How to Beat Farewell in Commander
Farewell was first printed in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty exactly two years ago. If you’ve seen discourse online, you may have been led to believe that it has ruined casual Commander.
You’re two hours into a casual Commander game and one of your opponents is treading water. You pass the turn and you’re instantly filled with dread as you hear them say, “I cast Farewell and choose all modes.” Nobody has a counterspell, so it resolves. A significant number of your best value things have been exiled, so you wonder if you’re still in the game. Even worse, the game drags on and it becomes apparent that the person who cast Farewell also has no way to continue their gameplan.
I’d imagine that we’ve all found ourselves in this situation. It’s easy to blame the card for causing it, but the reality is that Farewell is a perfectly okay card. It’s just not always played as effectively as it could be. At the time of writing, Farewell is the most played white sorcery in Commander according to EDHREC. There’s no doubt that it’s a powerful sweeper, but is it really the best sweeper in every instance? Moreover, is casting it and choosing all modes really the right play most of the time?
Whether you like it or not, Farewell is probably here to stay and all signs point to it being a card that gets reprinted fairly often in Commander products.
I’m going to be honest with you: I think that casting Farewell with all modes is usually a losing gambit. There are outliers such as planeswalker decks that can emerge largely unscathed, but the majority of Commander decks will find Farewell just as back-breaking to their own board state as it is for their opponents. The majority of the time that I see Farewell cast, it’s done with all modes chosen. I have rarely ever seen the person that cast it go on to win the game. There’s almost always a better way.
This doesn’t mean that you should never cast Farewell in this manner. It also doesn’t mean that the card should be banned in Commander, because that would be completely ridiculous. It’s certainly not even the best board wipe in the format, and it’s been years since I’ve heard people seriously debate whether or not Cyclonic Rift should be banned. That said, a key difference between Cyclonic Rift and Farewell is that the former is often used in a way that brings games to and end.
I’m going to repeat this again to make my position clear: Farewell cast on all modes is back-breaking and it often hurts the person that casts it at least as much as their opponents. Why do people keep doing this to themselves?
You Can’t Always Avoid the Blowout
If you’ve seen an online discussion about Farewell (or almost any other Magic card), you can probably guess what I’m going to say next. It’s true that cards such as Fierce Guardianship and Teferi’s Protection can help protect you from spells like Farewell. Guess what? Not every deck can run these cards. You also shouldn’t expect every deck in blue and white to always have answers like these in hand when facing the prospect of an all-modes Farewell in the later stages of a game.
With the number of threats and big, splashy spells in the average casual Commander game, odds are that you’ll eventually run into a situation where you’ve spent your answers already but there’s still a spell like Farewell or Toxic Deluge waiting in the wings to crush all of your hopes and dreams. This is just the reality when playing a game with multiple opponents who are all trying to survive and come out on top and the end. The good news is that there’s still one simple trick that you can use to win these scenarios.
Tempo and Bouncing Back in Commander
Why is Farewell talked about so much in comparison to other cards such as Blasphemous Act or Merciless Eviction? The answer is simple: it’s the most efficient way to can send most permanents on the battlefield—along with the cards in all graveyards—to exile. This means that it represents a massive swing in the game state that’s incredibly difficult to recover from. The easiest way to avoid being crushed in a situation like this is to remember that you can always pace yourself.
If I’m playing a commander like Omnath, Locus of Creation that provides a solid engine in the command zone and I’ve already got other engines on board such as Rhystic Study, Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait, and Ancient Greenwarden, I’m probably in a very comfortable position and I know that I can keep playing fetchlands out of my graveyard and gaining a ton of advantage. That said, I don’t necessarily have a way to push for the win right now. I want to keep grinding advantage, but maybe I can afford to be a little bit careful.
When your deck is doing its thing, it can definitely be tempting to play out more pieces from your hand. This can be a lot of fun and it’s definitely valid to enjoy that experience. It’s still important to acknowledge that this can lead to a blowout of your own making. If I decide to hold back cards like Tatyova, Benthic Druid and Lotus Cobra for another turn, I can avoid losing everything to a sweeper and then continue to grind my way to a win with Crucible of Worlds and lands like Flooded Strand.
This might not be the most glamorous play pattern, but it allows you to protect yourself from the massive blowout of a card like Farewell and you’ll likely benefit from occasionally showing restraint during your Commander games. You’ll still get to play with your cards and do the thing when you do this. In fact, you’ll often be the only one who’s still doing the thing after something catastrophic happens that takes the wind out of everyone else’s sails. I’d rather be in that scenario every single time.
Conclusion
Nobody expects the red mage to counter Farewell! Tricky answers such as Tibalt’s Trickery and Clever Concealment can help you come out on top.
I don’t think that Farewell is going anywhere any time soon and I also don’t think that it should. It might not always be the most fun card in Commander, but there are still plenty of situations where it can be a valuable piece of your arsenal. I definitely expect to keep hearing about it frequently for a while, but I suspect that it will eventually become a more accepted part of the format like many other cards that were once controversial. Maybe then we can finally—ahem—say Farewell to this discourse.
For better or worse, Farewell has managed to become quite a popular card, even in the face of persistent discourse. I’m a firm believer that this is completely fine because it’s just a single card out of 100 in any Commander deck. I play Farewell in some of my own decks, but I always try to include a way to come out on top when casting it. I don’t consider it to be anywhere near the biggest concern that I have with this format, but I’m also thankful that we haven’t reached a point where we see new Farewell variants in every set.
If you enjoyed this article, I recently sat down and had a discussion with my good friend Nathan Jones—also known as TheHermitDruid—about this topic. You can expect that to drop soon. If you’re planning to attend MagicCon Chicago, you’ll also find Nathan there, along with several members of the PlayEDH staff. Make sure that you take the opportunity to say hello and catch some fun games of Commander. This should be an event to remember and our team would love to meet you!
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