Dooooonuuuuuuuts!! (Or finally seeing the Birthing Pod light.)

I admit, I was foolish. I saw the gift horse and I looked it directly in the mouth. For this I will don my Dofus-Cap and go stand in the corner. I would appreciate a moment of patience on your part while I complete this operation.


........

........


Ok, I'm back and I have got something to say: I just got excited by New Phyrexia.


I mean really excited. Homer excited.


It happened about 30 minutes ago and only the rising tide of my homer-esque donut-inspired drool threatening to drown me finally managed to break my delirious funk about a seriously interesting card.


Everyone ready with their best Homer-seeing-fresh-donuts voice?


Birrrrrrr-thing Pooooooooooooood!!

I may have mentioned previously that I wasn't particularly excited about Birthing Pod, I mean, what's another tutor when we want better monsters, eh? It turns out that the Pod is a monster too, just a different sort of monster. As I was pondering what to do in my sealed deck, with a Pod in play beside a Trinket Mage and a Deceiver Exarch hiding somewhere in the untapped potential of my library. This is pretty insane as either one gives you and extra use to jump straight from your 2-drop right to your 4 drop (one with the COTB trigger, the other searching out a Voltaic Key)

What would happen if we opened this out to a Vintage card pool where we don't just have undercosted monsters, we also have a large number of overcosted monsters with benefits that allow us to skip up the chain a little Maelstrom Djinn & Scornful Egotist both allow you to invest 3 to play a morph, a similiarly pithy amount to flip it over (3 & 1 respectively) and skip directly from a 3 mana creature to a 9 mana creature with the Pod. Now there many not be anything at 9 worth adding such pityful cards to your EDH deck for.... what?! There is?


All the Bringers are 9 mana as are Inkwell Leviathan, Iona, Reya, Spirit of the Night, Nullstone Gargoyle and Demon of Death's Gate. The Bringers & the Demon raises another interesting category of creatures: Creatures that you can pay less for.


The sacrifice cost of the Demon allows you to pay no mana for a 9cmc creature. This allows you to trade up into a 10cmc creature for an investment of 1-2 mana with the pod. Allosaurus Rider allows you to do the same for an investment of 2 green cards (ouch!) though Vine Dryad pitching a single green card allowing you  jump directly to 5 seems like a workable deal.


The cost cutting doesn't stop there as all suspend creatures with a suspend cost inferior to their cmc will give you value when recycled through your Pod. It's perhaps fortunate that the Pod ability is only available at sorcery speed given the playability of evoke creatures, paying 2 or 4 to process a Mulldrifter through play and into your graveyard and a Primeval Titan onto the battlefield from your deck is probably a little too good.

A bit of noise has been made about Melira, Sylvok Outcast and creatures with Persist when combined with a sacrifice effect. It's also interesting to note that there are persist creatures on the curve from 2cc all the way to 6cc before skipping to 8cc with Woodfall Primus. With a means to re-use your Birthing Pod and sufficient mana, you can Pod your way to any CC up to 10cc without losing any of the creatures you are sacrificing barring your chosen 7-drop.


There's also another way to skip up your curve with Birthing Pod if you already have a creature-based, cotb, untap effect in play such as Deceiver Exarch or Pestermite. You play Clone / Sakishima / Phyrexian Metamorph into Vesuvan Doppelganger into a 6 drop. Unfortunately, there's two holes in the plan: firstly, you have to keep the Exarch or Mite in play to be copied by the incoming Clone and you'll have to skip a spot on the curve before you get to your Quicksilver Gargantuan but you'll either want to stop at 6 anyway or your 6-drop has given you some value on the way in (a Titan) or out (Wurmcoil Engine). The Gargantuan allows you to get to 8, the number of Akromas, Avatars, Hellkites, Terastodons and Elder Dragons among many others.

And while we're on the subject of Deceiver Exarch and Pestermite, let's look at the following chain: Pestermite -> 4 drop + Voltaic Key -> Karmic Guide (targetting your dead 'Mite) -> Gleancrawler. Here we're going to go straight from 2 or 3 directly to 6 and, if Gleancrawler makes it to the end of the turn, get everything back in addition to an extra creature from the returning Karmic Guide.


There are also a couple of creatures that you want to kill off for various reasons: Noble Benefactor, Veteren Explorer or something your've stolen from an opponent. Having it active in play beside a Grave Pact or a Butcher of Malakir sounds like it could be a lot more fun for you for you than for your opponents. While you are climbing up the curve, you get to fritter away your opponents' creatures.


Ok, it's obvious that you can play it and that it will be useful but where are you going to play it?


Untapping seems to be where the value lies which suggests that the Pod best be paired with Blue, the colour of untapping and finding cards that untap artifacts. Tezz 1.0, Clock of Omens and Voltaic Key along with the afforementioned Deceiver Exarch & Pestermite seem like nice fits. It also gives you Filigree Sages and, if you can transform the Birthing Pod into a creature, Voltaic Construct. These last two are of most interest to us given that they both benefit from Training Grounds. Suddenly your Pod reload costs UG or just G and it's re-usable.


Blue for the artifact related stuff and Clones; Green for the Pod itself and all of the "advantage" creatures you can search out; Black for the Oversold Cemetary that's benefitting from you throwing all this lovely food into the graveyard, White has some advantage cards as well like Sun Titan and Karmic Guide.


I think all that's left to say is that this little machine is restricted only by your imagination.


Oh, and sorcery speed.


And green Commanders.


Apart from that, what have the Romans ever done for us, eh?

New Phyrexia (Already?)

New Phyrexia 

(or "Old Mirrodin" if you're Thrun or Melira, pretty much the only ones not Borg-ed)

The Leak:

I'm not sure what's more annoying about the leak (or should I say "leaks"), that it utterly spoiled (heh!) one of the most hotly awaited spoiler seasons since Tarmogoyf spoiled "Planeswalker", or that there's an overwhelming sense of entitlement from the forum-rats that this was not only "deserved" for them but a measure of come-uppance for WotC. I've read a lot of the back and forth on this topic on various notice boards and it's quite stunning the utter disregard that the community has for WotC's right to disseminate their own intellectual property when and how they wish to do so.

Whatever side of the fence you sit on for this debate, you can't argue that anticipation and build-up to the release of this set is in any way better than it would have been had WotC been permitted to follow their usual schedule. As I write this, it's still 10 days until the release events and already the set reviews are a week done and dusted. There's nothing to do but wait for release day.

Quite apart from the financial concerns involved in a complete set leak a full 3 weaks before it was due to be officially released, all the buzz over 10 cards has killed the buzz for the remaining cards in the set. No-one is rushing to find out what else NPH has in store; there's only planning purchases now, no excitement.

Worst. Spoiler. Season. Ever.

EDIT: The announcement was made last night regarding the source of the leak. As more and more elements come to light it seems that the moral of this particular story is twofold: Don't mess about when you've signed an NDA and, if you're going to be foolish enough to break your NDA, choose your collaborators very wisely. It seems Guillaume Matignon didn't and is paying the price. From what can be garnered from the information coming out, it seems that WotC has decided to be extremely lenient regarding sanctions with a 3 year ban for the current World Champion and 18 months each for the subsequent links in the leak chain. Not the finest hour for France's cadre of Pros and sad that two great players will be off the scene for a significant period of time. As an additional sanction, Guillaume Wafo-Tapa, considered by many as a shoe-in for the next Hall of Fame, will not now be on the ballot for this years vote.

Maybe players with access to unreleased information will think twice about revealing it now.


Back to the serious stuff.....

The Pitch:

You have to admire the Phyrexians. They were wiped out to the last drop of oil (bar one) on one plane only to come back, seemingly stronger than ever, on a completely new plane (albeit one that is pretty much tailor made for them.) Not only that, but they did it with a panache and ease worthy of glorification in an internet meme:

Step 1: Just when everyone thinks you're done for, slip unnoticed inside the very weapon that has been assembled specifically to defeat you.

Step 2: When that weapon builds its own plane (delusions of grandeur much?), slide back out and contaminate it.

Step 3: ???

Step 4: Profit!! (And pay your dues to the association for the free distribution of gory, blood-spattered art. That shit is nasty!)


I bet that's an R&D development meeting that took a while to get through.... (not)

Maro: Ok guys, What are we doing after the Eldrazi? It's gotta be big!!
Guys: Phyrexia?
Maro: Nah, they got dusted in Invasion block.
Guys: So? The players swallowed Coldsnap whole, I'm sure we could dream up some semi-coherent clangers and it'll be fine.
Maro: What if Karn was infected by Phyrexian oil !!!!!1111!!one!!!

.........and the rest is history.


The Very Indepth Review:

Now, I've done a couple of these set review things now and had originally planned to continue the tradition (you know the one where I totally miss out on one of the huge cards but somehow find space for a couple of duds that end up never getting played?)

Thaumaturge, along with a few others, has already set bytes to blog-page and come up with some good stuff (though I obv. disagree with your Torpor Orb assessment, Thaum). What use is another blogosphere hack adding to the cacophony when a suitable symphony already exists?

You can find his review here at The Commande Zone.


The "Hur-Hur" Corner:

WotC did an excellent reveal of Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite in Phyrexian script early on in the publicity campaign and she's become the poster-girl for all that's mythic, big, nasty and artistic in the set. Somehow the gore-fest that represents the majority of her body is offset by the stunning porcelain-like metal headgear she's sporting. Apart from the obvious wardrobe malfunction it represents in reality, it's a pretty majestic piece of art.

Which is why our French friends' utter lack of respect for this grand figure is somewhat amusing. One of our gallic colleagues noticed within about 1 hour of the first full-card image being posted that, with the help of some censorship boxes, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, probably needed a different title.

For any of you who don't speak French, here's an introduction to the joke: >sniggers!<

"Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite" with part of the title blacked out becomes "Elesh [censored] nobite" (just as shown in the picture), which, in French phonetics, conveniently becomes "Elle leche nos bites"*. Running this through Google may give you a different answer than the one intended, but either way, don't try this on your French teacher.**


The Actual Cards:

I'm not giving you a set review, you've had them already. What I intend to do, very briefly, is indicate which of those cards that I will and won't slot directly into my decks and why. This has no bearing on their playability elsewhere and ignores other OMGWTF cards that someone else may be fapping over. First up are the exciting 'In" crowd.

I start with some sad news however. Thada Adel is no more. In preparation for the prominance of Phyrexia on his plane, the insane meglomaniac Memnarch has displaced the diminutive merfolk and has started terrorising kitchen tables everywhere. He's been sending me post-its too:

Hey, Lame Ass! Get me:

Phyrexian Metamorph
Unwinding Clock
Phyrexia's Core

STAT!

I told him the set only comes out in about 3 weeks but you know how meglomaniacs get, eh? You can't argue with him about the card choices though, these three are gold in Memnarch's machine. Despite the additional 1 mana investment over the creature original, "High Market: Artifacts" is always going to be useful. What's a little surprising is that a Phyrexia's Core equivalent hasn't been made before. It's also interesting that a second ex-standard combo becomes possible in standard with the Core. After Splinter Twin/Pestermite, we now have Spine + Sac outlet + Sculpting Steel available. Which brings me nicely to my next choice.

We've seen the virtues of Phyrexian Metamorph prated elsewhere: Half-Clone/Half-Sculpting Steel, it's the ultimate cheap hooker card that everyone loves (because it can be anything you want it to be!) As a bonus it remains an artifact so when you have everything covered with a Darksteel Forge, your clone of a Primeval Titan is indestructible. Usual Master Transmuter shennanigans apply. This is artifact awesome-sauce and as an added bonus for us foil-magpies out there, it's a release promo with, once again, sick-ass art.

The third welcome addition, Unwinding Clock, made me re-check the casting cost a couple of times. Surely a hardier "Seedborn Muse: Artifacts" should cost more than its creature equivalent? Apparently not. R&D do realise that Seedborn Muse is one of the most annoying and abusable green creatures in Multiplayer, right? Why in their right minds would they give a sick mind like mine the same effect for artifacts at a cheaper price? I thought they had lost it with Mirrorworks (they had) but it seems there's no end to the insanity. If Memnarch had a fantasy Magic set, Unwinding Clock would be in there. Now it is.

Golf clap for R&D.

We've not been gifted with the most original three cards here but they are all really excellent and I expect them to crop up everywhere there are lots of artifacts and, in the case of the Metamorph, just everywhere.

For my Ashling deck well, she's red and red got the shaft, what's new? For EDH, I count 1 interesting red card (maybe 2 if you play Bosh) and that is Bludgeon Brawl (and Moltensteel Dragon). Bludgeon Brawl is worth the look, if only for the hilarious potential you have of turning a non-artifact you control (like Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker) into an artifact with Liquidmetal Coating and "equipping" it through Bludgeon Brawl to a creature you control (Like Nicol Bolas - Elder Dragon Legend) and getting into the red zone for 14 flying with a dragon wielding a more powerful verson of himself as a weapon. Add Mycosynth Lattice & Vulshok Battlemaster for additional hilarity.

There is only Puresteel Paladin in the knights section and, in Zombies, the single 4/1, infect & regeration for 4BB is leaving me pretty cold so we can move on to Green/Black Good-Stuff. Hold on to your hats!


I'm somewhat interested in Life's Finale. The ability to Day of Judgement the board (it's missing the 'no regeneration" clause unfortunatly) is nothing new but you also to Buried Alive an opponent for 2 additional mana. 4BB is not too high especially if you plan to bury a player's Geth and animate it somehow. This will allow you to animate the other two targets you found with Life's Finale. Conversely you can drop or reanimate your own Geth and profit in a similiar vein. Of course if your opponent(s) have means of utilising this resource it could be a double edged sword but that's a risk you'll have to evaluate in-game. You could also find an Eldrazi as one of the three targets and have a player shuffle their graveyard back into their deck if they have an over-reliance on their graveyard as a resource. While this isn't a Tormod's Crypt, it's at least of occasional strategic value. At the end of the day, it's another Damnation for Mono B decks which is nothing to be sniffed at.

Everyone's talking about Phyrexian Obliterator and with reason, it's a very interesting card. It can function as a very scary wall or an equally impressive beater with optional Annihilator X. Who wouldn't be eager to attack into a fully loaded Lord of Extinction with a lure effect on this? I'm still not sure it will be a hit but it's potentially very playable. Sheoldred is another card advantage monster (with more scary art) that will find a place, though, at 5BB, I'm not sure she'll be your general very often. What's interesting with Sheoldred is that, once again, it's a card that's a combination of two existing cards (The Abyss & Debtor's Knell). The more these crop up, the more we should start asking when R&D will finally run out of ideas.

Praetor's Grasp is the stone cold nuts. If you play black, you will need this card though there is a potential downside: It will slow down your games unless you know exactly what you're going to get. Of the black cards listed here I'll try them all in my BG good stuff but this one I'm already sure will make the final cut when changes need to be made and I'm fairly sure you can't have too many Wrath effects either. It's going to be a tight squeeze!


Moving onto the Green cards I'm adding to the deck when I get them, there's only 2 and one of the ommissions may surprise you (and one of the two inclusions) I'm not sold on Birthing Pod due to the sorcery speed restriction despite the obvious potential it has. Maybe it's partly because I'm already tired of seeing everyone fap over it since the spoil but it hasn't resonated with me just yet. When you already run Fauna/Survival/W.Tutor/Command/Pact/Zenith/Wave/T&N along with black hand and graveyard tutors, just another tutor is not doing it for me right now. Maybe it will grow on me but I'd honestly prefer better green creatures than another way to find creatures.

Beast Within is one of my two includes. The 3/3 beast being almost an irrelevance in EDH, there's nothing not to like about this card: the speed, the cost, the flexibility; it's just all round excellent.

My personal sleeper for the set is Triumph of the Hordes. A mini-Overrun granting Infect & Trample to your entire team is an effect that, given enough creatures, can one-shot entire tables. Add some measure of card recursion (EWit/Regrowth) and you don't need another infect card in your entire deck. For once though, the art has let us down: an infected Glissa version of Jack Skellington is just terribly wasted on an otherwise decent background, the trampling hoards of beasts, Porcelain Legionaires and ..... em..... giant snails. This one is going under the brush as soon as I get a copy.


Fin:

Overall it has been an interesting ride for New Phyrexia. Let's hope that the gameplay lives up to the hype, but, most of all, we unearth a plethora of sleepers forgotten in the clamour to expound on the glories of free counters, peeks and slippery BSA equipment.

I want to finish by remarking on a disturbing trend in the most recent blocks: the traditional story-line bad guy has been winning a little too often lately. Ok, Lorwyn wasn't exactly a victory for the bad guy but the artistic structure of the block suggested heavily that the darkside took precedence over the "lightside"; Alara resulted in Bolas openly pulling strings to forward his fiendish plans and he's still out there somewhere; Zendikar didn't end well for pretty much anything that cost less than 10 though the tentacled ones are stuck there for now; and Scars of Mirrodin has re-unleashed the scourge of Phyrexia. If Innistrad doesn't end up with either another bad guy coming out or at the very least a title fight between all the current players, I'll be mightly disappointed!

It'd be terrible to buck the trend now and have the little guy win it for once.

___________________________________________

* Basically: "She licks our dicks"

** Unless she's, you know, likely to respond a lot more "positively" than simply sending you to the principal.***

*** There's a part of the teenage boy psyche that firmly believes that, one day, this could actually happen and we leave our teenage years behind with the crushing disappointment that it never actually did.****

**** And proceed to make millions in the Porn industry.

That Old Chestnut (aka what the community wants banned!)

Ah, I love the smell of bannings in the morning!

Actually, recently it's been the internet warriors chumpioning their favourite target for "The Hammer" that's been smelling up our mornings because nothing got banned (or, more controversially, unbanned) during the last update. Sheldon's announcement (which you can read here in his aptly nammed column on SSG: "The Banned List") pretty much ammounted to a ringing of the evening bell and a hollered "MIDNIGHT AND All'S WELL!"


Of course, the majority of the faceless masses, who had been pushing for one unbanning in particular and individually hoping for a wide range of bannings, were unhappy with the RC maintaining the status quo and hopped right onto their righteous indignity to bemoan the presence or lack there-of of their pet/hate card in the format. [We're going to gloss over the whole "in your own playgroup do what you want" thing; hand holding has been set to 100 for the purposes of this post. Ed.]


One enterprising poster on MTGSalvation, Tantarus, decided to take the discussion to the next level by opening a new thread that welcomed players to "ban" up to 5 cards and, if they wanted to, "unban" one. The unbanning was by-and-large ignored but 9 pages in we have a list of the 344 submissions comprising 115 different cards, of which 14 were legendary and accounting for 29 votes. This 0.08% representation in the vote by your mosted hated generals suggests that it may not be the leaders of opposing armies that you hate but rather the armies they lead and the tools they ply to beat you. Let's have a closer look at the generals first and get them out of the way.

Iona & Erayo both got 5 votes followed by Kiki-Jiki on 3 and a group of five on 2 votes: Arcum, Azusa, Jhoira, Niv-Mizzet & Rofellos. The list is rounded out with a group of 6, each garnering a single vote each: Sisay, Gaddock, Hokori, Phelddagrif, Clique & Zur. Personally I'm surprised that Zur & Arcum didn't figure much higher on the list given the almost unilateral distain the community holds for those generals. Iona at 5 votes also suggests that, while she may not be the white general of choice, she's annoying enough in the remaining 99 to be the most hated non-general legend in the format.


In a study (and I use that term very losely here) with anywhere between 70 and 85 people where the opinions of the previous respondants are visible to subsequent posters, there was a certain amount of herd behaviour happening (This would explain "Island" in the top 20 and could also go some way to explain how "Forbid" somehow managed to garner 3 votes*). As a result we can look at certain cards garnering a lesser number of votes as pertinant and original opinion rather than one-offs and certain higher scorers as just those following the herd mentality. Those finishing near the top would probably end up near there anyway, especially when functional similiarities are taken into account. Let's look at the top 5 to see what's up there:

Sol Ring 24
Mana Crypt 22
Magister Sphinx 17
Sorin Markov 16
Sundering Titan 14

Ok, yeah, there's a message here somewhere, let's see if I can discern it.........

1.) Fast Mana = Bad
2.) Dropping someone to 10 life = Bad
3.) Destroying multiple lands repeatedly = Bad

Point 1.) is that old chestnut in EDH, fast mana. While a lot of players really enjoy it and get a kick out of it, others see it as the evil core of the format. Just for completeness Mana Vault (5), Grim Monolith (3), Cabal Coffers (2) Gaea's Cradle (2) Rofellos (2), Azusa (2) and Primeval Titan (10) are all in there making fast mana and it's associated enablers account for 20% of the vote. People just don't seem to like their opponents having a lot of mana, though, given the presence of a wide range of land destruction spells on the list as well, the don't seem to like having their lands blown up either (Point 3.)). Maybe what we're really seeing here are answers from players sitting on either side of the arguament: the Mana Players and the Mana Haters? [Don't be a hater. Ed.]

The other obvious aspect of the top 5 is your opponents ability at any time to drop you to 10 life and honoured member of the lowest hanging fruit club. I initially doubted that Sorin's "Mindslaver" ability was a relevant reason for his being voted so high until I looked lower in the top 10. Man, that guy is pretty hated coming and going! Players want to play, not be knocked out at the earliest opportunity. While there's no rule that says that everyone has to have been given a fair shot at winning before they are eliminated, using Magister Sphinx or Sorin offensively in the early game is just a really unwelcome strategy.

Moving on to spots 6-10 there some more of the same and a couple of new candidates:

Sensei's Divining Top 12
Mind over Matter 10
Mindslaver 10
Primeval Titan 10
Time Stretch 10
We've mentioned Primeval Titan briefly but there's another aspect to him that goes over and above mere "ramping" mana and it's that the format is chocked full of land based questions, utility and answers, not just another couple of basic land. Imagine quickly the mana ramp version playing a GBx deck: You have 4-6 lands in play when you hit the PTitan, you get an Urborg, ToY and Cabal Coffers (2). Without playing any other land the following turn you go from 6 mana to 11-13 just by untapping and every land you play now essentially gets you BX.

That's the Ramp, what about when you are under pressure? Maze of Ith (1) and Vesuva (copying the Maze) is going to keep two threats off your back for quite a while while you use your Titan to find more land or just be a blocker. Why not both actually? Attack with PT, resolve his ability and untap your own PT to stay back as a blocker. That works for me.

And if he get's killed as sometimes happens? Volrath's Stronghold. Protection against him getting stolen? High Market and it's ilk. Need regeneration? Yavimaya Hollow. And so on, and so on. There's litterally no other creature in the format with this much potential once it's in your deck. Opponents tired of crushing defeats masterminded by the slippery fish that PT can potentially become would naturally want him banned. Let's face it, if you build your land base properly, there's nothing he can't do. And he makes a mean expresso too.

The remaining cards between 6 and 10 are not surprises either. If you have sat across from 2 or 3 opponents constantly stacking their Tops, you know how annoying it can be. This one is purely a time and annoyance card and, while I disagree that a ban is needed, it's certain that people need to play their Tops quickly and efficiently or not at all.
Mind over Matter is a combo enabler, nothing else. What we're talking about here is a card that may have nice applications but in reality will be used to fuel a game-ender. The intent of the MoM player will often determine if you're going to have a fun game but I've yet to meet a player who put the card in a deck for the LOLs rather than to power out a stupid "I win!" moment. Time Stretch is the same. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that if the person playing Time Stretch hasn't essentially won the game by the time they have finished their 2 extra turns, they are either toying with you (thus are annoying) or are deliberatly annoying (thus are idiots). Remember, no-one plays Time Stretch unless they can concieveably replay Time Stretch multiple times.
The last card in the top 10 is Mindslaver. I'm going to put this one down to intent and on a par with MoM and Time Stretch with a rider: Mindslaver can be a great one-shot effect. It's when players start to recur it repeatedly that it becomes an issue. As much as Time Stretch gives you, well, time to win the game and multiple Time Stretches actually win you the game, Mindslaver does the same if repeatedly recurred. MoM is never used for the fun, it's used to just finish playing the game alone and eventually declaring that you've won, much like 'Slaver and Time Stretch. None of these are any fun when played like this (or at all in the case of MoM and possibly Time Stretch) and, as the saying goes, if you wanted to play with yourself, you can do it in the privacy of your own bedroom. We don't need to see it.

Do these cards need to be banned? It depends. If you want the RC to make all your decisions for you, hold your hand and tuck you into bed at night, sure we can ban them. If not, you may have to exercise that most elusive of qualities: discretion.

There's a lot more on the list but they, generally, fall into catagories already mentioned: Ramp or cards that enable you to do something a lot earlier than you normally could (Bribery, T&N, Acquire); cards that stop other players playing their spells (Erayo, Iona, Winter Orb & Land destruction); combo cards (Power Artifact, Kiki, Arcum); and cards that allow a player to draw a large number of cards (Consecrated Sphinx, Necropotence)

It's also nice to see that players retain a sense of humour when replying to these threads as evidenced by the basic lands and that power-house Kithkin Healer (1). Geez, I hate that guy!

Here's the remainder of the list for completeness:
Power Artifact 9
Consecrated Sphinx 8
Bribery 5
Erayo, Soratami Ascendant 5
Infect 5
Iona, Shield of Emeria 5
Island 5
Mana Vault 5
Necropotence 5
Shahrazad 5
Armageddon/Ravages of War 4
Winter Orb 4
Blightsteel Colossus 3
Crucible of Worlds 3
Forbid 3
Forest 3
Grim Monolith 3
Hermit Druid 3
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker 3
Mountain 3
Obliterate 3
Ruination 3
Serra Ascendant 3
Arcum Dagson 2
Azuza, lost but seeking 2
Blood Moon 2
Cabal coffers 2
Decree of Annihilation 2
Force of Will 2
Gaea's Cradle 2
Jhoira of the Ghitu 2
Knowledge Pool 2
Niv-Mizzet, The Firemind 2
Plains 2
Rings of Brighthearth 2
Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary 2
Seedborn Muse 2
Skullclamp 2
Survival of the Fittest 2
Swamp 2
Tooth and Nail 2
Tunnel Vision 2
Warp World 2
Yawgmoth's Will 2
Acquire 1
Aether Vial 1
Apocalypse 1
Back to Basics 1
Boil 1
Capsize 1
Captain Sissay 1
Contamination 1
Curiosity/Ophidian Eye 1
Death cloud 1
Demonic Tutor 1
Duplicant 1
Extraplanar Lense 1
Felidar Sovereign 1
Flashfires 1
Font of Mythos 1
Gaddock Teeg 1
Gauntlet of Power 1
Genesis Wave 1
Giant Strength 1
Grip of Chaos 1
Hall of Gemstone 1
Heartbeat of Spring 1
Hive Mind 1
Hokori, Dust Drinker 1
Hornet Sting 1
Imperial Seal (Price cards) 1
Insurrection 1
Jokulhaups 1
Karma 1
Kithkin Healer 1
Leyline of the Void 1
Life from the Loam 1
Lightning Greaves 1
Magus of the Moon 1
Maze of Ith 1
Minions' Murmurs 1
Myojin of night's reach 1
Nihil Spellbomb 1
Oath of Druids 1
Palinchron 1
Phelddagrif 1
Phyrexian Battleflies 1
Relic of Progenitus 1
Rhystic Study 1
Sorrow's Path 1
Strip Mine 1
Strong tutors 1
Tangle Wire 1
Tempting Worm 1
Thawing Glaciers 1
Timesifter 1
Tormod's Crypt 1
Trinisphere 1
Tuck 1
Vendilion Clique 1
Voracious Cobra 1
Wasteland 1
Wild Nactl 1
Withered Wretch 1
Zur the enchanter 1

 
 
*I've been cataloguing the suggestions made on MTGCommander.net for bannings, those cards that someone makes a serious case for banning. The inclusion of "Forbid" on the MTGSalvation list reminded me of some of the wacky suggestions that the community has come up with.
http://mtgcommander.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?p=84654#p84654

Ho Hum Standard

Normally this blog is about EDH and, for the most part, I want to keep it so, but I really need to get this down somewhere to get it off my chest:


I hate standard.......

.......but I want to play regionals.


This has put me into a difficult position. We've been running a gauntlet at work and, so far, I like none of the decks I've been testing. Here's the run down:


RDW has stupid "I win" hands on occasion. It also has terrible hands that require you to top-deck the win every turn and your opponent to fall flat in order to have a chance. That's just game 1. In game 2 the fact that aggro strategies, not just RDW, are a viable strategy in the format means that every Tom, Dick & Harry has some sort of hate that will splash you. If they fear Red-based decks in particular, they can crush you out of the board. Life is too short and time away from a slow Sunday with my girls too precious to put your regionals fate in the hands of the dice roll. I'm prepared to bet against the occasional "Hurp-Durp" opening hand that RDW gets, and just not play it.


One of the early decks I championed was Caw-Blade which then became Dark-Blade and Spark-Blade. I never felt comfortable playing the decks. That may have had something to do with our rogue Vampires just destroying it all day but it just simply came down to another decision about whether I really wanted to spend the day playing a deck I didn't enjoy playing.


Paris style Grixis-Tezz got bombed out very quickly in the gauntlet and was replaced by UB Tezz Infect which didn't really last much longer. There's always the terrible feeling that you're not as controlling as half the metagame requires you to be and too controlling for the other half. You feel bad sitting back and worse going for it. The metagame seems to be pretty split into Control (UW and now UB), Aggro board-Control (Caw-X and RUG) and aggro (WW/Quest/KRed/RDW) and the big elephant in the room: Combo.


My most recent audible is a combo deck of sorts, Eldrazi Ramp. It's a pretty straightforward strategy; play mana dudes, play bigger mana dudes, play Eldrazi, profit. The real issue with this strategy (apart from the availability of Ulamogs) is that it uses the red zone. There's got to be a way to circumvent adding that extra step. In addition, once you've played Valakut often enough, you can't play Eldrazi Ramp without wishing all your searches were getting Valakuts/Mountains, Hurp, Durp, take 18. When you look at both decks side by side and accept that both are essentially just goldfishing in very similiar ways to get to a very similiar point, would you prefer to be dropping Ulamog and waiting a turn or just, you know, winning?


One deck I'd love to try out (ok, one of many decks, some others being Mono-W Angel Control and UW Venser/Spine and anything that uses Mirrorworks) is anything that just goes to town on your opponent's mana base. Unfortunatly when your LD suite starts at 4 you generally have to make some calls on the start of your curve to get your mana up and running. The natural extension of getting your mana-count high quickly in current standard isn't a 4CC LD spell, it's a 6CC Titan. If your opponent can get the Titan online before you get Demolish, Melt/Roiling Terrain, then you're pretty screwed. Even then a turn 3 LD spell is probably still too late. An opposing turn 2 Overgrown Battlements means you need to kill the Battlements, not a land, as killing a land will still enable a turn 3 Battlement/Wall of Tanglecord with 2 mana open. That's an invitation for a turn 4 Titan and suddenly you need to either kill a 6/6 or destroy 2 lands per turn just to keep up. While you can't really argue with the 9 ways to destroy any land for 5 mana or less in the current standard, maybe the format would be healthier (and a lot more honest) if Stone Rain or Rain of Tears were legal. As it is, too many commonly played cards obselete a land destruction strategy in the current enviornment.


And we haven't even started on JTMS.


Valakut? >pfft!< I don't know.

Rats and Reanimation: A Zombie PBP

After having Thada's butt swiftly kicked by Elves (along with that of Wrexial and Treva too) in a game that totalled a mere 40 minutes, I verbaled into Balthor's Zombie Legions (c) for what would hopefully be an equally swift second game as we had only 25 minutes on the clock.

My opener had 2 Swamps, Twisted Abomination, Reanimate, Grave Defiler, Lord of the Undead and Rotting Rats. I can cast everything in my hand but the Defiler off that hand and still have a potential 6/4 regenerator in play. I decided to keep.


Turn 1: Playing first, I drew Swamp, played Swamp and passed.


Turn 2: I drew Carrion Feeder, played Swamp and passed with the intention of going EOT: Swampcycling, untap Reanimate. Instead I Swampcycled and drew a Grave Titan in my draw step......... Hum.


Turn 3: Swamp, play Rotting Rats discarding Grave Titan. Play Reanimate targetting the Grave Titan and end the turn with the start of a small army.


Turn 4: Swamp, play Lord of the Undead, revenge attack Rys with the Titan, the 2/2 Rat and two 3/3 Zombies. He takes 14 on the chin. During his turn he Oblivion Rings the Grave Titan.


Turn 5: Swamp, Grave Defiler finding nothing. Meh. Send the team (without Lord) back into Rhys. He chumps two of the tokens and takes another 8, slipping to only 4 due to damage from the other 2 players.

Turn 6: Bury Alive for Noxious Ghoul, Death Baron and Vengeful Dead. I neglect to play the Carrion Feeder and it costs me a Grave Titan. When I kill Rhys his Oblivion Ring leaves play. In our playgroup we get back what's under Rings etc., a decision that Treva & Wrexial are now regretting. I get two more tokens but Treva sends it on a Path to Exile before I can profit any more.


Turn 7: Death Baron and attack to kill Wrexial. The Wrexial player has put a Quietus Spike on a Rotting Rats and attacked Treva the previous turn. This, along with my leftover attacks, leaves Treva very suceptible to having his brains eaten the following turn. His draw doesn't yield solutions and he splatters his brains over the canteen roof rather than join the shuffling legion.


Total game time: 15 Mins. Moral of the Story: Don't f%#k with dead people. Or Grave Titan on turn 3 is good.


Either one.

PS: I'm currently re-reading The Walking Dead. It's thrilling and sickening in equal parts. I don't remember thinking about the human condition this much when I read it the first time. Maybe I've matured. Maybe I'm secretly interested to see if I'd make it. And, just a tiny little bit, maybe I'm curious to see if I could do what needed to be done, if it really had to be done.

I'm pretty sure it's an accurate description of what people would be capable of given the lack of any social restraint. Chapeau bas!

The battle to defend the peaks.

A scree of pebbles sprayed outwards as Aisling bounded down the sheer mountainside. “Fighting after lunch always gives me heart-burn,” she grumbled, casting her eyes at the exhausted Vedalken as she swept back past him. “A slap on the wrist, just a taste of what that Sphinx will get if she pokes her nose into the mountain passes. She can stay on the wet lowlands! The mountains are no place for such as her. Keys and Dynamos: Devices, toys, gadgets! Useless thrash, polluting the ground, spewing smoke and restricting the magic of free folk, though, that's hardly a bad thing when it come to the “dragon”.


"What sort of dragon doesn’t spit fire? How can a beast with no affinity to the high places, the crags and peaks, no molten flame in her blood, call herself a "dragon"? Pwah! She’s a soft thing of the woods and plains and water! Water!? Unnatural! A cow with wings, no "dragon"!


“Ah, Koth, my friend, there you are. The summits bless you for answering my call! My thanks for bringing these mighty gauntlets. Do you see what I must contend with? Endless plains, seas, bogs and trees with only the strength of the mountains as my comfort. Can you see?! That mythical throw-back has started a Forge in the foothills and that flying Cow thinks a pair of boots can protect her!! An abomination! There will be vicious repercussions, I will have them fleeing in fear from the very shadows cast by my flames.

“You must speak with Tezzeret for he has signed a pact with worse than Bolas if he thinks to serve that junkyard scavenger Sphinx. If we’re lucky, the “dragon” will see his duplicity and chase him off. Look Koth, she’s even brought a friend, a metal Hellkite, another unnatural creation. Koth? Answer me, Koth!"

Ashling cast round frantically for her ally, panicked by his loss but strangely bouyed by the mountain rock under her feet, thrumming in harmony with her heartbeat, pumping fiery blood though her veins. Understanding came even as she noticed Koth's Hammer sigil etched into the rock-face where she had last seen him standing. She smiled; what odds that he didn't stand beside her in the fight if the mountains themselves could rise up to defend themselves? She turned to face her adversaries crouched below her and raised her voice.

“YOU DARE COME TO MY MOUNTAINS?! YOU DARE?! You will feel the fiery claws of the Molten Pinnacle! You will feel my elemental fury! I promised repercussions and you shall have them! I AM YOUR FLAMING DOOM!!”

.

.

.

.

.

.

--------------------

Treva settled, exhausted, upon the scorched plain and licked at her burns. “It will heal”, she thought peacefully, “It always does.”


She lifted a booted claw and turned it to better catch the sun shining on the lightning flashes etched down the side.


“She can certainly deal with Sphinxes in rather explosive style but she has no taste in fashion, that girl!”

The World's Mightiest Mortal

After a previous co-operation* with my friend Antoine on the Elvis/Momentary Blink which you can find at the top of this post, I decided that I would try my hand at a new alter, alone.

*For "co-operation" read: "Me mucking it up and Antoine rescuing with brilliance"

It was to be an Ice Age Adarkar Wastes full art. I spent the first week curling the card with too much water when I was clearing away the borders. I then put it between a couple of books and forgot about it. Clearing house this weekend uncovered the unfinished Adarkar Wastes and a surprise Season's Beatings. I filed the SB and finished the Wastes. While I accept that it's not exactly on a level with Poxy14, I wasn't expecting it to be. It's now flat and finished and here in all its glory.

After initially forgetting about the Adarkar Wastes, my delusional brain thought I could somehow overcome my inability to paint detail (or complete a project) so I savaged a Hellkite Charger extension. It came out acceptably well considering but remains a good lesson of what not to do to cards you are painting. Scraping off the existing layers with a cutter before painting = bad.

How could I cap such a streak of unfinished mediocrity?


I know! Alter a Captain Marvel onto a Rafiq. It couldn't be all that difficult, could it?


Em....


Ok, the intent was good. The cloak covering the lion was obvious and lightning cover the sword wasn't a bad idea either, it's just that my artistic ability isn't really much more advanced than that of my 7-year-old.* Maybe determination wasn't a suitable substitute for skill in this instance. It kinda looked like my mock-up in MS Paint. Knowing that my MS Paint skills are worse than my usual artistic endeavours should give you an idea of what I had when I took stock.

*Probably an unfair comparison. She's much better.

Cap and card in hand, I presented myself once more before the master and begged favour. At great sacrifice to happiness in his household, he gave me back this:

Thank you Antoine. I am Billy Batson your Captain Marvel.

Shazam!!

My Fires Sapling – The Games

My Fires Sapling – The Games


These are a few of the games I’ve played with the deck this week.

4 man Sharuum, Sapling, Glissa, Treva

I have a mana flood start (sometimes keeping that all mana hand doesn’t work out!) and hide behind Sapling, poking my head out only to kill any infect creatures I can’t block as Glissa flies out of the blocks. Treva, despite having the numbers and an active Vedalken Anatomist, chooses not to block Glissa and eats Tainted Strike & a boost to get knocked out. Worst still he was poisoned to exactly 10 so using the Anatomist at any time during the attack would have left him at a precarious 9 but still alive. Tel-Jilad Fallen & boost did for Sharuum who had no removal in hand. I hit VT straight after Sharuum was eliminated which gave me a Damnation to clear the table. I proceeded to draw into Artisan of Kozilek -> E-Wit -> Nim Deathmantle and stalled Glissa’s short recovery for a couple of turns before I could DT for Ulamog. Glissa never really recovered from the Damnation and the Eldrazi finished everything at the bell.


3 Man Sapling, Treva, Rayne

On a mulligan to 5, I hit Sol Ring which allowed for a turn 4 Primeval Titan. Rayne had an extremely slow start and Treva didn’t find removal. Left to his own devices, PT ensured it got silly quickly. That one didn’t last very much longer.

3 Man Sapling, Treva, Sharuum

Rayne audibled into Sharuum and I kept a 2 lander with Sakura Tribe Elder and Cultivate. Right on queue I drew Primeval Titan. Treva had a tapper for a few turns to lock down Primeval Titan but it ended up dead to an evoked Shriekmaw and the game got out of hand after that.

Apparently an unanswered Primeval Titan is good. Who knew?


3 Man Sapling, Treva, Sharuum

I keep Stronghold, Swamp, Urborg, Coffers, Avenger of Zendikar, Cultivate, Damnation and, of course, didn’t find a Green source for a full 7 turns. Despite sticking Sapling out there, I was beaten down to 10 before finding a forest and stabilizing. There were a couple of dead turns where Sharuum could and should have forced the issue as he had Akroma’s Memorial in play.

My Cultivate allowed Acidic Slime on the Memorial. I follow that with Rampaging Baloths and drop Deserted Temple to make a 4/4 Beast token. A very lucky series of top-decks gave me Mosswort Bridge which hid away a Decree of Pain and made another Beast. The previous turn’s Deserted Temple untapped Bridge straight away to allow me to cast Decree directly, drawing 12 cards and leaving Sapling alone in play. In the 12 was Creeping Corrosion which crippled Sharuum and it snowballed from there into an eventual Genesis Wave for 24. Deserted Temple on Cabal Coffers with Urborg in play is slightly unfair.

Sharuum was really ticked off that he didn’t press when he could have. You snooze, you lose. ;op

5 man Sapling, Treva, Sharuum, Rayne, Merike Ri Berit

Rayne & Treva had sworn revenge on me for beatings the previous 2 days so I was forewarned. I mulliganed all spells keeping only 2 land (High Market, Overgrown Tomb) and drew Maelstrom Pulse, Cultivate, Shriekmaw and Mimic Vat. I decided to keep this as it’s a very good hand with just 1 additional land. Of course I didn’t draw that land right off.

I drew Praetor’s Council. I drew Ulamog which I discarded at EOT. I drew Oracle of Mul Daya & discarded Praetor’s Council. I drew Spiritmonger and discarded it. Merike is as mana screwed as I am but manages to fire off a turn 5 Balance to slow everyone else down to our level. I peel a Stronghold on turn 5 and get some land. Find and pay a Necrogenesis, then hung about for a bit clearing out some graveyards. Despite a very active Rhystic Study and a couple of turns with a Consecrated Sphinx backed up with Reliquary Tower, Rayne isn’t doing anything particularly impressive. Treva gets a slow start and refuses to play anything into my Shriekmaw/Mimic Vat. Sharuum keeps playing huge beasts and keeps losing them. It’s all very scattered. The game kind of limps on for a few minutes and time is called with no real loser (maybe Rayne as he’s got less than 30 cards in his library). I must have missed a pile of decent Mimic Vat triggers in all that time: Consecrated Sphinx, Primeval Titan, Clone, Emperium, Gilded Drake, Sun Titan. I got too focused on removing them with the Necrogenesis rather than putting them in the VAT. Worse still, I had enough mana to recur Shriekmaw with Stronghold to reset the vat and remove the offending creature with Necrogenesis afterwards. It was a thoroughly abysmal display on my part.


We’re done for the week so it’s time for some changes. I need more land and more coloured land so I'm going to increase both counts by 1:

Out:
1 Ulamog/Kozilek. (One Eldrazi is probably enough for all my Eldrazi needs.)
1 Ezuri, Renegade Leader. (It says Elf! ELF!!!!! :facepalm: )
1 of Wasteland/Stripmine (I only need one and I need coloured mana more.)
1 Mana Reflection (Yes, it’s excellent but my mana at the moment has more issues getting from 1 to 6 rather than from 6 to 12. It’s a necessary cut.)
In (the list is currently):
1 Forest/Swamp
1 Dual (Golgari Rot Farm? Reflecting Pool? Exotic Orchard? Pine Barrens? Just going on what I own, I’m not overly enamoured with the choices.)
1 Life from the Loam
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Black Sun’s Zenith (This could be a real bonus as I have no outs to Sharuum’s Darksteel Forge and he's mostly creature/combat based.)
1 Filth (This was in my first incarnation. It was cute though not sure I want it here. Thanks for the reminder Marcus, I’ll keep it in mind.)


This is the last in this particular series (initially intended to have been a single post but you know how it goes!) I'll post the final changes and any major issues in the comments and, as always, you're all very welcome to chime in. If you can think of a way to allow me to get around Darksteel Forge, I'd be happy to hear it.

Finalising Sapling

Cuts, Deck and Mana


Usually, when I'm building a deck, I have a very solid idea what I want to include in my land base. What I ended up doing in this case is picking a number of lands I wanted to use and fix the rest of the deck afterwards. I settled at a number between 37 and 40 as a starting figure to be rechecked after a few games. As I'm sure there will be a number of cards that don't produce coloured mana or, in a couple of cases, any mana at all, I'm likely to err on the large side on my mana base and increase this over the 40 mark. Well, that was the basic idea.

Let's get to the cuts first because, as expected, I went a little too large. Obvious things to go when the list got tight were the cards that I don't want to play with for irrational personal reasons:

1.) Blightsteel Colossus: I had a lot of fat in the deck and my sole copy of BSC was probably something that would eventually (quickly) become the "go to" creature of choice to end games. The problem with this is that it quickly becomes the only creature you Survival or Tooth and Nail for. If I have one single creature that becomes the default choice, the rest of the deck should probably just be junked in favour of some Sam Black-style, ultra focused deck that just zones in on getting one or two specific creatures into play again and again. I have kept the legal Legendary Eldrazi if I want to smash someone and shorten a game drastically but, as my default after BSC is probably Primeval Titan rather than those two, I'm probably ok for now. I'm a firm believer that it's the intent of players rather than the potential their deck holds that defines whether they are griefers or DBs. At some point I'm going to want to play an Eldrazi. I'm ok with that.

In the "Fat" category I've also cut Darksteel Colossus, It that Betrays and I suppose you could count Butcher of Malakir in there too. These were all simply a question of space over creatures that had more Oomph! or utility.

2.) Necropotence: As expected, I have cut Necropotence. This is a card I can't seem to use without feeling like a huge dick and it paints one of the largest targets on your head that you can have in multiplayer. Not only are you drawing an abhorrent number of cards, but you're also putting yourself closer to being knocked out in the process. In addition, if you want to counteract the life-loss you're skewing your deck around the Necro. I didn't want to do this and decided to cut the Skull.

It appears that I have issues with drawing cards as Promise of Power (expected) and Skeletal Scrying (surprising) also didn't make the list. I have the Scrying sleeved up in case I come to my senses and put it back in. The rule of thumb I have taken on this and a number of other cards is to just go with what seems more fun. The 8 mana Praetor's Council is currently in the slot of the much more playable, efficient XB spell. if/when the council goes off though, I expect a much more spectacular return. From the 4 games I've played since I initially sleeved it up, the deck relies on a lot of cards providing small incremental advantages (generally revolving around land development), a situation I'm more than happy with.

3.) Withered Wretch: One of the deck-building constants I have for EDH is the acceptance that your deck needs to be the dog to something. I don't believe in building the all dominant, all crushing behemoth (though I'll happily make an exception for a deck specifically built for Archenemy). Occasionally, that weakness will be inherent in the colours or the strategy you choose and, occasionally, you need to just accept that it's ok to skimp on certain aspects of your game either because everyone else has it covered or because space dictates that you need to make a choice and being weak to something isn't a bad thing in a regular playgroup. My choice in this deck was graveyards but specifically because I want to profit from them myself. When Sharuum is an active threat in your playgroup, that can be a bit risky though I've already made a change specifically to counter artifacts, more on that later.

Part of this approach to cards that interact with graveyards has led me to cut Buried Alive, Beacon of Unrest and Recollect. Buried Alive got in a fight with Corpse Connoisseur and the permanent, while slower, can provide a more measured, constant means of filling your graveyard. It can also attack, block and interact with Genesis, Volrath's Stronghold, Artisan of Kozilek among others. And who wants to steal a Corpse Connoisseur or exile it from your graveyard? Recollect became redundant with the volume of recursion staying in the deck and Beacon of Unrest was trumped by the twin threats of Puppeteer Clique and Geth. Why remove something with Withered Wretch when you can use it yourself? Lord of Extinction is also a fan of gutsy calls in this regard. Worst case scenario I have Necrogenesis, slightly more durable than a 2/2.

4.) Wild Pair, Worldly Tutor, Fierce Empath: The EDH philosopher Fugu once said:

"Man who cut tutor, play more varied game."

While there's a lot to be said about his grasp of English grammar, his may have a point. What does it behove a us to pack decks with a multitude of tutors just to do the same thing again and again? Surely we're in this for the variety. When it comes down to it, how many tutors do I really need? I can count these 3 that got cut and another 7 that didn't (including Expedition Map & Prime Time but excluding basic land "tutors"). There comes a point where you need to scale back and these are the initial ones I chose to leave out. I'm happy to take guidence from famous philosophers, though I may still be a step or two away from full enlightenment.

Wild Pair also didn't make the deck. I laid everything out and started to figure what could tutor up with what. After about 3 minutes trying to figure what I'd liketo get with X, Y or Z, I just decided to exclude it. I don't want to waste more time that I will already be doing with my land & creature tutors.


Let's look at the deck.

The creature suite can be divided into three catagories: "Fat", "What gets me to Fat" and "Disruption". While there's occasional overlap, this is pretty much all she wrote. Surprisingly (not,), my curve reflects this top-heavy approach, skimping on lower-end plays and glutting at 5-6cc before running all the way to 11cc.

2cc
Sakura-Tribe Elder

3cc
Krosan Tusker
Wood Elves
Yavimaya Elder
Ezuri, Renegade Leader
Eternal Witness

4cc
Solemn Simulacrum
Oracle of Mul Daya
Brooding Saurien

5cc
Sapling of Colfenor (General)
Lord of Extinction
Indrik Stomphowler
Acidic Slime
Puppeteer Clique
Shriekmaw
Corpse Connoisseur
Spiritmonger
Genesis
Seedborne Muse

6cc
Primeval Titan
Grave Titan
Geth, Lord of the Vault
Rampaging Baloths
Duplicant

7cc
Avenger of Zendikar

8cc
Terastodon
Woodfall Primus

9cc
Artisan of Kozilek

10cc
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth

11cc
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

As expected, Ezuri got the call over Kamahl purely on mana cost. I was unlikely to threaten one-sided Armageddons every time some presented a Wrath effect in any case so the choice was quite easy in the end.

The enchantments are next up and probably the area most likely to lose one or two representatives should I need the space.



1cc

Concordant Crossroads

2cc Survival of the Fittest
Necrogenesis

3cc
Pernicious Deed
Phyrexian Arena

4cc
Greater Good
Gravepact

6cc
Lurking Predators
Mana Reflection
One of the things you may notice here (and in their absence from the creatures list) is that the Bloodghast/Lotus Cobra/Perilious Forays combo didn't make the cut after the deck had been played a couple of times. I need a sacrifice outlet that doesn't cost mana, preferrably cheaper and with a more immediate benefit. The creatures were fragile and generally irrelevant. I also needed space and it was the cleanest cut I could make. Into their places went Ashnod's Altar which was left out initially, Harmonize which I had somehow overlooked and Creeping Corrosion. There's a pretty large volume of artifacts in my playgroup and it seems like it will be a pretty devestating play when it's needed.
Speaking of Artifacts:

1cc
Expedition Map
Sol Ring
Sensei's Divining Top

2cc
Nim Deathmantle
Lightning Greaves

3cc
Ashnod's Altar
Darksteel Ingot
Mimic Vat

Nothing has been added here since the first list was set up. Ashnod's Altar had been cut for Perilious Forays initially but once that was gone, the Altar came back in.
And, finally, the spells:
1cc
Vampiric Tutor

2cc
Regrowth
Demonic Tutor

3cc
Krosan Grip
Putrefy
Maelstron Pulse
Kodama's Reach
Cultivate

4cc
Harmonize
Creeping Corrosion
Damnation

5cc
Living Death

8cc
Praetor's Council
Decree of Pain

9cc
Tooth and Nail (Entwined)

Xcc
Genesis Wave
Green Sun's Zenith

The final card that didn't make the list, but is also sleeved up and waiting, was Black Sun's Zenith. I really want to play this and I want it to be great. For the moment, it's just not there.

Let’s finish up with the lands.

8 Forest
8 Swamp
Llanowar Wastes
Overgrown Tomb
Verdant Catacombs
Rupture Spire

I’d love to be able to list Bayou here but I don’t have one. I also don’t have Gilt-Leaf Palace, Twilight Mire or Tainted Wood. Definitely cards to pick up. In the meantime I have to make do. In terms of land that tap for colour but that do something else/additional:

Mosswort Bridge
Gaea’s Cradle
Bojuka Bog
Cabal Coffers
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Cradle and Coffers/Urborg are obvious though, at only 36 lands, they really need to be active whenever they are in play. I realize I’m cutting it tight here and I have no safety net if some is playing MLD (Mass Land Destruction). A more reasonable approach would probably have seen me cut three cards for, at a very minimum, Crucible of Worlds, Life from the Loam and an extra land. When I’ve learned my lesson the hard way, I’ll come back and revisit this.

One area where my mana base could be an issue is getting the right colours early on to get me going. I’m running 11 lands that produce colourless or nothing at all.

High Market
Deserted Temple
Tower of the Magistrate
Volrath’s Stronghold
Yavimaya Hollow
Strip Mine
Wasteland
Mystifying Maze
Maze of Ith
Temple of the False Gods
Vesuva

Upon mature reflection, at least one of Wasteland or Strip Mine should be coloured land #23. Our playgroup is noticeably light on non-basic lands worthy of their inclusion. If the LftL or Crucible ever do make it into the deck, they would make it possible to recur the necessary land should the rare eventually arise when I should ever need to use it more than once. In that event, I’ll cut one of those lands directly for either a dual of some sort or a basic.

A note on High Market, Deserted Temple and Tower of the Magistrate:
Miren, the Moaning Well didn’t make it into the deck because of the increased number of colourless lands getting a slot. I had to make a choice between the two and Miren got the axe. It will end up in Thada Adel when I get round to re-making her. High Market is essentially anti-Control Magic effect but occasionally the couple of life points can make a difference.

Deserted Temple is to give extra activations to Cradle, Coffers, Maze of Ith, Yavimaya Hollow, High Market, Tower and to allow me to use Mosswort Bridge the turn it comes into play. When you absolutely need an answer and you have the Bridge in your hand, the ability to flip it the same turn is often overlooked by your opponents. This play has already (and quite luckily) allowed me to play a Decree of Pain off the top and tying up a grand total of 3 other lands (Temple, Forest + colourless). My remaining mana went towards casting some of the 12 cards I drew off the Decree.

Tower of the Magistrate is another overlooked card. On top of the usual plays giving blockers protection and pushing through damage against Sharuum, who expects their Duplicant ability to fizzle or suddenly finds that their equipment has fallen off mid combat? It’s little plays like this that start to add up as the game goes on.

The land count ended up at 36 which is definitely too low. I'm going to leave it here and come back in a week or so to see how it went. I predict some changes will be needed.

River Kelpie? Whoda thunk it?

This one has been brewing for a little while ever since Jeremiah gave it up on Commandercast towards the end of last season (If you don't listen to this podcast, you really should!) I’ve had a River Kelpie in my binder ever since it came out in Shadowmoor and I had honestly never looked at it until it came up in Episode 8

I could give some silly excuse about my copy being in French but the simple reason was that it just wasn’t on the radar in Standard at the time. It’s quite a pity because it would have been a wonderful singleton addition to provide an extra draw engine for my Reveillark combo deck of the time.


River Kelpie is a card designed specifically to benefit from block mechanics, namely Persist and Retrace. The creature itself has Persist which allows it to cantrip once it has died the first time, thus triggering its own ability. Add in the retrace and persist cards from the back end of Lorwyn /Shadowmoor block and you had yourself a deck.


Except that you didn’t. Instead you had Faeries, Reveillark & Elf combo and Kithkin. Block mechanics didn’t get a look-in except where strong individual cards complimented existing strategies. Then Shards of Alara rolled around and River Kelpie’s time was gone. It went into binders and junk rare boxes and stayed there because, let’s face it, who wants to add a booger to their deck?

I’ve spoken a little about how Ashling got her name, you’re about to get another lesson about the kelpie. The kelpie is a supernatural water horse from Celtic folklore that is believed to haunt the rivers and lochs of Scotland and Ireland. It’s a malevolent spirit that lures children to a watery death and, occasionally, was said to change into a beautiful, scantily clad woman in order to lure grown men to their death. (No doubt the preferred excuse that drunken friends of the drunken deceased used to his wife when they brought home her husband’s lifeless body after a poteen fuelled midnight swim: “It was the Kelpie what drowned him, ma’am! I swears it!”)


What’s interesting about the use of the description Kelpie and its artwork is that in the same block we also got “noggles” which is essentially the same supernatural being with a different regional title. In the artwork, however, Noggles are horse/donkey typed while Kelpies, traditionally capable of being majestic water-steeds or alluring sirens, get to look like something that was recently excavated from the nostrils of a particularly disgusting pre-teen.

Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty and look at what our slimy green friend can bring to our EDH/Commander experience:

3UU
Whenever River Kelpie or another permanent is put onto the battlefield from a graveyard, draw a card.
Whenever a player casts a spell from a graveyard, draw a card.
Persist
3/3

So, for a CMC of 5 we get a 3/3 and, if all goes according to plan, when it dies, we get a 2/2 and a card. Put all that together and we get 5/5 for a mana investment of 5 plus a card and likely you are trading with your opponent for cards, creatures or life in addition. Not a bad deal. It’s still a fragile creature but you can get some mileage out of it.

Before we go any further, I’m going to mention why this was never a standout card before in EDH: It’s not black. Keep that in mind as we go through those abilities.

Keep in mind also that this ability triggers for every player not just you so while you would do well to build around the Kelpie, don’t forget to benefit from the free card-drawing provided by your opponents.


1.) You get a card whenever a creature persist trigger resolves.
2.) You get a card whenever a player plays a spell from a graveyard.
3.) You get a card whenever an effect causes someone moves to move a permanent from the graveyard onto the battlefield.
4.) You get two cards whenever someone plays a permanent spell in your graveyard that moves it to the battlefield.

1.) Persist

There are 25 cards (incl. the Kelpie) which either have Persist or grant persist. While most of them are not worth mentioning there are some standouts in that group: Glen Elendra Archmage, Cauldron of Souls, Puppeteer Clique, Kitchen Finks, Murderous Redcap and Woodfall Primus. Four of these are in colours that like to bring cards back from the graveyard into hand or play; Green and Black.

2.) Playing spells from the graveyard

We have Retrace (12), Flashback or cards that interact with it (68) a count which includes Mystical Teachings and Dralnu, Lich Lord, Yawgmoth’s Agenda and Yawgmoth’s Will. While this list isn’t exactly brimming with huge bombs, Retraced Image and Wurm Harvest are still very respectable spells to be getting extra value out of, especially as they are likely drawing you more land under Kelpie to replay them. The largest issue is that, with the exception of the 3 cards here which do contain blue, the stars of “Kelpie + Mechanic” action will require you to run a second or third colour.


3.) You get a card whenever an effect causes someone moves to move a permanent from the graveyard onto the battlefield.

Here’s a fun category. Imagine you’re running a Momir Vig deck with River Kelpie and Crucible of Worlds in play. Now every fetch-land you play from your graveyard essentially reads “Pay 1 Life: Draw a card and put a basic into play.” Add some Azusa to that and play multiple lands from your graveyard, drawing a card each time. With Kelpie in play, your opponent’s Crucible of Worlds becomes the source of a lot of cards.
Switch colours for a moment and move into Black with Bloodghast, Nether Traitor and any Animate Dead effect such as Living Death. I suppose, with Black, you’d also have to include Sharuum which reanimates and draws a card.

Sharuum’s white reminds me that Reveillark, Karmic Guide and Sun Titan would be exceedingly saucy with the River Kelpie in play.

That’s all before we get into the Unearth mechanic.


4.) You get two cards whenever someone plays a permanent spell in your graveyard that moves it to the battlefield.

This is the corner-case bonus section that allows you to draw two cards if anyone runs Haakon or Karador as both abilities on the Kelpie would trigger. Court Hussar played from your graveyard with either Karador's or Haakon’s ability would allow you to draw 2 and then choose one of the next 3 cards to take into your hand essentially showing you the top 5 cards of your deck and drawing 3.

Thanks to Troacctid for picking up on this one. The official rule is:
If you cast another artifact, creature, enchantment, or planeswalker spell from a graveyard, only the second ability triggers. That's because the card is put onto the stack, not onto the battlefield.


But a lot of these suggestions, particularly the ones containing non-blue Legendary creatures keep coming back to the issue that he's Blue and not Black, a colour that would have a field day if he was he was costed at 3BB instead of 3UU!


These are just some teasers to get you looking at the big snot, em, I mean River Kelpie. I don’t have a decklist to share with you but hopefully I have sown the seeds for some ideas. Enjoy!