That's a really good point. I don't know all the answers to those questions! I'll have to look it up. I know with blasts, one of them can target anything, and destroys if the card is the certain color.
Can you misdirect something to a true name? You don't control the spell, so it wouldn't have protection either, I would think. I'll look into it. Those are some good points, and a great idea.
This particular article was getting pretty long, so I wrapped it up, but there is always more to say. I've read some of the stuff Stephen Menendian has written, and those are very deep and complex.
Sometimes I feel like I only scratch the surface, and want to get deeper. I love those types of articles, and I'm glad you seem to as well. I will do my best to write something like that, it will take a bit more time than normal, but I think I have one in me :) Thanks for reading!
Good stuff as usual. On the Omni-Oath deck, LSV was asked about it on the VSL stream and I believe his response was that Omniscience was "more fun than good" due to the clunkiness it adds to the deck. He attributed the deck's success in the 2nd trimester to the overall strength of Oath against the field for those particular weeks.
Also, I have a suggestion for a topic I think deserves some attention: Misdirection. With it gaining popularity online and all of the subtle rules interactions I feel like this is something that should be covered more in depth. How does it function as a Force of Will in a counter battle and what are the limitations of this use? How does it interact with modal spells, Red/Blue Elemental Blast and Pyro/Hydroblast in particular, and how does it highlight the functional differences between them? Can you redirect a burn spell at your opponent to kill their Plansewalkers, and can you have it target their own True Name Nemesis? There's a lot of non-obvious interactions with this card that could certainly make for an informative article, or at least part of one.
Yeah, song of the dryads, like I mentioned above, has now been put in all of my green decks. The thing with those auras though, is just using a High Market or something to just sacrifice in fast effect, or in the case of arrest and such, even afterward to just cast it again. I am remiss that I didn't mention how so many opponents pack high market in their deck in order to offset tuck spells. Yet another reason I personally like te change. I don't play commander to be super competitive, I do it for fun. All the other formats are competitive enough, some lax rules about tucking make it less harsh to play and thus more fun. The tucking spells bred anti-tucking cards which will breed anti-anti-tucking spells and bam all of a suddenness have a highly competitive format. Anyway I can see why this rule change polariZes people but I'm still all for it.
Between those three spells I still consider Telling Time the better option. There are times where I want two cards, like a Forest and Scapeshift. Peer and Anticipate won't work in that scenario, and that happens more than you would think. Really the only downside to Telling Time is sometimes you only want one of the 3 cards but you still have to keep one of them on top of your library that you don't want to draw. If for some reason you just hate Telling Time and refuse to play it, then Anticipate is probably better for you. Peer may let you dig two cards deeper, but Anticipate can at least grab a vital sideboard spell like the baloths or batterskull.
A very insightful article. Thanks for sharing some of those little tricks with us.
With the printing of Anticipate, how do you feel it fits into the choice between Telling Time or Peer Through Depths? Do you think Anticipate is the best of both worlds, or simply another contender in the fight?
Yeah, I'm not a fan at all of the rules change, but I haven't been a fan of any of the rules changes they've made to Commander in the past year. Yes, it's obvious they are trying to increase the reach and visibility of the format so that newbies can come in and not worry about losing their Commander, and yes, it helps Johnnys that want to build around Rosheen Meanderer or Ramses Overdark. But it's supposed to be a learning experience that being overly reliant on your Commander is not a "good thing," and that you should always have multiple plans of attack in your decks. It's just good deck building.
The tutor reason is just plain dumb. "We don't want you to play tutors. But we aren't going to ban them. We are just going to change the rules in an off chance that they may help reduce the amount of tutors you are going to run." I don't get it at all.
There have been numerous articles written about the problems with this rules change that are far more eloquent than I am, but it's not going to matter. There is no way that the rule gets changed back. I have a suspicion that this is another change that was suggested my Wizards. "Hey Sheldon, Commander is doing great, is there any way you can help out newbies when they are starting off so we can sell more Commander product?" "Well, a lot of newbies don't like tuck..." Can't you just see that conversation happening?
My biggest issue with the change is that as player on MTGO, I can't use house rules to work around it. I have a couple of friends who play IRL who have decided to just ignore the rules change. Unfortunately, I won't be able to do that. Ugh.
One thing that hasn't gotten talked about much is the fact that there are cards out there that have gotten a lot better now. Darksteel Mutation, Lignify, Arrest, Encrust, Faith's Fetters, etc. Notice anything? They're Blue, White and Green! Wasn't that one of the problems with tuck?
The power of their printing press is a much more powerful tool. They can print whatever they want. It can be (Abrupt Decay) or something subtle. I'll repeat myself. They can print whatever they want. We are only bound by our own creativity and restrictions.
You are talking about playing the puppeteer. I wouldn't try to be so controlling. There are other ways to push the game. How about printing some absurd goblins or soldiers and see what happens? Let the game and gamers evolve the game more naturally.
The main problem with trying to balance a format with adding cards to it is that paradoxically it makes it harder to balance the format later on. Consider an example:
Let's say you have a very annoying 2 cmc card which counters spells.
So you make a card for example BG instant which can destroy it.
Later on you want to balance a BG deck. You can add a card which will balance it, but it is very hard to do -
if it is a cmc<4 pernament it can be hit by the decay
if it is a cmc>=4 pernament it could be considered too slow to be usable.
So it leaves us possibility for it to become a sorcery or instant, which is a very narrow subset of all cards.
We see then that a very broad answer card is bad, because it makes harder for us to make another answer cards.
On the other hand a very specific answer is not very good either, as it is a sideboard card at best (think canonist or leyline) which lowers it effectiveness.
Banning is a very specific and direct tool(you may think about it as surgeon's scalpel) - it allows us to hit a degeneratively strong strategy without hurting other decks.
The fourth Drown in Sorrow might be strong, but I have Anticipate to help me find Drown, so I might not need it. It all depends on how much room I end up having once I do the Complete 75 for the deck, as well as how bad the aggro matchup is game 1.
I feel like Adam is my alterego. Ride the Dilu Horse is one of my alltime favorites. I wish it was available in paper since Ive been building cmdr decks in paper lately.
My recommendation would be to add another Drown in Sorrow to the sideboard.
The card is just SO UNSEPAKABLY BRILLIANT in the deck due to its synergy with every single creature you have, and because it will single-handedly swing an aggro matchup in your favour. I'd want to maximize my chances of drawing the Drown in Sorrow (also known as one-sided End Hostilities for 3 mana, with scry added in!) post-board rather than having it as 1 in 20 cards post-board, especially since you have zero chance of drawing it pre-board.
Plus, I think that tokens are very prevalent in the meta, which increases the effectiveness of Drown in Sorrow all the more. Yes Drown in Sorry is a horrible card in some matchups, however it is sideboard only, so this does not pose a problem.
When I lose to an aggro deck in Game 1, I love the feeling of saying "In goes 4 x Drown in Sorrow! Take that! Wipe that smile off your face please coz it will come up every 15 cards rather than every 20 cards!" This makes a big difference against an aggro player, coz you don't have much time to draw it before you are dead.
Valid point :) at this point I am still very heavily invested in paper and most likely always will be. Though I have been tempted to work towards a collection of Goyfs on here but we shall see.
I only played once, yet it was a very entertaining experience for me. I enjoy both of the deck building and playing stages separately. I hope, we will see continuation of Art of War...
If I hadn't sold my Deathrite Shamans in the sell-off that got me into Vintage in the first place, I'd be playing it already :). I'm currently writing for this week, and I make mention of how strong that deck feels when you're sitting across from it.
I feel like I'm getting a lot better at Vintage, but those first few days were rough for sure.
Thanks for the kind words Joe - I had no idea you were IslandSwamp! You should have said hello!
Also you should consider a name like "PlainsForest" - because I always assume you are UG Sea based due to the name - hehe
I'm in love with this Tasigur BURG list, man. As a matter of fact - as you will hear this week - I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it is the best deck in the format right now - as it has answers for literally every deck in the format - a low sustainable curve - great fixing (deathrite FTW) - and disruption to go with counters. I wouldn't say that without proof - I played 2 more tournies this weekend and got 2 more 4-0s (I switched a scour for a Jace this week [good suggestion by youhavenogame] - as you see in the list above). Not since I was stuck on dredge have I found this kind of consistency with a deck. I'd urge anyone to try it out.
on #1 my thinking is I run as many wastes as they have but I have some more threats that are hard to handle pre-board especially with Cavern of Souls. After board 3x crucible is very nice vs landstill and with my mana I can usually play it much faster. I guess the question is regarding how much artifact kill they have, but maybe this is a worse match-up than my initial thought.
I love the tasigur bug deck. I am tempted to build it myself. Every time I play against it. It seems to have literally all the answers, for everything I play.
Good job man, I hope to see you in the final round again soon.
I know that in game three of that match, I messed up bad when I played the preordain. I immediately realized that I should have shipped both of those cards to the bottom. I paid for it for sure. I don't know if that would have allowed me to win, but it hurt me for sure.
Keep it coming guys, I love the podcast, and I am totally hooked on Vintage now.
Yeah, to play mtgo, people not only need to know how to play magic but also know these little tricks that help mitigate problems mtgo has.
If I get dced during a draft (when the internet fails for a moment) sometimes it takes 30 seconds to 1 minute to login, which is more than it should and that's enough to miss at least one pick, especially because sometimes mtgo doesn't tell you it got dced so you end up losing more time there. But what's even more is that after you login, it shows you a screen with the names of the 8 players in the draft for another 30 seconds to 1 minute before taking you back to the draft. That means every dc, is likely to cost you at least 2 picks. To me that is a reason to ask for a refund, and I have in the past because even though it was my internet, it's their fault they haven't fixed these problems yet.
Obviously that can be abused but they have to look at each player individually for this and check how often they dc and see if they dc way more often during drafts than at other times. But if they actually made mtgo frequently check if you are online, if they made mtgo login faster and if they made you go to the draft right away, they could stop refunding for this.
That's a really good point. I don't know all the answers to those questions! I'll have to look it up. I know with blasts, one of them can target anything, and destroys if the card is the certain color.
Can you misdirect something to a true name? You don't control the spell, so it wouldn't have protection either, I would think. I'll look into it. Those are some good points, and a great idea.
This particular article was getting pretty long, so I wrapped it up, but there is always more to say. I've read some of the stuff Stephen Menendian has written, and those are very deep and complex.
Sometimes I feel like I only scratch the surface, and want to get deeper. I love those types of articles, and I'm glad you seem to as well. I will do my best to write something like that, it will take a bit more time than normal, but I think I have one in me :) Thanks for reading!
Good stuff as usual. On the Omni-Oath deck, LSV was asked about it on the VSL stream and I believe his response was that Omniscience was "more fun than good" due to the clunkiness it adds to the deck. He attributed the deck's success in the 2nd trimester to the overall strength of Oath against the field for those particular weeks.
Also, I have a suggestion for a topic I think deserves some attention: Misdirection. With it gaining popularity online and all of the subtle rules interactions I feel like this is something that should be covered more in depth. How does it function as a Force of Will in a counter battle and what are the limitations of this use? How does it interact with modal spells, Red/Blue Elemental Blast and Pyro/Hydroblast in particular, and how does it highlight the functional differences between them? Can you redirect a burn spell at your opponent to kill their Plansewalkers, and can you have it target their own True Name Nemesis? There's a lot of non-obvious interactions with this card that could certainly make for an informative article, or at least part of one.
Yeah, song of the dryads, like I mentioned above, has now been put in all of my green decks. The thing with those auras though, is just using a High Market or something to just sacrifice in fast effect, or in the case of arrest and such, even afterward to just cast it again. I am remiss that I didn't mention how so many opponents pack high market in their deck in order to offset tuck spells. Yet another reason I personally like te change. I don't play commander to be super competitive, I do it for fun. All the other formats are competitive enough, some lax rules about tucking make it less harsh to play and thus more fun. The tucking spells bred anti-tucking cards which will breed anti-anti-tucking spells and bam all of a suddenness have a highly competitive format. Anyway I can see why this rule change polariZes people but I'm still all for it.
I think the reason why the successful decks have been costing less is just due to the fact that MTGOTraders changed their pricing structure.
Between those three spells I still consider Telling Time the better option. There are times where I want two cards, like a Forest and Scapeshift. Peer and Anticipate won't work in that scenario, and that happens more than you would think. Really the only downside to Telling Time is sometimes you only want one of the 3 cards but you still have to keep one of them on top of your library that you don't want to draw. If for some reason you just hate Telling Time and refuse to play it, then Anticipate is probably better for you. Peer may let you dig two cards deeper, but Anticipate can at least grab a vital sideboard spell like the baloths or batterskull.
A very insightful article. Thanks for sharing some of those little tricks with us.
With the printing of Anticipate, how do you feel it fits into the choice between Telling Time or Peer Through Depths? Do you think Anticipate is the best of both worlds, or simply another contender in the fight?
Jacob Wilson is putting up some good results.
Yeah, I'm not a fan at all of the rules change, but I haven't been a fan of any of the rules changes they've made to Commander in the past year. Yes, it's obvious they are trying to increase the reach and visibility of the format so that newbies can come in and not worry about losing their Commander, and yes, it helps Johnnys that want to build around Rosheen Meanderer or Ramses Overdark. But it's supposed to be a learning experience that being overly reliant on your Commander is not a "good thing," and that you should always have multiple plans of attack in your decks. It's just good deck building.
The tutor reason is just plain dumb. "We don't want you to play tutors. But we aren't going to ban them. We are just going to change the rules in an off chance that they may help reduce the amount of tutors you are going to run." I don't get it at all.
There have been numerous articles written about the problems with this rules change that are far more eloquent than I am, but it's not going to matter. There is no way that the rule gets changed back. I have a suspicion that this is another change that was suggested my Wizards. "Hey Sheldon, Commander is doing great, is there any way you can help out newbies when they are starting off so we can sell more Commander product?" "Well, a lot of newbies don't like tuck..." Can't you just see that conversation happening?
My biggest issue with the change is that as player on MTGO, I can't use house rules to work around it. I have a couple of friends who play IRL who have decided to just ignore the rules change. Unfortunately, I won't be able to do that. Ugh.
One thing that hasn't gotten talked about much is the fact that there are cards out there that have gotten a lot better now. Darksteel Mutation, Lignify, Arrest, Encrust, Faith's Fetters, etc. Notice anything? They're Blue, White and Green! Wasn't that one of the problems with tuck?
The power of their printing press is a much more powerful tool. They can print whatever they want. It can be (Abrupt Decay) or something subtle. I'll repeat myself. They can print whatever they want. We are only bound by our own creativity and restrictions.
You are talking about playing the puppeteer. I wouldn't try to be so controlling. There are other ways to push the game. How about printing some absurd goblins or soldiers and see what happens? Let the game and gamers evolve the game more naturally.
The main problem with trying to balance a format with adding cards to it is that paradoxically it makes it harder to balance the format later on. Consider an example:
Let's say you have a very annoying 2 cmc card which counters spells.
So you make a card for example BG instant which can destroy it.
Later on you want to balance a BG deck. You can add a card which will balance it, but it is very hard to do -
if it is a cmc<4 pernament it can be hit by the decay
if it is a cmc>=4 pernament it could be considered too slow to be usable.
So it leaves us possibility for it to become a sorcery or instant, which is a very narrow subset of all cards.
We see then that a very broad answer card is bad, because it makes harder for us to make another answer cards.
On the other hand a very specific answer is not very good either, as it is a sideboard card at best (think canonist or leyline) which lowers it effectiveness.
Banning is a very specific and direct tool(you may think about it as surgeon's scalpel) - it allows us to hit a degeneratively strong strategy without hurting other decks.
:) I looked at your channel (on Wed) to embed it, but the video wasn't up yet?
I won that overdrive 4-0 (as it says in the article). Here is the VOD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Cj3JPbS1Fk
The fourth Drown in Sorrow might be strong, but I have Anticipate to help me find Drown, so I might not need it. It all depends on how much room I end up having once I do the Complete 75 for the deck, as well as how bad the aggro matchup is game 1.
needs Rings of Brighthearth
put Rings of Brighthearth in your Teferi commander deck!
I feel like Adam is my alterego. Ride the Dilu Horse is one of my alltime favorites. I wish it was available in paper since Ive been building cmdr decks in paper lately.
Great article and great deck!
My recommendation would be to add another Drown in Sorrow to the sideboard.
The card is just SO UNSEPAKABLY BRILLIANT in the deck due to its synergy with every single creature you have, and because it will single-handedly swing an aggro matchup in your favour. I'd want to maximize my chances of drawing the Drown in Sorrow (also known as one-sided End Hostilities for 3 mana, with scry added in!) post-board rather than having it as 1 in 20 cards post-board, especially since you have zero chance of drawing it pre-board.
Plus, I think that tokens are very prevalent in the meta, which increases the effectiveness of Drown in Sorrow all the more. Yes Drown in Sorry is a horrible card in some matchups, however it is sideboard only, so this does not pose a problem.
When I lose to an aggro deck in Game 1, I love the feeling of saying "In goes 4 x Drown in Sorrow! Take that! Wipe that smile off your face please coz it will come up every 15 cards rather than every 20 cards!" This makes a big difference against an aggro player, coz you don't have much time to draw it before you are dead.
Valid point :) at this point I am still very heavily invested in paper and most likely always will be. Though I have been tempted to work towards a collection of Goyfs on here but we shall see.
I only played once, yet it was a very entertaining experience for me. I enjoy both of the deck building and playing stages separately. I hope, we will see continuation of Art of War...
If I hadn't sold my Deathrite Shamans in the sell-off that got me into Vintage in the first place, I'd be playing it already :). I'm currently writing for this week, and I make mention of how strong that deck feels when you're sitting across from it.
I feel like I'm getting a lot better at Vintage, but those first few days were rough for sure.
Thanks for the kind words Joe - I had no idea you were IslandSwamp! You should have said hello!
Also you should consider a name like "PlainsForest" - because I always assume you are UG Sea based due to the name - hehe
I'm in love with this Tasigur BURG list, man. As a matter of fact - as you will hear this week - I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it is the best deck in the format right now - as it has answers for literally every deck in the format - a low sustainable curve - great fixing (deathrite FTW) - and disruption to go with counters. I wouldn't say that without proof - I played 2 more tournies this weekend and got 2 more 4-0s (I switched a scour for a Jace this week [good suggestion by youhavenogame] - as you see in the list above). Not since I was stuck on dredge have I found this kind of consistency with a deck. I'd urge anyone to try it out.
Thanks again for the comment!
Good points! You may be right on all accounts...
on #1 my thinking is I run as many wastes as they have but I have some more threats that are hard to handle pre-board especially with Cavern of Souls. After board 3x crucible is very nice vs landstill and with my mana I can usually play it much faster. I guess the question is regarding how much artifact kill they have, but maybe this is a worse match-up than my initial thought.
good points on #2 and #3 can't argue those...
It's easier for me to afford and to justify the price/effort, as I have no paper collection to speak of.
I love the tasigur bug deck. I am tempted to build it myself. Every time I play against it. It seems to have literally all the answers, for everything I play.
Good job man, I hope to see you in the final round again soon.
I know that in game three of that match, I messed up bad when I played the preordain. I immediately realized that I should have shipped both of those cards to the bottom. I paid for it for sure. I don't know if that would have allowed me to win, but it hurt me for sure.
Keep it coming guys, I love the podcast, and I am totally hooked on Vintage now.
Yeah, to play mtgo, people not only need to know how to play magic but also know these little tricks that help mitigate problems mtgo has.
If I get dced during a draft (when the internet fails for a moment) sometimes it takes 30 seconds to 1 minute to login, which is more than it should and that's enough to miss at least one pick, especially because sometimes mtgo doesn't tell you it got dced so you end up losing more time there. But what's even more is that after you login, it shows you a screen with the names of the 8 players in the draft for another 30 seconds to 1 minute before taking you back to the draft. That means every dc, is likely to cost you at least 2 picks. To me that is a reason to ask for a refund, and I have in the past because even though it was my internet, it's their fault they haven't fixed these problems yet.
Obviously that can be abused but they have to look at each player individually for this and check how often they dc and see if they dc way more often during drafts than at other times. But if they actually made mtgo frequently check if you are online, if they made mtgo login faster and if they made you go to the draft right away, they could stop refunding for this.