So you want to build a Black Commander deck? Ultimate power awaits, for those who seek it. We’ve prepared a list of 20 Essential Black Commander cards to get you started on your brewing journey.  Black has access to oodles of card draw, removal, life drain and reanimator effects. It’s the best color at using the graveyard – both at ... Read More...

With Pioneer RCQ season coming up in a couple of months, players unfamiliar with the format may be looking to get their feet wet beforehand. In order to practice and play, you’ll need a deck, but buying into a deck before you know if you like it could be a pricey endeavor.  Luckily, the two rounds of Pioneer challenger decks ... Read More...

Four-color is back! Since the banning of Yorion back in the fall, players have tried to make four-color work. On a few occasions it has succeeded, however, ultimately the deck quickly fell off the competitive radar as decks like Breach, Hammer and Murktide dominated the metagame.  However with the release of All Will Be One, a new card was added ... Read More...

The story reveal and previews for March of the Machine are just around the corner, so you know what that means: time for me to make some predictions that we’ll very quickly get to see how wrong I am about! Elspeth’s Angelic Fate  There’s a lot of lore out there about Elspeth’s connections to Magic’s angels; just look at her ... Read More...

What makes a particular combat trick special? Must it create a blowout or just maximize the efficiency these cards are known for? Or is a great combat trick one that exceeds our expectations, generating additional resources or utility beyond its combat application? These questions make it difficult to identify the best combat tricks in Commander. One thing you notice trying ... Read More...

Emerge is an alternate cost that appears (so far) on large colorless creatures (I mean, Eldrazi) from Shadows Over Innistrad. To pay the emerge cost for a creature (which was always a discount, but included colored mana where the normal cost did not), you sacrifice a creature and pay an amount of mana equal to the emerge cost minus generic ... Read More...

While Commander’s grassroots origins make it different from many other Magic formats, it still has a ban list like the rest of them. However, since Commander is not a format with tons of tournament data to back up banning certain cards, some players are unsure why certain offenders end up on the list. Today, we’re going to take a look ... Read More...