This weekend is Command Fest Online 2 hosted by Channel Fireball on Twitch, and kicking off the event was the panel showing off the world's first look at the highly anticipated Commander Legends. Wizards held nothing back in its first panel, hosted by Gavin Verhey, Ari Nieh as the entirety of Commander Collection: Green was revealed.
Each Commander Collection is akin to the Spellbook product series with eight unique cards centered around a theme. There will be a non-foil and foil version of the Commander Collections. The non-foil versions will be going to WPN stores, and foil versions go to Premium WPN stores, giving LGS's a much needed boost during COVID.
We also learned that each Commander Collection set will definitely have a new version of Sol Ring, my guess being each having unique art. Ari Nieh also implied that each set would have its own Command Tower as well.
The set is certain to be a hit due to much needed reprints with brand new art included, such as Sylvan Library and Worldly Tutor. I have been planning on rebuilding my original Captain Sisay deck, and it sure is happy to see all these reprints.
Sylvan Library is one of the most evergreen Green cards in commander. According to EDHrec.com, Sylvan Library is in over 38 thousand decks, and 18% of 207162 decks that play green. If it not for its price, currently sitting at about $55 tcg low for its cheapest version, I would conclude that it would be in even more. I would be happy to see this card hit the $20 dollar range again. If it does, be sure to snag several copies if you can, because it won't sit there for too long.
The Commander Collection will make be the third art for the card, and perhaps its best. Wizards hit a great flavor mark for me when they decided to feature Reki, first seen on Reki, the History of Kamigawa, as the centerpiece for the new art. The marrying of a character in Magic who has the entire history of a plane magically tattooed on his body, and a library of great knowledge onto one card was a great decision.
Worldly Tutor is another ubiquitous green card in EDH, in over 25 thousand decks. Floating around $30 on tcg low, commander players will be sure happy to pick up the copies featuring the newest art, as it is gorgeous.
One of the most exciting aspects of this collection is that this will be the first time that both Worldly Tutor and Bane of Progress will be in foil.
If you aren't playing this card, and you wonder why you keep getting schooled by the Breya, Etherium Shaper player in your pod, look no further. Bane of Progress has an effect that is powerful and effective in EDH. Board wipes that only affect a particular permanent, rather than everything, are much more palatable in EDH as it doesn't set everyone at the table back.
Seedborn Muse is another card to be included in this set, if not a valuable one. Like Bane of Progress, it has been sitting around $10 for awhile, and is surely to go to five or so once supply is at its peak. That being said, its a great card that goes in pretty much every green deck, and is the closest Prophet of Kruphix replacement there is.
Omnath, Locus of Mana is also getting a reprint here. The most expensive Omnath card, at about $20 bucks, it is one of the most popular green commanders there is, and for good reason. It is not uncommon to have a turn where you have extra mana and nothing to do with it, but Omnath lets you store that mana for future use.
Gavin Verhey also hinted that we might be seeing another version of Omnath in the upcoming Zendikar Rising set.
Last but not least is Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury. Not seen since Commander 2014 pre-cons, Freyalise is the 12th most popular mono green commander.
She is one of the most iconic green planeswalkers from Magic's history, as the savior of Dominaria from the Ice Age. A shoe-in for any elf tribal commander deck, her abilities are versatile and useful throughout a game.
Overall, I think Commander Collections: Green is nice product. I would've rather seen Oracle of Mul Daya over Seedborn Muse, especially since Jumpstart is not helping supply as many had hoped it would.
If anything, I'm even more interested to see what the collections will look like for the other colors. Surely, each one will have its own version of Sol Ring, and Command Tower. I think it is a fair guess to say that with the presence of Freya, we will be seeing the other planeswalker commanders reprinted.
The Commander Collections release date has been pushed back from September to December 4th of this year. So for now, we will all just have to patiently await these cards until then.
