Commander Meta Update, One Month of Reality Fracture

Reality Fracture is a month old, and the first wave of excitement has passed. Here is what Commander (EDH) players actually did with the set.

A third of the decks posted since October 3 play at least one Reality Fracture card. Across the whole library, more than 36,000 decks now include a card from the set, and roughly 10,000 are led by one of its commanders.

Below are the commanders and cards that took off, the ones whose prices moved, the combos players found, and a fresh set of decks from $49 budget builds to cEDH. Prices are a November 4 snapshot, so check each tile for the current figure.

Vraska, Soul of Stone, art by Kieran Yanner

Quick picks

What changed in a month

Jace is still the most built commander from the set. The big mover is Vraska, now the second most built new commander.

The most played new cards are a different story. Avacyn, Angel of Horror leads only 321 of the new decks but sits in 2,603. Close behind is Geist of Saint Thalia, a two-mana uncommon that makes your noncreature spells cost one less. It shows up in 2,545 new decks, at every bracket from 2 to 5. The Theorist, Jace Beleren follows with 1,783, and the three Turbulent dual lands are each in about 1,700.

Most of the new decks sit in the middle of the power range. 43% are bracket 3, a third are bracket 2, 19% are bracket 4 and 5% are cEDH. The median deck costs $374.

Price moves since launch

New cards usually start high and drift down as more product is opened. Reality Fracture mostly followed that pattern, with a few exceptions.

The Theorist is still the most valuable card in the set, and it is going up while almost everything else goes down. Samut is the most interesting case. Its price fell by two thirds while cEDH players adopted it faster than any other new card. It now sits in 533 bracket 5 decks, up from 156. If you want it for a high-power deck, it has never been cheaper.

Emrakul lost nearly half its launch price and is still rarely a commander. Ten decks in the library lead with it, up from three. Each card name above links to its price page, where the chart keeps updating daily.

Combos the new cards found

Draconic Visitor, art by Alexander Mokhov

Commander players have had a month to break the set. These are the combos with new cards that show up in the most new decks.

Draconic Visitor and Ganax, 240 decks

Draconic Visitor turns every artifact token you would create into a 5/5 flying Dragon instead. Ganax, Astral Hunter makes a Treasure, which is an artifact token, whenever a Dragon enters. Together, every Dragon makes a Treasure, which becomes a Dragon, which makes another Treasure. You end up with as many 5/5 flyers as you like for a $3 rare and a $5 uncommon.

Neither card says "may", so the loop never stops on its own. You need a way to end it, such as a sacrifice outlet, or the game ends in a draw. The combo turns up in Dragon decks of every kind, led by Lathliss, The Ur-Dragon, Smaug and Rivaz. This Rivaz of the Claw list went up on November 2 and plays it in a bracket 5 shell with Chrome Mox and The One Ring.

See every deck running both cards

Niv-Mizzet, Ghost Counsel and Sheoldred, 157 decks

Niv-Mizzet, Ghost Counsel lets you pay life equal to any life you gain and draw that many cards. Sheoldred, the Apocalypse gains you 2 life for every card you draw. Each draw pays for the next two, so you can keep drawing as deep into your library as you want, gaining life on the way. Both abilities are optional, so you stop whenever you like.

81 of these decks are led by Niv-Mizzet himself. Most of the rest are Jace, Y'shtola, Oloro and Liesa decks running the pair.

See every deck running both cards

Geist of Saint Thalia, Sensei's Top and Mystic Forge, 128 decks

With Geist out, Sensei's Divining Top costs nothing. Mystic Forge lets you cast artifacts from the top of your library. Tap Top to draw a card and put Top back on top of your library, cast it again for free, and repeat until you have drawn what you need.

44 of these decks are Vraska decks, and that is no accident. Vraska makes a 1/1 Sculpture Treasure every time you cast a noncreature spell, so each loop also makes a token. Add a haste effect such as Anger and those tokens can tap for mana right away, which turns the loop into unlimited mana as well. This $484 list is built around exactly that, and only 50 of the 3,292 new bracket 5 decks cost less.

See every deck running all three

Under $100

Five new decks under $100, all posted in the last four weeks.

Geist of Saint Thalia, art by Ryan Pancoast

Tinybones, Pocket Nuisance

Tinybones, Pocket Nuisance deals 1 damage to each opponent whenever any player discards. This mono-black list costs $49 and went up on November 2. It makes every player discard as often as it can, with Liliana of the Veil and Waste Not doing the heavy lifting.

See every Tinybones, Pocket Nuisance deck

Geist of Saint Thalia

If Geist is the breakout card of the set, you can also put it in the command zone. This mono-blue deck costs $93, and Sensei's Divining Top makes up almost a third of that. The rest is cheap artifacts and cantrips that Geist makes even cheaper, and so many ways to loop Top that it is rated bracket 4. Expect to win with Laboratory Maniac after drawing your deck.

See every Geist of Saint Thalia deck

Fblthp, Impossibly Lost

Fblthp, Impossibly Lost draws you two cards whenever an opponent takes combat damage on your turn. If your library is empty when that happens, you win. This $67 list, posted on November 4, empties its own library on purpose with Paradigm Shift and Leveler, then attacks.

See every Fblthp, Impossibly Lost deck

Lyra, Tolarian Archangel

Lyra, Tolarian Archangel makes a 3/3 flying Angel at the end of any turn in which you drew three or more cards. That is easy in mono-blue, and this $66 deck runs 34 cheap spells that draw a card to make it happen on as many turns as possible, yours and your opponents'.

See every Lyra, Tolarian Archangel deck

Vraska, Soul of Stone

The cheapest good Vraska deck we found costs $52. It casts a stream of cheap artifacts and instants for Sculpture tokens, protects them with a dozen counterspells, and has several untap loops built around Jeskai Ascendancy and Banishing Knack. It plays two more new cards in Countersculpt and Traxos, Scourge Eternal.

Vraska, Soul of Stone decks, or search the ones under $100.

$100 to $400

This is where most of the new decks land, and where the strongest brews for the money are.

Tam, the Possibility, art by Martina Fačková

Tam, the Possibility

This is the deck with the most new cards in this post. 38 of its cards come from Reality Fracture, including all ten "Way of the" enchantments, all five Annexes and four of the five Charms. And it still rates 7.6 for power, because every Way enchantment puts loyalty on a Jace token and Tam proliferates once for every planeswalker type you control. It costs $202.

Tam, the Possibility decks

The Ur-Sphinx

A $1,020 Sphinx kindred deck went up last month. This one costs $221 and takes a stranger route. It runs 28 copies of Sphinx's Approach, an instant that draws two cards and that a deck may play any number of. Once four copies are in your graveyard, the next one can exile itself and those four to put a Sphinx from your library straight onto the battlefield. The deck's name, "Approach of the Second Sphinx", is a nod to Approach of the Second Sun.

The Ur-Sphinx decks

Saheeli, Jewel of Avishkar

Saheeli, Jewel of Avishkar makes a 1/1 flying Thopter with haste for every noncreature spell you cast. This $337 storm deck went up on November 4 and is rated bracket 4 at power 8.0. It chains spells with Jeska's Will and Underworld Breach, so a big turn also comes with a squadron of Thopters.

See every Saheeli, Jewel of Avishkar deck

Niv-Mizzet, Ghost Counsel

Not every Niv-Mizzet deck needs Sheoldred. This $337 white-black build drains instead. Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond feed each other, and Niv turns the spare life into cards. Fourteen removal spells keep the board under control while the drain engine comes together.

Niv-Mizzet, Ghost Counsel decks

Karn, Gilded Guardian

Karn, Gilded Guardian draws a card for each color among your other artifacts when it enters. This five-color $186 deck plays a lot of colored artifacts and blink effects to draw again and again, and it has two surprise finishers in Coalition Victory and Thassa's Oracle.

See every Karn, Gilded Guardian deck

No budget

Jace, Multiverse Architect

The strongest Jace decks are still the expensive ones. This $1,294 list went up on November 4 and scores 9.6 out of 10 for interaction. It plays Mana Drain, Force of Negation and Rhystic Study alongside five new cards, Jace's Machinations among them. It is rated bracket 3, but the power rating of 8.4 says it plays well above most bracket 3 tables.

Jace, Multiverse Architect decks, or search the bracket 3 lists under $200.

Vraska, Soul of Stone

This $7,738 list went up on November 3 and holds 63 known combos, among the most of any Vraska deck. It runs the full Geist, Top and Mystic Forge loop from above, alongside Displacer Kitten, Underworld Breach and a manabase of original dual lands.

cEDH

The new cards cEDH players have settled on are Samut, Tyrant of Naktamun, Pia, Aether Ascetic and Geist of Saint Thalia. Samut is in 348 of the new bracket 5 decks, most often under Vivi Ornitier, Rograkh and Silas Renn, and Vraska. Pia shows up in 220, most often in Kinnan, Thrasios and Etali lists. The Theorist appears in 110, most often under Jace or Tam.

Two new commanders also made cheap cEDH lists. Codie copies every prepared spell you cast, and this $343 build with 25 ramp pieces is rated bracket 5. The Geist deck below costs $464 and adds Samut, so its instants and sorceries can't be countered or responded to.

Codie, Ravenous Codex decks, every bracket 5 deck with Samut, and every bracket 5 deck with Pia.

Coming next, Star Trek

Star Trek releases on November 13, and players are already brewing. 1,387 of the new decks play Star Trek cards. The Borg Queen leads 97 of them, followed by Locutus of Borg and Commander Spock with 48 each. These are pre-release builds, and some of the cards have no price yet, so the deck prices you see today are lower than they will be.

See the Borg Queen decks so far

We will cover the Star Trek decks once the set is out.

Searches to start from

• Every deck running Geist of Saint Thalia under $100
• Vraska, Soul of Stone at bracket 3
• The strongest Tam, the Possibility decks under $300
• Every deck running The Theorist, Jace Beleren
• Every deck running Draconic Visitor

The cover combines art by Pauline Voss (Avacyn, Angel of Horror), Ryan Pancoast (Kwia Vigorbloom), Volkan Baǵa (Jace, Multiverse Architect), Chase Stone (Ingris Stingerquill) and Arif Wijaya (Omnath, Locus of the Void).