What if… ? – Team Commander

What if… TEAMCOMMANDER-Players would design a Magic set ?

The idea isn’t unique or new. There are dozens of threads in the web where players design cards or even whole sets. Some are cool, some are stylish and have a nice theme, but others are just outright exaggerated and unbalanced. So, it isn’t easy to create a good card, yet a whole set. So why would we try to do such a thing ?

We believe in (Team-) Commander. We like to point out some aspects that we think the designers have overlooked or neglected. Maybe it is just our point of view on the whole topic. We don’t dream that we could rise MTG’s attention, though, but the game is about fantasy, so let’s have our own fantasy, right ?

Part ONE : What would the theme be for a Teamcommander Set ?

Last article we complained a bit about Jumpstart and our expectations which haven’t been met.

So, which sets are there which are themed around the Commander format, the 2HG format and about tribes and mechanics ?

About every expansion has its mechanics, and some even add new cards to existing mechanics.

Jumpstart is about themes and mechanics throughout the history of Magic. The content is presented mostly by reprints.

Any set which cares about old mechanics / themes / keywords is welcome. Commander Decks consist of 100 cards, so if you dedicate a deck around a mechanism, you need a lot of good, qualitative playworthy and competetive cards, which also fall into the commanders Color identity. Example: we really loved the fairy tale theme from Throne of Eldraine – sadly, there was no follow up set. There is neither a matching commander for an adventure theme, nor arte there enough cards: 7 white, 6 blue, 5 black, 4 red and 7 green and a white/green card are there. While in Standrad Adventure Temur Decks are playable – you have 4 kinds of each card, and lucky clover, which is a key card, can easily show up in such a deck. In Commander, it isn’t that easily available. And from the 6+4+7 = 17 adventure cards, just 5 are quite impactful to be included. So how many „good“ cards do you need for a theme ? That’s a hard to tell number, but if the deck relies on a theme, tribal or topic, about 50+ % of the non-land cards should match that topic – that’s about 25-40 cards and a quite high number.

We also like to give accolades for some good implementations, and criticize others.

Megamorph. The best new mechanic invented. It fits to the mechanic, is also a morph ability, and increased the amount of morph cards to a playable number. Also, with Kadena, Slinking Sorcerer the mechanic got its own mechanic orientated commander, who is potent, playable, and yet not too costy and includes enough cards in its Color Identity. Perfect Work !!! The decks around Kadena work well, though more morphs are always welcome.

Cycle. Gavi, Nest Warden. We have the color identity, We have quite enough cycle cards. The Commander is a bit too high in mana cost for us. If he gets handled, the deck does… nothing but cycle cards ?! Quite all cycle cards have too less of an effect for commanderteam play. The deck lacks a bit of a backup plan or extended synergies. The effort was good, but the deck never turned out to perform as good as cycling does in Standard.

Unicorns. Emiel the Blessed. It was a marketing bait: „With Jumpstart, you are able to build theme Decks like Unicorns and Elves.“ Everyone was eager to see unicorn decks. And Emiel cares about unicorns: it’s ability puts counters on them. Sadly, there are just 23 other unicorns out there. And from these, just a handful will ever see serious play in a Commander deck. Also, these tribals seem to lack a certain distinguishing mark. Elves: they add mana. Goblins: cheap and swarm. Skeletons: regenerate. Angels: fly. Slivers: share abilities. But what about dogs, unicorns, dinosaurs, minotaurs and thelike ? Do they really add a unqiue feeling to a tribe ? Do the have enough creatures, which are playworthy and feel cool ? Is there a commander out there, who is good enough that people care to build decks around him ?

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The only expansion dedicated to 2HG was the Battlebond booster set. It wasn’t focussing on Commander, though, but was meant to be drafted. Cards have a new mechanic with Assist which is meant for teamplay. Nevertheless, besides this, the interaction with your partner is not higher than in other sets, cards neither support or care much about your partner. In Oath of the gatewatch, the Surge mechanic had a stronger impact to a Team-game, like the storm mechanic. Overall, we feel that the intention was quite good, but the result was hardly noticeable.

What we would have liked for such a set would also be an adaption towards the magic rules and oracle card texts, which adepts the game towards Teamplay. We know that card text changes are not very elegant and nifty, but we remind that they do happen – like the text change to „any target“ lately.

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So, after that being said, we can easily answer what a Teamcommander Set theme should be like: it should address as many of the problems mentioned above:

a) Rules changes for Teamplay.
b) Give a balance to Commander distribution between colors.
c) Make older cards playworthy again.
d) Add cards to mechanics.
e) Add cards to tribes.
f) Add cards to themes.
g) Bring a balance to colors.

We will adress the topics in further articles!

Have Fun and Good Games ! – The Teamcommander-Team