Today I'm gonna be a little sentimental, but I hope that's not going to keep you from reading.
My pals over at CommanderCast were following the #4MTGCards trending on Twitter the last week or so, and I thought it was a good opportunity for me to follow suit. I'm a huge advocate for using non-relevant things like trading card games as a means to constantly enlighten us and teach us about the greater experience that is life, and I think these four Commanders really exemplify what I'm about. If you're joining us from over on Twitter (which, makes me happy that you're picking up on my media, so thanks!), this is going to be a succinct, but deeper meditation on the cards I've shared today.
So here we go, in chronological order!
I've written and talked about this night a lot because I think it's important for a couple of reasons. Number one, that everyone who has ever been an expert at anything has to find that space between where they are and where they want to be before a goal can be realized, and that means admitting to one's self that they are in fact bad or inexperienced with the task at hand.
I owe a lot of my development as a Magic player and enthusiast because of Grandpa Growth, and most of it stems from this moment, where he helped me to understand that what I was lacking was self-accountability in my deckbuilding. Basically, that if I was building my deck, playing my deck, and wasn't winning, there was neither luck nor anyone else to blame but me for continuing to lose. It was a tough lesson, and one that subverted a lot of my expectations, but I am the most grateful for this lesson, because it's translated into an innate trait that I not only use in Magic, but also in life.
One of the great things about Glissa, the Traitor is that it is one of the only Commanders I share with Gramps here on the blog, and that's pretty cool. Gramps' Glissa deck was one of the toughest decks I grinded against back when we were grinding out games, and while not nearly as oppressive because of my playstyle and card choices, I still tend to play it more his way than my own.
Despite having a crazy power level, Glissa has helped me not only to have connections with friends from my past, but also friends in the Commander community in the future. My Editor over at CommanderCast, Mark, actually knew who I was before we'd met because of this Green Eggs and Glissa list, which is a really cool connection. Because of Gramps' crazy Glissa Engine, I'd effectively reinvented her, thereby creating an inspired Human-Glissa-Centipede, you know, without the ass to mouth.
Much like my other cards on the list, Lu Bu has a couple reasons that make it special. The first is that it taught me how to build a deck not just for myself, but for someone else. What people dislike so much about net-decking is that it often does not lend itself to sculpting and catering to the person playing it, which translates to stiff, lame, and games that are not compelling.
Awston had come to me looking to build a new deck. He loved Lu Bu, and wanted it to be risky- basically he wanted to play coin flip.dec.
Knowing him, and knowing the kinds of decks he was gonna play against (mine, mostly), this just had bad idea written all over it. Not there wasn't ways to create winning strategy- just that, without tutelage, there wasn't gonna be any consistency.
Rather than set himself up for failure, we studied and brainstormed until we were able to find the middle of this Venn Diagram, where his "risky" flavor met the Red's color pie limitations, and where those two pieces were supported by my idea of having more consistency to resemble winning strategy.
And what we invented, little did we know, was this emerging archetype of Trick Voltron. Combined with combat tricks, Final Fortune, and other Double Strike and Multiple Combat step spells, we were able to establish something together that was much stronger, and much more unique, than what the two of us would've come up with by ourselves. Overall, it's one of the decks I'm most proud of, simply because it's not something I made for me. The rivalry between Lu Bu and my Animar deck has created a long-lasting "Snake and Mongoose" battle, which has only increased the kind of excitement that we can only have here in Commander.
The reason I can't seem to stop talking about this deck is that it hits just about every mark in terms of what I want to accomplish in a given Commander game.
-He subverts the blue stigma of obligatory counterspells.
-He promotes a high level of interactivity, not just with my stuff, but with my opponents creatures as well.
-He gives me multiple lines of play as well as multiple ways to win. I've won with Milling, I've won with 40 damage, I've won with Planeswalker Limit Breaks!
-He powers up oddball cards like Hatching Plans and Stormbound Geist, while also making good cards like Gilded Drake and Reef Worm even better.
-His reactive and proactive flexibility allows me to scale his power level to all kinds of different decks and players.
And even if he didn't hit all of these points, one of the best parts about the Barrin deck was the process. It was one of the most natural, organic deck building experiences I've ever had, mostly because I didn't know who my Commander was gonna be, and at pretty much every point from design to where it is today, I have enjoyed the mystery of not knowing what the card is going to be, much less what the next game is going to look like. In this way it embodies everything that I want to do right when I think about how I want to play the format, and that pairing is in every way the force that compels me to play Magic's greatest Kitchen Table Sandbox format.
Be sure to follow me @unclelanddrops. I'd love to hear and see what your #4MTGCards are, so tell me about it somewhere, will ya?
Pass.
-UL
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