(Command Tower | Art by Donato Giancola)

A Commanding Lede

Hello EDHREC readers, and welcome to Setting the Record Straight! I’ll be comparing the power and popularity of reprints from Commander Masters to the power and popularity of reprints from other Masters sets.

For those of you who don’t already know, a Masters set is largely (or entirely) comprised of reprints of cards from older Magic sets. These sets are Wizards of the Coast’s attempt to provide players with renewed (and hopefully cheaper) access to fun and playable cards, and Commander Masters is no different. It contains hundreds of reprints and even a few new cards that can be found in the preconstructed Commander decks. For this article, though, I’ll just be focusing on the reprints. There’s no way to gauge the popularity of the brand new cards until they’ve been out for a while, so I’ll be ignoring them no matter how powerful they may be.

Additionally, because some Masters sets aren’t available on paper, and for the sake of relative brevity, I’ll only be focusing on Commander-legal cards from the following sets: Modern Masters, Modern Masters 2015, Modern Masters 2017, Eternal Masters, Iconic Masters, and, of course, Commander Masters. If you’d like to see a list of all the cards from these sets, it can be found at this link.

I’ll look at the three most popular cards from each of those Masters sets (as determined by EDHREC statistics) and talk about how strong each card is (as determined by me, the arbiter of all truths). I will not be considering financial value in this article, and if there are any duplicates between sets or any functional reprints (like Akoum Refuge and Bloodfell Caves), I’ll take a look at an additional card to compensate.

Alright, that’s more than enough preamble. Let’s look at some Magic cards!

Modern Masters

Coming in as the most popular card from Magic’s first Masters set is Terramorphic Expanse, a solid mana-fixing land for multicolor decks. It mainly finds play in Landfall strategies, and it even occupies a slot in a huge 74.39% of Obuun, Mul Daya Ancestor decks. This card is decently powerful when built around, but has narrow applications due to its downsides: the land you fetch must come in tapped and must be a basic. In certain decks, Terramorphic Expanse is an all-star, but in many others, tapped dual lands often function better.

Next is one of the most powerful removal spells in all of Commander: Path to Exile. This is an absolute staple in all decks that include white, and finds itself in nearly 40% of decks. It’s hard to ask for more efficient or effective removal than Path, no matter what colors your deck happens to be in. The only downside to Path is that it gives your opponent a land, but it's usually better that they have an extra land than a Blightsteel Colossus.

Lastly, we have Kodama's Reach. This is a fantastic ramp spell for a few reasons. First, it has the subtype Arcane, which makes a big difference for all 21 of the Hikari, Twilight Guardian players out there. But in reality, this card is great. It ramps you by one land and guarantees your next land drop while fixing whatever colors you may need. This card also finds itself in literally every single Kodama of the South Tree deck, which is impressive despite the Southern Kodama’s general lack of popularity. There are better ramp spells, like Skyshroud Claim, but Kodama's Reach, and its cousin Cultivate, are solid in their own right.

Modern Masters 2015

We start the second Modern Masters set off with a functional reprint of Terramorphic Expanse: Evolving Wilds. These two cards do the exact same thing, so I’ll skip over Evolving Wilds for now.

Moving past that, we see another solid ramp staple: Rampant Growth. Personally, I don’t think that Rampant Growth is a good card despite its huge presence in green decks. Similar to Kodama's Reach, it does ramp and fix your mana, but Rampant Growth doesn’t guarantee your next land drop since you only fetch one land. For two mana, there are significantly better ramp options, like the Talisman cycle or Arcane Signet. These mana rocks can tap for mana as soon as you play them and offer access to different colors if you need it. If you really need land ramp to fit your strategy, Steve is better in most cases because it provides a blocker that you can sac before damage for the same effect.

Next up, there’s Wayfarer's Bauble. This card feels great early on in-game because it provides ramp, fixes colors, and fits cleanly into your mana curve if you hit your first two land drops. That being said. it doesn’t feel great to pay three mana for a tapped land at any point later in the game, even if that three mana is paid in installments. This card is popular, and I think it fits well in decks that can recur it from the graveyard or really need to ramp up to huge threats. Wayfarer's Bauble is good, but there are absolutely better options.

As the last card from this set, we’ve got Sign in Blood. Especially for being printed at common rarity, Sign in Blood is pretty powerful. Black decks often gain life and can ignore the two points of damage that Sign in Blood deals to them, or can use that life loss to their advantage. As an added bonus, this spell can be used offensively at opponents with low life totals. Sign in Blood isn’t the greatest card draw spell in Commander, but with the archetypes that black decks tend to follow, it packs some serious power in the 11% of decks it can be found in.

Modern Masters 2017

The most popular card from this set is Path to Exile, which we’ve already touched on.

But next up is another one of the most powerful removal spells in Commander: Cyclonic Rift. A horrifically strong one-sided board wipe that can be cast at instant speed that only has one blue pip; what could make this card better? Well, its other ability can be used as an only-slightly-less-than-efficient single-target bounce spell. Rift is crazy powerful, and it has a slot in 30% of decks. I think it would be in even more decks if it weren’t such a feels-bad card that has the potential to make games drag on for several turns after being cast.

After that, we’ve got the five enemy-color fetch lands (Misty Rainforest, Marsh Flats, Verdant Catacombs, Scalding Tarn, and Arid Mesa in order of popularity). I’ll talk about these all at once because they all do the same thing, just for different land types. These are some of, if not the most, powerful lands in the format. For just one life, they can fetch up dual lands, triomes, or even basics (if need be) untapped, and based on Commander rules, you can put fetch lands that only contain one of their two colors in your commander’s color identity in your deck. These lands are great, and are justifiably popular.

Then, we’ve got the Ravnica Signets (Dimir Signet, Rakdos Signet, Izzet Signet, Orzhov Signet, Azorius Signet, and Boros Signet are the top six in order of popularity). Although all 10 Signets saw a printing in this set, there was a big drop off in popularity after those six. The Signets are good cards! Even though they don’t tap for mana on their own, they’re great mana rocks that can give you the colors you need in a pinch; the fact that they don’t tap for mana on their own is why they’re just good instead of great. The aforementioned Talisman cycle and Arcane Signet are better cards the majority of the time, but that doesn’t mean that the Signets are worthless. They’re quality cards and deserve the popularity they’ve garnered; they’re just outclassed.

Eternal Masters

This set’s most popular card is Swords to Plowshares. Earlier, I said that it’s hard to ask for more efficient or effective removal than Path to Exile, and I stand by that, yet I think that Swords is slightly more powerful than Path. The cards are nearly identical: both are one white mana to exile a creature at instant speed, giving its controller something in return. But Path ramps its controller by a land, giving them a permanent advantage in future turns. Swords just gives them a few life, a temporary advantage that you can remove through combat. Both cards are great, but Swords is more powerful and more popular: it’s found a spot in 61% of decks when compared to Path's 38%.

Then there’s Counterspell, an absolute classic. Yes, there is more efficient countermagic, like An Offer You Can't Refuse, and even free countermagic, like Force of Will. There’s also catch-all countermagic, like Disallow that can prevent things that plain ol' Counterspell can’t. But Counterspell is powerful in its own right. Your opponent tapped out for a huge Torment of Hailfire where X is equal to one-billion? You can spend two blue mana and it’s like it never happened. Counterspell has been around since the early days of Magic, is one of the most popular blue cards ever, and is extremely powerful in its own right even if more powerful iterations have come along.

Lastly, there’s another blue classic: Brainstorm. This cantrip has so many applications: it can manipulate the top of your library if you’re playing something like a Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign deck, it can give you draw triggers for Minn, Wily Illusionist, or just help you dig for an answer to something scary your opponent is doing. Brainstorm is hugely powerful, hugely popular, and does a lot of heavy lifting for just one mana.

Iconic Masters

This set starts off with two cards we’ve already talked about, Swords to Plowshares and Evolving Wilds, so I’ll be skipping over them this time.

Then there's Mind Stone, a mana rock whose power level eludes me. Yes, for two mana you could slam down a Signet or Talisman, but what if you don’t need the colored mana? For some commanders, like Osgir, the Reconstructor, having the ability to sacrifice itself for later recursion is huge, but for commanders like Progenitus, you’d be much better off with mana rocks that provide color fixing in addition to ramp. I’m going to go ahead and say that Mind Stone’s strength depends on what kind of deck you’re building, even though that’s somewhat of a cop-out.

Next up is a strictly better Counterspell: Mana Drain. This card has the exact same effect as Counterspell but provides you with mana to fuel your next turn. That doesn’t mean that Counterspell isn’t a good card, it just means that Mana Drain is a great card. Counter magic that provides you with an advantage just for casting it is extremely strong, even if Mana Drain is slightly less efficient than the absolute best counter magic in Commander.

And, for the last old Masters card we’ll be taking a look at, it’s Windfall. This card is one of the best wheels in the format: it only costs three mana, forces everyone to wheel, has the potential to net a ton of cards based on what other players are doing, and causes players to discard rather than shuffle cards back into their library, like Molten Psyche. Windfall is very powerful, and it currently sits as the most popular wheel in the Commander format.

Commander Masters

Now, onto the modern day. Commander Masters is the first Masters set entirely focused on Commander, so the three most popular cards are not at all surprising.

First up is Sol Ring, a card that's basically synonymous with Commander as a format. This card is one of very few mana-positive mana rocks, meaning that it produces more mana than it costs to cast. Mana-positive mana rocks are incredibly strong, especially when played on the early turns of a game, and Sol Ring is no exception. For some decks, like those that use Landfall strategies or rely heavily on having access to many colors of mana, Sol Ring doesn't fit perfectly, but because it can fuel crazy early-game plays and only costs one generic mana to cast, it can still find a slot in most decks.

Next up is Command Tower, a land that can find a spot in the mana base of any multicolor deck. It provides any color you need and comes in untapped with no penalty for using it (like City of Brass). There isn’t much more to say about Command Tower: it’s a great card and its popularity is 100% expected.

Last, but certainly not least, is the best two-mana mana rock in Commander: Arcane Signet. There are other two-mana rocks that provide colorless mana, provide mana in a set combo of colors at the cost of inputting one mana, or provide your choice of two colors of mana at the cost of taking a point of damage. But, Arcane Signet is just better. It provides whatever color you need at no additional cost and fits into nearly any deck regardless of color identity. This card is in two-thirds of all decks, and it's so powerful that it’s been termed a mistake by Gavin Verhey himself. In fact, Verhey lamented that all three of the most popular cards from Commander Masters, Sol Ring, Command Tower, and Arcane Signet, “homogenize your deckbuilding” because of how irreplaceably powerful their effects are. Anyway, Arcane Signet is an amazing mana rock, and has become the standard against which I judge all other mana rocks.

Final Flourish

That’s all I’ve got for you today. Do I think too highly of some cards? Do I underestimate the raw power present in others? What reprints from Commander Masters do you think will be most popular in the coming months? Or will our current, expected top three stay the same? Let me know in the comments below!

Until next time…

Cooper Gottfried

Setting the Record Straight - How Does Commander Masters Compare to Other Masters Sets?