Commander 2013 Review: Threats

Hello and welcome to The General Zone's Review of Commander 2013. I am Grandpa Growth and I will be walking along with you through the new goodies in the set. First, let's discuss the ground rules:

• Were going to be breaking it down like this: the review is split into three parts: threats, answers, and utility/mana. In today's section we will be talking threats. A threat is something you use to win the game. Most of the time these are creatures, planeswalkers, flashy spells, and some engine cards, but good threats often serve multiple functions.
• We are not going to talk about any of the reprints. IF those cards are important to Commander, then we already know about them anyway. Although I may come back around in the future and do an article just about all the new art. There sure is a bunch.
• We are not going to talk about any of the new legendary creatures. That may seem like we are skipping the most important part, but you can check out Uncle Landdrops and the others for discussion of the new generals. That is all citizens. Let's jump right on in.

I like me some graveyard hate. I love it when targeted hate cards come with extra value. I really love when your extra value can attack and block. There are plenty of other good graveyard hate cards that you can choose from to be sure, but the value of colored permanents is at an all-time high right now. Devotion is so powerful and is going to have such a large impact on Commander that just having a mana symbol on your creature is going to make it worth more than Tormod's Crypt in many decks. Previously, this format was largely defined by colorless permanents (mainly Artifact mana) and Sorceries (Kodama's Reach, Bribery, etc.), but this is changing rapidly.



What in the world? Have you read Treachery? Bribery? Azami? Tamiyo? This is not what you want to be doing with your five mana in a Blue deck. Everything about this is bad...including its flavor text, but the worst part:

IT DOESN'T FLY? Are you serious? How does it get around? It isn't an ooze. It isn't a snake. You tell me guys. I literally have no idea.

FLAVOR FAIL PART II: This is called Diviner Spirit. So it should tell you something about the future right? The flavor text however, points to a completely separate interpretation of the flavor behind drawing cards, i.e. experiencing a stream of consciousness. This card repulses me. Considered in terms of flavor, mechanics, design, art, playability, and general flashyness factor, this is the worst card I have seen in the last ten years.



This ability is crazy powerful. Left unchecked you will probably win the game and the closer the board state was to parity, the more valuable this is going to be, which is a good quality for a game-winning card to have, sadly though, I don't think this is going to make it into any real decklists. Too expensive, too risky, too vulnerable, and worst of all it is a 2/7 for SIX. Where is the beef?

I dig the art and the flavor text here, but the name seems a little bit over the top. INFINITE DECEITS? Come on. Nobody likes a braggart.

Commander 2013 brings us the resolution of a super cycle that is more than a decade in the making, beginning with Verdant Force all the way back in Tempest. He was a powerhouse. One of the first true fatties. The O.G. of the overgrown. The Sultan of Saprolings. His legacy is one of glory in battle. His backwards Blue cousin seems to have his head up his keister though. Unfortunately nowadays, this effect simply isn't worth eight mana. There are much scarier things you can do. In multiplayer this does allow you the advantage of locking down several threats throughout each turn cycle, but this will work out in such a way that it isn't great for promoting attacks...except against you. Without evasion or protection from removal this cycle is bound to languish in mediocrity while the real work gets done by more impressive threats...except for maybe the Black guy. Or the Red one. That card is pretty good.

So...this is obviously the SECOND most powerful card in the set. For three you get a three power attacker that can't be blocked, can't be targeted, and can't be damaged. It basically just dances around on the board yelling "CAN'T TOUCH THIS" at your opponent. In an FFA this card really isn't all that bad either. What incentive does a third party have to waste a kill spell on a threat that can't really do anything to them? This is eventually going to force the named player to Wrath or try to race, but since this can carry a Sword (and they can't do anything about it) they are most likely going to have to pull the trigger. Overall, this is an excellent card. This has a high power level, interacts favorably in almost every board state, isn't susceptible to the common answers, and is priced aggressively.

I do have one question though...why Blue and why a Merfolk? I guess that is technically two questions, but I feel like this is a Black or Black/White card and probably a Horror or a Demon/Angel. What do you guys think?



The aforementioned Black guy. So, here is one way to think about this: You love Phyrexian Arena. This is like getting two for the price of one and you get a 7/7 for four extra mana. That sounds like a sick deal right? Now here is another way to evaluate it. It is more expensive than Consecrated Sphinx, draws less cards than Consecrated Sphinx, doesn't have a 'may' trigger, causes you to lose a bunch of life for no real benefit, and it doesn't Fly. Will it see play? Sure. Is it tier 1 Gosu tech? No.



 All things considered this isn't a half bad token generator. Every turn you get a 2/2 for a three mana down payment? I can live with that. Sure, you have to battle them and it comes into play tapped, but whats the difference if you have a bunch of zom-buds to hang out with? I can't recommend playing this card in multiplayer. Even though the cycle was specifically designed to be used for that purpose. There is no real benefit to giving your opponents free tokens. Yes it incentivizes people to attack other players, but you have a token generator! You should have more stuff than your opponents if you are playing a token deck.




So the dream is to sac all your dudes to kill all their dudes and then bash to get all your dudes back. Cool. This card can certainly provide ongoing advantage in a grindy game, but it seems like an awful lot of work. It has decent stats for a seven drop and the ability means it will likely trade favorably in every combat situation, but something about this still rubs me the wrong way. It could be the art, which looks like it was ripped straight out of a promo for Outlast, but I just don't see this happening in big boy Commander, but what do I know? It's not like I write about it for a living.



In the hood, this is how we roll. So let me get this straight: When you are behind on board, your guy becomes unblockable, so you can attack...and fall further behind in the race? But what if you have this and Empyrial Archangel...you're like...totally unstoppable...

Not much of a surprise, but I think we can do better for five mana.





Okay, compared to the Curse of Shallow Graves we get: a 2/2 body to battle or block with, the tokens are smaller and have a less relevant creature type BUT have Deathtouch, and we only ever get one if we don't have one...wait what? What is that jank all about? We don't just get a bunch of snakes like we wanted, we only get to keep one? This is b.s. Sorin would not be fascinated with this garbage. He can make a bunch of tokens and still be home in time to blow up their best threats for dinner. This is sketch tech at best.



I am tempted to play the absolute snot out of this card. You get the best threat from your bin and if they choose to get their best guy you get your second best guy too? Deal. If that game state doesn't favor you then you are playing a pretty horrible reanimator deck. Try to get your skills up and come back later.

Keep in mind that this doesn't target. You make the choice on resolution, so it can't be foiled by targeted removal like Surgical Extraction. Just like the other Tempting Offer cards, all the Creatures come into play as part of the resolution of the spell so any related effects will trigger at the same time for all creatures.

This falls way short of my expectations. You can pay a bunch of mana for a equally sized bunch of silly 1/1 tokens at Sorcery speed. Maybe you end up with a truly bananas amount of tokens if your opponents are bad and/or bad at math, but that still doesn't seem like that great of a deal for 8+ mana. Storm Herd will probably give you an equivalent number of tokens, but they will Fly and, importantly, your opponents won't get anything but a beating.

Now imagine this: This card just costs one Red mana and you got one token plus another for every person who takes one too. Then we would have a card that ACTUALLY plays well in multiplayer and scales to the amount of people in the game instead of the amount of mana we pump into it. Keep in mind that having a bunch of creatures is way cooler BEFORE your opponent(s) have mana for a Wrath of God.



I think it is funny (sad) that the design team on this product, which included several prominent Commander players by the way, managed to come up with half a dozen new cards that will NEVER get played in Commander. The experience and expertise of their dojo is in question.

It doesn't look like this card is an elemental. It looks like this is a cow that is:
1. Falling off a mountain.
2. Actually on fire and more than a little upset about it.



I don't even know what this is so I am just going to leave it here in the threat article. Technically, it can kill an opponent, it just never will. This is another plant for multiplayer and, once again, it is horrible, even in multiplayer.



Ehhh, this isn't so bad. You smashed a Grizzly Bears onto a Shatterstorm...type thing...and then you get to make it big. YAAAAAY. Don't get me wrong, this is powerful and probably undercosted, but blowing up your own things is too much of a cost. You don't want to be killing your opponents mana rocks on turn six...you want to be the guy with the mana rocks. Preferably on turn one or two.



Shout out to all my James Brown fans. This card has got soul and it is SUPER BAD.

I have a rewrite for this card. Each player reveals until they see a nonland card. All the lands go back on top of those libraries and you exile the nonland cards. This thing gets counters equal to the converted mana costs just like before, but this new card gets Trample AND the non-green pseudo-shroud. For eight mana? Come on, this thing should at least buy you dinner before it screws you.




Oh boy...what do I even say about this? After that tasteless rant I just finished about Naya Soulbeast being a horrible 8 drop I don't think I have it in me. Just do me a favor: destroy every copy of this that you see so I never have to talk about it again. My legacy will be this card reaching $100 dollars because I have burnt all but two copies.

Well there you have it folks. All the shiny new toys from Commander 2013 have arrived and are ready to get sleeved up. Grab yourself a True Name Nemesis and get the beatdowns on. In the words of Vicente Valtieri: "Spill some blood for me, brother."

-GG

The Stack #32- Looks Like New Mexico

Heya Zoners-

Much like Theros, New Mexico is referred to as the "Land of Enchantments." Hence the title, and the theme of today's Stack installment.

Enchantments are becoming a much bigger part of the EDH metagame, thanks to this newest plane in the multiverse, and it's about time we had something to rival what has been traditionally the "weakest" card type, minus big namers like Land Tax, Exploration, and the rest of the Enchantment Elite.

We picked some of our favorites today, for your enjoyment. So let's get to it.

THIS IS THE STACK!

VENSER'S JOURNALIST'S PICK

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
Maybe it's because I'm all about Azorius. Maybe the first good deck I built was Blue/White. Maybe it was all the copies of Isperia Classic and the Geist of Saint Traft my buddy traded to me. Every time, this card is a game-winner. Maybe not every time, but you get my point. No greater amount of damage, no better life-gain have I gotten than with this on a big U/W bruiser. Granted you need a creature to really make this card effective, it still is worth the effort.

Lifelink alone is fantastic. Unblockable is superb. I've never seen a scoop as radical as the time I slapped this onto GoST (who wasn't my commander, but in retrospect, should have been). Tables weren't flipped, but I was knocked out of every multiplayer game first for about two weeks.

Johnny Confidant- THUMBS UP
I enjoy netting +2/+2 Lifelink and unblockable on my new Daxos general. Steel of the godhead is a good mix of abilities. Id prefer vigilance but since daxos seems to be a late blomer I cant complain during his initial test runs.

Uncle Landdrops-  THUMBS UP
I played this card in Big Pauper Zur. It was pretty good there, but I doubt I'll be found playing it anywhere outside of that deck or in another format. Also, there's a lot more enchantment hate at the kitchen tables these days.

Grandpa Growth-THUMBS DOWN
No, I don't think so...I have a U/W deck that is SPECIFICALLY DEDICATED to slamming auras on a genuinely busted creature. That deck does not play this card. Mainly because there really isn't a reason to small ball. If you are going to play a snapped card like Bruna, or Zur, or Geist why bother playing fair enchantments? If you are going to violate the social contract of EDH you might as well do it proudly.

GRANDPA GROWTH'S PICK

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS UP
Yep. I did it. The OG. The skull. Necro. It established some very important strategic elements within the game. Cards are worth more than life. Card advantage wins games. Card advantage enables you to find combo pieces. Perhaps the most important lesson that we learned from Necro is this: when you play a threat and your opponent answers it, the game doesn't always return to parity. Sometimes one party can get ahead on tempo or mana. Perhaps your deck is threat-light, so you only have a few creatures and it is important to keep them alive or else you can't ever win. In the case of Necropotence, you play it and you are ALWAYS up on cards no matter when or how they answer the necro. This residual value makes it pretty much impossible to lose in a grindy match up. Hince why I like necro...since Commander is the grindiest format ever devised by man.

Johnny Confidant- THUMBS DOWN
First of, to say that I would never play this card would be a lie, If I had this card it would be in Karador and Sylvan Library would be removed for a tutor spell. I've seen it's power, I've known the advantage it brings, and I'm all for it.

It's tough to hate on a card that you would love to play, but it's probably the most broken card that I have ever played against. The moment it resolves you've got nothing really short of Split-second to save you from a painful and quick end.

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
I wouldn't say that this enchantment has won me over. I wasn't initially going to give this card the thumbs up, but GG makes some very important observations. First off, card advantage is almost always more important than life... in combo decks. Some decks are really built around life and creatures, so this is a very niche card. The BBB mana cost also makes it pretty damn niche.

My problem with the card is the fact that the cards set aside are not given to you instantly. You have to wait for your next discard phase, so if you're looking for a quick response, let's hope you pulled it last discard phase. Also, skipping one's draw phase seems a little risky considering the long spiel on card advantage.

After a lot of thought, and seeing this card used in sacrifice/life gain decks, I've decided that it's a good enchantment. That being said, you won't find me using this card in any of my current decks.

Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS UP
This is a card I've played, and as usual, that's why it gets a thumbs up. It's a challenging card, not only because it keeps you ahead, but also because it is not an easy card to manage- especially if you're behind.

Buyer beware though- Necro is a great enchantment for most decks, but not for one of black's biggest archetypes; Reanimate. At least, it's really awkward when you draw a bunch of cards that have to go to exile.

JOHNNY CONFIDANT'S PICK

Johnny Confidant-  THUMBS UP
This card is so much fun to have around. Sun titan approves, It's super tutorable in Black/White, and it has Flash. Toss in a "any graveyard" and pass a glass- I'm here to cheer for Necromancy!

I have used this for revival denial, my own creature recursion, Combining it with a Kill-Steal spell mix, and everything in between. It's a card that if I could have any foil, I would have this.

Grandpa Growth - THUMBS UP
Sick card is sick. One of the best reanimation effects ever printed. It has gone through some ups and downs as updated rules and errata tweak its functionality, but it is still strong. Having an Animate Dead/Shallow Grave Split card definitely makes combat interesting and Commander players know all too well how to capitalize on a stocked graveyard.

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS DOWN
Having an enchantment you can play at instant speed is pretty interesting. Being able to choose a creature from any player's graveyard is great flexibility. So it seems like this is a pretty neat enchantment, huh?

I'm not so sure. I can't say I've ever seen this in play and in theory, this could make for some solid graveyard recursion, but I just can't get over the fact that it can become an instant, and thus lose the ability to gain a useful creature. The mechanic is just bizarre. So you can play it as an instant, grab a creature out of someone's graveyard, then because it's an instant you have to bury Necromancy, and once that leaves play you have to bury the creature you chose? Seems a bit too convoluted to me.

Why not just use Cremate to stop a potential re-animate? Plus Cremate nets you a card!

Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS UP
I'm playing this card. It's sweet. The art is some of the scariest, and it has some versatility for the desperate times. I wish more enchantments had even this much flexibility, even if its not an optimal play. It can at least get you out of the danger zone.

UNCLE LANDDROPS' PICK

Uncle Landdrops-  THUMBS UP
I had a tough time picking my actual favorite, because I'm more of an artifact guy.

Nature's Will is a cool one though. Not a universally good card, but it works well with Yeva. An extra dude early on is usually pretty good also.

Most of the other enchantments I like I've talked about a lot, like Nevermore and Parallax Wave, so we're not necessarily picking my favorite.

What makes the card useful in Yeva is the ability to cast a sorcery spell, like Harmonize or Conjurer's Closet, then untap so I can play a dude for additional value.

Different matchups make this a little better. Against control, it allows me to get another threat. I can attack and get downhill momentum to resolve spells. In control decks that splash green, it's pretty good too. Playing great lands like Yavimaya Hollow, Mikokoro, and Rogue's Passage help to boost its power, and can also provide nice ways to use mana that might go unchecked the first time around. Definitely a card I had to build around, but I like it when I can play offense and defense at the same time. On curve, it can pay for itself, and every turn after, there's some marginal benefit.

Johnny Confidant- THUMBS UP
I used to play bear umbra (and don't ask me why bears get your mana to untap) but the hard part for me with that was getting through with that creature. I upgraded to Seedborn Muse and had much more consistency with maintaining my manabase with responsive spells.

What this has to do with this enchantment is power creep with my mana base. Ideally, the more evasion creatures you have makes this card more useful. The sad part is that it doesn't trigger for each connection made per creature which would be tricky to manage outside of flash but ultimately would be better. It's a good card if you have consistency.

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS DOWN
It is unclear to me why anyone would play this card instead of SoFaF. The process of equipping things can be a pain, but for that two mana you get to have protection from two colors, a power and toughness boost, and they have to discard a card? Deal. The idea of tapping your opponents lands really isn't much of a bonus. If you wait till after you attack in hopes of protecting your spells from counters, you end up wasting the advantage of tapping your lands twice anyway. Not to mention that you are ahead on board by default. You have this and enough of squad to actually get in hits, so you shouldn't need to commit more to the board. You need to leave up your mana to protect this position, if possible.

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
This is like a more aggressive Seedborn Muse, and I like that about this enchantment. It puts a strong slow-down on control decks, but can also be great for a control deck. Few things are more satisfying than being able to play a bunch of huge creatures in your 1st main phase, deal combat damage, then have all your mana available for more shenanigans during the 2nd main phase or mana open for instants.

That's all we got for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow as Grandpa begins assessing Commander 2013.

Until then, be excellent to each other. And Party On Dudes!

-UL, GG, VJ, and JC's Excellent Adventure

Commander 2013 Impressions, Round 2

Heya Zoners!

We're back with another round of impressions. I know it's been a few days since the set got spoiled. Hopefully, that gave you time to form some opinions. So let's compare notes.

SHATTERGANG BROTHERS

This time we'll start with the last one out.

I really like the Shattergang Brothers. I'm a huge fan of removal, sac outlets, and creating value engines.

This is pretty neat fit for Jund. A while back, I attempted to make a Kresh deck based around the idea of non-blue control. I liked the idea of making something that wasn't a typical Kresh design, featuring the all-you-can-Evoke buffet and other typical GoodStuffs.

Clearly, the Shattergang Brothers are a much better fit, not only in terms of creating Jund non-green control, but also a "stronger" Goblin combo deck.

Again, I'm not really sure thematically where this card is supposed to sit in the Multiverse, but I think when we look at other Jund Legends, it's different enough that the deck has an identity, yet similar enough to provide homes for other legends like Sek'Kuar, Savra, both versions of Wort, and a handful of other legendary creatures as support.

NEKUSAR, THE MINDRAZER

I have a lot of problems with Nekkie. Let's start with the art. The first thing I thought of was not a Wizard, but the king of the Dead Army that Aragorn persuades to fight. Even the background isn't something that I would consider to be the chamber of a Wizard. I'm not saying he needs to fit stereotypes, and that it's not decent art- I'm just saying this shoe is fitting a little small for me.

In examining the card from the "waist down," things get a little more confusing. I've had a few experiences with Group Slug, and I have to say, this is doing no favors for a player. Grandpa Growth has mentioned a couple of times that creating strategy around the idea of "not winning" is not effective, and I agree. Giving people cards has never done me any favors, and so I'm not too enthusiastic about this one.

On a positive note, he is drastically different from his Grixis pals. He's got a midrange mana cost, and does some punishing, but I'm just not terrified, like I am of Thrax or Garza. I'll take the pain if I get to draw cards. I ain't never skeered about that.

SYDRI, GALVANIC GENIUS

With Sydri comes "renewed" design space, and I like that. Truth be told, there's quite a bit to like.

Sydri's first ability is already a thing, but her coloring makes this a lot better. There's plenty of access to animating artifacts, comboing, and tutelage now. Before, there was a lot of goofy Karn decks on the struggle bus. Now, there seems to be quite a bit of power available for those aiming to find it.

Also, we have yet again another Terese Nielsen art that I believe really showcases what she's best at- depicting characters among piles and piles of highly-detailed junk. I like it when she does stuff like this more than the abstract pieces like Enter the Infinite. Perhaps this is one of the best new Legendary arts in the Commander 2013 product.




GAHIJI, HONORED ONE

Speaking of art. I love what Brynn Metheney did here. It's crisp, it's got good technique- and we get a real nice "original" action pose showing off the ferocity that is Gahiji.

Unfortunately, the text box feels like a let down for me. The politicality that they've put into this release is polarizing for me. What I see here is a very non-theatening "Edric-style" bonus that really isn't going far. Unlike the Aura Curse cycle in the new product, I fear the worst for him as a Commander. With no real incentive to cast (outside of a Voltron build), casting Gahiji and protecting seems very uneconomical.

I like my Commanders to have under-the-radar value, but I think this flies too far under, despite the fact that Gahiji is probably sports 1 of 2 pieces of artwork that actually looks like a Commander. It's surely a neat card, and I'm interested to see how it plays. Still feels like it's going to be too "Huggy" for me.


ROON OF THE HIDDEN REALM

Our last new friend is... laughable.

Don't get me wrong- We needed more Flicker creatures. But not like this.

Roon of the Hidden Realm is great, I guess, if the Hidden Realm in Magic is Candyland, A Lisa Frank Coloring Book, or Barney's Asshole.

Pastel castles and indeterminate happy landscapes are not what I play this game for, and they definitely make this Rhino Soldier look out of place. He might as well be wearing a dress. I know, this is a game for people that aren't just me, but I think it's hard to take this card serious, even after you see the gross overcompensation that was done in his text box.

Silly name and a silly art can really influence how much I don't want to play a card, and this is the best example. This is the kind of card that makes me feel embarrassed to play Magic because I'm an adult that loves card games, and not a little girl with pigtails licking a lollipop at the County Fair.
All that said- Blinking in conjunction with Vigilance is huge. I don't think this will be good, but it'll be a deck people will play. There are some nice little synergies I can see, and it surely is different than the big Bant Commanders that see play.

Anyway, that's all I got.

I'd love to hear what people are thinking about the new Commander stuff. So leave something for me in the comments below, will ya?

Until next time, leave me a comment somewhere. You know how to find me.
-UL

In General: Draft Punk

Hey Zoners! It's me, Grandpa Growth, here with another In General segment. Here on In General, we have discussed a myriad of topics, mostly centering on the higher level strategic considerations, but a few weeks ago I penned a piece about the benefits of playing Momir Basic. If you missed it, I encourage you to dig through the archive and check it out.

The idea here is that many players enjoy Magic in a variety of different ways. Most people play several formats casually. Because each format is slightly different, they require different skills to be successful even though the rules of the game stay essentially the same. Playing these different formats will help you focus in on developing particular aspects of your mental game without having to worry about the less important factors or the stress of a competitive environment. 

Today, we are going to discuss the Booster Draft and the particular skills that it allows you to develop. Booster draft is a very skill-intensive and difficult format. Experience and knowledge are paramount. In game decision making is almost taken for granted, you must have rock solid fundamentals because there is much more going on than just what is on the board. This is a big contrast to the last segment I wrote because Momir simplified the game of Magic dramatically, whereas any limited format, but especially booster draft, adds additional complexity to the game. There is a reason that booster draft is the most common format for Pro Tour competition. You must have the basics down, you simply can't afford low-skill mistakes. Once you graduate past this level of control then you can begin to train the skills necessary to be a great limited player.

Things you don't have to worry about in draft:

• Knowledge of older cards - In Commander you will see cards from every era of magic. In a typical game you could have a Zendikar fetch land search out a Revised dual land. Perhaps your Necropotence will dig you into a Phyrexian Obliterator. In limited the size of the card pool is much smaller. You must still have a high level of familiarity with the cards in the format, but the amount of information you must retain is much more manageable.
• Knowledge of mechanics - A related phenom. A game of Commander may demand that you understand the entire rules history of a twenty year old game. Knowing how Storm works or how Flanking works could become relevant. For me, this means I have to explain Banding every time I cast Baton of Morale. In a given limited format there are only a few mechanics at play and since they are usually new there is likely reminder text in case you forget. This keeps things from getting too hairy except in the craziest formats, like Time Spiral block, Cube, or Modern Masters.
• Politics -  In competitive environs there really isn't such a thing as multiplayer. In the casual realm I have only ever play multiplayer games of draft in Cube, although I will admit, even that is rare and unorthodox.  

That is about it, unfortunately. Booster draft is tough. It is designed to test you in many ways at once. Again, this why we demand that the best players in the world compete in this format. 

Things Booster Draft will help you develop:

Mentally/emotionally prepare yourself, this is going to be a long list. For reference though I am going to limit this list to just things that draft will teach you that you CAN'T learn from a game of Commander. 

• Deckbuilding - This sometimes gets lost in the wash when people think and talk about limited, but make sure you remember: the goal of the draft is to make the best deck that you can. This is the most important lesson you need to learn and the ultimate goal of every draft. Signaling, moving in and out of archetypes, audible-ing, pick orders, all of this stuff is just the periphery. You use those techniques IN ORDER TO build the best deck for your seat. Because you have to go through the deckbuilding process every time you draft you get lots of practice at making leaner, meaner decks. Knowing what cards to cut, what to splash, how to construct a mana base...you will get plenty of opportunities to use these skills and believe me: you will lose if you can't do these things well. 
• Card Valuation - It is easy to tell which cards are better when they are both in play. You will see that your Frost Titan can just lock down their Rafiq of the Many while smashing face. Which one would you rather take in a draft? Being able to evaluate the power level of cards in a vacuum, with respect to the format, and in relation to the other options in the pack are all important considerations. In the course of a draft you will have to do this dozens of times. A lot of people I know struggle with this. They will see two cards that they want, but can't decide which is better. There are tons of heuristics people use, like established pick orders, etc., but the only real way to learn and what will help you in the long run is being able to KNOW instinctively what your deck needs. Highly developed card evaluation skills lead directly to better deck building and wins.
• Drafting - There is so much going on in the process of actually picking cards. It is so complex that I am not going to be able to explain it in an entire article, much less a single paragraph. Recognizing the best card, recognizing what your deck needs, making quick decisions, reading and signaling, when and what to force, when and what to splash, when to cut, etc. There are libraries of strategy articles on how to do all of these things better. You may not feel like this is going to improve your constructed game, but consider this. When you can pick the right card from a pool of limited choices, it gives you more experience toward making the same decision with a larger pool of choices...say, what to include in your constructed decks. 
• Metagame - If you read any strategy articles about booster draft, particularly current formats, you might see people use the phrase, "solved the format". Indicating that there has been sufficient experimentation and data collection to suggest that the metagame is stable. When this happens it is important to to know because it will directly inform your choices within the draft. What kind of decks are available in this format? What synergies/strategies are supported? Which colors are better than others? What rares are playable and when should you expect to see them in an opponent's deck? Having insider information about any given limited environment generates free wins. It's just that simple. Know what is available so that you can know what your opponent is doing and what you should be doing. Again, draft formats are smaller and easier to digest than constructed formats, so you can train the skill of collecting and applying this higher level information to use for Commander or Legacy for example. These formats are much deeper and very wide open in terms of competitive play.
• Sideboarding - Once you have established the best deck you can make and taken time to collect information about your potential opportunities and threats, then you can use those previously developed card selection abilities once again to pick out the best answer to the problems that you opponent will be presenting. Sideboarding is difficult to implement, but fairly easy to conceptualize. You cut cards that are bad in order to put in cards that are better. Often this is easier said than done, but in limited you have only a handful of options for your sideboard anyway. It is important to think about your deck and the cards that you AREN'T taking simultaneously so that you have some information about what your opponent is playing. That way, you can take potentially relevant sideboard cards with your unusable picks. By starting out in draft, you can practice doing this bad vs. better card evaluation skill with regards to the sideboard, which will help you make those same decisions in constructed where the decisions will be more frequent, more difficult, and more important.

Okay, that was a lot to think about. Draft tends to be like that. I encourage all you Zoners to get out there get your draft skills up. Theros is now out and available on both MtGO and in paper so there really is no excuse! This is a fun and engaging format that is powerful, deep, and complex. A perfect testing ground to sharpen your limited game. See you next week!

-GG

The Stack #31- TRAP CARD ACTIVATE!

Happy Saturday Zoners!

We begin today's journey with a little brain tickling from Philosoraptor.

I assure you, it fits. The gang's almost all back into full swing in this installment as we talk about some cards that have spurned surprising effects on us, the battlefield, or others.

Sometimes, in tricky situations, it is advantageous to design with the atypical in mind. Mixing things  up is a good quality to have as a deckbuilder and player, and it's important to keep you and your opponents guessing not only when you'll play a spell, but also how you can get it to work.

What we picked for you today are some cards that have actually surprised us in various capacities. So let's get to it.

THIS IS THE STACK!

SURPRISE! NO IT ISN'T! We're going to talk about Commander 2013!

JUST KIDDING! I'LL WRITE ABOUT IT TUESDAY!

THIS REALLY IS THE STACK!

VENSER'S JOURNALIST'S PICK

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
My buddy and mentor plays a deck centered on this card. It's not an artifact heavy deck (though there is an Arcbound Crusher and Dross Scorpion in it), nor does it really play off of large numbers of creatures. In fact, when he pitched the idea of the deck to me, I laughed. He wanted to make a deck based on Norin, the Wary. Turns out, he's not even the main focus of the deck. This card is. This silly, old card is what makes the deck work 90% of the time. I have the scorecards to prove it. This card and a Suture Priest. You do the math.

Johnny Confidant- THUMBS UP
Have you ever feared Rhys and his army? I have and if the idea of this is anything close to that, I'd be ridiculous not to watch out for it.

Grandpa Growth - THUMBS UP
This is a perfect pick for this stack, my hat is off to you VJ. This card looks so fair, but really is so not. I feel like this topic is, "I learned my lesson the first time" or "Things I have been missing out on". You might have to google some decklists to figure out all the combos, but rest assured, people who play this card are intending for it to be pretty broken. Pro tip: don't let that happen.

Uncle Landdrops-  THUMBS UP
I'm actually getting ready to play G-Chamber in what I foresee being a pretty tough little combo deck. I have my own apprehensions about it- mostly, I don't want to turn it into a huggy bear card, and let it end up being the death of me. It's definitely a bad matchup against Doubling Season abusers and other token decks.

GRANDPA GROWTH'S PICK

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS UP
You may recall Master Warcraft, which this card is a strong callback too, minotaurs and all. This card is less subtle, slower, and much more expensive. In exchange for those downsides you get a body with which to leverage all those attacks and blocks, but also you get the effect every combat. This can get ugly very quickly. This functions much like a copy of The Abyss stapled onto a Prison Term. Their best guy usually can't ever doing anything intelligent and they are almost guaranteed to be losing at least one creature per turn. This...is not 'fun'. Which is perfect for me. Unfortunately, this card is Red and White, which is not a color combination that I typically advocate for Commander play. If this were Legendary and sat at cmc 6 I would be singing a different tune, but for now I am going to say leave it behind.

Johnny Confidant- THUMBS UP
I really like this. I already force people to attack with Basandra and War's Toll so why not add in more of battle shaping effects to the party.

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS DOWN
I get that his effect triggers each combat, which is nice, and that it basically can destroy a chump/creature-not-intended-for-attack each turn; but as frugal as it sounds, the CMC 7 just ruins this for me. For one, he's only a 5/5. I'm not always a big fan of big P/T, but when I think minotaurs, I think ridiculous power. I'd be more satisfied if he were a 7/3 honestly. Also, it is only one creature per combat that attacks/blocks and one creature that cannot. Two per turn isn't bad, but by the time he's in play, you may have a lot more to worry about, especially if your opponent lets you have him on the field.

Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS UP
I considered this card for a couple decks, but found the 7 CMC offputting. One of its redeeming qualities is the fact that it isn't a "when this creature attacks" trigger, something that severely crippled Odric, who is apparently not the actual Master of Tactics. I agree with GG. This would be a pretty neat little Legend. Definitely better than a couple of the cards they made with heavyhanded intentions in the RtR block (Here's looking at you, Aurelia).

JOHNNY CONFIDANT'S PICK

Johnny Confidant-  THUMBS UP
Dying to infect is probably one of the worst ways to go. While talking to a fellow Animar player at my card shop about non-combo out win conditions he mentioned that Inkmoth Nexus has won him some games when plans went awry.

Looking through my deck he noticed Kessig Wolf Run was in it, so I already had half of it anyway. Granted this little combo works once then people tend to watch your mana once one of the two are in play which it kind-of a downside. Inkmoth Nexus took Alchemist's refuge once I got myself a Prophet of Kruphix.

Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS DOWN
I'm not saying Nexus is bad, or that this combo is overplayed. I just think this particular little ditty is one we all know, and without a good support system in the deck to assemble and/or make it unstoppable, it's not something I can really defend or support, from any angle. It's just how I play, and what I've learned from playing Animar. It feels like a distraction. Animar kills people by dealing 40 almost unstoppable points of damage. I'm not seeing why I'd want to play colorless land in a 3-color deck that can turn into a 1/1 that deals a different form of damage not aligned with this strategy. Playing this is just really unappealing to me on a lot of economic levels.

UNCLE LANDDROPS' PICK 

Uncle Landdrops-  THUMBS UP
Not a nice card by any means, but I've been pleased with the results. Preventing opponents from playing chump blockers when you're ahead, or from playing more creatures when you're down makes it a good two-way play. Just make sure you have a few creatures to play post-Wrath or whatever.

I tried this out in a couple of decks, and so far it's taken hold really well in Glissa T's, managing creature counts, keeping me from having to take too much damage, and saving other key artifacts by simply being a nice removal target.

It does pose some serious problems against decks with a lot of ETB creatures though- so be warned. But I think it's worth your time.

Johnny Confidant- THUMBS DOWN
So true that this card is not nice at all. I have been on a few bad ends of resource/utility denial strategies and while my playgroup doesn't have a "House ban-list" we try to shy away from excessive denial routes. I may play both Sylvan Primordial and Deadeye navigator, and in my upcoming Sydri deck ill be running Mycosynth Lattice and Arcum Daggsson but i'm not about to destroy all lands. Likewise if i'm in the lead i'm not going to put into play something that weighs significantly for a win. Personally i feel its better to lose less than i win, but win with interesting plays without hearing alot of "oh... this again"

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS UP
This card is stellar. This is the kind of stuff I can get behind. Not surprisingly, this is also the kind of stuff that Commander players hate seeing. "Spirit of the Format" and all that nonsense. Play this. Play Hokori Dusk Drinker. Play Gaddock Teeg, or Thalia, or Heartwood Storyteller, or really anything. Deliver the beats while your opponent, who built a deck full of absolute garbage, loses in a slow and humiliating fashion.

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
I like cards like Oblivion Ring and Fiend Hunter. I don't thoroughly understand this card, but I like it's ability. This is probably the best tempo creature control card that I've ever seen (at least that's what I want to think considering I've never played or seen this card played). The backlash of this card may possibly outweigh the benefits (UL hinted to this with ETB creatures), but if you have the cojones to play something this ridiculous, I'd expect you to also have counterspells and a way to protect this artifact.

That's all we got today. Until then, call "Shenanigans!" if you think that the person you're about to battle is going to let his Millenium Puzzle transform him into an older, better card playing Pharoah from Ancient Egypt. Say Yu-Gi-NO!

And enjoy your morning/afternoon cartoons.
-UL/JC/VJ/GG

More Theros Stuff: Gods and Monsters, for Scrying out loud!

Zoners, Planeswalkers, whatever you consider yourself, welcome to yet another Theros article.

Good(?) Gods, It's Time to Scry

So GG has talked a lot about the Theros set and UL mentioned a whole lot of legendary stuff, so Thassa's already been talked about quite a bit.

Still, she strikes my fancy. I know she's not the most blue card out there, but I like what she bring to the table though. I've had many a deck focused around library manipulation in order to get the most out of cards like Djinn of Wishes, Conundrum Sphinx, and Future Sight.

Planning future plays is helpful and a big part of my style as a Blue player. In a "God" creature type, I expect some foresight and mystical fortune-teller-esque abilities. Thassa delivers.

Scry 1 doesn't sound like much, but it can prevent an annoying land to get in the way of that crucial part of your combo, or get an annoying non-land out of the way so you can get another land drop in.

Other cards in this set that make me happy:

This soldier is a 2/2 for two, already a good start. I mentioned last time that I wasn't all that impressed with Heroic, but then I saw this card.

I'm still not going to say that I like Heroic, but in terms of this card, it kind of makes sense. The more spells cast on him, the stronger he gets and the more cards you get to preview/stack in your favor. His trigger makes him a hero in my book.




Now here's a little something nice. Control with a touch of control.

Counter spells have seemed to get better (for the most part) in recent MTG sets. Render Silent was my favorite from Ravnica, but Syncopate was another good one from that block, and who could forget the ubiquitous Dissipate reprint from Innistrad.

Now, Dissolve here isn't as powerful of a counter spell, but it does two things that I like, and at not much of an extra cost. Why Cancel when you can counter and look ahead at your own deck?

For fans of Condescend, this card may be laughable, but I say that it's worth putting in a deck alongside the beloved Condescend. Don't settle on one over the other I say; have your cake and slightly less appealing sweet bread with it.




This card will conclude my ramblings about the benefits of the Scry mechanic.

What I see in this card is a less powerful, but cheaper and easily repeatable Sphinx of Uthuun. The purpose of Fact or Fiction is to get card advantage and choice. The purpose of this is to stack the library so that future card draws are more fruitful. It is loosely comparable.

What makes this click for me is the beauty of Scrying each attack. High toughness and evasion will let it attack as much as possible.

The card's first ability is also a point of interest. Discarding a card to give it Hexproof until end of turn seems like a great idea, but tap it as well? Maybe not the best choice that Wizards has made, but balance is necessary for limited so trade-offs are inevitable.

"Ooooh... Look at that Big Scary Monster"

Monstrosity is a new keyword which has caught some attention. There's even a duel deck Heroes vs. Monsters out, which, you guessed it, features a preview of Heroic and Monstrosity as new mechanics.

This mechanic is almost more confusing than Heroic to me, though, so I'm uneasy about what types of shenanigans this will bring to MTG. I have to ask myself: What exactly makes a creature Monstrous? Is it the fact that it gets X counters on it? What if it loses the counters? Will it function in a similar manner to Undying if it does lose Monstrous along with the counters? Why does it cost so damn much? You get the gist of my concerns.

As expected with anything dealing with classical Greek literature, these monsters have a nice mythological flavor to them (in name only at least).

Here, we have a new kraken to add to the Blue late-game beat-down cards. It's like a more powerful Dungeon Geists without flying. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Turn 6 it can come out, and two turns later you could theoretically have a 10/10.

That may be cool, but you're still spending a lot of mana on it. 14 mana to be exact, for those who, like me, aren't the best at arithmetic.

Is it worth it? For me, that's hard to answer. I can't justify this card until I see it in use, but based on how it works, it will have all the faults that Dungeon Geists or any of those other "tap creature as long as you control ________" cards. It's too easy to get around. And without Islandwalk, Unblockable, or any other offensive boost, it's a rather poor excuse for a kraken creature.

If I'm spending 14 mana on a sea monster, I want it to be totally awesome, which means it could at least have Shroud so no one can blow it up with a kill spell or Trample so that it can still deal damage against puny blockers.

But anyway, what do I know about monsters?

Until next time Planeswalkers, just keep playing and whenever someone drops a monstrosity, just kick it in the nards.

-VJ



First Impressions of Commander 2013

Happy Tuesday Zoners!

This week, we're going to get the scoop on all 51 new cards in the Commander 2013 product that's slated to come out November 1st.

Last week, we got our first look at one of the potentially two (mum's the word on whether or not the Invasion Dragons will be included, as predicted) new cycles of Commanders, and so I figured it was time we talked about them.

JELEVA, NEPHALIA'S SCOURGE

Though revealed at Comic-Con, I was hoping that the extra time in between spoilings might help me get a little bit better perspective- but it hasn't.

The best thing about Jeleva is her CMC. Before her, Grixis had Mishra, but it's a tough deck to get online, or really, even want to play.

R&D has done a pretty nice job creating differentiation among its Legendary Creatures, and this is a good example. Jeleva is definitely a great opposite to her Grixis pals, being a little smaller and more spell-focused. I also like the way that they're playing with Commander as a format, scaling the power of her enter the battlefield trigger.

That said, it isn't all rosy for me here. My biggest beef is simply me being picky, but the flavor actually doesn't work. The question isn't whether or not this color identity should have these abilities. The problem is that they've crossed several wires in creating this card, creating a domino effect instead of looking at this card and saying, "Something's gotta give."

The three points of contention that I have are Name, her ETB trigger, and creature type; the last of which, is the most troubling. Being a Vampire means she has to "drink minds," apparently, and I'm honestly cool with that. By that, I mean, I don't hate it. Vampires "drinking minds" is a thing that makes sense.

If these things are true, I don't get how she could be "Scourging" it up in Innistrad. From my understanding, there were no mind drinking Vampires made throughout the duration of our favorite Gothic Horror themed block, which really feels inconsistent. It makes more sense for her to be slumming it up with Mirko Polo on Ravnica, even with the triple color identity problem. I don't know. I've spent too much time trying to figure this one out. Maybe someone can help me sort out the flavor math here.

My other big worry with Jeleva is that she enables the "lazy deckbuilder," and that bothers me a little bit. I don't see a challenge to building this deck. Everyone and their mother will be trying to take as many turns as possible, and it could be possible here. Overall, I'm more confused than enthused here.

PROSSH, SKYRAIDER OF KHER

Let me start by saying I'm glad they brought back Kobold tokens, even if I think it's really weird that a Dragon who leaves fire in its wake would have friends. I know I'm being critical, but really, I'm just someone who "Kher's."

Speaking of caring, in case you do, look at your copy of Karador. Now look at Prossh. Familiar art? Absolutely. This is yet another nice little Todd Lockwood piece, in case you can't tell by the color palette, and the way his creatures have this angular, "I'ma pounce on you!" perspective.

Anyway, I'm okay with a lot of things here. Dragons are cool. Jund coloring is alright, even despite the fact that I like to see a little more scaly, sinister-ness with these guys.

Not much really to say. I don't think this is necessarily a bad creature, but the art is deceiving. It's not actually jumping at me.

MARATH, WILL OF THE WILD

Well, folks, we've got a real Hylian Loach on the line. Your patience is sort of rewarded a little here.

Marath provides the Naya Dude Squad with a much needed aggressive threat. Every time he's cast, he'll at least be everything you paid for.

I was looking at Ghave on Amazon, and at the bottom, it said, "Those who bought Ghave also bought this." I couldn't agree more.

If you didn't have enough fun with Ghave the first time around, here's your second chance.

Just do me a favor- this is not Marath. It was correctly pointed out to me at the shop last week that he only goes by one name- and that name is, "Dad of Resurgence."

OLORO, AGELESS ASCETIC

Timelessness is the idea of making something so good that it literally will never be unrelatable.

Agelessness, on the other hand, is beginning to have an expiration date. I'm not someone who wants to handle the nonsense that is Medomai the Ageless in all his terrible game-ruining glory, and I think that most Commander players might agree, if they too weren't inherent contrarians.

I'm not really up on this card, if you get my drift. I actually don't totally hate it though. I think the text box is its best quality. There is some serious life to be gained here, and the idea of having an extra card feels like good value.

What I don't like is everything else. Mostly, it's the art. Time has actually run out on apathetic creatures chillin' gangsta style in makeshift thrones (Yeah, I'm looking at you Teysa). I'd honestly much prefer they just go to Sears, like the original Solemn Simulacrum, spend whatever it costs for a simple 8x10, and go from there. Oloro just looks like he's camping out on a run-down putt-putt course with no plans for the future. Get it together dude. You've got a lot of life ahead of you. Literally. I'm as disappointed in you as you are in whatever it is you have to be super-emo about. I'd love to be a Giant Soldier. Must get all the Giant Ladies.

This card will probably require a Xanax prescription. Just be prepared.

DEREVI, EMPYRIAL TACTICIAN

Last weekend, the world's coolest living badass genius street artist Banksy paid someone to sit out on a sidewalk in the streets of New York and sell his spray paint art work for $60 a pop.

Click for Video.

My point? Why then, are we stuck with Beast Wars art from 1996?

I'm very sure that this Empyrial Tactician is much cooler in person. I'd also venture to say he's full on Maximal, but looks can be deceiving.

As a card, again- I like the rules box. This is by far my favorite rules box of the ones we're reviewing today. It has some elements of great design and provides decent power for a deck that already exists- Blinky Bant.

The best part of this card is ability three. Navigating around the Flash mechanic and rewarding a player for building around this as a Commander feels like a perfect fit. A recurring four-cost chump blocker with an ETB tap ability actually stretches is value on the defense, and I like what can be done here.

I can't wait to see what people come up with for Derevi.

Please share your thoughts on these guys too in the comments below. I'm always anxious to know what the community thinks.

Until next time, remember to mind your surroundings.

Funny. You Never Learned to Mind Your Surroundings.

-UL

The Stack #30- Mistakes Were Made

Heya Zoners!

Even seasoned Magic players make some of the world's silliest mistakes, and today, we'll show you we are no exception.

GG, VJ, and I have dug back into games past to recall cards we'd liked to forget- the ones that probably shouldn't have happened, but did, and now we have to live with it.

We know we're not the only people who've gone flush and to 0 life at the same time, and so we encourage you to reflect on your moments of weakness as we do, if only as a reminder of the things that will never happen again.

SO CELEBRATE! THIS IS THE STACK!

VENSER'S JOURNALIST'S PICK

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS DOWN
If ever there was a game when I should have saved more counterspells, this was the one. Dragons are scary and must never touch the battlefield; but giants are silly and shouldn't be a concern. Still, this one landed and my popping down more creatures in hopes of swarming the other player was not helping. Technically, Fling is the card that brought me to 0 hit points; but it couldn't have done it without a 23/23 Hamletback Goliath as ammunition.

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS DOWN
Yea, this card is kind of silly, but it does hit hard. I say this all the time, but this card makes for a perfect example: a threat that does nothing but damage, even if it is a lot of damage, just isn't good enough. You need card advantage, protection from removal, extra bodies, or at least abilities that are relevant in combat.

Uncle Landdrops-  THUMBS DOWN
Clearly a card designed for Timmy, but I've never liked the way that this particular psychographic comes with a cruel little jab for players that like this stuff. Instead, I've started calling these "Number Munchers," because aside from its CMC and P & T, there's really not a lot of tastiness. I like my Number Munchers to be a little more literate.

GRANDPA GROWTH'S PICK

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS SO FAR DOWN
This isn't the most embarrassing card that I've ever lost to. It's not the card that I lost to most often. It very well could be the card that I lose to the highest percentage of times it is cast. It has been haunting me lately; I can't seem to get away from it. I have lost to this card just about every way you can lose to it, including actually being milled out of a game of Commander. There is a first time for everything, right? Granted he had infinite mana so he could have killed me with a ham sandwich, but that is beside the point.

This is an absolute HOUSE in Cube where you can pretty easily get an X = 10+ and kill your opponent on the spot. Normally, I am seeing this in Wrexial and Lazav EDH decks where I am promptly buried under an avalanche of my own Fact or Fiction and Bribery. I like to think I am above this kind of chicanery. I am wrong.

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
I admit, I actually run this in my Lazav deck and I have used it shamelessly. I can see how losing to it would be embarrassing; I'd rather tell someone a Mind Funeral did me in. I do however like the card for multiplayer for reasons I shouldn't have to explain.

Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS UP
The arrival of Gatecrash made the previously gimmick-y Dimir mill decks way better. Having Lazav as a "creature" interactive option to complement the already above-average level of Wrex-I-Mill spell decks gave people great options and cool cards to play, ascending from being just another failed deck to one that can get there in the late-late, if the price is right.

Between Mind Grind and Whispering Madness, there is a lot to fear now. I used to play the Grind, and I really liked it. There's nothing I dislike more than folks who think they can limp into a game short on lands, and though I don't believe GG is necessarily doing this on a regular basis, this definitely hurts the marginal deck I see that thinks they can get away with a land count south of 35.

On another note- GG needs a nemesis, and I'm glad it's something as powerful, silly, and fun as Mind Grind. The poetic nature of this occasion is not lost on me. I know I sound a little sadistic, but I spent years thriving on finding goofy tech to beat Grandpa down with, and it is still the standard by which I build the majority of my decks. Contrary to popular advertisements, this is the best part of waking up- Not Folgers in a cup.

UNCLE LANDDROPS' PICK 

Uncle Landdrops-  THUMBS UP
I find that I either have little shame, or I've put up mental walls to hide my more embarrassing defeats. I don't think the latter is the case- but then again, would I know if I was?

I feel like I've been the "embarrasser" than the "embarrassee" in more occasions, not because I'm good, but simply because I play with oddballs like Batwing Brume and Avarice Totem.

Anyway, Stuffy Doll is a "bad" card by some people's standards. I think it's fine. It was my fault I lost. I attacked into it and subsequently lost the game. I got the Red Zone Bug playing Animar, and thought if I didn't attack I was going to lose. I haven't made this mistake twice.

I don't think I'd play Stuffy Doll, but I've said this before about other cards and wound up playing them. Having a blocker that forces your opponent to play around it or sway them from attacking altogether is valuable if you play the turn clock game. I'm not sure it's worth its casting cost, but I'm sure there's a way around that.

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS DOWN
I don't think that I would play this either, but I am not going to mince words about how powerful it is. Indestructible threats are difficult to deal with by definition. This guy needs a solid piece of equipment to be offensive, but it becomes tough (and painful) to stop once it gets going. There are plenty of ways to abuse this in damage dealing combos, as well. On defense, this card is more impressive, but not really what I would call an all-star. It is tough to race effectively and plays well in long games. I can see people, new players mostly, evaluating the power level of this card improperly and not reacting appropriately in-game. Once you see it work though, you typically learn your lesson.

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS DOWN
This card almost cost me a draft once, and for that I was ashamed. Although UL makes a good point about having a blocker that forces opponents into or around it, Raggedy Ann isn't exactly a game winner. If you do wind up losing to this card, it is indeed your fault, since I've not seen any good combos with this card and infinite damage loops, since if you are going to deal infinite damage, why have this as a middle-man?

Well, that's all we got for you today.

Feel free to leave us any thoughts you have in the comments below!

Grandpa will be back tomorrow with some knowledge, and look for our schedule to get its stride back this week.

This is UL signing off, reminding you all to get your Furbys spayed and neutered.

Maybe that will shut them up.
-UL

UL's Better Deckbuilding: Greel, Mind Raker EDH

Hey Zoners!

Sorry about the missing the last couple posts, but  your Uncle Landdrops is returning to you live with another exciting installment of Better Deckbuilding, the place on TGZ where I talk about deck design in the hopes that you will actually, "try this at home" in your own way.

Today we're going to talk about my mono-Black Commander- a most horrific Spellshaper I call "Greel-y Dan" for the same nonsensical reasons I call Lin Sivvi "Thin Lizzy."

Clearly, the only thing I like more than logic and puns is rock'n'roll. So let's rock'n'roll.

WHY GREEL?

Much like the jazz rock band from which he gets his name, Greel-y Dan has many similar qualities of its rock'n'roll namesake. He's under-the-radar, powerful, and an intriguing part of Magic's old-school, and whereas most other people will find him offensive, there's a sort of brilliance to his madness.

My inner EDH Hipster latches onto a lot of underplayed cards, but not purely for fashion or a trendy anti-social lack of caring.

Typical deck design usually starts by choosing a Commander, and the foundation for good deck design always supplies a stream of logical justifications to explain the choice. "Generally" speaking, this is what I believe is the big difference between making a deck and being a better deckbuilder.

Here, Greel was chosen for several reasons. For starters, I like this card a lot. That's an important quality for motivation to make it work and keeping a deck together.

Second, I have a soft spot for the Legendary Spellshaper and most Spellshapers. I find their abilities to be very underrated, and, being that's the place I find most comfortable to play from, there was a nice connection.

Third, Greel had all the physical characteristics I was looking to fit into my deck portfolio- Mono-Black, Discard, Non-Attacking Commander, Engine, Reanimator, Spellshaper, From Prophecy.

Match.com couldn't have come up with a better fit.

THE STRATEGY

Although Greel turned out to be much less of a challenge than I realized, the process for creating strategy was still intensive.

There are a lot of easy traps to fall into when designing discard decks. I know because I fell into them in my Magic infancy, loading up on Megrims and Liliana's Caress.

The problem with cards like this is that there is a real rigidness to the way that they have to be played, and a real flimsiness to its execution. Although Mono-Black doesn't have much to do in the early stages of the game, these weren't cards I was interested in.

Getting Greel to survive his first turn was going to be a challenge, so I took out a lot of the additional motivations people would have for killing him- Rings of Brighthearth and Illusionist's Bracers- and opted for a fairly stripped down approach.

From that point, all I had to worry about was the activation cost. Making sure I have cards in my hand is a pretty big deal, but so is making sure I had cards I wanted to pitch. This meant redundancy, access to heavy tutelage, and a lot of card draw to keep him activating, but I still needed to find a way to make my discard activation worthwhile. So I added sizeable threats and a nice Reanimate package.

Putting all of this together, I was able to come up with a really nice lose-lose strategy for my opponents.

In the deck, Greel creates a powerful ultimatum: find an answer and let me stick my threat, or lose your hand, let me discard, and proceed to get an unchecked threat on the table.

Naturally, this is the primary strategy, but the beauty is that Greel is just a huge supplement to the deck, and not always the most terrifying piece. So let's pop the hood on this bad boy and check out some of the bigger pieces of the deck.

THE TECH

The key to this deck is to draw cards. Drawing keeps the mana flowing and the deck humming along. With access to tutors, it basically provides ways to get answers and threats to get and pitch.

There are now 5 card draw spells: Night's Whisper, Sign In Blood, Read the Bones, Ambition's Cost, and Ancient Craving, shown here.

So yeah- we're losing quite a bit of life to dig. However, that really shouldn't be much of a problem. Control decks will usually wait to counter these spells when they can leverage tempo, like, when you have no cards, and Aggro decks are grateful for the self-mutilation that is occurring, even though they probably don't realize removal spells are abundant in this deck.

There isn't actually a whole lot of discard outside of Greel in this deck, and although that's mostly due to the fact that our Horror Spellshaper is a house as a Commander, it's also due to the fact that Cabal Conditioning is also super sick.

Since we're drawing a lot of cards, this is usually pretty castable, and often happens before turn 7 with access to mana rocks. It's a bomb in multiplayer, and I don't think I've ever targeted anyone for anything less than four, because it combos with Geth's Grimoire, and I proceed to drawing more stuff.

Geth's Grimoire is one of the most powerful cards in the deck as a result of both this and Greel. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention this, and more redundant if I continue to talk about it any more than I already have on the blog.

No one ever sees this coming, which is why I love it so much. It's also the kind of card I have no problem pitching to Greel if I'm in a tight spot, because I'm basically preventing my opponent from casting whatever it is they have in their hand.

Obviously, when I don't have Greel, this card is equally as awesome. I've gotten some serious mileage out of it in a couple of games, and it's usually worth the cost to play it. There are some things money can't buy; for every creature spell, there's Withering Boon.

Imp's Mischief is another card I put in here as non-creature, pitch-worthy target, though it is usually mana rocks and lands that are going to go first.

One of my favorite little pieces of tech is this here Ringwraith.

It doesn't look like much, but the incremental value in multiplayer cannot be understated. I dig this out of the graveyard about as much as I try to abuse Solemn Simulacrum, which is quite a bit.

On turn 3, casting it can usually net me a land or a bad spell. However, as the game drags on, holding up single cards becomes increasingly more vital and powerful. Getting this multiple times in a game, particularly with the Grimoire out, makes this a lot more powerful than it looks, which I think is saying something, particularly with this artwork.

For a while, this has been the primary game ender for this deck. Abusing Kokusho was too annoying for everyone, and for whatever reason, this always seemed to be the card I cast that ended the game.

I think we've all seen this card, so I think we understand how and why it's good.

Still, I think being up in arms about Kokusho and not this card is strange. It represents a significantly larger pool of damage, and is one card.

WHAT THE GODS GAVE ME

So despite winning a lot of games off the backs of thirteen undead 2/2's, I decided that I would like to have some other routes to winning in this deck.

As a result, Greel saw the most card changes when Theros dropped a couple weeks ago, and I've been pleased with the results so far. Here's what I added.

The whip has actually been the most surprising card for me. I was not a big fan when it got spoiled, because I can't stand it when an activated ability works at sorcery speed.

Sometimes though, I'm an idiot, and this was the case. The Whip covers one of my decks biggest weaknesses, giving me huge swings of life gain when necessary, and is much more powerful than I originally gave it credit for.

You can't see it, but I am holding my thumbs up at my screen as I write this. I know, I'm talented and dextrous.

To misquote GG, "This card is a meat popsicle." A big, tasty, and awesome meat popsicle. So eat it up, and love it.

My refusal to play Exsanguinate and my polite metagame boycott of Kokusho has led me to perhaps to a more powerful option, but that's okay.

It only took me one turn last week to discover just how powerful this card is. Playing and reanimating him in one turn allowed me to gain 26 life. I guess I just don't know what's fair anymore. I hope I don't get the impulse to take him out. Still wrapping my head around the fact that he's a common. This is not Highway Robber-y. It is much more.

Got Hythonia out a couple of times, and it's as good as it sounds. As a support card, it is every bit the card I thought it'd be when I talked about it as part of the Set Review.

In my Greel deck I decided to play Decree of Pain and Black Sun's versus Damnation and some of the other Wrath options I have. Hythonia's another sizeable threat that can end games and generate "all of the tempos." I like it a lot.

We'll end by talking about the man downstairs.

He is everything I predicted he'd be, and more. In conjunction with the Whip, I was able to keep my life total from not only getting into the danger zone, but also use part of my life to draw an extra card or two incrementally and proceed to victory.

The tempo that can be generated with devotion is Erebos' best quality, and with the Whip, it made for a very tough tandem to beat.

Overall, my assessment is that the Gods make Commander much tougher, and the choice of colors all the more relevant now, as Green and White have the most access to quality removal.

I hope to feature an article about how to play these guys next week.

That's all I got for Greel. My list actually needs some updating, but as always, here's my list if you want to check out what I'm playing. Feel free to leave me suggestions or +1 it if you like it.

Greel, Mind Raker EDH

Until next time, don't piss off Zeus. You know he hates it when you worship false Mimeoplasms.

-UL