The Top 8 Modern Masters 2017 Reprints I’m Most Excited About For My Commander Decks

Modern Masters 2017 seems to have something for everyone, from Damnation and Liliana of the Veil to Past in Flames with great new artwork and Gifts Ungiven. This set has a lot of potential value, but most importantly for Commander players it will give some newer players access to a lot of old cards that have been infrequently printed. As someone who has not been playing for long I am very excited for this set. It will finally allow me to get my hands on some cards I’ve wanted for a while, namely Damnation and the OG Zendikar fetches. In fact, the only negative things I have to say are that I dislike the new Goblin Guide art (meaning I’ll have to buy older ones anyway) and that there is no storm pay off for limited (despite all the enabler reprints)!

So let’s get down to business. Here are my top cards I want from this set for my Commander decks:

If you’ve read my other articles I don’t rate lands very highly on my lists because they aren’t very exciting to me. That being said, Zendikar fetches are something I’ve wanted for a while but haven’t been able to have access to due to the price tag. And so, they make it on to this short list of cards. Not much else to say here, they are fantastic lands that any deck would love to have.

For someone who doesn’t like to list lands this was something that I was tentative about including. Then I remembered that Cavern of Souls is insane and literally any tribal deck (in this case my Mizzix deck, which has been updated since this article) just gets so much better when their key pieces can’t be countered. Cavern of Souls is another fantastic land that has a great ability tagged onto it.

In a similar vein as lands mana rocks are not incredibly interesting but they’re a must in any Commander deck. Signets are some of the better 2CMC mana rocks in the format both ramp and mana fixing in a neat little package. As a little bonus some of these signets have had long awaited art updates (that Dimir signet looks fantastic). It’ll be nice to be able to have more access to these for those of us with multiple, multicoloured decks.

I’m a huge fan of being degenerate, a side-effect of playing in a number of very spiky playgroups. Deadeye Navigator is probably the best way to do this easily. Without Prophet of Kruphix it’s no longer the disgusting powerhouse that it once was, but an Eldrazi Displacer with a cheaper ability and the ability to protect itself can take over games all by itself. I was a little surprised to see this in a Modern Masters set since most of the other rares in the set are in well known Modern decks (excluding Seance) however it does perfectly fit the UW flicker draft archetype they’re pushing (just imagine Deadeye Navigator[/]c and [c]Venser, Shaper Savant. Gross.)

From the research for my deck-building article based on Instants and Sorceries I can tell you that cheap, versatile removal is fantastic and some of the most played spells in the format. Abrupt Decay is both of these, add to that the fact that it’s uncounterable and you’ve got something that is pretty much a done deal in any GB or GBx deck.

Another card that I’ve wanted for a long time but have held off of due to the price tag. Izzet has always, and will always, been my favourite colour combination and Snapcaster Mage embodies everything that those colours want to do, playing in your opponents end step, playing awesome spells and playing those awesome spells again. I was lucky enough to get hold of one recently but this is something that I’ll always be looking to get hold of to upgrade my decks. In a limited format with Path to Exile, Inquisition of Kozilek and Abrupt Decay a rarity shift up to mythic is completely understandable.

The elusive colour-shifted Wrath of God that was avoided for so long by Wizards finally gets a reprint. This will make another fantastic board wipe more accessible to newer players and will make people’s Atraxa decks even better… Wait, that’s not good! Wizards, why would you do this to us?!?!

On a serious note Damnation gives black decks access to an efficient board wipe that doesn’t cost them life, something they seem to lack outside of this card. (Also, using Snapcaster Mage to flash is back just feels so good)

And at number one, a decision that was somewhat biased, drum roll please:

For those of you that don’t know me (which is most of you), I have a Daretti, Scrap Savant deck that I am currently foiling/Masterpiece’ing. This reprint will hopefully drop the price of foil Blood Moons. With all of the new 4 colour decks floating around since the Commander 2016 precons there are more board states than ever where Blood Moon can win the game for you. This is something that I avoided putting into my deck (like Ensnaring Bridge which I was lucky enough to pull a Masterpiece of) due to the extremely high price tag. With this I finally have the chance to actually play with a copy of this card.

Mountains are clearly the best basic land type I don’t care what you say.

Community Question: What card reprinted in Modern Masters 2017 are you most excited about for your Commander decks?

So those are the cards that have gotten me most excited about the new addition to the Masters family, what are yours? Were you one of the people who lost is when you saw Liliana and Tarmogoyf? Is Linvala, Keeper of Silence more your kind of thing? Or maybe you play Duel Commander and you’re excited for a new printing of Big Daddy G, Griselbrand (something I’m not looking forward to playing against in Limited for sure!).

This was a bit of a short article but I just needed to write something about the reprints and get the excitement out of my system. I cannot wait to draft this format and hopefully Blood Moon some people. My next article will be part 3 of my Deck-Building Tips which is based around Instants and Sorceries so you have that to look forward to!

Thanks for reading,

Paul Palmer

The Top 8 Modern Masters 2017 Cards I Most Want To Get For My Commander Decks, by Paul Palmer What card reprinted in Modern Masters 2017 are you most excited about for your Commander decks? http://www.Manaleak.com Paul Palmer

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