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Post M13 Changes

Find out what specific changes Sheldon made to each of his Commander decks with the release of Magic 2013 and see a decklist he’s never written about before: Karrthus and His Dragons.

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With each new set, in addition to finding room for new cards, I evaluate all my decks to see if I’d like to make other changes. Scheduling a periodic review makes sense just in case I don’t play a particular deck for a while so that I know that it still gets the attention it deserves. It’s also a convenient time to remind myself of whether or not a deck is performing how I’d like it to or if the cards in it actually fit the theme/direction of the deck. It additionally keeps me out of awkward situations where I discover I have two Bloodline Keepers or three Masked Admirers in a deck.

While, as we talked about last week, I find M13 an excellent core set for Commander, I struggled to find room for some of the cards. This is going to be an ongoing challenge for not just me but all fans of the format. You never lose cards to rotation, so at a certain point you’re going to find that in order to put in a new card you love, you’re going to have to remove an old card you love. The other solution, of course, is to build more decks, which is something I’m sure we can all get behind.

I’ve highlighted the new M13 cards.

ADUN OAKENSHIELD and his BEASTS

In:  Roaring Primadox, Thragtusk, Garruk’s Packleader

Out:  Ouphe Vandals, Avatar of Woe, Kederekt Parasite

You might be slightly confused here since the link goes to Karrthus. I decided that Karrthus really needed to be in a Dragon deck, so I changed the commander of Karrthus and his Beasts to Adun Oakenshield, then built a new one for the Tyrant of Jund.

The changes here were simple. I scratched my head over why I didn’t have Garruk’s Packleader in already. Thragtusk is a card that’s going to get some play in Standard and in quite a few Commander decks.

ANIMAR, SOUL OF ELEMENTS

In:  Thragtusk, Roaring Primadox

Out: Predator Ooze, Mycoloth

I’m trying to move Animar into a kind of Cloudstone Curio-type thing (which will eventually mean actually putting Cloudstone Curio in the deck, I suppose). Even though the two cards are something I’ve added to a different deck, they also fit here so I don’t have a problem with the duplication. I’ve also added Maelstrom Wanderer and Bloodbraid Elf and will probably put in Etherium-Horn Sorcerer to complete the trilogy. In fact, this deck has undergone sufficient change to warrant new discussion of it in an upcoming article.

I’d also like to find room for Yeva, Nature’s Herald and Ring of Kalonia. More work to be done, because you know Mystic Snake also has to come in. Jeebus. Maybe I need a second Animar deck.

Fun side story from the last time I played the deck: I’ve added Primal Surge for Embracing of Chaos, and when I get to ten mana, I just cast it. I’m sure there might be other strategic considerations, but it feels like the right move. When I did it the other day, two of the fifteen or so cards that came up were Vigor and Champion of Lambholt. In and of itself not particularly amusing until we add Warstorm Surge to the list. Instead of targeting players or their dudes with the triggers, they went to the Champion. My guys were quite unblockable.

INTET, the DREAMER

In:  Spelltwine

Out:  Sprouting Vines

Sprouting Vines was just janky enough to warrant getting tossed for a card that will likely require quite some thought to play—a perfect fit for my most difficult deck. With a full nineteen other targets in my own deck, there will always be something to play and then shuffle back in with Riftsweeper.

KARADOR

In:  Faith’s Reward, Leyline of Sanctity, Forest

Out:  Ghostway, Grim Discovery, Volrath’s Stronghold

I know you’re probably questioning my sanity for replacing Volrath’s Stronghold, an extremely powerful card, with a Forest. Hear me out. The way the deck plays, I almost never used the Stronghold. When it’s working, the deck uses all of its mana during the cycle of players’ turns. The recursion in the deck comes from reusing Saffi Eriksdotter, Reveillark, Karmic Guide, and Sun Titan and simply casting the cards from the graveyard with Karador. Part of the deck’s power is that I don’t need to cost myself a draw by using the Stronghold. Additionally, I really want Hermit Druid to avoid going too far over the top, so the addition of the basic land helps.

Leyline of Sanctity is for the most part protection from Bojuka Bog and Tormod’s Crypt, which are major problems for the deck. Yes, so are Withered Wretch and Scavenging Ooze, but you can’t protect against everything and the deck runs enough creature hate.

I’d like to keep Ghostway while adding Faith’s Reward, but the deck is already pretty tight and there just isn’t room. After seeing all the sacrificing the deck does, I also wouldn’t mind room for Blood Artist. Now I’m just getting greedy.

KARRTHUS, TYRANT of JUND

In:  Thundermaw Hellkite

Out:  Scrabbling Claws

The deck is about Karrthus and his Dragons raining fire from the sky. They don’t care about graveyards. They’re just going to burn your face off. The Hellkite will move all of those annoying blockers out of the way.

I don’t think I’ve ever actually listed this deck, so it’s included at the bottom of the article. I kind of just threw it together on a whim, so I’m going to take the time over the next few weeks to look at it with a harder eye to tighten it up a little.

KRESH, the BLOODBRAIDED

In:  Disciple of Bolas, Tangle, Graven Cairns, Kokusho, the Evening Star

Out:  Madrush Cyclops, Spearbreaker Behemoth, Akoum Refuge, Melira, Sylvok Outcast

Disciple of Bolas is awesome sauce, especially with something huge and Mikaeus, the Unhallowed. Madrush Cyclops was the unfortunate who had to be cut. Urabrask the Hidden is in there to give my guys haste, so Madrush was kind of redundant. Spearbreaker was what came out during the Kokusho test and will probably go right back in once those eight weeks are over. I was less and less a fan of the enters-the-battlefield tapped part of the Refuge, and the life gain wasn’t particularly important. Finally, I wanted to rid myself of the temptation of Melira + Woodfall Primus + sacrifice outlet.

LORD OF TRESSERHORN

In:  Gem of Becoming

Out:  Grave Defiler

None of the M13 Zombies are particularly interesting, and the deck needs some help getting more lands. I’ve benched Grave Defiler more because he’s been underperforming rather than my belief in his value. I just want him to know that he’s going to have to step up his game if he wants to be part of the team. He’ll sit out a little while, and I’ll then put him back in, probably for Dread Slaver, just to show him who’s boss.

MERIEKE RI BERIT

Another deck I recently reassembled but haven’t written about, the M13 cards that interest me most for the deck are Ajani, Caller of the Pride, Rhox Faithmender, Archaeomancer, and Omniscience. The deck is mostly just a "good stuff" deck with some ways to take advantage of Merieke, like Thousand-Year Elixir and Magewright’s Stone. It has a minor life gain subtheme, which I might work a little on—although I might also consider a Merfolk deck, as outside the box as that seems. More to come on this one.

THE MIMEOPLASM

In:  Chains of Mephistopheles, Mindshrieker, Rite of Replication, Essence Harvest, Profane Command

Out:  Bone Shredder, Fauna Shaman, Evil Twin, Decree of Pain, Deny Reality

I actually haven’t made M13 updates to this deck yet because I think I want to change the direction a little. First of all, the deck is somehow running on 34 lands, which needs to get buffed up a little. Second, I want to put in Mwonvuli Beast Tracker, and I think I’d like to add a Glissa the Traitor subtheme to the deck since I mill myself a little and Glissa could help bring back some of those goodies. I also don’t understand why I’m not playing Damia, Sage of Stone. Maybe I was waiting to build a deck around it or something, but that’s going to be an extremely low priority since the other decks I want to build are those in which I don’t yet have color combinations. The Cloudstone Curio will probably come out of here to go into the Animar deck.

Chains of Mephistopheles Embraces the Chaos as well as any card ever. Sure, it keeps me from drawing extra cards, but I know it’s coming and have built around it. It stops all kinds of shenanigans from other players.

NATH of the GILT LEAF

In:  Yeva, Nature’s Herald, Vampire Nighthawk, Falkenrath Noble

Out:  Lotus Cobra, Diabolic Servitude, Deranged Hermit

Yeva should provide some fun times. Vampire Nighthawk and Falkenrath Noble are both good cards (although the Noble is a little pricey for what it does) which help out the Vampire subtheme while replacing cards that aren’t all that spicy. I’m not sure that the subtheme survives in the long run, but we’ll see.

PHELDDAGRIF

In:  Void Stalker, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Defense of the Heart

Out:  Aeon Chronicler, Greater Good, Everflowing Chalice

Void Stalker is too good of a defense against broken commanders to not play. The Chronicler has been fine but a little slow. It doesn’t provide enough action in early turns or enough card draw in later ones. The other changes were post-AVR. I was just bored with Greater Good / Psychosis Crawler and unimpressed with the Chalice.

OROS, the AVENGER

I haven’t written about Oros. It was another deck that I just kind of slapped together after taking the Sunforger package out of Ruhan. It’s playable but needs some work.

RITH, the AWAKENER

In:  Odric, Master Tactician, Cathars’ Crusade, Craterhoof Behemoth

Out:   Ghostly Prison, Mercadia’s Downfall, Intangible Virtue

Crusade and Behemoth are post-AVR changes, and Mercadia’s Downfall and Intangible Virtue were the casualties. Odric comes in because he’s a Soldier and this is a Soldier deck. The Tactician part is pretty important because it can create unfavorable blocks—which is nice with Field Marshal—and can, of course, create a Lure-like situation. I probably want to find room for Bonfire of the Damned here as well.

RUHAN of the FOMORI

In:  Courtly Provocateur, Sleep, Radiate

Out:  Boldwyr Intimidator, Curse of Echoes, Captain’s Maneuver

While Boldwyr Intimidator definitely goes with Ruhan in a more aggressive deck, it just doesn’t fit the mold in this one which waits to be reactive. The Provocateur just seems right on theme for the deck. Curse of Echoes was in there to punish That Guy, but since there aren’t too many of Those Guys at Armada and it already had its day with the laughs, I figured it could come out for Sleep. While Sleep is not actually a new M13 card, it was suggested for the deck by being on the M13 list. Captain’s Maneuver is a little redundant in the deck with Mirror Strike and Reflect Damage, so it was definitely worth cutting for Radiate, which is there for the complete blowouts (like when someone casts kicked Rite of Replication).

THRAXIMUNDAR

In:  Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis, Gem of Becoming

Out: Shard Phoenix, Twincast

As with Lord of Tresserhorn, Thrax needs some help getting lands. It’s a non-green deck, so it’s difficult to ramp. This means that you have to instead just make sure you keep hitting land drops the first ten turns or so. Nefarox fits right into the theme of the deck with the sacrifice option, plus exalted helps Thraximundar out if he’s attacking alone.

Shard Phoenix has some redundancy with Massacre Wurm, and I found that I just wasn’t using its ability. Having both Twincast and Wild Ricochet may have been a little much, so I took out what I thought was the weaker of the two.

Those are my initial M13 changes. We’ll see how they go and see if I can work any of the other new cards (those Rings are still calling to me) into decks.

Immortalizing Rofellos

Before I go, I want to share some fun from last week’s Commander League. Armada and League regular Michelle Joy has an unnatural love for Rofellos and has created a "no cake" list (she occasionally bakes and brings in cakes) for people who kill him. Murdering Rofellos has become one of those fun inside jokes that social groups develop. When the card Murder came out, I knew there was something to be done.

I bought a copy of Rofellos and grabbed copy of Murder, put them face-to-face in a sleeve, then just left them in the pile of stuff (deck boxes, dice bags, etc.) on the table where I sit (Armada is kind enough to have an assigned table for me so that these old bones don’t have to get up and move around) in hopes that I would play Michelle in one of the rounds.  

Michelle showed up fresh from her job at the library in time for round 2 and was seated at my table (with Keith and Nate). Keith, who had showed up kind of late himself and wasn’t around when I was talking about my plan, completely without prompting made some murdering of Rofellos comment, and everyone laughed, including Michelle. Thing is, her face told me that she had Rofellos in her opening grip.

On turn 2, she did indeed drop him. Keith again made a murder comment, and I knew the moment was right. I said, "Done!" while standing up and scooping her card off the table, palming my own cards as I did. I went to the cash register, where they had conveniently left a stapler out for me, slipped the two cards out of the sleeve, and stapled them together (keeping her copy of Rofellos hidden in my palm). The whole time, Michelle was asking, "What the heck is going on?" I came back to the table and put it in front of her.

She started laughing pretty hard, until she picked up the cards. Apparently she hadn’t realized at first that they were stapled together. She started laughing harder, and then I think it dawned on her that there was actually a Murder stapled to her beloved Rofellos. Her laughter started getting a little more hysterical, and there was a major disbelief (at least from the folks who hadn’t been around during the planning stages) that I had actually done this to someone’s card. At the point where it looked like she might start getting upset (you have to be careful when someone is laughing so hard that they’re crying), I pulled her actual card from its hiding place and plopped it down in front of her, safe and sound, eliciting another roar from the crowd.

They got me to sign the card afterward. She took a photo and posted it to Facebook with a "Well played" note to me. Pretty sure I’m on the "no cake" list forever, but this bit of immortality is probably worth it:

Immortality

Karrthus and His Dragons
Sheldon Menery
0th Place at Test deck on 07-22-2012
Commander
Magic Arena

Creatures (26)

Planeswalkers (2)

Lands (37)

Spells (36)

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