The EDH Invitational
To the delight, shock and dismay of some, Gilles Labelle announced early last week that he and Vincent Laplante had been tabulating tournament results for close to a year and planned to do something really cool about it, the first EDH Invitational, to be hosted at CBS in early January 2014!
Fantastic idea and it adds an another element to the already high level of competition in Sunday events.
There has been some concern over the event, however. How would the event be seeded? How were invites decided? Have we all had a chance to get in? What if we weren't around then? We didn't know about it until now, so how could we prepare for it? Why oh why? Let's start with any concerns about invites. Gilles and Vince have been spending hundreds of hours over the past while hosting these events. They've often chosen to bow out and not play so others could do so in their stead. Some of us have been agitated at the events, others have shown with some casual mixes, still others have gone home during the summer, lots of concern here.
The seedings have been announced and there will be twelve people selected (no duplicates) from among the 1 v 1 and Gaunlet winners; one for attendance, one wild card (due to October events being sparse), one for sportsmanship and one for "general" variety, if you'll pardon the pun.
To those that are worried about it, I empathize. But the bottom line is everyone has an equal chance to participate in these events. they only cost $5 and a few hours of your week and the goals should be to put a good showing, even if you have ancillary goals as well. Mine are to socialize and, well, while not griefing, to make games memorable, whether through a splashy spell or squeezing every last bead of sand out of that hourglass. Others might have store credit for a goal, or testing a new deck, or just being the top dog. Gilles and Vince seem to have made allowance for all our supertypes by using standings, variety of commanders, sportsmanship and so on in their selection process. Like the tournaments themselves, this is going to be a work in progress. Trust them and give them time and it will work out for everyone.
And if you're worried about not being in? You still have a good two months to make your mark. There are multiple gauntlets and 1 v 1s to attend, so get out there and get your game on!
New Commander Product
Creeping up on us is a bunch of new commander product, which will hopefully come stocked with some staples like Sol Ring, Cultivate variants, Chaos Warp, Scavenging Ooze and other Commander-only staples. Some of the commanders have been released, so we'll take a quick look at some of those leaked and how berserk they might get in our warped little EDH minds.
Without futher ado, here are some of the new spoiled commanders...
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
GUW Legendary Creature - Bird Wizard - Mythic Rare
Flying - 2/3
Whenever Derevi, Empyral Tactician enters the battlefield or a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, you may tap or untap target permanent.
1GUW: Put Derevi onto the battlefield from the command zone.
Instant speed, uncounterable access to your commander, flouting the commander tax AND a useful (and combo-enabling!) ability all on one body. Oh, he also flies and does decent damage as well.
Since you're in Exalted colours already, you couldn't possibly do anything abusive by attacking with your guys, flashing him in to remove a tough blocker, then tapping any remaining unused blockers post-combat, then attacking a second time and untapping all your previously used lands or mana rocks, sacrificing him somehow then flashing him for further use...He's also a wizard, if that ever comes up when you might have Azami on the table.
And hey, you can untap another player's stuff too so they can help you out. Or you can pair it with Deadeye Navigator and Gilded Lotus for infinite mana. Wheeeeeeee!
Marath, Will of the Wild
GWR - Legendary Creature - Elemental Beast - Mythic Rare
0/0
Marath, Will of the Wild enters the battlefield with a number of +1/+1 counters equal to the amount of mana spent to cast it.
X, Remove X +1/+1 counters from Marath: Choose one -- Put X +1/+1 on target creatures; or Marath deals X damage to target creature or player; or put an X/X green Elemental creature token onto the battlefield (X can't be 0).
A 3/3 that can immediately ping away a mana dork or two, move counters onto Spikes or other token enablers and that can help finish a player as well. And he's in three colours that have some of the best ramp and utility in the format. Doubling Season aside, you can still get a good bit of utility just by using a few Spikes (Weaver, and somtimes Feeder, are always popular) or say, just attacking with him, since he'll just get meaner each time he dies. As you ramp up, so does Marath and so, downwards, goes your opponent's life total due to Elemental token beats or just some direct damage. Snce EDH is also a multiplayer format, you can always move some of those tokens onto an opponent's creature too, providing they are not attacking you...
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic 3WUB - Mythic Rare
Legendary Creature - Giant Soldier 4/5
At the Beginning of your upkeep, you gain 2 life.
Whenever you gain life, you pay pay 1.
If you do, draw a card and each opponent loses 1 life.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if Oloro is in the command zone, you gain 2 life.
The poster boy for "Slow and steady wins the race", Oloro is faily bonkers. Your life total already starts at 40 and you could be close to 50 or 60 by the time you cast him. Throw in those Academy Rectors in with your Tests of Endurance for an easy win, or just consistently use his damage and draw ability to slowly drain yoir opponents. And hey, they are plenty of good cards that gain life as an ancillary effect: Umezawa's Jitte, Sword of Light and Shadow, Kokusho, the Evening Star (three triggers, pay 3 and Ancestral? Yum!) and so on and so on. Even more noxious is that the "pillow forting" continues once he's in the command zone. Oh, and Black doesn't have anything that can turn extraneous life into cards right? I already feel a slow building hatred for this guy, which will no doubt turn into full rage once he sees regular play.
There are also 15 new cards in each set, so even if you get Cultivate variant #3 or so on, these will probably be worth picking up. Since they release in a scant few weeks, you should start seeing previews on the mothership before long and you should start seeing new commanders blowing you up shortly thereafter.
And now...
Overrated vs. Underrated
By Shane Shuster
This week:
"So this week I got a suggestion from local EDH player Sean
O’Keefe that he would like to see a tilt between the overrated Tarmogoyf
and its budget replacement, Scavenging Ooze. Both of these green creatures
share a cost with Grizzly Bears but they bring impressive tools to bear.
"Tarmogoyf starts out as a 0/1 that gets +1/+1 for each card type in all graveyards. You can quickly get a 6/7, a 7/8, or an 8/9 on your side of the battlefield for a measly two mana. Scavenging Ooze starts as a 2/2 (just like Grizzly Bears) but has a fantastic ability to attack the graveyard. For single green mana, you exile a target card of your choice from any graveyard and if it's a creature, you put a +1/+1 counter on the Ooze and you gain one life.
"Scavenging Ooze will be much more consistently powerful, not to mention useful and versatile. Additionally, Tarmogoyf can cost anywhere in the range of $110-175 whereas the Ooze sits between $15-30 and is much easier to get your hands on. Not that Tarmogoyf isn't a powerful card, it's just much less powerful in EDH where a card like Scavenging Ooze performs much better. Tarmogoyf is very much a build-around card that can be maximized to be really mana efficient but since you can only have one copy in your deck (and it can’t be your general) it becomes a vanilla creature that at some points may be a 1/2 and at other times might be a 5/6 and neither will push you over the top in EDH. Scavenging Ooze's arsenal of graveyard hate, aggressive attacking, efficient blocking, and a useful place to channel your mana (at the end of the other player’s turn, of course) – for the same cost as a measly grizzly bear, pushes it far over the top in this matchup!"
Until next time, may you all enjoy the new Commander previews on the mothership this week."Tarmogoyf starts out as a 0/1 that gets +1/+1 for each card type in all graveyards. You can quickly get a 6/7, a 7/8, or an 8/9 on your side of the battlefield for a measly two mana. Scavenging Ooze starts as a 2/2 (just like Grizzly Bears) but has a fantastic ability to attack the graveyard. For single green mana, you exile a target card of your choice from any graveyard and if it's a creature, you put a +1/+1 counter on the Ooze and you gain one life.
"Scavenging Ooze will be much more consistently powerful, not to mention useful and versatile. Additionally, Tarmogoyf can cost anywhere in the range of $110-175 whereas the Ooze sits between $15-30 and is much easier to get your hands on. Not that Tarmogoyf isn't a powerful card, it's just much less powerful in EDH where a card like Scavenging Ooze performs much better. Tarmogoyf is very much a build-around card that can be maximized to be really mana efficient but since you can only have one copy in your deck (and it can’t be your general) it becomes a vanilla creature that at some points may be a 1/2 and at other times might be a 5/6 and neither will push you over the top in EDH. Scavenging Ooze's arsenal of graveyard hate, aggressive attacking, efficient blocking, and a useful place to channel your mana (at the end of the other player’s turn, of course) – for the same cost as a measly grizzly bear, pushes it far over the top in this matchup!"
