Dragon's Maze commanders

[Travis Lannoye]

Well folks, looks like we have some new Commander cards from Dragon's Maze. Let's see what we have:
1. Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch
2BR, 3/3
Legendary Creature - Human Cleric
First Strike, haste
Unleash
Each other creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it has haste.
- Nice aggressive aggro dude, probably better for constructed than EDH.

2. Lavinia of the Tenth
3WU, 4/4
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier Rare
Protection from red
When Lavinia of the Tenth enters the battlefield, detain each nonland permanent your opponents control with converted mana cost 4 or less.
- Degenerate in standard if you can get there. Pretty sweet in EDH as well with all the blinking you can do. Definitely a cube staple.

3. Melek, Izzet Paragon
4UR, 2/4
Legendary Creature - Weird Wizard Rare
Play with the top card of your library revealed.
You may cast the top card of your library if it's an instant or sorcery card.
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell from your library, copy it. You may choose new targets for the copy.
- 6 mana for a 2/4 is pretty steep, but Future Sight for instants/sorceries seems like a great Izzet ability. This might actually make Brainstorm playable in EDH.

4. Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
4RG, 6/6
Legendary Creature - Ogre Warrior Rare
Vigilance, reach
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed attacks each turn if able.
Whenever a player casts a noncreature spell, Ruric Thar deals 6 damage to that player.
- 6 mana for a 6/6 is on par with most Titans in EDH, and taking 6 to the dome just to deal with him seems like a solid bonus. Probably an excellent EDH creature or commander.

5. Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts
5WB, 4/4
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor Rare
Vigilance, protection from creatures
Whenever a creature deals damage to you, destroy that creature. Put a 1/1 white and black Spirit token with flying onto the battlefield.
- Cue the fail-horn. The price is all wrong here. 7 mana for a 4/4 with no evasion or protection on her is waaaaay too much for black/white decks. I'll stick to the original Teysa and Ghost Council.

6. Vorel of the Hull Clade
1GU, 1/4
Legendary Creature - Human Merfolk Rare
{G}{U}, {T}: For each counter on target artifact, creature, or land, put another of those counters on that permanent.
- Solid! Probably works best in tandem with Kraj, and more than one activation is probably just win-more, but he looks fine for EDH.

Still waiting for new Golgari, Dimir, Boros, and Selesnya commanders...

[abeckett]

1. I could see a good BR aggressive deck with unleash making use of this in standard. Not so useful in EDH though.

2. Meh. Detains mana rocks and utility dudes. Probably annoying in a blink heavy deck.

3. You basically build a deck around this guy like an Intet deck without the green.

4. Really must be built around. Pretty sure he will end up in all-creature Animar.

5. Blech. Why so expensive? I would have been much happier with a smaller body and a lower cost. As it is, 7-mana on a BW commander is just too steep.

6. Not hitting planeswalkers sucks. However, I do expect to slot this into my simic counters deck.

I believe the Golgari Champion is that sweet 4cmc troll that's been floating around that can't be destroyed. Not sure if that was debunked or not yet.

[Travis Lannoye]

Ha! I remember when Ben Rislove was complaining about Thrun not actually being the last Troll printed. If that's true, that would be two more trolls (Lotleth plus the new guy) printed AFTER the "last troll".

2. I think the most degenerate applications for her will be in Cube. You could theoretically detain someone's whole board with this card.

4. I don't think this guy really needs to be built around. RG monsters would probably have a very low number of non-creature spells already.

5. Not gonna lie, I was really hoping this new Teysa would lead my new Orzhov extortion deck for EDH. Super let-down.

6. If they included planeswalkers, it would mean a lot more ultimates, and that's probably not a good thing.

[abeckett]

Goglari champion spoiled. Not as awesome as the apparently fake version, but still impressive.

Varolz, the Scar-Striped
1GB, 2/2
Legendary Creature - Troll Warrior
Each creature card in your graveyard has scavenge
Sacrifice a creature, regenerate Varolz the Scar-Striped

[Travis Lannoye]

Yet another troll printed after the "last troll". Still, I like him a lot...free sac outlet, low cost, abilities are both unique and useful.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the new Dimir guy:
Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker
3UB, 2/4
Legendary Creature - Vampire
Flying
Whenever Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker deals combat damage to a player, that player reveals cards from the top of his or her library until he or she reveals four land cards, then puts those cards into his or her graveyard.

<Ben Stein monotone voice>So, he's basically another Dimir milling commander. Wow. How exciting is that? <end sarcastic voice>

Come on, Wizards, you can do better than this. At least Lazav did cool things when someone got milled. This guy is just boring.

[abeckett]

Yes, but Mirko is easily headed for the Lazav deck I'm wrapping up work on right now.

[Travis Lannoye]

Commander number 9 of 10 has been spoiled:
Tajic, Blade of the Legion
2RW, 2/2
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier
Tajic, Blade of the Legion is indestructible.
Battalion — Whenever Tajic atttacks with at least two other creatures attack, Tajic gets +5/+5 until end of turn.

[Travis Lannoye]

...and we have commander number 10:
Emmara Tandris
5GW, 5/7
Legendary Creature - Elf Shaman
Prevent all damage that would be dealt to creature tokens you control

Boo. Yet another overcosted commander with a sub-par ability. Everyone knows the best way to deal with creature tokens in EDH is to wrath them, not damage them. In constructed, that might not be the case, but this card should never see play in constructed, so it's moot.

Overall I'm pretty disappointed with this set of ten commanders. Orzhov and Selesnya are too expensive, Dimir and Simic are just variations on what we already have, Golgari is OK but requires us to self-exile, Azorius is probably better off in constructed, Boros and Rakdos seem kinda mediocre. Izzet seems like the clear winner here, with Gruul a close second.

[abeckett]

Pretty much with you on those evaluations. I'll be picking up ones that already have a home, but the only one that's likely to generate a new deck for me is the Izzet one.

[John Galli]

I really like the Boros commander. I could see him getting pretty nuts, but he's probably more my playstyle than your guys

[Travis Lannoye]

Pontiff of Blight. Extort triggers for all. New favorite card. Must acquire foils.