Had to jump in here because I'm still reading the comments and can't believe how bitter/angry some of you are getting. These podcast episodes aren't sponsored by Wizards of the Coast. We'd literally say it if it was, as is the actual law. Card Kingdom and UltraPro sponsors our main podcast episodes, and WotC sponsors our Game Knights episodes. So if you think someone saying "these look good" is us trying to "butter up" to WotC, then you're just completely misplacing your personal opinions over what the actual facts are - letting someone else have their opinion. Disagree all you want, but don't think it's to try and placate a sponsor if we're not even sponsored by them on the podcast. We're free to say whatever we want, so from one internet denizen to the next - have a better argument. Calling someone a shill is as lazy as it gets. - Jimmy, lovingly from New Zealand.
Hi Jimmy, how are you? when are you coming back? Yes, your right, everyone has the right to say their opinion, but like the flat-earthers people, not everyone is right. Some people are really frustrated and take this game too serious, but also Wotc has a very bad politic of "I'm right, your wrong" (critics from individuals are ignored). So as a channel with 172k subscriber, TheCommandZone voice maybe could be heard by them, that's why its needed a little of criticism and not focusing only in the good things and saying "this is ok, all is good" because after all this channel represent the voice of his subscribers (or not?). Also, yesterday Commanderinmtg uploaded a podcast with Gavin Verhey where he says something like ”We didn’t put cards like Sensei divining top or Life from the loam in c18 because we wanted the people to add them if they want” ... So they didn't put obvious cards (within the theme) on purpose?. I really don't understand. Well, for me is not everything bad about this year commmanders I especially liked the new cards, and the approach they take to create them, but it could have been a lot better product overall. Cheers, and sorry for my mediocre english.
Hello, Jimmy! I'm just curious, is there a way to be featured on Game Knights? I have 1 deck made, and 2 in the making. My already made one is one you'd recognize: Shu Yun, The Silent Tempest. Mine can kill 1 player by turn 5, usually. My other 2 are going to be Samut, Voice of Dissent, a deck built for just big dudes and untapping, and... I can't remember the name. It's the Ninja from commander 2018. Ninja tribal with ETB shenanigans.
As Josh has said again and again - you vote with your wallet. If you don't like a product, it is entirely your choice to not go out and buy it. That is by far the most powerful tool that consumers have in a capitalist society to make their voices heard. We're going to still spend the time to review and talk about the product for anyone who is interested, and let them make their own decisions from there. No one's holding anyone hostage - and your voice does matter, so do it in the way that makes the most difference to the companies that are engaged in the business of being a business - vote with your wallet. - jimmy
My husband recently snookered me into playing Magic again after being absent for a few years. Your enthusiasm has really helped me find my love for the game again!
I would like to point out that if the card Yennett reveals is Odd you can actually choose not to cast it and just draw the thing. "If that card's converted mana cost is odd, you *may* cast it without paying it's mana cost. Otherwise, draw a card."
it doesn't say you can cast it until end of turn on the other hand it's when yennet attack so i think yennet can only cast instant speed card for free wich isn't that great after all but i might be wrong
No, effects like Yennett's have existed before, it overrides the normal timing rules which means that you can for example cast a Sorcery for free if Yennett reveals one.
Yennett doesn't say "If you don't," it says "Otherwise," which refers to the "If" clause. So If it's odd and you don't want to cast it right then, it just stays on top of your library.
Honestly, that would have been a lot better since this deck depends a lot on his +1. If you draw a card and nothing has miracle in your hand you basically wasted his ability.
Hey, Command Zone gentlemen. Also noteworthy: Top triggers Miracles at instant speed. Since Miracle triggers if it's the first card drawn on that turn, that does include your opponent's turn and casting it for its miracle cost supercedes the normal casting constraints on the card (so you can play a sorcery during someone else's turn). If that wasn't the case, Miracles would be unusable since nobody has priority during the draw step so you normally can't cast spells during it. So you can keep something like a Terminus, Vanishment or Banishing Stroke on top of your deck and if someone provokes you to use it you can Top it into your hand and Miracle the spell as soon as you draw it. Terminus during combat? Yes please.
I think Aminatou's abilities sync if you play a Manifest themed deck (plus, since she controls fates or something you can name the deck Manifest Destiny!). Her +1 helps you set up your Manifests, setting up some big and awesome permanent on the top of your library. She can then blink those Manifested cards and they return to the battlefield face-up.
FINALLY. This is the only deck I was really interested in from C18 and the other decks got episodes so quickly lol. Been on tenterhooks waiting for this one. Yennett looks dope.
This is the deck I'm most excited for. Not only because I love esper, or the generals are all cool. Bit because of Yuriko. As soon as she was spoiled I spent the next however long until now building a list, looking through hundreds of cards (this is my first edh deck I will be building from scratch, by myself) and now I think I'm almost done! So yeah, super stoked for this deck!
I can't wait to make Yuriko ninja tribal. we may not have that many ninjas _(around 10 if I can recall)_ , but just the fact that his exists now is just amazing to me. And do not forget the most important fact about this new deck the now we've got *A BABY PLANESWALKER!!* Ladies and gentlemen *BABY PLANESWALKER* in da house!!
Felipe Silva yeah, but there are many ways to make them ninjas! About 4 enchantments and like over 20 creatures that can act as such! And yes, freaking baby planeswalker! She is sweet too! Did you read the article on her?
Zakarie Leskowsky Yeah! she may be one of the most OP planeswalker lore wise. Like _" Oh, now I wanna a Planeswalker Spark... Because I Want to"_ And *SHAZAM* ! Planeswalker Status!!
Zakarie Leskowsky well, it is said that she knows every possible outcome of everey possible future... So I guess she already knows what happens _(If they even met... I think Bolas wont be hanging around soon)_
This was my first commander deck ever. I bought it from Target (LGS didn't have this deck in stock) after watching the C18 Precon Game Knights and this. Years later and I've changed out 18 cards and spruced up the mana base but I still love running it. If I really want to be competitive I'll play Vilis or Anowon. This one I like to play for a good time. Thanks for teaching me about commander fellas.
insidious dreams should most definitely go in this deck. black instant B3 discard X cards, search your deck for X cards, put them on top of your deck in any order. Sets up so much of the deck so well and its only like 4 or 5 dollars
Out of all the new commanders decks this is the one I'm most excited about. Sure it wont be as powerful as my other decks but this is such a new play style for me that i want to explore a new way of playing magic. I personally and going to build a commander deck for each legendary in this deck because they work best that way. This is probably the most beneficial in terms of the options it is giving you.
Glad that y'all have given a review of the new decks *as decks* while looking at the new cards without being too tainted by overblown hopes for high-value reprints or broken new commanders. Most of those in the comments would have it be the other way around. Keep up the good work!
To set up the Top of your Library you could use: Second Sight [Choose one - • Look at the top five cards of target opponent's library, then put them back in any order. • Look at the top five cards of your library, then put them back in any order. Entwine {U} (Choose both if you pay the entwine cost.)] I know it's just an instance and therefore a one time chance, but still will be useful, if you go with the top of the card theme.
I .... was never excited about commander before ... kinda just saw it as a funny format to play sometimes..... AMINATOU CHANGED SOMETHING IN ME, I LOVE HER!!!!! I cannot wait to test some stuff out with the deck, been researching stuff for hours now!
Excellent video guys. This, and the Lands deck, has the most amount of cards missing from it that should’ve been reprinted in it. Cards include Top, future sight, Soothsaying, Lantern Of Insight to name a few. Excited to build with Aminatou
I preordered this Esper deck and the most abusive thing you can do is infinite blink. As mentioned before use Aminatou + Felidar Guardian + Oath of Teferi. You can mill all your opponents with Alter of the Brood. Steal opponents library with infinite Gonti triggers. Even destroy all opponents life totals with Vela the Night-Clad. So excited for this deck.
I am a little sad that everyone thinks that this new set is underwhelming. It may be underwhelming in power (no one wants another atraxa, trust me) however they are REALLY cool in design and turns on some interesting ideas the way that commander should be: limited enough to be specific to some strategy and wide enough to make every deck unique (unlike Arcades, for example). In Esper deck Aminatou can be a miracle commander or a ETB commander and esper really lacks these types of commander. Yuriko is obviously busted and most probably will be the chased card but seriously I believe these decks to be much cooler than the tribal ones and the four colored ones. I will pick Estrid deck since I really like the enchantress merfolk to a pillowfort strategy, but these cards are so unique that I think people should care less for power level and more for simple fun. I know some people thinks fun = win, but if you are on a playgroup and you are the only one putting these overpowered strategies, most people will just stop playing with you or playing at all. Aminatou is a cool blinky/miracle commander. Varina is a Zombie commander with WHITE on it, so zombie players may use those nice zombies from Amonkhet. Yenett is a top deck matters in Esper, works well with Aminatou and is a keyword soup. Since I don't like Planeswalker cmds I would probably run Yenett instead. Yuriko is busted, hands down. Estrid is a crazy commander with a wide range of strategies and hard to deal with after putting some armors. Kestia is a cool aura centric commander (I don't really like the way she forces you unto running some expensive cards like Kor Auramancer, but well, life is hard) Tuvasa is the coolest because she only cares about crazy looking good for nothing enchantments. Arixmethes is a landfall on commandzone, and the counter trigger is a MAY, so can be a land forever and only turn on after a boardwipe. Windgrace can run just like any goodstuff matters, instead of only land matters, because he is so generic, but likes big thingys. Gyrus is a reanimator in jund and we all know they needed one new. Thantis is a political commander in jund, she is underwhelming but the concept is fun enough. Xantcha is my rakdos commander of choice for sure. Sahelli is a big things cheater, however can be a good thopter tribal commander, since the only good one is monoblue. Brudiclad MAY replace my purphoros, since purphoros is very oppressive and I like having friends to play with. Tawnos will be used to do some broken thing sometime. And Varchild is a political red commander. So, I really don't know why all the sad faces, but most comments that I see is about powerlevel, so PLEASE consider fun over it, because it makes playgroups healthier.
Rockn Rolla I agree commander decks where stupid hard to get a month after release for the last 3 commander decks only because of financial Smurfs flipping product for profit. Commander should not be the product for reprints or for flipping. That's what Master sets should be for.
Well I would never, ever, want a Top reprint in a Commander deck XD However, I heard a lot of complaints against the commanders themselves and I just thought it was unjust if that was based in power level alone, since the main purpose of commander is fun.
Aminatou is great for it's variety of potentially good variables... blinking, miracles, ninjas, hard control with bombs (Aminatou's Augury is good!), combos (felidar and the like)... it's just so much fun into one deck! It's not really only about 'optimizing what's there', but personalizing your in actually powerful ways
Sower of discord hidden tech: name yourself and a person who you don't want to attack you- bonus points if they have less life than you or are about to combo off
I bought this today. This is my first commander deck and I plan to do the card swap. Thanks for the work you put in. I am new to Magic more or less. Cheers!
Animatou, the Fateshifter (but good) WUB 3 Loyalty +1: Exile another target permanent you own, then return it to the battlefield under target player's control. +0: Exile any number of cards from your hand face down. Put that many cards from the top of your library into your hand. Then look at the exiled cards and put them on top of your library in any order. (Scroll Rack) -1: Exile up to one card in each players graveyard. -6: Exile up to four permanents you own, then each other player exiles the same number of permanents of their choice, then return all of the cards exiled this way into play under your control.
Aminatou is Amazingly powerful! I'd say check out edhrec to find good etb creatures. Witchclaw talisman is a good new ad and eyes everywhere is one that always catches my opponents by surprise.
Regarding the Yuriko ninja deck: blue has Arcane Adaptation and Xenograft, black has Conspiracy; take your pick(s) of all three to make all of your creatures ninjas. Make use of Vampiric Tutor and similar effects (OG Liliana Vess, for example) along with Brainstorm effects to get the most damage out of the triggers. Optionally, run stuff like Dream Halls so that you can cheat on big mana costs too.
To answer the question. The etb triggers on your permanents modify Aminatou's -1 ability. Baleful Strix Oblivion ring Ashen rider Peregrine drake Transmogrifyer's wand ( you can deplete the charge counters then reset it ) Spine of ish sah Magister Sphinx Sorin Markov Mastery of the unseen to manifest the top card which can be anything from Aminatou's +1 Aminatou/ oath of teferri / felidar guardian/ Sorin grim nemesis is gg
The hate is insane. These decks are entry, to help you get into the Commander format, not something that is just going to rock your shops tourney. Commander is about trying new things, different themes, having fun in a group. Some people take this way to serious. If you are, maybe you should take a step back, and evaluate the real reason you play. I see potential with all of these commanders and quite a few of the cards within them. Maybe the deck is not that great out of the box, but with a few tweaks, you can still have fun within your playgroups, get cards for other decks, or stumble across something you find fun overall. Thank you Command Zone for getting more Commander out there!
Aminatou seems like the ultimate miracle commander. If it's already in your hand, +1 and switch the card out. Next round you know you can miracle it. If the miracle you want is already on top, then leave it there and you know next round you can miracle that.
I think we are missing a clear synergy between the plainswalkers +1 and senseis divining top and crystal ball. You can put a dead card onto your deck then put them on to the bottom so your effectively trading a card to the bottom
By the way. 3 cards that are total musts that are bulk rares are the Oaths. Oath of Liliana is so far a personal favorite as powerful removal, and Oath of Jace as a huge card draw engine. Oath of Teferi is a great combo card and it makes Aminatous second ability really easy to abuse and reset.
This deck looks like a ton of fun. It does some interesting stuff and a few more things in colors that didn't used to do them. I'm surprised they missed mentioning that the Ninja cheats the commander tax... Augury really requires things like scroll rack or top to be able to set up deeper sets of cards to combo with that. That might be a scary card for Narset though....
I'd like to point out that aminatou is actually really powerful for a 3 Mana Planeswalker. Card Filtering, Protection (untapping by flickering), Ramp (Also untapping lands by flickering)
Same here. My Brago(TeferiTimeBender) walker deck will be converted to this. 9 of the 10 cards they suggest are in the deck. I was hoping for a hidden gem.
The net she's wearing as a veil may be a reference to the nets used in ornithomancy (telling the future by watching the flight patterns of birds). My Chinese surname is 羅 which originally was a net for catching birds, especially for this purpose.
Aminatou’s -1 is part of an infinite combo with Felidar Guardian/Oath of Teferi and/or Panharmonican. Infinitely blink your permanents, destroy everyone else’s permanents, etc.
In regards to Aminatou's Ult: It forces players to play the game a bit differently. Not only will you possibly be unable to fully utilize some of the cards you get, but you can't kill off the player you got the Non-land permanents from; since their permanents that you now own would leave play, leaving you vulnerable. To this degree, it's pretty much Esper Chaos.
Arhen Dante Agreed! This is pretty much the reason I bought the deck. One of my favorite parts about commander is seeing the crazy things that can happen. I live for those game changing moments, and this deck really fits my liking. Also the other legendaries have so much potential
Also now with Scroll Rack still being a thing it makes the deck potentially insane. And now I'm extremely happy I traded Land Tax Pre-reprint for some Scroll Racks, and now Scroll Rack is on the reserved(Never to be Reprinted again) list.
C18 decks seem super fun, everyone is complaining about the real money value of the reprints, commander is a casual format so I don't care about a super competitive power level or real money value, I care about how much fun I am going to have playing the decks and for that I think these decks are awesome, also love the fact that I may be able to get them for cheap because of its lower than normal real money value
I`m not complaining about the value but I too wish people would JUST give C18 a chance! =c The decks havn`t even come out yet in stores and people are whining about them not being "good enough". Some people....some people you just can`t please. If I could make just one minor gripe...why no Temporal Mastery reprint in Subjective Reality? XD
Duncan, This argument is beyond idiotic. We have the entire decklists and all new cardss spoiled, we know the value of the reprints are going DOWN when the decks release, not up, and we know that it's better to buy the singles you want rather than pay 20-30 extra dollars to buy some 50 cent cards and 40 worthless lands.
The main problem is with them shopping the 5th deck slot and raising the price UP $10 for the now 4 decks, and they're not even giving us any real value or decks that are at least as good as the old commander decks with these new ones.
If they did print Diving Top in this, the price for it would literally become $5 and no one wants it at even as low as $20 because we all want a card as good as the Top to stay expensive mainly for how good it is.
Duskmantle Seer is something that could be used with the main commander. You are friendly, giving all card draws, but you are making sure you loose the least amount of life.
I have been testing Aminatou flicker with superfriends subtheme. I really like flickering sagas. Phyrexian Scriptures, The Eldest Reborn, The Mirari Conjecture. Getting the level 1 and 2 of sagas repeated feels like winning. The ETB from the Oath cards are nice too. Oath of Gideon, Jace, Lilianna and Teferi are useful, even more so if you can repeat the ETB.
Aminatou combos well with Felidar Sovereign for infinite blinks between the 2 of them, add in an altar of the brood, or a vela, the Night Clad and there's a win con. Not to mention the MIRACLES sub theme that we've wanted since around when they came out in Avacyn too! You can use her ult then Teferi's protection and now you keep all your stuff and you steal someone elses. And Yuriko is AMAZING too, but you can't get too creative since it is just a ninjas deck like Vela used to be, only now an actualy thing. And this deck on Starcity means the commander alone are worth $38, so the entire deck plus all the goodies that come along with it too! Also the deck comes with Entreat the Angels. And why not at least mention Scroll Rack for the big spender or to let everyone know it's out there and that it's super good in decks like this one, Jeleva, and Especially Narset?
Would just like to point out for those who don't know. Aminatou goes infinite with felidar guardian and altar of the brood. Those are gonna be the first two cards I add in the commander league my lgs is hosting.
Legacy Ninja deck - all decent ninjas - tormented souls, Aqueous Form, control control control - ezpz Also my money is on Yennet out of the box - I counted and there are 34 out of the possible 59 non-land cards w/ Odd CMC (including X cost which don't 100% synergize) but thats well over half and probably will be the most fun, plus the keyword soup is great
Looking forward to the game knights episode of this! Interesting concepts would make for a great episode. I understand a lot of people were disappointed with C18 and coming from a group of competitive edh players, I can see why. I think in one episode, you guys said that the most fun about commander is building your deck. These decks capture that, give you a base and allows you to expand on the decks yourself. I'm going to enjoy the process and I'm glad you guys had a few suggestions. Keep up the interesting content.
The Yenett Odd HIgh cards sounds lovely, I don't have the Eldrazi collection for that though. It's always fun to go through all the odd cards in history though.
Jumbo, I think a good way to build Yuriko is to make her the head of a rogue tribal. Rogue works well in terms of theme and functionality to ninja, broader in availability, and has enough support to make a slick deck.
if you use her as a self mill graveyard deck, suddenly her +1 either puts the exact card you want into your graveyard once you mill, or just gets rid of cards you dont want.
You don't need a lot of ninjas for Yuriko. She just needs a deck with evasive creatures, and sac outlets. She doesn't care about Commander Tax, so you can use her in every combat.
Finally a good commander for my old Vela Ninja deck, time to rebuild that with Yuriko! And between Aminatou and Yennet I cant wait to build some top deck manipulating Esper control deck.
I like the artwork for Aminatou a lot, and I think the flavor matches really well. She looks like a creepy voodoo witch child somewhere in the bayou and I think the fact that her abilities are a little perplexing at first matches that flavor. When you think of voodoo magic you don't think of someone shooting fireballs or lighting from their hands or other things of that nature. You think of weird, maybe a little bit creepy psychological magic. So these kind of odd abilities that maybe don't seem all that powerful at first, but can be when used with certain cards really plays into that flavor.
Just so people know: you REALLY need Lim-dul's Vault for this deck. I gush about this card to other people (no pun intended), because it acts like a budget Vampiric tutor, but in this deck ESPECIALLY with Aminatou's auger, you can go just far enough to get a great value auger, and it acts at instant speed, letting u set up a busted turn, or just go digging for good cards. PLEASE look into the card. For my sake xD
I think Alhammarret’s Archive and Thought Reflection should be highly considered cards for this deck just because it turns her +1 into actual card advantage.
Command Zone is now a substantive, cogent, cohesive, thought provoking product. Amazing what happens when you dump some dead weight and pick up a great new cohost.
first I like to say that I love your channel! since I saw the first episode I've been binge-watching most of your stuff in a few weeks. You are AWESOME! It's amazing what your channel represents in the community and I learned a lot from you guys. Actually you're the first youtube-channel I ever followed. Thank you so much and keep up the good work! And to everyone bashing the new decks and hating on TCZ for being amazed by it cause of sponsorship: Josh actually says it everytime he is displeased by a card ( for example Thantis the Not-mantis) BUT they are right: There are amazing cards in the new set and there are a lot of possibilities for players to build around the new commanders. All it takes is just a little creativity. I know that is often a rare thing for many players which just copy lists from EDHrec etc. But hey: MTG is a TCG which needs creativity and strategy . I think WotC did a great job with this set and are maybe trying to improve creativity around the scene. Everyone can win easily with a little modificated Edgar Markov Deck - but try to build a deck on the same power level with Lord Windgrace or Aminatou - thats the challenge. Think about it.
Aminatou secret Brago deck was honestly the direction I wanted to go with the deck. Not Brago stacks because Im not a dickhead and actually like to have fun with my EDH decks, but as you noted black is such an untapped well of jank for blink. Baleful Strix, Rona, Hostage taker (*ahhhhh!*)......actually that last one feels like a good enough one to just end on.
As per Aminatou I like the idea of Brago'ish style with Yennet top stuff. Will make Varina as well, but as you said zombies are zombies. As per Yuriko, I was thinking Edric style approach with bunch of unblockable creatures that are made ninjas with arcane adaptation/conspiracy/xenograft to trigger Yuriko. Then combat dmg stuff like coastal piracy/bident of thassa/larceny etc, perhaps infect to spice things up. Then return inherent ninjas with crystal shard/erratic portal to my hand, unless we have other things like intimidation/Tetsuko etc for combat. Lastly, extra turn and counter spells. Will see what form it takes. Looking forward to the next game knights!
its pretty cool that they finally made the first black miracle spell because in avacyn restored they wanted black to feel suppressed since the humans were winning in the fight against all the dark bad stuff so they didnt print any black miracle cards.
I altered to include tons of board wipe. I keep the battlefield clear and rack up counters on Aminatou. Then when people start dropping stuff, I trigger her ultimate and take it.
I am super excited about this card and the Idea of Esper blink. The cards I'm most excited to play with are Guided Drake which you touched on briefly and Perplexing Chimera. The ability to blink things you own instead of control seems really powerful and relatively rare, the only repeatable one I can think of it Venser the Sojourner. I'm surprised you didn't touch on an awesome new card that I believe is one of the most powerful cards in the deck, Isolated Watchtower. land based scry and ramp without color restrictions seems unbelievable and especially strong here. I'm also surprised you didn't suggest Brago as one of the 99. Finally a card I'm not sure exactly what to do with but seems very interesting in this deck and maybe even more so in a Yenett combat based deck, is Deceiver of Form. I would love to hear how people would take advantage of that card.
Yuriko needs first strike outlets, so you can ninjutsu in between FS damage and normal damage. Sac outlets to sac a blocked yuriko and Commander Ninjutsu her back in. Split cards for the top deck heavy hits, since both sides count together.
Lol imagine someone entering the MTG universe like: _"well, what can I be? a godlike golden Elder Dragon? a Millennia old interplanar Vampire? Maybe a silver Golem? U know wat? I'm gonna be a freaking toddler =)"_
I highly recommend reading her lore: magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-preview/aminatou-fateshifter-2018-07-26 This little kid is so cool and I'm very excited to see how she plays into the future lore of magic. She has the potential of being an awesome hero or a Bolas level villain because she KNOWS EVERY POSSIBLE FUTURE FOR HERSELF AND ANYONE SHE COMES IN CONTACT WITH. What I really hope is that she doesn't pick a side but instead "shifts the fate" of those involved in the major conflict while staying on the sidelines as an observer.
ModernExile I actually think she would be better if it didn't have a may on it, but instead let you ship a card to the top or bottom of the library. The straight draw 1, you MAY put something back sounds too busted (in context with the other commanders in the set). At least shipping the card top or bottom acts as a filter and isn't raw draw power.
