(Rashmi and Ragavan | Illustrated by Joshua Cairos)

White | Blue | Black | Red | Green | Artifacts/Lands | Gold I | Gold II | Reprints | cEDH | Battles

CoMoMmander Enemies Pair Up

Just when you thought you had enough, there's more! The main set had some rather interesting pairings to offer, but these precon legends don't kid around either.

Without further ado, let's have a look at what these new golden boys and girls have in stock for us.

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Mythics

Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos

When I first read the card, I thought this would be restricted to Phyrexian-themed decks, a fairly small niche even with the new sets and the recent update on types. Then I read again: "Artifact creature spell." Oh. Ooooh. Forget about the Phyrexian type, both in the first and last ability. Unless you manage to compleat your entire board with something like Maskwood Nexus, I don't really see Proliferate going off too much.

If I were to build the deck from scratch, I would instinctively go for small critters and mana-ability-reduction to flood the board with cannon fodder. Were they to fall in combat or to my sacrificial schemes, they'll have the good taste of growing their friends in the process. Still, two mana to flip any given token is nothing to scoff at, and the sheer difficulty to turn these into creatures without paying the cost makes for an interesting hurdle. In fact, the preconstructed deck itself contains a slew of artifact and/or Phyrexian creatures, although weirdly enough no way to take advantage of the dying artifacts, like Marionette Master or the classic Aristocrat finishers such as Zulaport Cutthroat or Blood Artist.

The way I see it, you could build this either as a go-wide tokens deck filled with low-cost artifacts that either ramp or bring value, or tread down the aristocratic path. Still, it's nice to see a commander caring about +1/+1 counters without any green in it. While the lack of blue is definitely a drawback, there could still be room for some Affinity shenanigans. Maybe bouncing a Frogmite back and forth to make infinite tokens and sacrifice them all to win? Or smash in with the help of a good ol' Cranial Plating!

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Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy

Gimbal is significantly more straightforward than its previous colleague. Much like Perrie, who wanted to play a huge variety of counters, here we have a critter dancing to a similar tune, this time focusing on tokens. In a way, he's the perfect inverse to Brudiclad's uniformization.

To be perfectly honest, I've been a bit disappointed at the lack of token variety the precon seems to offer. Out of curiosity, I tried to find how many different artifact tokens currently exist in the game. Turns out there are about 50 that are playable in our colors, not all of which are actually relevant or easy to produce. Along the usual suspects (Treasures, Golems, Clues, Servos, Thopters...) I guess you'll probably have to resort to more exotic trinkets to make the creature generated by Gimbal relevant. At which point I wonder: is his ability really worth going the extra mile to produce a single token every turn? Seems like a lot of hoops to jump through, if you ask me.

There might be an interesting path to try though: clones. Or more specifically, token clones of creatures. Things like Irenicus's Vile Duplication, Croaking Counterpart, Elminster's Simulacrum, or Quasiduplicate. Copy big spells, then get some added value with Gimbal. Oh, and throw in a Spy Kit for good measure.

Also, it's worth noting it's a Gremlin Artificer who bears an uncanny resemblance with Dr Robotnik.

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Kasla, the Broken Halo

Sigh. I don't know. On one hand, I absolutely love the art on this gorgeous Angel. She's badass, she has glowing eyes, and she looks ready to pounce on you, you miscreant. On the other hand, there are currently 46 cards in these colors with Convoke listed on Scryfall, and not all of them are actually good. In fact, most of them aren't good. When you see Flight of Equenauts in the precon, you know something's wrong. In the original list, only 17 of the cards actually have Convoke. That's really not enough to take full advantage of Kasla's ability.

That means that in order to actually do something out of Kasla, you either need to lower the count of those spells to keep the best of the best or resort to mediocre ones, while establishing a board full of creatures you can readily tap to cast these without paying their cost in full. Granted, she has decent stats, and the scry 2 and card draw isn't bad. There might even be some room here to turn her into a nasty Voltron with some Exalted and double strike boosts for massive commander damage. I'm thinking Battlegrace Angel, Sovereigns of Lost Alara, Sublime Archangel, as well as enchantments like Battle Mastery, Duelist's Heritage or Flaming Fist.

All in all though, I feel a bit underwhelmed by both the card and the deck it helms. I mean, if you wanted to generate a bajillion tokens, you already have Kykar which does a great job (and is in the precon, incidentally).

I expect you all to prove me wrong though!

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Moira and Teshar

Why do I get the feeling that Teshar looks like a mini-Elesh Norn in the picture? At any rate, looks like we have a solid pair of reanimating historians here.

The more I read the card, the more I feel like a living testament to combo enthusiasts, with strong reminiscence of the original bird. The fact that any reanimated object will be exiled looks like a serious effort from the R&D team to prevent this from being totally bonkers. But here’s what you can do: blink it. As it exiles the card, the replacement effect does not trigger, returning the reanimated thing on the battlefield permanently. So go ahead, reanimate a scary beast, then Cloudshift it, or wait until end of turn to blink it with Conjurer's Closet.

Aside from that neat trick, there's sheer value here. After all, black is the reanimation color per excellentiam. You could fill the deck with all the Buried Alive and Entomb of the world, alongside a ton of cheap mana rocks that will both serve as ramp and enablers and some major monsters. Or maybe as a Legends matter deck? There's serious recursion potential not unlike Meren of Clan Nel Toth, and recursive legends like Lurrus of the Dream-Den and Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle, along with blinky legends like Preston, the Vanisher and Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward, will help facilitate tons upon tons of Archon of Cruelty and Angel of the Ruins triggers.

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Rashmi and Ragavan

Monkey? MONKEY! THERE'S A MONKEYYYYYYY!

Ahem. And Rashmi. She's there too. Sorry, force of habit. Anyway.

This is totally the right amount of silliness I like. I don't want to play my deck, yours looks much nicer! The monkey ball shows me many things. Many, many artifacts, rocks, and utility spells, and Treasures, and tokens, and a hoard of cheap spells (cantrips if you're nice, counterspells if you're naughty) to trigger R&R. Oh, and a good amount of luck to hit the jackpot off of your opponent's decks. It's time to take that Field of Dreams out of the binder.

My sole regret lies in that the pair only triggers on your own turn, and not on anybody else's, but I suppose that would have been too much to ask for. It's already going to go berserk with Tireless Provisioner, Reckless Fireweaver, Academy Manufactor, and Shimmer Dragon. Heck, Adrix and Nev, Twincasters is nutty with Treasure production, and Jolene, the Plunder Queen will really pop off here. All these Treasures and I get to snoop peoples' libraries with Lantern of Insight to see who's best to steal from? Aces.

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Saint Traft and Rem Karolus

I don't really care about Convoke. Like Kasla, it will trigger on the occasional decent spell, but that's not what I'm interested in. See, these guys make tokens when they tap, not when they attack. Stack up a way to tap and untap them at will, like Freed from the Real, Aura of Dominion, or Quicksilver Dagger and pair it all with Intruder Alarm to spew out an army of tokens in no time. Add in some ways to buff your army for cheap, like Felidar Retreat or Intangible Virtue, and a few spells to protect your board, and the game could end quite soon.

While drawing the best tappers and untappers is quite unlikely without resorting to tutors, I could imagine this deck including a slew of cards that like to be tapped again and again as well as ways to untap them again and again and again. The ultimate Jeskai Ascendancy commander is here!

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Rares

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Omnath, Locus of All

We all knew it would happen at one point or the other: that the ever-growing Jellybean would one day succumb to black magic. Well, it did, and it opens an interesting venue, one that Ramos, Dragon Engine tried to tread years ago.

While seemingly underwhelming at first glance, Omnath will work like a charm in a dedicated deck. Pack in a bunch of cards that care about colored spells, such as Faeburrow Elder or Rienne, Angel of Rebirth, and then stuff all your favorite multicolored spells into a list! Villainous Wealth, Atraxa, Grand Unifier, Omnath, Locus of Creation, Maelstrom Wanderer.... At worst, he will still net a card a turn, and with a way to filter black mana into other colors, like Chromatic Orrery, he could help accruing resources for a splashy Progenitus.

Now I'm expecting Omnath to be the herald of the new purple color Wizards will surely introduce in 2024!

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Wild Pairings and Bearings

And there you have it. Now comes the hard part: choosing what to play! Which of these commanders are you excited to build around? Will you keep the precons intact or tear them to pieces to build your own version? Have you spotted some hidden gems that will make sparks with one of these legendary creatures? I look forward to your comments below!