Commanding Thoughts: December 2016

Partner - the new Keyword on 15 legends in Command 2016 - opens up new territory for Commander deck brewing. The chance to have 2 legends as your commanders with their colour identities both counting.

Note: Commander damage accrues for each commander separately and increases in their casting cost when they return to the command zone also have to be tracked independently.

There are 5 commander sets and each one contains 3 legends with partner they are all two colour commanders; 2 are the same enemy colour pairing and 1 is a friendly colour pairing.

But what does that mean I hear some of the newer players ask...

This is the colour-wheel, it's the nicest example I found on the web. Friendly colours are those that exist side-by-side on the colour-wheel. So Green is friends with Red and White. Enemy colours are opposite each other. So Green is enemies with Blue and Black. In this way a single colour always has two friends and two enemies.

So Akiri, who is Red/White, is an enemy colour pair legend while Ishai, who is Blue/White, is a friendly colour pair legend. It's interesting because these two don't really work as a pairing. They both want to play a voltron-eque style game while neither complement each other. When deck building you would end up concentrating more on one than the other.

If commander damage was shared, which, as I noted above, it is not, they would have been awesome together.

What I want to do is give you my thoughts on all of the other possible pairings.

There are 105 possible partnerships which gives quite some scope for deck construction, however, as we've seen above not all pairs were made to be equal.
If you want to look at specific pairing check out the contents I've added to the bottom of this blog: CONTENTS

Akiri, Line-Slinger and Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder

Akiri and Bruse are both Red/White legends and so you would expect them to work well together. Akiri wants you to have lots of aritfacts in play so they can do plenty of commander damage while Bruse will give Akiri Doublestike and Lifelink making her even more dangerous.

If you can flicker Bruse with Eldrazi Displacer, for example, then you don't even have to attack with him to get the bonus.

One thing to note though is that while Akiri has first strike and so can defend herself she really needs additional evasion to make her effective.

Akiri, Line-Slinger and Ikra Sidiqi, the Usurper

This doesn't really work for me. As I mentioned above Akiri, for me, wants to be a voltron-esque commander but Ikra doesn't really aid in that. There's no synergy here. Playing Red/White/Black/Green does give you access to some nice creatures for Ikra, like Dragonlord Dromoka, but I think maybe there are better pairings.

Akiri, Line-Slinger and Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker

As I mentioned earlier this pairing, for me, doesn't work. They conflict with each other and lose synergy because of it.

Akiri, Line-Slinger and Karum, Ludevic's Opus

While Karum and Akiri do not compliment each other they don't hurt each other either. If you concentrate on letting Akiri swing for damage while using Karum to draw you extra cards you get a good combination and you get to play Red/White/Blue which gives you access to all the extra things blue can do like help you draw more, counter and bounce.

Akiri, Line-Slinger and Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix

Now Akiri and Kydele seem to me to be a great match up. If you want to cast artifacts then Kydele, who generates colourless mana, is great to have around. Match them with artifacts that draw cards, not to mention playing Red/White/Green/Blue gives you access to plenty of draw mechanics and I can see this combo working quite well.

Akiri, Line-Slinger and Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist

What I like about Akiri and Ludevic together is that it's a cheep combo that shares a colour. The total mana outlay on these two is the same as you would pay for Ludevic's Opus on his own. What Ludevic does is very political. He is designed to persuade your opponents to attack/damage each other and rewards them with a card if they have. I think this a Red/White/Blue combo that I would like to try out.

Akiri, Line-Slinger and Ravos, Soultender

So straight off the bat Ravos gives Akiri +1/+1 not a bad start for this Red/White/Black combo. I think you'd want to gear it towards artifact creatures. Wurmcoil engine comes to mind immediately as it leaves behind two smaller artifacts when it dies which only adds to Akiri's effectiveness and then Ravos gets him back from the graveyard.

Akiri, Line-Slinger and Reyhan, Last of the Abzan

There's an interesting synergy going on here that would enable to shift +1/+1 counters from Reyhan to Akiri if Reyhan dies and then from Akiri back to Reyhan if Akiri dies. There are also quite a number of Artifact creatures that feature +1/+1 counters the first of which comes to mind is Pentavus. Playing Red/White/Black/Green also gives you access to some creatures playing something like Ghave, Guru of Spores would not. First to come to mind are Appocalypse Hydra and Deathbringer Thoctar.

Akiri, Line-Slinger and Sidar Kondo of Jamura

This won't work, At least I don't think it will. You would have to be running very low numbers of artifacts to keep Akiri below the 2 power threshold to be unblockable and even then flying creatures are very common so the extra avoidance given by Sidar isn't that useful.

Akiri, Line-Slinger and Silas Renn, Seeker Adept

What better synergy can you get Silas gets back your dead artifacts that help to pump Akiri that help to win the game. Red/White/Black/Blue is also a great spread of colours if you're playing around with artifacts.

Akiri, Line-Slinger and Tana, the Bloodsower

If only Tana's saprolings were artifacts this wouldn't be a bad pairing. As it is Tana does nothing for Akiri and vice versa.

Akiri, Line-Slinger and Thrasios, Triton Hero

There's nothing wrong with pairing Akiri with Thrasios. One helps you riffle through your deck with a repeatable ability and the other lets you concentrate on attacking. It's also a cheep combo with a combined 4cmc. Red/White/Green/Blue gives you a good colour spread although you'll be concentrating on artifacts I think. Not a bad pairing I guess.

Akiri, Line-Slinger and Tymna the Weaver

With Akiri handling the combat and Tymna helping you draw cards this isn't a bad combo to be running. Red/White/Black gives access to Lifelink, punp spells and other ways to make Akiri more agressive. I would try this out I think.

Akiri, Line-Slinger and Vial Smasher the Fierce

Akiri and Vial Smasher are diametrically opposed, they don't really help each other at all. I wouldn't try playing them together that's for sure.

So that's all the individual commanders covered as partners with Akiri. As you can tell there's quite a few combat centered commanders that don't really seem to pair well together. Anyway let's progress and see what the rest of the combinations throws up.

Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and Ikra Sidiqi, the Usurper

This is probably the first combination that really gets interesting. I would be attacking with Ikra as it already has plenty of toughness and evasion in the form of Menace. Then Bruse comes along and gives him Lifelink and Double Strike. So just with those two you would get 13 life from Ikra attacking. Oh what Black can do with all that extra life. Sanguine Bond is the obvious card that comes to mind.

This is a great combo and I'd build a deck around it.

Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker

Bruse lends himself to any partnership where other legend can be used in a voltron-esque fashion. As Ishai gets larger Bruse makes the damage he deals even greater yet. The Lifelink here becomes just an added bonus.

I get the feeling Bruse is going to be the partner of choice for many of the other legends shown here.

Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and Karum, Ludevic's Opus

There's a colour commonality here and while Karum is all about letting you draw extra cards if your opponents are casting lots of spells Bruse is all about attack and damage. One of the cool things here is you have White and Blue to hand, as well as Red, and they are the best colours to flicker Bruse to give Karum Double strike and Lifelink. So this could be a great match-up.

Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix

This is an odd four colour combo. I'm not quite sure how I'd play it but I'd want to be using that extra mana to pump Bruse in some way when he is attacking. I think I'd have to work really hard to build a decent deck out of this.

Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist

Such a great combo. Bruise them with Bruse and draw cards and then watch as they beat each other as well to draw cards. This I can see working and working well.

Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and Ravos, Soultender

Ravos already adds two points of damage when Bruse attacks and that extra point of toughness is really useful too. If you can find ways to sacrifice creatures to make Bruse bigger then Ravos will be on hand to get them back from the graveyard for you. Again another strong combo.

Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and Reyhan, Last of the Abzan

What a match up, you just need to use creatures that come into play with +1/+1 counters or gain them, Graft and Evolve for example, then sac them to make Bruse bigger. You just need to make sure you protect him. Then again if he dies just shift the counters elsewhere until you can shift them back. Such a sweet combo.

Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa

Set this up right and you can attack with Sidar and, thanks to Bruse, have him gain Doublestrike and Lifelink. I'm sure Red and Green can both provide ways to boost his power after the declare blockers step.

Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and Silas Renn, Seeker Adept

In this case I think Bruse has to be used to boost Silas so that he can get his damage off. But, the deck will need to be quite artifact focused for that to be worthwhile.

Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and Tana, the Bloodsower

As before you need to be able to flicker Bruse to give Tana Doublestrike so she can put lots more tokens into play to overrun your opponents with.

Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and Thrasios, Tristan Hero

Here, Thrasios is strictly support for Bruse. You get a repeatable Scry effect that can help you put lands into play and draw cards. Not a bad pairing at all.

Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and Tymna, the Weaver

Lots of Lifelink = lots of life to spend drawing cards. A strong pairing and not much else for me to say about them.

Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and >Vial Smasher the Fierce

A bit of a random combo where the legends do vastly different things. Bruse does nothing to help Vial Smasher and vice versa. Not a combo I'll be looking to play at any time.

After Bruse comes Ikra Shidiqi, The Usurper. Let's take a look at how they pair up with the rest of the Partners.

Ikra Shidiqi, The Usurper and Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker

If you're into four colours then this gives you access to them all sans Red. If Ishai becomes big enough you'll gain plenty of life from Ikra, but there's no other synergy here. They are okay together but nothing more.

Ikra Shidiqi, The Usurper and Karum, Ludevic's Opus

Four colours sans White this time and bit better by way of synergy. Karum gets you gas and a way to attack fairly easily. But again it's only so-so combination there's nothing to grab me and make me want to build a deck around the pairing.

Ikra Shidiqi, The Usurper and Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix

There's nothing right with this pairing except you get access to Black to help draw cards, but then you were already in Blue which does it better.

Ikra Shidiqi, The Usurper and Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist

I'm starting to feel a bit like a broken record now. If you need to draw cards then this is fine. It helps deflect aggro from you as well while you gain life attacking with high toughness creatures. Above average as a partnership but only just.

Ikra Shidiqi, The Usurper and Ravos, Soultender

I find it interesting that Ravos has a natural synergy with all things Golgari and yet is Orzhov. Ravos boosts your other creatures which gives extra bonus life gain. He also gets your creatures back from the 'yard. I think this is a great combo and can be played with. The only downside is the total 10cmc casting cost of the two of them, but you do have Green for ramp.

Ikra Shidiqi, The Usurper and Reyhan, Last of the Abzan

Given that both of these partners are Golgari in colour you would expect a decent amount of synergy between the two and you get it. With Ikra and your other creatures being boosted by Reyhan.

I know Corpsejack Menace will like playing with Reyhan around a great deal indeed.

Ikra Shidiqi, The Usurper and Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa

I'm not sure about this partnership. Ikra doesn't benefit from Sidar however in a Defender/Treefolk style deck where creatures have low power and deal damage equal to their toughness. Think Doran, The Siege Tower or...

...assault formation I think this may work.

Ikra Shidiqi, The Usurper and Silas Renn, Seeker Adept

I can't see the synergy between these two. Green isn't a very artifact focused colour and you really want to be in Red when playing with artifacts. So this for me is a non-starter.

Ikra Shidiqi, The Usurper and Tana, the Bloodsower

This to me looks like a token swarm that gains you life as a side effect. Could be decent but I'm not sure what Black brings to a token swarm deck.

Ikra Shidiqi, The Usurper and Thrasios, Triton Hero

Again we've got two partners who do different job. Thrasios is a reusable draw engine while Ikra is combat orientated. They work together but not well.

Ikra Shidiqi, The Usurper and Tymna the Weaver

This works better, Ikra brings life gain and Tymna will help you spend that to draw card. This is the sort of synergy I'm looking for in such a partnership.

Ikra Shidiqi, The Usurper and Vial Smasher the Fierce

They don't have great synergy but they don't rub against each other either. The thing is I strongly believe that you'll run Vial Smasher as your primary and a secondary commander just to give you access to other colours. Given that you'll want a second partner running Blue/White or Blue/Green.#

Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker and Karum, Ludevic's Opus

You can't get better synergy than this partnership. Both have abilities that matter when your opponents cast spells. Ishai gets bigger while Karum let's you draw cards. I actually really like the idea of building around this partner ship.

Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker and Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix

There's nothing to match these two together but then there's nothing working against them either. Doesn't get me excited but someone might run the combo. Especially to add Green to Ishai to get it's counter doubling cards.

Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker and Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist

I've said before that Ludevic works to entice your opponents to attack each other. Adding White to this mix gets you lots of cards that work well if you're going to build around this concept. So from that point of view this works.

Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker and Ravos, Soultender

Ravos is friends to any partner that is combat orientated and that's certainly what Ishai is. There doesn't seem to be any downside to running these two together. So I can see this partnership being played for sure.

Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker and Reyhan, Last of the Abzan

Now this is a partnership. The amount of +1/+1 counters you can imagine being placed on creatures you control is staggering. Especially as by adding Blue and White you are increasing your options to play cards like Fathom Mage, Vorel of the Hull Clade and Cathar's Crusade.

Don't forget that Black is also the colour of graveyard recursion. I think this might be my next deck.

Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker and Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa

No. Just no. You have Ishai that gets bigger and Sidar that supports small creatures. They just don't play well together.

Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker and Silas Renn, Seeker Adept

Ishai and Silas don't aid each others' causes so for me this is a non-starter.

Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker and Tara, the Bloodsower

Apart from having separate win conditions, swarm vs voltron, I don't see why you'd play these two partners together. So another partnership that doesn't get further consideration from me.

Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker and Thrasios, Triton Hero

You get access to Green and it's counter doubling cards, you get extra draw abilities from Thrasios, who is also quite cheep to play. This is a good partnership from where I'm sat.

Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker and Tymna the Weaver

If you give Ishai Lifelink then I could see this working but it's not really exciting me like some of these combos do.

Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker and Vial Smasher the Fierce

Vial Smasher doesn't play well with others. So it's down to what adding Blue and White does for your deck choices. I'm not a fan of Vial Smasher but I can see people will play him and adding Blue for cantrips and spell recursion from your graveyard will make him more playable.

Karum, Ludevic's Opus and Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix

Here you have Karum who helps you draw cards and Kydele who gives you extra mana. But you'll need some way to dump that mana as it'll come to you on your opponents' turns. It might work but, then again it might not.

Karum, Ludevic's Opus and Ludevic, Necro-Alechmist

Maybe this should be Ludevic and Karum given that Karum is Ludevic's Opus. If you play these two together you are not going to have a problem with drawing cards that's for sure. You just need to make sure you've got the mana to cast them.

Karum, Ludevic's Opus and Ravos, Soultender

Here you get access to all the colours bar Green. You get creature pumping, graveyard recursion and card drawing. It's like a mix of abilities none of which focus you down one route but they don't hurt each other either. Interesting combo this one.

Karum, Ludevic's Opus and Reyhan, Last of the Abzan

Again this is a four colour combo where the abilities don't hurt each other but don't focus you down a particular path either. In this case it strikes me that Karum is just offering access to draw and two additional colours.

Karum, Ludevic's Opus and Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa

Karum is a 4/4 so doesn't benefit from Sidar. But he does offer draw to Sidar who is in the two colours that suffer the most from a lack of draw options.

Karum, Ludevic's Opus and Silas Renn, Seeker Adept

Karum gives Silas access to Red which brings with it a whole host of artifact loving options. He also adds an extra option for drawing cards but that's less important when you're already playing Blue and Black.

Karum, Ludevic's Opus and Tana, the Bloodsower

Another case of just using Karum for helping to draw cards and giving access to Bluet his isn't a bad thing but not the sort of synergy I'm looking for in a partnership.

Karum, Ludevic's Opus and Thrasios, Triton Hero

Two commanders who draw cards but, for me, this leaves the deck unfocused. Others might like the deception this causes for your opponents which I can see being a clever play.

Karum, Ludevic's Opus and Tymna the Weaver

Allow me to refer you to my previous comments as they are as relevant here as they were for the previous pairing. The only difference is the colour preference for the deck builder.

Karum, Ludevic's Opus and Vial Smasher the Fierce

This is purely card draw for Vial Smasher and also access to blue. The problem is that if this is all you want Ludevic is cheaper to cast and more political.

Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix and Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist

The problem with Kydele and Ludevic is when Ludevic gets to draw cards. You are getting access to Green but that's not enough for me to want to play this pairing.

Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix and Ravos, Soultender

Yet again this is one of those unfocused pairings. Not much wrong with it and it gives you four colours but there's not much here to focus your deck around.

Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix and Reyhan, Last of the Abzan

Again nothing to write home about when it comes to synergy but you are getting access to three colours. Which is the best thing I can say about this pairing which says a lot about it.

Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix and Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa

Kydele really wants a partner that reads 'Draw lots of cards' and Sidar Kondo just isn't that commander.

Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix and Silas Renn, Seeker Adept

If you look at this from the perspective that Black and Blue are the best card drawing colours in Magic, Silas likes artifacts and Kydele produces colourless mana you can see how you could make this work. Especially as Silas lets you "cast" from the graveyard but needs mana to do so. So I believe this is a partnership you could make work.

Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix and Tana, the Bloodsower

Another partnership only worth playing for the 3 colours it puts you in. Not one I'll be spending any time on.

Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix and Thrasios, Triotn Hero

So what of the Blue/Green partnership. Well it works, but only to a degree. You need those Lands to come in untapped I think. But, it is a workable partnership.

Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix and Tymna the Weaver

As I've looked at so many pairings now I do feel I'm getting to be more dismissive of pairings I instantly don't like. This is one of those pairings. There's nothing wrong with it but nothing to write home about either.

Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix and Vial Smasher the Fierce

Vial Smasher probably benefits from the extra colours and extra mana so it's not a bad pairing I guess. Better than some I've looked at as part of this article.

Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist and Ravos, Soultender

There's an interesting mix of abilities and colours here. I've mentioned before that I fear in cases like this that the deck won't have a focus. However, there are possibilities and flexibility here that I can see some people exploiting.

Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist and Reyhan, Last of the Abzan

For me, Reyhan really wants to be built around. There are pairings that do that quite effectively but this isn't one of them. So if you want to play Red and Blue because of whatever reason then okay pair them up, they are both cheep to cast so why not but I think that would dilute the deck in many ways.

Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist and Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa

The same comments I made for Reyhan apply equally well here. As a supporting actor that gives you access to Red and Blue I can see why you would use him in this pairing. However, I do feel there are better partners for Sidar Kondo out there.

Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist and Silas Renn, Seeker Adept

Again it's an unfocused combo. It does give you access to Red which can be a useful colour when playing an artifact focused deck. But that's about all as you already have Blue and Black to help you draw cards.

Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist and Tana, the Bloodsower

Tana wants to be pumped up and full of evasion. Ludevic wants to help you draw cards and gives you access to everyone's most favourite, overpowered colour; Blue. It could work I guess in the right build.

Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist and Thrasios, Triton Hero

This is Draw and Draw combined. One thing it does do is open up the possibility of playing Red/Blue/Green Wizard tribal. The commanders are cheep and nobody will really know what to expect the first time they play you.

Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist and Tymna the Weaver

This is similar to above with the tribal focus. It's just Draw and Draw more. Not something I would play but someone else might.

Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist and Vial Smasher the Fierce

Adding Blue to Vial Smasher is never going to be a bad thing, helping you draw cards, especially instants. Not least because you can then play Hypersonic Dragon (dun dun dun!)

Being able to play your sorceries at any time opens up Vial Smasher to world of Molotov cocktail throwing during other turns. I've been a bit dismissive of Vial Smasher so far but I wholeheartedly approve of this partnership.

Ravos, Soultender and Reyhan, Last of the Abzan

Ravos is interesting in that he comes with a built in "anthem" effect. So your creatures automatically get +1/+1 from him. Reyhan wants your creatures, with +1/+1 counters on them, to die. Ravos can then help get them back again. This makes this pairing seem fairly balanaced to me and I'd consider playing with them.

Ravos, Soultender and Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa

Sidar wants your creatures to remain lower powered so they can avoid being blocked by creatures without Flying or Reach. Ravos automaitcally pumps your creatures with his "anthem" effect. This may work with 1/1 tokens as they'll just become 2/2. But it doesn't help Sidar himself in anyway.

Ravos, Soultender and Silas Renn, Seeler Adept

If you played an artifact creature heavy deck then I can see Ravos and Silas working well together. Especially if you sacrifce something like a WUrmcoil Engine and then either cast it from the Graveyard or return it to your hand to be cast again.

So I can see this pairing working well together.

Ravos, Soultender and Tana, the Bloodsower

Ravos's "anthem" effect pumps Tana's saprolings. The problem I have is that effectively Tana can only deal 21 damage to any single opponent and, therefore, only create a limited number of tokens. Better I guess in multiplayer. Not a bad combo with token doublers I guess.

Ravos, Soultender and Thrasios, Triton Hero

Here you would be using Ravos to define the offensive nature of the deck and Thrasios to help you draw more cards and get more lands into play. An effective combo that gives you access to four colours, reaninmation, draw and an anthem effect.

Ravos, Soultender and Tymna the Weaver

Again you're making use of Tymna for your draw effects and Ravos for his anthem and reanimation. Considering they are the same colours their abilities don't have a lot in the way of synergy. This can be a good or bad thing depending on your perspective.

Ravos, Soultender and Vial Smasher, the Fierce

Vial Smasher does not play well with others. In this case you're playing Ravos for the extra colour but playing Blue would be a much better way to go as I discussed when looking at Ludevic and Vial Smasher together.

Reyhan, Last of the Abzan and Sidar Kondo of Jamura

Shifting +1/+1 counters around doesn't really work in tandem with Sidar's pseudo evasion. Not a partnership for me this one.

Reyhan, Last of the Abzan and Silas Renn, Seeker Adept

Using artifact creatures that manipulate +1/+1 counters could make this particularly workable. You just have to build it in the right way.

Reyhan, Last of the Abzan and Tana, the Bloodsower

Messing with +1/+1 counters and tokens I think should be left to the pros (Ghave!) and this combo dosn't really do anything for me to counter that statement.

Reyhan, Last of the Abzan and Thrasios, Triton Hero

Thrasios is cheep to cast, has a great draw ability and gives you access to blue and all it's +1/+1 counter meddling creatures. I like this combo, I think it would work nicely.

Reyhan, Last of the Abzan and Tymna the Weaver

Tymna is not a bad support act for Reyhan but I think Thrasios is better. White does have cards, like Cathar's Crusade, that like to do things with +1/+1 counters but, Blue just does it better.

Reyhan, Last of the Abzan and Vial Smasher the Fierce

No. It's hard for me to constantly be so dismissive of partnerships with Vial Smasher but, he just isn't a very good fit with many of the other partners.

Sidar Kondo of Jamura and Silas Renn, Seeker Adept

I don't think this works. White and Green don't really play with artifacts that well. If you're going to partner up Silas Renn you want to do it so it includes Red.

Sidar Kondo of Jamura and Tana, the Bloodsower

Sidar and Tana work well together. Tokens being great for the pseudo evasion effect Sidar offers. Something to consider. What you nee to find is ways to temporarily pump the tokens after you've declared your attack.

Sidar Kondo of Jamura and Thrasios, Triton Hero

Thrasios works with everyone, mainly because he is cheep to cast and offers great draw and access to Blue. And who doesn't, if they are being honest, want to play with Blue.

Sidar Kondo of Jamura and Tymna the Weaver

Tymna offers you draw capabilities like Thrasios so it depends if you want to play Blue or Black as a third colour. Black gives you access to Zombies which are great for Sidar's pseudo evasion.

Sidar Kondo of Jamura and Vial Smasher the Fierce

Vial Smasher doesn't need to attack to throw molotov cocktails at your opponents. I still think adding Blue is your best bet but I'm open to being proved wrong.

Silas Renn, Seeker Adept and Tana, the Bloodsower

These two just don't work well enough together, in any way that I can see, to be a great partnership. Not much more I can say about this really.

Silas Renn, Seeker Adept and Thrasios, Triton Hero

Usually I'll say that Thrasios is great because he gives you access to Blue but in this case he gives you access to Green and ramp which can be very useful in Commander games. Generally speaking Thrasios is the best support partner available.

Silas Renn, Seeker Adept and Tymna, the Weaver

This could work but not as well as playing Thrasios and White gives you no benefit when playing around with artifacts.

Silas Renn, Seeker Adept and Vial Smasher the Fierce

You get Blue and you get to cast artifacts from the graveyard. Note Vial Smasher wants you to cast spells. So this could work in wonderful ways I think.

Tana, the Bloodsower and Thrasios, Triton Hero

Thrasios:

Gives you a great, reusable scry/draw mechanic
Access to Blue
Is cheep to cast.

What's not to like about him?

Tana, the Bloodsower and Tymna, the Weaver

While Thrasios scores 8+ (out of 10) as a supporting partner. Tymna scores a 7. Her draw mechanic is harder to get to work but does net you more cards. However, Tana creates creature tokens allowing you to spread your attacks wide to make the most of Tymna's ability. You just need to give them evasion.

Tana, the Bloodsower and Vial Smasher the Fierce

Not a partnership I expect people to choose to play there's just nothing, except a colour, that this cards have in common.

Thrasios, Triton Hero and Tymna, the Weaver

Putting the two best support cards together doesn't really help you that much. I think either of these is better playing the support role to an aggresive partner. So I don't think this partnership works for me.

Thrasios, Triton Hero and Vial Smasher the Fierce

You get Blue and Green which equates to ramp and draw and your first spell each turn, not just on your turns, nets you random damage to your opponents. Both these partners are cheep to cast as well. This is good, possibly great, partnership.

Tymna, the Weaver and Vial Smasher the Fierce

This doesn't do it for me. I've said all along that Vial Smasher wants you to be playing Blue it also doesn't promote combat damage to one or more opponents either so they just don't work together.

So there you have it all the pairing summed up nicely. Some good, some great and some I would only consider if being paid to do so.

Until next time. May your partnerships gleefully win you games.

Phil

Akiri, Line-Slinger

Brus Tarl, Boorish Herder

Ikra Sidiqi, the Usurper

Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker

Karum, Ludevic's Opus

Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix

Sunday, 4 December 2016

Take your Partner by the hand...