Should You Preorder Commander Legends 2 Already?

“Magictating” is defined as getting into the zone with your Magic the Gathering collection--thinking, planning, organizing, reminiscing about past games, and imagining future games. It is a combination of hard thinking about the game and calm meditation, reveling in the joy it brings you.

I wrote a while back about how much I loved Commander Legends, and what a wild success it was for the Commander community. I also wrote about how the success of it was going to be a double-edged sword—great new stuff, a proven concept, and a sequel set entirely too soon. Is this coming June too soon to have a second draftable Commander Legends set come out? Yes. Is it going to happen anyway?—Yes. Is it going to be cool, innovative, and done well? Depends. A lot of what made the last set very successful was how it leaned into Magic’s history, a sense of the Commander format, and gave people new toys without breaking Commander (that lousy breaching merfolk will not be mentioned). I guess we have to know if we should consider buying this product or not. The answer is not as straightforward as one might think.

Hullbreacher - Sidharth Chaturvedi

The biggest problem with starting a second Commander Legends set so soon is that many of us are still considering adding cards from the original Commander Legends set. There were so many new legendary creatures to choose from it was hard to figure out which ones we should build first! The original Legends set introduced the concept of Legendary creatures, and it gave us 55 legends. Commander Legends gave us over 70 new legendary creatures, and over 110 actual legendary creatures we could open up in any given pack. That, combined with a guaranteed two legends per pack, made it very easy to end up with more legendary creatures than most people knew what to do with. The sheer number of options was incredible. No set has even come close to those kinds of numbers. We do find that more and more sets are released each year, and that each set not only seems to offer some number of Commander preconstructed decks with new legendary options, but also seem to offer more legendary creatures in the actual sets themselves. That’s an awful lot of legends. To put this in some sort of perspective let’s consider that the last three standard sets (and their Commander precons) offered a total of nearly 100 legendary creatures. That means that Commander Legends (one set mind you) offered nearly as many as three sets combined. That’s amazing, when you consider that Adventures in the Forgotten Realms as a set (and including the Commander preconstructed decks) introduced us to nearly 46 Commander options from across the Realms. That’s quite a few. Still it pales in comparison to Commander Legends which, I might add, had only two Commander precons, and not the five that AFR got.

Now, I’m going to assume that this next Commander Legends set is going to lean into these characters and hit on many that were forgotten last time. We can probably expect upwards of 70+ new legendary creatures. Oh, and there will be four different Commander preconstructed decks this time around as well. So many legends…

Tormod, the Desecrator - Grzegorz Rutkowski

I guess there’s no inherent issue with a glut of legendary creatures. It is very difficult to design innovative cards that don’t just openly outclass older versions. It is also difficult to create new archetypes entirely (well, and to have them well supported all at once). Thus, when not incredibly careful, a glut of new cards can continue exacerbating a current problem: power creep. The push for people to exclude three mana rocks and only include two mana ones in order to optimize their decks seems a separate issue at first. Does Wizards have to not print things in order to keep the most popular format from becoming an ever increasing arms race? No. They don’t have to not print things. They can print whatever they want, and we will likely buy it as well. It’ll look good, smell good (new pack freshness), and it'll be even better than that older version that doesn’t synergize with our decks the way the new one does! Except that’s not a great thing when the format is having cards specifically printed for it. This is a set that is being made for a casual format that loves fun. Campy adventures and Vorthosian design elements are critical in this niche format. And yet, it is “the multiplayer” format, and so it is the most popular format of all. Wizards now designs specifically for this format. That has meant, and will continue to mean, that Commander is King of development. So, is it a bad thing? Not necessarily, and here’s why: these new cards will need to be designed for fun and not optimization. The Forgotten Realms could introduce a few “pushed” cards, but if goes beyond that it will actually hurt the format at large. The trick will be to balance the set with fun cards that don’t overly push anything to extremes. I’m hoping they get it right again, because last time it was pretty much perfect—Hullbreacher notwithstanding. It was fun, campy at times, and overall it was a set that allowed people to embrace the feel of Commander.

Xanathar, Guild Kingpin - Kieran Yanner

I’m a little worried that we’re visiting a Dungeons and Dragons set again so soon. I would’ve enjoyed a bit more of a respite from it, but perhaps when they were designing the Commander preconstructed decks for Adventures in the Forgotten Realms they found that they had far too many ideas. Perhaps they felt that many cards that couldn’t find their way into a standard set deserved to be printed. Perhaps the wild success of Commander Legends led them to believe that another whole Commander-based set would be the perfect home for a bunch of d-20 rolling cards that leaned into D&D. Ultimately, I am fairly confident that this set will be flavorful. It should be interesting and fun, and it should be a decently good time drafting it as well.

Drafting Commander Legends is supremely fun. I am building a Cube of it myself in case we ever feel like switching up from drafting my own EDH Cube. I found that Commander Legends played so smoothly that I couldn’t help but design my own EDH Cube that leaned into the aspects of Commander Legends, but also dove into my own desires for nostalgia and Commander camp. It has been a rousing success with my play group, and I suggest that you check out my articles on building and designing that cube if you are at all interested. The question remains, will Commander Legends 2 be fun to draft? YES. It will likely be even better than last time. I suspect that mana will be even more balanced. I anticipate that mechanics and abilities will be full of cross synergies that allow you to build decks that span across different draft archetypes. I really do believe it will be an excellent time.

Mishra, Artificer Prodigy - Scott M. Fischer

Will the set be worth buying if you are not drafting it? In short, I anticipate it will be. The last time around there were only two types of booster boxes available for Commander Legends, and they were curled foil-filled Collector boxes that gave you unplayable pringles, or run-of-the-mill draft boxes. I bought many draft boxes, and I don’t regret those purchases at all. Granted, I also drafted this set a ton. I did lots of virtual sealed games as well. This time around there will be more people playing in-person, more people buying it, and more people having a grand old time. I don’t think it’ll have quite the appeal as the last set, because it’s not nearly as nostalgic. I suspect that the coming Dominaria set will stoke the nostalgia fires for this year. Meanwhile, I’m actually anticipating that a Multiverse vs Phyrexia styled Commander Legends 3 will be the triumphant return to magical nostalgia I’ll be craving (this is purely conjecture on my part). We should expect that this set will be a cheap one to buy regular versions, and most likely a set safe to purchase foils from (though I guess those are always buyer beware as of late).

Phyrexian Arena - Svetlin Velinov

So, should you get ready to buy singles from this set? Absolutely, you should buy singles from the set. I recommend that you order yourself a draft box or two to play with friends, and then you order yourself one of each of the other fun products that’s offered. If you’re a Commander player, then this set will be the best purchase you will make all year. Will a standard set or masters set potentially offer you a single card that’s more “broken” in one of your decks? Sure, but that’s just one card. This set will likely have staple reprints and a slew of other elements that will become fun new staples. You’re going to find this set will lay the groundwork for many fertile evenings of brewing, playing, and commiserating over power levels. Happy thoughts, my friends, well mostly anyway. May the legends, your commanders, your gates, and the cards be ever in your favor!