Best of Commander Masters – Blue!

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Mike Carrozza - July 20, 2023

Hello! Welcome to my set review of Commander Masters, where I will pick five cards of each colour and discuss my favourite cards from them. Yes, there will be and artifact and lands review as well as a multicoloured review.

This is also a reprint set which means that this is mostly going to be picking cards for what they’ve already shown they can do. The monetary value of the cards is nice, but will not likely be the biggest factor in my selections. Because they’re reprints, we know that the cost might course correct and some cards will only be lower for a little bit, so be sure to snap up singles at threekingsloot.com.

Without further ado, here are my favourite Blue cards!

1. Fierce Guardianship

Surprising absolutely no one, I have chosen another one of the “free if you control your commander” cycle cards.

Fierce Guardianship is so good it reached $80 before being announced as a reprint and I have a feeling it’s going right back up there. This card will be seen more. Before, it was expensive because of its power and scarcity together. Now, it’ll be more accessible and more people will find themselves trying to get it or including it if they do get it.

This cycle is a mistake but they are undoubtably powerful. This is one of the best counter spells ever printed. It’s only for Commander of course, but damn it’s crazy. Tap out to bait a big powerful spell only to counter it for free? You nasty! These won’t get that cheap so pick them up.

2. Faerie Artisans

This is one of my favourite blue creatures ever printed. If I had to make a top ten blue creatures, this would probably make the top five.

Commander has gotten to the point where enters-the-battlefield effects are dominating and extremely powerful. With Faerie Artisans in play, you get those from your opponents’ nontoken creatures entering too. It’s like Aboleth Spawn with a token body. I love this card for token doubling strategies, artifact strategies, and clone strategies. I run Faerie Artisans to great effect in my The Ever-Changing ‘Dane deck where I sometimes get to upgrade my commander out of the blue.

3. Urza, Lord High Artificer

This is a kill on sight commander. Urza, Lord High Artificer is one of the most powerful creatures out there. Artifact synergies or not, even getting to activate that Mind’s Desire ability on him can be backbreaking and game winning.

This card is a powerhouse in every single artifact deck and if you see him at the helm, I hope you packed a bunch of artifact hate because Urza’s about to go off. Urza turns all your Myr tokens into Silver Myr and all your Treasures, Clues, and Foods into Sky Diamonds. Lots of mana to activate that other ability!

4. Sun Quan, Lord of Wu

This card is one of those white whale cards for me and I am so excited to see it reprinted and that a foil will be affordable.

Sun Quan, Lord of Wu is basically blue’s Craterhoof Behemoth. It’s a creature that comes down and immediately makes combat a huge swing. This basically reads “give your creatures unblockable” and that means Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow will love it and so will any deck that doesn’t have a Hoof to throw down for a big hit. Hell, this is just amazing in a Voltron strategy and better than Hoof if you’re going tall instead of wide!

5. Cyclonic Rift

Of course I have to put one of the most annoying cards in the top five. Much like Smothering Tithe, Cyclonic Rift is a card in EDH that elicits groans at the table. More so if you’re not winning right after casting it. The versatility is easy to ignore because you go from one permanent to probably 30 for five more mana… but it’s there. Don’t forget it!

If you do play Cyclonic Rift, be sure you have a win condition coming or you’re disrupting one because the table will turn on you otherwise.

Honourable Mentions

Azami, Lady of Scrolls – Azami gets an amazing alt art treatment in this set, but Jack Hughes’ work in the Secret Lair is untouchable.
Body Double – People sleep on this card. One of the best Clones in the game. They’ve been uncommon for a while and I promise you there’s always a good enough target. Play it more!
Bribery – Last set seen? In 8th Edition. It’s a long time coming to get Bribery back in a set. I recommend you keep this to your own playgroup because if you get a deck you don’t know to rifle through, you’re going to take too much time picking a creature.
Capture of Jingzhou – Portal Three Kingdoms’ Time Warp effect is finally reprinted and this WILL come down. It was scarce before now, it’ll only be in the decks of annoying people who take extra turns (me, my Zaffai deck doesn’t need friends).
Commandeer – This used to be a huge deal in my playgroup and in Ux decks, I can see it making a splash now that more people know.
Day’s Undoing – Don’t put this in your wheels deck, Nekusar, it doesn’t do what you want it to.
Mystic Confluence – The best of its cycle. It’s never dead, there’s always something to do with it.
Personal Tutor – Portal uncommon upshifted to rare. When they previewed this, I thought it was a new card so I was like “oh wow, a Masters set that’s lots of reprints with SOME new cards? Interesting.” But nope, here’s your scarcity hit. Sorcery speed and it doesn’t even hit instants? Mystical Tutor at home.
Spellseeker – cEDH staple getting a reprint upshifted to mythic for the draft format. I’ve never liked tutors much, but it’s good to get this out there more so people can hang with the more competitive metas out there.
Stormsurge Kraken – I was shocked by how expensive this got. I’m glad I sold mine when I did because this isn’t going to be up there for a while. It’s an INCREDIBLE Kraken for sea creatures decks for sure. Runo, get your boy!
Teferi, Temporal Archmage – Is big Teferi still a cEDH deck? The Chain Veil and Teferi are one of the most notorious combos in the whole format. He’s exceptionally powerful, but people know better than to let him live. Try him in your Planeswalker precons!
Torrential Gearhulk – Big fan of the big metal Snapcaster Mage. It’s an artifact so you can Goblin Welder it back into play for a surprise Scrap Mastery. It’s very solid and if the format slows down a little, it’ll be back on top.