Edgar Markov – Innistrad Remastered
Date Reviewed: January 20, 2025
Ratings:
Constructed: 1.25
Casual: 4.00
Limited: 4.50
Multiplayer: 3.00
Commander [EDH]: 4.75
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
With as beloved as Innistrad and the plane associated with it has proven, popular enough to inspire seven sets over the past 15 years, Innistrad Remastered makes sense. The twist here is, unlike the other sets of its ilk, Innistrad Remastered is not constrained to cards that appeared in those seven sets, and one such card, Edgar Markov, is both a welcome reprint for Commander and flavorfully relevant. Edgar Markov would properly appear in Crimson Vow in an altered form, but this is his first appearance, and he’s earned both a title as the Vampire Commander and a $70 price tag along with it.
It’s not hard to see how he earned that title, though, rewarding every Vampire spell with more Vampires with which to do the succ. Eminence is an ability that adds up quickly in Commander, since there’s not a way to really disable it if your opponent isn’t keen on letting it get disrupted, so Edgar can start having an impact from the very early game all to when he’s cast. And when he is cast, one swing makes him a 5/5 with first strike that also buffs your entire army of Vampires, including the ones you made on the way to casting him properly…and eminence still works from play.
Edgar Markov’s never made waves in Legacy, owing to costing six mana and needing to be on the board in that format to have an impact. But he is a terrifying card to face down in Commander, and while it doesn’t seem like a lot, he’s both the perfect card to lead Vampires and a perfect payoff for a lot of them.
Constructed: 1.25 (don’t, seriously)
Casual: 4 (can still work outside of Commander…just works less efficaciously)
Limited: 4.5 (if they lack a removal spell, you will make them pay)
Multiplayer: 3
Commander [EDH]: 4.75 (Vampire’s best typal leader, and it’s not even close)
Edgar Markov is a very easy card to underestimate, at least in Commander. Combat abilities? A single card to overrun opponents? Didn’t we try that in the early days, with Uril, and it didn’t work out? Of course, things are very different now, and Edgar’s power comes from the fact that the bonus comes about no matter where he is and the opponents almost can’t stop it (barring something like Song of the Dryads). If every creature in your deck is a vampire – and if you’re intentionally playing Edgar, presumably that’s the case – you will very quickly end up with a horde of creatures in the best colors for creature combat. And Edgar himself is one of the most powerful creature combat lords around on top of all that.
Constructed: 1 (the command zone part of eminence doesn’t work in formats that don’t recognize that zone, unfortunately, so he’s a six-mana Bitterblossom variant)
Casual: 4
Limited: 4
Multiplayer: 4.5
Commander [EDH]: 5
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