I recently was reminded of a game of commander where someone had a very odd choice of a commander, and it wasn't chosen just for the colors, he actually killed someone with commander damage, but it was the mono-blue phasing legend of Taniwha.
A 5 mana 7/7 trampler in mono-blue is a fairly odd pick for a commander, especially once you get it on the field, you only have your lands every other turn.
I think the highlight of the game that I played against him was the Zedruu player stealing the commander and then donating it to me before he got killed.
Anyone else play against someone who built a deck around some legend that is way out there?
I have a Reveka, Wizard Savant deck, which usually raises a few eyebrows. While overall, the deck's main theme is theft and cloning which for the most part Reveka doesn't help with (Charisma being the exception), the general does have a role as a backup wincon. Mainly because of what she can do with a Freed from the real or Pemmin's Aura and a large pile of blue mana.
I play Lovisa Coldeyes and Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro. Wacky may not be the correct word but both generals are a fairly uncommon sight because both colors have much stronger choices.
Yeah, "wacky" mostly just means underpowered, I'd say. There are a lot of legends, but the format has been around long enough, and discussed online enough, that there is a pretty good understanding of what the powerful generals are. Fortunately, some people go out of their way to find a use for the weaker generals.
My main deck right now is a Stangg overrun deck with a heavy "number of creatures you control matters" theme. The deck has Ulasht, the Hate Seed and Xenagos, God of Revels in the 99 and probably would be stronger with either of them at the helm. But I've always loved Stangg, so I sat down and thought: how can I take advantage of the fact that he's two creatures. (Garruk's Packleader into Stangg, sweet tech).
I also used to run a Skeleton Ship deck based around -1/-1 counters. That was pretty wacky. I had a very strong land-animation/land-destruction Johan deck for a while (it turns out that giving manlands vigilance is pretty strong). And I wish they would print more blue and black dragons so I could finally build my Sivitri Scarzam dragon tribal deck.
Yeah, "wacky" mostly just means underpowered, I'd say.
Wacky means funny or peculiar, it has nothing to do with power level.
Selenia, Dark Angel is a good example. She has a weird ability that you repeatedly stack until you do something like pop Magus of the Mirror and kill somebody. She's not underpowered in the least.
Norin is another good example of wacky, but strong.
there is a guy in my playgroup who runs Xira Arien for the same kind of reasons, it's actually pretty neat and sort of innocuous, since most Jund generals tend to be massive threats like Karthus, Tyrant of Jund or Kresh, the bloodbraided.
Yeah, "wacky" mostly just means underpowered, I'd say.
Wacky means funny or peculiar, it has nothing to do with power level.
What I mean though is that the strong "wacky" commanders quickly cease to seem so wacky. Norin, Nekuzar, and Zedruu all make very weird plays and result in wacky game states. But they are all very strong and, thanks to the internet, people know it. So most playgroups tend to have at least one of these decks in the meta. When everyone is playing the deck and it is known to be very competetive, I would say it becomes a lot less "wacky" no matter how unorthodox the build.
Phage the Untouchable is a pretty wacky general. She's great for catching people off guard if you run ways to let you play her. Really funny with Endless whispers as well.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
BPhage-Suicide BlackB RFastgood, a goblin can dreamR GTitania-Who needs land?G RGAngry Mt. Bobo-Have some landGR UBSkeleton Ship-Happy Sea Friends!BU RBLyzolda-What won't a witch eat?BR WUGPhelddagrifs-Hippos aren't cuddlyGUW WUGRoon's hidden playgroundGUW WURShu Yun-Hold the SunRUW WBGAnafenza-Graveyards (don't) matterGBW UBGTasigur-Banana RepublicGBU
Yeah, "wacky" mostly just means underpowered, I'd say.
Wacky means funny or peculiar, it has nothing to do with power level.
What I mean though is that the strong "wacky" commanders quickly cease to seem so wacky. Norin, Nekuzar, and Zedruu all make very weird plays and result in wacky game states. But they are all very strong and, thanks to the internet, people know it. So most playgroups tend to have at least one of these decks in the meta. When everyone is playing the deck and it is known to be very competetive, I would say it becomes a lot less "wacky" no matter how unorthodox the build.
What you are referring to is obscurity, not wackiness. Wacky still means funny or peculiar. No matter how many people build Norin, he will be considered a wacky general, though he is much less obscure now than he used to be.
Yeah, "wacky" mostly just means underpowered, I'd say.
Wacky means funny or peculiar, it has nothing to do with power level.
What I mean though is that the strong "wacky" commanders quickly cease to seem so wacky. Norin, Nekuzar, and Zedruu all make very weird plays and result in wacky game states. But they are all very strong and, thanks to the internet, people know it. So most playgroups tend to have at least one of these decks in the meta. When everyone is playing the deck and it is known to be very competetive, I would say it becomes a lot less "wacky" no matter how unorthodox the build.
What you are referring to is obscurity, not wackiness. Wacky still means funny or peculiar. No matter how many people build Norin, he will be considered a wacky general, though he is much less obscure now than he used to be.
That's great. You use English as you see fit and I'll use it as I see fit.
That's great. You use English as you see fit and I'll use it as I see fit.
If only one of us is going to use words as they are actually defined, then we cannot have meaningful discussion. You are consciously choosing not to understand what a certain word means...
anyways, Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant seems pretty weird, not sure how I'd try to utilize it...
EDIT: I guess you could try to abuse the landfall mechanic and play things that put lands into your hand, seems janky but could be fun as a very casual deck.
And Haakon does nothing (until wizards prints something that interacts with the command zone I guess)
No one has mentioned Mistform Ultimus yet. I played a silly dual tribal deck for a while with him that was pretty fun. All the power of Merfolk, Wizards, and Changlings, not to mention all the copy, counter, and steal from mono blue. It was a fun deck to play for a while even though it wasn't super competitive. I even ran Xenograft and Lord of the Unreal pretty successfully for a while. I will say one thing for the deck... it draws a big fat 0 board hate in multi-player, however it can be difficult to recover from board wipe. Hurrah for silly decks
I've seen a pretty interesting Mishra, Artificer Prodigy list that uses effects like Nether Void or Possibility Storm. Basically when you cast an artifact spell you have Nether Void, Possibility Storm or some other effect send it from the stack to the graveyard or library and once that resolves you then let Mishra's trigger resolves allowing you to bring that card back to the battlefield, creating an asymmetric stax effect.
An earlier post actually got me wondering. I don't think there isn't a way to use Haakon as a commander. You can't even bring him in using Mirror of Fate since he doesn't start out in exile.
A 5 mana 7/7 trampler in mono-blue is a fairly odd pick for a commander, especially once you get it on the field, you only have your lands every other turn.
I think the highlight of the game that I played against him was the Zedruu player stealing the commander and then donating it to me before he got killed.
Anyone else play against someone who built a deck around some legend that is way out there?
GRUAnimar, Soul of CreaturesGRU
GWGW Tokens: Rhys,Tolsimir, or Trostani GW
BMarrow-GnawerB
BGSkullbriar, All's fun in the GraveBG
RWBAlesha, Who Smiles at DeathRWB
But it's quite interesting building a deck around him.
I've never seen another colorless deck in paper other than mine,
He's colorless tho! All of my other generals are more.. goodstuff i guess, but they do have a theme.
Ruhan Tribal giants,
Derevi tribal birds
Adun Oakenshield Old border only
Dakkon Blackblade and his gang (only legendary creatures) Enchantment based.
Then i got a bunch of goodstuff decks, ghave, nekusar, sigarda, kurkesh is on the way.
Who needs Colours?
My most played EDH deck:
X Kozilek, the Great Distortion
UBR Nekusar, the Mindrazer
I have also seen a blind seer deck where all it did was mess with colors of cards to make use of cards that targeted colors.
I've never seen a non voltron Thada Adel deck.
My Helpdesk
[Pr] Marath | [Pr] Lovisa | Jodah | Saskia | Najeela | Yisan | Lord Windgrace | Atraxa | Meren | Gisa and Geralf
My main deck right now is a Stangg overrun deck with a heavy "number of creatures you control matters" theme. The deck has Ulasht, the Hate Seed and Xenagos, God of Revels in the 99 and probably would be stronger with either of them at the helm. But I've always loved Stangg, so I sat down and thought: how can I take advantage of the fact that he's two creatures. (Garruk's Packleader into Stangg, sweet tech).
I also used to run a Skeleton Ship deck based around -1/-1 counters. That was pretty wacky. I had a very strong land-animation/land-destruction Johan deck for a while (it turns out that giving manlands vigilance is pretty strong). And I wish they would print more blue and black dragons so I could finally build my Sivitri Scarzam dragon tribal deck.
Also, Ertai, the Corrupted in my tribal wizard build.
Xira Arien in my Jund infect. (though not a build around, just for colors and value.)
Wacky means funny or peculiar, it has nothing to do with power level.
Selenia, Dark Angel is a good example. She has a weird ability that you repeatedly stack until you do something like pop Magus of the Mirror and kill somebody. She's not underpowered in the least.
Norin is another good example of wacky, but strong.
I had a Xira Group Hug Punisher deck way back when.
Jund Group Hug isn't common.
What I mean though is that the strong "wacky" commanders quickly cease to seem so wacky. Norin, Nekuzar, and Zedruu all make very weird plays and result in wacky game states. But they are all very strong and, thanks to the internet, people know it. So most playgroups tend to have at least one of these decks in the meta. When everyone is playing the deck and it is known to be very competetive, I would say it becomes a lot less "wacky" no matter how unorthodox the build.
Even IF Purphoros were in there, you'd STILL be extremely Shocked.
/rimshot
Hidetsugu - Combo Damage
Ezuri - Elfball
Theorycrafting:
Selvala - "A hunter must hunt."
Selvala - Budget
BPhage-Suicide BlackB
RFastgood, a goblin can dreamR
GTitania-Who needs land?G
RGAngry Mt. Bobo-Have some landGR
UBSkeleton Ship-Happy Sea Friends!BU
RBLyzolda-What won't a witch eat?BR
WUGPhelddagrifs-Hippos aren't cuddlyGUW
WUGRoon's hidden playgroundGUW
WURShu Yun-Hold the SunRUW
WBGAnafenza-Graveyards (don't) matterGBW
UBGTasigur-Banana RepublicGBU
What you are referring to is obscurity, not wackiness. Wacky still means funny or peculiar. No matter how many people build Norin, he will be considered a wacky general, though he is much less obscure now than he used to be.
That's great. You use English as you see fit and I'll use it as I see fit.
If only one of us is going to use words as they are actually defined, then we cannot have meaningful discussion. You are consciously choosing not to understand what a certain word means...
anyways, Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant seems pretty weird, not sure how I'd try to utilize it...
EDIT: I guess you could try to abuse the landfall mechanic and play things that put lands into your hand, seems janky but could be fun as a very casual deck.
And Haakon does nothing (until wizards prints something that interacts with the command zone I guess)
An earlier post actually got me wondering. I don't think there isn't a way to use Haakon as a commander. You can't even bring him in using Mirror of Fate since he doesn't start out in exile.
I think even the grandeur legends have more use than Haakon, Stromgald Scourge as a commander.