Thought of the perfect commander for any vorthos deck
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Sept. 24, 2015, 6:32 p.m. by MagicalHacker
So, I've been kind of tossing this idea in my head, and I've been trying to balance it while keeping it realistic. Here's my best shot:
Author of All History 
Legendary Creature - Shapeshifter Elemental
~ is all five colors.
As ~ enters the battlefield, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a legendary creature card with converted mana cost equal to X or less, and you may exile that card. If you do, ~ enters the battlefield as a copy of that creature. Then shuffle your library.
0/0
Vorthos players are ones who enjoy the flavour of the cards. Everything has to feel right in the sense of theme, artwork, lore, name, etc.
Technically a vorthos doesn't fit into the Timmy, Johnny, Spike list but is an extension of it. You can have a Vorthos-X for any of them.
As for the card design, I feel like graveyarding them seems more on theme, kind of like its killing then and taking their place, but I guess exiling them works too. Should you make the ability a must though?
September 24, 2015 7:17 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #4
A deck that focuses more on the lore aspect of cards as opposed to deck synergy or versatility. Those aspects may be important still, but not as much as the flavor of each card adding to the flavor of the whole deck.
September 24, 2015 7:22 p.m.
also, it's possible this card's color identity is colorless. Even though it says the card is all 5 colors. From Beyond has the ability devoid, which says it has no color, but it still has a color identity of 
because of the green mana symbol in the casting cost. It's something to look into, it might just have to do with how you word it. I don't know if there would be a difference between a static ability like devoid and a characteristic defining ability in this situation. Like I said, it's something to look into, because if it is colorless then that could effect what your going for, especially with the limited number of colorless legendary creatures.
September 24, 2015 7:28 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #6
enpc, hmm I see. I was just opposed to like some insane combo based on reanimating the first piece based on the second piece, you know what I mean? So I'm leaning towards exiling the card rather than moving it to the graveyard. And as for the "may" usage, the reason I chose for it to be a may is based on the off chance that the player reveals a card that hurts them way more than it helps. That way, they don't have to make it a copy of anything and it does due to SBE.
September 24, 2015 7:30 p.m.
It doesn't say what to do with any of the other revealed cards... do the go to bottom and get shuffled, to the graveyard, or exile as well??
September 24, 2015 7:33 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #8
abenz419 Color identity is also determined by color indicators, (see Withengar Unbound Flip, Pact of Negation, and Summoner's Pact) as long as OP makes the card have said color indicators (the rainbow effect) then the card will be considered 5 color by EDH rules.
September 24, 2015 7:39 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #9
abenz419, what color commander decks would be legally allowed to run Transguild Courier and why?
As for your other comment, I assuming magic grammar would allow for my wording since the revealed cards are still part of the library, but the correct wording should be "shuffle the other revealed cards into your library".
September 24, 2015 7:44 p.m.
How is this vorthos? There is literally no flavor. The general makes it seem like you'd cram a bunch of legendaries into the deck. Unless it's kamigawa a shitload of legendaries don't really jive flavor-wise.
September 24, 2015 8:02 p.m. Edited.
I don't quite understand what you're going for. Exactly what about this ability makes this guy a vorthos commander?
To give you an idea where I'm coming from, these are a couple ideas I came up with for Vorthos commanders off the cuff.
Whenever a card is on the stack, you may read it's flavor text and gain 1 life. This ability doesn't trigger abilities or use the stack.
Legendary Creatures have "Will of the Council: Tell--or make up--a lore factoid about this creature as it enters the battlefield, and all players vote for either Bard or Filibuster. If more players voted for Bard, it enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter on it. If more players voted for Filibuster, you lose 2 life and are shamed until end of turn. (Shaming has no mechanical effect)"
September 24, 2015 8:37 p.m.
SimicPower says... #12
Egann: Ideally, they should work within the rules. :-)
M a g i c a l H a c k e r: I would keep the card exiled, but have "when this leaves the battlefield, shuffle the exiled card into your library." This means you don't lose the card forever after it dies.
September 24, 2015 9:30 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #13
Transguild Courier is 5 color, it has received eratta to give it a WUBRG color indicator.
September 24, 2015 9:36 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #14
Okay, well I assumed it'd be obvious why/how this guy is designed for Vorthos decks, so here's the explanation.
Let's say you want to build a vorthos Sultai deck based around New Phyrexia, but you don't want to have a commander that isn't a major player in the lore. Too bad.
How about an Innistrad Esper spirit Vorthos deck? Nope.
What about Jund Theros monsters? You wish.
What about ... I'm sure you get the idea...
This guy lets you do any of that WITHOUT having to play a commander just for the colors.
Does that make sense?
September 24, 2015 10:05 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #16
Sweet! Here is the updated wording in case anyone was wondering:
Geshikte, Author of All History
Legendary Creature - Shapeshifter Elemental
Color indicator: White, Blue, Black, Red, Green
As ~ enters the battlefield, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a legendary creature card with converted mana cost equal to X or less, and you may exile that card. If you do, ~ enters the battlefield as a copy of that creature. Then shuffle the revealed cards into your library.
When ~ leaves the battlefield, shuffle the exiled card into your library.
0/0
As for the ACTUAL flavor of the card, this is an elemental shapeshifter that knows all possibilities in all universes, so it pieces together what actually happened in specific planes by hunting down planeswalkers, reading their minds, learning what those planeswalkers know, and then erases the memory of ever encountering it.
Now, I will begin to attempt to break this guy, which lets me see what needs to be fixed.
September 25, 2015 12:25 a.m.
Ahh, it's a way to work around the lore. I get it now.
The major broken thing I can see is it's an auto color-fixer. For example, if you play Scion of the Ur-Dragon, it's drastically different for you to pay 5 as opposed to WUBRG. Perhaps it would be more fair for him to have a casting cost of 0, and then you have to pay the other creature's converted mana cost as he enters the battlefield.
September 25, 2015 11:55 a.m.
MagicalHacker says... #18
True... I had thought of designing him around that previously, but the issue I couldn't get around is the fact that, in order to always get something from its ability, you had to have enough mana to cast the most expensive legend from your deck, and that seems meh.
klone13 says... #2
Sorry for my obliviousness but what exactly is a vorthos deck? I am sincerely interested.
September 24, 2015 6:41 p.m.