Ranking Every Ikoria Lair of Behemoths Commander

[@PopcornBunni]

"Vigilance is one of the least useful abilities in Commander" Having three opponents able to crack back at you when you attack says otherwise. Being able to attack in and have your whole board as blockers is insanely valuable. It's up there with lifelink for abilities I look for most on any attacking deck for multiplayer formats.

[@baconsir1159]

It’s exclusively useful in combat-heavy tables, which are pretty low power generally. In power level 8+ vigilance is basically flavor text, unless the creatures it’s on both needs to attack for some ability and has a tap ability.

[@bobbyfasciano4137]

5:37 You have clearly not noticed that General Kudro has a mustache, which should move his artwork, Coolness, uniqueness, and fun to at least 10s! We finally have a mustache tribal commander!

[@NitpickingNerds]

That’s what we have been waiting for

[@heavenbot]

I swear you guys are hilarious, love the video and the takes on each card.

[@pauldyson8098]

I'm glad that you guys aren't sleeping on Winota. Holy Hell is she fast and fun. I think she's way cooler then a 4 because she DOES have (some) lore: she lost her right arm trying to bond with an animal and Vivien hung out with her this one time.

[@319sfinest8]

22:00 "... BUT SHE SELLS BOOSTER PACKS!" into "what does she drew" 😂😂😂 YOU GUYS HAVE TO MUCH FUN!!! Amazing, and a great list.

[@NitpickingNerds]

Thanks for putting up with a whole minute of what amounts to guttural noises and an Arnold impersonation 😂

[@319sfinest8]

@@NitpickingNerds oh it's great, love the freedom you guys still have to go off script and clown around for awhile! YOU GUY'S WILL MAKE IT BIG! YOUR ON THE RADAR!!!

[@notjoey7371]

15:20 Zirda goes infinite with basalt monolith as well.

[@meatrace]

So does your mom.

[@NitpickingNerds]

Bah Gawd

[@Naturessightsandsounds7040]

You guys predicted stranger things cards oh damn.

[@bigxjeff]

Oh man I love the Godzilla cards! I used to watch all the old movies at my grandmas house when I was a little kid. I'm not a collector of anything either but I feel like I need an entire set of these alt arts lol.

[@NitpickingNerds]

Aw, what a nice memory! I seriously need that Gyruda.....

[@ericzettl1563]

Winota was the first commander deck i built. Can't play her that much tho cause sh is really strong in my meta. Quite common to kill the whole table on turn 3-5. Auratouched Mage + Breath of Fury is just game ending

[@sephyrias883]

16:45 6 color card back! 20:24 Imagine having Gratuitous Violence + Torbran + this on the field and then you resolve a Chandra's Ignition. 23:16 Probably my favorite of the new Ikoria legends. I like human tribal and I like duality themed commanders. I'm a bit disappointed that it works with Soldier tokens though, means that the deckbuilding restriction is negligible. 33:15 Restoration Angel? Restoration Angel. 37:36 Thassa, Deep-Dwelling. Also, I hate to say it, Deadeye Navigator. 44:06 There were multiple commanders with similar abilities. Atla Palani and some mono blue legend. 49:20 Yeah, this one is really good. Lots of strong selfmill commanders lately.

[@sweetjamin01]

Thank you for all the content. Keep up the great work

[@NitpickingNerds]

You bet! Love the positivity

[@crovax1375]

Tayam is my favorite commander from this set. I think that he can be a decent Abzan lands matters commander. Also with Obosh you can combo him with Heartless Hidetsugu. Just be sure that your life total is odd when you activate him!

[@the_names_rob]

The strat of building around a companion but not putting it in the command zone has more downsides than not but one upside is you could havr access to more colors

[@kurtisyoung6739]

I don't mind them pushing the power on commanders, but i also don't want them to begin making existing commanders obsolete. The power on commanders like Kinnan is crazy, and seems maybe a little too easy to go infinite with. I don't mind infinite combos, i run quite a few, but when you have a 2-card infinite combo and one of those cards is in your command zone, it can feel like you're playing on easy mode. If they keep pushing the power levels, it will begin to push everything else out.

[@NitpickingNerds]

Yeah our go-to example is Arcades pushing out Doran :(

[@nobodyfromnowwhere7510]

Jegantha is really cool in both Niv-mizzet Reborn , and Jotah, Archmage Eternal decks. He's really easy to cast, and then your niv or jotah / jotah spells are really easy to cast. (Obviously that makes him meh as a commander, though.)

[@forrestcarlson4391]

Dang so with Obosh first thing that came to mind was sending a lightning bolt for 6 damage to someone’s face 😂

[@forrestcarlson4391]

@Samuel Williams I mean its commander you can make lightning bolt work and keep recasting it. Is it practical maybe not, is it fun I think so lol but like you said me do me xD

[@chad7064]

My favorite nerds 💜 Happy Ikoria day

[@kingginger3335]

Imagine having a Rielle, and Hullbreacher out and then casting Wheel of Fortune. You'll get 21 treasure tokens and then draw 14 cards lol if you can't win at that point then you're a horrible magic player lmao I'm jp but for real

[@zion9802]

I am so making an Apex of death commander the second I saw the card then I saw the alter and boom confirmed going to happen it’s so good

[@NitpickingNerds]

It is a HUGE swing, it just gets you back everything!

[@Cyberium]

Intet lets you play big instant/sorcery for cheap, such as Time Stretch, and you are not required to play mutate with Intet. Requiring to attack is one of its drawbacks, but a reasonable one, consider Intet is more versatile than Illuna in what it gets to "cast'. Illuna doesn't let you cast Eldrazi, which means you won't trigger those on-cast effect unlike Intet could.

[@astuteanansi4935]

Yeah, but he also needs to untap, attack, not get chump blocked, and then you can still hit a land and brick. You can build around that with scry, surveil, brainstorm and whatnot, but that means watering down your deck. Meanwhile Illuna triggers immediately and always hits something relevant. Though she kinda needs to be more powerful since she forces you into a single mechanic

[@Sunny_Punkin]

I was waiting for Mothra! Then I remembered that Mothra is not legendary. Sad days.

[@NitpickingNerds]

Sunny Jack O' Lantern if it was it would be my commander

[@zion9802]

I want to see a commander tune up for rielle. Will be submitting mine in the discord! Thanks for another awesome video guys!

[@NitpickingNerds]

OooooOooo can't wait to check it out

[@JolNarBinks]

Another cool thing- Nekusar is odd CMC, so he gets doubled by Obosh

[@Frothmeister]

Kinnan Druid Tribal with Helix Pinnacle as the win condition is the jank i love, probably keep basalt monolith out of it... but still

[@NitpickingNerds]

I love Helix Pinnacle so much. -Beezy

[@gibbysg8143]

Jegantha low key super solid in horde of notions elementals

[@NitpickingNerds]

That's a nice way to use it's activated ability!

[@attackkataka6599]

Do you have a link to the list of all the commanders that you guys have ranked, I’d love to see. Just subbed great channel

[@NitpickingNerds]

Thanks for the sub! We should have it in the descriptions of this video and the C20 ranking video. Careful because once you click on it, the list starts at the top so the first 20 or so will be spoiled if you care about that sort of thing lol

[@thrashermaster4656]

Hey nitpicking nerds what is your list of strongest to weakest of the commander 2020 decks because I regret the one I purchased last year it was underwhelming and not that fun to play so I’m trying not to make the same mistake

[@NitpickingNerds]

Hey, sorry for taking so long to respond! So out of the box, our tentative ranking for the precons would be: 1. Symbiotic Swarm (Abzan) 2. Ruthless Regiment (Mardu) 3. Enhanced Evolution (Sultai) 4. Arcane Maelstrom (Temur) 5. Timeless Wisdom (Jeskai) And after our $50 upgrades, the new ranks are: 1. Enhanced Evolution (Sultai) 2. Symbiotic Swarm (Abzan) 3. Timeless Wisdom (Jeskai) 4. Ruthless Regiment (Mardu) 5. Arcane Maelstrom (Temur)

[@thrashermaster4656]

Ok thanks I think I made the right choice I’m getting symbiotic swarm

[@workyoutube7798]

rielle + library of leng = win* (*not actually game-winning, but awesome with the rest of the deck)

[@NitpickingNerds]

Yeah it's so sweet, she's a really good magic card

[@Kalamari24]

Sorry to burst your guys bubble, but Lurrus can't pay more than 2 for X spells. You're allowed to run stuff like Hangerback, but it can't be more than 2.

[@emeraldsky1289]

So with obosh would lightning bolt do 6 damage for one mana? That seems really good

[@NitpickingNerds]

Obosh is much better as your commander since you can keep things like 2 mana ramp which is super important for rakdos decks

[@emeraldsky1289]

@@NitpickingNerds I agree. Works much better as a commander.

[@stfinalwrath]

Listening to this much later after work and just had to say as much as I love the kaiju art, being a fan of godzilla for the last roughly 23 years, the snapdax showcase art is miles better than the crappy king Caeser art.

[@iAMtunaFISH]

Why is it that every video I watch undervalues illuna because they don't realize it's a food chain deck?!

[@jean-baptistedelabroise5391]

the fox is also infinite with basalt monolith

[@NitpickingNerds]

Even MORE comboooo

[@thrashermaster4656]

Hey nitpicking nerds could you rank the precons

[@NitpickingNerds]

Probably won't be doing a video of that, but I can get a hold of Joe and we can do a tentative ranking for you here!

[@thrashermaster4656]

Really, cool

[@bigxjeff]

@@NitpickingNerds this would be a cool idea. Maybe a quick order ranking of each precon before and after your $50 upgrades

[@thrashermaster4656]

I think the weakest of the five is ruthless regiment the commander just seems underpowered

[@thrashermaster4656]

I am wondering about Kathrils ability if two creatures have flying can I put 2 flying counters on creatures

[@DemandsASongofFarts]

heckin yeah abzan highlights

[@NitpickingNerds]

Abzan killed it this set!

[@crawdaddy1234]

I like that Rodan is ranked 43 and has 43 points.

[@NitpickingNerds]

That's a very satisfying coincidence. It's probably the only card on the list like that

[@stevenperez4882]

How is Cheviel above Kinnan tho? You can cheat stuff out with Kinnan and Cheviel is actually bad

[@slifer867]

zirda goes infinite with basalt or grim monolith, some people are already brewing cEDH decks with it

[@moonlitwolf08]

yea i like watching their content for fun but they seriously under evaluate certain cards that make no sense power level wise but they only casual players from what it seems.

[@ultra2019]

Where would Lutri be on your list?

[@NitpickingNerds]

Not sure, she's not broken, so probably between #100-200

[@ultra2019]

@@NitpickingNerds I think the art puts her there

[@jeannebouwman1970]

Companion: am I a joke to you?

[@crawdaddy1234]

Zirda Hate Bears? Suppression Field?

[@notjoey7371]

I feel like Zirda's power is lower than it should be...

[@NitpickingNerds]

It seems pretty strong but not broken or anything

[@imprisonedmike]

Arby's might have the meats. But mtg has the metas!

[@NitpickingNerds]

Woah... just blew our minds

[@ogtent2429]

I'm am somewhat close to first

[@NitpickingNerds]

We appreciate you anyway!

[@Asmith218]

I disagreed with some of your choices but whatever. I can't believe you docked vivian in coolness when it was established in canon(trailer) she's friends with godzilla. Thats some cool points right there.

[@NitpickingNerds]

Well we haven't ranked her or anything, just roasting her a bit lol

[@Pullituz]

Nooo, there is no way to escape these Godzilla cards.... Why you review these arts over original?

[@NitpickingNerds]

For this series we just have to take all arts into consideration, and we think the promos just are better artwork-wise in general

[@Pullituz]

Okey I'll give you that, these Godzilla arts are really nice but I just don't see them in Mtg. But I forgive you, you chose my favorite legandaries as your top 2 ! I can't wait to have my Nethroi. And also Abzan precon to have Kathril in my Lovecraftian Nethroi theme deck! I don't say it will be the most ultimate Nethroi deck but definetely creepy fun and has suprises in his paws ! 😈 Vadrok has the best art in the set and I meen the original one xP I just love it! But for me it is hard to build a deck around it, maybe some hazards of the nature theme like earthquakes, sharknados... 🤔😁 Yes, I like to have some theme in my decks 😁

[@kurtisyoung6739]

Gojira!!!!!

[@dino-wer-kuh3498]

not first

[@NitpickingNerds]

Congratulations!!!

[@tsp1999]

Wait Joe's gay?

[@NitpickingNerds]

Yep!

[@Darwingreen5]

you guys tend to cross from nit-picking to just mean now and then...

[@NitpickingNerds]

Darwingreen5 what is an example of this we try to avoid mean.

[@thrashermaster4656]

First

[@NitpickingNerds]

Possibly?

[@notjoey7371]

Second reply

[@thrashermaster4656]

No I’m not it was Ana

[@thrashermaster4656]

By twenty seconds

[@notjoey7371]

@@thrashermaster4656 lmao

[@umm_itsana]

I’m first

[@NitpickingNerds]

Possibly?

[@porthole894]

6th Downvote here, Bois you can’t be RANKING A COMMANDERS IF YOU HAVEN’T PLAYED WITH OR AGAINST. Come on. This should be called “[PRELAUNCH] Commander Rankings”.