And now, entering the ring... She's now recieved a 19th Planeswalker... She's gotten some new support cards and cool new arts for her assistants... Please give a warm welcome to... CHANDRA, LEGACY OF FIRE!!!
Commander Masters... It's... quite the set. Say what you will about the set, it's certainly done a couple things right. Sick new arts and treatments. A couple new cards to support this lovely burn deck. Some cool reprints that make some things more affordable. Despite a few problems I have with the set (As I'm sure many others do, too), I'm happy that it happened, and allowed a few changes to the deck. So, as before, below is an outline of changes made to the deck, followed by an explanation for my changes.
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Removed Nyx Lotus, Added Chandra, Legacy of Fire
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Removed Rowan's Talent, (Re)Added The Chain Veil
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Removed By Force, Added Guff Rewrites History
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Removed Toralf, God of Fury
Flip, Added Jaya's Phoenix
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Removed 1x Mountain, Added Mines of Moria
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Removed 1x Mountain, Added Demolition Field
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Foiled and changed the art/versions of Neheb, the Eternal, Ruby Medallion, Vandalblast, Myriad Landscape, Torbran, Thane of Red Fell, and Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs. (Soon to have Deflecting Swat art replaced once I order it.)
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Got my Cathartic Reunion signed by the one and only Howard Lyon.
So, I needed a spot for Chandra, Legacy of Fire, and ultimatly came to the conclusion that I should cut Nyx Lotus. It's been a really nice card in the deck, but I've noticed that I've drawn it late game quite a bit, which makes it nearly useless when it comes into play tapped. The newest Chandra to join the team will help quite a bit in each department of the deck. It can ramp with a lot of mana, it can get me several cards deeper into my deck, and it can burn my opponents by a good amount of damage on my endstep. Overall, I'm excited for this Chandra, and figured that Nyx Lotus could take a break.
Next up is The Chain Veil. It was a card that was once part of this deck a long time ago. Now, I'd like to give it another chance, making it the Flavor of the Month. Rowan's Talent seemed nice on paper, but it ultimatly didn't do enough for my deck. It cost four mana, which was a kinda annoying investment, and didn't do much beside amplify one of my burn effects. The added uptick to whatever planeswalker it attached to was also useless in the deck, so it really didn't help out as much as I'd hoped.
Guff Rewrites History seemed really cool when it was shown off. Sure, the opponent is guaranteed to get something off of it... err, rather, each player does, but so do you, and it also removed four different, possibly game-ending, cards. It's chaotic, it's fun, I want to try it in the deck as a panic button. And so, with a heavy heart, I have removed By Force. It was flavorful for the deck, but not strong enough to make the cut, sadly. Maybe I'll bring it back one day...
Jaya's Phoenix is just like Guff Rewrites History in the way that I knew I needed it as soon as it was shown off. 5 Mana is annoying, but I have tons of ways to discard cards in this deck. Even more, I do happened to have a healthy number of planeswalkers in the deck, so cheating into play isn't too hard. The added benefit of doubling a planeswalker activation makes this seem to be a nice, strong card for the deck, unlike Rowan's Talent. Unfortunatly, I already pulled that card, as seen above, so I had to take a different card out. Goodbye Toralf, God of Fury
Flip. It made my burn against creatures especially dangerous for opponents, and was a very nice creature. However, at the end of the day, it really only comboed with my boardwipes, as I almost never wanted to waste my burn on creatures. Therefore, he can take a well-deserved break for now, though he may appear in the future.
Next, I removed two Mountains from my deck. Not a huge loss, as I replaced them with Mines of Moria and Demolition Field. For the first one, it gives me something to do with my graveyard and extra mana if I need to use it, and the treasures could come in handy later. Plus, with my 3-mana commander and the handful of additional legendary creatures, it seems that it'd come into play untapped fairly often. For Demolition Field, I don't know if I'd said this yet on TappedOut, but I'm of the oppinion that each and EVERY deck needs some form of land removal. A Demoition Field or a Field of Ruin at the very least. There's many problematic lands in Commander that sometimes need to leave. (Please see the other lands in this decklist for examples)
Finally, there are some cosmetic upgrades to the deck. A few new arts and foils were added to spice things up, plus I'm now trying out some Chandra-themed sleeves for the deck. I also met Howard Lyon at a CommandFest and had him sign my Cathartic Reunion, which was really cool. I hope to continue meeting artists and getting cards signed.
And that's that! See you next time, when my Chandra count finally reaches 20!!!