As is now a Magic: The Gathering tradition, today’s entry in the Edge of Eternities story series comes with an all-new preview card from the set. We’ve seen a couple of these over the last couple of weeks, and they’ve all been underwhelming so far. Today’s MTG spoiler, Command Bridge, unfortunately continues this trend. The safe money is definitely on this one being a solid piece in Limited and little else.
That said, there is a bit more play to this card than past story spoilers. We’ve seen a lot of tapped creature synergies in recent sets, and this card plays very nicely with those. As a five-color land, the potential for this one in budget brews is also reasonable. The fact that it’s a common may give it legs in Pauper to boot. While it’s hard to get excited about obvious pack filler, Command Bridge does seem at least a little more pushed within its category.
Command Bridge MTG
- Type: Land
- Rarity: Common
- Card Text: This land enters tapped.
When this land enters, sacrifice it unless you tap an untapped permanent you control.
Tap: Add one mana of any color.
Command Bridge is by no means a new concept for MTG. We’ve seen common five-color taplands with similar drawbacks in the past, specifically Public Thoroughfare and Transguild Promenade. Bridge is much more flexible than this pair, however, letting you tap any permanent as its drawback, rather than just an artifact or land.
In Standard, this could actually be pretty relevant. Bridge is a way to tap down your Kona, Rescue Beastie for free, which in turn can allow for an extremely early Omniscience. With Abuelo’s Awakening banned as of Monday, this pairing could serve as a potential replacement. We also know, based on Sami, Ship’s Engineer, that tapped creatures will be a bit of a theme in Edge of Eternities. If any of these effects are good, Bridge is a reasonable way to trigger them.
Honestly, even with these synergies, Standard play is a long shot for Command Bridge. Taplands rarely see play, outside of the Surveil lands which offer a sizable upside. Where the card might have more of a chance, however, is in Pauper.
Pauper decks regularly run tap lands with minor upsides, like the Thunder Junction ping Deserts. In that context, gaining access to all five colors sounds pretty good indeed. Decks like Ephemerate Tron, which dabble in every color, can certainly make use of it. There’s no shortage of fodder, be it cheap creatures or artifacts, to tap for its effect, either.
Overall, while it’s not exciting in the slightest, Command Bridge does at least have some potential applications. That’s more than you can say for the last few story spoilers we’ve had.
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