Goldfishing With E

It's been so long since I gave Estrid a shot that some goldfishing seemed like a good idea.

I know I've sounded a little dour about the Commander 2019 decks, but holy crow has that opinion been reinforced at nearly every turn. Opening hand after hand I would have Auras for creatures, and zero creatures.

Because only a quarter of the deck is creatures.

Why the heck IS that? WotC has to know, right? The ratios for getting a deck to do what you want it to do? They are usually spectacular at getting the mana correct.  The percentage of mana to everything else; typically 37%, so players can reliably cast their cards.

So why is this deck so bad?

Seriously! Since we know that Auras need permanents to enchant, why are players not given enough of those permanents?

Also, why, exactly, is Sol Ring in this deck? It is the only artifact and nowhere on it does it use the word 'enchantment'. There are zero interactions between Sol Ring and enchantments. There aren't even interactions between Sol Ring and Tuvasa or Kestia, the other two possible commanders for this deck.

If that isn't a signal that Commander set design is stale, I don't know what is.

Finally, the mana ratios are way off here. Plugging this deck into Deckstats.net, the green is over represented and while one can argue that this is helpful for mana fixing, since the land Auras need green to work, they only need one green mana. That's the whole point, right? That green can fix your mana easily, without over-representing the color?

I wouldn't even be asking these questions, if the rest of the deck seemed balanced. Things are just so skewed, I don't know why I should trust anything in this deck.

So if the goldfishing is troublesome, are the actual games even worse?

Siege 1 Pt 2

In the time that Jason and I had left, we got to play some games of constructed, with small tweaks to our decks using Siege 1 cards.

There weren't many character tweaks; character tweaks to a deck generally mean revolutionizing an entire deck, in my experience.

But we did get to play with some new cards: Jason was particularly enamored with Erratic Energy Grenade. I am a fan of it as well but I didn't see it as being as helpful in his Constructicon deck, yet he felt it worked. I'm thinking that it should be in a deck playing against a combiner team-more damage dealt overall.

More testing, as always, will bear one of us out.

And more testing is something I wish we'd been able to do. There were cards I tried in two different decks that didn't appear in the game, (specifically EM24 IR Laser Launcher) so establishing how good or useful they are is still in question.

Plus, neither one of us opened an RR Energy Blade. How does that happen?

The most difficult match that evening for me, hands down, was against Volcanicus.

I've been a defender of I Still Function for a long time: I think the card makes for some epic stories and those moments are what makes a game addictive and great.

But against Volcanicus paired with Sludge, Mighty Stomper...this matchup just became miserable. I was playing a blue/pipless deck and still managed to deal out well over seventy damage. We think I might've come close to 100 points of damage. For a deck that isn't focused on aggro, that's remarkable.

And it didn't matter, because Sludge took it away, three times, and it was I Still Function that let him abuse that card.

It was hard to tell Jason that the match was miserable for me, the least fun Transformers game I have ever played. Especially since he was testing running Mighty Stomper maindeck, thinking that the reason people weren't playing Volcanicus was because they were getting it wrong. It certainly seemed like he was right.

But I think people aren't playing Volcanicus because it's miserable instead of epic or amazing when you lose, and once you know the weak point, easy to dismantle. The next game I played a 4-wide Insecticon deck (aggressive and heavier orange) and I was able to remove Grimlock, Powerful Commander early: after that, he couldn't get his deck going and winning felt like a matter of course.

So against the top aggressive decks in the format, it suffers, and against any other deck, you suffer. I was torn between: hey, maybe this is a thing and with refinement, your Volcanicus deck could really be amazing! and oh but this is miserable...

However, in the end I'd rather chalk it up to two things: 1) It could be a bad matchup. Bad matchups happen, and that's why sideboards are great. 2) It could mean that I need to improve my own deck. New sets are a great time to improve on concepts that aren't fleshed out and my pipless Skywarp deck definitely needs some work!

Finally, it puts the emphasis for me to get better, not on him and his concept.

It's also worth mentioning that Coolstuffinc.com has a weekly Transformers article!

Siege 1 And Sealed

My buddy Jason came down last weekend and we went through two boxes, playing nothing but sealed over two days.

Our conclusion: Turbo Sealed is an anemic format for experienced players. It works but it doesn't show off how great the game is. For new players, however, the format is helpful because the complexity is low enough that new people won't be overwhelmed. If you're an experienced player though, it feels as though you don't have enough choices to make the games engaging.

Here's how we think you should play Sealed in Siege 1: Each player gets 3 packs and builds the best 25 star character team they can. Ignore the star value of your battle cards. You're playing with all of them.

You can effectively ignore the star value on your cards for two reasons: first, some of them, such as Ultra Magnus' armor, are difficult to play to begin with, due to restrictions of who it can be on, and the number in your deck, almost certainly just one. Which leads to the second reason:

Second; sealed inherently has issues with power levels and people occasionally get busted packs. We accept this as just part of the game: if Jason opens a General Optimus Prime and I open two Sargent Skrapnel, (which I did) you can probably guess how the game is going to go.

But that isn't certain: it's just really good for him. If we buy into that, then why bicker over the star count in sealed, which has players doing the best they can with random elements?

So don't: the games will feel more robust and sure, there will still be dead cards, but the improvement in gameplay will make up for it.

Rules Layering

This post made its way to my attention and it does a damn fine job going through the layer portion of Magic's rules.

That's never a bad thing to refresh.

This weekend I'm going to get to play a whole bunch of Siege 1, so I look forward to talking about the new Transformers set next week!

Commander -Estrid, the Masked

New Commander time!

Estrid, the Masked

Instant Creeping Renaissance Kruphix's Insight Dismantling Blow Bant Charm	Artifacts Sol Ring
Enchantment Estrid's Invocation Ever-Watching Threshold Octopus Umbra Myth Unbound Sigil of the Empty Throne Dictate of Kruphix Bear Umbra Enchantress's Presence Epic Proportions Ground Seal Spawning Grounds Finest Hour Righteous Authority Sage's Reverie Soul Snare Unquestioned Authority Eel Umbra Vow of Flight Dawn's Reflection Fertile Ground Overgrowth Snake Umbra Vow of Wildness Wild Growth Unflinching Courage	Sorcery Empyrial Storm Genesis Storm Martial Coup Phyrexian Rebirth Winds of Rath
Lands 9 Plains 6 Island 8 Forest Forge of Heroes Azorius Chancery Blossoming Sands Command Tower Evolving Wilds Krosan Verge Meandering River Mosswort Bridge Seaside Citadel Selesnya Sanctuary Simic Growth Chamber Terramorphic Expanse Thornwood Falls Tranquil Cove Tranquil Expanse Woodland Stream	Creatures Bruna, Light of Alabaster Eidolon of Blossoms Kestia, the Cultivator Tuvasa the Sunlit Heavenly Blademaster Nylea's Colossus Ravenous Slime Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle Hydra Omnivore Ajani's Chosen Celestial Archon Silent Sentinel Boon Satyr Herald of the Pantheon Cold-Eyed Selkie Daxos of Meletis Elderwood Scion Loyal Unicorn Loyal Drake Loyal Guardian Archetype of Imagination Whitewater Naiads Aura Gnarlid Reclamation Sage Yavimaya Enchantress

What is this deck? Well, aside from being the enchantment themed deck of last year's Commander product, I'm not entirely sure.

This is the third (and final) deck from last year that I'll be playing and tweaking and I have to say; the feeling that 2019's Commander product was lacking has been justified in my playthroughs. The decks don't have cards they probably should, don't have interesting reprints, the power level is diffused to the detriment of focus, and they don't feel very fun to play. In previous years, I would break a deck from the box and often would hang with modestly tuned Commander decks.

With these decks I always feel outclassed.  But that's OK: the first few playthroughs might be rough, but they'll definitely teach me plenty about where this deck needs to go-and maybe, if Tuvasa the Sunlit or Kestia the Cultivator should take Estrid's place. Admittedly, neither of those cards seem very interesting but that doesn't mean it's incorrect to change.  

That's Fine, But Take The Next Step

There was a rules announcement for the Transformers game on Monday. The gist of it is: You can only take ONE turn in a row using Peace Through Tyranny. Then you have to let your opponent go, even if you can chain together multiple turns.

Which...is fine, I guess? I'm more into cards doing what they say they would do, with the less outside clarification needed, the better. But this issue needed to be addressed and I'm glad they did. Errata for a card is an adequate solution but without the ability to easily call up said errata, I think they're setting things up for trouble later on-and not that much later, either.

Because I'm less worried about this specific ruling for Peace Through Tyranny (the ruling is OK but not what I would've done) and much more concerned about what this means for the health of the game at large. Rules disputes happen all the time. The ability to quickly resolve them without a judge is critical to getting players back to doing what they should be doing: playing the game.

Someone suggested that they will just update the PDF but that isn't enough, in my opinion. The pdf is 47 pages long right now, and while it's a searchable document, it's still unwieldly and currently doesn't reflect today's updated ruling. That page count will only get longer once Siege 1 is added and more questions need to be answered, plus it certainly isn't what I would call easily usable with today's technological capacities.

So c'mon Wizards. Let's get that database going!

One Last Sweep

Alright, here we are. I think I'm done; Yennet feels like it's in that 'tuned but not focused' zone. It can do some cool stuff but it doesn't want to do broken things and I like that.

I cut Barren Moor, Secluded Steppe, and Lonely Sandbar for Island, Swamp, and Evolving Wilds. The shuffle effect from Wilds matters to this deck and SO MANY lands enter the battlefield tapped that I wanted to make gameplay a little faster for me. Those were the last changes I made to the deck.

The way I've built Yennet, it has a pretty severe disadvantage in 1v1 situations; the game pictured looks pretty good for me, but I made a critical mistake by being too aggressive and then Noah was able to blow me out with lots of zombie tokens.

Still, I like what this does and how it functions, and now I'm looking forward to getting on the next one!

Commander-Yennet, Cryptic Sovereign

1 Azorius Signet
1 Commander's Sphere
1 Crystal Ball
1 Dimir Signet
1 Mind Stone
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Seer's Lantern
1 Sol Ring
1 Swiftfoot Boots

1 Enigma Sphinx
1 Magus of the Balance
1 Night Incarnate
1 Sower of Discord
1 Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow
1 Adarkar Valkyrie
1 Conundrum Sphinx
1 Djinn of Wishes
1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
1 Sphinx of Uthuun
1 Phyrexian Delver
1 Duskmantle Seer
1 Silent-Blade Oni
1 Loyal Unicorn
1 Geode Golem
1 Mulldrifter
1 Ninja of the Deep Hours
1 Pilgrim's Eye
1 Urborg Emissary
1 Stormscape Battlemage
1 Stormscape Familiar
1 Prognostic Sphinx

1 Soothsaying
1 Future Sight
1 Mind's Dilation

1 Utter End
1 Return to Dust
1 Brainstorm
1 Telling Time
1 Esper Charm
1 Mortify
1 Crib Swap
1 Pollen Lullaby
1 Stir the Pride
1 Dismantling Blow

1 Isolated Watchtower
6 Plains
6 Island
4 Swamp
1 Forge of Heroes
1 Arcane Sanctum
1 Azorius Chancery
1 Azorius Guildgate
1 Command Tower
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Dimir Guildgate
1 Dismal Backwater
1 Forsaken Sanctuary
1 Halimar Depths
1 Jwar Isle Refuge
1 Meandering River
1 Mortuary Mire
1 New Benalia
1 Orzhov Basilica
1 Orzhov Guildgate
1 Scoured Barrens
1 Sejiri Refuge
1 Submerged Boneyard
1 Tranquil Cove
1 Evolving Wilds

1 Aminatou, the Fateshifter

1 Terminus
1 Skull Storm
1 Entreat the Angels
1 Army of the Damned
1 Akroma's Vengeance
1 Dream Cache
1 Ponder
1 Portent
1 Treasure Hunt
1 Evangelize
1 Conqueror's Pledge
1 Demonic Collusion
1 Temporal Cascade
1 Mystic Speculation
1 Beacon of Unrest
1 Cleansing Nova