Unsurprising, since it’s a card game that has been going for over 30 years, Magic: The Gathering is rather complex. The comprehensive rules document for MTG is just shy of 300 pages long, and it’s always getting bigger. Due to this, it’s very rare that Wizards changes things around, as there can be huge ramifications from doing so. Today, however, that’s exactly what has been announced.
When Edge of Eternities becomes legal, on July 25th, a new rule change will come into effect for Commander. This was recently revealed by Wizards’ Mike Turian, while speaking at MagicCon: Las Vegas. Technically, this change might seem small, however, it’ll instantly allow 22+ new cards to be your Commander.
Edge of Eternities Commander Rules Change
From July 25th, legendary Spacecraft and legendary Vehicles will be eligible to be played as your Commander. Currently, 21 Vehicles will be eligible for this role, as well as at least some of Edge of Eternities Spacecrafts. So far, only The Seriema fits this bill; however, there’s bound to be more legendary Spacecraft in the set.
As your Commander, you’ll still have to Crew your Vehicles and Station your Spacecraft as normal. Sadly, this will be needed to get value out of a lot of new Vehicle Commanders, but it’s hardly an insurmountable feat. Most Vehicles, after all, are fairly expensive, so you should have some broad presence by the time you play them.
You’ll also need a robust board to Station any Spacecraft Commander you have, or The Seriema, at least. Thankfully, after reaching the Charge Counter threshold, the Spacecraft will stick around as an artifact creature. That is, at least, so long as counters don’t get removed by something like Vampire Hexmage.
While we’ll get to specifics shortly, this change might not immediately have a colossal change on the Commander format. More Commander options are definitely nice, so this is great to see, but the legendary vehicles we have aren’t unfathomably powerful. Maybe we’ll get a super spicy Spacecraft in Edge of Eternities, but that remains to be seen.
The Problem With Vehicles
Unfortunately, there are a few major problems with the legendary Vehicles that we have in MTG. While these cards technically can be your Commander when Edge of Eternities launches, it’s unlikely you’ll want them to be. After all, most of these cards need to attack to be useful, and you’ll have to Crew them, obviously.
This, however, is just the tip of the iceberg, as legendary Vehicles aren’t in the best colors right now. Currently, only two Vehicle Commanders offer you access to more than one color of mana: Jackdaw and The Belligerent. The former of these is potentially a genuinely viable Commander; however, the latter is not so much.
Outside of these two, there are 11 mono colored potential Vehicle Commanders across Magic’s five colors. Out of these, Esika’s Chariot might be the best out of the bunch; however, that color identity is really limiting. Potentially, The Last Ride is useful as a draw engine, but then again, there are way better mono black Commanders.
For true Vehicle fanatics, there are also eight colorless legendaries that could soon be your Commander. Out of these, The Regalia could be a decent ramp engine, and Weatherlight could keep your hand stocked somewhat reliably. Even with these upsides, however, you may struggle with the colorless color identity.
To make matters even worse, most Vehicle Commanders, and Spacecraft too, might not stick around long. Since most of these cards get value from attacking, you’ll always have to put them at risk. Technically, some Vehiclies, like Skysovereign, Consul Flagship do have enters abilities; however, these are rare and typically not too powerful.
A Brighter Future
Thankfully, while the current cast of legendary Vehicles isn’t too exciting, the future could be a lot more exciting. We’ll be getting our first taste of this with Edge of Eternities, so we’ll have to watch out for legendary Spacecraft. Potentially, these legendaries will be slightly more pushed in the future, making them better Commanders.
For better or worse, there’s no telling right now whether or not this will actually happen. Given that Wizards is implementing this rule change soon, it would make a lot of sense, but nothing in life is guaranteed. This could just be a spur-of-the-moment change to make the set’s Spacecraft more exciting, not a major overhaul.
Ultimately, we’ll just have to wait and see what gets revealed to see what the future holds. Thankfully, this change should make spoiler seasons slightly more exciting for Commander players, at the very least. That said, it’s not like Commander fans are exactly lacking.
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