So what, 2 pairs 1 four color and a 3 color commander in each deck or is she just a random legend?

Keeping track of this, from what has been speculated

Commander: Atraxa
You Also Get: Unspoiled Partner, Reyhan, Unspoiled Partner

Commander: Breya
You Also Get: Silas, Bruse, Unspoiled Partner

Commander: Saskia
You Also Get: Tana, Tymna, Unspoiled Partner

Commander: Kings (Unspoiled)
You Also Get: Sidar Kondo, Kraum, Unspoiled Partner

Comander: Maelstrom Dude (Unspoiled)
You Also Get: Vial Smasher, Kydele, Unspoiled Partner

Why the Zedruu reprint? Popular Commander that hasn't been printed since the first Commander set 5 years ago, and fits quite nicely in the non-black "Altruism" theme? Seems reason enough.

New basic lands?
Well, that actually legitimately makes me more likely to pick these up.

Er, what? I think you misunderstood what I meant. I was referring to a discussion that came up when Dragons of Tarkir was released. Vial Smasher is from the DoK timeline and belongs to a subset of characters that also existed in the overwritten KoT timeline for no logical in-universe reason (like Taigam, Zurgo Bellstriker and Narset Transcendent for instance). It doesn't make sense for any of those people to be born again in the new timeline, given the massive changes that occured 1,280 years ago. It's an old complaint, but a valid and logically sound one. I already addressed that problem way back then, so I'm not just "making it up" now. I mean, sure, Vial Smasher getting a card now doesn't worsen the existing problem in-universe, but I find it slightly annoying they're bringing it up again.

I totally get what people say about saving significant characters for later products and taking time to get them right, and it's cool that they're balancing lots of different things for lots of different people. I'm in favour of all of that. But generally speaking, I just don't think being a named individual who shows up in a story or in flavour text automatically qualifies you to be legendary. Everyone would be legendary by that merit, and they're just scraping the bottom of the barrel with some of these. I think it would have been more fitting to just make up new characters that feel legendary from planes of which we haven't seen much rather than giving those slots to a random vial throwing goblin or a herder who's famous for insulting cattle. It's a fine and sometimes subjective line between feeling and not feeling legendary, but I think some of them were taken from the wrong side of that line. Then again, I can buy what Tevish said about some of them basically being 'half-commanders' for not being special enough on their own.

@Ashnod: I agree that being a 'full commander' that pulls her own weight alone would be more fitting for Ashnod, at least if we can't have a Tawnos to partner her with. But as with Feldon, there are several aspects you could focus on, both to her character and to the mechanics of her related cards. Feldon as a character was a lot of things throughout his life. He was part of the Third Way in Terisia City that tried to stop the brothers, he was a key figure in re-establishing magic in Terisiare, he was connected to Feldon's Cane, and he was in Loran's Smile, which told a little story of its own. The brilliant card he ended up on just focused on the final one of those things (though it mentions the Third Path in the card name, of course), went with that narrow window to the character and completely nailed it. I guess I could see a spell-related damage effect fitting on an Ashnod card if it's meant to show that she can be cruel and likes frying people with her scepter. But I'm happy to wait for a better designed Ashnod card that shows more effort, it's not like I think Vial Smasher should have been this exact character instead and no other. I really like you design, for instance, though I don't think Ashnod should have in her. Maybe the mass -2/-0 could be justified as a weaker mass -2/-2 in black and work without . But yeah, something like that would be cool. However, I still think they should have just made up a new legend if they didn't want to use another existing one rather than going with a random Kolaghan goblin just because we know her name.



At first I thought Tymna the Weaver was part of the Triad of Fates, but nope. My guess is that she's a new character who's the Theros version of Ariadne. Kinda strange that she isn't green then, but we'll see what info we'll get about her. I'm curious who Tana is. I agree she's probably (hopefully) from Keld, but could be from anywhere really.

Very few places outside Dominaria have saprolings.

EDIT: It is conceivable that she is from Ravnica (unlikely as that doesn't look like a city fungus), Mercadia (also unlikely as those are more wormy), wherever Dreampod Druid is from, or, more likely if not Keld, Jund.

You mean Arachne, for which we have the nonlegendary Renowned Weaver?

Maybe Radha's mom or something? Her surroundings look pretty Time Spiral. Or she could be from Radha's integrated Elf/Human Keldon civilization.

This is where my lack of knowledge about the storyline is a problem, so I will have to ask a question before I proceed:
Does Vial Smasher represent the Khans version, Dragon version, or possibly either?

Regardless, I thought your complaint was "They are printing a card that shouldn't exist in this timeline, which they shouldn't", when I now assume it's more like a "They are printing a card that epitomizes a part of the storyline I think was handled poorly". Because when I read "shouldn't even exist", I took that to mean as in card form as well.

Dragons version. There are dragons in her art that would not be there in the Khans timeline.

Since the sky is full of dragons and purple lightning, I'd guess the card is of the Dragons version.

That's been true for years. Munda? Thada Adel? The Sen Triplets? Basically ANY of the guild runners?
The list just goes on. (and on)

And to be sure, there are some that straddle the line, like Gisa and Geralf. But popular demand is what it is, so Bruse Tarl gets to show up because people really liked the running gag. Vial Smasher?... not so legendary, and I don't think anyone was even passingly interested in her, but to be clear, let us not put the legendary type on a damn pedestal. You seem to forget we once had a legendary DOG.


ugh... gods no. I'm so sick of unlegendary, lore free legends, doubly so if they're from one of the safety net planes. At least with this, they didn't just materialize out of the aether.

I mean, Breya I can accept because red is new on Esper, but Atraxa? She's middle management. Apparently semi important, so we should have heard of her before. (Then again, we didn't even hear about the Praetors in QfK. Such an awful book)

Maybe she's post offscreen-demise-of-Urabrask-and-Melira

I really hope that isn't what's happened. If those two aren't still fighting when we get back to NPH, it would be almost as bad as QFK.

Almost.

Yeah...
I guess living in ymtc all my life has made me not care about art in the slightest.

Is there any set in which there aren't new basic land arts? I mean, I'm surprised at the new art, but not at the presence of new art...

This is the first commander product to have new basics in it. This is really the first fixed supplementary product to have new basics for that matter. Archenemy, Planechase, and all the Duel Decks used old land art.

Dreampod Druid seems to be from Fabacin, if Grove of the Dreampods is any indication. But yeah, Jund would be my number one guess if it isn't Dominaria. There could theoretically be saprolings on other planes we don't know, but the backround is reminiscent of the Time Spiral forests, so Skyshroud/Keld seems likely. Yes to more Dominaria!

God, yes, I definitely meant Arachne, and I was oblivious of the Theros-Arachne that's already there.

Agreed, I just thought maybe I'm missing something and someone recognises the name from somewhere. Maybe she's even Radha's daughter or granddaughter! Wouldn't it be great to get an update of what Radha has been up to?

Correct.

I generally agree about the safety net planes, but I meant planes that haven't had a lot of exposure, like Muraganda, Valla, Iquatana, Kephalai, you name it. And sure, that fine line I was talking about has always been there, but at least the maze runners were chosen because they were deemed to be the most competent candidates of their Guild for running the maze (at least that's the idea). I can buy that that makes you legendary. Sure, there have always been legends that felt like random normal people, and sometimes your mileage may vary, but they probably didn't stick out too much in the context of the set or block they were in. But in a product like the commander decks, a bunch of not-really-legends invites grumbling, especially as all eyes are on the commanders. There's still plenty of stuff that we haven't seen, and there could still be a few gems in there for all we know. Maybe they just didn't want to spoil all the exciting ones right at the start...

Melek existed for approximately a day.

I actually do have a small issue with the Maze Runners, because by and large, they're just members of their guild, not even exceptional ones. That said, I'm not too bothered by them (except for you Emmara, for so... SO many reasons) because they were relevant characters to the story, which is more than can be said for, oh I don't know, Circu or Ulasht.
Lack of background ALWAYS makes them stick out. Flavor text makes a world of difference if we're literally getting nothing else.

That all said, how does one even define legendary, because if it's just shorthand for 'noteworthy' then even Vial smasher.... y'know, nope, I can't defend her, but Bruse, sure. But if they are supposed to actually be legendary, as in inspire legends, then probably only about half of all legendaries qualify.


There will always be grumbling.

Grumbling aside, does anyone have a preference which deck(s) they are interested in buying yet? I really feel like buying at least one of them, but atm I'm pretty indecisive, and I can't really make sense of what's going to be in which deck. The possibilities are intriguing, though, and I like that you could even make some of those Partners work in Tiny Leaders. I have this half-formed crackpot idea in my head of trying to combine Reyhan, Last of the Abzan and Silas Renn, Seeker Adept to run some sort of Sultai-coloured artifact creature deck with a counter theme...

Also, goddamnit, I just looked at those basic lands. I want all of them!
Must have been nice for the artists to work on, too. I imagine they probably just told them to paint the best basic lands that they could come up with without restrictions.

My wife wants the new angel, so I'm pretty sure that's the one we'll be buying.

I think I like your wife

As an aside, the Modular mechanic does stack with Reyhan's ability, right? Like, if something like Arcbound Slith dies, I'll get to throw around twice the amount of counters that were on it?