just to back up my comments about white. the mtgoldfish commander guys just ranked the colors in the format (and did a pretty good job overall imo), and they had white second just behind green: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/idBjirR_3pm9iXk.html&ab_channel=MTGGoldfishCommander

Unpopular opinion I know but: I actually like that this set isn't super powerful and synergistic. I think what this set brings most to Commander is a bunch of Jank, which is where commander is really supposed to shine. Playing suboptimal things just for self expression and fun. A full set of jank is exactly what I like for my commander decks tbh

“Rhystic study is probably the best enchantment in their deck” … *flips rhystic study into omniscience*

24:00 love the Blind Seer shoutout there! Random fact- Blind Seer is actually Urza. Pretty neat! I have this card in foil and man those old foils are just built different..

Someone (maybe it was you Demo) said that these white cards should just have more white pips. I totally agree - it disincentivizes people from just slamming them in their 3, 4, or 5-color decks. If the Archivist and Terramancer both costed WW instead of 1W, hopefully people would be more hesitant to auto-include them in their multicolored decks. Smothering Tithe at 1WWW is way less format-warping than at 3W.

I think this is actually one of the best sets in quite awhile I mean art and flavor are just pretty great lots of fun jank too looks pretty great

Just a word of caution regarding Battle Angels of Tyr: if two players are TIED for highest for any of those resources, the ability does not trigger.

This set bumped the power level of my Umbris deck a lot.

I feel like the bear commander and the raised by giants background will be super popular

Thanks for this video. I watched a bunch of other CLB card reviews before this one, but I like yours the most. Very interesting take on it.

Great picks, I agree with your point about the strong white cards being available for use in every deck with white. Those two cards should have had double white pips at the very least.

Burakos, party leader with the “Folk Hero” background is the best one I’ve come up with so far.

So far one of my favorite background combinations is Wilson and cultist of the absolute. You get a 5/5 voltron commander with just so many keywords on like turn 3

cards i like from the choises you made: - wild magic surge (btw i would place this onto my top 3^^) - navigation orb - irenicus's vile duplication - elmister's simulacrum - elturel survivors - balor - barroom brawl things i would add: - Popular Entertainer works for each commander, means in the 98 if a partner commander this means you could goad up to 6 creatures, 2 per enermie^^ oh and doublestrike works too. - Mocking Doppelganger strait up goads the go wide token deck xD - speaking of goad... what is this fun card i instandly wanna put in each red deck? Spectacular Showdown - oh and Traverse the Outlands or Jaheira's Respite are the reasons we got those white cards that help against tutors without stoping them... - Shameless Charlatan is a insanly good background! cause the effect is added by the enchantment you can use it again over and over! - Kindred Discovery also can be a new staple for tribal decks^^. - Windshaper Planetar, you redirect attacks... ALL OF THEM??? this set is bonkers, its one of the few times i like more then 10 cards from a set.

I love this set :D , its just very intresting and looks like a lot of fun. in point of the terramancer i think you are right, also it would be better if they just made reprints instead of just push more and more white card draw.

Love your videos! You have a really fun refreshing and coherent perspective on cards. Let’s just say some other channels are starting to give confusing messages about what they stand for. I half agree with you on white draw. I don’t think it’s too much now. But it is on the cusp. I can tell this because I made a Naya tokens deck recently and realised 80% of the card draw was coming from white! I think white draw is in the same category of almost too much as treasure and goad. Wizards really need to take their foot off the pedal now with those three things, I think!

The whole concept of "commander draft" was a very fun concept. I hope it becomes a more actual draft format that lgs do.

oh to actually help you case on "Deep Gnome Terramancer" there's something even worse I'm not sure you missed it since you didn't talk about but on further inspection.....where's the word "Basic" and for playing at home that allows you to get the Shocklands/triomes/snow dual lands from kaldheim/tango or battle lands/Mistveil Plains/Mistveil Plains/and original dual lands with no drawbacks (via Savanah) so in other words you can put it in a 5-color deck easily because you can fix the mana

I'm building a deck around Deep Gnome. A Rocco deck and a ton of removal that gives opponents lands. Path, Gost Quarters, etc. Him being 2/2 plus a few different commanders makes him very easily tutored. He's crazy

Cloudkill in K'rrik seems good. You are right about the break in the color pie with the last couple sets leaning into white mana acceleration and card draw. But to be fair, green has already done that in that it has just about everything.

Great match: Scion of Halaster with Erinis, Gloom Stalker. Discard a land with Scion, play it when you attack with Erinis. There's also a lot of mill/recur in Golgari, so there's a good amount of support for the pairing.

Robe of the Archmagi is basically my favorite card in the set, it’s perfect for my Derevi swords deck, the perfect wizard 🥲

I agree with your opinion. Whether other people agree or not may not even matter. It's coming from someone who obviously has a deep passion for the game. You're also expressing yourself in an attempt to make the game better for the players. That's what matters. Thank you from one of those players.

Love your content

Great video as alwayz brother 🤘🏻

with Patriar's seal my Kiki-Jiki etb deck is mow down to only one 2cmc ramp, good job wizard for pushing those 3cmc mana rocks

Fraying Line + Sphinx of the Second Sun can be a board wipe on your turn. With Sphinx giving you a second upkeep during your post combat main phase, you'd be able to decline Rope's upkeep clause without anyone else getting an opportunity to pay for it.

I was watching Gavin Verhey (who was lead designer on CL1 and second in command for CL2) open a draft booster box. One thing he pointed out is that they are trying to design very niche legendaries to inspire very narrow decks because there are just so many great wide-range designed commanders now. He said it after pulling Raggadragga, which is a pretty niche commander.

in the last two sets. They created FOUR white angels that draw you cards. Not including any of the other card draw sticking with just that tribe I got 4 new card draw spells. And that deep gnome might be the second best ramp spell in the entire game. Turn 2 someone is going to ramp and you are going to keep up with them. then the next person is going to crack a fetch and you are going to be out ramping the green player. White is close to becoming the strongest color in the format. The best removal, the most board wipes, card draw has been fixed, and second place in ramp with a gap getting smaller and smaller. There is nothing white can't do anymore.

One very good Background combination I've seen so far is Lulu, Loyal Hollyphant + Cloakwood Hermit, they have really good synergy! Honestly I feel like there's a few very cool combinations, you just have to dig a little deeper or have a strategy that works _with_ your commanders rather than them being the entire engine.

I agree about the white card problem. The only reason I haven’t made any mono white decks is because all the staple cards are over $10. It’s a big feelsbad.

I agree with you on Terramancer. They could have even had it get a "basic plains land", being able to fetch a "Plains" is way too powerful for only 2 cmc.

great content!

A decent commander/background combo i’ve found is Renari, Merchant of Marvels with Haunted One, its not really game-breaking at all, but its really fun to play because Renari gives all your dragon spells flash and Haunted One just helps your creatures stick through combat so much easier, its an interesting combination but fun to play. The only trouble I had building the deck is that Renari likes artifacts and Haunted One is obviously a black background, so not a ton of artifact support there, but you’re already in blue with Renari and most of the artifacts in my list are colorless anyway, so it ended up being only a minor build-around.

There’s one great synergy in backgrounds, Abdel Adrian and the background Candlekeep sage. Probably gonna be the best azorius blink deck, goes infinite with Restoration Angel effects and facilitates a lot of blinking

The white weenie value engines are nuts! They we're juiced without the flash keyword, but being able to use them as a trap with an effect on the stack just pushes them over the top. I recently built Jetmir and I've been looking for one or two more low cost value engines, preferably on creatures. These are going to fit perfectly.

That's why early on, our group decided to search when it's best for time flow and announce when the search was to take place in game time

Abdel Adrian+Candlekeep Sage is a great Background combo, its in flicker/blink colors, and Candlekeep Sage rewards you with 2 cards for flickering Abdel :)

I personally love the new horrors I can add to Umbris.

I love this set. Bought two collector boxes and split a box of set boosters with a friend of mine.

Ghired, Conclave Exile loves any and all of the Myriad creatures in his colors since you can stack the attack triggers to get the myriad token out, populate it with Ghired's trigger, and that populated token sticks around after combat Then on the next attack, you have two myriad creatures and triggers! It snowballs really fast.

cloudkill in phenax god of deception. Phenax is 5 mv and most of my creatures are 6+ toughness. definitely gonna consider it for a slot.

What white needs (or needed) is more mid level redundant draw effect (like rumor gatherer) not pushed cards that like you said will stay too expensive

Interesting perspective about how much tutoring/shuffling goes on in a game. I never edited a gameplay video so I wouldn't really know. Surprised you didn't include any of the Mythic dragons. And I agree White has received a considerable bump in the past year.

I can understand the concerns for the new powerful white cards from this set, but taking a look at the cleric and the gnome they both have flash and are creatures. This is a great direction to be heading imo because it changes the gameplay and interactions outside turn order with removal/counter spells where as before it's just games where nobody has any removal and then the game is over. With boardwipes sweeping the meta I think it was best to put these on second tier tribal creature cards.

I think Sarevok + Cultist of the Absolute is an amazing fit for a mono black voltron deck, which I've been looking forward to for quite some time.

i think with cards like Archivist/Deep Gnome and smothering tithe they need to at least use more restrictive casting costs like WW for the former and 1WWW for the tithe so they cant be abused by the other 4 colours, doesn't fix it but its better for mono white overall

They specifically said they made the background mechanic to enable the draft of Baldur's Gate and didn't have constructed commander in mind. They also didn't want to do partner since they couldn't effectively play test them in time.

Erinis + Street Urchin gives you a deathtouch pinger. Add in artifact/creature lands, and you can sac them, then have Erinis attack and bring them right back. Not really my playstyle, but I'd love to see someone else pull it off!

I think the big problem with Deep Gnome Terramancer is that it doesn't say *basic* plains... just plains! Playing three colors? Go fetch your triome, shockland, checkland, etc...

I don't know if you do Arena, or arena only sets, but love to hear your thoughts on balders gate alchemy for historic brawl, might be too complicated if you don't know the format or such, but even just if these cards were in commander if they be good.

I drafted I really powerful Background commander pair with Wilson, Refined Grizzly and Raised by Giants. A 10/10 with vigilance, trample, haste, and ward 2 is pretty great in the command zone. Only downside is the Background costs 6, but that shouldn't be too hard with the ramp in green.

Acolyte of Bahamut + Ganax seems great for a dragons ramp deck. I will be using Tharkus though cause almost all of my dragons are from this set and are pretty weak compared to normal ones

I'm building a Karlach/Inspiring Leader Boros deck that focuses on Myriad and Extra Combats. Depending on how much I enjoy it, I may stick some of those Myriad cards in a Jetmir deck. Myraiding to 9 creatures and giving them all double strike? Yes please!

My best picks from the set are The Council of Four, Irenicus’s Vile Duplication, and Aboleth Spawn. I really slept on Council until I ended up drafting them, and it’s a new level of value and fun! Aboleth Spawn is literally so much free value for only 3 mana. I would go so far to say it’s a new blue staple.

Black Market works VERY well in a lot of deck that want to lose life - like Dinah, Greven and the like will love this card. A lot of decks with incidental life gain and in particular vampires could also benefit. If you have some creatures with lifelink, paying 6 to get a card, a treasure and another "vampire" isn't a bad deal.

Deep Gnome is super powerful, however if your playgroup doesn't play fetches it is significantly weaker. I get the green players are still going to trigger this multiple times, but it will not trigger from rocks.

Can you pay more with Fraying Line to save more creatures?

Elturel Survivors goes in any Dwarven Warrior type deck. Make a creature with power 2 or less unblockable then swing and pump. Going into one of my Goblin decks for sure.

The Black Enchantment is going straight into my Abzan Lifegain... As long as it doesn't get that expensive

Black market connections will be amazing in whip of erebos strategies

Deep Gnome Terramancer also fetches ANY plains, so dual lands can be grabbed as well, because it doesn't say 'basic Plains'. Any white deck, especially the multi-color ones, will want this.

The epic dragons cycle while random are still stupid OP in any dragon/dice deck, just because a d20 can roll you a 1 it's still a 10.5 average, people need to start respecting the d20 real fast once one of those dragons hit the battlefield. Also myriad in any aristocrat deck is just so good fodder, 2 free tokens to be sacrificed each combat phase, even if they connect.

Ooh I’m gonna put frayed line in my opponents choice deck!

backgrounds for commanders compared to prismatic piper ... that's my thought. Seems like it's mainly for drafting commander and being able to get two colors. We will see if any get broken open

I think the background commanders wer designed to be simple and straightforward so draft could function and slot into 99s in constructed. Imo they are not meant out shine Elminster or miiryam or myrkul. Altar of Bhaal is a callback to recurring nightmare which is fun. Overall I think they did pretty well with this set as long as you don’t want commander masters. Which I’m pretty sure will be coming lol…it’s going to be 400 a box and have that dockside and tithe and fierce guardianship everyone wants so bad.

I think the Archivist is more generally applicable than the Terramancer, honestly. One of the things about Smothering Tithe is it's unlimited; you cannot run out of treasure tokens to make. Similarly, Archivist should not run out of cards to draw. But if my mana base gets greedy enough? I can easily run out of Plains. Both cards are fantastic and belong at the top, and you can make your argument that this isn't how to fix White, but I think its far more true of the Archivist than the Terramancer; if I'm running 3-5 colors, my mana base could quite literally be too greedy to support it.

I think that you're giving the Gnome too much credit. Yes, it is powerful, and yes it will work a lot, but it wont be as powerful or consistent as Tithe. Every deck, no matter the color or playstyle draws cards, it's literally a step of the turn. Not every deck runs fetchlands though. Lots of 2 color decks don't run them due to budget or just they don't want to, and plenty of people with 3 color decks don't run them due to budget. And of course, almost no mono colored decks run them. Aside from fetchlands, not everyone plays green and that's the only color that you will see any consistent effects putting lands into play other than Wayfarer's Bauble and a couple other colorless artifacts. Again, it's great, even with just one trigger when you flash it out, it's a Three Visits that leaves behind a blocker/attacker, which is just great, but comparing it to Smothering Tithe is just not realistic. I can realistically seeing it trigger around 10% of the time that Tithe does, sure in certain games when you're playing against Omnath or some other kind of landfall deck it will trigger around 10+ times that game if you draw it early enough, but not every deck is a landfall deck and it has a once per turn limit. If you're not going against green decks, that means each 2-color deck may have one fetch land, and if you're going against three 3-color decks then there's maybe nine total fetchlands, out of 300 cards, those odds are much less than the guaranteed card that every plays takes on their turns.

It seems like every second set has phenomenal green cards with the sets in between picking a different color to focus on.......but with four other colors that is still letting green outpace them dramatically.

Yes the best case for the gnome is turn two get it down and gain some value from the green deck ramping out of control. What about when this is a late game top deck it's just a 2/2. Also it only gets a plains so that limit's its usability in 3-4-5 color decks. Probably should have been WW or only gotten a basic plains but we will see. If this becomes a thing maybe people will start opening their eyes and saying we need some LD or at least more punishment cards for explosive ramp.

I dont know if anyone mentionned it but myriad fits very well with Isshin

Even though the cards from the main set are printed into commander, I still prefer them to precons. I love commander as making decks with the cards you open. Planning a deck and buying specific pieces is just bizarre to me

Love that they brought back adventures

I don’t mind the low power level of this set. It’s just that it’s not particularly interesting. I remember they were going through the draft archetypes and it reminded me of something we’d see in a core set. Very dull. I personally can’t stand the price they’re charging though.

The background mechanic isn’t busted. Good!

Totally agree with everything you said. I’m happy for the people that are excited for the flavor of the set that are D&D fans but to me it’s kind of a dud. Definitely a singles set for me. I wanted to buy a box but just can’t see it making sense for me since I just want the lands and a few singles. Kinda stinks that the set booster box only has 18 boosters too

Black market connections goes in a vilis broker of blood deck. When vilis is out you're drawing cards for each life you lose.

Elturel Survivors (or really any Myriad card in Mardu) goes so well in Isshin as Myriad triggers 2x

its not totally a synergy but karlach + inspiring leader makes for a fun boros tokens shell

I do agree that the background commanders are kinda underwhelming. I was super excited to see how many weird janky combos I could do in different colors and after coming through them, most of them don’t really add much interest to what your commander is already doing.

39:07 that's true, Kenny doesn't need it, but then again, how many plains will Kenny have? I think that it should say "basic plains" there won't be many decks that would play it.

Volo is a popular entertainer in the books and games. The card is likely popular entertainer.

Nautiloid Ship gets crewed by Captain N'gahthrod! Luckily he can crew it by himself because the pre-con didn't have any other pirates 😢

Deep Gnome Terramancer is a White Three Visits/Nature's Lore for Plains. It is SUPER strong.

Those top cards are pushed so hard. And I agree that they should cost all white mana.. To make it very hard to play in anything but mono white. Mono white does need cards like these.

It’s not a fun opinion, but I do think it’s the correct one. More fundamental pieces and less chase cards is the way to fix white

If the terramancer mentioned basic plains, then it would be balanced for white and white only. Since it is ANY plains, you can get duals, triomes, etc.

Imagine you have a Deep Gnome Terramancer and excited to tutor out Lands off of other Tutors, but one of your opponents has an Archivist of Oghma. Ouch.

Terramancer also doesn't say basic Plains. It's says Plains, meaning dual lands and Triomes are also on the menu. If it even just had basic Plains, it'd be a more restricted and balanced card.

I'm wrecking it with Myrkul.

I both agree and disagree, about white draw. We need enough options that the price does sky rocket. But not as bad as what happened with green.

Vhal, Candlekeep Reasearcher...Raised By Giants. Have fun!

Nautifild will be great in my anowon deck

Terramancer is so cracked lol, it’s floor is a flash blocker, its ceiling is grabbing 4-5 lands which is just disgusting

Funny you said "Greed is a factor" for Black Market Connections - Pay {B} and 2 life: Draw a card! ;)

I disagree with your opinion on the Backgrounds. There are wonderful ones, and don't forget that non-creatures are generally much harder to remove than creatures. Almost every deck has mass creature removal nowadays, but mass enchantment removal is rare, and most of the time opponents aren't going to spend their precious artifact/enchantment removal on your Backgrounds that can be recast. This is great! Also, I don't think the best combo is Halsin + Inspired Leader, since it would be enough to remove Halsin. The huge 6/6 tokens are powerful, but they have no evasion, and they can't block flyers. Without Halsin you will probably be limited to 1/1 tokens, and it would be very difficult to win. I consider Baeloth + Clan Crafter much more powerful combo: you aren't that frightening, but almost nobody can attack you, and you have both the card draw and time for the victory. Without Baeloth, you still keep the card advantage you've already gained, and it can be immense, since Clan Crafter ability is limited only by your mana, which you will have a lot in artifact deck. I don't like Black Market Connections at all. If you need Treasures, it gives you just one per turn, which is too slow. If you need cards, it also gives you just one per turn, and you pay more than usual 1 life for it. I guess it will be played only in the decks that benefit from losing life. Archivist of Oghma punishes the players for searching their libraries. Commander wasn't meant to be played with 20 Tutors! It has 100 cards with only one copy of each right to be unpredictable! Of course, now Archivist is too good, but I guess Wizards will fight until people won't move to the more straightforward decks with no Tutors and no fetchlands. Then you will find that your Archivist is just a 2/2 bear with Flash :) Same about the Terramancer. Can you win without "putting your lands into play"? Probably yes, unless you're playing a deck that's based on that. You can use creature-based ramp, artifacts or enchantments, or play several lands per turn. If nobody plays the fetchlands and the green spell ramp, Terramancer is the same 2/2 bear with Flash. Moreover, the value of Terramancer quickly decreases in the game: getting +2 Plains on turn 3 is broken, but getting them on turn 7 may mean nothing. My personal card #1 is Green Slime. Now this card will really be played in every deck with Green. Who doesn't want a way to prevent opponent's victory for just G?

I'm just excited about Undercellar Myconid...

You're still wrong about Archivist of Oghama and Deep Known Terramancer. They are powerful effect that goes in every deck, because white has not enough other options yet. All other colours have "Powerful options that go in every deck" that aren't super expensive, because the other colours have heaps of options. They need more and more card draw options so that these cards aren't ubiquitous, expensive cards that go in every deck.

im hopin backgrounds can be super useful in th 98 of partner decks

I'm hoping Battle Angel's of Tyr is forgotten after release so it drops in price. I have a knight tribal and angel tribal deck. I want a couple of copies of the card, but my wallet is getting obliterated if it doesn't drop