Commanding Respect: Dominaria Special

Hello and welcome to a special edition of Commanding Respect! Set releases are among the most exciting times on Magic the Gathering calendar; letting players explore a new plane or return to an old favorite, experience a new and unsolved limited format, and—most importantly—gives us new cards to begin brewing with. Today, we’re going to look at some of the cards spoiled for Dominaria from an EDH mindset. Specifically, we’re going to look at cards that aren’t commanders (if you’re looking for that, try here: Part 1 & 2 ) that will play well with specific commanders or will be good in the format as a whole. Without further ado, let’s get started!

Blackblade Reforged

   

Blackblade Reforged sets an exciting precedent for future equipment with variable equip costs, and offers present excitement for its uses in EDH decks. Looking great for Voltron and any green deck ramp heavy decks, Blackblade especially excites me as a tool to put into Karametra, God of Harvests. Karametra’s ramp has typically been used to play big spells quickly, but with Blackblade Reforged the opportunity to eliminate a player or two by commander damage is suddenly and easily accessible. As you will see throughout this article, the lands heavy theme of Dominaria is very beneficial to Karametra, and there are several new cards worth considering in Karametra builds.    

Broken Bond

   

Whether you think Broken Bond depicts a story moment where the Gatewatch loses a beloved member or one where an opening is made in the group for Garruk, it is undeniably a useful card. Every EDH deck should be running some sort of artifact and enchantment removal, and Broken Bond contends for one of those slots, trading Naturalize’s instant speed for the chance to play a bonus land. Broken Bond is another card that benifits Karametra, God of Harvests, and additionally can help Omnath, Locus of Rage get another landfall trigger. 

Demonic Vigor

   

Demonic Vigor offers a straightforward way for black decks to protect their commander, making it bigger immediately and also helping out with commander tax down the road. While many decks, especially those with a budget, should consider Demonic Vigor, it is especially great for commanders that have death triggers like Elenda, the Dusk Rose or enters the battlefield triggers like Maga Traitor to Mortals. Maga in particular will love Demonic Vigor as she can’t abuse her ETB ability through flicker or reanimation effects, and the commander tax means that her entrance effect can easily become weaker as the game continues. And while Maga certainly wants to return to hand, cards like Tetzimoc, Primal Death need it to be most effective. An EDH (or Brawl) deck with Tetzimoc at the helm can now come back from dying by sprinkling the board with late game prey counters, ensuring that when he reenters he sweeps any relevant opposition off the board.   

Diligent Excavator

   

Dominaria’s Historic matters theme that Diligent Excavator demonstrates will be naturally good for EDH, as both artifacts and—naturally—Legendries are prevalent in the format. Diligent Excavator’s mill ability earns it a place as one of 2 such cards that we will spotlight in today’s article. While Diligent Excavator’s milling of two cards per historic spell cast probably isn’t enough to defeat a player on its own, it is an excellent tool to fill a graveyard for your own advantage later on. Whether you want to fill your opponent’s graveyard for Lazav, Dimir Mastermind or Wrexial, the Risen Deep or add to your own for Sidisi, Brood Tyrant, the Diligent Excavator can keep you on task for your graveyard enhancement.  

Final Parting

    

Black decks have long been the kings of tutoring, and budget decks have long looked to cards like Diabolic Tutor to achieve greatness at any non-monetary cost. Final Parting now provides an interesting alternative to Diabolic Tutor, effectively the same spell with an Entomb stapled on to it. Final Parting is not worth playing unless you have a plan for your entombed card, but the slew of Graveyard recursion decks means that Final Parting will likely be better than Diabolic decks. The Gitrog Monster might send a land to the yard to draw a card in addition to tutoring, you might find something worth reanimating with Gisa and Geralf, or you might pair it with new cards like Aryel, Knight of Windgrace to put Haakon, Stormgald Scourge where he needs to be. 

Helm of the Host

    

Of all the cards in Dominaria, Helm of the Host is the one that I’m most excited about for EDH. There are few commanders that wouldn’t benefit (even if only marginally) from having an extra copy of themselves on the battlefield, and there are several which will undoubtedly be broken wide open by this card. Today however we’ll focus on the opportunities this gives to one of my favorite legendary creatures, Brothers Yamazaki. Personally, I consider the Brothers to have the most EDH like effect that is unplayable in EDH, and short of house rules (such playing as though Brothers Yamazaki had the following text “You may have two cards named Brothers Yamazaki in your deck. Partners with Brothers Yamazaki) there wasn’t a truly viable way to make this card see the table. Now with Helm of the Host however, you can copy your Brother and put more of him on the battlefield. And the fun doesn’t stop there, because the tokens are non-legendary, you can create a third brother, then a 4th and a 5^th, each one enhancing all the others by +2/+2. Adding some effects to copy your non legendary tokens and you’re well on your way to victory through a Yamazaki pyramid scheme. For further jank, you could throw in a Spy Kit, which will give a creature the name “Brothers Yamazaki”—and the resulting buffs—so long as there is at least 1 of your non legendary tokens on the battlefield.

Jhoira’s Familiar

 

Another fantastic Historic matters card, Jhoira’s Familiar can provide some benefit to literally every commander deck thanks to its cost reduction ability. Jhoira’s Familiar will work best in decks that are running multiple historic permanents, either artifact decks like Kurkesh, Onakke Anchient or Legendary heavy decks like Reki, the History of Kamigawa. Even if it’s not a direct theme of the deck, I’d think the familiar is worth consideration in a mana rock slot if you have more than 10 spells it could reduce the cast of, especially if you’re going to be casting multiple such spells per turn.  

Precognition Field

    

Part of the reason blue can be such a powerhouse in EDH is because it has several options that let it manipulate draws and the top of the deck, an area to which Precognition Field is another worthy addition. Decks like Rashmi, Eternities Crafter and Melek, Izzet Paragon can take advantage of the Precognition Field to add to their degeneracy, exiling unwanted or unusable cards to ensure the most effective bang for their buck. A deck heavy in cards that care about the top of your deck, like Miracles or Delver of Secrets, can also use Precognition Field to run more consistently; a very good use of this card—whether to set up miracles or otherwise—would be to use extra mana at the end of an opponent’s turn to ensure that the top of your deck is you want see next turn.   

Rat Colony

Rat Colony comes as a nice addition to Magic’s surprisingly robust collection rat tribal effects. Rat colony can help solve one of the biggest problems that such decks might face, that while there are several lords and interesting effects that relate to the rats you control, there aren’t quite enough rats to fill out a whole deck.  Marrow-Gnawer decks will surely welcome several copies of this card, and support cards like Night Eyes the Desecrator, Ogre Slumlord, or Pack Rat can combine with their effects to make a powerful discard/sec then reanimate engine to create a large swarm of giant rats.

Sylvan Awakening

  

   

Another Karametra card, Sylvan Awakening can turn lots of lands into a big board and is a powerful finisher for any land ramp deck. Omnath, Locus of Rage also especially likes Sylvan Awakening because it creates elementals, which you could then find a way to sacrifice after swinging to pull off a truly impressive—albeit risky—win. Azusa Lost but Seeking also deserves a mention here, as she too has undeniable ramping abilities to give you the board needed to make this card oppressive.    

Urza’s Ruinous Blast

  

New board wipes are always worth assessing, especially those that leave a specific group of permanents untouched. The ideal boardwipe for a deck is one that removes your opponent’s board, but leave most if not all of your own untouched. Therefore, Urza’s Ruinous Blast will go naturally go great in Captain Sisay (who without a doubt benefits hugely from this set as a whole). Additional decks that might consider Urza’s Ruinous Blast are Voltron decks that seek to win by swinging with a tall commander rather than a wise board, especially those that use +1/+1 counters instead of equipment/auras; Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter Jenara, Asura of War, and Licia, Sanguine Tribune decks should all include Urza’s Ruinous Blast unless the particular build has very good reason not to. 

While these highlighted cards are certainly exciting for EDH, they certainly aren’t the only ones worth playing, it always important during spoiler season to find cards that you like or think have good synergies with you deck(s); this weekend I’m hoping to get my hands on a copy of  Jaya’s Immolating Inferno for Rosheen Meanderer and an Unwind for Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper. I hope you pull whatever cards you want at the prerelease, and that you find a new commander among Dominaria’s plethora of good options. Let us know what you’re hoping to pull in the comments, and as always have great games until next