Last weekend I was asked on IRC whether I “like any of the cards in non-commander formats?” And Wizards of the Coast is aware that whenever they put out a new set, there will be people eyeing it for other formats. Does a new card from Theros seem good for Modern? Is there some new awesome common for Pauper in Gatecrash? And, in this case: What’s in Commander 2013 that could see play outside Commander (ie, by definition, Legacy and Vintage)? So I took a quick look at the new set and gave my list of what I could see getting played in Eternal formats.

I’m going to do this a little differently here. The following is a list of all the new cards in the set, and a short blurb (maybe more) for each about whether I see it being played in Eternal and what it does for the deck or decks in question. Some may be more ‘build-around-me’ than others, and some may be moreso than they appear – look at what happened to Tarmogoyf, for example: many decks that weren’t running green added Tropical Islands, Bayous and the like just to add Goyf. So here we go!

Act of Authority
1WW
Enchantment
When Act of Authority enters the battlefield, you may exile target artifact or enchantment.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may exile target artifact or enchantment. If you do, its controller gains control of Act of Authority.
Rare

At first glance it doesn’t seem very good compared to Oblivion Ring or Leonin Relic-Warder. I will point out though that the enchantments and artifacts exiled with this do not have a chance of returning. With a little shenanigans, it’s possible to exile two artifacts and/or enchantments with this card. But considering this has the same castability as a sorcery, you’re probably better off with Revoke Existence if it’s something that needs exiling – and Seal of Cleansing or Aura of Silence otherwise.

Angel of Finality
3W
Creature — Angel
3/4
Flying
When Angel of Finality enters the battlefield, exile all cards from target player’s graveyard.
Rare

Graveyard removal at four mana is a bit awkward. We’re talking cheap enough to hardcast but expensive enough that the game might be over by then. So a deck that cares about the graveyard to win now such as Dredge won’t care about this, since it expects to win before that. It’s too slow for use against Reanimator. So what does it do? It looks like it’s more useful against Snapcaster Mages, some Storm decks, and other decks that care about having a selection of cards in the graveyard to choose from, rather than decks that want one specific card. It’s also decent against Tarmogoyf, Knight of the Reliquary, and other creatures that grow based on what’s in the graveyard.

Baleful Force
5BBB
Creature — Elemental
7/7
At the beginning of each upkeep, you draw a card and you lose 1 life.
Rare

Too slow. Competes for a slot with Griselbrand, and loses. Phyrexian Arena sees very little play as is. The upside is this can be accelerated out (see Oath of Druids or Animate Dead), but Griselbrand is much better for that, having evasion and lifelink as well. But Griselbrand is banned in EDH, so Baleful Force is your representative.

Bane of Progress
4GG
Creature — Elemental
2/2
When Bane of Progress enters the battlefield, destroy all artifacts and enchantments. Put a +1/+1 counter on Bane of Progress for each permanent destroyed this way.
Rare

Yeah.. speaking of Oath of Druids, Animate Dead and the like.. anything that cares about having three or more artifacts in play at a time won’t want to see this. Oh, or enchantments. So decks based around Mishra’s Workshop, “Juggersphere” (Lodestone Golem), Verduran Enchantress, or Ethereal Armor will have to keep in mind that this card exists. Sure it doesn’t have Trample or the like, but seriously, it doesn’t take much for this to be a Force of Nature. RAWR!

Curse of Chaos
2R
Enchantment — Aura Curse
Enchant player
Whenever a player attacks enchanted player with one or more creatures, that attacking player may discard a card. If the player does, he or she draws a card.
Uncommon

Curse of Inertia
2U
Enchantment — Aura Curse
Enchant player
Whenever a player attacks enchanted player with one or more creatures, that attacking player may tap or untap target permanent of his or her choice.
Uncommon

Curse of Predation
2G
Enchantment — Aura Curse
Enchant player
Whenever a creature attacks enchanted player, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
Uncommon

Curse of Shallow Graves
2B
Enchantment — Aura Curse
Enchant player
Whenever a player attacks enchanted player with one or more creatures, that attacking player may put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token onto the battlefield tapped.
Uncommon

Curse of the Forsaken
2W
Enchantment — Aura Curse
Enchant player
Whenever a creature attacks enchanted player, its controller gains 1 life.
Uncommon

I’m putting all the Curses together. Shallow Graves and Predation have the greatest chance of seeing play, and even so I feel they won’t get far. Predation really wants to come down before turn 3 to be useful – maybe an ELVES! deck can make use of it (paging Luis Scott-Vargas!), but that might be stretching it. Shallow Graves makes more minions but you really don’t want to spend three mana to cast something that’s not a threat unless you’re a control deck – in which case, when are you going to be attacking in order to trigger it?

Darksteel Mutation
1W
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature is a 0/1 Insect artifact creature with indestructible and loses all other abilities, card types, and creature types.
Uncommon

I had the idea this might slip into an Enchantress deck as a sort of removal spell a la Journey to Nowhere. I could certainly see it seeing play, though I can’t figure a better slot for it. There’s already Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares – and Theros has Chained to the Rocks.

Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
GWU
Legendary Creature — Bird Wizard
2/3
Flying
Whenever Derevi, Empyrial Tactician enters the battlefield or a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, you may tap or untap target permanent.
1GWU: Put Derevi onto the battlefield from the command zone.
Mythic Rare

Derevi seems fine, but merely ‘fair’. You’re paying three mana – across three different colours – for a 2/3 flyer that taps or untaps stuff, and has a literal blank for its last ability for Eternal formats, since it can’t go to the Command Zone unless you’re playing EDH.

Diviner Spirit
4U
Creature — Spirit
2/4
Whenever Diviner Spirit deals combat damage to a player, you and that player each draw that many cards.
Uncommon

Five mana is a lot. It has no evasion and a combat-triggered ability. This is a different animal in EDH than it would be in Vintage or Legacy; it’ll die before it gets a chance to swing in, whereas in EDH people are willing to take 2 (starting at 40 is a lot!) a few times to draw some extra cards.

Djinn of Infinite Deceits
4UU
Creature — Djinn
2/7
Flying
T: Exchange control of two target nonlegendary creatures. You can’t activate this ability during combat.
Rare

Heh. Cute, but waaaaaaaaaaaaay too slow for Eternal. I wouldn’t even bother Animating it, because really what this says is “your creatures are better than mine”, so in that case why not just run Gilded Drake or something similar instead?

Eye of Doom
4
Artifact
When Eye of Doom enters the battlefield, each player chooses a nonland permanent and puts a doom counter on it.
2, T, Sacrifice Eye of Doom: Destroy each permanent with a doom counter on it.
Rare

After some discussion and re-reading, I realize this card isn’t even as good as I first thought: each player chooses a permanent, not necessarily a permanent they control. So for six mana and losing the Eye, each player destroys a permanent – in other words, all players get a free -3 from Vraska the Unseen.

Fell Shepherd
5BB
Creature — Avatar
8/6
Whenever Fell Shepherd deals combat damage to a player, you may return to your hand all creature cards that were put into your graveyard from the battlefield this turn.
B, Sacrifice another creature: Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
Rare

So, again, a non-evasive expensive creature, whose ability only affects creatures that died this turn – if it deals combat damage to a player. Creatures without evasion mostly only deal combat damage when they (a) come down really early, such as Tarmogoyf, or (b) there’s enough of them that some of them will get through – like Zombie tokens from Bridge from Below. I would have been happier if this was a 6/6 with flying, or something. Note that EDH decks often play with cards that allow nonevasive creatures to get through whereas Legacy and Vintage don’t – they have to be able to stand on their own two feet (or whatever they have instead).

From the Ashes
3R
Sorcery
Destroy all nonbasic lands. For each land destroyed this way, its controller may search his or her library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield. Then each player who searched his or her library this way shuffles it.
Rare

People in general hate mass land destruction, especially in EDH, and especially when there’s lots of it. That being said, in Eternal I accept it’s part of the game. I don’t know if this will see play but perhaps it will get people paying more attention to their mana bases. Currently it’s only really Path to Exile that makes people care about running basics at all, and that’s only if they run creatures (see: Storm combo). As a result, if you run three basics or so, you’re fine. But taking out four land at a time is a lot. An occasional sideboard card but something to definitely watch. PS: Mana dredge will hate this card.

Gahiji, Honored One
2RGW
Legendary Creature — Beast
4/4
Whenever a creature attacks one of your opponents or a planeswalker an opponent controls, that creature gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
Mythic Rare

Cute, fun for a General, nice Beast Legend, but comes down too slow for Eternal. Anax and Cymede is likely to be played first, and even Woolly Thoctar.

Hooded Horror
4B
Creature — Horror
4/4
Hooded Horror can’t be blocked if defending player controls the most creatures or is tied for the most.
Uncommon

Cute, five-mana 4/4 semi-unblockable. Sadly, it doesn’t quite match well against Sengir Vampire, and even that doesn’t see play.

Illusionist’s Gambit
2UU
Instant
Cast Illusionist’s Gambit only during the declare blockers step on an opponent’s turn.
Remove all attacking creatures from combat and untap them. After this phase, there is an additional combat phase. Each of those creatures attacks that combat if able. They can’t attack you or a planeswalker you control that combat.
Rare

OK, let me break down what this says it does:
Your opponent attacks. Blockers are declared. Then you cast this. All attackers are removed from combat, which means they’re no longer considered attacking creatures, and won’t deal combat damage. After this combat is over, a new combat phase takes place. The ones that attacked before have to attack again, and can’t attack you or your planeswalkers.
.. ok, so since Vintage and Legacy are played as one-on-one, it’s basically a four-mana Fog. Note that if you end up playing Two-Headed Giant and you can’t be attacked due to an effect, your team can’t be either.

Jeleva, Nephalia’s Scourge
1UBR
Legendary Creature — Vampire Wizard
1/3
Flying
When Jeleva, Nephalia’s Scourge enters the battlefield, each player exiles the top X cards of his or her library, where X is the amount of mana spent to cast Jeleva.
Whenever Jeleva attacks, you may cast an instant or sorcery card exiled with it without paying its mana cost.
Mythic Rare

For one-on-one 60-card non-highlander formats, this is both exciting and unexciting at the same time. One thing you’ll notice with a few of these Generals is they have abilities that scale with how much you spent to cast them. While this primarily comes from recasting from the Command Zone, in other formats this comes from cards like Lodestone Golem, Thalia Guardian of Thraben, and so forth. This means that the more you have to spend on her, the more chance you have of hitting something cool. The problem is that you’re looking at a four-mana 1/3 flyer that needs to attack and is easily removed for, well, much less than four mana (see: Swords to Plowshares, Lightning Bolt, Dismember, Leaf Arrow, and even Pongify if they really want to). Of course, then there’s the fact that this is effectively milling, which except for rare circumstances isn’t really a viable way to win.

Marath, Will of the Wild
RGW
Legendary Creature — Elemental Beast
0/0
Marath, Will of the Wild enters the battlefield with a number of +1/+1 counters on it equal to the amount of mana spent to cast it.
X, Remove X +1/+1 counters from Marath: Choose one — Put X +1/+1 counters on target creature; or Marath deals X damage to target creature or player; or put an X/X green Elemental creature token onto the battlefield. X can’t be 0.
Mythic Rare

Another Legend showcasing an effect based on how much you spent to cast it. This one reminds me a bit of Umezawa’s Jitte and Bow of Nylea – lots of options at one cost. I could conceivably see Marath seeing play, since Eternal manabases tend to be flexible enough that this is castable on turn 2 and start wreaking havoc on turn 3. At worst you can swing in for 3 on turn 3 and then burn the opponent for 3, which isn’t amazing but the option is there. He seems more of a General though than playable for Eternal.

Mystic Barrier
4W
Enchantment
When Mystic Barrier enters the battlefield or at the beginning of your upkeep, choose left or right.
Each player may attack only the opponent seated nearest him or her in the last chosen direction and planeswalkers controlled by that player.
Rare

Unplayable in Eternal since the rules text specifically relegates it to group games, where ‘attack left’ and ‘attack right’ actually mean something. If you want an enchantment at five mana, you’re better with Imperial Mask or Teferi’s Moat, which also see no play. (Assemble the Legion has a chance of seeing play at least – it does in Standard occasionally.)

Naya Soulbeast
6GG
Creature — Beast
0/0
Trample
When you cast Naya Soulbeast, each player reveals the top card of his or her library. Naya Soulbeast enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it, where X is the total converted mana cost of all cards revealed this way.
Rare

Unlike Bane of Progress above, this isn’t nearly as interesting. It’s just a random creature that might be big – and might not. In fact, with formats that allow Sensei’s Divining Top, Brainstorm, Ponder and their ilk, espcially in multiples, there’s a good chance this will just be a severely-overcosted 3/3 or less. Pass.

Nekusar, the Mindrazer
2UBR
Legendary Creature — Zombie Wizard
2/4
At the beginning of each player’s draw step, that player draws an additional card.
Whenever an opponent draws a card, Nekusar, the Mindrazer deals 1 damage to that player.
Mythic Rare

Cards that allow all players to draw more cards rarely see play. The ones that do primarily do it in a burst – Timetwister, for example – and rarely see play outside combo decks. Ones that do it slowly are one-sided, such as Dark Confidant. This is too slow and too weak to see play.

Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
3WUB
Legendary Creature — Giant Soldier
4/5
At the beginning of your upkeep, you gain 2 life.
Whenever you gain life, you may pay 1. If you do, draw a card and each opponent loses 1 life.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if Oloro, Ageless Ascetic is in the command zone, you gain 2 life.
Mythic Rare

Note that this is a card that again has a blank ability outside Commander. That being said, I’d almost prefer it if this had Lifelink instead of a ‘static’ lifegain ability. It’s a healthy size though and the ability can trigger quite easily. But again, in Eternal formats, decks that want a card like this are generally looking at Griselbrand first. Shame he invalidates so many good cards!

Opal Palace
Land
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
1, T: Add to your mana pool one mana of any color in your commander’s color identity. If you spend this mana to cast your commander, it enters the battlefield with a number of +1/+1 counters on it equal to the number of times it’s been cast from the command zone this game.
Common

Much like Command Tower, this won’t see play in Eternal, because there’s no “Commander” or “color identity” to worry about, and lands that tap for 1 on their own, and have another mana ability usually do something much more useful, like Blinkmoth Nexus, Rishadan Port, or Tower of the Magistrate.

Ophiomancer
2B
Creature — Human Shaman
2/2
At the beginning of each upkeep, if you control no Snakes, put a 1/1 black Snake creature token with deathtouch onto the battlefield.
Rare

So basically you get three power worth of creatures for three mana. Consider that in Standard right now you can get three power for two mana at least three different ways (Call of the Conclave, Kalonion Tusker, Fleecemane Lion), and Legacy and Vintage have access to all the old cards. Phyrexian Negator sees little play as is and it’s a 5/5 trample. It’s a cute shtick but I really don’t see it getting anywhere.

Order of Succession
3U
Sorcery
Choose left or right. Starting with you and proceeding in the chosen direction, each player chooses a creature controlled by the next player in that direction. Each player gains control of the creature he or she chose.
Rare

So, each player gains control of a creature someone else has before this ability resolves. Cute in multiplayer, but for Legacy or Vintage.. well, we’re back to Gilded Drake territory, which can be made almost uncounterable via Aether Vial.

Price of Knowledge
6B
Enchantment
Players have no maximum hand size.
At the beginning of each opponent’s upkeep, Price of Knowledge deals damage to that player equal to the number of cards in that player’s hand.
Rare

Oh yes, cute. I’m not aware of any cards in black that relieve the hand size limitation. The only way I can see this being played is in Legacy against an Omni-Tell deck in order to cripple the opponent’s ability to use Enter the Infinite. Yeah.. that’s about it. Enjoy.

Primal Vigor
4G
Enchantment
If one or more tokens would be put onto the battlefield, twice that many of those tokens are put onto the battlefield instead.
If one or more +1/+1 counters would be placed on a creature, twice that many +1/+1 counters are placed on that creature instead.
Rare

We already know how much Doubling Season, and their ilk see Constructed play. This fits the same decks, also known as “none”.

Prossh, Skyraider of Kher
3BRG
Legendary Creature — Dragon
5/5
Flying
When you cast Prossh, Skyraider of Kher, put X 0/1 red Kobold creature tokens named Kobolds of Kher Keep onto the battlefield, where X is the amount of mana spent to cast Prossh.
Sacrifice another creature: Prossh gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
Mythic Rare

The problem here is that Prossh needs to be cast to get the bonus, and at six mana you’re asking a lot. By that point people are reanimating or otherwise accelerating fatties, and this is worse than Shivan Dragon at that point – who also sees no play.

Restore
1G
Sorcery
Put target land card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control.
Uncommon

Restore, on the other hand, is a cute little reanimation card that brings something barely even glanced at for Eternal – lands. There’s a Legacy deck for playing with a lot of lands, which might like this, or might be played against it. It’s also conceivable to use one in order to recur a fetchland, or something equally bizarre – or worse. Imagine tapping Gaea’s Cradle with four creatures out, playing a second and killing the first to the Legend Rule, tap that for four more, spend two to bring back the first one, sacrificing the second one to Legend Rule, and tapping again to net yourself ten green mana. Seems perfectly fair, don’t you think?

Roon of the Hidden Realm
2GWU
Legendary Creature — Rhino Soldier
4/4
Vigilance, trample
2, T: Exile another target creature. Return that card to the battlefield under its owner’s control at the beginning of the next end step.
Mythic Rare

A quick glance at all cards that have or grant vigilance *and* trample bring the list down to Akroma, Angel of Wrath, and Akroma’s Memorial as the only two cards that have seen any Eternal play at all. The ability is cute but “flickering” is so weak compared to effects like Swords to Plowshares – which can be put on Isochron Scepter for a much lower cost. The only reason at all I can see wanting this effect is to ‘flicker’ the token from Batterskull, which just isn’t enough to make it worthwhile.

Serene Master
1W
Creature — Human Monk
0/2
Whenever Serene Master blocks, exchange its power and the power of target creature it’s blocking until end of combat.
Rare

Oh yes. I would love to see this card getting played. Against any creature with power greater than or equal to toughness, this thing is scary. At worst, it infinitely blocks Blightsteel Colossus. It’s almost a removal spell.

Shattergang Brothers
1BRG
Legendary Creature — Goblin Artificer
3/3
2B, Sacrifice a creature: Each other player sacrifices a creature.
2R, Sacrifice an artifact: Each other player sacrifices an artifact.
2G, Sacrifice an enchantment: Each other player sacrifices an enchantment.
Mythic Rare

In Vintage, the second ability will see the most play, then the first. In Legacy it’s the other way around. Both leave the third bringing up the rear for those rare cases when there’s an enchantment you want to kill (Oath of Druids and Counterbalance, for example) – and have one to sacrifice as well.

Spawning Grounds
6GG
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant land
Enchanted land has “T: Put a 5/5 green Beast creature token with trample onto the battlefield.”
Rare

As much as I sometimes wish otherwise, enchant lands are commonly waaaay too slow to be playable in Eternal. This is a good example, especially when there’s Strip Mine, Wasteland and the like floating around – or even Pithing Needle. Note that as a general rule, this needs to be activated twice to be worth it, and costs 8 mana, which is really 9 since it enchants a land. At that point you might as well have Verdant Force or something equally bonkers (.. don’t make me say Griselbrand again..) on the battlefield.

Sudden Demise
XR
Sorcery
Choose a color. Sudden Demise deals X damage to each creature of the chosen color.
Rare

Someone explain to me how a Sorcery is ‘sudden’.. Regardless, it finally gives red a bit of ‘fine tuning’ to its removal suite, allowing it to hit one group of cards and not another. It doesn’t touch players, of course, but for that cost it allows its own creatures to get by unscathed most times. If a deck wants an Earthquake effect, this should probably be on the list. Note that the furthest players typically go are Pyroclasm and Firespout.

Surveyor’s Scope
2
Artifact
T, Exile Surveyor’s Scope: Search your library for up to X basic land cards, where X is the number of players who control at least two more lands than you. Put those cards onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.
Rare

So if I have N lands, I count how many players have at least N+2 lands, and then get one basic for each of those players. In Vintage and Legacy, that means I’ll either get 0 or 1, which isn’t enough for this effect. Compare Expedition Map.

Sydri, Galvanic Genius
WUB
Legendary Creature — Human Artificer
2/2
U: Target noncreature artifact becomes an artifact creature with power and toughness each equal to its converted mana cost until end of turn.
WB: Target artifact creature gains deathtouch and lifelink until end of turn.
Mythic Rare

This one’s kind of in a weird spot. I could see it seeing play mostly to blow up Moxen, artifact lands, and the like. It’s plausible to use its second activated ability on something like Lodestone Golem, but I really wouldn’t count on it. I mean, the creature’s cheap enough to be played and has at least one usable ability, kind of like an Esper Gorilla Shaman. Could see play I suppose, I wouldn’t be completely surprised.

Tempt with Discovery
3G
Sorcery
Tempting offer — Search your library for a land card and put it onto the battlefield. Each opponent may search his or her library for a land card and put it onto the battlefield. For each opponent who searches a library this way, search your library for a land card and put it onto the battlefield. Then each player who searched a library this way shuffles it. .
Rare

Tempt with Glory
5W
Sorcery
Tempting offer — Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control. Each opponent may put a +1/+1 counter on each creature he or she controls. For each opponent who does, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.
Rare

Tempt with Immortality
4B
Sorcery
Tempting offer — Return a creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. Each opponent may return a creature card from his or her graveyard to the battlefield. For each player who does, return a creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Rare

Tempt with Reflections
3U
Sorcery
Tempting offer — Choose target creature you control. Put a token onto the battlefield that’s a copy of that creature. Each opponent may put a token onto the battlefield that’s a copy of that creature. For each opponent who does, put a token onto the battlefield that’s a copy of that creature.
Rare

Tempt with Vengeance
XR
Sorcery
Tempting offer — Put X 1/1 red Elemental creature tokens with haste onto the battlefield. Each opponent may put X 1/1 red Elemental creature tokens with haste onto the battlefield. For each player who does, put X 1/1 red Elemental creature tokens with haste onto the battlefield.
Rare

Again, I’ve grouped the Tempting cards together. Discovery is too slow as it costs you four mana to find a land – or two if your opponent take you up. Glory might be worth it if you have enough creatures, but at six mana you’re asking a lot. Immortality has to fight for slots with Unburial Rites, Reflections is just a Clone as a Sorcery – see Phantasmal Image for its competition-  leaving just Vengeance. I would note that the tokens don’t die at the end of turn, unlike many spells that spam out a huge number of hasty tokens at once. But for the most part, they’re good in EDH and not really worth it Eternal.

Terra Ravager
2RR
Creature — Elemental Beast
0/4
Whenever Terra Ravager attacks, it gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the number of lands defending player controls.
Uncommon

Man, do I wish this thing had trample. Or evasion of some sort. Pretty sure it would get picked up pretty easily then. As is it’s a random 4cc dork that would be huge in sideboards against Lands – not one of the top decks at this point – and not much elsewhere.

Tidal Force
5UUU
Creature — Elemental
7/7
At the beginning of each upkeep, you may tap or untap target permanent.
Rare

A “free” way to keep Stasis fed. (Yes, I said Stasis. Earlier this week I saw a Legacy video on ChannelFireball.com where LSV was playing Elves.. and played against Stasis.) Also not awful if you’re playing against another deck with a low creature count, but again, lack of evasion hurts.

Toxic Deluge
2B
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast Toxic Deluge, pay X life.
All creatures get -X/-X until end of turn.
Rare

There’s one creature that really annoys a lot of players in Eternal formats, more than anyone else, and he’s easily Vial-able. His name: Gaddock Teeg. The problem is that it cost one removal spell to get rid of him before you can worry about the rest of the stuff on the board. Now we have a scaleable mass removal spell that will take out Teeg and everything else on the board that we care about. Other spells like Firespout are sometimes too small, or like Wrath of God cost too much. Here we can nuke the board in one fell swoop and be done with it. Good riddance, Mr Teeg!

True-Name Nemesis
1UU
Creature — Merfolk Rogue
3/1
As True-Name Nemesis enters the battlefield, choose a player.
True-Name Nemesis has protection from the chosen player.
Rare

An odd variation on protection. According to the Commander 2013 Release Notes:

Protection from a player is a new variant of the protection ability. It means the following:
True-Name Nemesis can’t be the target of spells or abilities controlled by the chosen player.
True-Name Nemesis can’t be enchanted by Auras or equipped by Equipment controlled by the chosen player. (The same is true for Fortifications controlled by the chosen player, if True-Name Nemesis becomes a land.)
True-Name Nemesis can’t be blocked by creatures controlled by the chosen player.
All damage that would be dealt to True-Name Nemesis by sources controlled by the chosen player are prevented. (The same is true for sources owned by the chosen player that don’t have controllers.)

What this means is you get a 3/1 that more or less has hexproof, is unblockable, and can’t be dealt damage unless you control the source of the damage, all for three mana. Sees a pretty good bargain. Oh, and it’s a Merfolk. Enjoy.

Unexpectedly Absent
XWW
Instant
Put target nonland permanent into its owner’s library just beneath the top X cards of that library.
Rare

I like this card. In response to a fetchland activation – before they pick up the deck – tap WW and cast this. That will make it the top card of their library – which will suddenly get shuffled back in. Another card that Eternal players will love if they’re playing white.

Widespread Panic
2R
Enchantment
Whenever a spell or ability causes its controller to shuffle his or her library, that player puts a card from his or her hand on top of his or her library.
Rare

Note this happens *after* the shuffle effect. Reminds me a bit of Chittering Rats, which isn’t all that exciting since they just get the card again. Of course, the really annoying part is having this in play and then they run a top-deck tutor like Vampiric Tutor – which means it’s now the *second* card from the top, not the first. Can’t really see it being used much except against tutor-heavy decks, but again, fetchlands count.

Witch Hunt
4R
Enchantment
Players can’t gain life.
At the beginning of your upkeep, Witch Hunt deals 4 damage to you.
At the beginning of your end step, target opponent chosen at random gains control of Witch Hunt.
Rare

And for the last entry in Commander 2013..
So basically each turn, whoever’s turn it is takes 4 damage, and nobody can gain life. Enchantress might find it interesting but otherwise.. yeah, no.

So that’s where I see ’em. Agree, disagree, comments? Let me know! Also, do you want me to review ‘unknown’ cards from the set as well? Forgotten gems and the like? Or just let people rediscover them for themselves? Add comments below!