

Another card now that I look at the card I’m not sure about is Flayer of the Hatebound. I just don’t do much playing from the graveyard that involves red. But I do like that it comes with the same ability as the Warstorm Surge. Solemn Simulacrum is a body and mana ramp with it’s etb. A good utility card. Bone Miser is a great card with those activated abilities around the discarding of cards.

Wow do I like Nightmare Unmaking. It’s removal with that rather nice keyword exile. Destroying is ok. But exiling is better, especially those pesky indestructible creatures. Curse of Fool’s Wisdom there is only one player that will get this card. It’s whoever has Rhystic Study out. The last enchantment is such a funny graveyard hate card. Exile their graveyard and then cast it against them. Oh the chuckles I can see coming from this one.

Rogue’s Passage below is a land that definitely will be going into the Ninja deck. Making the ninja’s unblockable once they have been ninjitsu’d out on the next turn very very handy.

Emmara Tandris despite being an elf with a rather nice ability that my elves (would love to benefit from. Sadly it splashes white along with it’s green. So it can’t be there. But in my token spam deck it will be amazing.

Grimoire of the Dead combos with the Bone Mixer very nicely.

Well that’s it for the first part of my look at the new Commander decks. Part 2 tomorrow.