Commander 2019 art review
The 2019 Commander set releases August 23 for Magic: the Gathering players. As always this set is a mix of old and new cards. All the new cards have new art of course, and so do some of the older cards.
Similar to core sets, Commander decks have no unifying world in which they take place, so the art is both more varied and less focused than for standard Magic sets. Here’s five of my favourites, all art for new cards.
Apex Altisaur
Dinosaurs are about to rotate out of Standard, but they are too popular a creature type to drop entirely. Sets like Commander (and core sets) will probably see a few dinosaurs for the foreseeable future.
Backdraft Hellkite
Unlike dinosaurs, dragons have been with us since Magic’s first set and aren’t going anywhere. With art like this, I’m happy to see them stick around.
Bone Miser
There’s still plenty of room in Magic for good character illustrations, like this piece from Antonio Manzanedo.
Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero
I said Commander sets don’t have a theme, but one theme that does come across from the 2019 set is giving updated cards to characters from the Weatherlight Saga. This was a Magic story 20 years ago, and some of the cards printed for key characters in the story were underwhelming to say the least. With Commander 2019 this has been amended, and with some great new character art to boot.
Tectonic Hellion
Another great single monster piece, and I’ve always been a sucker for well-drawn clouds!
You can see all the decklists for Commander 2019 at the Wizards website.
Scent of a Gamer 
I bit the bullet and pre-ordered all 4 decks. I’m really hoping it doesn’t come back to bite me and they turn into C18 part 2.
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It’s hard to tell with value, but I think all four of these decks look fun, where the 2018 decks left me a bit cold.
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I was a bit disappointed in the reprint value for this year myself. I was hoping for at least one $20 reprint in each deck, but oh well.
The only deck I bought from c18 was the enchantment matters one and I haven’t even opened it yet. Still figuring out how much I want to spend to “upgrade” it. At least I don’t have to gut it like I’ve seen people had to do with the lord windgrace deck. those poor people š¦
I agree that these c19 ones look fun to play. I’m not used to seeing several of these mechanics so it should make for some unique game play š
Do you play commander? I can’t remember what your magic status is.
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I play Commander 1-3 times per year, but I play multiplayer games a lot, so many of the cards become relevant to me (as long as they don’t specifically reference a Commander!). However I have only bought 1 bought a Commander precon since 2014, and that was Atraxa.
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Good choice š
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Love that colorful sauropod. I enjoy the modern take on dinosaurs much more than the plodding depictions of my youth in the 1960’s and ’70’s.
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Agreed!
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