Fan Favorite Friday #11: Estrid, the Masked

Happy Friday, you ferocious, faithful, fastidious fans! I hope you’re all having a good week. I’ve been busy preparing for the upcoming Modern PPTQ season, but in between manic testing sessions with my infect deck, I’ve been eyeballing those sweet new Commander decks coming out!

We’re all super pumped for the upcoming release here at ABU – if you’re local, you should definitely come down to our release event! We’ll be assigning random tables and decks, allowing players some time to trade for their preferred deck, and then launching the pods! It’s going to be a blast. I hope to see you there!

To prepare for the upcoming release, we decided to have two of the new Commander planeswalkers face off this week, and the other two will be facing off next week. This week was Estrid, the Masked vs. Saheeli, the Gifted. Your votes were cast (on our Facebook page), and Estrid won with an overwhelming 67% share of the votes!

Instead of just giving away a copy of Estrid, The Masked, this week we’ll be giving away a copy of the entire Adaptive Enchantment Commander Deck! All you have to do is go to our Facebook, and:

  • like the ABU Games Facebook Page
  • like the post announcing the giveaway
  • comment on said post with either what changes you’ll make to the deck if you win it or just why you’re excited for the deck in general!

Of course, you won’t be able to pick up the deck until it’s officially released, but it looks worth the wait! Estrid and her enchantments look sweet! Let’s dig in.

History:

Since Estrid is making her first appearance for C18, there isn’t much history behind her to dig in to. According to mtg.gamepedia.com:

Estrid wears many faces, only occasionally wearing her own. She is an enchantress, able to hide herself and others behind a mask.Constantly striving for self-perfection, Estrid fashions the magical masks that imbue her with the strengths and skills of the creatures they represent. Calm and collected in times of danger, Estrid takes pride in her flexibility. She is always ready with the right face – and set of talents – for whatever challenge she encounters. Her arsenal of enchanted masks lets her shift seamlessly between the powers and fighting styles of countless creatures to adapt to enemy tactics. As Estrid journeys through the Multiverse, she seeks mighty creatures with unique fighting styles and weaves their powers into new masks.

How cool is that? I think the flavor behind the masks is super exciting, and am almost sold on her deck because of that alone. Wizards has been putting out sweet precons since 2011, and I’ve always tried to pick up at least one of the set since then. I’m not sure if Estrid will be my pick this year, but I wouldn’t be surprised! (I’ll know for sure, hopefully, after next week’s FFF)

What Makes This Card So Cool?

Estrid is all about enchantments, both flavor-wise and mechanic-wise. She starts at three loyalty, and her first ability is a +2 that allows you to untap each enchanted permanent you control – which seems kind of bonkers to me? I’m not the most experienced Commander player, so it might actually be kind of an underwhelming ability, but I at least think it’s a pretty rad start for an ‘enchantments matter’ themed deck!

Her second ability is a -1 that creates a white Aura enchantment token named Mask attached to another target permanent, and Mask has enchant permanent and totem armor. For those of you unfamiliar with totem armor, here is the snippet from the comprehensive rules that deals with it:

“702.88a Totem armor is a static ability that appears on some Auras. “Totem armor” means “If enchanted permanent would be destroyed, instead remove all damage marked on it and destroy this Aura.”

This also seems like a pretty neat ability! Being able to save your creatures, then untap them later with the +2 seems super useful!

Estrid’s ultimate, at -7, reads:

“Put the top seven cards of your library into your graveyard. Return all non-Aura enchantment cards from your graveyard to the battlefield, then do the same for Aura cards.”

Again, I’m not the most experienced in the Commander world, but if you built your whole deck around powerful enchantments, then this seems like a super useful ability.

Since I’m not a commander expert per se, I tracked down some of my more commander oriented coworkers to see what they had to say:

I think she’s interesting – giving creatures totem armor for free is pretty nice. I like that she’s a low CMC, which definitely helps her case a little bit. Aesthetically, I’m not sure I think her art fits. I like it though! Her +2 is awesome, I’m not sure if it’s breakable, but it seems pretty good! In terms of her -7, I know Replenish is amazing, but I’m not sure how impactful it will be. – Tyler, Buylist


She’s in my favorite colors, and I think Bant is the perfect color choice for an enchantment deck. I really think getting some doubling effects in the deck like, doubling season, parallel lives, or anointed procession would work really well with her Mask tokens. I’m excited to see where people take her, and I’m stoked see planeswalkers as commanders again. – Dane, Social Media Manager and Team Captain

What formats is this card played in?

Well, it’s not legal in anything yet! I’m sure she’ll see plenty of play in Commander once she drops, but I doubt we’ll see her in Legacy or anything like that. Want to check out the decklist that comes in this great package? You can check out all the lists and tokens here.

In Conclusion:

I’m STOKED for this new set! I can’t wait for our launch event, and I hope to see all of you locals there! Stay tuned next week to see the other two commanders battle it out, and feel free to continue the Estrid discussion in the comments!

Until next time.

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Joe Davidson is the Content Production Manager at ABU Games. When he's not playing Modern, Legacy, or following around Team ABU with a camera he's pursuing a BFA in Fiction at Boise State University. He loves Goblins, casting burn spells, and writing about Magic. You can find him on Twitter @MTGJoeD.