I have to say that I've been intrigued with the Black splash for a while, but I've never seen anyone add discard to the main deck. Turn 1 Rebirth, backed up by Turn 2 discard looks pretty strong. But outside the nutty Kuldotha draws, is the Goblin package better than the Vampire package? Thanks for the suggestions and the reads :))
SS Elder is still pretty good in the format, even when it just hits for 1, as there are lots of targets for him. Playing something Turn 1 is important, and Spellbomb is a pretty depressing Turn 1 play, so it's nice to have an extra 1 drop. Equipment is the main route yeah, but a Turn 3 Chieftain is also very effective.
I guess it depends what people want to focus on. I prefer analyzing the picks and draft itself, so I prefer the Classic viewer. However, those who want to just see the picks and focus more on gameplay probably think the new draft viewer is best.
Interesting decision to pass up 7 tix for a Lightning Bolt in a Swiss Draft, considering M11 is a dead format.
I got a chance to meet her at a WonderCon a few years ago and she signed a Bitterblossom for me. It's one of my prized possessions in my collection. Love her artwork!
Most of the Rubina decks I've seen, and the one I briefly knocked around, maximized the number of lands that could sacrifice creatures and ways to search for those lands.
Obviously that sort of build leans more on the commander but those kinds of lands are also useful for countering various effects or setting up recursion and usually are worth the slots.
Night Soil would be a nice in theme way of dealing with creature recursion while bolstering token generators.
There are a lot of games that it will act as a fireball.
I found using Pheldagriff as the commander to be more enjoyable in those colors.
Bant's colors having the best tuck and exile cards as well as great land fetch fills in most of the deck fairly quickly though.
I'm mildly amused that I've yet to catch one of these games in action, since I'm usually stalking the commander tables or playing at them when I'm on.
I however love raredraft. I can never avoid seeing the picks in other formats, and rareview does a great job of hiding the pick until i'm ready to see it. I wish the comment could be moved, it always obscures the magnified card text, but that's a minor gripe.
You're a bit inconsistent with your raredrafting, you convince yourself that jace < bolt, but you weren't so rutheless about a minor playable versus the dual land.
Of course! There's a ton of things to get prepared for, and each shop is going to find different challenges. I know mine has different challenges than Heath's, and different from my friend's shop in North Dakota...
But having a game plan about what you plan to provide and how you plan on making that happen is crucial. :) Normal business stuff.
I found the real quote then grabbed the "translated" version for continuity's sake. Although it was tempting to try to write an entire section in his style, but, um, that wasn't happening in the time I had available. :)
Great writing though! I loved what I read. :)
I have not played the Rubinia deck (I got the Xira Arien deck instead when I had the tix.) I did however build a Rubinia deck that did fairly well, winning a few games and coming in 2nd in a few others but not a really impressive deck. More dangerous than good.
Your article has given me some tangentially interesting ideas to try out and I will have to play some more commander to test them out. Sadly I have somewhat lost the zeal for cas cas magic so I may show up play a game and then ditch the effort.
Rebecca Guay is definitely in the top 20 mtg artists I like. Maybe even the top 10. I built a RG deck for your artist classic format but deleted it along with the others. I am sorry you were ill over the holidays. :/ I totally missed out on the Tribal Apoc Byos crossover. Wanted to watch that.
Oh I see the source of your confusion. You think commander online as it is now follows EDH rules which it does not. It has a proximate rules set but there are differences. Recently the command zone was programmed. Before that the commander death rules were very different from EDH for example. I expect the color identity rules (as they have recently been coined by WotC) will hopefully as Leviathan says be coded soon too.
At the time this article was written, the rules for online Commander and EDH did not completely sync up. I mention this in more detail in my Brion Stoutarm article, but essentially in online Commander you are allowed to have cards in your deck with activated abilities and mana symbols that do not match your general. As such, you can play Bringers in a mono-colored deck and Bojuka Bog in any deck.
Before there was official support from WOTC for Commander it was programmed by guys in their spare time. As such, they did not have the time to program the necessary restrictions. Even now you can have Bojuka Bog in any deck. However, as it is officially supported now, I expect it will be fixed shortly. But until then, you will still see people playing bounce lands in their mono colored decks.
Sideboard
3 Mark of Mutiny
3 Arc Trail
3 Deathmark
3 Dark Tutelage
3 Tunnel Ignus
This is my version of the deck. I felt going Black for Duress and Iquisition of Kozilek was worth it since pretty much the only things that completely shut us down are Day of Judgment, Pyroclasm, Consume the Meek and, to a lesser extent, walls. Adding the black mana really changes nothing for lands since Blackcleave Cliffs enters the battlefield untapped during the crucial first three turns and the Dragonskull Summits haven't yet screwed me over. The rest of the main deck is pretty normal except for the lack of Spikeshot Elders. I found that they are just vanilla 1/1s early game and then late game, when we can spend the mana to ping, we're probably losing way worse than 1 damage per turn can fix. I was also running 2 Devastating Summons main deck but with the obsession with Spell Pierce these days it scares me too much but could be a possibility still (especially now with the discard package getting rid of answers/counters to it). Adding black also helps in the sideboard. Deathmark replaces Perilous Myr as an answer to Kor Firewalker, and also helps with Primeval Titan, Avenger of Zendikar, Sun Titan and Baneslayer in the late game. Dark Tutelage is a bomb in the control match up letting us to draw out all those lands in our deck for free and also possibly drawing into two threats per turn for cheap. From what I've read from your reports I'm starting to think Koth is what this deck really wants late game to seal the game, however with the black splash his ultimate is less effective because of the decrease in basic mountains, but idk. Overall I think the Black splash really helps the deck be able to overextend, yet still be safe, and it gives it access to a better sideboard as well. Let me know what y'all think and any changes you'd make. Thanks!
I've always loved Rebecca Guay stuff. Nice article.
X-
What about Mark of Asylum for that Rubinia deck??
I have to say that I've been intrigued with the Black splash for a while, but I've never seen anyone add discard to the main deck. Turn 1 Rebirth, backed up by Turn 2 discard looks pretty strong. But outside the nutty Kuldotha draws, is the Goblin package better than the Vampire package? Thanks for the suggestions and the reads :))
SS Elder is still pretty good in the format, even when it just hits for 1, as there are lots of targets for him. Playing something Turn 1 is important, and Spellbomb is a pretty depressing Turn 1 play, so it's nice to have an extra 1 drop. Equipment is the main route yeah, but a Turn 3 Chieftain is also very effective.
I guess it depends what people want to focus on. I prefer analyzing the picks and draft itself, so I prefer the Classic viewer. However, those who want to just see the picks and focus more on gameplay probably think the new draft viewer is best.
Interesting decision to pass up 7 tix for a Lightning Bolt in a Swiss Draft, considering M11 is a dead format.
The cards she did from Urza's Saga were pretty good. Abundance and some others were very memorable.
I got a chance to meet her at a WonderCon a few years ago and she signed a Bitterblossom for me. It's one of my prized possessions in my collection. Love her artwork!
Shoot me an email if you have time, I'd love to send you some questions. Graig7575@yahoo.com
Awesome!
Most of the Rubina decks I've seen, and the one I briefly knocked around, maximized the number of lands that could sacrifice creatures and ways to search for those lands.
Obviously that sort of build leans more on the commander but those kinds of lands are also useful for countering various effects or setting up recursion and usually are worth the slots.
Night Soil would be a nice in theme way of dealing with creature recursion while bolstering token generators.
There are a lot of games that it will act as a fireball.
I found using Pheldagriff as the commander to be more enjoyable in those colors.
Bant's colors having the best tuck and exile cards as well as great land fetch fills in most of the deck fairly quickly though.
I'm mildly amused that I've yet to catch one of these games in action, since I'm usually stalking the commander tables or playing at them when I'm on.
I really enjoyed this article.
I however love raredraft. I can never avoid seeing the picks in other formats, and rareview does a great job of hiding the pick until i'm ready to see it. I wish the comment could be moved, it always obscures the magnified card text, but that's a minor gripe.
You're a bit inconsistent with your raredrafting, you convince yourself that jace < bolt, but you weren't so rutheless about a minor playable versus the dual land.
I don't like that flash view at all. It has a very slow response. I don't like to wait for each booster to load. I prefer the classic text view.
I have not played the Rubinia deck (I got the Xira Arien deck instead when I had the tix.) I did however build a Rubinia deck that did fairly well, winning a few games and coming in 2nd in a few others but not a really impressive deck. More dangerous than good.
Your article has given me some tangentially interesting ideas to try out and I will have to play some more commander to test them out. Sadly I have somewhat lost the zeal for cas cas magic so I may show up play a game and then ditch the effort.
Hope your holidays were happy.
Congrats on finally winning the 2005 state championship!
Too bad Thor's Hammer went out of business, or I'd go tell 'em about it.
Rebecca Guay is definitely in the top 20 mtg artists I like. Maybe even the top 10. I built a RG deck for your artist classic format but deleted it along with the others. I am sorry you were ill over the holidays. :/ I totally missed out on the Tribal Apoc Byos crossover. Wanted to watch that.
pack 2, pick 1: suprised you didn't give an explanation. tumble magnet is awesome but trigon and nim deathmantle both seemed like possibilities
awesome article otherwise. peace
Isn't the point of the Spikeshot Elders to not be pinging for 1 but to scale with the equipment they carry? Or is that plan too nebulous?
Sounds like a fun match Keya. Next stop Old Extended Trix vs Fruity Pebbles?
Oh I see the source of your confusion. You think commander online as it is now follows EDH rules which it does not. It has a proximate rules set but there are differences. Recently the command zone was programmed. Before that the commander death rules were very different from EDH for example. I expect the color identity rules (as they have recently been coined by WotC) will hopefully as Leviathan says be coded soon too.
At the time this article was written, the rules for online Commander and EDH did not completely sync up. I mention this in more detail in my Brion Stoutarm article, but essentially in online Commander you are allowed to have cards in your deck with activated abilities and mana symbols that do not match your general. As such, you can play Bringers in a mono-colored deck and Bojuka Bog in any deck.
Before there was official support from WOTC for Commander it was programmed by guys in their spare time. As such, they did not have the time to program the necessary restrictions. Even now you can have Bojuka Bog in any deck. However, as it is officially supported now, I expect it will be fixed shortly. But until then, you will still see people playing bounce lands in their mono colored decks.
degausser's picture
Lands (20)
11 Mountain
2 Smoldering Spires
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
3 Dragonskull Summit
Creatures (16)
4 Memnite
4 Goblin Guide
4 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Goblin Chieftain
Spells (24)
4 Kuldotha Rebirth
4 Panic Spellbomb
3 Galvanic Blast
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Duress
4 Chimeric Mass
Sideboard
3 Mark of Mutiny
3 Arc Trail
3 Deathmark
3 Dark Tutelage
3 Tunnel Ignus
This is my version of the deck. I felt going Black for Duress and Iquisition of Kozilek was worth it since pretty much the only things that completely shut us down are Day of Judgment, Pyroclasm, Consume the Meek and, to a lesser extent, walls. Adding the black mana really changes nothing for lands since Blackcleave Cliffs enters the battlefield untapped during the crucial first three turns and the Dragonskull Summits haven't yet screwed me over. The rest of the main deck is pretty normal except for the lack of Spikeshot Elders. I found that they are just vanilla 1/1s early game and then late game, when we can spend the mana to ping, we're probably losing way worse than 1 damage per turn can fix. I was also running 2 Devastating Summons main deck but with the obsession with Spell Pierce these days it scares me too much but could be a possibility still (especially now with the discard package getting rid of answers/counters to it). Adding black also helps in the sideboard. Deathmark replaces Perilous Myr as an answer to Kor Firewalker, and also helps with Primeval Titan, Avenger of Zendikar, Sun Titan and Baneslayer in the late game. Dark Tutelage is a bomb in the control match up letting us to draw out all those lands in our deck for free and also possibly drawing into two threats per turn for cheap. From what I've read from your reports I'm starting to think Koth is what this deck really wants late game to seal the game, however with the black splash his ultimate is less effective because of the decrease in basic mountains, but idk. Overall I think the Black splash really helps the deck be able to overextend, yet still be safe, and it gives it access to a better sideboard as well. Let me know what y'all think and any changes you'd make. Thanks!