Through a series of curveballs that life throws at you sometimes, I haven’t been able to make it up to Richmond Comix to play in any FNMs in quite a while. Which also means I haven’t been able to play in any EDH games afterwards. Which also means I’ve been dying to play some EDH, so I finally found some time to jump on Magic Online and reconnect with Commander, the MTGO version of Elder Dragon Highlander. Anyone know why it’s called Commander instead of EDH?
I probably played about a half dozen games of Commander a long while ago before Magic Online upgraded to version 3 and my ancient computer was unable to keep up, and I only just recently got a new computer and a decent video card and have gotten back into the MTGO swing of things. I recently drafted Rise of the Eldrazi and won the draft, which means I’ve yet to not win a ROE draft. Sadly, I did not open virtual copies of the ridiculously expensive Mythics like I did in my paper draft, but I did crack a Transcendent Master, and his Limited brokenness certainly helped me steal a few games. I went with the “build your own fattie” with Auras plan, and it certainly seemed to work.
See, I just knew that this format would actually play to my “strengths” (i.e. weakness in any other draft format) as a drafter!
Of course, maybe two drafts is too small a sample size to draw such a conclusion, but I’m going to take my ego-snacks where I can scrounge them. For those who are curious — or, perhaps more accurately, incredulous in how I managed to win with such a pile — here’s what I drafted and played:
1 Hyena Umbra
1 Spider Umbra
1 Caravan Escort
1 Puncturing Light
1 Prophetic Prism
1 Wall of Omens
1 Knight of Cliffhaven
2 Aura Gnarlid
1 Mul Daya Channelers
1 Boar Umbra
1 Dawnglare Invoker
1 Bloodrite Invoker
1 Transcendent Master
1 Daggerback Basilisk
1 Snake Umbra
1 Growth Spasm
2 Wildheart Invoker
1 Kozilek’s Predator
1 Ondu Giant
2 Totem-Guide Hartebeest
1 Swamp
9 Forest
7 Plains
Sideboard
1 Eland Umbra
1 Near-Death Experience
1 Demonic Appetite
1 Lavafume Invoker
1 Spider Umbra
1 Hand of Emrakul
1 Soul’s Attendant
1 Luminous Wake
1 Warmonger’s Chariot
1 Island
1 Surreal Memoir
1 Living Destiny
1 Nighthaze
1 Ancient Stirrings
1 Sporecap Spider
1 Harmless Assault
1 Plains
2 Vent Sentinel
1 Not of This World
1 Pennon Blade
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
I wasn’t sure whether I was being too greedy splashing a single Black card — Bloodrite Invoker — but I’ve found the Invokers to be such great late, game-breaking cards that I wanted to have that additional reach, and with Ondu Giant, Growth Spasm, and Prophetic Prism, it seemed relatively painless to add a Swamp, and the few times I drew Bloodrite Invoker I was able to cast it by the time I was ready for him and he won me a game or two.
By the way – love slapping that Hyena Umbra on my Daggerback Basilisk = good times, good times! If ever I manage to win the privilege of designing my own card, it’s going to be a badass Basilisk! Something like this:
Dragon-Schmagon Basilisk
3GG
Creature — Basilisk
Deathtouch, first strike
G: Regenerate Dragon-Schmagon Basilisk
GG: Untap creatures your opponents control. Until the end of turn, all creatures able to block Dragon-Schmagon Basilisk must do so.
4/4
Is this really any more ridiculous than Baneslayer Angel? If Wizards is looking for an iconic creature to push in Green like they push Dragons, Angels, Vampires (and now Sphinxes), I vote Basilisks over Hydras! Who’s with me?
Also, I was wondering… does anyone else read the name “Aura Gnarlid” and think of gnarly Jeff Spiccoli from Fast Times At Ridgemont High?
Anyway, back to EDH… erm, Commander. Some years back when Time Spiral block was in Standard, there were a ton of Green, White and Black cards I really liked, and I tried my best to make a deck from them gel, and I even went so far as to acquire many of the cards online to test. I could never get it better than Tier 2, but when Time Spiral rotated out of Standard I kept playing a lot of the cards in my multiplayer decks (and eventually EDH) in real life, and so I made a Commander version online with Teneb, the Harvester as the general. The first thing I did was to pull up my old Teneb list and ponder what sort of cards that had been printed since then that I’d like to add to the deck, and realized there had been a ton, and a lot of them were probably dirt cheap. So off I went to bot land.
Turns out there were a ton of cheap singleton cards I wanted to add to my Commander card pool! I was plugging along merrily, double clicking on cards from sets throughout the history of Magic Online, checking the prices, mostly keeping them unless they were too expensive… and then suddenly I couldn’t double click on cards anymore. What the hell? I thought I might have been locked up until I realized that I had exactly 75 singles to buy. Ding, ding! Light bulb… apparently that’s the limit for a single trade. Okay, I type done, the bot tells me price, I happily hit confirm trade… but then the bot tells me he doesn’t see enough tix. What? I know I have enough, I just bought a bunch of tix… oh. Crap. I forgot to make them available after I bought them. C’mon, seriously – why would I be buying tix if I weren’t going to, you know, use them?
What’s that? Once I make the tix available I have to cancel the trade and start over? Start over on a 75-card trade? Are you kidding me?! I seethe for a few minutes, desperately trying to figure out some other way to keep from having to start over, but the bot seems confused at all of my efforts and it quickly becomes apparent I’m screwed.
I start over. About 50 or so cards into the trade again, my trade window suddenly closes. “Trade cancelled” the pop up window tells me, and I frickin’ hit the roof. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
Fearing for the sanctity of my computer screen, I log off and go watch some TV. A couple days later I resume my efforts trading. This time, once I get around 15 singles and a nice round dollar amount, I just go ahead and confirm the trade right then, wait a few minutes, and then try to trade with the bot again. Four trade sessions later, I’m ready to update my Teneb deck. Here’s what I cook up:
1 Arashi, the Sky Asunder
1 Arena
1 Artisan of Kozilek
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Ayumi, the Last Visitor
1 Baru, Fist of Krosa
1 Battlefield Scrounger
1 Behemoth Sledge
1 Berserk
1 Bone Shredder
1 Brawn
1 Cauldron of Souls
1 Citanul Hierophants
1 Cloudthresher
1 Coalition Relic
1 Deadwood Treefolk
1 Diamond Valley
1 Elvish Herder
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Essence Warden
1 Eternal Witness
1 Exile
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Filth
1 Genesis
1 Greater Good
1 Harmonize
1 Indrik Stomphowler
1 Jedit Ojanen of Efrava
1 Jolrael, Empress of Beasts
1 Kavu Predator
1 Khabál Ghoul
1 Kodama’s Reach
1 Krosan Tusker
1 Loxodon Hierarch
1 Masked Admirers
1 Momentous Fall
1 Mossbridge Troll
1 Novablast Wurm
1 Ondu Giant
1 Paleoloth
1 Patron of the Orochi
1 Pelakka Wurm
1 Pilgrim’s Eye
1 Primal Command
1 Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant
1 Rupture Spire
1 Saffi Eriksdotter
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Shriekmaw
1 Silklash Spider
1 Soul’s Attendant
1 Spearbreaker Behemoth
1 Stonecloaker
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Sylvan Library
1 Tawnos’s Coffin
1 Terastodon
1 Tolsimir Wolfblood
1 Wall of Blossoms
1 Wall of Omens
1 Wall of Roots
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Murmuring Bosk
1 Svogthos, the Restless Tomb
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
1 Shizo, Death’s Storehouse
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Orzhov Basilica
1 Pendelhaven
1 Urborg
7 Swamp
7 Plains
14 Forest
It killed me to spend the 4.5 tix on Eternal Witness, but you know what? She’s probably one of my all-time favorite cards, and I can’t imagine not playing her in every single Green-based Commander deck I build, so I go ahead and invest in her.
Eventually I make it over to the multiplayer casual room, and see a couple Commander games going on, but none that are waiting for players. I set one up myself, but can’t seem to get more than one player to join for a while. Eventually someone messages me and tells me I don’t have it set up right. Apparently you have to select “Commander” in two different drop-down boxes in order to actually play Commander, and once I do it doesn’t take long to get three other folks to join me.
luna park chooses Child of Alara as their commander.
sf592136 chooses Linvala, Keeper of Silence as their commander.
blairwitchgreen chooses Teneb, the Harvester as their commander.
mages24 chooses Kamahl, Fist of Krosa as their commander.
We exchange pleasantries, and we all keep our hand. Luna park starts things off with Relic of Progenitus, and then plays a Scrabbling Claws shortly afterwards. “You don’t like graveyards much?” I tell him. “When your commander goes to grave you need to remove it sometimes.” Ah, he’s playing Child of Alara, makes sense. “Though I’ve played against a lot of commanders where the graveyard is used.” He doesn’t point out that, indeed, my commander uses the graveyard as I smile ruefully.
Mages24 plays Miri’s Guile, but then sf592136 drops the bomb: turn 2 Luminarch Ascension. Crap! I look at my hand, and there’s not fast beats and not enchantment removal. All I can do is play Fellwar Stone and hope to draw something. Mages24 plays Kodama’s Reach, and luna park cashes out his Claws (removing the Reach) in order to draw a card.
On turn 4 sf592136’s Ascension is online, and during luna park’s end step he makes an Angel, which attacks mages24. I haven’t missed a land drop so on my turn 4 I play Ayumi, the Last Visitor. sf592136 has an Emeria in play, so I’m not sure whether playing Ayumi will provoke him or keep him attacking elsewhere.
Mages24 plays Explosive Vegetation during his turn, and boy does he have a lot of Forests in play! Luna Park’s Relic pecks at Mages24 and my graveyards, but he’s having a hard time assembling the right colored mana to do much more than watch as sf592136’s angelic army swells. This time each of us get an Angel attack. “Gotta be fair,” says sf592136.
On my turn I play Greater Good and Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers and debate whether I should go on offense, hold back, or dig deeper. I decide to go on offense; after all, that enchantment is going to kill all of us quickly if we don’t do something about it. I attack sf592136, but of course he’s got Path to Exile. I sac Ayumi to Greater Good and draw seven cards, discarding three and then one more to get down to seven for the end of my turn.
On his turn, mages24 casts Avenger of Zendikar, creating 7 plant tokens. He then plays Mouth of Ronom to give them all a boost. Holy token action, Batman!
On his turn, sf592136 attacks Mages24 with three Angel tokens, and sends one at luna park and me. He then plays Linvala, Keeper of Silence. On my turn I play Coalition Relic and Ondu Giant. Mages24 plays Regal Force and draw a ton of cards that go nicely alongside the Tower of the Reliquary he has in play. He plays Wasteland, destroys Emeria with it, and then sends his 2/3 plant army to attack sf592136.
sf592136 sends his five Angel tokens at mages24, and we all tell him good game as he becomes a watcher. sf592136 then plays Rune of Protection: Green (!), which seems pretty good at warding off Teneb and Child of Alara. On my turn I play Harmonize and then sac Ondu Giant to Greater Good, desperately digging for something – yes! Indrik Stomphowler comes down and nukes the Ascension, and in response he makes two more Angels.
On his turn, luna park is still having mana issues, and sacs off Relic to draw a card and removes everyone’s graveyard from the game. I sadly watch all the good stuff I had in my graveyard go bye-bye. He then plays Barter in Blood. I sac Stomphowler to the Greater Good to draw and discard some cards.
sf592136 attacks luna park with 3 Angels and Linvala, sending 2 Angels my way. He then plays Knight of Cliffhaven and puts a level counter on him. On my turn I evoke Shriekmaw to kill another Angel token, and then play my general Teneb. Luna park is still mana hosed and discards Ulamog.
Turn 9 sf592136 plays Devout Lightcaster, and since Teneb is the only Black permanent in play, he decides to sacrifice himself to the Greater Good. Luna park then jumps into the fray with a Naya Charm, tapping down all of sf592136’s creatures – hooray! sf592136 then plays Expedition Map, sacs it, fetches up Tectonic Edge and then uses it on luna park’s Rupture Spire, furthering his mana woes.
Teneb’s Greater Good draw gives me what seems like the perfect plan to rid us of the Angelic menace: play Saffi Eriksdotter, evoke Cloudthresher, sac Saffi targeting Cloudthresher, sac the ‘thresher to Greater Good to draw 7 cards, then get him back with Saffi’s ability, dealing a total of four damage to all fliers! I start to execute the plan, evoke Cloudthresher, but for some reason I can’t get Saffi to activate.
I then notice Linvala over there, smiling evilly at me. Crap! I should have killed her with the Shriekmaw… Wow, that was certainly dumb…
I draw some cards from the Greater Good, including a Silklash Spider that would eventually be helpful, but not before I get killed by the Angels I did only 2 points of damage to, and without a Cloudthresher I could have just hardcast to help block.
Luna park suspends a Greater Gargadon on his turn. On sf592136’s turn, he plays Sejiri Steppe giving the Lightcaster protection from Green, casts Windborne Charge targeting the Lightcaster and Knight of Cliffhaven, and attacks, sending those two at luna park, and the Angel army my way. I’m going to die, so I cast Berserk on Linvala to kill her at the end of the turn and become a watcher.
Unfortunately luna park doesn’t draw anything helpful, and he dies the next turn.
Stupid Luminarch Ascension! The whole game was twisted around that single enchantment hitting on turn 2. I go back over my Teneb list and realize that I’m woefully understocked with ways to remove enchantments and artifacts. Adjustments will be made for next time…
That’s it for this week. Wish me luck for the weekend, as me and some friends head to Grand Prix: Roanoke, which is what I’m calling the double-PTQ at the awesome Star City Game Center! I’ve got a new cell phone now that can text to Twitter, so look for tweets throughout the weekend keeping y’all up to date on how things go. We’ll be hard at work trying to nab the blue envelopes for Amsterdam, but I expect to be able to squeeze in a game or two of paper Magic EDH…
… and there may even be Karaoke. Oh, snap…
Take care…
Bennie
starcitygeezer AT gmail DOT com
New to EDH? Be sure to check out my EDH Primer, part 1, part 2, and part 3.
My current EDH decks:
Jacques Le Vert (lots of legends, good stuff)
Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund (DRAGONS, RAHRRR!!)
Halfdane (Clone ‘n’ Kaldra)
Reki, the History of Kamigawa (more legends than you can shake a stick at)