Whimsy and Nostalgia: Mystery Booster Commander Mono-Color Review

Just a few weeks ago at MagicCon Amsterdam, Tolabow, Loch Rascal was revealed to the world, and for entirely too long the Magic community at large debated color identity, rules text, and seemingly the nature of reality itself as the syntax on that dastardly otter vexed the world. Today, all of the new commanders in Mystery Booster Commander were revealed in the official Card Gallery, so we're covering and reviewing every single new commander in this set. This post will cover all of the mono-colored commanders, so check out the multicolor and colorless companion piece, and we have a special post just for the Rulebreaker commanders.

Who has time for The Hobbit? Certainly not me, I haven't even finished my main set review. But the Magic release schedule waits for no one, so buckle up for Mystery Booster Commander. As if Un-sets being commandeered by the format wasn’t enough, this set has produced an entire cohort of wacky and weird creatures and planeswalkers eligible for Commander status. Let’s take a look at some of these bizarre beasties in each mono color.

White

Ekthi, Contaminator Priest

White is no stranger to Equipment decks, whether standing on its own with Cloud, Midgar Mercenary and Balan, Wandering Knight, or as a part of Boros in any number of Equipment-themed commanders. Ekthi, Contaminator Priest presents an interesting new direction; living weapon is a mechanic that allows you to cheat on Equip costs by stapling creatures directly to them. Sword of Feast and Famine becomes a three-mana 2/2 creature with protection from black and green that untaps all of your lands when it deals combat damage. Colossus Hammer is a one-mana 10/10. Shadowspear is ... considerably worse, actually, as a one-mana 1/1 with trample and lifelink. I wouldn't just throw every good Equipment into this deck — I would instead focus on combat damage triggers and big statlines on Equipments with Equip costs that are ordinarily too expensive.

Grakk the Pacifist

Grakk the Pacifist is less unique than our previous Phyrexian priest, though not for lack of trying to show off his sweet abs. Grakk encourages you to play an Enchantress deck that only targets your opponents' permanents. White doesn't have a lot of goad effects by itself, so you either have to shore up your pillow fort with Ghostly Prison and Windborn Muse, or be extremely good at politics. Either way, you have your choice of the litter for oddball Aura choices. Pariah, Saving Grace, and With Great Power ... are tertiary options for turning damage away from yourself, and then you get the good stuff — Songbirds' Blessing to pull out more auras, Spirit Link to gain life from your opponents' beefy beast's beats, or, my personal favorite, Super State to make creatures hit their owners too. Just make sure to blast Crush 40 while you do so.

Nivea, Beloved Battlemage

This creature is pretty cool. Nivea, Beloved Battlemage was a mage and the lover of Ixidor, Reality Sculptor, the illusionist who created the angel Akroma in the image of his dead wife out of grief at her passing. Ixidor is a really cool character, and I wish I had more of a reason to write about him. Her activated ability is a cool way to pay tribute to that storyline. As for her static ability, it doesn't quite capture her talent at summoning white creatures to aid her in battle, but it does give you plenty of combat flexibility. You can safely use attack triggers like Sword of the Animist, Blade of Selves, or Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd without having to worry if the attacking creature will get killed by a bigger blocker.

Worzel, the Protector

I've been hoping for more planeswalkers that were designated as commander options, though I wasn't exactly expecting Worzel, the Protector. Planeswalkers in Commander are tough to justify. Worzel — the first named planeswalker in Magic's story, featured in the Alpha rulebook over 30 years ago — is a commander walker that increases loyalty via tokens he creates with his 0 ability only. As for his minus ability, you get the flexibility to draw into lands or more planeswalkers, and you can still go up in loyalty by using his tokens. His ultimate ability is underwhelming, which is fair for a commander that accelerates its own loyalty counters so quickly; it only creates 10 1/1 flying Scryb Sprites. This ability does warrant a brief reminder, though: the green mana symbol in the parentheses on that last loyalty ability is not a part of this commander's color identity, so make sure not to include any green cards. In any case, white is one of the best support colors for planeswalkers in particular — Ignite the Beacon, Call the Gatewatch, and Djeru, With Eyes Open are all tutors you can use in this deck with ease, and Djeru presents additional protection with his static damage reduction. There is also a glut of options for broader legendary permanent support in white, so you should have no problem building mono-white Superfriends, with up to eight Elspeths and, post-Reality Fracture, nine Ajanis.

Yume, Chronicler of Valor

As someone whose first introduction to Magic was Battlebond in 2018, Yume, Chronicler of Valor is such a cool callback. The assist mechanic, while underwhelming, is a fun teamwork ability that promotes good political play, and was great for the Two-Headed Giant format Battlebond was loved for. Plus, in 2018 at least, who didn't love a good Overwatch meme reference every time someone cast Play of the Game? If you're a student of the Secret Rendezvous School of Collaborative Card Advantage, then this is the commander for you. Perform Jedi mind tricks on your friends by offering them sweet, sweet cards in exchange for their delicious mana, and then you get to tax them with Smothering Tithe or the almost-newly-minted Gleaming Splendor. Disgusting.

Blue

Dyfed, the Guiding Hand

Continuing the train of references to classic Magic lore, Dyfed, the Guiding Hand is the Thran planeswalker who heard of the exploits of Yawgmoth — the original god of Phyrexia and plague doctor daddy — after he proved the existence of the Multiverse and showed him a place where he could build a paradise for the Thran. As far as blue artifact commanders go, though, Dyfed's first ability to create two tapped Powerstone tokens is a bummer for such an expensive commander. Her second ability justifies her large mana value, though, providing the potential to untap up to four artifacts the turn she enters. This could enable a huge turn, or may just turn the key needed to combo off with Isochron Scepter, Lithoform Engine, Twinning Staff, or any number of other combo lines in mono-blue. This walker has another underwhelming ultimate, though, as there are several spells that can tutor out an artifact for less mana or less time.

Flitwing, Lyev Detective

There isn't much to say about Flitwing, Lyev Detective, besides the fact that it's a callback to a painful period of Ravnican history from just two years ago. Repeated or mass token generation strategies in blue are plentiful — Chasm Skulker, Hangarback Walker, and Big Mother Mouser are some synergistic ways for you to spit out a ton of Clues to draw cards. I'm not sure Flitwing is best in the command zone, but in the 99 of commanders like Lonis, Cryptozoologist, Lonis, Genetics Expert, or Lazav, Wearer of Faces will love to have access to more of those Clues.

Grandmother Goby

Speaking of mass tokens, Grandmother Goby is a bizarre way to get a lot of Merfolk on your board. Countering any noncreature spell you cast and replacing it with 1/1 tokens for each mana you spent is a convoluted and backwards gameplan, which makes this commander uniquely restraining for deckbuilding. Seeing as this set contains several commanders that do the opposite, this is a breath of fresh air. The key to this fishy granny is to find ways to make your spells un-counter-able. Lier, Disciple of the Drowned and Chimil, the Inner Sun are two good cards to achieve that.

Gustha Ebbasdotter

If you're a fan of drawing cards and love playing Brainstorm in Vintage and Legacy, I have very good news for you. Gustha Ebbasdotter lets you consume even more time on your opponents' turns in draw-go decks by Brainstorming you every time you counter a spell. Use this in conjunction with Future Sight, Vnwxt, Verbose Host, and Sensei's Divining Top to keep your counterspelling thumb firmly on top of your opponents.

Sash and Waistcoat, Unmen

I have to confess that I've never read Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis, and this card is only convincing me that I'm on the right path. These two befuddling bugs are another oddball way to play a political game. Your opponents are allowed to manifest creatures from the top of their libraries, potentially turning dead draws into creatures, and Sash and Waistcoat, Unmen makes those face-down cards into evasive threats. You can sneak in combat damage triggers or skip out on detrimental enters triggers — Dreamtide Whale, Leveler, and Relic Golem are great examples of big creatures with drawbacks that can be mitigated with a little face-down trickery. If you like morph, manifest, and disguise, this is another possible avenue for you beyond Ixidor, Reality Sculptor. Hey, that's two Ixidor mentions in one post!

Black

Boss Uramon, Shadow's Reach

Boss Uramon, Shadow's Reach is a creature that blends together Ninjas and Rogues in a neat package. Given how many evasive creatures are Rogues, Boss Uramon is a great support card for Ninja decks that use Rogues as their dedicated method of entry to your opponents' life totals. For those who like Splinter, Radical Rat and Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow as a commander, Boss Uramon is a great support piece, and for the four people playing Satoru Umezawa as an actual Ninja commander and not just a Blightsteel Colossus delivery system, I wish you good luck.

Istvan, Butcher of Eln

Twenty years after Wizards committed their greatest crime of stripping everyone's favorite uncle of his unique creature type, Istvan, Butcher of Eln is back and creepier than ever, prowling the underbrush of Dominaria with a wicked axe and a sweet damage prevention clause. This ability reminds me of Anti-Venom, Horrifying Healer, and while he won't grow himself with counters nearly as quickly as the Symbiote Hero, Istvan still benefits with counters every time an opponent's creature dies, so load up on deathtouch — or just replace his axe with a Colossus Hammer — and watch him swing and smash his way through the game.

Kuroki, Thief of Talents

This guy sure loves those masks ... oh God, what is wrong with his elbows? Yuck. Ignoring the gross art, Kuroki, Thief of Talents is a whimsical and funny commander that definitely has great skin and a regular amount of limbs. He offers your opponents a choice: draw four cards at the measly cost of allowing you to cast one spell from their hand. Surely, that won't go poorly for them. Surely, your opponents will take this deal instead of putting two +1/+1 counters on a creature that dies to removal. Surely.

Miss Highwater

It's a good thing I was worried that they'd take Mystery Booster Commander as an opportunity to print overly-powerful commanders with long rules text and complicated effects just because they had the option to. Instead, they've opted to print some very fair commanders with long rules text and complicated effects just because they had the option to. Miss Highwater skirts the rules of Magic by affording you the opportunity to yoink someone's creatures and artifacts after they lose the game, as long as you're willing to give them a free seven-card grip first. With Orcish Bowmasters, Underworld Dreams, and Benedict Cumberbatch Sheoldred, the Apocalypse at your disposal, you may be able to fulfill the terms of your contract earlier than your opponents wish.

Olinda the Oblivious

The Bloomburrow set missed out on the opportunity to make interesting animals into anthropomorphized Magic creatures, so Mystery Booster Commander did it instead. Olinda the Oblivious taxes your opponents' creatures by making them smell so horrendous that they cause your opponents to lose life over the stench. And removing Olinda isn't enough, as most people who have removed a skunk from a basement hallway with a broom, several trash bags, and a World War II gas mask will know, the creatures continue to smell long after she's gone. There aren't any ways to move counters from your opponents' creatures onto other creatures, unfortunately, so you'll have to get creative to smoke out your opponents. Take Genji Glove and Helm of the Host out for a spin and get to spreading that stank.

Sahir, Visitor in Darkness

Having participated in a multitude of arguments about the sheer imbalance and horrifically broken mechanic that is Eminence, I almost choked on my Coke from laughter when I read this card. Somebody on the R&D or design team at Wizards is so desperate to prove that Eminence can be made balanced that they made Sahir, Visitor in Darkness actively worse in the command zone than on the battlefield. The irony is that they went too far in the opposite direction, and I can't imagine why anyone would want to run this commander when Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin exists and doesn't require you to hit yourself. Still, this creature is a great exercise in design restraint, and it's hilarious.

Thomil, the Destroyer

In another cameo from the Alpha rulebook, Thomil, the Destroyer is another nostalgia-inducing planeswalker and commander. It can protect itself with a 2/2 blocker Zombie token, and doesn't rely solely on its token generation to produce loyalty, which is already a great start. A Dark Ritual ability at the cost of one fodder creature as a repeatable ramp source in the command zone is a powerful effect, and while Lord of the Pit may not be the most imposing creature after 33 years, it's still one of the coolest. With Thomil at the helm of your deck, choose your flavors of Aristocrats engine creatures and sacrifice to your heart's content.

Red

Balefang the Unslayable

When Demons and Dragons are being slain by a Baneslayer Angel, what is a Demon Dragon to do? Apparently, the plan is to say "screw you" to one specific card out of the tens of thousands of cards in the pool. Balefang the Unslayable really wants you to hate Angels; it has protection from them and shuts off lifegain, and hands out a goaded Baneslayer Angel token just as a little bit of extra salt in the wound. With Curse of Opulence to give you a little extra mana and clone abilities to repeat Balefang's enters trigger like Blade of Selves or Jaxis, the Troublemaker, you can give out extra Baneslayers with which your opponents beat each other to death, and you have a free block against the last Angel standing. Excellent design for a hilariously vindictive commander.

Chira, All In

They say that the house always wins in the end, and while you may not be Mr. House, President and CEO, you can get a little extra insurance against chaos with Chira, All In. If you enjoy random effects in Commander and you're too cowardly to lose all your friends to a rousing round of Warp World, this commander will provide a little consistency so that discarding your Underworld Breach immediately after casting Gamble to tutor with it hurts exactly one tapped Treasure token less.

Dragon's Smile

Now that legendary Vehicles are eligible for commander status, I expect to see them cropping up more often. Dragon's Smile is an interesting take on exile-cast-matters decks. I play Tlincalli Hunter and Charred Foyer//Warped Space in my Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald deck, so I know how powerful it can be to cast spells for free from exile, even only once a turn. This majestic airship takes it a step further by allowing you to freecast your opponents' spells instead of your own, provided you hit them with the ship first. Run Nalfeshnee and Wild-Magic Sorcerer for maximum value, and you'll be riding your opponents' strategies into the sunset.

Jabs, Mistress of Mockery

Threaten-style effects have been a mainstay of red's slice of the color pie for over 20 years, and while there have been several options for commanders that like to steal your opponents' things, none are quite as simple, elegant, and outrageously creepy as Jabs, Mistress of Mockery. She even synergizes with the aforementioned Dragon's Smile by taking advantage of spells you cast from your opponents' decks, doubling up on triggers and playing your opponents' games better than they do. Make sure to include plenty of ways to steal their toys, like Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, Plargg and Nassari, Insurrection, and my personal choice of spice, You Find Some Prisoners.

Joven and Chandler

The thieving just won't stop! Joven and Chandler is a joyous cameo from the greatest thieves in the Multiverse (Dack Fayden eat your heart out) who were featured characters in the Homelands comics and A Planeswalker's Guide to Ulgrotha. The famous Ebony Rhino is even included. As far as power goes, there is certainly no shortage of sacrifice-able artifacts in red, and there are a variety of synergies that can pump this creature up with tokens while doing degenerate artifact things. What better way to pay off an Underworld Breach line with Lion's Eye Diamond and Wheel of Fortune than to make these two best buddies ridiculously large so you can Chandra's Ignition the table to death?

Matoc, Lavamancer

In the spirit of the number two mattering, Matoc, Lavamancer prompts me to make a second reference to my Faldorn deck in this post: I had a Torment-original foil Grim Lavamancer in my Faldorn deck simply because it was related to exiling and because I liked the art, but I cut it eventually, and it was swept up in a bulk rare sale at some point or another. Imagine my surprise three minutes ago when I saw that price tag. Is my story relevant to this card? Yes, in fact, because Matoc, Lavamancer is a card that would actually synergize with a Faldorn brew — the wolves are all 2/2 creatures, after all, so each one ends up becoming an impulse draw that replaces itself with another 2/2.

Green

Autumn Willow, Harmony

As the twelve people still playing Standard will attest, Badgermole Cub is a good card. A land-creature-only Badgermole Cub effect as a five mana commander in green is probably still very good. Autumn Willow, Harmony does her best impression of the little guy — she puts a land-creature on your board, though it's a created token instead of an animated land, and doubles up on land-creature-mana as opposed to any-creature-mana. Dryad Arbor is the obvious first card to add to this deck, not to mention Staff of Titania and Awaken the Woods. Just be warned, if you're going to play this commander, you better be a fan of the "rules nightmare" tag on Scryfall, because land creatures tend to get very messy.

Blor the Impervious

Blor the Impervious is a good excuse for me to rest my brain for a minute. Instead of another oddball ability, this commander has just three solid keywords that make it great for Voltron strategies. Hexproof and indestructible means that only non-destruction-based boardwipe effects can unstick this Frog Warrior from your board, so load him up with as many buff spells as you can. While your opponents try desperately not to die to the freakishly-strong Frog, you can kick back and enjoy the progress Blor has made on his musculature and aura-farming pose skills since Overprotect was printed.

Glava, Five-Advents Mage

Since Unbound Flourishing's first printing all the way back in Modern Horizons, players have been fiending for more X-cost synergies. Glava, Five-Advents Mage is the latest commander to care specifically about X-cost spells, and this creature's ability is unique. Without paying any mana into the X-cost of a spell, Glava allows you to set that value to five at no extra charge once per turn. The obvious synergies are spells like Green Sun's Zenith to tutor out any five-mana creature in your deck or cheating on expensive Hydras when you're low on mana. The cool synergies are the spells and abilities that have more than one X somewhere in the cost. For example, Astral Cornucopia can be a completely free mana rock that taps for five mana, For the Common Good can create five copies of a token for one mana instead of for 11 mana, and Hydra Broodmaster can make five 5/5 Hydra tokens for just one green mana. One other unique benefit Glava provides: when you cast a spell with cascade or discover, and reveal an X-cost spell, you can set the value to five, preventing the X-cost spell from wasting the cascade/discover trigger.

Greensleeves

It's only fitting that Greensleeves, the planeswalker who doesn't even need a title for her cool name, is arguably the best walker we've reviewed so far. At six mana, she's costly, but green decks can ramp to six mana on turn four with a little bit of luck, so that's already a point in her favor. Her chump-blocking token is a bigger and better blocker than the others, and her minus ability is a potential draw-three effect that can synergize well with self-mill strategies. Lastly, her ultimate ability is a great win condition for any go-wide deck. Since she doesn't throw herself in any specific direction, you can play pretty much anything you'd like with Greensleeves at the helm. Badger Kindred has never looked so good.

Meatsqueak, Hoard Lord

Last, but certainly not least, is Meatsqueak, Hoard Lord, easily the best-named card in this entire batch. He wears that badge with pride by being a solid synergy piece for Squirrel Kindred. Squirrel decks are often Aristocrats-themed, and even when they aren't, creatures dying is a frequent occurrence in Commander, so creating a Food every time is bound to pay off. On top of that, the marvelous Meatsqueak encourages your Squirrels to hoard their nuts, buffing your Squirrels by +3/+3 for every seven Food tokens you control. For that alone, I think it's reasonable to say that Peregrin Took, Gyome, Master Chef, and The Cabbage Merchant may have just become honorary Squirrels.

Next Up: Multicolored and Colorless!

Thanks for joining us for this massive set review. I hope you find some of these new commanders interesting and fun! Join me in the next post covering multicolor and colorless commanders from Mystery Booster Commander.

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