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Magic: The Gathering Warhammer 40,000 Commanders Have Potential

Magic: The Gathering, the premier collectible trading card game by Wizards of the Coast, has recently gone into doing crossovers with all manner of different intellectual properties from other companies, including TOHO, Netflix, and even Capcom. These crossovers are all part of the company's Universes Beyond initiative, which facilitates such events. But their next upcoming Universes Beyond collaboration, one with Games Workshop for Warhammer 40,000, maybe prove to be their most ambitious to date. On August 25th, the Wizards Play Network released images for the renders of the face commanders for the four Commander-format preconstructed decks surrounding 40k. Not wishing to waste another moment, here's what we think you can do with them!

We will conduct this analysis as such: First, we will look at the strengths of the commanders in question, noting their archetypes and the impact that they already have on the format (without taking into account any unreleased cards besides these face commanders). Next, we will look into some interesting tech for them, as well as whether they would fit into the 99 of the main deck for any other existing commanders. Finally, we will give our verdict on if the commander is fit to lead, or to be slotted into the deck as a whole for a different commander. Did you catch all that? Alright, let's do this!

Abaddon the Despoiler in Magic: The Gathering

The first commander we will be discussing here is Abaddon the Despoiler. Abaddon was previewed quite a little while ago and we got hooked right away by his aesthetics and his mechanics all at once. Observe:

So, immediately we can see that Abaddon is a fantastic commander for cascade and anything that goes along with casting cards en masse or even simply from exile. He requires blood to be spilt in the form of opposing life loss, however, so he will need to make sure cards in his deck will facilitate this. The first one that comes to mind for us is Loyal Subordinate. Loyal Subordinate can drain 9 life from your opponents in combat without having to have you attack first. Sometimes 9 life is all you'll need, but even 1 life is enough to make the engine roar. Cards like Sol Ring or Gorilla Shaman can cascade into things like Wheel of Fate or Profane Tutor, even Living End if you're ambitious enough to use it.

If you must relegate Abaddon to the 99 of a deck (and let's be honest here – who could relegate Abaddon the Despoiler of all the beings existing in Warhammer 40,000 to the 99?!), we think the only real choice is Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder. He thrives on very much the same resources and payoffs as Abaddon does, but adds green to his color identity, making for a slight upgrade in options from Grixis to sans-white. However, as it stands we think Abaddon is great as his own commander in Magic: The Gathering.

Szarekh, the Silent King

Szarekh, the Silent King is the face commander of the Necron Commander deck. We don't have any idea as to what's in the deck besides Szarekh himself and a Sol Ring, but we do know what he's about:

Szarekh seems to be good with artifact creatures and Vehicle cards, but wouldn't be optimal to crew a Vehicle himself due to his need to attack. As such, if there are any worthwhile untap effects such as Thousand-Year Elixir in colorless or monoblack, these are relevant to the Silent King. Without much to go by since his ability depends on the contents of the Necron deck or perhaps a monoblack Vehicles deck, we couldn't see much of an opening to use Szarekh as the commander of his own Warhammer 40,000 deck, but, at least at this present moment, we could see him working well in a deck led by Greasefang, Okiba Boss from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty!

The Swarmlord

The Swarmlord is a wonky commander, and leads the Tyranid Swarm preconstructed Magic: The Gathering deck of this release. It is blue, red, and green, and is a big beatstick that cantrips occasionally, if nothing else.

The good things about The Swarmlord are twofold: One, it gets bigger with each cast. Two, it will make any creature of yours cantrip as long as it dies with a counter of any sort on it. Does this make this creature terribly good leading its own Commander deck? The verdict is out, but we do know that Animar, Soul of Elements might be able to make good use of The Swarmlord in more casual environments.

Inquisitor Greyfax of Warhammer 40,000's Imperium

Finally, we come to Inquisitor Greyfax. Greyfax is a white, blue, and black legendary creature that spearheads the Imperium Warhammer 40,000 deck for this Magic: The Gathering release.

All things considered, Greyfax feels dull, but that can be said of most any clue-based commanders lately, perhaps. However, what is somewhat novel about her is her capacity to lead an Esper Humans deck. She's already a lord for all of your creatures, and as a Human, she can benefit from anything that benefits Humans, intuitively enough. As of present, there are ten other Esper commanders who have the Human creature type, but none of them suit a more aggressive strategy when compared to Inquisitor Greyfax. That being said, she can benefit pretty greatly from replacement effects that affect token generation (such as Academy Manufactor) and/or tap-based Stax effects like Stasis (as long as you have the means to untap her). The control element is there, but to make this deck a control-plus-aggro deck would be to craft a powerful work of art.

In the end, these Warhammer 40,000 commanders make reasonably strong leaders for their own decks or even great additions to existing ones. What do you think? Has Magic: The Gathering tapped into a good market with these decks? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

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