This set nearly slipped by me. Commander 2021 is available in preconstructed decks only and is thematically tied to Strixhaven. It was actually released before Strixhaven and I've already published my Strixhaven review; this disorder hurts my OCD.
Thankfully Scryfall has a setting that only shows first printings in a set so I don't have to filter the reprints myself.
Alrighty, let's start BIG:
Dodges Lightning Bolt and Fatal Push, the ward ability prevents huge blowouts from removal. Kolaghan's Command isn't game over. Worst case is they steal it with Dack Fayden, but you can say that about most artifacts.
Powerful if you can manipulate the top card of your library, most likely with Sensei's Divining Top. You would run this in a deck full of artifacts; The damage clause prevents you from abusing it like Shape Anew, and having to sac an artifact prevents you from abusing it like Madcap Experiment into Platinum Emperion.
~ is a golem, don't run it with Precursor Golem!
I would want at least 75% of my spells to effectively be artifacts.
Wow, lots of support for white artifacts. ~ is more suited to 'battle mech' style, that's a Starcraft II term; I'm referring to an artifact stompy strategy. This style of artifact deck is less vulnerable to Null Rod et al because you can still attack for the win sometimes.
Creatures with ward are especially good to accelerate out because your opponent may not have the mana to pay for the ward yet. ~ can easily come down on turn three from the artifact deck.
I've found that if you want to run all the good artifact synergy lands, you can't play more than two colours reliably. Once you've added the following:
City of Traitors
Ancient Tomb
Mishra's Workshop
Tolarian Academy
Seat of the Synod
Tree of Tales
Ancient Den
Vault of Whispers
Great Furnace
Darksteel Citadel
...Say you make the remaining lands: 7 fetches, Prismatic Vista, 1 dual, 1 shock, 3 basics. That's 26 lands total and you have 13 sources of two different colours, 14 counting Mox Opal. We're talking bare minimum %'s here. What I'm getting at is that Portable Hole just got printed, the first tutorable artifact that deals with Null Rod, and all the tutors for it are blue and therefore I conclude that UW is the best artifact colour combination. You could also play Bant now that I think about it because the green land tutors act like blue sources when they find Tolarian Academy. You may find yourself Sylvan Scrying'ing'ing for Ancient Den occaisionally though.
If you own a Mishra's Workshop you're gonna put it in this deck, yet Workshop doesn't cast ~ or pay for the triggered ability, some tension there.
~ is vulnerable to Lightning Bolt but the risk is worth it; ~ takes over the game if not dealt with.
~ incentivises cheap artifacts, especially zero costs because you can cast ~ on curve at 3 mana and then double trigger on turn four, or immediately trigger after casting ~ at 5 mana.
'2C' mana cost threats are nice with Mana Crypt and Ancient Tomb.
Again, '2C' mana cost threats are nice with Mana Crypt and Ancient Tomb.
May even be good in hyper tempo reanimator with all the cheapest spells where the Wheel of Fortune death trigger would be excellent.
BOOM! There are now 18 artifact lands (10 enter tapped though and may not be playable). Alibou has a huge impact. So much damage to any target.
A nice way to bring back Time Vault from the graveyard.
I can imagine this in a Mishra's Workshop midrange deck which runs Walking Ballista, Arcbound Ravager, Verdurous Gearhulk and Triskelion. Green also provides Hardened Scales, Ancient Stirrings, Crop Rotation and Sylvan Scrying for that deck.
Laelia
A 4drop that can be Lightning Bolted is easy to disregard, but that token making ability is very powerful. Perhaps a bird or cleric tribal deck would give ~ that extra power boost to make it playable. Or perhaps a deck with a few anthems to put ~ out of Lightning Bolt range and pump the tokens.
The second ability removes any counter from your dudes. I'm imagining a creature that needs a counter removed to unlock its super powers, something like Thing in the Ice but better.
Now that is a lifegain payoff. Very hard to permanently remove. Even Swords to Plowshares may play into a life gain deck's strategy.
Kind of a 1 mana counterspell that you can only cast turn 4 onwards. It also lets you cast all the powerful 'no cost' sorceries like Ancestral Vision and Crashing Footfalls.
4 mana creatures are typically bad against removal but that ward 2 fixes that. 3 mana Fatal Push or 4 mana Stomp is bad but it's not game over. The reward for taking the risk is beating ground creature or planeswalker strategies. Since ~ is blue, you're probably relying on Force of Will, Force of Negation and Daze to protect you from combo whilst you token-up the board. Most of the other token payoff cards are white, and we would rather not expose ourselves more to Blood Moon if we don't have to, so we're solidly in Bant.
Lovisa
8 is A LOT. To get 8 in good time you probably need to mill yourself rather than just relying on casting cantrips.
Huge deck building tax because even the best vanilla creatures are barely playable. The payoff of Ruxa is strong but you can only play one! The best configuration of vanilla creatures would be a Naya aggro deck with:
Felisa is indiscriminant when it comes to her counters. There are some weird creatures out there with some weird counters in large quantities. Every highlander player at some point has reached level 8 on their Hexdrinker and thought, "Should I just level this further in case?". Well Felisa says yes!
If you knew each of these cards without looking at the links you are a freak and I love it.
When does a distinct name become more important than a dulcet one?
When does a distinct name become more important than a dulcet one?
In my metagame, Laelia is the most impactful card from Commander 2021 due to her interaction with Tainted Pact. Thassa's Oracle + Tainted Pact/Demonic Consultation is public enemy number one, and for that deck to gain an on-colour combo piece is disappointing. At least ~ disallows Lurrus as a companion.
I did some Googling to try confirm the Tainted Pact + ~ ruling. I found a few forums and the consensus is that it works because Tainted Pact says "repeat this process". You are triggering ~ each time, whereas Demonic Consultation only gives you two triggers (one for the initial 6 and one for the rest). This rules interaction was hard to check. It has less exposure because it's only relevant in Commander and Highlander and at the time of writing this, ~ wasn't available on MTGO along with a dozen other legendaries:
* = playable and featured in this set review (unfortunate for paper/digital gap)
These omissions increase the distinction between paper and digital highlander; MTGO being much cheaper creates a vastly different metagame, some combos are too slow to execute with the MTGO interface and MTGO has bugs. At the moment paper and digital are close but hopefully the gap doesn't widen.
Back to talking about Laelia.
She has already been errata'd. Her oracle text is now:
She has already been errata'd. Her oracle text is now:
Haste
Whenever Laelia, the Blade Reforged attacks, exile the top card of your library. You may play that card this turn.
Whenever one or more cards are put into exile from your library and/or your graveyard, put a +1/+1 counter on Laelia.
She has changed to also trigger when your opponent exiles a card from your library or graveyard. This may not have been a functional change but an improved wording to clear doubt.
Anyway, ~ is just a super strong card regardless of combos. Any red deck can run her really. A 3/3 haste for three mana is already decent against planeswalkers, then add on the extra card she gains you each turn and the fact she grows and her creature types are useful and she's single red for Ancient Tomb et al. Wow.
The Grixis Oracle deck can protect her very well with Duress, Inquisition, Thoughtseize, Force of Will, etc and just ride her to victory. And if they have Tainted Pact they can make her a 20/20 whilst digging for the removal to get her through, or the Force of Will to protect her. There's a small chance that Thassa's Oracle gets exiled by Laelia but that's unlikely and they generally don't care because Laelia will likely win the game anyway.
Thoughtlash is another card that combos with Laelia and Thassa's Oracle, but it is clunkier.
Thoughtlash is another card that combos with Laelia and Thassa's Oracle, but it is clunkier.
Since Khans of Tarkir and the delve mechanic, the strategy of casting a lot of cheap instants and sorceries has forked. Now you either consume your graveyard with delve and escape or you let it grow for cards like Bedlam Reveler, Enigma Drake and Cryptic Serpent.
You would need Skullclamp and tutors for it to convert the X/1's in a boardstall. You would also run Green Sun's Zenith as another copy of ~.
Muraganda Petroglyphs is another payoff for vanilla creatures but it doesn't work in the above proposed deck because only a handful of our creatures are vanilla. Muraganda Petroglyphs is more suited to a token deck.
Other than the level mechanic, there is also:
Eventually there'll be a critical mass of creatures that combo with Felisa.
Radiate on legs! (presumably)
I don't actually think it's playable but it's so cool. Imagine copying:
Could be a combo card if you manage to put something really expensive on top. ~ is quite similar to Stormfist Crusader otherwise.
RB aggro expert Dillon Kikkawa isn't playing ~. I imagine part of his reasoning is that RB aggro has cheap spells, i.e. the opponent won't lose much life from the revealed card. Also, aggro is a strategy that can be undone by one sideboard card like Timely Reinforcements, so you don't want to increase their chances of finding it. On the other side of the arguement, the opponent's spell are going to be more expensive on average and therefore it's unlikely they can cast the extra cards fast enough, whereas you can.~ is a huge threat at any point in the game but if you want to cast it early then Nourishing Shoal, Sunspring Expedition, Heroes' Reunion, Tavern Swindler, Children of Korlis (with fetches and shocks) and Rest for the Weary are cheap enablers. You'll definitely beat any burn deck!
Note that you can Entomb, Buried Alive and Unmarked Grave to gain access to this.
There are probably several strains of life gain deck. Sproutback Trudge builds want to gain life in huge chunks, whereas Dina, Soul Steeper builds want to gain 1 life many times. Trudge Garden is better in the latter, but works in both.
You really want token effects that happen as soon as ~ enters, that cost no mana. That way you'll probably get value even if they remove ~ in their next turn. I'm thinking:
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, Emmara, Soul of the Accord, Opposition, Earthcraft, Idol of Oblivion, Brimaz, King of Oreskos, Dovin, Grand Arbiter, Geist of Saint Traft, Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer, Oko, Thief of Crowns.
Sideboard for Polymorph/Transmogrify decks.
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, Emmara, Soul of the Accord, Opposition, Earthcraft, Idol of Oblivion, Brimaz, King of Oreskos, Dovin, Grand Arbiter, Geist of Saint Traft, Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer, Oko, Thief of Crowns.
SIDEBOARD CARDS
Good sideboard card in creature decks against control. Also strong against aggro decks with lots of X/1's.
I was going to mention something about the aristocrats deck and then coincidentally saw this image on the discord and took it as a sign not to:
CONCLUSION
Laelia, the Blade Reforged is the best card by far, but she's not pointworthy. She will be especially good in mono red and Tainted Pact decks.
Boros artifacts got a big boost; three white options and four red options, the most notable being Alibou. At the moment if I'm building an artifact deck I'm playing white for Portable Hole and blue for the tutors. I don't think there's room in the mana base for a third colour.
Thanks for reading,
Luke
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