We're pretty tongue-in-cheek this week with a deck I'm messing around with, so if you don't like articles about playing for fun, go deflate your neighbor's wacky-waving-inflatable-arm-flailing-tube-man or something.
Cause I'm gonna talk about Dollar General today. For those who don't know, "Dolla G" is a format GG and I designed last year for newer players or people who prefer to play on the cheaper side of Magic in a casual way.
Dollar General gets its name from the fact that your Commander has to cost less than a dollar, and your deck in total has to cost less than $40, using the lowest calcuated price for a deck on the TCGplayer deck calculator via TappedOut.
Essentially, the idea was to create a challenge for players who spend money and get bored, as well as allow newer players a chance to compete under the umbrella of fun nonsense. By creating a salary cap, it allows us to not exclude cards directly, but to force a player to consider different options, or play bad cards they really like.
There are a lot of hilarious things I've seen recently in my group. The creativity is at an all-time high, and I'm super-impressed. We have all kinds of decks, ranging from Volrath "Voltron" to Sensei Golden-Tail Tribal "Samurai." We even have a bold Homura "Dudes" deck that can support an Umezawa's Jitte. Because that's how "Homie" plays it. Big Budget Bling and big 3/1 and 4/1 dudes with first strike.
Hopefully, I'll have the chance to talk about these decks in the future. Cause they're fun, cool, and it's quite bit of Battlecruiser Magic going on.
Today though, we're gonna talk about Bruna's half-brained older brother, Hakim.
This is a deck I put together because I wanted to have a little more casual fun than I do with my other Dollar General deck, Green Eggs and Glissa.
Unlike Glissa T's, who's all about engines and little baby artifact triggers, Hakim is one of my more strange EDH decks.
Like Bruna, he's trying to salvage the non-value granted by Auras, and he does this at a pretty hefty rate.
Cause Bruna's ability triggers, and you get to cast a bunch of stuff, even if it isn't yours, for free, while Hakim is limited by time and cost. Because we have to squeeze all of the Voltron-ing in at upkeep, and hope by the time we go to combat that he's not dead.
Although it may not look like it, letting Hakim resolve for a turn in play can prove to be just as devastating as Bruna with a graveyard full of stuff, despite his horrible mechanics.
The good news is that you can trigger his ability in response to triggering his ability- as long as you have the mana to pay for it.
I did mention this was silly, right?
Although it may seem fairly ridiculous to do this, even try to play this deck, I have to say this deck has some surprising trickiness and resiliency.
And as always, I wanna talk about his tech.
 |
I'm quite the Traitor to myself for playing
this card, I know. It's for the right reasons
though, I assure you. |
So yeah, I'm playing with some evil magic. I know it isn't exactly a secret that this card is pretty incredible, and neither is my previously expressed distaste. My hatred for Treachery was fairly well documented here on a very angry segment of The Stack, so you know that I'm not a fan of this card.
HOWEVER...
To demonstrate that I am in fact a grown-ass man who knows how to keep his enemies closer, and who can effectively show people how to re-purpose cards that already have insane value, I am running this in Hakim.
There are many ways I can justify playing it and still being able to sleep at night, so let's talk about that a little bit.
Treachery's here, simply, so that I'm not tapped out when I enter my main phase. Having to do a lot of work in my upkeep usually means that I'm spent by the time I enter combat.
While taking other people's stuff is always a primary option, I've never been one to slam a card in a deck simply because I can do one thing with it. Treachery is great to play on Hakim cause it can also help him get pumped with
Auramancer's Guise, which is pretty nice considering Hakim only has 2 power.
Combos on top of combos. That's why Treachery is actually useful in the deck, and slightly more creatively used.
Another goofy fun card I've enjoyed is Puca's Mischief.
I picked up a copy a month or so ago when I was building Braids, and ended up cutting enchantments.
So when I was looking for a few final pieces to test Hakim, I slotted it in.
I've had a couple games where this card has just been hilarious good fun. One of the cool tech things you can do with it is exchange creatures for Auras that are already enchanting your own creatures, effectively making Puca's Mischief a 2-for-1 machine that triggers on upkeep.
It's pretty cool. Not a great card, but goes along with my theme, and I think it helps to illustrate the kind of nonsense I'm playing.
If the last card didn't give you an idea of the crazy stuff I'm playing, then Thran Golem sure will.
I've gotten him out once or twice with some enchantments on him, and it's not good. At all. I mean, it's not good for your opponents!
Thranny's one of those cards that you get to play and make people laugh. It's one of the silliest cards I've played in recent memory, and I have to admit I kinda love it, even though I have no idea why a metal creature would find extra strength from being enchanted.
On the other hand, this is a card I expect most people to start playing, if they aren't playing it already.
Bruna and Hakim get to see a lot of enchantments if you're trying to combo out right, so it should be pretty easy to combine our Researchers with an
Eldrazi Conscription and swing fairly quickly.
Casting free Auras in Hakim is non-existent without this guy, and he can create even more consistency in Bruna, especially with tutors and all the white enchantments you can find. This card is awesome, and dirt cheap. So play it.
See also-
Iridescent Drake. Cause when your Researchers die, you can re-use your enchantments again.
I helped one of the guys in my playgroup build a Rafiq Enchantment Voltron deck some months back now, and that was the first time I actually read this card.
The Magemarks, on the whole, aren't so great. I can admit that.
Still, this card is actually fairly filthy in Hakim. Since I'm biding my time in this deck until the day I can slam Hakim and win, enchanting Looters and little disruption gremlins like
Cephalid Constable are part of my strategy.
With Magemark, turning Hakim into an unblocked machine without
Tricks of the Trade is possible. I can set up a strategy before I really set up a victory. And let's face it- most people don't play Defender.dec, though I can't say I haven't seen them.
And I saved my favorite card for last.
When they first came out with this card in Innistrad, I thought it might be a thing for people, with all the flashbacking that was happening, and all the Snapcasters floating around.
Regardless, the Mirror-Mad man has had a home in a couple decks I've played in EDH. I ran him in a Damia deck I was playing last fall where I'd mill myself into
Worm Harvest with a bunch of lands and other graveyard recursion.
It's actually a really great card for Bruna, Mimeoplasm (hashtag, eww don't do it, you've got so much to live for), and here in Hakim. If you're playing big graveyard decks, I'd recommend him. He's awesome, and he really is that all-in kinda fun, if that's what you're into.
If you want to take a look at the rest of my list, here's the link:
Hakim Loreweaver Dollar General EDH
It's still a work in progress, so suggestions are welcome. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, or if it's going to stay together for a long time, but I've been having fun, and I guess that's all that really matters.
Stay tuned for Johnny Confidant on Thursday, the Stack on Saturday, and ol' Gramps on Sunday.
Thanks For Watching.
-UL
