I play Damia as basically land destruction. The goal is to get Survival of the Fittest into play and use that to tutor up Golgari Grave-Troll, which is the Survival Engine. Dredging tends to be a better decision than drawing once this happens. The secondary purpose from here is to ramp into large amounts of land. Depending on the hand, after getting a Grave-Troll, its probably a good idea to fetch a Primeval Titan or Azusa, Lost But Seeking. The dredging is important because it fills up your graveyard with cards, and a large amount of them have flashback, so its not much of a loss. At the same time, getting a Crucible of Worlds or Life From The Loam is important to the deck. One of those cards early on means that a good win condition is actually Braids, Cabal Minion" target="blank">Braids, Cabal Minion, since your opponent won't be able to keep up with you.
When I get a chance later I'll post up my decklist.
Yeah kinda "meh" unless you are a hardcore Commander player.... Devour for Power is a good pickup for collecting purposes. Like many, I was hoping for another Legacy staple or two in each, but I'll pick up the Devour deck anyways.
To be honest, as a hardcore EDH player, I already have all the cards that are interesting in these decks, except the new ones, obviously.
Mana Drain
Mana Vault
Mana Crypt
Sol Ring
Grim Monolith
Vampiric Tutor
Demonic Tutor
Imperial Seal
Survival of the Fittest
Necropotence
Imperial Seal
Mind Twist
and possibly Mind Over Matter(even though it has cool art)
all of these cards fall into 1 of three categories:
1. Cheap Mana Accel
2. Cheap Tutoring
3. Cheap Card Advantage
Firstly, the cheap mana accel essential amplifies the role of luck in any given game, with any of the above cards in a players opening hand with or without additional fairer ramp, this player is far ahead from the start. These cards take much of the skill out of games they show up early in.
Secondly, the cheap tutoring aids in putting together broken combos far earlier than they would otherwise be put together making it more unlikely that their opponents will have an answer. Also, they go very much against the singleton nature of EDH. They are boring auto includes because of their miniscule mana costs, more expensive tutoring creates more interesting play decisions and deckbuilding decisions. Additionally, Survival specifically is essentially a one card combo.
Thirdly, cheap card advantage makes the game much more swingy. In a 40 life format a player can without a second thought pay 5 life a turn with necropotence to draw 5 cards a turn. Bargain is banned exactly because of this, and while Necro gives you the cards at the end of your turn it also does it for half the cost. Three mana should not give you 5 cards per turn. Moving onto Mind Twist, an early mind twist combined with above cheap mana accel will essentially take a player out of the game from almost the start, it is exceptionally unfun and unbalanced.
Lastly, expense, this last point only applies to 3 of the above cards, Mana Crypt, Imperial Seal, Mana Drain. Mana Drain and Mana Crypt both run upwards of 80 dollars, while Imperial Seal runs upwards of 300 dollars, combined with the fact that these cards are among the most powerful in the format give the game a very "Wow, that gun won because he dumped hundreds of dollars into his deck" feel.
I appreciate feedback, if even if you just feel like calling me names.
Sincerly,
Dod
I think all the dual lands should be banned, too, because they are upwards of 100 as well, if not more in some cases. Also Jace the Mind Sculptor. They are just so expensive, and we don't want people winning because they have better cards than someone else. In fact, why should people be allowed to play with nonbasic lands, anyways? It just seems unfair. Players who haven't been playing for a year and won't spend more than $5 total on their deck can't get them.
As I said earlier, I'm putting it at strictly better than Mind Control in EDH, because you basically never steal anything for the purpose of turning it sideways unless it's huge. If you take a utility creature, then it's just the same. If you take a fatty, you've just got yourself a fast clock. And you can even cast it on your own creatures!
But there are better cards to play than Mind Control, anyways. Control Magic is obviously better because it costs one less, and Treachery even better because it costs five less, all for doing the same thing. Confiscate and Take Possession are probably better, because mana is less of an issue in EDH, although I play Treachery because of the synergy with mana doublers
The two new blue draw spells, Distant Memories and Vivisection, are just terrible. So many better spells to play in blue. Even something like Jace's Ingenuity is better, because it is an instant and no terrible drawbacks.
And the Sphinx is just completely bonkers. I read the card maybe 10 times and still thought I was reading it wrong.
They didn't have to change the name. The entire debacle is WotC executing a subtle form of power over the community and the format. Sure, it is still the council's game, but WotC ultimately has the power and agency to do whatever they want with it, as is evident with the change. As well, the council no longer has the ability to decide what gets banned and what doesn't get banned. Do you think WotC will be happy if any of the new cards they print for EDH get banned? It isn't going to happen.
Yes, it is subtle, and it is supposed to be. You aren't supposed to notice it, but suddenly it is WotC's format, not the community's.
RE: the new name. I don't understand how people have problems understanding what EDH means. My group has expanded from 2 EDH players to around 10, based on the actions of me and my friend, and everytime a new player has been taught, we explained what EDH meant, if they asked, and everytime the response was, "Oh, okay". Commander is such a sanitized name. It doesn't have the same sense of mystery EDH does. It fits into the same category as names like Star or Vanguard; names that are clean and friendly to everyone. They lose any sort of history or nuances, so they lose almost all of their meaning.
But of course it doesn't matter what I think, because WotC has decreed this, and their edicts are taken as gospel by most of the community.
Well of course. I was just stating my personal opinion on this whole matter given the circumstances I'm in.
Troublemakers like those who flip out if they lose and will sometimes go so far to challenge someone to a fight in the parking lot. Obviously this is a sub-category for jerks and these players don't last long at the store anyway, but knowing that their frequency will be decreased is a comforting thought.
Not everyone who cares about MPR will challenge people it a fight in a parking lot. In fact, I have never seen anyone do that before.
I build decks by taking an idea, and building a deck with the (sub-par usually) cards I already have. Then, I go through lists of cards looking for ones that would be good in my deck. Then, I acquire them. I acquire such a high volume of cards that usually the first cards I got through this process are pushed out of the deck. Now I have enough mono blue cards to make two mono blue EDH decks because of this.
Yeah, my friends LOVE to make fun of those guys. They freak out if you don't have all the cards in your deck facing the same way or if your sleeves aren't in perfect condition. They shuffle the cards in their cards CONSTANTLY. They also declare EVERY phase. Worst. Yes, we never play them but mock their mannerisms ALL the time. Imagine doing a Lou Holtz/Professor Frink impression...and pushing up your glasses (constantly) while quoting the comprehensive rules like the back of your hand.
Well, that's our impressions. They aren't always like that. Johnny, Power Gamer has a good quote, though.
It sounds like they are the players I'd want to play with because they know the rules. Not even based on your insults, but by their declaring of phases. You know, like you are supposed to do.
I've read this thread, and now for the benefit of everyone else, I will summarize it:
Quote from The Thread »
Blue sucks because it is too good and I just wish everyone would stop playing blue, because blue has removal and removal doesn't let me attack with my Krosan Cloudscraper. The game would be so much more fun if we could just prevent other people from having fun! EDH is supposed to be casual so let's spend all our resources eradicating someone. It is in my best interests to have fun, so let's prevent other people from having fun as well.
I just find it really ironic that everyone claims that blue isn't fun, so they try to conform everyone to having their own way of fun. The only way to have fun is attacking with creatures, right?
I REALLY hope they don't sanction it. It will basically be full of Zur, Teysa/Darkest Hour, and Future Sight/Top combo storm, and "race to get out Emrakul fastest" decks. Anyone who's played in a EDH event that was high profile knows it's about the least amount of fun one can have.
It would be enough to make people quit unless the local shops threw up some bans.
I wouldn't be happy unless every non-green legend is banned, so we can just play aggro all the time!
When I get a chance later I'll post up my decklist.
That explains why they didn't ban AEther Vial. Caution.
To be honest, as a hardcore EDH player, I already have all the cards that are interesting in these decks, except the new ones, obviously.
I think all the dual lands should be banned, too, because they are upwards of 100 as well, if not more in some cases. Also Jace the Mind Sculptor. They are just so expensive, and we don't want people winning because they have better cards than someone else. In fact, why should people be allowed to play with nonbasic lands, anyways? It just seems unfair. Players who haven't been playing for a year and won't spend more than $5 total on their deck can't get them.
To be honest, I think that this is one of the first cards printed in a while that actually deserves to be mythic.
But there are better cards to play than Mind Control, anyways. Control Magic is obviously better because it costs one less, and Treachery even better because it costs five less, all for doing the same thing. Confiscate and Take Possession are probably better, because mana is less of an issue in EDH, although I play Treachery because of the synergy with mana doublers
The two new blue draw spells, Distant Memories and Vivisection, are just terrible. So many better spells to play in blue. Even something like Jace's Ingenuity is better, because it is an instant and no terrible drawbacks.
And the Sphinx is just completely bonkers. I read the card maybe 10 times and still thought I was reading it wrong.
Yes, it is subtle, and it is supposed to be. You aren't supposed to notice it, but suddenly it is WotC's format, not the community's.
RE: the new name. I don't understand how people have problems understanding what EDH means. My group has expanded from 2 EDH players to around 10, based on the actions of me and my friend, and everytime a new player has been taught, we explained what EDH meant, if they asked, and everytime the response was, "Oh, okay". Commander is such a sanitized name. It doesn't have the same sense of mystery EDH does. It fits into the same category as names like Star or Vanguard; names that are clean and friendly to everyone. They lose any sort of history or nuances, so they lose almost all of their meaning.
But of course it doesn't matter what I think, because WotC has decreed this, and their edicts are taken as gospel by most of the community.
Not everyone who cares about MPR will challenge people it a fight in a parking lot. In fact, I have never seen anyone do that before.
It sounds like they are the players I'd want to play with because they know the rules. Not even based on your insults, but by their declaring of phases. You know, like you are supposed to do.
I just find it really ironic that everyone claims that blue isn't fun, so they try to conform everyone to having their own way of fun. The only way to have fun is attacking with creatures, right?
I wouldn't be happy unless every non-green legend is banned, so we can just play aggro all the time!