The Dragon Ghost of Christmas Past, and My Article From CommanderCast

Holiday Greetings Zoners! 

First things first here's an Ugin, in case you haven't seen it yet. Looks like some hot tech.

As I promised, or in case you didn't know, I've started writing for CommanderCast in addition to what GG and I have cooking over here at TGZ. 

Here's that link: Strategy: Poker? I Barely Commander!

Whatever holiday you celebrate, hope it's sweet. Merry Pizza. 

-UL

Reviewing 2014: GG's Picks

Hello and welcome to the final In General of 2014! All this month I have been looking back at the past year of set reviews on the blog; discussing some of my most and least accurate card evaluations. Today, we continue to review my personal performance. This time looking at the best and worst articles of 2014.

Favorite Post on the blog: Grandpa's Pauper Cube

In many ways I did not have a great year. For the first time since I joined the team here I missed a post. I also totally fumbled the rollout on a bunch of new content that I promised, but never could deliver. However, in other ways I think the year went very well.

In General had a great year. My core business, if you will, is this weekly column. Which, I have kept strong and reliable. The topics have varied widely, as have my motivations and interests, but the core principle of the column is that I bring something new each week: a format you haven't played, a concept you've never heard of, a dynamic that you haven't explored. I always want In General to be about breaking new ground. Showing and growing and churning and burning each week to inspire and edify. I had some innovative articles this year with equally punny titles. Here are just a few:

Vehicular Card Slaughter
Fashion is Danger
Journey to the Center of the Deck

But the best, the absolute cream of the crop this year had to be my month long saga about Pauper Cube. The old saying goes that home is where the heart is. And I know it is true with me. Whenever I drift away to new formats or new decks I am always drawn back to one place. Designing, playing, and maintaining my Pauper Cube keeps me playing Magic. It has kept me from walking away from the game. When you don't have a reliable test partner or a regular play group, what do you do? If you're like me you just dig around in your collection staring at cards for what seems like hours (and many times actually IS hours).

Debating with myself the merits of including Negate over Essence Scatter kept me interested in Magic and it kept my mind focused on the game in times where I easily could have just gone to do something else. It is my Magic muse. It is my baby. It is the most fun and the biggest challenge that I've had with the game. It is my crowning achievement and I was overjoyed at the chance to share it on the blog.

Least Favorite Post: SNAP KEEP?! (all of them)

Unfortunately, things didn't quite turn out as I had planned for the blog this year. I had ambitious goals to expand our posting schedule, add new content, and commit to increasing both our audience and internet presence. Between having to replace my computer, moving to a new city, and starting a new career, I just wasn't able to invest the same amount of time into the blog that I had promised.

I am officially calling SNAP KEEP my worst failure of the year, but the entire expanded content schedule including: news, Ill-Gotten Games, and You Make the Pick all fell flat (and then off the map). These are ideas that I still want to implement, but the future doesn't look like it is going to get any less hectic for me. Perhaps, if we had more resources and staff we could make this a reality...


Favorite Set Review: Khans of Tarkir Utility and Mana

Khans of Tarkir really does have it all. This set was juiced to the wall and there is no way to hide it. It has new players and old fans alike singing its praises. It has constructed powerhouses in every color. It has a surprisingly rich limited format which is a blast to play. Khans brought back tons of great ideas from Magic's past and tuned them up with brand new functionality. My personal favorite twist on what is now becoming a running theme is Villainous Wealth.


Worst Set Review: Born of the Gods Threats

Basically nothing about the cards in this article was good. In fact, the only card from BotG that generated any buzz at all was Kiora, the Crashing Wave and that buzz wore off very quickly; she hasn't seen much play at all in any format.

I don't think that the writing was particularly poor, but I do think that the Creatures in this set were mediocre and forgettable. Unfortunately, that opinion really showed through in the writing. It is just tough to get excited in that kind of situation and when I am not excited about Magic, something is definitely going wrong.

That's all for this week year folks. Enjoy the holiday season and all of its glory: time off from work, good food, family, fun in the snow (not available in all areas). I am off next week, but I will return triumphantly in 2015 with my New Year's resolution article! Happy holidays Zoners.

-GG

My Decks, The Tech, At Year's End.

Happy Last Shopping Weekend Zoners!

Today, we're going to take a quick walk through my Deck Portfolio. I've done a lot of re-tooling this year on most of the stuff that's come through the Better Deckbuilding series, and I thought it'd be a good idea to re-visit what I've been playing and show you the fresh-er tech from the changelog.

Let's go in alphabetical order.

THE ANIMAR DECK

The Thug in RUG got a huge mana upgrade with the scry lands, as well as some moderate pimping as I've started to collect some choice artwork and the cheaper foils. I snapped up copies of all the Duels Titans over the last year, and a few nice promo arts of Mulldrifter, Sakura-Tribe Elder, the cutest foil Pilgrim's Eye, and a cheeky foil Sigiled Skink. I was gifted a foil Clone from a Core Set and foil Archetype of Imagination, which acts as another copy of Sun Quan.

The non-block content was kind to my boy too, getting a sweet Conspiracy card in Dack's Duplicate, and a really excellent support card in Thunderfoot Baloth. I haven't added a Clever Impersonator, but if I can get a foil, I totally will.

BARRIN, MISTER WIZARD

This Barrin deck has been probably the most surprising and most rewarding deck I've built this year. Stacked to the brim with a bunch of cards that I like, I've had a significant amount of fun grinding out games trying to figure out how I'm going to win.

Playing and building this deck has helped me to forge a stronger understanding of myself and the cards I want to play, which has really changed my technical approach of building on TappedOut and scrolling through Gatherer. I still do these things, but putting cards in your hand in the decision-making process is always going to be helpful.

Reef Worm has been my top performer in this deck, probably by a mile. I think the $5 price tag on him explains a lot, but with Barrin, I have ways of ensuring that I get to release the proverbial Kraken. Teferi, Temporal Adept hasn't been too shabby here either, but not as good as Aetherspouts and Polymorphist's Jest, which are possibly better than they look.

GREEN EGGS AND GLISSA

Wanting to get more excited about Glissa, I took off her Dollar General Salary Cap, but kept her namesake's promise intact. In fact, we went old School with the removal, adding Smokestack and Triangle of War, the latter of which being pretty one-sided with a handful of Deathtouch and some seriously big bodies.

The biggest shakeup with Glissa was that she got more threats. She got my Jitte, my Soul(of New Phyrexia), a Spirit(monger) with new art, and a pimpin' promo Thopter Assembly. Oh, and a Doom Engine, that's been known to do a bit of Scuttling.

Still, the best changes I made were to gain some flexibility. Enter Vedalken Orrery, and a foil Shimmer Myr (pronounced Sher-mur-mur), which have been stronger than I thought. All in all the curve got bigger, but the deck got better.

HEARTLESS HIDETSUGU

Me and HH have been through a lot. In the beginning,  he entertained Kiki-Jiki, Siege-Gang Commander, Zealous Conscripts, and a whole host of over-costed removal and burn spells.

This last year, HH has been through a few different transitions. Being probably the most-played of all of my decks, he's seen a lot more cards in his squad. For the first half of the year, I played an eclectic build with Defenders. Post-Khans, I rocked some of the better Morph creatures.

The creature base is still something that needs work, and I like where it's going without the themes. Fortune Thief was a nice pickup, and actually put me in position to win a couple of times. Soul of Shandalar, Impact Resonance, and Flamekin Village were all nice grabs too.

But Daretti though! Probably one of the best Red cards Wizards has printed for us in the last two years. Depending on how you feel about his Commander-ability, he could potentially be among the top Commanders, next to Purphoros. Personally, I'm just happy to see another Red card that gives me access to "Rummaging" aka "Reverse-Looting" effects. Really, he's put this new Sarkhan to shame in terms of deck performance. We shouldn't stop talking about him. All hail Daretti, that glorious spider-wheelchair driving, goblin pope son of a bitch. Red is trending upwards folks. This calls for a Shiva Blast.

WHO'S THAT GIRL? NOT JESS...

Obvious Zooey Deschanel sitcom references aside, it's a fact here on the blog that I Love Land, and I'm not just looking around the room and just saying I love it.

I also love Titania. If there was no Narset in Khans, I think Titania would easily be the best new Commander.

It is for these reasons that Silvos got retired to the great pool of cards sitting in cardboard box on my desk. I Love Land, so does Titania, and she enables the Aggro-Loam deck that Grandpa Growth and I have both attempted to make in various capacities over the years.

The deck has practically built itself, but I've got a few more cards to tune and tweak for the first Better Deckbuilding of 2015. So stay tuned for that.

"THIN LIZZY," DEFIANT HERO

Lin Sivvi has had plenty of power since I designed the deck in the latter half of last year. I really wish I could get more games in with her, but the truth is that she's always going to be a Quality over Quantity kinda gal. So even though she doesn't get a whole lot of play due to time constraints, she's always playing for the long game, which brings the dynamic back to equilibrium.

This is probably a deck I could dedicate some more time to re-tooling in the next year. She's received an equal amount of attention relative to the basic upgrades I made in all of my mono-colored decks (you know, Deal Brokers, Myriad Landscapes, Blasted Landscapes, etc.), but only a handful of other cards have been slapped in. Jazzy G (Jazal Goldmane) found a home in place of a Heliod which I didn't think helped a whole heck of a lot. Arcane Lighthouse is a good tutorable option to help me better spot remove. I was able to trade for an Entreat the Angels. This deck burst onto the scene with a lot of power, so it's just been baby steps. I don't need to invent new ways to win- just new ways to play Mirror Entity.

SAFFI, DA BROKEST

My favorite infinite martyr got some scry land, but didn't need much more upgrading than a Deal Broker. She's such a boss that it wasn't necessary.

KARN AKA MR. BROWNSTONE

We talked about my Karn deck last week, so there isn't much to tell other than the fact that I just traded for a Planar Portal. He gets played, he combos, or we get conquered.

THE REST

We can take a moment of silence for Greel, but I'm not mourning any of the decks that didn't last this year. Greel was one of the most economically sensible approaches to mono-Black, and I wouldn't be surprised if I tried to bring him back. For now though, I'm going to be looking for something new to slot in his place in the portfolio.

In the meantime, I'm rocking Lyzolda, and Obzedat as adequate color replacements. So look forward to stories about them as well.

The last bit of news is pretty sweet. I know you guys haven't seen a lot of me this year, but I'll be ever-present in the online Commander content moving forward. In addition to running TGZ, your home for me and GG's awesome opinions and insight, I will also be writing for CommanderCast.

CommanderCast has produced some of my favorite non-TGZ content over the years, even given me a good framework for sharing all the Super-Secret-Tech I do here. So be sure to peruse the archive and check out the rest of their stuff. They worship Wrexial, Ib Halfheart, and the ever-flavorful Giant Shark, so you know it's good.

My first article runs next week, so if you need to escape the pesky cousins or obnoxious, clueless aunts, uncles, and/or grandparents, you can read how I use basic Poker techniques to improve my Commander game.

Well, that's all I got. All the lists are on TappedOut if you want to check 'em out, +1, and/or follow me.

Anyway, Be Safe, Make Good Choices, Happy Holidays, Pass Turn.

-UL

In General: Reviewing 2014: Misses

Hello and welcome back to In General. We are halfway through December and here on the blog that means it is time for me to take a look back at how I did in 2014. Last week we took a look at the biggest hits; all my predictions that were correct. This week we are tallying up my misses. All the cards that I was wrong about from this year's set reviews. Let's take a look.

My original assessment of this card was that it was good enough to replace the second tier token generators like Conqueror's Pledge. Well, that just wasn't true. Launch saw some very limited play at the Pro Tour, but Standard and Commander are not the same animal. There is no reasons to be playing a token maker that already requires you to have a bunch of Creatures in play.

I don't often make an unmitigated withdrawal of a previous statement, but this card just ain't 'it'. Leave it at home.



Okay guys. I don't know what I was thinking. It just all sounds so good in theory. You get to smash. You get to steal stuff. I should have known that 2/3's for three are not likely to make it work in the cutthroat world of Highlander.

I see a shining glimmer of potential in this card, but I don't think there is any real way to break it. I just got a little over excited about this dashing rogue.







I started to smell the coffee when I scrubbed out of two separate drafts that began with Flamespeaker. I just don't know what it is. This seems like the kind of thing that Red really wants, right?

Well, something here isn't right. If it were a two drop, or if the P/T were reversed, maybe we would see more production out of this guy, but things really have not panned out well for this card. This is particularly disappointing for me because I am always trying to make Red work.




I have to be completely honest. I don't see anything wrong with this card. I can't think of even one single thing. There are plenty of Blue/Black reanimator decks, but in the six months since this card came out I have not cast it nor played against it even once. Why are people not playing this? I was sure that it was immediately going to make a splash in Commander. I guess I can't always be right, but this one kind of stings because I was really excited for this card. Maybe it just wasn't mean to be. That is a shame though; this sewer monster is just sooo cute!



I had this one pegged for the bargain bin. This is easily the biggest miss of the year for me. I made comparisons between this and Treasure Cruise in the Khans Review articles that were not very favorable, but it would appear that Dig has just as much to offer the discerning Blue mage as Cruise and then some.

In fact, the popularity of combo decks in various formats have propelled Dig to equal Treasure Cruise in playability.

It is interesting to me to see how the story develops as we draw closer and closer to the next banned and restricted list update for both Modern and Commander. Many writers, including myself, expect to see both Dig and Cruise banned in Modern. At any rate, I am taking my yearly dose of humble pie. Dig Through Time is pretty awesome, I was wrong. What else is new?

That is all for today my fellow Magic fans. Next week we will continue our yearly review with my picks for the best and worse posts from 2014.

UL's Better Deckbuilding: The Chronicles of Karn-ia

Happy Thor's Day Zoners! Landdrops here with another installment of Better Deckbuilding with Karn, the Rock Monster Mainstay.

WHY KARN?

Honestly, I had no idea what I was getting myself into with this one.

A few years ago I played against this deck. My opponent had the deck at at least 60% foil, probably more, including some of the most expensive foils I've ever seen.

This was at a different shop, so for a metagame where the average game includes 5+ players, I found this to be a pretty effective deck.  The quick acceleration combined with the overstimulation of Commanders and cards getting played help to leave the old Mirrodonian(?) appear less threatening than some of the bigger players I saw there. Coupling big, hard-to-remove threats with access to a handful of infinite mana combos, the deck was something I saw as "Neat, but not my style."

After completing the Double Rainbow project this year, I felt a need to go into some new territory for something challenging and fresh. I know, Karn has basically been around for a long time, but I think everyone can understand the idea of seeing old cards as new challenges, which is what happened here.

THE STRATEGY

The first pledge I made in construction of this deck was to not play any Eldrazi cards at all, avoid Blightsteel, and not play Mass Removal or Mycosynth Lattice.

After getting beat pretty handily in his inaugural voyages into 1v1 and multiplayer, it was clear to me that Lattice, O-Stone, Disk, and All Is Dust were necessities Karn needed if I was to ever win a game.

Having rules likes this in design are just as important as knowing when to break them. I talk a lot about design constraints, and how to keep them, but this is a good example in the case of its opposite.

For me, and those Zoners who are privy to the 72-page density of Joseph Conrad, building and playing Karn was my proverbial voyage into the "Heart of Darkness." With few options for Threats and Answers, the point of restraint and resistance to slamming Eldrazi is a pretty thin line.

The plan with Karn is to use his ability in a couple of instances. One, being the ability to create infinite mana combos with Voltaic Contrstruct and either Thran Dynamo, Gilded Lotus, Grim Monolith, or Mana Vault in order to fuel other cards. Maybe it's a Darksteel Colossus. Maybe it's a Mycosynth Lattice. Maybe it's just a lot of Animated Artifacts. This has been, more times than not, how the deck effectively ends the game.

The second instance of Karn-imation (Animating friends for Karn) is part of what I just mentioned- swinging at our opponents. We're not being Aggro, per se- we're attacking when we can get ahead in the life total game, or there's an opening for our Dreamstone Hedron to come to life and smack an opponent for a big 6 damage without us feeling overextended and that potential 3 mana misused. This is a pretty conservative deck overall, seeing as how one Bane of Progress will, as I call it, "mmmBoP"  us to death. And if you even know who Hanson is, you know that this is equally as painful.

The third instance in which this deck wants to animate artifacts is to surprise trade defensively, or to keep us from not dying. Being a conservative deck, we're more often than not fine with taking points of damage versus chump blocking until it matters. Mostly, this deck wants to play for the next turn to see if we can draw into a combo.

THE TECH

The first piece is a new one, and a nice addition. In conjunction with our primary combo, We can essentially draw our whole deck. Not to mention that we can also attack with it if we have too many cards. This is a card that Karn needed, but I can't imagine a justification in other decks. It just doesn't do enough anywhere else.

Again, this is another card I probably wouldn't play anywhere else. Unbanning this surely changed the conversation for Karn too. Having yet another piece to combo infinitely, or just drop early and slam a threat helps to give the deck that taste of power.

Also, if I haven't said it yet, I was not on board with this unbanning. Call me hypocritical, but I found it as such when the Rules Committee felt it necessary to justify their, "Just say No" campaign for Rofellos and Braids. It's probably the first time I've disagreed with what they've done, so it is worth mentioning again. And if they're going to give me things to abuse, then well, I'm going to do it. It's just good business and human nature. This deck may be all about robots, but I'm not.

One of the best cards for this deck is Memory Jar. Already being good, I know obvious card is obvious.

However, this is another card that finds its stride in colorless. Without a lot of card draw, it can do exactly what it's been doing since Urza's Legacy- giving you extra cards and tempo-locking your neighbors out of others.

With Karn out and cards in hand, Memory Jar also becomes exciting to battle with. Size-wise, these are the kinds of artifacts Karn wants to bring to life.

The mana base in this deck isn't quite where it needs to be yet, but this one of the few pieces of tech that can be powered-up here. The same goes for the Tron Lands, which I've activated two times more than I ever thought I would. (Obviously, I thought it would never happen.)

I don't have Vesuva yet, but copying it with Thespian's Stage and slamming Glimmerpost has been a real treat. Maximizing this economy in the future seems pretty sweet.

Another sweet new piece of tech is Tomb of the Spirit Dragon.

One of the most difficult parts about constructing the mana base for this deck is being able to manage every piece of tech you have. The Expedition Map package is gigantic. I can't tell you how many times I've taken damage when I had untapped land and a Mystifying Maze. You'd think someone who loves the lands would pay a little bit more attention.

Anyway, Tomb of the Spirit Dragon is a nice little utility land that gives us a "mana sink" and a way to gain back life we might've lost if we were fools initially and forgot to tap our mana for Mystifying Maze during combat. With Lattice and Clockwork Omens in multiplayer, this is even more nuts.

The other TPB, The Pirate Bay, may have been raided by INTERPOL or Swedish Police (I don't remember what the article said) this week, but that shouldn't stop anyone from showing your acronym-twin support for Teferi's Puzzle Box. That's because I put a relevant news plug in here that's completely unrelated to a Magic card Wizards has printed in various ways since Visions.

This is just another deck where TPB's going to be effective, forcing your opponents to keep cards in their hand if they want to see more of their deck, and giving you more cards to find combos for, which is going to be a likely scenario at just about every stage of the game.

Last card I'll talk about is Serum Visions.

What's worth mentioning is the insane amount of charge counters that can happen here. Serum Tank ensures that as long as you're being active, you'll be able to draw some gas if you have nothing else to do. And this deck can do some good durdling.

Anyway, this is my list. It's got a few updates that I'll make in the next day or two, but most of the pieces are intact. Lemme know what you think.

The Chronicles of Karnia

Pass.
-UL

Reviewing 2014: Hits

Welcome to The General Zone's annual review of ITSELF! At the end of the year we should always take a moment to look back and reflect on what we have accomplished this year. Here on the general zone we have had an interesting journey in 2014. Plenty of twists, turns, and surprises. In today's article I will be examining my own performance in the set review articles...starting with my successful predictions. If you were hoping to hear about my most dramatic slip-ups and omissions, stay tuned to the blog because next week's In General will be fully dedicated to my biggest misses.

So just to be clear, if you see a card on this list it means that my pre-release predictions about the card came true. Either I said it was bad and it was, or I said it was great and it is.

This card drew a lot of attention when it was initially previewed. There were many opinions about its playability on both sides of the coin. I however, would like to take full credit here for correctly determining that it was, in fact, not good.

The real killer here seems to be that there is really no easy way to repeat this effect. Worst Fears can give you a big advantage, but the up front cost is high. Additionally, being a Sorcery means that you don't have much control over when you pull the trigger on this, which is unfortunate.



I feel bad about this one, but when you're right: you are right. I think that everyone, from the design team, to the community, to the players, wanted Godsend to be good. It is just a really cool idea, but the execution falls short.

Personally, this doesn't discourage me, and I hope that it doesn't discourage R&D either. I want to see more Legendary planeswalker equipment in the future. I would love to find out what Sorin's sword could do or what Ajani's busted shovel-axe is supposed to be called.

It is pretty unfortunate that this is two colors, but that could also be a good thing. If this were just one color it would really be tearing up the league. Listen guys, I am going to break it down here for you real simple like: Haste is good. I know this might not be much of a revelation, but I have to take victories where I can get them.

This has been a banner year for Clone effects. We have seen some great updates that have brought this effect back to the forefront of the Commander game. After a change to the rules for how Commander treats cards like this one just a year ago, things were looking grim for the future playability of our shapeshifting friends. I for one am glad to see that they are still around and kicking, maybe as good as ever.

The Rabblemaster! Sir Rabblerino has had a great end to the year. A breakout performance in Standard has brought Gobbos back in to the spotlight in a big way. I am usually not down with the G-men, but I have been excited to watch the coverage of high-level tournaments this season because of how cool this Jeskai has turned out to be in Standard. It has been cool to see how the archetype has developed from the release of Khans, to the Pro Tour, to the Grand Prix scene. I am finally excited about pro-level Magic again.





Here we have another M15 card that is Standard legal, but this one hasn't yet been given its chance to shine...in Standard. To my people who keep an impressive library size, we have been loving the new Nissa. Apparently she is still on Zendikar and still busting stuff up.

Bring it in close here guys, because I have something important to tell you: Four lands...is a lot of lands. As Creatures and spells get cheaper and more efficient, four land might mean more than they ever have in the past.

This gal just makes so much mana, how could she not be good? Well, if you still haven't gotten on the bandwagon, we have plenty of room! Come and see why the grass is greener on the Green side of the fence.

Say no to the Rhino! Hushwing has seen action in Standard, Modern, and some limited Commander play. I have switched away from playing Aven Mindcensor and instead I am now packing Hushwing Gryff whenever I can.

I think that it is pretty funny that the place you most want to play this is in Modern Pod decks, but there are so few Pod decks left in the format that you don't have to worry about the mirror match very much.

You know I had to talk about this at some point. My exact words were something like, this is the closest thing to Ancestral Recall that we are going to get. AND BOY IS IT CLOSE! There isn't much left to be said about Treasure Cruise that hasn't already been said so I will just leave it here.

Alright, it's time to return to my college football extravaganza! I will be back next Sunday where we will turn the tables and take a look at my biggest whiffs; the worst predictions that I made in 2014.

-GG

Glowing Ranks: Played and Unplayed From Commander 2014

Hey all. Landdrops here with another episode of Glowing Ranks.

Today we're gonna talk Commander 2014. I've had a pretty swell time checking out the new tech, and now felt like a good chance to get out of the streets and report in on my findings.

Since I've been a little behind the curve, I'm double dipping on Top 5's today, and it's going to work out. There's a lot to like out of the C14 stuff- some I've gotten a chance to play, some I haven't. So there's the dichotomy- 5 best cards I played, and my fave five that are looking to get in on the action.

THE UNPLAYED


5. Aether Gale

I don't have a copy of this card yet, and though apprehensive, I'm gonna trust GG's assessment in the review and throw it into my Barrin "Pile Of Fairness" deck I wrote about last time.

Unlike other blue cards, my biggest concern is the slowness of the card, not maintaining six legal targets. Sorcery speed makes this card, too fair. Maybe it find a home with other fair things. I don't know.








4. Fell the Mighty

This Lin Sivvi Rebels deck I've been running is going to love another one-sided "Power Wrath." Retribution of the Meek is one of the biggest bombs I have to use in conjunction with Mirror Entity. While this costs a little bit more, I'm with GG on this- Fell the Mighty is gonna be a house everywhere it can see play.

The big reason is that it has the capacity to protect low-power Aggro Commanders like Daxos and Doran, creating an evasion haven for these guys to go Voltron and put your opponent a turn behind the curve. It's a solid card that's easy on the eyes.





3. Masterwork of Ingenuity

I'm a sucker for clone effects and equipment, which made me apprehensive in my pre-order due to the "pizza milkshake" concept. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, this is what I mean.

Pizza = Good.

Milkshake = Good.

Pizza + Milkshake = Plain Gross.

Another reason to play this card is that not only can you tutor for it with Stoneforge, Taj-Nar Swordsmith, Steelshaper's Gift, and Stonehewer Giant, but it's also a great card for the mono-Blue Trinket Mage package. Do your opponents like to show off their Swords of X and Y? Do they like to play Jittes and swing beats? If so this is a nice metagame option for like, one-fifth to one-tenth of the market price for the Good Stuff.

2. Domineering Will

DW is a card I predict to be much more one-sided in a deck where Barrin is the general. At instant speed, I can generate about as much or more value in an opponent's combat step with exponential opportunities for value.

The lines of play are always going to result in x-for-1 trades, where x is dependent on how you want to interact with Barrin, especially with mana later on in the game.


1. Malicious Affliction


My top card is Double Doom Blade, and the reason it's not in any deck yet is because I have yet to ascertain what this card means. It's not bright. It's not vivid. It's that morbid, disgustingly good kind of card I try to save for my favorite decks.

Recently, I retired Greel, so it might be a while before I find a home for this sucker. If the fixing were better, this is really a Glissa T's card, but not one I want to have to count on, with it being double black and Glissa T's having double green. We'll see. I might just get the itch to throw it in anyway.

THE PLAYED

5. Nahiri, the Lithomancer

Now, Nahiri isn't a card I've physically played, but I've seen enough of it already to tell you it's kind of exciting, even though I'm not fond of walkers coming from the Command Zone.

With her Stoneforging ancestor and the aforementioned Equipment tutor package, Nahiri is in a unique position to power up bad equipment and break the top tier cards. Add the Lithomancer to a list of cards the rock with Skullclamp. Mono-White now has a way to create a card draw engine.

The -2 is also nice when you have clunky Kaldra pieces or an Argentum Armor for which there is no reason on this earth to pay full price.

Overall, I'm still okay with it. It's not game-ending, but she does work.

4. Daretti, Scrap Savant

I'm surely guilty of liking this card too much, but I don't think anyone can blame me.

I've already dusted off the Inglourious Basterds "Doh-me-neek Dee-co-co" jokes when I activate his abilities. I hold out my hand and say, "More Dah-ray-tee."

None of the Daretti cards in my group stay out for long, but it's too fun to miss every time Goblin Pope of Artifacts finds himself out and looting. So don't be a square. Buy your Daretti today.

3. Titania, Protector of Argoth

I texted GG about this card, but what I really wanted to do was pull a Back to the Future and say, "Yo, Chuck. This your cousin, Marvin Berry. You know that sound you been looking for?" and then hold the phone up so he could hear the sounds of repeated Strip Mines and multiple Life from the Loam triggers as I stomp my opponents with 5/3's.

No one wants, or should buy, the mono-Green Commander product- unless you want all of the Elves. But unlike Titania, that bores me.

Silvos got retired because of just how nuts the dedicated Titania Aggro-Loam deck has been. There are so many elements of combo and card advantage and tempo that are just too good to pass up.

Titania is the card I thought she was going to be in the Legends Review, and the deck is exactly what I thought it would be. All in all, it's fresh, unique, and I hope R&D are able to find more ways to combine these styles of effects and incorporate them into Commander.

2. Reef Worm

Lil Reefy fit perfectly into the Barrin deck I'd started playing at the time it was spoiled, so I knew it was a must-have in the pre-order.

Again, the Worm's been as good as anticipated, comboing with Barrin to give me chump blocks, a threat, and multiple chances to bounce things that are in my way.

There are some people who haven't gotten the Kraken yet. Obviously, this deck is a great niche include because it's always going to be, as Qui-Gon says, the proverbial "bigger fish."

1. Myriad Landscape

I got 8 copies of Myriad Landscape in my pre-order. That's not only a testament to how much I believe in the power of card advantage, but also in anticipation of this card tripling or quadrupling in price.

Being that most of my decks at any given time are mono-colored, this wasn't just mindless and arbitrary either. All of my decks are packing the immense value you're going to get from this card. It's one tap-land I think I can get behind, even in decks that I thought might not want it.

Opening hands with 2 lands and a Landscape have never been so sweet. Getting value at your deck's foundation is the best thing the design team did for us in this product, and that kind of structural support really helps to pave way for more of these big bad monsters and spells they also like to pump out every year. It's just one card, but Myriad Landscape is a gigantic step in the right direction.

What did you like in C14? What did you hate? Let us know in the comments below!

Pass Da Turnski.
-UL