Is Voja Jaws of the Conclave too powerful for MTG Commander? 

Voja, Jaws of the Conclave is one of the strongest MTG Commanders in recent memory, and many players consider it to be too powerful. 

MTG’s Murders at Karlov Manor set was a more underwhelming experience than fans or Wizards of the Coast might have hoped for, but that’s not to say that the set was without powerful standout cards. Voja, Jaws of the Conclave has swiftly become an infamous Commander card, with many players feeling that it is unfairly powerful. 

So, is Voja, Jaws of the Conclave a broken card? As ever in Commander, it depends on the power level of your game group.   

Voja sits in the in-between space of being too powerful for many casual Commander pods, while not quite reaching the heights necessary for cEDH play. Still, there are several points of Voja’s design that can make playing against it an unpleasant experience for unprepared opponents. 

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Elves are one of MTG’s most iconic Creature types, and they are well served by frequent support as a result. Ramping Elf decks can be very difficult to stop once they start building up mana and momentum, hence the community term ‘Elfball’.  

While running Voja as Commander means missing out on many powerful black mana Elves, it’s still a worthwhile trade-off. The inclusion of red mana allows Voja players to build decks including haste enablers like Rhythm of the Wild. Through this and its easy-to-access power boosts, Voja decks can start swinging for lethal within the first few turns. 

As well as the deck’s ability to build up power quickly and swing as soon as Creatures hit the field, potent, potentially insta-kill sources of damage like Shalai and Halar can lead to Voja being too oppressive for many game groups.  

Balancing Elves and Wolves 

One of the key issues with Voja could be fixed with a small change. The main problems are Elves being tied to Voja’s power boost and Wolves being the basis of its card draw.

It’s remarkably easy to field a bunch of Elves and boost them all to ridiculous power levels, as many Elves can either tap for mana or boost the power and toughness of other Elves. As a result, Voja can be built without any real focus on Wolves, diluting the flavor of this dual-support Commander.  

If Elves were used for Voja’s card draw, the deck would have to rely more substantially on Wolf Creatures to build up its power-boosting effect, leading to a deck that is still powerful but less able to overpower all other players within just a few turns. 

Voja proves Ward’s overuse 

Voja’s overwhelming power makes the card a ‘kill on sight’ Commander for many players. Commanders like Voja often have to be played at just the right time, as forewarned players will use removal spells right away to take them off the board, rather than letting them stick around and allowing their player to start benefiting from their effects. 

Removing Voja from the board is a trickier prospect than usual, however, thanks to the Ward 3 ability. Ward 3 means that other players will have to pump in 3 more mana than usual in order to target Voja with spells and abilities. Suddenly cheap removal is a much more significant investment, making many players reluctant to commit so much mana and risk falling behind their opponents. 

MTG Principal Designer Gavin Verhey recently discussed the Ward ability in a YouTube video, stating that Wizards will be cutting back on Ward in the future for cards like Voja. The protection that Ward provides makes this potential glass cannon Commander into a more resilient threat than intended.  

Despite Ward 3 offering ample protection, Voja’s Achilles heel is board wipe effects. Non-targeting removal handily gets around Ward’s protection and wipes out most of the heavy hitters and ramp Creatures that the deck will play.  

This isn’t to say that Voja is uniquely weak to board wipes, as most Commanders outside of graveyard strategies suffer huge setbacks when the board is reset. Still, it’s worth keeping board wipe effects in mind when building Commander decks in the current MTG environment. 

Targeting protection like Ward and Hexproof has led to more decks packing wide-ranging wrath effects instead of individual removal, and that trend is likely to continue for some time yet. As long as powerful, hard-to-remove threats like Voja are being used in Commander, targeted removal will continue to see a decline in use.