Multiverse Set Review: Commander 2019
Old Mechanics, New Legends
August 09, 2019 - By Nicholas Fair
Commander sets are always a treat when it comes to bringing Magic fans new and exciting cards. But more than just introducing new staples or archetypes, Commander is a chance for Wizards to create cards that give new life to Magic’s legends that either received lackluster cards in the past, or no cards at all. Commander 2019 is no different, with a slew of exciting Invasion-era makeovers and trips to many of our favorite planes.
As this is the very first Multiverse Set Review, I’ll be experimenting with the format for later releases, so please feel free to send me your feedback at mtgmultiverse.feedback@gmail.com. I’ll start off by diving into individual card evaluations & reasonings, then take a peek at artistic revisits and plane-less cards. Finally I’ll then tally up the total new additions by plane that will get added to the MtG Multiverse.
Cards from Known Planes
ZENDIKAR
Kor are always an easy card type to find a home for. Old Kor were from Rath, but all the new ones are from Zendikar. Guess which place has floating mountains and grappling hooks?
FIORA
Doomed Artisan was a bit of a tough nut to crack, and I was considering adding him to the unknown pile for a while. However, he seemed to be asking to go somewhere specifically, and I knew he had to go somewhere in the multiverse. His sculptures and style evoke a fairly Italian and renaissance vibe, and his leather-and-steel arm is certainly reminiscent of a plane with advanced cogwork, though not magical in the ways that Kaladesh or Esper have. As a plane with both major Italian vibes and noted mechanical limb replacements, Fiora was a great fit.
DOMINARIA
Cards that are named after a legendary creature tend to be no-brainers. As Sevinne’s home plane has been confirmed, thus so is the location of this spell.
REGATHA
This is fairly exciting: a card from Regatha that isn’t red?! It’s true, because in Commander anything is possible. This card depicts the red-aligned acolytes of Keral Keep, but in magical tethers. I’d wager it’s probably due to the magic of the Order of Heliud (unrelated to Heliod of Theros), who, though only referenced in the novel The Purifying Fire, use hieromancy to bring order to Regatha.
RAVNICA
The Worldsoul of Ravnica, unlike many others, is an elemental made of numerous dryads known as Mat’Selesnya. The Selesnya guild takes their name from this, and often talk about the ‘chorus’ or ‘song’ of the world in reference. It’s really cool to see a card finally evoke the flavour of the great being, and a flavour slam-dunk making it populate over and over.
INNISTRAD
Thalia, in all of her forms, seems to be gathering an army. Along with her Lancers and Lieutenants, she now seems to also have Geistcallers, which I’m sure is a welcome addition to any human army surrounded by malevolent undead. Thalia, of course, is a prominent character on Innistrad through both of its blocks, so Thalia’s Geistcaller gets to call Innistrad home, too.
TARKIR
Tarkir stands as one of two of the only planes so far that have Naga, and the only plane with Megamorph and the 'visual cues to go with it. Putting the two together gives us not only the home plane of the commander Kadena, but her Silencer as well.
ALAra
A welcome trip back to the wacky and wonderful world of Alara, this card not only features flavour text by a legendary Unearth commander from the plane, but features the infamous Uril, the Miststalker in the art. As a non-targeting removal spell, this is a flavour home-run against the hexproof beast.
INNISTRAD
Innistrad and Amonkhet are the only two planes with known Curses, but that doesn’t make it an automatic include to Innistrad. What does, however, is the inclusion of the Madness mechanic and the theme of the cursed wizard tome, which has been seen there a few times prior.
PHYREXIA
Although our boy K’rrik was featured as part of the Tolarian academy/Time Rift storyline on Dominaria, he’s a Phyrexian from old Phyrexia, so I’m sorting him with his daddy as part of the nine hells. He’s notable for not only being the first old Phyrexian to use Phyrexian mana on his card, but for bringing back the “no-longer supported” minion creature type.
Innistrad
After wracking my brain, I realized we’ve seen wings like this before, on a plane that loves giant demons and madness as a mechanic. Seems like an easy fit!
TARKIR
Although we never saw an Ape-Snake in our first visit to Tarkir, the manifest mechanic is Tarkir-only and the background green glow is a dead visual indicator giveaway. In addition, the opulent palace in the background and the look of a half-serpent, half-hooting mandrill is enough to give off one heck of a Silumgar vibe for even the casual fan.
INNISTRAD
Even if we didn’t have the legendary Anje and her rather prominent last name to go off of, the leather jacket and straps, combined with the gothic spires in the background, are more than enough to tell us this vampire is on Innistrad. I’m actually rather enjoying seeing more mono-red vampires coming out of that plane as of late: it seems Avacyn’s influence is sorely missed.
RAVNICA
If there’s one thing I learned from the most recent Ravnica block, it’s that the Gruul love giant boars smashing buildings. Add in the fact that our boy Ghired is clearly from the plane, and this is a slam dunk.
AMONKHET
It feels like we just went to Amonkhet, but I love it when Wizards’ uses cards in supplementary products to further the story of a plane. They occasionally show Koth on New Phyrexia to throw us a bone, and showing what’s happening on Amonkhet as the survivors of the trials wander the sands is a really nod to the great lore of the plane. All I need is another Hazoret ASAP!
THEROS
This one took me a little while, but the flavour of this card is pretty on-key with the Flamespeaker tradition from Theros. A type of red-aligned oracle, flamespeakers manipulate flame and lava in attunement with the god Purphoros to capture visions of the future and magmatic insight. The architecture in the background and the golden headdress are not 100% dead-on for any other Therosian card, but they fit fairly well with what we know of the plane.
ZENDIKAR
Zendikar seems to be Wizard’s go-to plane for multi-target red burn spells in commander that need new art, and I see why. It’s a plane that’s full of chaos and turmoil, the lands are constantly erupting, and showing the classic adventuring gear with ropes and hooks from our first jaunt on Zendikar shows us the danger that any kind of spell using the setting can have. As this is some new art, updating the dwarven dance party from Dominaria, I’m happy to have it.
INNISTRAD
No plane has more of a proclivity for devils than Innistrad, save possibly Ravnica, though the latter has no open fields to burn. The devils of Innistrad are a jovial, playfully malicious bunch, and the pitchfork-wielding fiends fit in perfectly.
IXALAN
If it’s a dinosaur, it’s probably from Ixalan, and if it’s got feathers in vibrant colors it’s definitely from Ixalan. Featuring the Ixalan-only Enrage mechanic seals the deal.
RAVNICA
Populate: Check. Selesnya building-elementals: Check. Easily a conclave spell from everyone’s favorite ecumenopolis.
DOMINARIA
Dominaria’s great ice age is the only cause for Snow permenants in the game thusfar. Sets Ice Age, Coldsnap, and Modern Horizons all dealt heavily with the mechanic, so this snake would fit right at home in the same place. Luckily for us, Ohran Frostfang is also a name and mechanical call-back to Ohran Viper, making it without a doubt from the same plane.
Ravnica
Sometimes placing cards is difficult. Sometimes they literally have where they’re from in the name. Selesnya Eulogist is the latter, and the entire card sells it.
INNISTRAD
The second “Falkenrath” was written on this card, it became an Innistradi vampire. Anje is too blurry in her madness to really show if she has the telltale golden eyes of her kind and the environment is too nondescript to tell if it’s a gothic cathedral, but luckily we don’t need those hints.
IXALAN
The Sun Empire of Ixalan have incredibly iconic helmets and style designs in general, so placing Atla was no feat at all. Their white-red-green color identity even align with the Sun empire’s trifold sun motif, and the eggs in the artwork are no doubt dinosuars waiting to hatch.
DOMINARIA
Chainer is possibly one of my favorite characters in all of Magic. The young dementia summoner was a prodigy of the Cabal on Otaria until meeting his end via use of the Mirari. His original card showcased Nightmare tribal in a way that was satisfying, so I was surprised when I saw his new card: luckily it suits him perfectly. If the graveyard is dementia space, Chainer lets his thoughts leak into the madness that resides there, and pulls his biggest, baddest nightmares out ready to fight. That’s as cool as it gets.
TARKIR
Elsha is about as Tarkir-native as they come. The plane has an iconic look to its Jeskai-colored djinni, and she fits the hallmarks of both perfectly. Add in the obvious background of the Jeskai monastery and you have a confirmed legendary Djinn at home amidst the users of the Ghostflame.
DOMINARIA
Magic’s head designer Mark Rosewater has noted time and again that the first attempt at turning the hero of the Apocalypse into a card was a big misfire. A mechanically unique and properly-colored revisit makes this one of the most exciting legends in the set. Oh, and he’s very notably from Dominaria, ancestor of the Capashen clan in New Benalia.
RAVNICA
The creative team knew this one would be an easy match for Ravnica: putting “Conclave” on a card with the Return-to-Ravnica mechanic populate tells us that Ghired is a devotee of Selesnya. But wait, red mana? Bones on his armor? He’s a shaman? An excellent bit of in-card storytelling despite no flavour text to back it up, Ghired’s card shows he’s a Selesnyan devotee turned Gruul, despite keeping his old belt and shinguards.
RATH
Similar to Gerrard, Greven is an old Weatherlight legend who had an earlier card. Unlike Gerrard, Greven’s mono-black beatstick was fairly on-point, but the hatred-fueled Phyrexian has plenty of red in his character as well, and the new card captures this very well. As captain of the Rathi planeswalking ship The Predator, Greven makes his home next to his lord Volrath on Rath.
TARKIR
As I mentioned while discussing her silencer, Kadena showcases nothing but Tarkir hallmarks. The glowing orange effect around her shows that her ‘face-down matters’ mechanic is related to the magic of Ugin and not Dominaria’s morph-spiders, and her ornate clothing screams Sultai. Tarkir is also only one of two known planes with Naga, making finding her home an easy task.
ALARA
Known for his Twinclaws back in the Alara block, Marisi is an easy card to place. He’s from the shard of Naya, if the mana cost wasn’t enough to give it away, although if this is pre or post-conflux Marisi remains to be seen.
ZENDIKAR
A somewhat unknown bit of history about Zendikar is that the vampires of the plane weren’t natives, but in fact mutated eldrazi scions made to emulate the native denizens of the plane. Although we’ve never heard of Rayami and have never seen a green vampire before, the red tribal tattooing, pulled-back hair, Ulamog-esque chest bones, and shoulder hooks are all dead giveaways for Zendakari vampires. Perhaps Rayami is the first of the vampires to break away and become an individual? Maybe we’ll find out on our next trip to the hedron-filled plane.
DOMINARIA
We wouldn’t know if from their card explicitly, but luckily for us we know Sevinne’s home plane thanks to their reveal. Wizards employee Ethan Fleischer announced that Sevinne was from Dominaria and native to Tolaria. This ties in with the Tolarian-looking mantle around his neck, and the epic title of “Chronoclasm”: Tolaria is known for powerful time magic and the temporal disaster that occurred there under the reign of Urza Planeswalker.
DOMINARA
Tahngarth, like his fellow Weatherlight crew members, was itching for a new card. His last card was probably one of the more successful takes on an old legend, but it depicts him post-Phyrexian mutation, when he was once a proud minotaur of Talruum. The new RG variation is a glimpse at the proud first mate before he was shunned from his culture and empowered by rage.
RATH
Just like his adopted brother Gerrard, Volrath had a lackluster first card during Magic’s pre-commander years. This new take puts him in “evil Simic” colors as he was always meant to be, and gives him a unique take on the shapeshifter motif that his associated cards often revisit. He’s technically a Phyrexian that was born on Dominaria, but Volrath was most notable as the Evincar (a fancy word for ruler) of the plane Rath that also happens to share his name. That makes putting the Volrath in Rath an easy choice.
ZENDIKAR
One of the really cool things that the world building for Zendikar did was take the gods of Ula, Cosi, and Emeria and reveal that they were actually the Eldrazi titans being worshipped under false pretenses. The Shrine of Forsaken Gods on Zendikar shows the forms the Eldrazi were assumed to take, and if the last commander gave us Ancient Stone Idol as Kozilek’s animated statue, this is clearly the statue for Ula. The poor priests know not what they ask.
New Phyrexia
Although the Mimic Vat was on Mirrodin, this new art is a reimagining that puts it right on New Phyrexia in the new, twisted version of the tangle with a being made of ichor. This isn’t the first card that’s a Mirrodin-New Phyrexia reimagining, but I hope it’s not the last.
Innistrad
Initially I had placed this little field plow on Lorwyn-Shadowmoor because I had totally forgotten about Innistrad’s scarecrows, but the more I look the more I think this is from our favorite horror plane. The knotted trees still remind me a lot of the ones found in the Shadowmoor block, and it pains me to think WotC didn’t include any nods to one of my favorite planes in this year’s commander, but that’s what it’s looking like. The more hand-made look and humanoid appearance really sell it.
TARKIR
Scroll of Fate has a quote from Ugin, the Tarkir-only manifest mechanic, and the glowing blue spirals of Tarkir’s morph/manifest magic: there’s not much more to it than that. Though in an additional injection of flavour, it seems that these are related to the Scrolls of the Masters that were left behind by the ancient Jeskai and that eventually inspired the planeswalker Narset to spark.
Artistic Revisits
When a card is reprinted, if Wizards of the Coast doesn’t think the old art is in-line with their current brand standards, they often commission a new illustration to give the card new life. Sometimes this results in the card representing a new plane, but more often than not it means that a new artist has a chance to re-imagine a piece of Magic history in a new way. With the Morph mechanic especially, there was ample opportunity in Commander 2019 to revisit old cards and give them a new, polished look. These cards represent the same entity on the same plane within the game, but with something akin to a new sense of style. I’m a big fan of the newly Esperish Solemn SImulacrum especially.
Cards from Unknown Worlds
Not every card in Commander has a home. Sometimes Wizards uses supplementary releases as a chance to give ‘slush’ art a new home without the usual boundaries and constraints of world guides. Of course, sometimes they use it as a chance to drop an easter egg for eagle-eyed fans and preview an upcoming plane. These cards don’t fit with anything we know of the multiverse right now, but may in the future. I’m especially interested in the Goblin Pirate who isn’t an Ixalan monkey-goblin. What’s his deal, I wonder? Is he in cahoots with the Pirate Minotaur from M20?
Final Plane Count
It looks like we got a great spread of cards from all across the multiverse with this latest release, and especially compared to the plane-agnostic commanders from last year, this may end up spoiling lore-seekers the world over. Card distribution seems to be fairly related to the popularity of the planes, though a little extra oomph has been given for the obvious tie-ins for the mechanical nature of the cards themselves. Morph is inseparable from Tarkir and Dominaria, for example, while madness is tied heavily to Innistrad. Dominaria’s legends lead heavily, only coming in behind the ever-popular Innistrad. Given the prevalence of Therosian cards in other supplemental products, I’m surprised to only see one card represent the plane in C19.
In Summary
Wizards of the Coast has been producing Commander sets for quite a while now, and I believe they have a very good pulse on the opportunities these kinds of sets give them. Legendary creatures are the bread and butter of both commander and the vorthos communities, and heavy lore from early Magic seldom got cards that it deserved. Seeing Wizards touch on planes we haven’t visited in a few years to remind us they still exist, while they give us worthy commanders for cards like Volrath and Gerrard are precisely why I get excited every spoiler season. In addition, notes of flavour and artistic re-visits are always a delight and show just how well Wizards knows its art direction and the worlds it creates: making the Onslaught “morph spiders” work in a painting is no easy feat. Commander 2019 is an incredible release from a lore perspective, and you can bet I’ll be getting my hands on these very soon!