(Opened May 14, 2015)
I debuted my Zurgo Helmsmasher deck to a play group that, much to my chagrin, casually advocates the use of a very unfun Magic component in the game: land destruction. I suppose there's a small amount of fun to be had in it if you are the one who's inflicting it upon your opponents especially in a very competitive setting, but when you're the one on the receiving end, it's really tempting to just concede. Getting cut off from your mana sources prevents you from doing almost anything to interact with anyone, and how different would that be from simply playing by yourself?
I may sound bitter about this issue, but I don't advocate bullying people into following the 75% Philosophy in Commander either. Asking players to not to use certain cards for the sake of other people's happiness might just hurt and offend players who tend to get attached to the cards that they own. Magic is a game with a lot of problems, and a lot of solutions to those problems. There's no need to complicate that with a ban list.
So what's the solution to the problem of land destruction? Well, aside from using player politics to simply beat the crap out of a player who uses unfun spells, an elegant solution would be non-land mana sources. Three mana may seem expensive for a mana rock, but the fact that it can also turn into a beat stick makes this solution an acceptable bargain.
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Pack #15: Dragons of Tarkir, featuring Deadly Wanderings
(Opened May 13, 2015)
I like dreaming of decks that use cards that a lot of people tend to dismiss. Take this one, for example.
Enchantment cards that give abilities to your creatures without targeting them appeal to me like equipment cards with "Equip: 0": a creature arrives at the battlefield and immediately, it has haste from Fervor pretty much like how you would equip it with Lightning Greaves. A "loner" card like this (first seen in Avacyn Restored as Homicidal Seclusion ) captures this equipment-esque flavor even more because it can only affect one creature at a time.
But what makes a card like this really hard to use is that it forces you to build a deck that walks a very thin line between having no creatures to use it with and having one too many creatures for it to be of any help. What kind of deck would that be? I imagine it to be a Commander deck (where you have access to at least one creature any time, as long as the mana to cast it from the command zone) filled with non-creature permanents that can be turned to creatures temporarily as needed. Hmmm. I just might have room for this in my Zurgo Helmsmasher deck.
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Pack #6: Dragons of Tarkir, featuring Assault Formation
(Opened May 4, 2015)
Way, waaaaaay back during the Onslaught block, a gaming magazine wrote about a nifty 2-turn kill using an innocuous little card named Tireless Tribe combined with power/toughness swappers. I'm not really sure if Magic players ever took that combination seriously since there aren't a lot of cards like Tireless Tribe to make the give the combo enough redundancy to make it go off consistently, but it was a cute thought exercise for people like me who are tickled with the idea of a victory practically happening out of nowhere.
A lot of players have heralded Assault Formation as the second coming of Doran, the Siege Tower, and have immediately started slotting this little beauty in Tiny Leader decks without much afterthought. I'm not sure if Tiny Leaders will still be alive by the time anyone reads this (since there are a lot of rumors flying around that the format is already "solved") but I hope someone would at least experience the same "A-ha!" moment that I had with this card and Tireless Tribe before Tiny Leaders dies out.
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Pack #5: Dragons of Tarkir, featuring Silumgar's Command
(Opened May 3, 2015)
I'm always excited about spells (or permanents with flash) that cause a permanent to bounce back to its owner's hand at instant speed. I think such spells are valuable political tools in a multiplayer game like Commander. It may seem wasteful at first, but by "delaying" a threat from exploding, other players in the game will have a greater incentive to turn their attention towards the one who dared to bring out the threat to begin with (and hopefully, ignore you to let you continue working on your nefarious schemes).
It doesn't matter if it's a game-ending combo piece, a board-controlling permanent, or just an annoying card like Sensei's Divining Top: by making it plain that the offending card can come back again unless its owner "is dealt with", what you lose in card value, you can make up with the roster of new (temporary) allies who would be a little more willing to use their resources to gang up on a common enemy.
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Pack #3: Dragons of Tarkir, featuring Impact Tremors
(Opened May 1, 2015)
Ah, poor man's Purphoros.
There are probably a hundred of different Shrieking Drake + Faerie Conclave + Intruder Alarm combinations out there that can easily abuse a card like this, but I once dreamed of a Tiny Leaders deck that would profit from this sort of thing using just one color. The idea is to use creatures with dash, of course, and to take it to the next level using the tiniest red legendary creature in all of Magic.
Alas, that dream was not meant to be, no thanks to commander tax and its resistance against alternate casting costs. It seems that baby Zurgo's redemption is still far from sight, after all.
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Pack #2: Dragons of Tarkir, featuring Clone Legion
(Opened April 30, 2015)
As I write this, it's been months since I've since I played a game of Commander, and I think no card so far has gotten me as excited to play again more than this one.
The first thought that got to my head when I first saw this was it was a (sort of) a red version of Insurrection. Clearly an example of "cast-this-now-and-win-or-die-the-next-turn" kind of spells, Clone Legion is yet another epic way of ending a game, which is perfect for multiplayer Commander games. The fact that they both scale with the power of one's opponents is another bonus.
Their color-heavy casting costs don't even bother me at all: I can't wait to build a deck that includes BOTH cards. While there are plenty of commanders out there who have the color identities to accommodate these two, only one legendary creature can do so while still being in the theme of begging and stealing: and she's not even red nor blue. -
Word of Command #7 - Combating Commanders
In this article, we discover how to combat commanders, which sometimes pop up in Commander. From exiling to sacrificing to countering them, just because you can't tuck them doesn't mean they're invincible.
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Word of Command #6 - Preventing a Blast from the Past
This month, bobthefunny tackles graveyard hate in Commander, an important yet under-appreciated aspect of the format.
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Dragons of Tarkir Spoiler Digest 1: PAX East, Elder Dragons, Planeswalkers, Mechanics, and More!
The past week has been an extremely exciting one for Magic: The Gathering. Dragons of Tarkir spoilers have taken off in full force, revealing a new cycle of Elder Dragons, new versions of the Khans of Tarkir khans including a planeswalker Narset, a new version of Sarkhan, and much more. In addition, the Magic panel at PAX East unveiled a number of exciting things about both Dragons of Tarkir and the next three sets of Magic.
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Off Topic: Getting Bamboozled
In this article, Meyou talks about the ups and downs of bamboozling your opponent. For three mana or otherwise
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Word of Command #5 - Fate Reforged Review
- Welcome to the fifth Word of Command! A new set means a new look at cards from a Commander's perspective! Though a small set, Fate Reforged was quite generous for us with ten new legendary creatures. A new set also means a new ban list update, so we'll go through the news from Commander in general and the forum in particular, then start discussing the cards.
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Fate Reforged Spoiler Digest 2: Warden of the First Tree, Tasigur, Alesha, Atarka, Ojutai, Full Spoiler
The second week of Fate Reforged spoilers draws to a close, leaving us with the complete spoiler. With it, we see completions of cycles from the first week, including the hybrid-activated mythic rares, the khans, and the Dragons. -
Word of Command #4 - Engines of Command
- Welcome to the fourth Word of Command! I hope everyone had an excellent holiday break; mine was especially busy! Jumping right in, after our usual news section this article will focus on lesser known or less popular methods to generate continual advantage during a game. Hopefully you'll be inspired to try out some new ideas in a deck this year!
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Fate Reforged Spoiler Digest 1 - Ugin, Soulfire Grand Master, Mechanics, and More!
Fate Reforged Rumor Season is in full swing, and it's time for the first spoiler digest. The first week has brought us many exciting cards, including eight of the ten Mythics, several sneak peeks at cycles, and some wacky new mechanics.
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Off Topic: My 2014 Magical Wish List
Foils, buses, articles, swag, and more appear in Meyou's Magical wish list! Will Santa bring Magical joy this holiday season?
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Word of Command #3 - Welcoming New Commanders
This month, bobthefunny and the rest of the Commander team return to keep us up to speed on forum news, review Commander 2014, and reflect on bringing new players into a Commander environment.
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Enter the Mizzet
The theme of this deck is to obviously draw a lot of cards, control the board and, ramp into the game ending bombs. Aggressive, but selective counter magic is essential in pulling this off. The deck has the deceptive ability to tap out and still counter disruptive spells. This is done with Force of Will , Commandeer , Misdirection , Pact of Negation , and Foil . The look on an opponents face when one of these spells are cast in response to their attempted shenanigans, is absolutely priceless! I prefer this architecture over the conventional Niv+Curiosity ; Ophidian Eye ; Tandem Lookout ; and Mind Over Matter builds(though I do run Curiosity and MOM for those scenarios that call for harsh and extreme counter measures. Ex. opponent pulls off an infinite life/token combo). In head to head play, pilot this deck with no remorse for your opponent, and punish them when they attempt to take control. In multi-player and casual play environments, just sit back play 'the nice guy', until you have the means to undoubtedly win the game (when you see fit, of course lol).
Main win cons:
Niv+Enter the Infinite =Damage equivalent to cards in library
Niv+Enter the Infinite +Winds of Change /Whirlpool Warrior =Damage equivalent to cards in library x2 or x3.
Niv+Curiosity =Damage equivalent to cards in library
Niv+Mind Over Matter +Kozilek, Butcher of Truth =INFINITE DAMAGE
Mind Over Matter +Arcanis the Omnipotent = infinite draw
Enter the Inifinite+Inner Fire +Comet Storm =Massive damage to multiple targets (best done with Omniscience in play)
Thought Reflection +Consecrated Sphinx +Winds of Change /Time Spiral /Wheel of Fortune =Massive draw
Follow these steps and you will unlock this "(Z->)90 - (E-N2W)90t = 1"
There you have it folks. Comments and suggestions are welcomed and appreciated.
Oh, and I almost forgot about Niv's compadres in crime, Psychosis Crawler and Sakashima the Impostor ! Add one (or both, for the trifecta lol) to the equation for exuberant amounts of damage!
Link to deck @ TappedOut.net
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Word of Command #2 - KHAAAAANS!
bobthefunny and the rest of the Commander team return with a recap of the latest banlist news, news of recent activity in our Commander forums, and a Commander-centric review of Khans of Tarkir!
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Word of Command: A Monthly Chat
Welcome to the first edition of the Commander Forums Monthly Chat! Moving forward, we’ll be giving you the updates of what’s been happening in and around the Commander forums. This being our first article, we’re going to keep things simple with a few highlights from Comic-Con and a Commander-based set review for Magic 2015. You’ve probably seen a few already around the Internet, but we hope to touch on a few specifics that might have been missed. Each mod will also talk about their favorite take-away from the set.
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Karn edh