Lieutenant
Lieutenant is an ability word introduced in Commander 2014. It only appears on a horizontal cycle of 5 creatures. [1]
Sometimes, highly competitive Commander players choose their Commanders mostly for color identity, without the intent of building their decks around them. Lieutenant is meant as a reward for players who actually intend to cast their commanders and try to keep them on the battlefield.
A creature with lieutenant gets (or grants) a bonus as long as you control your commander. It allowed R&D to create creatures with combat stats that are more generous than they would normally allow for a typical one-on-one duel, because their abilities will only be turned on in a context where players have a higher starting life totals. Moreover, unleashing your lieutenant's full power involves keeping your commander on the battlefield, which isn't always a given.
Example
Lieutenants
- The term Lieutenant is also used to describe the above mentioned creatures.
- Sometimes the protectting players in an Emperor game are also decribed as lieutenants. [2]