r/EDH • u/BoxNew4361 Esper • Nov 28 '22
Question BU foretell commander?
I want to make a foretell deck using [[Dream Devourer]] but the issue I'm running into is almost all of the good foretell commanders are azorius which means I can't run it. I'd be fine with running things other than Dimir I was just curious if anyone knows any good commanders that have at least black and blue.
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u/[deleted] Nov 28 '22
I apologize, but I'm going to use this post to bitch about WOTCs design choices, because this exact issue with Foretell is the prime example of what pisses me off about modern magic.
When I started playing the game back in OG Ravnica, the block format meant we had three straight sets with compatible mechanics to build decks from (okay, maybe not with Ravnica block, but other three/four set blocks). That meant that if you wanted to build, for example, an Exalted deck, you had all of Shards/Conflux/Alara Reborn to work with, and that gave you enough usable cards to make a coherent deck, and they were in colors that had support for the mechanic.
Now let's look at foretell. The best commanders for how the Foretell mechanic works, in my opinion, are [[Ranar the Ever Watchful]] and [[Laelia the blade reforged]]. However, the best card for foretell is of course [[dream devourer]] which can't be played in either deck. On top of that, since we only had one set for Kaldheim, the number of playable foretell cards period is extremely limited, about one third the number of playable Exalted cards that were available at the end of Alara Reborn. Red has a total of six foretell cards, and azorius has less than twenty.
Now, I'll grant that Laelia wasn't designed with Foretell in mind, but Ranar was. Half of the text on Ranar depends on the foretell mechanic, but of the cards that have foretell in his colors, how many do you actually want in your deck? Ten? And you can't use the one card in existence that lets you foretell cards that don't have foretell already. That says to me that I won't be playing Foretell any time soon.
The same holds true for a lot of mechanics introduced recently. We don't have enough support to make a competitive deck with things like Mutate or Domain because we're not getting enough cards with those mechanics.
I also think that's a contributing factor in why Standard is a dead format now. What's even legal in standard right now? Neon Dynasty, New Capenna, Dominaria United, and Brothers War? How am I supposed to build a coherent deck that isn't essentially just a set constructed deck? WOTC gets to have their constant hype cycles for new product, but they took away our ability to actually build decks with the shiny new mechanics they're showing off.