Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor: Aboshan is actually not that bad if you are mostly interested in locking down creatures, but as you will soon see, blue has plenty of better options.
Alexi, Zephyr Mage: The effect you get is pretty good, but not for the steep price you pay.
Amabassador Laquatus: Milling someone out is an interesting proposition in Commander. On the one hand, you have plenty of life and time to set up defenses and deploy whatever measures you have in place to mill cards. On the other hand, you have 2-4 other decks of 92 cards each that you have to get through. Milling as an overall strategy doesn't have quite the card support yet, and what milling is available is spread accross blue and black. I think that as more milling cards are printed a mill deck just might be viable, but most likely Ambassador Laquatus' color identity doesn't lend itself to being that commander.
Arcanis the Omnipotent: We all love to draw cards, and few do it better than Arcanis. However, one of those that does it better also happens to be mono-blue, so Arcanis is often not considered as a general. I try to include Arcanis in as many of my blue decks as possible even though the triple-blue in the casting cost can sometimes be prohibitive.
Arcum Dagsson: Arcum Dagsson is one of the premier commanders available in any color. The ability to tutor up any noncreature artifact for the low cost of sacrificing an artifact creature is very, very powerful when the deck is properly built. Combined with the fact that it is relatively easy and cheap to creature artifact creature tokens, some awfully frightening things can happen to the board pretty fast. Throw in the fact that some of those artifacts can in turn creature more artifact creature tokens, and Arcum turns into a machine of card advantage, tutoring, and fast mana all in one package. If you play Arcum, realize that the name alone will cause your opponents to want to eliminate you first, so consider yourself warned.
Azami, Lady of Scrolls: It takes a pretty good creature to make Arcanis step down from being a general to being one of the maindeck 99, but Azami is just that good. The undisputed leader of the Wizard tribe, Azami lets you draw tons of cards and allows its controller to take over games in a mountain of card advantage. Azami is not only the best tribal commander in the game, its one of the best commanders in the game period. With a large number of already good creatures carrying the Wizard creature type, Azami is a relatively easy commander to build around without sacrificng any card quality.
Barrin, Master Wizard: I like Barrin in that he allows for the reuse of 'enter the battlefield' triggers in a fairly costed ability. I just see it as too fairly costed compared to some of the other options that are available.
Blind Seer: With cards like Douse and Hibernation around, Blind Seer has promise. It's biggest drawback however is that there are too few of these kinds of cards when you are constrained to only playing blue.
Braids, Conjurer Adept: Braids is a bit of a crapshoot when it comes to the commander format. Every deck is packing something that they can drop with great impact upon the game, and the fact that you are the last person to do so every round makes it tough to take advantage of such a situation. Braids has a bit of a bad reputation as being a bad example of a "group hug" general (for those that don't know, a "Group Hug" deck is one that seeks to play spells and permanents that help everyone rather than hurt everyone). Braids definitely adds a bit of chaos to the game, and if you can build your deck such that you are not only getting the most of of her but also somehow negating your opponent's plays then perhaps you can make a version of the deck that changes the perception of Braids.
Chisei, Heart of Oceans: Removing counters can be a powerful effect, but its unfortunate that Chisei can only do so once an upkeep.
Cloudhoof Kirin: There would be so much potential here if there were actually some spirit or arcane spells that I would want to play in a deck with Cloudhoof Kirin as the general.
Empress Galina: Normally, this kind of ability is a rather niche sideboard option, but in Commander being able to steal your opponent's general is a big deal. What kind of deck you would build around her usually starts and ends with Leyline of Singularity, so until they print some better options to use along with her ability, I personally will be staying away.
Erayo, Soratami Ascendant: Erayo is currently banned as a Commander (you may check out the current banned list here), so it is not being considered here. In the Commander format, Erayo is way too easy to flip, and it is way too unfun once it does.
Ertai, Wizard Adept: Apart from how cool this card has always been (from the Art, the flavor text, to Ertai' backstory), Ertai's ability to completely lock-up games with counters is a force to be reckoned with. His ability is very "fair" on the face of, as 4 mana to counter a spell is a lot. However once you factor in the zero card cost and his relatively low casting cost, you realize just how much of a bargain you are getting. Opponents will often have to work together to make sure they can eliminate Ertai from the board, but sometimes people will let him be especially if he is keeping some combo-player in check.
Hakim, Loreweaver: Hakim is a pretty good card with a decent ability that you can build around. Cards like Eldrazi Consciption and the untap effect from a Treachery can be pretty good, but the pool of aura cards gets fairly thin pretty quick because you are limited to only blue/colorless cards.
Heidar, Rimewind Master: I like Heidar on a couple of different levels. First, he is a good commander to build around for reusing 'enters the battlefield' triggers and I think that when people see him used that way they are usually okay with him. Second, he is a great catch-all to the various scary things that can hit the board and can be used offensively in a pinch, which I also think most people are okay with. I think that if he is part of a larger mana denail strategy, people frown on Heidar bouncing their lands turn after turn.
Higure, the Still Wind: It's too bad that the ninjitsu ability can only be played if Higure is in your hand and not out of the Command zone, but I guess he might be okay in some Ninja tribal deck. It would be unfortunate to not be able to play some of the black ninjas if that were the case.
Hisoka, Minamo Sensei: Compared to Ertai this card stinks, but in practice it just doesn't get activated enough to be worthwhile.
Ixidor, Reality Sculptor: There is a fairly short list of morphs that you would really want to play, and I'm not sure that the incentive that Ixidor provides would entice me to want to play any others. It would be normally be Ixidor's modus operandi to flip expensive morphs such as Krosan Cloudscraper on the cheap, but that isn't allowed here.
Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur: Jin-Gitaxias is a certified bad-ass. There is a huge reason it costs 10 mana, but once you drop him into play his effect is devastating. Unless your opponents have a Reliquary Tower out their hands are demolished while you are flush with cards turn after turn. Jin-Giataxias big issue for me personally is that he really doesn't have an ability you can build around and his huge casting cost. I would prefer to run other commanders that will help me to survive and control the game while Jin-Gitaxias is in my 99 as a finisher.
Kaho, Minamo Historian: Kaho looks great when you first read him, and the fact that you can play him multiple times in a game as your commander makes him all the more interesting. But once you start looking at what you want to be doing with him, you end up being disappointed when compared to Ertai, Heidar, or Azami. So even though Kaho offers the potenital for more variety, I think he's just too inefficient to be used as a commander.
Kami of the Crescent Moon: This being legendary takes all the fun out of it, and even though I can see it being used in "group hug" decks, some sort of milling strategy, or decks that just want to draw cards I just can't see anyone really wanting to build a deck around it.
Keiga, the Tide Star: Keiga is a decent enough creature to include, and he's great at deterring people from attacking you or trying to blow up the board with an indestructible creature in play. I just don't see him as commander material.
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner: I like Kira and would include her in most blue tribal or otherwise creature-heavy decks that wanted a little bit of added protection against spot removal, but i don't think I would play her as a commander.
Lady Sun: Lady Sun is pretty good, allowing for you to reuse 'enters the battlefield' triggers all the while making sure your opponent has troube lkeeping a creature on the board. I wouldn't necessarily use her over Heidar due to the fact that it can only bounce creatures and you have severe timing restriction as to when you can use her ability.
Linessa, Zephyr Mage: Linessa's true power is in her Grandeur ability, which obviously has no meaning in this format. If you want to bounce creatures, do it with Heidar.
Llawan, Cephalid Empress: If you can turn all your opponent's creatures into blue creatures, then you can essentially make it impossible for anyone other than you to do anything on the creature front. You can also Magical Hack it to the desired color.
Lorthos, the Tidemaker: I am a fan of the flavor, but I'm not a fan of the ability. It's not that its bad per se, but I think investing that much mana to make one or more of your opponents hate you is not not a good investment.
Lu Meng, Wu General: Esentially unblockable, but way too boring...
Lu Su, Wu Advisor: Other than wanting to say 'Lu Su Wu' over and over again, I see no reason to play this over Azami, even with no other Wizards in my deck.
Lu Xun, Scholar General: Being essentially unblockable is the kind of thing that makes an "Ophidian" good, but I don't know if its commander material.
Meloku the Clouded Mirror: Once the bane of several player's existence while it was standard legal, Meloku was a multi-format all-star for a couple of years. I'm not positive as to why he doesn't see more play, especially in a format where you can really crank up the token production and put them to good use.
Memnarch: Due to the revised color identity rules, Memnarch is blue for all intents and purposes with regards to the Commander format, so I thought it would be best to talk about him here. Blue in general plays especillay well with artifacts, and given the color philosophy that blue exhibits this should come as no surprise. Being able to outright steal pretty much anything for seven mana is quite the beating, and this makes Memnarch quite fearsome just on his own. If you are trying to make an 'artifacts matter' type deck in blue, then Memnarch should be considered as the commander as he will help facilitate that theme and enable all sorts of synergies and combos. I think that when you start looking at the various cards blue has to offer that he interacts well with, Memnarch gets pretty exciting as there are cards that do so in many different ways so as to make him not strictly a 'steal everything' commander. I think that focusing on that gives Memnarch some promise where he would otherwise only draw the ire of the entire table.
Mistform Ultimus: Mistform Ultimus used to have such a strong following, but the Changleing mechanic has taken a bit of its luster away. Still, anything that cares about a particular creature type applies to good ol' Misty, and that puts it in a rather unique and fun category. When run with the various blue and colorless "lords" along with other 'creature type matters' cards, Mistform Ultimus can be a pretty fun commander to build around.
Myojin of Seeing Winds: You don't get the divinity counter when you play him as a commander, so that kinda defeats the purpose. For 10 mana, you can just do better with Jin-Gitaxias in my opinion, plus by the time you get the point where you can generate that much mana you would have drawn just as many cards with Azami.
Patron of the Moon: I really like Patron of the Moon in a deck that uses all the various Moonfolk to bounce lands back to your hand and then uses Patron to put them all back. The only thing that keeps such a strategy from being really good is that there are only thirteen creatures with the 'Moonfolk' ability, and even less than that that I would actually want to play. I think that with the addition of the Landfall mechanic, maybe its time to revisit what cards might be good in such a deck.
Rayne, Academy Chancellor: I'm not a fan of using a commander with an ability that I can't really count on.
Reveka, Wizard Savant: The untap clause essentially makes this unplayable.
Sakashima the Imposter: Sakashima gives blue another commander with which to use and abuse 'enters the battlefield' effects, but it does so in a way that is more susceptible to disruption. Still, he's pretty good at what he does and he enables tons of synergistic interactions that would make for some interesting deckbuilding choices.
Soramaro, First to Dream: Soramaro isn't bad by any means, but in the end he's really just a big creature in a sea full of plenty of other big creatures.
Sun Ce, Young Conquerer: Pretty decent Man-o'-War, but not what I'm looking for in a commander.
Sun Quan, Lord of Wu: I've personally never seen the draw to playing Sun Quan, but it does show up once in a while. Being able to make your team essentially unblockable can be pretty good, although I don't see how using your precious commander slot for that effect has any appeal. With his printing in From the Vault: Legends, I assume that Sun Quan may have a resurgance in popularity.
Talrand, Sky Summoner: Talrand is cool because he rewards you for something you already want to be doing anyway; casting instants and sorceries. It can be brutal on opponents who know you have a grip full of counters or bounce spells that will net you a 2/2 flyer for each time one is cast, letting the Talrand player sit on open mana while still advancing their board. Coupled with its relatively low cost and the freedom it provides during deckbuilding because you don't have to play all those cumbersome non-Flash creatures, Talrand is a pretty awesome creature to build around.
Taniwha: Who plays creatures with drawbacks anymore?
Thada Adel, Aquisitor: You'll almost always have an artifact you can cast off of this, but iy really doesn't appeal to my deckbuilding sensibilities by having to rely on my opponents to having awesome stuff in their decks. I'd rather have my own awesome stuff in my deck.
The Unspeakable:...
Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar: Pretty cool creature that allows you to burn through your deck fater to find what you may need, it is unfortunately outclassed by creatures that provide outright card advantage.
Hakim, Loreweaver: Hakim is a pretty good card with a decent ability that you can build around. Cards like Eldrazi Consciption and the untap effect from a Treachery can be pretty good, but the pool of aura cards gets fairly thin pretty quick because you are limited to only blue/colorless cards.
Higure, the Still Wind: It's too bad that the ninjitsu ability can only be played if Higure is in your hand and not out of the Command zone, but I guess he might be okay in some Ninja tribal deck. It would be unfortunate to not be able to play some of the black ninjas if that were the case.
Hisoka, Minamo Sensei: Compared to Ertai this card stinks, but in practice it just doesn't get activated enough to be worthwhile.
Ixidor, Reality Sculptor: There is a fairly short list of morphs that you would really want to play, and I'm not sure that the incentive that Ixidor provides would entice me to want to play any others. It would be normally be Ixidor's modus operandi to flip expensive morphs such as Krosan Cloudscraper on the cheap, but that isn't allowed here.
Kaho, Minamo Historian: Kaho looks great when you first read him, and the fact that you can play him multiple times in a game as your commander makes him all the more interesting. But once you start looking at what you want to be doing with him, you end up being disappointed when compared to Ertai, Heidar, or Azami. So even though Kaho offers the potenital for more variety, I think he's just too inefficient to be used as a commander.
Kami of the Crescent Moon: This being legendary takes all the fun out of it, and even though I can see it being used in "group hug" decks, some sort of milling strategy, or decks that just want to draw cards I just can't see anyone really wanting to build a deck around it.
Keiga, the Tide Star: Keiga is a decent enough creature to include, and he's great at deterring people from attacking you or trying to blow up the board with an indestructible creature in play. I just don't see him as commander material.
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner: I like Kira and would include her in most blue tribal or otherwise creature-heavy decks that wanted a little bit of added protection against spot removal, but i don't think I would play her as a commander.
Lady Sun: Lady Sun is pretty good, allowing for you to reuse 'enters the battlefield' triggers all the while making sure your opponent has troube lkeeping a creature on the board. I wouldn't necessarily use her over Heidar due to the fact that it can only bounce creatures and you have severe timing restriction as to when you can use her ability.
Linessa, Zephyr Mage: Linessa's true power is in her Grandeur ability, which obviously has no meaning in this format. If you want to bounce creatures, do it with Heidar.
Llawan, Cephalid Empress: If you can turn all your opponent's creatures into blue creatures, then you can essentially make it impossible for anyone other than you to do anything on the creature front. You can also Magical Hack it to the desired color.
Lorthos, the Tidemaker: I am a fan of the flavor, but I'm not a fan of the ability. It's not that its bad per se, but I think investing that much mana to make one or more of your opponents hate you is not not a good investment.
Lu Meng, Wu General: Esentially unblockable, but way too boring...
Lu Su, Wu Advisor: Other than wanting to say 'Lu Su Wu' over and over again, I see no reason to play this over Azami, even with no other Wizards in my deck.
Lu Xun, Scholar General: Being essentially unblockable is the kind of thing that makes an "Ophidian" good, but I don't know if its commander material.
Meloku the Clouded Mirror: Once the bane of several player's existence while it was standard legal, Meloku was a multi-format all-star for a couple of years. I'm not positive as to why he doesn't see more play, especially in a format where you can really crank up the token production and put them to good use.
Myojin of Seeing Winds: You don't get the divinity counter when you play him as a commander, so that kinda defeats the purpose. For 10 mana, you can just do better with Jin-Gitaxias in my opinion, plus by the time you get the point where you can generate that much mana you would have drawn just as many cards with Azami.
Patron of the Moon: I really like Patron of the Moon in a deck that uses all the various Moonfolk to bounce lands back to your hand and then uses Patron to put them all back. The only thing that keeps such a strategy from being really good is that there are only thirteen creatures with the 'Moonfolk' ability, and even less than that that I would actually want to play. I think that with the addition of the Landfall mechanic, maybe its time to revisit what cards might be good in such a deck.
Rayne, Academy Chancellor: I'm not a fan of using a commander with an ability that I can't really count on.
Reveka, Wizard Savant: The untap clause essentially makes this unplayable.
Sakashima the Imposter: Sakashima gives blue another commander with which to use and abuse 'enters the battlefield' effects, but it does so in a way that is more susceptible to disruption. Still, he's pretty good at what he does and he enables tons of synergistic interactions that would make for some interesting deckbuilding choices.
Soramaro, First to Dream: Soramaro isn't bad by any means, but in the end he's really just a big creature in a sea full of plenty of other big creatures.
Sun Ce, Young Conquerer: Pretty decent Man-o'-War, but not what I'm looking for in a commander.
Sun Quan, Lord of Wu: I've personally never seen the draw to playing Sun Quan, but it does show up once in a while. Being able to make your team essentially unblockable can be pretty good, although I don't see how using your precious commander slot for that effect has any appeal. With his printing in From the Vault: Legends, I assume that Sun Quan may have a resurgance in popularity.
Taniwha: Who plays creatures with drawbacks anymore?
Thada Adel, Aquisitor: You'll almost always have an artifact you can cast off of this, but iy really doesn't appeal to my deckbuilding sensibilities by having to rely on my opponents to having awesome stuff in their decks. I'd rather have my own awesome stuff in my deck.
The Unspeakable:...
Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar: Pretty cool creature that allows you to burn through your deck fater to find what you may need, it is unfortunately outclassed by creatures that provide outright card advantage.
Uyo, Silent Prophet: Uyo has tons of uses, most of which are centered around copying cards like Time Stretch. It's not very hard to find 20-30 instant and sorcery cards that you would love to want to copy to the chagrin of your opponents, and all sorts of cards that were potentially borderline are all of the sudden potentially broken. Not to mention that you can get in on anyone else's spells and punish anyone that dares point a removal spell in your direction, making Uyo a force to be reckoned with. Pair her with cards like Patron of the Moon or Storm Cauldron to make sure you can replay your lands and you are set.
Vendilion Clique: More of a 1 vs. 1 favorite than a multi-player favorite, but it still has a good following and makes for a decent peice of disruption if you play against a lot of combo decks or decks that love to tutor up a specific card to win. Clique-ing a player that has just tutored for Herrmit Druid or Ad Nauseum and making them discard it can be game-winning, and just the threat of it can buy you enough time to beat them before they can find a window to combo out.
Venser, Shaper Savant: Venser is an interesting option in that he provides instant access to ability to stop any shenanigans that an opponent may be up to for the relatively low cost of keeping four mana up, and he does this from the Command zone where opponents have little say over it. Things get particularly nasty for the opponent once Venser starts to get bounced and replayed or even simply killed then ready to go for 2 additional mana. With all of these blue Legendary wizards its hard to tell which one is best, but I will say that more often than not Azami ends up as the general and the others all end up in the 99.
Zhou Yu, Chief Commander: I would want to play this just so I could say "Well Zhou Yu!", after which I would relegate Zhou Yu to the backpage of my trae binder.
Zhuge Jin, Wu Strategist: The effect just isn't worth using your commander for, but its not bad if your deck is full of effects that trigger off combat damage (Swords definiteyl come to mind).
Top 10 Mono-Blue Generals
1. Azami, Lady of Scrolls
2. Arcum Dagsson
3. Vendilion Clique
4. Talrand, Sky Summoner
5. Ertai, Wizard Adept
6. Heidar, rimewind Master
7. Jin Gitaxias, Core Augur
8. Uyo, Silent Prophet
9. Mistform Ultimus
10. Empress Galina
No comments:
Post a Comment