Designing 5 color MTG Commanders can be tricky. Their prohibitive casting cost makes them difficult to play, and it’s tough to determine what an acceptable power level is for a five colour card. Because of this, Wizards of the Coast sometimes use a little trick where they design a legendary creature with only a few colors in its casting cost, but then they give it a five color activated ability. This means that the card is able to lead a five color Commander deck, but can be played very easily. The Wandering Minstrel, Kenrith, the Returned King, and Leonardo, the Balance are some prior examples of this. A new card in Reality Fracture continues this trend, but players seem less than pleased with it.
Tam, the Possibility is a 2/4 gorgon wizard that costs green, blue, and one mana of any color. While Tam is in play, her controller’s planeswalker spells are all one mana cheaper. She also has a five colour activated ability allowing her controller to proliferate X times, where X is the number of different planeswalker types that they control. In other words, any permanents that Tam’s controller has in play with counters on will gain additional counters of those types equal to the number of Planeswalker cards that they control depicting a differently named character.
The intention behind this ability is clear. Put a diverse cast of planeswalker pals into play, then proliferate to grant them all enough counters to use their strongest abilities, and end the game in a burst of flashy effects. Given that some of the best MTG cards are planeswalkers, there’s certainly the potential to do some exciting stuff with Tam. Despite this, the reaction of the community when this card was revealed was decidedly tepid.
Some players were disappointed, as they felt the card did not do justice to the character’s lore. The top rated comment on the MagicTCG reddit thread where Tam was revealed states, “SHE’S NOT A PLANESWALKER???” Demonstrating frustration with the fact that the card is just a legendary creature, despite the fact that Tam became a planeswalker during the closing chapters of Reality Fracture’s storyline. On the MagicArena Subreddit, many users have labelled the card “generic” or “boring”.
What’s your take here? Personally, I think I’m a bit more excited than the broader community about Tam. I can see a turn when her ability goes off being explosive and chaotic in a way that’s only possible in the weirdest of Commander games. Equally, though, I can understand why players are beginning to get tired of this repeated design pattern and find Tam a bit underwhelming. Tell us your views in the Wargamer Discord.
Source: Wargamer
