Wizards of the Coast surprised us this week with a previously unannounced set dropping later this year called Commander Masters. Commander is one of Magic’s most popular formats and they are continuing to show commander players love by giving us a masters set focused on the format. As a “masters” set, it will comprise of almost entirely of reprints. A commander set wouldn’t be complete though with out a set of commander decks to go with it. Wizards announced a total of four commander decks in the set, each of them containing 10 never before seen cards. It is scheduled to arrive August 4, 2023. While the set is still months away they provided us a few exciting details to try and hold us over.
Sealed Products
Unlike Double Masters 2022 which only had collector boosters and draft boosters, Commander Masters will have the full suite of sealed products this time around. Get a peak at the packaging below.
Like Double Masters 2022, the collector boxes will only contain 4 booster packs instead of the normal 12 that we see for standard sets. Based on the art of the packaging we can expect to see a reprint of Gisa, as seen on Ghoulcaller Gisa, Avacyn, as seen on Avacyn, Angel of Hope, and Zacama, Primal Calamity.
Planeswalker Party
First we have a Superfriends themed Jeskai deck called Planeswalker Party.
We can only speculate on the cards that will be in the deck but an awesome and much needed reprint would be The Chain Veil which allows you to activate your planeswalker’s abilities twice each turn. In combination with cards like Oath of Teferi and Teferi, Temporal Archmage, you can activate your planeswalkers up to 4 times each turn! With The List being the only reprint of The Chain Veil, it would be a welcome reprint, especially with a new frame or borderless art.
A common theme in Superfriends style decks is the proliferate mechanic, allowing you to distribute additional loyalty counters onto all of your planeswalkers. Phyrexia: All Will Be One had a proliferate subtheme so there are a few cards to keep in mind when this deck comes out. Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus which says when you proliferate, you proliferate twice in stead. Ichormoon Gauntlet also seems interesting as it gives all your planeswalkers, 0: Proliferate, and -12: Take an extra turn after this one.
Sliver Swarm
Up next we have five color Sliver Swarm, which we can only assume will be a slivers tribal deck. Already a popular tribe in Magic, with a few good choices of commanders such as The First Sliver, and Sliver Overlord. There are a ton of slivers to choose from and fill your deck with. It would be very cool to see some older slivers reprinted with updated art and borders. It is worth noting that Sliver Queen will not be in deck because she is on the Reserved List. As each of these decks will have a brand new commander it will be interesting to see what new idea they can come up with for a 5 color sliver legend.
Eldrazi Unbound
The third deck is colorless Eldrazi Unbound, and the firs time we will be getting a colorless pre-constructed commander deck! The most popular colorless commander to date, who also happens to be an eldrazi, has been Kozilek, the Great Distortion. This card has not seen a paper printing in booster boxes since its original release in Oath of the Gatewatch in 2016. I hope one of the new commanders in the deck can compete with Kozilek to give players more options for colorless commanders. The creature in the image gives me Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger vibes so maybe we will see a new Ulamog card.
Colorless decks by nature tend to run a lot of artifacts, so the new land from Phyrexia: All Will Be One, The Mycosynth Gardens will prove to be a very powerful land to keep in mind. It is already breaking into Modern with the Amulet Titan decks, because of the namesake card Amulet of Vigor.
Enduring Enchantments
Finally we have an enchantment themed Abzan deck titled Enduring Enchantments. The cape on the art having a starry background reminds me of Theros with cards like Dawn Evangel which happens to be an enchantment focused set. Phyrexia: All Will Be One gave us some good enchantments in Skrelv’s Hive and Planar Disruption. You could also play a lot of auras with Venerated Rotpriest and Necrogen Communion to eliminate your opponents with poison. We will have to see the full deck list before deciding which way this deck will lean.
Exciting Reprints
Finally they announced three exciting reprints coming in Commander Masters, the first being The Ur-Dragon. Dragons is one of the most popular tribes for commander decks, and The Ur-Dragon is one of the most popular commanders for this tribe. With a new borderless art treatment, this fan favorite is a welcome reprint.
Next is a reprint for players who like taking extra turns with Capture of Jingzhou. A card that has only seen printing in Portal Three Kingdoms and as a judge promo makes this card normally hard to acquire. This card sells for more than $100 at the time of this writing, so a reprint of this card is great to see.
Most excitingly we will finally get a reprint of Jeweled Lotus. It immediately made a splash in commander when it was printed in Commander Legends. With extended art foils going for more than $600 at the time of writing, and with a new borderless art thrown in the mix. This card is likely to be one of the most sought after chase cards of the set.
Stay tuned to boarshatgaming.com for when we eventually list preorders for this set. In the mean time, upcoming set March of the Machine is available for preorder, while we wait for more spoilers.
