by Dan Sheehan
I think Commander is in trouble.
I know how it sounds. After all, the cards are selling, the precons are printing, and LGS tables remain full of commander players. And it's true, this isn't an opinion that would be supported by sales numbers or player surveys, it's what we in the data science field call a "vibes based" assessment.
But on a personal level, over the course of a couple years, I went from a guy who tracked all of his games in a spreadsheet to a guy who hasn't built a new commander deck in paper since Bloomburrow. Maybe it's a seasons of life thing (I'm a dad now) or maybe it's that I played too much and burned myself out (it happens) but for my money, the format changed as much or more than I did.
The initial appeal of Commander was that it was an endearingly broken multiplayer take on Magic that let you play banned classics and draft chaff in the same deck. It was supposed to be the weird format you played in the margins with your friends, mimicking the informal multiplayer that so many of us cut our teeth on back in the day. Then, it became the main event.
Now that there's money to be made both in content and in product, Commander is basically just four people playing an unbalanced version of traditional Magic. Most of the banned classics are gone because they make the regular cards too good, the draft chaff is also gone because they've printed so many strictly better staples that refusing to run them is opting in on losing. Technically, I could still bring a deck with a goofy-ass plan and a bunch of bad cards to Commander night but I would be doing so much in the same way that I could slap Jason Momoa. It's an action my body is capable of but not one that would lead to a pleasurable outcome for me.
When I picked up Commander in 2019, it was a format where games lasted 10+ turns, White was the worst color, and new cards got printed once a year. Unbeknownst to us, it was the end of the Battlecruiser era. It was the end of a lot of eras. Cut to six years later and the experience of playing Commander is unrecognizable. Every Commander is value + card draw for three mana, everything without evasion is unplayable, and the worst color, by a country mile, is my favorite.
That's right motherfuckers, this was about Green all along.
I think Green may be a canary in the coal mine for Commander, a sign that players and designers alike need to remember that this format that has absorbed so much of Magic wouldn't exist without its goofy kitchen table roots.
From a Legendary Creature design standpoint, the last few years have seen Green shortchanged to the point of neglect. Every mono colored Commander design the color gets is either Landfall, Counters, or Landfall that gives you Counters. It's gotten to a point where whenever there's a cycle of legendary creatures, I dread seeing the green one because I know what it does before I've even seen it.
But I'm done complaining. Rather than sit on the sidelines for years talking about how my favorite color's been done dirty, I went ahead and designed five legendary creatures that I think exemplify what Green needs to get back in the game (and by extension, what Commander design needs to feel fun again.)
But first, some words for Statler and Waldorf...
WHAT I THINK ABOUT WHEN I'M DESIGNING COMMANDERS:
What mechanics are fun in this format?
What win cons feel most rewarding?
What makes a Commander deck fun to lose to?
WHAT I DO NOT THINK ABOUT DESIGNING CARDS:
Legacy (not my business!)
cEDH (just an urban legend!)
Purposefully unfun exploits someone could take advantage of (Did Thomas Edison stop inventing the lightbulb just because somebody might try to eat one? I think not.)
So let's start off with a bold take: I think EDH generally needs more cards with "Win the Game" effects. These sorts of effects are a blast in multiplayer. The format is at its best when it's pushing the boundaries of what Magic was supposed to be. Player 1 is trying to pull off storm, Player 2 has five upkeeps, player 3 is playing exclusively with unsleeved Onslaught commons. It's rare that all four Commander players are actually playing the same game.
In Commander, alt wincons just codify what's already happening. Craterhoof Behemoth doesn't say "When this creature enters, if you control 15 or more other creatures, you win the game" but it might as well! Offering up an alt win con, especially on a Commander, forces other players to be reactive not just to specific permanents but to a new way of thinking about the game.
The first of my two "win the game" commanders is a tribute to Steve, our beloved Sakura Tribe Elder. Let's get a look at Tougo.
The in-lore explanation for Sakura Tribe Elder's effect is that Kamigawan snakes retreat into the forest to become trees when they die. The lore of Kamigawa Neon Dynasty also heavily implies some struggle between the inhabitants of the plane's forests and the city of Towashi during its rapid expansion. This guy is an imagined piece of that unseen puzzle, awakening the spirits of long-dead snakes to reclaim the forest.