Brain Over Brawn

For my birthday this year I bought myself the Mind vs Might duel decks box set.

Because I play with my daughter a lot, I find that the duel decks are often fun ways to enjoy games of magic. But, there's another reason I bought them as well.

I needed Coat of Arms for my tribal decks. I nearly always have a tribal deck floating around. At the moment it's soldier variant running Odric, Master Tactician but it's been known to be zombies and may be evolved into warriors with the imminent release of Amonkhet.

Chloe, my daughter, runs Prime Speaker Zegana, it's basically ramp into Krakens and other large beasties. She also runs Mizzix the Izmagus which is just an adapted version of the out of the box commander deck. Both of these could play Beacon of Tomorrows.

Now I'm in possession of the decks I decided to have a better look at them.

For starters they come with no less than seven legendary creatures.

I have to admit I have several copies of Talrand including the a foil version from the same set of Intro decks and I got my foil Odric. I do not have copies of Jhoira or Jori En so it'll be fun seeing if they fit in either Chloe's Mizzix deck or a new deck of their own.

I'm not really in the market at the moment to make a mono-read deck, you never know that may change, but not today. However, Lovisa Coldeyes would be great in a tribal deck, although you might want to note she is neither Warrior, Berserker or Barbarian.

I'm thinking Samut, Voice of Dissent in a Warrior tribal build would work well. Crucially he is Red/Green/White which gives you access to plenty of decent warriors.

Zo-Zu the Punisher is a build around or possibly part of some kind of Goblin deck. I'm thinking though you'd play it in a deck that let your opponents play more than one land a turn. However, that's a risky strategy.

Although Kamahal, Pit Fighter can ping for 3 he is very weak and easily dealt with in combat dispite his 6 power. Radha, Heir to Keld is great for mana acceleration and would make for a very cheep commander based purely on CMC. The deck would ramp well as well.

But that's just the tip of the ice burg as the saying goes.

Desperate Ritual can be used as part of a game wining infinite combo in Mizzix.

This would give you infinite mana and an infinite storm count. Which means you could end the game with something like:

There are two other cards that like storm counts in the decks: Temporal Fissure and Mind's Desire

Mind's Desire could let you storm through your entire deck, but any X spells would be cast for 0 and there are a lot of X spells in the Mizzix deck. 

Note that Temporal Fissure doesn't say 'Nonland' so it can be used to completely wipe your opponent(s) board states.

Given the increased number of sorceries and instants that are played in the Mizzix deck Spellheart Chimera is in the running to be added to the deck if I can find something I want to remove.

Two more creatures in the Mind deck that I like the look of are:

Deep-Sea Kraken is a possible in Chloe's Prime Speaker deck. The Unspeakable is a possible in her Mizzix deck.

The Mind deck does contain these three:

I can see myself casting Firemind's Foresight grabbing these three, casting them just to put The Unspeakable into play. Just for laughs.

However, I'm more likely just to add Peer Through Depths to the deck.

Nucklavee is another creature I quite like the look of:

Getting spells back from your graveyard is always good and this can grab two of them.

There are a couple of damage spells that deserve consideration:

They are OK, but there are better damage spells available to Commander players.

Volcanic Vission on the other hand could really pay dividends in the Mizzix deck if you've got a card to target. It is absolutely going into the deck.

I spoke earlier about making a Warrior tribal deck - well the Might side of these two decks is pretty much that and includes a couple of interesting warriors for me:

Use Boldwyr Intimidator to make Lovisa Coldeyes a warrior and she'll give her self a +2/+2 boost. Rubblebelt Raiders has the potential to get very big very quickly.

Sylvan Might is my final pick. I like cards that can be cast twice and I like combat tricks. It might not necessarily win EDH games but it can turn the tide of any engagement,

I hope that's given you some ideas and also proven that sometimes Duel Decks can contain extra bonuses you don't at first expect.

Until next time may your hand always be full of spells.

Phil

To save the general...

...we had to sacrifice the general

This week I'd like to talk about something which took a while for me to grasp in commander.

The query I pondered over was why a card like High Market was included in the commander pre-con decks. What purpose did it serve?

To answer that question we need to look first at ways of dealing with your opponent's commander.

A creature can be forced to leave the battlefield by dealing it enough damage to kill it, destroying it, exiling it, forcing it back to a players hand or forcing it to return to a players library.

All of these effects can be replaced with an effect that sends the commander to the Command Zone. From here the commander can be played again, but at an every increasing cost. 

However, there are a couple of ways of dealing with an opponent's commander that do not lead to it returning to the command zone.

1. You can take control of them, if you do it right you can make this permanent.

2. You can enchant them such that they can't attack, block or use their abilities.

Either way if this happens to you and your commander is a vital part of your game plan you're in trouble.

One way to get around this is to have ability to sacrifice your commander at instant speed. In this way you can return your commander to the Command Zone and cast it again when you next have the chance.

Sacrificing your commander as part of the cost is important as it doesn't go on the stack and can't be responded to.

In order to be able to do this the sacrifice ability really needs to have no mana cost and be unconditional.

What do I mean by unconditional and have no mana cost? Let's have a look at an example:

Necrosavant requires you to keep 5 mana available just in case someone tries to steal your commander. That's two much mana to leave unused. 

In addition to this it has the condition that it can only be played during your upkeep.

That was an extreme example but, hopefully, it makes my point.

Stronghold Assassin is a more subtle case-in-point. If he doesn't have a valid target you can't use his ability so there is always the possibility that there are no nonblack creatures on the battlefield. If you think you can engineer it otherwise then by all means play him. But, he doesn't make my list of options because of that condition.

So let's have a look at those cards, that I've picked, that you can play.

Here I've grouped the Altars together all of theses are perfect for sacrificing your commander. Getting mana can be more useful than milling your opponent, as that may be playing into their strategy, but they all work great.

Blasting Station and Culling Dias have to be tapped to be used but this shouldn't be too much of a problem. Again all three of these are perfect for avoiding that nasty Control Magic spell.

There are a small number of lands that can help you out. 

High Market, I mentioned at the start of this post, has been reprinted in commander specifically for this purpose. Neither of the other two have so Diamond Valley in particular has a fairly hefty price tag.

Black is the out and out champion when it comes to sacrificing your own creatures.

It's fairly typical of Black creatures, like Vampire, to be able to sacrifice another creature to gain a boost either temporary, like Bloodthrone Vampire, or permanent, like Bloodflow Connoisseur. Brine Shaman is nice because it gives the boost to any creature which can act in political ways during the game. His other ability isn't bad either.

Carrion Feeder is a cheaper version of Bloodflow Connoisseur. Ceteran Overlord and Dark Privilege sacrifice for a regenerate effect which can be useful to dodge destruction or to sac your commander.

I included Devouring Strossus because it allows you to sacrifice a creature at any time. I guess if you're playing a token generator then it's playable. The other two cards here are more of the same that we've seen previously.

These two let you sacrifice a creature to give themselves flying.

Fallen Ideal gives Fallen Angel's ability to the creature it enchants. It also returns to your hand if it hits the graveyard which makes it a very useful enchantment indeed. This is probably why it's also been printed in a commander deck. Flesh-Eater Imp is noting more than a temporary boost.

The eagle eyed amongst you will notice that Nantuko Husk and Phyrexian Ghoul are functional reprints of each other. Shambler is just a regenerate.

For me Viscera Seer is one of the most interesting cards here. Being able to Scry is a great way to filter your library and can be so much more beneficial than giving a creature flying for example.  Vampire Aristocrat is another functional reprint of Husk and Ghoul.

So in black you have a plethora of options. In the other colours the picking are less abundant.

Red does something cool when it comes to sacrificing a creature. It damages your opponent. The Cyclops is cool because the amount of damage it deals. Golbin Bombardment is cool because it doesn't tap and is an Enchantment. Compare to those two Orcish Bloodpainter is merely functional.

White as you might expect is about preventing damage, Martyr's Cause, regenerating, Fanatical Devotion and gaining life, Animal Boneyard. All three are Enchantments which has it's bonuses and it's drawbacks.

Greater Good of all the cards I'm talking about today is my favorite. You need a sizeable body on your commander to make it work but it does net you the biggest benefit in my opinion. Plaguemaw Beast in the right deck can also be really beneficial. Even if you have nothing to proliferate you can still use it.

Blue has no cards that meet my requirements. In it's defence it will deal with this issue by returning a card to it's hand rather than sacrificing it.

There are three multicolour cards that meet my requirements. Two are Orzhov and one is Gruul. Vish Kal is the only legendary creature that makes this list and that makes him kind of unique and very powerful from a game play perspective.

Ghave, Guru of Spores can sacrifice himself, but there's a small cost to pay. This means you have to make sure you have a least 1 mana available at all times.

If you're willing to keep that single mana open then you do expand your options. The added bonus of doing this is that the effects tend to be more beneficial if you have to pay for them.

If you're willing to pay coloured mana as part of the cost then even Blue gets in on the act.

These aren't that powerful, being that they are a cheep to cast cycle of 1/1 creatures, but they can really help in a game of commander. Especially Drowned Rusalka.

While I've sought to show you all of the cards that sacrifice for free the cards I've shown you with a combined mana cost are just a selection to give you an idea of what's available.

I hope that's given you some food for thought about keeping your commander safe.

Until next may your commander always return to the zone.

Phil

Enchanting Daxos





One of the presents Santa bought me this Christmas was the Daxos pre-constructed Commander Deck - "Call the Spirits".

In my wisdom I decided to go all out enchantments with this deck - which isn't easy and to some degrees would make my deck especially vulnerable to Tranquility effects. But, aside from Akroma's Vengeance, who plays them in Commander?

As we'll see I ended up going mostly enchantments as I opted to include cards that 'care' about enchantments and I added mana rocks to help with my mana base.

 So what I thought I'd do is share some of my thought processes with you.

When looking at a pre-constructed Commander deck from wizards you have to keep in mind that they set them up so that they can be developed in different ways. To this end they always come with extra Legendary Creatures who can replace the advertised Legend as the deck's commander.

In this case the two legends are Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts and Karlov of the Ghost Council. Neither of these work with the way I want the deck to work. Basically they aren't Enchantments so have to go.

The choice of what to replace them with is simple - the Theros block brought us Enchantment creatures and of those the Gods are first and foremost. 

So out went Teysa and Karlov and in cames Athreos and Heliod.  But, there's a third god - possibly the best of the three in the colours of my commander and I have to include him.



The Myriad ability really doesn't suit my deck so it made sense to take out Banshee of the Dread Choir and replace it with Erebos, God of the Dead.

The other Myriad creature in the deck is Herald of the Host removing this gave me the chance to start adding some of the other Enchantment Creatures from the Theros block which aren't deities.

Aegis of the Gods is one of those creatures whose ability is simple but effective and a must have for me in my enchantment based deck.

Theros also gave us creatures that can become creatures themselves or enchant other creatures using the Bestow ability.

Corpse Augur is a draw engine when it dies. But, I already added Erebos as a draw engine so I'm not so worried about doing a like for like swap as I do with other cards in the deck. So incomes Baleful Eidolon with his Bestow and Deathtouch abilities. 

Dawnglare Invoker has an interesting yet expensive ability. I guess you pay a high price for tapping creatures outside of Blue. The Invoker was removed to make space for Hopeful Eidolon.

There are some creatures I want to play that, shock horror, aren't enchantments.

Umbra mystic, for example, gives all my auras Totem armor which means they can be used to protect my creatures against things like board wipes. If I've enchanted a creature with an Eidolon then I get to choose which creature I save which is always useful. 

In other cases I've taken creatures out and replaced them with Enchantments that can do a similar job.

Kor Sanctifiers is a hard card to replace and destroying Enchantments with an Enchantment isn't that common but I did find Serra's Liturgy as a replacement.

Ajani's chosen could have stayed it's not actually a bad creature in this deck but, in the end I opted to swap in Felidar Umbra instead of it.

I also went the other way and replaced some Enchantments with creatures.

 I like Daxos's Torment but I felt it just didn't work well in the deck as I created it so I replaced it with the Archetype of Finality. The Archetypes are a cycle I've looked at in the past and work well in this deck.

One of several questions I had to answer during deck construction was can enchantments do ramp? That is get me more lands to play with. And the answer is just about.

There's also Oath of Lieges that could go in the deck as well.

Lieges and Land Tax stop me falling behind on Lands. Endless Horizons is a gamble so you just have to be a little cautious on the number of basic lands you remove from the deck.

There's also another card I wanted to add to the deck was one that would make the majority of my cards cheaper.

As mentioned at the start of this post I also decided to play with some artifacts. Enchantments really can't replace mana rocks for starters and Cloud Key just works so well in this deck.

I've never been a fan of Bauble so it's one of the cards I replaced with a mana rock.

The other major question raised by trying to enchantments only is: "Can enchantments do removal?"

And the answer is: Yes but, not at instant speed.

 If your opponent doesn't have a readily available 'sac outlet' - a permanent that allows the player to sacrifice a creature at instant speed - then Faith's Fetters and Arrest can be two of the best ways to shut down their commander.

 

O-Ring, as Obilivion Ring is popularly known, is great because it targets any permanents that aren't lands that usefully includes Planeswalkers. However, it's useless against your opponent's commander as they can just send their commander back to the commander zone rather than let it be exiled.

Soul Snare is nice because it's a visible threat and so works from a political stand point. It shouts attach me and risk loosing a creature.

Grave Peril is actually enchantment removal. But, it is so limited in use. In targets non-black creatures and you have to sacrifice it the next time a creature enters play so you could end up only killing a Saproling.

Black and White have a plethora of enchantments that can be used for removal purposes the above are just three of the choices I made.

Another thing white enchantments are very good at is tapping your opponent's creatures when they come into play.

 

This can be invaluable against infinite token producers like Ghave. I know Necromancer's Covenant is an enchantment but it's an expensive enchantment that wants to go in a zombie deck. Oddly Zombie decks, in my opinion, are usually Black/Blue or Black/Blue/Red so I probably wouldn't play it in one of those either.

Gild is interesting removal including a small amount of ramp. But, as I discussed earlier, I'm using enchantments for my removal. So it's going and I'm bringing Replenish into the deck. If my board gets wiped then it's the perfect answer.

 

Another interesting question is can enchantments do mass creature destruction. Again the answer is in a way. To that end I've swapped out Deadly Tempest and added Vile Requiem



 

Finally I've recently decided to swap out Lightning Greaves for Sram, Senior Edificer. No I'm not so sure about this I think I need to play more Aura's - even if a Bestowed Eidolon is an Aura - to make it worthwhile and I may consider swapping him out for Greed, Underworld Connections or Necropotence.

There's loads you can do with this as your theme and these are just a few suggestions.

If you want to view the full deck list as it stands you can view it here.

Until next time, remember don't over commit yourself.

Phil