The spoiler season for MTG Star Trek may have only just started, but Wizards of the Coast isn’t holding back. During the debut, we saw some truly insane new cards alongside some fantastic reprints and face Commanders, too. While there’s already tons to be excited about, however, not every card is getting a positive reaction.
Not only is the actor-filled art of Star Trek not to everyone’s taste, but some Commanders are being called out, too. In particular, Captain Benjamin Sisko is being lambasted as yet another boring five-color soup card. While he might not be the most revolutionary card, this new MTG Star Trek legend is undeniably strong.
MTG Captain Benjamin Sisko
Like many Commanders that trend toward being five-color soup, Captain Benjamin Sisko is very nearly interesting. This card’s focus on facing as many dilemmas as possible presents an interesting deckbuilding opportunity. Notably, you’ll face a dilemma whenever you “choose one or more modes for a spell or ability.” If you can exploit this by choosing a mode multiple times each turn, you can quickly build an impressively wide board of Officers.
After this, while it is expensive, Captain Benjamin Sisko’s second ability can easily catapult you into the lead. If you’ve got tons of Officer tokens, you can theoretically cheat out a massive bomb like
Etali, Primal Storm
Etali, Primal Storm
Whenever Etali attacks, exile the top card of each player's library, then you may cast any number of spells from among those cards without paying their mana costs.
. Failing that, just having seven Cadets makes this ability feel like a free five-card impulse draw.
Thankfully, while you do have to put in work to get the most out of Captain Benjamin Sisko, there’s no shortage of modal spells in Commander. Staples like
Jeska’s Will
Jeska’s Will
Choose one. If you control a commander as you cast this spell, you may choose both instead.
• Add {R} for each card in target opponent's hand.
• Exile the top three cards of your library. You may play them this turn.
,
Black Market Connections
Black Market Connections
At the beginning of your first main phase, choose one or more —
• Sell Contraband — Create a Treasure token. You lose 1 life.
• Buy Information — Draw a card. You lose 2 life.
• Hire a Mercenary — Create a 3/2 colorless Shapeshifter creature token with changeling. You lose 3 life. (It is every creature type.)
, and
Austere Command
Austere Command
Choose two —
• Destroy all artifacts.
• Destroy all enchantments.
• Destroy all creatures with mana value 3 or less.
• Destroy all creatures with mana value 4 or greater.
are all on the table here. Beyond those, cards like Hullbreaker Horror and Gala Greeters can churn out Officer Tokens by activating multiple times per turn.
Beyond just making a lot of choices, Captain Benjamin Sisko is also an excuse to run the new Officer cards.
Captain James T. Kirk
Captain James T. Kirk
Whenever Captain Kirk enters or attacks, choose one. If you have no cards in hand, choose one or more instead.
• Discard a card, then draw a card.
• Create a 1/1 red Officer creature token.
• Creatures you control get +1/+0 until end of turn.
is easily the best of these, being an Officer that creates other Officers through a modal choice. Similarly,
Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Other creatures you control get +1/+1.
Whenever you cast a creature or Spacecraft spell, create a 1/1 red Officer creature token.
Tap seven untapped Officers you control: Search your library for a Spacecraft card, put it onto the battlefield with seven charge counters on it, then shuffle.
can pump out Officers, while
U.S.S. Enterprise-A, Free Spirit
U.S.S. Enterprise-A, Free Spirit
Ward {2}
When U.S.S. Enterprise-A enters, create three 1/1 red Officer creature tokens.
Station (Tap another creature you control: Put charge counters equal to its power on this Spacecraft. Station only as a sorcery. It's an artifact creature at 6+.)
6+ | Flying, lifelink
provides three for five mana.
As if that wasn’t enough support, there’s also
Seven of Nine
Seven of Nine
Whenever you face a dilemma, draw a card. (You face a dilemma as you choose one or more modes for a spell or ability.)
, who draws you cards whenever you face a dilemma. So far, this is the only other MTG Star Trek card that cares about this mechanic, but we’re only one day into spoiler season. With this in mind, as more cards get revealed, there’s a high chance Captain Benjamin Sisko just gets better.
It’s All Soup
While it is entirely possible to play Captain Benjamin Sisko as a Star Trek-themed Commander, you really don’t need to. Since it works with all existing modal spells and only cares about Officers, you can easily break its limitations. For instance, running
Maskwood Nexus
Maskwood Nexus
Creatures you control are every creature type. The same is true for creature spells you control and creature cards you own that aren't on the battlefield.
{3}, {T}: Create a 2/2 blue Shapeshifter creature token with changeling. (It is every creature type.)
lets Sisko scale with all your creatures, not just a subset.
On top of that, as a WUBRG Commander, Captain Benjamin Sisko has access to the best token and trigger doublers. Using these, you can effortlessly flood the board with Officers to cheat out anything with Sisko’s second ability. While this is very powerful and is bound to be popular in Commander, MTG players aren’t loving Captain Benjamin Sisko.
Even with an impressive amount of power, five-color Commanders are starting to feel very played out. They used to be a rarity the community celebrated, but now we’re getting them in almost every set. This has taken a lot of lustre out of these once special cards, but their mechanics don’t help either.
Typically, these Commanders focus on a new set’s mechanic, which at least keeps things somewhat interesting. For Captain Benjamin Sisko, however, the face-a-dilemma ability is generic, and casting spells for free feels extra cheap. Due to this, many MTG players on social media have been left feeling disappointed, while others wish it had a more restrictive color identity.
A Fixable Problem
As much as this problem has been a growing concern for a while, it recently got significantly more frustrating. This is thanks to Mystery Booster: Commander Edition, which gave us Rulebreaker cards. Through these, cards like
Seluma, Light of Aysen
Seluma, Light of Aysen
Rulebreaker — A deck with this commander can have Angel cards of any color identity and any basic land cards.
Flying
Whenever Seluma deals combat damage to a player, return target Angel creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
can only use Angels of any color, while otherwise being mono-white.
In an ideal world, Captain Benjamin Sisko could have utilized this mechanic to create a more restrictive and interesting deck-building experience. Hell, failing that, it would have been better for Sisko to just not have his second ability. As players noted on Reddit, the face a dilemma ability is already interesting in isolation, and more isn’t really needed.
Ultimately, Rulebreaker cards are still in limbo, so we’re stuck with Sisko for now. Thankfully, since Commander enables a ton of creativity, you can limit how much soup you put into Captain Benjamin Sisko. Failing that, you don’t have to build Sisko at all, as it’s not like MTG Star Trek is lacking in the Commander department.