A very special WeeklyMTG premiered this week, showcasing the Planeswalker Party pre-constructed deck from Commander Masters. Commodore Guff himself made an appearance, helping walk both host Blake Rasmussen and the viewers through some of the design decisions made for the deck, and explaining how some of the new cards work.
Commander Master Reveals
The Battlebond lands—Rejuvenating Springs, Spectator Seating, Training Center, Undergrowth Stadium, and Vault of Champions—are a very strong cycle of lands that check for the number of opponents you have and are getting a reprint in the main Commander Masters set. These lands come in regular version, etched foil versions, and an alternate art borderless version, showing off various regions of Kylem.
Planeswalker Party
With an emphasis on protecting your board and generating overwhelming power with planeswalkers, the Planeswalker Party deck is a powerful pre-constructed deck and a great starting point for any player looking to get a jump start on a stronger deck.
The alternate commander for the deck is Leori, Sparktouched Hunter, a cheap Jeskai commander that lets you double up your Planeswalker activations.For a fun bit of lore, Leori is Lukka’s tiger from Ikoria! This is an amazing throwback to a character that everyone loves infinitely more than Lukka himself!
Unfortunately, Leori was killed in a particularly Heartless Act by General Kudro on Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, but now lives on through Leori’s card. Interestingly, Lukka never gave Leori a name while the two knew each other.
Next up is Guff Rewites History, a very wordy card that is basically a mass Chaos Warp that can’t hit enchantments. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that you can’t cast it unless all players have a valid target—so every play must control a non-enchantment, non-land permanent.
Gatewatch Beacon is a super interesting mana rock that enters with loyalty counters on it, which is a wild ability. When another Planeswalker enters the battlefield under your control, you get to move one of those loyalty counters from the Beacon to that Planeswalker, giving them an extra little boost. Even though the Gatewatch has seen better days, it remains a powerful artifact, especially with some proliferation shenanigans.
Onakke Oathkeeper is a weird new addition to the deck. The Onakke are the ones who created Liliana’s Chain Veil and are surrounded in mystery and malicious intent. Onakke Oathkeeper acts like a mini Ghostly Prison for your Planeswalkers, taxing your opponents one mana for each creature attacking one of your Planeswalkers. Once it dies, you can exile it from your graveyard to reanimate a Planeswalker, which is pretty darn good!
Teyo is back, this time as Teyo, Geometic Tactician. With an enter the battlefield ability, Teyo protects himself with a 0/4 wall when it comes into play. His first ability lets you play politics a bit, letting you and an opponent to draw a card. Teyo’s second ability is very tricky. It lets you pick either left or right, and until your next turn, players can only attack players in the direction you choose. So if your opponent on your right has a massive army on board, but the one on your left has no creatures out, you can make it so the bigger threat cannot attack you during their next turn.
Sparkshaper Visionary is a weird way to let your Planeswalkers help take down your opponents by temporarily turning them into 3/3 birds. When they deal damage to a player you get to scry 1, which is a pretty good trade off, and you can still activate their loyalty abilities which is wild.
The highly anticipated Vronos, Masked Inquisitor finally has a card. With a mask made of Etherium, a special metal from Esper, Vronos is hunter who was tasked to take down Garruk, though it backfired and Garruk took him out first. Despite being dead, his Planeswalker card is very impressive. You can phase out two other Planeswalkers until your next turn, protecting them completely until your next turn. Then you get to bounce one permanent for each if your opponents, removing up to three things from the board. And finally, Vronos can turn an artifact into a 9/9 creature that can’t be blocked, is indestructible, and has vigilance.
The rare Chandra, Legacy of Fire rewards you for filling your board with Planeswalkers by dealing damage at the end of your turn to each opponent equal to the number of planeswalkers you control. While it might not be a ton of damage, this Chandra helps whittle away your opponent’s life total every turn. Chandra’s first ability also depends heavily on having more Planeswalkers in play, adding one red mana for each Planeswalker you control. At its worst, it’s one extra mana which is fine and keeps scaling up from there. Chandra’s final ability lets you turn your loyalty counters from cards you control, not just planeswalkers either, you can remove them from cards like Gatewatch Beacon, to exile the top cards of your library and play them this turn.
The final new card included in the Planeswalker Party is Jaya’s Phoenix, a flying, hasty Phoenix that copies Planeswalker abilities if it dealt combat damage to a player or Planeswalker this turn. Like most Phoenix, if it’s in the graveyard you can bring it back to play for free—this time when you cast your next Planeswalker spell.
The rest of the deck was revealed as well, showing off plenty of Planeswalker, proliferation effects, and other ways to keep your Planeswalker safe.
The Complete Planeswalker Party Decklist
Some key cards from this deck include The Chain Veil, Spark Double, and Narset, Enlightened Master, to bring some very powerful cards to your game. The deck is very pillow fort-y, hiding behind massive walls to keep your planeswalkers safe and let you build up their loyalty to your heart’s content.
There is an important note from Wizards about the cannon of many of the new cards from Commander Masters. Specifically, just because they printed a new Planeswalker card for Teyo does not confirm whether or not he still has his spark. Similarly, from the Sliver Swarm deck, Lazotep Sliver does not confirm that there are Slivers on Amonkhet, it is just a neat concept.
The full visual guide for Commander Masters will be available on Friday, with the set releasing on August 4.