Commander Masters Draft is Changing the Rules of MTG!
Commander Masters Spoiler season is kicking off in a big way, but new crazy reprints aren’t the only thing this set has to offer. Revealed today during the Weekly MTG show hosted by Gavin Verhey and Blake Rasmussen, thanks to an MTG rules change unique to Commander Masters Limited, it looks like this set is going to be something that players have never experienced before.
The Partner Rule
To start things off, like Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate, Commander Masters will host a Commander-style of Draft. This means that players are required to Draft within the unique color identity of their Commander. The problem? There are a lot of monocolored, and even colorless Commanders available in this set. There are some super exciting things to try, but building a monocolor deck in Limited can be very difficult. Building a colorless deck may be impossible. Fortunately, Wizards of the Coast came up with a new rule that, not only solves this issue, but creates an incredibly unique Limited environment for Commander Masters as well:
“One of the unique challenges for Commander Masters, is we can’t make new cards for it, so how are we gonna do that? We tried a few things, we came up a really cool Draft-specific rule. In Commander Masters Limited, and only Commander Masters Limited, you can use any two mono, or zero, colored Legends as though they had Partner.” Gavin Verhey
As stated by Gavin Verhey during today’s Weekly MTG show, Commander Masters Limited is going to have a unique Partner rule. Available only in Commander Masters Limited, every single colorless and monocolored Legend is going to have the Partner mechanic. This will allow players to draft incredibly unique combinations while, hopefully, helping players Draft playable decks under the stricter rules of Commander Draft.
That said, there are also going to be multicolored Commanders like the one above. You will not be able to Partner Karador, Ghost Chieftain with another Commander, but having access to three colors is still an incredibly powerful spot to be in Draft.
Either way, the Partner rule creates some incredibly unique combinations for players to attempt in Draft. If, for example, you somehow open Azusa, Lost but Seeking and Kozilek, the Great Distortion , you can play those cards together as Partner Commanders, ramping towards a payoff that will refill your hand. The downside of this absolutely insane Commander combo is that you only get one color to build your deck around. These cards, by the way, have been confirmed to appear in Commander Masters.
Draft Archetypes
Even though the official Draft Archetype article from Wizards of the Coast is coming out tomorrow, Gavin Verhey did spoil the Commander Masters Draft archetypes early. Here are the two-color combinations that you can aim for when Drafting Commander Masters:
UW Artifacts
UB Reanimator
BR Sacrifice
RG Power Matters
GW Go-Wide
WB Token Sacrifice
BG Slow Tokens (with a Saproling Subtheme)
UG Ramp
UR Spells
RW Equipment
These archetypes are built into the set but, as mentioned by Verhey during the Weekly MTG show, players may tend to Draft around their Commander and go sideways to intended archetypes. As a result, while the Draft archetypes are available, they may be less important then usual sets since players are more likely to Draft around their Commanders and create incredibly unique play patterns.
“One of the things I want to stress with these Draft archetypes is we built these in the set, they’re there, there are cards that care about them, but really, what we found is people Draft their Commanders early and latch onto their Commanders. There’s a lot of sideways stuff you can do with those Commanders, so the Draft archetypes are even a little less prescriptive here than they would be in any other set. So, often, your real Draft archetype is whatever Commander, or Commanders, you have.” Gavin Verhey
Read More: The 13 Most Rare and Expensive MTG Cards of All Time
Commander Staples as Limited Powerhouses
Spicing up Commander Masters Limited a bit more are some of the most common super staples that Commander has access to. You can Draft Sol Rings in this set, which is pretty absurd.
To absolutely no one’s surprise, Sol Ring is available in Commander Masters. What may be more surprising is that you can actually draft Sol Ring in the main set. Considering how this is one of the most powerful artifacts that MTG has ever seen, you may wanna pick this up whenever you see it in your packs. Just remember that, should you open something insane like a Jeweled Lotus , prioritizing the high-ticket item may make your wallet a bit happier.
There are very few copies of Fellwar Stone available in foil treatments, so this uncommon inclusion is fantastic for that rarity. This card should function a bit better in Limited than you may expect since this is a Commander Draft, which means you will have three opponents, or three manabases, for Fellwar Stone to look at.
Command Tower is another card that sees play in, well, every Commander deck. The Booster Fun variant of this card looks great, and will likely be a target that many want to upgrade their Commander decks.
Arcane Signet was originally worth a decent chunk of change because the card was only available in the Eldraine Brawl decks, but every single Commander deck wanted them. Fortunately, Arcane Signet is now printed everywhere, and should be a great uncommon inclusion in Commander Masters limited.
As mentioned above, there are a few tri-colored Commander cards available in the set, and Path of Ancestry at Common should help players who want to Draft those Commanders bring multicolored decks together.
If you’re Drafting a Commander Draft, this card is likely to appear. The Prismatic Piper is not a card you want to use if you can avoid it, but it is available as a Commander to help you draft a playable deck if you can’t do so on your own. Because the rules for Drafting a Commander Limited deck are rather strict, you can Draft an unplayable deck. This is not easy, but Prismatic Piper can help players bail out of an unplayable pile if necessary.
One of the bigger themes in Commander Masters Limited is the amount of downshifts that the set is going to feature. Verhey mentioned during the Weekly MTG show this afternoon that there are going to be a lot of cards that are getting downshifted in the Commander Masters set that are being used to help define the Draft format. Even though Extinguish All Hope does look like a fantastic boardwipe that could support an archetype, there is not an intended enchantment matters archetype.
Exciting Downshifts Coming to Pauper!
While we don’t have any spoilers to feature here, Gavin Verhey did mention that there will be a lot of exciting new Pauper downshifts available as a part of Commander Masters. This includes a card that has never been printed in common in paper, but has been printed in Common online. That card, apparently, will appear in spoilers tomorrow.
Either way, if you want to look at some of the more financially lucrative spoilers that were previewed today, we take a look at those here.
Read More: MTG’s Worst Reprint Set Is Miraculously Still Worth It?!
Source: MTG Rocks
