Earth Has Burst

When I took Sleeping Giant apart, one thing that shocked me was how many board resets I've got going on. Four Thundercloud Giant, three Disaster Radius, three Phyrexian Rebirth, one Magma Giant and an Earthquake.

Whew. Maybe I ought to scale this back. 

There are still going to be four Realm-Cloaked Giants, but there can also be four Crystalline Giants. Four Quakebringer to give me something to do on turn two, a couple Calamity Bearers and until I figure out what else to do, two Revitalize to gain a little life and draw a card. 

Stone Quarry can be replaced with Wind-Scarred Crag, since gaining a life is going to be useful for a deck like this and otherwise they're functionally the same.

So I begin goldfishing. I really want to keep the Quicksilver Amulets in the deck because it allows me to both cheat costs and flash in a creature. 

However, with all of my global removal spells costing five mana, I realized that I need mana more than I need the Amulets. 

And if I cut those, do Bloodshot Cyclops even belong? Six mana for a 4/4 that needs a turn to go live is definitely old school...but that doesn't make it good. For now, I'm going to up the Revitalize to four and swap in four Boros Signets.     

Normally, a card like Revitalize wouldn't even be under consideration, because it doesn't interact with my opponent's board. This isn't a normal setup though: eight board resets that I can play on turn five (four if I'm lucky), that all provide me with a win condition means I have a lot of creature interaction. Drawing cards and gaining life feels like a reasonable option to give me time and draw through land clumps.

Sleeping Giant

It's a good time to be about tribal decks. 

Named after the Mastodon song (although maybe it would've been cooler if I'd named it after a Dillinger Escape Plan song), Sleeping Giant is, as one might guess, a giant tribal deck. 

4 Quicksilver Amulet
2 Urza's Incubator
2 Semblance Anvil

4 Chancellor of the Forge
1 Magma Giant
2 Giant Harbinger
4 Thundercloud Shaman
1 Sunrise Sovereign
2 Arbiter of Knollridge
1 Borderland Behemoth
2 Bloodshot Cyclops
1 Brion Stoutarm
1 Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas

8 Plains
9 Mountain
4 Ancient Amphitheater
3 Stone Quarry

3 Disaster Radius
3 Phyrexian Rebirth
2 Fanning the Flames
1 Earthquake

The first and most obvious issue here is that there are eight cards in here just to cheat giants into play and two of them actually lower my threat count in order to do it. That's no good. 

The second issue is more of an opportunity: there are newer, better giants now. The most recent card might be Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas? Fairly sure I can do better. Hell, Phyrexian Rebirth alone could be replaced with Realm-Cloaked Giant and that would be a massive upgrade. 

Finally, with really expensive creatures, really expensive spells like Fan the Flames don't belong here. 

At twenty four lands, I feel like I'm in a good spot but even with that, some cheaper spells are going to be necessary to give this deck a chance.

Blown Up

 I think I can leave this deck now. The Shattergang Brothers have built up their business better than before!

Instant 1 Jund Charm	Artifacts 1 Swiftfoot Boots 1 Jar of Eyeballs 1 Obelisk of Jund 1 Plague Boiler 1 Spine of Ish Sah 1 Nuisance Engine 1 Mycosynth Wellspring 1 Golgari Locket 1 Gruul Locket 1 Rakdos Locket 1 Sol Ring
Enchantment 1 Goblin Bombardment 1 Night Soil 1 Widespread Panic 1 Despondency 1 Undying Rage 1 Rancor 1 Grave Pact 1 Open the Graves 1 Moldervine Reclamation 1 Mantle of the Wolf	Sorcery 1 Spoils of Victory 1 Sudden Demise 1 Tempt with Vengeance 1 Rough // Tumble 1 Plague Wind 1 Circuitous Route 1 Decimate
Lands 1 Akoum Refuge 1 Command Tower 1 Evolving Wilds 1 Golgari Guildgate 1 Golgari Rot Farm 1 Grim Backwoods 1 Gruul Guildgate 1 Jund Panorama 1 Kazandu Refuge 1 Khalni Garden 1 Kher Keep 1 Llanowar Reborn 1 Rakdos Guildgate 1 Savage Lands 1 Temple of the False God 1 Terramorphic Expanse 1 Vivid Grove 6 Swamp 7 Mountain 7 Forest 1 Opal Palace	Creatures 1 Viscera Seer 1 Wight of Precinct Six 1 Jade Mage 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder 1 Golgari Guildmage 1 Goblin Sharpshooter 1 Endless Cockroaches 1 Hua Tuo, Honored Physician 1 Sprouting Thrinax 1 Silklash Spider 1 Inferno Titan 1 Deathbringer Thoctar 1 Deepfire Elemental 1 Stalking Vengeance 1 Charnelhoard Wurm 1 Walker of the Grove 1 Ophiomancer 1 Terra Ravager 1 Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper 1 Fell Shepherd 1 Sengir Autocrat 1 Prossh, Skyraider of Kher 1 Thopter Assembly 1 Tergrid, God of Fright 1 Beanstalk Giant // Fertile Footsteps 1 Dreamshaper Shaman 1 Oread of Mountain's Blaze 1 Acidic Slime 1 Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder 1 Eternal Witness 1 Hornet Queen 1 Mayhem Devil

It's not incredibly consistent but I feel like there are enough tools in the deck now to keep me in games that I would've flailed in, otherwise. 

But I don't think it's overpowered, either: yes, there is one mean combo in there but games should end. Nothing should take three hours. 

One card I can't believe I slept on was Mayhem Devil. Like: that passive effect is a pain for people Why am I not running this annoying card?

And I suppose that's the common thread of the Shattergang Brothers: they are annoying. I can create winnable games, but that's not a certainty-which is OK!

Maybe that's a theory; my Commander decks should be annoying, not overpowered. We'll workshop it. 

Leveled To Dust

There's an inherent problem with testing any Commander deck concept and it is, simply this: 

Unless one wants to bring competitive level fixing to the deck, the decks are not going to be consistent enough to figure out if the concept is good. Add to that the fact that Commander games just take longer to play, one can have three games in an evening and come away with no idea if what they're doing is right. 

Whereas if I'm playing a 60 card deck, I can get nine games played in the same amount of time and come away with actual experience with the changes or ideas I'm playing with. 

On top of all of that; sometimes decks just poop out. RNGesus is unkind and I draw all the lands and none of the impact cards. Shattergang Brothers isn't structured to dig itself through a 4 lands out of 5 draws kind of game. But it also means that there goes an hour of time where my data is worse than nothing-that is what happened to me on Monday and what happened to Jason last night.

So it starts to come down to me and how I want to play. 

I have a personal commitment to building decks made from cards I own and only those. I have four Savannahs and that's it. If those cards are in a deck (and they are) they can't go into another. This is the nature of dealing with physical stuff.

That's my choice. Building decks on Cockatrice means I can test any card I want to but it doesn't mean that my opponents have to feel constrained. And while it can feel unfair that I'm facing decks with thousand dollar manabases (and seriously, who is running fetchlands in Commander that isn't a competitive meta?), it's up to me to get around the potential of tilting out, and just play the best game I can.

Still, I feel certain there's more I could do here. Hornet Queen could be very helpful, especially since Thopter Assembly has been a rockstar for this deck. The deathtouch on my creatures could act as an important rattlesnake effect to steer attacks away from me.

It was about this point when I started looking at all my other commander decks; surely there was another RGB deck that could fall into The Retired. 

Yet, oddly enough, this is the only RGB deck I have. Which...is very weird. On the other hand, encouraging that I don't have to work through fifteen different decks all doing the same thing!

Proactive Explosives

All is not perfect, though, with the Brothers. 

I played two games against Kadena, Sinking Sorcerer and got blown out. 

Now, I'll admit my draws weren't the best, but I'll also say that I saw some weaknesses: Carnage Altar was a card that came online early and I couldn't do anything with. 

The problem is a mana one: Carnage Altar costs 3 to cast and three and a creature to use: that's 6 mana, plus whatever mana I invested in a creature, in order to draw a single card!

Which is a terrible return. Compared even with Jar of Eyeballs, which lets me pick the best card out of X top cards for 6 mana and you can start to see what the better deal is. 

Maybe I'm overthinking it: Eternal Witness is a simple solution to a few problems, while being a solid body. Since this deck wants to do so much sacrificing, that might be wise. Not always awesome in the early game, but I'm not going to play it on turn three anyway. 

Damage Inc.

 Tergrid, God of Fright is bonkers. I doubt that is news to anyone but the interactions it has with Shattergang Bros. means that it's a necessary card. More than fulfilling the Hexdrinker rule, I would run as many copies of Tergrid as I could. 

And as soon as my opponents figured it out, they tried to destroy Tergrid. This lead to a pretty crazy turn where I was sacrificing my entire board in order to get something with Tergrid. On the other hand: my sacrificing everything meant my opponents were, too. 

So, could've been worse.

Speaking of worse, Path of Ancestry doesn't belong in the deck. I got caught up on the 'produces any color' part of the land and ignored the second part of the card, which makes it good contingent on creature type. Since this isn't a tribal deck, that's gotta go but is fortunately an easy fix. as Opal Palace exists. 

A couple tests against a Zedruu deck went well: I was able to grind for a long time in game one but I definitely should've packed it up sooner than I did, as I lost to repeated donations of Illusions of Grandeur. In other games though, I was able to build up my mana base and once that happens, getting things going is a snap. 

It's working better than I had thought, so far! These tests also confirm my theory of needing mana ramp in Commander. The person who gets their mana set first usually has a better experience playing the game and the additional mana rocks have helped this deck considerably.  

Shattergang Initiations

What I went with was a more intensive ramp strategy: Shattergang Bros wants a lot of mana to do what it does. 

Out: Scarland Thrinax, Furnace Celebration, Capricious Efreet, Blood Rites, Rumbling Crescendo, Mass Mutiny, Vile Requiem, Cellar Door, Dirge of Dread, Elvish Skysweeper, Foster, Quagmire Druid, Fungal Reaches, and Stronghold Assassin.

In: Mantle of the Wolf, Moldervine Reclamation, Open the Graves, Golgari Locket, Gruul Locket, Rakdos Locket, The Akroan War, Oread of Mountain's Blaze, Dreamshaper Shaman, Circuitous Route, Beanstalk Giant, Tergrid, God of Fright, Plague Wind, and Path of Ancestry. 

That is a lot of stuff! But it increases the artifacts I have for sacrifice purposes, or adds in more cards in the late game when I don't need the Lockets anymore. Either way, it makes the deck more playable and gives me more chances to activate Shattergang Brothers when I do play it. 

I'm strongly reconsidering my instants: Reincarnation and Jund Charm. I like these cards (Reincarnation is one I have a weakness for) but I'm not sure they're as helpful as I'd like. Especially Reincarnation; Shattergang Bros has a mild reincarnation theme but I'd rather be able to get any permanent, not just a creature. 

Jund Charm has more versatility so I'm less inclined to axe it. The ability to exile a graveyard is definitely relevant in Commander.

But I think the Reincarnation should become an Acidic Slime. The one thing I'm concerned about at this point is recurring my stuff but I'd just like to see if this works out better. 

Commander-Shattergang Brothers

Here's a deck I always wanted to do something neat with: Shattergang Brothers.

Instant 1 Reincarnation 1 Jund Charm	Artifacts 1 Sol Ring 1 Carnage Altar 1 Swiftfoot Boots 1 Jar of Eyeballs 1 Obelisk of Jund 1 Plague Boiler 1 Spine of Ish Sah 1 Nuisance Engine 1 Cellar Door 1 Mycosynth Wellspring
Enchantment 1 Goblin Bombardment 1 Night Soil 1 Fecundity 1 Furnace Celebration 1 Vile Requiem 1 Foster 1 Blood Rites 1 Widespread Panic 1 Despondency 1 Undying Rage 1 Rancor 1 Rumbling Crescendo 1 Grave Pact	Sorcery 1 Dirge of Dread 1 Spoils of Victory 1 Mass Mutiny 1 Sudden Demise 1 Tempt with Vengeance 1 Rough // Tumble
Lands 1 Akoum Refuge 1 Command Tower 1 Evolving Wilds 1 Golgari Guildgate 1 Golgari Rot Farm 1 Grim Backwoods 1 Gruul Guildgate 1 Jund Panorama 1 Kazandu Refuge 1 Khalni Garden 1 Kher Keep 1 Llanowar Reborn 1 Rakdos Guildgate 1 Savage Lands 1 Temple of the False God 1 Terramorphic Expanse 1 Vivid Grove 6 Swamp 7 Mountain 7 Forest 1 Opal Palace 1 Fungal Reaches	Creatures 1 Viscera Seer 1 Elvish Skysweeper 1 Wight of Precinct Six 1 Jade Mage 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder 1 Golgari Guildmage 1 Quagmire Druid 1 Goblin Sharpshooter 1 Endless Cockroaches 1 Stronghold Assassin 1 Hua Tuo, Honored Physician 1 Scarland Thrinax 1 Sprouting Thrinax 1 Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder 1 Silklash Spider 1 Capricious Efreet 1 Inferno Titan 1 Deathbringer Thoctar 1 Deepfire Elemental 1 Stalking Vengeance 1 Charnelhoard Wurm 1 Walker of the Grove 1 Ophiomancer 1 Terra Ravager 1 Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper 1 Fell Shepherd 1 Sengir Autocrat 1 Prossh, Skyraider of Kher 1 Thopter Assembly

 
I've tweaked it a little with the obvious cards: Rancor, Despondency, Undying Rage and artifacts like Spine of Ish Sah.

Then I played a four player game with this that went three hours.

Three. Hours. 

That is far, far too long for a single game of Commander to last. 

So, I'm going to tighten this up because I don't like three hour games of Commander. I can't think of any reason a three hour Commander game should exist. 

Upcoming Changes II: The Changening

 Soooooooo...now Wizards is going to have other IPs represented in the game. 

I come down at least mostly with Pleasant Kenobi. Reskins, silver boarders, these things would go a long way towards generating goodwill about the whole idea.

There's always going to be people who cry about the sky falling when they do this, 'quitting the game' etc, just as there are always going to be people who point out that The Walking Dead Secret Lair (which generated a huge outcry) made more money than any other SL, just as there are always going to be people who suck up to a Corporation because 'money'. I.E.: if it makes money, it is good, therefore no real criticism can exist. 

Because it made money.

I do want to make a couple things clear: First, I don't think this is going to 'destroy the game'. That's nonsense, because it just has no logical or historical support. Second: some people are really happy to hear this and they aren't wrong to be excited. 

For me, the question isn't 'who is going to quit Magic'. 

The question is: what does this do to the Magic brand as a whole?

They could go anywhere and do anything and put their own stamp on it, and they do...this. So now we're just going to get Warhammer but Magic, instead of Magic riffs on Warhammer, which is far more interesting to me. 

If everything becomes Magic, then nothing is Magic. It'll take time, but I believe that by bringing Magic to other properties, instead of having a Magic take on said concepts, the identity of the brand and eventually the game will be diluted and homogenized. The one-ofs (Transformers, My Little Pony) will cease to be special  and now just be part of the regular things that WotC does.

And those regular things will become less and less successful and interesting every time. Sure, at the moment there are people who are incredibly excited about seeing Warhammer-and good for them! Lots of different products for different people.

Except: you can only do it once, and then the enthusiasm diminishes. That's just human nature. Will people who decide to try Magic for the first time because of a Lord of the Rings card stick with the game, especially since the thing that brought them in isn't continued? Some might and that is a good thing, I will say. 

However even if the cards start off as reskins or sliver boarder cards (welp, so much for that idea), an insistence that the product make all of the money will inevitably push Hasbro into adding mechanically unique cards because that quality drives sales. They will, without fail, make a card that is necessary for a popular deck and that will be that. More and more people will be disillusioned over this, and Magic is already a cash-intensive game.

Again: Magic will lose branding strength over this, instead of gaining it. It'll take time but it will become less special. 

I don't particularly think that's a good thing but it will absolutely make Hasbro money. I just don't know that, long term, it's the best thing.