Command Zone OG's #5: Axis of Grixis

Heya Zoners! Hope your Tuesday's going well.

We're back today with another installment of Command Zone OG's, our Commander Familarity Initiative here on The General Zone to educate and keep fresh all those decks and strategies that come from the minds of deckbuilders everywhere.

The topic is Red, Blue, and Black- The scary, controlling colors of Grixis. so let's get going.

ON THE RISE

The latest TappedOut trend I predicted has been slightly affirmed in the last couple weeks, with the emergence of Grenzo lists.

This is something I'm happy about, because of the uniqueness of Grenzo, and his ability to fit into some of the pre-existing Goblin Tribal decks people wanted to play with Black-Red Wort.

With a scalable power, and a longer game, Grenzo is a great addition to the Rakdos guild as it tries desperately to interact in our format. While the design of this card is strange, it is chock full of so many neat things I have a hard time criticizing it.

Most of the lists I looked at were focused on scry and Goblin Tribal. Going Aggro, getting Grenzo out, and recurrable beats. I'm not sure if it works in practical application, but I'm totally okay with trying new things. Glad to see other people doing the same.


ALWAYS AROUND

Looking back at my Commander 2013 review, if anyone cares, I talked mad crap about this card- and that's not likely to change here.

I've now played against this deck twice, and it's silly and annoying. Perhaps one of the most unexciting decks I've played against in recent memory. One of the players even admitted, "I don't know how I'm supposed to win."

My problem with this deck is that it's just too full of cards aligned with trying to make the game go too fast that it can't catch up, which creates an unnecessary Kingmaker-style deck.

Aside from not being a Wizard, and it's ridiculous 2/4 power, this card is just a can of groans and moans every time it hits the table.

UNDER THE RADAR

Last, we've got some Dimir action with Grimgrin.

This is a card I've been talking crap about since it came out in Innistrad, back when TGZ was just me and GG talking spoilers and playing 1v1 in our apartments 3-5 times a week.

However, I've actually changed my tune and attitude towards the UB monster. Mostly because his combo potential is absurd. Using and abusing the Zombie tribal's penchant for reanimation and card advantage, the Grimgrin deck can not only tutor and create infnite loops, but also protect them with access to blue. The redundancy of Zombies and ability of substitutes also makes winning a lot easier than Oona.

This is a deck I have yet to see in complete optimal form, but I have played against a pretty good one in my metagame. Cards like Shepherd of Rot, Gempalm Polluter, and Undead Gladiator have insane power, and with Corpse Harvester, it's not difficult to get what you want. And with Living Death, Patriarch's Bidding, and even Living End, it's not difficult to get all of it back.

Have you guys seen Grenzo in action? Have you built or witnessed the wrath of Grimgrin? Have you been as utterly annoyed with Nekusar nonsense? Let me know in the comments below!

Pass Turn.
-UL

The Most Overrated Commanders

Heya Zoners. It's your boy Landdrops here bringin' a fun little list for fun, controversy, and all things in between.

Much has changed towards my card philosophy these days. For example, much like my attitude toward guns, I no longer hate specific cards so much- just the way that people play them.

Still, there's some Legendary Creatures that I believe are incredibly annoying, not only because they're talked about on the Internet as if they're incredible/unstoppable, but because they're also so net-decked that they are relatively unexciting. 

Naturally, this kind of article is going to have one and only one certainty. That the most overrated Commander is, has, and forever will be, (at least, according to me), the gorram Mimeoplasm. This is a given, I've beat it to death, and I don't really want to dignify that piece of sludge with any more publicity.

So enough talk. I've found my soapbox, and I'm ready to go. 

8. Kaalia of the Vast

Congratulations, Kaalia players. This card is significantly less boring than I originally thought. Maybe that's because I have one of the rare breed of Kaalia players that understands Armageddon and Avacyn just aren't that cool a thousand freaking times. No, I'd say definitely. Because if I had to play that deck, I'd still not like Kaalia. Don't get me wrong. In the words of Pepper Brooks, "It's a bold strategy, Cotton." It's just not an original one. These days even new commander players seem to know what's up, and that makes me happy. 

7. Prossh, Skyraider of Kher

This deck was popping up pretty frequently on TappedOut until the end of January, and I just didn't get it. Though the art is cool, casting Prossh and sacrificing a bunch of dudes to get Commander Damage still feels lame. Go ahead and continue to attack with your silly Dragon. I have removal spells, two thumbs, and to be punny, I just don't "Kher." 

6. Nekusar, the Mind Razer

I was apparently wrong when I said that no one was going to play this card. Obviously, I forgot that people like to play with themselves and Windfall whilst doing nothing. The only thing less appealing to me about this card is the fact that every time I look at it I have to see atrocious art, and terrible top-to-bottom design. There is literally nothing I like about this card. It's like Niv-Mizzet, but for Kids. 

5. Arcum Dagsson

I had the chance to play against this deck, and I'm glad I did. Because contrary to what ex-CommanderCast recurring guests and the silly 1v1 thing they have going on in France, it's pretty bad. Rather than blather on though, I'm going to let my favorite Santa Barbara Police Chief tell you how I feel: 

Silliness aside, what this deck actually does is very little to try and win the game. I liken it to the way the fact that you can really only put out so many Stax effects before it becomes easy to predict. Obstacle Courses don't win you the game. They just stop other people from doing it.

4. Grand Arbiter Agustin IV

I've been bad at EDH too guys. I played GAAIV long ago when I didn't have a code or any respect for the value of artistry and craftsmanship in the deckbuilding process. Even without my melodramatic eloquence, there's a lot you can telegraph to your opponent about your Commander, even if they don't know what is in your deck. Good players and long time-ers that retain half of what they know about Magic can create solid educated guesses about what's in a 99-card deck. For me, this is one of the few decks people still play that really screams, "Hey! I'm playing GoodStuff! I have no idea what Commander is! HAHAHAHAHAHA!" I think my list is around for validation, but just go Google it and prove me wrong. There's really no "theme" that can be crafted in this deck except Hate Bears, and then you're just playing a deck similar to Arcum deck.

Anyway, please don't build this deck. There are so many better U/W Commanders now, and our entire staff has experience with all of them. Let us help you from making a huge mistake.

3. Diaochan, Artful Beauty

So for you longtime Zoners, this might not be a surprise that I don't like this. Back when they released Commander's Arsenal, I talked mad crap about this piece of chaff. 

Still, if it's a surprise to you that it wound up on a list of Overrated Commanders, well, this is the way I look at it. If a single person on the planet looked at this card, cocked their head, and went, "Hmm...Maybe I can make this work," it's overrated.

All I have to say is that if there's a God, or a Cthulu monster out there, that thing better help the person who's got the guts to show up at a kitchen table in my general vicinity and try to play it. I have a feeling my reaction might be similar to what Stewie Griffin did to Will Ferrell after he saw Bewitched.

2. Riku of Two Reflections

Riku is both Green and Red because it wants to take you to Magical Christmas Land, where mana is infinite and Genesis Waves only get cast for a minimum of X=75. What most Riku players fail to understand though that Niv-Mizzet and even evil ol' Momir Vig have way more goodies under their Christmas Trees. This deck annoys me because people consider it "competitive," yet I don't see how it beats even a good Animar deck, which happens to be only "Tier 2," if you believe in that sort of thing. This Commander makes every card in your deck cost more, which means that Molasses.dec should be able to beat this thing no problem. Especially with no access to solid Wrath Spells. 

1. The Mimeoplasm

I didn't thwart your expectations here. We have a saying here on TGZ that "Friends don't let Friends play The Mimeoplasm," and there's a pile of good reasons why. Like Kaalia, this deck does a lot of boring stuff trying to create combos that only make the deck worse. Actual Reanimate decks own this thing because it has to eliminate card advantage to win. Now, I'm not always opposed to inefficient effects, but this is just where I've drawn the line. 

Well, that wraps up my thoughts for today. Be sure to have fun arguing me and calling me stupid if I hated on your Commander in the comments below.

Have a wonderful evening. Pass Turn.
-UL

In General: The Modern Approach

Hello Zoners. I am Grandpa Growth, your regular Sunday writer. This is In General, your regular Sunday column. In General focuses on discussion of higher level strategy, player psychology, game theory, and other loosely related topics. In General is not the place for my thoughts on individual cards...usually.

You see today, I am at home watching coverage of the Top 8 of Pro Tour Born of the Gods in Valencia, Spain. The Constructed format for this tournament is Modern. Wizards has established a pattern of wanting to showcase a "fresh" format for the Pro Tour, so that everyone at home can watch the top players in the world design and play decks for an unexplored metagame. *BUZZ WORD ALERT*! Metagame huh? Metagame is the umbrella for all the things that relate to the game, but are outside of an actual game of Magic. In this context I am referring specifically to the metagame composition - the breakdown of all the viable decks available to players. In a solved format this is a known quantity. There will be statistical analysis available that documents each major deck's win percentage against the other major decks and what percentage of the total player base at recent tournaments have been playing each deck. No such information exists for Commander, but that is the nature of a casual format. Next week, in fact, I will be discussing how the idea of the metagame influences Commander as a format, but that is not what I am talking about today.

Today, I am talking about how Wizards accomplishes the task of taking a solved format and essentially wrecking it. You see, this is how you make a "fresh format" out of an existing one. In Standard, cards rotate on a yearly basis and new cards are coming out every few months. Because the card pool is sufficiently small, each of these changes makes a significant impact on what decks are viable in the format. Modern has a much larger card pool, so new cards are much less likely to be powerful enough to impact the format at large. Cards also don't rotate out, so the only way Wizards can remove something from Modern is to put it on the Banned list. This is the exact tactic that they have chosen to control the Modern metagame and it is an interesting decision that I believe has applications to Commander.

Wizards unbanned Bitterblossom and Wild Nacatl just weeks before the Pro Tour, ensuring that new (old) decks would become viable and the Pros would need significant amounts of testing with and against these previously unusable archetypes. With Modern, Wizards has adopted the unwritten policy that whenever the Banned and Restricted List is updated, they will typically ban the best card in the best deck at that time. Once established, this meant that players who invest in the format could expect it to change more frequently than Legacy and also expect that any deck dominant enough to win consistently, would not stay legal for more than a few months at a time.

This was essentially all preamble to a simple question. What if Commander was managed this same way? It is no secret that I am not a supporter of the so-called "Official" Banned List. There is simply nothing official about casual Magic. If you have issues with a particular card, deck, or person in your local metagame then you should deal with those issues individually. Don't rely on, and  certainly don't endorse, other people putting rules on they way that you have fun with your friends. That is how I feel at least. Anyway, the point I am making is that this could provide a much more intuitive guiding principle for establishing a banned list. Instead of listing all the cards that commander.net moderators don't like, we could have a more objective and democratic system.

For example, Nekusar, the Mindrazer is popular in my group these days. Keep in mind this just an example, I don't think these decks are even good, much less worthy of a ban, but for argument's sake let's say I started an open-ended poll. I want to shake up my metagame, so I ask people what they think the best card in the best deck is. If people feel like I do, they will inevitably start naming cards that are in these Nekusar decks. Winter Orb, Back to Basics, maybe Phyrexian Tyranny, or even Nekusar himself. If the consensus is to ban a card that is popular in Nekusar decks, we know Nekusar is a problem in my group. If the group consistently points out a particular card, then we should think about banning that card to put the power level and popularity of Nekusar decks back in line with the rest of the format. Every six months-to-a-year we could re-examine the list and use the same system to take cards off the list. If the majority of people seem to think that allowing Braids, Cabal Minion as a Commander would help diversify the format, then heck, we can give it a go.

This is more of a thought experiment than anything. The idea intrigued me and I think that there is potential for it to supplant the Official Banned and Restricted List in my sphere of influence. So, rather than asking if you support this idea since that isn't really the point, I want ask: what do you think the best archetype in Commander is and what single card could you take away that would make you stop wanting to play, or hate playing against, that archetype?
-GG

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