How partners completely dominated duel commander
A new mechanic is a great way to spice up a new magic: the gathering set. Many of these new additions become beloved by the players and allow for interesting deckbuilding. When wizards released their new set for commander players: Commander 2016 they made the deckbuilding much more interesting with the addition of partner commanders. This mechanic dominates competitive EDH tier lists but also once dominated the duel commander format. In this article I want to look at how this new mechanic broke a completely different format and what came next.
Commander 2016 arrives
Commande 2016, the set which introduced partner, was released at the end of the year during November of 2016. Control dominated the metagame for the entire year thanks to commanders like Geist of Saint Traft and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy. The introduction of partner to the game didn't break the metagame right away but a new control and aggro decks were born.
Kraum, Ludevic's Opus was the best partner choice for control type decks, he provides great colours, card advantage and helps you finish the game which is pretty much everything you want from a control commander. As for more aggressive strategies, Reyhan, Last of the Abzan was the commander of choice. You had a guaranteed 3-drop each game and she wasn't even worth removing to your opponent as she will put all of her counters onto another creature of yours.
Both of these partners were paired up with Vial Smash the Fierce, he is not only a great 3-drop which can start burning down your opponent pretty quickly but also gives you access to red for it's plethora of burn spells and aggressive creatures. In control decks, he gave you access to black for all of those removal spells and turned already powerful spells like Temporal Trespass and Force of Will into a ton of damage.
Everything is partner!
2017 was the year when partners really took off, dominating the metagame for pretty much most of the year. The before-mentioned Vial/Kraum control deck was dominant in the first few months of the year, being even more popular than the still legal Geist of Saint Traft. After about 5 months of partners being legal in the format, Vial was banned as a commander at the beginning of April putting an end to the dominance of the control deck.
Bruse Tarl was yet another problematic commander. He was paired with both Reyhan and Akiri and easily replaced the now banned Vial Smasher. He was good against pretty much all midrange and aggro decks because of the extremely effective combination of double strike and lifelink that he gave you. The sheer amount of lifegain was difficult for aggro decks to beat and double strike was also a problem for midrange decks. This in turn allowed for really only partner aggro decks to exist as Bruse Tarl removed all other fair decks from the metagame. In the next ban announcement, the commitee decided to finally get rid of this commander along with others like Geist of Saint Traft and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy ending the time of their dominance in their respective archetypes.
Revival of partner
After these two bans, partner decks weren't nearly as popular in the years that followed as in 2017. They still saw a solid amount of play but none outside of tier 2 decks. However, we did indeed see a ban of three powerful partner commanders at the end of 2020. Thrasios was the first one of these and probably also the best one. He came down early, had solid stats for the cost meaning that he could block quite efficiently and gave you access to more cards and ramp if you needed it. He was the best in pretty much every category so he was also paired with the most often. He was a ton of play in aggro, control and even combo decks. All of this made him deserving of a ban.
The second banned partner, Akiri, was similar to Thrasios. She had great stats, colours and a really good archetype. She could be played with pretty much any partner or colour combination (mostly Silas Renn) and always performed well. She brought with her a powerful toolbox of artifacts which made all of her decks pretty oppressive, resulting in her being banned too.
Tymna was the last one of these bans. She wasn't nearly as oppressive as the other ones but the combination of lifelink and additional cards was quite powerful. Your opponent pretty much had to somehow deal with all of your creatures which wasn't sometimes that easy. She was mostly played as a control pair with Kraum and in the end, the commitee decided that it was too much and added her to the ban list with the others.
Breaking the meta yet again...
2020 was also the year when Commander 2020 released bringing with it a new set of partner commanders, this time only mono-colored. This meant the introduction of many new problematic cards. The newly introduced ones didn't really see that much play for the first few months of their release. It was only after the bans of the three most powerful partners that they started seeing a ton of play.
Esior was easily the best one from among these, being an on curve that was difficult to deal with and even protected your other important partner. He could be paired with any other partner you desired and it would work really well. He was really powerful and also toxic as he stopped interaction. He was banned in January of the next year along with Jeska, Trice Reborn, his common partner. Jeska was really powerful as she could turn even smaller creatures into a ton of damage while also having only a very small window to deal with her.
March 2021 was the big one though, the next ban announcement was a massacre banning 6 different partner commanders, both new and old ones. They all dominated the tournament scene showing up in around 40¨% finishes. Among these were powerful aggressive cards like Rograkh, Reyhan and Keleth which all saw a ton of play with many different pairs. This announcement dealt a big blow to partners, however new combinations emerged soon after. Malcolm/Kraum and Kraum/Livio still being one of the best decks in the game. However, both Kraum and Livio were also banned a few months later.
Only one partner?...
At the start of 2022, the commitee finally decided to do something about the partner mechanic in an attempt to fix it. They decided that the best option was that players were only able to cast one of their partners for the rest of the game. This meant that players no longer had two extra cards outside of their hand instead of one while retaining the interesting choices during games and deckbuilding.
This allowed many previously banned partners to be free from the banlist. The were only a few ones that remained on the list including the newly released Yoshimaru. Ever since that change, partners haven't been so dominant in the metagame ( with the exception of Yoshimaru...we don't talk about that). This change was probably for the best and was needed because we also saw the release of new background commanders and new "partner with" cards released. This one patch probably improved the format like any other before it and marked the end of partners dominance.
Total list of all partner bans (16 total!) :
April 2017: Vial Smasher the Fierce
July 2017: Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder
November 2020: Thrasios, Triton Hero / Akiri, Line-Slinger / Tymna, the Weaver
January 2021: Esior, Wardwing Familiar / Jeska, Trice Reborn
March 2021: Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh / Keleth, Sunmane Familiar / Ardenn Intrepid Archeologist / Ludevic, Necro Alchemist / Krark, the Thumbless / Reyhan, Last of the Abzan
January 2022: Livio Oathsworn Sentinel / Kraum, Ludevic's Opus
February 2022: Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful
Author: Tomas Solovic
Date: January 3rd, 2024