COMMANDER! Review: Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

So I'm not sure exactly when this happened, but just noticed this very recently. Erayo, Soratami Ascendant is banned as an EDH/Commander general. I just wanted to say, Erayo, you've been great and all, but I really hope the door hits you on the way out.

As a fan and huge follower of the format, I know there are still loop holes for Commander decks to be incredibly overpowered. Erayo, Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary, and Braids, Cabal Minion are generals that have plagued the EDH/Commander community for as long as the decks have existed and it's a blessing to see them go. Notice anything about all 3 of these broken generals? Their mana costs are all very low and they have extremely powerful effects that can completely warp a game to be nearly unplayable for anyone else sitting at the table. Another common theme between these generals is their ability to become oppressive very quickly and punish players who don't pack 1-2 mana creature removal. Braids decks originally played a stax strategy using Smokestack and other 'punish all players' cards to prevent opponents from maintaining resources. Similarly, the Erayo deck would cast very cheap spells to flip Erayo into an enchantment and hold the game down with counter magic and Arcane Laboratory. Finally, Rofellos would generate an absurd amount of mana just by laying forests on the table that you'd have a Genesis Wave for 10 before your opponent can even lay down a Sol Ring (a bit exaggerating, but you get the point). Ironically, that Genesis Wave would feed Rofellos even more. Good game?

So, why am I talking about the past in a column focused on new EDH/Commander cards? Well, the past might repeat itself. Let's take a look at Thalia, Guardian of Thraben.

Looks familiar? A Thorn of Amythest on a creature. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this card, but it looks very strong and heading into some dangerous territory. Some say that Thalia will replace Isamura, Hound of Konda in aggressive mono White EDH and I have to agree. Thalia has the 2 power and has First Strike to boot. She's (I think it's a she) very powerful and fights very well in combat compared to Ethersworn Canonist or Gaddock Teeg, so she can dish out an unexpected amount of damage by herself. She also plays very nicely with the 'all in creature' strategy. Although she stalls out your own Crusade and Glorious Anthem effects, she still packs in quite the punch by even forcing your opponents into 5 mana Damnation or 7 mana Austere Command if they're already struggling to survive. Fun times.

If we're talking about speed, Thalia can reliably be cast on turn 1 with Mox Diamond or Chrome Mox and delays each of your opponent's turn 1 plays, whether they are attempting to lay down a Sensei's Divining Top or a Sol Ring, you're already several turns ahead. But how?

We'll take the example of Sol Ring and Sensei's Divining Top. Ideally, casting Sol Ring on turn 1 and using the 2 colorless mana to both cast Sensei's Divining Top and use it's activated ability to look at the top 3 cards and rearange at your leisure is a very strong play. If you cast Thalia out on turn 1, the order for your opponent now becomes a turn 2 Sol Ring using the mana to cast a Sensei's Diving Top, followed up with a turn 3 look at the top 3 cards of your library. See what happened? In this example, not only did Thalia deny your opponent tempo (the rate at which you cast your noncreature spells), but denied them information for 2 entire turns (disregarding any other spells the Thalia player has played already). Information can be crucial, especially when you're trying to assemble pieces to a combo, find lands from poor mulligans, and improve consistency. Not only does Thalia push them back at least a turn, the amount of tempo they lose compounds with the amount of noncreature spells they play and disrupts their mana curve quite heavily in most cases.

In addition, Thalia stalls out mana rocks, Lightning Greaves, tutors, and other commonly played noncreature spells in the early game that's primarily used for development. In a strange way, Thalia on the board changes the rules of the game. She dominates the entire board and has a very aggressive mana cost which allows her to be useful and reasonably cast after dying once or twice. Although Thalia does a lot of work for a 2 mana creature and is a very consistent Thorn of Amythest that can attack, will she break the format?

Well, yes and no. As much as Thalia does a lot of degenerate things, she also does a lot of good. If we look at competitive EDH decks that use fast combos to win or use non-interactive strategies to win the game (Zur the Enchanter, Jhoira of the Gitu, Sharuum the Hegemon, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Teysa, Orzhov Scion etc.), their turn 1-4 plays are very crucial to locking down the game. Thalia is similar to a scalpel and helps slow these decks down in multiplayer games and allow the non-spike players a chance to interact with whatever degeneracy is going on. The problem Thalia faces are with those players who are trying to break the deck. Using cards from the Braids deck like Smokestack, Tangle Wire, and other stax cards will ultimately give Thalia a bad name. If Thalia does become oppressive, the format won't evolve into main decking Dismember and Geistflame, so Thalia could slip into an unchecked territory where decks are just not prepared for the match up. Obviously players will try to abuse this card and that's natural for some people to strive to break the format. Honestly, it's healthy so the community can see the holes in strategies and work to ameliorate those holes. Thalia should be watched closely and hopefully doesn't share the same fate as Erayo. Until next time, Magic players!

Interested in more Magic content? Check out every series on the MTG Casual Network Archive!

-David J.

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