Like I always say, "Three's a Pattern," so I hope you're getting used to that old Stack Saturday. Today's episode marks our third since we returned from that less-than-glorious hiatus of not sharing our tech.
Today, Tom, Gramps, and I found ourselves with a pretty good topic- Commanders we'd most like to see get played. There are a lot of signals that get sent from the pre-game "shuffle and flip," and whether it's indicative of an exploited matchup, or just sheer excitement for a Legend that's been generally unloved across the current state of sanctioned formats, there's a lot of "feels" to experience when we step into our Kitchen Table Sandbox.
Anywho, let's get cracking- THIS IS THE STACK!
GRANDPA GROWTH
Don't think I have ever lost to this card. Not sure how I would. This is something of a running joke between Landdrops and myself.
Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS DOWN
Haha. JorK the Dork!
I've tried hard, searched far and wide to build Boros, and at some point, I'm gonna have to give up.
JorK is where I draw the line. I guess I'd be happy to see someone flip this up, but I do think this card has a lot in common with its artwork- it's clear, crisp, and bizarrely evoking, but still found wanting to be better.
Tom- THUMBS DOWN
I'm going to be the contrarian on this one, but I see potential. Boros and aggro may both be jokes in what we Commander players call (loosely) a metagame - with, admittedly, fairly good reason, but Metalcraft is super easy to activate in a world of T1 Sol Ring, Boros Signet, T2 Sad Robot/Swiftfoot Boots/Fireshrieker/whatever followed by T3 Jor Kadeen swinging for the fences. Sure, that's the dream opening, yet cheap-but-useful artifacts abound in the format and the Boros colours can both Voltron fairly well or churn out tokens at a hectic pace, making JK's own pump effect rather potent. Pack in guys to increase the pump or grant evasion like Agrus Kos, Legion Loyalist and Victory's Herald, and you've got yourself a stew.
UNCLE LANDDROPS
Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS UP
"I have been brought to this place and I cannot leave. I may be free of amber, but I am still in prison."
That's Mangara's flavor text, and I think it's poetically relevant to the strife he faces in our format. Why this dude isn't more common, I have no clue. His mana cost, P/T, and ability make him the PERFECT fit to combo off with sac outlets and Mono-White mainstays like Karmic Guide, Sun Titan, and Reveillark. With the way his activated ability works, there are so many ways to stack triggers and play board police, even if you just end up sending him back to the Command Zone. I know White has Eight-and-a-Half-Tails, Brimaz, and some other tribal and Voltron types, but seriously- I find it really strange that we don't see nearly enough of Mangara in the metagame.
Tom- THUMBS DOWN
I really don't want to see cheap, repeatable exile effects on the other side of the table. If nobody sleeves this dude up, I'll be happy. Unless it's me, in which case, bow before me, foolish mortals!
Grandpa Growth - THUMBS UP
I have played a fair amount of this card in 8.5 Tails decks. I wouldn't ever consider making it my commander, but the card is quite good in my estimation. It isn't premium removal, so don't misunderstand. It is substitute that can serve multiple purposes. White decks in particular have great ways to make this a relevant threat when you don't need it to exile problem targets.
Tom- THUMBS UP
There are really only three guys on the list of dragons in these colours that I'd consider playing, and two of them are only useful when they die. It's not that Silumgar is necessarily bad as a card - in 5-colour Scion or a Nicol Bolas/Crosis Grixis dragon tribal I can see him doing solid work, but as a general I think he's pretty laughable. A temporary -1/-1 in EDH is not exactly stunning utility to build a deck around, particularly when it needs otherwise weak support cards to make the effect stronger. If someone slaps this down on my table, then unless I'm running a token build and have sustained a strong enough blow to the head that I forgot to include pump effects, I'm going to feel pretty safe ignoring it.
Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS UP
Yeah, I know what I said about Silumgar being derped in design in my Legendary Review. I don't take back what I said, but also recall I talked about how good Hexproof, Flying and that weird 3/7 body are together.
By himself, Silly-gar is gonna get rid of all those pesky 1 toughness tokens. Despite thinking I was going to build either Atarka Dragonstorm or Kolaghan Dash Beatz, I've actually broke ground on building this deck because there are two sweet cards unique to Silumgar that no other Dragon in the FRF cycle has- Xenograft and Conspiracy, which make that creature type thing basically irrelevant. Add in all the blue Riptide creatures from Legions which mess with creature type, and we've got ourselves a little stew going. Look forward to this one, because I think it's going to be a lot more compelling than we all thought.
Grandpa Growth- THUMBS UP
I won't be playing it. Basically every time I say that, which happens quite a bit, it means that I have very little confidence in my opponent. I can think of at least a dozen other generals in this color combination. I think that people know this isn't good enough for Commander, but they are just playing it because it is new, or maybe they are...either way I understand. I am not immune to the allure of fun. I want to try new things and get outside the comfort zone every once in a while. Still though, I don't want to feel like I need a list of excuses for why I built a deck.
GRANDPA GROWTH
Basically every time someone decides to play a group hug deck, they are signalling to me that they aren't serious about winning the game. There are certainly ways to manipulate the political landscape of the game to your advantage, but there are even more ways to just outright win the game no matter how many players are at the table.
Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS DOWN
The first time you see Pheldagriff, you laugh, and think or say all the things GG mentioned. Every time afterward, you think about how uninteresting it is to be given carte blanche in Magical Christmas Land, and how basically the only winner in a Pheldagriff game is the player who gets to play immediately after the Pheldagriff player. Even if the player is bad at Magic, or the deck is actually bad.
I'm not salty about Pheldagriff, but about his association with bad Magic strategy being reinforced and supported by another quality I find useless- politics. I hope to be able to write my thoughts about the latter either here or on CommanderCast. I'm not on the "let's ban this archetype," but I do think that much like Trade Secrets, the game is a lot more fun without the stereotypical "Pheldagriff player."
Tom- THUMBS DOWN
I am intensely suspicious of this goofy-looking dude.Sure, he seems friendly, and he hands out gifts like a cheating spouse desperately hoping that enough shiny trinkets will make them feel less guilty, but I've got my eye on him. This is mostly because despite seemingly every player who runs him doing so in a Group Hug build, he seems to me like a potentially dangerous Voltron General.
A 4/4 for four is a good start, and optional Flying/Trample are solid attributes for Voltron. The option to bounce him to avoid removal or Wrath is also pretty sweet. While the activated abilities do give a little bit here and a little bit there to opponents, two life/a weenie token/a single card aren't so strong in EDH that they're painful to give away, and the bulk of those won't help to stop a flying, trampling Phelly anyway. Personally I'd play the deck as a rattlesnake ambush, disguising it as a Hug-style deck to dodge any early game hate while using cards like Well of Ideas that seem friendly but actually benefit me more than my opponents, then pumping Uncle Phel with Auras (because his colours are truly sweet for that kind of play and unlike Equipment, we can keep them in hand until we need them and retain the element of surprise) and smashing a shocked opponent out of the game.
Bottom line - beware of hippos bearing gifts.
UNCLE LANDDROPS
I wouldn't be unhappy to play against Keranos, but I wouldn't be thrilled either. This color combination houses some of the most brutal combos in the format and 99% of the counterspells. I have played several different Izzet decks and I have rarely been disappointed. Regardless of your choice of general, this deck has potential to dominate.
That being said, I would be much more scared to see Niv-Mizzet or Jhoira. Although, playing against God cards is super annoying for most decks.
Tom- THUMBS UP
He draws cards, he smites weenies and utility dudes, and he's indestructible. And as GG says, he's in a colour pairing able to pull off some seriously unpleasant business. I think his colours are why I like his ability so much; it's trivially easy to stack the top of your library in Izzet, ensuring you get the effect you want every turn.
On the flipside, his devotion is harder to hit in a pairing more focused around non-permanent spells, we're getting more and more Deglamer and Deicide effects to deal with pesky gods, and by himself he isn't essential to any of the really unpleasant combo decks I can think of.
Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS UP
This is an expensive dude right now, but aesthetically is one of the Gods that I thought looked the part. He's more Zeus than Heliod, and matches that point mechanically too. I haven't seen a whole lot of lists on the internet trying to get ambitious, but I think that's just because of the price barrier.
Also- Queue Song of Storms!
That wraps 'er all up for this week, so do your thing in the comments if you're outraged by anything we like or dislike.
ALSO- BIG ANNOUNCEMENT
Grandpa and I are getting ready to drag our Luddite attitudes into the Wave of Vitriol known as Twitter. I'm already there, you can find and follow me @unclelanddrops, where I'll be doing any of the following things:
-Posting pictures of silly alternate artwork I made or found.
-Making up goofy nicknames for cards.
-Stuff happening to me or friends across Commander/MTG outlets.
-Crazy ideas for decklists, and links to actual decklists I find cool.
-A 24/7 place for you to share with me your awesome Magic-related tom-foolery, or ask me to help you with a deck tech.
So if you like/do any of this stuff, click that follow button to keep the party going by following me @unclelanddrops. Look for GG's info soon as well.
Pass.
-The TGZ Staff
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