Hi, Sigil Blessing is in this deck only for defense. I've always feared of Shrivel and Seismic Shudder. It's good to say that I had a lot of luck in final against SupergrooveRocks control deck.
Thank you gwyned for running MPDC I looking forward to next event ;-)
It's my favorite online format as well.
Oftentimes, just for pure fun, I'll setup a Commander table in multi-player room with 50 life & 10 cards. People usually like this alot. Plus, it helps those of use with slowly developing decks, like my Progenitus deck.
I have a question for you & Sheldon, and everyone else for that matter. One of the biggest point of discussion amongst us players during gameplay is the STRONG recommendation to ban certain horribly overpowered ELDRAZI cards such as "Emrakul,the Aeons Torn". Has the committee considered banning some of the annihilators? 9 out of 10 times, when Emrakul hits the table, its GG, and most everyone concedes. Hence, violating Rule #1 of "Promoting Social Interraction". I'm CLEARLY in favor of banning Emrakul.
Also, the next time someone casts an Armageddon or Obliterate to pi$$ off the rest of the table, I will link the article.... :-)
I am tossed on the idea honestly. Maybe WoTC shouldn't support it for reasons Sheldon describes, but if they did, there are ways to circumvent the Spike issues. One is to have a Merrit system. You get points for doing the right things, and you loose points for doing the wrong things. If you have read any of Sheldons articles, the place he plays at does a merrit system. It helps to balance out the shanannigans.
my favorite format. I seriously hope wotc doesnt start doing any commander events with prizes though. He was absolutely right, it will just bring out the sharks and ruin the format. Hard enough to get a commander game without someone playing a combo or armageddon deck already, make it a format with prizes and it becomes impossible.
I have an issue of where to play my decks as well, most are too good for the casual room due to playing top/expensive cards. So I take them into the TP room where I tend to win every other game or so but I end up playing the same decks that I was playing in the casual room a lot of the time. I cant say much though as mine are rouge decks as well.
But it does leave me the with the question what should I be playing and where? I'd love to play events but dont think my skill is up to the highest level to compete and I dont want to net deck deck as I find it boring running a deck that's not mine.
I thought TNM might be the answer but knew that it wouldnt work online in the same way as playing at a local store.
So I'm left in the black void once again and havent played all week hence there will be no article from me this week.
UGr splashing for the bolts is a slam dunk in my opinion. Cut maritime guard and diminish. Finding the mountain will not be difficult at all in this deck with preordain, crystal ball, and two sylvan rangers.
Also 11 land in your UR deck is not enough, 12 is pushing it too (12 * 4/3 is like running 16 land in a 40 card deck). 12 is ok in the green version because of the preordain and double sylvan ranger, but you may even want 13 in the UR version.
It's weird, 100-card Singleton is my absolute favorite casual format (Casual is relative) but I've never been able to bring myself to play Commander. I think when I get home I'm gonna have to dig up my Akroma and have some fun!
I definitely have work to do with the proofreading. One of my teachers told me the best way to proofread was to take an article or paper and put it in a difficult to read font so you really have to concentrate on the words on the page. I have not done this lately but know I must.
I definitely did undervalue green and Thunder Strike as a combat trick.
Often a mistake some make is using Jace's first ability too soon. In m11, I would often say -1 turn CIP and save +2 for counter support. Heck, even safe passage support works here.
All we need now, are sharks with fricken laser beams attached to their heads and the world will be OURS!
*looks around*
Oh,erm, and yes, EDH rules in a very literal way too.
FWIW, I registered to comment on your article. I liked the article and sympthized with your Ember Hauler play that I had to comment. Additionally, I don't have kids therefore I don't know that pain. Must imagine its something similiar to being crushed by Black Vise.
Anywhom, I want to thank you for the picture of the sealed stash. First and best way to fight with friends is to share information. Along with Kalandine, the above commentor, I believe you undervalued green. Green Red should have been your back up deck. Back up? Yes, while in deck building, you have time to make decks and save them to local. In fact, you could have gone three colors (Blue/Green/Red) if you felt truly daring. [Sorry, 4 pack sealed decks have minimum 30 cards?] (Minuses to this would be no basilisk, ember hauler, or servant yet still packing all the "best" cards) There is plenty of room to take this pool to three colors, that I even see possibilites in W/R/b and W/U/r. See, the white and black still good areas to represent. Like magic2011 drafts, fact of the matter here is in what you draw ;)
Of the games:
Round 1, Game 1, to me would have brought up a deck change right away. Discard and point removal are very tough on blue. Ice Cage and Sleep remain vigiliant however, and would be the only positives to stay blue. That said, I would have switched to colors more aggressive, be whatever that could have been.
Round 2: Awesome job! My only concern in reading the order of events is when SLEEP was cast, what was in play and so forth. Sleep is a reasonable screenshot opportunity, no?
Round 3, Game 1; Ember Hauler is a tough card to play. There are many opportunities to see him into the graveyard but no one instance is right. There are just better times where he has go. So let him. The play wasn't that bad though, and you should get a pat on the back for surviving that turn and drawing out two big buff spells. His choice of destroying the mountain would be my direction as well. Supposed you had a Chandra's Outrage hidden that you never seen beforehand. How would replays detect that? Better the mountain, IMO.
My friend loses his replays all the time too but still finds just as much to write about those games.
Of the card pool, again.
I would say there are a lot of opportunities still available to explore. Recently in a draft I had an opponent play Triskelion followed by a Primal Cocoon. For what that is worth, I can tell you, four packs.
I really think the G/R was a very good idea. I understand you like jace, many people do, but it would have been much more powerful overall. you have the crystal ball for card quality, you dont need the card draw as badly, and if you did, you could have run the bell.
The author wrote an extremely biased editorial, yes.
I disagreed. I found no merit in the article, and praising Ith for 'completing an editorial article' is not relevant to my rating. To me, it was a bad editorial and therefore a bad article.
He is entitled to post his inaccurate generalizations based on supposition, and I am entitled to have my own opinions based on a broader understanding of the issues given.
Having an opinion does not make that opinion correct. You may read my earlier post explaining why I disliked the article to better understand mine, if desired. You won't even have to Google it.
Cool, thanks for posting! It is always nice to hear what other people are thinking. Your reasoning makes sense and was something I hadn't thought about. Deck looks good too. I'm sure I will play you again soon!
Owner of Razia deck here.
It's a token theme deck with reanimation from bunch of angels such as adarkar valkyrie.
I was missing most of the tutors when I was playing this so that's why you didn't see any.
I didn't attack you at T15 because I had Austere Command. I was scared of Teysa's abilities. If the bat wasn't dead, he would be able to exile whatever I cast later with the spirit tokens more easily. That's my best guess at why I attacked Teysa. Also, I thought I could live at least another turn.
If it wasn't for woodfall primus, I could kill you in one turn with sunhome.
I can't remember what I exactly had in my hand but I think I could deal with you later more easily. I believe it was story circle.
I was hoping for you to attack Teysa If you don't, I was dead anyway. If you attacked Teysa, I had a chance at winning. Also I didn't see Ajani coming.
You are going to get this a lot, but please work on proofreading. I've done it, as have many other writers, but review your article to make sure that all of your autocard entry's are correctly types so that we get the links to the cards. Also, I assume you meant swiss drafts rather than quick drafts when you said, " I usually play swift drafts..."
Out of curiosity, did you consider running red/green. The lightning Bolts and Thunder Strike with the beefy green creatures and mana fixing seems like it might have been better than blue/x. You discussed a mill strategy, but I simply do not see the breadth of cards to support that as a viable win condition, whereas the Yavimaya Wurms would certainly impact an opponent's approach to the game if they hit. Sleep is the biggest limited bomb that you opened, so I can understand the desire to play it.
The number of cards with UU or RR casting requirements looks likely to create tension on getting the lands you need and playing them out in the right order. Also, Thunder Strike is a viable combat option that can make for one sided trades or push through a bit of extra damage, I would have probably played it over the Ice Cage.
Very interesting interview. I've never tried Commander myself, but will read up on it - I like the idea of it being a casual format. Guess that makes me a Timmy.
Hate that Animator is almost useless now(outside of a few tourneys here and there), was by far and away my fav deck to play- I am a fan of spell wars and animator was such a blast-.
Now I am left wanting Vintage-Classic is dead for now and nothing outside of med4 Reanimates it-(see what i did there.
Hopefully they unban WGDragon next so Entomb sees play again
Hi, Sigil Blessing is in this deck only for defense. I've always feared of Shrivel and Seismic Shudder. It's good to say that I had a lot of luck in final against SupergrooveRocks control deck.
Thank you gwyned for running MPDC I looking forward to next event ;-)
It's my favorite online format as well.
Oftentimes, just for pure fun, I'll setup a Commander table in multi-player room with 50 life & 10 cards. People usually like this alot. Plus, it helps those of use with slowly developing decks, like my Progenitus deck.
I have a question for you & Sheldon, and everyone else for that matter. One of the biggest point of discussion amongst us players during gameplay is the STRONG recommendation to ban certain horribly overpowered ELDRAZI cards such as "Emrakul,the Aeons Torn". Has the committee considered banning some of the annihilators? 9 out of 10 times, when Emrakul hits the table, its GG, and most everyone concedes. Hence, violating Rule #1 of "Promoting Social Interraction". I'm CLEARLY in favor of banning Emrakul.
Also, the next time someone casts an Armageddon or Obliterate to pi$$ off the rest of the table, I will link the article.... :-)
I am tossed on the idea honestly. Maybe WoTC shouldn't support it for reasons Sheldon describes, but if they did, there are ways to circumvent the Spike issues. One is to have a Merrit system. You get points for doing the right things, and you loose points for doing the wrong things. If you have read any of Sheldons articles, the place he plays at does a merrit system. It helps to balance out the shanannigans.
my favorite format. I seriously hope wotc doesnt start doing any commander events with prizes though. He was absolutely right, it will just bring out the sharks and ruin the format. Hard enough to get a commander game without someone playing a combo or armageddon deck already, make it a format with prizes and it becomes impossible.
That's really bad news Scar, have you reported it to Wizards they may be able to sort something out for you.
I have an issue of where to play my decks as well, most are too good for the casual room due to playing top/expensive cards. So I take them into the TP room where I tend to win every other game or so but I end up playing the same decks that I was playing in the casual room a lot of the time. I cant say much though as mine are rouge decks as well.
But it does leave me the with the question what should I be playing and where? I'd love to play events but dont think my skill is up to the highest level to compete and I dont want to net deck deck as I find it boring running a deck that's not mine.
I thought TNM might be the answer but knew that it wouldnt work online in the same way as playing at a local store.
So I'm left in the black void once again and havent played all week hence there will be no article from me this week.
/rant over
UGr splashing for the bolts is a slam dunk in my opinion. Cut maritime guard and diminish. Finding the mountain will not be difficult at all in this deck with preordain, crystal ball, and two sylvan rangers.
Also 11 land in your UR deck is not enough, 12 is pushing it too (12 * 4/3 is like running 16 land in a 40 card deck). 12 is ok in the green version because of the preordain and double sylvan ranger, but you may even want 13 in the UR version.
It's weird, 100-card Singleton is my absolute favorite casual format (Casual is relative) but I've never been able to bring myself to play Commander. I think when I get home I'm gonna have to dig up my Akroma and have some fun!
I definitely have work to do with the proofreading. One of my teachers told me the best way to proofread was to take an article or paper and put it in a difficult to read font so you really have to concentrate on the words on the page. I have not done this lately but know I must.
I definitely did undervalue green and Thunder Strike as a combat trick.
Good stuff! Promoting the format is always good.
Often a mistake some make is using Jace's first ability too soon. In m11, I would often say -1 turn CIP and save +2 for counter support. Heck, even safe passage support works here.
All we need now, are sharks with fricken laser beams attached to their heads and the world will be OURS!
*looks around*
Oh,erm, and yes, EDH rules in a very literal way too.
FWIW, I registered to comment on your article. I liked the article and sympthized with your Ember Hauler play that I had to comment. Additionally, I don't have kids therefore I don't know that pain. Must imagine its something similiar to being crushed by Black Vise.
Anywhom, I want to thank you for the picture of the sealed stash. First and best way to fight with friends is to share information. Along with Kalandine, the above commentor, I believe you undervalued green. Green Red should have been your back up deck. Back up? Yes, while in deck building, you have time to make decks and save them to local. In fact, you could have gone three colors (Blue/Green/Red) if you felt truly daring. [Sorry, 4 pack sealed decks have minimum 30 cards?] (Minuses to this would be no basilisk, ember hauler, or servant yet still packing all the "best" cards) There is plenty of room to take this pool to three colors, that I even see possibilites in W/R/b and W/U/r. See, the white and black still good areas to represent. Like magic2011 drafts, fact of the matter here is in what you draw ;)
Of the games:
Round 1, Game 1, to me would have brought up a deck change right away. Discard and point removal are very tough on blue. Ice Cage and Sleep remain vigiliant however, and would be the only positives to stay blue. That said, I would have switched to colors more aggressive, be whatever that could have been.
Round 2: Awesome job! My only concern in reading the order of events is when SLEEP was cast, what was in play and so forth. Sleep is a reasonable screenshot opportunity, no?
Round 3, Game 1; Ember Hauler is a tough card to play. There are many opportunities to see him into the graveyard but no one instance is right. There are just better times where he has go. So let him. The play wasn't that bad though, and you should get a pat on the back for surviving that turn and drawing out two big buff spells. His choice of destroying the mountain would be my direction as well. Supposed you had a Chandra's Outrage hidden that you never seen beforehand. How would replays detect that? Better the mountain, IMO.
My friend loses his replays all the time too but still finds just as much to write about those games.
Of the card pool, again.
I would say there are a lot of opportunities still available to explore. Recently in a draft I had an opponent play Triskelion followed by a Primal Cocoon. For what that is worth, I can tell you, four packs.
I really think the G/R was a very good idea. I understand you like jace, many people do, but it would have been much more powerful overall. you have the crystal ball for card quality, you dont need the card draw as badly, and if you did, you could have run the bell.
Jace Beleren + Crystal Ball is what won me the pre-release. Why do I always end up playing UW control, regardless of format? XD
The author wrote an extremely biased editorial, yes.
I disagreed. I found no merit in the article, and praising Ith for 'completing an editorial article' is not relevant to my rating. To me, it was a bad editorial and therefore a bad article.
He is entitled to post his inaccurate generalizations based on supposition, and I am entitled to have my own opinions based on a broader understanding of the issues given.
Having an opinion does not make that opinion correct. You may read my earlier post explaining why I disliked the article to better understand mine, if desired. You won't even have to Google it.
Cool, thanks for posting! It is always nice to hear what other people are thinking. Your reasoning makes sense and was something I hadn't thought about. Deck looks good too. I'm sure I will play you again soon!
this deck needs more radiate. the things you can do when that card is used...
Owner of Razia deck here.
It's a token theme deck with reanimation from bunch of angels such as adarkar valkyrie.
I was missing most of the tutors when I was playing this so that's why you didn't see any.
I didn't attack you at T15 because I had Austere Command. I was scared of Teysa's abilities. If the bat wasn't dead, he would be able to exile whatever I cast later with the spirit tokens more easily. That's my best guess at why I attacked Teysa. Also, I thought I could live at least another turn.
If it wasn't for woodfall primus, I could kill you in one turn with sunhome.
I can't remember what I exactly had in my hand but I think I could deal with you later more easily. I believe it was story circle.
I was hoping for you to attack Teysa If you don't, I was dead anyway. If you attacked Teysa, I had a chance at winning. Also I didn't see Ajani coming.
Here is the decklist. It's a little different than what I played but essentially the same.
1 Purity
1 Hellkite Charger
1 Pristine Angel
1 Story Circle
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Shattering Pulse
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Skred
1 Surreal Memoir
1 Duergar Hedge-Mage
1 Weathered Wayfarer
1 Mouth of Ronom
1 Idyllic Tutor
1 Kjeldoran Outpost
1 Kher Keep
1 Vesuva
1 Anger
1 Karmic Guide
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Balefire Liege
1 Maze of Ith
1 Austere Command
1 Plateau
1 Sacred Mesa
1 Wrath of God
1 Akroma, Angel of Fury
1 Allay
13 Snow-Covered Plains
13 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Furystoke Giant
1 Emeria Angel
1 Adarkar Valkyrie
1 Condemn
1 Mind's Eye
1 Expedition Map
1 Desolation Giant
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Vedalken Orrery
1 Land Tax
1 Armillary Sphere
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Return to Dust
1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
1 Runed Halo
1 Scrying Sheets
1 Eternal Dragon
1 Martial Coup
1 Storm Herd
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Mirror Entity
1 Twilight Shepherd
1 Firemane Angel
1 Marshal's Anthem
1 Rugged Prairie
1 Rise of the Hobgoblins
1 Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant
1 Otherworldly Journey
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Mine Excavation
1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Coalition Relic
1 Razia, Boros Archangel
1 Furnace of Rath
1 Faith's Fetters
1 Strip Mine
1 Arid Mesa
1 Reiterate
1 Ajani Goldmane
1 Hallowed Burial
1 Skullclamp
1 Scroll Rack
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Oblation
1 Ghostway
You are going to get this a lot, but please work on proofreading. I've done it, as have many other writers, but review your article to make sure that all of your autocard entry's are correctly types so that we get the links to the cards. Also, I assume you meant swiss drafts rather than quick drafts when you said, " I usually play swift drafts..."
Out of curiosity, did you consider running red/green. The lightning Bolts and Thunder Strike with the beefy green creatures and mana fixing seems like it might have been better than blue/x. You discussed a mill strategy, but I simply do not see the breadth of cards to support that as a viable win condition, whereas the Yavimaya Wurms would certainly impact an opponent's approach to the game if they hit. Sleep is the biggest limited bomb that you opened, so I can understand the desire to play it.
The number of cards with UU or RR casting requirements looks likely to create tension on getting the lands you need and playing them out in the right order. Also, Thunder Strike is a viable combat option that can make for one sided trades or push through a bit of extra damage, I would have probably played it over the Ice Cage.
Very interesting interview. I've never tried Commander myself, but will read up on it - I like the idea of it being a casual format. Guess that makes me a Timmy.
Hate that Animator is almost useless now(outside of a few tourneys here and there), was by far and away my fav deck to play- I am a fan of spell wars and animator was such a blast-.
Now I am left wanting Vintage-Classic is dead for now and nothing outside of med4 Reanimates it-(see what i did there.
Hopefully they unban WGDragon next so Entomb sees play again
I wonder if that medicine man has some kind of cure for hair loss my husband could sure use it
I agree about Sigil Blessing and would add that this deck is begging to try Inspired Charge as a 2of.