Choosing Your Commander - Esper

We now get to the meat and potatoes of the Commander format; the 3-color commanders.  Not only are some of the best 'build-around-me' generals 3-colors, but they also offer some of the best flexibility for spell selection.  The first we will look at is the white/blue/black combination, also referred to as the Esper shard.  This color combination is interesting in that it wants to play well with enchantments and artifacts, and it has one of the best of each type of commander in the entire game.

Chromium:  Being one of the original 'Elder Dragons' gives Chromium a bit of clout just based on coolness factor, and "Rampage: 2" is actually not that bad of an ability.  For the most part, you aren't playing Chromium for his stats or efficiency.

Dakkon Blackblade:  Very cool card that actually has potential, but it suffers from a lack of good color identity.  If it had any green in it, it could be awesome (although Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer is probably still better and its in the right color).

Dromar, the Banisher:  Dromar is an okay general, but it doesn't really do anything too exciting.

Ertai, the Corrupted:  I actually like this version of Ertai, except that sacrificing an enchantment or creature is not really worth the mana savings over the original Ertai, Wizard Adept.  Gaining access to white and black's token making abilities can help offset that a lot, and the added flexibility of having those colors available is really nice.  I think that if you are looking for a commander to lead you WUB control deck, then perhaps Ertai is a good choice.

Halfdane:  Halfdane is pretty high on the coolness ladder, in that there are all sorts of interesting shenanigans that you can pull to make him temporarily huge and swing for a lot of general damage.  My main complaint about Halfdane is that those shenanigans are actually quite hard to pull off, and the overall benefit is actually not that great for a creature that lacks evasion.

Lady Evangela:  Using my commander slot to Fog a single creatuer each turn seems like a huge waste to me.

Merieke Ri Berit:  Worse than just outright destroying stuff is stealing stuff and using it against the person who roiginally cast it.  Merieke will win you no friends, but there is something to be said for the power to steal a creature on demand.  It is also a huge benefit that if Merieke gets killed the creature she stole also gets killed, and that the creature-stealing effect doesn't require Merieke to remain tapped so it can be used multiple times.  Combine her with some untap effects, and you can ensure that every creature summoned will end up on your side of the board.









Sens Triplets:
Because of the rule that a deck cannot generate mana outside of its colors you cannot play your opponent's red or green spells with Sens Triplets, so its usefulness can be limited seeing that green is one of the most played colors in the game.  Still, being able to play a land, artifact, white, blue, or black spell will come up enough that Sens Triplets can net you lots of cards and at the same time deny your opponents lots of cards in the meantime.  The scramble to destroy Sens Triplets can be interesting to watch since it has to live till your next upkeep, but the real fun begins when nobody can remove it and the politics start between your opponents as to who they think you should target.

Sharuum the Hegemon:  Next to Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, Sharuum is probably the second best combo-ready commander in the game.  When combined with Sculpting Steel or Phyrexian Metamorph you can create an infinite loop of Sharuum and Sharuum copies going to and from the graveyard, and you can use the loop to trigger Disciple of the Vault or for a huge Gravestormed Bitter Ordeal to knock out an entier table of players at once.  You can also make infinitely large Glassdusk Hulks or Arcbound Crushers if you actually want to take a combat step to do it.  There is also the capability to just ignore  the infinite combos and use Sharuum to reanimate large artifact creatures (or just high casting cost artifacts in general) and win with card advantage.  Either way, Sharuum is one of the premiere commanders available and will be strong no matter what way you decide to go.




Zur the Enchanter:
Greetings Starfighter.  You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the Frontier against Zur and the Kodan Armada... okay so you aren't a Starfighter, its Xur not Zur, and you are defending your kitchen table and not the Frontier, but Zur the Enchanter is still just as big a villain.  With powerful enchantments such as Necropotence, Propoganda, and Solitary Confinement at the ready, you can dig in and get Zur set up for the long haul.  You'll need to protect Zur, but you have Auras such as Pemmin's Aura to help.  You also have plenty of disruptive options such as Oblivion Ring, Seal of Doom, and Arcane Laboratory.  Zur can be a deadly force if left unchecked and is definitely one of the better commanders available in the game.