Hey y'all, Eli from Draftsim here with an article for you by our writer, Andy.

Today, Andy dove into a list that won a recent MTGO Standard Challenge: Orzhov lifegain aggro by ejk.

The deck hinges on Soul Sister effects like [[Hinterland Sanctifier]] and [[Case of the Unseen Feast]].

[[Amalia Benavides Aguirre]] is the big payoff here, smoothing out draws while threatening a board wipe is excellent.

[[Haliya, Guided by Light]] is a soul sister that can also draw you cards, which is massive.

[[Starscape Cleric]] is a surefire way to drain your opponent with ease.

[[Moseo, Vein's New Dean]] is an insanely busted recursion engine that can easily trigger your lifegain effects.

[[Lunar Convocation]] can drain your opponents, create tokens to trigger soul sister effects, and draw cards.

You've also got disruption like [[Voice of Victory]] that also incidentally creates tokens. The list is rather light on removal, as it takes a more proactive aggro stance.

The synergies in this list are abundant to say the least. I've seen a few mono-white lists do well in Challenges recently, but, as a devoted Orzhov player...I'm hopeful this one becomes viable for the meta in the post-[[Badgermole Cub]]/[[Stormchaser's Talent]] landscape. What do y'all think?

Hey y'all, Eli from Draftsim here with an article from our writer, Andy.

In his article, Andy picked 8 cards from The Hobbit that he believes will be staples in Commander.

[[Elven Raft-Steerer]] - Is a [[Retreat to Coralheim]] effect on a creature. An easily tutorable combo piece seems good for numerous lands decks.

[[Elrond, Moon-Reader]] - Drawing a card whenever you do something as simple as tapping a mana dork is solid, even if it's only once per turn. That blink effect is a nice bonus.

[[The Queen of Dale]] - Last time I posted about this one being a staple, people had a lot to say, but I'm holding firm. Amazing card selection and token generation on a 2-drop legendary creature is an incredible rate.

[[Kili, the Resourceful]] - Equipment decks got another Sram, and that kind of redundancy is exactly what equipment strategies rely on.

[[Smaug, Wicked Worm]] - Ok...so they printed a fair [[Dockside Extortionist]] on a 5-drop Rakdos legend that also can draw you cards? Seems good!

[[Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver]] - I'm a self professed typal strategy enjoyer, and this thing will work wonders in decks that love to swing out but struggle to ramp.

[[The Sackville-Bagginses]] - A pseudo-[[Mirkwood Bats]] style effect on a 2-drop legend is good, and the opportunity to draw cards is also good!

[[Gleaming Splendor]] - Stop me if I'm wrong, but this has to be one of the best cards in the set, maybe one of the best cards we've seen this year. This is one of those cards that provides advantage "when your opponents just play the game." Giving an opponent a card can be a risk, but continuous treasure production on a 2-drop that can also continually draw you cards...this might be my Orzhov bias speaking, but I adore this card and will be jamming it wherever I can.

What do y'all think, did we miss anything? What cards from The Hobbit could become staples in Commander?

Hey y'all, Eli from Draftsim here with an article by our writer, Andy.

Andy wrote about an unfortunate problem plaguing competitive MTG...terrible tournament promos. It's barely a secret that tournament level MTG has been struggling for a bit with the rise of casual Commander.

You'd figure that they'd print high quality cards to try and incentivize players to join in the fun, but that doesn't seem to be happening. Sure, we saw an incredible [[Kozilek's Command]] recently...but [[Shoot the Sheriff]], [[Wayfarer's Bauble]], and [[Pinnacle Starcage]] are just nonsensical options, especially when compared against promos of old like [[Gaea's Cradle]].

Box topper promos for The Hobbit are almost universally high value playable cards like [[Delighted Halfling]], [[Orcish Bowmasters]], and [[The One Ring]].

My knowledge of other TCGs is somewhat minimal, but I've heard One Piece promos are absolutely bonkers. What about Yu-Gi-Oh or Flesh and Blood or any of the other big ones? Are y'all experiencing the crappy promo problem?

Hey y'all, here with an article for you all by our writer, Andy.

Andy took a look at a Hobbit card that leaked last night, and it seems...extremely good.

--

Fateful Discovery 3UU

Enchantment

Whenever an artifact you control enters, draw a card.

--

Ok, so the first really powerful deck I ever built was an artifact deck led by [[Stenn, Paranoid Partisan]]. It was all about cost reduction and blinking artifacts. My mind immediately went to that deck when I saw this card, but it's much better in decks that create lots of artifact tokens like [[Sai, Master Thopterist]]. The synergy with [[Sophia, Dogged Detective]] is also noteworthy.

Unfortunately, this is a 5 mana enchantment that doesn't do anything the moment it hits the board. And, if you are running this card in the 99 with very clear synergy in the command zone, your opponents will most certainly try to counter it / remove it once it hits the board.

It's a "do-nothing enchantment" at its floor, but its ceiling could very well be worth the risk. Are you gonna try Fateful Discovery out, or is it just too big a gamble?

Hey y'all, Eli from Draftsim here. Got an article for you all today from our writer, Andy.

Andy took a look at one of the best cards spoiled from The Hobbit so far: [[The Queen of Dale]]. This card has an insanely strong new ability that's sort of like the middle point between connive and amass.

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The Queen of Dale {1}{W}

Legendary Creature — Human Noble

Whenever an opponent casts their first noncreature spell each turn, you recruit. (Draw a card, then discard a card. If you discarded a nonland card, create a 1/1 white Human Soldier creature token.)

--

Safe to say this thing will be seeing play in high power Commander. It can easily come down turn 1 or 2, and can easily draw you 9 cards per turn cycle (and create you 9 1/1s to boot).

I'm definitely planning on throwing a copy in my Bracket 4 [[Elenda, the Dusk Rose]] deck. I feel like it slots into almost any deck with white in its color identity. It can easily be reanimated with budget reanimation spells like [[Recommission]], it can be tutored up with [[Sisay, Weatherlight Captain]], and it plays into typal synergies for soldier commanders like [[Myrel, Shield of Argive]].

It feels like a combination of [[Esper Sentinel]] and [[Charismatic Conqueror]], both insanely strong staples in their own right.

I'm slightly biased, I'm mostly an Orzhov player, but what do y'all think? Will Queen of Dale become an instant Commander staple?

Hey y'all, Eli from Draftsim here with an article by our writer, Tim. Tim's goal with this piece was to try and set the record straight on [[Tolabow, Loch Rascal]] and its absurd new ability: Rulebreaker.

Introducing a new ability that literally breaks the rules feels like a risky move, but it'll undeniably open up interesting new gameplay pathways.

Tolabow's ability reads:

Rulebreaker — A deck with this commander can have instant and sorcery cards of one additional color not in this commander’s color identity and any basic land cards.

Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, create a 1/1 blue and red Otter creature token with prowess.

A quick glance will make it seem like Tolabow is just two partners in one...but a deeper read reveals something more strange.

Tim noticed a bluesky post from Matt Tabak that reads: "One nuance: Tobalow refers to the card’s color, not its color identity. A red instant with a green mana symbol in its text box is okay in the aforementioned deck; that card is red. A red-green hybrid card is not; that card is red and green."

Consider a card like [[Damn]]. This is technically a black card that has a black-white color identity because of its the white in its overload cost.Thusly, if you're running black cards in your Tolabow deck, you can include cards like Damn.

Seems like this one could create a host of issues, definitely expecting some kind of errata or full rules article from WotC at some point. What do y'all think about rulebreaker?

Hey y'all, Eli from Draftsim here with an article by our writer, Andy. Today, Andy dove into the best cards of 2026 so far.

In no particular order, Andy picked:

• [[The Fantasticar]]
• [[Flow State]]
• [[Hawkeye's Bow]]
• [[Erode]]
• [[Flashback]]
• [[Formidable Speaker]]
• [[Hex Magic]]
• [[Sewer-veillance Cam]]
• [[Springleaf Parade]]
• [[Tablet of Discovery]]

I definitely have been jamming both Flashback and Springleaf Parade in my bizarro [[Rosheen, Roaring Prophet]] deck. Both are total powerhouses, but I really bet Flashback will be a staple for years to come. I still haven't seen much Erode in Commander, but that card singlehandedly brought Selesnya to the forefront in Standard. I know some folks are doing things with Tablet of Discovery in the format too.

Sewer-veillance is a combo powerhouse, and Fantasticar is currently wrecking Vintage (one of MTG's most broken formats. Flow State is showing up in high power formats as well.

It's a little early to say, but Hex Magic does seem extremely powerful. What do y'all think? What's your favorite card of the year so far? Are there any other cards that deserve to be on our list?

The data's in and Pick-Two Draft has simply been too slow. Time to take it up a notch.

https://draftsim.com/mtg-pick-fifteen-draft-satire/

Hey y'all, Eli from Draftsim here with an article for you by our writer, Andy, on the most recent Festival in a Box.

MagicCon Vegas rocked this year, and this year's Festival in a Box sold out almost instantaneously each day. Those Future Sight foils are hard to find, and there are just so many awesome cards from throughout Magic's history in the set. Multiple $50+ hits as well.

Tons of people have been posting about getting a weird amount of doubles in their MB2 boxes from this year, have y'all heard anything about that?

Right now, TCGplayer has boxes going for ~$300, when MSRP was $200. I fully expected that markup to be way higher...think it'll go up?