The Prismatic BridgeThe Prismatic Bridge | Art by Johannes Voss

Going Down the Rainbow Road

As the calendar page turns from May to June, we enter Pride month, honoring all things LGBTQIA+. We started the celebration a little early last week, bidding farewell to Secrets of Strixhaven with five-color Avatar Typal before Marvel Superheroes spoilers begin in earnest.

There are issues with five-color commanders, however, and their designs are a source of debate in the Commander community.

It’s said that “restrictions breed creativity”, so, if a deck uses all five colors, it inherently has fewer restrictions on it than those bound by the color identity of the commander. 

Does this mean that five-color decks are less creative than decks with fewer colors?

The short answer is…not exactly. The longer answer is that it depends largely on the individual commanders and types. Some commanders have the Golos problem, being generically strong and not tied to any particular type.

And some types are so limited in their membership that the commander is just an excuse to play them all together and doesn’t really add anything to the type.

What are the Benefits of Five-Color Commanders?

Being in all five colors provides a wealth of options for a Typal deck. Especially for older types and those that have appeared in many sets or locations but whose appearances are few and far between, it can be difficult to find enough members in a given color identity.

While some types require a five-color commander to incorporate all of their members, others are primarily in a few colors but use the others for supplementary reasons.

For example, most enchantress themed decks are in Selesnya colors, but my five-color bouncing auras deck gets to use Jeskai AscendancyJeskai Ascendancy and Whirlwind of ThoughtWhirlwind of Thought to combo with Shimmering WingsShimmering Wings for a card draw engine.

There are even some types where the specific five-color commander provides a unique play pattern for the type. Scion of the Ur-DragonScion of the Ur-Dragon is a classic example of this, as it puts Dragons in the graveyard and becomes a copy of them, operating in a proto-Agatha's Soul CauldronAgatha's Soul Cauldron manner.

Most Dragon decks are about swarming the battlefield with giant flying threats, so this is fundamentally different.

So what’s not to like?

What are the Issues with Five-Color Commanders?

There are five primary problems that Commander players seem to have with five-color commanders; these issues are that they are: too easy, too generic, too set-dependent, too many colors, or too intrinsically powerful. 

“Too easy” refers to commanders that could slot at the top of any type because they’re easy to build around. 

“Too generic” refers to commanders that care about a specific type but don’t really feel like they do anything unique to that type or work with the type’s members. 

“Too many colors” refers to commanders of a type that has plenty of members and works well enough without the other colors. 

“Too intrinsically powerful” refers to commanders that are incredibly powerful without having anything to do with the type. 

“Too set-dependent” refers to commanders that helm a type that only appeared in one set or block and pretty much exist to give players who like that type a way to jam them all in one deck; they also tend to suffer from being too generic.

While some of the issues with five-color commanders have been around for a long time, there have been a substantial amount of them printed since main set design began shifting towards Commander, as well as the infusion of Universes Beyond into big and small sets.

The set dependence has been exacerbated with the addition of Universes Beyond and the end of multi-set block storytelling, but these issues all predate them.

As a result, Universes Beyond will be referenced, and it has exacerbated some of the problems, but these issues predate it.

Issue 1: The Commander Is too Easy to Build Around

Morophon, the BoundlessMorophon, the Boundless and Rukarumel, BiologistRukarumel, Biologist are both commanders that can helm any creature type without the deck having anything to do with them. 

Morophon is a changeling, so it can be a member of any type, and it reduces the colored cost of members of the type by one of each color pip.

It also acts as a lord for that creature type. There’s nothing about it that feels like any given type, which, to an extent, is the point of having a changeling commander.

Still, it feels like a bit of a cop-out, acting as a placefiller and leading to the Golos question: why bother playing any other commander when Morophon lets you play all five colors, is a member of the type, gives the type a cost reduction, and pumps all members?

Golos, Tireless PilgrimGolos, Tireless Pilgrim is banned in Commander for precisely this reason, as it is a five-color commander that is colorless to cast, has a generically-powerful ability that gives it access to all five colors, and can helm pretty much any deck.

Rukarumel, BiologistRukarumel, Biologist seems like a Sliver commander on first glance, but really isn’t. Rukarumel makes Sliver tokens, but she also turns all Slivers and nontoken creatures we control, cast, and have in any other zone, including herself, into whatever type we want.

So, once again, she’s a member of the type that churns out other members of the type. She is, at least, a bit tougher to cast than Golos and Morophon, but still feels like a cop-out.

Oh, and both of them are ridiculously easy to combo with, as Morphon has Fist of the Suns and Rukarumel has Mana Echoes and Intruder Alarm.

Issue 2: The Commander Is too Generic

Urtet, Remnant of MemnarchUrtet, Remnant of Memnarch and Reaper KingReaper King are both beloved commanders that helm types that occasionally get new members but have had a decent amount of support since they were released.

They happen to preside over types that are centered in artifacts and feature primarily colorless members, although some have colored activated abilities. The issue is that neither really synergizes well with the type they lead.

Urtet, Remnant of MemnarchUrtet, Remnant of Memnarch is a Myr commander, but feels like it would be at home commanding Servos, Constructs, or Thopters if its ability named them instead.

The Myr primarily are mana dorks, representing the cogs of Mirrodin. Urtet makes a Myr when we make a Myr, untaps our Myr during combat, and can tap itself along with all five colors to put three +1/+1 counters on our Myr.

Untapping our dorks to use again and giving them a mana sink seem like decent abilities, but it feels more like a generic artifact commander, being a watered-down fusion of Genesis ChamberGenesis Chamber, Unwinding ClockUnwinding Clock, and Steel OverseerSteel Overseer. For a type that waited a long time for a unifier, Urtet was a letdown.

Reaper KingReaper King is a Scarecrow commander, but nothing about it feels Scarecrow-like except its ability to inspire fear.

Reaper King is another Typal lord that can be cast with any color of mana but has all five colors thrown on from an ability, in this case, hybrid mana. The key ability is that any Scarecrows entering lets the controller destroy any permanent.

This is a hugely powerful ability, but it doesn’t feel like something a Scarecrow would do, doesn’t work with Scarecrow mechanics (which really don’t exist), and doesn’t add to what Scarecrows do besides making them a VindicateVindicate on a stick (with a creature body).

While it was introduced along with Scarecrows, so they’ve never known life without it and weren’t searching for a unifier, but their commander really doesn’t give them an identity.

Issue 3: The Commander Has Too Many Colors

The Ur-DragonThe Ur-Dragon and Terra, Magical AdeptTerra, Magical Adept are both commanders that represent types and themes that work just fine with fewer colors and have gained an unnecessary amount of riches by throwing in extra colors.

They also stay in the primary lane of the type, so they don’t really add much besides enabling more members.

The Ur-DragonThe Ur-Dragon is one of the most popular commanders of all time, but also one of the most polarizing. Eminence is an incredible ability, and one that almost instantly makes the commander one of the more powerful things you can be doing, as it doesn’t require the commander to be out to provide a bonus.

The Ur-DragonThe Ur-Dragon is particularly egregious, as it is another five-color commander that gets around mana issues and provides a cost reduction.

That it does so in a type that specializes in swarming the board makes it an easy way to upgrade Miirym, Sentinel WyrmMiirym, Sentinel Wyrm, which is already incredibly powerful, by adding even more options.

Terra, Magical AdeptTerra, Magical Adept might not be the most popular commander or the leader of the most popular type, but this Saga commander adds three colors to a traditionally-Selesnya type without really elevating the Sagas themselves.

Terra appears to be a Gruul commander and has a Gruul ability; the only reason why it has all five colors in its identity is that it flips into a Saga that makes two of each color of mana with its last ability.

It does kind of draw cards by milling five and returning an enchantment, and then it can copy non-legendary enchantments, including adding lore counters to Sagas copied this way.

Still, Terra feels like she should have been Gruul, doesn’t add anything that Selesnya Saga commanders like Satsuki, the Living LoreSatsuki, the Living Lore or Garnet, Princess of AlexandriaGarnet, Princess of Alexandria don’t have, and gives extra options to a type that already had enough to support the type.

Oh, and there are three-color options for Sagas in Narci, Fable SingerNarci, Fable Singer and Eivor, Wolf-KissedEivor, Wolf-Kissed as well as a more interesting five-color option in Tom BombadilTom Bombadil.

Issue 4: The Commander is too Intrinsically Powerful

Both Najeela, the Blade-BlossomNajeela, the Blade-Blossom and The Wandering MinstrelThe Wandering Minstrel are commanders that are so powerful they’ve found their way into CEDH.

Technically, they’re Typal decks, but seeing them at the table is going to raise eyebrows and convincing the table you’re not that version is going to make Rule Zero a tough conversation.

Najeela, the Blade-BlossomNajeela, the Blade-Blossom is yet another five-color commander that doesn’t require all five to cast and has a hugely powerful ability that gives her the additional color identity.

She makes a Warrior whenever a Warrior attacks, including herself, so, even without additional nontoken Warriors, she can go exponentially wide.

Her activated ability only requires mana, so it can be activated multiple times a turn. It gives attacking creatures trample, lifelink, and haste, and it gives the controller an extra combat step. Since neither ability really requires other Warriors to be out, she is a one-woman combo engine.

The Wandering MinstrelThe Wandering Minstrel is technically a Towns commander, but it’ll rarely helm a deck with many Towns.

It can make a five-color Elemental token each of our combats if we have five or more Towns, and it also has an activated ability that makes it go from Simic to five color, giving our creatures additional power and toughness equal to the amount of Towns we control.

But the juice is the top ability: lands we control enter untapped. It’s basically an Amulet of VigorAmulet of Vigor in the command zone, with the Town parts acting as flavor text.

Issue 5: The Commander is too Set-Dependent

Perhaps no issue has been more exacerbated by the current direction of design than commanders being too set-dependent.

Without blocks to let mechanics breathe and have enough support, there have been a lot of five-color commanders designed to give those under-supported cards a commander to rally them.

Often, these commanders feel hollow because they are, essentially, Block Constructed Commander decks that feel…corporate.

Both AtogatogAtogatog and Marina VendrellMarina Vendrell are designed around a type or theme that is very much setting-specific.

They also show how this isn’t just a Universes Beyond issue. Furthermore, they have the issue of requiring the player to run all members of the type, whether they are good or not.

While AtogAtogs existed before AtogatogAtogatog’s introduction in Odyssey, most of the members of the type hail from that set.

Since there are so few Atogs, only 12 creatures with the printed type, with a cycle of one each in each color pair, Atogatog is a five-color commander that has to run every available one. AtogatogAtogatog gets bigger with each Atog it eats, furthering the idea that we have to jam every one in the deck.

As a result, Atogatog decks wind up feeling really same-y and stale.

Marina VendrellMarina Vendrell is a more recent set-dependent commander, presiding over the various rooms found on Duskmourn. She lets us put any enchantments in our top seven cards into our hand when she enters, and everything else on the bottom of our library.

But most of what she does is lock or unlock Rooms, so we have to play as many Rooms as we can. There are 28 Rooms, and, unlike AtogatogAtogatog eating Atogs, opening and closing Rooms doesn’t win games, so we need to run as many as we can to get value out of our commander’s Room-based engine.

Cosmic Spider-ManCosmic Spider-Man and Heroes in a Half ShellHeroes in a Half Shell are commanders that epitomize the problems with Universes Beyond, especially with the small sets.

While there’s nothing inherently wrong with having a commander for all your Spider-Man and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cards, and prescriptive commanders like these can be helpful for introducing new players to the Commander format, they seem like they were designed to sell packs of their set.

Again, there’s nothing wrong with this inherently, but the more outward the cash grab feels, the more cold and corporate a community-based format feels.

Cosmic Spider-ManCosmic Spider-Man has a bunch of keywords and gives those keywords to all of our Spiders during our combat. Nothing about it works with Spiders, especially not the web-slinging ones in the Marvel’s Spider-Man set.

And sharing a bunch of keywords doesn’t make the Spider-people feel like a cohesive, unique type. Instead, Cosmic Spider-ManCosmic Spider-Man feels like an excuse to jam all the Spider-people in a deck.

Heroes in a Half ShellHeroes in a Half Shell also has a bunch of keywords, as well as an ability shared with members of its type(s).

We put a +1/+1 counter on each Mutant, Ninja, and/or Turtle that connects with opponents and we draw a card when one or more of them connect.

Again, this ignores the abilities most Ninja Turtles have, ninjutsu, and treats them like they could be any type. In the end, it’s there to give fans of the Intellectual Property a place to put their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Conclusion

While this was a critical article, I’d gladly sit down at a table with any of these commanders, and I’ve seen many of them built in creative ways.

Still, there are reasons why five-color Typal commanders draw ire. Hopefully, this has given some interesting food for thought, and feel free to extend this discussion in your own playgroups.

So, how do you feel about five-color Typal Commanders? And how have you seen them built?