MTG Commander Legendaries in premier sets receive Planeswalker treatment

Wizards of the Coast is lowering the amount Legendary Commander creatures that appear in premier sets like Duskmourn: House of Horrors, according to Head Magic: The Gathering designer Mark “MaRo” Rosewater.

Recent visits to MTG Multiverse Planes like Bloomburrow and Duskmourn have resulted in fewer Legendary creatures in premier Standard-legal sets. The nature of both Planes made it difficult to place an abundance of Legendary creatures, and it turns out this was an intentional move made by MTG devs.

A player who noticed the Legendary creature count difference compared to sets like Outlaws of Thunder Junction asked MaRo about the change on his Blogatog, who confirmed that the reduction is intentional. 

“We are consciously trying to lower legendary creatures in premier sets,” MaRo said.

Wizards of the Coast took a similar approach to Planeswalkers, by having many of them lose their Spark following the Phyrexian Multiverse war. Planeswalker dominance in premier sets hit an all-time high through War of the Spark but was proven to be too much for most players as most of the cards weren’t playable in Standard and lacked synergy with Draft archetypes.

With most Planeswalkers losing their Spark, an increase in Legendary creatures was likely, with OTJ having the most since WAR and Dominaria United, clocking in over 50 total Legendary creatures. But the numbers have been dropping. Bloomburrow had 34 (including Commander sets), while Duskmourn will contain only 27, which includes the Commander Precon decks. 

Most players are fine with the reduction of Legendary creatures as long as WotC continues to showcase Legendaries from the lore and that they mechanically fit with the set they are in, providing synergy and playability within Limited formats and even Standard Constructed. 

You can test out the new Duskmourn: House of Horrors Legendary creatures when the MTG set globally releases on Sept. 27.