Yesterday, during the debut stream, Wizards revealed a bunch of cards from the upcoming MTG Star Trek set, and the highlights are quite intriguing. Even if you’re not a big fan of Universes Beyond sets in general, there’s no denying that the iconic characters and thematic Spacecraft are bursting with flavor. Today, we’ve got another round of cards to show you, many of which look poised to see EDH play.
MTG Death Is Irrelevant
For Reanimator fans, Death Is Irrelevant is a spicy top-end piece. Like Portal to Phyrexia
Portal to PhyrexiaWhen this artifact enters, each opponent sacrifices three creatures of their choice.
At the beginning of your upkeep, put target creature card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control. It's a Phyrexian in addition to its other types., it provides a steady stream of threats turn after turn, which cards like Strionic Resonator
Strionic Resonator{2}, {T}: Copy target triggered ability you control. You may choose new targets for the copy. (A triggered ability uses the words "when," "whenever," or "at.") can amplify.
Yet, by triggering on end step, you can reanimate a creature before your opponent has sorcery-speed removal ready. Add the benefit of giving your bombs Indestructible if Death Is Irrelevant sticks around, and you’ve got a promising haymaker.
Unfortunately, eight mana is a huge price for this effect when better game-breaking plays like Rise of the Dark Realms exist. As such, your best bet is to cheat this enchantment into play with cards like Winter, Cynical Opportunist
Winter, Cynical OpportunistDeathtouch
Whenever Winter attacks, mill three cards.
Delirium — At the beginning of your end step, you may exile any number of cards from your graveyard with four or more card types among them. If you do, put a permanent card from among them onto the battlefield with a finality counter on it.. Still, don’t be surprised to see this tool across the table in casual settings, as it will take over games if unanswered.
MTG Miles O’Brien, Transporter Ops
When it comes to generating lots of value, Miles O’Brien, Transporter Ops is the ultimate payoff. Not only does it let you bounce other permanents with strong enters effects right away, but it then rewards you further with extra card advantage.
With this in mind, your best bet with Miles O’Brien as your Commander is to utilize cheap self-bounce effects, like Nurturing Pixie
Nurturing PixieFlying
When this creature enters, return up to one target non-Faerie, nonland permanent you control to its owner's hand. If a permanent was returned this way, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature., to reliably generate card advantage. Notably, this legend’s final ability triggers on every end step, so flashing in Whitemane Lion
Whitemane LionFlash
When this creature enters, return a creature you control to its owner's hand. to bounce itself during every opponent’s turn is an intriguing play.
While Miles O’ Brien could be interesting in the command zone, the card is even better in the 99 of bounce-themed Commanders like Tameshi, Reality Architect, because of his limited color identity. Even Greasefang, Okiba Boss
Greasefang, Okiba BossAt the beginning of combat on your turn, return target Vehicle card from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains haste. Return it to its owner's hand at the beginning of your next end step.‘s end step trigger synergizes with Miles O’Brien, adding even more utility.
MTG Antagonist Incorporator
At a baseline, a two-mana 2/3 that makes a 1/1 token whenever it connects in combat is a decent rate. When paired with other artifact creature token-making Commanders like Urza, Chief Artificer or Breya, Etherium Shaper, however, it’s easy to make a bunch of extra tokens. While a 1/1 may not seem like much, these little guys can easily have a compounding effect, fueling Breya’s activated ability or growing Construct tokens made by Urza.
The big downside, however, is that you need to invest a lot of mana to build a wide board of tokens. Fortunately, Urza, Lord High Artificer can give you a mana surplus to work with, then let you convert the tokens you make into even more mana. With token doublers, you’ll even net mana in the exchange!
Beyond its Commander appeal, this creature could make a splash in Standard. It pairs nicely with Pinnacle Emissary and Ravenous Robots as go-wide tools that discount Krang, Master Mind. With Engineered Explosives as another zero-drop artifact, Affinity could emerge as a decent archetype.
MTG Mirror Universe Intrusion
In a creature-dense format like Commander, you’re bound to have juicy targets for Mirror Universe Intrusion worth copying for three mana. Pairing this tool with effects like Jon Irenicus, Shattered One
Jon Irenicus, Shattered OneAt the beginning of your end step, target opponent gains control of up to one target creature you control. Put two +1/+1 counters on it and tap it. It's goaded for the rest of the game and it gains "This creature can't be sacrificed." (It attacks each combat if able and attacks a player other than you if able.)
Whenever a creature you own but don't control attacks, you draw a card., that “gift” opponents with creatures also helps ensure you always have good copy options.
The real prize, however, is reaching nine mana and getting a Clone Legion
Clone LegionFor each creature target player controls, create a token that's a copy of that creature. variant. This is obviously hard in most decks, but Sultai ramp shells with Commanders like Nine-Fingers Keene
Nine-Fingers KeeneMenace
Ward—Pay 9 life.
Whenever Nine-Fingers Keene deals combat damage to a player, look at the top nine cards of your library. You may put a Gate card from among them onto the battlefield. Then if you control nine or more Gates, put the rest into your hand. Otherwise, put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. can make it happen. Kicking this card is especially realistic in Teval, Arbiter of Virtue
Teval, Arbiter of VirtueFlying, lifelink
Spells you cast have delve. (Each card you exile from your graveyard while casting those spells pays for {1}.)
Whenever you cast a spell, you lose life equal to its mana value. decks, which can effectively reduce the spell’s cost to four mana.
MTG U.S.S. Discovery, at Black Alert
By itself, U.S.S. Discovery, at Black Alert is too clunky to be a real threat most decks want. After all, you only get your mana’s worth up front if you Discover into another five-drop, and the Station cost on this card is likely too high for Constructed purposes. Nonetheless, a handful of Commanders can make great use of it.
At the top of the list is undoubtedly Bello, Bard of the Brambles, which rewards you heavily for playing beefy artifacts to begin with. From there, thanks to Bello’s trigger, you can attack and trigger your Spacecraft without ever needing to Station it!
On a different axis, Wulfgar of Icewind Dale
Wulfgar of Icewind DaleMelee (Whenever this creature attacks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each opponent you attacked this combat.)
If a creature you control attacking causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time. decks can help double up this Spacecraft’s attack trigger, generating extra value. Being able to consistently cast spells from exile via Discover also helps Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald
Faldorn, Dread Wolf HeraldWhenever you cast a spell from exile or a land you control enters from exile, create a 2/2 green Wolf creature token.
{1}, {T}, Discard a card: Exile the top card of your library. You may play it this turn. shells. As such, even though this card is a bit underpowered, it still has merit as a support piece.
MTG U.S.S. Enterprise-A, Free Spirit
Continuing the trend of five-mana Spacecraft with solid enters effects, U.S.S. Enterprise-A. Free Spirit nets you a trio of tokens for your troubles. These Officers synergize perfectly with Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s final ability, and the Spacecraft can be tutored by the legend as well. With token doublers like Anointed Procession
Anointed ProcessionIf an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead., which this deck already wants to play, you can even Station the Spacecraft right away.
Beyond just its appeal alongside other Star Trek legends, this tool also makes for a decent addition to Felisa, Fang of Silverquill
Felisa, Fang of SilverquillFlying
Mentor (Whenever this creature attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on target attacking creature with lesser power.)
Whenever a nontoken creature you control dies, if it had counters on it, create X tapped 2/1 white and black Inkling creature tokens with flying, where X is the number of counters it had on it. decks as another Spacecraft that accumulates counters. It’s a decent blink target in decks like Brago, King Eternal, too.
While U.S.S. Enterprise-A is best-suited for Commander, the reward for fully Stationing it is quite high in Constructed. Thus, it wouldn’t be shocking if this artifact appeared as a Repurposing Bay tutor target in Jeskai Artifacts, which can easily level this card up with Simulacrum Synthesizer
Simulacrum SynthesizerWhen this artifact enters, scry 2.
Whenever another artifact you control with mana value 3 or greater enters, create a 0/0 colorless Construct artifact creature token with "This token gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control." tokens. Then, the 5/5 Lifelink body with Ward 2 completely staves off pressure from opposing red decks.
MTG Troubling Tribbles
Troubling Tribbles is hilarious because, on the surface, none of the tokens you make do anything. Yet, all it takes is a reward for spewing tokens, like Baylen, the Haymaker
Baylen, the HaymakerTap two untapped tokens you control: Add one mana of any color.
Tap three untapped tokens you control: Draw a card.
Tap four untapped tokens you control: Put three +1/+1 counters on Baylen. It gains trample until end of turn. or Thalisse, Reverent Medium, and you’ve got yourself a solid enabler. The low-powered tokens also synergize with Arabella, Abandoned Doll without ever needing to attack.
Of course, adding Coat of Arms or Cathar’s Crusade can threaten massive attacks in a rather short time frame. If you ever have the luxury of Mutating onto the original, all of your copies will also be enhanced. So, while it takes work to get going, don’t sleep on Troubling Tribbles as a Commander addition.
MTG Replicator
Replicator is quite neat in decks that are capable of generating powerful tokens. While paying two mana to copy the Food token Replicator makes initially isn’t really worth it, copying beefy Constructs from Urza, Chief Artificer adds a lot of power to the board.
Once you pair this artifact with legends that make token copies of other bombs, including Hashaton, Scarab’s Fist or Tawnos, Solemn Survivor, things really start to pop off. After all, with just one token copy of Archon of Cruelty
Archon of CrueltyFlying
Whenever this creature enters or attacks, target opponent sacrifices a creature or planeswalker of their choice, discards a card, and loses 3 life. You draw a card and gain 3 life. of Portal to PhyrexiaPortal to PhyrexiaWhen this artifact enters, each opponent sacrifices three creatures of their choice.
At the beginning of your upkeep, put target creature card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control. It's a Phyrexian in addition to its other types., Replicator can pump them out each turn. Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer makes for a particularly good home, since it even turns your Food token into your artifact haymaker of choice.
MTG Worf, Intelligence Contractor
Worf, Intelligence Contractor is clearly designed for EDH, and makes for a pretty sweet build-around. Stealing up to three creatures at once for just three mana is awesome, especially if you have a sacrifice outlet to get rid of the creatures you take. Add in some blink effects or trigger doublers, and you can obliterate opposing small-creature decks.
Notably, though, Worf gets even better in the 99 of other decks like Winota, Joiner of Forces
Winota, Joiner of ForcesWhenever a non-Human creature you control attacks, look at the top six cards of your library. You may put a Human creature card from among them onto the battlefield tapped and attacking. It gains indestructible until end of turn. Put the rest of the cards on the bottom of your library in a random order. that get mileage out of attacking with lots of creatures. Najeela, the Blade-Blossom also pairs nicely with this creature, since the stolen creatures all become Warriors until end of turn.
Digging deeper, if you can connect the stolen creatures in combat with Marchesa, the Black Rose, in play, you can grow them and then sacrifice them to keep them permanently. Worf really is better than it looks, and it already seems pretty dang good.
MTG Romulan Bird-of-Prey
Nothing about Romulan Bird-of-Prey immediately jumps off the page, but a 4/4 flier for just two mana is well ahead of the curve. The key is being able to Station it, but all it takes is four cantrips, and you get your 4/4. This artifact can even become a creature at instant speed, threatening unexpected blocks. As such, it wouldn’t be crazy if it saw some Standard play in a format with both Sleight of Hand
Sleight of HandLook at the top two cards of your library. Put one of them into your hand and the other on the bottom of your library. and Opt
OptScry 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom.)
Draw a card..
In Commander, its ability to quickly accumulate charge counters makes it an appealing addition to Donatello, Mutant Mechanic decks. Alongside Moxite Refinery, you can continuously convert Romulan’s charge counters into +1/+1 counters elsewhere.
Ultimately, this set looks very intriguing so far for Commander enthusiasts, enhancing numerous thematic archetypes. More spoilers are on the way, so be sure to check back for more goodies in the coming days.
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