Hello and welcome back! It’s time to go into deep space with Edge of Eternities, so of course I went into warp to look for the best non-legendary cards to grab for your commander decks! Caveat as always being I’m only excluding legendary creatures and other cards that can be your commander, which now includes legendary vehicles and spacecraft.
Let’s activate those thrusters and get going!
THE HONORABLE MENTIONS
Alright, so there are a few cards in Edge of Eternities that are just more of the same good stuff, so this slot is going to those cards, like Exalted Sunborn and Starfield Vocalist.
As an eternal format, I don’t feel we really need these every set. We just got Elspeth Storm Slayer and Mirror Room // Fractured Realm in Tarkir Dragonstorm and Duskmourn respectively. The creature centric land we have a version of from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan.
As a standard set that needs to sell packs, obviously Wizards will include these powerful effects in the set because it will sell those packs to us, the commander players, whether they make it into standard decks or not. That said, I do hope they pull back on some of these effects if only to stop some hegemonization.
STARFIELD SHEPHERD
This angel allows some early land tutoring in a color that still has a little trouble with lands on relevant creature type. The Warp on the card is what helps it make the list, since having the ability to turn 2 to get a land is fairly standard. Unfortunately it can only get a basic Plains to hand.
However, that is an easy trade for the other part of the ability, which is a tutor effect for a creature with mana value 1 or less. This could be a Viscera Seer, Mother of Runes, Spore Frog or an Ornitopter if you need it. Again, the Warp ability really helps it here since you can set something up early and the angel can come back later.
COSMOGRAND ZENITH
Flurry is already an ability in name and not, and this will reward low to the ground decks by threatening an eventual win. The card itself can come down early and make you an army over time or come down a little later and pump a board. It’s almost like a spellslinger version of Cathar’s Crusade. Well, it will feel that way. I don’t know if anything gets around the Crusade’s efficiency.
LIGHTSTALL INQUISITOR
Initially I wasn’t going to put this on the list, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked the potential to abuse it. It is possible to blink this or loop it through the graveyard to empty opponents hands fairly easily (and can be tutored with the Starfield Shepherd). Granted, the removal isn’t permanent so it doesn’t hit as hard as some other effects but that might make it more acceptable at a casual table.
Still, read the room and ask your friends before you deploy such a strategy.
Besides that abuse, I feel like this card could, early in the game, slow opponents down enough that it’s a valuable card for some builds. Also an angel wizard.
ATOMIC MICROSIZER
For creatures and commanders like Felix Fiveboots, Kotis the Fankeeper or Yuriko TIger’s Shadow who like on-hit effects, we have some evasion here in the form of this card to add some evasion. While it does change the power and toughness to 1 for the creature you target, you might not be going to win through combat damage anyway depending on your build.
The effect itself doesn’t have to target the equipped creature either, which means you could stick it on whatever you want and make something else 1/1 and unblockable, negating the need to re-equipped if the other creature gets removed.
It also gives +1/+0, probably a nod to needing to swing with the equipped creature occasionally.
MOONLIT MEDITATION
As an Esix-in-my-Xyris deck enthusiast, this card immediately struck me as having a ton of potential to make a lot of what you want. Clone decks, artifact decks, just tokens decks, and decks that like to run Mechanized Production.
This also doesn’t care what token you make as long as you do. Smothering Tithe if you don’t want the mana could be something else. You could enchant a treasure and get more treasures. Academy Manufactor wasn’t dumb before. Inkshield could produce a bunch of angels instead. Need more Scute Swarms (no you don’t) on the field? It all really depends on what deck this enchantment goes in.
SCOUR FOR SCRAP
An instant tutor for an artifact and artifact recursion? At the same time? Can someone say combo set up?
This card obviously won’t go in every Blue/X deck, but every one that relies on an artifact based combo or generates value off artifacts will probably want this card. That fact that it can get a piece you need back AND tutor for your other means you can also commit to the board with a little less risk than you might need to consider otherwise.
SOTHERA, THE SUPERVOID
This seems specifically good against itself, and I can dig that.
If you’re familiar with Gravepact or Dictate of Erebos effects, you’ll be somewhat familiar with Sothera. Essentially a form of attrition, you sacrifice your board or become harder to attack because your opponents lose their creatures as well. This time around they get exiled while you get to feed your graveyard.
If a player ends up having no creatures on your end step, Sothera hits the ‘yard and you get to steal something that got exiled from your opponents’ fields. The timing of your end of turn matters a little here as well. It gives you time to attack if you’d like and/or clear the board by abusing the ability the turn you want it to go away. It’s kind of like a slower one sided board wipe with extra steps.
Fairly nifty but gravepact effects are notoriously unliked by tables, so play this at your own risk.
REQUIEM MONOLITH
This card is definitely good, both for you and you. You could use it on a creature you control to get some card draw, or force an opponent to draw the cards and lose the life. Betor Ancestor’s Voice and Nekusar come to mind for each scenario immediately, not to mention Stuffy Doll kinds of effects.
It can only be activated as sorcery speed, so your intentions will be telegraphed pretty well in those cases. Still, it being splashable and in a color where your creatures are easily retrievable makes it some excellent card draw.
UMBRAL COLLAR ZEALOT
This card is kind of a wiggle out of the honorable mentions at the top, but since it isn’t strictly the same as Viscera Seer, I’m going to include it. Surveil is different from Scry, and is often more useful for a deck that can recur things from or want a full graveyard. In addition to the Surveil, you can also sacrifice artifacts, giving this card some extra flexibility for many decks like Ygra Eater of All or Mishra Eminent One, among others.
DEVASTATING ONSLAUGHT
Alright, another Red copy spell, and this one is pretty good. We get to nab some copies or creatures OR artifacts we control and they get sacrificed at end of turn. So we nab some enters and leaves or dies effects. While we’ve had some other copy effects in Red that scale, this one will hit more targets than most of those, giving it some extra utility for decks that care about artifacts.
PAIN FOR ALL
Hello somewhat better Arcbond! Well, actually no. It’s similar but there are trade offs. This card is an aura that can only enchant a creature you control, but you don’t have to wait for that creature to be hit to do damage. Once enchanted, the creature deals damage to another target. That’s great for some removal on a big enough creature, especially with lifelink, or a small creature with deathtouch.
It follows up with if it gets hit for damage, it deals that much to each opponent. So we have some removal and then a good defense against attack. Or, some quasi evasion if no one wants to block.
TERMINAL VELOCITY
A sneak-attack-like effect that allows a creature or artifact to hit the board, potentially getting some nifty enters ability, an attack, and an explosive exit that could leave the board blank in your favor. Many creatures and artifacts can benefit from this, from Atsushi the Blazing Sky to Spine of Ish Sah or Meteor Golem.
Its utility is dependent on what you get from the spell resolving, so the ceiling is high and the outcome open to creativity. It is somewhat limited by the mana value of the card, but still worth cheating something in that gets you value.
FRENZIED BALOTH
This is a very green card and does very green things, but it make the list for one reason; it helps you hit through fogs and protection in combat. While Green usually doesn’t need the help, sometimes you run into an opponent that stops you in your tracks. While Green is arguably the best color in casual Commander, it often can fold to multiple fogs. This can help finish the game, and cheaply.
FAMISHED WORLDSIRE
This is likely very close to how a Scapeshift functions if it's large enough, which really shouldn’t be a problem most of the time. Even three lands sacrificed make this a 9/9, allowing you to dig 9 cards to replace those lands. Granted, those lands aren’t guaranteed, but you’re likely using a deck that wants to grab and/or pitch lands anyway if this is something you’re using.
It also has Ward 3, so the investment is something you can manage and not have wasted a turn. Something to keep in mind however is that the Devour Land ability happens as the spell resolves, so no enters trigger for Devour. This means you still have to play around counter magic and such.
OUROBOROID
Not much to say about this card. It doubles your creatures’ power each turn via +1/+1 counters. It can get out of hand quickly and so should be dealt with quickly if you’re on the other side of the table. There are also plenty of counter synergies to abuse with the free counters if gives as well, from Fertilid to Tayam Luminous Enigma.
The art is really cool as well.
ALL-FATES SCROLL
This mana rock at three mana that gives any color of mana. It’s okay, but the second ability is why it’s here. While seven mana is a lot to activate, it can draw you that many cards or more when activated.
This means a few things. First, this card is by and large going to be better the more colors a deck has. Second, this can allow you to commit to the board aggressively because you can refill your hand a bit, but be cautious if you think the mana rock will eat some removal.
THE ENDSTONE
High reward for moderate risk. This card could even heal you every turn, but the real strength of the card is measured on how much you can replenish your in hand resources. This won’t actually go in all decks despite what it feels and seems like. In some decks it will be okay, in some decks it will be explosive. It even has some combo potential.
SURVEY MECHAN
Somewhat similar to All-Fates Scroll, this makes the list for the ability of the sacrifice to be cheap or free. As the game goes along, this can become an easily abuseable removal and advantage engine if it can be cycled through a graveyard. It could even win the game.
Keeping it fair is the initial cost of the ability, but that could be only 6 mana on turn four when this might come down. It will be better in the later game, or if you have managed a few extra, differently named lands.
ADAGIA, WINDSWEPT BASTION
While the “Blue” and “Green” land are going to be generically better, and the “Black” land is also great, the “White” land of the cycle is the most interesting and doesn’t have a so-similar analog, and therefore makes the list today.
While it makes the copies legendary, which is something I don’t think we’ve seen for a copy effect yet, you do get to double down on specific enchantments and artifacts if they aren’t already legendary. Even with that drawback, it is still a very strong ability to have on a land. Extra mileage out of Sagas or another Simulacrum Synthesizer is always useful.
To get to this however, you do have to station +12. I don’t think this is too much of a hoop to jump through if you plan on using the land anyway especially with White centric untap effects or even just vigilant creatures to keep some pressure on.
TO THE EDGE
Unlike some sets, this one seems to have a more clear divide between good cards for commander and good cards in general. Regardless, a great set overall and it has some specific goodies alongside the generic ones.
Until next time, shine among the stars.
