Oversoul
The Tentacled One
This report will be running a bit late, but you’ll live. Now, Commander Legends is a set themed around the Commander format. The set is going to make waves in that format, but what does this mean for Tribal formats? While cards that have mechanics specific to Commander don’t necessarily do anything for us, the set presents some interesting considerations.
Compared to other recent sets, this one has more throwback-style cards, including several overt references to classic cards. This potentially means more representation for some disused tribes. Also, a side effect of the Commander focus in this set is a significant multiplayer focus. Since the CPA Tribal games have traditionally been multiplayer games, this could give the set heightened interest for our purposes. Finally, as part of this set’s themes, it’s chock-full of legendary creatures. Tribal formats don’t explicitly care about legendary creatures, but there’s a notable trend of legendary creatures for other formats being pushed a bit because they’re bad in multiples. For “Lowland” or other deckbuilding restrictions that enforce singleton usage of cards, the legend rule isn’t much of a drawback.
Personally, I’m torn in my reaction to this set. Some aspects of it would make it one of my favorite sets in a long time. Other aspects, mostly specific to the Commander format, I find frustrating. Since this is an analysis of the set’s potential for Tribal formats, we don’t need to focus on that other stuff. And since we’re not focusing on that stuff, the net impact of this set appears to be respectable.
New tribes
None.
New additions to existing tribes
Angel: Four new cards. They’re expensive and not especially good.
Archer: One new card. As a “Partner” legend, its primary intended use has no role in Tribal formats. But it’s a reasonably efficient creature in a struggling tribe, so it probably helps a little.
Archon: One new card. It doesn’t address the core flaws of this tribe, but actually might play into the strengths of Archon Tribal, so it’s a possible inclusion.
Artificer: Six new cards. All are legendary and all do different things. There’s something I’m not spotting that might boost a deck I’ve never thought of, but nothing of substance for the sort of Artificer Tribal shell I’ve tested myself. Probably no real impact here.
Assassin: One new card. It’s expensive and the payoff is weaker than what some existing members of the tribe can easily pull off.
Avatar: Two new cards. At first, I was inclined to dismiss them as more expensive draft chaff, but those abilities would have been remarkably strong in our old Tribal games here at the CPA and both of them, to some extent, hold up under scrutiny. That blue one could really take over games. So maybe?
Beast: Two new cards. One of them is a dud for our purposes. The other is cool and unique, but too far afield from what Beast Tribal would ordinarily be doing.
Bird: Three new cards. Two of them are pretty good in an offensively inclined Bird Tribal strategy.
Cat: Four new cards. We’re lacking tribal synergies here and a couple of these cards might be better fits in their other tribes. They’re not bad, but I’m just not sure that they’re right for Cat Tribal.
Chimera: Two new cards. We’re approaching a point at which Chimera Tribal can dispense with weird utility stuff as filler for a deficient tribe and transition into a role as a somewhat awkward slow-rolling big mana engine deck, with multiple powerful options that wouldn’t normally fit together. Although I’m sure it’s by accident, this disjointed power is a perfect thematic fit for the creature type.
Construct: One new card. I probably wouldn’t run it, but if a tribe can take advantage of an overcosted Monarch-based creature and just run with it for the card advantage, Construct Tribal is your best bet. I’d imagine that it’s difficult to hold onto the Monarch against Tier 1 competition, though.
Demon: One new card. The issue with Demon Tribal has always been that it has some of the most potent late-game creatures of any tribe, but mediocre options for a cohesive ramp to navigate toward that powerful late game while staying alive. This would dominate the lower tiers, but the consistency of almost any Tier 2 tribe should pose a serious problem and, since I started these reports, none of the new toys for Demon Tribal have ever really addressed this flaw. That’s still true! I think I accidentally made it seem like I was leading into something revolutionary. Nah. The new demon is another slow card, not what the tribe really needs. However, we’ve seen the mechanic of stealing creatures from other people’s graveyards before, and the ceiling on this effect is high. Like, really, really high. Even if opponents kill this demon, it can come back one last time and do its thing again, once for each opponent. If you have enough juicy targets in graveyards, this is an excellent card.
Dinosaur: One new card. I don’t think it makes the cut.
Djinn: Two new cards. One is draft chaff and the other is red. Ouch.
Dragon: Two new cards. They don’t work for our purposes, unfortunately. They’ll be fun in EDH, though.
Druid: Four new cards. A couple of them have this weird “cast stuff that costs 6 or more” theme going on, which I don’t think Druid Tribal wants to lean on. One is an eight-drop itself, and the last card is the worst new card I can remember seeing in years.
Dwarf: One new card. The inexorable march toward a good white/red Dwarf Tribal deck continues. In fact, I think we’re just about there.
Elemental: Three new cards. None are good fits for Elemental Tribal.
Elephant: One new card. It looks very cool and I’d love to try it out, but unfortunately Elephant Tribal is probably poorly suited to using with the newest elephant.
Elf: Fifteen new cards. A few are duds and most of the rest probably don’t make the cut, but a couple of these could push Elf Tribal back toward a pretty dominant position as one of the very strongest Tier 1 creature types. If we weren’t already at a point where green/black was stronger than mono-green, I think we’re there now.
Elk: One new card. Well, this is easily the biggest elk ever, so there’s that. I don’t know.
Faerie: One new card. I’m kind of confused on this one. I don’t really understand what role this card is supposed to have or what kind of deck is supposed to use it. Even in Limited, it just seems like you don’t want this card to be in your gameplan. It’s not even bad. It’s just weird and I can’t think of anything that really goes with it. What?
Compared to other recent sets, this one has more throwback-style cards, including several overt references to classic cards. This potentially means more representation for some disused tribes. Also, a side effect of the Commander focus in this set is a significant multiplayer focus. Since the CPA Tribal games have traditionally been multiplayer games, this could give the set heightened interest for our purposes. Finally, as part of this set’s themes, it’s chock-full of legendary creatures. Tribal formats don’t explicitly care about legendary creatures, but there’s a notable trend of legendary creatures for other formats being pushed a bit because they’re bad in multiples. For “Lowland” or other deckbuilding restrictions that enforce singleton usage of cards, the legend rule isn’t much of a drawback.
Personally, I’m torn in my reaction to this set. Some aspects of it would make it one of my favorite sets in a long time. Other aspects, mostly specific to the Commander format, I find frustrating. Since this is an analysis of the set’s potential for Tribal formats, we don’t need to focus on that other stuff. And since we’re not focusing on that stuff, the net impact of this set appears to be respectable.
New tribes
None.
New additions to existing tribes
Angel: Four new cards. They’re expensive and not especially good.
Archer: One new card. As a “Partner” legend, its primary intended use has no role in Tribal formats. But it’s a reasonably efficient creature in a struggling tribe, so it probably helps a little.
Archon: One new card. It doesn’t address the core flaws of this tribe, but actually might play into the strengths of Archon Tribal, so it’s a possible inclusion.
Artificer: Six new cards. All are legendary and all do different things. There’s something I’m not spotting that might boost a deck I’ve never thought of, but nothing of substance for the sort of Artificer Tribal shell I’ve tested myself. Probably no real impact here.
Assassin: One new card. It’s expensive and the payoff is weaker than what some existing members of the tribe can easily pull off.
Avatar: Two new cards. At first, I was inclined to dismiss them as more expensive draft chaff, but those abilities would have been remarkably strong in our old Tribal games here at the CPA and both of them, to some extent, hold up under scrutiny. That blue one could really take over games. So maybe?
Beast: Two new cards. One of them is a dud for our purposes. The other is cool and unique, but too far afield from what Beast Tribal would ordinarily be doing.
Bird: Three new cards. Two of them are pretty good in an offensively inclined Bird Tribal strategy.
Cat: Four new cards. We’re lacking tribal synergies here and a couple of these cards might be better fits in their other tribes. They’re not bad, but I’m just not sure that they’re right for Cat Tribal.
Chimera: Two new cards. We’re approaching a point at which Chimera Tribal can dispense with weird utility stuff as filler for a deficient tribe and transition into a role as a somewhat awkward slow-rolling big mana engine deck, with multiple powerful options that wouldn’t normally fit together. Although I’m sure it’s by accident, this disjointed power is a perfect thematic fit for the creature type.
Construct: One new card. I probably wouldn’t run it, but if a tribe can take advantage of an overcosted Monarch-based creature and just run with it for the card advantage, Construct Tribal is your best bet. I’d imagine that it’s difficult to hold onto the Monarch against Tier 1 competition, though.
Demon: One new card. The issue with Demon Tribal has always been that it has some of the most potent late-game creatures of any tribe, but mediocre options for a cohesive ramp to navigate toward that powerful late game while staying alive. This would dominate the lower tiers, but the consistency of almost any Tier 2 tribe should pose a serious problem and, since I started these reports, none of the new toys for Demon Tribal have ever really addressed this flaw. That’s still true! I think I accidentally made it seem like I was leading into something revolutionary. Nah. The new demon is another slow card, not what the tribe really needs. However, we’ve seen the mechanic of stealing creatures from other people’s graveyards before, and the ceiling on this effect is high. Like, really, really high. Even if opponents kill this demon, it can come back one last time and do its thing again, once for each opponent. If you have enough juicy targets in graveyards, this is an excellent card.
Dinosaur: One new card. I don’t think it makes the cut.
Djinn: Two new cards. One is draft chaff and the other is red. Ouch.
Dragon: Two new cards. They don’t work for our purposes, unfortunately. They’ll be fun in EDH, though.
Druid: Four new cards. A couple of them have this weird “cast stuff that costs 6 or more” theme going on, which I don’t think Druid Tribal wants to lean on. One is an eight-drop itself, and the last card is the worst new card I can remember seeing in years.
Dwarf: One new card. The inexorable march toward a good white/red Dwarf Tribal deck continues. In fact, I think we’re just about there.
Elemental: Three new cards. None are good fits for Elemental Tribal.
Elephant: One new card. It looks very cool and I’d love to try it out, but unfortunately Elephant Tribal is probably poorly suited to using with the newest elephant.
Elf: Fifteen new cards. A few are duds and most of the rest probably don’t make the cut, but a couple of these could push Elf Tribal back toward a pretty dominant position as one of the very strongest Tier 1 creature types. If we weren’t already at a point where green/black was stronger than mono-green, I think we’re there now.
Elk: One new card. Well, this is easily the biggest elk ever, so there’s that. I don’t know.
Faerie: One new card. I’m kind of confused on this one. I don’t really understand what role this card is supposed to have or what kind of deck is supposed to use it. Even in Limited, it just seems like you don’t want this card to be in your gameplan. It’s not even bad. It’s just weird and I can’t think of anything that really goes with it. What?