The problem with making any primer for a competitive commander is that your thread will never be as active as those threads for more generally appealing commanders for the very reason that so many playgroups social-hate on Arcum and others like him.
Still, it means very much to me that the people who DO play Arcum still find the primer helpful.
If possible I'd look around for a competitive playgroup you can play in once in a while. It's a whole different experience (and a great way to master the deck) playing Arcum toe-to-toe against other competitive decks rather than shooting fish in a barrel against unprepared opponents.
After taking the first half of my final exams these last six hours, that just made my day.
I can't say I blame them. I've played the deck three times and won very quickly all three times. Luckily our playgroup is getting better and better, and the meta may shift enough for them to allow Arcum to play. I've thought about bringing him to a more competitive setting, but EDH(commander) is my time to unwind with friends. If I want to play competitive magic I'll hit up some local legacy or a nearby open. That being said, if I did play competitively, Arcum would be my choice.
Because you can fog and have access to board wipes in your colors... my Angus deck runs things like consecrated sphinx/psychosis crawler in combination with draw spells like blue suns zenith. You can also do teferi/knowledge pool. This reason why is your board sweeps, fog, and counter spells should be able to keep the game tame and you can strike at just the right time with your combo. I find this style of play good for larger groups, because you can sit back and wait for just the right time. Having white/blue also means you have a lot of great miracle spells, and those in combination with scroll rack, top, sylvan library, and so on... pretty great.
Great primer! This is one of my favorite decks, but my group doesn't let me bring it out a whole lot because it's just too powerful. Anyways, thought I'd stop by and share an alter I recently had done.
I think the answer to most posts about "why isn't this deck here" or "why is this priced at this when it is higher/lower" can be answered very simply. I have not updated in months. School and work got crazy, and I've probably been on this forum twice in the last couple months. If I'm doing something Magic related, I'm probably playing it or running a tournament. I'd love to have more time to browse and update, but I just have not had it. Now that it's the holidays, I will actually have time to update some lists and prices. It's a lot more work then it seems, so I apologize for the delay.
It's a big help that if you want a deck listed that isn't here, you simply post it with prices and I can update it to the OP. I only ask that you use a similar pricing method as I have, doing starcity or something is just off to what actual prices are.
The Gate, Pox, and Eva Green have not really done anything recently in terms of big tournaments. Duals, Fetches, Goyf, and Force go in so many decks compared to anything else in the format. I may do shock lands when I get a chance though.
A Legacy Magic deck, by Wil Strickland
6th place at a StarCityGames.com Legacy Open tournament in Los Angeles, California, United States on 2011-03-27
As reported at http://www.starcitygames.com/open_series
Click here to see a summary of all decks from StarCityGames.com Invitational
Maindeck:
Sideboard:
2 Relic of Progenitus
4 Thorn of Amethyst
2 Winter Orb
1 Dauntless Escort
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
2 Krosan Grip
2 Nature's Claim
1 Gaddock Teeg
I'm not good with computers so I psted it this way,if you check NO elevs thread in established you'll see that I has higher places it simply isn't that popular as combo elves.Thanks for naming it properly,as I might have guessed I play NO elves(witch I believe to be superior to combo simply cause it's more resiliant then combo).
Oh, so close... but no prices! If you put the prices in than I'll put it in the OP.
I would appreciate if elves are renamed into combo elves cause there is NO version witch top8 at starcity a few months ago,and it's listed in established,while both play elves in order to win they are totally different decks(combo vs. aggro,and don't even mention the fact that they share alot of acards cause that is also true for team america and bugstill).Other then that this is great.
Done, although I'm not sure aggro has placed any time recently. So at this point I just think of the term "elves" as always meaning it has a combo.
So, after discussing this over with a few people... I've decided I'm going to stick to my guns with the thread.
1) If you think a list should be different, don't post arguing with it... instead post with a different list that is priced out, and then provide an argument on why that should be the list that represents the deck. My argument for any deck posted is that it has placed, as this is not a budget deck thread... so why would I go about changing a deck to a cheaper option when I have no idea if that deck has the same potential as similar ones that have placed?
2) Letting people know how much a deck would cost if they have "x" card(s) is just a lot of work for not a lot of benefit. I can easily look at a list, and see what cards I would need. This means I only add up the value of what I need, which is fairly simple.
It is pretty amazing though to look at the price of a deck if you have dual lands, fetches, goyf, and fow all in your possession. Mana base alone is what sets back people from playing top tier decks.
Do you guys think Metal Worker decks are well positioned? I'm gonna try and get into this deck next. It looks quite good.
I personally like the deck. This forgemaster(metal worker) deck was created by someone local, and he took it all the way to second place a couple months ago.
I would argue that Jace is awesome in affinity, as well as fetches being great for Burn. Can you run it without? Yeah, sure... but the point is that these cards were in a version that went top tier.
If you have FoW and Wasteland, they go into everything. No need to buy em twice. Not very helpful.
Idea, then. In the decks pricing, you could seperate cards that are in many decks to cards that are only in the deck in question (or a few)
Perhaps just having a second price after the whole price that assumes the player already owns fetchlands, duals, jace, goyf, force and wasteland (about as broad a staple list as we are going to get for legacy, no? 3 non-land cards, wasteland, and fetches/duals are the core of the format, really.)
Take Team America like that
4 Mental Misstep $15 ($3.75) 4 Hymn to Tourach $5 ($1.25) 4 Tombstalker $44 ($11.00) 3 Ponder $2 ($.50) 2 Go for the Throat $3 ($1.50) 4 Brainstorm $4 ($1.00) 2 Snuff Out $1 ($.50) 3 Daze $7.50 ($2.50) 2 Spell Pierce $1 ($.50)
Grand Total, minus broad format staples, granted, 32 of the cards in the deck are broad format staples.
So, really, once you have those broad format staples, you can probably build any deck in legacy relatively cheaply.
Granted, a playset of duals, force, waste, goyf, and Jace is probably like 2500 dollars, I don't feel like looking it up, perhaps the OP could check it out and tell us? It would be interesting to know what a playset of the most important cards in legacy goes for.
I'll look into it sometime this weekend. Doing a flow chart or cost of deck without certain cards seems silly to me. All someone has to do is simple math when looking at a deck to know the actual cost to them personally. I'll do it if enough people want it, but otherwise seems like wasted effort:
You know what you could do, is give a guid on where to start.
Take Merfolk for example, if you start with that deck, how much will it cost you to get in Bant, and the like.
Maybe some kind of mapping as to what might be the best way? I dunno.
I think I get what you're saying, but it seems very difficult and a lot of work. I'm also not even sure how I would go about doing it. I know that when I see a new deck type, I can look at it and say "oh, I only need this card and this card and I have the deck!" So, if someone who has a standard merfolk build looks at a NO Bant list... then they are probably going to look at the cost of duals, goyf, and natural orders... as they already have force's and wastelands. Maybe if you could explain in a bit of detail how you would setup your idea?
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Ypsilanti, MI 48197
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I can't say I blame them. I've played the deck three times and won very quickly all three times. Luckily our playgroup is getting better and better, and the meta may shift enough for them to allow Arcum to play. I've thought about bringing him to a more competitive setting, but EDH(commander) is my time to unwind with friends. If I want to play competitive magic I'll hit up some local legacy or a nearby open. That being said, if I did play competitively, Arcum would be my choice.
I think the answer to most posts about "why isn't this deck here" or "why is this priced at this when it is higher/lower" can be answered very simply. I have not updated in months. School and work got crazy, and I've probably been on this forum twice in the last couple months. If I'm doing something Magic related, I'm probably playing it or running a tournament. I'd love to have more time to browse and update, but I just have not had it. Now that it's the holidays, I will actually have time to update some lists and prices. It's a lot more work then it seems, so I apologize for the delay.
It's a big help that if you want a deck listed that isn't here, you simply post it with prices and I can update it to the OP. I only ask that you use a similar pricing method as I have, doing starcity or something is just off to what actual prices are.
The Gate, Pox, and Eva Green have not really done anything recently in terms of big tournaments. Duals, Fetches, Goyf, and Force go in so many decks compared to anything else in the format. I may do shock lands when I get a chance though.
How many deck types is it in?
Please do not doublepost. Use the edit feature if you need to add content to your post.
Oh, so close... but no prices! If you put the prices in than I'll put it in the OP.
Done, although I'm not sure aggro has placed any time recently. So at this point I just think of the term "elves" as always meaning it has a combo.
1) If you think a list should be different, don't post arguing with it... instead post with a different list that is priced out, and then provide an argument on why that should be the list that represents the deck. My argument for any deck posted is that it has placed, as this is not a budget deck thread... so why would I go about changing a deck to a cheaper option when I have no idea if that deck has the same potential as similar ones that have placed?
2) Letting people know how much a deck would cost if they have "x" card(s) is just a lot of work for not a lot of benefit. I can easily look at a list, and see what cards I would need. This means I only add up the value of what I need, which is fairly simple.
It is pretty amazing though to look at the price of a deck if you have dual lands, fetches, goyf, and fow all in your possession. Mana base alone is what sets back people from playing top tier decks.
I personally like the deck. This forgemaster(metal worker) deck was created by someone local, and he took it all the way to second place a couple months ago.
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=36630
I'll look into it sometime this weekend. Doing a flow chart or cost of deck without certain cards seems silly to me. All someone has to do is simple math when looking at a deck to know the actual cost to them personally. I'll do it if enough people want it, but otherwise seems like wasted effort:
I think I get what you're saying, but it seems very difficult and a lot of work. I'm also not even sure how I would go about doing it. I know that when I see a new deck type, I can look at it and say "oh, I only need this card and this card and I have the deck!" So, if someone who has a standard merfolk build looks at a NO Bant list... then they are probably going to look at the cost of duals, goyf, and natural orders... as they already have force's and wastelands. Maybe if you could explain in a bit of detail how you would setup your idea?