"Teferi , Temporal Archmage: Uniting the Others"

"Teferi , Temporal Archmage: Uniting the Others"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

Commander 2014 is something that a lot of Magic players have been looking forward to for months. After all the excitement about Khans , Clans and Fetchlands have settled down a bit it is now time to focus on one of the main features of this batch of Commander decks. Unlike previous sets which had Multi-Colored Commanders , Wizards of the Coast has now decided to release decks that would be mono colored and that there will be a lot of Historical Legends from across Magic lore that previously had no cards. I already talked about Gisa and her brother Geralf but I have not talked about one unique card that would be coming out of this new set and that is Teferi , Temporal Archmage.

So what makes him unique then? He is the first planeswalker to have the words Teferi ,Temporal Archmage could be your commander. I would assume that there might be a couple more like him in the set but he was the first one to be spoiled for Commander 2014 and was explained to be a younger version of Teferi before the events of Time Spiral block. 

So why is Teferi , Temporal Archmage important? Does he change the game for you? Yes he does. For one he is a planeswalker who most likely would not be a target of removal if you are able to get him out early. Also I would like to point that there are a lot of removal for non-land permanents now but most likely opponents would not be able to prepare for their initial meetings with him. 

At 6 mana (4 colorless and 2 blue) , Teferi seems a bit overpriced but this is a Commander game where mana acceleration is rampant. I would like to talk about his abilities now.

His first ability a +1 lets you look at the top two cards of you deck and you get to decide which one to put in your hand and what to put at the bottom of your library. This is a great filter effect and as a Blue mage you would need to constantly be drawing cards to replenish your hand or at least threaten with your hand so you could affect other EDH players. This also lets you get rid of cards that you might want to be searching for later on. If Teferi's first ability gets you a Counter spell and a Blightsteel Colossus. Best to keep the counter and power out the Blightsteel later with a Kuldotha Forgemaster or a Proteus staff. Knowing where a particular card had gone to is very important especially if that card is involved in your overall strategy.

Teferi , Temporal Archmages second ability is a (-) that allows you to untap up to four permanents. Notice the wording. 4 Permanents. It means that it all depends on your particular need when Teferi comes into play. It could be creatures that you want to untap to defend. It could be lands that you want to use cast other spells on that turn. Blue mages could intimidate with just 2 Islands open , just imagine if they have 4 mana at their disposal. Permanents that you might want to untap could be the various artifacts that produce insane amounts of mana like Thran Dynamo or Gilded Lotus. 

Teferi , Temporal Archmages ultimate ability is another unique aspect of this card. You would get an emblem that lets you use a planeswalker ability any time you could use an instant. So that means that you could draw instantaneously with Jace , Liliana of the Veil could kill creatures on any turn. Karn could exile permanents at will. It would still have to be one activation per turn though but considering the versatility that this Emblem gives you it is pretty cool to do so. The Chain Veil could fit in nicely here as well because it could now be activated at each turn. Imagine if you have various planewalkers already out and you could use the Chain Veil on each of your opponents turns. All those planeswalker abilities at your disposal. All the advantage that they could bring you. It is isn't hard to figure that a Super Friends EDH of all the magic colors would include Teferi , Temporal Archmage.

Teferi in comparison to all the other Planeswalker Commanders seems a bit weak and his Emblem ability is a bit more specific and limited. Unlike the others who offer Tokens or Artifact reanimation Teferi offers support in other areas such as Library manipulation and even mana acceleration in a color(blue) that normally does not have mana acceleration. And because of the Untap 4 permanents ability Teferi could set up all sorts of combos as well. All in all Blue Mages would be glad to have him in their arsenal