This week’s CommanderCast has Andy and his right-hand man Carlos joined by newcomer Justin, CommanderCast’s first DCI Judge guest-commentator and all-around baller. Justin was present for our first call-in show (the second is coming!) and also recently began writing for CommanderCast with his most recent article. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Justin join the ranks of CommanderCast regulars as he fits into the show’s crew quite well.

Show notes and links below. Enjoy!

00:00 to 05:05: Intro: Introducing the podcast, your hosts, and a brief rundown of podcast news for the week.

COMMUNITY

05:15 to 06:08: Deckbuilding Challenge: White-Border Only: PHASE TWO ENGAGE. In the second voting segment of the Deckbuilding Challenge, we’re picking a colour! Our Commander will be from Portal: Three Kingdoms, one of Magic’s most exotic sets ever that just so happens to be white-bordered.

06:20 to 20:18: Free-For-All Roundtable: Commander Tower: One of the spoiled cards for the Commander product, the Commander Tower is a fascinating and somewhat controversial card. Delve into the discussion with this roundtable!

20:25 to 35:38: Barriers to Entry: Commander is probably Magic’s fastest-growing format. Can I support that statement with evidence? Of course not. But will there be barriers to entry for these new Commander players, and are new ones cropping up? How can we deal with these as a community to strengthen the horde of 100-card deck slingers?

STRATEGY

35:48 to 58:18: Archetype Rundown: Ramp: A focused discussion on the ramp archetypes, broken down into both Artifact-based and Land-based. Why play these, and how do you fight them? Similar to our past segments on these subjects, but unique as we examine the two subsects of Ramp-style decks in parallel.

TECHNOLOGY

58:31 to 1:09:28: Curving Out: 1-Drops: In a new series, we’re looking at points on the mana curve and suggesting some cards for them individually. Dialing things back from our discussions on Ramp strategies, we take things back to the foundations of MtG with the simple, yet oft-overlooked one-drop. In Commander, a card with a CMC of one needs to be truly awesome to hold up to a format where colossal-cost bombs are thrown throughout games. We each pick a creature and non-creature CMC one spell to put on a pedestal.

Andy’s Picks:
Mystic Remora and Entrails Feaster
Justin’s Picks:
Voyager Staff and Spikeshot Elder
Carlos’ Picks:
Exploration and Weathered Wayfarer

1:09:40 to 1:11:14: Preview Card Hype Session: We take a look nat the upcoming Commander sets, examining the cards that excite us, take a brief detour into Hater Country to rag on what doesn’t work for us, and then swing back into pure, unfettered glee to talk about the Commanders we can’t wait to put our filthy hands on.

Carlos’ Picks:
Non-Legendary Card of Choice: Acorn Catapult
Biggest Disappointment:  Ruhan of the Fumori
Favourite Commander: The Mimeoplasm

Justin’s Picks:
Non-Legendary Card of Choice: Hydra Omnivore
Biggest Disappointment: Karador, Ghost Chieftan
Favourite Commander: Kaalia of the Vast

Andy’s Picks:
Non-Legendary Card of Choice: Mana-Charged Dragon
Biggest Disappointment: Basandra, Battle Seraph
Favourite Commander: Kaalia of the Vast

1:41:47 to closing: Outtro.

• Season 3 Contest (in case you somehow missed the other links or something)
• Justin’s Article from the mid-week update.
• The Command Tower, and here’s the complete visual spoiler for new cards.
• Brian’s blog, the Command Zone.
• Carlos’ Valakut deck article.