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I’d love to see a video of all of these commanders with the BEST background they can be paired with. It would be pretty unique!

Quick explanation of the tadpole thing: The game Baldur's Gate 3 starts with characters on the nautiloid ship. All of them were captured by mind flayers and had tadpoles inserted into them. the tadpole is an important plot element and every playable character has one. WotC made all of the playable characters into cards so thats why they tadpole thing kept coming up :D. Also on another note. The lore on some characters like Lae'zel is very sparse because their game (BG3) is still in early access and we haven't learned that much about them. Shadohearts past espeacially has been kept purposefully mysterious.

I'll be asking my playgroup if we can rule 0 Faceless One to say "etb you gain the initiative" to make initiative commanders work

3:15 The Faceless One 4:15 Amber Gristle O'Maul 5:55 Gut, True Soul Zealot 7:45 Erinis, Gloom Stalker 8:55 Livaan, Cultist of Tiamat 9:55 Safana, Calimport Cutthroat 12:15 Vhal, Candlekeep Researcher 14:00 Halsin, Emerald Archdruid 15:50 Zellix, Sanity Flayer 17:45 Skanos Dragonheart 18:50 Viconia, Drow Apostate 21:00 Renari, Merchant of Marvels 22:30 Shadowheart, Dark Justiciar 24:10 Wilson, Refined Grizzly 25:35 Alora, Merry Thief 27:25 Burakos, Party Leader 29:00 Rasaad yn Rashir 32:20 Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer 35:00 Ganax, Astral Hunter 36:35 Wyll, Blade of Frontiers 38:40 Sivriss, Nightmare Speaker 40:25 Lulu, Loyal Hollyphant 42:15 Sarevok, Deathbringer 44:30 Imoen, Mystic Trickster 46:10 Durnan of the Yawning Portal 47:55 Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward 50:35 Gale, Waterdeep Prodigy 52:40 Lae'zel, Vlaakith's Champion 54:45 Jaheira, Friend of the Forest 56:45 Karlach, Fury of Avernus 58:50 Ellyn Harbreeze, Busybody 1:00:30 Volo, Itinerant Scholar

28:30 - Worth mentioning the Background “Folk Hero” here imo. Gives a draw once per turn when you cast a creature that shares a type with commander, there are a good number of great rogues/wizards/clerics in Orzhov with flash

I feel like some of these are a bit underrated for power? Mostly because I don't think you really *can* rate these as commanders without considering background pairs. Wilson, for example, is weak on his own, but if you pair him with Cultist of the Absolute you end up with one of the stronger combinations of the set for Voltron.

"He was turned into a drider! Yay!" "No, that's a bad thing" "Is it? Don't they all worship Lolth?" "No, he rescued her *from* Lolth, so he was turned into one as a punishment" "Huh" You've perfectly captured the essence of everyone encountering Lolth culture, either in setting or reading the lore. I'm halfway convinced that R.A. Salvatore wanted to see how much bullshit it would take for Ed Greenwood to finally say "No, that doesn't make sense". Joke's on him! Ed 'My self insert sleeps with the goddess of magic on the reg' has no filter or limit for bullshit. And that's why Menzoberranzan is so utterly fucked up.

I LOVE Lulu in DnD and even have a plushie of her! To clarify the lore a little bit (spoilers for the Descent into Avernus campaign book): Zariel was once a powerful angel who was so driven to destroy all devils and demons that she led an army of angels into Avenus, the first level of Hell. Lulu was her war elephant mount and closest companion. The battle ended in a bitter defeat, and Asmodeus (the lord of the Nine Hells) made a deal with Zariel to spare her life, corrupt her into becoming an archdevil, and giving her the plane of Avernus to rule over. Corrupting a powerful being of pure good such as Zariel was a bragging point for Asmodeus. Her hatred of demons drove her to led armies of devils against the hordes of demons. She was once a lawful good angel but is now an lawful evil devil. There was a small part of Zariel that sought redemption from her devilish form and spared Lulu, giving her a sword that could redeem her. Lulu faced her share of hardships (including losing her memories and powers thanks to Mahadi, the Rakdos commander in this set). She eventually guides the players through Avernus in hopes of recovering her memories and powers, finding the sword, and redeeming her old friend. There is actually a mechanic in game where if the players befriend Lulu and take time to really become close to her, she will regain her powers and memories of what happened. You definitely nailed her vibe as the happy-go-lucky idealist, but all she wants to for her friend to return to her former state. The campaign has multiple endings, and it is possible to fulfill Lulu's wishes and redeem Zariel, transforming her into her angelic form, or it is also possible for Zariel to grow further into the darkness, which drives Lulu mad (very sad). Its such a great story, and I look forward to building a Lulu deck!

- Faceless One, Prismatic Piper's relative twice removed - Livaan, right into the 99 of Vadrik - Halsin looks awesome for Raggadragga mana dork stomp, bear in mind that they will be 6/6 for 1 mana that they can tap for themselves. Makes me think of a super cheap alternative to Allosaurus Shepherd - So excited for MOAR CLERICS! LOL

You 2 need to join a d&d group. Come on guys, get with the program.

Just started BG3 and, by accident, i've built one of my favoite decks of all time: Karlach, Fury of Avernus and Cultist of the Absolute. It just crushes people. The first time i've played it we tried planechase for a change. First plane was the double damage one. From turn 5 on, Karlach took out at least one player per turn. Pretty short game and my opponents were shocked, that I could deal 32, 48, 64 commander damage a turn. The upkeep sac-a-creature trigger isn't that bad in rb tbh. You've got lots of options of great and cheap token makers that you could put out before you even play your commander+background, plus you get a lot of aristocrats stuff to even profit from sac trigger. This deck also goes nuts with attack triggers. Trigger elder brain three times a turn and let someone exile up to 21 cards from full hands is just insane. Karazikar goads the worst blockers and taps them, it also draws you cards. Yuri becoes a wincon if paired with krenko and remains in the game long enough. Add 16 to 64 red mana in your second or third main phase with Neheb, the Eternal? Check! I really dont like playing rakdos for the most part, only got one more deck in that color combination (Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin with an exile theme). But this one is a blast and a lot of fun to play. Check out my decklist if your interested (100€ budget): www.moxfield.com/decks/XdmApFoEtUq-apSNsVBShw

Baeloth can be paired with the Background that makes it a 10/10. Then you goad almost everything

I was going to compliment the hair color change on an earlier video, but I forgot. So, it looks nice, good job.

Yeah Gale is actually the best in my opinion. It goes so well with any other color, with red you can actually use Lighting Bolt, Leyline of the Blue and you use sorceries as instants, with black you can use all the mass drain spells, with white you have more removal then a Modern Yorion deck, with green you double the ramp on can trips. All of it so great!

Wilson is actually a pretty scary commander if you pair it with the doublestrike background. I have a guy in my play group who fleshed out the deck and it definitely kills players.

22:22 Cherries hair looking good btw

Joe sporting a fresher than wet paint haircut 🍻🤣

I really like the idea of Durnan+Passionate archeologist. Durnana exiles and discounts big creatures and when I cast those creatures from exile the background is gonna blast someone for damage equal to that spells CMC. Gets good immediate value even if the spell gets countered

Just want to say, Joe, your hair and beard are looking sharp 👌

Built a Volo deck on moxfield (Volo, Pokemon God) and it's my new favorite deck. It was a lot of fun searching for different creature types and using creature types to limit what I could and couldn't play. Right now the creatures in the deck cover 35 different types. Kind of a journey to Godhood by flickering, bouncing and stealing. It's like playing Pokemon but better because you're playing Commander instead. 👍

What's better than creating apparel and selling it to your audience? BEING SPONSORED TO PROMOTE IT! Nice! Glad to see the channel grow daily. Keep pumping out the great, quality content!

In Baldur's Gate 1 you make whatever character you want and play through. When they make a "cannon" character for the story later it is Abdel Adrian.

Joe Cherries looking fresh with that haircut! Love your content nerds! I'll be updating my Volo UG deck to a Volo + Background deck now 😎 original Volo grabs too much hate, he'll be in the 99 lol.

Side note I think Joe's hair looks great, fantastic video guys

The amount of legends in this set is insane.

Erinis is awesome, especially paired with the Street Urchin background, acting as a sort of build your own Attrition...in GR. Incredibly unique playstyle for the color, and more then enough token creation in the color pair.

I was kinda hoping y'all would go through and recommend Backgrounds for each commander

Jaheira is phenomenal in the 99. I picked her up to play in Lonis, Cryptozoologist as a redundant mana engine piece with Academy Manufactor; Urza, Lord High Artificer; and Inspiring Statuary. Super easy to rip through the deck with 48 creatures at a G discount just from having Lonis + Jaheira in play, plus she's even randomly an elf so I get a bit of value being able to use Wirewood Symbiote to protect her at activation speed. And if you find Academy Manufactor to pair with Jaheira and Lonis? Forget it.

Wizards should've did an article with lore snippets for those who aren't well versed on baldurs gate.

I just noticed that faceless one doesn’t even have a creature type

I browsed through the comments and didn’t see anyone mention it, so I guess I’ll do it: the winged cat mentioned in Gale’s backstory is called a tressym.

Is Abdel/Animate Dead strong enough to be a thing? Seems kinda cool idk

I am blown away by Zellix's low placement! His intended background is Haunted One, AKA turning all your horrors into +2/+0, undying, big threats. Also Mesmeric Orb can get you several horrors every turn, combine that with Altar of the brood and any of the many horrors which also mill just by existing (consuming aberration, the one that mills 10 on attack trigger, Umbris in a way) then you're not just milling to death, you're milling for dozens of cards and then swinging for lethal with an army of 3/1 horrors! Also I think it's very fun because as you say yourself if you could start with cards in the graveyard you would. It's a risk/reward style of gameplay to mill your opponents but give them great flashback, reanimation, dredge, you name it targets, and one that I think is very very fun.

I love your hair Joe, its amazing.

You combine zellix with haunted one background and now all your horror tokens have 3/1 menace and undying. Maybe actually consider background pairings with background commanders.

Joe bringing up the atrocities that were the Mortal Kombat films lol Edit: Also, Vahl/Raised by giants is OP af

Such a unique way to say the word "card".

One thing you missed on shadowheart is you can sack tokens so a zombie is a draw 2 with no other cards

Alora paired with a red background allows to play with sneak attack, so you can return that creature to your hand after sneaking it in. That sounds like fun

Love your content nerds! I watch it every day. This may be a obvious but I hope you review all the backgrounds as well!!

Play maskwood nexus, cast labman, tap volo to win for drawing 261 cards!

Video on a Sunday!

I actually laughed out loud when someone drafted me a karlach towards the middle of pack 2

* Gut I think is meant to be played with Treasures/Clues. * Erinis is *fantastic* with Scion of Halaster. She becomes the queen of Golgari ramp. Endlessly playing Evolving Wilds or Riveteer's Outlook means you often end up with double the lands your opponent has. If you can give her Thieves' Tools or something similar, you can guarantee she sticks around.

At 47:50 it is called that because he was one of the first to venture into the under mountain and come out alive and now there’s just this big pit (portal) in the middle of the bar that just goes there

Yooo you gave me a happy birthday on my birthday day!

Alora seems like an interesting Ninja commander with a black background

Weren’t you guys at around 40k subscribers a few months ago. Almost doubled since than. You’re killing it! Good job 😎👍

For Zellix it pairs pretty well with altar of the brood

Love the new haircolor Joe!

Beezy’s shirt is noticeably cool

i don’t think i’ve seen anyone else mention, but Amber Gristle O’Maul actually IS on the Forgotten Realms Wiki, but her page is under her nickname Ambergris, and her full name doesn’t redirect for whatever reason. she’s a character from the same book series as Drizzt.

Big thumbs up for Ceremorphesis

Love the hair, cherries - you look terrific!!

I'm doing a deck with Sivriss when Liliana is like their "master" in a sense, training an apprentice to take value out of necromancy. Plenty of Strixhaven cards to add to the deck with lessons and I already have a bunch of Liliana Planeswalkers.

I wish the previews to regular videos ratio was slightly higher in favor of regular videos

I run Baeloth Barrityl with Noble Heritage for immediate buffs and then run a Voltron Boros shell for commander damage kills

Halsin can be quite interesting depending on the cards you use. Manipulating tokens to become 4/4 can be really strong. In the 99 Ziatora would most likely want to turn a treasure into a 4/4 bear and fling that to make three more treasure. As a commander on could go the crazy route of e.g. using Greater Good which allow you to pay 1 and sacrifice any token to draw 4 then discard 3. In Black one could profit from Bone Miser (and tutors) to empty the whole deck while selecting what ends in your graveyard and what stays in your hand. It is also worth mentioning that Pitiless Plunderer will allow you to get infinit death triggers if you manage to give hast to the bears. They stay treasures and could still tap for mana and be sacrificed which will give you a new treasure. Giving haste might already be useful even without Pitiless Plunderer because in the end Halsin x Greater Good would like to search for mass reanimation while filling the graveyard with creatures. From the general strategy the deck works best with Agent of the Iron Throne to give you a Blood artist like card in the command zone. From a power level this should be about as good of a Plan as playing Slimefoot, Beledros. But certainly about better than actually playing e.g. Willowdusk. Especially with "Agent of the Iron Throne" already being close to Slimefoot

Abdel Adrian, Gorions Ward is amazing, I'd give him higher artwork because of his showcase art and higher coolness because hey canonical protagonist of the original saga, fought dragons, demiliches and demigods, an actual legend of the setting!

I'm planning on turning Gut into an aristocrats commander with Agent of the Iron Throne with a pseudo treasure theme going on, since I can use Mahadi to create treasures, turn them into skeletons, and sacrifice them for aristocrats effects

Fun fact for ganax, he doesn't specify nontoken so he works great with anything that makes dragon tokens.^^ Lathliss, Dragon Broodmother, Miirym from this same set, etc. Get treasure for casting dragons and then get MORE treasures when your dragons make more dragons.^^ Also, since you'll be going tribal for this anyway, urza's incubator and mana echoes^^

They should have made it so any mono color commander could have a background in the command zone.

Pretty much spot on for Sarevok's lore and a lot of decent story in Baldur's Gate 1

Cherries, your hair looks awesome!

Gale and scion of halstad dimir is very strong. Deck yourself out or simple work with your graveyard to cast spells. Lots of creatures to keep you safe while you amass your graveyard and hand for a plethora of cast options.

Have you ever considered going back to old sets and talking about your explanations for those commanderz

My heart still cries that Merieke Ri Berrit is so low on the list...

I'm betting Wilson's father is the bear of an elf

Alora , Merry Thief with Raised by Giants background… 2 turns of attacking = win through commander damage. (Discounting backgrounds by thinking that they don’t make a difference isn’t giving these commanders their proper spots.)

A lot of these characters are from the OG Baldurs Gate games. Awesome to see them as magic cards. Will always remember "The Lord of Murder Shall Perish, and in his doom he shall spawn a score of mortal progeny. Chaos will be sown from his passage. So sayeth the wise Alaundo!

I threw skanos in my gruul dragon tribal as a backup character. I thought he was cool enough for my level. I have his paper sketch art. Ganax and acolyte of bahamut are the commander for it.

I wasn’t sure about this set when it was first announced, but it ended up being kind of a house. Lots of good value in this set.

A reminder to people. Each of the commander precons has one "choose a background" commander and the intended background will be whatever one is in that deck.

Imoen is your childhood friend from the first Baldurs gate PC game. She is the first person to join your party. The issue with a lot of these characters including shadowheart or Lae'zel is the game isn't even out yet that they are in. So the players don't even know the lore. And finally. Khalid is from the first baludrs gate game which came out like 25 years ago. So hes definitely not named after the musician. However hes also an elf. So not a regular humans name either :P

Immediately made a Karlach deck the moment I saw her!

All right, time to being typically nerd! The yawning portal gets its name for a hole that leads to a dungeon, called undermount. At the center of the bar this whole is located, it is referred to as the yawning portal.

are you guys ranking the backgrounds in this? Their kinda commanders/they sit in the command zone just as these choose a background creatures do

To defend all the story stuff, the game is in early access and not all of the plot points have been revealed. The tadpole incident is the inciting incident of the new game. Its the driving force of the whole plot that people are infected with tadpoles.

I guess ppl don’t get gut power with chefs bg and doublers and extra counter. Together with menece and it gets fast strong.

50:20 OUTRAGEOUS! I'm never touching a magic card again!

30:53 aged like milk lmao 😂

There should be a list of your ranking in the description of the video.

Incredibly stupid combo with Zellix Sanity flayer: you play a deck where almost everything is a creature, then you play Sage's Row Denizen (whenever a blue creature ETB, you mill 2), then you play a card like Spectral shift or Alter reality to change all instances of one color with another, so you change Denizen "when a blue creature" to "when a black creature" and you can keep selfmilling. every horror that ETB triggers the denizen that mills making more horrors you can play mana severance too to remove land, for more consistency.

Erinis is probably best with street urchin. Pay 1 and sacrifice a creature/artifact to kill any creature on the board is really strong. Play some threaten effects in the deck so you can sacrifice your opponents best creatures. Red lets you easily discard lands as well. About halsin: he will most usually be played with inspiring leader, so he actally makes 6/6, which is not that bad after all. Skanos can be paired with the blue background that makes him unblockable when attacking an opponent tied for most life. Blue lets you dump large dragons in the graveyard, and with a power doubling effect you should be able to deal 21 commander damage with a single attack. Alora can be played as UB ninjitsu rogue commander. give her agent of shadow thieves as a background so she can always attack, and mix your decks with cheap creatures that have etb/ltb effects as well as ninjitsu creatures. Your unblocked creature gets bounced by ninjitsu, and the ninjitsu creature stays on the battlefield as it was not targeted by your commander.

I believe my children are technically ball spawn as well.

Shadowheart is a major character in the new Baldurs gate game thats in early access right now. Kinda surprised that she only got a 2 for lore/coolness.

Ranking these commanders without the backgrounds they are intended to be paired with seems like a waste of time.

Is Joe's hair Purple or Blue-ish or is it just my eyes playing tricks on me. Either way man like the style.

Nice haircut, Joe.

Abdel + O Ring + Fiend hunter + Reality Acid (get blue background) Infinite opponent sacs all permanents including lands

Alora makes me think ninjas. Drawback is irrelevant if you're going to ninjutsu anyway, and she helps keep the ninja train rolling since even your creatures that could normally be blocked turn into ninjutsu enablers.

I will say though, Gale, Lae'zel, Wyll, Karlach, and Shadowheart are part of Baldur's Gate 3 which still isn't fully out, so these characters don't have their lore fully revealed just yet

you need to play against gut to appreciate it. i played against him in the prerelease and it was sick lol. those skeletons will crack your head.

With zellix I'd just put him in my self mill and make creatures to sacrifice to altars for different abilities

Thank you

I'm new to MtG, bu does Raised By Giants not make Wilson, Refined Grizzly an amazing card? A 10/10 with vigilance, reach, trample, and ward 2 for eight mana that's guaranteed to be played multiple times?

Alora seems fun for red/blue threaten tribal

Shadowheart ( 22:27 ) is great paired with a red background in a rakdos "threaten" deck. Steal your opponents creatures, then swing with them, then sac them to draw cards, even better if you sprinkle in some aristocrat stuff to make them lose more life when their own creature is getting sac'd for your card advantage 😈😈😈. Muhahahaha

I'm digging Joe's look