Welcome back readers today's card of the day is
a command, Atarka's in fact. This card does a
reasonable impression of Skullcrack and even has
some extra functionality for its mana cost. The
additional ability of putting a land from your
hand onto the battlefield is pretty mediocre its
ramp but conditional and not the most useful in
the majority of decks that would run this card,
the addition of giving your creatures +1/+1 and
reach is far more exciting not only does it
allow you to pump your creatures but can be an
interesting combat trick as well. The key to
playability of these commands is the modes, all
but one of this modes is quite powerful and
together at instant speed is a solid card. In
standard this card slots nicely into any
aggressive burn decks splashing green for a card
such as Destructive Revelry, it basically is a
card for aggressive decks which can limit its
usefulness and may not fit well into the current
midrange meta. In modern, legacy and vintage
this card is underwhelming there are cards that
do its modes more efficiently and the trade off
of choices doesn't balance as well. In casual
and multiplayer these are all solid abilities
dealing damage to each opponent and shutting
down massive life gain shenanigans as well as
protecting yourself from flying creatures are
all valuable at a reasonable mana cost to keep
up to play on your opponents turns as well. In
limited its kind of niche it provides a powerful
combat trick and damage to your opponents face
if your deck is aggressive and can support this
it could be a useufl card. Overall a card with
some powerful standard applications and some
niche applications elsehwere.
Today's card of the day is Atarka's Command
which is a two mana Red and Green instant with a
choice of two out of four effects. The
first option prevents opponents from gaining
life that turn which can be useful in some
situations as a response to life gain, though
timing is critical and it isn't likely to be
used often. The second choice deals three
damage to each opponent which is likely to be
used with every activation in Multiplayer and
nearly all activations in other formats as well.
The third allows you to put a land card from
hand into play which is decent in the right
situation and in some decks may be the primary
benefit of the Command. The final option
gives creatures you control +1/+1 and
Reach until end of turn which is best for swarms
or
situational surprise defense against Flying and
is the likely companion to the three damage most
of the time. Overall this is at worst a
Sizzle and Glorious Charge combined for just two
mana which is a serious bargain and could make
this a staple of Green/Red decks both in
Multiplayer and potentially other formats.
In Limited the three damage and +1/+1 effects
alone are enough to make this a strong first
pick in Booster even though it locks you into
two colors as one can be splashed if necessary.
In Sealed if one color is strong the other can
be splashed to fit this in as the potential life
point swing from this two mana spell shouldn't
be overlooked. The other effects are
potentially useful, more on the acceleration for
playing an extra land early, though more often
than not just going for the damage and +1/+1 is
probably best.
Have I ever mentioned that I love modal
spells? Well, I do, and I feel that the Commands
from Dragons of Tarkir are some of the stronger
ones. In the case of Atarka's Command, for
instance, some of its options are slightly
situational (especially the first one and the
last one), but the range available means that
you shouldn't have any problem constructing a
useful set of two. The cost is also highly
aggressive and easy to use as a "trick", despite
the seemingly defensive nature of the last
option. I guess granting trample would have been
equally in flavor but perhaps too powerful!
