Commander Masters, alongside being the most expensive MTG set we’ve received in quite some time, is also a set primarily consisting of reprints. There are a lot of exciting and expensive reprints featured in this set, but there’s also some less exciting options to promote the Limited environment. Fortunately, there are also some new cards on the horizon.
Even though most of this set is a reprint one, there are some new cards being introduced as a part of Commander Masters. Alongside the main set, four preconstructed Commander decks are being released. We know that there’s a five-color Sliver deck, a colorless Eldrazi deck, a Jeskai Superfriends deck and an Abzan enchantment list. We also know that each of these decks will contain ten never-before-seen cards in them. This means that Commander Masters does have 40 new cards coming in its Commander decks.
While players need to wait a few more days before the Commander Masters Preconstructed deck reveals start, we’re already starting to get some information about the new cards. Let’s take a look!
MTG Designer Hints at New Cards
It has become a bit of a tradition at this point for MTG designers Mark Rosewater and Gavin Verhey to release a series of hints regarding the new content coming out in a set. Mark Rosewater tends to discuss hints related to a new main set, like March of the Machine, while Gavin Verhey usually presents hints for Commander portions of a set product, like Brothers’ War Commander, or Commander Masters.
As stated by Verhey in the above video, these hints detail some qualities of the new cards we will be seeing in the preconstructed decks. Note that not all the context will be included in these hints and we will not be talking about all the hints here, just what we find to be the most exciting.
MTG’s Most Iconic Cycle Returns
Most players who have been playing MTG at some point in the past decade know of the Titan cycle from M11. Known as Sun Titan[/tootlips], Frost Titan, Grave Titan, Inferno Titan and Primeval Titan, these creatures tend to be six mana 6/6’s that have an ability that triggers when the Titan enters the battlefield or attacks. Primeval Titan, a menace known for taking over Modern, being banned in Commander, and is coming to MTG Arena in its latest Historic Anthology, is probably the best known Titan of the cycle.
Well, according to Gavin Verhey, a new Titan will be introduced in the new Commander Masters cards! Since the cycle of Titans is kind of already complete, it could a bit tough to figure out where this one fits in. I do, however, have a theory on that:
Not Every Colorless Creature is an Eldrazi
Confirmed in a separate hint is that all the creatures in the colorless Eldrazi deck are not just Eldrazi. There is also confirmed to be a new Ikorian monster and a Strixhaven Archaic will appear in the colorless deck! Thinking along these lines, why isn’t one of the new creatures a colorless Titan? Keep in mind that this is speculation but, if Wizards of the Coast simply wanted to add on a Titan without creating a larger cycle of cards to complete, this would likely be the way to do it. That said, if they want to add a multicolored Titan cycle, this could also be the start of that, too.
A New Planeswalker Character We’ve Never Seen Before
A lot of the hints about the upcoming Commander cards from Verhey tended to surround the Planeswalker card type. While we will discuss more of that later, this is, by far, the most impactful hint that Verhey gave out.
Of note is that Verhey mentioned that this character depicted on a Mono Blue Planeswalker card is not a part of the Nine Titans. No, these are not referring to the Titan cycle at the beginning of the article, this is instead focusing on a group of Planeswalkers who helped Urza during the war against Mishra and Yawgmoth. Guff, the Commander of the Jeskai Superfriends deck, is included in the list of characters that the Nine Titans represent. Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools, a card printed in the original Commander Legends set, is also a part of the Nine Titans.
Also of note here is that there’s another Legendary character being introduced in the new cards in Commander Masters that was only seen in ‘obscure flavor text’ in the Time Spiral Block. I doubt these characters are one in the same, but it is a possibility.
Read More: Commander Masters MTG Release Date, Leaks, Spoilers & More
More Planeswalker Stuff
Pictured above is the artwork for a card called Teyo, Aegis of Oasis from Kieran Yanner. Pictured on his home plane of Gobakhan (yes, the same card that appears in every Pioneer Mono White deck), this confirms Teyo’s appearance in the new set, but we do not know what he does yet.
Otherwise, a fair number of Gavin Verhey’s hints grant further details on cards related to Planeswalkers. Since there is a Superfriends deck in the lineup of preconstructed decks, there shouldn’t be too surprising.
The first of these is that a non-Planeswalker card that enters with Loyalty Counters. For reference, Loyalty Counters are the counters found on Planeswalkers that represent their hit points, and are what the Planesswalker gains and loses when activating abilities.
My guess with this hint is that this new thing can distribute extra Loyalty counters between Planeswalkers. This could be very interesting for a Superfriends deck.
Otherwise, another card is confirmed that turns Planeswalkers into Birds. I am unsure whether this is going to be a positive transformation effect like Sarkhan the Masterless or a piece of removal. Honestly, I’m kind of hoping its the ladder since there are not a lot of cards that properly address Planeswalkers in Commander. While I am one of many who take advantage of this with a Superfriends deck, it is a glaring issue that a majority of common removal in the format just doesn’t work on Planeswalkers.
If you want to take a peek at some more hints, be sure to watch the YouTube video mentioned above.
Spoilers Start Monday!
While Commander Masters spoilers are well on their way, we won’t start seeing the new preconstructed decks until next Monday. The first deck revealed is scheduled to be the five-colored Sliver deck, followed by Planeswalker Party on Tuesday. Players can expect to find the contents of the Abzan enchantments deck revealed on Wednesday, leaving the colorless Eldrazi deck for Thursday. Initial reveals can be found on Commander at Home, Weekly MTG, the Command Zone and Loading Ready Run in that order, but we will be sure to have them here as well!
Read More: Expensive Game-Breaking Card Headlines Additional Commander Spoilers
