My Top 10 Cards from Foundations for Commander
Okay, we finally made it to the final release of the year. Foundations (FDN) is a set that’s designed to be a snapshot of what Magic: The Gathering looks like in 2024, with an emphasis on being approachable for newer players. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t contain powerful cards! In this article, I’ll go over my top 10 cards from Foundations, including the Foundations Jumpstart (J25) set. Let’s do this!
Rev, Tithe Extractor
Whether you plan to play her as a commander or in the 99 of another deck, this card shows a ton of promise as a way to generate mana and card advantage while lowering your opponents’ life totals. There’s definitely enough support to play Rev on her own, but I’m expecting to see her a lot more as an enabler in decks led by commanders such as Anowon, the Ruin Thief or Prosper Tome-Bound.
Twinflame Tyrant
Dragons are a very popular creature type in Commander, so I’m definitely excited about this card. Damage is the way that most Dragon decks win, so a one-sided damage doubler should be a welcome addition to the archetype. Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm should be especially excited about Twinflame Tyrant because she can give you an extra token copy to give you even more extra damage!
Raise the Past
I love this card, even though it’s one of the most predictable card designs in years. White has been focused on small creatures for a long time now and they’ve continued to give white more and more access to graveyard recursion in basically every set over the past few years. Raise the Past will likely become a staple in mono-white, Selesnya, and other color combinations that excel at filling the board with small creatures.
General Kreat, the Boltbringer
Red decks will be happy to get another Impact Tremors effect on a reasonably costed body that even makes tokens when you attack. I actually don’t think that General Kreat offers much as a commander, but she’ll go great in the 99 of decks such as Krenko, Mob Boss or Purphoros, God of the Forge that are already looking to throw massive amounts of tokens onto the battlefield to finish off opponents.
Loot, Exuberant Explorer
This is another card that I think has potential in both the command zone and the 99. Green decks love playing extra lands and big creatures, so you’ll always be able to find something to do with this card. A lot of people don’t seem to be into Loot’s design or the story’s recent focus on him, but they’ll probably have to come to terms with the fact that he appears on a very playable card in the most popular color.
Blasphemous Edict
It seems like every new set has at least one incredible sweeper in it. In this case, we get a mix between Blasphemous Act and By Invitation Only. While it remains to be seen how often the 13 creature clause will be relevant, any board wipe that gets around pesky indestructible creatures is likely to be worth playing. It’s also not likely for anyone other than a dedicated token deck to have creatures left after this resolves.
Tinybones, Bauble Burglar
It’s hard to make discard work in Commander because you have so many opponents. This new version of Tinybones helps mitigate that by offering you card advantage when your opponents discard and giving you an ability that can consistently guarantee you three discards. If you’re still playing Tergrid, God of Fright in 2024, Tinybones will be a welcome addition, but I think that he’ll stand on his own as a popular commander too.
Electroduplicate
Copying a creature like this is one of my favorite red effects because there are so many different things that you can do with it. Copying a threatening creature to attack, getting a second copy of a powerful value engine for a turn, doubling Dockside Extortionist—these are all very good use cases for this card. Of course, it’s also yet another card that goes infinite with Dualcaster Mage as well…
Bloodthirsty Conqueror
At long last, we have a second Exquisite Blood effect. The regular version of Bloodthirsty Conqueror even makes a reference in its flavor text! If you’re playing a black deck that likes this type of effect or looks to combo it with Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose or Sanguine Bond, you’ll probably want to pick this card up. It should also do some heavy lifting in Vampire aggro decks as an evasive beater that can stabilize your life total.
High Fae Trickster
Flash enablers are very fashionable right now. While it remains to be seen how impactful this card will be, I’m already seeing people talk about it as a potential cEDH inclusion. Being able to hold up mana to interact and then dump it into casting something outside of normal timing restrictions is incredibly powerful in Commander, so I definitely think that this card will be a big hit in the format.
I’m really happy with Foundations and the powerful, straightforward cards that it brings to the table. While people are concerned about the future of Magic given the bigger emphasis on Universes Beyond and the departure from standard Magic themes in sets such as Aetherdrift, this set shows that the people making cards are still very much capable of designing a set that feels like classic Magic: The Gathering.
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