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Where do you start with new generals? How do you pick those generals?
I suppose each player is different, each chosen general has his or her own story. Thada Adel is my latest conquest and I have the nagging suspicion she has slowly but surely guided my steps onto the downward path leads to the dark side of EDH: Douchebaggery!
They say the path to Hell is paved with good intentions, it may possibly follow that the path to being an EDH douchebag is paved with artifacts.
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Once you start a deck with a goodly number of artifacts, the lure is always there to add one more. Then another. Sure, what's the harm? Of course, if you're playing expensive artifacts and
Rings of Brighthearth, it's only common sense to include a
Basalt Monolith and on and on you go until you have sold your car to pay for the
Mishra's Workshop that the deck absolutely
needs to function.
I find myself in that exact situation now. I've even discussed sourcing a "Very Poor" graded Workshop to go into the deck that already sports my most expensive individual purchase, a foil
Tolarian Academy. The devil on my shoulder is quite persuasive and very pervasive and has made me aware that this
can be done, even allowing me to keep my car (though eating until the end of the month may be an issue, and by "end of the month" I mean April, of course).
Now, I'm a grown up. I
know that this is not important, nor necessary, and is essentially just a sop to my ego, the ability to, one day, start a game with "Workshop, Something, Go" and witness the general gobsmackedness (or complete obliviousness, depending on the player) all around the table. I
can do without. In fact, I
will do without, but there will probably always be that little whisper that says "A Very Poor Graded Workshop" every time I look at my opening hand.
And, face it, Workshop is just the tip of the iceberg, there's a lot more under there that the Purple Hippo on the other shoulder will probably just shrug at. When the majority of cards are small fry in the larger scheme of all things EDH, where can you realistically draw the line between "fun" and "un-fun" when it comes to new acquisitions and "worth it" and "not-worth it" when it comes to the financial payout for those new toys?
Let's take a case in point, another of the generals I flirted with was
Captain Sisay.
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(And I have to add an aside here that there's no real reason that my preferred legends, barring Rafiq, are ladies. That's just how it goes!)
Ah, Sisay, what a great idea. You get her into play, you search your deck for a Legend card, and another, and another. Every game you got either
Rofellos or
Cradle first to give you a little mana boost before digging back into the toolbox for whatever party favour you may need at any given time in a game. Let's be honest, she
is powerful, but she was boring as hell to play. Mind numbingly so. I invested a lot of time and resources into building her and then, when the veneer of shiney newness wore off to reveal the repetitive tedium hiding underneath, invested more time into re-building her. It was no use,
I wasn't having any fun. My group weren't really appreciating her either so I moved on and shunted a lot of Legendary cards into my trade binders. That time is wasted (though not completely if a lesson was learned) and the money I spent on Sisay I realistically won't get back.
I don't yet have access to all the cards I need or want for
Thada Adel, Acquisitor and that's a good thing because I'm no-where near the point, as I am with Rafiq or Azusa, where I can say "That's the deck for now, I'll revise it with the next set." So is it the attraction in the conception of the deck and the acquisition of what I need, accepting that it will always evolve (and probably radically so with both Rise of Eldrazi and the Fall release of Scars of Mirrodin) or is it, this time, in the knowledge that I
could put in a lot of very powerful blue and artifact cards? Where do I decide to draw the Douchebag line? Infinite mana? Soft or hard locks? Stealing everything? Or is it merely in my attitude and approach to the game? I'm pretty sure my sunny and friendly approach to the game will make being regularly crushed by rampant artifact mana very enjoyable for my opponents.
Though, upon mature reflection, maybe not.
I've currently decided to draw the line at a
GAAIV level of annoyance and I hope I'm pitching my deck right. Then again, as GAAIV is already an integral part of our playgroup, maybe adding another
is too much. At what point do I decide to stop the power creep, the road to being a DB deck, and point the tiller in the direction of
Phelddagrif?
For what it's worth here's my deck and it's plans. My building logic was that Thada Adel is a thief and she loves her some artifacts. Unfortunatly, those pesky opponents often get to actually play some of those delicious baubles before she can steal them from under their collective noses! So either she steals them from decks or she steals them from play. So it's a "Steal Artifact" deck (with the stupid realisation that I've just cut the actual
Steal Artifact!)
General
Thada Adel, AcquisitorLand (37)
23x Island
Urza's MineUrza's Tower Urza's Power PlantDarksteel CitadelReliquary TowerThawing GlaciersTolaria WestAcademy RuinsRemote IsleLonely SandbarFlooded StrandPolluted DeltaSeat of the SynodTolarian AcademyArtifact Creatures: (6)
Solemn SimulacrumMaster TransmuterFaerie MechanistDarksteel ColossusDuplicantEtherium SculptorNon-Artifact Creatures: (9)
Trinket MageSakashima the ImpostorBody DoubleVedalken EngineerTeferi, Mage of ZhalfirAeon ChroniclerVenser, Shaper SavantWillbenderGlen Elendra ArchmageNon-Creature Artifacts: (27)
Mana VaultSol RingEverflowing ChaliceSky DiamondMind StoneWorn PowerstoneDarksteel IngotCoalition RelicTormod's CryptSensei's Divining TopOblivion StoneIcy ManipulatorPhyrexian ProcessorSculpting SteelAvarice TotemVedalken ShacklesCrucible of WorldsCloud KeyNevinyrral's DiskExpedition MapDarksteel ForgeVoltaic KeyWhispersilk CloakEngineered ExplosivesLightning GreavesMeekstoneEnsnaring BridgeEnchantments: (3)
Artificer's IntuitionFuture SightPropagandaPlaneswalkers: (1)
Tezzeret the SeekerInstant/Sorcerys: (17)
EvacuationMind SpringFabricateFact or FictionRite of ReplicationStroke of GeniusMystical TutorForce of WillAcquireAncestral VisionCapsizeHinderThirst for KnowledgeDesertionBrainstormConcentrateIntuitionThe first thing to note is that it's 101 cards. This is bad. I updated the deck yesterday lunchtime and have been playing with one card extra since then. To add to that, I suspected I was one card short and had intended on adding a
Pithing Needle. Bad News Bears. Counting skilols are not up to scratch, I must ask my 6-year-old to give me a refresher course.
I don't think there's a need to do a card by card except to say that it's slow, like molasses. So what's next for our filching friend? The next phase in the armament process is due to start this weekend with a shipment of the following expected:
Knowledge ExploitationVedalken ArchmageMemnarchVanishingBriberyTreacheryMagus of the FutureDream TidesReshapePortcullisTidespout TyrantQuicksilver FountainKeiga, the Tide StarFatespinnerFireshriekerMycosynth Lattice (which will once again require the inclusion of the newly re-named
Steal PermanentSome cards to protect Thada, some cards to slow my opponents down, some cards to steal things and some cards to facilitate me in doing all of that.
Mycosynth Lattice is giving me pause though. Do I really need to feel guilty about an indestructible Tolarian Academy? Stealing any non-protected permanent for 3U? How long will it take for me to somehow justify to myself the inclusion of
Umbrella Mantle,
Karn,
Voltaic Construct,
Basalt Monolith,
Rings of Brighthearth and
Heartstone? Will I be able to live with the monster I will have unleashed on my playgroup? Most importantly, at what point in all of this will my friends deem it timely to remind me that they
are my friends? I wonder if I'll get at least one Mad-Genius-Flicking-the-Switch laugh out before it all comes crashing down in a tide of guilt, recrimination and a plethora of
Dust to Dusts?
Or, do I let it all slide because I know that there are certain lines that probably shouldn't be crossed.
At least until Rise of Eldrazi is released.