Foundations is here with Magic: The Gathering players for the next several years so it’s important to know what to look for when you’re cracking packs looking for upgrades for your favorite Commander decks.
With more than 300 cards to pick from across Magic: The Gathering Foundations and Foundations Jumpstart, there are bound to be a few cards that slip through the cracks. We combed through all the cards these sets have to offer so you don’t have to miss the biggest hits in the set.
Herald Of Eternal Dawn
There is no better feeling in Commander than saving yourself from the claws of defeat at the last second, defying your opponents with a final gambit to swing the game in your favor. With Herald of Eternal Dawn, you can do just that thanks to its game-breaking ability.
With the Herald out, you can’t lose the game and your opponents can’t win the game, which only gets better when you take into account that this Angel has flash. The Herald does cost a chunky seven mana, but hopefully, you don’t have to cast this creature until very late in the game.
Sire Of Seven Deaths
Functionally playable in every deck, the Sire of Seven Deaths is a brand-new Eldrazi creature with a definite theme going on. You’ve got seven keywords, including a ward that takes seven life as a cost, and then with a 7/7 stat line for seven mana, you’ve got an incredibly powerful creature.
While this creature is an absolute powerhouse in more niche decks like Odric, Lunarch Marshal, you can bet that any Eldrazi-based or mono-green deck can power this creature out in no time.
Valkyrie’s Call
An enchantment with a very powerful ability, Valkyrie’s Call gives all your creatures a second chance on the battlefield. Anytime a nontoken, non-Angle creature you control dies, you get to bring that card back to the battlefield, turning into an Angel and giving it flying and a +1/+1 counter.
This only works once, since the creature is transformed into an Angel, but you’re also in white so there are plenty of ways to flicker those creatures to reset them, or even reanimate them with some type of spell to never let them die. Don’t forget you get to retrigger all their enter the battlefield effects too!
Crystal Barricade
Walls have fallen off a bit in recent years but Foundations has a surprising new member to spice up your Commander decks with. This two-mana wall gives you a blanket that is hexproof and stops all noncombat damage that would be dealt to your other creatures.
That means your opponent has to spend two spells if they want to do something, one removal spell to blow up the Barricade and then whatever their intended spell is. Even if it gets blown up there are tons of ways to return cheap artifacts back to the board, sucking up even more removal spells.
Blasphemous Edict
As a pleasant surprise in Foundations, a new cycle was introduced into Magic, the Blasphemous cycle. We’ve had the red one, Blasphemous Act, for a while, and now a black version is here to mess up your Commander games.
Blasphemous Edict has each player sacrifice 13 creatures, though they get to pick which ones they want to sacrifice. The mass edict shares a similar mana reduction clause as the Act, letting you pay just one black mana to cast it if there’s 13 or more creatures in play, which is pretty darn easy to achieve in Commander.
Bloodthirsty Conqueror
Vampires are always going to be a strong contender for some of the coolest creatures in Magic and Bloodthirsty Conqueror is an incredible addition to the game. This five-mana Vampire has flying and deathtouch, which always seems redundant on a creature with a higher power but still can be relevant.
The real power comes from the Conqueror’s ability. Anytime an opponent loses life, you gain that much life. That’s a Exquisite Blood on a creature at the same mana cost. That means it combos out with all the same cards as Exquisite Blood, as well as playing very nicely into a Vampire shell.
Quilled Greatwurm
Big dumb green creatures got a new addition to their bestiary with Quilled Greatwurm, perhaps one of the better mythic green creatures to come around in a bit. Not only is it an efficient creature, giving you a 7/7 for just six mana, but it comes loaded with two very strong abilities.
Creatures you control gain +1/+1 counters equal to how much damage they dish out in combat, getting bigger and bigger with each attack. Then, if anything were to happen to it, you can return Quilled Greatwurm to the battlefield by removing just six counters from creatures you control and paying its mana cost again. Even just one attack from a moderately powerful attack can give you enough counters to bring back the Greatwurm time and time again.
Koma, World-Eater
Koma makes a return to Magic in Foundations, and while he is a little different than how we remember the massive snake monster, it has plenty of power packed into this little card. Koma remains uncounterable, letting you safely cast it into any blue player with open mana, which is important particularly late in the game.
Once you get to untap with Koma, you have a massive 8/12 with trample and some solid protection with its ward 4 ability. On top of that, anytime you smack an opponent with Koma you get to make four 3/3 Serpents, adding 12 power to your side of the board.
Twinflame Tyrant
Okay, we all know that Dragons are one of the most popular creature types out there and there are plenty of people with dedicated Dragon kindred decks, but Twinflame Tyrant can slot into so much more than that.
Twinflame Tyrant doubles the amount of damage you deal to everything from your opponents directly to their permanents, letting you tear through practically all your opponent’s defenses after a single turn.
Niv-Mizzet, Visionary
The latest entry into the line of Niv-Mizzets might not be the most powerful of them, but it is still an incredible addition to the game. The Visionary has a few things going for it. It doesn’t have as severe of a mana commitment as other Nivs, costing six mana but just one blue and one red and a bunch of generic mana, so it’s much easier to slot into a multicolored deck.
Then, anytime a source you control deals noncombat to a player directly you draw that many cards. So if you deal 15 damage to one of your opponents in a single turn, you get to draw 15 cards. You have to use this ability responsibility since Niv can easily turn himself into a huge target for your opponents making him a sponge for all removal spells your opponents might have.
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