Spoiler season for the next Commander product starts today. The Commander 2018 decks were slightly spoiled last week, when we learned the themes of each deck along with the color pairings. It was rumored earlier in the year that the new generals would be Planeswalkers as they did in the 2014 product, but then it appeared that it would be something else. It turns out that the rumors were true, and each of the four decks are helmed by a new commander Planeswalker. Only one of these is making a second appearance, Saheeli Rai who was in the Kaladesh set. The others are new Planeswalkers to my knowledge. As it is the first day of spoilers we haven’t seen much from the decks, but as I have had a bit of writer’s block lately, I figured I’d use what we do know as a jump off point. So let’s start with the new faces of the decks:

I apologize for the shitty picture quality, better quality pictures don’t tend to show up until later on in the spoiler cycle. So this first new planeswalker is called Aminatou, and is a new Esper general. Esper is a great color pairing, but I’m unsure how to feel about this one. I guess it’s sort of a chaos theme, as you can mess with the top card of your library, flicker one of your permanents, but the ultimate is strange. For -6 loyalty, you get to essentially shuffle all nonland permanents to the left or right for all players. Stealing someone else’s big board is nice but what a confusing board state to resolve. I’m not sure what else will be in the deck but I don’t really care for this Planeswalker.

Estrid is our Bant general, another decent color pairing. You can untap enchanted permanents, create an aura at will to give totem armor to a permanent, and then throw 7 cards in your graveyard and get all of the auras back onto the battlefield. I like enchantress themes but this one seems kind of meh. I mean, being able to throw auras on stuff and then untap it is great, I suppose with a Chain Veil you can do some stupid stuff with this deck, so I’ll hold my opinions until we know more.

Saheeli is making her second appearance since Kaladesh, but this version of her seems a bit less busted. Making tokens is good for protection, making spells cheaper based on controlled artifacts seems okay too, and being able to make a ton of copies is alright but still underwhelming.

Representing the Jund color pairing is Lord Windgrace. If nothing else, this guy is probably the best deck just because you can use both The Gitrog Monster and Omnath, Locust of Rage in it due to the colors. This means a shit load of lands matter cards can be used together and I like that. This guy plays into the strategy by allowing you to discard a land to draw two cards, return lands from your graveyard and then destroy 6 permanents and get 6 tokens. That ultimate is a pretty good wipe and 6 2/2’s isn’t bad either. At this point this is the deck I’m most interested in, but again we’ll have to see how the rest of the deck looks.

They didn’t give us many other spoilers, but let’s take a look at what we have seen so far.

This guy is likely one of the sub-generals in the Saheeli deck. Bad colors for most token decks, but giving all tokens haste is nice. You’ll get some 2/1 tokens each turn as well, so that’s not terrible.

So draw 3 cards and get a 3 mana generating rock for 6 cmc. Not bad. But, it can be stolen from you if they don’t block. A decent political card but not really worth it in my book.

Echo Storm is interesting. It allows you to copy artifacts, which can be nice but then also basically storms off of the amount of times you’ve cast your commander. In theory it sounds like you could do some busted things with this card, but I’d prefer to see it in action before I make my mind up about it.

A commander-only land, this one is interesting. Your commander will get a +1/+1 counter or a loyalty counter on it just for tapping this land the same turn you cast your commander. It’s also a colorless mana source, so why not use it? Decent.

A 2 mana artifact that allows you to draw a card for two mana. Not really worth it in my book.

This one is kinda lame unless you’re running an artifact deck but it’s clear that with enough mana you’ll be able to tap and untap this one for some shenanigans.

Improvise is making a comeback! This spell will let you thin out your deck and potentially grab a few artifacts in the process, but nothing super special.

I’m assuming this one is also a sub-general for Saheeli. I also foresee some busted things happening with that ability, and it’s pretty versatile as well. Izzet players rejoice.

Quite possibly my favorite card that was spoiled today. The Treasure Nabber will steal you Sol Rings and other mana generating artifacts for a turn, which in turn should help you spend big mana. This guy will be joining my Krenko deck once I get my hands on him.

Last but not least, another Legendary knight but in red, which means it won’t be played in any knight decks. If you can get through with combat damage, you’ll give your enemies 1/1 tokens that can’t attack you, meaning this is a political piece. When Varchild dies, you’ll get all the 1/1 tokens. It’s okay but nothing special.

That’s all for today’s spoilers. I may revisit this again when there is another sizeable chunk or just wait for the complete spoilers. See anything you like?