Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Grimlock, Dinobot Leader

I told everyone I was going to do this: Grimlock, Dinobot Leader.

1 Savage Stomp
1 Commune with Dinosaurs
1 Thunderherd Migration
1 Cultivate
1 Caravan Vigil
1 Lay of the Land
1 Frenzied Tilling
1 Sol Ring
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sleek Schooner
1 Dusk Legion Dreadnought
1 Bomat Bazaar Barge
1 Untethered Express
1 Peacewalker Colossus
1 Consulate Dreadnought
1 Renegade Freighter
1 Aradara Express
1 Sky Skiff
1 Cultivator's Caravan
1 Darksteel Ingot

1 Relentless Raptor
1 Raging Regisaur
1 Zacama, Primal Calamity
1 Trapjaw Tyrant
1 Sun-Crested Pterodon
1 Zetalpa, Primal Dawn
1 Temple Altisaur
1 Majestic Heliopterus
1 Imperial Ceratops
1 Imperial Aerosaur
1 Thrashing Brontodon
1 Overgrown Armasaur
1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger
1 Crested Herdcaller
1 Cacophodon
1 Silverclad Ferocidons
1 Frilled Deathspitter
1 Needletooth Raptor
1 Etali, Primal Storm
1 Charging Tuskodon
1 Sky Terror
1 Raging Swordtooth
1 Belligerent Brontodon
1 Shining Aerosaur
1 Wakening Sun's Avatar
1 Kinjalli's Sunwing
1 Bellowing Aegisaur
1 Snapping Sailback
1 Thundering Spineback
1 Ravenous Daggertooth
1 Ranging Raptors
1 Grazing Whiptail
1 Colossal Dreadmaw
1 Ancient Brontodon
1 Thrash of Raptors
1 Sun-Crowned Hunters
1 Raptor Hatchling
1 Burning Sun's Avatar
1 Charging Monstrosaur
1 Gishath, Sun's Avatar

7 Plains
8 Mountain
9 Forest
1 Boros Guildgate
1 Gruul Guildgate
1 Selesnya Guildgate
1 Skarrg, the Rage Pits
1 Stone Quarry
1 Blossoming Sands
1 Timber Gorge
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Rugged Highlands
1 Tranquil Expanse
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Naya Panorama
1 Shivan Oasis


1 Pit Fight
1 Dissension in the Ranks


This is clearly a very early build. I basically threw every dinosaur from the Ixalan block in, a few cool vehicles from Kaladesh and called it good. It's going to need some work. Probably a LOT of work. The mana curve is weird, and I probably need to work on ensuring I'll have enough mana to pay for what I want to do.

But I'm good with this as a starting point. I was just excited to get this deck off the ground so I could practice with it in the real world. I'm going to bring a little Transformers toy with me so I can use Grimlock's ability and have some fun!

Thursday, February 22, 2018

People Play Everywhere

I found this article on people playing D&D and other role playing games in prison. There's ingenuity, inspiration, and a reminder, for me, anyway, that giving people human things to do helps keep them human under what can only be thought of as brutal and de-humanizing conditions.

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

The Last Two?

After a few games with Noah, he looked through my deck

"Diregraf Ghoul?"

Yeah but it's on theme.

"Except there are better cards and something more beefy is necessary."

When someone is correct, they are correct. So out comes that tiny zombie. The other card? Gruesome Encore, which just wasn't going to help when I needed it to help.

The replacements: Liliana's Mastery and Accursed Horde. The truth is, I was hoping to get the Mastery in the deck somehow but always thought it would be too expensive. It's $.62. No reason to deny this kind of anthem effect at that price point, plus it helps protect me.

Accursed Horde is an interesting card, one with some nice dynamic possibilities. So long as I have 1B up, it's ability is a problem for opponents and that's the kind of card budget decks need!

So, here we go, one Commander deck for under $50, not including Sygg:


1 Agony Warp
1 Gigadrowse
1 Repeal
1 Sudden Spoiling
1 Truth or Tale
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Catalog
1 Reaping the Graves
1 Capsize

1 Read the Bones
1 Fade Away
1 Pore Over the Pages
1 Deny Reality
1 Divination
1 Dregs of Sorrow
1 Life's Finale

1 Dimir Guildgate
1 Dismal Backwater
15 Swamp
1 Salt Marsh
9 Island
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Temple of the False God
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Rupture Spire
1 Mortuary Mire
1 Skyline Cascade
1 Submerged Boneyard
1 Halimar Depths
1 Leechridden Swamp
1 Scrapskin Drake
1 Ghoulraiser
1 Stitched Drake
1 Unbreathing Horde
1 Diregraf Captain
1 Lord of the Undead
1 Zombie Outlander
1 Vodalian Zombie
1 Cemetery Reaper
1 Sangrophage
1 Lifebane Zombie
1 Cryptoplasm
1 Reef Pirates
1 Rotcrown Ghoul
1 Polluted Dead
1 Undead Executioner
1 Drunau Corpse Trawler
1 Lamplighter of Selhoff
1 Soulless One
1 Clone
1 Gempalm Polluter
1 Ghastly Remains
1 Graveborn Muse
1 Noxious Ghoul
1 Withered Wretch
1 Zombie Brute
1 Undead Warchief
1 Nefashu
1 Twisted Abomination
1 Jhessian Zombies
1 Vedalken Ghoul
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Gravedigger
1 Lord of the Accursed
1 Phyrexian Delver
1 Accursed Horde

1 Witch's Mist
1 Energy Flux
1 Hissing Miasma
1 Call to the Grave
1 Liliana's Mastery
1 Dimir Signet
1 Cellar Door
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Dimir Cluestone
1 Bontu's Monument

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Social Capital

This essay by Thea Miller on making a better place to play stood out to me as a very good essay.

I was especially drawn to this passage:

Women in Magic have a marked lack of social capital, which is the interpersonal relationships, networks, resources, and other social assets of a society or group that can be used to gain advantage and mobility

because let me tell you as someone who has difficulty asking strangers if they want to play, while also using this same game as a way to get to know people, I get a very, very tiny taste of how challenging that might be for a woman who wants to play.

If I feel weird and nervous and challenged by things that are 98% in my own head, how much more difficult is it for someone who might have some internal pressures but then is now being given the business by someone else?

Unreasonably difficult. And there's really no reason for that.

I know I'm personally grateful that I've been in environments that, so far, have seemed really welcoming to everyone but I know that's just my experience. I hope that's been everyone's.

So let's remember to be nice out there.

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Something Had To Give

After making some minor adjustments to Sygg's army of the undead, I ran it through the analyzer at deckstats.net. With a commander deck, those tools are just incredibly useful for getting a snapshot of what's going on.

The data, coupled with a weekend of perpetual goldfishing, lined up: I didn't have enough black mana in the deck, and I could use some better answers.

These changes, including the addition of Phyrexian Delver and Leechridden Swamp, gave me another problem, though: the deck came well over $50. I'm not going to argue over $0.31 but the issue is that if the deck is $51 and I'm thinking, 'well, that's OK because...' then where do I draw the line?

So what do I do? I look at the analysis and see what's expensive that can be cut. It didn't take long for me to conclude that Door of Destinies should go.

Yes, it's amazing and yes, with a deck like zombies that has some light recursion, the possibilities for DoD get crazy.

It's also a $5 card and removing it for Capsize, a $0.20 means I can increase the answers in my deck while also easily staying under the $50 target.

Thursday, February 8, 2018

The Design Contest

My friend Sean entered into the Great Designer Search 3, but unfortunately he didn't get past the testing round.

Their loss is your gain, though, as he decided to publish the answers to their essay questions on his blog.

Since he's employed as a game designer, it's pretty cool to get a window into what he thinks of as Magic's biggest strengths, weaknesses and hurdles.

Reading his essay, I can't help but come up with a couple points of agreement and contention, for example: yes, vehicles are quite intuitive and a great way to amplify the visual aspect of a new plane. Vehicles on Ixalan do not resemble anything on Kaladesh.

On the other hand: expanding artifact capabilities helps two colors: white (which can sometimes use a boost) and blue (which perpetually needs to be kept in check), while creating a greater demand for artifact destruction that is generally lacking in the density or utility required in red and green, and absent in black.

Then there are other points that only someone with his expertise could actually articulate, such as the response to Magic's greatest weakness.

All in all, I dig it, so check it out.

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

$50.31

Tests with Lauriel went about as I should've expected them to. I got run over by her Ghave deck, and there wasn't a heck of a lot I could do about it.

The mana situation? I mean...look at all that mana I have! 12 lands. I should be able to cast everything and more. Instead, I just kinda died on the vine.

So, I took another look at Sygg and saw part of the problem: I really half-assed it when it came time to upgrade. To be specific: All the cards that had to be three mana or less because of Tiny Leaders rules I just kept in there, instead of developing the deck for the Commander format.

On the other hand; that's why I'm writing the series! So, remove: Perplex, Dimir Doppleganger, Black Cat, Gravepurge, and Dominating Licid

Testing: Dregs of Sorrow, Gravedigger (which should've been in here to start), Lord of the Accursed, Bontu's Monument, and Life's Finale

The issue here is that it takes the deck to just a smidge over $50. 31 cents over.

I think I can live with that. Let's test it out.

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Best Intentions

Apparently, when I was testing sixty card decks, I needed to go to the Tonic wanting to play Commander. Because this is the second week in a row where I have gone there hoping to play Commander and ended up playing sixty card decks.

One guy even recognized me and told me he was thrilled to play some of his other decks, because everyone was so focused on Commander there.

So there's that.

Don't get me wrong: it was a pretty productive evening. I lost a fair share of games but I think I've got a solid handle on why I lost them.

I also ran the same decks as last week: Fenix and Hope and a wayback machine deck, 1000 Shards.

Jeeze: I've been doing this for six years! Go me!

I did get a Commander game in last night against Sasha, playing Arahbo, and it did not go well. I had the mana, but I did not have the ability to match against that deck's sheer power. A creature hooked up with Argentum Armor and boom. That was it. I had the mana to do something about it, I just didn't have anything else.

Now on one hand; budget deck, so that's to be expected.

On the other: this represents an interesting problem that Sygg is going to have all the time.I wonder how I will be able to solve it.

And by that I mean: what method will work. Not 'how can I possibly'.