Number Five: Regal Behemoth

Green and one-sided mana acceleration have been an inseparable pair since the very beginning of Magic though most of the time it was single card buffs like Wild Growth or Overgrowth. That all changed with Mirari’s Wake, opening the door to granting a Mana Flare-like ability solely to you. For one more mana, Regal Behemoth trades that +1/+1 bonus for a 5/5 trample creature.

Regal Behemoth sits squarely in the middle when it comes to cards that double your mana. Because you can lose the ability thanks to the Monarch trait, Regal Behemoth likely won’t sit there begging to be blown up like Wake, Mana Reflection, or Zendikar Resurgent, and it’s going to generate wayyyyyyy less hate than Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger. At the same time, although the ability can be lost, thanks to the 5/5 trample frame, getting it back shouldn’t be that difficult. Think of it as preservation mode.

At worst, Regal Behemoth is a 5/5 trample for six mana that lets you draw a card the turn you cast it. At worst. At best, it can accelerate your deck with the best of them, and could easily find a home in almost any Green deck.

Number Four: Recruiter of the Guard

If you’ve ever wanted to see a $300 card drop in demand practically overnight, stick around. Because Recruiter of the Guard is a de facto Imperial Recruiter in White, trading the power search criteria for toughness.

Admittedly, Legacy players will be way more excited about this card than the casual crowd players due to it fitting into several deck archetypes, but that hardly means this card lacks value in the Commander settings.

For one, tutoring for any nonland card outside of Black is always going to have value in formats with large decks, even if it is seemingly restrictive. Just look at Muddle the Mixture, Enlightened Tutor, Tinker, Green Sun’s Zenith, and so on. This is doubly so in White, which barely outnumbers Red for the color with the least amount of available tutors. (It’s sort of a cruel irony in that way when you think about it.)

This ability also sort of makes more sense in White than Red anyhow. Both colors have a fair amount of small creatures, but White has plenty of highly useful creatures on the smaller end of the scale, allowing you to grab whatever you can to help your situation. And that assumes, of course, that you only stick to White cards. In reality, any small creature in your deck is fair game. It seems restrictive, but there are far more options here than you think.

The biggest benefit to Recruiter of the Guard over Imperial though? You’ll actually be able to find it.

Number Three: Leovold, Emissary of Trest

One of my personal favorite Blue creatures ever is Rayne, Academy Chancellor, partially because I always liked her spearheading the Tolarian Academy – one of my favorite settings – but mostly because of her ability. Rayne’s ability, modeled after Reparations, basically says that if an opponent targets any of my stuff for any reason, I get to draw a card. It may not work for board wipes and the like, but more often than not (especially in Blue), one is inevitably going to put out things people want to get rid of. To have that permanent always replaced by new card potential provides huge card and tempo advantage over the course of the game.

So, welcome Leovold, Rayne’s spiritual successor. Aside from the tricolor investment, it’s an impressive upgrade with a slightly bigger frame. Leovold removes Rayne’s Aura rider and instead pairs it with Spirit of the Labyrinth – except that it only affects opponents. This probably explains why Leovold is Blue / Black instead of Blue / White – though aside from the elf creature type, Green’s influence here is admittedly elusive.

Still, when these two abilities are put together, it will generate even more notable card advantage than Rayne did. The first ability prevents others from drawing faster than you, which can significantly curtail decks designed around drawing cards or ramping quickly, and the second, while situational, eases the pain when things in Commander inevitably go awry. Rayne herself is often seen as a nuisance when people are trying to pick on you, and Leovold ups the ante significantly.

Number Two: Selvala, Heart of the Wilds

Let it be said here: if there is one card from Conspiracy 2 that has any danger of being banned by the Rules Committee, it’ll be the new Selvala. Bearing a very similar vibe to perennially banned Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary, Selvala is built from the ground up to be mana ramp personified.

For just three mana, Selvala’s two abilities speeds up your tempo whenever she hits the table – and she’s down right scary if used as the Commander itself. The first half of the card is a universal effect, a sort of group hug style ability where whoever puts the biggest creature on the board will draw a card. You know, like a Green deck. While it’s fair game for anyone, it hardly mitigates her as a threat, especially since it ties well with her far scarier second ability.

Worst case scenario with Selvala’s activated ability is that she nets you one mana of any color. Worst case. This effect ultimately feeds on itself, however, by generating more mana to put out bigger creatures, always giving you N-1 mana of whatever colors you want, with N equal to your biggest creature. This in turn gives you more mana to put out more things, and, well, you get the idea. Bad things happen.

Selvala is useful at any stage of the game, be it early game for ramp, after a wipe to rebuild, or in later stages to fuel potent spells. She both musters and fuels an army by herself, making it both amazing to use and terrifying if you let her sit for long.

Number One: Sanctum Prelate

Chalice of the Void has long been a popular card to stymie opponents, even in multiplayer settings. It’s crazy how many cards a simple number like ‘3’ or ‘6’ will prevent whole swaths of cards from being played. The only real restriction was the XX cost to make it work.

Until now.

Santum Prelate, while restricting the idea to white, is Chalice in creature form, with three minor but distinct differences. First, it’s only ever going to cost you three mana – the number to block casting spells is simply just stated when it comes out. This makes cards casting six or higher – very common in EDH – much easier to counteract. Second, it doesn’t counter the card. Instead, it merely makes it unable to be cast in the first place. It’s a corner case thing, but the Chalice can sometimes catch people not paying attention, causing them to waste their spell. This doesn’t have that advantage. Finally, it doesn’t affect creatures, which, while not as all-encompassing as the Chalice, certainly cuts down plenty of other spells, artifacts, and enchantments to make it well worth the three mana cost.

The latter two differences don’t undercut the advantage of the first, however, and as such the impact of this card can’t can’t be understated. Sanctum is incredibly powerful, and can find a home in any White deck with ease. You could put it out early to prevent mana rocks or land ramp cards from being played or later in the game to prevent counterspells, fog effects, spot removal, and more. It’s a slight gamble in Commander, but you’ll be surprised how easily it stops cards in your meta – especially if you play with the same people regularly. It can be dropped at any point in the game to devastating effect.

The only down side to Sanctum Prelate for Commander players, really, is that this also happens to be Conspiracy’s True-Name Nemesis. For a number of reasons, of the new unique cards the Prelate will be the chase card of the set for Legacy players, which means it could make getting this one somewhat difficult. If you do come across one though, you won’t be disappointed in her performance. And if that’s the biggest problem, you know you have a hit.

Would these cards have been on your own top ten? Tell us over on our social media!

Do you have a particular Commander card to suggest for us to shine a future Spotlight on? You can send suggestions to ryan@cardboardrepublic.com