12,591 Magic Cards: Mystery Booster Commander Rulebreaker Review

In a surprise reveal that the convention audience certainly wasn't expecting, much less the Commander community at large, Wizards of the Coast announced Mystery Booster Commander at MagicCon Amsterdam just a couple of weeks ago. Not only did they tease this convention-exclusive-first set, they also spoiled a brand new kind of mechanic: the aptly-named Rulebreaker ability, which gives specific commanders the right to ignore certain aspects of deckbuilding rules for the Commander format.

Then, they did the worst thing possible and showed the most confusing example of what this mechanic could do.

Tolabow, Loch Rascal instantly lit a wildfire in the wider Commander community, not necessarily because of the Rulebreaker notion itself, but because of the way the specific condition for the Otter was worded. On first read, most people assumed that Tolabow decks could include instant and sorcery spells that had a color identity limited to two colors, including blue and whichever color the player would choose. Due to the ambiguity in the language used and the lack of the word "identity," though, some people — myself included — argued that the intention was for Tolabow to be a functional five-color commander, but only for instants and sorceries and limited to basic lands once the landbase leaves blue's color identity.

After that read, the community wasn't done finding other ways to read this ability. Some people argued that Tolabow could use all five colors at once, but that any instants and sorceries outside of mono-blue were forced to be blue and one additional color in identity, a view that relegated Tolabow to an annoyingly-worded but very friendly-looking five-color-ish Charms commander, and not much more. Some took it a step further, wondering if the ability meant that an instant or sorcery that is two colors and includes the chosen color, but not blue, could still be included in Tolabow's main deck. That question was expressed in a Bluesky post tagging Jess Dunks, the Magic Game Rules Architect, which tossed more fuel on the fire when a now-deleted post by another WotC staff member "confirmed" that Tolabow decks could run mono-colored spells of the chosen color that included alternate costs or abilities that used another color, such as Ancient Grudge in a deck naming red as the additional color.

It's only taken two weeks, but alongside the full set spoiler drop this Monday, Wizards finally provided a definitive update to the situation by providing an errata to Tolabow's Rulebreaker text:

Rulebreaker — If Tolabow, Loch Rascal is your commander, the color identity of instant and sorcery cards in your deck can include one color of your choice not in your commander's color identity, and your deck can have any basic land cards.

So, at the end of all of that kerfuffle, the community is left with the original interpretation: Tolabow, Loch Rascal can use instant and sorcery spells that are blue, a chosen color, or a multicolor spell with a color identity of blue and the chosen spell, nothing more.

And now, I have to answer the question that's probably been burning in your mind: was it worth it? Was all this struggle, strife, debate, and craziness worth it? Did we get a unique, playable commander that justifies its rule-breaking existence? Does Tolabow add something special to the format that warrants all of this trouble? In my not-professional opinion:

With the Otter in the command zone, you can't include two-color signets, you can't include Veyran, Voice of Duality, and you can't include Storm-Kiln Artist, or any other Spellslinger staple permanent that exists outside of blue. You also can't run shock lands, surveil lands, OG dual lands, or any utility land that isn't blue or colorless.

So you get to play a Spellslinger commander in any two-color pair that is already strictly worse than another option already available in those colors. You'll struggle a little extra with fixing your mana and you won't have any of the best permanents in your second color. In return, you get access to a slice of multicolor spells that includes one extra color, and you get to use mono-color instants and sorceries from that color. Since that by itself is not better than just using a two-color commander in that pair, what does Tolabow itself do?

It makes 1/1 creature tokens. Murmuring Mystic as a commander happened 14 years ago when Talrand, Sky Summoner was printed. Talrand is a solid commander that would easily benefit from having access to an additional color, but that isn't really what Tolabow is doing. And yes, they have prowess, and prowess is famously a strong mechanic. But that's a detriment in a different way, and anyone who's ever played Cathars' Crusade knows exactly what I am talking about. Progressively creating tokens throughout the turn that will all have a different buff to their power and toughness because they each see an unequal amount of cast triggers is an accounting nightmare worse than US tax season.

To sum up, Tolabow is a poorly-worded and ill-conceived introduction to the Rulebreaker ability that doesn't even justify itself by providing something new, unique, or strong as a commander. And now that I've written nearly 1,000 words about one commander in this batch, let's move on to the rest.

Seluma, Light of Aysen

For our next Rulebreaker commander, we have a new Angel Kindred commander in Seluma, Light of Aysen. It should be noted that, while primarily present and strongest in mono-white, the Angel creature type is present in other colors, though that's a bit generous to say given there are only 16 Angels that do not include white at all, and 44 Angels with an identity of white and one other color. To take this game of accounting a step further, there are 14 Boros Angels, 13 Orzhov Angels, 12 Azorius Angels, and just seven Selesnya Angels, and four of them are Sigarda.

Seluma herself has a standard-fare ability, reanimating one Angel creature whenever she deals combat damage. If you've decided to include red in your Seluma deck, you can add Aurelia, the Warleader to squeeze some extra reanimation triggers in. Basandra, Battle Seraph prevents your opponents from using spells while you're trying to get Seluma's combat damage trigger off, and with black, Firja, Judge of Valor will get some Angels into the graveyard for Seluma to reanimate. Beyond that, Errant and Giada or Sigarda, Font of Blessings will allow you to cast Angels off the top of your library, and Metropolis Angel takes advantage of the counters that some Angels generate. That's pretty much it as far as expanded-color synergies go. Otherwise, Seluma decks will likely do what Angel decks usually do and lean on a pile of the best Angels the builder can find (or afford).

If you find it exciting to be able to play a commander that cares specifically about Angels, with the option to add in some non-white Angels, then Seluma is perfect for you. None of the Boros Angels are specifically concerned with playing other Angels, and Sigarda, Font of Blessings tends to lean towards Angels-and-Humans hybrid Kindred as opposed to only Angels. Seluma is a new option for each of the color pairings with white as far as Angel Kindred is concerned.

Was printing Seluma worth breaking the rules? I'll call it a tentative yes. While I personally believe that any commander can helm a Kindred deck if you build for it, plenty of players out there want to play a Kindred commander that specifically cares for the creature type they enjoy, and I'm happy that the Angel players in that column have a new option.

The Unluckiest Planeswalker

Every Curse connoisseur should recognize that handsome face immediately. The Unluckiest Planeswalker, of Curse and Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor fame, is the first Rulebreaker commander that I find really exciting. Most other colors have received some amount of support for Aura spells or for enchantments in general, while red has been lacking in the enchantment synergy department for a long time. The Unluckiest affords enchantment lovers a red-inclusive commander that actually cares about Auras, and a unique synergy with Curses. By attaching Curse Auras to yourself first, you can use Unluckiest's -3 ability to draw a ton of cards, then disseminate the negative enchantments to your opponents. Just make sure you don't have any Auras attached to yourself you actually want to keep, because all Auras must go.

Obviously, you don't need to play Curses with The Unluckiest, as both abilities care about Auras, not Curses in particular. If you love fun and flavor, though, the obvious thing to do is to load yourself up with Curses, then pitch your hand and use the minus ability to refill it and saddle your opponents with negative effects, passing your misfortune off to your opponents. While almost every enchant player Aura is a curse, there are a couple of notable exceptions that may be of use.

Wheel of Sun and Moon is a hilarious way to hose graveyard decks by forcing them to put cards that would go into their graveyard on the bottom of their deck instead. They might have a graveyard prior to you slapping them with this Curse, so be sure to run conventional graveyard hate like Tormod's Crypt or Soul-Guide Lantern as well.

Paradox Haze is not normally a card that you would want to use on an opponent, so be careful if you decide to include this spell in your strategy. There are plenty of ways to make an opponent's upkeep painful. Mana Chains causes the enchanted creature to gain cumulative upkeep, so its controller will have to pay three mana on the first turn after receiving Paradox Haze. Slow Motion imposes a four-mana-a-turn tax on an opponents' creature, and when the creature finally dies, the Aura goes back to your hand. While doubled up, Apathy forces an opponent to discard two cards a turn to keep an important creature that won't even untap if it attacks or uses a tap ability.

Plenty of unique interactions and underused cards are given life by new commanders all the time, and commanders that have a unique opportunity to do so in an unexpected way outside of the bounds of the normal rules have a higher standard of quality in my expectation. The Unluckiest Planeswalker more than meets that expectation.

Maular, the Next Evolution

We get to see a bit of a containment breach with Maular, the Next Evolution. It's been a meme in recent years among some players that Standard is fast enough that Wizards could print a five mana 8/8 with trample and it still wouldn't be playable. Turns out they were right. In Commander, however, hitting seven mana is expected on a regular basis, and aggressively-costed creatures can get pretty strong.

The first caveat to this is that creatures at or above seven mana are not often played "fairly." Avacyn, Angel of Hope is a classic target for a one-mana Reanimate, while creatures like Ghalta, Primal Hunger simply discount themselves to an affordable mana cost. The second caveat is that plenty of creatures in this range are often valued not for combat ability, but for utility. Hullbreaker Horror is the most-played creature at mana value seven or greater, and its 7/8 statline with no trample or evasion means it isn't great for attacking, but you can be sure that its cast trigger will clean boards out all the same.

I am a bit torn on Maular. I feel the ground quaking and I hear its bellow, but I don't know if it's too late, despite seeing its teeth. Even in green, a seven mana commander is on the slower side of things, and the first time it gets removed will be terribly painful to suffer through.

But who could possibly resist the excuse to slap in as many big, dumb, meaty monsters as possible and make them get even bigger? I'm a sucker for big Timmy Dinosaurs and Dragons and giant spaghetti monsters. The idea of swinging at someone for 24 damage on a single creature with Kozilek, Butcher of Truth makes some primordial caveman part of my brain bang rocks together in excitement.

Grizzlegom, Hurloon Hero

If The Unluckiest Planeswalker was a proof-of-concept that Aura-focused decks needed a good red commander, then Grizzlegom, Hurloon Hero is a demonstration of why Lands Matter players need to be stopped. Was anyone clamoring for a new commander in this space? I appreciate that this commander at least cares about the actual basic types of lands as opposed to another creature with a Landfall trigger. But the notion that this commander can use any kind of land but cares only about basic types makes me believe now more than ever that it's only a matter of time until we get the Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth equivalents in white, blue, and red.

A fun fact about this commander is that it enables you to include Nightmare Lash in a non-black deck without needing an Urborg. It's also possibly the only commander that could ever care about the Domain ability word.

Whtz, the Bibliophile

And now, the reason everybody came here. The be-cloaked and monocled Minion cosplayer Whtz, the Bibliophile is causing quite a commotion because it enables Battle of Wits, a card with quite the reputation in Magic's history. For those with their sights set higher, though, I have what you need. There are currently 12,142 nonland cards that are Commander-legal in the Azorius color identity. If you want to include all of the lands available to you, you have a whopping 12,675 cards available for use. The first person to either perform a Thassa's Oracle win in a cEDH tournament using a deck of over 12,000 cards, or who can get Frank Karsten to whip up a calculation for how many lands this deck needs to function optimally, will receive a very generous prize from me personally. Email me at content.edhlab@gmail.com with your proof.

There is one other keystone piece to the puzzle here. Yorion, Sky Nomad has long awaited an opportunity to exercise its companion condition in Commander. Is it good? Hell if I know. It's funny, and that's what counts. Speaking of funny, Animate Library is the one of the only other cards outside of Battle of Wits that cares about how many cards are in your library, and beating your opponents to death with over 12,000 power sounds entertaining. Bonus points if you play The Mindskinner and mill out your opponents by sheer force of library girth. Or you can just set your life total to 12,000 with Invincible Hymn. After that, the library is your oyster.

The Everforger

I was really hoping to make an Xzibit joke out of this, but it seems Wizards forgot to make The Everforger an Equipment itself. No matter, it's at least an artifact creature. This one is pretty straightforward: cast Equipment or artifact creatures, get more. There isn't much to add here; I suspect that a lot of the artifact creature-lovers were already playing Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch, and there are enough Equipment-themed commanders available to choke a horse. Just make sure you include Ultron, Artificial Malevolence so you can clone your Equipments while you clone your Equipments, dawg.

Valko Indorian

Rounding out the batch is another commander that feels obligatory. Valko Indorian gives the Phyrexian creature type a Kindred commander that cares about the Phyrexian type line itself. I guess Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos, Elesh Norn, Glissa, Herald of Predation, and Jin-Gitaxias are all chopped liver. I recognize that none of these cover the full range of colors, and they're not particularly specialized for Phyrexian strategies, but then neither is Valko Indorian. Should Zombies get a Gruul commander, since there are 18 Zombies in that color identity and at least six of them are playable?

I'm tough on this card because, like Seluma, it's just a checked box on the long list of creature types that don't have a full range of color coverage for commander choice. Why should the rules have to bend or break for one card when Wizards could just design an actual Phyrexian commander? I guess they'd have to find a non-Standard set to print it into, and seeing as Universes Beyond has largely subsumed the idea of non-Standard-legal sets, well, here we are.

Breaking Down is Easy

My final thoughts on the Rulebreaker mechanic can be summed up in the words of the wise Steve Buscemi:

Don't forget to check out the analysis pieces on the mono-colored commanders, and multicolor and colorless legendary creatures, published alongside this one. I appreciate you stopping by, and I hope these Rulebreaker commanders are something that you enjoy, regardless of how I personally feel about them. Ciao!

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