In General: Powerful Answers, In theory

Well hey there Zoners. A while ago I penned a piece about what makes a threat powerful. The characteristics of the card as well as the mechanics of the mechanical nuances of the game that allow for those characteristics to make threats better or worse within the context of the game. I received some good feedback about that article, but it seemed to leave people with more questions. I seem to have a way of doing that. I have a long list of topics that I have promised to write on, but that list is apparently going to be growing even longer now.

Today, I am going to be following up on that previously mentioned article by giving a different signature piece of the game: answers. What makes a good answer? Why do they matter? Wish me luck as I try to answer the question: what makes an answer powerful?

Answers
Below is a list of the characteristics I want my answers to have if I am going to include them in my decks. To help illustrate these points I am going to include an example card that clearly demonstrates what we are looking for. These ideas are presently loosely in order of importance, but the more of these criteria a card can meet, the better.


1. It has to work.

In Magic, the player with the last threat standing usually wins. Failing that, the player who can keep more threats in play for longer is more likely to win. Because of this many games end with the following situation: Your opponent has a good creature that is giving you a real beating. You need to top deck a removal spell in order to just stay alive. Having answers that are hard to interact with gives them a better chance of working. That is the most valuable thing an answer can be: successful. Things like uncounterability, preventing regeneration, exiling or tucking, side stepping protection or Shroud, and Split Second make sure that your answer does what it is supposed to do, every time. Problem solved; no questions asked.

2. It is good when you draw it.
There are three major categories under the umbrella of 'answer'.

• Disruption: proactively stopping your opponent from using their threats through things like discard, land destruction, Pithing Needle, Slaughter Games, etc. These only work if you can use them before threats are presented. If your opponent has Progenitus in play, they won't mind you blowing up a few of their lands.
• Counters: these stop your opponent's threats from ever hitting the table, but still allow your opponent to chase the goose around trying to set up the right play. Unfortunately, the window for this type of disruption is even smaller; it must be on the stack! This typically means interacting with opposing spells, but don't overlook the ability to stop activated and triggered abilities like Voidslime.
• Removal: As the name suggests, these cards remove threats that have already made it to the battlefield. The window to use removal is always going to be open as long as you still have some life left, so you don't have to be quite so johnny on the spot. In exchange for this, we must often sacrifice flexibility. Removal often comes with targeting restrictions like only dealing with particular card types or subtypes. E.g. Doomblade.

You probably knew all of that already, even though it doesn't hurt to spell it out. But what is the point? Well the point, as stated above is that good answers are good whether you draw them early, on time, or late. Take a look at CC here. It can be used to bounce lands or key permanents to slow your opponent down. It counters spells on the stack. It taps creatures help solve problems on the board. If you ever find yourself in a spot where Cryptic isn't good, you can draw a new card to look for something more appropriate. This card is the poster child for utility. I can't recall a time where I was disappointed by it. It does something relevant in every situation.

3. It is flexible.
It is interesting to me that, theoretically, I rate flexibility as the third most important characteristic of an answer, however, it is the primary criterion by which I select answers for my decks. If you need to kill a creature, most creature removal will do in a pinch, so number one is only rarely absolutely necessary. There are so few cards that can actually achieve number two that you won't be able to stock your deck full of them; eventually you will have to include more narrow answers. So, in reality, finding good answers is a search for the least narrow answer.

That is flexibility in a nut shell. It hits the highest percentage of relevant targets. The trick to selecting narrow answers is being able to more clearly define 'relevant'. For that, you need a good read on the metagame; both the format in general and your local decks. What is your specific deck weak too? What do you need to be able to stop? That is going to define what answers you play. To help with that, it is nice to have cards like Vindicate that pretty much do it all. Kill target thing. It's old. It's good. Nothing beats it...yet. Hero's Downfall comes close, but I think it will be a long time before we see a card that is better than Vindicate, Maelstrom Pulse, Boomerang, AND Karn.


4. It is fast.
I could go on and on for about a month on why Instants are superior to Sorceries. I don't think this is the time or place for that. I already insulted the intelligence of my audience by explaining the difference between disruption, counters, and removal. For now all I really need to say is that I would much rather have an Instant. It takes a lot of extra value or flexibility for me to consider playing Sorcery speed removal. There is a reason that Swords is considered the best kill spell in Legacy and Cube, which is a big accomplishment considering the only removal spell banned in Legacy is Chaos Orb.



5. It is efficient.
The final characteristic I am going to discuss is efficiency. This spans the idea of multiple resources. It can be argued that being an Instant allows you to conserve tempo, but I don't really have an opinion on that discussion. Back on point, efficiency means expending less resources than your opponent while dealing with the threat that they have presented. Specifically, the resources we are looking to conserve here are:

• Cards: In my book, an answer can't really be called an answer unless it trades one for one. Sometimes you have to use multiple cards to get the job done. It might be an ugly hack job, but if you don't kill say...Kira, Great Glass Spinner you are going to regret it. I list this first because cards is most often the capital resource in a game of Commander. Obligatory plant for future article: want to know more about what it means for something to be the capital resource and how to find out which resource is in fact capital? Stay tuned my friends...soon.
• Mana: This is the most easy resource to demonstrate. Creatures are expensive; removal is cheap. There are 5623 creatures in the game of Magic. Of those, Doomblade costs less than or equal to 5078 of them. This is actually a very close approximation of the general trend: the removal spell you are casting is going to conserve mana about 90% of the time. This is important because it affords you more opportunities to do things since mana is often the limiting factor on how many actions you can take, particularly early in the game.
• Tempo: This picks up directly where the last point left off. You generate the interaction advantage by being able to do more relevant things than your opponent on any given turn. The more you can do in the same amount of time and the more time you give yourself to do things, the better. The absolute best decks in Commander are STRICTLY tempo based. They present a legitimate clock, backed up by an impenetrable wall of disruption. They essentially steal all the tempo by acting quickly and then denying their opponent the ability to act at all. Depending on the size of the threat they present you may have several turns until the game ends, but you will rarely be able to do anything productive with those turns. In order to take back the tempo advantage you have to stop their disruption, remove their threats, AND stick a threat of your own. Good answers are the key to both the success of Aggro-Control and to defeating it.
• Life: The last resource I am going to talk about conserving is life. There are certainly more than these four; things like deck speed, threat density, and reach can certainly be assets within a game, but we are trying to keep this discussion purely theoretical. These four are common to all decks and they are special because each deck and each player starts the game with an equal amount of them. With respect to conserving your life total, we are generally talking about the necessity of cast removal spells before you have taken too much damage. Counterspell will help you conserve more life than Reciprocate. 

I chose a slightly complex example to demonstrate efficiency. Let's take a look at Thoughtseize. It always uses one card to take away one card from your opponent, so it conserves cards. Check. It only costs one mana, so it is going to be cheaper on mana than basically everything your opponent could play. Check. It conserves tempo by answering cards proactively and, as stated, it is cheap so you can often cast more than one spell in the same turn. Check. Here is the million dollar question: Thoughtseize deals you damage, so does it conserve life or not? The answer depends on how much damage the cards you take would have caused you. Sometimes that is unclear because you can take opposing answers or heck, innocuous ramp spells. The general trend though is that an opponent's best card is going to end up causing you much more of a headache than losing two life over the course of a whole game, especially when you start with the full forty. So, in short: CHECK. Thoughtseize is pretty dang efficient, which is why it is a shoe-in to Black decks in nearly every format. Addendum: Answers that generate extra value like drawing cards or gaining life are the holy grail. They are more than conservative, they actually create a resource advantage.

With my final thoughts I want to emphasize that this order is much less significant than that which I presented in the Powerful Threats article. In Magic, it is much easier to find cards that blend these characteristics elegantly. I appreciate you guys sticking with me through another long article, although that is pretty much par for the course at this point. Leave a shout out to let me know what you want to hear about next, although I am basically priced into doing fulfilling a mile long list of promised articles already.

-GG

The Stack #33- Our Next Decks

It's Saturday Zoners, and the scent of new brews is in the air.

Commander 2013 has hit the proverbial "newsstands," and we're wafting a little bit of that creativity as part of this week's Stack.

We all have decks we want to build. It's the constant evolving process of Commander, sleeving and re-sleeving, cutting and tuning.

Today, VJ, GG, JC, and I have picked out some Commanders that we'd like to build around. Maybe it's a serious desire, maybe it's not. That's the process.


VENSER'S JOURNALIST'S PICK



Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
I've always wanted a mostly artifact-based deck, but more than that, I've wanted one that stresses control. I feel like this has a lot of potential to lay down a strict law and impose it like a well-oiled doomsday machine. I have a keen fascination with all of the Esper cards from the Alara block. They all seem to have great synergy and I love decks that make themselves better. It was either this or Sharuum; but, I think I've given my fair share of praise to the sphinx creature type in general.

Besides the fact that I do not own a Sen Triplets, the one thing that has kept me from building a deck around this card is the fact that it seems like one of those commanders that will never stay on the field more than one turn.

Johnny Confidant- THUMBS DOWN
At one point I sought after this card to build around because I wanted to play everything. I wanted to play multiple hands and utilize what I can to gain any advantage I could. This was during the early days of my EDH play and needless to say I was naive. I learned her secret to beating the color restrictions and figured that if i wanted to play anything, I should just play a five color deck.

The second thing about her is she's Boring. By which I mean she makes the game longer, plays the same two color changing permanents, and just gets all nosy in other peoples decks. Long games are fun if everyone is playing spells, not if one person is playing 25 min turns that just ruin everyone else's game.

Uncle Landdrops-  NOT SURE
I think the Triplets are a cool card with unrealistic aspirations. As Mob Boss Carmine Falcone tells Bruce Wayne: You always fear what you don't understand. This is the fundamental rule that applies to Legendary Creatures that have blocks of text and more specifically, involving taking things that don't belong to them. If Triplets is meant to be used as a removal target, you're paying too much. If this is meant as the primary component to deck strategy, it's going to get killed. I'm not personally a fan of cards that split this way. My particular instincts and playstyles don't tingle, so I don't imagine I'll want to play this card any time soon. That doesn't mean it's bad. I find it to be a trap card that forces design around GoodStuffs decks, of which most know I'm not a fan.

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS UP
This is a fine tier two control deck. I have played with and against ti a fair amount. The real advantage to me is the information advantage it gives you. Picking choice cards out of an opponent's hand is nice, but knowing what they are working with at all points is usually enough to win on its own.

I don't know if all this criticism is totally fair. Every control deck makes the game go longer, that is the point: leveraging time into the ability to make high impact plays later. I don't see how that makes every game one-sided or leads to people playing at what I would consider an unreasonably slow pace. Those sound like problems with the player not the deck.

GRANDPA GROWTH'S PICK


Grandpa Growth- THUMBS UP
I know it is lame to pick something from the Commander set, but I never bought one...weird, I know. I wrote this guy off for a long time because I was undervaluing two key aspects of the deck: Prot Black and White is kind of a big game and gives you a little bit of a delay while your opponent tries to come up with an answer (if they have one at all). Secondly, you can actually kill in this small window. The velocity of this deck is kind of incredible. It is capable of some very impressive (for a tier two deck) nut draws. It reminds me a lot of affinity. Each thing makes your next thing cheaper. You even have Mulldrifter as your Thoughtcast! And I am down with any deck that includes my boy Mulldrifter.

UL showcased this deck when he came to visit last Spring and I was impressed. I already have a similar Maelstrom Wanderer deck. You know: high threat density, very few off-theme cards, but if I ever ditch him, then I will be stealing this tech...which is actually publicly available so it isn't really theft or technology.

Johnny Confidant- THUMBS UP
Biased due to the fact that I run a fun and fairly strong Animar deck. I did the same thing when my Girlfriend bought me the Mirror Mastery deck from commander, looking at the three suggested generals I choose Riku due to a friend having a decklist to draw insperation from.

After about a year later of having deckbuilding issues i came back to Animar with great success, a lot of time and consideration went into focusing and "perfecting" the current list I have now as well as numerous assistance from UL, my Riku friend and many others on forums and Magic sites. Probably the most fun I have in any multiplayer game is playing with Animar.

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
Like GG, I've never bought a Commander set either. I have seen my fair share played by others, however, and this commander is particularly nasty. The fact that it is protected from the majority of removal spells makes it a pain to deal with once people are popping out creatures for 6 less mana.

It's definitely big and stompy, and anyone playing it is bound to have a horde of cheap chumps to bring out big bruisers earlier than usual. If this card has taught me anything, it is the value of the card Unsummon, and others like it.

Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS UP
Well, we all know how I feel about this card. It's a house. One of my favorite qualities of this deck is the fact that there's so many different cards that can be played in it, and for the most part, it doesn't hinder the deck's knack for beating down. I've probably played 100 or so different creatures in this deck, and I'm constantly rotating cards. Unpredictability is one of the most underrated qualities in a Commander deck- even when you know what's coming.

JOHNNY CONFIDANT'S PICK

Johnny Confidant- THUMBS UP
Why Rakka Mar when there are many other powerful Mono-red Generals? It appeals to the Johnny in me far more than any other Legendary has. Mono red has so little appearence outside of Norin or Kiki-Jiki that bringing in a new red general could be fun and interesting.

I have been working on attempting a combo with her involving  Thornbite Staff (to untap her), sac and damage outlet, or a sac for mana and ETB damage combo. With new cards like Porphoros I can add another combo but with any combo deck people learn your pathway and shut you down.

I might be playing the Try-Hard route but i feel that Rakka Mar has some strong potential. She may not ever make the Tier list but her interesting ability and being virtually unplayed can give me an edge to sneak in with win cons while appearing less threatening.

Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS DOWN
I've played against a Rakka deck before. It wasn't tuned, and was taken apart shortly after, but I'm not sold, even in the more ideal situations.

Grandpa Growth - THUMBS DOWN
I always have this weird itch to try and make mono Red work in Commander. There is a simpler part of my mind that doesn't care about logic, or strategy or value. This silly alter ego wants to squeeze blood out of square shaped stones while pounding them into round holes. This little girl has been a part of many of those brews, but it's not the card I would want for my commander. Haste is very powerful, but the tokens alone aren't enough unless you are doing something cheeky with them. I am familiar with several of the Red combos, but I have never been impressed with them. Having more than two working parts without a reliable way to tutor for them doesn't really constitute a win condition in my mind.

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
Despite the fact that I wholly agree with GG about this card, it's seemingly non-general composure, and red combos in general, I think that Johnny might be on to something here. For me, this card reeks of mayhem and a total troll mentality. It is a creature with haste that makes creatures with haste. Red mayhem could ensue, and although I don't really play enough red to name off all the silly cards that cause board-wide disruption, I see a Warp World and a Scrambleverse in this deck build.

Not that there will be a theme consistent with the flavor of the general, nor will the general necessarily play a huge part in the chaotic combo. But I do like this general based off the sheer will it takes to make this lowly card one's commander.


UNCLE LANDDROPS' PICK 

Uncle Landdrops-  THUMBS UP
I'm a toolbag because I'm going super-trendy, but whatever.

This is not a deck I'm probably going to make, but more than likely will be consulting for at least one design, maybe more.

There will be many ideas for how to build around Sydri. I'm partial to the idea of going creatureless. Definitely one of the coolest concepts for this kind of archetype, and I'm excited to be helping to craft this deck.

Johnny Confidant- THUMBS UP
She's Brutal, the potential, the ideas just flew through me with this girl. Strong potential for competitive decklists, while also flexible enough to have a lot of fun with non-artifacts in a more casual environment.

I think she is going to be all over the internet in the coming months with all kinds of wacky decklists and I can't wait to be a part of it!

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS DOWN
Trendy indeed. It is unclear to me why people think this card is good. Fun, sure. I don't know what this 'fun' you speak of is, but a lot of people seem to be having it. Is this better than Karn in Commander? Maybe? Probably? Does that matter at all? If you are more relevant than something that is irrelevant, does that make you relevant?

As a gimmick deck, this has got to be one of the least powerful options available. This is just so...fair. This is worse than a generic Esper control deck precisely because people will WANT to build around it. They will include all kinds of nonsense to 'fit the theme'. They will cut quality threats, counters, and disruption in order to play more weird stuff like Teferi's Puzzle Box or Portcullis. The only strategy variant that I can see being useful is prison/lock. Who doesn't want to get beaten to death by a Winter Orb. Isn't that what fun is all about?

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
This card does a couple things. First, it makes Karn, Silver Golem look like a schmuck (which he is for the most part). Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, this has "gizmo" deck written all over it. What more could you want than a deck full of silly rocks that come to life and have Deathtouch and Lifelink? So long, Vault of the Archangel. If there's a creature that can do it cheaper, you bet I'd rather have that than a silly land.

Commander 2013 Review: Utility and Mana

Hello and welcome! I am Grandpa Growth and this is the final installment of The General Zone's review of Commander 2013. If you missed the previous two segments, then I encourage you to go back to the archive and check them out. So far we have looked at nearly every new card in the Commander 2013 decks, but we still have a few to go. Today we will be looking at the utility and mana cards.

Mana cards generally produce some type of mana, but this category also includes things like search based ramp cards, color fixers, etc. Utility cards are slightly harder to define. They expand the functionality of your deck, allowing you to do different things. Sometimes they draw cards or tutor. Sometimes they form a combo or engine. This is the catch all category; for all intents and purposes everything that isn't a threat or an answer will be included here. So, let's check them out.


First up we have another member of this ridiculous curse of blahblahblah cycle. I don't ever play straight up lifegain cards. There isn't really a reason too, but when it starts gaining you genuinely absurd amounts of life (i.e. Beacon of Immortality) a single card can make it very difficult for certain types of decks to win. That being said, this card needs additional help in order to even do anything. If you have a ton of attackers, don't worry about gaining four or five life a turn, just go ahead and kill your opponent. Once, again, never play this kind of garbage in multiplayer. There is no reason to invest a card to the board AND let your opponents gain life. Group Hug isn't a strategy, it's a mockery.

Ahh, the worst of the new "choose a direction" cards. I am going to gloss over the fact that multiplayer is inherently unstable and that there has been virtually no research and development, or design for that matter, put into the design of cards and mechanics for multiplayer. When I do play multiplayer, I have frequently suggested that we just have this card in play from the get go. Establishing a direction or general schematic for how battle goes in a multiplayer game helps control the flow and more clearly defines the goals. Free-for-alls tend to get kind of silly because there is a lack of established guidelines for good strategy. They often become purely political contests where the 'strategy', if you can call it that, is to STRATEGICALLY CHOOSE NOT TO TRY AND WIN. I prefer variants like Emperor or Star for this reason. I am perturbed that this card even made it to print. It is insulting to both 1v1 players and multiplayer fans. If you wanted to play in a 'screw to the left' game then do it. You don't need a card to tell you (and you shouldn't have to basically discard a card from your hand and pay 5 mana for this privilege either). If we agree to play a free-for-all and then some jerkus magerkus plays this card...it isn't going to go over well with me.

There is a term in R&D: 'rule-making cards'. Permanents that change the fundamentals of the game; they just say something that is now true about the game state. Timmy gets twice the tokens. Jimmy gets two combat phases. If Johnny, draws out, he wins instead of losing. Rarely, though, do these cards actually impose changes to the format that you are playing. In fact, this may be the first (and I hope the last).



Tempting offer is an interesting mechanic. It seems well balanced to push aggressive behavior in multiplyaer games by rewarding you for taking advantage of passive situations. It also punishes people for being greedy and/or making poor strategic choices. Now, this card...is a bit of a different story. It is just too expensive. Basically every deck that wants this also plays Green, which means you should just play Beastmaster Ascension, some Overrun variant, or Collective Blessing, instead of this. Conveniently, those cards are strong in 1v1 and multiplayer...jeez. Go figure. The new hot tech that was SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED FOR MULTIPLAYER SUCKS IN MULTIPLAYER? Thanks, Obama.



Uhhh...do you remember what I said about designing cards for multiplayer? About how Wizards doesn't ever do this and as a result is horrible at it? Yea...luckily this card isn't even close to playable in any format of Magic that has ever existed so you won't be tempted to do something stupid, like put in into a deck.




The price of this card is TOO DAMN HIGH! Especially given that this is basically just an Ebony Owl Netsuke at best. If someone goes deep and draws a boat load of cards, chances are they are going to win on the spot or at the very least find an answer for your 7 mana do nothing Enchantment. Please, I am begging you not to play this.

More like Curse of bad cards. Heh...double puntendre! Aside from its modest comic value, this card is horrible. I can't recommend playing this.



This is pretty brutal. I don't know if you keep count, but people tend to shuffle their libraries about every 2-3 turns in Commander. More so in the early turns, but if you are on the play you can put this onto the board at a time where it severely punishes your opponent. Having to put cards back on top of your library is often worse than just being forced to discard them.

This is like one of those 'my face when' pictures. In this case, this is the reaction I had when reading Diviner Spirit. I hate to beat a dead horse, but then again...I hate being FORCED to beat dead horses even more than choosing to do it. Wizards needs to form a specially chosen team of designers to research and test new multiplayer mechanics. It is more important that a card actually be playable and, you know, worth casting in multiplayer. If you are only making cards that have the novelty of: "Oh, it says any player? I guess it must be for multiplayer," then you aren't doing your job. Part of game design is actually getting people to WANT to play your game, or in this specific case, play with your cards.



The fixed Doubling Season is still pretty sick. It is much better than Parallel Lives and definitely worth playing in addition to the original. I haven't ever personally cast a Doubling Season because I avoid token decks like they are the plague...because they are. The losing plague. Still, this card is good and the decks that want it will remain popular no matter how much evidence piles up to prove how bad they are.



This is an extremely powerful spell. Do not underestimate the flexibility that this offers. It can be ramp. It can be a mana fixer. It can give you a shuffle effect. It can be a Sinkhole. Most of the time you are just going to be digging back a fetch land that you used early on in the game to try and get ahead on mana. In case you haven't heard: fetch lands are insanely good in this format and should be played even in monocolored decks. This spell is positioned perfectly to capitalize on the juicy graveyard available in Commander. Strip Mine can win games on its own. Getting a second copy in the same game is just insanely powerful AND THIS DOESN'T EVEN COST YOU A LAND DROP.

This flavor text is a little absurd. If I am interpreting this correctly, and I like to think that I am, Mayael is telling us that the land has built the structure we see at the focus of the art....but that is shenanigans. This is clearly a man made structure, thereby rendering the flavor text completely nonsensical. Dear Wizards, please try to do better.



Finally, we have a Tempting Offer card that is actually just strictly inferior in single player games. Searching for any land is certainly powerful, but not worth four mana. Getting two lands and giving your opponent one isn't very enticing and probably just worse than Skyshroud claim. Getting 2-6 lands at the cost of giving your opponents one each is a much better deal. This can immediately set up something like Valakut or Emeria. Getting more than two lands that sac to destroy other lands can essentially shut one player out of the game entirely.



I am unsure what the point of this is. A card that only gets you land when you are behind on land...and does nothing else? Planning to be behind on lands in Commander is a bit like planning to die in a zombie apocalypse. You are supposed to use planning to stay ahead. Grim Monolith makes mana too, and you don't have to risk losing altogether in order for it to do anything. I have a friend, who is somewhat new to the game, try to explain to me that this card is good because it acts like mana screw insurance...which is asinine. If that was your plan you'd have been better off if this was just a land. Imagine this scenario: your opening hand contains one land, Surveyor's Scope, and five random cards.  Would you keep that hand? Would you expect the Scope to buy you out of land screw? Do you think you actually have a shot at winning that game? No. You would mulligan and get a better hand.



From a flavor perspective this card is equally silly. This is not a surveyor's scope. Those look like this ->
Modern iterations may not be stylistically appropriate for a fantasy game, but this somewhat dated model is perfectly suited for adaptation into the world of Magic. Secondly, the terrain shown in the background of the art doesn't actually match up with what is shown on the device. That is really an oversight by the artist, but the creative team allowed it. This looks like it should be a compass or heck, let's call it what it is. A VIDEO GAME MINIMAP.




In the first Commander release, we got Command Tower, which is probably in the top five most played cards in the format. This card isn't quite as good and won't be quite as ubiquitous, but I think that is a good thing. Here's why, this card requires you to care about your commander's combat stats. Not every deck does. The fact that this card doesn't tap for any color unless you are casting your commander is a significant drawback when you need to cast other important cards in control based strategies. Wrath, Counterspell, and the Ultimatum cycle come to mind in this regard. Many popular decks like Norin the Wary, Azami Lady of Scrolls, or the RtR guild paruns just can't use this card. The benefits are minor and the cost is heavy. That being said, decks that do care, like Jenara, Asura of War, couldn't be happier with this card. Although, even in that example, having this in your opening hand makes the prospect of casting a Jenara on time somewhat dubious. Overall, I think that this is a solid card and it will see some play. Shimmering Grotto is a weak fixer, but Shimmering Grotto with a relevant upside is worth exploring even in multicolor decks. In my opinion, Command Tower was too strong. A land that taps for any color, comes into play untapped, and has no drawback is just too powerful. Wizards would never release a card like that into a tournament environment, it would be the single most sought after card in the modern game. The fact that R&D is okay with doing things like this in a Commander product shows me that they aren't serious about supporting the format and just want to cash in on what the EDH community has been building. This is a strong sign that there is no hope for support of Commander as a tournament format. Wizards is just going to milk the players' enthusiasm for all that it's worth and then move on to the next format de jour. I for one hope that I am wrong.

Thanks for sticking with me all the way to the end Zoners. I'll be back to my regular position next Sunday. I hope you enjoyed the review. Let us know what you think about the new cards, the article, or anything else you want to talk about in the comments below. Stay tuned to TGZ for more exciting stuff this week.

-GG

Commander 2013 Review: Answers

Welcome back to part two of the Commander 2013 review. I am your host Grandpa Growth. If you missed it, be sure to check out the previous installment to see analysis of all the new threat cards. Today however, we will be looking at the new answer cards. An answer is what you use to stop your opponents threats. This includes a variety of different cards such as removal, counterspells, land destruction, and hand disruption, and some more niche things like archetype hate (Kataki, War's Wage) or color hosers (Chill).

Good answers define the flow of a game and set the standard for what threat cards are good enough to actually see play. Let's jump right in and see what the new Commander decks have to offer.

RESPECT MY AUTHORITAH! This card is reasonable. It is an expensive and slow removal spell that has a targeting restriction that I am not a big fan of, but this card does have some good things going for it. First, it exiles the target. This is a big step up, particularly when you think about how many more Indestructable Enchantment Creatures just got added to the format.

Second, it has the potential for card advantage. Removing multiple choice threats or pieces of equipment is a big game. Should they so choose to kill one of your things and send it back to you then you get an opportunity to re-use it. This can get somewhat more complicated in multiplayer, but I would just say: don't play this in multiplayer...and what I really mean by that is: don't play multiplayer.

Third, if you lose the Act then their stuff doesn't just pop back into play like it does with Oblivion Ring-style effects. This means an opposing board sweep is less likely to result in you being even further behind. Lastly, this is a permanent. It can stay in play until you need it. You can sacrifice it to Annihilator triggers. You can bounce it to your hand. The promise of repeatable value is truly seductive. I have played much worse cards in the name of getting value.

Finally! Now I can build my own Darksteel Myr! I have been waiting so long. This isn't a horrible removal spell, but it isn't impressing me either. I'd pretty much always rather have Swords or a Swords substitute. For me to play a Sorcery speed removal spell that costs two mana it has to be basically infallible. This can pretty easily go wrong and loses hard to board sweepers. It also makes your opponents Artifact/Enchantment removal into ex post facto counterspells, which I am not a fan of.


UNEXPECTEDLY ABSURD?! Yes. No doubt about it. This is the most powerful card in the set by a landslide and this will go straight into Legacy. You want to crack your fetch land? Yea...just go ahead and shuffle your planeswalker, Commander, Jitte, whatever I say along with your dignity...bury it deep down in there with your middle school diary.

Even when this works in the most 100% fair manner, you still trade cards 1 for 1 and get a reprieve from the most dominant threat on the board. This is particularly strong against planeswalkers because their value is both: quantized and time-sensitive. If the opponent ever tries to tutor, use search based ramp, or crack a fetch land though, then you have the straight up two mana instant speed Vindicate. It tucks Commanders. It embarrasses opponents. It wins games. Not joking here guys, get as many of these as you can.

Bruce Lee finally has a Magic card. I am down with this. I think this is a very sick update both in terms of modern gameplay and a hike in rarity. I will also add that, by having this, Guard Gomezoa, and Fog Bank in the Commander 2013 lists, new players can see how this niche style of creature evolved and gain an appreciation for the game's history and development.

On its own, this card actually kills the things that attacks into it...so it is much better than previous iterations and basically every card with Defender. This can attack. This can suit up and I can dig that. Creatures with Defender serve no real purpose. Designers would tell you that you need to make it obvious to new players that this creature was optimized for use on defense.

However, not EVERYONE is a moron and the fact that this card has no power makes it virtually useless on offense unless it carries equipment...but given the fact that this is the one instance where you do really want to battle with him it will be obvious that you should. This is good design. The master and Spellskite are welcome to hang out in all my decks. Wall of Derp? You aren't invited.

This is a little discount over typical Wrath effects, but you make up for that cost in life. Mana becomes more available as the game goes on, while life typically goes the opposite direction. This means that the true cost and effectiveness of this card will vary widely based on when you draw it. It will be excellent at killing mana dorks and utility creatures early on, but 7-8 life is a much larger cost when your opponent can threaten lethal in just a few swings.

Point of fact: a toxin is a harmful chemical substance that is produced by biological organisms, including for example, the bacteria that constitute a plague. However, it is not literally, a toxic deluge, but more of a deluge contaminated with potentially harmful bacteria. That might be knitpicking, but based on this art it looks like it is raining SPEARS so I don't even know what I should be thinking.

Speaking about powerful effects...we have another card that was specially designed for multiplayer. BUT WAIT! It doesn't absolutely suck? I can scarcely believe it. This card is strong and has flavor that makes since. It is the kind of swingy nonsense that Commander fans can't get enough of. It is a real pity that this card is just a worse Fog in single player, but oh well. I can't win them all. Or I can...as long as I stay away from junk like this.

Alright, next up from the 'Ambi-turner' cards. This one is pretty sweet. It is almost always going to be ganking something for nothing which is a sick deal at four mana, even on a Sorcery. In 1v1 this is almost as good as Control Magic. In multiplayer this card is...Well. It is interesting isn't it? The net effect of your opponents trading around a bunch of creatures is going to be marginal in aggregate, but the specifics of the board state will decide both how complex and how beneficial this card can be.

Flavor complaint: What does this card have to do with the planeswalkers, who are playing the game inside the game, choosing a successor. Long live... bad flavor?

This card is very tempting indeed and is probably the most powerful of this cycle, although that doesn't necessarily mean it is the best one to actually cast in a game. If something is worth copying, then having a bunch of copies of it on your side of the table is going to be a big game.

What I said in the previous segment about being selfish is very important here. The consequences of each opponent getting a copy of the best threat on the board is very severe, particularly if one of those people has multiple copies. Thus, players will almost always choose to get a copy, lest they will immediately be behind on board. This leads to an interesting consequence of how effects are placed on the stack. Since all the copies enter the board as part of the resolution of this single spell, none of the resulting ETB triggers will be put onto the stack until ALL of the copies are in play.

At this point, the active player, which is most likely you since this is a Sorcery, puts ALL of their triggers on the stack in the order of their choice and has to announce all relevant targets at that time. Then it proceeds along to the next player in the turn order. Because of this Active Player -> Non-active Player order, the person immediately to your right gets the benefit of knowing about all of his opponents' choices before he has to make a decision AND his triggers will resolve FIRST. This is of course most relevant when copying variants of Nekrataal and Acidic Slime. Things will get very crazy if somebody has tricky tech like Faith's Reward.

What the what the double bubble butts? This is so much worse than Armageddon that I think I am going to cry. It only kills nonbasics which is already enough of a handicap for me to to not really want to play it. Ruination is fine, but far from unfair. This let's them find replacement lands and thins 3+ lands out of their deck. It is the only land destruction spell that I can think of that doesn't actually limit your opponents mana! This is just silly. I can't believe that they cut down 300 trees just to print this. A crying shame.

Bonus: I am going to call this Tfis-pacs because it is just Scapshift in reverse. (which is much worse)

I kind of dig this. One way Wraths are still solid even when they are expensive because you tend to win unless they get countered anyway. At X=7-8 this is a reasonable "I Win" card, but nothing to write home about. If it also somehow went to the face this card would be the business. I don't know what the templating would look like on that one, but I am sure that Wizards could figure it out. They are professionals after all.

Why is everyone in your entire clan climbing the same mountain at the same time? That doesn't make a whole lot of practical sense. More importantly, if your entire extended family on back through the generations were mountain climbers why do you suck at it? Shouldn't you have trained or learned the ancient Chinese secret to sick climbing skills? At the very least, you should be aware of the risks.

It's like the creative team is a bunch of nerds who never go out and have no sense of the real word...but there is just no way that could be true...It is also a little confusing that they have chosen to make a Skifsang Sea and the Skyfang Mountains. Even though one exists on Zendikar and one on Innistrad, they could be a little more creative with their names.

Holy convoluted text box Batman! This is a new take on an unpopular style of Green card that has come up in the last 4-5 years. If they are going to kill your dude, you point this at it and try to leverage some value out of the situation.

Curiously, the templating of this card allows you to select the same creature that just died, which doesn't seem like a reincarnation so much as a regeneration, but I am not complaining. Unlike, Autumn's Veil or Avoid Fate, this card allows you to retrigger ETB effects or upgrade to a better creature, which is probably worth the increase in cost. Three is a lot of mana to be wasting every turn, but in general, if your threat is worth buying insurance on, it will probably win the game if they can't ever kill it so...congrats! Victory is yours.

This card is very weird. It is worse than a spot removal spell because it leaves you at a disadvantage on cards. It is worse than something like Executioner's Capsule because it is much more expensive. AND it is worse than Oblivion Stone because it doesn't have the potential to save your board while damaging the opponents. I just don't understand the point. This is another one of those don't ever play it/ I can't figure out why they designed it cards. Fairness is overrated.

Well, that is all of them. Pretty short article today. I hope you will join us next time, when we take a look at the remainder of the new cards from the Commander 2013 decks. Be sure to let us know how you feel about these cards and more in the comments.

-GG

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