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. |
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.
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| You can always tell a Milton Card... |
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
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