The five new Commander 2016 MTG decks came out a month ago and as I usually do, I played them against each other to get their measure. Here’s my conclusion: they are the least fun Commander decks Wizards has put out.
This is not to say they are bad (or even poorly designed). The problem is that as four colour decks they play very slowly, lack focus and (as you can see above) quickly become extremely complicated.
I played 10 games, matching each against the other four, and found them to be mostly well balanced. With three wins the ‘Saskia the Unyielding’ deck (BRGW) seems strongest overall (look at her her leader ability) and the weakest deck is ‘Kynaios’ who only managed one win. The other three had two wins apiece.
Of course I’ve already dismantled the decks to use the cards in other decks and as usual they are well worth it (in my opinion) just for the wealth of powerful cards they contain. While these examples were not as fun as decks themselves, I still think Commander is the best MTG product being released these days.
And while I’m on the topic… Australia 2017 is fast approaching and as always I’ve crafted a few decks for some down under card flopping. Adam’s made a bunch himself (which are no doubt evil…) and even Bernard’s making some. The competition will be intense this trip.
At the risk of revealing my cards – literally! – here’s a rundown of the three I’ll be taking with me.
My first deck – which I call ‘Bang A Boomerang‘ – isn’t that new, being mostly a refinement of a deck I made about five years ago. It’s a control deck based around the above with a couple of other tricks up its sleeve and is both the most successful deck in my playtests and the one that’s least fun to play. I may replace this with a mono creature deck…
I love the bicolour enchantment cycle from Eventide and crafted an entire deck – I call ‘Deathlink’ around the one shown above. This is a very conventional creature based deck that I already know is vulnerable to the gimmicks of both A and B’s decks. While I think it’s fun to play, I’m not expecting many wins from this one in two player, but perhaps more success in multiplayer.
The third deck – let’s call it ‘Overload’ – was inspired by the above card, which is in one of the Commander decks. Currently in flux, this is a high concept, very unusual deck that has a very fragile win condition but should – I hope – create spectacular multiplayer games. Fingers crossed!
I can’t wait to play these. I can’t wait to see Adam’s decks. I can’t wait to lose to Bernard’s evil black deck not to mention see what his other one is. I’m pretty sure there’s some titanic flopping in the not-too-distant future…