A new era is beginning, and it’s full of glitz, glamour and higher card quality. Streets of New Capenna rolls onto the scene April 29th and it’s jam packed with goodies for Commander! Featuring 253 new cards, the completion of the Triome cycle, 19 new Legendary creatures as well as absolute bomb commons, SNC has something for every Commander player. Now that I’ve set the stage, we can move to the main act - the top ten cards you need to pick up for Commander!
1: Halo Fountain
This design really excites me. Halo Fountain offers repeatable card draw in White, in a way that is accessible to many decks. If you're having difficulty getting the required creatures for the second ability, the first one helps. When you do get in for an attack (or tap your creatures through other means), the second ability can help raise your defenses. Halo Fountain will be a prime target for removal, so it’s likely better to play when you can get a draw from it and hope it sticks around to accrue value.
2: Slip Out the Back
A blue one mana value Instant that temporarily removes a threat or saves a key Creature? That’s the bee’s knees! Old-timey jokes aside, Slip Out the Back is strong and offers a great deal of flexibility. In most games of Commander, just having one more turn can make the difference; this Instant helps you get there and will make for some great stories. I’ll be grabbing multiple.
3: Sanguine Spy
While Sanguine Spy is slower than other alternatives in the format, this Vampire Rogue offers some great functionality early with efficient card draw in the late game. Being able to essentially Surveil for cheap adds great card filtering, and can support reanimator strategies.
Both Menace and Lifelink mean you’ll be able to sneak in some lifegain to later pay for all those draws. I particularly like the draw triggering on the end step so you can guarantee one draw if you play it right.
4: Hoard Hauler
There are a lot of Artifacts floating in Commander games. Even when there aren’t a lot of treasures; Sol Rings, Signets, and combo enablers like Panharmonicon are always present. This is one reason Hoard Hauler excites me so much. Repeatable ramp for potentially multiple mana per turn is fantastic.
It does require some hoops like getting in for combat damage, but a reasonable power/toughness and Trample should help seal the deal. A bit better early than late, but an interesting way to catch up to your opponents that have done the classic turn one Sol Ring into Arcane Signet.
5: Professional Face-Breaker
Another card that creates multiple treasures per turn? Yup, and it won’t be the last in this list. Whether you love it or hate it, Treasure is here to stay, or at least have a lasting, inescapable impact on Commander. Professional Face-Breaker will have your opponents throwing fisticuffs when you sneak in for three treasures per turn.
This card isn’t even done yet, there’s also another upside - turning your treasures into impulse draws. Ramp and card draw on a single card means this Creature won’t stick around for long.
6: Structural Assault
Well at least there’s a way to make everyone pay for their greed. Structural Assault offers Vandalblast like Artifact removal with an exchange of your Artifacts for adding a damage based wrath. In a non-Treasure heavy game, Structural Assault will probably resolve around that four to five damage mark, which should provide solid board wiping potential.
7: Bootlegger’s Stash
Unfortunately, we have yet another pushed Green card bound to cause problems. Most of the discourse around Bootlegger’s Stash online has focused on “why is this card Green” and that was answered on WeeklyMTG with “Green is the color of producing mana”. While this is true, Green didn’t need anymore help, and many would argue it actually needs less power.
I’m a little disappointed that Green now gets more access to mass Treasure production (I’m looking at you Old Gnawbone), but I’m not going to tell you to skip picking this up. Storing mana for a turn and following it with a supercharged turn can be really strong, and this can get out of hand with token doublers. Thankfully it has a higher mana value so it shouldn’t lead to many early tempo swings.
8: Void Rend
Void Rend is an excellent removal option for decks that can support it. Uncounterable nonland permanent removal is top notch and should be considered if you have the right colours. I like that this design is colour heavy so it’s not an immediate add to several decks.
9: Luxior, Giada’s Gift
Now this is some new design space! Luxior, Giada’s Gift is one of the few cards that can animate Planeswalkers, and the only one that can permanently change the type while retaining the Loyalty abilities. It also has added synergy in +1/+1 counter decks, essentially doubling the value of every counter on the Creature. I’m curious to see what Commander players will do with this one.
10: Spicy Commons
Now I know what you’re thinking… having multiple cards in one spot is cheating. I totally agree, but I also couldn’t quite justify having these in spots over other cards mentioned. There are some interesting designs in the Commons though, so I wanted to make sure you didn’t glance over them!
Demon’s Due is efficient card filtering and drawing at Instant speed. It does cost four, but the addition of instant speed makes it a strong contender against Read the Bones. Sticky Fingers is a high-risk, high-reward Treasure generator that can come down quick and rocket you ahead if your Creature survives. The last ones to cover are the Family lands. They do search for Basic lands, but they offer excellent colour fixing on a budget. I’m particularly fond of this design as it opens up multi-coloured decks to Commander plays in a way that is not cost prohibitive!
There we have it, ten (but actually sixteen) must-have cards you should pick up for Commander. There were a ton of other great uncommons that didn’t quite make the cut, so I’d highly recommend you scour the pre-order page and lock in on grabbing those. Were there any cards you’re excited about that I missed? Let me know in the Chimera Discord, or you can reach me directly on Twitter. Happy shuffling, and hope to jam a game or two with you in the future!
