Magic: The Gathering's Masters sets tend to cater to experienced and invested players. Some, like Modern Masters, featured the staple cards of a particular format. Others, like Iconic Masters, were more focused on highlighting famous and rare cards from throughout Magic history. But the upcoming Commander Masters is the first-ever Masters set designed exclusively around Commander.
Fans can expect to see powerful and complex cards from all over MtG's history brought together to create an all-new draft environment. Like previous Masters sets, Commander Masters will be an opportunity for valuable cards to get long-overdue reprints, creative new legendary creatures to make their debuts, and old favorites to see brand-new artwork. In addition to several high-profile reprints, WotC has also revealed a handful of brand-new cards that will feature as the Commanders of a new set of preconstructed decks.
Commodore Guff
Commodore Guff is a brand-new planeswalker card in Jeskai colors that represents a time-honored character whose origins trace all the way back to the Invasion block. Commodore Guff makes a great commander for a "Superfriends" deck based around Planeswalker synergy, though he works just as well in the 99. Commodore Guff helps you cast planeswalkers faster and keeps up their loyalty counters, helping reach powerful ultimate abilities much sooner.
Commodore Guff is a potent source of damage and card advantage, though unfortunately, his -3 will not contribute to Commander damage. Since Commodore Guff's Wizard tokens produce red mana, he is particularly powerful when paired with red Planeswalkers like Ral, Storm Conduit or any of the many popular Nicol Bolas and Chandra cards.
Selvala, Heart Of The Wilds
Selvala, Heart of the Wilds is a powerful green Elf creature that made its debut in the original Conspiracy set, and now it returns as a reprint in Commander Masters. Selvala is a popular mono-green commander, as she can draw cards and tap for a lot of mana at once. She is also a powerful addition to multicolored decks thanks to her ability to generate mana in any color combination.
Selvala is relatively fragile, so she needs enchantments like Alpha Authority or equipment like Swiftfoot Boots to keep her safe.Selvala can be used to cast giant creatures much earlier than usual, or to power strong X-cost spells like Exsanguinate, Mass Manipulation, Torment of Hailfire, and Villainous Wealth.
Personal Tutor
Personal Tutor is a remarkable blue sorcery that has only ever appeared in Masters Edition II and Portal. Neither of those products is widely accessible for newer MtG players, so Commander Masters will be making this card both literally and financially more accessible.
Personal Tutor is a typical "tutor" spell, cheaply searching for any sorcery card and putting it on top of the player's library. Practically any Commander deck running blue can and probably will run Personal Tutor to find a boardwipe like Supreme Verdict or to complete a combo.
Sliver Gravemother
Sliver Gravemother is the sixth five-color legendary Sliver and brings a new spin to this notorious and bizarre creature type. Sliver Gravemother nullifies the legend rule for all Slivers, so a player can use spells and abilities to make token copies of their Sliver Legion or The First Sliver and get away with it.
Sliver Gravemother itself can help make those copies with its second ability, granting all Slivers Encore. While Sliver Gravemother doesn't synergize well with any other kind of graveyard recursion, it does essentially give every Sliver in your deck an extra turn to attack.
Anikthea, Hand Of Erebos
Anikthea, Hand of Erebos is an exciting new legendary creature that cares all about the graveyard and enchantments, which is perfect for a green, black, and white creature. Players might be tempted to enchant Anikthea in a Voltron Aura build, but Anikthea uses enchantments quite differently.
Anikthea gives all other enchantments Menace, rewarding the player for having lots of enchantment creatures in their deck rather than doubling down on Auras. Anikthea can also repeatedly make token copies of non-Aura enchantments in the graveyard as 3/3 creatures, which helps the deck resist enchantment destruction effects.
Zhulodok, Void Gorger
Zhulodok, Void Gorger is the first legendary Eldrazi creature card in years, and the first legendary Eldrazi character since the three original titans were introduced in 2010's Rise of the Eldrazi. Zhulodok is also a mechanical reboot for the cosmic horror Eldrazi tribe. Instead of Ingest or Annihilator, Zhulodok is all about Cascade.
Cascade is a powerful and cool effect found in all colors. It's tough to build a completely colorless Commander deck, but between Eldrazi and artifacts, it can certainly be done. Zhulodok can add the keyword to many powerful colorless Eldrazi cards, but its effect will also apply to any high mana-value artifacts as well.
Jeweled Lotus
Jeweled Lotus previously appeared in the Commander Legends set, where it became a breakout star with its Black Lotus-style effect. Even if Jewled Lotus' mana is only usable for a deck's commander, it's still an impressive throwback to a member of the Power Nine.
Jeweled Lotus sees play in Commander in decks of all colors. But it also synergizes with Dargo, the Shipwrecker, who becomes 2 generic mana cheaper because Jeweled Lotus was an artifact that got sacrificed. Jeweled Lotus is one of several overpriced Commander staples that should see a drop in price with the new reprinting.
The Ur-Dragon
The Ur-Dragon is immensely popular in Commander as the ultimate creature for any Dragon deck, but it is quite expensive thanks to having just a handful of printings. Now, Commander Masters makes it more affordable for a new generation of Dragon deck fans.
The Ur-Dragon is a titanic 10/10 that allows all five colors to be used in a Dragon tribal deck, from Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury to Niv-Mizzet Reborn. The Ur-Dragon can also be put into a Tiamat deck since both creatures are five-color Dragons and have similar builds.
Capture Of Jingzhou
Capture of Jingzhou was first printed in the rare Portal Three Kingdoms set. The Portal sets were based on Chinese history and mythology and were designed for Asian markets. They only ever saw a limited Australian print run in English hence their rarity and high prices.
Commander Masters will make Capture of Jingzhou far more accessible and should lower its $110 price tag a great deal. Capture of Jingzhou's extra-turn effect isn't unique, since it's just Time Warp with a different name, but collectors should enjoy getting this card and its special art. It also basically works as a second copy of Time Warp for any deck that wants it, a powerful role to play in a singleton format.