Shadows Over Innistrad Set Review | The Command Zone 102

[@jacobdachauer4377]

just to clarify, declaration in stone does not let them investigate if it is a token.

[@jacobdachauer4377]

***** yeah, but it is an easily missed word, especially when going over hundreds of cards. I just wanted to clarify for other readers!

[@tcorninptown]

You guys were wrong about Jace's CMC, after the rules change for this set flipped cards have the same CMC as their front face. This is the official new ruling; ''A double-faced permanent with its back face up has a converted mana cost equal to the converted mana cost of its front face. Each back face has a color indicator that defines its color.''

[@swanseahammer1]

*Talking about declaration in stone* Josh: "It doesn't say nontoken on it" Famous last words xD

[@camus8x]

Professor sent me. I clicked. And subscribed. NO FLICK FOR YOU!

[@roronoa1243]

I do love the fact that Lone Wolf forces them to let you draw 4 cards if they want to transform him back. Or they could just kill it and let you draw 2.

[@andrewmoore7014]

+The Hug Box Or they could just play removal on their own turn.

[@JaqueraGray]

I'm personally excited to pick up a copy of Sin Prodder for my Feldon deck. Either my opponents let me put my artifacts and giant creatures into my hand or else they take a hit so that I have to put them into my graveyard, from which they can easily be reanimated. Either way, I'm happy! ^_^

[@WinkenSmile]

baneful omen is close to sorin's +1. it also says each opponent instead of target so it can be better.

[@23MP23]

Odric does not have Prowess on his card because Prowess stacks. Wizards thought it would be best to leave it off to help avoid confusion.

[@etria6604]

I am quite excited for the new Jace his emblem is basically Erayo I love it! lol

[@JSVvideos]

I think, for Nahiri, it's worth mentioning that you can +2 her without actually using the ability. It doesn't require you to neccesarily discard the good card you're holding in order to plus her.

[@hawkeye137137]

Other cool thing about Altered Ego is you can clone a creature which uses +1/+1 counters for something and have it enter with a bunch of them. Some good examples are Animar, Triskelion, Mycoloth, etc...

[@Kestral287]

I'm loving Haunted Cloak; it feels amazing for any creature aggro strategy that isn't just trying to go massively wide with tokens. Ezuri and Animar are my two favorites and I want one for each of those. Past that, Ezuri didn't really get much I don't think. Altered Ego is cute but kind of works against what Ezuri wants. Uninvited Geist is kind of okay just because Ezuri loves things with unblockable, but it needs to hit in before you can pump it and that's... eh. Arlinn feels solid but I'm not sure how good she'd be in Animar, which is the only deck I have in those colors. Altered Ego is definitely going in there though. I want to fit in Ulvenwald Hydra but space might get a bit tight. And of course the RG handland, though I really want them to do a full ten card cycle for that one. Seems like we've had way too many cycles lately that only went to the ally colors. Mizzix, I want to try Thing In the Ice but I'm really not sure how it'll work. The same is true for Confirm Suspicions; that seems like the only place where you can reasonably play that card and I actually have very few cards at CMC 5. Plus, if you have extra red lying around it's a counterspell that feels good to Reiterate, which is a play I don't get to make enough but that card seems wasted when you have a couple red sources left up when your turn rolls around again. Rise from the Tides definitely needs to go in though, that card is nuts.

[@kevinweaver2445]

One part of Triskaidekaphobia that most people forget is the artist's name has 13 characters, space included.

[@tone_015]

So the card I've been most looking forward to is Anguished Unmaking, bc INSTANT-SPEED VINDICATE wooo. Thanks for the set review guys! Your podcast really helps me and my friends get new insights into Magic. Thanks for making my gaming better! -Karlo

[@maxpower2480]

+The Command Zone OMG, I just remembered "Tree of Redemption" from the original Innistrad when you talked about "Triskaidekaphobia" and life exchange. Incredible Combo! The format has been broken! We need emergency bans now! "Reverse the Sands" has obviously been overpowered before, but now it's just ridiculous...

[@CodenameJD]

You misread Declaration in Stone. It can exile tokens but it doesn't give clues when it does that.

[@jays2376]

No love for Corrupted Grafstone? It's a 2 drop mana rock that can produce any color in your deck. Mizzix needs more color producing cheap mana rocks. I loved this the second it was spoiled.

[@KappakIaus]

+Jay Schnurr But it does not produce mana if you graveyard is empty. Makes it rather weak on turn 2...

[@jays2376]

iTzHypn0 I agree it's not perfect, but I think it's still a worthy add. Once you get Mizzix out, colorless mana is practically worthless...and as soon as you cast your first instant or sorcery, it's useful. If I have an opening hand of Island/Swamp/ Sol Ring/ Corrupted Graystone, I'm pumped because I can cast Mizzix turn 2, and turn 3 I have at least 5 mana to fling some spells - 6 if I have a 3rd land - and only 2 of that mana is colorless. Currently the only options for thst 2 drop mana rock to produce colored mana are the Diamonds, Signet, Fellwar Stone, Sphere of the Suns, Coldsteel Heart, and Star Compass...all of which also have downsides. They all either only produce one color, come into play tapped, are dependant on particular lands, have limited uses, etc. The only one I'd place over this new one is the Signet.

[@KappakIaus]

Jay Schnurr Fellwar is untapped all colors in multiplayer. I also thought Grafstone is super good in the beginning, but when you happen to only have that as ramp in your hand it really hurts. But it will definitely see EDH play.

[@700NitroXpress]

You have Hexproof is pretty relevant in commander when people are running Mindslaver.

[@jticonchuk]

The new Sorin is the most flashy for me. I really like the way b/r vampires look for standard and casual vampires has a few cool pieces

[@neojetangel]

I have been thinking about putting Brain in a Jar in Vorel just so I could scry my entire library. I did try that with Jar of Eyeballs, which was okay, just a bit hard to consistently get counters on to.

[@jordanpmklein8858]

one thing about arlinn that I didn't mention is that her front +1 protects her as well as the make a 2/2

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Jordan PM Klein Her +1 doesn't make a creature. That's her zero ability.

[@jordanpmklein8858]

+Josh Lee Kwai my point is that since her +1 on the front grants vigilance, a creature that otherwise would only attack might also be able to protect her

[@joshleekwai8895]

Jordan PM Klein Yes but you need a creature first. So there's a set-up cost. And then another card is protecting her so it's exactly not "protecting herself".

[@manuelaguilartirado8674]

Wizards can't leave innistrad without creating a transform vampire werewolf creature, it has to happen!. Thanks as always for the podcast guys.

[@SacredCharizard]

Surprised you guys failed to mention Traverse the Ulvenwald.

[@DrZilla]

Agreed.

[@mitchelltuckarino4235]

Do you think Westvale Abbey/Ormendahl, Profane Prince is any good in a shadow born apostle deck?

[@vinightshade6026]

OMG When Jimmy said Peace I was like WOAH DUDE, THAT'S NOT YOUR LINE! I lold and people looked at me funny >.

[@WHIT3N1NJA]

I'm 80% sure that ongoing investigation isn't as good as people think, it would only proc once in a single combat (assuming you only attack one person, and aren't playing multiplayer).

[@israeldavila27]

yes!!!!!!! i have been waiting for this podcast all week!

[@myleshanson5365]

The Gitrog Monster is the card I'm most hyped about for commander, tho the Ulvenwald Hydra and Tireless Tracker have got my brewing a sweet "land matter" deck. Maybe Gitrog Monster needs to lead the squad... Maybe Omnath does :P All in all, I started playing Magic in the original Innistrad and Shadows over Innistrad is the most flavorful set I've seen so far. Super excited to add the new cards to my commander decks :)

[@Dragoknight101]

I am so excited for all the new vampires. I have a tribal vampire deck with the old Olivia as the commander. I really want to spruce it up with some of the new vampires (from zendikar as well once the prices drop a little on Kalitas and Drana). I may consider even trying to change the theme a bit due to the Falkenrath Gorger to be more discard centric and just run more reanimation cards. I don't think I will change the commander to the new Olivia just due to she can't pump herself or take control of creatures, but the new one will definitely help for some more aggression. My favorite vampire has to be the flip one that is U/B, Elusive Tormentor. I just love the flavor of it so much though it may not be the best to include in the 99. I also have an Omnath deck that I can't wait to put second harvest, and the Drownyard temple into the deck to trigger landfall as you guys stated.

[@petsasquatch]

i really like seeing your guys faces, even if it is in a box in some corner...

[@OutOfOuts1]

So I feel like Westvale Abbey is also pretty decent in omnath because finding lands plus sacrifice outlets are great.

[@phetto1096]

i listen to your shows in bed, dreaming about edh brews. thanks for keeping the clips coming! Niklas from Sweden

[@joemeenie]

Hey guys, I was wondering if you would consider doing a podcast on succeeding with creature based decks in EDH. It seems unless you're voltroning your commander, you can't actually win the game. Or you need blue in your deck to run counters, to prevent combo or voltron

[@arloarntsen4518]

Proxied the new Nahiri in my superfriends deck (with playgroup permission). One of the best things in the deck to deal with people who play Keranos or Purphoros.

[@grymgungus3933]

Traverse the ulvenwald seems pretty good, without delirium it's just crappy color fixing, but once you have delirium it becomes an arguably better worldly tutor. Also a lot of people don't notice once it has delirium it no longer says basic land so you can go get you glacial chasm or maze of ith.

[@adbirk19]

+Potater Cat Yeah! Thank you so much I was debating putting this in my deck but now that it gets creatures and cabal coffers, urborg, nykthos, reliquary tower, bojuka bog, academy ruins, etc. just makes it the best. The deck is sidisi so delirium is on by turn 5 at the latest.

[@grymgungus3933]

+Pro Skyrim Mlg Yeah I feel like it should go in any green deck that can enable delirium consistantly

[@dimebag5884]

I hail from Tolarian, I expect to be impressed.

[@insaninater5154]

I'm so pumped for cryptolith rite! It's going in all my green EDH token decks!

[@crosswise98]

I really like Rite, not sure where I'll put it, but it's going to end up in one of my decks

[@Dragoncaller899]

Thing that I Love: Competitive discussion and discussion about card X over card Y Things that I don't Love: Honestly the way you describe mana costs. "So this card is 3 and Golgari, or 3 and green, black"....every time. "2 and Izzet, so red/blue"....just..ahhh....just say " A red, blue, and 2 colorless."

[@SacredCharizard]

Or they could use proper Magic terminology amd say "Two generic, a red, and a blue," since it isn't colorless mana.

[@techoutsider5631]

Yeah, that annoys me too. It's also kind of annoying how they say some costs backward, like "blue, blue, blue, and X" for XUUU. Love the podcast itself though.

[@vinceinman9666]

I love the flavor on both of Sorins cards. anguished unmaking exiles, which avacyn is indestructible, so the only way to kill her in game is exile (going by old avacyn). also his 6 loyalty is still high enough to kill red avacyn and for sorin to still live after doing so.

[@GUITARMADDNESS2]

Honestly, Always Watching will be great for my Karametra deck. Yes I run token generators but at the same time I run way more non-token creatures than generators, and who doesn't love having a fairly large Dryad Arbor without using counters?

[@Vash1585]

Love new sorin for my karlov deck! And that new equipment for my xenagos deck that gives haste trample and vigilance :)

[@ReformedThe]

What would you say about library of leng with madness, maybe even combined with miracle? Discard mircle and non madness cards to the top. Then exile/cast the madness discarded cards.

[@joshleekwai8895]

+ReformedThe Sounds pretty good. Me likey.

[@Pronigious]

Triskaidecaphobia + Tree of Redemption + Mirror Universe VALUE!

[@joemeenie]

Westvale Abby goes in the Athreos Apostle deck guys. Broken.

[@joemeenie]

Hell, the more I think about it, the more awesome this will be.

[@MorrisJoshua26]

I could not even watch The Magic Show's (Evan Erwin & Brad Nelson) set review. They don't even consider EDH as a format. Rolling eyes whenever they think about it. Very insulting as a player. I thank TCZ for your contributions to the format. Some of us LOVE this format. As a matter of fact, it's the ONLY format I play anymore. Much love to The Command Zone et. al!

[@MorrisJoshua26]

+Joshua Morris And red got another good card you missed.....Devil's Playground. Purphoros will love this.

[@WilhelmScreamer]

+Joshua Morris It is kind of low impact. Purphoros wants repeatable effects/engines or rally high impact effects.

[@MorrisJoshua26]

WilhelmScreamer 8 damage coming in, and another 4 from leaving, not to mention impact tremors, and other ETB damage dealers. I think its pretty good!

[@kosmic2021]

Is it wise to run this new Avacyn in a Kaalia deck already running the old Avacyn?

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Brian McIver Yeah I think is fine. You're not usually gonna draw both and if you do you play the old one and have the new one ready as backup.

[@kosmic2021]

Thanks!

[@ShroudedBlade]

when I saw Arlinn Kord, all I could think of was Atarka, World Render. playing atarka then arlinn next turn to give Starla +2/+2 and vigilance, since she already has flying, trample and gives herself doublestrike on attack means she can deal 16 dmg then just delve into become immense is a possible win. Say you want to run a dragon deck around atarka, years hell kite is great to make 6/6 dragon tokens on attack. now you just transform arlinn as soon as she is out then team buff for double strike and trample. these are just my initial thoughts, I may be brewing this deck soon though. I like Arlinn a lot.

[@ShroudedBlade]

I meant buff Atarka +2/+2 not Starla. dang auto-correct!

[@ShroudedBlade]

+Shrouded Blade wow my comment was poorly written. on the 6/6 dragon tokens on attack. I was referring to utvara hellkite. Jeez I got to excited for Arlinn. lol

[@TheTalladega238]

What's your guy's opinions on no legendary werewolf?

[@WilhelmScreamer]

I have been eagerly awaiting this since the pre-prerelease The gitgud toad has me very excited

[@jacobdachauer4377]

ty for the review!! I love these episodes

[@rydog7878]

why no Banding, Bushido, etc on Odric?

[@jays2376]

I think you guys underestimate you having hexproof. It doesn't make it impossible to have to sacrifice creatures, but most effects are stopped now (most of them say, "target player sacrifices a creature." The ones it doesn't stop are cards like Merciless Executioner or Fleshbag Marauder. I think that, basically, Sigarda got *slightly* weaker against sac effects, and lost her hexproof, in favor of giving you slightly more protection, and protecting your creatures (if you went tribal human.) Also, requiring 1 less colored mana is a huge improvement. I like this Sigarda just because she's very different. Old Sigarda was a Voltron commander. Now you have a human swarm commander.

[@Kestral287]

+Jay Schnurr Executioner and Fleshbag style sacrificing are the ones that see the most use though (Dictate, Grave Pact, Butcher, Purification, etc.). It's a multiplayer format so most people don't tend to use a lot of single target sac cards, especially when there are so many good ones that hit the full board. Player-Hexproof is nice for stopping some other annoying cards to be sure, but even that isn't really great since you can still go after Sigarda herself. For example, my Mizzix deck uses Reset-Reiterate-Bolt so I'd lose to a Leyline of Sanctity... but against Sigarda, I just Bolt her to death then kill the player. I do think New Sigarda is a cool creature though. I like her in the 99 for a token decks; a lot of tokens are humans, she makes human tokens herself, and she's a decent sized threat in the air. Running her as the commander for Human Tribal seems interesting but I'm not convinced that list is there yet.

[@jays2376]

Kestral287 I think single target instant speed forced sacrifice is highly underrated. I can't tell you how many times I handled Narset or Mizzix with one...or was able to allow a Voltron (like Uril,) to kill someone else because I saved my targeted sacrifice for when Uril was coming my way. Maybe it's just a meta thing, but it's relevant with my group.

[@Kestral287]

There are a lot of ways to do that without targeting a player though. Any sac outlet + Dictate/Pact/Butcher does the same thing, except it's repeatable and hits everybody. And look at what you're aiming that at: Narset, Mizzix, Uril, and other onecreature.deks. If you have that spell, you're not going to throw it at the New Sigarda player anyway. His deck isn't built for it; by definition he's not running Voltron or anything close because he wants Sigarda + Humans on the board. And if you did, he can just make a human in response and sac that, so the play isn't great against him anyway unless you got him to tap out. It's really, really nichey protection against something probably not pointed at you in the first place, especially when compared to how many ways there are to do the same thing without targeting a player.

[@squirtleninja]

1:30:48 Marchesa is green now?

[@swebartender4697]

+squirtleninja If I remember right his Marchesa deck is a 5 color deck

[@Kestral287]

+squirtleninja Josh runs five-color Marchesa.

[@pokemonareawsommme]

The new land cycle is obviously the reveal lands. There is no other name for them.

[@scifoncra6376]

Lies of Locke Lamora is very amazing.

[@Duranous1]

How can you even down play Arlinn!? Even in EDH she just does so much work. On the front side both her abilities protect her in a good way, in EDH I would say +1 is usually better. On the flip side her +1 is a mini overrun! She gains loyalty of overrunning! I know that its hard to protect planeswalkers in EDH but she just does so much that you would want, I don't see how she wouldn't be exiting to anyone in Gruul.

[@MorrisJoshua26]

+Duranous My wife is going nuts for her. Immediately going into her Xenagod EDH.

[@sectkills]

+Joshua Morris that was my first though when i saw the card every xenagos type deck will have her

[@Kestral287]

+Duranous The big problem is that the overrunning gives the opponents a turn to deal with it. You can't drop her and Overrun (which is a good thing, mind!). So you drop her, make a wolf, and hope that nobody at the table thinks they should deal with the 3 loyalty planeswalker that's going to try to kill them all next turn. Card's very cool and definitely worth testing, but I don't think it's incredible in EDH just because of how slow it is. Doesn't stop me from wanting one though.

[@Sandalphonium]

I wish there were more animations with a lot of movement.

[@HavocTheWendigo]

Nekusar is really the only madness commander I can think of. I think he can have use all madness cards so maybe if you force them all into a deck you could barely be able to make a madness deck

[@WHIT3N1NJA]

+William Henry lol, i am already planning a deck using a certain blue green black commander

[@WHIT3N1NJA]

+David Wolfe anything with lots of draw and good discard and madness colors can be a commander for it.

[@Sandalphonium]

Do you guys play against Stax often?

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Galren I dunno about often but we have some stax style decks in the playgroup yeah.

[@xancaster]

I really want Olivia for my new vampire tribal deck

[@liamherrmann2938]

would a human or zombie deck be good for your first commander deck

[@popo237]

+Liam Herrmann Probably, but can be sort of spendy.I recommend the UR, UG, or BG Commander 2015 for your beginning Commander deck.

[@liamherrmann2938]

+popo237 thank you

[@epee11c]

Josh VERY upset. No worries Josh. I'm already subscribed.

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Cormac Connolly OK I'm less upset now :-P

[@fishsage6774]

professor sent me, i like your channel

[@jeffgravel2330]

What about Accursed Witch?

[@elaineanspach4278]

All hail the great frog god!

[@polymorphicvariable345]

I simic card in your marchesa deck?

[@InsomniacVampire97]

No sin prodder?

[@VinyJuliani]

mass discard deck should be Rakdos 'cause Hellbent no cards in hand advantage

[@docterfantazmo]

It sounds like Josh's been grounded but Jimmy still wanted to do the show so they're talking via a can on a string in his tree house outside. Anyways, I know it's not a EDH card but *Skin Invasion/Skin Shredder* is nuts, everything about the card is gross!

[@Sitrax171]

No love for Geistblast?

[@halogrizzhand]

Thing in the Ice with vampire hexmage

[@andym4751]

+Kyle Lynn You need to cast at least one instant or sorcery to set it off

[@Kestral287]

Do you really need it? You could set Thing off turn three without any ramp anyway. But you don't really want him going off that early a lot of the time to abuse his bouncing ability to wipe the board.

[@LetumHaveIt]

If Altered Ego is in your Marchesa deck we have problems :)

[@DarkZedCannon]

+Robert Neal how?

[@LetumHaveIt]

The colors are wrong, If I remember correctly. Altered Ego has Green in it.

[@DarkZedCannon]

Correct except the deck is a 5 color special to help with counters.

[@LetumHaveIt]

oh then I retract my comment :P

[@danielwomer]

Uoooulvenwvuwald Hydra. Love this card, love the commentary even more. #thestruggleisreal

[@rmail25]

Boros players understand, WE NEED MORE BOROS LAND!!!!!

[@HavocTheWendigo]

Sorin is so going in my ayli deck lol at the very least people will hit him and not me. Westvale abbey is also going in that as a huge beater and possibly game ender in also putting in bygone bishops for card draw that isn't draining my life. Forgotten creation is going in my niv mizzet to draw thru my deck my friends hate this card lol. Funny thing is at first this set was meh to me cause of lack of cards I play but in the end they drop quite a few I like

[@ValanceJ]

"Altered Ego definitely going in my Marchesa deck" -Josh Clearly this show was pretty tiring for you.

[@MrMicah52]

+ValanceJ He is probably talking about his 5 color version

[@ValanceJ]

Completely forgot he has that

[@kosmic2021]

I killed myself in prerelease with triskaidekaphobia.

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Brian McIver Lol - that's awesome

[@kosmic2021]

Yeah, I really don't know what I was thinking. I had 16 life and no blockers. I was just excited to get it out.

[@joshleekwai8895]

It's worth it just for the story :-)

[@Autarkis42]

I have subscribed and unsubscribed and resubscribed about 173 times... it is the subscription mode of the Flick. FLICK. FLICK. FLICK. What kind of player does that?

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Ryan King Lol - "Who ARE these subscribers?!?!"

[@MsNosis]

sadly, way too little time spent on commons and uncommons. not all of us have unlimited funds to spend on this card game :/

[@harrisonwade999]

Hand land excludes players who don't have hands #triggered xD

[@epee11c]

People who play magic with no hands have skillz.

[@harrisonwade999]

What if they have robotic hand replacements?

[@Jaimby]

PEACE!! hahaha

[@Tedurbin202]

Investigate is good mainly for red/white decks. Red/white needs gas to keep it going, and since it has very little card draw, investigate is the mechanic the red/white decks can really take advantage of.