Archenemy - The "Deckbuilder's Toolbox" for EDH players?

Take a look around you. Do you see all those guys (and some girls) grouped together? They're playing multiplayer. How do you know? Well, because it's the "Summer of Multiplayer", of course! What else would they be doing? Wizards have decided to regale us with a continuous stream of additional product since the beginning of last year. We've had Duel Decks (Goblins & Elves, Jace & Chandra, Garruk & Liliana, Phyrexia & the Coalition and soon Elsbeth & Tezzeret), we've had From the Vaults (Exiled & Dragons with Relics following this summer), we've had foil boosters (mixed Alara Block), Premium Decks (Slivers) and, of course, Planechase. That's a lot of additional product on top of the usual 4 set releases. Why are we getting all of this extra stuff?

The basic idea behind it is to generate interest in the game above and beyond the release of a new set. All products are not going to appeal to all players equally so, while you may not care about Slivers, you may be really excited about Relics. And, if neither of those interests you, there's surely another product in addition to the base set and the current block that you can go into your shop and order or pre-order. And the best thing about all of this stuff?

Each product is mostly produced with existing ideas with an added hook: In Planechase it was a Multiplayer concept, in the Duel decks it's foil Planeswalkers or other interesting cards married with iconic rares from previous sets. In FTV we've seen product that's generally hard to get your hands on repackaged, foiled and sometimes furnished with new art all sold together at a very attractive MSRP. For the summer of 2010 and riding the huge popularity wave that EDH has generated for multiplayer games, Wizards have come up with an exciting concept to follow on from the chaos-filled Planechase and that is Archenemy.



What is Archenemy? It's a set of 4 different boxes with a 4 different 60 card decks each built to a theme and accompanied by 20 "Scheme" cards. The idea is simple: You take the deck provided, gather a few friends and they work together, as a team, to try to kill you. You have the advantage of starting with 40 life rather than the usual 20 and you go first, drawing on your first turn. In addition, at the start of each of your turns, you turn over a Scheme card from the top of the Scheme pile and carry out the instructions on it. You draw extra cards, you deal damage, there's lots of fun things you can do that your team of opponents need to find a way around.

Now, I can see a couple of you scratching your heads as if you've seen all this before. Well, it should if you're ever dabbled in either the DC/Marvel Vs System or WOW TCGs, this product is a very close clone of their "Raid" deck: One Vs Many with oversized action cards that benefit the "One" to be turned over at the start of each turn. The fact that Wizards are bringing out 4 versions at once suggests that the product they are providing, while not necessarily a walk in the park, may be less Machiavellian than the twisted Raids that UDE served up. Then again, I may be wrong and we're in for a torrid season of trying and failing to beat the Undead Apocalypse, Doomsday Machine or whatever.

What's our interest as EDH players in this, or any, additional product aside from simply playing it out of the box? Well, it reminds me strikingly of another additional products that Wizards released not too long ago called "The Deckbuilder's Toolbox". This is an expert level product designed to provide beginners with a card base wide and relevant enough to construct the bones of a Standard/Type 2 deck. It's not something that I would suggest to someone starting out in EDH and looking for EDH staples, the random nature of the contents and the very nature of EDH decks spanning the history of Magic doesn't suggest that, unless you are very, very lucky, you're not going to be using it as a base to start your EDH decks.

Archenemy, however, is an entirely different affair. You know what you're getting for a start so you can purchase your product tailored to your particular deck needs, but, more importantly, the quality of the content all the way down from Rare to Common is so high for a player with a limited collection trying to get into EDH that the entire Archenemy set, all 4 decks, is something that I would recommend collection impoverished EDH hopefuls to consider acquiring very seriously. The number of playable EDH cards is extremely high. Let's have a look at what I consider the weakest of the decks EDH-wise and see how it measures up.

Scorch The World With Dragonfire



CREATURES (19)
1 Skirk Marauder
1 Taurean Mauler
1 Fierce Empath
2 Dragonspeaker Shaman
1 Skirk Commando
1 Battering Craghorn
2 Dragon Whelp
2 Furnace Whelp
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Gathan Raiders
1 Ryusei, the Falling Star
1 Flameblast Dragon
1 Hellkite Charger
1 Two-Headed Dragon
1 Imperial Hellkite
1 Kilnmouth Dragon

OTHER SPELLS (17)
2 Gruul Signet
1 Breath of Darigaaz
1 Dragon Breath
2 Dragon Fodder
1 Colossal Might
2 Seething Song
1 Volcanic Fallout
2 Branching Bolt
1 Fires of Yavimaya
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Chandra’s Outrage
1 Fireball
1 Savage Twister

LANDS (24)
17 Mountain
5 Forest
2 Kazandu Refuge

Ok, we have a Dragon theme happening here. This is the weakest deck for me because, if your thing is not Dragons, there's less outside of the flappy, scaled, fire-breathing reptiles in this deck that you'll want to put into your EDH decks. If Dragon's are your thing, then there's a lot of good happening here. Let's look at them and their related cards first:

2 Dragonspeaker Shaman
2 Dragon Whelp
2 Furnace Whelp
1 Ryusei, the Falling Star
1 Flameblast Dragon
1 Hellkite Charger
1 Two-Headed Dragon
1 Imperial Hellkite
1 Kilnmouth Dragon

Little Dragons, Big Dragons, guys that make your dragons cheaper; we're pretty happy with this lot. There's even a potential general in there, the Legendary Ryusei making an appearance. In a dedicated EDH Dragon deck, I could see cutting the Whelps but I wouldn't fault anyone for including all the other 7 cards.

1 Skirk Marauder
1 Gathan Raiders
1 Skirk Commando
1 Battering Craghorn

Next we have a confusing sub-theme of morph dudes. I'm sure you could get a Gathan Raiders into a dedicated aggro deck but the rest aren't great (neither in EDH nor any other multiplayer deck to be honest)

1 Taurean Mauler
1 Fierce Empath
1 Chameleon Colossus

Rounding out the creatures are 3 multiplayer all-stars: Taurean Mauler is a dumb beast but he's also a dumb Dragon, dumb Goblin, dumb Elf or whatever you want him to be, Sailor! [insert inappropriate joke here. Oh, I already did!] He grows with each spell cast and, if he's not dealt with early, can become quite the monster. Sure, he was in Planechase so the reprint is not as exciting as it could be, but that doesn't change his usefullness. If you're playing red and have a creature slot free, the Mauler is a real threat.

Fierce Empath is a 1/1 for 3, not a good deal by any means, but he is also a tutor for fat dudes which explains his presence beside the Dragon Hordes here. If you're suing him elsewhere, he also finds Beasts, Elementals or any other fat thing you need; he's not biased, he just loves the fat.


And Chamelion Colossus? Wow! A chase rare from Lorwyn and holder of the largest single recorded EDH creature win of all time? Yes! I'll have one of those. He's got Pro-black, that's very relevant. He's a Changeling, which means he's everything else as well. And finally he doubles his P/T for 2GG as many times as you want, what's not to like?

Just a note on the price, the MSRP for this product is $19.99. I've seen sites offer this on pre-order for as low as $15.00. I took a random popular game site and checked out the prices on these singles. Excluding the little morph suite and taking the worst condition/lowest price on just the other 15 cards we've seen so far, my best price is €21.65 so, even before you leave the creatures section of this deck and obv. excluding the Scheme cards, you are up on what the originals of these cards are available for. From this point on, each card you see in this deck is essentially free. Sure, you'd have to have wanted to buy exactly these cards in the first place to gain full value, but the point stands that what you're getting is well below the current market value.

The rest of the deck is not terribly exciting from an EDH pov., thus the "worst of the lot" moniker I'm giving plastering on but you do get Gruul Signet, Volcanic Fallout, Fires of Yavimaya, Thran Dynamo (a $3 uncommon) & Savage Twister all of which are very playable in EDH.

Overall, if you're a fan of Dragons and want to add some + benefits to your EDH deck for very little, this is a product you will get a lot of milage out of. Personally, I'm not a fan of Dragons but, I'll happily add them to my collection as trade fodder while creaming off Thran Dynamo, Chameleon Colossus, Fierce Empath for EDH and a Skirk Marauder for my C/U Cube.

Why don't we work ourselves upwards in terms of power? Next on the list is our plans to Trample Civilisation Underfoot:


CREATURES (23)
1 Leaf Gilder
2 Sakura Tribe Elder
1 Shinen of Life's Roar
2 Wall of Roots
1 Watchwolf
1 Selesnya Guildmage
2 Fertilid
1 Hunting Moa
2 Yavimaya Dryad
1 Forgotten Ancient
1 Thelonite Hermit
2 Wickerbough Elder
1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
1 Verdeloth the Ancient
1 Pale Recluse
1 Krosan Tusker
1 Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer
1 Feral Hydra

OTHER SPELLS (13)
1 Fog
1 Rancor
1 Spider Umbra
1 Path to Exile
1 Gleeful Sabotage
1 Plummet
1 Heroes' Reunion
2 Oblivion Ring
1 Armadillo Cloak
1 Harmonize
1 Primal Command
1 Wax/Wane

LANDS (24)
10 Forest
5 Plains
1 Graypelt Refuge
1 Khalni Garden
1 Krosan Verge
1 Llanowar Reborn
1 Mosswort Bridge
1 Nantuko Monastery
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree

Of the 38 non-basic land cards listed here that have already been released, I currently play 23 of them in various EDH decks. That's 60% of this deck. There's a good handful of G & W staples from Path to Exile (now a ridiculous $6 online) to Sakura Tribe Elder, Wall of Roots, Krosan Tusker, Harmonize (another $2) and Rancor and this is before you get anywhere near more theme-driven cards like the Saproling generators, specialist lands or even the rares. Yes, I haven't mentioned a single rare from this deck yet and already you have a ton of playables!

Forgotten Ancient is another excellent multiplayer card (though again, like the Taurean Mauler, less exciting for being a Planechase reprint), Kamahl, Fist of Krosa is a house for any sort of token- or high creature-count deck like Elves and he even doubles as a rattlesnake against Wrath effects (if you keep a number of green mana open, you can respond to a Wrath of God effect by turning an opponent's lands into 1/1 creatures thus sealing their doom when the Wrath of God resolves.) Oh, he's a potential General too as he is Legendary.

Once again, this deck is for players who weren't about for all of these sets and really want to find a bunch of solid G/W staples for EDH without selling the rest of their collection. Just the Path to Exile pushes the market value of this deck well above the MSRP and the unamed commons and uncommons aren't slouches either. There's really very little that you can't play in EDH from this deck and that's a pretty big stamp of approval.

We've had a Dragon-themed deck packed full of value and a Saproling-themed deck packed full of solid G/W EDH staples, what does the Undead Apocalypse have in store for us apart from, you know, BbbrrrAAAAiiinnnsss!?



Creatures:
1 Festering Goblin
1 Dregscape Zombie
1 Reassembling Skeleton
1 Rakdos Guildmage
1 Bog Witch
1 Urborg Syphon-Mage
1 Cemetery Reaper
1 Avatar of Discord
2 Infectious Horror
1 Corpse Connoisseur
1 Shriekmaw
2 Twisted Abomination
1 Extractor Demon
1 Kaervek the Merciless
1 Avatar of Woe
1 Vampiric Dragon
1 Scion of Darkness
1 Artisan of Kozilek

Spells:

1 Reanimate
2 Rakdos Signet
1 Zombie Infestation
2 Sign in Blood
2 Terminate
1 Infest
1 Makeshift Mannequin
1 Zombify
1 Inferno Trap
1 Torrent of Souls
1 Beacon of Unrest
1 Incremental Blight
1 Bituminous Blast

Lands:

13 Swamp
7 Mountain
2 Barren Moor
2 Rakdos Carnarium

Ok, a little aside before I dive into this decklist; one card that you won't have recognised here is Reassembling Skeleton and, if you were paying attention, you should have noticed Plummet and Chandra's Outrage from the first two decks. Add in the Sorcerer's Strongbox from the last list and you have a couple of spoilers for a future set. We're pretty sure that these are all in M11 so watch out for them. The reason I didn't go into this for teh first two cards is that, really, they are not too exciting:

Plummet 1G Instant
Destroy target creature with flying

Chandra's Outrage 2RR Instant
~ deals 4 damage to target creature and 2 damage to that creatures controller

Sorcerer's Strongbox 4 Artifact
2,T: Flip a coin. If you win the flip, sacrifice ~ and draw three cards.

However, it's Reassembling Skeleton that's capturing the imagination on the forums:

Reassembling Skeleton 1B
Creature - Skeleton Warrior 1/1
1B: Return ~ from your Graveyard to the battlefield tapped.

A 1/1 for 1B is not all that exciting but at any time it's in your graveyard, for an additional 1B, you can bring it back into play tapped. At the end of your opponent's turn is usually a good time. What really has the creative juices flowing, however, is that this little monster has built in reanimation reducing the need for a cog in a combo that revolves creatures rotating out of the graveyard and onto the battlefield multiple times. Less cards means more efficiency and generally more deck-space for protection or redundancy. We'll see what this guy ends up becomming. Back to the deck we have a cornucoppia of black and red reanimation, huge beasts and generally good multiplayer cards:

The ability on Urborg Syphon-Mage, like Avatar of Discord's additinal cost, requires a discard to work. Generally the discard is a disadvantage but when you're discarding a monster to be reanimated by Artisan of Kozilek, Reanimate, Makeshift Mannequin, Zombify, Torrent of Souls or Beacon of Unrest or the damage trigger on Scion of Darkness, well, you can probably live with that kind of "disadvantage". And when the card you're discarding is a Shriekmaw, Twisted Abomination, Extractor Demon, Kaervek the Merciless, Avatar of Woe, Vampiric Dragon or Scion of Darkness, well all the more reason to take advantage of and dump those guys right in there. If you don't have them in hand Corpse Connoisseur gets them directly into the graveyard for you.

Need more discard outlets? How about Zombie Infestation? Your Cemetery Reaper boosts the Zombies you make and can scavenge the various graveyards around the table to deny opponents graveyard resouces while building your own army. Oh and you also have some very playable utility in Rakdos Signet, Sign in Blood, Terminate, Infest & Bituminous Blast. That's easily 23 EDH playable cards, some in multiples, that feature here. It's a beast as it stands and cannibalised for B/r EDH decks it's easy to see a huge number of very playable cards. You're getting reanimation, control, zombies, beaters, this is just an excellent product. There's even a Dragon, if that's your thing!


In terms of monetary value? Just the uncommon Reanimate alone is worth $7. Avatar of Woe (I still can't believe she's in here, this is so excellent!!) brings our total to $15 and almost any one of the remaining rares brings us to within touching distance of the MSRP. That's 3-4 out of 40 non basic-land cards in this deck. This is the skeleton that an excellent B/r (or mono-B) EDH deck will be built and, guess what, there's an extra bonus round: We get a free general! Kaervek the Merciless!

Wow, how can Assembling the Doomsday Machine even hope to follow that? So far we've had R/G Dragons, G/W tokens, B/R Reanimator, now it's the turn of BLUE!! Or, maybe I should whisper "blue" because that's one colour that is not getting the love in Archenemy [strange as Blue seems to be the colour that everyone hates and loves to beat up on!] Assembling the Doomsday Machine is a WUB deck with a very strong artifact theme:


CREATURES
1 Metallurgeon
1 Ethersworn Shieldmage
1 Juggernaut
1 Lodestone Golem
1 Synod Centurion
1 Leonin Abunas
2 Sanctum Gargoyle
1 Master Transmuter
1 Architects of Will
1 Duplicant
1 Magister Sphinx
1 Memnarch
1 Sundering Titan

SPELLS
1 Everflowing Chalice
2 AEther Spellbomb
1 Synod Sanctum
1 Azorius Signet
1 Dimir Signet
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Sun Droplet
1 Batwing Brume
2 Agony Warp
1 Obelisk of Esper
1 Thunderstaff
1 Fieldmist Borderpost
1 Mistvein Borderpost
1 Unmake
1 Skullcage
1 Sorcerer's Strongbox
1 March of the Machine
1 Unbender Tine
1 Spin into Myth
1 Dreamstone Hedron

LANDS
7 Plains
10 Island
5 Swamp
2 Terramorphic Expanse

Em, wow much? What this deck lacks in Archenemy synergy in comparison to the Reanimator deck (I'd put this on par with the first two above) it more than makes up in power-artifact rares. If you've not been keeping count, each deck had 8 rares, generally creatures (the G/W has a rare land and the reanimator has the rare and excellent Beacon of Unrest) this is the case again here with 7 of the 8 sporting a P/T:

1 Lodestone Golem
1 Leonin Abunas
1 Master Transmuter
1 Duplicant
1 Magister Sphinx
1 Memnarch
1 Sundering Titan
1 March of the Machines

Now, when I say "power-artifact rares", for once I'm not talking about their monetary value because this deck actually lags behind in the value stakes: the 8 rares don't meet the MSRP and the uncommons & commons, while decent enough in this deck, aren't going to empty the pocket. This is one product where you get only a little more than what you're paying for and adding the packaging and Scheme cards. What this deck does offer you is the chance to buy everything together in one packet rather than shopping about to find individual cards. Another thing about this deck is that it pulls from the latest two blocks quite heavily, so new players who have been playing since the beginning of Shards of Alara, may even have some of these cards, slightly less incentive again.


What you do get however, you can play in EDH, from the rares at least and a few of the remaining cards too. In fact, two of these cards are at the centre of numerous complaints about their power level (Sundering Titan & Magister Sphinx) and a third, Memnarch is the subject or repeated petitions to be allowed as a general, currently to no avail. His exclusion from the ranks of general don't decrease his potency, he can completely dominate a table given enough support. All in all the deck has great cards but is not in the same league as Bring about the Undead Apocalypse.

All in all, each of these deck has something for EDH players looking for specific cards to fill out their decks and a whole lot more for newer players who don't have a huge collection and are seriously looking into getting into EDH without spending a fortune. Quite apart from their value to me personally, I've a decent sized collection, one or two newer players in my group will be looking to pick up one or more of these "EDH base packs" as the bones of their first steps into EDH deckbuilding. To date only the "Premium Deck: Slivers" has offered this step up into EDH though in a much more restricted manner (you have to like Slivers!) Not being able to choose Memnarch as your general tarnishes the obvious desire by Wizards to include a playable Legend in each deck, but he is playable (and strong!) and the other 3 are very valid candidates to lead your EDH army.

Product rating: Top Banana!! Even if the "Scheme"/Archenemy side of the product flops totally (and I don't think it will) this is a quality, value-for-money product that casual players everywhere will appreciate. Good job!

So that's the decks. What about the actual product Archenemy and it's relation to EDH? I touched briefly on the possibility of making my "Ta-Daa!!" (Thada Adel) deck into a dedicated EDH Archenemy deck. Like Planechance, I can really see the possibilities that Archenemy can bring to eth EDH experience but, as yet, that only the theory. I look forward to the practise!

NPEs - Scraping the Gloss off with a Wire Brush

This is a tale of two decks.

This is a tale of two games.

And this is also a tale of two games that someone found to be very NPE (Negative Play Experiences)

Tuesday evening I got a baby-sitting pass as the good lady went out to a concert with her lady friends. Once the fatherly duties were finished, I was free to sling some cardboard with 4 other guys invited expressly for that purpose. Benoit & Arnaud#2 showed up first sporting Major Teroh/Soldiers and GAAIV/Control respectively and there were quickly followed by Antoine playing Thraximundar/Annoyances and Marc with his new "Vampire!" deck. There was some quick re-sleeving to get Anowon, the Ruin Sage into place at the head of Marc's army (though, in retrospect the Ascendant Evincar he had originally would have much more of an impact across more games than Anowon. We pointed this out afterwards and he'll probably change it. ROWR! Go Vamps!)

Facing this onslaught, I played my mono-blue artifact monstrousity "TA-DAA!!" (Thada Adel). A quick note on the deck: I've made changes to it recently, the most notible being the inclusion of Spawnsire of Ulamog. The intention was to eventually go for the 20 point shot and bring out a swarm of Eldrazi. Unfortunatly, with the recent rules change disallowing this, I have integrated the 3 legendary Eldrazi & It That Betrays to the deck. I had intended to cut the Spawnsire itself but forgot to do so before playing, something which I intend to do soon, adding it in most likely for Gather Specimens as a foil to Grave Pact.

You can see our merry group of player's here (From the left: Marc playing "Vampires!", Benoit in red playing Major Teroh/Soldiers, Arnaud top left playing GAAIV and the back of Antoine's head (he of card alter fame), bottom right of the pic. Antoine was playing Thraximundar/Annoyances.)

I had a decent opening hand into a turn 3 Vedalken Archmage. The additional draws got me an Expedition Map which got me a Tolarian Academy. With Darksteel Forge protecting my artifacts and no Wastelands in sight, a couple of turns and some artifacts later, the legendary land and Minamo, School at Water's Edge got me enough mana to drop Eye of Ugin, tutor for Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and play her even working around the in-play Grand Arbiter Augustin IV. It was about turn 7 and the game had taken an hour to get to that point. An hour of saying "TA-DAA!!" every time you play a spell can get a little old. ;o)

Here's a quick shot of my board coming up to the end of the game.

GAAIV has a Mystical Tutor that he has flashed but not played so he's an obvious candidate to be Annihilated as he can just fetch a Wrath of God effect. Major Teroh is also sporting some annoying Wrath effects and "Vampires!" has an Icy Manipulator on the table, though it's effectiveness is restricted by Minamo, School at Water's Edge being able to untap Emrakul. I decide to work counter-clockwise around the table and hit GAAIV to destroy his board. He is left with no permanents and essentialy ends the game as an observer. I can see he's not too happy about it and I offer that we go to game 2 but the table thinks it can deal with Emrakul and play continues.

I attack Major Teroh next and, after a few turns wearing him down, he's next to leave. In the same turn I kill him I play back-to-back Ulamog & Kozilek with It that Betrays already in play. One is countered but now there's a critical mass of Eldrazi and a lot less in the way of allies to help fight against them and the game disolves. One of the last few plays from Marc, the "Vampires!" player, is exiling Emrakul with an Oubliette, just to show that he could and, I have to say, Journey to Nowhere in black is generally not what you expect and is an excellent anti-Emrakul card. Cudeos for the cool play!

So, the outcome of the game was a win for the Eldrazi but a loss for fun, because one player was pretty much iced on turn 6-7, another scrabbled in vain not to be overrun and there was little that could be done by the remaining players to stem the tide. Despite being a couple of cards short of where I'd eventually like it to end up, the deck still man-handled the table playing loosely. Sure, everyone enjoyed playing Magic but there was a feeling of enevitability about the outcome from very early on and the game culminated in the sum of all it's fears as player after player fell powerless before it. (Sorry for the flowery rhetoric, I'm building up to something. Work with me!)

What am I going to do with this monster?

The same thing we do every night, Pinky: TRY AND TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!



Wizards are releasing a new product this month in support of their "Summer of Multiplayer" called Archenemy. In a twist on the traditional multiplayer teams, attack left, pentagon, chaos or any of the other popular variants, this product supports a Hero (or Evil Genius) going up against a host of enemies. One of the decks on offer is "Assembling the Doomsday Machine" which, during the game last night, I felt I was doing already. Now that's a concept I can get behind: Eldrazi making you weaker, making me stronger! Taking over the world!! MMMWWWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Ahem.

I have no idea if it will work but I'm willing to give it a try. Just even announcing the flavour texts on the Scheme cards while doing my best "Brain - Evil Genius" impression is definitely a dream to be lived at least once and, if I get to trample the weak & meek with huge Eldrazi, well, what of it? I'm an evil genius! I'm going to talk more about Archenemy once the last deck is spoiled, but it looks like it's a set made with EDH players firmly in mind.

Shuffling up for the second game, I wanted to diffuse some of the ill-will and rather than re-playing "TA-DAA!!" or bringing out Rafiq, I had a rummage and found I had a full Phelddagrif deck so I pulled it out. If I can help some people do some fun and extravigant stuff, then everyone will appreciate it, right?

Em, maybe.

Seats and decks around the rest of the table remained as they were and we got underway for round two.

Major Teroh didn't buy the whole "I have a Group Hug deck, I'm nice, don't attack me" line and started out attacking yours truely. At this point I predicted that Major Teroh would turn out to be the eventual victor, he has a way of just pulling games out of the fire and defeating opponents in one fell swoop and I didn't fancy my chances of stopping him. The others were understandibly happy to let him have is way. My slow land start eventually developped into an Iwamori of the Open Fist (which netted zero other legends) and a Wall of Denial which I then hid behind for a few turns. My next significant play was Hive Mind which stayed until the end and ultimately resulted in the game ending play.



Now, I don't know if you have any personal experience with Hive Mind, but it's not the huggy-touchy-feely card it makes itself out to be. Probably the worst interaction is the win condition of Hive Mind + Pact: All of the pacts are free to cast so once you have Hive Mind in play you're free to throw any one, or multiples, of them out. Hive Mind's copy effect is not optional, it's obligatory, so everyone gets a Pact to put onto the stack. The Pacts cause you to lose the game if you don't pay their upkeep cost however, if your general is not in that colour, you can't generate the mana to pay the cost and you lose the game. That's a pretty low play and obviously not what a Group Hug deck runs. Only thing is, when you have Hive Mind in play, it doesn't account for other players running Pacts. Even if one player pays for the pact, the chances are that you've thinned the field enough to win in some other way quite quickly.

Luckily enough, this wasn't the case for us, our problem was more one of scale.

The second issue with Hive Mind is that every effect is magnified, causing a huge imbalance towards board control effects. Wrath of God is still Wrath of God even if it's copied 4 times however, a creature like Reveillark, which would usually net you a creature or two after a Wrath of God effect, now nets you a creature or two after the last copy on the stack resolves and you subsequently lose them both when the second-to-last copy resolves. No, the bigger problem is more the smaller spells. Doom Blade now kills up to 5 non-black creatures ("up to" because two players can target the same creature with their copy and the second will fizzle), Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile now exile up to 5 creatures, Innocent Blood becomes a Wrath of God for {B} and so on. And very soon the game dissolves into ways of trying to keep creatures in play or winning through other means.

Hive Mind is also not a good card for decks that like to counter things as all the counterspells get copied too and the chances are that one of the original spells will slip through the blanket of Counterspell flak that Hive Mind automatically generates. Obviously the player playing the original spell wants it to resolve so it's more than likely that he will direct his own copy of the counterspell towards another copy of the counterspell, thus ensuring that their spell resolves.

The Group Hug concept is to help other players: Give target player some life, give another target player some cards, everyone puts one or multiple permanents into play for free (though the deck should probably be called "escalation" rather than "Group Hug"!), but it's also true that "you can get too much of a good thing" and with Hive Mind, giving someone else too much of a good thing can kill you, and everyone else, just as easily.

Now, I have to take a moment to slap the Major Teroh player on the wrist because he had the foresight to pack a Seal of Cleansing and run it out early enough. He could have stopped the madness at any time. He didn't. He chose to kill an Underworld Dreams so he could keep drawing cards painlessly and this is the sort of action that could lead to you winning the game but not necessarily very many friends!

Bad boy!

Thraximundar thought it would be a good idea to play a Mind Funeral and everyone got targetted by the copies losing anywhere up to 20 cards into their graveyards. Vision Skeins and Truce got played, Hive Mind copying them both, filling up hands and, at EOT, graveyards. "Vampires!" then decided that he preferred the creatures in his graveyard to those he had in play and played a Living Death (though, to be fair to him, Thraximundar was about to do the same thing).

You know the moment at the top of the fairground ride where everything pauses for a moment and you have this peacefull pause before you start the terrifying downhill descent which either ends up in shrieks of excitement or the guy in the front seat regurgitating his burger and fries all over the passengers in the cars behind him? Well, Living Death on the stack with a Hive Mind in play is one of those moments.

Just resolving the 4 copies and 1 original Living Death took the best part of 45 minutes, some time during which there was a debate about the comes into play interaction of Kor Skyfisher and a Parallax Wave and how the triggers could be stacked to permanently remove creatures from the game (just fyi: in this situation they can't), Tempting Wurm was dumping hands into play and we had additional CIP triggers from 7 or 8 creatures, leaves play triggers from Reveillark and goes to grave graveyard triggers from Noble Benefactor, Veteran Explorer and Deathgreeter. And when we were done resolving the first, it was time to start again and repeat everything another 4 times.

Somewhere in the middle of it all we lost our Grand Arbiter player to complete incomprehension and confusion. I can't blame him.

When the dust finally settled, "Vampires!" passed the turn to Major Teroh who played a Reverent Mantra for black on his army and took the "Vampires!" out of the game. Not sure if it was in revenge for the Living Death turn but it was pretty final! He passed the turn to GAAIV, who simply drew and passed, completely disenchanted by the complexity of the previous 45 minutes.

With a hand of 14 cards hand and a Windfall, I was in a position to finish the game and, given the potential for everything to drag out significantly, I decided to do so. The game ended though, due to a slight oversight on my part, I managed to give the victory to Major Teroh. You see Hive Mind copied Windfall 3 times. GAAIV's copy resolved first and we discarded and drew 14 each. Major Teroh's copy then resolved with the same effect. We then resolved Thraximunder's copy resulting in GAAIV, Thraximundar and myself being decked. At this point each of our spells are removed from the stack and Major Teroh is the only one left standing with a mere 3 cards left in his library. My prediction that he would pull out an unlikely victory turned out to be accurate after all!

So, some fun was had, that's for sure. Brains aren't designed for 5 Living Deaths at midnight after a long day of work and this left everyone with a pretty dazed impression of the game and, in one case, complete bewilderment. Between being on the receiving end of an Emrakul in game 1 and having "the turn of the 5 Living Deaths" inflicted upon him in game 2, I think that GAAIV ended up not fully enjoying his evening of Magic.

So what do we take from this and where do we go from here?

Of course big plays should still be actively rewarded and attempted and generally those plays mean that someone (everyone?) is going to be on the receiving end of a lot of magical hurt. I think I'll re-align "TA-DAA!!" into my Archenemy deck as I said and try to avoid inflicting it on the unprepared.

What about Hive Mind in my Group Torture deck? I may leave it in. There's a possibility that it will draw enough hate to nullify the worst ravages or players will be a little more careful running out huge spells if they are aware that everything will happen multiple times.

As for our GAAIV player, I think he needs a deck that he has built himself, where he knows what everything does and where he can best influence the game. We've told him as much and I think he sees how he can feel more implicated. As to being crushed by the Eldrazi?

Well, there's only so much I can do about that!

Rafiq of the Many - And many are the ways!

I started EDH about two and a half years ago now and skipped from deck to deck a fair bit, stopping only on Ghost Council of Orzhova for any length of time. Rafiq is the first general I got really fixated on. No matter how long I play with him and his Bant-aligned colours, I can always find new ways to make him fun and interesting and, probably most important, relevant to my metagame.

He started life as an exalted beatdown deck aiming for the general win before morphing into a voltron somewhere along the way still with general beats in mind. The next step was intended as a lesson to my metagame and was one which functioned very well as Hermit Druid, Golgari Grave Troll, Attunement and very aggressive Life from the Loams allowed me to Replenish my graveyard full of enchantments onto Rafiq or another of my creatures to slam in for the win in short order. Once graveyard hate became the mot du jour, Rafiq got to try on new armour into an early version of the deck that, after a few changes, became the following:

== General (1) ==
1x Rafiq of the Many

== Land (37) ==
3x Plains
4x Island
4x Forest
1x Maze of Ith
1x Riftstone Portal
1x Darksteel Citadel
1x Strip Mine
1x Wasteland
1x High Market
1x Flagstones of Trokair
1x Eiganjo Castle
1x Tolaria West
1x Tranquil Thicket
1x Lonely Sandbar
1x Secluded Steppe
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Windswepth Heath
1x Flooded Strand
1x Tundra
1x Tropical Island
1x Selesnya Sanctuary
1x Azorius Chancery
1x Simic Growth Chamber
1x Yavimaya Coast
1x Brushland
1x Adarkar Wastes
1x Breeding Pool
1x Temple Garden
1x Hallowed Fountain

== Artifact Mana (5) ==
1x Sol Ring
1x Darksteel Ingot
1x Selesnya Signet
1x Azorius Signet
1x Simic Signet

== Non-Mana Artifacts (8) ==
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Relic of Progenitus
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Skullclamp
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Whispersilk Cloak
1x Sword of Light and Shadow
1x Behemoth Sledge

== Enchantments (5) ==
1x Survival of the Fittest
1x Aura Shards
1x Rhystic Study
1x Greater Good
1x Mirari's Wake

== Instants (11) ==
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Worldly Tutor
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Path to Exile
1x Trickbind
1x Intuition
1x Krosan Grip
1x Capsize
1x Careful Consideration
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Opportunity

== Sorcery (8) ==
1x Life from the Loam
1x Regrowth
1x Kodama's Reach
1x Wrath of God
1x Catastrophe
1x Concentrate
1x Tidings
1x Spitting Image

== Creatures (23) ==
1x Coiling Oracle
1x Sakura Tribe Elder
1x Wood Elves
1x Trinket Mage
1x Mirror Entity
1x Eternal Witness
1x Knight of the Reliquary
1x Yavimaya Elder
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Academy Rector
1x Oracle of Mul Daya
1x Body Double
1x Karmic Guide
1x Mulldrifter
1x Reveillark
1x Acidic Slime
1x Genesis
1x Seedguide Ash
1x Blinding Angel
1x Krosan Tusker
1x Kederekt Leviathan
1x Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1x Woodfall Primus

I firmly believe the consistancy of the mana base is what makes or breaks an EDH deck first. Playing a tri-coloured deck, you need to make absolutely sure you have the mana you need early in the game whether it is WW, GG or UU. To this end the mana base is varied and as balanced as I could make it. It's very rare that I cannot pick and mix the availability of my coloured mana based on the requirements of my hand. To help me get there, outside of the lands themselves, I have 7 creatures that net me lands either directly on coming into play or though a tap or sac ability. In addition there's one sorcery, 5 mana artifacts and a metric buttload of direct or creature-connected card draw that is independant to the attack step.

Here's where we start theorising about Rafiq builds. I've now made Rafiq every which way from total control to damage triggers all the way up to and including a Rafiq combo-dredge deck. I've moved away from and argued against decks based around damage triggers in a multiplayer setting. The pervasive arguament for this style of deck is that "there's always someone to attack". Unfortunatly that's not any truer than "Your board will get wiped and their dudes will just be bigger than yours when you rebuild." Small beaters trying to take down three 40-life opponents don't get there. That leaves various renditions of Combo-Rafiq and Aggro-control Rafiq. My deck sits firmly in these two camps. It's an Aggro Control deck that can combo but there is a really important aspect to knowing when you can and can't combo. Very simply put: If somebody is going to Douchebag you, you put the DB trigger on the stack and destroy them in reponse. Otherwise the combo elements in Rafiq should only be used for their excellent CA properties. This health warning was brought to you by your friends.

So what can this deck do?

It can Wrath & Armageddon (Catastrophe). Seems simple but it's necessary. Use the 'Geddon effects sparingly for your continued health.

It can destroy trouble lands, enchantments and artifacts from a number of different sources.

It can accellerate land and fix mana. This would be a bit of a "Well, duh!" statement except that I am not simply referring to the start of the game. At any point where you can recur a Wood Elves multiple time in a turn you can go from 0 to 5-6 green sources, not to mention any additional colour those lands would produce. That extra land is an additional Rafiq, a hardcast Woodfall Primus or similiar accelleration.

It can kill individual creature threats either by removing them from the game or, in the case of Generals or other legends, just legend-rule killing them repeatedly with Spitting Image.

And what about winning the game? Well, there's Rafiq himself who generally gets the job done either by getting big and tramply, potentially unblockable in addition or by giving his bonus to a couple of big beaters, the Knight, Priums or Akroma. A few guys with Mirror Entity and a LOT of mana can also cause problems.



I do have one exception to my "No damage based triggers!" and that is the little pearl known as Blinding Angel. Now, a 2/4 is not going to win a 4 man pod all by her self (not today anyway, she may be finished before breakfast!) but with Rafiq she hits for 6 flying and the added bonus of shutting the defending player down for 2 turns. Sure, they can still play stuff but by the time they can attack again, you've attacked them again and they are down another 2 attack phases. Maybe this attrition war doesn't appeal to you but it's a great way of getting someone off your back while you deal with other players. It's also worth mentioning that, even if she's killed, the attack phases are still skipped so concentrating multiple double-Strike attacks on one player for a couple of turns will net you 4 non-attacking turns irregardless of whether someone deals with your little angel. Oh and she's a Reveillark target with her two power in addition, which is nice.

The deck is very focused on getting what it wants: More land, specific coloured land, more cards, specific cards through the various tutors and everything permanent tried to be a 2-for-1 or better. When you re-use these effects again and again, it starts to swing the game in your favour quite often.

Now this is never a finished work. There's a long list of cards that are in and around the deck and these two are on that list. I have Clone, Loxodon Warhammer, Glen Elendra Archimage, Garruk Wildspeaker, Armageddon, 3-4 more Wrath effects and a few others in the wings. As it is currently, I'm looking to stay away from a build where I always go straight for the kill. I'll generally not look for any other enchantment with Academy Rector than Mirari's Wake unless I need to clear a lot of artifacts/Enchantments (Aura Shards). Rhystic Study, Survival of the Fittest and Greater Good generally just get drawn.

Now, all of that was pre-Rise of Eldrazi and our friend Rafiq is looking to suit up against some unleashed gods. Basically we need more table control and the question is really down to how much of the rest of our deck do we want to cut back on?

Here's what I'm looking to add in:
+ Treachery, + Bribery, + Roil Elemental.
If you're going to run monstrously huge Eldrazi, I'm going to do my level best to steal them from you. All three of these are abusable and all work on each of the legends except for Treachery on Emrakul, that is unless you find it with Academy Rector which nicely circumvents the targetting requirement and protection ability from the largest of the Eldrazi. Bribery is for the sneaky early Eldrazi from your opponent's deck and Roil Elemental will probably make the cut despite it's fragility simply for the ability to take control of multiple creatures which will either form a wall or annihilator fodder against the Eldrazi. One of the many interesting tricks is putting the Annihilator trigger on the stack, cracking a fetchland or using Knight of the Reliquary to find a land (or, better yet, a fetchland), stealing the Eldrazi themselves and sacrificing them to their own Annihilator ability. Bazinga!



Two other additions, or rather one reappearance and one addition are:
+ Oblivion Ring, + Riftsweeper
Oblivion Ring is pretty much on the fence right now but I'm going to push it in there somewhere as it's effectively another Academy Rector target as well as being perfectly acceptable on it's own. The one reason it's currently out is that it's relatively poor in a Child of Alara enviornment which is where I find myself. Riftsweeper is to combat the afforementioned realisation that graveyard hate is good and to re-use Academy Rector if needed. She's currently a one-shot and that's a shame. Should a key card or a large portion of my deck/graveyard be exiled, looping Riftsweeper through Reveillark/Body Double/Karmic Guide can recover those cards into your library. As long as Riftsweeper itself isn't one of those cards! ;o)

What's likely to hit the cutting-room floor?
- Akroma, - Skullclamp
These are the first two as the focus of the deck shifts subtly towards other player's creatures, Akroma is not as important. As it stood, she was more likey to be Body Doubled or Karmic Guided into play rather than hard cast. Replacing a 6/6 Tea & Coffee for 5WWW with a 15/15 Tea & Coffee for 3UU seems like a much better deal. As long as Emrakul is sitting in a deck opposite, Bribery will be getting the "Fatty" nod in the deck. Skullclamp is a source of cheap card drawing that generally does too little in the deck as it stands. The hope is that this loss will be offset by the flashier plays that Treachery could provide.

Two of the remaining three slots likely to see play will take the place of Whispersilk Cloak (purely for the costs involved) and one of Sword of Light and Shadow / Behemoth Sledge and I'm currently on the side of the Sword for both the protection and recursion over the Trample and unchecked, unrestricted lifegain.

I have a feeling that the final cuts will be rather painful. Testing will see what works.

Getting your Annihilator on!

Ah! It's been a long month of sealed and draft and pre-releases before we could get back to some serious EDHing. Rise of Eldrazi has really gotten a rise (geddit?) from the playgroup and we've already had our share of Annihilating and annihilation. The expected presence of Lands Ungiven has materialised in numerous decks:



However, we're still a little short on other additions. One of the reasons for that may be that Marc, our Uril player, has yet to level up his legend and I'm really not looking forward to that. I can confirm, though, not that it needed to be confirmed, that Channel is pretty strong and this previously ignored card is now at the centre of the debate regarding its continued viability in the format.



It didn't take long for it to surface in only our second post-RoE EDH game. Taking things chronologically however, first came a quick heads-up game with Rafiq getting served by Phelddagrif:

1v1, Rafiq (me) Vs Group Hug (Arnaud) for the giggles.

Arnaud decided to try to win with the full-hug version and managed to land a Forced Fruition before losing it to an Oblivion Ring. Unfortunalty he followed that with an Eye of The Storm & Windfall and I couldn't kill it right away so I went for the throat. He chumped a couple of times before I tried to push through the win by dropping a Shield of the Oversoul on Rafiq with Finest Hour out. He played Swords to Plowshares for Rafiq, Misdirection on the Shield and followed it with a Krosan Grip. The extra 30 cards drawn off the Forced Fruition didn't really help me with the attack phase over and the next turn Prosperity & the copied Windfall finished me. Hippo deck wins! Wham!

Another aside: What's better than a Flying, Purple Hippo?

Answer: a Flying, Purple Hippo with Firebreathing!!!!!!



Get it made R&D! You know you want to!!

Checking back with our EDH team, we have a 4 man set up: Me (Kazuul/Big Red/Eldrazi) Vs Marc (Nath/Eldrazi) Vs Arnaud#2 (GAAIV) Vs Arnaud#1 (Rafiq)

Going first on his turn 3 Marc plays Channel into Pathrazer of Ulamog and Kozilek. That's pretty bad, though it could have been a lot worse. Still, if we can kill them, Marc is only at 9 life (we play 30 life games) and very likely to get crushed. Kozilek eats a Path to Exile right away, but the Pathrazer gets in one attack stripping me of all my permanents. This is essentially the big play in the entire game whenI convince Marc that all I need is to play my third Mountain to "deal with" the Pathrazer. He falls for it.

When Arnaud#1 then asks what's in everyone's graveyard (after only 2-3 turns) and him with 5+ mana coming free when he untapps his lands, Sol Ring and signets, it can only mean he has a Body Double in hand and I know that we can pull it out. I have no land and a full grip of things that really could have done with me getting Planar Lens online (without the annihilation, of course) so I could either play the remaining mountain in hand or discard..... It that Betrays hit the bin hoping for my intuition to be right about Body Double.

Arnaud not only had the Body Double, he also has a Hall of the Bandit Lord which I hadn't noticed so It That betrays slammed into Marc for the 11 needed to kill him on the spot. Channel that!



Two Eldrazi down, one to go!

I played a mountain & Arnaud#2's Island meant that Arnaud#1's Dancing Boots went away to a Mogg Salvage before it could be an issue & Arnaud#2 had the follow-up Swords to Plowshares right after to make it final.

Then we played a normal, Eldrazi-free game and had a lot of fun though I may have overdone the "flinch and you take 2" effects. Dying to your own cards, and not even in the hands of your opponents, is a bit weak.

Eldrazi 0, Rest of the Plane 1



Over the following weekend I shamelessly copied Jeremy's Karrthus/Eldrazi deck off YouTube, made a couple of changes and got ready to battle again.

You can find Jeremy and his lovely wife on their YouTube channel (there's that card again!) extolling the virtues of this great format: ElderDragonHighlandr This is a great visual resource by theway and I highly recommend giving up a few minutes (or a few hours) to watching these videos.

The first chance I had to play Eldrazi-Jund was actually against the deck. Friday we pulled out 5 decks and randomly assigned them. Here's where we got to after the opening few turns.



Arnaud#1 rolled the Karrthus/Eldrazi deck and has powered out enough tokens and land to play Emrakul but doesn't have it in hand, though he's also just dropped Eye of Ugin with a stack of mana open and passed the turn so it's as good as having it in hand! He's got a couple of chumps apart from the tokens but nothing that flies or otherwise effects the board. Very importantly he has Anger in the GY so his Eldrazi are going to hurt someone fast when they come out to play. He has a full hand and passes the turn on 38 life.



Arnaud#2 is playing Thada Adel/Artifacts and it must be said, he's playing it very badly. He has 10 cards in hand (and a Reliqary Tower), Propaganda, about 10 mana, Aeon Chronicler with a Basilisk Collar on it, and Magus of the Future showing Island. The deck is a monster being driven by someone who doesn't understand its power and that's a bit sad because I'm fairly sure that he should be the #1 threat at the table. He has just gone back up to 40 life by attacking with the now tapped Chronicler.



Antoine is packing Sharuum. He's Acquired Thada Adel's Darksteel Forge and played a Platinum Angel on previous turns but is down to 11 life. His latest play is a KRoR on the Angel which leaves him tapped out but with 24 power of indestructable flying on the board. He has 5 cards in hand when he passes the turn.



Player 4 is Me, the active player, playing Group Hug. I have 8 mana, Gomazoa, Indentured Djinn and Swans of Bryn Argol. I have 40 life and a full hand of 6 land, Swords to Plowshares that I've just drawn and Trade Secrets.



Player 5 is Rhys - G/W Elves. He had a full hand, Garruk on 5 counters, 5 creatures and had announced that he has Overrun in hand. He's on 25 (or 26) life.

As the active player with only Trade Secrets able to effect the game significantly, who do you target? Ok, accepting that you can just pass the turn to Mr. Double Overrun to your left, you don't have to play the Trade Secrets, but it's going to go downhill from all sides anyway so you may as well pick someone to help:

Player 1 who will have Emrakul the next turn irregardless.

Player 2 who won't be able to profit from cards he draws through inexperience.

Player 3 who has 6 indestructable Platinum Angels already

or

Player 5 who can annoy the hell out of almost every player but actually kill none before he passes the turn to Emrakul.








I can help Thada Adel but I won't because he should be completely dominant already and he's randomly discarding Rings of Brighthearth before asking what the point of the Basalt Monolith is or not choosing the Acquire pile in an otherwise empty FoF split despite having Sharuum sitting opposite who has just Acquired his own Darksteel Forge the turn previous only because his own Acquire is in Japanese. The Emrakul player is helping him a lot with advice and reminders and but is having to hold back because any more help and he's essentially just playing the deck himself. I'm not going to give him any more though choices on what to play with Trade Secrets, because those choices are not going to solve the situation currently developing. Unfortunatly for him, this essentially relegates him to the status of "sacrificial goat" for no other reason than having Darksteel Forge in his deck.



Sharuum is winning the game quite well on his own, thank you very much. Emrakul is likely to try to do a number on him as Sharuum has noted the lack of fliers and, well, 6x indestructible Platinum Angels is a bit of a threat.



So that leaves Rhys. I think I can convince him to try to kill Thada Adel as quickly as possible so as to give the imminent Emrakul a shot a beating off Sharuum but the Propaganda is a pain. He can't play both Overrun & attack with everything, so he's got to use Garruk & attack then do it again but with the Basilisk Collar sitting opposite, it could take a lot of time without outside help and he risks being caught in a return attack. There's very little overall benefit to be reaped by helping him as it can't add damage to his attack.


So I help Karrthus. I actively help the Eldrazi take over. I must be mad!!!


Emrakul is currently the only way to beat Sharuum. Either he attacks directly (not a good idea because the 20 power of untapped flying indestructible will kill Emrakul even after the Annihilator 6) or he kills Thada Adel to get rid of the Darksteel Forge that Sharuum controls [When a player is killed all cards and permanents he/she owns are removed from play and the stack immediatly lethal damage is resolved]. The rest of the table have a couple of turns to find a way to deal with Emrakul once he's been unleashed and it's coming out anyway so helping is immaterial to what's going to happen on the next turn anyway.


So why am I helping at all?


Sharuum can untap and SDT/tutor or draw into an O-Stone or Disk and just win if he can do it before Thada Adel is killed. He also has 6 Platinum Angels in play. Me & Rhys are not really threats until Sharuum is gone and Sharuum gone means that Thada Adel is too. Rhys becomes potent especially if Sharuum takes some life off Emrakul but it's not in Rhys' interests to kill Emrakul until Sharuum & Thada have been dealt with. This is a pretty twisted situation where two players are actively ignoring the two biggest threats to help eliminate another player so that a domino effect can be triggered. It's really all just hoping that, once the beast has fed, it will roll over and take a nap letting the mice scurry in for the kill.


So what happened?


It went pretty much as I had calculated, cajoled, pushed and manipulated. I played Trade Secrets and Karrthus drew about 15 cards while I drew about 10, one of which was Hallowed Burial. I smile and pass the turn while getting roundly cussed!


Rhys goes into the tank in his first main phase and, I slip in for a quick dip and to expand on the idea that A beats B to get at C and we should help. Seeing no better solution appart from passing the turn, he attacks into Thada Adel, using Garruk's Overrrun & paying for 4 creatures for 22 damage. Thada goes to 18, loses his Magus of the Future and Rhys passes the turn.


Emrakul is searched out with the Eye of Ugin at EOT and played. He starts tapping for an all out attack on Sharuum when I suggest that he should probably attack Thada Adel with his Kozilek's Predator. He does a double take and looks at the board again before attacking Thada Adel with both for exactly lethal. Darksteel Forge goes away and Sharuum is a bit stunned. He wasn't expecting that at all!

Karrthus untaps for his additional turn and plays Artisan of Kozilek getting Dread Drone back into play. He attacks into Sharuum with all three. Annihilator 8 destroys his mana base and he blocks Emrakul with 4 Platinum Angel copies, killing Emrakul and losing 3 of the copies. He takes 14 from the Dread Drone & Artisan (-3).


Since Thada Adel is dead, Sharuum is next up, plays a land and an empty Chrome Mox and passes a bit disgusted that his grand plan is in tatters.


I untap and draw Forced Fruition, attack & kill Garruk with my Indentured Djinn, much to Rhys's total disgust. I play Hallowed Burial. Sharuum dies. He cries. It's sad when a Sphinx cries. Worse than doves.


Eye of Ugin ends up tutoring out the Eldrazi one after the other and killing off myself and Rhys. Giving an Eldrazi a billion cards that he can use to just recycle his graveyard into his library at will and tutor back is pretty strong against a deck that hopes to inadvertantly win through milling while doing it's best to help you to win! Had it been an Eye of the Storm rather than the Forced Fruition to go with the Swords to Plowshares I had in hand, I would have been much happier but it wasn't to be and it only takes a single hit from Emrakul to crush your manabase to the point where hoping to cast a 7cc enchantment, if you ever draw it, is just foolish thinking.

Eldrazi 1, Rest of the plane 1

So, we're going to sign this one off as a score draw but those pests will take some watching! Next week is Cube week with a surprisingly huge number of cards from Rise of the Eldrazi making the cut into the Common/Uncommon cube I shamelessly copied (where have I seen that before?) from Klug over on MTGS.com which you can find here. Take a quick visit even if you're not a cuber, it's pretty pimp!

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.

New Banner

I'd like to thank Megabug from Kracked Graphics over on MTG Salvation for the excellent new banner! Much appreciated!

A brief aside on card alterations

Seems you can't move for card alterations right now, part of the type 1/EDH pimping craze. I admit to having fallen for this too. With the help of my colleague, the ever-so-talented Antoine, I'm looking to build on my alters.

Elvis started out as James Hetfield but quickly became The King. Base work by myself, detail by Antoine.


The following two are all Antoine's work, first a Shield of the Oversoul that really needed something to hide the original image.




This one is subtle but just fits the card really well. Again all credit to Antoine.




I thought I'd take the opportunity to shoot up a couple of links to some resources, tutorials and just excellent art alterations and extendeds for those of you who are interested too.



This is where I first came across card alters, Yawg07 is the most prolific on here and his recent foil alters are really stunning. This is his TFK.



Another, more populated, forum is over at MTGSalvation and you can link through there to the tutorials subforums. This Jace was altered by SandraMeals-2009.



Speaking of tutorials, Dale Lovelace, the originator of the Group Hug deck, shows us how to get messy with paint by altering a playset of Putrid Leeches. And here they are!



There's also a tutorial on Card Kitty. They have a step by step look at altering their Trinket Mages. Their Kresh is just one of their excellent pieces. Go have a look!



You may not speek Italian though you can still appreciate the excellent work from numerous artists assembled here. This one is from Adriano and you can find his other alters right here on Blogspot.



One of those artists is Magic artist Therese Nielsen and you can see her alters and her take on the trend on her website. Through that you can also link to the excellent picture tutorial of her Yag. Will alter with Ron Spencer. This one is really worth a look. This is here latest Eternal Witness.

Thada Adel and the Lure of the Dark Side

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. 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. (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, Acquisitor

Land (37)
23x Island
Urza's Mine
Urza's Tower
Urza's Power Plant
Darksteel Citadel
Reliquary Tower
Thawing Glaciers
Tolaria West
Academy Ruins
Remote Isle
Lonely Sandbar
Flooded Strand
Polluted Delta
Seat of the Synod
Tolarian Academy

Artifact Creatures: (6)
Solemn Simulacrum
Master Transmuter
Faerie Mechanist
Darksteel Colossus
Duplicant
Etherium Sculptor

Non-Artifact Creatures: (9)
Trinket Mage
Sakashima the Impostor
Body Double
Vedalken Engineer
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Aeon Chronicler
Venser, Shaper Savant
Willbender
Glen Elendra Archmage

Non-Creature Artifacts: (27)
Mana Vault
Sol Ring
Everflowing Chalice
Sky Diamond
Mind Stone
Worn Powerstone
Darksteel Ingot
Coalition Relic
Tormod's Crypt
Sensei's Divining Top
Oblivion Stone
Icy Manipulator
Phyrexian Processor
Sculpting Steel
Avarice Totem
Vedalken Shackles
Crucible of Worlds
Cloud Key
Nevinyrral's Disk
Expedition Map
Darksteel Forge
Voltaic Key
Whispersilk Cloak
Engineered Explosives
Lightning Greaves
Meekstone
Ensnaring Bridge

Enchantments: (3)
Artificer's Intuition
Future Sight
Propaganda

Planeswalkers: (1)
Tezzeret the Seeker

Instant/Sorcerys: (17)
Evacuation
Mind Spring
Fabricate
Fact or Fiction
Rite of Replication
Stroke of Genius
Mystical Tutor
Force of Will
Acquire
Ancestral Vision
Capsize
Hinder
Thirst for Knowledge
Desertion
Brainstorm
Concentrate
Intuition

The 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 Exploitation
Vedalken Archmage
Memnarch
Vanishing
Bribery
Treachery
Magus of the Future
Dream Tides
Reshape
Portcullis
Tidespout Tyrant
Quicksilver Fountain
Keiga, the Tide Star
Fatespinner
Fireshrieker
Mycosynth Lattice (which will once again require the inclusion of the newly re-named Steal Permanent

Some 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.