TGZ's Command Zone OG's #2: The Uncombative Soldier, The Scarecrow, and a Mono-Colored Radar

Happy Thursday Zoners!

Uncle Landdrops here fillin' in for JC on the last day of the old year with another installment of Command Zone OG's.

For those that don't know, Command Zone OG's is more of a community based segment where we examine Legendary Creatures as Generals and whether they are On the Rise, Under the Radar, or Always Around amongst the online community.

We've got a little bit of a special one here today. Mostly due to indecision, I've got a few more creatures than I wanted- so enjoy.

ON THE RISE

The Pesky Esper Slow Roll - Oloro, Ageless Ascetic

Hey Kids! Do you like life gain? Did you think it was irrelevant in EDH because of the marginal incremental value of a few life on a given turn?

Well, even if you don't understand my heightened lingo, all you really need to know is that Oloro's here, he really does nothing, and he's already becoming more and more relevant.

Today on the first page of TappedOut I must've seen 7 or so lists alone, and the number's only going to be bigger.

Basically, the deck promotes a very slow, control based game with incremental life gain value. Because he doesn't have to trigger to be in play, he's the first Commander to give you value from the Command Zone and provide double value via Clone effects.

Eventually, my prediction will be that this is a card people will grow to hate, like Edric. What it promotes is slow games, and supports bad deckbuilding in certain cases.

Still, I think Slow-Loro AKA Oreo is one tough cookie. I'm hoping it will inspire some great control decks with late-game combos, which I think is the route to victory.

ALWAYS AROUND

The Everyman's Board Police- Reaper King

As one of the cooler-looking options for five color Commanders, Reaper King should not be a secret to EDH players anywhere. A 6/6 for five at his lowest possible cost, the Scarecrow is an imposing board threat and the centerpiece for Changeling destruction.

Destroying permanents is his best quality at the table, particularly permanents that most people find pesky yet don't have the guts or the deckbuilding know how to add in. There's a reason everyone loves Vindicate, and it is for that reason that our vine-ridden, crow-scaring artifact monstrosity is a legit contender at the table.

In his most heinous form, Reaper King combos really well with a kicked Rite of Replication to make everyone at the table ready to flip the table, scoop, or try to do both at the same time and end up with disastrous and awkward results.

I've seen quite a few different Reaper King designs, and whether it's 1v1 or multiplayer, I think his flavor text appropriately describes what it means when he's on the battlefield.

UNDER THE RADAR

No Spark? No Problem! - Ob Nixilis, the Fallen

I really like Ob Nixilis. Though he doesn't have the regenerative ability of Korlash, or the ability to double his power instantly with access to Nightmare Lash and Lashwrithe, Ob's scale to the game is still aggressive and fun enough to build around.

Optimally, this deck wants to be playing all the fetch lands. Clearly, this makes for a pretty expensive payout. Still, the ability to trigger Landfall every turn after Ob Nixilis comes out is important.

Promoting land plays is a great way you can support that all-too important quality of deck design- playing lands. Fundamentals are our friends, ladies and gentle-demons. Catering to them is a great way to reinforce positive game play and design.

The Red Undead - Squee, Goblin Nabob

The closest thing you can get to a successful "Fire Truck" deck (Red Engine? I like jokes) is Squee. He's basically indestructible, and completely reusable.

Since most of the best cards in Red decks are wheel cards, discard/draw effects, and top-tier artifacts like Skullclamp, being able to power them up with Squee creates a much more stable arena for card advantage than most other red decks.

I have yet to see this deck in a game, but I hope to some day. It's a very neat and unique archetype for its coloring.

The Hungry Hungry Hydra - Polukranos, World Eater

Everyone playing standard and other 60-card formats is beginning to understand why Rosewater said this was a big card in the Future-Future League back at Comic-Con. In conjunction with devotion, this card is nuts.

In Commander, with access to ramp and plenty of deathtouch effects, Polukranos is a wonderful aggressive Commander option that does something Omnath and Azusa can't- be removal.

The fight mechanic is one of my absolute favorite things Wizards has come out with in the past few years, and as they continue to print more of it, this deck will get stronger.

If I ever decide to retire Yeva, this is my next option.

Magpie Love - Lu Xun, Scholar General

One of the things I've been shocked about is the lack of lists for Lu Xun. I really like this card, and I'm stoked Wizards printed it in Commander 2013.

Thieving Magpie is a solid card we all know and love and have been able to access for years without paying a bunch of money. Reprinting various Portal 3 Kingdoms cards has really helped to make our format much more fun and compelling. With Horsemanship instead of Flying, Lu Xun's evasion is solid. He rewards you for attacking while helping to get damage in and doing what Blue decks really want to do- outdraw your opponent. Many blue decks fall victim to the "Draw, Go" strategy, which can often lead to skipping a crucial combat step. By playing Lu Xun, you can build this additional decision into your design, so as to create rhythm and not forget to take advantage of damage dealing.

Without any Voltron-ing, Lu Xun is 1 damage and 1 card, which most players aren't going to be too upset about in the beginning of the game if they don't plan properly, or they don't have removal.

Again, another low-cost, value-driven option that can really draw cards if you stack it up Bident of Thassa and Curiosity.

Sailing Ships And Loving Life - Gerrard Capashen

I know it's not very good, but I can dream, right?

Inherently being underestimated has its advantages. As a card we rated to be one of the most "middling" cards on a Stack episode this summer, Gerrard is definitely a creature that you can use to prove people wrong.

The incremental life gain in conjunction with Hate Bears like Rule of Law and Ethersworn Canonist helps to keep cards in hand while Well of Lost Dreams and Cradle of Vitality can be used to find cards to finish the game, or simply end the game.

Gerrard isn't simply a nostalgia choice. It can definitely become something more, if you know where to look.

Remember to feel free to share cool and awesome lists with me if you've played or seen any of these decks in the comments below.

And Happy New Year! Hope you've got more good things on the way. Cause so do we.

Until next year, and the one after that, continue to remind your friends that playing the Mimeoplasm isn't okay.

-UL

Reviewing 2013 Part 3: GG's Picks

I'm from the United States. Not sure that is much of a spoiler. Here in the U.S. we used to have a Poet Laureate named Robert Frost. He penned a pretty popular piece about a journey through the woods on a Winter night. About not being able to rest because he still had many miles left to travel before his journey would be complete. The General Zone has reached this exact position. Here on the final Sunday of the year. I am looking back on a long and prosperous year. A drama of successes and failures. We still have a long way to go in our shared journey, but in this moment I want to reflect on the roads I have traveled here on the blog...and the ones I maybe shouldn't have. In this final installment I will be talking about my best and worst posts. If you missed the previous parts then check them out here: 1 2.

You can click the titles to be taken directly to the posts I am talking about, just to get familiar.

Favorite post on the blog: UL's Card Corner: Gemstone Caverns

Any article that begins with someone admitting that they are a scrub is going to be interesting to say the least. I don't play UL much at all these days. Not like we used to. So his losing games or die rolls doesn't have much to do with me. The point of this Card Corner is as much about learning to optimize within your own constraints as it is a persuasive argument to play Gemstone Caverns. You can't be the best..sorry if your parents lied to you as a kid. You can however make the best of your situation. This is a lesson that is just as good for the holiday season as it is for any other season. Everyone has constraints on how good their game can be. Time, skill, budget, knowledge, experience; these factors all affect your wins and losses and it is important to seek out edges in order to improve your game. Maybe you don't have the time to test out every card in the format...don't. Netdeck. Trust the collective wisdom of others to make up for some of what you lack. Maybe you don't have the actual cards that you need to improve your game. That is about 90% of the reason people play budget decks/cards. Everyone is in a slightly different spot financially and you really don't need to spend a whole lot of money expanding your collection in order to be good. I have a some members of my local playgroup that are learning to play at a high level and don't really own a thing of their own. Also, play Caverns. It isn't bad.


Favorite Post I Made: Holiday Cube w/ Landdrops

Technically, this came went up in 2012, not 2013, but it was only off by a few days so I am going to let it slide because it is my favorite post by a land slide. Ah, word play. This was a ton of fun to play. I love Cube. I love the powered holiday edition as well. It is just flat out fun. Sadly, there will be no 2013 edition of holiday cube with Landdrops. I wish there were, but we just haven't been together to do it. I hope to get back to do many more next year since it appears holiday cube on MTGO is going to be a regular thing, which is fantastic. I apologize for the quality and pace of the videos, and the ones that were missing. I don't apologize for the silliness and the horrible drafting and gameplay that is 100% of the fun. I definitely, want to do more videos in the future and will try to improve the quality of the viewing experience, but it is a learn-as-you-go process, I am no Youtuber.

Worst Post I Made: The Ten Ticket Challenge

I didn't like this one bit Sam I am. If you didn't watch this: don't. If you did watch this: I apologize. In summary, I was a jerk. I did not conduct myself with class or aplomb. I spent several hours bashing my opponents and their decks for no reason. It culminated in a junky, low quality video. There really isn't any reason for my disrespectful behavior or my socially abnormal behavior of bringing a suspiciously high quality deck to the casual commander room and just trying to rip people up. That is way less fun than high school bullies make it seem. I got extremely lucky (depending on how you look at it) to draw so well and win a bunch, although that really wasn't the point of the project. Plus, I cheated. The deck was like 16 tickets including the Commander. I am going to assume that no one bothered to watch this, which is basically true looking at the view count on Youtube, so let's just put it behind us and forget it ever happened. The next time I do a Commander game play video, I will be a kinder and more interesting human being.

Favorite Set Review: Theros Answers

Crushed it! I love Theros and my passion for this amazing set really came through in the set review. Despite the exceedingly mediocre collection of answer cards that came out in the set. This article was action packed! Humor, puns, pop culture references, Thoughtseize reprint...this one had it all. Not much else to say. Definitely check out the set reviews when they come out, the information is a bit more relevant when received at the proper time.


Worst Set Review: Gatecrash Threats

Apart from being wrong about several of the cards in this set, it just wasn't all that cool. Small sets are often given the juice to help sell booster packs, but there really weren't a whole lot of things to be excited about for Commander in this set. This only my second attempt at doing the set review for the blog and I hadn't worked out all the kinks yet. Still working on that, but things have come a long way since then.

Favorite Stack: Top 5's, Lucky 7's

This was awesome. I got to talk about Cruel Ultimatum, Eternal Dragon, Elesh Norn...that is some powerful stuff! There were video clips of great moments in Magic history. And to top it all off we went absolutely ham. The TGZ boys jumped right off the deep end; throwing out top fives, high fives, 5/5's. This one was one of the best Stacks we have ever done and my favorite...but Flavor Fouls is a close second.


Worst Stack: The One Where the Hate Flows Through Us

Despite having the best name and multiple Star Wars references, this Stack was a little bit of a mess. I remember having several discussions leading up to/after the posting about whether or not Crucible of the Worlds was, in fact, a good card. I don't mean like #1 Legacy staple, best card ever. I mean the rest of the guys on the blog were of the opinion that this just isn't a card. That it isn't worth it, whatever it may be. I don't know what I was expecting since this was the Stack where we specifically talk about cards we hate to talk about. There is no way I am alone here, right? Crucible is incredible...? Yes.

Favorite Card I Put On the Stack: Goblin Lackey, from Y U No Legendary?

I am sticking to my guns here. Everything I said about Lackey is as true as I can make it. If this card were a Legend, then mono Red would be a competitive Commander deck overnight. I hope I get to see the day where the chosen one brings balance to the force color pie. Some day, Red will return and there will be Goblins, and lightning, and fire, and fun fun fun for everyone.

Least Favorite Card I Put On the Stack: Serendib Sorcerer, from Escalating Quickly

It's cool that I have a reason to talk about how awesome Anchorman is right around the time that Anchorman 2 is coming out. I loved that movie. It just had so many great one liners. Back to the Stack though, bring Sorcerer to a bar fight might be funny, but in a world of Magic cards this is small balling pretty hard. There are surely more awesome beaters I could have chosen.

Well that's all folks. 2013 is in the books. I had a great year both on and off the blog. I look forward to more great times in 2014. If you have been here with us from the beginning, I salute you. If you are a new addition to the Zoners, I welcome you. Everyone likes to make new friends. I'll see you next week, where I will discuss my big plans for 2014.

The Stack #40- Helping the Homeless

Good Evening! Sorry about the late post.

Contrary to the title of this week's installment, my excuse is much less humanitarian. But we're here now. Better late, or whatever.

Anyway, what Sarah MacLachlan never tells you when she's busy talking about puppies and kittens is that every year, thousands upon thousands of mediocre rares, commons, and uncommons go unused in Kitchen Table and competitive Magic games.

It's a real tragedy for these poor cards, and so we wanted to give a shout out to some of those cards that haven't made our starting 99's.

So let's get to it! THIS IS THE STACK!

VENSER'S JOURNALIST'S PICK

Venser's Journalist- NOT SURE
I love the unexpected. For a while, my Isperia the Inscrutable deck was centered around a bunch of flying and unblockable weenies with board-wide buff spells and enchants, and for a while this was one of those "buff" enchantments.

The problem with it was that it's just so damn expensive. I really love what this card stands for and what it can do and I definitely think I'll try working with it again, but the fact of the matter is that it's not fast enough for two player and it is a hate magnet for multiplayer.

Ways I've tried working around the cost: Grand Arbiter Augustin IV (because 6 is slightly less than 7), Caged Sun (also very expensive), Gauntlet of power (real-world expensive), and, sadly, Kor Cartographer. All were either hate targets, mana vacuums, or oxygen thieves (sorry Cartographer, you'll just have to return to your homeland forgotten). At this point, I can only hope that one day I will successfully make a blue deck with a bunch of stupid red dragons.

Johnny Confidant- THUMBS DOWN
Usually I'm a fan of cards that have interesting interactions with the board like this. I can see that this card could prove advantageous in a token production deck. The card is nice in theory, though lacks utility in practice.

Uncle Landdrops-  THUMBS UP
I don't really want to play this card, but I admire the ambition. If you can get this out and win with it, nice work. It is an accomplishment.

Grandpa Growth-THUMBS DOWN
Yay for flavor!!! So, this card works correctly, in a flavor sense, which is more than can be said for most top-down designs. The tricky bit is that its effect is simply not strategically advantageous. How many creatures do you need to upgrade before this is actually worth a card to cast? If I had a couple sheets of paper and ten minutes of uninterrupted concentration, I could demonstrate a complex proof which establishes: the limit on the power of this effect as your number of creatures approaches infinity is, in fact, one 'card'. Unfortunately, you can't ever truly have infinite creatures within the game; the comprehensive rules state that there must be an arbitrary limit to iterative loops. So, in effect, Day of the Dragons can never be worth 'a card'.

I don't know why R&D always has to give these kinds of cards the shortest possible end of every stick. It is an Enchanment, which is the card type reserved for both the most and least broken cards. It is prohibitively expensive for no real reason; it isn't like your average deck can produce triple Blue and a board full of creatures without flat out winning, so an incredibly unique board state has to be created to draw any advantage from this effect. Finally, you have to actually punish yourself continuously by play this nonsense deck constructed out of dozens of little Blue critters and very little real action. I have bronchitis. I just ain't got time for that.

GRANDPA GROWTH'S PICK

Grandpa Growth- APPARENTLY THUMBS DOWN
This is a really strange topic. If we are talking straight up about cards that almost make it into my deck, but rarely, if ever, do, then my normal criterion of: 'Thumbs Up if I would play it', is a little awkward. Yea, that sentence had a subordinate clause within another subordinate clause. What, are you some kind of grammarian?

I make it a point to play Islands. Island->"Go" is much scarier and much more powerful than laying any other basic on turn one. I also make it a point to play plenty of card manipulation. Along those lines, all my decks that have Island also have Brainstorm, Ponder, and Preordain. An opening hand can look pretty suspicious, but as long as you have one of these cards you can feel safe and confident keeping a wider variety of starting hands. Now, I teeter back and forth on exactly how much of this type of effect I want to have. It takes a balance between this and the more traditional card drawing spells that actually net you card advantage. Sleight of Hand is pretty much where I end up drawing that line most of the time. Is it good? Sure is, but it isn't so good that I can't live without it or find something more powerful.

Johnny Confidant- THUMBS UP
I've been playing cards like these more in my Daxos deck as of late, oddly enough hitting the right amount really is key. Sure, you can put in every kind of "scry x, draw" cards in but really it starts with the best of these Brainstorm and continues downhill from there with the likes of Ponder and all the way to Sleight of hand here.

Honestly if you don't use Top, Crystal Ball or Darksteel Pendant top manipulate your topdeck i'd suggest no more than 2 of these and a Fact or Fiction. Granted if you have a Scroll rack and a Big Jace your'e really going to be moving cards around like a boss, but not everyone puts up with that for long.

Venser's Journalist- NOT SURE
I agree with GG that this is a good card, and that it has it's limitations. I've been willing to put this in a "Talrand says NO" deck though because it's Blue and does things to my library. The only real reason why I'm sitting on the fence with Slight of Hand is because of Impulse, but that doesn't mean I'm going to pull Slight of Hand out of all my decks in favor for Impulse. That'd just be impulsive.

Uncle Landdrops- I WISH HAD FOUR THUMBS, SO I COULD GIVE THIS FOUR THUMBS DOWN

I am not on board with these Hippie-Dippy-Cantrippy Sorceries. Ponder, Preordain, Serum Visions, Sleight of Hand. There are better ways to find the cards you actually want, and most of them come at Instant speed. Here are a list of reasons why I'm not on board:

1. It requires you to play less disruption/removal (or even worse- less lands), which makes this less relevant than an actual spell. Why not just have more of what you're looking for?

2. The trade-off is terrible, and when I see someone play this, all I can think is either 1) the player is desperate, or they've cast this on Turn 1, and therefore don't really know how to use it. Going down an untapped Island on your turn is a lot worse than having an extra card that you potentially can't cast. Just ask Sensei's Divining Top.

3. The Murphy Defense. Just like your average Droid, the card you're looking for is statistically not likely to be one of 2 or 3 on top of your library. That is, unless you're cheating, or you are Gabriel Nassif with a Cruel Ultimatum, or Shahar Shenhar playing UWR Flash in Standard and Modern at this year's Magic World Championships.

4. The number of playable Miracle cards that people probably want to cast are closer to zero, while the availability of Scry substitutes is enormous now, and though they don't replace your card, they make sure you don't get a dud later.

5. Darksteel Pendant. Crystal Ball. Merfolk Looter. Thought Courier. This is another list of subtitutes that will do most of the things you're already trying to do at least 5-6 more times in a game.

6. I believe the Joker proved to everyone that having a plan is overrated. So why (meta-metagame) so serious-suh?

7. I understand the enjoyment of playing with yourself. I just think the kitchen table's not the most hygienic place to do it.

8. None of them can go on an Isochron Scepter.

JOHNNY CONFIDANT'S PICK

Johnny Confidant-  THUMBS DOWN
This was my second year of playing EDH, and during this time I learned quite a lot. Mainly:

• The importance of a mana curve. Just because you can play all the fatties doesn't mean you should.
• Don't overextend - It's easy to keep pressing when you have the lead, but if you go too far and someone sweeps, you're left with nothing. Likewise, don't try to take things too far too early or else you become a target and are out of the game quickly.
• Not every card that is good in 60 constructed formats is relevent in EDH. Desecration Demon found his way into my Karador deck around the time Gatecrash was released. I wanted to experiment with drafting and he worked for me in limited, so I figured he'd extend his power over to EDH.

Sadly all was not well in Necra land. When I drew him I didn't need him. When I played him no one sacrificed anything and I felt like a parrot repeating "before your combat step, do you sacrifice a creature herp-a-derp". The last straw came while facing a similar deck. I had Demon in play and an opponent played Grave Pact. Well, lesson learned.

Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS UP
I guess I'm the only one that plays the Desecration Demon. Other than playing against token decks, there's some decent pressure you can make in Commander.

Grandpa Growth - THUMBS DOWN
All three of the things JC said were true about Commander...are actually just true of Magic. Actually, if you remove the specifics, they are true of every game, including life. What is a mana curve? The idea of constantly expanding your resource base AND ACTUALLY UTILIZING all of those resources early and often. What is overextension? Committing more resources than is safe or strategically advantageous. Some cards are fine in Standard and bad in Commander. People use the phrase 'Commander card' as shorthand for: too expensive to be realistic. Commander is just one end of that spectrum. Angel of Serenity is too expensive to be realistic in Modern. Thragtusk is too expensive to be realistic in Legacy. This information definitely makes players better, but it makes the game better too. The average quality of your opponent has gone up slightly, making every game that much more challenging and more rewarding for everyone.


Venser's Journalist- THUMBS DOWN
JC's right about the usually poor translation of "good" cards from 60-card format to Commander. This is no exception. If there's a possibility to put multiple copies of this guy in your deck, you'll probably benefit more from his ability, since you'll be more likely to draw him early on.

Sure, he's a nice beefy 6/6 Flyer that has potential for growth, but if you put him out late game he's just another chump. One of the lessons I've learned is that good EDH decks need either great synergy or enough control to get one of many win cons out. This demon doesn't have much synergy unless you're going Demon-tribal (not popular, last I checked) nor does it give you much control (since you're not the one who says whether a creature is sacrificed).

Based on cost-power alone, he's a good fighter/defender, but in the end I'd rather have a Bloodgift Demon. At least with the Bloodgift, you can draw into something awesome quicker.


UNCLE LANDDROPS' PICK 

Uncle Landdrops-  THUMBS UP
This is a card I'm still trying to get in a good home. I heard about it on CommanderCast a while back, and it's become a pet card I'm just not willing to trade or part with, but not good enough to make into a deck either. It's a real shame too. I like just about everything about this card.

Johnny Confidant- THUMBS UP
I ran a Merieke Ri Berit deck a few months ago and could have really used this guy as a back-up to a back-up. Merieke, Shackles and this guy would have made a solid theft trio that could have made sweet sweet misery for my opponents. Sad to say for the time being that my Merieke deck has been taken apart for a more personal project but she will return and i will be looking for this card!

my only grief to have with this is that with the rise of Derevi players i'll have a harder time keeping threats that can be taken back through untapping. oh well, time to adapt.

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS UP
Card is pretty great. Not sure what people don't like about it. It's insane early AND post-Wrath. Maybe you don't get the choicest morsels, but people get awfully nitpicky for no reason. This card is a walking Vedalken Shackles...which I understand is a lot worse than a not-walking shackles, but a lot of decks straight up CANNOT beat shackles. There are plenty of cards that fall into this category of: 'good if done' right. You have to protect it, you have to set it up, it needs Haste, it needs time, whatever/whatever. This doesn't cost six. It costs three.

Some people don't really understand what makes a card powerful on a whole. Instead they have to use this weird, personalized heuristic system. Don't let irrelevant details throw you off the trail of the relevant ones. Is Deathrite Shaman bad because it can't remove Planeswalkers from the bin? No.

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
The thing to remember about this card is that it does not give you total control... at least on the surface. You can get control of the creature you really want if you kill all the others first. But then why not just kill all their creatures? Or just use the Beguiler of Wills?

I do like the concept of this card though. It's very flavorful. And in most situations, having control of another person's creature will give you some advantage. One fun use for this particular card is to gain control of your opponent's creature, then sacrifice gained creature to sac-engine like Scarecrone or Trading Post. But in that case, Preacher should be renamed Cult Leader. Or are they the same to begin with???

Be sure to check out GG's article tomorrow as he talks about his favorite hits from 2013. Until Tuesday!

-UL/GG/VJ/JC

When Did I Stop Playing Lightning Greaves?

Organizing my cards a few weeks ago, I noticed I had a playset of Commander's most popular Equipment sitting in my binder.

Though it's not so surprising based on my general Commander philosophies to see this particular trend, the more I asked myself "Why?" the more I came to this probably controversial conclusion:

Lightning Greaves is really not as good as any of us think it is. 

I'm not saying Greaves isn't a good card. There are few Equipment that beat it for overall value, from monetary, CMC, and functional perspectives.

What I'm saying is that both the perceived value as its controller, and an opponent's perceived value as a threat, couldn't be more wrong.

The easiest way to analyze Greaves and explain my case is by examining each of its abilities and coloring in the gaps with helpful examples. Sorry I don't have cleverly labeled charts for you visual learners. Trips to Kinko's aren't included in the TGZ budget yet, and I'm not really enthused with the color swatch options I have in the latest Microsoft Word Tables and Charts update.

So let's get examining.

Argument #1- Haste Is A One-Turn Window

I'm going to make a wild generalization, but I think for Magic Players, haste is a word we'd love to see on everything in Magic. Tempo is basically my favorite word apart from value, and haste has the innate property to generate both quickly, surprising your opponent for unaccounted damage.

This is one of the nicest qualities of LG. Turning Titans and late-game threats sideways cuts your opponent's ability to draw an answer by a whole turn usually, which means less top-decking, more desperation, and in most cases, more misplays, which is the ingredient most people don't think about when the concrete for your road to victory is being poured.

Still, haste isn't valuable all the time in Commander. It's a very opportunistic ability that isn't always relevant in a format where the game scales regularly, and throwing the first punch almost always means getting hit back twice as hard.

The reality is that quick swings aren't enough. Quick, relevant swings are what it takes to win the game, and though Lightning Greaves will give you a few chances to get your timing right, it's still not going to put enough pressure on your opponent if it's just sitting on the table.

Argument #2- Shroud Isn't Anyone's Friend

I know. Most Voltron deck builders would probably consider Greaves "necessary," as it helps said Commander avoid Tuck Effects and other messy Combat Step removal.

However, Shroud really isn't in the best interest of a Commander trying to become the Defender of the Universe. Most solid Voltron decks play a variety of protection, and really want to be going to search up a premium Sword instead, possibly even Swiftfoot Boots or Champion's Helm over LG.

The reality though is that most players will play Greaves, and end up doing the "Equipment Musical Chairs," and undermining the very reason it's in the deck in the first place. It's just flat out counter-intuitive to a deck that wants to be getting their Commander big quick, and it doesn't matter how low the Equip cost is in this case- there's still moments where LG won't be doing its job, and if you respect your opponents ability to recognize moments for well-timed removal, LG just isn't better than having counterspell or even something like Rebuff the Wicked.

The emergence of Hexproof has also changed Greaves. Though slightly more costly, Swiftfoot Boots is probably a better option in Voltron decks.

As for LG in other decks, it mostly promotes overextension and bad playing. If you've got a threat, and it's already protected by Greaves, the logic is that having another one will end the game quicker. And if you're actually ahead and your opponent can't do a thing about it, this is probably true. However, this usually not the case you are going to find yourself in if your opponent is any good and the game is still competitive. Lightning Greaves doesn't give you free permission to continue to play aggressively no matter how comfortable the lead feels. LG simply works to prevent losing what you already have, though it seems to suggest otherwise.

Argument #3- Removal Spells Don't Have To Aim

Equip costs, again, are still Sorcery slow. So in most situations, Greaves is either going to speed up a response that is already going to take place, or it's going to resolve, and it won't matter anyway, due to great removal that doesn't target creatures.

Most every color has a trick to bend their way around this card. Wing Shards and Celestial Flare are super inexpensive and cheap to cast options. Diabolic Edict is a real card. Even straight up removing Greaves is effective.

It's almost always worth it to have one of these spells than it is to have a Lightning Greaves too. At some point, your opponent is going to have to play something good to try and win, and extra disruption or an extra threat of your own is usually better than Greaves, which is bound to be misused and/or put an unnecessary target on your back.

Well, that's all I got for today. Feel free to disagree with me or talk about this in the comments below. I'm interested to hear if people feel the same or not.

Until next time, don't find yourself on the wrong side of town without your news team. I heard it can escalate quickly.

-UL

UL's Better Deckbuilding: Saffi Eriksdotter, Infinite Martyr EDH

Well Happy Holidays Zoners!

Your pal Landdrops has saved his most ambitious and surprising deck to date for an Eve such as this, and it's time I showed you my best work since Animar.

Why Saffi?

Inspiration comes to me in all different slants of light, and in all different moments. In the case of Animar, I didn't decide to go all-in on creatures until I got to my pre-test (Magic Solitaire) phase of deck testing. Sometimes, like in the case of this Tajic deck I'm working on now, it comes when I'm looking through a trade binder and I think about an interaction between a Commander and a card I haven't played with before.

The choice to build around Saffi was similar to Tajic. It was one card that kicked off a chain of events which led to the beginnings of design for this deck. That card was Gift of Immortality.

Having never played Saffi as a card, the connection and idea that arose from my unconscious was that Saffi could infinitely sac herself and come back, making her Wrath Proof. Since GoI acted in a similar way, this would make for a few nice combos to get card advantage.

So I decided I'd try to make a non-blue combo deck. Little did I know that what I'd actually stumbled upon was going to be the most involved combo-based deck I'd ever built, seen, or played, even.

What Does This Deck Do?

After I'd gotten to a good place with the deck, I did the thing I usually do when I get excited about a list. I sent it to Grandpa Growth to get thoughts, feedback, etc.

He asked this very question. What does the deck do?

The best three-word answer is Extreme Card Advantage. However, the full answer is slightly more complicated.

Conceptually, you have various layers of combos. Some are as simple as Sakura-Tribe Elder + Gift of Immortality, generating significant incremental value, while others, like Sun Titan + Saffi + Blasting Station can effectively end the game.

Because the combos and synergies within the deck scale to the game, it does two important things most other combo decks don't.

The first is that this deck keeps up an active board presence. A lot of combo decks in my experience revolve around being less interactive, specifically in combat. With little in the creature department, these decks tend to do nothing and either take damage, or go off and end the game in a less than exciting way for people.

The second is that the deck's inherent card advantage provides not only the ability to control a game, but also the ability to troubleshoot when you're in worst-case scenario. With a plethora of combos and the ability to weather Wrath effects because of Saffi, there are very few one card answers that can stop the deck from ending the game.

The overall effect of these qualities creates an effectively new identity for the combo deck in Commander. Rather than be the guy at the table hiding behind a handful of cards, the Saffi deck can play aggressively in a natural way and force your opponents to choose how best to manage their own disruption and resources to beat you.

When played correctly, this deck has yet to be beat. This is because it has a side effect I discovered.  With access to scaleable combos, inherent threats, and massive synergy, the deck can be played much like a "Shell Game," forcing your opponents to guess which combo is going to be the one that finishes them off.

If you've ever seen Yu-Gi play the card Magical Hats, that's essentially what's going on.



The Tech

While no one particular card is responsible for ending the game, there are plenty of pretty neat cards I was able to redefine and carve out a different identity for here in this deck.

The first one I want to talk about is this goofy Aura tutor. I've developed quite a soft spot for it in Saffi because of how great it is with access to sac outlets and creatures like Sakura-Tribe and Saffi, who can help me control the timing of this trigger.

Being able to have that flexibility is extremely valuable, which is why it's become one of the better cards in the deck.

That said, I don't think it's awesome without sac outlets, but it is well worth your time if you've got ways to get it into play for free, and creatures that you'd rather get into play for free.

Sac outlets are pretty important for this deck to be online. In green and white, we're pretty thin in terms of having relevant ones, but Martyr's Cause has been useful. With Sun Titan/Reveillark/Karmic Guide and Saffi, this card basically ensures I have an infinite Fog. It can also create "double-blocks" against decks like Azusa, which will probably have either more dudes, bigger dudes, or both.

I don't go get it regularly, but it is a good situational card when the odds are not in your favor.

Auramancer is another great situational card. Since most of our big enchantments (Pattern of Rebirth and Defense of the Heart) are either sacrificed when they work, or countered when they don't, the utility and value from Auramancer has been pretty unbelievable. There have been a few instances where sending a Saffi enchanted with Pattern to the bin meant going for Auramancer to get Pattern, enchant Auramancer, then get Sun Titan, get Auramancer back on the battlefield, get Pattern again in my hand. This is the kind of degenerate plays that can be made with this seemingly harmless card.

There are many sac outlets this deck plays, and we play all the ones that break the game- Ashnod's Altar, Greater Good, Blasting Station.

But we're talking about Spawning Pit just to illustrate how many great redundant copies of sac outlets I'm running.

Also, the fact that we have a really cool combo with this card too. In conjunction with Sun Titan/Karmic Guide/Reveillark, Saffi, and Earthcraft, This little engine can create infinite dudes or infinite ETB loops and mana.

I know it's not that good. It's just that much better because of the teamwork that takes place in this deck.

Okey-doke. Well, that's all I got for you today. Here's my full Saffi list on TappedOut:

Saffi Eriksdotter, Infinite Martyr 


I recommend you check it out, gimme comments, +1s if you like it, and feel free to follow me or add me as a friend if you're already on there.

Until next time, have a Happy Holidays. I'll try to be back here on Thursday with an essay on why Lightning Greaves is bad for you.

Here's to hoping you don't have to put your boots on. Merry Holiday.

-UL

Reviewing 2013 Part 2: The Misses

Welcome on back Zoners! It's me your old Grandpa Growth here again. Once again, this article is a continuation of my end of the year series. In case you missed it, scroll on back through the archives to catch part one wherein I talked about my shining moments of veracity with regards to set review predictions. Today in part two I am going over my biggest misses. The faux pauxs. The fox poxs. The whiffs of most embarrassing size. Let's start with the most recent and roll it on back to the beginning.

In the Commander 2013 set review I declared this to be the far an away home run Legacy plant of the set...since every set seems to have one of those nowadays. I declared that this would go immediately into basically every Legacy deck ever and all would prosper as it handily dominated the format for decades. I didn't quite go that far, but you get my drift. This card is amazing and extremely strong and is absolutely making a showing in Commander, where I basically guaranteed that it would, but it only cracked into Legacy in the form of a one-off sideboard appearance.




I confidently declared that this was the best of the godly weapons and that it did 100% of everything you want a card to do in EDH. This, as it turns out isn't exactly true. In the set review I missed on the chance to make the comparison to Obelisk of Alara; a card which is exceedingly mediocre and only merits inclusion in five color decks based on novelty. Bow of Nylea has some striking similarity, not that the abilities are identical, but that they are all just a bit too small to be effective. You want to shoot down fliers, but 2 damage just isn't enough. You want to grow your threats, but +1 at a time is a costly, long-term investment that is often going to end in removal...and sadness. As for the life gain and 'remember' effects, they really just aren't that useful. These two modes are the least desirable of the four. The life gain, just like the damage to fliers, just comes in to small a package. If I want to gain life, I want to gain life. I'm talking huge chunks. This card is a ton of incremental value, but unfortunately it really isn't up to snuff for Commander.



Boy was I wrong about this one...at least for short stack Magic. In Theros limited this is one of the top commons. In Standard this is one of the scariest Nykthos enablers. The R/G devotion deck is truly degenerate; capable of producing amounts of mana that I can only describe as shenanigans. I thought that this was the kind of stuff that they were trying to take away from Magic. Standard devotion decks remind me a bit of Dredge decks in Legacy. Sometimes you look up from the board and ask yourself: "Are we even playing the same game?" They just spent 30 mana on turn four and you played a tap land. How is this nonsense fair? Anyway, back to talking about this Satyr guy. I was right about one of my comments from the set review: In eternal formats this hasn't made much of a splash. There are a multitude of substitutes that are equal to this in power, so there isn't much reason to play this instead of a different, generic accelerator.



I am going to start putting up flyers at my local store. Missing Kitty. If you find him put him in your decks. I was scared as all get out of this cat...and not just because I am jealous of his luxurious hair. I have been fed up with the absurd power creep within Magic is recent years. It doesn't seem to be slowing down; moreover, it appears to be accelerating at an accelerating rate. Oh wordplay, how fun art thou. Let's be serious for a moment though. In some formats from recent memory this would have been one of the premier cards in the set. Its very existence would have forced people to either play GW beats, or metagame against it. It says something about a format when there are 2/2's for one, 3/3's for two, 4/4's for three, 5/5's for four, 6/6's for five....AND NONE OF THEM HAVE DRAWBACKS. Some of you guys haven't been around long enough to know how strange that is to say. This is a very different game than it used to be.

This is really more of a pseudo miss. The card itself isn't so bad, but it is just part of an incomplete puzzle. R/B Beatz is just a tragically underpowered deck in every format. Two-color aggro decks are rarely as successful or as fast as their mono-colored counterparts, despite the fact that the power level of the cards is significantly higher. There is just a glaring hole in the color pie metagame. Black/Red just doesn't have the right answers. It isn't fast enough to reliably threaten turn 4 or 5 kills in Commander, but it doesn't have answers to the most powerful late game strategies. On the surface you might think that it would have game against tokens, White weenie, or Green ramp decks, but the Black/Red decks are so reliant on creatures to kill that you can't rely on using sweepers to gain an edge. Swarm decks rebuild faster. White can protect their threats (and their threats are better than yours), and Green can do degenerate things with mana or Enchantments (which you have no way to interact with). It is pretty unfortunate, but I just don't think the day is coming where this card will be the shining star...of the underworld.


I think the exact word that I used to describe this was 'unsure'. That actually doesn't sound like as much of a whiff when you say it like that, but I was saying it euphemistically. I though that this was worse than Mana Barbs, and it is, but that isn't the point. It isn't bad. At all. In fact is is almost as good as the Barbs and that is a good place to be. This still does a ton of damage if you cast it early and acts a lot like Armageddon if your opponent has a low life total. This doesn't provide a stone cold lock. It doesn't provide inevitability. It does however do a surprisingly high amount of damage to the table. It is an entire light year ahead of Sizzle in terms of multiplayer burn. I want to say that this is somewhat innocuous, but that is probably just lingering self-doubt. I underestimated this card severely. A mistake I would admonition you against my faithful readers.

I rated this below basically every other iteration of Garruk in the M14 set review. The results from recent Standard tournaments show that was a lie. As it turns out, the +1 ability is very strong. It requires some significant sacrifices in deck building in order to maximize the effectiveness of the ability, but if you can hit reliably it is back breaking. For a plansewalker, upping loyalty and drawing cards at the same time is the nut high in my opinion. This is perfectly at home in Commander. Big green decks. Stompy. Animar. Momir. Some pretty real decks. I shouldn't have been so surprised. This is a pretty real card.



I already used the missing cat poster joke...so I basically have nothing to say except...I am going to my local store and put of missing dog posters. Seriously...this has Hexproof. Which is already snapped, but mono Blue is one of the best decks in both Standard and Commander. Bestow just got printed. Armadillo Cloak just got a spiritual reprint last year. Equipment exists. What is going wrong here. Geist of Saint Traft was a multiformat all-star, but this can't make it out of booster draft. What gives brewers? Don't feel like letting the dogs out? Not down to do it doggy style?

I said this card was bad. I don't always know what I am talking about. This is exceedingly weak to counterspells, since it is functionally a seven drop, but I say this thing all the time about how expensive spells should just win you the game and I missed the fact that this card absolutely does. An unblockable, untargetable, 8 power smash engine is actually enough to make grown men cry. I don't like to travel by sea, probably because I miss the boat so much...


Hah...yea. For contrast, I said this card was really good...that Momir was getting all the fancy new toys. Green/Blue is over-powered...ban everything! The combination of this being very expensive, even for a value-added counterspell, and the fact that is isn't actually a Creature card makes this a very lack luster answer. It is a lot easier to search up a Green Creature than just about anything else in the game save for lands. This is going to be on the sidelines for a while and that is probably for the best.

This card makes me feel all weirdy inside. Extort is crazy powerful. I definitely understated that in the set review. I just wasn't fully aware of how much a two point life swing means. It adds up to a lot over the course of the game. Sure, you end up one turn behind the curve, but you gain so much life and EACH opponent loses some every turn. Blind Obedience is the perfect card to compliment this effect. It buys you back a lot of the tempo you give up by casting your spells one turn later. It nerfs Haste Creatures and Artifact mana so that they are just a bit less powerful. It completely hoses defense-only creatures as well! They are losing life to the Extort so you have a ton of extra reach in your deck PLUS they have to skip a turn of blocking with each new threat they play, making it much more difficult to actually stabilize the board. This card is crazy strong and a real bear to play against.


So, it has been clearly demonstrated that I am not all that great at math, despite having done some time in engineering school. I recall saying that this was just too slow to serve as a kill condition. That is absurd. This gets out of control very quickly and as a five drop is certainly fast enough to present a very aggressive clock.


This is another case of me saying: "it does everything you want" and what actually happened was: it doesn't really do anything. The ability to turn Rolling Thunder into an Instant is awesome, but the ability to turn it into a Silence really does draw much appeal. In practice, this is just a very expensive burn spell and you can find something better if that is all you were looking for.





This hasn't gained much traction, but I am still standing strong. It is an enormous two drop. It is big on power and small on cost. It can be just as large as 'goyf and you won't have to get a mortgage in order to buy a play set. Again, I could be missing the big picture here, but I am sticking to my guns. I think this cad is great and severely underrated.

This is the last card of my naught list. I feel a bit bad for this little guy. The changes to the way Legendary permanents work really hurt the potential of this card for Commander. It is still a powerful value engine, but the ability to take out Commanders on the fly was the only thing that really excited me about this card. Now all that is left is an over-costed copy effect that has mild upside. Not worth working for. Oh well, maybe some day the rules management team will swing back in favor of identity theft.


In the words of one of my favorite philosophers, Forrest Gump: "And that's just about all I have to say about that." I have made plenty of mistakes this year. I hope you enjoyed watching every one of them happen. Hopefully, you can look forward to more of the same! Next week, the final Sunday of the year, I will be looking back at my favorite posts and and least favorite posts from this year on TGZ. The ups and some of the downs.

The Stack #39- Unpopular Voltron-ification

In popular Voltron-ification, we know that the Defender of the Universe was formed by combining the powers of five mechanical cats with different paint jobs.

And popular Commander Voltron-ification really isn't that much different. Most victories are made on the backs of colored Swords and powerful Auras.

But as always, we salute those who make their own legendary Megazord with a multitude of different colored Power Rangers (This is a more relevant reference than its 80's cartoon counterpart). Like, I know I would've loved to see not only how the Brown Brontosaurus Ranger would've fit into the team dynamic, but also what his ethnic background might've been.

Red Ranger = Native American
Black Ranger = African American
Yellow Ranger = Asian American
(Not Pictured: White Ranger = White Guy)
Three's a pattern folks. Four is a theory.
Logic holds up, the Brown Ranger might've been Cuban.

And that's kind of what this episode is about. Assembling your own strange, unconventional team with diverse skills and backgrounds to defeat the forces that some idiot unleashed when they made the fatal mistake of opening up the wrong alien space dumpster. Or something like that.

THIS IS THE STACK!

JOHNNY CONFIDANT'S PICK

Johnny Confidant-  THUMBS UP
During my first year playing EDH I was playing against a Voltron deck that just got out of control and it was all thanks to this little card.

At the time I was playing my Sigarda deck and had a solid board state with plenty of blockers. When I faced this deck (I think it was Glissa T) they slapped this on it without even looking at it. I blocked it with my Predator Ooze only to be surprised that I had just lost every other creature on the field. Since then, I make sure to watch what effects my opponents creatures have and what abilities are added to them with Equipment.

Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS UP
No doubt Kusari-Gama is hot tech with Glissa T's. I'll probably try this out at some point in my own build, but I'll admit I have some reservations.

Across most of my decks, I try to drive the converted mana cost down. Although this has a nice, reasonable 3 in the top right corner, Kusari-Gama doesn't actually cost 3 to play. It costs 3 to play, 3 to equip, and the converted mana cost of a creature. 6-plus. Six is about as far as I like to go for most cards in a deck, but with equipment, this is a little too much. With the Swords of X and Y as the standard, something that costs more than 2 to equip has to be really, really good. Cards like Batterskull, which usually don't get equipped, and Quietus Spike, which represents a lot of damage, are equipment I'd consider.

Grandpa Growth - THUMBS DOWN
This is not really my cup of tea. I always have big stacks of equipment that I am trying to jam into my decks. It's hard to imagine a board state in basically any Commander deck, where you wouldn't benefit from a Jitte or Sword on your side. The trouble is that there just isn't room in a tight deck list for a bunch of situational cards like Equipment. So that means only the best of the best are going to make the cut and Kusari-Gama is not one of those cards.

Also, why are we going on about Glissa decks? The Kusari-Gama does not have Deathtouch. People generally won't want to block Glissa because racing is more feasible than chumping your way to victory. You want to slam this on something that has a ton of power and that they must block...but even then it isn't worth doing.


Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
This equipment means business and the damage it does is devastating, but I do have to agree with UL that it is rather costly. You could certainly have this on the field at turn three, but you'd have to wait another turn to equip. Unless you're playing some sick land ramp. And if this was in a Glissa T deck, I'd expect at least a little ramp here and there.

My "Thumbs Up" here is really only situational, but this is still an awesome equipment that does big stupid damage. Truly a Michael Bay type of card. Who's punching who? Who cares!?


UNCLE LANDDROPS' PICK 

Uncle Landdrops-  THUMBS UP
I've played this in a couple different decks, and it's pretty sweet.

Many times playing a Voltron strategy means you've got your Commander attacking and not doing a lot of defending (unless it's Bruna). Triclopean Sight is a helpful trick in this situation. It almost always means you can get rid of or block your opponent's biggest creature with your own buffed up dude. The best deck I had it in was Pauper Zur, where racing was pretty commonplace, and I could tutor this up after tapping Zur to attack.

As mentioned, this is redundant for Bruna, but good for "fun" Zur decks and pretty sweet in an Ertai the Corrupted Enchantment Voltron, where Triclopean Sight is a slightly more complicated counterspell.

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS UP
'Voltroning' is not the proper term. It is obviously Voltronification. It is robot unification guys...come on. Also, this card is sweet...AND I HAVE NEVER SEEN IT! I have even retro-drafted Lorwyn recently! It always seems like at least one card slips through the cracks. The way print runs get broken down is just so unpredictably predictable. I will soon be using this for some Pauper beatings.

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
Personally, one of my favorite common Enchantments, aside from Steel of the Godhead. I like this for pretty much the same reasons that UL mentioned, but also because it does three things for two mana. Now that is efficient Voltroning (or Voltronification, for the politically correct).

Johnny Confidant- THUMBS UP
Since we're all discussing Voltron(ification) in regard to Enchantments shouldn't it be Enchantress ([Male] Enchanter) and Voltron in theme with Equipment?

This card though, love it and have never seen it. this is going into my vault and i'll draw upon this for a future decklist.

VENSER'S JOURNALIST'S PICK

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
The "Thumbs Up" is really only for originality. Though I can see how regenerating a creature for no mana can be appealing, everything about this card is bewildering. Even in the game I saw someone play this, the move was pure left-field tech. I don't remember what commander the player was using, but no one was really sure what to make of it.

Regardless, it kept his Master of Cruelties alive long enough to bring one of the other players down to one life total.

Johnny Confidant- THUMBS DOWN
This is an oddball aura, Flash, Lifeloss, and regen for free is quite alot to take in even from a flavor standpoint. For leeches i understand the lifeloss but i'm not too sure on flash and regeneration, Surly a Cheetah would have flash but 70mph leeches?

Regeneration in flavor of black is about being able to either re-assemble your body or pull yourself together through unholy or dark magic to which leeches are not really in line with. True, this is an oddball card and i agree with VJ about for Originality, but i am not a fan of the flavor.

Uncle Landdrops-  THUMBS UP
I can't remember if I actually played this in Doran, or if I just considered it, but I would play it. There are a few nice little Black Auras that were pretty successful, and this is one that I liked quite a bit. The art on this I find to have a really nice blend of creepy, gross, and innocent. Poor little Geisha. I hope to read more about this in your memoirs.

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS DOWN
This is an awfully strange topic, I am still going to use the strategy of: thumbs up if I'd start it in some version of Commander, but that could just be plain unfair since this topic is basically 'sketchiest tech that is also an aura'. This card...seems like a lot to invest just to get regeneration. I don't really give people credit for trying to win with 'hipster tech', but I also don't complain if I lose to it. Good thing you could probably count the games that this card has won on a single hand.

GRANDPA GROWTH'S PICK

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS DOWN
I had this in an early draft of my Bruna deck that included 40+ enchantments. I am not always great at this game. BUT I am a learning animal. I am proud to say I only put this into play once before revising my deck list and my drinking habits.

Johnny Confidant- THUMBS DOWN
I'm seeing a kind of a unintentional "Flavor Foul" theme going on here. I give a lot of leeway to early magic sets, especially to those before block sets and constructed balance were implemented. So I'll just pretend this is a Red Enchantment and continue with the evaluation.

I agree with GG on this, You'd have to be drunk to drop this into any deck, even enchantment builds. You get +3/+3 for a turn then it starts to sap away your creatures power, after 3 turns your opponents won't blow it up but then it starts to sap away your creatures buffs and/or real power. If you want a more obvious sign that this is just a really bad card I'm sure UL can Photoshop in the troll face for you XD.

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS DOWN
I have seen this card only once in a more offensive play. The controller attached it to a Darksteel Colossus. It wasn't a smart move, nor was it terribly effective, and the more I think about the person who attached it to the Colossus, the more I realize it was probably meant as a joke.

As for this card being used as a voltron component, I'd say the person using it has to be mindful that he may eventually lose the creature or get rid of the enchantment (so why use the enchantment in the first place?).  Maybe good for a Putrefax or any other one-turn-only dudes.

Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS DOWN
I know it's bad, but when you're already making the bad decision to play Hakim, Loreweaver, well, you just kinda go with it. So I've played it too. There aren't a lot of solid blue Aura options for pumps.

Surprisingly, this card wasn't the worst part of the deck, but it was up there for sure. The good news was that I could avoid the drawback through bounce and sacrifice. But it surely wasn't good.

That's all we got for today folks. Make sure to stay on the same bat channel for tomorrow. Grandpa's got some good stuff as we continue to review our own reviews throughout the year. Also, we'll be coming at you through the holidays, and hopefully resuming our Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday-Sunday routine as we get to the new year. So continue to check back with us, and have a good holiday.

Until next time, Merry Christma-Hanu-Kwanzaa.
-UL/GG/VJ/JC

Four Decks For The Future

Hey Zoners!

Today we've got another Landdrops List on the docket as usual.

I've got four Legends I've considered playing, and I'd like to share them with you.

4. Tajic, Blade of the Legion

This card got no love from most people, and for good reason. It's pretty bad, and I'm not ashamed to admit that. I've already tried to build this deck, and ultimately unsleeved it.

However, I still like this card, and I do want to have a decent deck in what I believe to be the worst color combination in Commander. And I think an Indestructible dude is not a bad start.

3. Wydwen, the Biting Gale

This is a deck I've begun to put together, but shelved it for other projects so I can maintain focus. In my research of Wydwen lists I've found that she's a pretty common Duel Commander option, as she can end games turn 5 with a surprising Hatred pump.

What appeals to me about Wydwen is that she's got a nice Control-Aggro (because that's the order in which you play this deck), being a chump blocker or suiting up to deliver beats. Flash, I can tell you, is an awesome Commander ability, and when combined with a low cost and the ability to bounce, means re-casting her is probably going to seldom get past 6, at most.

2. Ulasht, the Hate Seed

This is definitely one of the sketchiest Commander choices I like. What got me sort of excited about playing Ulasht is Dominator42's list- Ulasht, the Token Devourer. A good Token deck is something that I really don't have in my Deck Portfolio. I know I've made my love for Ruric Thar fairly known on this blog, and I'd love to try him too. Currently though, I got this Hydra on the brain.

1. Marath, Will of the Wild

Daddy Resurgence here reinforces just how much I want to play a Commander with +1/+1 counters, I guess. I was a big fan of him when he got spoiled, and I really liked casting him in the preconstructed playtesting I did before I took the deck apart.

There's some cool design space to explore here, and I like how he scales to the game. Though Naya probably isn't the wedge I want to be playing if I've got something really general centric, there's plenty of support if he ends up getting lost in your deck.

As always, I'm looking for great ideas and lists for any of these decks. I never know when I'm going to be inspired by a particular card or ability to design. Feel free to leave me suggestions if you've got them for one of these to build around if you've got them.

In the meantime, cycle your Krosan Tuskers, play Solemns, and make fun of the next person that shows up with or considering playing a Diaochan deck.

Diaochan is terrible.
-UL

Reviewing 2013 Part 1: The Hits

Happy Winter holiday fest Zoners! Now that the festivities are in full swing it is time to take a look back at the year that has passed us by. Yes, the time has come for us to reflect, quietly or otherwise, on the things that we have done...and we here at the General Zone have done some serious growing. When I signed up, we were looking at a couple of hundred views. Now, I ain't typically in the blogging business, but if you start there and work your way up into the tens of thousands after a year and a half then you just might be on to something. I am proud to be here as a part of it! So in honor of that I am going to be looking at some of my proud moments from the set reviews in 2013. If you haven't had a chance to check them out, use all of the sweeet holiday free time to take a look back through the archive; look out for the Set Review tag. If you were hoping for the part where I eat twelve helpings of humble pie, skip ahead to next week where I will be taking a look at my biggest misses!

So let's take a look at what I did right, starting with the recent and rolling it all the way back to 2012.

So I am going to start off a bit easy here. This wasn't a walk off home run, but it was sure close. I was quite sure Unexpectedly Absent was going to be the secret Legacy plant from Commander 2013, and it did manage to see some one-off sideboard play, but it seems White isn't the color you want your new Legacy tech to be; this year we want Blue presents and we aren't accepting substitutes. True-Name jumped straight into Legacy Delver decks and put up results immediately. In Commander it has done a ton of work as well. I guess I'll have to settle for saying it was the second best card in the set.

I have been right occasionally, and about this one I definitely was. This card is sick like cancer and it is seeing plenty of play so I guess I have that going for me (is that joke inappropriate, even among the tristing sewer pipes of internet commentary?). I gushed plenty about this card here on the blog and do so to just about everyone that I see playing it, so let's get on to the gettin' on.



I sort of hit the nail on this one. I believe my exact words were, 'the creatures you control could have a ham sandwich and it would still be good' or something like that. In my mind, this is really only a little bit of an under estimation considering I would take either of these abilities on a card. Again though, I did make a bold claim that Bow of Nylea was better than this by a substantial margin. I was probably wrong about that being true, but this is a heck of a card.



I made some tentative comparisons here to some pretty good cards. Gaea's Cradle? Cabal Coffers? In Commander this isn't quite as much of a show stopper, but if Standard is any indicator devotion is going to be a big thing in multiple formats. So far, we have only seen one set out of this block and it has already shaken up a lot. I excited to see how much more this card can achieve with some more support.




So in my initial review I said that this card was just down right hogwash. And it turns out that that is actually true! One thing I did manage to leave out in my original discussion was that horrible, horrible flavor text. This is one card that may actually be worse than basic Mountain, even in multiples.



Possibly my favorite hit of the year. I have been waving the red flag on this little number since day one. It is an absolute house. It is such a monstrous beating to counter a Reanimate and gain 15+ life in the process. That is being rather conservative as well...This card can gain silly amounts of life. This is the only card that I am considering cutting from my Pauper Cube because it is just too strong. It can't be beat. Every time someone else casts this card against me, in any format, I just instantly want to throw up. Here on TGZ we have been playing up Crypt Incursion for a while. If you aren't on the bandwagon yet...well it is about gosh darn time you dug your head out of the sand and sat it squarely back on your shoulders.




Ugh...I just...don't even want to. I like being right, but not when it means something like this. Have you played against this card? It is so vicious, so conniving that I just can't bring myself to main deck it. This is it. We found it. This is where I draw the line. Debt to the Deathless is just too darn mean. In the DGM set review I relayed a humorous anecdote about a gigantic Exsanguinate for seventeen. Well, just the other day a table of four players just scooped up their cards and left when this card resolved...FOR FIVE! That was it. Pour one out on the curb for your deathless homies. I felt like one of the statues in this art...just projectile vomiting blood onto my board. This ranks up there in my top ten for feel bad cards. Keeping company with Daze and Plow Under is only good in certain neighborhoods. No one should have to feel this bad playing a game of Magic.




This little guy went underrated for a good sixth months before I started seeing him around the tables. Even I was starting to second guess myself, but I held firm. Things first came to a head when I battled against UL's fabled Animar, Soul of the Elements deck. As it turns out, when your whole deck is creatures, you draw an extra card with Domri pretty often. At some point, this just turns into a chain gun, you load it up with a sufficiently sized Animar bullet and it just mows down everything but the front lawn.

It's funny, because in the GC set review I made a joke that getting to Domri's ultimate turned all your creatures into the Predator...and then a few months later all the Slivers became Predators. No? Nobody else finds that funny, I guess. I like to think that the creative team reads the blog.



In the Gatecrash Set Review I made the not-so-bold claim that this would either be completely snapped or completely useless. That isn't much of a prediction. What I got right about this card was that they shouldn't have printed it. When I said that things like this are bad for the game I meant it. Instant dominance in Legacy is an indicator to me that a card is just too dang strong...or free. And that is the problem here! This is way out of the park in power level and, as it turns out, is completely free. I agree that a certain amout of 'puzzle' cards should exist for people to try and break. People like combos. People like deckbuilding. I say let my people brew! You just have to be very careful because it takes a lot of foresight to understand what the effects will be if someone actually does solve the puzzle...

Well, so much for that. Those were the favorite true things I said about a Magic card in 2013. As I said, next week we will be taking another stroll down memory lane to check out my big whiffs! So I hope to see you all then. Make sure to leave a comment about your favorite cards from this year. Or maybe your favorite silly pun that I made. Who knows, we might just have some fun by accident.

-GG