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wiresandstarlings · 5 years ago

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all I find are souvenirs from better times

Some background: I was planning on making some scripted video content, but I found the process of actually recording so miserable that I gave up. I thought the transcript might still be an interesting read though, so I polished it some into this blog post. I was going to record my video over the original coverage, which you can find here if you want to follow along. You can find Sam and Josh's decks here.

So I'm going to try making a series of videos analyzing some matches from past coverage that I found instructive. My goal to showcase some interesting gameplay situations and to share what I learned from watching these matches.

This first video will be on Sam Black and Josh Utter-Leyton's semifinals match in PT Philadelphia in 2011. To me, this match really illustrates both how and how not to use your interaction against combo deck.

To set the scene, this is the first ever Modern Pro Tour, so all kinds of shit is legal. Cloudpost, Blazing Shoal, Ponder and Preordain, Rite of Flame AND Seething Song. There are like 8 decks that can kill on turn 2.

Sam Black is playing one of them, a mono-blue Infect deck using Blazing Shoal plus Dragonstorm to do 10 Infect in one attack. The rest of the deck is just cantrips and tutors.

Josh Utter-Leyton is playing a creature aggro deck splashing blue for countermagic, including 3 maindeck Bant Charm. A bit of a strange choice given the cards legal in this format, but the idea was that it had enough interaction to beat the creature combo decks like Sam's while being more consistent and resilient against disruptive decks.

With that, let's get into game 1. Let's quickly go over the opening hands first.

Dragonstorm 2 Blighted Agent Peer Through Depths Preordain Island

This is Sam's hand. It's on the weaker side in that he needs both land and Blazing Shoal to participate and even then only has an unprotected kill, but I think it's still a clear keep. Peer is around 35% to find Shoal, 60% to find Shoal or Muddle, and can also find more Peers or cantrips. Preordain will probably find a land and then we have multiple threats.

2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant Lightning Bolt 2 Arid Mesa

And this is Josh's hand. It clearly sucks but you're not mulling it to 4, especially under the Paris mulligan. Coverage doesn't have the hands that Josh mulliganed, so overall not much to learn here.

Josh is on the play and goes land go.

Sam draws Progenitus for turn, which is a dead card, then casts Preordain. He sees Scalding Tarn and Muddle the Mixture. He's obviously keeping Scalding Tarn, but Muddle the Mixture is interesting. Muddle tutors for Blazing Shoal, which Sam needs, but Sam would need a third land in order to do that.

Given that Sam has Peer Through Depths already, which is like 53% to find either Shoal or Muddle, I like bottoming this Muddle to look for more cantrips or a third land.

Coverage cuts away so it's hard to see what Sam actually does, but Sam probably topped the Muddle given he drew one. I think this a small error but not a big deal.

Josh draws Bolt, passes again. Sam cracks Scalding Tarn casts Blighted Agent, which he has to do. Sam's deck doesn't have efficient protection spells like the current Modern Infect deck does, he has to just run his threats out there and hope they stick.

Now, Josh does not Bolt the Blighted Agent on Sam's end step. I'm going to pause the video here, because this is a more involved discussion.

On a high level, there are essentially 2 ways you can use your interaction in combo matchups. The first is to hold the interaction and make your opponent beat it. The second is to use the interaction to disrupt your opponent's set-up, trying to strand them with dead combo pieces. The first approach is what Josh is doing here, holding up the Lightning Bolts and making Sam cast a Blazing Shoal with enough protection to beat all of Josh's removal. The second approach would be Bolting the Blighted Agent end of turn and hoping to run Sam out of creatures. Neither of these approaches is abstractly correct, and the right path to take depends on the matchup and your exact hand.

Fundamentally, it makes sense for Josh to default to fighting Sam's Blazing Shoals rather than his Infect creatures in this matchup, since Sam has 8 Infect creatures but only 4 Blazing Shoals. And if Sam commits a Blazing Shoal into a removal spell and the kill attempt fails, Josh gets both the Infect creature and the Shoal.

But in this specific situation, there are a lot reasons why Josh should deviate and just Bolt the Blighted Agent. The first is that Josh knows he's constrained on mana, and Sam might not be. Further, once Sam has a Blighted Agent in play, his combo costs 0 mana, and his deck is full of Spell Pierces, Muddle the Mixtures, and Disrupting Shoals. On the turn Sam goes for the kill, there's a good chance that Sam will have more mana for interaction up than Josh will have for disruption.

The second reason is that using Lightning Bolt proactively here will also let Josh develop a threat if he draws one, like a Tarmogoyf, Green Sun's Zenith, or Qasali Pridemage, and Josh currently has no pressure.

The third reason is that Josh has 2 Lightning Bolts and Sam has not played an Inkmoth Nexus, which suggests he doesn't have one. Josh would still have a removal spell behind for a second Blighted Agent, and Sam is less likely than baseline to have half his threats in hand, so we can reasonably expect that we'll be able to answer every threat.

The fourth reason is that half of Sam's interaction is Spell Pierce, so additional mana can inherently represent another layer of interaction on the combo turn. 1 Bolt with 2 open mana will often be as hard for Sam to beat as 2 Bolts with 1 open mana.

If Sam had played both Agent and Nexus on turn 2, I would be more sympathetic to Josh's line, since in that case we'd need to hold open Bolt for the rest of the game anyway to play around the combo. But even then, Bolting the Blighted Agent makes Sam's combo cost 2 mana rather than 1, making it harder for Sam to cantrip or Transmute and win on the same turn and squeezing out a counterspell.

Anyway, Josh doesn't Bolt. He draws Bant Charm and passes again.

Sam draws Preordain and sees Summoner's Pact and another Muddle. Pact is a clear bottom, and Muddle is a clear Bottom after we topped the first one. Situations like this one are why I think bottoming the first Muddle is better than keeping it. We would have wound up drawing a Muddle naturally anyway, and then this Preordain sees a card deeper.

Sam casts Gitaxian Probe and sees Josh's hand.

Now Sam has an interesting call because he's seen Josh's hand. He knows that if he plays the second Blighted Agent, then Josh can kill both and he'll likely be stuck transmuting Muddle for a third Agent. But Josh has so much interaction that Sam needs to put more threats into play, and countering a Bolt is more mana efficient than Transmuting but the end result is still just turning Muddle into a Blighted Agent. Plus, Josh has already shown disinterest in casting his spells, so we can maybe rely on him continuing to do that.

Sam plays the Blighted Agent here, which I like.

From Josh's perspective, Sam now knows he needs to beat 2 Bolts, is almost 0% to have Nexus after shocking to play the second Agent, and we drew a third piece of interaction. At this point, I think not using at least one Bolt is just heinous. I think not using both Bolts end of turn is fine since that might cut off our ability to cast Bant Charm down the line, due to fetching complications, but that's just even more reason to use one of the Bolts now.

Josh draws Plains, passes again. Sam draws another island, attacks and passes. Josh casts Bant Charm to kill a Blighted Agent end of turn, which is again an interesting spot from Sam's perspective. On one hand, the best this Muddle the Mixture is ever going to be is a Blighted Agent, so it kind of makes sense to get the mana expenditure out of the way in case we draw another Muddle. On the other hand, if we counter this Bant Charm and that convinces Josh to finally casts his Lightning Bolts, we're in trouble. Given how insistent Josh has been about not casting his spells, I actually like Sam's line because it potentially allows him to present more interaction on the turn he actually tries to win. Like if Sam lets Charm resolve, Josh lets Peer for Shoal resolve, and then Sam draws 2nd Muddle or Spell Pierce, then Sam forces Josh to have 3 pieces of interaction on the kill turn instead of 2, which is unlikely when Josh is stuck on 3 lands. Sam's play is relying on Josh to make a mistake for somewhat thin value, but Josh has kept making this same mistake so far.

Josh draws Helix, Sam finds Shoal off Peer. Then Sam draws Spell Pierce, so Josh dies with a Lightning Helix in hand.

It's not obvious that Josh wins this game if he casts his spells, since he still wouldn't have had any pressure and Sam was drawing live to more threats. But Josh certainly did not give himself the best chance to win. Like on the turn that Josh cast Bant Charm, if he'd just cast his Bolts earlier, he would have been drawing to any land or any creature finally get some pressure on the table.

Anyway, that game was pretty compact but I think instructive. Josh played really bad and Sam got to take a cool line that I think is a mistake in the abstract, but was correct based on how Josh was playing.

2 Noble Hierarch Tarmogoyf Bant Charm Plains Misty Rainforest Marsh Flats

This Josh's hand for game 2. It's marginal but a clear keep. It has threats, mana, and 1 piece of interaction.

Spellskite Gitaxian Probe Peer Through Depths Progenitus Blazing Shoal Island Inkmoth Nexus

And Sam's hand is the nuts. Just a turn 2 kill with Probe, card selection, and protection.

First turn cycle is straightforward, then Josh has an interesting choice on whether to pass with Bant Charm or to play Tarmogoyf and Noble Hierarch. My instinct is that Josh should just develop his threats, since it's not that likely that your opponent has a turn 2 kill and Bant Charm is so expensive that Sam can easily set up a kill through it if you give him enough time. But after thinking the situation over, I prefer Josh's play of passing. The fact that Sam played Inkmoth Nexus on turn 1 instead of a cantrip means that the Nexus being able to attack is important to him, and that to some extent implies Sam has the kill. Secondly, because Josh has the 2 Noble Hierarchs, he'll be able to hold up Bant Charm again next turn while developing the second Hierarch, and then he'll have enough mana to continue developing while holding up Bant Charm for the rest of the game. Third, Sam might have kept a hand exactly like the one he did, which is short on mana and interaction but has the kill, and can't continue profitably developing.

Now Sam plays Spellskite and Josh Bant Charms the Spellskite, which I think is a mistake. Sam has already presented 2 threats, you only have 1 piece of interaction, and you have infinite mana. It's the exact reverse of game 1, where Josh had a lot of interaction but not much mana. This is when you want to make your opponent beat your interaction, which means saving Bant Charm to Dispel Blazing Shoal.

If this was Josh's plan against Spellskite, I think he should have just played Tarmogoyf on turn 2 and accepted dying to the combo. Since now, barring your draw step, you're playing Tarmogoyf a turn later and still dying to the combo.

But anyway, Josh draws Green Sun's Zenith for Gaddock Teeg, which is the best possible. He puts Teeg and Hierarch into play, pretty straightforward.

Sam draws Peer and passes. There's some argument for casting Peer main so it doesn't get countered, but revealing what Peer finds is probably more important. Josh doesn't have many counters for Peer and doesn't want to counter it anyway.

Sam Peers and takes Snapback over Preordain, which makes sense. Sam has to get the Teeg off the battlefield to win and Snapback is one of Sam's few answers.

Josh draws Aven Mindcensor and plays it on his own end step after Sam reveals the Snapback. This play is interesting. There are two main upsides to this line. The first is that if Sam has Pact of Negation plus Shoal, then he no longer has the win on his turn with Snapback, Pact, Shoal. The second is that if Sam draws a fetchland, Josh doesn't have to play timing games with the Mindcensor. The downside is that if Josh waits, there's some chance that Sam goes for the kill against Josh's 1 unknown card, and getting Sam to commit the mana plus trade the Nexus is a good exchange. The situation basically boils down to what Josh thinks Sam will do. If Josh thinks Sam never attacks with the Nexus, it's strictly best to get the Mindcensor down right away. If Josh thinks Sam always jams into the 1 unknown card, even without Pact, then it's strictly better to wait.

From Sam's perspective, jamming is a "losing play", in the sense that he'll lose to a removal spell or a counterspell (in which case you've used your Snapback and no longer have a plan to beat the Teeg) and Josh probably has some interaction, but I think it's still the correct line. It's so tough for things to get better for Sam here, since he's two lands away from killing with Muddle backup and his Spell Pierces are already dead, if they're even still in his deck. If Josh just passes, it's right for Sam to jam and I think he frequently will jam. Josh could conceivably have a land, a dead Green Sun's Zenith, or a Noble Hierarch or whatever as a bluff.

This spot just comes down to Sam's tendencies as a player though. It's close enough that I don't feel strongly about either line, but I personally would have waited and expected that Sam would have gone for it.

Josh draws, Sam Peers again and takes Slaughter Pact, which is the best possible. And then he goes for it against Josh's random card and wins. All of Sam's plays here are straightforward and clearly correct, I think.

Wild Nacatl Gaddock Teeg Path to Exile Misty Rainforest Arid Mesa Horizon Canopy Tectonic Edge

Josh's hand is good, clear keep. It's heavy on lands but Teeg is his best card and he has a clock and interaction to pair with it.

Pact of Negation Blazing Shoal Dragonstorm Blighted Agent Gitaxian Probe Inkmoth Nexus

Sam's 6-card hand is also a clear keep, it's turn 2 kill through a removal spell with an untapped land in 3 draws.

As is, Sam's hand is going to have a really tough time beating Gaddock Teeg, since he'll need to draw land and then either exactly Slaughter Pact or Snapback. So this game probably won't going to be too interesting.

You'll also notice that Sam lost game 3 off camera and chose to draw this game, which is a legal game action.

Sam draws another Dragonstorm, which is the worst possible. Josh draws Flashfreeze, which is the best possible.

This is where I start skipping and speeding up, since Sam's so unlikely to win.

Sam actually has outs here, drawing Spell Pierce and then land. If he Peers into free removal and then topdecks untapped land, he can removal, Shoal, Pierce and win. So Sam's on 20% into 33%, around 7% overall. That's impressive given how badly the opening hands lined up for him; Sam's deck was really broken. He bricks and dies though.

Noble Hierarch Wild Nacatl Qasali Pridemage Stomping Grounds 2 Marsh Flats Sacred Foundry

Josh's hand sucks but I agree with the keep. This tournament used the Paris mulligan, so mulliganing sucks, and Josh's hand has a fast clock on the play plus Pridemate to interact with half of Sam's threats.

Blighted Agent 2 Disrupting Shoal Ponder Inkmoth Nexus 2 Island

Sam's hand also sucks but it has a counterspell for a 2-drop, 2 threats, enough lands to Transmute, and a Ponder to tie things together.

Not sure either of these hands would be a keep under the London mulligan but I think they're fine here.

Sam chooses to draw again.

Sam draws Pact, casts Ponder, sees 2 Peers and a Nexus. Seems like a good top, planning to Peer past Nexus.

Sam uses Disrupting Shoal on Pridemage, pitching Blighted Agent, which definitely seems right. Pitching Agent instead of the second Disrupting Shoal is an unintuitive but good play. Sam knows he's going to cast Peer on both of his next turns, so he won't be able to deploy the Agent in a window where it'll be useful. And the second Shoal might be able to counter a removal spell down the line.

Josh plays his cards and attacks, and he's down to all lands. Sam has an interesting decision between Probe and third Peer with Peer here. My instinct was to take Probe since we have second Peer already, but it's close. We're two cards away from our combo still and will probably need 2 more turns, and we might end up taking a better cantrip than Probe off of the second Peer. Peer is better than all the other cantrips here since Nexus doesn't tap to cast any other spells. On the other hand, we might not have the luxury of tapping Nexus for mana for two more turns.

Worth noting that situations like this one are why you generally choose to play in constructed.

Sam draws another Spellskite, which is useless. He passes instead of main phasing Peer, which is a big mistake. By passing, Sam denies himself the option of casting a Ponder or Preordain if he took one off Peer. Josh is unlikely to use a counterspell on Peer, and giving Josh an opportunity to cast his counterspell this turn isn't a big cost given Josh has so much mana already.

Josh draws 2nd Nacatl, which locks up a 2 turn clock but is otherwise a brick.

Sam sees lands and Preordain off his Peer and gets punished for waiting. He draws Blighted Agent, which is useless.

Cantrip sequencing is worth noting here. Sam should lead Preordain since it sees fewer cards, so he'll have a better idea of what he needs to find off Peer. Sam does, finds Dragonstorm and keeps it since it's one of the two cards he needs, pretty straightforward.

Josh draws a lethal Helix and Sam gets paid for holding Shoal all those turns ago.

Sam bricks his 35%er to find Shoal off Peer, takes Ponder instead. He's on another 30%er to find Shoal with Ponder but bricks again to lose.

If Sam had cast Peer on his main phase earlier, having additional blue mana would have given him more redraws to Shoal. That mistake probably cost him a 5% chance of winning on the last turn.

So, closing notes. I do want to stress that when I'm pointing out mistakes I believe Sam or Josh made, I'm not suggesting that that they're bad players. If you watch my matches on coverage, or literally anyone's, you'll find mistakes every turn cycle. Everyone is bad at Magic.

Note that this means if you're not seeing the mistakes in your own games, you're not looking hard enough.

Watching coverage is so great for improving because you get to see the mistakes great players made, mistakes you may not even be thinking about the game deeply enough to make yourself. But to improve by watching coverage, this is the kind of watching you need to do – actively picking apart what's happening on camera, figuring out why the players on both sides of the match are making the decisions they are, looking for patterns. It's not about copying what the players on camera are doing, it's about improving on it.

Anyway, thanks for watching reading.

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stingscustom · 7 months ago

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commandertheory · 6 years ago

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M20 Commander Set Review

For each new set, I write an article discussing the new legendary creatures and the nonlegendary cards that I think will be relevant in Commander.

The Commanders of Core Set 2020

There are a lot of cheap multicolor creatures that generate value (Harmonic Sliver, Knight of Autumn, Qasali Pridemage, Renegade Rallier) in these colors, as well as a ton of strong sac outlets like Evolutionary Leap, Birthing Pod, and Greater Good. Basically, you’ve got everything you need to make a sweet recursion engine, plus you can use all the sac outlets you’re already running to enable sac fodder combos like Karmic Guide/Reveillark, Karmic Guide/Saffi, Reveillark/Saffi, Sun Titan/Saffi, Sun Titan/Gift of Immortality, Boonweaver Giant/Gift of Immortality, Renegade Rallier/Saffi, etc etc etc.

Sample list: Rienne, Angel of Rebirth

I’m really not a fan of ETB commanders since they all run the same cards (blink engines, sacrifice+reanimation engines) and if you don’t draw your engines they don’t do anything. Say what you will about the original Kaalia, but at least she fixed the weaknesses of her tribe; this Kaalia just gives you a handful of cards you can’t cast.

She is, however, quite good in the maindeck of a Kaalia 1.0 deck.

Self-mill is super important in this deck. The more you mill, the more likely it is you’ll have some fodder to exile, so I’d run Mesmeric Orb, Hermit Druid, Deadbridge Chant, Life from the Loam, Undercity Informer, and Altar of Dementia, for sure.

Legendary lands are great in this deck, and there are a ton of cheap legends in these colors that interact with the graveyard, like Storrev, Teshar, and Meren. There are also some great sac outlets on legendary creatures, like Yawgmoth, Krav, the Unredeemed, Sidisi, Undead Vizier, God-Eternal Bontu, and Izoni, Thousand-Eyed. Finally, there are just a ton of value commanders in these colors like Azusa, Captain Sisay, Reki, Tymna, The Gitrog Monster, as well as a ton of powerful planeswalkers like Elspeth 3.0, Ugin 1.0, Liliana Dreadhorde General, etc.

Sample list: Kethis, the Hidden Hand

Cheap red cantrips and looting spells are very good here, since they’re card neutral and usually mana-neutral. Other cards that trigger when you cast noncreatures, like Monastery Mentor, Saheeli Sublime Artificer, and Young Pyromancer are also solid. I really like Bident of Thassa, Coastal Piracy, and Kindred Discovery in a deck with so many evasive tokens, and Cathars’ Crusade, Coat of Arms, and Shared Animosity will help you kill people really quickly.

There are a couple of Spirit token generators that are worth running because they’re so efficient that they are either mana neutral or mana negative, like Midnight Haunting and Promise of Bunrei. Tectonic Reformation is good for dumping excess lands and helping you find more gas.

Jeskai Ascendancy does literally everything.

Sample list: Kykar, Wind’s Fury

These rewards are not good enough to incentivize committing to Elementals. Shooting something once and a Retreat to Kazandu will not make you feel smart for forsaking the other 300 creature types in Magic.

It doesn’t help that the most powerful part of the card has nothing to do with Elementals, as the smart way to build this guy seems to be Tatyova + Red. It’s also a little weird that the best reason for adding Red to this deck’s color identity is Omnath, Locus of Rage; if you really want to make 5/5s, why not run that Omnath as your commander?

I think this is a combo commander masquerading as a value commander. You can spin your wheels for a while by controlling the board with Reclamation Sage and Shriekmaw, but eventually you’re going to draw some combination of Peregrine Drake/Great Whale/Aluren/Cloud of Faeries and Shrieking Drake/Cavern Harpy/Dream Stalker/Cloudstone Curio/Deadeye Navigator and get infinite mana and bounces for your other ETB creatures. Or you can just draw Palinchron.

Sample list: Yarok, the Desecrated

There are some solid flying token generators in monowhite (although probably not as many as you’d expect), as well as hate bear flyers like Hushwing Gryff, Linvala 1.0, Aven Mindcensor, Remorseful Cleric, Selfless Spirit, flyers that generate value like Pilgrim’s Eye, Bygone Bishop, Skyscanner, and anthem flyers like Archangel of Thune, Celestial Crusader, and Angel of Jubilation.

Because Sephara has 7 power, you also have the option to try to go for a Voltron win using haste granters and cards that grant double strike.

The 6 CMC, 5 toughness, 4 power, 3-cost activation, draw 2, discard 1 is super cute. I think this deck is mostly counterspells, cheap cantrips to sculpt your hand, mana acceleration, and ways to grant him haste, and I don’t think it’s that hard to fix the list so that the proportions of different mana costs make it easy to find Exodia without gumming up your development.

Black has 15 ways to pay life without restriction (i.e., without requiring you to pay mana, tap the card, or do anything else), most of which you could justify playing in this deck.

You don’t even have to worry about protecting this guy, as once he resolves and turned your life outlet into a Yawgmoth’s Bargain, he’s done his job and you will probably win that turn.

Sample list: Vilis, Broker of Blood

Like Sephara, the 7 power pushes me towards a Voltron strategy, and Red has waaay more haste granters than White does. The free board control is a nice way to help your deck interact with your opponents even as you devote most of your resources to the Voltron plan.

The combination of 17 life per swing and the ability to kill anything with Drakuseth’s flame breath makes Basilisk Collar an attractive addition to this deck, but I’m not sure I’d run equipment that only granted deathtouch or only granted lifelink.

Most Green hydras become playable when they cost four less, so it’s not hard to fill out the tribal theme. The rest of the deck is ramp to help you get Gargos down early and effects that target your creatures to enable Gargos’s trigger. Effects that grant Gargos hexproof or indestructible are great because they protect him from spot removal while also getting you a fight trigger, and cards like Hunter’s Insight, Hunter’s Prowess, and Soul’s Majesty, while normally great when you have an 8-power commander, get even better when they also let you eat an opponent’s creature.

Sample list: Gargos, Vicious Watcher

This guy is useful if there’s a specific land you want access to every game. Imo, the best lands to build a deck around are Volrath’s Stronghold, Academy Ruins, and Hall of Heliod’s Generosity, but the one people seem to be most interested in is Maze’s End.

In addition to helping you get to the End every game, Golos can help you hit 10 gates pretty quickly if you run a bunch of blink effects (in this case, I think I would run the instant-speed ones, rather than build around repeatable blink engines). Note that although there is a danger of hitting multiple Gates if you activate his ability, potentially preventing you from winning with Maze’s End, you do get to be unlucky once, thanks to the 11th Gate, Gateway Plaza. You can also reduce the danger by running additional land drop effects or by waiting to activate him until you’ve blinked him, activated the Maze, or otherwise thinned your deck of Gates to reduce your odds of a bad flop.

I’m not sure what the rest of the deck will look like once you fill out the blink spells and extra land drop effects. Bog standard 5C control with a little bit of land recursion?

The Maindeck Cards of Core Set 2020

In this set review, I’ll be using two five-point rating scales to evaluate the nonlegendary cards, one that measures how many decks a card is playable in (we’ll call that “spread”), and one that measures how powerful it is in those decks (”power”). Here’s a brief rundown of what each rank on the two scales means:

Spread

1: This card is effective in one or two decks, but no more (ex: The Gitrog Monster).

2: This card is effective in one deck archetype (ex: self-mill decks).

3: A lot of decks will be able to use this card effectively (ex: decks with graveyard interactions).

4: This card is effective in most decks in this color.

5: Every deck in this color is able to use this card effectively.

Power

1: This card is always going to be on the chopping block.

2: This card is unlikely to consistently perform well.

3: This card provides good utility but is not a powerhouse.

4: This card is good enough to push you ahead of your opponents.

5: This card has a huge impact on the game.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

The 0 ability will not be that hard to pull off in Karlov or Kambal or Oloro, but even in those decks, it’s not that much better than a Tragic Arrogance or an Hour of Revelation, and those cards will always work.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

At first, I was ready to dismiss this guy, but then I realized that he’s joining the ranks of a very strange sort of combo enabler. Most things that produce tokens when things die say “nontoken”, but Bishop is one of a handful of cards that specify a creature type (the others being Rotlung Reanimator, Xathrid Necromancer, and Requiem Angel). This means that if you can overwrite the type of the token (via Conspiracy, Xenograft, Arcane Adaptation, or by editing the token maker’s text with Artificial Evolution), you get infinite sac fodder (note that xenograft and arcane adaptation don’t work with Requiem Angel). It’s also worth noting that Divine Visitation serves as an additional overwrite effect for both Bishop of Wings and Requiem Angel, although it doesn’t combo with the Reanimator or Necromancer.

Unfortunately, we don’t currently have a critical mass of this type of creature converter, nor do we have a critical mass of the creature overwriters, but both categories are worth paying attention to because they bring this creature sacrifice combo deck closer to viability.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

This isn’t worth it if you are just holding up two white to save some guys in case someone wraths, but it could be good if your deck has easy access to a sac outlet. G/W decks can combine it with Eternal Witness for a recursive loop, while W/U decks can use Archaeomancer.

Spread: 4

Power: 3

Love seeing White getting ways to remove things that aren’t just more O Ring variants. I’ll happily play this for the ETB trigger in many White decks, but it’s especially good if you have a way to blink or reanimate it; it’s especially good in B/W with Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, and Necromancy. When Cavalier dies, get back your reanimate enchantment from graveyard, use that to bring this guy back, get his ETB trigger again, rinse and repeat. With a sac outlet, it’s 1B: Beast Within.

In monowhite, it also works pretty well with Gift of Immortality and a sac outlet, since you can keep sacrificing it and returning it with the Gift to Beast Within a ton of permanents and recur a bunch of artifacts/enchantments. Then if your opponents ever kill it for real before the Gift returns itself, you can get back the Gift to use on another creature.

Spread: 1

Power: 1

Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis have huge asses relative to their mana cost, and might be interested in trying for big butt voltron. They’re also on color for Assault Formation, High Alert, uncommon Huatli, Treefolk Umbra, and Arcades, the Strategist.

Spread: 4

Power: 2

If you’re running enough steal effects to reliably get the end step trigger, you can go ahead and run this guy (Thada Adel seems especially good, since stealing Sol Rings helps you cover this guy’s huge mana cost). He also works really well with blink/reanimation engines. However, if you’re not running any engines and he’s one of your only steal effects, then I dislike him because he compares so poorly to Gilded Drake.

Spread: 4

Power: 2

The fact that Blue has other cards that do the same thing without preventing sac outlet recursion makes me low on this card. Also, unlike the other Cavaliers, abusing its ETB trigger doesn’t do much unless you also have access to some shuffle effects, since you’re going to be seeing a lot of the same cards over and over.

However, this is decent in Yennett, since it can set up the top of your library and is itself an odd card.

Spread: 2

Power: 1

I’d probably run this in Naban, might run it in Azami, wouldn’t run it in Inalla.

Spread: 4

Power: 3

This card seems pretty sweet. Getting to drop the first card after a board wipe is a huge upside, and although it’s no Cyclonic Rift, it seems like a decent way to reset the board while putting you a little ahead of everyone else.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

The first option is terrible, but the second could be useful. March of the Machines is a liability on your opponents’ turns because it opens them up to board wipes, but this card offers a one-shot March by turning all your mana rocks and crappy tokens into copies of your biggest artifact creature. Also, if your Urza deck is having trouble winning the game, you could use this to make all your 0-mana artifacts into Karnstructs and kill everyone.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

Crystal Shard/Erratic Portal redundancy for bounce combos (e.g., Archaeomancer variant and Time Warp variant).

Spread: 2

Power: 1

The main purpose of running an Archaeomancer variant is so you can combo off with Time Warp effects; adding extra value and P/T for extra mana does not make the card better; it makes it significantly worse because the cost of operating a bounce engine loop goes up significantly.

However, this can itself be the engine if you have a cheap blink spell like Essence Flux. Rasputin Dreamweaver and Lavinia of the Tenth sometimes run these types of cards and it’s not a huge burden to run extra turn effect, so there may be a pretty low-cost way to set this combo up.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

A cheap, evasive Pirate works well in both Edric and Beckett Brass.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

Although this can always hit commanders, I still think this is a bit too situational to be worth running in most decks. However, if your commander needs Stifle effects really badly (Lord of Tresserhorn, for example), it’s nice that there’s extra utility stapled to this one.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

It’s not a very interesting card, but the rate is good; I’d run this if I had a cheap blue commander with flying.

Spread: 4

Power: 3

So the base case is really good, as there is lots of sac fodder (and ETB floaters) in black, as well as some powerful creatures with CMC 3 or less (such as Fleshbag/Merciless Executioner/Plaguecrafter).

If you’re in Blue/Black, there’s also combo potential with Phantasmal Image or Mirror Image, since these creatures can enter the battlefield as the Cavalier, get sacrificed to a sac outlet, then bring themselves back with their own death trigger. Repeat for infinite of whatever your sac outlet generates (as well as infinite free Bone Splinters).

Spread: 2

Power: 3

If this were just swampfall - draw a card it would be quite playable, but the ability to control the board really pushes this over the top. I would happily run this in any monoblack deck.

Spread: 1

Power: 1

I’ve considered running Necromancer’s Assistant in Hogaak as a way to get delve fodder while providing a body for convoke; this is a solid upgrade for that role.

Spread: 1

Power: 4

Sorcery speed all but guarantees your opponent is going to draw the card they tutored for before you get the thing you wanted, which is a nightmare scenario.

Fortunately, reader stormcrowlegend pointed out that this card is awesome in my Circu Citadel Combo list, since top-of-library tutors are actually better than tutors that put cards into your hand if you’re in the middle of comboing off with Bolas’s Citadel. Plus, you can use Circu to mill your opponent’s top card once they stack it with Scheming Symmetry.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

I’m a little skeptical that this is going to be good in Edgar because that deck favors a low curve and this is one of the most expensive Vampire lords, but it could push out a worse 4-drop.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

I don’t like this in Horde of Notions or Omnath, Locus of Rage, since they have better options for ramp and their elementals are big enough that they don’t care that much about the anthem. Marath is better at going wide with elementals, but I’m still skeptical that you would play this card when your deck has access to all the great anthems in Naya colors.

However, I think this card could make sense in Valduk, since he doesn’t have access to green, and he ideally makes a bunch of elementals each turn, so the buff could go pretty wide.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

There aren’t that many elemental token generators out there, and this card is cheap, makes elementals every turn, and kills them off. I think Omnath, Locus of Rage might play her just for the double Bolt action, and the -2 won’t be totally dead in a deck that favors land ramp spells over permanent-based ramp.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

Six mana is a lot, and although the -3 is nice, the -X is not very relevant and the emblems are more annoying than powerful in a 40-life format. I think she’ll create a lot of ill will among your opponents without being strong enough to adequately protect you from them.

Spread: 3

Power: 3

This card rips. It sculpts your hand on the way in so you can avoid flood and dump reanimation targets, grants itself and the rest of your team haste if you’ve got extra mana lying around, casually hoses planeswalkers, and burns the heck out of your opponents. This card is going to be best in decks that can abuse both the ETB and dies trigger (Feldon of the Third Path being the deck it is most suited to), but I think I’d happily run this card for the ETB and activated ability in most monored and Red/White lists.

Spread: 3

Power: 2

Only discarding mountains and red cards means that I would only be comfortable running this in monored decks, but I’d probably run it in every monored deck. It prevents you from flooding out, it’s a discard outlet for decks that care about it (such as Feldon of the Third Path), and it gets rid of worse rummaging effects that you’re probably running, like Tormenting Voice and its ilk or Throes of Chaos.

Spread: 3

Power: 2

This card seems generally good in monored lists, and specifically good in Neheb 3.0, where you can farm the discard trigger pretty easily. I’d also run this in both Beckett Brass and Neheb 1.0, since he’s one of the best Pirates and one of the best Minotaurs.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

It might be solid in Omnath 2.0 since it represents 3 lightning bolts in addition to the 1/1s. It could also be good in Zada, Purphoros, and other Red decks that just need a lot of bodies.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

There are only 10 guys that are really worth getting back in Horde of Notions, but Omnath 3.0 can easily grow this guy big enough that he can get back practically anything.

Spread: 4

Power: 2

A five-mana ramp spell is pretty far below the curve for Green, and I still don’t understand why it exiles itself for its Reclaim effect when the White and Black members of the cycle are way more combo-riffic but aren’t similarly nerfed. The self-mill is nice, but it’s not enough to bridge the gap between this card and the many more powerful Green value creatures at a similar price point.

Spread: 3

Power: 3

It’s no Weathered Wayfarer, but this card still kicks ass. If your deck has any lands that are important to its functioning (e.g., Gaea’s Cradle, Volrath’s Stronghold), this card is a must-have. It’s especially good in decks like Gitrog and Lord Windgrace that can recur lands from the graveyard or get value when they go there.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

I think I like this guy in Sidisi 1.0 and Tana, since he can help you get them down on turn three and then, conditions permitting, taps for two on turn four.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

Until Wizards atones for Ulrich, the only deck that will want this is Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

Most token decks and elfball decks ought to be able to make use of the first ability. As for the second, Anthousa and Gargos explicitly reward you for targeting your creatures with spells, and Rhonas the Indomitable decks tend to run lots of fight/punch spells to make use of his deathtouch and indestructbility.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

This card is really useful for assembling combos, but the rate is not great. If you’re just trying to toolbox, I’d run one of the many more efficient green creature tutors instead.

Spread: 3

Power: 2

This may be a good option for monogreen decks that can’t easily deal with creatures, and of course you’ll run it in Gargos.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

Bird tribal is terrible and Spirit tribal doesn’t exist, so there’s not much room for this card. If we ever get an apology commander for Kangee, this card will probably make the cut.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

The format has gravitated away from 5-mana do-nothing enchantments over the years, but there are certainly a lot of BG decks that can farm its trigger.

Spread: 1

Power: 3

I think it may be good enough for the Everything Tribal deck I cooked up recently. It generates value by itself and the deck has a ton of other Elementals in the form of changelings.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

This could be sick nasty in commanders that can easily discard a ton of cards, like Neheb 3.0, Varina, Malfegor, Borborygmos 2.0, and Kozilek 2.0.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

Nahiri the Lithomancer, Balan, and Nazahn will probably run this because they can cheat it onto something. Sram might want this because it’s a cheap equipment, and he draws so many cards that eventually you’ll find your Puresteel Paladin or Sigarda’s Aid to cheat the equip cost.

Spread: 3

Power: 3

I’ve enjoyed using Voltaic Key as an additional mana rock in decks with lots of rocks that tap for two or more mana; this provides some redundancy and the second ability may be useful in decks built around the Kozileks and Ulamogs.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

Amazing in mono-brown lists, and rad in mono-white/red lists trying to fill in the gaps with artifacts. It also seems very good in Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain, since it drops your chance of whiffing down to almost zero.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

Combos with Teshar, a sacrifice outlet, and a 0-CMC artifact creature.

Spread: 4

Power: 3

I would find room for this in any monocolor deck and in select other decks that care about lands (such as the Gitrog Monster or Lord Windgrace).

Spread: 1

Power: 2

Monocolor decks are running too many basics to get 7 lands with different names, and the heavy multicolor decks that have lots of different lands are going to be unwilling to give up a land slot for something that only produces colorless. Monobrown decks, which run almost 100% utility lands and don’t care about colored mana, are in the best position to use this.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

Lotus Vale sees play in a surprising number of decks, including Titania; Hokori; Gitrog; Teferi, Temporal Archmage; Lord Windgrace; Muldrotha; and Derevi. Estrid the Masked can also get extra value out of her untap ability if she’s masked a land that taps for a bunch of mana,

This card is mostly an upgrade, so I imagine it’ll replace or complement Vale in those decks.

Wrapping Up

Please let me know if you think I missed any relevant cards or if you disagree with any of my ratings. Thanks for reading!

#set review #edh #commander #mtg #m20

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nehebthewordy · 6 years ago

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EDH Budget Tech: Atla Palani, Nest Tender

Welcome back, everyone, to this week’s budget build. Tonight we’re looking at one of the fun alternate commanders from this year’s precon decks: Eggs. Literally, not just the archetype. As always, no cards on our list will be above $5 and we’ll be paying close attention to cheaper alternatives to commander staples.

Atla Palani is certainly a unique build-around commander, especially for her colors; we usually expect a Naya deck to leap forwards aggressively, but our general is perfectly content sitting back and tending her nest (no pun intended.) When playing this deck, you’ll likely have a lot of board hate directed at you because of the frequency with which you can drop big creatures. The simple solution to this is don’t crack all your eggs at the same time. That said, let’s get into our list.

Per the usual, our first order of business is RAMP. As of drafting this article, Sakura-Tribe Elder (yes, the iconic green staple) is only a dollar and a half USD, so it would be a cheap and powerful inclusion. You may also choose to include your guild Signets, or alternatively Cultivate or Kodama’s Reach. Rampant Growth remains efficient ramp, and Perilous Forays will allow you to continue ramping and crack your eggs simultaneously.

Now we move on to your means of establishing CARD ADVANTAGE. Mentor of the Meek can add a draw to each egg you lay, and each round Portcullis Vine can crack an egg to draw a card. Though it’s pricey at just under $5, Skullclamp is an amazingly powerful equipment, and for consistent draw each turn Idol of Oblivion from the same precon deck can help you dig a little deeper as long as you keep producing tokens. Soul of the Harvest may be a worthwhile inclusion as well, especially given you probably won’t even pay for it, and Dark-Dweller Oracle can crack yet more eggs to gain impulsive draw.

Ordinarily I’d go more in-depth on your REMOVAL package, but it’ll be mostly your generic white-red-green set. You’ll want a Swords to Plowshares, Qasali Pridemage, and probably Meteor Golem. Our major deviations, however, are Sundering Growth and Angelic Purge: the former can destroy an artifact or enchantment and clone one of your eggs, while the latter can crack an egg to remove one of a variety of permanents.

Next, we move into the interesting meat of your deck: Sacrifice OUTLETS. Coming fresh from Eldraine we have Witch’s Oven, perhaps the cheapest sacrifice outlet on our list. Spawning Pit can turn any two eggs into a 2/2 on the board in addition to gaining the triggers from cracking them, and Fanatical Devotion can crack an egg to regenerate a creature, potentially saving Atla herself from a boardwipe or spot removal. Though it’s moderately expensive at $4, High Market has a lot of flexibility as both a land and a sacrifice outlet: it may have a weak effect, but it’s mostly protected under commander’s social contract.

To close out the game, simply use your fattest beaters and best muscle to seal the deal. Among my personal favorites are Gahiji, Honored One and Serra Avatar, but there is no one right answer on what to use to fill the last of your deck. Just remember to tie most of your supporting effects to noncreatures so that Atla can find you the biggest monstrosities when her eggs hatch. Just play it slow and let your enemies pick each other apart, then make an omelet on an opponent’s end step to clean up the stragglers.

Until next time, see you on the battlefield.

#Deck Tech #budget picks #atla palani #commander #mtg #magic the gathering #nehebthewordy #long post

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goqmir · 9 months ago

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the ten most iconic cards for me of each color pair:

Selesnya: Qasali Pridemage

Rakdos: Mayhem Devil

Dimir: Baleful Strix

Gruul: Zhur-Taa Druid

Azorius: Teferi, Time Raveler

Boros: Lightning Helix

Izzet: Stitch in Time

Golgari: Grisly Salvage

Orzhov: Vindicate

Simic: Growth Spiral

#mtg #magic the gathering

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blogging-phelddagrif · 6 years ago

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EDH Deck Tech: Karametra’s Toolbox

[you can see every deck tech here]

Hello & welcome to this weekly deck tech! This week we’re back into EDH with one of my favourite commander: Karametra. One quick thing to note about Karametra, before delving into the deck tech, is that she’s one of the Theros gods, and those cards make amazing commanders since they are really hard to deal with. Unless your opponent has exiling effects, or bounces, they can’t deal with them at all so your commander has good odds of being safe to do whatever you want with them for a while.

This deck has been one of my recent projects and it feels so natural. I’m probably going to build a physical version in the future because I enjoy it so much; the deck is centered around Karametra’s ability to really get a lot of lands on the battlefield, as well as a wide array of utility creatures to fill your deck with value. Plus, at around 100-150$ it’s fairly cheap to build, especially since the version I’d recommend plays 36 basic lands because you fetch lands A LOT with her ability. In any case, lets get right into the heart of the deck.

Landfall

One of the first things that come to mind with Karametra’s ability is the landfall mechanic, something happens when a land comes into play. I don’t recommend building the whole deck around this mechanic, but I do recommend getting the solid cards of that strategy, like Courser of Kruphix, Lotus Cobra, Tireless Tracker, Emeria Angel, Rampaging Baloths, Avenger of Zendikar & Zendikar’s Roil. Those cards OOZE with value and will help you set up a very nice board presence. You will get a lot of landfall triggers trust me.

Pure Value

These are the other big cards you want to play, just straight up value on a stick. The deck wants to play creature after creature, and you want all of them to be solid to threaten your opponent as best as you can. Cards like Thragtusk, Voice of Resurgence, Kitchen Finks, Knight of the Reliquary, Loxodon Smiter, Obstinate Baloth, Vizier of the Menagerie, Wilt-Leaf Liege, Multani Yavimaya’s Avatar & Primeval Bounty (which is all sorts of good in this deck!). Basically some cheap but efficient creatures, as well as solid fatties.

Making Big Plays

Lets keep the train going for your endgame plan, so far you’ve been getting value out of landfall triggers and been casting big fat value creatures, but what if you want more? Well to really end a game I’d recommend ways to really use all that mana you’ve accumulated with cards like Genesis Wave & Genesis Hydra; those 2 cards are INSANE in the deck and will let you solidify your board position and often just win you the game on the spot. If you want, you can also play some green tutor spells to make the deck more constant, but I’m not a huge fan of tutors in commander...

Go Off I Guess

This card needs its own category; Cloudstone Curio is BUSTED in this deck, and I really mean it. Being able to bounce your own creatures each time you cast another one is insane since you get to trigger all your stuff over & over & over again. If you want to play an Amulet of Vigor so that your lands from Karametra come into play untapped, you can basically play your entire deck on turn 5 or 6, which I feel is a bit unfair...

Answers

We’ve been over the big plays, now lets talk answers, because every deck needs some. Instead of playing a bunch of instants for removal, I’d recommend focusing on creatures, besides the obvious Path to Exile & Swords to Plowshare that I feel every white deck should play. You should run cards like Knight of Autumn, , Qasali Pridemage, Scavenging Ooze, Reclamation Sage, Acidic Slime, Terastodon & Woodfall Primus. Just some solid creatures that add some answers/utility to your deck.

Card Draw

It’s no secret that white & green are bad at card draw, so you need to use all of their best resources to not fall behind; there are some great ones that fit perfectly in the deck like Soul of the Harvest, Elvish Visionary, Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Omens, Beast Whisperer, Primordial Sage, Harmonize, Shamanic Revelations, Rishkar’s Expertise & Lifecrafter’s Bestiary. Draw those cards and keep your hand always full of value!

Recursion

I always recommend running some recursion spells in green decks, and there are some decent creature-based ones. Stuff like Renegade Rallier, Eternal Witness & Greenwarden of Murasa really help the deck with some resilience to removal, or just re-using some good cards.

Bounce Bounce Bounce

You might have noticed, pretty much all of the creatures have enter the battlefield effects, so you might as well use that to your advantage. I really love the synergy of bounce effects in this deck, whether is be by blinking or just regular bouncing; I’d recommend playing cards like Restoration Angel (which is insane with Thragtusk, you know that already if you were around during Innistrad standard), Jeskai Barricade, Whitemane Lion, Fleefoot Panther & Stonecloaker. It’s ot a lot but it really helps the deck get to its full potential.

More Ramp

I know the deck already ramps A LOT but you want to ramp even before your commander comes down. With a decent hand you should be casting your commander on turn 3 or 4 and then try to get crazy amounts on value on turn 5 or so. Early/cheap ramp spells are really good, with cards like Avacyn’s Pilgrim, Arbor Elf, Birds of Paradise, Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves, Llanowar Elves, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Sylvan Caryathid, Utopia Tree, Nissa Vastwood Seer, Farseek, Rampant Growth, Cultivate, Kodama’s Reach, as well as late game mana growth like Mirari’s Wake & Zendikar Resurgent to really go off by casting a crazy amount of creatures.

Wrap-Up

That’s it for the deck! I hope you enjoyed this deck tech as much as I did! The deck is SUPER fun to play in my opinion, I might build a copy for myself because I had a BLAST playtesting it! It’s very constant, it’s pretty snow-bally, and is quite interactive for this kind of deck. If I missed anything please let me know. I’ll see you all next week for a standard deck tech.

#mtg #magic #magic the gathering #magic: the gathering #edh #deck tech

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