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Commander 2014 Spoilers – 10/26/14

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So far there hasn't been much development. We've known for months about the first few cards and a few more were spoiled this weekend. Let's dig in deep and see what all of the cards mean.

Teferi, Temporal Archmage

This card is ticking all of the right boxes. First of all, he's a Planeswalker. People love Planeswalkers. Good players love how playable they usually are. Bad players love how playable everything is, but having Planeswalkers to them is a status symbol. Being a Planeswalker is good financial news for Teferi.

Secondly, Teferi has a unique ability (so far). We don't know how many future Planeswalkers will be playable as Commanders, probably few if any. This makes him unique and gives him an additional excuse to get played.

Thirdly, his ultimate is a little tough to build to but it's very worth it. As your commander, his shenanigans are limited. As part of a Superfriends deck, Doubling Season and Chain Veil can help you get that ultimate going and make your planeswalkers ruin their day. His emblem lets you activate your planeswalkers' abilities x times a turn cycle where x is the number of players at the table. That's huge. Huge I tell you. This card is splashy and very cool.

He's also in a $30 precon. Could he be worth more than $30 in the short term? Yes, he could. True-Name Nemesis and Scavenging Ooze are proof enough of that, but with Teferi unlikely to see play in Legacy as a 4-of, it's unlikely. What is likely is that this guy will be pretty collectible. It's doubtful he'll be reprinted for a while, so Japanese non-foil or another rare language are likely to be the "pimp" version. I think this is likely going to end up around $10-$15 which is not bad. If there is another very worthwhile card in the same precon he's in, it could be less. I'll write about what we learned from Commander 2013 later this week.

Ghoulcaller Gisa

A potential commander, Gisa is not all that playable as a general but has potential in other decks. Sacrificing a creature already doomed by a removal spell or lethal combat damage is hardly a drawback and sacrifice enablers are welcome in the format. Pair this with Grave Pact effects to really make them pay. Is this card going to be as financially relevant as Teferi? That all really depends on whether it ends up a good Commander. I'm pegging this card at sub $5, especially if the mono-black Commander deck has good cards in it.

Stitcher Geralf

10/10 for flavor, but this is an odd, clunky general for a mono-blue deck. He's most likely to end up in some sort of zombie deck, perhaps with Thraximundar at the helm. Milling each player a little bit and potentially exiling up to two cards and getting a 1/1 or 2/2 zombie seems pretty weak. I am calling this sub $5 as well. He's a cool card but not a particularly good one.

Angelic Field Marshal

In and of itself, this card is OK. 4 mana for a sometimes 5/5 is not super great in EDH, frankly. What is relevant about this card is the spoiling of a new mechanic, Lieutenant. This ability triggers when your Commander is in play on your side, which incentivizes you to run it out of the command zone, protect it and keep it from getting tucked. Still, why doesn't the angel grant +2/+2 to all of your creatures as well as vigilance if you trigger Lieutenant? It seems like that would maybe be too good for 4 mana and you're going to have Lieutenant triggered more often than not. I'm not super excited about the cycle of Lieutenant cards, that being the case. This is actually less exciting than the Archetype cycle from Theros block. This seems like a bulk rare to me, provided the mono-white deck sells. Still, let's keep our eyes peeled for a card with a good Lieutenant ability because that could be a game-changer.

Feldon of the Third Path

Now THIS I can fap to. Mono-red artifact-based decks have been fun and cool in EDH since time immemorial and getting sweet new gas is no reason to expect that to stop. Powerful enough to be a general but fitting in to an already cool deck like Bosh, Iron Golem or Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer this guy gives you access to dead creatures and new artifacts to copy, fling, transmute; you name it. Not only that, you don't remove the dead creature from the graveyard so you could make a Solemn Simulacrum token that you sacrifice to its own liability every turn cycle until you find something better to do. Goblin Welder wants to party with this guy. Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient wants to party with this guy. Your mom wants to party with this guy.

Will how good he is in a one-of format drive his price above roughly $5? I don't know that it will. He's going to get opened exactly as often as worse cards and the MSRP on the set will enforce a total price for every card in the deck. Could he end up the same price as other cards in his cycle like Gisa and Geralf? Yeah, I could actually see that. It's not fair, but finance isn't a meritocracy when sealed product is involved. He may have a mythic symbol but he's printed as many times as a "common" found as a 1-0f in the commander decks. We'll see where his price goes, but for now, I'm not preordering singles from this set or anything.

 

 

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Jason Alt

Jason Alt is a value trader and writer. He is Quiet Speculation's self-appointed web content archivist and co-captain of the interdepartmental dodgeball team. He enjoys craft microbrews and doing things ironically. You may have seen him at magic events; he wears black t-shirts and has a beard and a backpack so he's pretty easy to spot. You can hear him as co-host on the Brainstorm Brewery podcast or catch his articles on Gatheringmagic.com. He is also the Community Manager at BrainstormBrewery.com and writes the odd article there, too. Follow him on Twitter @JasonEAlt unless you don't like having your mind blown.

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10 thoughts on “Commander 2014 Spoilers – 10/26/14

  1. I would be absolutely shocked (SHOCKED!) if we don’t see a “can be your commander” PW in each deck. Given the crowd the product is marketed towards, everyone’s going to want their own PW in the color they prefer.

  2. Commander 2014 decks are now available for preorder! Each deck is a single color (white, blue, black, red, or green) with a Planeswalker who has been designed to be the deck’s commander, including the necessary rules text, “[This Planeswalker] can be your commander.”

    Source:http://www.starcitygames.com/news/375_Commander+2014+Products+Now+Available+for+Preorder%21

    do some fact checking. This came down more than a week ago. I’m pretty sure SCG isn’t feeding you BS about the contents of sealed product they’re trying to get you to preorder.

  3. You’ve got Geralf wrong. The token you get is equal to the total power of cards exiled. You exile a 2/2 and a 5/5, you get a 7/7…. You’re going to be getting a fat zombie most of the time…

    1. You’re right. I thought he said “the number of cards” for some weird reason. I think he’s better, but I don’t think to an extent that will affect his price.

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