How Did Voja Break Commander?

Let's discuss Voja, Jaws of the Conclave, one of the most notorious Commanders from this year. People say it's too powerful, but here's some of my thoughts!

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The Social Media Plugs:

#EDH #MTG #Voja

[PlaneswalkerProject]

Since it seems alot of folks missed the point of the video: no, Voja didn't break the Commander format, no, Voja does not need to be banned, and it's an easy card to deal with.

[mooninites]

I don't think Voja deserves a ban, but I think its emblematic of a larger problem with card design that has gotten increasingly worse in recent years which is cards that protect themselves serve as a wincon and a draw engine. Voja hits all three of those. And while yes, it costs 5 mana, the entire archetype of the deck is to play cheap mana dork elves to get him out earlier only for him to turn those mana dorks into lethal threats the next turn. There's a substantial difference between Voja on turn 5 or 6 and Voja on turn 3 or 4. If he comes down on turn 3 or 4 he is basically impossible to deal with unless you got a board wipe in your opening hand. The Ward 3 is particularly notable because most of the targeted removal spells in the format cost two or three mana, effectively meaning they cost 5/6 mana to remove him. Thus, the Voja player is playing mana dork elves and accelerates the turn he comes out, no one will have the mana to pay for a targeted removal spell and the ward cost. I think you neglected to mention this as a huge part of the problem with Voja.

I think the card represents one of the worst designs in recent memory. He's way too strong at most casual tables, but also not even remotely close to cEDH viable. He's this weird in between where you're 'at the wrong table' regardless of where you play him

[elcapitanofthemtn]

“Take the Voja player out before they have a chance to cast him” is hard advice to follow if he can consistently be dropped on turn 3 or 4. The Ward 3 is back breaking where they spend 5 mana on their commander and you might not even have enough mana to remove it immediately.

[blasterprimed]

I agree with the boardwipe point. But voja can quickly outscale blasphemous act quite quickly when done right

[Ranis]

Maybe the problem is that wizards keeps putting ward on extremely pushed commanders that really shouldnt have it forcing players to resort to board wipes to handle threats efficiently is the problem. Maybe I don't want to blow the board up repeatedly and make games drag out longer than necessary all of the time.

[jayjayhooksch]

One of the problems with Voja is that it abuses the multiplayer aspect of commander.

In 1v1 you can afford to spend resources trading with their elves and wolves that enable voja before it comes down. Can't afford to do that in multiplayer lest you fall behind the other two players.

Similarly, ward is stronger in commander than it is in 1v1; you cant afford to be the player that spends a card and 5 mana (ie your whole turn) to deal with Voja otherwise you put yourself too far behind the other players.

I play vs Voja in Brawl and its not problematic, but when I see it in commander, i know that i have a couple turns to find a sweeper or the game is just over.

[brandyourfan]

Voja doesn't deserve to get banned, but it is incredibly strong.
Most Voja players can comfortably get this down turn 3-4, with mana dorks.
Then it quickly becomes board wipe or bust.

[Mr_B_]

My general take on Voja has less to do with its power in general, and more to do with the kinds of tables where we might see Voja. It's a very straightforward strategy that appeals to a wide audience of players. Voja really asks nothing of you to make itself good... It reminds me of Hullbreacher... Hullbreacher was not banned due to how powerful it was... it was banned because it found its way into decks in high quantities and got played at tables that weren't prepared to deal with it. It created unfun games that dragged on, or grinded the game to a halt. The reason Thassa's Oracle isn't banned is because unless you're honestly building around winning the game through that one combo, it honestly does very little in a "normal" commander game.

One comment here before mine was almost making fun of people, saying they need to "reevaluate their deckbuilding", whereas the issue comes down to... Voja is extremely powerful for most tables. It's very much the kind of card that can force an arms race. Am I a "bad deckbuilder" because I prioritize spot removal for main threats and applying pressure to opponents who are going for their own W, and not including extra boardwipes that have to be timed correctly just to interact with this one commander... I don't believe so. Not every table HAS to be hyper optimized, and Voja just needs to not be played at those tables.

I am hoping the wider discussion around Voja moves from "This should be banned" to "Know your table if you're going to play a Voja deck."

[Andreasws]

Ward 3 is a huge problem. Voja would be fine without Ward.

[Wistbacka]

Casting Voja turn 2 is amazing.😂 Just gotta make sure you have some elves in your opening hand too. Preferably a changeling.

[Thrkus]

Targeting ramp and mana reserves would be my go-to strategy if I’m not playing my one STAX deck. And any enablers that might give their stuff Haste or trample.

[antdiaz]

Earlier we had a Sheoldred (4 cmc) player sit at our casual table and asked to play. Instead of complaining about that choice, we all simply told the player that every single time that commander came out, it would be killed at instant speed, and they unsurprisingly lost that game. I think dealing with Voja should be very similar, if they want to bring that to the table, be ready to be the target before the game even begins. Dealing with it that way also makes that player less incentivized to play that commander in the future, which will lead to seeing it in less games

[afrocious]

The problem is all the new edh babies. It’s great commander is so popular now but so many complain about interaction because hurrr I want everything to go with my commander. When you look back at normal casual commander back then 15 pieces or so of your deck was built with interaction. Caesars precon comes with what 5 or 6 board wipes. That’s old school Magic right there. 5-6 board wipes and 10 pieces of removal.

[HumbleBasse]

Remember 2005, when Voja was just a cute puppy token :( ?

[peggle]

If you were already playing enough interaction, it really wasn't a problem . I feel like all it did was make people reevaluate their interaction in their deck

[martinfarrell]

Other solutions not mentioned are to use uncounterable single-target removal. Either make your spells uncounterable via Boseiju, who shelters all/allosaurus shepard etc to ignore ward or cards such as void render. Some of these are generic staple cards that see play anyway.

Other more niche solutions are to plays auras without casting them or use cards like Szat's will. However only mono green can really complain about not having boardwipes in the 3-5 mana range. Even mono-blue has test.

[Oz__MTG]

Voja is a cool commander, it’s just unfortunate that it loses to my uncommon commander Kutzil, I run a stax style deck and it’s hilarious to watch others reaction when casting things like ghostly prison. 😂

[lukabotica]

Soul Shatter! Gets around any protection. Counter it with Wash Away for just 1 blue mana!

[deejayf]

Y'know, I think it's a bit disingenuous to say that it's just a knee-jerk reaction or that players should just kill the Voja player before they get to play Voja.

For example, if most of my interaction comes from big stompy creatures, I'm just never able to remove that thing. 7 mana for a ravenous Chupacabra, for example, is just not feasible since I'm gonna be dead by that point.

This card is just not fair to play against at lower power level tables, unless you go out of your way to play him in Wolf tribal, without the mana dorks.

[Reefer]

Only people I see scared of this card is people that don't run removal you can get around Ward with anything that doesn't Target but like most of us we don't like to run too much removal so we get stuck with a commander we can't deal with but that can be the same for any commander that's a threat if you don't deal with them.