I have been kind of wondering about this question for a while. Do you really know what defines you as a magic player? Perhaps you have always played one way in 60-card magic, because you like to win local FNMs, or maybe you're really competitive and constantly tweak decks for GPs. Maybe this has blinded you from who you actually are as a player.
Then one day you get introduced to EDH, and you find a general that you love. You are introduced to a completely different style of play that you would have never seen yourself playing in 60-card magic. For example, ever since I picked up Riku, I found that I have a bit of a combo player inside of me. In 60-card magic, I absolutely hated combo. I still am not one of those players that build decks to revolve around comboing off, I still like to have a bit of fun.
So I guess the question is, does your EDH deck define who you are as a player? After all, it is your biggest opportunity to get creative in this game. If so, who are you as a player exactly?
I believe that I have enough social competence to slip into a party or two, potentially wooing some attractive females that would not mind spending the evening performing the booty dance on me.
My Commander decks are all very representative of me, but in different ways.
Phelddagrif is my humorous, wacky side. I love playing with cards that make me laugh. The Happy Purple Hippo! Whee!
Captain Sisay & Jasmine Boreal lead my deck full of legendary fatties and beautiful enchantresses. Yay Timmy!
Slivers is my comborific Johnny self.
Nath is because I love love love Elves, as anyone can tell you.
Zedruu is perhaps the most representative of me. It's a weird card that needs to be read twice, and you have to think about how to use it. The deck is full of "bad" cards and cards that I have been wanting to use for years, like Thought Lash. It's got some political tools, some nifty combos, and some things that are just damn cool.
I am kind of amazed at [...] the fact that somebody on this thread called Mind's Eye, Mirari's Wake, Decree of Pain, Desertion, AND Scroll Rack, all before they were officially spoiled. I will edit this post VERY shortly with the username of this user who deserves at least all of the cookies. Probably more cookies than that.
I've always loved toolbox decks, even when I used to play pokemon, yugioh, magi-nation, and in any Magic format. Nothing compares to the feeling of having exactly the right answer for any given situation, and the power to search my deck for that one card I need at any given time. I also love getting multiple uses out of one spell. As such, my favorite colors are Blue and Black, and my favorite card has always been Mystical Teachings (though Forbidden Alchemy is swiftly earning a place close to my heart.) My EDH deck reflects this very well, I started with my favorite legendary creature, Dralnu, Lich Lord and filled it to the brim with every tutor and dig spell I could get my hands on, added in some repeatable effects like Flashback, Buyback and Recover, then filled in the blanks with plenty of answers, which I plan to tweak according to any big shifts in my metagame. It really is the perfect expression of me as a player.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"I am confident that if anyone actually
penetrates our facades, even the most
perceptive would still be fundamentally
unprepared for the truth of House Dimir."
My Kresh deck seems to be mainly Timmy and Spike, which might indicate my lack of desire to play combo. There's still a strong, synergistic element in my deck, with "combos" like Tooth and Nail for Butcher of Malakir and Dragon Broodmother, but nothing really outlandish or game-breaking. I guess, in the end, I'd much rather just kill things and beat face lol.
My Dralnu deck not only defines my playstyle but also reflects the type of person I am.
There are two types of deck types I'm drawn to: synergistic and graveyard abuse. The Lich Lord allows me to do both simultaneously: a control deck that is able to utilize its entire graveyard in the end game. This is followed by a 1-card finisher, wasting very little room in my deck for weak threats. It's so efficient it's beautiful. As a person, I am very thorough and I hate leaving openings. I've been tuning this Dralnu deck for over a year now, trying to seal up gaps in the strategy and oiling the deck into an uber machine. What remains is a deck that is purely reactive, and can snatch away the game at any moment, given the monumental resources at your disposal. This allows me to often sidestep the political banter and act as a non-threat for the entire game. The deck, in my opinion, has very few weaknesses, and I can adjust the list's power level easily for any given metagame. It has taught me about my habits in playing Magic, and led me to profound deck-making strategies that I would have never thought before.
So, in short, thank you Dralnu for giving me the most awesome EDH times ever
1. Cast Riku of Two Reflections
2. Cast fatty
3. Copy fatty
4. ?????
5. Get a warm fuzzy feeling when you hit someone over the head with a 300/300 Hamletback Goliath. Oh and your library's on the battlefield.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If you're having creature problems I feel bad for you son
You got 99 attackers but I'm blocking with 1.
The Winner is Judge | 7
This Winner is Also Judge | 6
Club Flamingo | Lots
I play Riku when I feel like derping around . Or, you know, just playing a deck where every other card is a creature and every other creature is a bomb.
I play Kemba when I want to TIMMAH, LARGE CREATURE WITH LOTS OF ABILITIES.
I play Kamahl when I want to TIMMAH, LOTS OF LARGE CREATURES.
I play Geth when I'm feeling spike-ish.
I play Kaervek when I want to be the archenemy.
I play Ghave when I can to figure out how to improve it.
Yes, they all reflect the different way I like to Timmy it up, be it Voltron, Overrun.
Everyone's decks are reflections of their personalities, given the right perspective. I have a very wide variety of decks, but the one thing they all have in common is that they are extremely focused, all in decks. They usually win by a wide margin, but when they fail, it's spectacular.
The problem with defining [EDH] by what is "fun" is that everyone seems to define fun as what they don't lose to. If you keep losing to easily answered cards, that means you should improve your deck. If you don't want to improve your deck, then you should come to peace with the idea that you are going to lose because you chose to not interact with better strategies.
Sen Triplets - Best of the control aspect Esper cards. It doesn't reflect me as a person in anyway, other than maybe being competitive and winning at all costs.
I like high risk/high reward strategies. Riku, Multani
I like combos. Venser, Geth
I like inevitability. Rasputin, Hazezon, red Akroma
I like dictating the pace of the game (by which I mean stopping it). Linvala, Kaervek
There's certainly some bleed between them but its easy to pick out what their main purpose is.
Contol player here... I love my Vorosh deck, it's everything about my playstyle (and generally strategy). I stall everyone until I can end the game in one shot (usually exsanguinate).. though the deck is a hause in 1v1 if I do try to voltron someone.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Hey, Call me Rex. I really need to make one of those nice banners but I'm lazy and I don't know how.
Drana - If I want something, I will work towards that goal, and I will achieve it. Get in my way, I take you out. (the deck has a lot of creature hate, and once I play against your deck a couple times I can effectively gut it like a fish)
Kaalia - I'm not the most "active, excitable" person, but it's because I'm saving my energy for when I truly need it. If you waste time and energy on what's not important, then you're screwed when it's time. (the deck sits around, setting up for the end, and if you start looking at me funny, I will crush you)
Nath (being built/optimized) - Really, Nature got it right the first time. Humanity just wants to control everything, and in the process, usually ****s it up. We probably aren't doing much to harm Nature in the long run, but we're grade A ****ing ourselves over. (the deck will ideally deny mana through destruction and putting back in the library, for long enough so that Nath's discard and tokens can beat face FTW)
Thraximundar (needs to be tested/optimized) - Modern society can be like one giant, mass consuming zombie. Half the people you meed probably don't think about anything harder than what they should have for lunch, and certain things in society just weigh us down and overwhelm us. (INN made me take another crack at him, and so a slight theme is that the zombies just pile up, eventually at an alarming rate)
Its really interesting to hear about this stuff. I'm glad I started this thread.
I like playing control, but I am not a great control player. It is one of the hardest archetypes to master. I ended up retiring my Wrexial deck because I was getting bored with it. A control deck wins the same way every time. I wanted fun interactions.
I loved playing with my Radha deck, because I have an inner Timmy. However, I felt that the strategy was a little linear. Ramp>play dudes>win. I wanted a deck to be able to do lots of different things.
So it seemed natural to build Riku, where I can have all of these things! I also never thought I would like combo, but as I stated in the opening post, I don't like combo decks. I like fun decks that happen to have combos in them. I think its a long road to truly discovering who you are as a magic player.
I believe that I have enough social competence to slip into a party or two, potentially wooing some attractive females that would not mind spending the evening performing the booty dance on me.
And actually, now that I think about it, a lot of my decks end up tribal because friends and family are important to me. The value of a good friend or sibling is unmeasurable.
Not sure if ghave guru of spores describes me very well. I do like the colors he supports. Its a synergistic token swarm deck. That basically goes "you leave me alone, I leave you alone" as long as you don't play anything too threatening to my growth or allies.
I always imagine him in a trench coat with a bunch of sporelings standing on top of each other.
No matter what I do, I always drift back to Big Red decks. I remember having powerful lists like Nath, R/G Wort, Memnarch, and G Kamahl.... but I always come back to the fireballs and dragons that I love. My favorite general tends to be either Heartless Hidetsugu or Ashling the Pilgrim, and I love winning with cards like Bloodfire Colossus, Comet Storm, or Insurrection. Mono-R is bombastic, explosive, and aggravates my entire playgroup... and I love the archetype without remorse.
The thing about me that I take from all my decks is that I wanna be left alone and will actively hinder you if it means you'll get off my back for a while.
Kaervek the Merciless makes it so painful to do anything that inexperienced players tend to turtle up and do nothing, leaving the good players the task of having to kill me, meaning I can focus my fire and kill them quickly.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite just doesn't seem to be doing anything and people ignore her until its too late. She will probably become Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker soon, which is even more of a "leave me alone" deck.
I run Reaper King in a combo-intensive primarily white deck. I run plenty of group play, but I'm also able to push a button and explode the world when the time comes. To further elaborate, I'd rate myself about 50% Johnny, 20% Timmy, and 30% Spike, so constructing doomsday devices made out of shambling scarecrows and macabre mechanical devices appeals to me, heavily.
The various Howling Mines and other such things are there to speed up the game, since I play in a very non-competitive EDH group. We see it as our oasis from Legacy and Standard grinding and competitive play, so we tend to like our games long and over the course of a conversation. Our decks are built to reflect this, but there are times when the games can go on too long and I find a Howling Mine can be just the answer.
Yeah! I'm pretty sure EDH was the only style of game where you can put all your creativity in it.
I love deck that get out of nowhere in 1 or 2 turns. It's the type of deck that hit like a iceberg. You see nothing coming but when you realise it's finish. I love playing arround rules. Stack ability in certain order to do nice thing. All my deck reflect this.
I'm the type of guys who didn't follow the same road than everybody. I love being different doing thing differently and doing what I like to do.
Now my deck was really similar to how I am. I try to do the same but it's pretty hard in a 60 cards deck.
Mimeoplasm was one of my favorite deck. I do a lot of change and I come to a deck I really like playing with all the strategie it's can get out of it. Playing with my or opponents graveyards, I reanimate, flashback, regrowth, dredge, play card from my graveyard, I draw a lot of card, ramp mana and I didn't run infinite mana but i have some big synergie without going infinite.
I use Zur as a toolbox lockdown. I'm most apt to play it against strangers. In a sense, it represents my defensive wall against a vast majority of people.
I use Rhys the Redeemed as a token swarm deck. I feel like that represents my loyalty to my friends.
I use Kaalia as X/Y/Z Tribal with heavy enchantment and mana subthemes. It represents my extremel bouts of manic happiness and mischievous moments that have happened in my life.
I use Doran as a toughness beatdown with much removal. It represents my anger, sadness, and tendency to build up walls against anyone at all when I am feeling that way.
Sharuum is currently being built, but its meant as combo to the greatest extent a college kid can provide for himself. That said, at its prime, it would represent my own personal acceptance of certain events that have shaped my life and a smooth serenity thereof. I'm still working on the acceptance part. By some odd coincidence, if Sharuum is done by then, I'll look back on this thread with smiles.
Then one day you get introduced to EDH, and you find a general that you love. You are introduced to a completely different style of play that you would have never seen yourself playing in 60-card magic. For example, ever since I picked up Riku, I found that I have a bit of a combo player inside of me. In 60-card magic, I absolutely hated combo. I still am not one of those players that build decks to revolve around comboing off, I still like to have a bit of fun.
So I guess the question is, does your EDH deck define who you are as a player? After all, it is your biggest opportunity to get creative in this game. If so, who are you as a player exactly?
RUG Riku, Two is Better Than One
UB [PRIMER] Wrexial, Classic Control
RG Radha, Ramp's Theme Goes With Everything
Mono blue azami
Phelddagrif is my humorous, wacky side. I love playing with cards that make me laugh. The Happy Purple Hippo! Whee!
Captain Sisay & Jasmine Boreal lead my deck full of legendary fatties and beautiful enchantresses. Yay Timmy!
Slivers is my comborific Johnny self.
Nath is because I love love love Elves, as anyone can tell you.
Zedruu is perhaps the most representative of me. It's a weird card that needs to be read twice, and you have to think about how to use it. The deck is full of "bad" cards and cards that I have been wanting to use for years, like Thought Lash. It's got some political tools, some nifty combos, and some things that are just damn cool.
Commanders:
Basandra, Battle Seraph | Diaochan, Artful Beauty | Mayael the Anima | Nath of the Gilt Leaf | Oona, Queen of the Fae | Raksha Golden Cub | Rayne, Academy Chancellor | Roon of the Hidden Realm
"I am confident that if anyone actually
penetrates our facades, even the most
perceptive would still be fundamentally
unprepared for the truth of House Dimir."
BRG Kresh the Bloodbraided GRB
(81% foil)
There are two types of deck types I'm drawn to: synergistic and graveyard abuse. The Lich Lord allows me to do both simultaneously: a control deck that is able to utilize its entire graveyard in the end game. This is followed by a 1-card finisher, wasting very little room in my deck for weak threats. It's so efficient it's beautiful. As a person, I am very thorough and I hate leaving openings. I've been tuning this Dralnu deck for over a year now, trying to seal up gaps in the strategy and oiling the deck into an uber machine. What remains is a deck that is purely reactive, and can snatch away the game at any moment, given the monumental resources at your disposal. This allows me to often sidestep the political banter and act as a non-threat for the entire game. The deck, in my opinion, has very few weaknesses, and I can adjust the list's power level easily for any given metagame. It has taught me about my habits in playing Magic, and led me to profound deck-making strategies that I would have never thought before.
So, in short, thank you Dralnu for giving me the most awesome EDH times ever
One-Eyed Black | Orzhov Combo | Ooze Reanimator | Mindwheeling Pain
2. Cast fatty
3. Copy fatty
4. ?????
5. Get a warm fuzzy feeling when you hit someone over the head with a 300/300 Hamletback Goliath. Oh and your library's on the battlefield.
You got 99 attackers but I'm blocking with 1.
The Winner is Judge | 7
This Winner is Also Judge | 6
Club Flamingo | Lots
I play Kemba when I want to TIMMAH, LARGE CREATURE WITH LOTS OF ABILITIES.
I play Kamahl when I want to TIMMAH, LOTS OF LARGE CREATURES.
I play Geth when I'm feeling spike-ish.
I play Kaervek when I want to be the archenemy.
I play Ghave when I can to figure out how to improve it.
Yes, they all reflect the different way I like to Timmy it up, be it Voltron, Overrun.
Kemba | Linvala | Talrand | Geth | Krenko | Zada | Patron of the Orochi | Medomai | Athreos | Gisela | Trostani | Nin | Silumgar | Kaervek | Jarad | Xenagos | Sydri | Narset | Roon | Zurgo | Ghave | Marath | Uril | Tasigur | Animar | Riku | Riku | Sek'Kuar | Cromat
I like high risk/high reward strategies. Riku, Multani
I like combos. Venser, Geth
I like inevitability. Rasputin, Hazezon, red Akroma
I like dictating the pace of the game (by which I mean stopping it). Linvala, Kaervek
There's certainly some bleed between them but its easy to pick out what their main purpose is.
Modern:
Bant Eldrazi
Merfolk
Abzan Company
EDH:
Mono-Green Omnath
Mono-White Odric Soup
Mono-Blue Muzzio
Mono-Red Feldon
Check out my EDH/Commander primer for Vorosh, the Hunter
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showt...10#post6907410
The primer is currently very far out of date and needs re-writing. If you're interested in any info or actually seeing it redone please pm me.
Kaalia - I'm not the most "active, excitable" person, but it's because I'm saving my energy for when I truly need it. If you waste time and energy on what's not important, then you're screwed when it's time. (the deck sits around, setting up for the end, and if you start looking at me funny, I will crush you)
Nath (being built/optimized) - Really, Nature got it right the first time. Humanity just wants to control everything, and in the process, usually ****s it up. We probably aren't doing much to harm Nature in the long run, but we're grade A ****ing ourselves over. (the deck will ideally deny mana through destruction and putting back in the library, for long enough so that Nath's discard and tokens can beat face FTW)
Thraximundar (needs to be tested/optimized) - Modern society can be like one giant, mass consuming zombie. Half the people you meed probably don't think about anything harder than what they should have for lunch, and certain things in society just weigh us down and overwhelm us. (INN made me take another crack at him, and so a slight theme is that the zombies just pile up, eventually at an alarming rate)
Original Poster, excellent thread idea
--- Meren of Clan Nel Toth --- Jhoira of the Ghitu --- Prime Speaker Zegana ---
--- Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief --- Ghoulcaller Gisa --- Akroma, Angel of Fury --- Titania, Protector of Argoth ---
I like playing control, but I am not a great control player. It is one of the hardest archetypes to master. I ended up retiring my Wrexial deck because I was getting bored with it. A control deck wins the same way every time. I wanted fun interactions.
I loved playing with my Radha deck, because I have an inner Timmy. However, I felt that the strategy was a little linear. Ramp>play dudes>win. I wanted a deck to be able to do lots of different things.
So to sum up so far, I like:
-Answers
-Ramp spells
-Fatties
-Card draw
-Explosiveness
-Variance
-Fun interactions
So it seemed natural to build Riku, where I can have all of these things! I also never thought I would like combo, but as I stated in the opening post, I don't like combo decks. I like fun decks that happen to have combos in them. I think its a long road to truly discovering who you are as a magic player.
RUG Riku, Two is Better Than One
UB [PRIMER] Wrexial, Classic Control
RG Radha, Ramp's Theme Goes With Everything
--- Meren of Clan Nel Toth --- Jhoira of the Ghitu --- Prime Speaker Zegana ---
--- Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief --- Ghoulcaller Gisa --- Akroma, Angel of Fury --- Titania, Protector of Argoth ---
I always imagine him in a trench coat with a bunch of sporelings standing on top of each other.
Wonder what that says about me?
Geth, Lord of the Vault just kills everything pretty much every turn.
Rafiq of the Many bounces everything. Seriously, one of the first cards I go for is Kederekt Leviathan...
Kaervek the Merciless makes it so painful to do anything that inexperienced players tend to turtle up and do nothing, leaving the good players the task of having to kill me, meaning I can focus my fire and kill them quickly.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite just doesn't seem to be doing anything and people ignore her until its too late. She will probably become Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker soon, which is even more of a "leave me alone" deck.
The various Howling Mines and other such things are there to speed up the game, since I play in a very non-competitive EDH group. We see it as our oasis from Legacy and Standard grinding and competitive play, so we tend to like our games long and over the course of a conversation. Our decks are built to reflect this, but there are times when the games can go on too long and I find a Howling Mine can be just the answer.
I love deck that get out of nowhere in 1 or 2 turns. It's the type of deck that hit like a iceberg. You see nothing coming but when you realise it's finish. I love playing arround rules. Stack ability in certain order to do nice thing. All my deck reflect this.
I'm the type of guys who didn't follow the same road than everybody. I love being different doing thing differently and doing what I like to do.
Now my deck was really similar to how I am. I try to do the same but it's pretty hard in a 60 cards deck.
Mimeoplasm was one of my favorite deck. I do a lot of change and I come to a deck I really like playing with all the strategie it's can get out of it. Playing with my or opponents graveyards, I reanimate, flashback, regrowth, dredge, play card from my graveyard, I draw a lot of card, ramp mana and I didn't run infinite mana but i have some big synergie without going infinite.
WBGhost Council of OrzhovaBW
GUBThe MimeoplasmBUG
RGWort, the RaidmotherGR
UGRRiku of Two ReflectionsRGU
Casual
WGBJunkStone DeckBGW
BMonoBlack VampireB
EDIT: The implication was Gaddock Teeg is my Commander which paints me as a raging d-bag. It was supposed to be humorous. No one else was amused.
Spam warning issued. -viper
And an infraction for editing a moderated post. -viper
My Blog About It
What ABOUT Teeg?
OT:
I use Zur as a toolbox lockdown. I'm most apt to play it against strangers. In a sense, it represents my defensive wall against a vast majority of people.
I use Rhys the Redeemed as a token swarm deck. I feel like that represents my loyalty to my friends.
I use Kaalia as X/Y/Z Tribal with heavy enchantment and mana subthemes. It represents my extremel bouts of manic happiness and mischievous moments that have happened in my life.
I use Doran as a toughness beatdown with much removal. It represents my anger, sadness, and tendency to build up walls against anyone at all when I am feeling that way.
Sharuum is currently being built, but its meant as combo to the greatest extent a college kid can provide for himself. That said, at its prime, it would represent my own personal acceptance of certain events that have shaped my life and a smooth serenity thereof. I'm still working on the acceptance part. By some odd coincidence, if Sharuum is done by then, I'll look back on this thread with smiles.
All in all, that's me and my decks.
~Lil Kalki
Proud Disciple of the Church of the Wary