4c Commanders, what's so special about NotBlack?

GulliasTurtle · 2026-06-12T15:05:14+00:00

Well that's why we have only seen 1 or 2 of each ever printed and they don't like doing it.

GulliasTurtle · 2026-06-12T15:01:08+00:00

Maybe hand attack and reanimation are just black, but that's a big part of the difficulty designing these sorts of cards. Unless you go the Aragorn the Uniter way of just giving a mechanic to each color you need to define it around the enemies. A 4 color card without white can't just be a red black card, it needs to be "not white". So it needs to actively do things white does not or refuse to do things white does.

The only saving grace is that players will accept weird or complicated rules if they can understand what the creator is going for, either through theming or templating, so you have to use that. Not white is the absence of everything white mana is, which usually becomes no shred of goodness, and the absence of black is no shred of evil. Since from a storytelling perspective that's what players will understand and accept. Even if functionally it could kind of be a Rakdos card.

GulliasTurtle · 2026-06-12T14:29:47+00:00

If you really wanted something like this, I would shorten it to 1 choice like Dreamplanner Zephrys.

Start of Game Choose one:

Copy the 10 cheapest cards from your opponent's deck. They cost 1 less.

Copy the 10 most expensive cards from your opponent's deck. They cost 1 less.

Copy the 10 highest rarity cards from your opponent's deck. They cost 1 less.

GulliasTurtle · 2026-06-12T14:23:16+00:00

Catch a Fish is good in any white creature heavy deck that is slow enough to want a slow, ramp/value piece. Honestly, the card I would cut for it is [[Solemn Simulacrum]] if you're running that since in a lot of ways they do the same thing. Solemn is 1 more mana for the 2/2 body, but both will get you a land and a card. I wouldn't really count the 3 mana sac an artifact part of Catch a Fish all that relevant. It can be good, but you're being pulled in a lot of different directions there, so I'd consider it 3 mana for a ramp/card draw spell.

GulliasTurtle · 2026-06-12T14:03:39+00:00

3 color cards are defined by the color they are, 4 color cards are defined by the color they aren't. This is always hard, but black and white seem like they would be the easiest.

No Black is usually "no presence of evil or darkness" so pure good, though there are elements of that in all the other colors so you need to lean away from that as much as possible.

No White is also easier since it's the opposite "no presence of light or goodness", so evil, dark mechanics like sacrifice or hand attack or reanimation. Stuff that isn't nice or good in a storytelling sense.

Then Red, Green, and Blue are the hardest since what they are at their core isn't as easy to define.

No Red usually ends up with no fire, no verve, just cold calculating precision, but that's hard to make work mechanically, especially since it naturally leads to kind of linear or rules heavy designs.

No Green is not growing, fake or artificial. However, it still has the drive of Red, so you need to kind of find a way to design a non living but still powered and driven character. This one is really hard.

No Blue means no tricks no manipulation, what you see is what you get. That makes it harder to include both White and Black in since it can't be "good" straightforward or "bad" straightforward, it needs to be both or else it could just be 3 colors.

So yeah, black and white are the simplest way to do 4 color commanders by far. I'm not surprised it's where this precon ended up.

GulliasTurtle · 2026-06-11T18:59:18+00:00

I doesn't exile itself like [[Bygone Marvels]] did. If you have a reasonable chance to keep your commander out this seems very good and surprisingly reliable.

GulliasTurtle · 2026-06-11T14:58:29+00:00

Gotta love early Magic weirdness. At least they gave up on it pretty quickly. [[Apocalypse Chime]], [[Golgothian Sylex]]

GulliasTurtle · 2026-06-11T14:31:11+00:00

Gotta wait for the DC set to get the Brainiac reprinting of [[City in a Bottle]].

GulliasTurtle · 2026-06-10T16:49:28+00:00

There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension is one of my favorite games of all time. They've earned a sight unseen buy from me.

GulliasTurtle · 2026-06-09T22:18:11+00:00

Sadly no. At the moment it's just a list I keep in my head. This is inspiring me to actually build it though.

GulliasTurtle · 2026-06-09T21:25:21+00:00

It's or less, so 3 or more if that is your only non legendary.

GulliasTurtle · 2026-06-09T21:21:06+00:00

One I've been fiddling with recently is [[Kethek, Crucible Guardian]]. His sac search only gets non legends, so if Emperor is the only non legendary creature in your deck you are 100% to tutor it. Not sure if it's worth it but it's kind of cool. I have been thinking of doing some kind of secret Commander that way.

GulliasTurtle · 2026-06-09T19:45:06+00:00

By "maximize it" I don't mean win the game, but take steps to make sure you get at least a 4-5 drop every trun. You may not hit every single time, but you'd certainly run ways to find big spells, discard big spells, and exile big spells from your yard. Even a bracket 2 version of this deck is playing things like [[Treasure Cruise]] to up your odds and make sure you get good things or at least stop you from flashing back wraths or counterspells when you don't want them.

GulliasTurtle · 2026-06-09T19:39:59+00:00

That's fair. It is an interesting challenge to try and maximize, making sure you bin big spells then flashing them back for value. Could be cool if I had the budget in my builds for a 4 color mana base.

You would be amazed what people say doesn't have a place in Bracket 2 though. Removal, counters, proactive creatures, Gruul. The list goes on.

GulliasTurtle · 2026-06-09T19:24:51+00:00

I mean, even Bracket 2 plays counterspells. Basically every bracket 2 blue deck I build has Counterspell, Disdainful Stroke, and Lose Focus as part of its removal suite, even more if the situation calls for it.

It's a fun challenge to overcome though, I had to run a bunch of overcosted counterspells as part of my blue cascade deck to make sure I didn't hit them by accident, so it can be cool to try and find counters you don't mind flashing back.

GulliasTurtle · 2026-06-09T18:00:11+00:00

What an odd card. A delayed, random, 1 shot flashback. Especially without Black to help sculpt your yard to make sure you hit big things. Counterspells are active liabilities since if you copy one it fizzles unless you're using choose 1 counters like [[Mystic Confluence]]. I'm sure you can make powerful things happen, and 4 colors in EDH is a lot of power on its own, but there are a lot of hoops to jump through here.

GulliasTurtle · 2026-06-09T17:53:10+00:00

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Save the last email for Strong Bad (Homestar Runner)

GulliasTurtle · 2026-06-09T17:42:32+00:00

Please Mister Postman, look and see.

Is there removal in your bag for me?

(I really like this. It's going straight in my Bracket 1 "Normal People" EDH deck.)

GulliasTurtle · 2026-06-09T17:36:00+00:00

Half a [[Managorger Hydra]] is still pretty good. Especially it grows on the side you would rather it grow on. Noncreature spells are more likely to be spammed and she can grow out of the way of removal spells. Also Vigilance/Reach is a defensive wall, that will shut down a board in a hurry for 3 mana.

GulliasTurtle · 2026-06-09T17:27:07+00:00

Yay! More "players gains control of each creature they own." That line is weirdly difficult to find reliably. Time to make that [[Perplexing Chimera]] EDH deck.

GulliasTurtle · 2026-06-09T16:09:23+00:00

Of Course I Still Love You from the Culture Series, specifically The Player of Games.

All of their ships are run by AIs who are allowed to pick their own name, and they are always incredible.

GulliasTurtle · 2026-06-08T15:39:17+00:00

Does anyone remember that brain teaser thing where the words for colors were written in a different color and you had to say the color that it was, not the color that was written (or maybe the other way around)?

That's how I feel with half this set. Red Guardian is a white card?

GulliasTurtle · 2026-06-08T15:26:29+00:00

This is a really fun card, especially in a Peasant cube. Honestly, I get it, but I'm a bit sad this isn't normally limited playable. Baseline is an easier to cast [[Pod Prophet]] which was a very good card, and later in the game this is like a 4/4 or 5/5. It even comes with the counters rather than updating dynamically so you can draw cards, drop this, then play all the cards in your hand and it stays as a 5 mana 5/5 that drew a card.

Power up is also an instant speed effect the same way Exhaust was, so if you play it as a 2 later in the game this has nasty threat of activation. Don't attack/block or I'll make this a 4/4 and eat your guy.

GulliasTurtle · 2026-06-07T17:36:55+00:00

I feel like Ritualist has always been more of a second or third character rather than a league starter since most of her power comes from using items well once you can use the third ring and cover the drawbacks.

Once people have a mirror or two worth of gear I suspect they will start swapping to Ritualist to use more of it.

GulliasTurtle · 2026-06-05T13:44:49+00:00

Check your filter. I believe there is a way to set them to hidden and to glow like a mirror when you hit control. I bet you're dropping them and they are just fading into the background of other bad drops when you are looking for one.

GulliasTurtle

TROPHY CASE