Why is that, do you think?

I enjoy playing Commander in multiplayer but only when the group is small; five people at maximum. More than that and it takes too long to get (and sometimes take) your turn; why not just split up and play two games?

But this weekend I faced off against Fuz alone, and multiplayer games are not quite the same as 1v1. Most of those games were against his Sedris deck but there were a few against some of the pre-made Commander decks from 2011.

Things I learned:

Frantic Search is still evil. I should start putting that card in every Commander deck I own. Even if they don't run blue.

I think the hole I spoke of last time, that there aren't a lot of global effects in this deck, may be something that has to be addressed, whether I tilt this deck to 1v1 or multiplayer. Getting outnumbered early is something that can easily happen and a chance to start over is helpful. Conversely, I could add in more card drawing or search effects in order to push combos like Triskelion and Mephidross Vampire, or other tribal synergies. Dark Ritual is the card most likely to come out, as is False Demise if I don't upgrade the creature removal suite. 

On the flipside, cards like Vampire Lacerator give me an opportunity for an early rush and have earned their stay in the deck. Forcing an opponent to use their removal on tiny creatures is always helpful when I'm hoping to cast Blood Tyrant later. Plus, with the Bloodlord of Vaasgoth, the opportunity for cheap huge creatures is there. The drawback that the small creatures provide isn't outweighed by the synergy, yet.

Pros and Cons

The thing about doing a tribal deck, especially in Commander, is that some questions don't even need to be asked. There are various synergies that come with a tribe and as a result, certain things don't come under consideration because cards like Urge to Feed trump the addition of other removal spells.

I bring this up because what it means is that between the tribal theme and my own philosophy, I tend to eschew mass removal spells like Meltdown over cards like Sunder from Within and Sinkhole. In multiplayer, this can be problematic. On the upside, my evaluation process is tested further, so I get better at that but on the downside, I can easily find myself in a bad situation because I haven't picked the right tools for the job.

In this case: against Noah's Niv-Mizzet deck, he was able to use some artifacts in order to set up a situation where he drew 37 cards 4 times in a row, and killed Seth and I.

But I'm in Canada now, so I can test decks with Fuz and I am certain something good will come of it.

Commander: Garza Zol, Plague Queen

I generally don't name my Commander decks, because they already have unique titles: the Commander leads the deck, thus bestows the name. But in this case, I have a little subtitle for this one,  Everybody I Know Has Fangs.

Commander: Garza Zol, Plague Queen	Artifacts Blade of the Bloodchief  Obelisk of Grixis
Enchantments False Demise  Control Magic	Sorceries Blood Tithe Blood Tribute Dream Cache Earthquake Rush of Knowledge Slave of Bolas Sinkhole Feast of Blood Exsanguinate Consume Spirit Soul Burn Sunder from Within Demolish
Lands Crypt of Agadeem  Dreadship Reef  Urborg Volcano  Crosis's Catacombs  Lake of the Dead  Barren Moor  Izzet Boilerworks  Dimir Aqueduct  Rakdos Carnarium 9 Mountain 9 Island 11 Swamp	Instants Brainstorm Dark Ritual Lim-Dûl's Vault Swerve Murmurs from Beyond Repulse Yamabushi's Flame Glacial Ray Reverberate Sulfurous Blast Think Twice Urge to Feed Vampiric Fury Vampiric Tutor
Creatures Lord of Lineage/Bloodline Keeper  Blood Tyrant  Vampiric Dragon  Vampire Nighthawk  Vampire Lacerator  Izzet Chronarch  Skeletal Vampire  Sengir Nosferatu  Sengir Vampire  Baron Sengir  Irini Sengir  Child of Night  Blood Seeker  Rakish Heir  Falkenrath Marauders	Creatures Krovikan Vampire  Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet  Malakir Bloodwitch  Guul Draz Vampire  Gatekeeper of Malakir  Butcher of Malakir  Pulse Tracker  Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief  Mephidross Vampire  Mirri the Cursed  Guul Draz Assassin  Captivating Vampire  Bloodlord of Vaasgoth  Triskelion  Olivia Voldaren

I suppose that the first thing I ought to do is repeat my general Commander philosophy. This format is where I get to shove in all the weird, unused cards or singletons that I wouldn't get to play otherwise. In Commander, I try a little harder to consider theme and the glory of cool things, than I do the success of a plan in relationship to victory.

I realize that making a vampire tribal deck may not seem like something out of the ordinary but I dislike making decks that I know work. Vampires have been pushed steadily since Zendikar block and while I don't know that a winning vampire deck has been mapped out, making a traditional 60 card deck is just too easy. Unless I can put a slant on it that is unique (read: probably bad) then I find it difficult to be interested.

I frontload all this because I have had people tell me, in a slightly pitying tone, "Vampire Lacerator really doesn't work in Commander."

Trust me: I know how this format works. It works any way you want it to and I want to make a vampire tribal deck. It's OK if some of the cards are bad; that's partly why I'm writing, to properly look at these decks and swap bad cards for better ones.

But in Commander I'm more willing to accept my choices because they are cool. Telling me that something doesn't work when it's clearly part of the theme is ignoring what my goals are and is unhelpful advice. That doesn't mean I'm going to keep the Lacerator in forever but it's good for the time being.

Let's roll it out!