The Two Hour Limit

Wednesday's Commander game went two hours and for one of those hours, I did nothing. This was because a player who was certain that I was going to be a problem enchanted Estrid with Imprisoned in the Moon before I could enact the ultimate and, somehow, neither myself nor any of the other two players were playing with enchantment removal.

(I'd burned a Reclamation Sage on an Arcane Laboratory earlier and that was that.)

What a drag this game was. Even when I had a Starfield of Nyx out, there was nothing in my graveyard to salvage this situation. No appropriate creature removal, no enchantment/artifact destruction and despite having three board wipe effects, none of them appeared.

When my Aura Thief got exiled by an opponent's Undead Alchemist, I had no way to disrupt my opponent's enchantments, (most notably Aura of Silence, Astral Slide, Phyrexian Unlife or Solemnity) I knew the game was over. When another player's Nekusar, the Mindrazer's triggers finally ousted me from the game, I was thankful.

On the one hand, I suppose the player who Imprisoned Estrid was right: with one card, he effectively removed me from the game and whether I was a threat or not at the time, it no longer mattered. I had no outs and was now reliant on other players to get me out of a jam.

This is a terrible position to be in.

On the other hand: wow, did this deck get exposed. While I was miserable for roughly forty five minutes, one thing became perfectly clear to me: I need recurrable artifact and enchantment destruction.

In combination with Enchanted Evening, this would allow me to destroy any permanent, and if I can find an enchantment to do my dirty work, then Starfield of Nyx and Hall of Heliod's Generosity can both help me remove those troublesome things frequently.

Fortunately for me, Seal of Primordium and Seal of Cleansing exist. Heck, Seal of Removal might even be solid here.

However, this is why I hate Commander games. Honestly, how does ANYONE have fun for 120 minutes when they cannot interact for over half that experience? It's not as if I was alone, either: the player with Nekusar had mana-restrictive issues, meaning he could play a little but not a lot, which left the Zur, the Enchanter player (who might have it out for me, because whenever we play, regardless of my commander, is certain I am "a problem"), and the Teysa Karlov player, who had a deck that functioned even under Zur's reign.

Well, fuck: Why not just have two 2 player games and let me and the Nekuksar guy duke it out!

I suppose it's my fault for not scooping when I realized I had no outs. Again: Relying on other players to get me out of a jam is a terrible position to be in.

What's keeping me in those games? Sportsmanship? Is it worth it to say in a game where I'm not having any fun, just to be polite?

Yet, I also started thinking about what I needed to fix Estrid and I think I've hit on some elegant solutions, too.

Plus, I've started thinking about other steps I need to take: I've got over 200 decks and some of them suck. Sure, the idea is to make them better, but am I really mining new territory when I try and fix a R/W Bull Cerodon/Cerodon Yearling deck? Is that where my energies should go?

These benefits shouldn't be overlooked. However, there's got to be a way to exit something unfun without making a big deal.