Due to the release of Planeswalker commanders in the new set, I decided to dig through the old ones and compile a list of ones that might be playable. Open for suggestions and debate. Alphabetically,
Yeses;
{Ajani Goldmane} life gain, anyone?
{Ajani, Caller of the Pride} or maybe this life gain?
{Aishiok, Nightmare Weaver} I think this would be one of the coolest ones.
{Chandra Ablaze} the middle ability is probably the best.
{Chandra Nalaar} dangerous but not immediately fatal.
{Chandra, Pyromaster} Pretty hit and miss on the ultimate but still good.
{Chandra, the Firebrand} well rounded. All solid abilities.
{Elspeth Tirel} little tentative on that plus ability...
{Garruk Relentless} I think he'd be really fun to run.
{Garruk Wildspeaker} ramp, spawn and buff. Perfect.
{Gideon Jura} come at me bro. I think he'd be a hard but fun build. That 0 ability though.
{Gideon, Champion of Justice} Sounds like a lot of fun.
{Jace Beleren} I'll give you cards then maybe you'll let me mill you. Maybe.
{Jace, Architect of Thought} I think he's a really solid choice without being broken.
{Jace, the Living Guildpact} sounds terrible on paper. Great in playtest.
{Kiora, the Crashing Wave} her emblem is slow enough, and her other two abilities are sweet.
{Liliana of the Dark Realms} black ramp to insanity.
{Liliana of the Veil} painful +1. Sweet ult.
{Liliana Vess} what's not to like?
{Nissa Revane} elf tribal would be killer. But she takes a long time to charge up.
{Ral Zarek} could be really good.
{Sarkhan Vol} I'm not sure about him.
{Tezzeret the Seeker} artifact commander.
{Tibalt, the Fiend Blooded} the {Norin the Weary} of Planeswalker Commander. Only worse.
{Xenagos, the Reveller} a solid pick all around.
MAYBE
{Ajani Vengeant} land destruction. Ewwww.
{Elspeth, Sun's Champion} middle ability. And emblem. I'm heavily leaning towards no.
{Garruk, Primal Hunter} that ult is too good.
{Jace, Memory Adept} his 0 is really good...
{Sorin, Lord of Innistrad} only on the maybes cause of that middle ability.
NO
{Ajani Steadfast} game winning ultimate.
{Ajani, Mentor of Heroes} game winning ult.
{Dack Fayden} you know those decks are gonna be broken.
{Domri Rade} game winning ultimate.
{Elspeth, Knight-Errant} see above.
{Garruk, Apex Predator} would any of his abilities be not broken?
{Garruk, Caller of Beasts} that ultimate...too good.
{Jace, the Mind Sculptor} I don't have to explain this.
{Karn Liberated} or this.
{Koth of the Hammer} game winning ultimate.
{Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker} same as Apex. Too much power.
{Nissa, Worldwaker} game winning ult.
{Sarkhan the Mad} see above.
{Sorin Markov} the -2.
{Tamiyo, the Moon Sage} infinite combo with {Omniscience}.
{Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas} hard to see a deck where his ult doesn't just win.
{Venser, the Sojourner} read the emblem.
{Vraska the Unseen} those tokens will have haste. And unblockable. And you're screwed.
Non Planeswalker Ban List;
{Doubling Season} nobody is going to be doing anything not broken with this card.
Of course the other walkers could be used. Just not as a commander. Anybody else's thoughts?
I would want Nicol Bolas because he gives my deck more colors.
Venser would be my choice if he weren't banned.
Yes but Bolas is too much of a power house.
Yep, which is why I wanna use him. And have more colors. None of the good mono-Commander's are legal :(
None of the Ajani's should be banned. 100 Life isn't unbeatable. Why can't powerful planeswalkers be Commanders? They die easily and take several turns to go off. As it stands, none of them win if they ultimate the earliest possible turn they could.
Out of everyone, Venser emblem, Tamiyo Emblem and Karn are the only things resembling game changers. The others probably won't ever ultimate. Like {Jace, the Mind Sculptor} really isn't good in this format, I know because I cut him from 1 of my decks.
Also, don't focus on the final. The final will rarely be reached.
Making revisions.
Quote from: LinkCelestrial on September 06, 2014, 11:53:39 PM
Making revisions.
Also have Ajani's name wrong in each instance.
Really liked the idea, read the column and got enthusiastic... Then something twinged in my head and realised "... wait, was Norin as a commander just put in the same category as Tibalt?! Nup, I'm out!'
😜
I mean nobody guns for the guy with the Norin commander deck. I'd only attack somebody running Tibalt just to put them out of their misery. Norin is waaaaay better. He actually works with cards instead of making you throw them away.
Not for nothing, I can't think of 1 planeswalker I'd rather have then my Commander in my decks. The color options are limited, and some of them just aren't all that good, or not all that great to build around.
There are almost better ways to do everything they do, and they're soft in multiplayer games.
Planeswalkers shouldn't be commanders. Just my 2¢.
Only the new Planeswalkers will be commanders because they have a static ability stating such. The old ones cannot be commanders.
Quote from: rarehuntertay on September 07, 2014, 07:14:26 PM
Only the new Planeswalkers will be commanders because they have a static ability stating such. The old ones cannot be commanders.
Yet...
Quote from: blackychan1 on September 08, 2014, 03:12:14 AM
Quote from: rarehuntertay on September 07, 2014, 07:14:26 PM
Only the new Planeswalkers will be commanders because they have a static ability stating such. The old ones cannot be commanders.
Yet...
ya i want my walkers to be decks that would be great
I know that only the new walkers are allowed. Hence why this is for casual play and I'm just spitballing.
I understand that a lot of the Walkers wouldn't make good commanders compared to what we've already got. But some of them just might work. And you always have to build a deck around them anyways.
I weird idea that went through my mind was play creatureless.
I understand it's hypothetical, but the real results suggest they're not all that good. The benefit of putting them in the command zone means you don't have to tutor for them, but they're not all that good anyway. Tamiyo infinites with {Omniscience} after awhile. Maybe the only, and I mean ONLY commander that is broken is probably {Liliana of the Veil}, but she's in mono black.
Quote from: Dudecore on September 08, 2014, 03:54:25 PM
I understand it's hypothetical, but the real results suggest they're not all that good. The benefit of putting them in the command zone means you don't have to tutor for them, but they're not all that good anyway. Tamiyo infinites with {Omniscience} after awhile. Maybe the only, and I mean ONLY commander that is broken is probably {Liliana of the Veil}, but she's in mono black.
And?
And, mono black has better Commanders. I don't see a reason to ban or restrict any planeswalkers from being commanders
Quote from: Dudecore on September 08, 2014, 07:52:21 PM
And, mono black has better Commanders. I don't see a reason to ban or restrict any planeswalkers from being commanders
{Karn Liberated} says welcome to your eight hour game.
But it's not about some being too powerful so much as it's about balance. I mean who's going to run any of the Chandras when they can run {Koth of the Hammer}?
Anybody wanna playtest some of the ones I'm worried about and see what happens? I've got a {Koth of the Hammer} I'm willing to rock with. And a {Garruk, Apex Predator}.
{Karn Liberated} says welcome to your eight hour game.
no if played right you keep 40 damage exiled of your stuff and restart besure to account for anything they might be able to play turn 1 after restart like a 1 drop blocker and such or an {unsummon} and swing for 40 game over theres no way it would take 8 hours
But my point would be is {Karn Liberated} already does that. He isn't significantly stronger or better now that he starts in the command zone.
Yes he is significantly better. He's always in your hand and he can't really be permanently removed.
Play a game with a Karn deck having Karn in the command zone with commander rules. It'll end much better. It's pretty much permanent access to the card the deck is built around.
And it's not just Karn's ultimate that is really good. I mean -3 exile?
This is already a format called Archemage. The format is pretty terrible due to lack of multicolor planeswalkers and constraints usually put on the planeswalkers (for example using algebra to figure out how to redo the number of loyalty counters). Here is the official site for the Archemage format though: http://archmage-format.webs.com/
Quote from: Agrus Kos, Enforcer of Truth on September 09, 2014, 06:37:47 PM
This is already a format called Archemage. The format is pretty terrible due to lack of multicolor planeswalkers and constraints usually put on the planeswalkers (for example using algebra to figure out how to redo the number of loyalty counters). Here is the official site for the Archemage format though: http://archmage-format.webs.com/
Overly complicated and not quite what I'm looking for. Interesting, though.
Here's a potential idea I had. Instead of banning some cards have drawbacks. Kinda like Vanguard cards.
Like if you're going to use {Tibalt, the Fiend Blooded} your maximum and starting hand size is 10, and your starting life total is 42.
If you're going to use {Garruk, Apex Predator} your maximum and starting hand size is 5, and your starting life total is 35.
They could also have additional drawbacks or bonuses. Like {Karn Liberated} costs {4} more to cast each time.
Numbers are completely hypothetical, but what do you think?
Quote from: LinkCelestrial on September 09, 2014, 01:43:19 PM
Yes he is significantly better. He's always in your hand and he can't really be permanently removed.
Play a game with a Karn deck having Karn in the command zone with commander rules. It'll end much better. It's pretty much permanent access to the card the deck is built around.
And it's not just Karn's ultimate that is really good. I mean -3 exile?
But he's also worse in a way.
This is due to the fact that you are forced to build a deck with nothing but colorless spells. (And yes I'm well aware that it can be done). In a purely colorless deck you are going to have a much harder time keeping him alive, especially wen people see him coming from a mile away! (And yes I'm also aware that there are a few board wipes and peices of decent removal that are colorless).
People get 3 turns to deal with him, I doubt that ult would happen often at all if you're playing in a somewhat serious playgroup.
All of that aside, I am still opposed to the idea of planeswalkers being commanders in the first place, but it looks like I'm forced to accept it now...
Quote from: Gocougs509 on September 09, 2014, 08:24:42 PM
Quote from: LinkCelestrial on September 09, 2014, 01:43:19 PM
Yes he is significantly better. He's always in your hand and he can't really be permanently removed.
Play a game with a Karn deck having Karn in the command zone with commander rules. It'll end much better. It's pretty much permanent access to the card the deck is built around.
And it's not just Karn's ultimate that is really good. I mean -3 exile?
But he's also worse in a way.
This is due to the fact that you are forced to build a deck with nothing but colorless spells. (And yes I'm well aware that it can be done). In a purely colorless deck you are going to have a much harder time keeping him alive, especially wen people see him coming from a mile away! (And yes I'm also aware that there are a few board wipes and peices of decent removal that are colorless).
People get 3 turns to deal with him, I doubt that ult would happen often at all if you're playing in a somewhat serious playgroup.
All of that aside, I am still opposed to the idea of planeswalkers being commanders in the first place, but it looks like I'm forced to accept it now...
That's a really good point. I guess it really depends on your metagame.
I'm seeing burn being playable in this format, the Planeswalker control options would be great.
The goal of this is for some options, I've had quite a few people ask if Planeswalkers can be commanders. Only the official new ones will be legal everywhere.