MTG Commander 2015 - Skullwinder Review

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

Skullwinder appears to simply be a functionally worse version of the ever-so-popular Eternal Witness. It is a 1 / 3 with Deathtouch for 2G, but having that one fewer Green mana symbol and Deathtouch compared to the Witness isn’t worth its biggest difference. Yes, you get a card back from your graveyard, but then an opponent of your choice must choose a card, as well. While you could obviously choose a player that doesn’t have any cards of value in his or her graveyard, this is obviously strictly worse.

What’s more curious is that Eternal Witness is being reprinted in Commander 2015, so it’s odd that they would print a functionally inferior version. Having the deathtouch is certainly not nothing and used early on enough in the game, it’s probably just as good as Eternal Witness. The only upside to this card is that it’s a redundancy that Commander decks typically like to have for powerful effects. Thing is, Regrowth gets you any card back from your graveyard for 1G and isn’t too expensive a card. While this is definitely playable, this would be your third option behind Witness and Regrowth.

One upside this card does have, though, is that it’s a Snake, meaning it works well with the new Commander Kaseto, Orochi Archmage. With Snake Tribal being helped considerably by Kaseto’s release, Skullwinder does have one obvious home. Is the tradeoff of potentially giving an opponent a useful card make this more fair? It certainly does. But is that trade-off worth the fact that it can block with Deathtouch? Perhaps. Skullwinder is a budget option for those that don’t want to pay $6 for Eternal Witness, although it isn’t playable in Modern like the Witness. The Witness probably won’t remain $6, either, after its new printing in the same set.

---