MTG: Make Your Deck Work For You – Top 5 Glint-Eye Commanders
It’s fun to follow the rules of Magic, but it’s even more fun NOT to follow the rules and get extras of everything.
Welcome Planeswalkers and Praetors to our ongoing series about the best casual experience in Magic: Commander. For the uninitiated, Commander is a semi-casual format for Magic: the Gathering. You use a deck of 100 cards led by a legendary creature, aka, your Commander.
Aside from basic lands, you are only allowed one copy of each card in the deck. Moreover, you can only include cards in your Commander’s “color identity” or artifacts. Each color and color combo has a unique playstyle and a wealth of mighty generals to lead your deck to victory. EDHRec.com is an excellent source for Commander info and can give you ideas to build your next Commander deck or tune an existing one.
White is the color of order in Magic. So, it makes sense that Glint-Eye Commanders, which include every color EXCEPT White, are absolute menaces. A lot of their big tricks are based on doing things out of sequence, from playing cards from exile to dealing damage just for casting a spell. If you want to go scrolls to the wall and throw caution to the wind, this is the color combination for you.
Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder
This four-armed baddie is the first entry on our list, and he has absolutely earned his spot. A 5/4 with trample for four mana is already a bargain, but it’s his second ability that makes him so good. As long as he deals damage to your opponent, all the spells you cast from your hand have cascade. You can do an insane amount of work with this ability (I was able to cast 13 high mana spells in a single turn), and with some of the backgrounds from Baldur’s Gate, you can make them even better.
Thrasios, Triton Hero & Vial Smasher the Fierce
Thrasios is one of the original EDH kings, and well deserved. With just a small amount of investment, you can dig out your entire deck to find exactly the card you need or even immediately win.
Vial Smasher is a great companion for him, not only because of the ability to throw out extra damage but also for the Rakdos color adds. The nastiness you can dig four in Glint-Eye is not nothing, and being able to predetermine the amount of damage Vial Smasher will deal with Thrasios’s scry ability is very fun.
Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix & Vial Smasher the Fierce
The little goblin that could makes a return, this time with a mana enabler of epic proportions. While this combo isn’t as potent as Thrasios, if you have ways to enable card draw WITHOUT casting spells, you can potentially cast a massive spell like Omniscience to slap someone with Vial Smasher’s damage effect.
Cecily, Haunted Mage & Elmar, Ulvenwald Informant
A pair of best friends from an upside-down world, Elmar and Cecily, hold an interesting position in the hierarchy. Elmar can draw you extra cards, lining you up for Cecily’s big secondary hit. You won’t have a ton of creatures, but you’ll have a MONSTROUS amount of spells.
Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper & Kraum, Ludevic’s Opus
This one is weird, but it’s fun. You want to play big toughness and try to look your opponent down. Do they risk giving you a card or limit themselves to one spell a turn? Either way, it works out for you.
What do you think of these commanders?
