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You Don’t Need A Chase Mechanic

There’s a constant debate in the Pathfinder community on how to run chases. Everyone has their own homebrew, or element they borrow from a different edition or system. But... you don’t need to a chase mechanic. You don’t. Do you want to know how I resolve almost all the chases in my games? Movement speed. It really is that simple. If one person is running from another, what do they have over the other person? Are they wearing Boots of Striding and Springing? Can they cast Haste? What’s their base speed? You can really easily tell if someone is going to catch someone else or not. It’s fast, elegant, and rewards players for playing a Barbarian or investing in certain magical items. So why don’t people like it? People think chases should be epic. Okay, sure, there’s some value to that. If you planned on having a chase be the big centerpiece of your night, it should be interesting. The simple solution here is to just not do that. Seriously. Resolve that chase in a few real-life seconds. When we think about chases, we think about action movies. But see, those characters in movies are usually fairly physically equal humans, with no magical powers, getting into cars or onto motorcycles or something. They go the same speed, so chasing each other down should feel tense. When a long movie chase involves things that don’t go the same speed, like Superman going after Batman, it usually feels contrived. In your games, your players have spent a lot of time investing in feats, gear, and choices that make them fast or slow. When you try to make a chase “interesting,” you need to be careful not to arbitrarily rob your players of their prior investments. Let’s say you do find yourself in a situation where two characters of roughly the same speed are chasing each other. You still don’t need to go all 80′s action movie on your players. The players have a big decision to make here. If they chase this person, what happens when they catch them? Will they be in an unfamiliar part of the city or dungeon? Look, your players know you aren’t going to kill them when they decide to slide under signpost, or swing from a clothesline. But they might die just from blindly pursuing someone and ending up in a totally unexplored dungeon area. Whether to chase someone or not should be more interesting than how exactly you pursue them. When someone is chasing someone of roughly the same speed, I describe the scene and ask my players what they want to do. “The thief takes off through a narrow alleyway, through a network of streets that you know to be twisting. It might be easier to follow his movement if you took to the low rooftops, but there is a temptation to rush immediately after him. What do you do?” I try to avoid outright asking for X or Y action. I’ve strongly insinuated that there are two paths here, but maybe the player would rather not pursue at all, or maybe the player sees a third path in my description that I haven’t considered. If the player decides to take to the rooftops, we roll an Acrobatics Check. If the player decides to navigate the streets, Knowledge Local Check. These have relatively low DCs, because “success” just means that the pursuit is possible. You’re nimble enough to get on the roof, or know enough to follow the thief through the twisting streets. For every 5 points that you beat the DC by, you’re getting a +1 to your next and final roll. Since you’re chasing someone with roughly your own speed, we make opposed Dexterity checks. If you win, you catch the other player. You might still be screwed, since you followed someone hostile through half a city/dungeon, but hey, you caught them. Note that I only do this once. You could choose to do this iteratively, with a bunch of extra scenes and a bunch of extra rolls, with gaining and losing ground instead of simply catching someone. I wouldn’t recommend it, though. Short and sweet, get on with the game. I mentioned the possibility that the player doesn’t pursue the opponent. Maybe they used Diplomacy to discover the thief’s favorite bar, and are going to ambush them there tonight. This is the kind of outside the box thinking you get when you don’t force your players into an Indiana Jones chase mini-game. In general, avoid stripping away the rules of Pathfinder, whether it’s for a chase, a cooking contest, or putting on a musical. Reward your players for decisions they’ve already made at character creation, and don’t drag things out thinking that longer equals more fun. Thanks for reading.

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Curating Your Skill Checks

(Welcome to the first of many articles aimed at educating novice Game Masters and refreshing those of us with more experience.) “The adventuring party walks through a dark room with a vaulted ceiling. The walls are lined with runes in a forgotten tongue, partially concealed by blood-red vines that seem to pulse. Sinister and strange bronze instruments hang from the ceiling - possibly surgical tools, possibly something worse. Jars against the walls are filled with the jellied remains of extinct ooze. An oaken door leads to the next room. It has no lock, but time and moisture have warped it badly. A putrid smell fills the room when the door is bashed in. The adjoining hall is long and narrow, and a cool draft passes by the party, sounding like a howl.” How long do you want the following scene to take? 30 minutes? An hour?

How do you want this scene to feel? Do you want this feeling like an old Sierra game, where the players take every possible action in every room for fear of overlooking a puzzle? Most GMs really struggle with Skill Checks, and in doing so, sacrifice the pacing of their game and the player immersion. Yes, traps are a part of DnD. Yes, so is caution, information gathering, and planning. But if you make it feel like you’re always trying to “get” your party when they forget to roll something, you are going to paralyze them. In fact, “forget to roll” shouldn’t be a thing at all. Forgetting to look, listen, act, yes. Forgetting to roll? No. I should back up a little. You don’t want your players guessing about when to roll dice, or what to roll. You want them thinking about what they’re doing in the world, in character. When a player wants to learn something, or do something, ask them for an action. Then, after they have described what they’re doing, you tell them what to roll. Player “How long ago was the Reign of Mother Vulture?” GM “Give me a knowledge history roll.” Player “23″ GM “At least a thousand years ago.” You should be lightning quick with that response, too. Don’t get out a book. Don’t go online and search. It’s tempting, I know, to give the best response, but the best response is a fast one. It isn’t going to ruin your game if you ask for a History roll instead of Planes. At the same time (and this is where I’ll break with Angry GM), I don’t think you need to be too draconian about this. Player “I want to break free of these vines.” GM “Give me a CMB roll.” Player “Oh, I have a class ability that allows me to-” GM “That’s fine, use that instead.” Player “I roll Perception to look at the vines. 30.” GM “Try to get in the habit of acting, and only rolling skills if I ask you. But that’s fine. You notice the vines creeping towards you.” Remember your goals. Pacing. Immersion. You want to be fast, and you want your players engaged. In fact, if you are fast, it is all the more likely you will keep your players engaged. While I think I’ve outlined the best way to handle Skill Checks, I will give a little bit of time to another way I’ve handled them in the past, and a way I commonly see them handled. Some GMs let you pick what skill you roll, and then assign a DC increase (usually secret, but I always went with +5) if you roll something that could work, but isn’t ideal. Acrobatics instead of Climbing. Engineering instead of Dungeoneering. Planes instead of Religion, and so on. Going with a Skill Check system like this one...

-Widens the gap between experienced players and new players. (Veteran knows exactly what knowledge roll to use for an Ooze, while the new player is left guessing.) -Slows your game down. (Players have an extra decision to make, and one that could honestly screw them.) -Breaks immersion. (You’re playing that old school Sierra game now, figuring out what buttons to press.) -Adds a strategic element. Something that was automatic is now a decision. I look at that list and see three negatives and one positive, but at the same time, there is a reason people still play Pathfinder and 3rd Edition. Sometimes, you want to get into the rules and the number crunch. It’s there for a reason. That said, I think there is already plenty of strategy in just trying to decide what to do in character, without also deciding what to roll. My general design philosophy is to make something complicated enough to be an interesting decision, but simple enough to be a quick decision. We’ve touched on a lot of ideas in this Skill Check article, and I’ll cover some of them in depth at a later date. For now, I’m resisting the urge to write a massive “So You Want to GM” article. I’m hoping that this piece will give some good insight on a tricky subject - Skill Checks - while also giving you a peek into the decision making process of an experienced GM. Thanks for reading.

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New Year, New Direction

Wow, it has been a long time since I’ve written about Magic. There’s a reason for that. Well, there are several reasons for that, but let’s stick with one. I no longer feel that I’m an expert on Commander, or Elder Dragon Highlander. While I have more than enough experience with the format, Magic is dynamic. Cards come out and formats change. The central purpose of this blog was to highlight the best budget cards for EDH, and without having kept up with the latest releases, I feel that I can no longer adequately do that. Is there a one mana Nature’s Lore at common now? Probably not, but I sure don’t know. Three cards just got banned in Standard, and without looking them up, I could tell you the stats of one, roughly what another does, and I’m completely blanking on the third. It’s not that I’ve fallen out of love with Magic, and I’m not giving up the game or anything. I still play EDH and pauper, and I still occasionally brew, but I’m nowhere near as informed as I was a few years ago. Instead of playing Magic 3-4 nights a week, I’ve been heavily invested in Terraria, making art, playing a variety of games, and above all else, playing and running d20 games. I’ve been playing pen and paper RPGs for a long time. Not as long as I’ve played Magic, but still for over ten years. I got my start playing White Wolf, and have since played nearly every edition of DnD, Pathfinder, and a host of other oddball games, from old classics to friends’ homebrews. I still want to write about the games I play, and I still want to help newcomers spend their resources wisely. That in mind, this blog is going to be shifting focus to Pathfinder and Dungeons and Dragons 5e. You might’ve seen my first experiment in teaching Pathfinder on my youtube channel of the same name. That went okay. I think the advice was good, but the video format just wasn’t quite right. I rambled. I’ll do that here, too, I’m sure, but at least I can more easily edit said rambling. I want to write short, to-the-point articles that a new GM can read on their coffee break, or even possibly reference while they play. That in mind, this is getting a little long, and I’ve got toasted raviolis cooling in the next room. I am going to go eat those, and when I come back, I’m writing my first article.

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Jhoira!

Hi All, Apologies for the prolonged absence. Lately I've been slightly more focused on PC gaming than magic content... but, the upside of that is, you get Magic videos! In this video, I set out to build a Jhoira deck, from start to finish. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o574lE_lczY

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Reprocess

A quick one today, to point out a card that I just recently discovered, and think might have interesting implications in EDH, Reprocess.

Now... I don't know if this card is good. I can't vouch for it. It's certainly no Greater Good. You see, for a sac outlet to be truly good, it helps to be able to use it at instant speed, in response to your opponent's removal or your own fancy triggers. Reprocess is, unfortunately, a sorcery. So why am I talking about it? Well, dear reader, that's because if you do manage to steal your opponent's permanents, even temporarily, this card can do really nasty things. The fact that it can sacrifice artifacts and lands really interests me, because in EDH, creature death is an easily overcome revolving door, but few people can really recover from LD. Since this is a sorcery, there really AREN'T that many magic cards yet printed that can let you borrow enough permanent's to care about something like this. Scrambleverse sort of works. Dominus of Fealty works, ish, but is better with a permanent outlet. That said, even if we can't grab lands, we can grab someone else's creatures for a turn, quite easily, with the cards Twist Allegiance and Reins of Power. This plus Reins is a lot of work for a plague wind, when two card combos could (perhaps should) win you the game, but there you have it. Maybe you have a sac-steal deck, or maybe you're playing some kind of tokens deck, and have wanted a way to draw some cards. I present this to you, in case you have overlooked it. I think the card has a lot of potential, but I won't be the one to break it today. Thanks for reading!

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Interlude: Building Mass Polymorph! (Sydri, Galvanic Alchemist)

I needed a break from the long-form articles about EDH, so I thought I'd spend a video building a deck from scratch. The core of this video is exploring the potential of the underused EDH powerhouse Mass Polymorph. If you're willing to run a creatureless* control deck, you get rewarded with a six mana sorcery as powerful as Tooth and Nail. You can also nicely tailor Mass Polymorph for any level playgroup, by having it get fair creatures instead of being an instantaneous win. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlRxCyXoAaI Enjoy the video!

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Let's Build: Melek, Izzet Paragon! (Part 3)

On the subject of price - obviously Jace the Mind Sculptor belongs on this list. If you have one to spare, run it. If you don't, never fear, the card is a beacon of hatred in multiplayer and not nearly as insane in a three or four man game as it should be for the ire it draws. Of the eight cards I listed, I think Magma Jet is a metagame call - two damage will kill far, far more things in EDH that you'd think it would, but you know your playgroup better than I do. Don't run the card if it just says "scry 2." So, Theros has brought us some newfangled scry cards to consider. Of the ones I've seen, the clone is something to consider if we end up with lots of creatures, but I imagine we won't. We could also play the god, but the purpose of this blog is not to send you after Standard Legal mythics I feel iffy about. If you have one and want to make Melek unblockable, give it a try. I actually like Foresee and Crystal Ball a great deal. Both cost a little more mana than they should, but so does our general. I feel like they're going to get us some action, so I'd include both of them. Foresee is the kind of card that is not only good for setting us up, but also quite powerful if we double it off Melek. Drawing four new very selectively chosen cards, and setting up for the next double, isn't winning on the spot, but it's darn good. We are fortunate to get a top of the library tutor, in Mystical Tutor, and we have a somewhat similar card available called Long Term Plans. Mystical Tutor is a must, and I would say that long term plans is probably something we want, too. Now, I've kept you here for a while, and I probably haven't shared anything that you wouldn't have thought of for yourself. So, Dream Cache. You might have already thought of this, if you've been around for a while, but this card is thoroughly ignored by the magic community for being a three mana brainstorm. If you've ever cast brainstorm off snapcaster, or zeroed a JTMS, you probably know that a three mana brainstorm is still just fine. In our deck, it's another precious way to get cards from our hand into the hot seat. Our deck now consists of... Temporal Mastery Time Stretch Brainstorm Scroll Rack Preordian Ponder Sensei's Divining Top Serum Visions Telling Time Foresee Crystal Ball Mystical Tutor Long Term Plans Dream Cache Alright, that's not a bad start at all. See you next time!

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Let's Build: Melek, Izzet Paragon! (Part 2)

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Let's Build: Melek, Izzet Paragon! (Part 1)

Sometimes you choose a General, and sometimes, it chooses you. The day was December 9th, 2013. I'd just finished second in a fierce sealed league. Prize was distributed, and part of the payout was a promo Melek, Izzet Paragon. This is a completely legitimate way to choose a general, if that's what you want EDH to be for you. Your tastes might not always land on the most competitive general, but if that doesn't bother you, feel free to build whoever has cool art or a cool ability. When you do choose a general based on a whim, I recommend doing a detailed analysis of the card and learning everything about it that you can. Colors: Red and Blue Blue is a solid foundation color for an EDH deck. Base-green is probably the most powerful, but blue doesn't follow far behind. Red gives EDH decks a chance to deal with the board, and to do a little gambling. The paired color combination, Izzet, is the color of drawing cards while also accomplishing things. I'm on board.

Ability: Play with the top card of your library revealed. You may cast the top card of your library if it's an instant or sorcery card. Okay then! This is going to do a few things for us. It's going to provide us, and everyone else at the table, with information. In exchange, we're given the option of launching the top card of our library at our opponent. I sometimes see people refer to this ability as "an eighth card in hand," but those of you who have played with Oracle of Mul Daya or Future Sight know that it's so much more. When you play the top card of your library, there is (hopefully) another card under it! Do you see where the 8th card analogy breaks down? It's not uncommon to "chain" through these top cards, or to use a shuffle effect to reset what is on top of your library. Access to the top card of your library is not "an extra card," it is an engine. Ability: Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell from your library, copy it. You may choose new targets for the copy. Speaking of engines, here's the other half of Melek's. That card on top of your library is supercharged. I think we all heard the words "extra turn" in our minds when we read this ability for the first time, but there are other shenanigans we can engage in, as well. Converted Mana Cost: 6 If this were one less mana, we'd be talking about Melek in a fairly competitive light... but six is actually a lot. Because of this, we're going to have a little fun with Melek. I like Melek a lot, but let's not kid ourselves, he's overcosted. Power and Toughness: 2/4 Even given a few exta turns, it may be a little hard to kill with Melek... it's good to know that he can survive a Slagstorm, though! So that's our general! Now we know what we're dealing with, and have an idea of what will empower him. I know that we ended the last one of these on "Choosing a General," and saved "Forming a Plan" for later, but I want to briefly touch on the plan for this guy before I leave you. With Melek, we are going all in. I don't know if that means creatureless, or very low on permanents, but we are entirely devoted to getting our general online and having sorceries and instants happen, and having those instants and sorceries set us up for even more shenanigans. Okay, that's a wrap. In Part 2, I'll delve further into my plans for this Izzet guy. Thanks for reading! -Jack

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Cheap Good Generals (Part 1 of a Possible Series)

Lazav, Dimir Mastermind - This standard legal Gatecrash mythic has already sunk to dollar rare status, but don't count him out as a powerful general!

Let's start with the base stats, because you're probably viewing this guy as a hard to use clone. You're not wrong, but he's also a 3/3 hexproof for four mana. That is a very solid beginning to a voltron creature. As much as people love Rafiq for double-strike, I would much rather start with hexproof and find ways to make my guy stupidly big. Might I suggest the budget Drake Umbra to protect from wraths.

Of course, if you're playing blue/black, and a fan of the dimir guild, let's be honest, you probably want to be doing a lot more than just throwing Eldrazi Conscription on a hexproof guy and bashing. Well, okay, let's figure out how to make Lazav into a clone. Let's start with the bad news. Lazav is not going to become any of the guys in your deck. If you had designs on making him a Massacre Wurm, sorry, you'll have to wait on the right opponent.

Now the good news. Lazav triggers off when your opponents get milled, discard cards, has something countered, or have their dudes die. Those are a lot of exploitable triggers, while you won't get a lot of control over who he becomes, the fact that he retains hexproof means that even just milling a 5/5 flier is going to be a pretty big deal. Have you ever had a Hexproof Eldrazi? I have. It's fun. I would not recommend building a mill theme deck around Lazav, unless you have a milling obsession, which is fine. Most decks are more than prepared to throw their graveyards at your face via recursion, so you want to be able to play counter-spells and interact and not be too busy playing things like Traumatize. You will get enough Lazav fodder off of your counterspells and your kill spells.

If you're wondering what to put on Lazav to go voltron and let him get big, I would suggest Sword of Body and Mind. Protection from blue and green means this 5/5 body will be just about unblockable in EDH, and these is a very good chance that you'll hit something magical. Sword of Feast and Famine is also going to be able to do all the amazing things it normally does, but don't expect an opponent to discard a creature to the trigger too often. The one cautionary thing that I'll say about this general is, he is awfully hard to cast on four mana without some quality fixing. And with that, I think I've spoken enough about this wonderfully fun general. Dralnu, Lich Lord - Snapcaster Mage, meet your father. Dralnu is one of the most easily abused generals in EDH. He has seen a little less play now that Riku of Two Reflections is also around to copy Time Stretch, but he does it for two less mana and in a different color combination. If the phrase "copy Time Stretch" made you feel a little ill, this might not be the general for you. He is kind of a big jerk, but he repents by costing you the game when your opponent casts Blasphemous Act. He is a general for unemotional tables and high rollers, so if either you or your friends get salty about how games go, I'll understand if you pass on this recursion engine.

If you do decide to hang with the Doctor, I suggest keeping your graveyard stocked via Nephalia Drownyard and not tapping out versus anyone playing red. Seriously. Radha, Heir to Keld - Just so we're clear, we're getting into a new level of mean with Radha. Dralnu might allow someone to take four turns, but that's after an hour of getting to play EDH. Radha comes into play on the second turn of the game, and a tuned Radha deck typically involves unrepentant levels of land destruction.

I almost feel bad introducing new players to such oppressive generals, but I just want people to know what is out there for a dollar. If you were ever under the impression that your general needs to be a thirty dollar card, I hope that notion is dispelled now. Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me explain what Radha actually does. Assuming you hit land drops, Radha means that on turn three you have four mana for sorceries and five mana for instants. That might not sound like a big deal, but think about how good Signet openers are in EDH, and how often you've won because you had four mana on turn three. This deck takes advantage of that consistency and plays a lot of turn one "mana dorks" in the hopes of shutting an opponent down with a turn three plow under.

This is mostly a 1v1 strategy, and you could certainly re-tool Radha to be a red/green ramp deck, if you don't feel like getting too mean with land destruction. I was about to suggest using that double red in the combat step to power out a Chord of Calling, but apparently that card is thirty dollars now. Go, go, Modern.

Jhoira of the Ghitu - This sassy lady clocks in as the hardest to spell and most expensive of the generals I'm covering today, at a whopping two dollars. Jhoira is a card that many people are probably already aware of, and hopefully requires little explanation. The first thing to note about Jhoira, is that all your spells now cost two mana, as long as you're willing to wait for them. The beauty of this is that you can protect your spells with countermagic, or if that isn't your style, you can suspend a bunch of things on turns four and five, and start hard-casting things on turns six and seven and beyond. The second thing Jhoira does, and maybe the most obvious, is enable combos with cards like Sunder, Obliterate, and Wildfire. (Things that blow up everything, including lands.) What you want to do for this is suspend a massive sweeper and then suspend some win conditions, so that the sweeper resolves first, and then win conditions drop from the sky. It's pretty simple, and to be honest, Jhoira is one of those decks that I would consider fairly "solved," so if you are comfortable borrowing concepts from existing lists on the internet, go ahead and do that. So, I think these four guys and gals are enough to get you started, if you're at a loss when it comes to picking generals. I will say, Jhoira is probably the cheapest of the decks, since you don't need great mana fixing, and really none of the cards you need are being played in Modern, Standard, or Legacy. I don't think that my very next article will be more generals, but I will do this again. Maybe I'll stick with two-color guys, but cover some old-border fellas. Actually, no I won't, because I just did a search and Hanna and Sisay are the only ones worth recommending, with Sisay really being the only top tier option. Hm... well, more budget General recommendations will come in some form! Until then, have fun and happy building.

-Jack

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What would say are the best cards for Esper? I love Identity crisis and spinal embrace after you talked about them, but what do you suggest?

Oh gosh… this is a hard one to answer. I would say that there are three questions to ask yourself in regards to Esper in EDH.1.) Are you playing Zur? Zur is one of the most solved decks in EDH, and a dedicated Zur player could help you more than I can.2.) There are a lot of Esper archetypes. Some are proactive and involve tapping out. Others are reactive and trying to stay alive to combo. Some refuse to play combo but still want to control the game with soft-locks and card advantage. It’s important to know the exact sadistic reason you’re choosing to play these colors.3.) Are we still talking about budget cards? Mana Drain is a very good Esper card, but there are several amazing Esper cards you can buy with pocket change. I’m going to focus on those.

Man I’ve typed a lot without recommending any cards. The first thing I’m going to share is the decklist from “Let’s Build Sedris,” since it plays both blue and black. http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/lets-build-sedris/Almost every deck that plays blue or black in EDH should have the following, from that list.Phyrexian MetamorphCyclonic RiftPreordainBrainstorm (assuming you have fetches/etc)NecropotenceAnd the next tier down, just barely, the almost-uncuttable.PonderEvacuationRune-Scarred DemonPhantasmal ImageBody DoubleForbidden AlchemyPhyrexian ArenaAlright, those out of the way, let’s talk about some oddities that only Esper really gets to play, since not many EDH decks get to play with white multicolored cards.Dovescape - Even though this is a dollar, it almost doesn’t count as a budget card, because the best combo with it is Elash Norn (12.99). However, you’ll find other cards that also break the symmetry with it, like Massacre Wurm, anthems, Curse of Death’s Hold, etc. Enigma Sphinx - This card is really nothing to write home about, without scroll rack or brainstorm enabling it. It’s still my favorite magic card, because I love to cascade, and you can do it over and over.Grand Arbiter - Hopefully people know about this card after MM, but it’s still worth putting out there. It lowers the cost of your general by two, and makes your opponent’s cards overcosted.Hannah, Ship’s Navigator - Hello recursion engine. At four dollars, this card was once more budget than it is, but I still love it.Magister Sphinx - Honestly, most Esper decks don’t care about dealing 30 to someone, but it seems like I’m writing mostly about a tap-out, creature heavy EDH deck, so I’ll include this card. It breaks infinite life combos, if you have an opponent in your play group who thinks gaining a billion is GG. I think this card is a little too high CMC for what it does, but it is worth knowing about.Swift Silence - This is a five mana Dismiss, in most playgroups. If people are responding to their own spells, or getting in counter wars, or (for some crazy reason) storming off while the Esper player has five mana up, this obviously becomes a blowout. In 1v1, Mindbreak Trap is better storm insurance, but this card will serve you well in big multiplayer games.Venser, the Sojourner - Blink Rune-Scarred Demon, this is your goal. It turns out all the EDH playable planeswalkers are five dollars. (Tezzeret the Seeker is better than this guy, but I’m on a white multicolored kick. JTMS is also great in 1v1 EDH and fine in multiplayer EDH, but buy your fetchlands before him.)Worldpurge - Absolute crap unless you dedicate your deck to it. Parallax Tide is the card you want to combo with it. Also works with Parallax Wave, Venser the Sojourner, Oblivion Ring, Detention Sphere, suspend cards, and the more brothers Fiend Hunter gets, the better. Just FYI, this has to resolve when you cast it, because otherwise you’ve been Detention Sphering yourself for no reason.So I just covered a few rares/mythics that are multicolored and cost white. I left out cards reprinted in the commander precons (Angel of Despair) and cards on everyone’s mind (Sharuum, Sphinx’s Revelation). I also didn’t cover uncommons or commons, but I feel like this is going long. I will say that Mistmeadow Witch is really explosive in the right deck.Edit: Gonna talk about uncommons after all, and a card that everyone knows about. Play Mortify. Okay! Hopefully, that gives you a good starting point. Thanks for the question! Feel free to ask more.Any cards, colors, or archetypes the rest of you want to know about?-Jack

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Fracturing Gust

So, one of the things I encourage a lot on this tumblr is the use of artifacts that tap for mana, otherwise known as "mana rocks." Things like sol ring, the ravnica signets, and worn powerstone all fall under this category. While most decks are absolutely dependent on these cards to get ahead, some decks use them less than others. Green decks get to play "ramp spells" like cultivate, and "mana dorks" like birds of paradise. Playing a good spread of creature-based ramp, artifact-based ramp, and land/sorcery-based ramp is a good way to diversify your investments in the board state, so that a damnation or shattering spree doesn't eliminate all your hard work. Another thing diversifying allows you to do is to play sweepers of your own. One such BRUTAL sweeper is Fracturing Gust. Most green/white decks are running a few too many artifacts or enchantments to play this... but those of you that aren't, the Ghave players, the Bant control guys, the Junk reanimator guys, this is an excellent edition to your cache of sweepers. This card will set the guy playing a ton of artifact mana back to the stone age, while netting you ~12 life on your average cast in a four player game. Also, did I happen to mention that this is an instant? This card is an instant. That means you can sneak it in when Johnny Blue Eyes is tapped out. Oh, and Naya players, don't forget to combo this card with boros charm, if you're into that sort of thing. And folks, if you didn't grab your austere commands yet, Commander is sloooowly causing them to creep up in price. Fracturing Gust is awesome, but I want to make absolutely sure that nobody forgets about austere command. Thanks for stopping by! -Jack

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Identity Crisis

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Distribution in an EDH Deck

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If it is at all possible... Would you talk about a "hidden gem" that was bright to my attention called mana maze? I would just say that it prevents certain generals from being countered by pesky blue spells Ie the rug commanders of intet animar maelstrom wanderer and Riku

Hi!Sure, I'll write about Mana Maze, although having not played with the card personally, we might have different opinions on it.Let's talk about what this card does. It's a universal effect. It makes blue spells largely uncounterable. It makes comboing off, or even chaining spells, very difficult.I think that it also generally makes life easier on whoever's turn it is. An exception would be, if someone bant charms a creature/artifact of mine on upkeep, I might be effectively silenced.There is probably a metagame where Mana Maze does a lot of work. In most decks of mine, versus most likely tables I might face, I think that Mana Maze is only a little in my favor. It stops other people from going off with Palinchron and whatnot, but I don't think that I could win a multiplayer game through it. I strongly believe that the key to winning an EDH game is to play multiple spells a turn, and I can't do that through this.Maybe I'm missing the deck that plays Mana Maze. It seems nuts in an artifact heavy EDH deck, or maybe a deck that recurs Ulamog, but that's the best application I can think of.If I'm missing something obvious, feel free to let me know!Thanks,Jack

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Girls Play Magic

Hi All, So, this is not what I planned on writing about next, but here goes. About half the people who like, reblog, or follow my EDH blog are women. It's a small sample size, but it's surprising to me. When I walk into a local game store, women show up for drafting, for standard, but never for EDH, despite the format's huge popularity. Is this just a quirk of my area? Is it endemic to stores? I believe that one of the absolute most important things for the Magic Community is inclusion and equality. In my personal experience, I've seen the community be incredibly welcoming to people of all walks of life. Magic, to me, is about everyone coming together and just being a seven card hand for a while. I would like to believe that if a woman follows EDH on tumblr, that she can walk into an LGS and feel safe, comfortable, and welcome. So I'm curious, and asking, is there something keeping female EDH fans away from EDH venues? Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for any responses. -Jack

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Budget Magic and Peaches

Bloodgift Demon (0.50) Bloodgift Demon never quite had a time to shine. In a world before Consecrated Sphinx, this creature might have seemed like a huge powerhouse, but now he only seems "okay." That said, Bloodgift Demon is a five power flier for five, in a format where most people's creature threats will cost six mana or more. If you win by attacking with guys, and you're looking to lower your curve, Bloodgift is a lot of muscle for a good price tag. Craterhoof Behemoth (5.00) Here is a card that I would advise picking up while it is largely forgotten, because either EDH, Legacy Elves, or Casual could cause this card to spike in price some day, when people realize that it's a Mythic from a set nobody drafted. I don't think that a giant hasty attacker with an overrun effect needs much explanation, but if you play tokens, I'd say this is a must-run. Entreat the Angels (5.00) This is exactly what we're looking for. Once a 25 dollar card, Sphinx's Revelation has pushed it out of standard. However, the card sees play in Legacy, and could easily regain it's price tag between EDH, Casual, and Modern. In a format with Brainstorm and no shortage of ways to guarantee a miracle, this card is an army in a can. If you're looking for a way to close out a game, look no further. Gavony Township (1.25) Every single person who goes to your FNM has fourteen of these in their binder. Pick one up for your EDH tokens deck if you haven't already. Honestly, now is a good time to pick up any of the Innistrad lands. They all range from good to absurd in EDH, and the "buddy lands" won't get much cheaper. Havengul Lich (1.50) Havengul Lich is a card that everyone wanted to trade for and nobody is playing. Lich is obviously most powerful in Heartless Summoning decks, where he leads to a few infinite combos, but he's not unplayable as a value creature. I wouldn't jam him into every deck, but it is fun to reanimate an Eternal Witness. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed (4.00) Congratulations! Rafiq, Khamal, Odric, and their 189 Legendary Human siblings no longer feel so bold about attacking you. Rafiq is especially bummed, since he'll die after his first strike damage. What else comes along with this 5/5 evasive creature? Well, creature recursion, because why not print a million good things on this card. The white Mikaeus is also good, for the record, but I felt like this one needs spotlighting more. Mindshrieker (0.50) Maybe I've written enough about Mindshrieker, but just in case, let's review. Mindshrieker doesn't get quite as big as he feels like he does; on average, he should be like a flying Nantuko Shade. However, unlike Nantuko Shade, Mindshrieker can arbitrarily bin a six drop at any time, meaning someone has to think carefully about attacking into open mana. Most of the time, you're going to be milling yourself with Mindshrieking, netting yourself sweet, sweet graveyard cards. However, leaving up two mana can give you an opportunity to hose "top of library" tutors like mystical tutor and vampiric tutor. Spirit Away (0.25) Stealing creatures is a metagame call in EDH - you have to look at how prevalent enchantment removal and "bounce" spells are, and how many "good in play" creatures are played versus "enter the battlefield" guys. If your group plays guys like Sheoldred, Consecrated Sphinx, Elash Norn, things with good upkeep effects and whatnot, then taking them and turning them into absolutely relevant threats is a solid path to victory. Stern Mentor (0.25) I bet this card is the one you have to click on. Anyone remember what this does? It mills people... sure. You can use it to mill someone, maybe. You can also use it to give any creature a tap symbol for no mana cost. With Gilder Bairn, this turns any planeswalker into a 3-6 mana investment until ultimate. With Hateflayer, you get "2R - 5 damage" repeatedly. If you are going the mill route, there are a few of the untappers that will untap for just one mana, but that's a pretty long grind. Temporal Mastery (4.00) This is a piece of power 9, and it's legal in EDH. You have brainstorm, scroll rack, mystical tutor, and a plethora of other ways to determine the top card of your library. Late in the game, you will be able to both set this up and cast it without disrupting your curve much at all. This card was once forty dollars, and while it probably never deserved to be, it is seeing some play in legacy, and could easily hike in price in the distant future. If you don't have qualms about taking extra turns in a casual format (and really, when ELSE are you supposed to take extra turns), then I suggest picking up a copy of this card now. Zealous Conscripts (1.00) A modern and EDH combo piece, conscripts is another card that could see a price hike as it gets harder to find. If you've played with threaten effects, you know how there is nothing quite like the board state swings they create when you play them on "the last turn of the game." You also know how much better these effects get if you can sacrifice whatever you've stolen. Even without playing a sacrifice outlet, you'd be surprised how often an opportunity to screw someone over on that level will present itself with Zealous Conscripts. Maybe you're ultimating someone else's Karn, or taking a tapped Dreamstone Hedron from someone. If your opponent isn't giving you a good conscripts target, you can always use it in desperation to untap a birthing pod, krenko, or whatever else needs to be turned counterclockwise. Well, that's a very small overview of some EDH playables, powerhouses and niche cards from Innistrad block. You'll notice that I skipped quite a few popular cards; that's because my goal here isn't to write about EDH cards that everyone is already playing as their general. Sigarda and his cohorts aren't necessarily cheap, and plenty has been written about them. I hope people found this useful, and as usual, feedback is always welcome. Thanks for reading, and have a nice day.

-Jack