More Like, Commander's Arse-hole...

I hate when I'm in a good mood and it suddenly goes sour.

That's what happened when I finally saw the full spoilers for the Commander's Arsenal set to release this Friday, Nov. 2nd.

I'm pretty sure only the Queen of the Naboo (and because she's Natalie Portman, part of my heart) can properly express my pain.

Wizards of the Coast, you've made me and Natalie Portman so terribly sad.

When word came around about this wonderful package o' goodies, I knew it was going to be steep for anyone's budget (including mine) at $75 MSRP.

I thought the worst of my problems was just going to be dealing with the 10 big cards.

Instead, what was once reasonable barriers for copies of Sylvan Library and Scroll Rack have now become an insurmountable quest.

In the words of Grandpa Growth, I ask to Design Team Lead Mark Gottlieb,

"WHERE WERE THE PARENTS AT?!?!?"

Mistakes were made last time, and I know they haven't been living in Iraq or under an actual rock. Vintage legal cards like Scavenging Ooze, Chaos Warp, and Flusterstorm caused the price of the original Commander product to go through the roof in the secondary market, forcing obscene inflation of the prices for the product.

Now, with the additions of the previously unprinted Loyal Retainers, the price seems only likely to hike further up the mountain.

There are some logical choices here, and I do wish to recognize that Duplicant and some of the things I was looking for like Sylvan Library are really great.

Still, I can't get over the Diaochan, Artful Beauty reprint. I've tried to make my site a safe place for the youth, but I need to swear here, because this is an outrage.

What The Fuck, Wizards?

I would like to personally guarantee right here and right now, that if I EVER EVER EVER EVER catch any one I see playing this awful card, I will judge you, I will ridicule you, and you will not enjoy playing this card. If you choose to use it to battle me in any multiplayer setting, trolling or not, I will annihilate you- mostly because I don't play red, and can therefore wreck you.

This card is not fun. This card is not good. This card is not worth paying any money for, no matter how rare Portal 3 Kingdoms is. Now here's Obi-Wan who wishes to wash your brain of stupid thoughts.

Diaochan, Artful Beauty- #1 on Vh1's "Worst Reprints EVER."

I have the unfortunate feeling, friends, that our future Commander product will continue to be expensive and difficult to find, which I guess is something we'll have to deal with.

Till then, burn your dumb cards, light your torches, and see what raising hell and pitchforks might due to WotC to handle the horrible inflation problems with Commander Products.

And burn your Diaochans.

-UL.

UL's Card Corner: Conjurer's Closet

Alright friends, get comfortable. R.Kelly and me are about to drop some street knowledge.

Once Upon A Time there was a guy that wanted to pee on you, and to fly, but he wound up bein' an R&B Singer. The End? Ah Hell No! We're just gettin' started!

So Ladies, but mostly Gentlemen, the card that should be coming to the big screen near you is Conjurer's Closet, and it's so good that no one could've possibly fathomed it. I know I didn't.

Conjurer's Closet is a down payment on your future, cause it makes all your "Comes Into Play" triggers more relevant. If you're like me, and you love your Sad Robots and Reveillarks and Aether Adepts, you'll love The Closet.

One of the reasons this card is good is because of the first line of its rules text. Getting to trigger on your end step is A THOUSAND TIMES BETTER than the "upkeep" clause you might see with cards that are similar, therefore also giving your best beaters vigilance. It's bonkers with Titans.

 However, the best reason you should be playing this card isn't because of its mechanical prowess. It's because you get to say your dude is...

And they can't do nothin' cause he's

And don't you wish that your dudes could get

But you just can't help 'em cause you're havin' too much fun gettin'

(TRAPPED IN THE CLOSET!)

Alright. I got a little carried away. Hopefully you will too. The Closet is a special card and a fun new special tool prime and ready for future abuse. Amaze your friends! Make a splash on your next kitchen table! It does everything you want, except what a real closet does!
Play this card, or seriously, R. Kelly will beat up someone at a health club, or worse, sink into despair, and find himself LIT-TRILLY

Peace, Love, and Land Drops.

-UL.

Super Secret Sunday #1: Why White?

Welcome back youngsters. It's your old Grandpa Growth here to bring you a new weekly segment where I share some underplayed cards, under the radar strategies, some very under-thought thoughts. This is not a list of the pillars of the format. We are down in the bottom of the bargain boxes here searching for the unsung gems that should really be in your starting 99. Today I'll share 10 all star cards that many people don't consider for Commander.

In this installment: WHITE!

So why is White good? Because of everything that it gets. So...what is White? If you ask me, everything.

White is the most egregious offender of color pie boundaries. White has cheap aggressive threats like Isamaru, truly over-powered mid-range brawlers like Mirran Crusader and Baneslayer, and game-ending curve-toppers that love to give your opponent the feel-bads (I heard you like hyphens). White has the ability to answer every type of permanent and is home of the premier removal in the format. If you like card advantage, there are plenty of opportunities to get it in this color. White's planeswalkers are among the best. It has ways to search out lands, dig things out of the bin, and tons of cheap cards to disrupt your opponents. It even has two pretty decent counterspells. In fact, that is a good place to start.

Most people look at this unassuming common and are not impressed. It doesn't even permanently deal with the card you are countering. I'll let you in on a little secret: Lapse is crazy good. Just like Memory Lapse. The key is to get out to a fast start and use this to slow down your opponent's reaction. Any time you are ahead this card is just insane, it usually turns into a time warp. They play a huge blocker to stop your threat? Put them on hold while you continue to smash for another turn. Remember, this is always a 1-for-1, you trade this card for their next drawstep and probably a whole bunch of their mana. The greatest part about this card is the surprise value. Most people don't expect counterspells from White. Even if they  know you play this card, it is still so difficult to play around because it comes up infrequently in a singleton format.


This is just the color shifted version of Force Spike. Most people get down on this card because paying an extra one mana for your spell in a format where you usually hit your 8th land drop on time doesn't seem too tough. The way I explain this to my newer players is with a question: When do you stop tapping out?  Turns out that you really never do. Even when games go long there is still a big incentive to use your mana efficiently. Two important considerations here. First, it always stops threats on curve. Second, soft counters (counters that allow a choice, like an extra mana payment) are excellent against opposing counterspells. Players typically sequence their turns either to tap out for a card on-curve or to wait until they can leave enough mana open to protect their plan. Rarely will they leave up more mana than they actually need for their own counterspell or removal spell though. Cards like Daze really shine here because it's tough to see it coming unless you know about it ahead of time. Mana Tithe is nearly impossible to telegraph. Give it a try when you see your opponent leave four islands untapped. Just go ahead and give them the business. It is really embarrassing to get your Cryptic Command shredded by some jerk with Plains.

Let's talk disruption. Much of the hate you find on White cards is conveniently attached to a body. Which is always a nice bonus. Linvala is a criminally underplayed midrange hate card. It shuts off mana producing creatures and looters which will substantially slow down your opponent's game plan. Late in the game you will be hosing all sorts of stuff. Including the great Grisly Bizzly. She is cheap enough that can put her down early or you won't have to tap out if you draw her later in the game. It is also tough to beat the stats on this girl. 4 for a 3/4 flier is a decent deal, but not so big that she will make you a huge target. For extra action suit her up with your favorite equipment and she becomes a respectable clock.





Take a look at this card. I realize that this card is going pretty deep into Magic history and I know that things were different back then. Even in the wild west days of card design this was pretty far out. "Pinging" (tap to do 1 damage) use to be a Blue ability, not a red one. Returning creatures to a player's hand was and remains Blue. So what is this spicy number doing in White? Who knows, but you should be playing it. This card is just so annoying to play against. It grinds creature decks to a halt and if they have nothing for you to bounce you can start getting them with her damage ability.

The major downside here is that this is just such a fragile body for the cost. I wouldn't want things to be too easy though. I have a feeling if something like this got printed today it'd be mythic and like a 2/4 or something silly.


Now for some hot mana fixing and card advantage or as my partner in crime Uncle Landdrops likes to call it: Land Gets. Both of the cards I am going to mention here work best on the draw, when you opponent will almost always have more lands than you (before you make your land drop for the turn). Unlike the more permanent analogues such as Land Tax, these cards give you immediate card advantage and can search out any Plains card, not just basic lands. So go for those dual lands early and often. Tithe in particular is a great in multicolor brews like UW because it allows to you leave up early counter magic. If they don't do anything worth stopping, just fetch out your next couple lands.



 

These are great budget options to substitute for the Tax and help provide functionally equivalent copies to add consistency and redundancy to your deck. I have an old saying that I like to use for cards like this: Sometimes, even the worst version of a card is still pretty good. Gift only works if you are behind a land and is a one shot, sorcery speed effect, but it gets the job done. For a multiplayer friendly version of the Land Tax mechanic check out: Oath of Lieges.









If you have a solid White deck, then it is packed to the top with high quality removal. Here's a piece that goes overlooked too often: Prison Term. Unconditional creature removal? Check. Does it stop activated abilities? Check. Well what if you blow it too early and then they play a better threat? Check.
Unlike Fiend Hunter they don't even get their threat back if they sweep the board. Awesome. Do you like bonus value? Sun Titan can bring this back into play on your attack step. No blocks for you, chump! The Term is a serious work horse in my mono White 8.5 Tails deck. It also fits right in with Bruna and Zur.






Maybe you like your removal to be of the instant speed variety. I can dig that. It never kills utility guys.... And it isn't so hot against tokens, but it sure punishes voltron style decks and players who like to build their decks threat-light. The best part about this is how sexy it gets in combo with other removal spells. True (anti) beatdowns.
This card just straight wins races. It isn't too tough to get 3 or 4 copies. So much card advantage, so much tempo. It even has a picture of an owl machine gunning down their squad with its feathers. I don't know what else you can really ask for.







Here we are back on the theme of  redundancy. Tutors help add consistency to your decklist. This lets you see your most powerful cards more often. Having more ways to tutor means that you can more reliably get to those powerful cards. The smith here does a pretty good impression of Godo. And he let's you GODO (get out, destroy opponent) with your favorite equipment. This guy is no Stoneforge, but remember the lesson from above. Sometimes....even the worst version of card, ya know?

Swordsmith is also a kitty cat, so he is a flavorful addition to many mono-white cat themed decks...which I find to be very silly, but are way more popular than I would like to admit.






Beacon of immortality is unbeatable for some decks. Are you worried about being Charbelched to death? Did you get owned by a Magister Sphinx? When you resolve this against decks with weak generals they suddenly have only a few ways to win. It gives you all of the raw power of Boon Reflection, but at instant speed.

The  weaknesses of this card are severe however. It doesn't interact well with planeswalkers. Who cares about your life total if they blow up your lands? Or maybe they exile your library. What if you are in the mono-cats mirror match and they just charge up their general with shiny white P DUBs. The various combo decks pretty much don't care at all about this card. Blue decks have all the tools to quash it, but it's even worse if they let it resolve. Then you know it isn't going to stop their plan and you have just wasted a card.

The Most Important Thing to Remember: Don't let them Mindslaver you with this in your hand.


Thanks for listening youngins'. Hope you found a new toy or two to play with the next time you brew fat stacks. Come back next weekend for some more Super Secret Tech and thanks for reading.

It's time for some Old El Paso (the turn-o).

New Format Alert: Restriction Rainbow

Simple Disclaimer About EDH's Newest and Trendiest way to Battle:

If you don't like LeVar Burton telling you what you can and can't do, I'm sorry to say this ain't the format for you, friend-o.

The Restriction Rainbow is another subset of EDH designed by both Grandpa Growth and yours truly with the pure intention of challenging the pure Commander players at heart by creating an environment stripped of disruption most people dislike, thereby returning to the very roots of Magic. Pun Definitely Intended.

LeVar from Roots. Yeah, pun's got layers.

The name Restriction Rainbow is the genius that is Grandpa Growth. Credit is all his.


The inspiration however, comes from an article by Adam Styborski on DailyMTG a while ago about a format people were playing called "StrangleCage," in which a normal EDH game was played with the cards Stranglehold and Grafdigger's Cage sitting in an unremovable zone on the board state.


GG and I, being the EDH extremists we are, decided to take this concept to the next level. I thought it would be cool to expand this to each color, including our colorless artifact friends.



So here are the cards we picked.

Stranglehold should come as no surprise, considering that it was in the original carnation Adam Styborski created.

It is important to note that GG and I didn't just surrender the position immediately to Stranglehold. Some other cards were considered for this position, and after we'd put the other cards into position, we returned to this card as the perfect slot to fit between the mechanics we were trying to restrict.

This is the perfect first card to talk about because you can already see the level of encroachment we are going for.

By itself, Stranglehold takes away many of the annoying things people like to do in EDH- Tutor, Ramp, and Take Extra Turns.

Leyline of the Void was pretty much an auto include. We needed to hate graveyards out so that the game would be played in the lone singleton way it was intended.

One thing to note is that both of these cards target opponents.

It's important to know that under Styborski's rules modifications in the original article, each opponent is considered to have copies of the same enchantments in their own unremovable zone, establishing an even effect on each player.

Since we decided to add Leyline of the Void, this also means Grafdigger's is basically useless. So we added an artifact that would help improve gameplay.

One of the biggest problems we foresaw in game design was that we might have problems in topdeck mode. Since GG and I both hate having no cards in hand, we thought this handy card was the perfect balance of power for the Rainbow. Since we all have copies of it, we can't squander each other's resources by using it in response or whatever.

Also, Fool's Tome is better than say a Howling Mine, or Temple Bell in the card draw department. Personally, I'm particularly most excited about this card in the Restriction, because we could've gone with something like Amulet of Vigor or gone further into the hate theme with Damping Engine, but once we had a good idea of what the other cards might be, this one fell right into place. Kudos to GG for his all-knowing card knowledge.

From what I recall, Leyline of the Lifeforce got the invite to the party over all the other green enchantments, mostly by default.

There was no other enchantment that GG and I thought really stuck out as something that could be both inhibiting and not completely absurd on power level.

Greater Good, Rites of Flourishing, Concordant Crossroads, Mirri's Guile, and other Sylvan-Library-Level cards felt like too much.


This Leyline also provided an interesting dynamic to the game, requiring board sweeps and removal to be much more valuable and frequent, considering that you can only use those cards once due to Leyline of the Void.

Which leads us to how Leyline of Singularity got the nod. Aside from having very lackluster blue enchantments to pick from, and our desire to shut down token Rhys the Redeemed decks, this card is also pretty sweet for its interactions with the Green Leyline.

From an economic standpoint, there's added incentive to play more creatures than ever before, because if they don't turn sideways and attack, they become uncounterable removal if they happen to be something you know your opponent plays.

This is one of the ways that effectively circumvents the shroud/hexproof problem too.

So blue Leyline adds strategy and takes away a big, dumb busted strategy that's become a huge part of EDH. 

Which leads us to our last enchantment. Of all the white enchantments, GG and I picked perhaps the one that deals with one of the most taboo parts of EDH. Land Destruction.

We did it cause it seemed pretty crucial in a format where you physically have to make land drops, and you have no way to search and catch up or slow down.

There are still some creative ways around it, with sacrifice effects, and Control Magic effects to remove effectiveness- but that's exactly what we want. Creativity and many avenues of interaction.

Terra Eternal, admittedly is one of our least favorite, but it worked, and so, it's here.

Hold On! We Aren't Done Yet!

Boromir's right. There's some other important tidbits.

The first is that there is NO BANLIST. YET. Obviously, this is because certain cards will naturally be less powerful and ineffective. Also, this is a new format, so there will be ways to break it wide open. The only thing that really comes to my mind though is Maelstrom Wanderer, as far as banning is concerned.

As a result, going into battle with just a typical EDH deck can be pretty dangerous, cause it's bound to have cards that either break these Rainbow rules, or do redundant things that the Rainbow already does.

You have to commit to playing, and so does your playgroup. Decks must be built or rebuilt depending on how you want to handle it.

Some Generals will also be better than others. I mentioned Rhys being pretty poor, but so are other over used generals like Glissa, The Traitor, while Maelstrom Wanderer will probably still be pretty bananas.

Stay tuned to TGZ. Though I can't create a printout of the cards due to copyright, I will be constructing a Restriction Rainbow you can bring to the kitchen table nearest you.

Look for it soon.


So there's the Restriction Rainbow, in all its shiny new glory. Bet you can't break it.

Pass Turn.

-UL

Where In The World Is Uncle Landdrops?

Sorry I've been away from the wire a while, but all is good in the world that's 'sposed to be.
The Internets have their hold on me again, and I'm here, typing away with a head full o' new ideas.

In the down time, I was working on some upcoming projects for the site. I'll talk about that in a minute. That and a couple  o' games of EDH in.

For those that care, I actually won a sweet multi-player game the other night with Linessa and her friends in my mono-U Blueberry Bounce House Deck.

I mentioned this deck a while ago in an article I wrote, and I've made changes since, but one of the most interesting things about Linessa and the BBH is that I've found many different ways to win by combo-ing various pieces in the deck.

The obvious combo in the deck is Palinchron and any of the mana doublers, such as Extraplanar Lens, Caged Sun, and High Tide. However, I don't really go off with that too much, because I don't look for the combo, even with a Mystical Tutor in the deck.

Even so, that isn't the most interesting.

My first crazy combo was going Ultimate with Tamiyo to create infinite mana and copies of Palinchron with Rite of Replication so I could draw a bunch of cards with a GG favorite, Whispers of the Muse. I also use Blue Sun's Zenith, on occasion.

My second combo was an insane Yosei-style-lock with Brine Elemental, Aether Adept, and Sakashima the Impostor. It didn't hurt that I also had a Caged Sun out to get the mana, either.

Last Wednesday though, I had my most favorite one yet.

It started by going ultimate with Tezzeret.

There were two opponents left, with basically nothing left on their board a Cryptic Command couldn't handle, so I tapped one guy's dudes and bounced the lone guy on the other side. After activating Tezzeret, I killed an opponent with 5/5 artifact creature versions of Expedition Map, a Conjurer's Closet, Extraplanar Lens, Seat of the Synod, Sol Ring, and my favorite Sad Robot, the Solemn Simulacrum. Marching them Machines straight to victory.

The previous turn, I'd played a Battleball and used Conjurer's Closet to get 8 total Myr tokens. So I strapped on a Corrupted Conscience and swung 5 unblocked damage (Cause of Tezz he was a 5/5), tapping 8 Myr to pump my Battleball and deal the other opponent 13 infect damage. It was actually 21 total poison, because of the way Battlesphere works, but he had Purity out.

This wasn't a clean, prim and proper combo at all, but it was awesome. Thanks to Archaeomancer, that had been like the 3rd or 4th Cryptic I got to cast and about the 6th spell I'd recurred in the game.

So where have I been? I guess the answer is Magical Christmas Land, where the goofiest and craziest plays exist.

Those are the games we remember, even if we don't get to go there to often.

However, now that I'm back, I do have some exciting things for TGZ.

The first thing is that I've been working on a great tool for you guys out there who like opinion and analysis and all the debate you can muster in between.

There will soon be an official little database on TGZ for Generals. Over the past week, I've been slaving it up to examine, grade, and evaluate the 462 currently playable generals in EDH (Myojins and Banned Cards excluded), as well as provide a few of my comments as to their grading.

I'll be working with my site developer to hopefully craft a neat visually acceptable experience. Look forward to that in the next few weeks.

As for more current news, look for me to be talking about some great alternative EDH formats this week, including one GG and I created but never played called the "Restriction Rainbow."

Speakin' of the old fogey, Grandpa Growth's crackin' his old knuckles and dustin' off his keyboard to bring you some excellent insight into value cards for each color. Look for those great articles to be comin off the press pretty shortly.





That's it for now. Gotta get back to the stuff, so like my favorite wizard, Gandalf, I'll just say, "Look to my coming on the first light of the fifth day, at dawn look to the east."

Do not take me for a conjurer of cheap tricks.

Passin' the Turnski.

-UL

Outdated Deck Challenge Accepted!

I've mentioned in a few recent posts that I've been listening to an EDH podcast called Commander Cast.

It's a bunch of fun EDH players led by a friendly Canadian from the North, Andy aka Ghooosts with a range of recurring hosts and whatnot talking about various Commander stuff.

In one of their previous shows, Andy and company started a segment called "Entourage," in which they take a really underused and probably horrible Legendary Creature and attempt to build a skeleton of cards that could be included in the deck.

Their first airing of this segment created a surprising motivation within the cast, as they made a mockup for an Ib Halfheart EDH, which led to the emergence of the Ib Nation.

Knowing how much trash I talk about Red, this obviously wasn't the challenge for me.

A few weeks later, however, I got pretty inspired to go full-on goofy and create a deck based on one of their features in the Entourage segment.

No longer a Lord... Weird.

I decided to accept the Chorus of the Conclave challenge.

For a few weeks, I've been tweaking and testing, and I have to say... it didn't come out half as bad as I expected.

Obviously, the first problem we see with this basically unplayable general is that there's a pretty big mana investment to get the Chorus to come play.

Even when I put her into play, I still have the problem of having things to kick- So obviously my creature curve will have to stay generally low. 

However, with some newer cards and a pretty extensive Gatherer search, I compiled a list that I think is guaranteed to make any creature-caster uber-excited.

As part of the Entourage segment, the other guys shoot out a couple of suggestions to put in the deck.

Of these, the most exciting card to me was a card I'd neither seen nor heard of.

You can always tell a Milton Card...

Spike Weaver. With the potential help of a Chorus, this card felt like it could get this seemingly bad deck online with recurring fogs.

Spikey was sort of my inspiration, but I didn't have to look to far to find some other things I wanted to try.

My first playtests of the deck, I realized quickly that this deck needed wayy more creatures than my normal count which hovers between 18 and 23.

Alot more. Try 38.

The other deckbuilds I saw online backed this up, and so I cut a lot of the mana ramp that I normally play.
It's a sad day when a Green player has to pull Kodama's Reach and Cultivate and Realms Uncharted out for Sylvan Rangers and Civic Wayfinders, but I did, and the deck is all the better for it.

The next challenge that I ran into was creating a way to protect my boardstate. Since I'm mostly playing a bunch of 3-cost or less dudes, I'm basically wide open in the Damnation of Judgment Department.

Additionally, there's a pretty huge opportunity cost that I was worried about, considering that Chorus of the Conclave really needs to be played when there are dudes in hand, not on the battlefield.

My "creative" solution was to install a creature recursion engine, similar to Cloudstone Curio, but a little less immediately removeable.

Again, I'd remembered a card that had been talked about as part of the Secret Tech on Commander Cast. Dust Elemental.

In my Gatherer search, I also found some similar cards to add to the deck:

Whitemane Lion
Fleetfoot Panther
Stonecloaker

Now, I can manipulate and leverage value out of my dudes. In the late game, post a Chorus-cast, I can even create a way to get guys on the battlefield back to pump up again, while also abusing their utility.

It's really the perfect plan. Until Chorus gets countered and/or removed into the uncastable range.

So there's a contingency for that. Gavony Township, Elesh Norn, Mirror Entity and Forgotten Ancient help to make up for lost time if I'm facing dudes that are too big to handle.

Mirror Entity has pretty sweet synergy in the deck, as I'm able to pump up the power and toughness under the +1/+1 counters.

Additionally, I have a couple hate bears on the squad. RtR's new hybrid G/W one drop, Dryad Militant. And the most hated of all the bears- Gaddock Teeg. Michiko Konda is also in the deck to provide a little Rattlesnake effect against attacking me.

Together, I'm able to create and control the board state from protected ground by being able to bounce creatures when I have to and start all over again.

Though I may lose a few counters, being able to save important creatures for later is pretty critical.

In the multiplayer environment, I've found it to be pretty inoffensive to most people. I had some guys wigging out over Spike Weaver un-kicked, but if I wasnt playing threats, then I guess the deck wouldn't be doing much either.

Obviously, you aren't gonna play Elesh Norn without turning a few heads.

Anyway, here's the full decklist so you can see some of the other cool interactions in the deck.

Chorus of the Conclave EDH.

As always, thoughts/critiques are welcome.

Pass Turn.

-UL

Maturity Through EDH: Me And Intet, The Dream Team Deck

I threw a deck once.

Even though it's absurd, I give you permission to judge me. We all have moments in life we aren't proud of.

You just better hope I never find out that you own all the seasons of Sex And The City, or whatever. Kidding. But seriously. I will make fun of you.

Anyway, I wouldn't be able to accept my transgressions and talk about this embarrassing moment it if I were still having tantrums and throwing cards around.

Unless I was Gambit.

Don't throw cards. Unless they're on fire.

Cause Gambit's awesome.

To be fair, my Intet, the Dreamer deck wasn't really the first bad deck I built. Just bad for me.
The cards in it weren't bad.

I know because I spent a lot of money on the deck, trying to make it work.

I wanted it to be my "Holy Grail" deck, complete with all the mana ramp and counterspells and a long line of creatures for the All-You-Can-Spitting-Image Buffet.

At the time, the majority of our playgroup had been busy with school, work, and other important life goals like getting wasted on weekends so they could have unplanned pregnancies(Kidding. We're nerds), so the metagame was mostly just me and Grandpa Growth.

No matter how hard I played this deck, I was always one card draw away from changing the game, which was weird, because I played Time Warp in a lot.

GG and I were playing more since it was just us, so it wasn't uncommon to play for upwards of 12 hours in any given week.

One weekend, we're playing, and I must've lost 8 straight games or so. I don't know. Maybe I won a game against this bad Olivia Voldaren deck he was playing.

Anyway, it was late, and I was mad, and I couldn't take it. I lost my temper. I flung the deck at the wall, and watched as the black sleeves hit the white wall, floating to the floor in a hundred different pieces.

Intet, the Dreamer had crushed my dreams.

If there's any semblance of poetry here, that's it.

And just like Ron Burgundy, when I fell, I fell hard.

Intet was a bad choice.

Half the deck was apart when I realized something- All my decks needed to be rebuilt.

They were clunky, misshapen Hunchbacks of Notre Deck-making, and they'd gotten this way because I'd been too focused on playing the same cards. They were uninspired, unfun, "I-wanna-win-at-all-costs" decks.

Much of what followed you can follow pretty logically if you've read my philosophies on deck-making, but it bears repeating in a different way, if only to illustrate how I've come to be a much better player and deckbuilder than I used to be.

This is an important dichotomy- player and deckbuilder. Not all of us are both, or even good at either. It happens.

However, to be good at one does require us to know something about the other half.

When I went back to the drawing board, I started with a strange exercise. I wrote down in sentence form everything that I wanted my future decks to do. They were pretty general, as I tried to avoid certain tribal/mechanical specificity, but this is what I wrote down as goals for my decks:

I want my deck to have a sweet, solid, consistent mana base.
I do not want to miss land drops between my first turn and my seventh.
I want my deck to have a good theme and be interactive with other players.
I want my deck to have surprises, but be a combination of cards that have real synergy.
I want my deck to not necessarily be original, but to have my stamp on it.
I want my deck to be filled with cards I want to play with and cards I'm excited about.
I want my deck to have a smooth feel, void of rough cards and clunky cluttered-ness.
(I'll elaborate later.)
I want my deck to be designed to win, with and without the help of my Commander.
I want my deck to be complicated, with many lines of play.
I want my deck to be fun and as interesting to play with as it is to play against.
I want my deck to win the long, tough, challenging games.
I want my deck to have cards that allow me to make creative, strategic choices, such as whether I choose to play a spell on my turn or my opponent's turn.
I want all my decks to play Solemn Simulacrum. Forever.
I want to have the confidence that I can find an answer in my deck, especially when I need it most.
I want a deck that I don't have to mulligan often.
I want my deck to be somewhat inspired.
I want a deck that I love to play.


Maybe some of these are goals for you, I don't know. Writing this down and seeing it in front of me really helped though.

Since I'd made this commitment to myself to be a better player and deckbuilder, I started watching Luis Scott-Vargas and Conley Woods on Channel Fireball. I'd watch them draft, play standard, legacy, modern- anything.

I wasn't looking to watch them win, either. I was looking to see how they handled the kind of adversity I'd faced that night. I wanted to see them lose.

It took me a while, but I found some games where they were just particularly awful all around- Playing, drawing, responding.

What I discovered was that, even in those games, Conley and LSV would just laugh it off. Sure, they were mad and upset probably- but they sucked it up, and moved on to the next game, wherever that was.

Luck is a part of this game, after all. Even though these guys are mostly insanely lucky, they do occasionally eat the bear.

Honk if you get this reference.

As a player, I knew that I wasn't going to get much better at Magic. However, as a deckbuilder I could fortify my inabilities and establish more consistency, so I wasn't playing against myself and my opponent. I needed to be a master of my own interactions.

Now, before my decks find themselves in the throes of a vicious cockfight, there's way more preparation involved.

In building the deck, there's a pretty huge research level. This is where I sit down at the computer and spend an hour or so compiling a list of cards that could work. Usually, this involves a hefty portion of combing other people's tech and doing some Gatherer searching.

More often than not, I don't have too much intention with what I'm going to do in the deck before I decide to build it. That happens as I'm looking at patterns in the list. The inspiration hits me pretty immediately though when it happens.

The next step is pulling cards out of my binders. This used to be the primary step- just making due with what I had. This isn't a bad approach- it's just limited. I've just got myself trained now to know what's a rough draft of a deck and what the envisioned "better" version might be, if I don't have the cards immediately at my disposal.

I talked about sleeving up the general and staring at it in my previous article about deckbuilding. For me, there's something complete about arranging it that makes me feel good when I start, or I'm having trouble with carrying the theme. It's a good habit to go back to your general if you feel like a card might not be part of any useful strategy with the deck. I do a lot of Commander staring.

After I've sleeved the deck up, I start doing sample draws.

If you do a lot of deck posts online, that's cool. However, if you intend to use the sample hand draw, I'd sway you against it.

This is because everyone has a natural shuffle technique, and it's important to find out what you're drawing when you're the one shuffling.

Many times, I've taken certain cards out on the sole basis that I draw them too many times in my opening hand, and they aren't useful to me at that point. I'll admit I'm a little superstitious, so I'll go as far as merely just switching up what sleeve a certain card is in if I want to keep the card, but draw it instead of begin with it.

One of the biggest parts of my sample draw is that I actually attempt to play out several turns. I'd say a good ballpark range is anywhere from five to seven, playing until you feel like the obviously uncontested board state you have will win the game. 

I tend to repeat this process until I feel really confident that I'm going to make all my land drops. This is especially helpful if you play tutors and search your library a lot, because it helps you to know what you're looking for faster than average. Simple economics.

The more you do this, the more you'll be able to see what's a really good opening hand and what isn't. You'll also start to figure out what could be a bad card choice.

It always bums me out to have to edit decks because I wanna get it right the first time, but this is a natural part of the process that I've gotten used to.

The good news though, is that hopefully what you need was either in your original pool of cards or it was on your list of stuff to get.

If it isn't, there's probably a massive deck overhaul coming. Be prepared for that.

Sometimes though, your deck doesn't even get out of the gate. It doesn't happen often, but you need to know what that looks like.

My example is a Wrexial deck. I tried to make this deck several months ago, and I started with my usual allotment of 40 land.

During the sample draw phase, I found I wasn't getting enough land consistently to cast anything in my hand.

So I bumped the land number up to 44, adding some cycle land and switching out a few spells for some extra card draw.

Still didn't draw enough land. Even worse, the land I was drawing wouldn't even help me cast what was in my hand. And there were 10-plus basic Islands and Swamps.

Don't be afraid to toss a deck if you're getting bad mojo like this. If it happens here, it's possible it'll happen twice as much at the table.

Because I do more deck prepwork before I sit down to play, my decks tend to perform a whole lot more consistent. Also, my stress level and intensity are lower because I've practiced with the deck, so I know what cards will be good top decks for situations and what won't help me. 

This, in turn, has helped me to become a better player overall because I'm playing my decks better. More importantly, I'm able to feel good about what I was able to accomplish in a game, regardless of whether or not I win or lose.

Do I still play to win? Absolutely. I've said it before and I'll say it again. If there's a part of you that doesn't want to win, you probably shouldn't be playing Commander.

I mean that in the nicest way possible. This is the format where you get to do everything, even though a lot of plays are pretty rough and horrible and sometimes downright unfun.

I'm at a point where I feel good about my decks.
They're not perfect, but they're much closer to my goals.  

I'd also like to help you if you're not on the right track. That's what the site is here for.

Well, that, and for me to have something to do in between games.
So if you need help, feel free as always, to leave comments or contact me at UncleLanddrops@gmail.com.


Peace, Love, Landdrops.

-UL

UL's Card Corner: Treefolk Harbinger

I'm speaking for the trees in today's edition of Card Corner. Specifically, one tree that, in my opinion is the best of them all.

He's my Ticket Oak to victory, as well as everything else I need to get the ground rolling and the beats a-swingin'. Of course, you know him as Treefolk Harbinger, but I defy you to tell me he doesn't look like he's ready to give you two courtside seats to the Lakers.

There's family resemblance.

I know you see it, and
I know you love it.




Anyway, let's talk about why Treefolk Harbinger is the Treefolk to rule them all.

It's simple, really.
There isn't anything that Ticket Oak can't do at ANY point in the game.

He really shines in Mono-Green, thanks to help from his buddy, Dungrove Elder. Together, these two cards create a super fast start for your deck that forces your opponent to waste mass removal before you get your green horde out, or they'll suffer the consequences.

If you're strapped for land, The Harbinger can even net you a Forest or a Dryad Arbor. I know these are things that normal green decks do. Get dudes and lands.

What separates the saplings from the full-blown Ticket Oak though, is that this tree has access to some pretty special tribal Treefolk spells.

Three of my favorite targets are Lignify, Rootgrapple, and Reach of Branches, which makes him pretty astounding for a One-Drop green dude.

These guys keep Ticket Oak much more relevant in the late game, and not a completely dead draw.

The ever-hilarious Lignify stops your opponent's dudes with activated abilities or their Commander from getting annoying for the full 21.

Rootgrapple pops a pesky planeswalker, land, artifact, or enchantment and will net you an extra card, unless something happens to Ticket Oak.

And Reach of Branches gets you recurrable chump blocks at instant speed.

Obviously, there are plenty of other big games to be had with Harbinger if you fortify your deck with more Treefolk. Nemata and Verdeloth are good places to start. Tilling Treefolk and Dauntless Dourbark are also sweet options.

One of the biggest drawbacks to Ticket Oak is that if you want to maximize his playability, he wants to be in Mono Green. This is because Reach of Branches, Dungrove Elder, and Dauntless Dourbark make him super-relevant and powerful in the early game.

However, I don't see why he wouldn't be good in any two-color deck, potentially green and black where you might be playing some of the non-green trees. The Doran deck will love him too, because he can grab Overgrown Tomb and Temple Garden.

Overall, I find that Treefolk Harbinger, aka Ticket Oak, is immense value in a color that longs to have more nonland, noncreature value. But Ticket Oak can do that too.

So do yourself a favor and add a Treefolk Harbinger package to the Mono-Green deck nearest you, even if it's not your deck.

Whoever's playing it will soon be saying what everyone's thinking when this smiley little 0/3 enters the battlefield.

Have you hugged a tree today? If not, don't worry about it.

Just make sure the next time you are hugging one, it's a Treefolk Harbinger.

Or a real-life Ticket Oak.

Passin' it up.

-Uncle Landdrops

'Manders Be Gettin' Tuh-ucked!

I've been in a rather grumpy mood lately towards various playgroup manifestos, and I have three words for them.

Stop The Nonsense.

One of these is banning "Tuck" effects- basically, everything from Bant Charm to Terminus that can put a creature (most likely, a Commander) or creatures back safely into their owner's library.

Unless you're looking for restrictive challenges and you're banning more than just the 9 or 10 cards of this kind, I'm of the opinion you shouldn't be playing EDH.

I'm not trying to be mean, just blunt. There are 20,000+ cards that are EDH legal, and if you're not trying to create decks that can play around or maneuver through these challenges, then go play something like Legacy, Modern, or T2, where the power of these effects are diluted drastically, and the metagame is all about the top decks.

Tuck effects are about the best defense against generals, especially the hokey, "Ashling and approximately 99 Mountains" deck and Voltron builds with Skullbriar, the Walking Grave.

If you're playing a General centric deck, Tuck cards aren't difficult to defend against (*cough*Lightning Greaves*cough*) and if you're not, they are some of the best ways to ruin your opponent's Commander shenanigans.

The big argument for banning these effects is that they're not congruent with what some people define as the "Spirit of EDH" because they could transform your deck into a 100-card singleton deck by sullying the uniqueness of having a recurrable creature and leader.

Honestly though, that's not the way I see it.

Sure, a resource is taken away from the player- a resource that separates EDH from the rest of Magic as we know it.

However, the thing that I like about Tuck effects is that they not only test a deck's resolve, but they also test the player's skill and resolve- the latter of which contributes, in my opinion, to becoming both a better deckbuilder and player, and also leads to better games in the long run.

It's really easy to upset people when their Uril, the Miststalker gets Hindered or Rhys the Redeemed and his loyal army of copied tokens are sent to the bottom via Hallowed Burial.

I understand. If you've been playing EDH for more than a day, and you're in a good healthy playgroup, you should know to expect these moments.

Tuck effects are part of a larger pool of cards that I consider capable of creating "Stress Plays," which are cards that press you psychologically.

In my mind, the cards that are most likely to produce the most stress on a game are the typically taboo Land Destruction cards and Counterspells.

These cards notorious for creating whining and complaining and moaning and bitching and yelling and scooping at the table, and therefore contributing to a game's super-duper-low score on the Fun-O-Meter.

Normally, most games can roll pretty well with a Counterspell here and there. However, as the counters stack in up in the bin, Stress Plays become imminent.

Tuck Effects have one big difference when compared to counterspells. Their value per card is significantly greater than that of your typical blue counter-magic.

In EDH, getting one spell countered can make a big deal. Still, the counter game has to be played continuously and consistently in order to actually control and win the game, cause most good decks have cards that can do the same thing as a card that gets countered, or even perform better.

The interaction that takes place between a counter and the target spell is still a 1-for-1 trade, even if the person countering the spell is paying less to do it. The caster who's countering passed up their opportunity to play a creature or sorcery speed thing to thwart your plans, so there's more to the caster's opportunity cost.

Doing this once might be the key to victory, or it might not. It'll depend on skill and timing and knowledge of what's in your deck.

Still, one Counterspell isn't going to put your opponent in a Stress Play, even if it's the Overwhelming Stampede that's supposed to win you the game. There's still an Overrun in your deck, right?

This is why Tuck Effects are good, and possibly of more quality than Counters in the best of circumstances. Whereas Counters require multiple investments and consistent disruption on ensuing turns with untapped mana left open, Tuck Effects are aggressively costed and require only one turn to bring the pain.

With Tuck Cards, you get more than you pay for. The best Tuck Effects range from a converted mana cost of 1 to 5, so you can play other spells in the sweetspots between turns 5 and 8 without giving up too much ground. Conversely, counters, while the good ones average between 2 and 5, often have to sacrifice playing a creature in order to stay untapped. This period of time is pretty critical because it can reveal whether or not your opponent has counterspells.

As a result, Tuck Effects even have a slight edge here in terms of surprise. For starters, there are less of them. So even if you put a few in your deck, you still may not draw them.

This is different than the control game, because counter-magic is almost always a theme, and so the good blue deck will always have 13+ good counterspells, some of which, like Hinder and Spell Crumple, double as Tuck Effects.

The best of these, in my opinion, are the red and white ones. They have the most surprise, and can be less obvious.

This is because if one untapped white is left open, your opponent might be thinking, "Path or Swords, no big loss." In red, they're probably just thinking you didn't have a dude or a big sorcery, not surprise CHAOS WARP!

So when you cast these cards, it's mostly a pretty big game. On a Commander, this can be devastating.

The best part is that the stress induced in these moments create a perfect storm of disruption on the board and in the mind, one which most EDH players aren't really used to.

As a result, a good player casting a Tuck Effect has the capacity to attain a lot of information, especially if the player hasn't faced this opponent and this particular deck.

Layman's terms- you know what's in their hand, possibly in their deck.

This is the Poker aspect of Magic. Their tells are exposed, whether or not they want them to be, and as a result, you basically can find out how important that Commander or that permanent or nonland permanent is to their current boardstate, thereby ascertaining clues to what's in your opponent's deck and hand.

So why am I for having exceptionally powerful value-driven cards?

The answer is simple. Wizards printed them.

Sure, we can talk about the fact that banlists exist.

I'm not naive to this. I've played with and against many of the current banlist cards.
I understand them more than most. I've read the explanations for said bannings, and to that extent, I agree with most of what Sheldon Mennery and his team have done.

The EDH Rules Committee is trying to inhibit fun gameplay for all- especially the newer players in the format who may not have access to Recurring Nightmare and Gifts Ungiven.

They also want to remove the so-called "cheap" routes to victory, like Biorhythm, Sway of the Stars, and the newly-banned Worldfire.

That said, I'm not going to scoop if one of these cards gets played. I'm not going to scoop if all my lands get blown up, and so I'm sure as hell not going to scoop when someone tucks my Commander.

There's always a right time to scoop. In the past, I've scooped in some pretty silly situations.

However, if you find yourself in a game where there are cards that you don't feel comfortable playing against, the last thing you should be doing is forfeiting.

I encourage you to try and get through the game, even if you know you can't win because someone's playing a banned card, or a card you specifically don't like.

In life, we don't always get to direct and choose what kinds of things we get and don't get.

So don't scoop.

I used to be pretty bad at this. One of my least favorite cards to play against is Bribery. I thought I hated Control Magic until I saw that my opponent could just pick whatever dude he or she wanted and drop it into play under their control.

Grandpa Growth used to play it all the time, mostly because by scooping, I'd changed the text to, "You win the game" for three and two U.

One night, I was playing GG with a Treva EDH, and had an Avenger of Zendikar and token horde ready to go to pound town. So GG did what he needed to win. He Twincasted a Bribery.

Rather than scooping, I said okay, and handed him my deck.

Turns out the deck was Bribery-proof.

GG opted to not even use the second Bribe because there were no real threats left in the deck.

And, the following turn, I cast a Beguiler of Wills and slammed a Lightning Greaves on it so I could get back the Drogskol Reaver GG took.

You could call it fortunate, I guess, that I had answers when GG was tapped out.

But I found out quick that my deck had a resiliency to overcome one of my least favorite cards. It was one of my better victories.

Which brings me back to my point.

Banning Tuck Effects, or anything for that matter, shouldn't be because you don't like playing against the card.

It should be because the card changes the game to be significantly less fun, less original, and extremely unfair.

You may fall flat on your face, or may find an answer in your deck you didn't realize. Either way, staying in the game challenges you and your deck to be better-  the best part is, you've got nothing to lose, especially if you think you can't win.

But if you don't try, you just end up thinking about Schrodinger and his cat.

Don't think about the cat, and don't play what if.

Untap and play along. Stop The Nonsense.

-UL

Reviewing RTR Part 3: Answering the Call

Welcome back my little wizards. Old Grandpa Growth is here with the final part of his RTR set review. In this segment we will cover the answer cards and sideboard only cards. As usual I will not be mentioning any reprints and I will also leave out cards that I feel are not suited to the format. So lets get right to it.

ABRUPT DECAY
This card makes me feel like Morpheus.
What if I told you it could kill Erayo?
What if I told you it could kill Counterbalance?
This card does (almost) everything. When Smother falls asleep it dreams of waking up as this card. In terms of EDH, this is the best removal spell printed in a long time. It shuts down some of the most annoying cards in the format. This card is the honey badger. Every Sword, every utility creature, every mana artifact, and many of the more aggressive generals. Get ready for a big price tag though, the implications this card has for Legacy and Modern are very tangible. I can see this card reaching $30+ in the next two years and foils will retain their value indefinitely.




 ASSASSIN'S STRIKE 
This card has some nice upside. It is a bit clunky and expensive, but most of the time it will be a 2-for-1 and sometimes you will live the dream: kill their guy, they discard another guy, you reanimate them both! This really wants to be an instant, but unconditional removal is something that every deck needs. A nice budget option if nothing else.










CONJURED CURRENCY
If there is anyone out there still playing Barack Obama.dec, here you go. This is for you. When you come back to your senses I'll be here waiting for you. Telling great stories of great games full of great cards. This card is not great.













COUNTERFLUX
This card is the business. There are only a handful of answers to Storm cards and Maelstrom Wanderer. Decks definitely want access to some sort of effect like this. If people in your metagame like to Cascade, show them what's really good. Do the Counterflux ya'll.










CYCLONIC RIFT
I can really dig this Overload thing, but I can't get behind the targeting restrictions R&D keeps throwing on my Boomerangs. Turn 2 'rang your opponents land use to be a pretty spicy start to a game of magic. It let your opponent know how things were going to be. You didn't have to just sit there and take their land drops lying down. Oh well, this card is still quite strong. It is is quite a tempo swing regardless of which mode you play it in. I like the sound of bouncing their junk on the end step and then swinging the beats.










 DETENTION SPHERE
I dislike that the Blue in this cards casting cost restricts it to only certain kinds of decks, but fortunately those UW control builds are the most likely to want this card anyway. I am not going to complain about another copy of O-Ring.
But why does it always have to be nonland? Vindicate isn't even that good....anymore at least.










 DREADBORE
So this is what terminate looks like as a rare? They turned it to gold and it got a lot slower..I guess that makes sense. This card has needed to exist for a long time. Pdubs are just so powerful in casual formats and so common in competitive formats, that not having answers to them is suicidal. Well, Rosewater has your back this time kiddies. Getting bored of that Jace guy? Tell him where to stick it.


On a less happy note, like most (good) rare removal spells, this card is going to be pretty expensive for a while.






ELECTRICKERY
As you have probably learned. I like to drop a pun or two. This one takes the fun out of it. They put the pun right in the name.  Shockingly, this common is pretty good on both sides. Kill their looter? Kill all their saprolings. KILL ALL THE (little) THINGS. Sideboard it main deck it I don't care. This card is better than it looks. There is sure to be somebody at the table who's day is about to ruined by an upgraded Simoon.

On a side note, I can't tell whether the fairy in this art is getting fried or is firing the sparks at something else...awkward.






GOLGARI CHARM
A Black and Green removal spell that is good against all the things the Abrupt Decay isn't? Yeeeeehhhaaawwww! Kill tokens, kills Doubling Season, and counters Day of Judgment? This is what you want in an instant speed answer: versatility, flexability, and power, all with a cheap cost. This is a brilliantly designed card that plays well with the new Golgary mechanic and the flavor of death and rebirth.











HAVOC FESTIVAL
This is the EDH version of Sulfuric Vortex. It adds a lot of reach and power to aggressive strategies. It shuts down Boon Reflection and Beacon of Immortality. There are other cards like this that already exist, but this is better. This also has applications for Grixis control decks who want an edge over UB or UWB control in slow grindy games. They will not want to play wait and see against this card.
DISCLAIMER: I am not responsible for what happens to you if you drop this in multiplayer. I am looking at you Kaervek!








IZZET CHARM
If MtG designers want the game to go in a direction where creatures are the focus, they are going to have to stop printing such awesome instants and sorceries. This is a beatdown. Kills utilty creatures, counters noncreature cards on curve, and lets you go nuts with double loots if you really need to dig. Expect to see this in maindecks...a lot of them.










MARTIAL LAW
What in the world? People play this kind of junk all the time and I don't know why. Apart from being incredibly slow, being blank in multiplayer, not stopping planeswalkers, and being horribly underpowered this card is a gem.
Let me relay a story from the prerelease. A friend asked, how many creatures would this have to detain before you would start it in EDH? To which I answered....3 or 4, but I don't see why it doesn't just detain their whole team for free every turn. There are easier and cheaper way to shut down creature decks.
Then he asked, well how much would it have to cost if it was only going to detain 1 creature? To which I replied: Hmmmm, I would be excited at 0. I would have to test it at 1. At 2 this card is only about as good as Prison Term, mostly because it can't stop Haste guys, but the term can.
The truth is that Icy Manipulator isn't even good enough for competitve commander games any more. Which is sad because I love to ice things. And this nonsense....is nowhere close to Icy.

REST IN PEACE
What a blowout. Graveyard hate has certainly come a long way since the good old days. Enchantment theme decks will play this. In a random control deck, I don't think this makes the cut. It is strong, but the abundance of colorless options, value-added effects like Ground Seal, or surprise cards like Cremate means you will only see this card every once in a while. This card will make an impact in Standard and Legacy, so it will get its day in the sun.









SOUL TITHE
If you read other pundits reviews of this card they go something like this: "Don't be fooled. This card is terrible!"
My real question is...who was fooled? This is the worst removal spell I've ever seen. I wouldn't play this card even if it cost zero and ADDED 1W to my mana pool when it came into play.
I actually might play it if it let me draw a card when it came into play though...that's like....a million times better.









STREET SPASM
This card...is not good. It does a decent job of dealing with early creatures, but if you want to power it up in the late game it costs way too much. If you need to barbeque someones board BON(fire)APETITE!

SUPREME VERDICT 
If you really need to blow up the board, you don't want to get snagged by some guy with an untapped island and a bad attitude. Show them you mean business by laying down the law. This card is judge, jury, and executioner. I really cannot wait to play this and yell: "YOU HAVE BEEN JUDGED...AND FOUND WANTING!"
I find the color pie implications of this card to be somewhat interesting. If you asked me what an uncounterable sweeper looks like, it has historically been red. My gut tells me it should be 1WWB. I just don't know what to think anymore. The best creature in standard is blue. The best counterspell is red. The best removal spell is green. The colorless accelerators produce any color of mana. The UW deck doesn't even want wrath, but wrath is "too good to reprint". Mutilate is in print and it isn't even good enough to play?  I never thought I would live to see the day.


ULTIMATE PRICE
This is pretty good, but it isn't the ultimate removal spell. GftT still stops more of the relevant creatures in the format, but this is a pretty good card to have access to. Unfortunately, monocolor decks tend to have a higher number of artifact creatures to compensate for their shallow card pool, making this even more limited. Try it out, but don't be disappointed when it is stuck in your hand instead of sticking the knife in your opponent.
Want another tyrade about color pie problems? White removal spells typically come with a draw back that helps your opponent. Black removal spells typically come with a targeting restriction, instead of a drawback that hurts you. Which is a very popular tactic for overpowering Black cards that aren't removal spells. I don't have an opinion on this; just something to think about.




Well that brings the wagons all the way back around, youngins. If you like what you see then come on back and give me a holler. Ol' Grandpa is always ready to tell you a story or two. Until next time children:
"May your library always be fat and your first mulligan free." - Grandpa Growth.