Indeed. Your help in making these, to say nothing of what you've done for the forum have really been a solid support for us all. We'll miss seeing you in the mod cave.
I'm glad your last mod piece made it to publication though, and that you got to talk about Ephara.
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- bobthefunny
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Member for 13 years and 12 days
Last active Sat, Feb, 24 2024 23:38:40
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Jan 11, 2015
bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #4 - Engines of CommandPosted in: Articles -
Dec 3, 2014
bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #3 - Welcoming New CommandersYour method of letting players tumble out into their own camps can be a good one when you have enough room to do it. People will naturally gravitate into the games that fit their decks' schedules.Posted in: Articles
In smaller environments where you may only have one or two pods going though, it can be a bit more difficult. Also, you then get problematic players like me who like to play across the entire spectrum.
I also believe that casual environments can provide excellent learning areas, but you have to be careful of it as well. One trap that my own group has been running into now is being too lenient on take-backs. Originally implemented to allow the newer players some freedom of thought and to help them work through what courses of actions to take. It can start to be abused into not fully thinking through a situation. An example being that one player cast Council's Judgment to remove my Commander. The second player voted for another permanent in order to set up a double exile option for player C, and player C then mistakenly selected a third permanent for more exily goodness, at which point I selected one of the other targets for my vote in order to save my Commander. Player C hadn't really thought things through (and I'd also quickly jumped the gun on my own vote, I'll admit), but we ended up rewinding that play so he could properly select his vote.
I find it helps best to properly (and as honestly as possible) represent the board state for newer players. For example, with cards with the Will of The Council, such as Council's Judgment, I find that it helps to explain to newer players what the consequence of their vote will do to the options the next player in line will be able to make. After a while, you can scale back the aid you give to after the play or game is over, that way they can learn from their own choices, but still have the benefit of a different viewpoint.
In one game, my brother should have had lethal on me since he had a pro-black creature, and he was paranoid about a Duplicant in my Chainer deck's graveyard... except that he misplayed having forgotten that Chainer would reanimate it as a black creature and opted to spread his equipments out instead. Since my brother should have known better, that was an observation I made at the end of the game (a few turns later). He has never forgotten it again.
These kinds of interactions though can really help all players improve their own levels of play. -
Nov 8, 2014
bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #3 - Welcoming New CommandersAbsolutely! The greatest way to truly learn anything is to teach it. It really makes you get an in-depth understanding of the subject.Posted in: Articles
I'm glad you enjoyed the article. -
Sep 28, 2014
bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #2 - KHAAAAANS!Should have been Corpsejack Menace, I guess.Posted in: Articles
Indeed, much thanks to the entire editorial staff, this wouldn't be possible without them. -
Mar 29, 2012
bobthefunny posted a message on Tibor & LumiaSol Grail, while getting points for being oldschool, has never impressed me in EDH. Here are a few alternatives (some less budget than others):Posted in: Deck Compilation
Coalition Relic - the most expensive of them, but far more useful.
Phyrexian Lens - a bit painful, but may be worth the added color utility
Star Compass - the best budget alternate. Taps for either color we have; CiPT, but costs 1 less, so same net mana gain when played.
Also, do not overlook Fire diamond and Sky diamond
Also, for storm count, do you have a Frantic Search? -
Aug 22, 2011
bobthefunny posted a message on Being a substitute teacher is no substitute to teachingTeachers have been cut, this means there are less teachers that are teaching to get sick; this also means there are more teachers now looking for work, and thereby more substitutes looking for work.Posted in: Stoogeslap Blog
A full time teacher's resume will look better when a school is looking for a sub, so they'll be called in first. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Reaper of the Abyss does not exist. Did you mean Magus of the Abyss?
Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion doesn't really combo with Kaalia of the Vast... Hellkite charger does though.
Mortify really isn't too useful. There are few times I am concerned about enchantments, your meta might be different, but I find unmake to be an effective removal. If you want to keep mortify, I would rank unmake above Go for the Throat. (exiling is good).
You seem to be running a much higher count of single target removal instead of sweepers. Is this a personal philosophy of yours, does your meta typically run enough sweepers for you to let someone else handle it?
Eternal Dragon can be some good mana fix, as well as a returning threat. Doesn't do anything special on the board, but he can be constantly there.
If you don't mind going out of the way a bit, zodiac dragon has some self recursion as well. (though exceedingly pricey).
For curiosity's sake, why isn't sneak attack in the deck? I see that you have considered it, but not included it.
Also, someone played a "Destroy all non-land permanents" spell, one of his reasons for doing so was to kill my thran quarry. I had an arbor dryad out (also a blinkmoth, but hey, details). fun times.
Puts a slight damper on things. Not a deal killer on its own, the tokens still draw you tons of cards to play real creatures, and there's only 1 card in the deck that makes tokens... but there's no need to run a card that hurts even occasionally if there are equally good alternatives.
Ya, Edric takes it a bit further though with holding off on lands occasionally. I find myself counting counterspells and checking my land options first thing on the turn.
I also noticed Sol Ring posing a large problem, but I don't think the bouncer would be that bad. They have to pitch a card every time they want to use him, which will get problematic fast for them, especially if we can stick a protection down, like Eladamri, the Sylvan land-sac guy, or GSZ into one of them.
Essentially, they'll mess our tempo, but at the cost of their own. In a 1v1 situation, you can top deck it while they burn their hand. Just counter anything that would give them card advantage, and let the rest through. In a multiplayer set up it's more of a problem if it happens, as the person essentially sacrifices most of his game to shut you out. I think what I would do would be to hold on to one or two good evaders, one or two wrath counters, and then start sending your dorks at whoever has white mana until they wrath; or just hold Edric for a turn or two until someone else forces him to use the bouncer and then kills it in retaliation.
Untapped white mana is what worries me the most. Black mana next, go for the throat and the like hasn't seen too much play in my meta yet, but it's getting common enough to warrant worrying.
<shudder> don't tell him that. Sliver queen started as his goodstuff deck, and cromat as mine, but his changed into a very shapeshifter/clone/control and efficient beater mix, while mine shifted into large beaters that also draw cards (etched monstrosity and the like). He still has enough synergy with the Queen that I don't think he'd switch, but it wouldn't be hard if he wanted to.
The foothills obviously replaces a forest, and I think Erayo might actually replace an island. I've had a few low-land hands (we do need to get to 3 mana...) but I've also been flooded enough times to make me think that 36 land and the chrome mox and lotus petal will be enough.
They went first, turn 1 sac land for souce of blue
me: T1, island Mothdust changeling.
them: T2 shapesharer.
me: ...
With no way to clear the board, I dropped edric on T3, lost him to my Mothdust being cloned into him. On his next turn when I'm tapped out, he plays an edric.
on 5 mana, I replay Edric into Edric.
on 7, Edric dies to the Shapesharer cloning him.
by this time its Edric vs. Sliver Queen, and I don't think I can hold off the sliver tokens.
Won the next two games handily, but shapesharer is a threat that drops before your counter mana starts being up, and can turn any other shapeshifter into a killspell. (taurean maulers are still popular in my playgroup, and my brother's SliverQueen deck is made of shapeshifters and economic beaters at this point)
Hand (6): mox diamond, flying men, treetop scout, forest, island, crop rotation.
T1: (1v1, no draw) mox (pitch island), forest. Play scout, Play flying men.
T2: (drew unified will). crop rotate forest -> gaea's cradle, play edric, hit for 2, draw an island and a Spell Pierce.
I mean, really? Is there any better option than this? I guess if you kept a 7 card hand, and drew the spell pierce first so you had island and spell pierce open before the attack, but I mean... This deck can be downright scary.
Kraken - Wrexial, the Risen Deep is supposed to be in here. He's been temporarily mislaid though... (A kraken, and a thief?! sweet!)
The reef is in, the Grave I don't have. I still need to touch up the mana base a bit, and add things like tainted isles and the suchlike.
I also want to find a spot for Grapplng hook now. The doublestrike will work well with several of my creatures, and the hook effect can be useful too.
Also need to move some of the control effects around, I need Sower of Temptaion and Master Thief to go in.
Turns out to be a lot harder to build a deck with all the steal effects than I thought, there are simply too many! (who knew?)
Barrin, Master Wizard
Heidar, Rimewind Master
Keeper of the Nine Gales
Surgespanner (with tradewind, or azami, or anything)
Cephalid Constable - downright scary with equipments
I would run any of these (except maybe the keeper of 9 gales, he's kinda...) before temporal adept, and I'd run the adept before the bouncer.
Phyrexian Arena
Graveborn Muse
Seizan, Perverter of Truth - the new Demon would work better here, I don't like Seizan's symmetry, though some people do.
Also, there are very good artifacts to consider too, such as:
Mind's eye
If you don't mind symmetry, other colorless options are:
Temple Bell
mikokoro, center of the sea
There's a good thread that has lots of good artifact draw sources; a lot of them also double as very good sac outlets.
The issue with the Edric lists is that we're going at such a break neck pace, that any other mana fixing/ramp is too slow. The leafcaller manages to increase tempo there at low cost.
For Riku, who comes out quite a bit later and can double all your spells, you can afford to develop your mana base a lot more. This is one of two decks I run that routinely pulls out every single land of the deck fairly consistently. And both of them still want more mana.
If you run more graveyard recursion effects (my list is missing eternal witness), have a slower paced budget deck, and no ascesion, it might work for you. It can also help out a lot if you get shut out of the early game and have to try and recover mid-late game (good luck).
Donald, you have the basic Strategy written by ISB which gives a great intro to the premise of the deck, but I thought I'd add a few specific details:
1) If an opponent has left W open, don't play Edric without protection. STP and PTE are the two most prevalent cheap removal spells in the format. Likewise condemn and wing shards can heavily mess up edric attacking. Don't attack with Edric into white mana that's been left open. (unless you have a Flusterstorm, then you can laugh like a maniac.)
2) If you can, delay all play choices until your second main phase. This is pretty obvious, but bears repeating. Playing spells early only opens you to more risk, and ties up potentially needed counterspell mana. Use your judgement on lands as well. If playing a land before the attack gives you an extra counterspell to use, go ahead an play it, otherwise wait for the sweet card draw, and see if you have a better one. This can even include Gaea's Cradle If you don't need it before the attack, don't play it. If you draw a lot of blue creatures and counterspells, that island may be a better play for that turn.
Has anyone run into problems with opponents running strip mines and such?
Also joy joy happiness and good feeling! Looks like Innistrad is giving us another dual land!
- Turn the tide - once again
- Dream Leash, Biting Tether, Telemin Performance, Gather Specimens - Theft is on theme, but of the theft, these were the worst, and with less theme behind them.
+ Thada Adel, Acquisitor - Newest member of the crew, already made Navigator due to her uncanny knowledge of the seas. A rogue who steals stuff? She has accepted the Pirates way of life!
+ Bribery - missing this was an oversight, I forgot to grab an entire stack of potential cards when building the deck. Far better, and far more piraty than Telemin Performance
+ Vedalken Shackles - I was holding off putting in 'good' cards, but really, there's no excuse. Shackles are always piraty, and stealing stuff... yeah.
+ Greed
+ Treasure trove - Turns out I do still need card advantage, and I still don't have enough creatures for dire undercurrents
+ Expedition map - Need more navigational tools!