So yesterday I mosey on down to the Comic Book Shoppe for the Gauntlet and there's someone sitting there that I vaguely recognize, vaguely because he didn't have a goatee almost 20 years ago, but the voice starts stirring up old memories in the back of my head. Memories of the "Boeing 747" deck and so on...and then he goes "It's Dan, Dan MacDonald from the old Downtown Gamer's Club".
I'm obviously floored at this point so we start catching up on what's gone on the past...decade or so and then I hear he's been brought back into Magic through the Commander pre-cons and his group of friends and that he's heard of the Gauntlet event and that he'd like to try it out. This is obviously fantastic news, as new players joining the fray is always fun, and even moreso when it's a real old friend joining in. We look at his Oloro pre-con and discuss stuff and then he pulls out this little weapon of mass destruction, because what's scarier than a bunch of animated garden tools and household appliances coming over the hill, really? We laugh about it then lo and behold we're in the same pod in round one.
Now, far be it for me to bemoan the lack of focus fire and "Screw Pierre" philosophy at the magic tables of late, but guess who gets the first hit from that Stormscape Familiar? Yep...good ol' Charlie Brown. So I spent the entire game trying to manipulate Dan into helping me out and he does a great job of killing some of Kevin Belisle's soldier tokens (Kevin still kills me) and then wins the table with a drain life effect. Bear in mind Dan hadn't touched Magic cards in well over a decade, so I'm super happy for him, but at the same time...I feel shame for not giving Dan the absolute trouncing he deserved for that uncalled for Stormscape Familiar assault. Wait till next time Dan, when you don't have 80+ life points to buffer yourself. Just you wait...
Fetchlands return, huzzah!
So anyone that's been playing any Modern to Legacy format (or EDH) knows how valuable these lands are. For a cost of one life and a land slot, you get to find your shocklands or dual lands and smooth out your mana base. Unfortnately, scarcity had driven up prices on some of these to close to $90 in some cases and around $50 or so for some of the less used fetchlands. As philisophical troubadour and internet buzzhumour proponent Nick Sirman has stated on more than one occasion, making your mana "Rare" isn't the smartest of moves on the part of Wizards. You need multi-lands to make the game and your strategies more fun and though Wizards does need to sell packs to stay in business, it's just a grind on players that need to get their painlands/fetches/duals and thus to pounding others in fays. Hopefully we can be a little greedy here and have the Zendikar fetches come back in the coming year or so as well.
Planeswalkers as Commanders? Not the end of the world but...
So people have bene asking to have legendary permanents of whatever kind as Commanders forever. Not sure how I feel about a Mindslaver commander, or a Gaea's Cradle commander, but that's neither here nor there. The new Teferi has been making some waves, and his abilities are pretty silly (untapping any four permanents and using Planeswalker abilities as instants is pretty dumb) but the new Commander products will live or die by the other Planeswalker abilities. Green, White, Black, Red...also need to be doing things at instant speed, or at the very least need to be on par with Teferi's abilities or there will be little reason to buy them outside of potential reprints in these products.
Speaking of reprints, since the cat is out of the bag as far as Portal Three Kingdoms stuff, how about Temporal Mastery, Riding the Dilu Horse or Imperial Seal in the Commander precons? The new versions will only be around $20 or so but it will put more of them in circulation. What about it, Wizards?
,
Monday, 1 September 2014
Sunday, 15 June 2014
"You're doing it wrong."
Welcome back to the EDH in Ottawa blog. In my many forays across the untamed wilds of the Internet commenting and reading about EDH, the most striking divide so far has been the split between casual and competitive players. The first side has an almost zealous attachment to "The Spirit of EDH", but what exactly is this spirit? Let's examine things a bit further on that topic.
The Spirit of EDH
One of the most frustrating items being brought forth whenever competitive players discuss their EDH metas is that the other side constantly brings up the nebulous "Spirit of EDH" as if that were the guideline. A perusal of the front page of mtgcommander.net, however, shows us deck construction rules and, under Philosophy, the following statement (emphasis mine in the post):
"1. Commander is designed to promote social games of Magic.
"It is played in a variety of ways, depending on player preference, but a global vision ties together the global community to help them enjoy a different kind of magic. This vision is predicated on a social contract: a gentleman's agreement which goes beyond these rules to include a degree of interactivity between players.
Players should aim to interact both during the game and before it begins, discussing with other players what they expect/want from the game.
"House rules or "fair play" exceptions are always encouraged if they create more fun within the community."
Right. So the gist is that each group needs to decide what works for them and to try to make the game have some back and forth. This has been the case in nearly all games I've played in Ottawa since I have started the format. Even the competitive players (and they are many) rarely just vomit out a combo win before turn three to four. You have a chance to deal with their threat or combo as it comes down. Of course, there are always corner cases like Ad Nauseam and Shane Shuster's Memnarch deck, but even those can be somewhat disrupted.
Now, for a variety of reasons the Ottawa EDH is fairly competitive. Whether it's people migrating from Legacy or Vintage that want to use all their brokens and dual lands, or just others (such as myself) that fine-tune their decks each week to shore up matchups or just to close gaps, for whatever reason Ottawa has a thriving EDH tournament scene, with events in multiple stores drawing anywhere from 8-32 people. On top of that, we all have a variety of more casual decks to field if newer players enter our groups. These players are never pushed aside and help (including cards but also deckbuilding advice) is always provided to anyone that asks.
Now, the thorny issue that arises is this: how can one pinpoint a Spirit of EDH when players, groups and even card pools wildly diverge? The starting point is, of course, the banned list. That gives us a pretty good idea of what the Rules Committee (RC) doesn't want played. Super fast mana like the moxen, expensive cards like Library of Alexandria and other problem cards like Protean Hulk, Recurring Nightmare, Griselbrand and Yawgmoth's Bargain are all evident in their ability to warp games quickly and repetitively, ending the game more abruptly than a group might like. Of course, the same can be said for Tooth & Nail and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, among other issues. So what's wrong and right when it comes to the format? Let's find out...
"Doing it wrong never felt so good."
If we apply a somewhat reductionist approach to EDH, it's a game. A game has a winner or loser, and some games allow for draws as well, Magic being one such game. If you're going to win you'll want to do it efficiently. If you're going to do it efficiently you'll need a commander that suits your needs. I personally just love smashing face with a side order of griefing, so Krenko, Thrun, Thalia, Turbo-fog Edric and Mogis are what I'm bringing to the table. I could make my Thalia deck Soldier or Human themed, but that would make it less of a threat. So in come staples like Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Top and so on. Eventually the deck hits a nice curve when you're winning on turn four to six pretty consistently. Consistency is good as it stems from good deck-building and rewards you with wins. Wins mean store credit and respect from your peers. The former means better decks and the latter means people ask you questions about the format. And no, Fungusaur shouldn't be in your Ghave deck. Ever.
So what's "wrong" with any of this? Well, here's where our schools of thought diverge. The RC wants us to be playing "battlecruiser magic", where we throw large bombs out at later stages of the game. A portion of us here in Ottawa want to be playing drone magic or stealth bomber magic, where a target is acquired and analyzed then the proper tools are used to mercilessly obliterate said target, before moving to the next target.
Here's the bottom line: by playing with suboptimal cards and throttling your deck's ability, you're hurting yourself.
A big part of Magic is improving as a player. I'm not gonna point fingers or name names or be that guy but I know a dude that showed up to a Magic tournament at Carleton with a deck full of bats, rats, terrors and a Lord of the Pit. Dude got told by Ms. Serra Angelou and her friend Winter Orbius. Yeah, bad times. Thankfully he had friends and became a bad Commander player instead of a bad Extended and Standard player.
The long and short of it? For a game to grow it needs competition and it needs opponents. No one says you can't have your funky Tetsuo Umezawa deck but it's good to have a higher level deck that can compete and take on the best your metagame has to offer. Don't hold back because of some abstract or arbitrary moral or gaming code. Your opponent wants to win, you want to win. So win.
Unless you're Dan Lanthier. Stop being a steamroller for once? Just once? Geez.
In closing, here's some Issac Hayes. Just substitute "loving you" with "my EDH" and you'll get the idea.
If Loving You is Wrong, I Don't Wanna Be Right
EDH this week:
Gamebreakers 780 Baseline Road, 613-228-9554. 1 v 1 Thursday, 19 June $5 entry, 6:00 p.m. Start time.
Wizard's Tower 3350 Fallowfield Road, 613-843-0705 1 v 1 Saturday, 21 June $5 entry, 4:00 p.m. start time.
Carta Magica 1179 St. Laurent Blvd. 613-746-9099 2HG Saturday, 21 June $5 entry, 7:30 start time.
Comic Book Shoppe 228 Bank Street 613-594-3042 1 v 1 Sunday, 22 June $5 entry, Noon sharp start time.
The Spirit of EDH
One of the most frustrating items being brought forth whenever competitive players discuss their EDH metas is that the other side constantly brings up the nebulous "Spirit of EDH" as if that were the guideline. A perusal of the front page of mtgcommander.net, however, shows us deck construction rules and, under Philosophy, the following statement (emphasis mine in the post):
"1. Commander is designed to promote social games of Magic.
"It is played in a variety of ways, depending on player preference, but a global vision ties together the global community to help them enjoy a different kind of magic. This vision is predicated on a social contract: a gentleman's agreement which goes beyond these rules to include a degree of interactivity between players.
Players should aim to interact both during the game and before it begins, discussing with other players what they expect/want from the game.
"House rules or "fair play" exceptions are always encouraged if they create more fun within the community."
Right. So the gist is that each group needs to decide what works for them and to try to make the game have some back and forth. This has been the case in nearly all games I've played in Ottawa since I have started the format. Even the competitive players (and they are many) rarely just vomit out a combo win before turn three to four. You have a chance to deal with their threat or combo as it comes down. Of course, there are always corner cases like Ad Nauseam and Shane Shuster's Memnarch deck, but even those can be somewhat disrupted.
Now, for a variety of reasons the Ottawa EDH is fairly competitive. Whether it's people migrating from Legacy or Vintage that want to use all their brokens and dual lands, or just others (such as myself) that fine-tune their decks each week to shore up matchups or just to close gaps, for whatever reason Ottawa has a thriving EDH tournament scene, with events in multiple stores drawing anywhere from 8-32 people. On top of that, we all have a variety of more casual decks to field if newer players enter our groups. These players are never pushed aside and help (including cards but also deckbuilding advice) is always provided to anyone that asks.
Now, the thorny issue that arises is this: how can one pinpoint a Spirit of EDH when players, groups and even card pools wildly diverge? The starting point is, of course, the banned list. That gives us a pretty good idea of what the Rules Committee (RC) doesn't want played. Super fast mana like the moxen, expensive cards like Library of Alexandria and other problem cards like Protean Hulk, Recurring Nightmare, Griselbrand and Yawgmoth's Bargain are all evident in their ability to warp games quickly and repetitively, ending the game more abruptly than a group might like. Of course, the same can be said for Tooth & Nail and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, among other issues. So what's wrong and right when it comes to the format? Let's find out...
"Doing it wrong never felt so good."
If we apply a somewhat reductionist approach to EDH, it's a game. A game has a winner or loser, and some games allow for draws as well, Magic being one such game. If you're going to win you'll want to do it efficiently. If you're going to do it efficiently you'll need a commander that suits your needs. I personally just love smashing face with a side order of griefing, so Krenko, Thrun, Thalia, Turbo-fog Edric and Mogis are what I'm bringing to the table. I could make my Thalia deck Soldier or Human themed, but that would make it less of a threat. So in come staples like Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Top and so on. Eventually the deck hits a nice curve when you're winning on turn four to six pretty consistently. Consistency is good as it stems from good deck-building and rewards you with wins. Wins mean store credit and respect from your peers. The former means better decks and the latter means people ask you questions about the format. And no, Fungusaur shouldn't be in your Ghave deck. Ever.
So what's "wrong" with any of this? Well, here's where our schools of thought diverge. The RC wants us to be playing "battlecruiser magic", where we throw large bombs out at later stages of the game. A portion of us here in Ottawa want to be playing drone magic or stealth bomber magic, where a target is acquired and analyzed then the proper tools are used to mercilessly obliterate said target, before moving to the next target.
Here's the bottom line: by playing with suboptimal cards and throttling your deck's ability, you're hurting yourself.
A big part of Magic is improving as a player. I'm not gonna point fingers or name names or be that guy but I know a dude that showed up to a Magic tournament at Carleton with a deck full of bats, rats, terrors and a Lord of the Pit. Dude got told by Ms. Serra Angelou and her friend Winter Orbius. Yeah, bad times. Thankfully he had friends and became a bad Commander player instead of a bad Extended and Standard player.
The long and short of it? For a game to grow it needs competition and it needs opponents. No one says you can't have your funky Tetsuo Umezawa deck but it's good to have a higher level deck that can compete and take on the best your metagame has to offer. Don't hold back because of some abstract or arbitrary moral or gaming code. Your opponent wants to win, you want to win. So win.
Unless you're Dan Lanthier. Stop being a steamroller for once? Just once? Geez.
In closing, here's some Issac Hayes. Just substitute "loving you" with "my EDH" and you'll get the idea.
If Loving You is Wrong, I Don't Wanna Be Right
EDH this week:
Gamebreakers 780 Baseline Road, 613-228-9554. 1 v 1 Thursday, 19 June $5 entry, 6:00 p.m. Start time.
Wizard's Tower 3350 Fallowfield Road, 613-843-0705 1 v 1 Saturday, 21 June $5 entry, 4:00 p.m. start time.
Carta Magica 1179 St. Laurent Blvd. 613-746-9099 2HG Saturday, 21 June $5 entry, 7:30 start time.
Comic Book Shoppe 228 Bank Street 613-594-3042 1 v 1 Sunday, 22 June $5 entry, Noon sharp start time.
Tuesday, 3 June 2014
Year II Invitational and Conspiracy thoughts.
Ever since Gilles Labelle and Vincent Laplante graciously handed over the reins of Sunday events to Ryan Carnegie and Stéphane Bisson, people have been clamoring to know whether there would be such an event at the end of the year. While Ryan has been fairly cagey on the topic (as a veteran Grixis player should and would be), the general impression has been that it’s being looked at, that there’s going to be something that might happen and that...they need to work stuff out first.
From this player’s point of view, a Year II Invitational
needs to happen for several reasons. First, it creates a buzz around the
community and pushes players to excel over an extended period. Second, it’s
just a damned cool event overall and it’s nice to be surrounded by your peers
and to see what absurd piles of 100-card magic they can put together. Last of
all, it helps grow the game of Commander. If you know there’s going to be a
higher strata of performance to reach, you’ll want to be there. If you want to
be there, you’ll make an effort to show up. If you’ll make an effort to show
up, you’ll improve. It’s just gravy for everyone you play EDH with on a regular
basis if you play well, since you’ll bring up the level of your peers throughout
the area.
There was a lot of worry early on that people might be
excluded and that people had no idea about the event, but those
concerns would be allayed fairly early on. People more or less know an event
is being tossed around, so there should not be any worry about missed
opportunities. The categories are all fairly decent too: top Gauntlet
performer, players of the month, best sportsmanship and then we get down to the
more debateable categories. Do you reward someone that plays a different deck
every week or do you prefer someone that dedicates themselves to one cause?
Personally, as someone that likes to pimp out one or two decks, I’ll show up
for Gauntlet with either Mogis, God of Slaughter or Thrun, the Last Troll.
Either deck can just savagely facehug an opponent and hey, who doesn’t like
gigantic, uncounterable, hexproof beaters? Oh yeah, blue. Oh well, as stated so
eloquently in Some Like It Hot: “Nobody’s
perfect!”
So where am I going with this? How about a player’s choice
vote for one of the spots? Have everyone submit a vote for a player they feel
exemplifies the kind of player they enjoy playing against or that brings it on
the most consistent basis, or that they just think of when Commander comes up.
Have them send a vote to Ryan toward the end of the year and votes get
tabulated, a player gets chosen by their fellow gamers, magic! (Pun intended,
of course.) I realize there are disadvantages to this method: more frequent CBS
attendees will likely be getting more votes; gregarious or popular players can
sway the process as well. Still, it would be a nice way to reward that steady
attendee, or that guy/gal you just like playing with or whose decks you just
detest.
How about it Ryan and company?
So everyone is abuzz about the funky new draft-focused set
coming out in a few days. Cards that focus on the cards you’re drafting, when
you draft them, how you draft them. Confusing but very fun stuff.
Interestingly, the magic gurus have also taken the
opportunity to release a bunch of staples that will please Commander and Legacy
players and that might lower the prices somehow on somesuch cards (Hello, foil
Brainstorms!) as well. We all know the Reserved List and why it happened. Chronicles threw a massive wrench into
the collectibles aspect of the game. Popular
cards and hard-to-find gems like Nicol Bolas or City of Brass were now flooding
the market and prices were dropping like stones. So Wizards made sure our old
cards could keep their values by insuring that the dual lands, moxen and a
whole load of older cards would never
see reprint status, or at least not as functionally
identical reprints. So Time Walk never gets reprinted, but Time Warp
variants are fine. Except that there are still a ton of good old cards that
aren’t covered by the Reserved List. Cards from Saga block for example. Or from
Onslaught block. Or from...well, any set that might have some heavily played
rares or even lower rarity cards you might want or need. I know I'm excited at the possibility of opening a Stifle, a Pernicious Deed or a foil Altar of Dementia!
So where does Wizards go from here? Well, they can have
stuff come back with Modern Masters (on a limited print run) or they can come
out with new box sets like the From the Vault series, or they can make a new
Conspiracy-styled set. Hey, they have to reprint those fetchlands eventually,
don’t they?
Sunday, 2 March 2014
Duel Commander Cometh...
Welcome back to the EDH in Ottawa blog. This week we have an annoucement about the Duel Commander format and a short look at what makes the format different, and perhaps just as enjoyable as regular 1 v 1.
Duel Commander Tournaments
Starting Saturday, March 29 2014 at 4 p.m. (please register early!) and every last Saturday of the month, Wizard's Tower Barrhaven will be hosing Duel Commander events. Entry fee is $5 as usual and store credit, in the form of coins, will be given to the top participants.
Why Duel Commander and why now?
There are a lot of people that enjoy Commander but there's always an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with the standard banned list (SBL) as provided on www.mtgcommander.net. Some people don't like the fast mana available, others like the fast mana but not super accelerants like Mana Crypt. Others think Serra Ascendant is too strong an early play. There's also another section of the playerbase that wants to try Duel Commander but there has been limited traction so far.
Having a monthly event will allow people to get their feet wet. It will likely be a culture shock to pull all that fast mana out of your deck, and some other rules make the format somewhat more viable for aggro strategies, but we're hoping to have good turnouts for these. The more people show, the better the competition gets. The better the competition gets, the better you get. It's win-win.
Alright, so Duel Commander...what's the deal?
I recommend that all players head to www.duelcommander.com for a full read of the banned list and rules. I'll point out some of the bigger changes here though, including some cards that are surprisingly left roaming free in the Magic multiverse.
Starting Life Total:
Each player's starting life total is set to 30. 20 life is probably too little even for a highlander format, and 40 life makes it harder for aggro to push through the various Wrath effects, not to mention any potential lifegain which slows down red zone assaults even more. It's possible to whittle down your opponent but 5-10 points early, lose your forces then mount some sort of attack afterward.
Tuck you? I think not!
One element leading to deck sameness is most blue decks pack Hinder, Spell Crumple and other tuck effects to store the commander away. While this is a legit strategy, it hurts aggressive strategies that want to get in for 21. Commanders are always avaiable as long as you have the mana, which is harder than it seems with the lack of super mana rocks. Tuck spells are still quite good to get rid of obnoxious threats, but they lose their format-altering effect on commanders.
The Banned List is focused on 1 v 1 play.
Rather than elaborate, let me list the current Banned List for Duel Commander:
Ancestral Recall
Ancient Tomb
Balance
Back to Basics
Black Lotus
Channel
Crucible of Worlds
Gifts Ungiven
Grindstone
Hermit Druid
Humility
Imperial Seal
Karakas
Library of Alexandria
Loyal Retainers
Mana Crypt
Mana Drain
Mana Vault
Mind Twist
Mishra's Workshop
Mox Emerald
Mox Jet
Mox Pearl
Mox Ruby
Mox Sapphire
Natural Order
Necropotence
Oath of Druids
Protean Hulk
Sensei's Divining top
Serra Ascendant
Shahrazad
Sol Ring
Strip Mine
The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
Time Vault
Time Walk
Tinker
Tolarian Academy
Vampiric Tutor
Winter Orb
Yawgmoth's Bargain
Banned as Commanders:
Braids, Cabal Minion
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
Zur the Enchanter
Wow, that's a lot of stuff banned. But what about this card?
You can use that! You can also use Primeval Titan, Recurring Nightmare, Sundering Titan, Metalworker, Upheaval ( :p ) and a host of other really annoying cards that will KILL YOUR OPPONENT'S LIFE TOTAL or their will to live, which makes their life total irrelevant!
The entire goal of the format is that you can do broken silly things, just not before turn five. That lets your opponent get on the board, perhaps form a defensive base and counter your strategies. Metalworker is pretty obnoxious, but it's also a 1/2. If you want to protect it it needs a Force of Will or countermagic or Lightning Greaves, more mana or more time. Bear in mind that since this is a 1 v 1 format you can expect decks to pack a ton of creature removal. It's a little akin to Legacy that way (says the guy that's played three games of Legacy...) where you can get your quick edge but your opponent can fight back and so on.
So, what are some of the best decks in the format? Going by this thread. tracking Duel Commander tournament results, Geist is always making a good showing, Oloro has gained some traction but non-blue decks like Marath, Thalia, Maelstrom Wanderer, Prossh are all biting at the heels of the last winners. The committee is also pretty quick to react to overwhelming strategies, but they tend to take a cautious route before banning commanders outright. They banned Vanishing to harm Zur but it wasn't enough and Zur kept its strength so it finally got the axe.
I'm looking forward to at least trying the format in a few weeks. Plesae show your support (I know you're out there...) if you are interested in Duel Commander. We can't run these events without you!
Duel Commander Tournaments
Starting Saturday, March 29 2014 at 4 p.m. (please register early!) and every last Saturday of the month, Wizard's Tower Barrhaven will be hosing Duel Commander events. Entry fee is $5 as usual and store credit, in the form of coins, will be given to the top participants.
Why Duel Commander and why now?
There are a lot of people that enjoy Commander but there's always an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with the standard banned list (SBL) as provided on www.mtgcommander.net. Some people don't like the fast mana available, others like the fast mana but not super accelerants like Mana Crypt. Others think Serra Ascendant is too strong an early play. There's also another section of the playerbase that wants to try Duel Commander but there has been limited traction so far.
Having a monthly event will allow people to get their feet wet. It will likely be a culture shock to pull all that fast mana out of your deck, and some other rules make the format somewhat more viable for aggro strategies, but we're hoping to have good turnouts for these. The more people show, the better the competition gets. The better the competition gets, the better you get. It's win-win.
Alright, so Duel Commander...what's the deal?
I recommend that all players head to www.duelcommander.com for a full read of the banned list and rules. I'll point out some of the bigger changes here though, including some cards that are surprisingly left roaming free in the Magic multiverse.
Starting Life Total:
Each player's starting life total is set to 30. 20 life is probably too little even for a highlander format, and 40 life makes it harder for aggro to push through the various Wrath effects, not to mention any potential lifegain which slows down red zone assaults even more. It's possible to whittle down your opponent but 5-10 points early, lose your forces then mount some sort of attack afterward.
Tuck you? I think not!
One element leading to deck sameness is most blue decks pack Hinder, Spell Crumple and other tuck effects to store the commander away. While this is a legit strategy, it hurts aggressive strategies that want to get in for 21. Commanders are always avaiable as long as you have the mana, which is harder than it seems with the lack of super mana rocks. Tuck spells are still quite good to get rid of obnoxious threats, but they lose their format-altering effect on commanders.
The Banned List is focused on 1 v 1 play.
Rather than elaborate, let me list the current Banned List for Duel Commander:
Ancestral Recall
Ancient Tomb
Balance
Back to Basics
Black Lotus
Channel
Crucible of Worlds
Gifts Ungiven
Grindstone
Hermit Druid
Humility
Imperial Seal
Karakas
Library of Alexandria
Loyal Retainers
Mana Crypt
Mana Drain
Mana Vault
Mind Twist
Mishra's Workshop
Mox Emerald
Mox Jet
Mox Pearl
Mox Ruby
Mox Sapphire
Natural Order
Necropotence
Oath of Druids
Protean Hulk
Sensei's Divining top
Serra Ascendant
Shahrazad
Sol Ring
Strip Mine
The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
Time Vault
Time Walk
Tinker
Tolarian Academy
Vampiric Tutor
Winter Orb
Yawgmoth's Bargain
Banned as Commanders:
Braids, Cabal Minion
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
Zur the Enchanter
Wow, that's a lot of stuff banned. But what about this card?
You can use that! You can also use Primeval Titan, Recurring Nightmare, Sundering Titan, Metalworker, Upheaval ( :p ) and a host of other really annoying cards that will KILL YOUR OPPONENT'S LIFE TOTAL or their will to live, which makes their life total irrelevant!
The entire goal of the format is that you can do broken silly things, just not before turn five. That lets your opponent get on the board, perhaps form a defensive base and counter your strategies. Metalworker is pretty obnoxious, but it's also a 1/2. If you want to protect it it needs a Force of Will or countermagic or Lightning Greaves, more mana or more time. Bear in mind that since this is a 1 v 1 format you can expect decks to pack a ton of creature removal. It's a little akin to Legacy that way (says the guy that's played three games of Legacy...) where you can get your quick edge but your opponent can fight back and so on.
So, what are some of the best decks in the format? Going by this thread. tracking Duel Commander tournament results, Geist is always making a good showing, Oloro has gained some traction but non-blue decks like Marath, Thalia, Maelstrom Wanderer, Prossh are all biting at the heels of the last winners. The committee is also pretty quick to react to overwhelming strategies, but they tend to take a cautious route before banning commanders outright. They banned Vanishing to harm Zur but it wasn't enough and Zur kept its strength so it finally got the axe.
I'm looking forward to at least trying the format in a few weeks. Plesae show your support (I know you're out there...) if you are interested in Duel Commander. We can't run these events without you!
Monday, 3 February 2014
Bannings, Command Tax Tweak and Invitational Success!
Welcome back to the EDH in Ottawa blog after a much too prolonged absence. 2013 was a great year for the format, with several upheavals in the release of new Commander product and some game-altering (some might say format-warping) cards, chief culprit among them Derevi, Empyrial Tactician. Ottawa also had its first EDH Invitational, graciously hosted by Gilles Labelle, Vincent Laplante and the Comic Book Shoppe.
Sylvan Primordial Banned.
Let's start with the most recent move, the banning of Sylvan Primordial in Commander.
While I was fully expecting Deadeye Navigator and possibly Tooth & Nail to hit the banned list, SyPrime had been getting a ton of hate and generating enough animosity over the past while that the EDH had enough. As they said, if it had only killed a permanent or only ramped or had an option to destroy permanents it would have survived, but it did too much, too early and there had been a mounting uproar over it for the past year or so. Goodbye Sylvan Primordial, say hi to Primeval Titan in the dustbin of history.
EDH Invitational
Gilles Labelle, who should probably be just named the Patron Saint of EDH at this point for his tireless organizing and playing, was gracious enough to set up an Invitational event for the top placing players at his events and much fun and destruction was had. Dan Lanthier crushed dreams and annihilated hopes with his Captain Sisay build and took home a snazzy looking katana. Sword of a nice prize if you ask me...Other prizes ranged from a Star Wars stormtropper jacket to a 100% marble chess set, Ascension the game, a framed Dr. Who portrait with all the doctores and a full-size talking Ted doll. Here's our winner with his new toy. As the French would say: "Temps de Jitte les gants..."
Commander Tax Tweak
There's been a fair amount of spitballing on the EDH forums about a potential alternative to the current Commander tax. At the moment, if your commander dies you pay its CMC + 2 colorless for each time it's been placed in the command zone. While this is fairly easy to handle, the issue (if it is an issue at all...) is that the abundance of mana rocks and ramp in the format obviate the purpose of the tax, which is to put somewhat of a throttle on Commander availability and have it available, presumably, occasionally rather than permanently.
So here's the rules text. I'd very much enjoy some data from you on the topic. If you get around to it, try a few games with this and PM me commanders, times removed and impact of the delay on your game.
So, the proposal:
"While the commander is in the command zone with no time counters on it, it may be cast. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter from your commander. If a commander would be put into a graveyard or exile, its controller may put it in the command zone with X time counters on it, where X is the number of times it has been cast from the command zone."
Reaction has been mixed so far. We tested it twice at Wizard's Tower and while Sydri had four time counters on her at one point, the first death is inconsequential. After four it got a little dicey, but still manageable due to other threats in my library. Bear in mind that under this scenario, the commander is always played at its original cost. Also note that you can't use Clockspinning or cards that remove counters since it's not a spell or permanent.
What does this do in real life? If you're piloting Vorel and it dies once, you put it in the command zone with a time counter. At the beginning of your upkeep, you remove the time counter and can play it as normal. The second time it gets two time counters and so on. While there are valid concerns that you could be locked out of your commander, it becomes a question of giving it hexproof or shroud or protecting it by other means. Basically, with an increased awareness of your commander's availability you may be more likely to go "all in" or play something with Hexproof or other innate protection.
That's all for this week. Next week we take a look at Born of the Gods and its impact on the format.
Until then, may your never have to mull to three to start a match.
EDH in Ottawa this week:
Comic Book Shoppe - 232 Bank Street (613) 593-3042: Sunday, February 9. 1 v 1 event, $5 entry. Signups at 11:00 to 11:45. Store credit prizes.
Wizard's Tower - 3350 Fallowfield Road (613) 843-0705: Saturday, February 8. 1 v 1 event, $5 entry. Signups at 3:45 - 4:00 p.m. Store credit prizes.
Algonquin College - 1385 Woodroffe Avenue, Student Commons: Wednesdnay, February 5. 1 v 1 event, $5 entry. Signups 5:00-5:30.
Sylvan Primordial Banned.
Let's start with the most recent move, the banning of Sylvan Primordial in Commander.
While I was fully expecting Deadeye Navigator and possibly Tooth & Nail to hit the banned list, SyPrime had been getting a ton of hate and generating enough animosity over the past while that the EDH had enough. As they said, if it had only killed a permanent or only ramped or had an option to destroy permanents it would have survived, but it did too much, too early and there had been a mounting uproar over it for the past year or so. Goodbye Sylvan Primordial, say hi to Primeval Titan in the dustbin of history.
EDH Invitational
Gilles Labelle, who should probably be just named the Patron Saint of EDH at this point for his tireless organizing and playing, was gracious enough to set up an Invitational event for the top placing players at his events and much fun and destruction was had. Dan Lanthier crushed dreams and annihilated hopes with his Captain Sisay build and took home a snazzy looking katana. Sword of a nice prize if you ask me...Other prizes ranged from a Star Wars stormtropper jacket to a 100% marble chess set, Ascension the game, a framed Dr. Who portrait with all the doctores and a full-size talking Ted doll. Here's our winner with his new toy. As the French would say: "Temps de Jitte les gants..."
Commander Tax Tweak
There's been a fair amount of spitballing on the EDH forums about a potential alternative to the current Commander tax. At the moment, if your commander dies you pay its CMC + 2 colorless for each time it's been placed in the command zone. While this is fairly easy to handle, the issue (if it is an issue at all...) is that the abundance of mana rocks and ramp in the format obviate the purpose of the tax, which is to put somewhat of a throttle on Commander availability and have it available, presumably, occasionally rather than permanently.
So here's the rules text. I'd very much enjoy some data from you on the topic. If you get around to it, try a few games with this and PM me commanders, times removed and impact of the delay on your game.
So, the proposal:
"While the commander is in the command zone with no time counters on it, it may be cast. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter from your commander. If a commander would be put into a graveyard or exile, its controller may put it in the command zone with X time counters on it, where X is the number of times it has been cast from the command zone."
Reaction has been mixed so far. We tested it twice at Wizard's Tower and while Sydri had four time counters on her at one point, the first death is inconsequential. After four it got a little dicey, but still manageable due to other threats in my library. Bear in mind that under this scenario, the commander is always played at its original cost. Also note that you can't use Clockspinning or cards that remove counters since it's not a spell or permanent.
What does this do in real life? If you're piloting Vorel and it dies once, you put it in the command zone with a time counter. At the beginning of your upkeep, you remove the time counter and can play it as normal. The second time it gets two time counters and so on. While there are valid concerns that you could be locked out of your commander, it becomes a question of giving it hexproof or shroud or protecting it by other means. Basically, with an increased awareness of your commander's availability you may be more likely to go "all in" or play something with Hexproof or other innate protection.
That's all for this week. Next week we take a look at Born of the Gods and its impact on the format.
Until then, may your never have to mull to three to start a match.
EDH in Ottawa this week:
Comic Book Shoppe - 232 Bank Street (613) 593-3042: Sunday, February 9. 1 v 1 event, $5 entry. Signups at 11:00 to 11:45. Store credit prizes.
Wizard's Tower - 3350 Fallowfield Road (613) 843-0705: Saturday, February 8. 1 v 1 event, $5 entry. Signups at 3:45 - 4:00 p.m. Store credit prizes.
Algonquin College - 1385 Woodroffe Avenue, Student Commons: Wednesdnay, February 5. 1 v 1 event, $5 entry. Signups 5:00-5:30.
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