Thanks to @fringe rampart for the question! Apologies for no question yesterday 😉
#(8-28-23) What's a commander you skipped the first time you saw it but have now warmed up to? Why?
cunning osprey
blazing pilot
[[Iroas, God of Victory]] - Boros was ass for years, only good at running out of cards... I had one lying around from the Theros Stargazing SL (bought that for the Heliod and Karametra) and eventually this year I built him as a way to try to see if Boros is now playable since WotC has been trying to make red and white both a little better at card advantage in their own specific way... the answer is yes, I've been having a lot of fun!
south veldtBOT
blazing pilot
strong honorable mention to [[Kodama of the West Tree]] who just looks like a moderately pushed Standard mythic... until you realize the card is actually cracked in half
south veldtBOT
young scroll
The partner pairs in general. I was averse to them when I was first told how problematic and pervasive they were, but on the flip side they shore up the power level of several different strategies which is really nice
serene ice
[[Iroas, God of Victory]] - Boros was ass for years, only good at running out of...
wish i had that i had that problem lmao
i love the look of the SL iroas but it’s too expensive for me to possibly be able to justify it
upper shuttle
As someone who loves CLB, I'm going to admit the first time I looked at a lot of them I didn't get them. They were often confusing or boring.
serene ice
who’s the best example of that?
upper shuttle
[[Neera, Wild Mage]]
south veldtBOT
serene ice
that’s extremely valid i still barely know how she works but she’s cool
upper shuttle
Even ignoring the Displacer Kitten combo, I hadn't thought about how you could cast irrelevant spells and use the trigger to possibly get something better.
serene ice
i think the only thing i dislike about it is that it says “this ability triggers only once each turn” instead of “do this only once each turn”
upper shuttle
She resets if you flicker her.
Also it triggering on an opponent's turn means you can use cantrips (ex:opt)
upper gazelle
Ayara first of locthwain. I'm dismissed her right quick. Then I saw a friend play her, destroy me , and i was hooked. Built her and haven't looked back
odd burrow
Funnily enough, I wasn’t on board with Marchesa, the Black Rose. I thought Zevlor would be a more effective theft commander, but I gave Marchesa a shot, and the rest is history.
By far my favorite deck.
hexed swallow
Najeela. I skipped her cuz she was just. A value engine and looked kinda boring.
I warmed up when I realized I can experiment with and do some really janky low-budget things with her
So I'm building her with a 50USD max budget and a Battle theme
obtuse fable
Alesha. I tried liking her around when Fate Reforged hit, but I just couldn't make it click and abandoned the idea way back when.
Last year I got the pride lair and with Alesha in there, I figured I'd give it another try. She's now one of my most powerful decks and such a hoot to play.
fringe rampart
Myrkul, lord of bones
Honestly I looked at the mana cost and went 'no'.
Then I played Baldurs Gate 3, actually interacted with the character and now I'm really coming around to a zombie Myrkul deck all around this big looming threat in the command zone
blazing pilot
BG3 is surely the catalyst for many decks lmao
fringe rampart
BG3 is surely the catalyst for many decks lmao
It's honestly made me completely relook at the dnd sets, and actually now have a vibe for who the characters are
blazing pilot
same, I built Shadowheart (with cloakwood hermit) after playing BG3 lol, deck seems like it'll be fun and I am eager to get a couple games with it
hexed swallow
Saaaaaaaaaaaaame
Can you imagine how much money they'd have made off it if they released it concurrently?
Honestly tons of AFR/CLB cards could go on this list for me. Purely cuz of BG3
obtuse fable
BG3 is surely the catalyst for many decks lmao
I'm building [[Minthara]] thanks to it
south veldtBOT
Legendary Creature — Elf Cleric
Ward 
, where X is the number of experience counters you have.
At the beginning of your end step, if a permanent you controlled left the battlefield this turn, you get an experience counter.
Creatures you control get +1/+0 for each experience counter you have.
2/2
upper shuttle
Can you imagine how much money they'd have made off it if they released it concu...
I'm pretty sure the intention had been to, or at least close to.
BG3 went into early access in October of 2020.
hexed swallow
Good point.
upper shuttle
CLB was June of 2022
hexed swallow
ye
upper shuttle
I had been playing early access so I had run into some of the characters. It's interesting I've seen at least one person glad that there was the gap in time because apparently there are some later story spoilers?
hexed swallow
Huh! Guess I didn't realize that. I can see it, yeah.
I didn't touch it in EA so that's interesting to know
frank iron
The Commander I was very disapointed with when I first saw it was The Raven Man. Such an iconic character, such a bad card. But I pulled the stained glass version in a booster pack and startet to think about a cool why to build around him. In the end he became the commander for a mono black cycling Deck and I am very pleased how it turned out 😁
obtuse fable
I don't really think there's many true "big end game spoilers" in the BG set, but mostly a few hints that certain characters are a bit more than you'd expect them to be. And even then it's only really two cards (That being ||Kagha and Zevlor|| and one of those you can easily figure out during the first act as is.
haughty dirge
I'd say mine would be... [[Bess, Soul Nourisher]]. I didn't even think of using her originally when I got the Cabaretti Cacophany pre-con but taking a closer look at what she does and finding it very unique for Selesnya Tokens as well as the fact she can make normal 1/1s with certain abilities or traits VERY scary seemed like a really fun deck challenge. She's been a gem ever since. Plus it's fun to call out her name like Nicole calls out 'WESSSSSSSSSSSSSS' in Nailed it.
south veldtBOT
