The Grand Arbiter 🏳️‍🌈

Magic Card of the Day: Wheel of Potential Giving opponents the option to wheel is often disastrous. They either keep their good hand or refresh a bad one at no cost. This is interesting because you control the size of the wheel. Just be sure you have a way to capitalize on either choice. #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Gamekeeper Who doesn’t love a bit of randomness. I love a value rattlesnake a lot. In decks with high mana value creatures it’s really wild when the board wipe or blocking GIVES you more than you spend. What creature would you like to get in exchange? #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Crystal Baricade I’m a big fan of toolbox decks. I love having a flexible choices and wild solutions. What makes these strategies work is having cards do multiple jobs. This is an early body, hexproof from some of the more brutal crimes, and Blasphemous act insurance. #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Concealing Curtains/Revealing Eye This card isn’t amazing in the Commander space. But an activated ability to transform is something cool. Add an eye to your Agatha’s Soul Cauldron and you can transform anything! It’s really neat in Sephiroth getting multiple emblems! #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Tree of Redemption It’s interesting that life exchanges are considered life gain/life loss because on the face they are simple mechanics but can result in complex outcomes. With effect that look at both gain and loss (like Betor) it can make a big swing in value! #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Guard Gomazoa It’s often incredibly important to just have a blocker in the early game. It disincentivizes aggression and can point players toward each other while you can sit behind your defensive battle jellyfish and execute your master plan. #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Aether Membrane The color pie breaks in Planar Chaos really warped the identity of colors moving forward. This is one of the most incredible blockers, ensuring that fliers stay out and the biggest threats are put back into the hand. What a fun way to surprise in red. #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Herald of Hoofbeats This card has let me run away with the game so many times. Sure on the face it effectively says “Knights can’t be blocked*” but using a Portal 3 Kingdoms ability to show the power of Horse Girls is what I like to see. Get Galloped you nerd. #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Hellrider The Devil designs from Innistrad are incredible. I love that this incentives attacking but also with the large number of damage increase effects like Artist’s Talent and Ojer Axonil even 4 attacking 1/1s can do brutal damage. Also this has haste. So hot. 🥵 #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Murderous Rider I’ve said it before I often value flexibility over raw power. Some cards are good (Rystic Study) but are just the best move. Stuff like Adventure have a 1-2 punch and it’s about getting the most out of a specific window is far more interesting to me. #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Archon of Justice In Shadowmoor I was fully obsessed with this card. An exile Vindicate on a death trigger sounds so powerful, particularly if you can give it Persist. In commander this effect is good but at 5 mana you really need to multiply the triggers to get value. #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Siege Rhino Powercreep is real. In its original standard environment this rhino was a menace in midrange buying time for you with life and getting in significant chip damage. Now it’s a bulk dollar rare with competition from uncommons. What a wild journey. #mtg

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vluX... HERE WE GOOOOOOOO EPISODE 2!!!!!

Magic Card of the Day: Crow Storm There are a handful of cards in pre-Unfinity Unsets that could be printed into future sets. Imagine a future where this makes Storm Crow tokens and is legal in Commander/Legacy/Vintage. However I’m not confident it wouldn’t be too powerful? What do you think? #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Dovescape Your spells are now birds! These kinds of symmetrical effects are pretty rare in modern magic but they tend to be an incredibly interesting design space for commander. Nullifying most spells and making it a contest of air superiority is a fun challenge! #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Summon: Fat Chocobo He is good. He is round. He tramples your enemies with rotund fury. 6 power on two bodies for 5 is also pretty effective at putting threat on the table. If you can remove counters even better. Always be trampling and making 2/2 landfall birbs. #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Raven’s Crime I’m so glad retrace has seen quite a lot of appreciation after its first showing in Shadowmoor. Converting lands into action really does work well in limited and gives important consistency in constructed. And 1 to 1 discard is great when the cost is lands. #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Rukh Egg The first of the Egg Archetype with a such a bad wording that it was restricted for a short time. A 4/4 from discarding required errata. The idea of a weaker creature hatching into a stronger one informs an inspires a lot of future “eggs”. What’s your fave egg? #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Bone Shredder You might say to me Shriekmaw is objectively better than this, and in many cases it is, but having only 1/1 gives it a unique angle in decks such as Arnyn, Deathbloom Botanist and Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker. Honestly lots of cards have secret homes! #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Sphinx of Uthuun Do you know why Fact or Fiction is a good card? It’s mostly because you choose the best pile and because the unused cards end up in the graveyard, ready to be utilized in other ways. This with a flicker lets you do this recursively for advantage! #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Hatut Zeraze Strike Force Witch Enchanter demonstrates the value of a disenchant on a body ( as well as the option of a land), this also demonstrates 4 isn’t too much if you do it twice or three times. With a cheap enough commander you could make 4 2/2s in a pinch! #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Greenwarden of Murasa Being able to recur any card is often one of the most powerful things Green can do. Doing it twice on enters and death can set you up for a brutal win. Six mana can feel like a lot, but in the late game being able to recur after a wipe is crucial. #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Ingot Chewer Eating mana rocks is powerful. Tempo hits in commander can help prevent games from going totally sideways. It unlikely Sol Ring will get banned but you can chew them up to prevent a runaway snowball event. Shatter might feel boring but it is noble. #mtg

I don’t think any Jace Fan would suggest Jace makes good choices, but it’s clear from the narrative that Jace was always going to do a heel turn. The tragedy of Jace is that his solutions are trying to save the world via domination rather than community. You cannot save something by controlling it.

Magic Card of the Day: Pinnacle Starcage One of the interesting things about deck homogenization is that silver bullet targeting gets more effective. With the current focus on 2 mana rocks, this card can reverse the escalation of multiple boards, often hitting 4 or more targets! #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Astrologian's Planisphere Wizards get the best toys. With two ways to trigger this equipment quickly will take you spell slinger nerds to get super swole. Crack back with the power of knowledge! #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Sphere of Annihilation It’s interesting when you put a wrath on the board that has a clock on it. Yeah it won’t blow up now, but it will if left alone and it will hit what I decreed. It’s sour if gets spot removed but if other folks are behind they might help protect it! #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Jade Orb of Dragonkind A 3 mana rock has to add a lot but in a dragon (or a changeling) commander deck making it slightly bigger and protecting it for a round is incredible. You’ll untap with your commander without a doubt! #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Ball Lightning Burn is often got a lot of instants and sorceries but additionally contains hyper efficient mana to damage creatures. 6 damage is generally great value when folks have 20 life.In commander you have to work a little harder to make this an effective threat. #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Haywire Mite I don’t think there is a better disenchant creature than this one. Yeah it can only hit non-creatures but that’s what is needed in most instances anyway. It exiles, it takes only one to activate, and as a bonus it gives you life. Thank you little bug bot. #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Soul Snare You activated my trap card! In commander defending planeswalkers is an endless chore. With this you can threaten a consequence for threatening you. It’s also a low manaI investment and is fairly easy to recur. It’s been power crept but it’s still fun! #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Gorilla Shaman Fast mana hates to see her coming. Sol Ring is unlikely to get banned but you can punish every single ring on the table and those pesky moxen. Monkey see, monkey break. #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Executioner's Capsule Terror in a bottle is such a fun effect. Commander as a social game means telegraphed removal still has a lot of influence. Folks have to decide if they want to hold back or risk getting blown out! A small investment to tilt the table. #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Brittle Effigy Colorless cards often show the raw cost of effects by letting you do almost anything but with deep mana efficiency. The initial investment of 1 however means you can threaten the Voltron player and make yourself a much less attractive target. #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Homura, Human Ascendant/Homura's Essence Of course you want your entire board to turn into dragons and all you have to do is kill a single 4/4 monk. With so many ways to cheat a creature onto the battlefield and kill it six mana is nothing. Use Homura to take to the sky. #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Dramatic Finale Token anthems are critically important but few are their own token engines as well. Even four 3/2 inklings is a considerable concern and that’s a platry number to create. Quickly you will find yourself out numbered and a smear on the stage. #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: All-Out Assault 5 mana for an additional combat step is very reasonable but combined with a deathtouch anthem is great value. Plus how wild is flickering an enchantment and getting an additional combat step right away? Madness. #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Gruul War Chant The magic of Red/Green is bringing great violence to many houses but it’s annoying when folks have chumps to block with. If everyone needs two blockers it becomes incredibly frustrating. Plus one can’t commit too many attackers less you be left open! #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Death Pit Offering What’s an Anthem worth to you? Your entire board? If your deck cares about dies triggers it might be! +2/+2 is nothing to sneeze at and with effects like Living Death you can bring all your creatures back, scarier then ever! #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Out of the Tombs As stated by @strixhavendropout.bsky.social there really isn’t a more efficient self mill than this card. It’s so innocuous but by the 4th upkeep 20 cards have been put into the graveyard. At that point they have 20 new ways to take out the table. #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Hurricane It’s really easy to forget how dangerous Green is when it had a metric fuck ton of mana, but then @roxistence.bsky.social hits you with a 36 point Hurricane leaving them at 1 life and everyone else dead. I certainly will remember that Green Burn now. #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Famished Worldsire In decks attempting to abuse lands this leviathan makes incredible value, particularly in CEDH Lumra. I might have a stifle for it but it’s pretty easy for @bill.spikefeeders.com to just ask me not to and I miss the window. Lord I’m easy… #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Dualcaster Mage It’s dumb how good this card is. Fork’s creature version is a combo machine. @carlomtg.bsky.social Was able to close out a game with this loop after making 40 Etali triggers. With that many triggers it’s just about what pieces exist. Great job! 👏 🦖 #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Insurrection I had board wiped and removed or disarmed 2 players so all that was left was @strixhavendropout.bsky.social and I THOUGHT I had them on the ropes. I made my commander gigantic to win but they stole it with this, gave it double strike and to delete me. #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Endurance Pitch spells define the formats they are in and thus designing them is pretty difficult. This however feels like a powerful but defensive effect. It can prevent a win from Oracle or save you from mill. You can save yourself, but you must find a win elsewhere. #mtg

Magic Card of the Day: Blustersquall There are many instances where just tapping a creature is just as good as removing it. An end step cyclonic rift can win the game, but tapping all opposing creatures for your alpha strike works just as well for only 4. It can also be a fog in a pinch! #mtg

My loot of signatures from @facetofacegames.bsky.social Command Fest Toronto. @ninovecia.bsky.social thanks for letting me bug you all con, @kimsokol.bsky.social for being an absolute charmer and @zaraalfonso.bsky.social for making sure I waited enough to avoid smudging. You are all fantastic!

In some of my Magic Communities the Zeta drop has reopened the wounds on 1917 sculpture “Fountain” by Duchamp. An ontological debate for the ages.