In Praise of Shatterstorm

This year was the year I finally noticed: non-creature sweepers are remarkably barren in Wizards' Commander products.

What am I talking about?

I'm talking about something that I have been confronted with in every Commander game I have ever played, especially multiplayer ones: The presence of multiple artifacts and enchantments that need to be taken off the board in order to advance the game state. Not just one and not just a single player.

Quick anecdotal example: last night in a four player game, there was a Fireshrieker, Mana Crypt, Ghostly Prison, Mystic Remora, Armillary Sphere, Gilded Lotus, Burgeoning, Coldsteel Heart, Talisman of Dominance and two Sol Rings on the table. Those are just the artifacts and enchantments but that's 11 targets!

Yet, playing my Yidris deck, I had no answers for this many of these permanents. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Take a look at the Commander decklists: 2015, 2016, 2017. Lots of answers for mass removal of creatures and a few 'destroy all things' cards but where are the cards to wipe the board of problematic enchantments and artifacts?

Artifacts are especially grievous in this regard; their colorless utility means that Commander decks can get a lot out of them, either as a way to double down on an effect that a color gives them (think Black's graveyard removal and Tormod's Crypt) or as a way to ramp up in decks that wouldn't have access to those: Sol Ring, Skullclamp, etc. Artifacts are everywhere and while I cannot deny the necessary space that they take up in the format, the fact of the matter is that in a multiplayer game, multiple artifacts will appear.

Same with enchantments. Although not as ubiquitous as artifacts, enchantments are a part of every game and they certainly are part of almost every Commander deck that WotC has produced for the past three years.

In total, there are 231 artifacts and enchantments across those 14 decks. And this isn't counting artifact creatures, which would raise the total considerably.

In those three years: Merciless Eviction, Bane of Progress, and Vandalblast are the only sweepers for such permanents. Where is Tranquil Path or Hush?

I could understand Back to Nature being too strong but everything else? Not even Root Greevil or Nova Cleric?

Artifacts, as an even bigger problem, are more glaring for their lack of mass removal: Creeping Corrosion, Corrosion, Meltdown, Fracturing Gust, Hammer Mage, Pulverize, Purify, Seeds of Innocence, Shatterstorm: where are the reprints of these cards?

Commander is a multiplayer format: where are the multiplayer answers? Why aren't there more ways to sweep artifacts off the table? Even cards like Shattering Pulse or Allay (for enchantments) would help.

Now, there is objection to be raised here and I get it: WotC designed this product to work within its own 'ecosystem'. That is; the Commander 2017 ('16, '15, etc) decks are meant to be played against each other. In some years, a card like Hammer Mage would be so dominant against a deck like Breya, Etherium Shaper that it wouldn't be fun at all.

Not every set can cover every contingency-nor should it, especially when players can have more fun without such coverage. Interactive games are important to create, especially for a format like Commander! Balance matters.

Nonetheless, I am hard pressed to believe that there is no place for these kinds of board wipes and I'm hoping that Wizards starts to give players some of these reprints-or find new ways to provide said board wipes of non-creature permanents.

For example: they've done well with non-basic land destruction, I think! I want to point that out because I believe that non-basic land hate should be a part of the game and is, honestly, more necessary than ever across the Eternal formats.

I don't want to get off track though. I want to point out; how many games of Commander are heavily influenced by artifacts or enchantments and how many targets exist in any given multiplayer game.

Give us our Shatterstorms, Wizards. We need those just like we need the Wrath effects.

Also: this will be the last post until Oct 12, as I'm in NYC for a few days!