Friday, August 31, 2018

5-8

The last batch of the top 16!

Round 5:
Ancestral Recall cannot be allowed to win this event.

Look, I know that, objectively, it is one of if not the most powerful card in Magic.

It's also broken. It's emblematic of everything that was wrong with Magic design from the game's inception until at least a decade in. You played blue, or you played to beat blue. It's so unbalanced not even Thanos could fix it.

Brainstorm, Ancestral Recall's 'fixed' sibling is proof. That card is STILL crazy and a linchpin in Legacy. But, Brainstorm needs help to maximize its effectiveness. That's where the vote should go.

Batch 6:
As with Ancestral Recall, Black Lotus should be set aside. Is Lotus vying with Recall for the most powerful card in Magic? Yeah. If they hadn't made it before, would they inevitably have made it? Yes. And then we would have been subject to article after article of 'we shouldn't've done that'.

I wish Lotus was going out against a better opponent. Serra Angel has made it far-too far in my opinion-but the card is well designed, a solid uncommon, easily as iconic as the Lotus, and everything you want in a baseline Magic card. If Serra Angel was declared the best card, the arguments in its favor are stronger than they are for Lotus.

Batch 7:
Dark Confidant is the clear winner. Something that creates dynamic gameplay and compels choices between players while also being powerful and giving us a risk worth taking.

Time Walk is busted. So busted that even 5 or 7 mana copies of the effect are dreaded/adored for the way that they can break a game open. You can't even play it in Commander, that's how broken it is!

Don't reward the poor designs and overbearing power of yesteryear. The Model T car might be iconic but its a long way from being the best car ever built.

Batch 8:

Oooo, now this is a spicy match. The OG, granddaddy Counterspell, the one that started it all, helping to define not only Magic but Blue as a color for years or the wicked uncle Force of Will, a card so important that many call it one of the cards that helps keep Legacy from spiraling out of control as a format.

I'm really torn on this one; Counterspell is bad news and I know it. Having played Magic when Counterspell was the standard, I promise you that it was one of two things that utterly warped Magic around the color blue (the other being instant speed card draw). But the game isn't Magic without it.

 And Force of Wil, while being precisely as guilty of Counterspell's sins, is so important to the game and is remarkably well designed! A life and two cards to stop a spell you don't want to resolve? Is it worth it to you, or not? That makes for some mind-busting gameplay!

I'm going with Force of will on this one.

Thursday, August 30, 2018

Yer A Wizard

I did some research on Inalla, drawing from this list I found via the EDH subreddit, and the Professor's video (in conjunction with the Laboratory Maniacs) on the subject.

With that in mind, here's the first round of changes:

Out
Mystifying Maze
Cauldron Dance
Marchesa, the Black Rose
Mairsil, the Pretender
Magus of the Abyss
Taigam, Sidisi's Hand
Mirror of the Forebears
Shifting Shadow

In
Deadeye Navigator
Vedalken Aethermage
Jace, Ingenious Mind-Mage
Izzet, Rakdos, and Dimir Cluestones
Turnabout
Notion Thief
Dragon Mage
Wanderwine Prophets

Here's the plan: use Deadeye Navigator to help abuse Inalla's ability. Cluestones for mana ramp and when the ramp is done, trade them for new cards. Turnabout to let me abuse the untap ability or turn the tide in a way opponents won't expect. Dragon Mage and Notion Thief are a pretty broken combo but even if I don't get them together, they have solid uses individually. If you watched the video, you'll see that Wanderwine Prophets can be a win condition by itself. Veldaken Aethermage is the autoinclude tutor.

And if you're noting that I have put in ten cards and only taken out eight, good eye! But I can't remember what the two cards I removed are. I promise, I only have 99 cards in the main.

The cuts come from my belief that those cards just don't mesh with the mechanical theme I'm trying to explore: Cauldron Dance, for example, is card that cares about combat tricks with creatures but that is not this deck. That, and Mystifying Maze does what it does in such an inept manner that it's probably a candidate for the Trump administration.

So that's the setup, and the mana, according to the Deckstats calculator, seems to be in a good place. Onward!

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Top 16

The Magic Bracket has wound its way to the top 16 cards! (Starts with batch 11).

Here we go.

Batch 1:
My vote is going to Lightning Bolt. It's elegant, it's iconic, it's pushed without being bonkers. It truly set a positive standard for red removal spells.

I love me some Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, I really do and it's a well designed card to boot. Fifteen mana should get you something absolutely insane and Emrakul is that. It's also quite possibly the most recognized monster in the game. Unfortunately, Emrakul is so pushed that when it's put into play for anything less than fifteen mana, which is 99% of the time, there is zero interaction to be had on the part of opponents. It encourages broken gameplans and while that's not bad by itself, I find the elegance of Lighting Bolt to be superior.

Batch 2:
Birds of Paradise and it isn't even close. Liliana of the Veil is an oppressive card from an already problematic and oppressive card type. In terms of sheer power? Sure, Liliana wins but I don't merely look at power. I look at interactions, history, the design, and the doors that are opened up through good design.

Birds offers as many doors as you could ask for.

Batch 3:
Here are two distinctly abusive cards and my relationship with them could definitely be described as love/hate.

Necropotence has had no less than nine reprints which is bonkers for a card that is only legal to play in Vintage, where it's restricted, and Commander. I can see where the designers thought this would be a safe card: Cutting off your draw step and making it entirely life total dependent, triple black, exiling cards you do not use and locking any non-Instant cards out of your ability to interact until your next turn all seem highly restrictive.

But it didn't matter. Necropotence is broken and it always will be. I think it shines the most in Commander, honestly, where the risk/reward choices become more interesting.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor is a garbage card. I hate the overpowered design in a color that frankly does not need the boost, and to lock people out of their libraries is...ugh. That's just oppressive.

However, turn four is late enough that players can interact with it. In addition the world of Magic design has grown since the days of Jace. Players have more tools to handle the card when opposing it (though not enough in my opinion), leading to more interaction and more interesting choices on the part of the Jace player. So I'm going to give Jace the nod.

Batch 4:
Back in the day, I hated Swords to Plowshares. It is quite possibly the perfect single removal spell printed in the game. And when one has invested 4 or 5 mana into a creature, having it exiled (not just destroyed but gone for good!) with the 'drawback' of StP...well, that was just no fun.

It would be over a decade before creatures caught up to the threat level that StP warranted. Now that creatures are really good, Swords doesn't seem like a jackhammer hitting a tack.

But Wrath of God is probably a more important spell for Magic. Not just because of it's iconic status and power, but because it pushed the doors open for non-creature based strategies to flourish and that's incredibly important to the health of the game. Wrath it is.

Thursday, August 23, 2018

Commander- Inalla, Archmage Ritualist

This should be fun.

Instant
1 Comet Storm
1 Polymorphist's Jest
1 Chaos Warp
1 Memory Plunder
1 Silumgar's Command
1 Into the Roil
1 Opportunity
1 Reality Shift
1 Go for the Throat
1 Cauldron Dance
1 Crosis's Charm
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Terminate
Artifacts
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Mirror of the Forebears
1 Commander's Sphere
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Sol Ring
1 Unstable Obelisk
1 Worn Powerstone
Enchantment
1 Shifting Shadow
1 Curse of Verbosity
 1 Curse of Disturbance
1 Curse of Opulence

Sorcery
1 Kindred Dominance
1 Clone Legion
1 Spelltwine
1 Decree of Pain
1 Necromantic Selection
Lands
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Mystifying Maze
10 Island
6 Swamp
4 Mountain
1 Path of Ancestry
1 Command Tower
1 Crumbling Necropolis
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Dismal Backwater
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Grixis Panorama
1 Izzet Boilerworks
1 Jwar Isle Refuge
1 Rakdos Carnarium
1 Swiftwater Cliffs
1 Temple of the False God
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Vivid Crag
1 Vivid Creek
1 Vivid Marsh

Creatures
1 Kess, Dissident Mage
1 Mairsil, the Pretender
1 Galecaster Colossus
1 Magus of the Mind
1 Portal Mage
1 Vindictive Lich
1 Izzet Chemister
1 Taigam, Sidisi's Hand
1 Havengul Lich
1 Marchesa, the Black Rose
1 Vela the Night-Clad
1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
1 Azami, Lady of Scrolls
1 Body Double
1 Harbinger of the Tides
1 Serendib Sorcerer
1 Apprentice Necromancer
1 Magus of the Abyss
1 Puppeteer Clique
1 Etherium-Horn Sorcerer
1 Mercurial Chemister
1 Nin, the Pain Artist
1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
1 Shadowmage Infiltrator
1 Bloodline Necromancer
1 Archaeomancer
1 Merchant of Secrets
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Corpse Augur
1 Izzet Chronarch
1 Nivix Guildmage




Or maybe not. I haven't messed with this Inalla list since I bought the deck last year which means I'm overdue with mucking around with this deck. There's a lot going on here which means that it could go in many different directions, swapping out the Commander (Kess, Mairsil, and Marchesa all present very different builds) but nothing is really cohesive.

What I think I'd like to do here is make an untapping deck with some Wizard synergy. Inalla's ability to generate extra creatures means that I could (and probably should) get some use out of 'enter the battlefield' triggers, and if I could somehow double up on Inalla's ability that can take a pretty nasty chunk out of someone's life total. Taking someone down 7 or 14 at a time is probably best as a backup plan but I would still like to work it in.

I'm not sure if there's any meat on that idea skeleton or if it's just me being too clever. I'm going to do some research but I think I'll need to tap the hivemind for this one.

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

On Another Wave

Monster vs UR storm
"It's like a green Ponder," Jason said in reference to Oath of Nissa. I told him that this is exactly how people thought of it when it was in Standard.

Oath has been outstanding. It has made more opening hands worth keeping and helped in midgame situations when I need to filter cards and it hits off of a Kamahl's Druidic Vow. Which means that for X into the KDV, I get to dig through an extra 3 cards!

This has been successful enough that I think I can settle this deck. I played against storm decks piloted by Fuz and once I knew what I needed to go for (Arashi against the UR deck, artifact destruction against the UW one), my chances for success improved dramatically. Yes, Fuz had land issues in one of our matchups but that's the point: Oath of Nissa made sure I wasn't having those issues and he didn't have that same luxury.

There was also the UR game where he cast four Ponders and found land but that's another story.

Similarly, I found that Monster's increased consistency was effective against Jason as well. Against decks that didn't offer any interaction (that is, they didn't kill my creatures), even if I got stonewalled, I was able to fire off a KDV for 5, 6 or more (one epic game, I hit six for six on my Vow and that was pretty sweet).

The games last night against Matt playing Death and Taxes sealed it: I put up solid showings against a deck that is well tuned. In game three, I had a Forest, two Oaths and two Heart Wardens which means all I need to do is hit a second land and I'm good.

Matt had Rishadan Port and my Oaths revealed one land out of six cards. I never got past two lands.

I mean. Variance, am I right?

Still, Matt also seemed to believe that Monster was going in the right direction and said that I should really try to play another Oath if I can. Sword of Animist hasn't been doing all that I hoped, so I'm going to cut that for the Oath, and that leaves me here:

1 Sword of the Chosen
2 Emerald Medallion
2 Rhonas's Monument
1 Bow of Nylea
2 Mox Amber

1 Iwamori of the Open Fist
1 Jugan, the Rising Star
1 Mirri, Cat Warrior
1 Silvos, Rogue Elemental
3 Reki, the History of Kamigawa
2 Arashi, the Sky Asunder
4 Heart Warden
1 Omnath, Locus of Mana
1 Yeva, Nature's Herald
3 Traxos, Scourge of Kroog
1 Nylea, God of the Hunt
1 Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter

3 Oath of Nissa

19 Forest
1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
1 Yavimaya Hollow

2 Vivien Reid
1 Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury

2 Time of Need
3 Kamahl's Druidic Vow

Thursday, August 16, 2018

My Mind Is Up Here

When in doubt, play your best cards. I should just make this a Swing For 20 motto.

Monster In Your Parasol vs Mishra deck
I don't want to cut Molder, right? I need it for all those games where Matt has Land Tax or every deck Jason ever plays.

But Molder is also a dead card in other matchups. If I cannot use it, it sits in my hand and I can't really afford to have that happen. Sure, I can use it on one of my artifacts but that's definitely a last ditch effort action.

It's time to expand my search. Creatures aren't the only Legendary permanents; there are also Planeswalkers and they are bound to be useful, right?

....Not so much, as it turns out.

I kept resisting Planeswalkers because they are either really expensive or don't do what I need them to do (kill artifacts and enchantments).

Until now. Enter Vivien Reid.

A card draw engine and a way to remove fliers, artifacts and enchantments? This sounds pretty good to me. I resisted it for a little while because it costs five but so does Arashi, the Sky Asunder and that card does less. Now that all Planeswalkers are legendary, I get a bonus off Reki as well and that's something I want to do, always. But if there isn't a Reki, Vivien will happily let me draw cards.

I've also been considering Omnath more often when Time of Need comes up. Mana seems to be a little bit of a jam, still and I don't understand why: there are eight cards to help me ramp!

This was a bit more discouraging and notable against Matt while he was playing a dredge deck. I have all of these turn two plays and in our first game, I had to use Heart Warden to prevent a Bridge from Below going off and didn't see any more mana. In game two, I had four lands in my opening hand but drew into nothing to play!

A discouraging loss, for sure. I suppose sideboarding in Ground Seal might help although Grafdigger's Cage would be the real MVP.

Matt had some good advice though! Jedit Ojanen of Efrava (as I suspected) just isn't scary enough, Mox Amber might be a welcome addition and I definitely need more one drops. He suggested Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter, amongst others and I think that card has some merit.

A few games more and Fuz liked the shape the deck was in. Oviya, if unchecked, could produce not just chump blockers and time, but larger threats as well. The Mox Amber a solid add and two seems the correct number.

He's also suggested Polukranos, World Eater...which I don't have any copies of. I'm both a little surprised and indifferent to this fact. I never liked that dumb creature and I hated Monstrosity as a mechanic. I am especially dubious about the ability because it's so cost prohibitive. Three mana to do one damage just feels bad, even if I get a 6/6 out of the deal.

But it's a legend and the stats are good for the cost: the only question is if the ability is relevant.

The real problem is still that I am still having trouble getting from the early game to the midgame and I need something to help. The Blossoming Defense I've been using feel underwhelming and I only have two. I've even been considering adding in Llanowar Elves to help, though they are legendary in status only.

Which is when I broke down and went looking for legendary enchantments, and this is where Oath of Nissa comes in. This card seems perfect; good in the early game, good in the late game, doesn't matter if I play a second Oath over the first, enters the battlefield off a Kamahl's Druidic Vow, will trigger Traxos' untap and is so cheap that the impact on my manabase should be almost nothing, which is important since I've cut to lands for the two Mox Amber.

I'm really jazzed about this find and am hoping to see something awesome come of it.


Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Warped And Bubbling

I went in and made some changes, mostly taken from the Legendary Artifacts list from the last post.

The one I'm most excited about: Traxos, Scourge of Kroog. Incredibly likely to untap, comes out on turn three or four, a 7/7 with trample: what's not to love?

Monsters In Your Parasol vs Mono B Demons
I'm also splitting up the Emerald Medallions for two Rhona's Monuments. While not as encompassing as the Medallion the Legendary status means I can get triggers for Reki and give even smaller creatures a bonus, making them a threat.

Bow of Nylea is also going in. The options it can provide while making even my small mana dorks a thread seems useful.

Jason recommended Rofellos because a lot of his suggestions come from the Urza's block era, which is one he loves due to it's raw power. And Rofellos is pretty damn powerful-but it's also in a different deck that I don't see a replacement for.

Which is a damn shame because there are a lot more Forests in this deck.

Still, with eight spells to reduce costs or boost mana, I'm not sure that having a fragile ramp spell, as powerful as Rofellos is, would be helpful.

It might be worth considering adding a second Omnath instead. While not a mana producer in the traditional sense, it is a card that could help ramp my deck up.

But I'll need to get some testing in and see where it goes.



Thursday, August 9, 2018

The Walls Are Closing In Again

Although I played a few games against Jason with Monster, it wasn't until I played against a U/R Delver deck at the Tonic, piloted by a fellow named Frank that the issues with this became clear:

I'm trying to play two ideas against each other.

I want to ramp up into big spells: Emerald Medallion and Heart Warden are there to help me do just that.

But I need to ramp up TO something and there really isn't a legendary creature to ramp to that makes the payoff worth it. Jugan, the Rising Star isn't it: that's a card that belongs in a recursion or counters deck.

The other deck I'm trying to play involves using Reki to draw a bunch of cards and overwhelm my opponent via card advantage. This usually means a 'go wide' strategy involving a lot of smaller creatures I can play all at once (thanks to them being cheaper due to Emerald Medallion).

But these two things don't play nice together: the slots involving ramp are taking away from threats or the slots that give me threats aren't letting me ramp up fast enough.

There's also the issue of having cards that go to my graveyard without any real busting of that mechanic: Arashi, the Sky Asunder is helpful-and won me a game against Delver (woo-hoo!) but it did so by me channeling it. Having a 5/5 body for 5 would be nice, instead of having to use it as an uncounterable Hurricane. Although Uncounterable Hurricane is the name of my favorite drink from New Orleans...

Similarly, Baru, Fist of Krosa has a powerful effect, so why am I not trying to break it like I did with the Grandeur cards in Everything Ends? Baru wants graveyard recursion and token making: I should give it that instead of running it here.

Reki, the History of Kamigawa is helpful but maybe there's more support I can provide it, using a list of legendary artifacts.

There's also the question of the other support stuff; the instants that aren't really working and where to take the deck from there. This makes it seem like there is a whole lot of heavy lifting to do and I'm just not sure that's the case. With just a little tweaking, I think Monster could become a much more pleasant experience to play.

Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Commander 2018

The Commander 2018 decks have been revealed: here's the card gallery, here's the deck lists.

White
Of the new cards, two of them are straight up bonkers, Empyrial Storm and Heavenly Blademaster. Storm has the pleasant quality of bringing someone into a game they might be excluded from but the Blademaster is just vomiting power via a very easy build. The rest are just...there. Magus of the Balance is a nice include for cycle completists. I really wish that the Lieutenant mechanic said "Legendary" instead of "Commander", though.

Here's why: I don't think that the Commander game should be distinct from the rest of the Magic ecosystem. Yes, because of Commander's nature there are areas to explore that just aren't possible or available in a regular game of Magic but those areas should, in my opinion, be explored to be compatible with regular games of Magic whenever possible. When it cannot be, then it cannot be but this isn't one of those times.

That all said: those cards just aren't that compelling.

The reprints are in the same boat: did we need Serra Avatar? Terminus and Entreat the Angels are miserable cards to play against, but I can at least see Terminus being advocated for, due to the ever present use of graveyards in magic.

I'm just surprised at the dull quality of these reprints.

Blue
Getting more new cards this year, (8 to white's 5) I'm liking Vedalken Humiliator the most. I do like Ever-Watching Threshold, and Octopus Umbra too and I'm fairly certain Aminatou's Augury can be broken.

There's a pretty lame flavor fail on the Loyal Drake: who is Aeschel? Why is a card that cares about Commanders spotlighting a character that isn't a commander?

But there's a little more to love here, I think.

The reprints, well...again, I'm not seeing a lot to get excited over. Was ANYONE asking for Jeskai Infiltrator? Anyone? And Devastation Tide in a multiplayer focused format? That would be questionable if Miracle wasn't attached to the card but with it...I just foresee unhappy game states. Not that the reset is bad, it's that the miracle mechanic-especially when combined with a 'card on top' theme, is grueling to play against, as anyone who's had to deal with a Counterbalance knows.

Black
I love, LOVE, Entreat the Dead. I know I shouldn't, but I do. With only six new cards, the pickin's are slim for good stuff. Sower of Discord is an interesting political tool, and Skull Storm will flat out win games. Even if you've only cast your commander twice, the impact is huge. My feelings on it are: that could be good, but storm mechanics always make me very, very wary. Unlike Empyrial Storm, Skull just crushes players.

The reprints-slim as they are, too-have a little more going on with them, and feel like less filler more decent stuff than the others. I'd say, however it's only been two years since they printed Army of the Damned and I don't know that we needed a 4th reprint.

Red
Nine new red cards! A storied creature in Varchild, a unique way to go after enchantments with Enchanter's Bane: really, I am pretty impressed with the new cards here. They're weird enough in some places, powerful in others: I think these cards have something to offer.

In a deviation from the other colors, the reprints are decent too. Yeah, Chain Reaction and Blasphemous Act have seen some reprints but they're good sweepers for the format. Magmaquake is meh but a reasonable reprint, I suppose.

Green
Man, did Green need a card like Whiptongue Hydra. Myth Unbound is...a little unwieldy.  However, it is the kind of card that, unlike the lieutenant mechanic, I don't see them making any other way. I also wonder how useful Ravenous Slime might be in the larger game. Green rarely gets exile effects, so that's interesting.

The reprints...and there are a LOT. Whoa. 41! That's a lot of weight for green. It's very workmanlike, I suppose. Rampaging Baloth, Avenger of Zendikar; it doesn't take much in the way of thought to add these cards. Ground Seal is possibly the most unexpected. It's...the okayest color, I suppose. A lot of what you'd expect to support the themes, nothing that compelling to mess around with or be glad I'm seeing again.

Artifacts
I do like the callback of Ancient Stone Idol. Coveted Jewel is a way to bring the Monarch mechanic into Commander without calling it such. Retrofitter Foundry, though, that's some cool design. Those are the kinds of cards I'd hope to see more of in sets like this.

As for the reprints...all pretty dull. Also, once again, we are not getting some kind of Shatterstorm or Tranquility effect, (Akroma's Vengeance doesn't count) and we deserve one as a safety valve for the kinds of nonsense WotC wants to push. But at 33 reprints, it's doing a lot of work for this set to fix mana and keep decks functioning.

Lands
I don't have much to say here. It's all extremely utility based and lacking anything weird or fun. What I will say is that, looking at the lists, BOY there are some real issues with all the lands that enter tapped. 18 of 42 land, 14 of 38, 21 of 38, and...4 of 34? There are a disturbing number of lands entering tapped and that can have a severe impact on play. I don't expect these decks to have high profile dual lands, but there's got to be a better way to support multi-colored decks. Why aren't there Lair reprints? Why are there not wedge dragon Lairs? C'mon, Wizards. These are not wacky design issues to solve; they're easy color fixes that could go a long way.

Multicolored

Here's the meat of it, right? This is where the Commanders live, this year.

Planeswalkers as Commanders is a very fine line to walk and with the exception of Saheeli who appears clearly overpowered in an easy-to-build-around deck, I think they did OK. Aminatou feels like a color pie miss, since the trading aspect feels more red than black.

The other commanders I'm happy to say do take some risks: Arixmethes is a very cool design that I wish did a little more-here's a creature that should have islandwalk and forestwalk, or, like other giant blue kraken, trample or some other form of semi-unblockability. The landwalk, however feels like a blown opportunity. Xantcha, Sleeper Agent doesn't have that problem though: it's just an interesting, weird card. A big win for spikey-fort decks. Yennett has a nice take on the Sphinx ability and getting a ninja commander is a big flavor win for a lot of players. I don't think it's a genius design but it looks fun and I hope it makes the ninja crowd happy.

The other designs don't do much for me; they all feel pretty typical in terms of what they should do, either as color combos or creatures. What I will note is that they all feel aggressive, maybe even designed as a way to goad the Commander games to a conclusion. I can get behind that: games that go longer than an hour really drag. They may not be very exciting but they'll get the job done.

The reprints, again, feel really pedantic. There's they typical attempt to make Aethermage's Touch happen (it's never going to happen), some decent support cards for the themes they're working on as well as some catchall solutions (Gaze of Granite). I don't get the crazed love for Cold-Eyed Selkie; this is it's 5th reprint! It isn't that good, but perhaps that's the point: It is the sort of card that, with enhancements (Auras, anyone?) can become a real beatstick.

It's not a bad mashup, I just wish I was more excited about it. The card I'm most pleased to see is Silent-Blade Oni, which is a fun card that deserved a reprint and Bruna, Light of Alabaster deserves a place to shine, too.

I get that the meta they want to push is about just these four decks, but that ecosystem is way, WAY too narrow in my opinion. It's lead to one of the most lackluster Commander sets I've ever seen and a lot of really dull designs that aren't pushed.

I'm starting to believe that Wizards would do well to question the direction they're going in-and even some of the staples they insist on putting in every product (really looking at you, Sol Ring-17! reprints!), perhaps giving more time to design and work these sets.

Thursday, August 2, 2018

Monster In The Parasol

Another hot mess, this time the title is taken from the catchy Queens of the Stone Age song. The premise: let's play green legends, and green legends are always giant monsters, right? (Well...sometimes)

I hope to use Reki, The History of Kamigawa to keep the pressure on and Emerald Medallion to give me access to big nasties like Silvos, Rogue Elemental a lot sooner than turn six. And who doesn't want to cast Silvos? Nobody. `
1 Sword of the Chosen
4 Emerald Medallion

1 Iwamori of the Open Fist
1 Jugan, the Rising Star
1 Mirri, Cat Warrior
1 Silvos, Rogue Elemental
1 Jedit Ojanen of Efrava
3 Reki, the History of Kamigawa
3 Arashi, the Sky Asunder
4 Heart Warden
1 Omnath, Locus of Mana
4 Baru, Fist of Krosa

2 Evolution Charm
2 Molder
3 Setessan Tactics

21 Forest
1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
1 Yavimaya Hollow

2 Time of Need
3 Kamahl's Druidic Vow
Dominaria has actually inspired me to come back to this deck. Kamahl's Drudic Vow seems like the ideal card for this deck, right? Ramp AND Legendary acquisition? What could go wrong? (I mean, a lot but...).

I'm also looking at the suite of instants and I'm just not sure about it. I've been running cards like Molder for a long time because I needed to have access to artifact/enchantment destruction. As Monster's themes take shape, that need might have to be set aside for a more focused build.

On the upside, I don't have to worry about mana ratios. Now it's just a matter of seeing how cohesive the deck is. Spoiler: It isn't. But that's why we practice!