2025 is fast approaching, and we’ve a whole new year of Magic to get excited about. Kristen sits down to share some of her hopes for the next year.
So, before I get into my 2025 wishlist, I want to take a look back at 2024’s Wishlist, and see how things ended up.
WHAT CAME TRUE IN 2024
In 2024, I hoped for:
- A Goad hatebear
- More wraths in the average deck
- Interesting blue cards/Commanders
- Fewer Universal cards like Roaming Throne
- A slowdown on treasure, and more ways to interact with it
- Fewer Commander decks
First up, a Goad hatebear. Yeah, we got one alright. Feel somewhat vindicated (and slightly…powerful?) for harping on about it so much.
I also wished for more wraths in the average deck. I can safely report that in the games I’ve been playing, at least, that wraths have been showing up a little more often. Is that just the playgroups I’m in? Maybe, but I also think one of the reasons is the fantastic selection of wraths we got in 2023 and into 2024. Cheap ones like Split Up have performed great. Losing less tempo by casting spells like Final Showdown or Starfall Invocation is exactly what is needed to make wraths more popular again.
I really do think it comes down to deckbuilding and knowing what’s out there. I promise there are more than enough ways for you to wipe things clean – and more reasons than ever.
Did we get more interesting blue cards and Commanders? That’s an emphatic yes from me. We got some excellent modal spells like Three Steps Ahead, we got functional retreads of classics like Volatile Stormdrake, and we got the amazing Radstorm, just to name a few.
Blue cards this year ranged from splashy and exciting like The Key to the Vault, to surgically strong like Desynchronization.
What about Commanders? Well, yeah, we got some really sweet blue designs. Mono blue has needed a bit of a lift in recent years, with more ways to play in a blue kinda way that aren’t just draw-pass permission decks. Kitsa, Deluge and Leonardo da Vinci are all really fun builds worth a look.
I also asked for fewer Universal cards like Roaming Throne. I feel like this one is a real coin toss on whether it happened or not. Patchwork Banner is amazing for typal decks, but it’s also much more available as an uncommon, and less universal than Roaming Throne or The One Ring. Three Tree City wasn’t outright broken, but cards like Archdruid’s Charm and Trouble in Pairs are certainly in high demand for their respective colors.
When you add on the new slew of MDFC spell lands from MH3, I think you could make the argument that there have been a great deal of “universal” upgrades released this year.
I guess it boils down to how many cards have been added to “ideal” shells alongside Sol Ring, Command Tower, Arcane Signet, et al. If we go purely on that metric, then no, we didn’t get fewer – the MDFCs ballooned that number ever higher.
I asked for a slowdown on treasure, and more ways to interact with it. We got 48 cards this year, and of those 48, a sizeable 15 of them made treasures tapped. Some of those include the spiciest cards, like Great Train Heist, Nuka-Cola Vending Machine, Goldvein Hydra and Magda the Hoardmaster. We also got interaction like Pest Control, and some good reprints like Meltdown.
I think that certainly satisfies the slowdown part, but I still think we need a little more interaction.
Finally I asked for fewer Commander decks. In 2023, we had twenty-five precons. 2024 had twenty-four, so technically there was one fewer – but I don’t think that’s the wish fulfilled. Ideally, I’d just like fewer releases. I don’t think it’s going to happen at this point, but a girl can hope.
So, overall? I’d say it was a mixed bag, but with some nice surprises, actually. On to 2025!
2025 COMMANDER WISHLIST
So, what would I like to see in 2025? What are my hopes and dreams for the format?
FEWER LEGENDARY CREATURES
First up? I’d love to see fewer Legendary creatures. There were a whopping 320 of them this year, and it’s honestly just a lot. It’s too many to think about, build, and be keeping up with. It’s too many for the average Standard set, and it’s beginning to feel like a bit of a design crutch – essentially, using Legendary as a way to make a strong card feel less pushed. The thing is, it feels pushed anyways.
Legendaries feel more special when there are fewer of them.
MORE HATE BEARS
The direction of the game definitely feels like it’s headed away from hatebears, to be honest. The thing is, power creep without checks and balances just happens demonstrably quicker. We didn’t get many hatebears this year, with one of the few we got printed in Modern Horizons 3.
Right now, there’s a velocity issue in Commander, and it feels like it needs more surgically designed hatebears to rein it in a little. Hatebears barely see play in cEDH, and so for them to see play and not be absurdly oppressive, there is definitely a fine line to tread in design. I do believe our designers are capable of cooking up something good, though, so I will wait patiently to see what we get in 2025.
A GOOD MULTICOLOR ANGEL COMMANDER
We still don’t have a good multicolor Angel Commander, and I feel like the closest we really have that’s somewhat playable today is Dihada, Binder of Wills. Giada is fantastic for mono white, but for playing more colors, the best option really is to just jam them in Dihada, spin the wheel for card advantage and ramp, and play a reanimator approach.
While other angels like Aurelia the Warleader remain popular, they don’t offer anything the tribe needs. Every other high cmc creature type has received tailor made Commanders that either fix issues that archetype has, or that provide oodles of card and mana advantage. Looking at you, Dinosaurs.
Even Demons have multicolor options ranging from Be’lakor to Rakdos, Lord of Riots, Raphael to Abaddon. Sure, Kaalia exists, but she’s not an Angel Typal.
SOME FIXED APPROACHES TO CARDS LIKE JEWELED LOTUS
Personally, I still think Jeweled Lotus was an inspired design. Should it have seen print? Absolutely not, and it was way too powerful. That said, I could see what they were aiming for, and it’s bloody iconic.
I would like to see some more cards aimed at people playing higher mana value Commanders. Something in the vein of Jeweled Lotus just for expensive, durdly Commanders would be fabulous.
I really appreciated cards like Stinging Study and Imposing Grandeur, and I hope we see more variations on this soon.
MORE MONO COLOR INCENTIVES IN COMMANDER
Along similar lines, I would love to see more mono-color incentives in Commander, too. I don’t mind so much when we get more universal cards like this that actually prop up underserved deckbuilding styles. Mono-color decks lose a lot by not playing additional colors, so giving them a little extra push seems perfectly fine to me. It’s been a while since we had any cards like Throne of Eldraine, which was also the first in a while, so please – more of this in 2025.
A BETTER FRAMEWORK FOR PRE-GAME CHATS
Finally, I’d love to see a better framework for pre-game chats. The Commander Format Panel have been busy working away at what a bracket system or tier system looks like in Commander, and on how to give players a framework to have great conversations. I can’t say where we’re at yet, but it’s for sure my hope that the work that’s going on proves to be something worth looking back on at the end of next year. I can’t wait to share more!
END STEP
That’s my Commander Wishlist for 2025. How much of it will come true? What’s on your wishlist? Let us know on Bluesky.
Kristen is Card Kingdom’s Head Writer and a member of the Commander Format Panel. Formerly a competitive Pokémon TCG grinder, she has been playing Magic since Shadows Over Innistrad, which in her opinion, was a great set to start with. When she’s not taking names with Equipment and Aggro strategies in Commander, she loves to play any form of Limited.