This week we'll look at why you should be looking at "tax" strategies like Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben or even throwing the odd Winter Orb into your deck to make your EDH games less monotonous and more taxing, if you'll forgive the pun.
So what do EDH players like to do? Ramp. How do they ramp? Fetchlands, green cards like Kodama's Reach or Cultivate, artifacts like Solemn Simulacrum or Wayfarer's Bauble. Why do they ramp? Well, the more lands you have the quicker you can deploy your strategy. The quicker you deploy your strategy the quicker you can win. You want to do that too right? Ehhhhhhh maybe not.
While it would be great if we all played group hug and drew a zillion cards and so on, someone has to put the reins on all this growth and proliferation. That person can be you. Why should it be? Read on, dear reader and we'll get you into a stifling new comfort zone.
Asking someone why you want to be THAT guy/gal that wears the black hat is a lot like asking John Wayne why he'd want to be a nasty sumbitch in The Searchers, which you should really see even if you're not a big western-genre fan. Sometimes having a target painted on your deck, err...neck can improve your play and make you a better and somewhat reviled EDHer. In the case of our first friend, Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, there isn't much to like if you're looking across from him. He makes all your stuff cost more while your opponent's spells cost a bit less to play. What are the benefits of playing Pope, as he's knowin in the parlance of our time? Well, you're in maybe the two best control colours around. You have access to sweepers, great planeswalkers, a ton of other tax effects in blu and white and like any pope worthy of his name, probably a little mind control thrown in.
GAAIV lends himself to other "slow to a crawl" cards like Winter Orb, which is woefully underplayed these days. Let's face it, EDH is a greedy format and we tap out all the time. All. The. Time. So much so that you can sometimes resolve a Rhystic Tutor. Pope probably isn't going to get you through commander damage, but his friends will put you behind as well, whether it's in card draw from Consecrated Sphinx or just stealing your recently played hope for the red zone with Sower of Temptations. Magic (in whichever format you prefer), is all about pace. You want that early Sol Ring to cast Cultivate, but if the Sol Ring costs 2 and Cultivate 4 you're not going to get there, sorry.
And hey, who says you can't equip up GAAIV with a sword or two and smack your opponent around? Stranger things have happened, like the time my Thalia deck overcame pope and Tabernacle to gnaw away 40 life points.
Speaking of Thalia, she's another commander that would see a little more play if people weren't afraid of being complete douchenozzles, or being tied to a colour with really weak card draw and an entirely combat-based strategy. But hey, throw a Tangle Wire in here, a Thorn of Amethyst there and your opponents will sit helpless until they reach 7+ mana and just cast Malestrom Wanderer for no penalty since it's a creature and all that. But hey, no plan survives contact with an Opposition or whatnot.
The important thing is that tax sttrategies are somewhat viable and certainly shouldn't be discarded without a second look. If nothing else they turn the game into a bit more of a chess match and a little less of 52 pickup, or 100 pickup, as you were.
Sleeper picks from Commander 2013
With the new Commander product flying off the shelves faster than a Lightning Greaves equipped Ball Lightning, the focus (and rightly so) has been on the big guns like Prossh, Jeleva and utility like Toxic Deluge and Unexpectedly Absent. There are a few eyebrow-raising (and possibly game-altering) cards left in the pile though. While these probably won't be traded for much return, they will cause your opponents to pay attention to the battlefield a little more, which is never a bad thing.
White
Darksteel Mutation 1W
Enchantment - Aura (Uncommon)
Enchant Creature
Enchanted creature is a 0/1 Insect artifact creature with Indestructible and loses all other abilities, card types and creature types.
A better Lignify in a colour that really needed another, somewhat more permanent, way to deal with creatures on the battlefield. There have been a lot of 'semi-exile" cards (Chained to the Rocks being the most recent), but this one zeroes your target to the point of no return. Again, there are probably stronger options in this colour but it isn't a bad start for utility depth.
Tempt with Glory 5W
Sorcery - (Rare)
Tempting Offer - Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control. Each opponent may put a +1/+1 counter on each creature he or she controls. For each opponent who does, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.
Probably way overcosted for 1 v 1 play but interesting in multiplayer. If you're running a commander that relies on counters and your opponent just has beaters then who cares? You're getting more fogs out of your Spike Weaver, more Ghave shenanigans and so on and so on. There are likely much, much better options to use though (Doubling Season comes to mind) but hey, it could end up being a make or break in a group game.
Blue
Borrowing 100,000 Arrows - 2U
Sorcery - (Uncommon)
Draw a card for each tapped creature target opponent controls.
If it draws you four to five cards it's more than paid for itself. It's eminently splashable and can serve as gas to find a sweeper as well, particularly useful in a mono-blue build that's gaining a lot of hate.
If nothing else, it's an always useful semi-cantrip. If your meta doesn't field many creatures then you're looking elsewhere in blue for answers.
Djinn of Infinite Deceits - 4UU
Creature - Djinn (Rare)
Flying - 2/7
T: Exchange control of two target nonlegendary creatures. You can't activate this ability during combat.
Pretty meh as far as mana costs go, seeing you've got Consecrated Sphinx which is much more of a game breaker in that same range. However, it's just to be fun just to exchange a creature that's about to be hit by Doom Blade for their commander or something that's alive. And hey, you don't lose control of the creature when you untap so you can keep giving them your crap all game long.
Illusionist's Gambit - 2UU
Instant - (Rare)
Cast Illusionist's Gambit only during the declare blockers step on an opponent's turn.
Remove all creatures from combat and untap them. After this phase, there is an additional combat phase. Each of those creatures attacks that combat if able. They can't attack you or a planeswalker you control that combat.
The new blue Fog, Reins of Power being the first that comes to mind. Has the capacity to totally blow out an unprepared player at your table, especially if they've already tapped their Maze of Ith, Kor Haven, Mystifying Maze et al. on a previous opponent. If nothing else it saves your planeswalkers for an extra activation, which can be huge tilt in and of its own.
Strategic Planning - 1U
Sorcery - Uncommon
Look at the top three cards of your library. Put one of them cards in your hand and the rest in your graveyard.
Subtly powerful, this "graveyard impulse" will lead to endless shenanigans. You can set up a Genesis trigger, a Crucible of Worlds usage, a potential reanimation target and many things beside. And you still get one of the three as well, hopefully to put the rest to good use. Even if you're just dumping extraneous cards away it's still a "mini-Top". Should see some play, though I'm not looking forward to seeing it in action.
Tempt with Reflections - 3U
Sorcery - Rare
Tempting offer - Choose target creature you control. Put a token onto the battlefield that's a copy of that creature. Each opponent may put a token on the battlefield that's a copy of that creautre. For each opponent that does, put a token on the battlefield that's a token of that creature.
Oh shenanigans thy name is blue. Give everyone a Solemn Simulacrum? How about a copy of your Edric (Then choose a copy to keep for yourself, perhaps the new untapped one)? Or a tapped Magus of the Disk? Or...? Nice rattlesnake effect that can potentially pull some aggro off yourself if you gift things right.
Black
Price of Knowledge 6B
Enchantment - Rare
Players have no maximum hand size.
At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, Price of Knowledge deals damage to that opponent equal to the number of cards in that player's hand.
Hmm, permanent Sudden Impact mixed in with a Reliquary Tower for each player. Anyone have a Krosan Grip?
Black has been underserved in the Commander product, exclusing multi cards. The early returns on Toxic Deluge have been mixed at best, Baleful Force hasn't seen a lot of play and the black Temptation card hasn't raised a lot of eyebrows. Thankfully there have been some nice reprints like Decree of Pain and Sanguine Bond, both of which do see some play in EDH decks all over.
Red
From the Ashes - 3R
Sorcery - Rare
Destroy all nonbasic lands. For each land destoryed this way, its controller may search his or her library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield. Then each player who searched his or her library this way shuffles it.
So people hate Ruination and Armageddon effects. Sure. How about Ruination with Ghost Quarter tied to it? Weak for competitive play unless the deckbuilder can't get any nonbasics, but will get rid of all those annoying Mazes of Ith, Gaea's Cradles and so on and give them something just not nearly as good.
Mass Mutiniy - 3RR
Sorcery - Rare
For each opponent, gain control of one target creature that player controls until end of turn. Untap those creatures. Those creatures gain haste until end of turn.
Well it's no Insurrection, but it's not bad. Your average "Ray of Command" Costs four converted mana, this costs one more and gets you three creatures. The problem is for the same mana cost (and as an Instant) you can just Word of Seizing their irritating Kiki-Jiki or any other permanent with impunity. Could still be a fun card in a casual build.
Sudden Demise - XR
Sorcery - Rare
Choose a color. Sudden Demise deals X damage to each creature of the chosen color.
Pretty superfluous card but a clear push to players to play multi-coloured decks. I guess if you need an extra sweeper in your deck and your meta leans toward mono-color it's not bad, but I'd still rather Startstorm or Bonfire of the Damned or Earthquake or...
Widespread Panic - 2R
Enchantment - Rare
Whenever a spell or ability causes its controller to shuffle his or her library, that player puts a card from his or her hand on top of his or her library.
In love with this design. There is a metric ton of shuffling and this comes as a tax effect in a colour that hasn't had access to that in a while. Sure it stops being useful once their hand is empty but unless they have a Top or incoming card draw on the stack this should slow people down enormously. And hey, it's not like this costs five or six mana. At three mana you can get this out turn two and cost your opponent some enchantment removal they might need for other targets or...they start trading cards in hand for lands from their fetchlands. Not a choice I'm looking forward to.
Green
Curse of Predation - 2G
Enchantment - Aura Curse (Uncommon)
Enchant Player
Whenever a creater attacks enchanted player, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature.
Could be a nice sleeper pick for a Ghave deck or someone using Spikes or a Triskelion or whatnot. With Doubling Season or another card featured in the Commander product (Primal Vigor, see below) could get out of control. Even if you aren't tricksy, your creatures are still getting bigger and your opponent is getting crushed. Sounds good to me!
Primal Vigor - 4G
Enchantment - Rare
If one or more tokens are put onto the battlefield, twice that number of tokens are put onto the battlefield instead.
If one ore more +1/+1 counters are put onto a creature, twice that number of +1/+1 counters are placed on that creature instead.
The fixed Doubling Season. Bruce Richard on the mothership explained why Season had unintended consquences and needed a tweak:
"Since Doubling Season was printed, it has been the gold standard for any card that doubles. It doubles token creatures and any counter that can be put on a permanent. The problem with Doubling Season is that Planeswalkers didn't exist when Doublng Season was created. Planeswalkers present two problems when combined with Doubling Season:
- Double the starting loyalty. If you double the starting loyalty on most Planeswalkers, reaching that final ability is just far too easy. Look at Elspeth, Sun's Champion (or any Elspeth for that matter). If Doubling Season is out when you play Elspeth, you start with eight loyalty counters. You can use her -7 ability the first turn she is in play! That is not supposed to happen.
- They don't work the way most people think. Many players believe that when you use Elspeth's +1 ability with Doubling Season on the battlefield, you get 2 loyalty counters. Doubling Season doubles effects, not costs. Adding a loyalty counter to Elspeth to get 1/1 Soldiers is the cost to get the Soldiers. This is not intuitive, since Doubling Season basically reads, "double token creatures and counters."
Restore - 1G
Sorcery - (Uncommon)
Put target land from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control.
Wording is key. It isn't from your graveyard, it's from any graveyard. That means you can re-use your opponent's Strip Mine, fetchlands, destroyed lands, whatever. With the amount of land churn in the format, this eminently splashable sorcery should find room in nearly any deck. The limited testing I've done with it had me holding it until turn 4 or 5 (people were wary of using fetchlands and so on) but it still got excellent mileage.
Multicolor
Shattergang Brothers - 1BRG
Legendary Creature - Goblin Artificer (Mythic Rare)
3/3
2B,Sacrifice a creature: Each other player sacrifices a creature.
2R,Sacrfice an artifact: Each other player sacrifices an artifact.
2G,Sacrifice an enchantment: Each other player sacrifices an enchantment.
Black and Red finally get some enchantment removal not named Dystopia or Apocalypse.
Having played against this dude in his Prossh precon home, I can honestly say he's a massive pain in the ass. I don't even want to think about what kind of weirdo would throw a Lifeline into a deck, use the Brothers to sacrifice a Porphoros creature, have it come back as (potentially) an enchantment that keeps its creature type, two for one? Hopefully I'm terribly wrong about this.
Wizard's Tower CHEO Event
So CHEO is pretty amazing. I had the opportunity to go there as a kid to deal with a hip issue and the staff are top notch, the hospital wing itself just screams "comfy for kids" and it's been going for seemingly decades now. Wizard's Tower is hosting a CHEO Event, proceeds going to the hospital, on December 7th. If you can make it, drop by, if only to taste some of Mama Noworaj's goodies; if you're lucky enough to play against her son Andrew, you'll be seated against one of the most skilled Magic players in the region. There will also be an auction with various goodies too, like alters, a dual land and lots more being sorted out!
EDH This Week:
Saturday, November 16th:
Wizard's Tower Fallowfield - 3350 Fallowfield Rd (613) 843-0705
Casual play all day and 1 v 1 tournament starting at 4:00 p.m. $5 entry for the tournament, prize in Wizard's Tower coins.
Sunday, November 17th:
Comic Book Shoppe - 228 Bank Street (613) 594-3042
1 v 1 tournament, $5 entry fee, prizes distributed in store credit.
Be there early folks! Gilles has alerted us that the cutoff for reg is 11:50. so try to be there well before that.
Congrats to Chris DiNardo (boo Edric booooooooooo!), Dan Lanthier, Danny Sit and Gilles Labelle for getting the invite to the swanky EDH Invitational! Hope you guys crush all that opposes you.
Until then, may you never be group hugged by a sorority of gorgons.
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