Good day! Welcome back to the column that tickles your causal bone. Over the last month or so, I’ve been playing a lot of Commander multiplayer online. Today, I thought it would be cool to show you my EDH/Commander decks from online. Everybody loves a fun Commander deck, and one of the decks today features cards I have never played before in a Constructed environment. It includes a bunch of cards I haven’t even used in a decklist for this column.
Let’s stop the footsie, and hit the first deck.
Angus Into Ixidor
1 Acidic Slime
1 Adarkar Wastes
1 Angus Mackenzie
1 Austere Command
1 Azorius Chancery
1 Bant Panorama
1 Battlegrace Angel
1 Brushland
1 Chromeshell Crab
1 Coastal Tower
1 Copperhoof Vorrac
1 Crib Swap
1 Deathless Angel
1 Decree of Justice
1 Dismantling Blow
1 Dismiss
1 Draining Whelk
1 Drifting Meadow
1 Elfhame Palace
1 Eternal Dragon
1 Eternal Witness
1 Exalted Angel
1 Exile
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Far Wanderings
1 Flooded Strand
4 Forest
1 Genesis
1 Glory
1 Graypelt Refuge
1 Growth Spasm
1 Halimar Depths
1 Hystrodon
1 Indrik Stomphowler
1 Iridescent Angel
4 Island
1 Island of Wak-Wak
1 Ixidor, Reality Sculptor
1 Ixidron
1 Khalni Garden
1 Krosan Cloudscraper
1 Krosan Tusker
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Lu Xun, Scholar General
1 Magus of the Jar
1 Mischievous Quanar
1 Mold Shambler
1 Mulldrifter
1 Nantuko Vigilante
1 Oblation
1 Old Man of the Sea
1 Ondu Giant
1 Path to Exile
4 Plains
1 Prahv, Spires of Order
1 Primordial Sage
1 Pristine Angel
1 Quicksilver Dragon
1 Recollect
1 Recurring Insight
1 Remote Isle
1 Resounding Silence
1 Root Elemental
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Seaside Citadel
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Seed Spark
1 Sejiri Refuge
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Shaper Parasite
1 Silklash Spider
1 Slippery Karst
1 Spirit of the Hearth
1 Sun Ce, Young Conqueror
1 Sun Quan, Lord of Wu
1 Sunscape Battlemage
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Sylvan Library
1 Temple Garden
1 Tidings
1 Tooth and Nail
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Treva’s Charm
1 Treva’s Ruins
1 Weaver of Lies
1 Willbender
1 Wing Shards
1 Wrath of God
1 Yavimaya Coast
1 Zoetic Cavern
This deck began as Angus and His Friends. I was playing fun W/G/U cards and legends like Ragnar and Rubinia Soulsinger. The problem with the deck as first built was that it was quite schizophrenic. It wanted to attack early, and late, it wanted to control the board and not. It had control, combo and aggro elements all in it. This was a deck without a clue.
Obviously, my deck needed to change. As I looked at it, I noticed that the deck was rocking a handful of solid morph creatures — Hystrodon, Chromeshell Crab, Exalted Angel, Nantuko Vigilante, and Willbender, plus an Ixidron.
After a bit of investigation, I decided to up the number of morph creatures, and add Ixidor. Thus, I added Weaver of Lies, Zoetic Cavern, Root Elemental, Shaper Parasite, Quicksilver Dragon, Mischievous Quanar, and Krosan Cloudscraper. That’s not too many morphers — just 12 plus Ixidor and Ixidron. However, it gives the deck its flavor. Actually, the last cards cut from this deck were Brine Elemental and Riptide Survivor.
With my morph core, the deck began to find a design purpose. I pulled Angus’s friends and began to build around the theme. It came together very quickly. For example, I wanted some big creatures to drop off a Root Elemental, so I made sure my deck had a few nice sized creatures, without moving into traditional territories like Akroma and Darksteel. This deck didn’t want to wait around for when they could be played.
When playing it, people would see a morph or two, worry, and then when they saw it was a Shaper Parasite or Zoetic Cavern, they sort of dismissed my deck. Sometimes they were right too, because it didn’t do anything. Other times, it built up and then exploded over the table, killing everyone and winning.
This deck does have some of the powerful tools of multiplayer in it. Note that online prices often have nothing to do with real life prices. A card could be super rare in real life (Island of Wak-Wak) and yet have very little value online. So cards like Sun Ce, Young Conqueror are easy to acquire.
On the other hand, some cards actually cost more online than in real life. Most of the cards I have I acquired in drafts. Not all, but most of them. I don’t have cards like Commander Eesha. I do have things like Silklash Spider, Wrath of God, and more. In all of my core set drafts, I’ve only ever opened one copy of a Wrath.
I do have a lot of removal for what ails you. You can destroy enchantments, artifacts, creatures, lands and Planeswalkers. From Acidic Slime to Wing Shards, we’ve got it all.
We also have card drawing. Cards like Fact or Fiction and Mulldrifter and Recurring Insight are great forms of raw card drawing. Austere Command and Wing Shards and Wrath of God style effects can yield you card advantage of a different stripe.
My deck has answers, but it is great at early problems. It loves to drop a 2/2 morph on turn 3, and then start swinging. It’s awesome to flip a Hystrodon or Exalted Angel early. It’s also awesome to sit on a Willbender or Quanar or Crab, and wait for the right moment to flip and reveal.
Alright, let’s take a look at deck #2, one of my favorite decks in recent memory, and a deck I often like to call Cards Abe Doesn’t Play.
Le Vert
1 Acidic Slime
1 Ajani Goldmane
1 Anger
1 Ant Queen
1 Austere Command
1 Balefire Liege
1 Boartusk Liege
1 Boros Garrison
1 Brawn
1 Burning-Tree Shaman
1 Civic Wayfinder
1 Crib Swap
1 Crown of Convergence
1 Drifting Meadow
1 Elfhame Palace
1 Eternal Witness
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Fleetfoot Panther
4 Forest
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Gaea’s Anthem
1 Genesis
1 Glorious Anthem
1 Glory
1 Glory of Warfare
1 Graypelt Refuge
1 Gruul Turf
1 Harmonize
1 Homura, Human Ascendant
1 Hunting Cheetah
1 Imperial Recruiter
1 Indrik Stomphowler
1 Jacques le Vert
1 Jungle Shrine
1 Juniper Order Advocate
1 Kaysa
1 Kazandu Refuge
1 Knight of New Alara
1 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Konda’s Banner
1 Kongming, Sleeping Dragon
1 Krosan Tusker
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Loxodon Hierarch
1 Marisi’s Twinclaws
1 Meng Huo, Barbarian King
1 Mold Shambler
1 Momentous Fall
4 Mountain
1 Mystic Enforcer
1 Naya Panorama
1 Ondu Giant
1 Oran-Rief Recluse
1 Orim’s Thunder
1 Path to Exile
4 Plains
1 Plateau
1 Prismatic Strands
1 Punishing Fire
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Rith’s Grove
1 Rolling Earthquake
1 Rolling Thunder
1 Rumbling Slum
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Saffi Eriksdotter
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Seed Spark
1 Selesnya Evangel
1 Selesnya Guildmage
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Shivan Oasis
1 Skarrg, the Rage Pits
1 Slippery Karst
1 Smoldering Crater
1 Stomping Ground
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Temple Garden
1 Thornscape Battlemage
1 Tolsimir Wolfblood
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Veteran Armorer
1 Vithian Renegades
1 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
1 Watchwolf
1 Wilt-Leaf Liege
1 Woolly Thoctar
1 Wort, the Raidmother
This deck is built around Jacques le Vert, and has already developed a bit of a reputation after about 4 or 5 plays over the weekend. I wanted to build a fun deck around a card and strategy I would not normally play, and I’m having a blast doing so. Here is the tally of non-land cards I have never played with in a Constructed deck, and never even used in a decklist here on SCG: 21. That’s a big chunk!
This deck wants to emphasize Green creatures. It includes cards like Le Vert, Kaysa, Meng Huo and Juniper Order Druid to pump your Green creatures. Then I included other creature to pump your creatures — Kongming, Tolsimir, Veteran Armor, Knight of New Alara, the Lieges. Finally, I played artifacts and enchantments that pump your creatures too — Gaea’s Anthem, Glorious Anthem, Glory of Warfare, Crown of Convergence, and Konda’s Banner.
Anybody will tell you that this is not my normal deck. This is not normally how I play Magic, but it is how lots of people play Magic. And I’m having a blast with the deck. I remember having out Marisi’s Twinclaws (one of the 21 cards), and a Glory of Warfare (another of the 21). I dropped Knight of New Alara and then attacked for 14 damage with my Twinclaws. Awesome!
I also did something rare when building this deck. I purchased cards for it. I know, it’s shocking. You see, I had always sold my Glorious Anthems for money after rare drafts. Now, for the first time in something like 7 years, I need one for an EDH deck, so I had to go buy it. Here are the cards I bought: All three Lieges (which is quite a cost there), Glorious Anthem, Crown of Convergence, Kaysa.
Because of the emphasis on pumping creatures, I needed everything to be a creature in this deck. I needed my land retrieval to be creatures, so I traded for Farhaven Elf and Civic Wayfinder and Knight of the Reliquary. I needed all of my artifact and enchantment removal to be creatures. I have creatures like Flametongue Kavu and Oran-Rief Recluse and Qasali Pridemage and Mold Shambler in the deck. The only exceptions are for a few surprise cards that I wanted to have to feel safe. This is not Instant.dec. In fact, many times I would pass the turn, and then just hit F8 and pass priority until my next turn, because I wasn’t doing anything.
This deck tries to be a bit on the aggro-y side of multiplayer, with quick drops that can be sent into the red zone for some early damage. I can’t tell you how many times Saffi or Hunting Cheetah would get played early and then attack. In one game, I got five lands off the Cheetah before someone killed it.
People compliment my deck all of the time, because every time they see another cool card, they like it. I have out Burning-Tree Shaman and then I play Kaysa and attack for 4 instead of 3. They laugh. This is an enjoyable deck to play.
Rolling Earthquake is great tech in this deck. My cards pump my creatures and my general pumps their rear (usually). Then I play a Rolling Earthquake, kill a bunch of creatures including flyers, deal some damage to the players, and then swing for damage. It’s definitely a kick in the face.
Note that there are a lot of cool tricks in here, such as Brawn making your bigger creatures a threat. There are also a few cool token makers, to give you creatures to pump. This is not a token deck, it’s a pump your Green guys deck. Cards like Wort the Raidmother and Ant Queen and Seed Spark just fit perfectly.
I enjoyed this deck so much, that I wondered if I could catch lightning in a bottle a second time. I decided to try a different deck. I pulled out Red and Jacques le Vert, and then built this:
Tolsimir et al
1 Acidic Slime
1 Ajani Goldmane
1 Ant Queen
1 Austere Command
1 Balefire Liege
1 Boartusk Liege
1 Brawn
1 Brushland
1 Celestial Crusader
1 Civic Wayfinder
1 Crib Swap
1 Crown of Convergence
1 Crusade
1 Divine Sacrament
1 Drifting Meadow
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Elfhame Palace
1 Eternal Witness
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Fleetfoot Panther
9 Forest
1 Gaea’s Anthem
1 Genesis
1 Glorious Anthem
1 Glory
1 Grasslands
1 Graypelt Refuge
1 Harmonize
1 Honor of the Pure
1 Hunting Cheetah
1 Indrik Stomphowler
1 Juniper Order Advocate
1 Juniper Order Ranger
1 Kaysa
1 Khalni Garden
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Knight of New Alara
1 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Kongming, Sleeping Dragon
1 Kor Sanctifiers
1 Krosan Tusker
1 Lieutenant Kirtar
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Llanowar Reborn
1 Loxodon Hierarch
1 Mangara of Corondor
1 Marisi’s Twinclaws
1 Marshal’s Anthem
1 Meng Huo, Barbarian King
1 Mold Shambler
1 Momentous Fall
1 Mystic Enforcer
1 Nantuko Monastery
1 Ondu Giant
1 Oran-Rief Recluse
1 Oversoul of Dusk
1 Pale Recluse
1 Path to Exile
1 Phantom Nishoba
8 Plains
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Radiant’s Judgment
1 Rhys the Redeemed
1 Saffi Eriksdotter
1 Saltcrusted Steppe
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Seed Spark
1 Selesnya Evangel
1 Selesnya Guildmage
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Slippery Karst
1 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Temple Garden
1 Tolsimir Wolfblood
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Veteran Armorer
1 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
1 Watchwolf
1 Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers
1 Wilt-Leaf Liege
1 Wort, the Raidmother
The first thing you are going to note is that a lot of the same cards are here. While there are certainly new cards like Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers and Kitchen Finks and Phantom Nishoba, the deck still feels like the first one.
Since the theme of this deck was White/Green creatures, I added various Crusade effects to the deck. Cards like Crusade, Marshal’s Anthem, Honor of the Pure, Celestial Crusader, and Divine Sacrament. I also decided to leave in the Lieges from the previous deck, since they still pump my creatures. I broke down and purchased a Juniper Order Ranger, and added it to the deck, and maybe I’ll add it to the Le Vert deck too, since it seems like a nice fit.
In some places I had to add creatures to do things I needed. You’ll note the addition of removal cards like Uktabi Orangutan, Mangara of Corondor, and Lieutenant Kirtar. I added Radiant’s Judgment to the deck to keep a surprise removal spell or two available.
In order to replace the lost cards, I emphasized cards that really work with my plan. Rhys the Redeemed, Oversoul of Dusk, Pale Recluse, Dryad Arbor, Kor Sanctifiers, Nantuko Monastery, and the above mentioned cards were all great additions to the deck. Then you have the various Crusades with the solid creature base from before and all of the pump cards from before, and you have a strong deck.
Unfortunately, I lose the cuteness of the first deck. When Jacques le Vert is your general, that’s awesome and cute and fun. Tolsimir is just fun, and nothing else. In this deck, you could pull out something else — like Rhys or Saffi, to be your legend. You cannot do that in Le Vert, as Jacques is the only tri-color legend in the deck.
The deck is fun, but I think I prefer Le Vert.
…
I hope you enjoyed today’s look at three Commander/EDH decks I’ve recently built and been playing. I catch up with you next week. As a reminder, we have another deck in the Appendix below, so check it out.
Until later…
APPENDIX — Today’s article from ye olden days is a daily article from Sept. 12, 2005. You will note in the descriptive text that it comes before Coldsnap was released and while damage was still something that went on the stack. Enjoy!
I’ve always been a fan of Winter’s Chill, but I have never found the right deck. Of course, I’ve never really sat out to build a Winter’s Chill deck either. I think that it is high time that I used an obscure card to good effect. The Chill has several abilities, so let’s take a look at it.
Snow-covered lands were a nice concept that I would like to see rejuvenated at some point in the future. They were never really used well, but they certainly could be. The problem with Winter’s Chill is the limiting effect that playing snow-covered lands provides. However, if the entire deck ran these lands, that limitation would be muted.
That means that we are simply unable to run non-basic lands. Any multicolor deck would want tap duals, fetch lands, pain lands, or something. Therefore, let’s work with just a mono-Blue deck.
I was wondering what I could combine with Winter’s Chill. You want your opponent to not have a lot of mana available when they attack. How could I massage the game state into making it work for me? Once I figured that out, I knew what kind of deck I wanted to build.
The Chill Rushes In
4 Winter’s Chill
4 Propaganda
4 Power Sink
3 Pendrell Mists
4 Genju of the Falls
4 Capsize
4 Counterspell
3 Treasure Trove
3 Whispers of the Muse
1 Palinchron
1 Ambassador Laquatus
25 Snow-covered Island
The ultimate idea behind this deck is to force opponents to tap mana with the Pendrell Mists, Power Sinks, and Propagandas. You then hit them with a powerful Winter’s Chill to off some creatures. The deck wants to slowly gain momentum until it dominates from a very powerful game state.
With 25 lands, you know that you will be drawing a lot of land. That’s fine, because this deck can really use it. Power Sink, Capsize, Whispers and Treasure Trove all benefit from more mana. You can also use the Genju while holding open defensive mana.
You want to establish a dominant board position by having out a Mists and Propaganda. If your opponent’s creatures take a mana each just to stick around and another pair of mana each to attack, there won’t be much attacking. Your opponent will have to spend a lot of mana just to keep creatures in play.
Don’t play the Mists early in multiplayer. It will paint you as target #1. You don’t want to entice attackers, just send them elsewhere. Playing a Propaganda on the third turn is your ideal play. You can even use Laquatus as an early blocker. Don’t be afraid to toss out a Whispers or a Capsize early in order to find the cards that you need.
Later in the game you will want to use your various renewable resources to gain an advantage. Capsize, Trove, Whispers and Laquatus can all be used to slowly mount an advantage over your opponent.
I included a Palinchron as a late game creature. It didn’t really matter to me which decently-sized creature that I played, so I decided to use one that would let the player still have mana afterward to protect it. It also has a built in protection ability, akin to Morphling and Rainbow Efreet. With its bounce ability, it can make a very effective wall. Remember to bounce it after damage goes on the stack it blocks something like a Cockatrice. You can chump block Mahamoti Djinns and Shivan Dragons with it effectively. Since you untap mana when it comes into play, it only costs you four mana a turn to continually block a creature, which is pretty fair considering the mana your opponent will be tapping just to stay in the game.
In case you wondered why, I tossed in a Laquatus as an alternate route of winning. A Propaganda or two will keep creatures from attacking while Winter’s Chill can actively pop attackers. However, a large contingent of creatures can build up on your opponent’s said of the table. If Capsizes were played early and the flyers can’t get through, then you have a back up option.