What's the Best Free Spell in Commander? | Commander Clash Podcast 111 

Time to reset the “Episodes since Swords to Plowshares discourse” counter.

Love this format. I really prefer this to the tier list stuff, at least with discussing more established cards. The tiebreakers are amazing as you guys form into makeshift 2v2s and it gets hilariously intense as chatgpt reads off her relatively random decision. In general, I think some of your best content comes when you're arguing; so attaching an actual win/lose to the argument works well. Really brings out the salt.

This should be the format of your current tier lists. You don't have to do 32 cards each time, something like 16 or 8 going into a randomly seeded bracket with Chat GPT as the tie-breaker would be excellent viewing. Never before have you guys had as animated or heated debate - this was excellent!

Love how you guys always find new formats to keep the convo unique

Watching Seth insist that Obscuring Haze is better than Force of Will is peak comedy

So much better than a sinple top10 or tier list. Keep it up!

I feel like this is one all time great episodes of this podcast.

I actually just stole a one ring with a commandeer a few days ago, it led to me making a comeback and winning the game lol

Aint no way subtlety is better than endurance. With subtlety you temporarily counter your opponent's creature which they'll cast next turn and attack you with it for the rest of the game. Counter your opponent's 6-mana/voltron commander? You're their archenemy. Blink it? The whole table is locked from playing the game and will team up on you. Endurance has all the upsides Richard said, ON TOP of being free instant speed out of nowhere full wipe gy interaction. There is no better. Keep in mind, it can also protect YOUR gy from exile hate.

This is literally the best podcast you have done. Please more episodes like this

Didn't expect gush to be missing! The bracket idea seems like a nice fresh take on the Tier List meta that has been going on for the last years.

This was probably the best most entertaining episode you guys have done so far

The suspense of the chat gpt tiebreakers was amazing 😂

I appreciate that Crim hates fogs so much, and also is probably the player second only to Phil who would benefit the most from adding them to his deck, considering how often he just ends up with an empty board, having barely any lands, and getting punched every turn for value by Richard's Dowsing Dagger-holder or whatnot.

Mana Crypt gets excluded because it’s too good

It was so funny tomer losing every single time to chat GPT

Some of these rounds discussions were hilarious. Props to the contributors for coming into each round with interesting perspectives.

I love how much argument happened over terrible cards. Truly great.

More of this format please!

"I would think Tomer out of all people would have a respect for Commandeer." That is cold as ice, Seth!

This episode is so good! Haha This is way better then the letter grade ranking episodes. 😂

Tier lists: 🥱😴 Brackets: 👌

I run my copy of Endurance in Tayam because it's less than 3 cmc and can refill my library to keep the combos going

great podcast...some WILD takes haha

I live for this episode. ChatGPT showing up as the tie-breaker brought more chaos to the yard than a poorly-timed Warp World.

I think Commandeer is more of a 3 for 2 because not only does your opponent not get their thing, but you get it instead. Kind of like a counter, and theft effect bundled together.

There is something incredibly ironic about Tomer and Crim advocating for a creature that sees almost no play over a card that is "good in cedh." Like, really? Why do you think it might see play in cedh?

A little late but I'm with everyone else, fantastic format and episode overall, loved all of it

This has been one of the funniest podcast episodes you guys have done, I hope you'll do this again! With ChatGPT too of course!

1st 2 cards and I'm like oh this'll be easy. No contest. Immediately needed a tie breaker lol

Commandeer is not a "3 for 1". It is a "3 for 2". (Or rather, 1-for-3 and 2-for-3, since the "for" should describe the cost) If it just countered the spell, it would be a 1or-3, but since you get the spell, that's one more card of value for you. Which actually compares to Force of Will quite nicely. And really, any spell worth commandeering likely counts for more than 1 card of value. Like, stealing the one ring is technically a 2-for-3 if you free commandeer it, but it quickly pays for itself in terms of cards. Its main problem is it's very hard to actually have those two blue cards in anything but mono blue. But if you have them, you'll likely find a use for this.

Would be interesting to hear what chatgpt has to say for each matchup, regardless of the score lol.

this was such a fun and funny format for a tier list I was cracking up this whole time

better than tier lists

That was a ton of fun, great video! I think you could have actually seeded the cards maybe, like listing them by how much they are played on EDHrec and then go 1st vs 16th, 2 vs 15th, etc. This would have mean a lot of sweep on the first round (but these tend to be funny and are not too taxing mentally) and would probably guarantee interesting discourses on pretty much every match-up starting at round 2. Anyway, keep this up, I think this is way more entertaining than the tierlists video!

Love the march madness bracket style format, should do more!

1:17:45 My favorite tomar arguments are when he repeats back Richards argument but with the other card. It's so funny how it works almost every time.

I love listening to you guys. Even though I don't even really play the game I love this podcast so much. Richard is so funny

Subtlety is such a terrible card, I actually can't. Endurance is infinitely better. I cannot stress how much I'm team Richard on that one. Also. Fierce has gotta take the dub right?

Richard: Shining Shoal has potential, you can pitch a four-drop to pick off one of your opponent's creatures. Also Richard: Swords to Plowshares is a bad card that I cut from all of my white deck. I love your brews, Richard, but holy moly do some of these takes not compute in my brain.

You guys should use polls for these episodes and reveal the poll after you talk about them. Maybe it won’t work for the later parts in the bracket, but it could be a cool tie breaker or just thing to see

good video.. will say a bit telegraphed on the final.. force and guardianship being in two separate halves of the bracket..

I love the 10 minutes of arguing in the first rounds just for two cards that have absolutely no chance of moving on again. (Sunscour vs snag)

somehow I knew y'all would miss Massacre, which can situationally outshine all these cards and has a really high floor. You can go back to any commander clash episode and quickly find a spot where a 0 mana drown in sorrow would be a massive blowout. It can be a onesided boardwipe, it's better against fast starts, it's one of the most slept-on EDH power cards.

I really like that you keep trying new formats!

I use Downhill Charge in Ojer Axonil Storm, once you start to cantrip or play some cheap ping spells with Burgi, or Urabrask, or Storm-Kiln out, you'll have a tapped mountain to sac and just add this onto the end of the stack, it'll resolve 1st making making your 7-8 copies of grapeshot do 10 damage each pretty easily. Snapback is obviously better at doing controlly blue things than downhill charge, but red is all about being aggressive and speeding up games

I absolutely love this format, loved the battles.

I'm glad we ended up with the finals match-up that we did. These were the 2 that popped into mind when I saw the title of this video.

This was so entertaining, please do this format again!

A cheeky corner case for Reverent Mantra is it makes auras and equipment fall off creatures too, so it could hose a few specific strategies pretty hard

Submerge is kinda OP. I love it. It basically reads: “unsummon a creature, they can’t play it again this turn, they skip their next draw”.

Yoo chat GTP is fire, you should try it as a special guest on an episode!

Phew this was a very spicy 🌶️ episode. Loved every second of it!

I really liked this format! Please do it more often!

Great format, would love to see more card tournaments.

Way better than the 100th tier list video. But you should have told ChatGPT you meant Commander initially

Not that it'd change the grading, but any land with Island subtype can be discarded to Foil (and Forest subtype for Snag). It isn't just the basic lands Island or Forest.

1:25:55 I think this one is closer than they let on. When I build decks, I'm more likely to cut Force from a blue deck than Pact from a green deck. This is one of those where other formats can taint judgment.

Submerge is so good, I play it in cEDH and even play yavimaya to turn it on in greenless matchups

This is very entertaining. I love how ChatGPT comes in and pours more salt on the discussion :)

I love this format of doing a bracket for a category of cards. I think I disagree with some of the picks, obviously, but I realized something. There’s not a single pitch card in casual commander that I would play over the 1-2 mana versions of the effect. Any of foil, force of negation, force of will, I would play counterspell over those in a casual deck. Fury is worse than pyroclasm or obliterating bolt, or lightning bolt for that matter. There’s exceptions for niche decks, like blue pitch cards in decks that regularly draw dozens of cards, or snag in my Shigeki deck, but otherwise every pitch card is bad to me.

Now that Eluge from Bloomburrow came out, it's gotta be time warp.

There's no way that subtley is better than Endurance lol

Tomer’s logic for Foil also applies to Commandeer, but Commandeer at least gets you a card back

The part not mentioned on Deflecting Swat is the ability to steal positive effects. What is better than outright countering say Eldrazzi Conscription? Redirecting it to your creature. What it lacks in versaility it makes up for with potential massive upside.

I personally love Summoner's Pact in Casual just as an extra copy of some Haymakers in the deck. I played it in my Katilda, Dawnhart Prime deck as a tutor for Kyler, Champion of Lambholt, or other big anthem effects.

I love how Richard thinks to summoners pact for a rec sage… these guys play the most over-policed commander I’ve ever freaking seen. Anytime anyone gets anything on board they are like “is he the threat” and “we need a board wipe” lmao. Good stuff.

I loved the bracket format. Would love to see more!

Love Seths defence of Snag over Sunscour. It's so medium 😆

I'm dying at Seth smugly agreeing with ChatGPT on the "Snag" call XD

Y’all are crazy! Commandeer is a 3 for 2. You spend 3 cards and get to counter the card AND take it for yourself. This is a better rate than force of will. The only concern is having enough blue cards to make it work. I think the consideration of casting full price also needs to be included in the ranking of each card

Pre viewing, force of will or fierce guardianship will probably take it. I'm hoping commandeer or deflecting swat take it Dark horse of snuff out, darker horse invigorate.

You can summoners pact for subtlety, it’s gotta be better! 😂

This was a great format! Everyone saying "oh this is an easy matchup" before vehemently disagreeing is hilarious.

The lack of Gush and Git Probe in this list...

Im surprised no one brought up the fact you can commander a force of dispair 😂😂😂😂lol ❤❤❤

Force of Vigor gets rid of some seriously scary commanders, like Go-Shintai and the enchantment it makes on ETB, or Breya, Etherium Shaper and the artifact it makes on ETB. In a lot of cases I'm more likely to have a green card in hand than a commander on the battlefield, turn 1 blow up mana crypt and sol ring while still having turn 1 mana available for a sol ring seems good

I don't even use primal vigor but it's better than deadly rollick by leagues. Removing altars, mana rocks, rhystic study or stax pieces is much better then killing a creature when there are 1-2 mana kill spells in black

Next subject: full art basic land art for each color! Please make it happen! Lol and please include chatgpt as a permanent member!

Brilliant format

Are we not gonna talk about the downhill charge, target an opponent's creature? Its worse hatred, but the memes

As a Nezahal main, commandeer is so cracked. Any counter spell that lets you discard a card, or return islands as cost doesn’t matter when you’re always at 10+ cards in hand haha. Very specific but these decks do exit. Yesterday I was at 39 in hand, tapped out and had more ways to interact than people could really comprehend.

My thinking on foil is that it maybe could be good in a dimir reanimator strategy. Discard vs exile is a pretty big difference in that case.

This episode was a blast!!!

this was awesome! yall have to do this again!

The Brady references right before football season lets go!

Amazing episode. However I just remembered, why didn't they mention the actual free spells (0 mana and no other costs) like mana crypt and jeweled lotus?

The chatgpt tie breaker was hilarious if not...well thought out

Great content, I love the ChatGPT mediation, that sh** is GOLDEN!

This episode was amazing, relying on Chat GPT as a referee and having it fumble on confusing Snag with Vapor Snag had me crying with laughter. EDIT: I'm 100% with Tomer though, Deflecting Swat in the context of commander is just so much more usable than Force imo, unless you are heavily invested in blue, DS is so much more splashable, fits in any deck with red and doesn't put you down a card when protecting your commander and can even 2 for one an opponent in the process.

I know Convoke effects technically aren't free, but they FEEL free. Lol. Wand of the Worldsoul for example I think should probably be a must have mana rock in any mono white or deck that has ANY white for that matter. If you want direct dmg out of white that is more effective than Shining Shoal, try out Mirror Strike, Honourable Passage, and so on. Those will deal direct dmg to the source instead of you. Also, Reverse Damage while it doesn't deal dmg, it ABSORBS any one source of damage from an opponent so it could suck up a 50 dmg ping from some bullcrap Niv Mizzet deck and then gives it to you as 50 life gain.

Richards take of force of despair was shocking 😮

Having Chat GPT as unbiased guest is so funny XD

I would love this format for yall doing some of your favorite arts

1:35:10 It's *gotta* be Fierce here. They have the same free-spell restriction. And since they're free, there's less of a timing concern (ie, other counterspells force you to leave mana up, making removal more attractive because you can fire off the removal a turn later).

This is the greatest, please do more of these brackets!!

If you do this again, I'd like to see the seeding be based on EDHREC inclusion.

Force of Will > Deflecting Swat, especially in a low spot removal and foggy meta (looking at you, MTGGoldfish). When the meta shifts to board wipes, Force of Will is better.

I thought this was to be of all 0-mana cards, not alternate cast conditions. This is still a curious comparison. I keep seeing these vids also through the eyes of a YuGiOh player and the valuation of effects and costs. I can see easy comparisons for some of these and a couple I would like in my decks.

Foil is discard rather than exile. I think that’s pretty neat