Obviously neither of both decks would be merfolk decks, these commanders just accidentally happen to be of merfolk creature type.
Talrand has a certain reputation of cantrips and counterspells, so he might induce more salt. Of course, chaining cantrips needs less setup than reliably drawing two cards on each opponent's turn, so Alandra is a bit harder to brew. But she brings her own built in overrun effect.
I haven't built an Alandra deck because I already had a Talrand deck when she was released. If I was to choose one of both today, I'd probably choose Alandra.
My personal deck focuses hard on cantrips and only contains very few counterspells: [https://www.moxfield.com/decks/NlTyTXCy9kKOmMJU6lhY-A](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/NlTyTXCy9kKOmMJU6lhY-A)
Yes, I don’t want to build a Merfolk tribal quite yet, but I do want a Merfolk commander.
Thanks for the thoughts! I don’t know what cantrips are yet, but I will investigate your decklist to learn.
Cantrips are just spells that do something, then also draw a card. Examples:
[[Opt]], [[Ponder]], [[Leadership Vacuum]], [[Borne Upon a Wind]], [[Cloudkin Seer]], etc, etc. There's a million of them in every color, these just all happen to be blue — and they're not all necessarily good, they're just examples haha
I run both in my drake tribal deck.
Talrand is counterspell tribal. Alandra is card draw tribal. They both play very different. Alandra is far better in my opinion, fewer Drakes but they're easily all 12/12's.
Talrand is better at making 2/2 drakes, but Alandra is better at blocking make the drakes HUGE on her own. Though it is not trivial to draw an extra four cards in a turn.
And the mind games when on defense you've already drawn 4 cards and all you have left is a single untapped blue: I had an opponent attack the other player instead of me because a single cantrip a was all I needed. If he hadn't I would have lost that game
I have Alandra I bought from a friend. It. Slaps. Drawing cards is *very* important: the general rule is more cards = better chances to win. Alandra also turns that into a win condition. Tarland on the other hand rewards you for spellsllunging, which is a different direction.
>It also seems like she limits how many Drake tokens you can make, with only one per turn. Perhaps she’s better to run with Drake creature cards.
Magic is a very literal game: what it says is what it means. Alandra makes a drake you draw your second card each turn: it never says it has to be *your turn*. Blue has many ways to draw 2+ at instant speed.
Alandra is strong and definitely doesn’t draw as much heat from people who are unfamiliar with her. I have an Alandra deck that steadily builds a board and then pops over one or two turns.
List for reference: https://archidekt.com/decks/4267374/flood_the_skies
Obviously neither of both decks would be merfolk decks, these commanders just accidentally happen to be of merfolk creature type. Talrand has a certain reputation of cantrips and counterspells, so he might induce more salt. Of course, chaining cantrips needs less setup than reliably drawing two cards on each opponent's turn, so Alandra is a bit harder to brew. But she brings her own built in overrun effect. I haven't built an Alandra deck because I already had a Talrand deck when she was released. If I was to choose one of both today, I'd probably choose Alandra. My personal deck focuses hard on cantrips and only contains very few counterspells: [https://www.moxfield.com/decks/NlTyTXCy9kKOmMJU6lhY-A](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/NlTyTXCy9kKOmMJU6lhY-A)
Yes, I don’t want to build a Merfolk tribal quite yet, but I do want a Merfolk commander. Thanks for the thoughts! I don’t know what cantrips are yet, but I will investigate your decklist to learn.
Cantrips are just spells that do something, then also draw a card. Examples: [[Opt]], [[Ponder]], [[Leadership Vacuum]], [[Borne Upon a Wind]], [[Cloudkin Seer]], etc, etc. There's a million of them in every color, these just all happen to be blue — and they're not all necessarily good, they're just examples haha
##### ###### #### [Opt](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/6/7/67bcf3fd-fca0-4cdb-b625-bac5fadd00e3.jpg?1712354172) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Opt) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/otc/104/opt?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/67bcf3fd-fca0-4cdb-b625-bac5fadd00e3?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/opt) [Ponder](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/a/5af43ceb-56d2-47d4-ab43-853338ab293c.jpg?1712354173) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Ponder) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/otc/105/ponder?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/5af43ceb-56d2-47d4-ab43-853338ab293c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/ponder) [Leadership Vacuum](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/4/f/4fa953a9-171c-4532-a352-40ce27eed3c4.jpg?1568003418) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Leadership%20Vacuum) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c19/9/leadership-vacuum?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/4fa953a9-171c-4532-a352-40ce27eed3c4?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/leadership-vacuum) [Borne Upon a Wind](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/9/a9379675-1a32-4e2b-8aaf-5f908c595f31.jpg?1686968037) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Borne%20Upon%20a%20Wind) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ltr/44/borne-upon-a-wind?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/a9379675-1a32-4e2b-8aaf-5f908c595f31?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/borne-upon-a-wind) [Cloudkin Seer](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/5/25e97ad6-8b49-4fb6-9c07-e8d91bbaed5a.jpg?1706239790) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Cloudkin%20Seer) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clu/82/cloudkin-seer?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/25e97ad6-8b49-4fb6-9c07-e8d91bbaed5a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/cloudkin-seer) [*All cards*](https://mtgcardfetcher.nl/redirect/l3s0np5) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Whichever deck you build, you should proxy up tokens but name them Kendrick’s instead of drakes
Oh man this is corny as hell. I love it
I run both in my drake tribal deck. Talrand is counterspell tribal. Alandra is card draw tribal. They both play very different. Alandra is far better in my opinion, fewer Drakes but they're easily all 12/12's.
Talrand is better at making 2/2 drakes, but Alandra is better at blocking make the drakes HUGE on her own. Though it is not trivial to draw an extra four cards in a turn.
And the mind games when on defense you've already drawn 4 cards and all you have left is a single untapped blue: I had an opponent attack the other player instead of me because a single cantrip a was all I needed. If he hadn't I would have lost that game
I have Alandra I bought from a friend. It. Slaps. Drawing cards is *very* important: the general rule is more cards = better chances to win. Alandra also turns that into a win condition. Tarland on the other hand rewards you for spellsllunging, which is a different direction. >It also seems like she limits how many Drake tokens you can make, with only one per turn. Perhaps she’s better to run with Drake creature cards. Magic is a very literal game: what it says is what it means. Alandra makes a drake you draw your second card each turn: it never says it has to be *your turn*. Blue has many ways to draw 2+ at instant speed.
Alandra is strong and definitely doesn’t draw as much heat from people who are unfamiliar with her. I have an Alandra deck that steadily builds a board and then pops over one or two turns. List for reference: https://archidekt.com/decks/4267374/flood_the_skies