The Gatherer is a comprehensive Magic Card Database that allows players to search for the perfect addition to their deck, explore cards from Magic’s entire history, and discover what players are saying about them. Some cards, such as Hall of Gemstone and City of Solitude, serve similar purposes to Tsunami or City of Solitude, such as crushing counterspelling gameplans during one’s turn.
Tsunami has been printed in various sets, including Fourth Edition, Masters Edition IV, and Limited Edition Alpha. As of 2020, snow-covered basic lands have only been printed in three sets (Ice Age, Coldsnap, and Modern Horizons), with actual cost per card.
The Living Tsunami Set includes 2 5th Edition, 2 Ice Age, 2 Urza’s Legacy, 2 Urza’s Saga, 3 Weatherlight, Toon meer, 1 4th Edition, 1 9th Edition, and 1 Arabian Nights Search. However, the blue spells on these cards may draw too much retaliation, and the cards are in excellent condition with minimal wear to edges from use.
One effective method to counter Living Tsunami is to use removal spells that can eliminate it before the ability triggers, such as Path to Exile or Rapid. The Magic the Gathering MTG Living Tsunami Zendikar LP is an accurate set of cards that can be used to counter this powerful card.
📹 Which Magic: The Gathering Sets Are Best For Commander?
Be sure to also watch: “How To Be A Better Magic: The Gathering Player” here: https://youtu.be/f2inKfgKL_c Detailed MTG …
📹 Explaining All The Most Popular Formats in MTG Easily and Plainly
Unlike some other card games, Magic has a ton of different ways you can play it. These formats each have their own cardpools, …
Battlebond was such a thorough homerun. Tuning based on multiplayer dynamics is a lot safer than tuning based on the idea that you’ll have consistent access to a single central card that’s central to your deck’s theme. Monarch, friend or foe, and voting create really interesting and novel gameplay scenarios, and the battlebond lands have really increased accessibility of 4 and 5C deckbuilding. It really seems like when R&D designs directly for Commander, things end up overtuned or on-rails when it comes to deckbuilding. Plus the actual set was really fun and allowed me to play Magic with friends of mine who are only tangentially aware of how to play. I honestly can’t disagree with anything you’ve said here. You nailed it.
Really hope that they’ll revisit Battlebond. Recently discovered Deadly Designs and run it in my Ghen deck to control archenemies. I’d also like them to revisit Archemeny, because certain commanders are bound to end up advancing towards their win-con earlier than others. It’d be interesting to see them revisit mechanics like Tempting Offer, Assist or Strive in that context to make games where one player is quickly established as the archenemy more engaging.
I have to say, I think that Lorwyn/shadowmoor/morningtide/eventide were fantastic for EDH, as well as Tarkir block. Those both reinvigorated my desire to play magic, provided some amazing cards for EDH, and were a blast to play in limited. They gave a lot of tribal support and made some interesting deck builds
Really big on all kinds of different sets. Definitely a fan of all these special multiplayer sets but there’s so many other great sets out there that can be beneficial as well in Standard and such. I don’t think there’s necessarily a strict best answer, but there’s so many great options out there that whatever you choose to work with, you’re gonna be in for a good time at your Commander table!
Definitely agree with the “96 cards + (…)” part. That’s why I’ve always loved my Seton, Krosan Protector deck. 1st turn Sol Ring literally slows the deck down an entire turn, so I don’t even run it. Considering the fact that a large portion of the deck are creatures that produce Mana, I don’t even run rocks at all, so no need for Signet. And as it is mono colour, I obviously don’t need Command Tower lol.
I can say for someone getting back into Magic after 16-17 years the biggest help besides my LGS has been the pre-con commander decks and commander legends packs. But even then it’s still not enough. It’s article’s like yours and others who make Magic easier to understand. I still find myself asking questions at games and confused as to what to put into my newest commander decks to make them competitive.
I’ll say this, as fun as Commander Legends was, it was focused mostly that. 30 cards that cared about your commander, a slew of new commanders to use, but I don’t recall much about the interaction that BB or Con had. It was build a deck with this guys new ability and protect him more. Or maybe I just like BB because I got a doubling season from my prerelease kit.
Some of my best mtg memories are two headed giant sealed standard tournaments. 1. They weren’t solved by hardcore players so people weren’t sure what was best to play. 2. A larger number of cards were available for play making the draft process more open and fun. 3. Finally it let each player build strong focused decks. Ex. Combat focused w/interactive.
I thought about this when I bought two boxes of Battlebond and I wish I had boxes of Conspiracy and Conspiracy 2. I would also love it if they occasionally would bring back Planechase and Archenemy. I think both add an alternative appeal to spice up games that maybe have become too repetitive and I could get more planes and schemes for my combined format alternative mode.
I appreciate the points raised regarding the sets you selected. As a more casual player. I appreciate sets with a strong flavor or theme that it can be challenging to bring into Commander. And I love it when a set breaks out of the long running conventions and offers a new perspective the way Lorehold shook off the shackles of Boron. Its too easy to retread the well worn paths of existing archetypes. I really enjoy exploring other options, even though that may not be the most powerful ones.
Just here to say Professor; Huge fan of your work as well as the way you analyze Magic cards. I myself have never been a MTG fan or creator (I played stuff like Chaotic, Yugioh, Shadowverse and Force of Will) and have gotten so fed up with the power creep and design flaws of many games I’ve opted to make my own game. But despite that HEAVY bias, I still find myself a regular consumer of your content. Your perspective and more realistic player-minded expectations keeps my mind open regarding what I can learn from Magic as I craft my own game. Granted a significant portion of that is what NOT to do….but that is still valuable. Keep up the amazing work for as long as you will. I’ll still be here if you move on to another game or subject of content.
I will always preach about how important and awesome Kamigawa block was for commander in the long run. Standard and draft players will tell you those sets were worthless and if commander didn’t develop it like it has, that might’ve been the case but luckily that didn’t happen and we get to celebrate the multiple legendaries/commanders and cards like Kodama’s reach. The flavour and quirky mechanics, some of which were ahead of its time, are something truly unique to that set and was basically Legends 2.
Battlebond was the first box I chose to by after getting back into Magic / EDH. I wish I got to play the battlebond draft experience, but just the cards alone that I pulled have been integral to decks I’ve built years after the fact. Mycosynth Lattice, Doubling Season, Vigor, so many cards that fill me with joy.
God, I wish I could’ve played Battlebond. It wasn’t as easy to get here where I play, plus there are rarely any people who are keen on playing limited so it’s hard to get one fired. I’m really hoping for another Battlebond sometime in the near future. And also, great article prof! I’m always in awe with how well you articulate your thoughts. Looking forward to the next vid!
I did love these sets and I would love to see more of them. They have been a lot of help in filling out my multiplayer cube. However what I really want is more of the oversized card sealed products. Archenemy, and Planeschase were two of my favorite products WOTC has ever made and even Vanguards were a lot of fun all be it a bit unbalanced and the product was overall significantly underprinted. So for me I want more of all of these or even something new like it. I even liked the concepts in Explorers of Ixalan, and Horde Magic. So maybe even something like those could be fun. I just want more special sets that are actually special and encourage in person gameplay for casual events with friends. Either something that can take all night for one long and weird game or something fast to do in between cubing or commander.
Another amazing article. Going to be coming back to this for a while. That being said, as I am new(2 years) to magic, I thought masters was a complete mtg format for way too long because of the master’s sets. Also, I have a bad feeling that we’re going to get another battle bonds but it’s going to be straight to amazon. Thanks, Prof for another great article. These get me through an interesting(testing) time. -A fellow dork with a writing degree
Finished my studies a month ago, treated myself to a battlebond box. Even thoughI could only play sealed with it, it was still one of the best experiences I’ve had in limited, and got a sweet addition to my collector as a bonus! As someone who started playing after battlebond and conspiracy, I cant emphasise this enough: MAKE A NEW BATTLE BOND! I can’t wait for the day that happens.
I wasn’t drafting when either Conspiracy was released. The first one predated the opening of my hometowns first LGS and the second one was before i really got interested in Draft as a format. Battlebond on the other hand was the most fun I’ve ever had in Limited. My best friend and I were perfectly in sync, the card pool was phenomenal, and the setting was really interesting. Excluding the Ixalan Story It’s probably WotC’s biggest win in my entire time playing magic
Battlebond was one of the few times I got my wife to play limited with me – we actually won a FNM of it back in the day. One of the players who was there and had cracked a few boxes earlier of it gave us the rest of the cards from his Battlebond packs that he bought that day. It was an awesome time, and I would be so happy if they did Battlebond 2…and if it was designed like Battlebond 1…and if they didn’t sell it for a premium like MH2…
My first commander deck (still occasionally updated, newest cards from TSR and Kaldheim) is a Jund deck. To this day it runs: Nature’s Charm Respite Fires of Yavimaya Pernicious Deed All of these cards from Conspiracy. I cracked Berserk from a Conspiracy 2 pack, which up until that point I thought I would never have the spare funds nor trades to get. I still remember sitting down at my LGS with my commander, 92 other cards and 7 conspiracies in my deck since back then Gatherer said conspiracies were legal in commander (which was never the case with EDHRC, who I now know as the definitive EDH authority)! Glad they synced up with the EDHRC eventually!
Great article! I agree that it’s a slap in the face when you-know-who charges premium for ‘masters’ style sets. I understand that they want to keep price of collectable cards high (and also to have pricey cards that sell packs…), but it’s not cool with me. I’ve bought Gavi deck, because I really like idea of cycling commander (I wanted to build this deck since Amonketh block, but there was no commander that cared about cycling per se, especially with that sweet discount), but I can’t say no to $40+ free negate… And it’s a staple now… My playgroup is fine with proxies (although I’m not sure where their limit is, not gonna try to reach it, I don’t proxy Dual lands, but I might try to proxy fetchlands in decks that truly need them – landfall decks), but it’s not the best solution for players. It would be great to see lower prices on regular versions of cards, but higher prices on collectible bling ones (bring back more Masterpieces!). It would be godsend to see ‘master’ style sets with pricepoint of regular standard sets. It would be even cheap enough to draft! Man can dream… Oh, and don’t even let me start ranting about manabase… ‘Crowd’ lands should be included in every commander precon… For Ugin’s sake, they are only even useful in a multiplayer format… Why do they have to be 5+ (for the CMD Legend ones) and 10+ (for Battlebond ones)?! “Yes, I like money” ~ some wizard living near the coast
My biggest regret about battlebond is I only bought 1 box. I was in love with the idea of the set the first time I heard of it….. and then I had to tell my local MTG store that the set exists… Criminally under publicized… Even the store didn’t know about it. I still have hopes of making my “Two-Headed Dragon” format (Two headed giant, but with the commander flair and tweaked rules for balance) a thing. Thanks to battlebond, I have a “support deck” that does not really have win cons of its own, but supports the partner player to win.
I’m thinking about holding a draft with friends, because my birthday is coming up. I’m still on the fence on which booster box to get, I mainly play commander so it would be nice to open a booster box with cards I could use later on. But at least my possible choices are greatly narrowed down. Thanks Professor!
I believe that for building a commander collection, Commander Legends was great as it had a fair number of staples and utility cards (no Sol Ring though? guess that could’ve been busted from a limited perspective) throughout the different rarities. so cracking a box of CMR would give you more of the building blocks for a deck than a box of Conspiracy. that said, the Prof made some great points, and the most relevant of all was that Conspiracy 1/2 and Battlebond were made for multiplayer. there are great staples that couldn’t be printed in standard or even modern-focused sets, and they also have good reprints.
I enjoyed Commander Legends since it added so much to the format. And while I think it is fine if we get a commander specific sets every 3-5 years or so, every other year or even every year is just really baf for the format. It adds to much power, to much consistany and to many new staples for that. So I would like a commender set every few years and other muliplayer sets for the time in between.
I am terribly sad that both Conspiracy sets and Battlebond came out while I was on a hiatus from the game. While I’ve never enjoyed drafting, multiplayer Magic has been one of my favorite ways to play since the first time I touched the game back in 94, and all of the multiplayer-focused cards from those three sets just make me happy. I’ve picked up a few singles here and there, and even found a few Battlebond packs that I picked up, but I would love to see another set like that while I’m actively playing!
I feel like Ikoria really goes underappreciated. The mutate mechanic, while being a bit weird, is still a fairly easy mechanic to understand and is incredibly fun (at least in my opinion) with the mechanics they built into the mutate mechanic. Killing a creature, putting counters on the mutating creature, drain opponents life, etc. It’s not oppressive or unfun to play against either since it’s strictly creature based, and is therefore weak to everything creatures are weak to: counter-magic and removal spells.
Prof thank you for this article, I can see why you we frustrated with this article having the issues it did. As Gavin said we need to get the word out that we want product that is actually designed for a multiplayer experience instead of forcing those cards into other formats and warping those. I hope your article does well and I’ll be sharing it where I can.
I just barely missed my opportunity to play with Battlebond and never dabbled in either Conspiracy, but I definitely wish I could have another chance without having to spend $200-$250+ on a booster box for either. I am similarly looking forward to the upcoming Unfinity set despite some of the flack it’s receiving because I’ve never had a chance to draft an un-set before, and would LOVE a chance to play in a non-commander multiplayer draft! Bring back Battlebond!
Hi professor! Loving your articles! Commander got me back into Magic and since MTGO is the easiest way for me to play I have recently created an account but have been surprised by the lack of products for commander since it only has a couple decks from Kaldheim and Commander Legends. Do you think they are worth the money? Any advices on where to start collecting cards for decks? I have been looking at loan programs already but I think loaning cards such as Arcane Signet or Sol Ring is wasting money. Big hug from Spain. Keep it up!
I for one LOVED commander legends, but what that set should do in the future is reprint commander deck exclusives. Like ALL OF THEM, so they can be in foil now, and be easier to find/cheaper (looking at you dockside). As for which sets were the best for the format, I’d go any set before they started aiming cards at commander players.
Battlebond and Conspiracy are definitely great. I like what Modern Horizons and Commander Legends have done for Pauper Commander, though (like introducing the Partner mechanic to the format). I’ve stopped playing regular Commander because there’s so many great auto-include cards that I either feel uncreative or create a deck that can’t compete with the ones who do play all those auto-include cards. And it costs 10x what Pauper Commander does.
Loved Conspiracy, loved Conspiracy 2 even more. I don’t believe any new cards were made for these sets, but the Planechase and Archenemy decks have been really useful lists for me to use as a jumping off point for Commander decks. They hew to a theme in a way that allows me to consider multiple commanders (ninjas, enchantments, cascade, etc.) and highlight cards that are good for multiplayer in the same way that Conspiracy/Battlebond do with their reprints.
Since anything non-standard is gonna be premium priced, I hope they at least make it worth it now. Like imagine this: Conspiracy, Double Agent! $6 packs with two rares and a theme of tricking, stealing, espionage, and dark deals made in alleyways. Now THAT would be fun for multi-player draft and be a great chance for cool reprints too.
Conspiracy is a lot of fun, but the only caveat I’d say is that the actual draft related cards knock it down a bit for EDH because if you buy packs and pull a rare that is dependent on drafting… oof (though those are great for cube and I have a dozen such cards in mine). So… I suppose I’d say Battlebond is the winner here.
I got back into MTG as Battlebond was going out of print. I do recall a lot of negative sentiment around the set, even though it intrigued me enough that I bought 3 boxes in the hopes the I would be able to draft it in the future. Heck I even bought a box each of Conspiracy and Conspiracy Take the Crown for the same reason as prices on both of those sets were very reasonable then. I suspect that these sets did not get the love from the community that WoTC would like when they were printed. Multiplayer MTG is the only way I really enjoy magic (though I delve into drafts as there is some multiplayer interactions). I for one welcome more multiplayer sets in the future with an open mind and wallet. But I also agree the power level does not need to be set to 11.
While I do share the sentiment of Sol Ring and Arcane Signet being auto-includes in most decks, I do not feel that way about Command Tower. In mono-colored commanders the basic land is in most cases strictly better, as the Tower is untutorable by most effects. Even in some two-color decks I do not want to run it, as I want to maximize the number of type-lands I have in my decks for effects like Nissa, Who Shakes the Earth or either of the Cabal lands. As for the Sol Ring, we’ve banned it as a rule 0 in my playgroup, that gives us tiny bit of more room in deck-building and stops a lot of ‘archenemy’ situations at the table.
I was kind of expecting Battlebond, was not expecting the rest, but I can see why you’d say they’re the best sets. I played both sets of Conspiracy at an LGS, they were fun and had some really powerful and unique cards, I think Grenzo was in that set? And voting was a great mechanic, I think I only ever had one game where Expropriate went off and at the time I didn’t realize how powerful it was until that player promptly ended the game. The thing I really liked about commander legends was the diversity of the commanders it released but apart from that, it did feel a bit shallow, I ended up just buying some commanders and that was it I think? Lots of other cards and some more unique commanders came from the last Modern Horizons release.
Can’t say I disagree with any of your points. Those were amazing sets and everyone is going to have their favorites. I’d personally like to see a return to block formats, or something like them. The sets that have been released in the last couple years have been awesome, but I’d like to spend more time in each plane before hopping to the next. Ikoria and Kaldheim were my favourites. =D
The problem I had with commander legends is that it has so many cards that the odds of opening the card we wanted was very low. So I end up with half the set where I had too much cards and a third of the set that I had too few. I began playing after battlebond and conspiracy so I never got access to a set a low price. the best I got was a booster box of mystery booster before they double the price. I am afraid it won’t happen again as new master sets like modern horizon are sold at high price to begin with.
Yeah I never got to play any Conspiracy or Battlebond (don’t really like 2HG) but I do like all the cards, as you say. I thought Commander Legends was a good idea as well. I think there’s plenty of space for all three products. Only thing I’d be worried about is that now that all three products have had “juiced” versions released at a reasonable price… Battlebond 2, Conspiracy 3, and Commander Legends 2 will all have less quality cards (not even necessarily money cards… just useful cards) and more chase rares/mythics for a higher price.
What if WOTC gave us a set like Jumpstart, but the cards and mechanics were geared toward multi player? No drafting or building, just grab 3 or 4 buddies. Everyone gets 2 packs and go!!! They could design new cards that end up in EDH, and throw in a few reprints EDH players have been begging for…What do you think? I admit I have been addicted to EDH the last few years like everyone else. Outside of that I only play prerelease and sometimes draft. The one complaint I have is all 3 of those options are time consuming, I have to dedicate a whole afternoon or evening (sometimes all day) to play. However lately I’ve been having a blast lately playing Jumpstart! I love that you don’t have to worry about powers levels, or it taking such large chunk of time to play a couple of games. Just get 2 packs have have for and hour or two, it’s a nice change of pace from EDH and drafting. Thanks for reading my rant!
would absolutely love to see more product along the lines of… Conspiracy Planechase Arch enemy Battlebond All these sets were so innovative and creative! Come on Wizards… prove to us that you still have some creative and innovative phones in your bodies! I mean, after all, you are wizards! one caveat however, slow your roll on the amount of product released in a year! give us a chance to enjoy the cool stuff you’re doing before moving on to the next thing!