The usual onslaught of new set releases for Magic: The Gathering has come to a standstill as of late. Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, fans of the card game have been forced to wait a month longer than usual for the second of 2020’s four-part block to arrive. Wizards of the Coast announced recently that Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths has been pushed back from its initial April launch to May 15th, though this revised date only applies to the traditional paper format.
Players of Magic Online and MTG Arena will still be able to crack open any packs of the mythical monster-inspired set on April 16th, just shy of a full month earlier than physical. A welcome compromise for those that primarily play Standard, then, though not so much for Commander lovers. Five new pre-made decks for the popular format are confirmed to be arriving alongside Lair of Behemoths, though with neither online game supporting the mode, the only option in this instance will be to patiently wait for a physical release next month.
In order to get players theory-crafting new decks that incorporate the new cards, however, Wizards has revealed every new Commander included in the upcoming release, all of which can be found in the gallery below.
For those unaware, Commander is a casual Magic: The Gathering format that, unlike the core game, requires players to compete with 100-card decks containing no duplicates. Only cards that utilize the same colors as that of the Commander can be used and the latter must either be a Legendary creature or Planeswalker.
Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths will be followed later this year with two further Standard-legal sets – Core 2021 and Zendikar Rising, the latter of which is expected to feature reprints of many popular cards from the original 2009-2010 set in the same location.
