Cool! It's a Generals: Remixed!

Those lovely guys over on Commandercast have put together a Generals Remixed contest.

Here's the skinny:

Have you ever looked at a Legendary Creature while looking for a general and thought, "Cool, but..."

° It has good flavour, but it's weaksauce rules-wise.

° It has amazing art but nothing else going for it.

° It has nice abilities, but it's incredibly boring flavour-wise.

° It has abilities that just aren't interesting enough.

° It matches the colour combination you want, but not anything else.

° It just seems to be lacking that... something.

Then this is the contest for you!

We want you to take a potential general and spice it up. Switch things around. Remix it, so to speak. The goal in this contest is to take an existing Legendary Creature card and modify it with the following goals:

° Retain the original things that feel good about the card, like it's flavour, colour combination or rules.

° Discard the things that aren't so awesome and replace them with something of your own design.

° Try to keep some semblance of the card's original function. As a guideline, it should still be recognizable as the original Legendary Creature, just... cooler.

° For the purposes of the contest, you only have to worry about the card as a general in EDH.

° Producing a visual aid like a card created with Magic Set Editor will be worth extra points because the visual representation appeals to us.

Hey, that's a pretty cool idea! There's loads of times I know I wished that Thada Adel had haste but there's possibly one guy out there who needs the help more than our little merfolk: WOTC's own Ken Nagle!



Don't let the blonde fool ya'!

 Oh, you thought I was joking?

A very little known fact is that the blast unleashed from the Golgothian Sylex didn't, in fact, kill Mishra and Gix. It only killed the Phyrexian Demon. In Mishra it awoke his planeswalking spark and he was flung into the blind eternities, lost for ages until, very recently, he gained control of his planeswalking abilities and emerged here, on our own Earth, in our time to hide among us. He disguised himself by colouring his hair blonde and submitted an entry into the Great Designer Search 1 and now Ken "Mishra" Nagle works hand in hand with Mark Rosewater in shaping the future of Magic: the Gathering. You want to know how the Phyrexians got to Mirrodin? Ken/Mishra. You want to know who has been developing the infection that will take over that plane? Mishra's puppet, MaRo. And he's a little too interested in EDH for my liking. Watch out people: We're next!!

 

Would the real Ken Nagle please stand up?

But not with a lame-ass card like this one.

Ok, I get that EDH wasn't at the top of the agenda when Mishra, Artificer Prodigy was designed. In a non-singleton format, he can be extremely powerful if you can work out his casting cost requirements. That said, we haven't exactly been inundated with PT level Mishra decks. To put it very simply, one of the most iconic figures in the history of Magic: the Gathering is a bit of a dud.

In EDH terms, his ability says: "Whenever you play an artifact spell, you may shuffle your library."

Wow!

I play one of the most gifted artificers in the history of all the planes and get a 4/4 for 1UBR that occasionally allows me shuffle my library?

My flabber has been officially ghasted.

About the only thing going for him is that we have proof that Mishra's dress sense hasn't improved under his current guise as Ken Nagle. I mean, come ON! What is with the Frog-Logo overalls? And if that wasn't enough, he's rocking some X-Men geek in there too. Make up your mind, Ken/Mishra! Ridiculing a talented, planeswalking artificer with potential to be your future overlord for their dress sense is probably not a great idea, but fashion laws have been infringed and this baby needs a makeover! What are we starting with?



Frog? X-Men? GEEK OVERLOAD!!

I'm thinking How are we going to remix our friend Mishra? A wardrobe change would be an excellent start. Something like this:

Ok, I can get behind a slightly classier version of Ken/Mishra.


What can we do about that horrific text?

Whenever you cast an artifact spell, you may search your graveyard, hand, and/or library for a card with the same name as that spell and put it onto the battlefield. If you search your library this way, shuffle it.

When you make an artifact, he gets a second one for free. To be honest, that is pretty cool. Unfortunatly the highlander nature of EDH means that you can look but you won't find a second copy of the artifact in question.


Version #1:

What about making a token copy of an artifact spell? It will have the same end result but without the searching part. An obvious drawback is the potential of seeing multiple tokens in play and getting them confused but we could avoid that with the following wording:

Whenever you cast an artifact spell, exile all artifact clone tokens you control. Then put into play an artifact clone token that is a copy of that spell.

That's a neat solution, keeping the functionallity of the original card but restricting it to one token at a time. I think that players could easily live with that as there's some very nasty artifacts running about out there. Getting an extra copy of just one may be all that's needed. It can also create some tension if you make it a required trigger. If you are happy with the artifact clone in play, you're not going to want to play another artifact.


Version #2:


If I wanted it to be a basic or "boring" fix of the original card, I'd stop there but I really want to push this further. There was a bit of a tiff that started the brother's war, something about a fight over the Mightstone and the Meekstone. How about we make him a coveter and copier?:

Whenever you cast an artifact spell, you may search target opponents graveyard, hand, and/or library for a card with the same name as that spell and put it onto the battlefield. If you searched a library this way, shuffle it.

Hey, hey, hey! Buy one, get one free.... from an opponent!! "Sol Ring, steal your Sol Ring?" Advantages: it can be extremely effective stripping ubiqious artifacts from opponents hand, graveyard or library. You get to riffle through their deck to see what they are up to and, as a bonus, your general is in colours that has access to 9 or 10 cards that can subsequently remove anything nasty from their deck. Disadvantages: If they don't have one of the artifacts you are playing or it's already in play, you're a sad puppy. It's a pretty disgusting ability with a potential downside. My personal big issue is that it's not a "fun" interaction. Players don't like when you steal things directly from their decks and search effects generally take a long time to resolve. I think this one is a runner for overpowered and annoying ability of the month. Let's not go there. What else can we do that's a step up from our basic "1 copy free"?


Version #3:


If you stayed away from the stealing part but wanted to play on his ability to create some intricate pieces of artifice, you could keep the basic printed ability but change just one little thing:

Whenever you cast an artifact spell, you may search your graveyard, hand, and/or library for an artifact card with the same converted mana cost as that spell and put it onto the battlefield. If you search your library this way, shuffle it.

Yikes!! Who's been smoking the carpet? So, let me get this right: I play a Sol Ring and I get to search my library for a Sensei's Divining Top to be put into play for free? For reals? And that Pithing Needle you took ages to get rid of is back from the dead too because I've just gone and played a Skullclamp. Hey, what am I saying? SDT is going to draw all the 1cc spells we could ever need once you bounce it back to the top of our library, re-draw it and cast it again for another go round. Can you say Black Friday Discount MADNESS!? And hey, guess what, we haven't even gotten out of the 1cc spells yet.

The power-lever readings of this one are through the roof. I had better stop before things get really silly....... Ooops! Too late!


Final choice!!

So, which one will we choose for our Mishra Remixed?:
° Annoying opponent annoyer stealy stealy Ken/Mishra? Mmmmmmmm.......
° Bah-rok-en!, combo enabling, deck thinning, future EDH Overlord Ken/Mishra? Mmmmmmmmm......
° Ken/Mishra (Kenshra?) who does kinda what he's supposed to do?

Tough choice!


No, seriously, despite the insane suggestions of a demeted and twisted mind, my real remix choice is the simple, elegant solution*. BEHOLD: Kenshra!!

I'm going to finish up here with a special thanks to Ken Nagle for being such a good sport and posing for our images. Cheers Ken!

*Though, I'd play the other two in a shot!

4 New Generals all covered in Scars

Scars of Mirrodin is here and we have 4 new generals to play with! Let's just dive straight in!

An Elf Overrun Lord - Ezuri, Renegade Leader

Elves are known for being weedy little green guys with woop-loads of synergy especially in the mana-making department. Where before they had to go outside the tribe to get some beatdown going with Coat of Arms, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa or Overrun, Scars is handing Elves a turn 2 drop with lots and lots of potential. He's a decent 2/2 for 3 and has both the important characteristics you need in an aggressive Elf build: He's an Elf (ok, that's one's obvious) and he's a warrior. When he starts benefitting from both Elf and Warrior he's going to be annoying just by himself. He's adding to your Elf count for all the important "elf count" reasons but his text-box is what will push him right up there for inclusion with Rhys the Redeemed as a choice Elf General. Elves can benefit from the inclusion of White that Rhys provides but they don't necessarily require it to be viable. Rhys can churn out an army if left alone long enough but he shouldn't be, and regularly isn't, allowed to do so. What Rhys doesn't have is a way to protect key elements and here is where Ezuri calls attention to himself for the first time. Someone want to Terror your Priest of Titania and you have an untapped Forest? It's not happening. [This is some unobservant shit right here! Regenerate from a Terror? For shame! Read "Doom Blade" in that last sentence and you get the idea!] Keep that active Priestess open and Ezuri is going to regenerate your entire team if someone foolishly chooses a boardwipe without a "no regeneration clause". The only slight disadvantage is that he can't help himself, only other Elves.

His second ability is where Ezuri really shines. One of the disadvantages of Elves is that while they can swarm pretty well, there's not been an Elf Legend that can really push their damage potential over the top. The afforementioned Coat of Arms, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa or Overrun are generally included in the hope that they will become available at the right time and each has it's own drawback: Coat will also pump opponent's creatures; Kamahl is not an Elf, probably isn't your general and costs 10 to cast and activate his second ability; and Overrun is a Sorcery (still not an instant, Marc!) in a colour that doesn't really have a cheap way to tutor for it when necessary. Ezuri as your general gives you this ability built in and freely available from the General Zone to bust out a bunch of dorks and turn them into a force that will put a dent in any life total.

Do not underestimate the ability to protect your army and have repeated Overruns on a stick. He's cheap and he ticks all the right boxes. Straight to the top of the Elf Legend queue, Mr. Ezuri!


A Zombie Dragon - Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon

Skithiryx gains immediate bonus flavour points for being an undead dragon skeleton (though you have to ask yourself how an undead dragon with no wing membrane stays aloft). He's a 4/4 flier for 3BB which are acceptable stats. He's smaller than other dragons but that's not as relevant as it would normally be as he regenerates for BB. He's only the second Dragon in the game with this ability after Hellkite Overlord and he's a lot cheaper to cast. That's not what pushes him over the top however. He has haste if you happen to have a spare B lying about the turn you  cast him. That isn't what pushes him over the top either (and, honestly, optional haste is a bit of a waste of an ability; either build it in or don't, it's useless after the first turn anyway)

What pushes Skithiryx over the top is the new key-word "infect". Infect is a mix of Wither and Poison: You deal wither damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters and Poison damage to players. The advantage of dealing poison counters to players is that it only takes 10 to kill a player making Skithiryx what in normal damage terms would essentially be the equivalent to an 8/4 when unblocked. Two and a half hits just with this bag of bones and you've won the game and that's without pumping him in some manner. If he tackles a bigger beast than he is, well that beast isn't going to be bigger much longer with all the -1/-1 counters he's handing out. He regenerates to be able to stick around to do it again next turn too so all in all this is a nice creature to have on your side. All that taken together is what pushes him over the top in EDH.

In EDH we have 40 life, 21 general damage and 10 poison counters as means of winning the game (There's decking and a couple of "I win" cards but essentially the first three is what we're focusing on.) Poison was pretty much the forgotten child up until now but with Scars of Mirrodin and the two subsequent extensions, that's about to change. Skithiryx is the first huge step in that change. Where a normal general is looking to get in for 21 general damage, Skithiryx is looking to get in for 21 general damage or 10 poison counters, whichever happens first. Anyone who's any good at math can tell you that 10 is most likely going to happen before 21. Should you use Skithiryx as your general, you're announcing that you intend to win in half the time another 4/4 general would usually require. Add in Unholy Strength, Howl from Beyond, Hatred or any other boost effect and you can cut the time it takes you to win down even further. Look at all the support cards that Scars is offering the Infect mechanic, especially the other new Scars keywords "Proliferate", and it's entirely possible that you're not using Skithiryx as a two hit general, rather that you're intending to win once he connects even once as some smaller minnions have gotten in there already to start the infection and he's just the coup de grace.

A new, very aggressive black aggro-poison strategy is now available in EDH and it's got Skithiryx front and center. Dust off your leeches and fight the infection! [And check the comments below for how to die to general damage (not poison counters) from Skithiryx !]

A Phyrexian-aided Lich - Geth, Lord of the Vault

Let's be honest, Skithiryx is not a flavour legend, he's a mechanic-driven beast with extra "legendary". Scars of Mirrodin has given us a second mono-black general who is very much a sop to the Vorthos types out there who clamour for storyline enrished goodness at every opportunity. Geth is a Lich. At the end of the original Mirrodin Block storyline Geth was decapitated but, being a lich, he just went on undying. Apparently in the intervening time he managed to convey himself back to the Mephidross and went about putting a body together with the help of some of Magics' more dastardly villans: the Phyrexians. Those nice Phyrexians gave Geth the lovely half artifact/half carapace thing you can see in the card-art here.

Strangely enough, even though the Phyrexians are the source of the infection, they didn't give it to Geth so he doesn't get to poison or wither like Skithiryx. He's a formidable leader apparently so he gets to Intimidate and he's got a decent 5/5 body to go with his 4BB cc.  His ability is interesting and self sustaining and very relevant for both standard and EDH except for one little thing: the Eldrazi are everywhere and mono-black doesn't destroy artifacts well in order to get the Geth ball rolling. There work getting that first artifact (and thus the mill effect) into play and you could just as easily hit one of our colourless legendary friends and undo all the hard work.

Now he's not bad, don't get me wrong. I'm sure he has a place in Standard or somewhere. For EDH however, all I see are hoops here whereas with his set-mate, Skithiryx, there's just tick marks in almost the right boxes. If he was BG, BU or BR you'd have all the tools you'd need to get him on line aggressively but in Mono-B, his support suite is sorely lacking.

Edit: Nah, you don't really want to read all that stuff up there! ;o) As was pointed out in the comments, Geth's reanimate ability is not just for artifacts, a card type that, along with Enchantments, Mono-B usually has a little more trouble than most handling once they have resolved. It also targets creatures which is a card type that Mono-B generally has very little trouble dealing with, thankyouverymuch! So what does that change? His ability can target two very common card types in EDH and is self sustaining. He can start the ball rolling in-colour and, as such, is potentially very effective as a mono-coloured general. If an opponent doesn't have the means to automatically re-shuffle his/her graveyard into their library, you've got the upperhand in the resources game because you're depriving him/her of potential cards in hand and thus solutions to deal with your Geth.

There is a small downside to giving your opponent an increased number of cards in his/her graveyard, that's a resource he/she can mine too, however I think that here the advantages outweigh the disadvantages given that it's now your resource pool too and you have a means to play repeated, targetted Beacon of Unrests at instant speed while your opponent has to use a new card each time to benefit in the same way. You're using your opponent's resources to win the resource war and, in doing so, fuel the pool.

I mentioned the Eldrazi Legends above and I'd like to come back to them. Unlike Darksteel Collossus, who has a replacement ability and never goes to the graveyard, Geth can yoink an Eldrazi Legend out of your graveyard in response to the ability going on the stack. In fact, should this ever happen, if you listen carefully, you will actually hear a tiny >YOINK!< noise as Geth's ability resolves. The grumbling noise you will hear just afterwards is your opponent grinding his teeth.

So, am I sold on Geth now? I'm not sure. Yes, it's a lot better than I had originally thought and he can head up a very focused type of Mono-B EDH deck. I still think 5B is a hefty price to pay for your general, though it's true that we see Invasion and Planar Chaos Dragons quite frequently so a cmc of 6 is not strictly "too much". I think I'll have to see Geth in action to fully appreciate his power.

Edit: Ok, I'm halfway through our first Draft and I got passed a foil Geth as a second pick/first pack. The player to my right preferred the 7/7 green dude who blows up blockers. I take it all back.

Geth is insane.


A Kitty with a Rack - Kemba, Kha Regent

Finally we have a mono-W general, Kemba. In the original Mirrodin we had another mono-W Cat legend, Raksha the Golden Cub, but a 3/4 for 5WW was always going to be a hard sell unless his ability was really stunning. Giving your creatures Double Strike if he's equipped is neat but it's not setting the world alight, especially at that CMC. Kemba is from line of younger sleeker Cat Legends. She gives up a point of power to Raksha for a 4 mana cost reduction. Nice trade up! At 1WW she's playable and she's still got junk in the trunk at 2/4.

What about the ability trade-off? I'm sure everyone would just love a straight discounted Raksha but you can't have everything. Instead of granting your cats Double Strike, Kemba gives you free 2/2 cats for each equipment attached to her. One equip: one 2/2. 5 Equips: five 2/2s. Realistically you're not going to get a huge number of equipments onto her any any one time, but there are quite a few juicy ones that would make it worthwhile. Konda's Banner springs to mind. Kemba herself doesn't gain anything but she'll be whelping 4/4s, not 2/2s, if she's holding the Banner.

One of the most impresive things about Kemba is that, not only is she an equipment based general, she solves your ususal problems of balancing the volume of equipment in your deck with the number of creatures you actually have to equip. Now you don't really need to worry about going overboard on the equipment side of things, either you put it all on Kemba herself or on one of the many cats she's pumping out each turn. Did I mention that they are free, these 2/2s? That's probably important.

Given that the ever increasing instances of equipment support are turning up in mono-white of late, Kemba is going to have all the back-up she needs to find and equip the bling that builds her army. Cats are not the most explosive tribe ever but Kemba is a step in the right direction for a solid Cat deck. Hum, Is this the right place to question whether R&D are aware that they are treading a very fine line with Kemba? Give lady bling: lady gives you babies. There's a message here somewhere. Who designed the card exactly?

As her flavour text proclaims: "I am not Raksha. I never will be." Damn right, you're playable!

That's all for now folks. Here's a quick recap:

Top of the class: Skithiryx. New archetype, new playable Mono-B general. Beastly beast. A+

Close Second: Ezuri. Right up there for the go-to elf general. Will being Mono-G hurt his chances as he goes toe-to-toe with G/W Rhys?

Moving up through the pack: Geth. I'm bowing to crowd pressure here. He's not as explosive as Skithiryx or Ezuri given the built in damage work-around of the Dragon or the tribal support of the Elves.
Thunder Cat: Kemba. Nice cost, nice ability, right colour for all the support you will need, nice rack, questionable sexual politics in the design process. Not a "Must Play" legend, but a good, fun legend.

Curious Broccoli - Mono Green Combo beats

Sorry for the brief hiatus, I've been camping!

So far I've introduced Thada-Adel & Rafiq; Group Hug doesn't need much of a mention (apart from re-stating my belief that Hive Mind is NOT a card you should include!); I'm not finished building Toshiro Umezawa to the point where he can be presented to the reading mill... eh, handfuls so that leaves me to introduce you to one of my favourite ladies in Magic: Azusa. (Maybe one day I'll get to bring you Michiko Konda, my #1 lady, in her own deck but not yet!)

What's the deal with Azusa? She's a 3 mana 1/2 that gives you a couple of extra land drops. That's not very..... Legendary. Her backstory isn't really much to go on if you want to base a deck on her especially as her goal of "uniting the peoples of Kamigawa" would by necessity involve other colours and EDH will restrict us to Mono Green. Here is her Wiki entry:

Legendary monk of the sacred order of Jukai Forest, disciple of Rokuan and best friend of Iwamori. A master tracker, she started a quest from Jukai all across Kamigawa, and learned from all the cultures of the world in order to join together the peoples of Kamigawa. Her ultimate fate is unknown.

Meh, that's not going to encourage me to build a deck. Azusa accellerates your lands but then again so did the recently banned Roffellos and he was never a candidate to head up this army even when he was legal. So why choose Azusa over any other mono Green legend? It all goes back to infinite land drops in an Enchantress deck I played years ago. You see, when you have an Exploration in play you get an extra land drop. You play that extra land and somehow return the Exploration to your hand. If you tap the additional land to replay the Exploration, the game doesn't remember your initial extra land and treats the replayed Exploration as giving another additional land drop. If you could find a way to repeat this process multiple times you could conceiveably play all the land in your deck.

Taking this a step further, if an effect allowed you to return a land to your hand during this loop, you could re-play and re-bounce lands for as many times as you desired. Essentially the loop would be self-perpetuating until you want to stop it. In the Enchantress decks of old, the bounce mechanism for both the lands and the Exploration was Words of Wind which had the advantage of forcing your opponent(s) to return their board to their hand in addition to your loop. In the Enchantress deck, you were drawing cards off the loop with the traditional Enchantress effects in addition so, once the engine got going, you essentially neutered your opponent and found your win condition in a single turn.

Moving back to EDH, our first issue is that any such shennanigans need to conform to the formats' strict deckbuilding restrictions, to wit: Either we change our General or we omit the traditional motor and find a replacement. Luckily to achieve multiple or infinite land drops in mono-green we can ignore the Enchantress engine entirely (and thus blue) and simply add Cloudstone Curio.

Ah, jank rares that look great in design but struggle to find their niche out in the real world! I'm of the opinion that this little bauble is potentially one of the most degenerate motors in Magic. Had R&D not included that little "non-artifact" caveat, I'm sure we would have seen quite a lot of broken plays including (old) extended turn 2 infinite storm count into Brain Freeze. Unfortunatly the requirement to actually pay mana to put a non-artifact permanent into play pushed the Curio from easily breakable into very powerful in a very niche set of decks. (Old) Extended Elves ran this in some of the Glimpse/Elf decks as an additional meant not to run out of steam. It allowed the deck to "go off" on a single Glimpse as long as a pair of 1cc elves could continuously trade places netting 2 cards for each full loop. With Nettle Sentinels & Heritige Druid, this little combo pretty much meant you could draw your entire deck if needed.

That's not our goal here though (actually it is but not with elves!) So we have a means to recur lands in the Curio and, in our general, a means to play multiple lands, how do we take this to the next step and make it so we can play infinite lands? If we were to add another creature to the mix we could bounce Azusa off the Curio when we played that second creature and re-play her for 2 addional land drops much like we did with the Exploration in the Enchantress decks of old. There's four options here:

• We could pay G for a Bird of Paradise or similiar. This is a solid option because the Bird/Llanowar or Fyndhorn elf is a useful enough accellerator outside of this interaction. The downside is that it brings the mana cost of the loop to 2GG and we have only 2 additional land drops. We'd run out of mana pretty quickly.
• We could use Dryad Arbor (conveniently a "forest" as well as a creature), making the loop cost only 2G, though, being a creature, the Dryad Arbor couldn't be tapped for mana the turn it arrived. We're still where we were with the 1cc guys, needing 2 extra mana.
• We could use an automatic Token generator like Genesis Chamber though these effects are generally for all players (and you don’t want to give your opponents more resources than strictly necessary) and there are timing issues. When you play Azusa, you generate the token. When the token comes onto the battlefield it triggers the Curio. You won’t have time to play your two additional lands before you resolve the trigger and return Azusa to your hand. If you have a third creature, you could, but this negates the entire point of the exercise.
• Just don’t pay for your creatures at all. As long as you’re willing to share and you restrict yourself to a certain group of creatures, this is possible with Aluren. This 4cc enchantment allows all players to play any creature costing 3cc or less at instant speed without paying its mana cost. Ok, you’re helping your opponents quite a lot here because most decks will have creatures that fall into this category however in EDH the trend is generally towards utility in smaller creatures rather than splashy effects and they must have the creature in hand in order to benefit. These are slim safety-lines to be clinging on to but you can generally profit during important turns enough that the drawback doesn’t really matter.

So we have Aluren and Cloudstone Curio: one allows us to play our creatures for free and the other allows us to bounce a creature once we play another. At this point we can play Azusa and any other cheap creature for free generating multiple instances of two additional land drops. As the Curio will also allow us to bounce lands, we also have our means to generate infinite land drops. If we play a land and bounce a land that has been tapped for mana, we can thus generate infinite mana. If the second creature also has an effect that triggers on entering the battlefield, we have more possibilities. A very basic package could look like this:

- Elvish Visionary & Wall of Blossoms to draw as much of your deck as you need.
- Eternal Witness to recur useful cards from your graveyard.
- Sylvan Ranger & Wood Elves to purge your deck of lands into either your hand or into play.

So the theory is sound and the deck can be built around this interaction. After all, so far we’ve only listed about 15 cards including land to fuel a degenerate engine, however I’m not all that much about the degenerate combo engines and I needed a hook that would make this idea into a deck I’d actually enjoy playing. After all, we don’t really want to combo out in every single game. If that was the aim, I would have just played Rof/Staff and whined when he got the general ban. One of the requirements of having a general that focuses on getting a lot of land into play is that you must get a lot of land into your hand. This in turn requires you to dedicate deck slots to getting those lands into your hand. We have 3 windows of opportunity here:
- Landfall
- “Lands in play matter”, or in our case “Forests matter”
- Lots of mana is good for “stuff”

One of my first ideas was Baru, Fist of Krosa. His “Forestfall” ability was huge when you had a head of creatures in play that you wanted to beef up. In application however he was never a go to guy and generally ended up being a little more kill rather than the means to kill. If I can find a way to get him back on board, he may make it, but sitting waiting for an army was not his bag. Other “Forest matters” cards that made it were Beacon of Creation & Howl of the Night Pack. Both are capable of generating huge armies out of an empty board state. In the case of Beacon of Creation, combined with Planar Portal, it’s an insect army each and every turn until one or both effects are dealt with. This allows you to sandbag other cards in your hand for when your opponents finally do kill your Portal or Beacon.

Speaking of huge armies, when you have a board empty except for 15 lands, Rude Awakening can provide a, well, rude awakening and deal lethal out of nowhere. It’s a risky move but generally one that slips under the radar. Other cards that generally love having lots of land on the table and multiple land drops or boat loads of mana are Ant Queen, Avenger of Zendikar,

Chamelion Colossus, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, Rampaging Baloths and Wolfbriar Elemental. The last, Wolfbriar Elemental, is worth singling out here as another cute 2 card combo. With Cloudstone Curio in play, you can use one of the Curio triggers from the wolves to bounce the Elemental back to your hand. The following turn you can rinse and repeat until the Curio or Elemental is dealt with (with the trigger on the stack or an old fashioned Counterspell). Your army becomes “X 2/2” wolves where X is “your total available mana -4”. In a deck that likes to vomit its mana base onto the table you can see that repeated large wolf armies is a distinct possibility.

The rest of the deck is a large dose of finding lands and getting them into hand or play through increased land drops: (Krosan Tusker, Oracle of Mul Daya, Primeval Titan, Sakura Tribe Elder, Solemn Simulacrum, Yavimaya Elder, Rites of Flourishing, Exploration, Gaea's Touch, Seek the Horizon, Skyshroud Claim, Crop Rotation, Cultivate, Gaea's Bounty, Harrow, Kodama's Reach) The need for some defence in the deck has trimmed this down to what we have here. The less you want the deck to be a combo deck the less you need these slots dedicated to thinning your deck out.

There are also a few cards that will increase your mana count as opposed to your land count: (Lotus Cobra, Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary, Vernal Bloom) Interesting to note that I have not included the mana elves or BoP mentioned at the very start of the article. In playing the advantage they give you of getting a second turn Curio or Azusa is largely negated by their general uselessness later on in the game.

Some graveyard recursion: (Genesis, Regrowth, Eternal Witness) Notable exceptions are Nature’s Spiral, Restock and Recollect but cut had to be made somewhere and these fell by the wayside.

A pinch of disruption: (Acidic Slime, Terastdon, Woodfall Primus, Krosian Grip) This is no-where near enough of course. No Desert Twister, no Creeping Mold? No Lignify? At a certain point in the deck-building and testing process I had to make a decision as to whether the deck was to be a proactive or reactive deck. Given the fight for places there was little choice but to be the aggressor where possible and thus a lot of solutions are left out. Actually we have a lot of solutions, just not the ones you’d normally associate with green control. One of the most elegant, I always find, is attacking with big monsters for the win. It tends to solve a lot of problems.

Cards that draw or filter cards: (Wall of Roots, Elvish Visionary, Greater Good, Sylvan Library, Scroll Rack, Seer's Sundial, Skullclamp, Harmonize) Green has precious little card drawing so anything that allows you to draw cards is obviously golden. The exception is Horn of Greed. My land drops far outstrip all my opponents however in certain situations, as with Rites of Flourishing and especially Storm Cauldron, the advantage slips more and more against you. The calculation you need to make is not your # of card draws again 1 other opponent but your card draws against the total of all your opponents. You need to be out-drawing them each x3 or x4 in order to benefit from the Horn. For this reason a card that would be an auto-include in a 1v1 deck is marginal here. It simply gives too much advantage to your opponents collectively to be blithely thrown into the deck.

The rest of the deck is a mish-mash of like-type redundancies, cards that will make your army more threatening and ways to stay alive.

Seedborn Muse – With Ant Queen, Kamahl & Planar Portal, the Muse is a terrible weapon that announces your victory next turn.

Haste is not something that people expect from a mono-G deck. Who cares if you make 20 wolves when they can wrath them away on their own turn? Akroma's Memorial & Concordant Crossroads punish players for not dealing with you sooner by deciding the game there and then.

Storm Cauldron is a replacement Cloudstone Curio for lands granting you an additional land drop and punishing your opponents for playing spells that don’t directly remove it. Lifegift is to gain some (ok, quite a lot of) life during the game. When you’re constantly taking 4-8 from your Sylvan Library, you want to stay in the game and this helps you do that.

Two final notes on card inclusions/exclusions: I’ve brought in Crucible of Worlds & Zuran Orb. With Multiple land drops this is essentially the same landfall combo however it goes through your graveyard rather than through your hand, gaining you life as you do so. Don’t be a dick and Strip Mine everyone!

Cards I don’t have that I really need to find a place: The overriding one at the moment is Burgeoning. I think you can see the potential applications!

Enjoy playing Broccoli!

Azusa, Lost but Seeking

25 Forest
Windswept Heath
Misty Rainforest
Wooded Foothills
Dryad Arbor
Sapseep Forest
Terramorphic Expanse
Evolving Wilds
Stripmine
Wasteland
Gaea's Cradle
Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
Khalni Garden

Acidic Slime
Ant Queen
Avenger of Zendikar
Chamelion Colossus
Elvish Visionary
Eternal Witness
Genesis
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
Krosan Tusker
Lotus Cobra
Oracle of Mul Daya
Primeval Titan
Rampaging Baloths
Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
Sakura Tribe Elder
Seedborn Muse
Solemn Simulacrum
Sylvan Ranger
Terastdon
Wall of Blossoms
Wolfbriar Elemental
Wood Elves
Woodfall Primus
Yavimaya Elder

Akroma's Memorial
Cloudstone Curio
Crucible of Worlds
Eldrazi Monument
Planar Portal
Scroll Rack
Seer's Sundial
Skullclamp
Storm Cauldron
Zuran Orb

Aluren
Beastmage Ascension
Concordant Crossroads
Doubling Season
Exploration
Gaea's Touch
Greater Good
Lifegift
Rites of Flourishing
Sylvan Library
Vernal Bloom

Beacon of Creation
Crop Rotation
Cultivate
Gaea's Bounty
Garruk Wildspeaker
Harmonize
Harrow
Howl of the Night Pack
Kodama's Reach
Krosian Grip
Life from the Loam
Overrun
Recycle
Regrowth
Rude Awakening
Seek the Horizon
Skyshroud Claim

Rise of the Eldrazi - All the new legends

Rise of the Eldrazi is finally here, only 5 days to wait for your pre-release and it seems that we've been spoiled all the new legends due for this set if the Orb of Insight is to be believed. There are 3 Eldrazi, an Angel, a Vampire-Shaman & a Goblin/Golem. All of us in the EDH community wait with baited breath to see what is going to be the next big, fun general to build around. Let's have a look at what the set has given us, starting with the triumvirate of Eldrazi Legends.

Lets go over the basics. The Eldrazi, long forgotten scourge of the Zendikar plane, have become worshipped as Gods by the native populace. The only small fly in the ointment is that they are not the benevolent EDH-Group-Hug-Purple-Hippo type of God, these guys are the eternal embodiment of horror and destruction. To be fair to them, they probably aren't even the "fire and brimstone" type of Gods either. They fall more into the we-will-devour-your-plane-and-every-living-thing-on-it category. That's not going to go down well with the faithful. Now, these beings have been kept imprisoned within (or by) the Eye of Ugin for a few Aeons, so you can understand that some people/merfolk/goblins, who only live a few decades at most, have forgotten who or what they really are. Waking up in the morning, you don't honestly expect to meet your chosen god on your way to your job at Tuktuks Adventuring Emporia ("For ALL your adventuring needs!"). It's got to come as a shock. To discover, in addition, that the beings you venerated on your knees by your sleeping pallet every night weren't exactly here to reward you for your prayers but rather here to sound the knell that heralds the apocalypse, well, that sort of thing can get you down, really ruin your day. You may be distraught and flee. You may be pissed. You may even decide that a little deicide is in order. (Heh!).

Either way, there will be blood. Most likely yours.

What of these fearsome beings? Well, you know the way your Grandma's skin got a little pale and lost its pigment as she got very old? Well, imagine that process multiplied by aeons.

And add tentacles. (This might not be necessary if your Grandma already has tentacles, delete as appropriate.)

So, these guys have lost all colour (but, very importantly, are not artifacts), which is extremely important for us as EDH general choosers. This hugely restricts what you can and cannot play in your EDH deck when you choose them as generals including basic lands (that is to say: none). If you want to bring the thunder with the Eldrazi, you're bringing it colourless Karn-style with all the associated restrictions. This, more than any other aspect of the Eldrazi (though probably in conjunction with their mana cost), will preclude them from seeing widespread play as generals.

What have they gained despite losing their colour? First of all, they have gained a lot of resiliance. Each has a clause that forces them to skip the whole death thing (what do you expect, they're Gods?!) and return to the burdgeoning potentiality that is just another card in your library. Why would they even need such a clause? Well, it's because they are kind of kick-ass. Each is huge, weighing in at 10, 12 & 15 smackers. Pretty much par for the course for something that would devour a plane. Now this is both a good thing and a bad thing.

Good thing: They will shuffle the entire graveyard into the owner's library when they hit it from anywhere, putting a pretty big stick through the spokes of any graveyard recursion deck. Players won't get to abuse the graveyard as a resource and get juicy Eldrazi God goodness in addition. It's one or the other. There is a pretty significant loophole however, it's not a Darksteel Colossus replacement effect, it is a triggered effect so people with instant speed reanimation will get to shoot for the hoop before the buzzer sounds.

Bad thing: If they can't abuse the graveyard easily, then neither can you. It also means that you have to make some pretty big deckbuilding choices as regards graveyard removal and cards that thrive on having targets in the grave to choose from. Reveillark is not their friend. Black and Green, which like to zombify and recycle a little more than the other three colours, are grinding their teeth!

In addition, each has an ability that allows them to ANNIHILATE YOU! It's their very own keyword: Annihilate, generally followed by a little number that tells you how much you wish Stifle was in the format. "Annihilate 4" means you really wish you had a Stifle, "Annihilate 6" requires at least a full box of tissues to dry your eyes! When each of these monsters attacks you, you get to sacrifice X permanents, where X is their "Annihilate" number. Our Eldrazi Legends aren't the only ones with Annihilate, but they are the highest Annihilate indexes. Fitting really.

Hum, let's pause there and take stock:
Don't stay dead: Check
Humongously large: Check
Will devour you when they attack: Check

That's pretty good, but that's not all. When you cast these bad boys/girls/things/Gods, there's a super-extra-bonus round. Yes, they have cast triggers! A very important thing to note is that these are not "comes onto the battlefield" abilities, but bona-fide enchantress/cascade-style Cast triggers: you resolve the effect before he/she/it comes into play. Unless of course, someone has a Stifle. This hankering after a Stifle may become a recurring theme....

Ok, enough with the vague plane-devouring generalities, on to the meat and two veg. I'll start with the the lightweight first. Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre (Source: MTG Visual Spoiler)



This is the lightweight?! >laces on sneakers, starts warming up.....<

In terms of his base stats, yes, this is the runt of the trio. A mere 10/10 for 11, Ulamog is decidedly underwhelming but he does make up for a lot of that weight in his cast trigger (Destroy a permanent) and his keyword ability (Indestructible) Let us compare him to another 11cc Indestructible, Darksteel Colossus:



Ulamog gains on the "Destroy target permanent", draws on "Indestructibile", looses out on P/T (though not by much) and, in my opinion, loses out hugely on Trample. There's a slight advantage in the afforementioned graveyard trigger being a trigger rather than a replacement effect but, in essence, you have to decide between: "Destroy target Permanent" or "Trample" on your Indestructible fatty. Each to his own but Ulamog gets blocked by 0/1 brood tokens all day.

Silly me, I forgot that he also eats your plane!! Where were we? Oh yes, I cast Ulamog, destroy a permanent, get an Indestructible 10/10 and then get to go Pac-Man on you whenever I attack even before I deal damage....... Farewell, poor DSC, we knew you well.

Ulamog Rating: As a huge beastie? Pretty hot. As a general? Probably not.

The other "runt" is Ulamog's slightly bigger brother, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth (Source: MTG Visual Spoiler) Now, I'm not sure why anyone would hate a butcher, they provide a valuable community service. Indeed, Kozilek has made it his mission to re-educate the deziens of Zendikar to the essential nature of their so-called Gods. It's not his fault that these puny beings have been deluding themselves for so long, he's basically a good kid who just wants the record set straight.



>....Starts stretching and gets ready to run....< Ok, fair enough, he's using methods that are, shall we say, heavy-handed, but it can be tough for a big kid like him to guage his own strength. He's better than Ulamog on the cost-to-beef ratio, then again he is a butcher. 12/12 for a measly 10 mana is nice. He shares his brother's appetite, annihilating at a rate of 4 per attack. Where he shines is when he's cast, netting you 4 new cards. On the flip side, he is more fragile and lacks the indestructibility his brother is always flaunting. There's not really much more to him than that, like I said, he's a simple boy who just wants to learn (and learn you!).

Kozilek Rating: As a huge beastie? Hot, hot, hot. As a general? Probably not.

Both boys are overshadowed by their big sister, Emmy:

Emrakul, the Aeons Torn (Source: MTG Visual Spoiler)


>Runs like hell..<

OOoooohh, Boy! Houston, we have a problem!

There's a joke on MTG Salvation about Magic R&D basically deciding to make the most stupid fatty they could without simply printing "You Win the Game" on it. Bearing in mind that they had just brought out Progenitus, how were they going to top "Protection from everything" on a 10/10?

Well, they started by making her the biggest printed P/T in the business at 15/15. If you're paying 15 mana and casting 1 spell that doesn't win you the game right there, well, you want it to resolve, don't you? So she can't be countered. Fine.

Unwilling to stop there, they tacked on her Annihilate index at a monstrous 6 and a cast trigger that makes it highly likely that you're going to get to benefit from it by granting you an extra turn. She doesn't have haste, she has pseudo-haste!

She slices, she dices AND she flies, neatly side-stepping the biggest drawback on her smaller legendary brethern: the inability to steam-roll a 0/1 brood token. R&D REALLY, REALLY want you to smash face with Emmy when you have spent your pocket-money on getting her into play.

Oh, I forgot, silly me!! What if some smart opponent has some mana open and decides to ruin your plane-devouring fun by bouncing her or otherwise removing her at instant speed? That would be disappointing, so our friends decided that she also has protection from coloured spells. Why not, she already has everything else?! Basically, if there's not an on-the-table response (and in the case that there is, you'd be a bit silly to run her out into the firing line) she is going to attack and she is going to kick puppies and steal teddy-bears from cute children. What a *****!

What can you do about her? Any instant speed, untargetted removal, either global or spot, will do the trick. An effect that tricks Auras into play will slow her down. Other than that, you're just hoping that she really wants to kick Rofellos hard in the fork rather than your general. (Mental note: build a Rofellos deck to lend out within the playgroup!) Just hope she's not being played alongside Rafiq & Finest Hour..... Once you get to untap, there are numerous other options, I just hope for your sake that you have them in hand!!

Emrakul Rating: As a huge beastie? Well, there's loads of keywords that she could have had... Only joking!! She's a stone cold beast, blessed with the ability to take over the game completely from the moment you have 15 mana and a way to bounce her every second turn. Choose your moment right and it will be time for the next game as everyone shuffles up in disgust. As a general? Here's the thing again: if you play her or her brothers as a general, you need to be able to generate lots of mana which any artifact deck can do in multiple ways even excluding the powerful Tolarian Academy. Infinite mana is something artifact decks can achieve in multiple ways so casting them shouldn't be a problem, however infinite mana or other infinite loop decks take us right into the heart of the debate about douchbaggery in EDH: Can an infinite mana or other infinite loop be anything other than DB-ery? Following on from there, where do you draw the line on other card like Channel for which the least (if you can believe that) DB route would be paying 15 life to cast Emrakul. EDH is going to change in a way that's freakily similiar to the plane of Zendikar itself with the introduction of the Eldrazi and all their associated cards: Some will run, some will stay true to their beliefs and carry on the good fight, some will sell their soul to defeat this new menace and more yet will be conscripted as agents in the return of the Eldrazi Gods. Shockwaves will be felt reverberating long into the next block! So, for a general Rating, I'd have to say: DB.


And who stands in opposition to the Eldrazi? Who rallys the races of this besieged plane to face this dedly foe?

A Vampire Shaman
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief (Source: Star City Games)



Drana is actually a really good general if your thing is mono-black. She's a decent evasive body attached to an acceptable cc but, most importantly, she has built-in removal and self-pump. Sure, this is limited and restricted to your available mana but very few things aren't so that't an acceptable restriction. In a normal progression when you hit your land drops up to the turn after playing her, you can kill an x/4 (potential blocker) and get in for 8 general damage. As EDH is rife with artifact mana, this can be achieved earlier than turn 5 as all that's needed for both her ability and to cast her is BB and an ever increasing quantity of X to pump her. This lack of a colour requirement also allows her to kill someone with 21 general damage in one shot should she have a source nearby that can produce that mana. Arbitrarily large, or infinite, mana loops once again rear their heads here. The one drawback to her ability, however, is if there's no legal target to point the -X at, she can't benefit from the +X, but that's a small fly in otherwise very sweet ointment.

Drana Rating: As a Creature? Very solid and a good compliment even if she's not heading your army, just a footsoldier in any B/x build. As a general? One of the better Mono-Black Generals and, while not the best, definitely in the top 3 or 4.

Two more to go and let's start with Tuktuk!

Tuktuk the Explorer (Source: MTG Visual Spoiler)



Here we have a flavour- and storyline-driven legend that really works well as a cardboard representation of his character, he literaly gets turned into a legendary Goblin Golem! When you're looking for 6 power from 3 mana, he's a pretty decent investment but there's a rather huge snag when it comes to selecting him as a general for EDH: He must go to the graveyard to trigger and give you the 5/5 Golem replacement. Normally that wouldn't be an issue except that in choosing Tuktuk as a general, you're restricting yourself to Red & artifact cards (and colourless I suppose now!), neither of which contain an abundance of cards that will allow you to recover your general. In fact, red has one card, Search for Survivors, that will allow you to bring him back for another go around and even that puts restrictions on what you can play in your deck. The only other viable options are cards that exile your graveyard allowing you to move Tuktuk to the command zone to start a new life as a normal Goblin. This is a pretty circuitious route to take however so think seriously before choosing Tuktuk!

Tuktuk Rating: As a creature? Once again, as with all the Legends in this set, an excellent creature with a role to play. Tuktuk will shine in a deck that allows you to bring him back from the dead to die again (Goblins seem to get targetted for this treatment quite often!). As a general? Once again, probably not. The format colour limitations are huge for Tuktuk and Red has it's fair share of playable legends not to need to turn to what will often amount to a one trick poney and an effect non-commensurate with the importance of his role as your general.

Finqlly, we'll finish on an uplifting note, an angel: Linvala, Guardian of Silence (Source: MTG visual spoiler)



Linvala is an intriguing Legend to have access to as a general: She's in the right colour for rules setting and can be surrounded by a lot of cards that can make life very uncomfortable for the rest of the table, restricting them in what they are allowed do and dishing out severe punishment should those new rules be enfringed. Her effect is not sweeping but it's impressive on a rising scale. I'll explain: If your playgroup revolves around a lot of creature interaction and generals with activated abilities, she is a house. If your playgoup echews creature-centric synergies for big-spell control, dumb beaters or even activated abilities on other permanent types, she will be less impressive. At a certain point you'll have to decide if she's 1.) worth going mono-white for and 2.) worth choosing as your general, i.e. a card you have quasi-guarenteed access to all throughout the game.

Who doesn't like her? Rofellos and Azami spring to mind. "Rofellos? But his ability is a mana ability!" you say. Guess what? With Linvala in play, you have a Null Rod set to creatures. If someone were to play, say Kormus Bell and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, (even the Linvala player, as the Tomb doesn't contain a black mana symbol) no land could be tapped for mana as all lands are swamps, all swamps are creatures and Linvala would stop them fro using their activated "Tap: add one mana" ability. Quite apart from such screwy interactions, have a run through your favourite deck and put aside all the creatures that would be turned off by Linvala being in play. You may be surprised by how many there are and that's quite apart from General centric decks like the afforementioned Rofellos and Azami who would need to find a solution very quickly or be overwhelmed by the rest of the table.

Linvala Rating: As a creature? She has a stout body, evasion and is at a good spot on the curve. Her ability ranges between very relevant and crushing depending on your matchup and she exudes an aura of "build around me!". As a general? This is one to watch and will be very metagame dependant. I hope to see her one day so I can flex my decks against her restrictions!

That's all for my pre-release Rise of Eldrazi information. More after when we've seen the rest.

Welcome to the assorted ramblings of an EDH addict

Welcome to Together for EDH or "TogEDHer" if you're sporting a thick Dublin accent. This is a very short introduction to my new blog about all things EDH and other random thoughts as they come to me. Feel free to join in.

I started playing EDH two years ago moving around generals until, after a couple of months, I landed on Rafiq of the Many which quickly became my signature general. Since then, and after many, many experiments I have developed two other decks, Azusa, Lost but Seeking and more recently Thada Adel, Acquisitor, which is a work in progress. Azusa in particular has captured my attention more than any other general as it's very much a deck that relies on strong interactions rather than a good-stuff deck (Thada) or a threat density deck (Rafiq - essentially any creature is better with Rafiq out, then it's just a question of going for impact and redundancy)

I live and play in France which can occasionally cause some difficulties due to the French EDH community having a penchant for pick-up or 1v1 games using the EDH rule structure but a different ban list but that topic is one for another day. I have the huge opportunity to have my full playgroup at work which allows us to play every day in different formats (1v1, 2HG or chaos depending on how many are present or interested in playing EDH) The current most popular format is EDH 2HG which is a great mix of multiplayer married to the increased power level of duel play. You lose a lot of the politicking involved in regular EDH chaos games however so it's not my personal favourite format. It does allow me to hide my early-game weakness when playing Thada Adel behind the strong front of my partners' Uril, GAAIV, Sharuum etc. A definite plus!

That's about it for the introduction. I'm intending to go into some Duel Vs Multiplayer issues, ban lists, my personal favourite decks and cards as well as looking at some of the insanely good stuff that RoE looks to be throwing our way: Uril & Jhoira are drooling over what's to come! I'm sure a lot of other generals are too!